cj,
Yeah, but this is nVidia, not VIA.
I may not be current with all the hardware news, but I have an impression that GeForce3 didn't exactly hit the ground running. I wouldn't expect this introduction to be any more impressive than others, other than the fact, of course that this seems to be a very desirable chipset. But as far as logistics of the release, I wouldn't be raising expectation to anything higher than the norm. After all, this is the first chipset release for NVdia, and even under the best of intentions, there will be "issues".
My suspicions are that nForce is the reason for the delay in the desktop Palominos.
That would be not be the smartest thing to do. There are a number of compete chipset out there, and there is no reason for AMD to pass on the prospect of higher ASPs Palomino could bring for sake of nForce.
I think the reasons for Palomino release are:
1. - Ability of Tbird to reach 1.4 GHz, combined with slower introduction of P4, and low IPC PR
1a - which gave AMD an opportunity to do another round of speedpath improvements and respin of silicon
or simply
2. - Palomino had tough time reaching even the modest targets initially proposed - 1.4 to 1.5 GHz, which forced AMD do do another spin.
What I am curious about is the cost of nForce chipset itself and motherboards based on it, and whether it would be an appropriate platform for a high volume low end Duron based machines for a company like Gateway. Or is it just too expensive for that purpose, and will be targetted to mid range to performance PCs. Another piece of info that would be useful is whether it will support PowerNow.
Joe |
