A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted 5:30 p.m. EST/2:30 p.m., PST, 2/23/99
Intel shows a 1-GHz chip,
but it's not for sale yet
By Mark Hachman
Electronic Buyers' News
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- Intel Corp. today demonstrated a Pentium II
running above 1 gigahertz on the first day of its forum for PC manufacturers
and developers. Intel executives did not say whether the Pentium II family
will eventually scale to that speed, but the chip serves to demonstrate the
pace of Intel's developments.
Also at the Intel Developers Forum, company executives confirmed that the
Intel 820 chip set has been delayed. Without specifically commenting on the
chip set itself, Pat Gelsinger, executive vice president and general manager
of Intel's Desktop Products Group, said "next-generation chip sets"
supporting Direct Rambus and the ATA-66 storage interface -- both
features of the Intel 820 --would be launched in the third quarter. Intel has
apparently scotched or sacrified a version of the chip set, scheduled to be
launched in June, that would support 600-MHz Direct Rambus RDRAM.
As Intel charted an aggressive roadmap moving into the next millennium,
executives said they were satisfied with the progress of the PC but outlined a
renewed drive to continue expanding its reach. Paul Otellini, executive vice
president of Intel's Architecture Business Group, said worldwide sales of
PCs exceeded the sales of TVs in 1998, and that users sent more e-mail
messages than first class mail in that period.
Otellini cited market figures showing that PCs selling above $2,000 declined
from a 40% market share in the late 1980s to under 10% last year, and said
this justifies Intel's continued push to reduce the PC's manufacturing cost.
"But we still haven't found the recipe for continued significant growth,"
Otellini said.
In 1999, the main ingredient in that recipe will be Intel's Pentium III,
scheduled to be launched at the end of this month. Backing up independent
online testing agencies, Intel claimed significant increases in system
performance in tests conducted upon Pentium III systems, compared to
those using Pentium II processors at the same clock speeds. In speech
recognition, photo editing, and video creation software applications, Intel
claimed performance enhancements of 37%, 64% and 20% respectively.
Promising to add fuel to the current controversy about the Pentium III's
security feature, a German publication reported today that it had cracked the
serial identification feature built into the Pentium III, allowing a Web site or a
malicious third party to identify the PC and, potentially, the user.
Despite the objection of activists, Intel will continue to develop the Pentium
III with an ID feature. The clock speed of the Pentium II will exceed 600
MHz by the end of the year, and will be complemented by a 500-MHz
Celeron, according to Gelsinger. For mobile PCs, the Intel mobile Pentium
II will exceed 600 MHz, complimented by a 400-MHz Celeron chip. In
2000, Intel will unveil its Geyserville technology, allowing processors to run
at higher speeds when plugged into a docking station. Finally, in servers and
workstations, Intel's Xeon will break the 600-MHz barrier.
Aside from mentioning the delay in the Intel 820, Intel disclosed no new
information concerning its chip sets, but it mentioned the 440MX chip set for
mobile PCs. The features of the 440MX were unknown at press time.
Gelsinger's glimpse of Intel's future technology initiatives also offered few
surprises. Intel's forthcoming 64-bit chip, Merced, is still on track to sample
by the middle of this year; the chip is in the final stages of "verification" or
testing. Six separate operating systems have already been successfully tested
on Merced.
As a complement to Intel's Next-Generation I/O interface, Gelsinger briefly
described a future storage interface, "Future ATA." In the second half of
2000, the ATA storage interface will be "made narrower, with faster
performance," Gelsinger said. The idea is to craft a more cost-effective
solution that can still scale to faster speeds. Future ATA will be designed to
replace ATA-66, which is included in the delayed 820 chip set and will exist
until about 2005, he said.
Finally, Intel expressed concerns that Apple Computer Inc.'s iMac would
overshadow the PC in creating radical new chassis designs. "The PC has
become a dump truck of technology, and we have to work together to
produce a consumer appliance," said Gelsinger.
All material on this site Copyright © 1998 CMP Media Inc. All rights reserved.
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