More news from Real World Technologies:
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The AMD K6-233 processor is literally unavailable right now through the authorized distributors. Apparently IBM decided to use these CPUs on their Aptiva line of computers, and so make a large deal with AMD. As a result, IBM is taking literally every available K6-233 for use in their systems right now. We expect this to last at least through October, as AMD does not have the ability to increase their production of chips to any great degree. It is possible that these chips may be available on the gray market from IBM (or other OEMs) overstock, but be very careful of remarks!!
While a great deal of hoopla has surrounded the 'imminent' release of the K6-266, our sources indicate that the earliest we can expect these processors is around Q1 '98. We have also heard a lot of rumors about the K6 'plus' processor, but have had no official word on whether this will actually be a real product or not
AMD has apparently decided to make their price drop around the second week of November to head off the Intel scheduled price cut around November 28. It appears that information has been 'leaked' that indicates some decent price drops, but it may actually be a tactical mistake since Intel then gets to decide if they want to 'low-ball' AMD two weeks later. As anyone who has done the research knows, Intel's cost of manufacturing is actually lower than AMDs, which gives them more leeway if they want to really play hardball.
The Cyrix 6x86MX PR233 has been released, and is shipping now. We also have been told that the PR266 should be available sometime in December or January. The pricing on the initial release is about the same as the K6-233, but we expect that do begin dropping in a few weeks as production ramps up.
The Cyrix 6x86L processors are at end-of-life. The authorized distributors are having a very difficult time getting any of these CPUs. Cyrix had warned us in August that they expected the supply to dry up by the end of September, and so it is! In fact, they stopped producing the wafers in Jan/Feb of this year.
ABIT announced on Oct. 3 that they are shipping the IT5H rev 2.0 in limited quantities. Our interpretation of this is that they are trying to minimize the 'upgrade fever' that hit when they announced the replacement policy from June 3 to July 3 of this year. Those who actually 'reserved' their upgrades will likely get the first shipments, after which some will trickle into the retail market. ABIT has also begun to make Socket 7 motherboards with VIA chipsets (and perhaps they will also use SiS or ALi chipsets), which we expect to be getting a big push from their marketing department.
The news we have heard is that the AMD chipset that was supposed to bring the 100MHz bus has been pushed back due to a fallout with VIA (old news), but ALi and VIA are both planning to release a Socket 7 chipset with official support for 83MHz bus speeds by the end of the year. SiS may also eventually come out with such a chipset, but so far their only announced support is for 75MHz.
Both M Tech and Gigabyte have released motherboards based upon the SiS 5582 chipset, which provides many of the advantages of the TX chipset, but has 75MHz bus support, asynchronous PCI and Linear Burst mode capabilities. This is great news for Cyrix supporters!! We expect that these boards will run the 6x86MX PR233 chips with no problems at
all.
Joe |
