Intel sheds light on forthcoming 'Katmai' processors
By Lisa DiCarlo, PC Week Online
01.14.98 4:20 pm ET
Intel Corp. today disclosed some technical details
about the processor family, code-named Katmai, that
will surface in the first half of 1999.
The 32-bit chips will incorporate 70 new MMX
instructions that improve floating-point and
3D-intensive application performance, as well as next-generation technologies such
as natural-speech recognition and other human interface types.
Unlike the original MMX instructions, which focused primarily on consumer
applications such as games, Katmai's new instructions will focus on business
applications, including object-oriented databases, said Richard Dracott, marketing
director in Intel's Microprocessor Products Group, in Hillsboro, Ore.
As such, Intel's ISV group has already been evangelizing the platform for more than a
year and expects many business and consumer applications to be ready when the chip
is introduced. Intel will ship Katmai-based development systems to ISVs this
summer. ISVs, in turn, will use the prerelease systems to write software that exploits
the instructions.
Intel is also working with Unix ISVs such as Sun Microsystems Inc. to write
applications for Katmai.
At the same time, the Santa Clara, Calif., company is at work on peripheral
improvements to system architecture that will boost performance further, such as 4X
AGP (accelerated graphics port) and increased memory bandwidth. The former will
double the performance of today's dedicated graphics bus, while the latter technology
is based on advanced memory being developed by Rambus Inc.
These improvements are expected to be available when Katmai ships.
The processors will initially be built on a 0.25-micron process and will shrink to 0.18
over time, Dracott said. They will be available in multiple form factors. For example,
the processors will be packaged in the Slot 1 cartridge for mainstream desktops, MMO
(mobile module) for portables, and in Slot 2 for high-end workstations and servers.
Intel hopes to have mobile versions of Katmai available in lockstep with the desktop
version. |
