Intel 1100MHz 'Athlon killer' to launch in December
theregister.co.uk
Intel knows in its heart that Coppermine just can't cut it in the race against Athlon, so Chipzilla has a
little surprise up its sleeve - the next generation of IA32 processor, codenamed Willamette, could be
here a staggering nine months early.
US sources say the chip will have a paper launch at the end of December, with product in the shops
two months later, although if AMD keeps up the pressure it could be even sooner. Presumably this two
month gap is to enable OEMs to shift bucketloads of Coppermine systems before they're rendered
unsaleable by the new super chip.
Coppermine arrives next week, but still uses the venerable P6 core that first saw the light of day in the
Pentium Pro, albeit at a dinky 0.18 micron process, coupled with on die level 2 cache. It'll be faster than
existing Pentium IIIs, but not earth-shatteringly so.
Now with Athlon starting to win the hearts and minds battle, and still wincing from the Camino chipset
cockup, the chip behemoth - still smarting from Chimpzilla's new found ability to deliver silicon rather
than hot air - desperately needs to do something impressive - and fast.
Intel's been quietly shipping 0.18 micron mobile processors for the best part of six months, but even so,
bringing Willamette so far forward is pretty impressive stuff.
The entirely new 0.18 micron Willamette was originally scheduled to arrive around Q3 2000 at 1100MHz
with more than 1MB integrated level 2 cache and Intel performance estimates say it will score around
50 on Winstone98 and 43 on SpecInt95.
Although following the FTC investigation, Chipzilla is supposedly under strict orders to avoid using
'aggressive' terminology in internal communications, it is reported that Willamette is being referred to as
'The Athlon Killer' by Intel insiders. Presumably this is toned down in written communication to 'Cute,
cuddly and totally unthreatening'. © |
