...AMD, according to sources, will offer a 1.1GHz Thunderbird in the third quarter.
The new chips, which will eventually replace AMD's current Athlon, are also the first revenue products to ship from the company's new fab in Dresden, Germany.
While the Dresden-made chips will be wired with copper, AMD said same-speed Athlons produced at the company's Austin, Texas, fab will use traditional aluminum wiring. Nothing on the products' packaging will note whether the chips, both made using the 0.18-micron process, contain copper or aluminum wiring, an AMD official said.
Eventually, major chip makers are expected to migrate to copper wiring, since the metal is a more efficient conduit for electricity, which has become increasingly critical as chips move toward higher and higher clock speeds.
Systems to followFollowing today's announcement, top-tier PC makers such as Gateway Inc. (AMD's largest customer), Compaq Computer Corp. and Hewlett Packard Co. are expected to announce systems featuring the new products.
In addition, the new processors will be offered in two different platforms, a Slot A package that will go primarily to OEM customers and a Socket A package for the general market. Eventually, AMD plans to switch all of its processors to the socket platform, since the Slot A was designed for use with an off-die L2 cache and the Socket A platform is less expensive to produce.
By combining the 256KB of L2 cache with the 128KB of L1 cache that was previously on the die, the Athlons "end up with a total on-die cache that's really the largest in its class as far as desktop products go," said Mike Bode, division marketing manager for the Athlon processor in Austin.Bode downplayed the fact that the Athlons will be manufactured using two types of metals, contending that the chips produced with copper will be indistinguishable from those produced with aluminum."From the end users' perspective, there is really no noticeable difference," he said. When asked whether the product packaging will note the type of wiring used, Bode said, "Absolutely not."
AMD goes after Intel at the low endAMD is also going after Intel in the high-volume value segment of the market with three new Duron chips. The Duron processor, known by the code name Spitfire, is designed to compete head-to-head against Intel's Celeron in the "sweet spot" of the market, where unit sales are highest.
The Durons, offered at 600MHz, 650MHz and 700MHz, feature an Athlon core, but will be offered at lower clock speeds and with a smaller on-die cache than AMD's top processors. A 750MHz Duron is expected to be announced shortly.
Pricing of the Duron will range from $112 to $192.
The Duron will offer 64KB of integrated L2 cache (augmented by 128KB of L1 cache) and will support a 200MHz system bus. The system bus is the data pipeline between the processor and supporting chip set, allowing access to memory and other system components.
Analysts say the Duron has more than enough cache to be competitive with the Celeron, performancewise.
"With that combination of cache and the higher bus speed (than Celeron), plus the fact that the Duron is using the Athlon architecture, I would imagine that it's going to be pretty performance-competitive with the Celeron," Dean McCarron, principal analyst at market research firm Mercury Research, recently told ZDNet News.
Intel's Celeron chip, on the other hand, has a small L1 cache, 128KB of L2 cache and a slower 66MHz system bus.
But while top PC makers are expected to quickly announce systems with the new "Thunderbird" Athlons, no such announcements are expected with the Duron, Bode said.
"We're doing volume shipments of units to customers and were basically filling the channel with units," he said, adding that major OEMs will announce systems featuring the new value segment chip later this quarter.
Next stop corporations? While AMD has eaten away Intel's share of the high-end consumer PC market, the chip maker has not yet been able to break Intel's grip on the corporate market, which overwhelmingly relies on Intel-based products.
But AMD's inability to crack the corporate market shouldn't take away from its growing presence in the consumer market and its recent surge following the release of the company's first Athlon last August.
"We're building a business that's heading toward a 30 percent market share in 2001, and I think we're well on our way of doing that," Bode said. zdii.com
Rock and Roll AMD!!!
Milo |
