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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kash johal who wrote (106968)	4/20/2000 12:41:00 PM
From: Cirruslvr	Respond to of 1574000

AMD unveils new generation of cheap notebook chips Two things stuck out in this article. First - "New Celerons for desktops running at 633 MHz and 667 MHz also will arrive [next week]." I searched Dell's and Gateway's website and there are zero Celeron 566MHz or 600MHz systems for sale. Compaq has one 566 Celeron system intended for retail and you can configure a system with a 566 or 600 Celeron. Pricewatch has 8 vendors selling the Celeron 566 and two selling the Celeron 600. Have even the Celeron "releases" become a joke? Since these new Celerons are based on the new stepping, there is a chance the binsplits are so good that there aren't many 566 and 600 parts. We'll know if this is the case when we determine Celeron 633MHz and 667MHz availability. Second - "The K6-3+ contains 256KB of secondary cache; the two chips are identical, but only half of the cache is activated on the K6-2+." Anyone want to venture a guess how large the die size is for these .18 processors? The K6-III was 118mm2 on the .25 process. I don't know if this is how it works, but if the die size drop is perfectly linear from .25 to .18, these processors are about 85mm2, or actually LARGER than the K6-2 on the .25 process (81mm2). Plus add a little for the extra 3DNow! instructions. This may be why the .18 mobile chip runs at the same voltage as the .25 mobile chip. I guess it is a good thing there will be no K6-2+ for the desktop; it would have cost more to make than the K6-2. EDIT - I just realized the drop isn't linear, so ignore the above part. ;) My guess for the die size is now 65mm2. Would someone who knows what they are doing and would actually be able to calculate the die size be willing to give some input? Scumbria? Petz? WatsonYouth? ____________________________________________________________ AMD unveils new generation of cheap notebook chips By Michael Kanellos Staff Writer, CNET News.com April 19, 2000, 3:40 p.m. PT Advanced Micro Devices released two new lines of microprocessors for notebooks this week, and Intel will follow with new portable chips in a few days. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker released the K6-2+ and K6-3+ microprocessors this week. The chips--which run at 450, 475 and 500 MHz--are enhanced versions of AMD's K6-2 and K6-3 families. Rather than market these processors for both desktops and notebooks, AMD will concentrate on portables with these chips. A notebook version of its touted Athlon chip will appear toward the end of the year, the company said. Among major manufacturers, Hewlett-Packard has already announced a K6-2+ notebook that, after rebates, sells for $999. The chips come at heady times for the chipmaker, which has been experiencing rising profits and greater customer acceptance. Consumer notebooks have been a particularly successful area, with AMD rivaling Intel for market share, according to various studies. "We are currently doing almost everything right," chief executive officer Jerry Sanders said last week. According to sources, rival Intel will come out with a 700-MHz Pentium III for high-end notebooks next week and a 550-MHz Celeron for less-expensive portables. New Celerons for desktops running at 633 MHz and 667 MHz also will arrive. Both HP and IBM will announce notebooks with the 700-MHz Pentium III. The new AMD chips differ from their predecessors in that they are manufactured on the 0.18-micron manufacturing process, which means that certain elements inside the chip measure 0.18 microns wide. Earlier chips contained larger 0.25-micron elements. Shrinking the chip components brings several advantages. Electrons have to travel shorter distances, which means less heat, which in turn allows the manufacturer to crank up chip speeds. Smaller chips also cost less to produce. Another advantage to the smaller elements is that AMD can integrate the secondary cache, a memory reservoir for data, onto the K6-2. The K6-2+ contains 128KB of integrated secondary cache. Older K6-2s contain more cache, but it exists on separate chips, making it less efficient and more expensive. The K6-3+ contains 256KB of secondary cache; the two chips are identical, but only half of the cache is activated on the K6-2+. In volume quantities, the 500-MHz K6-2+ sells for $112, while the 475-MHz and 450-MHz versions sell for $98 and $85, respectively. The 500-MHz K6-3+ sells for $184, and the 475- and 450-MHz versions sell for $162 and $140, respectively. news.cnet.com ____________________________________________________________