To all: Concerning the performance issue of "cacheless" PIIs and the new K6-3D.
tomshardware.com
The new K6-3D running at 300 MHz is 30% faster than a PII-300. Don't forget that the PII's L2 cache is running at 150MHz while the K6's is only running at 100MHz. That means the K6 design is inherently superior to the PII's, and the advantage the PII had up till now, e.g. a faster L2 cache, will be partially negated by the new 100MHz bus and totally gone if they produce a cacheless variety. Then, what is the point of using the cacheless PII, unless it is cheaper than the K6? Of course, being Intel, they will NOT price it below a K6.
AMD has wooed the gamers big time. They have set up a gaming league, and are quite buddy with Id's John Carmack, the God of action games. Id will be releasing a patch for the Quake and Quake 2 engines to take advantage of the K6-3D. I expect others to follow, at least until DirectX 6 is released.
Intel probably needs to design a new chipset for the cacheless PII, since I think this is more of an afterthought and the 440 BX probably won't do. However, both VIA and ALi have announced chipsets (the VP3/4 and the Alladin V) which will support the K6 with all the goddies, e.g. Ultra-DMA, 100 MHz bus, DDR SDRAM etc. VIA was also named the top supplier for Compaq for 1997. For all those reasons, I think Intel may have a harder time trying to muscle into the low-cost space with their toothless, sorry, cacheless PIIs.
Adrian |
