Intel Investors - More Details on Intel's Mobile Pentium II Packaging Options and Die options, cache options, etc.
Note that the term "Dixon" is used twice - the first time INCORRECTLY.
Intel will offer a (MENDOCINO) Celeron with 128K L2 Cache and 233 MHz speed for low end BASIC notebook PCS - around $1500 in price. These will be branded as Celerons
The DIXON - a Pentium II with 256K L2 cache - will also be offered but under the Pentium II brand name. Obviously, these will be targeted at the higher end, higher performance end of the spectrum.
Intel will be offering these chips in up to FIVE packaging options, to fit different customer options as to cost, space, interchangeability, etc.
Other chips are discussed as well, including the new BANNISTER chip set.
Note - the article mentions a big push by AMD starting next week to attract more notebook PC business.
Too bad AMD's chips run at 2.2 volts instead of Intel's 1.6 to 1.7 volts - for LOWER POWER.
Paul
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ebnews.com
Latest CPU Packaging For Intel's
Mobile Chips Blends Form With
Function
(3:15 p.m. EDT, 9/18/98)
By Mark Hachman And Sandy Chen
Intel Mobile MPU Price Update Chart
Component purchasers hoping to infuse their notebook PC lines
with a new look can turn to Intel Corp.'s latest mobile processor
roadmap for help.
With form factor as a new and important consideration in the
notebook space, Intel has increased the number of processor
package options available to its customers. The expanded menu,
which EBN obtained from OEM sources, will allow designers, in
turn, to modify their laptop PC models to suit an array of end-user
tastes.
In short, while price and performance contribute to the desirability
of a notebook PC, looks count too, according to Jason Ziller,
platform marketing manager in Intel's Mobile and Handheld
Products Group, Santa Clara, Calif.
"You're used to price on one axis, and performance on another,"
Ziller said. "Think of the form factor as a new, third axis."
Ziller declined to comment on specific features of Intel's mobile
CPU roadmap, and in the desktop arena the company will remain
committed to a price/performance segmentation strategy. But in
the notebook market, Intel's upcoming processors will fit a range of
system sizes.
The strategy may also help Intel stave off competition from
Advanced Micro Devices, which is said to be mounting a
mobile-processor campaign of its own to be announced later this
week.
In addition, the multitude of packaging options should allow OEMs
to more easily replace a processor during assembly, and to
address different mobile configurations, such as the "slimline,"
"thin-and-light," and "mini-notebook" form factors, said Dean
McCarron, an analyst at Mercury Research, Scottsdale, Ariz.
To help it pinpoint various mobile-market strata, Intel has broken
the notebook arena into several segments, ranging from the
$1,500 Basic system to Professional-class devices costing about
$3,500.
Aimed at the low-end of the market, Intel's forthcoming 233-MHz
Dixon microprocessor will include 128 Kbytes of integrated level 2
cache and will be marketed under the Celeron name. But the part
will only be made available in a BGA package addressed
specifically to the mini-notebook market segment, according to
Intel's confidential roadmap.
On the other hand, the mainstream Dixon processor, with 256
Kbytes of cache, will be sold under the Pentium II brand name in
five package types beginning in the first quarter of 1999: a BGA; a
mini-cartridge; two versions of Intel's MMC (mobile-module
connector) package; and a new micro- pin-grid array (microPGA)
package, to be added in the second quarter of 1999.
At its most basic level, Intel offers the option of either a packaged
processor or an MMC that includes the north bridge of the core
logic. The MMC-and another MMC packaging version of that
includes an AGP interface-will continue to be offered throughout
1999.
"The packaging options just allow [customers] to have the option
of, say, choosing the mini-cartridge with discrete level 2
cache-but to do so at the last minute," said Peter N. Glaskowsky,
analyst at MicroDesign Resources, Sunnyvale, Calif.
In the second half of 1999, Intel will move cache memory for its
mobile processor lines entirely on-chip with the introduction of its
400- and 500-MHz Coppermine devices, which incorporate 256
Kbytes of integrated cache. Speaking at last week's Intel
Developers' Forum here, Intel president and chief executive Craig
Barrett added that the company's Cascades processor, which with
the Coppermine will be manufactured on a 0.18-micron process,
will also integrate cache directly onto the die.
By combining the cache and processor in a single package, the
variety of packaging options should begin to coalesce into fewer
choices as OEM demand for continued integration continues,
according to McCarron.
"Everybody will go to the PGA in the future," McCarron said. "The
market strongly prefers a small, socketable package."
The only announced changes to Intel's roadmap are that the
launches of the 366-MHz Pentium II and 300-MHz Celeron
processors have been accelerated to the first quarter of 1999. The
366-MHz Pentium II-which will ship in BGA, mini-cartridge, and
both MMC-package versions-is aimed at a 9.5-W thermal
budget at 1.6 V. The processors will be paired with the Banister
chipset. |
