Pentium 4 will make its debut at the end of this month at 1.4 GHz and 1.5 GHz with the i850 chipset. During the third-quarter of 2001, Intel will introduce the Tehama-E (DRDRAM) and Brookdale (DDR/SDRAM) chipsets for Northwood. Interestingly enough, Intel has the following recommendation for these chipsets:
Mainstream Corporate lines featuring configuration stability should move directly from 815/E to Brookdale.
In other words, "wait for Q3." Meanwhile, Foster (Server/Workstation P4) will be introduced late in the first quarter of 2001 at 1.4 GHz and 1.5 GHz. Intel has extended the $80 DRDRAM credit in Q1 for Foster-based workstations shipping with DRDRAM. There is also an interesting distinction between "dual-processor" (DP) and "multi-processor" (MP) which may suggest that Intel will offer multiple Foster variants for different system sizes. As we know, the Pentium 4 (Willamette) is uniprocessor only.
Server/Workstation
Futher into the high-end segment of Intel's Server/Workstation computing branch, we find that the Itanium is scheduled for its pilot launch beginning this quarter. Itanium's successor, McKinley, will have its own pilot launch beginning in Q4 2001/Q1 2002.
Mobile
Moving into the mobile arena, we find that Intel expects to launch 900 MHz and 1 GHz mobile Pentium IIIs in April of 2001. Furthermore, there have been some rather interesting changes to the mobile section of the roadmap. Specifically, the thermal data on mobile CPUs has been removed. Previously, Intel's roadmaps indicated the 900 MHz mobile Pentium III maxing out at 22W, with which we extrapolate the 1 GHz mobile chip to be around 25W. It is speculated that the removal of this information is due to competitive pressure in the low-power mobile market.
Prices
Perhaps what people most want to know is how much all of this will cost. Intel's last price cut was on October 29th, with the next major cut due on January 29th. After the January price cuts, Pentium 4 systems should be selling at or below $1,999. |
