Aaron - Re: "...the performance of both the K6 and the P-II will improve once the 100MHz chipset is available because they will both benefit from the faster main memory access speed."
Correct - BUT, the K6 will ALSO gain further because it's L2 cache access will be speeeded up - from 66.67 MHz to 100 MHz. The Pentium II L2 cache access speed will stay fixed - still faster than a K6, but no improvement.
As to which chip set arrives first (K6/Via/Apollo or Intel's 440 BX, I don't know which will arrive first. If the K6 gets it first, then of course K6 systems using these chip sets, faster L2 cache and SDRAM main memory will close the performance gap with Pentium II systems running at 66.67 external clock speeds.
Intel's 440BX should have first silicon in the July time frame - perhaps late July. Realistically, depending upon success of the first silicon, design tweaks, etc., some systems may show up in the fourth quarter with Pentium II, 100 MHz External buses and AGP support. Of course, the 440LX with AGP support and 66.67 external bus speed will be available in the third quarter, I'm fairly certain.
AMD's chip set (Actually Via Technologies) is more complicated - they have to implement the AGP as well as the faster bus speed - whereas Intel is pretty far along with the 440LX/ AGP. This has to be done using the standard Socket 7 implementation for the K6. Also, the wafer fab process required to make 100 MHz chip sets may require a 0.35 micron process. Intel certainly has this capability - AMD does in Fab 25 - but that means chip sets would start eating up AMD's wafer starts. Via may have to farm this out to a foundry - a less predictable business proposition.
Another thought - if Via Technologies sells these chip sets on the open market, Intel's Pentium MMX customers can also build very fast INTEL machines with socket 7/AGP/100 MHz bus speeds!
Paul |
