Intel Readies CPUs For Sub-$1,000 PC
(02/06/98; 5:53 p.m. EST)
By Andy Patrizio, TechWeb
Stung by Advanced Micro Devices' success at the low end of the CPU market, Intel is readying a pair of Pentium II processors designed for the sub-$1,000 computer market.
Code-named Covington and Mendocino, the Pentium II chips are made from the same .25-micron die as the faster and more expensive Deschutes family, which just began shipping. But while Deschutes chips start at 333 MHz and should eventually hit 450 MHz by the end of this year, Covington and Mendocino are slower, reportedly around 266 MHz.
Intel declined to comment on the CPU speed.
The move is a wise one, according to Nathan Nuttall of Sherwood Research, in Wellesley, Mass. "Intel is finally realizing if they walk away from [the low-end market], NexGen and Cyrix will pick up the scraps," he said.
"They have to take some of the processor technology down a few pegs so they can get into price points that aren't very high and makes the OEMs some money," he added.
Covington has no secondary (Level 2) cache, while Mendocino will have 128 kilobytes of onboard L2 cache. The current Pentium II line has 512 kilobytes of cache, but it's in a substrate of the plastic container the chip comes in.
Both Covington and Mendocino are expected to run at lower speeds, but Nuttall said he believes that won't be a problem for the sub-$1,000 market, whose users usually aren't serious gamers or multimedia users.
By embedding the cache in the CPU, performance will be improved slightly, said Christine Chartier, an Intel spokeswoman.
With this move, Intel is adopting a strategy not unlike Microsoft's plans for Windows NT: using one technology to attack several markets. "Our strategy is to have one core technology, in specific products for specific markets," Chartier said.
Covington is expected to ship by midyear; Mendocino is expected by the end of the year, according to Chartier.
Klamath, the first of many Intel chips borrowing its code name from Oregon cities and landmarks, was the first generation of Pentium II CPUs. It used a .35-micron die and ran at speeds of 233 MHz, 266 MHz, and 300 MHz.
The Deschutes generation picks up where Klamath left off. With its smaller die, Deschutes runs faster, at a lower voltage, and is cheaper to make than Klamath, Chartier said. In addition, Deschutes will support the new 100-MHz motherboards Intel is expected to ship this summer. The 100-MHz boards will provide higher I/O<Picture> than current boards, which run at 66 MHz. <Picture: TW> |
