More K7 and PIII info to come next month
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Chipmakers outline 600-MHz plans
By Brooke Crothers
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 28, 1999, 6:40 a.m. PT
The latest in super-fast silicon from Intel, AMD, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Toshiba will be
previewed at one of the industry's leading chip gatherings next month.
At the 1999 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference next month, Intel will discuss a
600-MHz version of the upcoming Pentium III chip, while IBM will disclose a new breed of PowerPC
chip based on a cutting-edge production technique and a 600-MHz processor for server computers.
The three-day conference in San Francisco and San Jose starts on February 15.
Advanced Micro Devices, meanwhile, will take the technical wraps off the K7, due in the second
half. The chip is expected to best the Pentium III in a number of crucial respects and could give
AMD the performance lead, according to, among others, Microprocessor Report editor Keith
Diefendorff.
Though descriptions of new technologies at this highly technical conference are often couched in
terms seemingly comprehensible only to chip design engineers, it all boils down to more powerful
chips.
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Inside the discussions lay descriptions of how the next generation of silicon will drive increasingly
sophisticated calculations for software applications, 3D graphics images, video, audio, and data
storage and retrieval.
These ISSCC disclosures are important because, in a number of cases, the ideas revealed at the
conference often hit the streets within 18 months--or sooner. Last year, for instance, Intel publicly
showed a diagram of the Xeon chip for the first time, while IBM and Digital gave timetables for
boosting processor speeds to 1-GHz.
IBM also used the show to provide some of the first technical details of its copper technology. And,
rather than marketing people in shiny suits, the presentations are made by the top chip designers
and silicon academics in the world.
Intel will outline its upcoming Pentium III--previously known by its code name
of Katmai--which the company describes in an ISSCC summary as a
microprocessor for graphics and video which "adds 67 instructions for data
streaming" and runs at 600 MHz. This is the speed that this chip is expected
to hit later this year. It will debut at 450- and 500-MHz, according to Intel.
The summary also highlights other circuit improvements.
On the 17th, Intel will then follow up with a preview of the Pentium III in San
Jose. Software vendors and computer makers will gather in the San Jose
Convention Center to show off upcoming products based around the
Pentium III, although the chip won't come out until later in the month.
IBM will discuss a 580-MHz PowerPC chip design based on
silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. The PowerPC architecture is used in
Apple Computer's Macintosh computer line as well as a variety of other
devices. IBM's SOI process protects transistors with an oxidized layer of
insulation, creating a "blanket" that reduces harmful electrical effects that
sap energy and hinder performance.
Thin is in
The proffered design will be based on leading-edge 0.12-micron
manufacturing process for making ultrasmall transistors. Today, the most
advanced chips are typically made on a "fatter" 0.25 process. Generally, the
smaller the process, the more powerful the chip becomes.
"Traditional methods of [chip manufacture] are hitting the proverbial wall.
Moore's Law puts enormous pressure on chipmakers, which are investing
madly to find ways around the current set of walls," according to Linley Gwennap, editorial director
of the Microprocessor Report.
IBM will also elaborate on a 600-MHz chip design for its 390 series of powerful mainframe
computers, which typically uses ten or more processors. Development of new CMOS processors for
this line is beginning to pick up speed after IBM switched over from an older Bi-CMOS design. The
10-processor S/390 G5 Turbo server is also one IBM's best selling computers, IBM Chief Financial
Officer Doug Maine said recently.
Motorola to preview 450-MHz PowerPC chip
Motorola will preview a 450-MHz PowerPC chip with a special set of computer instructions called
AltiVec. The 10.5 million transistor chip would use copper circuit interconnects, a technology which
IBM has pioneered. To date, chips have used aluminum for interconnects. Copper designs are
eventually expected to yield much faster chips.
Currently, the fastest commercial PowerPC chip on the market runs at 400 MHz. Both IBM and
Motorola offer the chips, although IBM has offered a copper-based version since September of
1998.
Motorola has taken over the legendary Somerset design center--previously a joint venture between
IBM and Motorola. The upshot is that Motorola will lead the design and manufacture of the PowerPC
processor for the Macintosh.
Additionally, Hewlett-Packard will discuss a 500-MHz version of its RISC processor. The chip
contains a whopping 1.5 megabytes of on-chip cache memory for boosting chip performance.
Toshiba, NEC, and Samsung will also present new memory chip and multimedia processor designs,
among a host of other new technologies.
Other presentations include:
A 256 megabit flash memory chip for mass storage presented by Hitachi. Typically flash memory
chip capacities have been too small and pricey for applications that might replace hard drive in
some cases.
A one gigabit synchronous DRAM memory chip from Samsung. Having more than 15 times the
capacity of DRAM chips on the market today, this would be built on an advanced 0.14 micron
process.
An offbeat session will be entitled "They Don't Make Engineers Like They Used To...?"
Moderator Thomas Lee of Stanford University will discuss engineers and education.
"Education of most engineers used to involve a strong hardware component. Slide rules
reinforced a connection to physical reality by gently refusing to provide orders of magnitude.
However, with the complexity of modern circuits, have come similarly complex simulation tools.
Has [this phenomenon] really caused mindless simulation to displace creative thought?"
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