Kash,
fwiw
Looks like *ntel is continuing with our plans.
Willy+Rambus. The story even mentions Willy uses the same processor bus as the McKinley. Now you don't suppose Willy came from HP in any way, shape, or form do you?
HP-Look out! DEC all over again!
ebns.com
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. |
