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To: blake_paterson who wrote (45433)	6/21/2000 5:22:00 PM
From: Scumbria	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Blake, IP is becoming the topic du jour Stop! IP is not an appropriate topic for this thread. Scumbria

To: blake_paterson who wrote (45433)	6/21/2000 5:33:00 PM
From: blake_paterson	Respond to of 93625

Interesting read, tho' slanted to DDR (from CMP, of course!): Intel aims low-power processors at mobile PCs By Will Wade EE Times (06/21/00, 2:52 p.m. EST) eet.com SAN FRANCISCO ? Intel Corp. is trimming power consumption in its latest batch of microprocessors for the mobile-PC market. The company has unveiled five new chips for that segment, including a version of the Pentium III that runs on less than 1 watt on average. Intel is likely to face competition in the low-power arena from processor upstart Transmeta Corp., which has made lower power levels its primary goal and is starting to see some success with mobile-PC OEMs. "We have made significant enhancements to our mobile-processor product line in all categories of the mobile-PC market," said Frank Spindler, vice president and general manager of Intel's mobile-platform group. Much of that improvement has come from shrinking down to the 0.18-micron process level. Intel is also incorporating its SpeedStep technology into several of the new chips. SpeedStep slows processor performance when a system is running on battery power in an effort to reduce total power consumption. The five new chips include a 750-MHz Pentium III with SpeedStep, which the company is calling the fastest processor in the mobile market. Its average power consumption is 2 W. An ultralow-power Pentium III, running at 600 MHz, is also equipped with the SpeedStep feature and has an average power consumption of 1 W. An ultralow-power chip running at 500 MHz in the Celeron family uses 2 W, while a 600-MHz and a 650-MHz Celeron chip both consume 3 W. All of the parts are available in volume now, and systems using some of them are already sampling. Prices for shipments in lots of 1,000 units range from $562 for the fastest Pentium III to $134 for the slower Celerons. "The power characteristics of our technology are world-class," said Spindler. "The user will not have to compromise in terms of battery life or performance." Power hogs The mobile-PC market is growing much faster than the desktop market, and competition for these slots is becoming intense. However, Tony Massimini, chief of technology and a microprocessor analyst for Semico Research Corp. (Phoenix), said that the processor is no longer a major drain on system power. "You can do a lot of power management with the processor, but if somebody keeps hitting the space bar to keep the screen active so they can see it while they are thinking, that will soak up the battery life," he said. "The screen is the biggest power hog in the system." That is part of the reason behind Transmeta's strategy of redesigning much of the total system architecture based around its Crusoe processor, said Ed McKernan, director of marketing at Transmeta (Santa Clara, Calif.). "Mobile PCs are our lifeblood," he said. "Intel's approach to the mobile [market] is to use basically the same architecture as they are using in the desktop, but with some minor power enhancements to the processor." While Intel chips require an external north-bridge component, Transmeta has integrated that part into its processor to save power. The startup also uses a PCI graphics interface instead of the AGP component required by Intel ? another power savings, the company said. Finally, Transmeta chips support double-data-rate DRAM, which McKernan said will yield further savings to a system's overall power budget. "You will see many more power-saving products across our entire platform than with Intel," he said. Transmeta has its eye on two primary target markets: low-cost Internet appliances and low-power mobile computers. To date, no mobile PCs are shipping with Transmeta chips, but IBM Corp. recently announced that it will use the Crusoe in an upcoming Think Pad portable product. McKernan promised that two other top-tier PC OEMs will also demonstrate products with Crusoe chips next week at the PC Expo trade show in New York. He said he expects to see at least six total design wins in this space by the end of this year. Transmeta is not currently a major player in this field, though McKernan said the situation will change by next year. With the Crusoe chip running at under 1 W, he said the ultralight class of mobile PCs will become much more common by next year. "The ultralight machine represents about 15 percent of the total mobile market, but we expect that will grow to half by late next year," he said. "And we expect to see Transmeta chips in half of those machines, or about 25 percent of the total mobile market."