Widely respecting Microprocessor Report slams Intel for spreading FUD about HyperTransport:
*** Intel Undercuts HyperTransport
By Peter N. Glaskowsky {3/26/01-03}
At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) this month, Louis Burns, general manager of Intel's Desktop Products Group, announced that Intel plans to develop third-generation I/O (3GIO) technology to replace the PCI bus in desktop PCs. The announcement appears calculated to undercut recent announcements of vendor support for
AMD's HyperTransport, which is also meant as a backplane interface for future desktop and server systems.
Burns said that HyperTransport lacks "the scalability, the flexibility, the true performance characteristics to become an industry-standard I/O architecture for the next ten years." This statement was not supported by any further explanation, however, and amounts to no more than an attempt to disseminate FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt).
According to Burns, the 3GIO effort will define a flexible point-to-point serial interface that will support copper and optical physical interfaces, provide some scaling through multiple connections between end points, and offer scalability beyond 10GHz signaling rates. A draft of the 3GIO specification will be made available at the next IDF in August. Although Burns claimed that Intel is soliciting input from PC OEMs and other vendors, it's clear that Intel has already decided on the most important features of 3GIO; only minor technical issues can be resolved during the next five months.
If Intel hopes to get any support for 3GIO, it must immediately explain why existing interfaces, such as HyperTransport and RapidI/O, are inadequate or inappropriate for the PC market. Intel must also lay out its reasons for preferring serial interfaces, despite the inherently better price/performance ratio of parallel
local interconnects. The next IDF, though only five months away, is too far in the future for the industry to wait for these explanations.
Microprocessor Report readers can access the complete story here:
mdronline.com
Petz |
