More good RMBS news: (still a possible gorilla...)
Intel selects DRDRAM for new MPU
By Jack Robertson
Electronic Buyers' News
(02/11/00, 04:12:44 PM EDT)
Intel Corp. is making Direct Rambus DRAM the key memory for its next-generation Willamette processor, which will be
spotlighted next week at the Intel Developers' Forum.
Although the Rambus architecture has faced stiff competition in recent months from rival memory interfaces, sources close to
Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., say the company is removing any ambiguity about its commitment to Direct RDRAM by giving the
controversial memory chip a prime role in the Willamette platform. The support for Rambus memory is significant, since Intel
is counting on Willamette, the high-speed successor to the Pentium III, to subdue the rising challenge from Advanced Micro
Devices Inc.'s Athlon microprocessor.
An Intel spokesman would not comment on the Willamette's associated chipset and memory until the device is officially
introduced. Without referring specifically to the processor's reported use of a Rambus interface, the spokesman said Intel has
never wavered in its support of the technology. Rambus has been and remains a major part of Intel's memory roadmap, he
said.
Intel has already confirmed previous reports that Willamette will use a new, higher-speed processor line to succeed the
venerable P6 bus. But the company declined to discuss details of the new bus, which sources said can run at up to 400 MHz in
a quad-pumped configuration supporting up to four processors. Intel's next-generation 32-bit Foster, 64-bit Itanium, and
McKinley processors are also said to be using the new bus.
Willamette will use an upcoming Intel Tehama chipset, which sources say is an upgrade of the dual-channel Direct
Rambus-compatible Intel 840 chipset. Tehama picks up almost all of the north bridge and south bridge functions included in
the 840, but interfaces with the new processor bus.
Burt McComas, an analyst at InQuest Inc., a Gilbert, Ariz., market research firm, said Intel considers the 840 chipset and
associated six-layer motherboard to be proven technology, and expects the Tehama upgrade to support Direct RDRAM
without the technical troubles that plagued its sister Intel 820 chipset and motherboard last fall.
While Rambus is the memory interface of choice for the Willamette, sources said Intel could fall back to double-data-rate
(DDR) SDRAM if necessary. It is uncertain whether Intel will introduce the Willamette and Tehama with the Memory
Conversion Hub (formerly known as the Memory Transfer Hub) motherboard option offered with the Intel 820, which enables
the use of either Direct Rambus or SDRAM.
Archrival AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif., plans this year to upgrade its Athlon microprocessor to support DDR for desktops and
workstations, which McComas said could put greater competitive pressure on Intel to follow suit.
Intel has long denied rumors that it's developing a DDR chipset for desktop PCs, although the company said it will have a
DDR-enabled chipset for servers in the first half of 2001. The DDR-compatible server chipset is said to be part of a
cooperative effort with ServerWorks Corp., Santa Clara, which recently changed its name from Reliance Computer Corp.
ServerWorks later this year will introduce a separate version of a DDR-enabled server chipset for the upcoming Foster and
McKinley processors.
McComas noted that since the Willamette uses the same processor bus as Foster and McKinley, it could interface with the
ServerWorks' DDR chipset instead of Tehama and Direct Rambus, if Intel decides to make the move. |
