Re: Well I could speculate on a scenario which would allow a 700MHz K62+.
First let's not forget those "Thunderbird will be released at 1.5GHZ" rumors. So the 700MHZ K6 may just be a typo.
But considering that the K6 was at 500 at .25, I was always surprised that that the shrink to .18 didn't bring it to 700MHZ or so. If it did, then the big question is; why be so vague in the roadmaps? The desktop roadmaps from AMD have been pretty clear.
There might be a justification for it. One of the big selling seasons for low end notebook computers is the back-to-school July, August period. By keeping secret higher speed K6's, AMD could have let Intel complete all of its wafer starts that will be available for this time frame thinking that they would face no competition over 500MHZ.
Intel is trying hard to maintain a big price delta between "consumer" and "business" parts. In the absence of pressure from AMD, they'd probably leave the "consumer" parts as slow as possible. If AMD has mouse trapped Intel into keeping most of its portable wafer starts at .25, with a sweet spot of 500MHZ, while AMD goes into the Q3 selling season with a sweet spot at 600MHZ and good supply at 700MHZ, AMD might be able to grab a chunk of lucrative notebook market share away from Intel. AMD would also be getting better ASPs for these parts than they would if Intel had an adequate supply at competitive speeds. It would also put pressure on Intel ASPs, and take a little more of the shine off the Intel brand name.
Impossible to keep such information from Intel? There have been so many false announcements of the K6, that Intel would probably have been happy to believe the one that there wasn't any need to allocate precious .18 FAB space to portable processors.
Just a thought, possibly way off base. We'll find out Monday, I guess. But if it's true, it means Intel was really nailed by Jerry.
Regards,
Dan |
