Adrian, thanks for the information about the upcoming K7 chip.
Re: "It will be SMP-capable, but different from the
Pentium-Pro implementation....The future K7 motherboards and chipsets will be fully compatible with the Alpha
21164, and the Alpha will be packaged in a slot-A cartridge. This means
unplugging the K7 and updating the bios if you want to upgrade to an Alpha
processor."
It sounds like the K7 is following the Alpha roadmap, or lead, as far as architecture and implementation at the server level goes. So, it brands itself as a variant from the mainstream, which is Pentium Pro - Xeon - Merced. It may be code and I/O compatible, but, as you say, it will require its own chipset, etc. Economies of scale are lost right here, since K7 based servers won't sell anywhere near Intel based, just because of the enormous momentum Intel has going. That's not even considering who can produce with the best yields, clock speeds in volume. First blush is that the K7 chip might sell in the same ratio to Xeon chips, as Alpha based servers do in relation to Xeon based servers. The upgrade path of K7 servers to Alpha almost guarantees this. Upgrade paths get a lot of customer attention and often almost become the number one selling point. Of course, K7 selling in the ratio mentioned assumes its manufacturability, yields, clock speeds and reliability are all comparable to those of Intel's chips. Yes I know AMD has Motorola with them now.
Tony |
