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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scumbria who wrote (107957)	8/22/2000 11:03:05 AM
From: Paul Engel	Respond to of 186894

SCUMbria - Re: "Intel is riding on the past successes of the company. If the decision making process is not improved, they will find themselves in second place before too much longer" Intel is riding the wave of Hand Helds - and AMD has COMPLETELY missed this boat ! Intel has become a broad line solutions provider to its customers - while AMD is shrinking back into a boutique supplier of second-sourced products. Not a good place for AMD. You can add Servers and Networking to this Intel list, SCUMbria. Paul {================================+ infoworld.com Intel processors could boost handheld power By James Niccolai and Ephraim Schwartz INTEL IS DEVELOPING two new StrongARM processors that could help in the development of smaller and more powerful handheld computers, smart phones, and other portable devices, according to a source familiar with Intel's plans. The new processors include design tweaks that improve on the performance of Intel's current StrongARM chips without greatly increasing the amount of power consumed, a feature that could enable hardware makers to build handheld computers that run speech applications and even MPEG video clips, the source said. The disclosure comes on the eve of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel's twice-yearly developer forum in San Jose, Calif. The chipmaker Wednesday is due to discuss technology improvements it has made to StrongARM, although it's not clear yet whether the company will provide details about actual new products. An Intel spokesman declined to comment. Also on the agenda this week at Intel Developer Forum (IDF), the chipmaker is expected to disclose more details about the Pentium 4, a follow-on to the Pentium III, due in the fourth quarter this year. Intel is also due to announce a 1GHz Xeon processor with 256K bytes of cache. The upcoming Xeon processor is designed for two-way servers and workstations. The fastest Xeon today runs at 933MHz. Code-named Coyanosa, one of the new StrongARM processors is a follow-on to the SA 110 and will launch with a clock speed of 600MHz, according to the source. The second processor, code-named Cotulla, is modeled after Intel's SA 1110, and is expected to debut at 400MHz, the source said. Cotulla will be an integrated processor that includes built-in support for USB (universal serial bus), infrared communications, and an LCD (liquid-crystal display) screen. Cramming this extra functionality into a single chip should allow hardware makers to use smaller motherboards, which could lead to smaller handheld products, according to the source. Cotulla is also expected to offer advantages in terms of power consumption. At 400MHz, the processor will debut at twice the clock speed of the StrongARM 1110, but won't consume significantly more power. This may allow device manufacturers to offer PDAs with enough horsepower to run speech applications and play MPEG video clips, assuming enough storage is available, the source said. The improvements are derived from design improvements that Intel has made to the StrongARM core. The improvements include the introduction of a memory caching system called "write-back cache," an improvement on the "write-through cache" employed in current StrongARMs, the source said. "Write-back is more efficient, but write-through is historically easier to do," said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at consulting firm Insight 64, in Saratoga, Calif. "The usual way that systems progress is to start with write-through and then progress to write-back in later designs." Cotulla also features a seven-stage pipeline, instead of the five-stage pipeline employed in Intel's current StrongARM, the source said. Deepening the pipeline is one way of improving the clock speed of a processor. StrongARM is based on a processor design licensed from U.K.-based chip design company ARM Holdings. Intel acquired StrongARM from Digital Equipment (now part of Compaq Computer) about three years ago. More information about the Intel Developer Forum is available on the Web at www.intel.com/idf. James Niccolai is a San Francisco-based senior correspondent for the IDG News Service, an InfoWorld affiliate. InfoWorld Editor at Large Ephraim Schwartz is based in San Francisco. Related Articles: Intel to detail Pentium IV, Xeon Interested in receiving breaking technology news in your e-mailbox every day?