RE. Timna
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Thursday September 07 04:15 PM EDT
Intel's portable Timna to debut at 700MHz
By John Spooner, ZDNet News
Intel's upcoming chip for cheap PCs and portables will offer improvements for low-cost PC makers -- and possibly consumers.
Intel Corp.'s (Nasdaq:INTC - news) first Timna chip for mobile computers will be a 700MHz version released towards the end of the first half of next year,
sources said.
The news suggests that Intel's delayed plans for delivering Timna to reduce the cost of low-end PCs are back on track.
Timna, the first integrated Celeron chip, combines several features on a single chip including a processor core, graphics engine and memory controller. The aim is
to help computer makers by removing costs from the manufacturing bill of goods for low-end PCs. PC makers are getting little if any money from their low-cost
PC lines. Savings could also be passed on to consumers.
"There are cheap PCs out there ... and right now nobody is making any money on them or if they are, the margins are pretty thin," said Dean McCarron, principal
analyst at Mercury Research Systems.
Timna will debut in desktop PCs in the first quarter of 2001, according to Intel. The 700MHz mobile version of the chip will roll out in the first half of 2001,
sources said.
Appealing for portables
However, it is possible the chip will be more quickly adopted in mobile applications than on the desktop side at first because of several of its characteristics.
Timna includes on the same chip a processor core, a graphics processing engine and the Intel I/O Controller Hub 2 (ICH2). The overall package, consisting of four chips, will be somewhat
smaller than a stand-alone or discrete Celeron chip with Intel's 810 chip set. Timna will be about 10 to 15 percent smaller, and will also consume less power. Timna will use 15.2 watts,
sources said, compared to the 19.8 watts consumed by the Celeron/810 combination.
Smaller size and lower power consumption make for a more desirable notebook PC.
A Timna "kit" will include the combined CPU, graphics and memory controller, will cost more than a discrete Celeron chip. However, analysts estimated that the total bill of goods for a PC
using Timna would be about $30 less than a PC using a discrete Celeron chip and 810 chip set.
Many manufacturers will pocket the cost savings, while others would be able to pass along the savings to buyers. However, the reduction in the price to consumers would be well below $100.
"A quarter is a big deal in this market. For a system that's selling for $600, $30 is a lot of money," McCarron said. "It could result in some savings (passed along to customers)."
Not much price drop
Low-cost desktop PCs start at about $600 range. However, it is unlikely, that PC makers will reduce prices much further.
Assuming the chip is free from further delay, Timna chip will debut for desktop PCs as previously planned at 600MHz and 667MHz. It will quickly catch up to the discrete Celeron chips,
meaning it will ship at 700MHz, 733MHz and 766MHz speeds, before it catches up with Celeron later in 2001, sources said.
Timna's expected 2000 debut was delayed following Intel's 820 chip set Memory Translator Hub problems, which lead to an expensive recall of motherboards based on the 820.
This was because Timna was designed to work with Rambus Inc.'s (Nasdaq:RMBS - news) Rambus direct RAM technology. It was designed with a memory controller for RDRAM. However,
due to RDRAM's much higher cost and lower availability, when compared to Synchronous Dynamic RAM, Intel prepared to ship Timna with the MTH.
Intel said at that time Timna would ship in the first half of 2001 with a redesigned version of the MTH. Intel has now re-named the MTH the Memory Protocol Translator, and will use it to
allow Timna to work with 100MHz SDRAM memory.
The MPT and a firmware hub, which stores a PC's BIOS software, complete the Timna kit, making it necessary to use four chips in a PC. A discrete Celeron and 810 chip set would also use
four chips.
Timna's construction
Timna is based on a number of different technologies, borrowed from other Intel products.
The processor core is based on Intel's Katmai core, which was used for the original Pentium III chips (up to 600MHz) manufactured using a 0.25 micron process. However, Timna will be
manufactured using Intel's current, 0.18 micron process. The chip will also offer 128KB of Level 2 cache. Its graphics engine and memory controller (ICH2) are based on designs used in
Intel's 800-series chip sets. Timna will utilize the current Celeron packaging, as 370 pin socket, called Socket 370.
Combining the CPU and memory controller chips eliminates the need for a system bus, since the pair are grafted on to the same piece of silicon. Instead, Timna will utilize a dedicated bus,
called Core Interface Bus, which will scale in speed with the processor core. Intel says that an 800MHz Timna, for example, would employ a 200MHz Core Interface Bus. Unlike the bus of a
discrete Celeron chip, the Core Interface bus is not shared with other system components, such as memory.
The bus that communicates between Timna and the rest of the world, however, will be Intel's Accelerated Hub Link Architecture, present in 800-series chipsets. The Hub link, used to
communicate with external chips, will be 8-bits wide, driven off a 66MHz clock, transferring 266MB per second, according to Intel's Fall Developer Forum.
These new data transfer paths should improve overall system performance, when measured against systems with discrete Celeron chips and the 810 chipset.
Timna, like the 810 chip set, utilizes system memory as a frame buffer for graphics, meaning it will take up to 4MB of RAM for use by graphics.
Analysts said buyers can expect lower graphics performance from Timna than from a Celeron system with a separate graphics card. When combined with a hit from the Memory Protocol
Translator, Timna systems versus discrete Celeron systems should offer the same or slightly lower performance.
However, in the low-cost market segment, graphics performance "doesn't matter," McCarron said. "There's a different expectation of performance for this segment."
What is more important is cost. For that reason the trend towards integration in low-end computing will accelerate as Intel and other chip makers including VIA Technologies Inc. continue to
add features to their processors that would normally be handled by a separate chip or chip set.
However, Intel needs an offering in the area. VIA, for example, continues work on a similar chip. The VIA chip, known by the code name Matthew, should also ship next year, according to
information VIA presented at the recent Platform Conference. Matthew, to be based on VIA's Centaur Winchip, will include a graphics processor and memory controller. It will run at
550MHz and faster, the company said.
Though more details about the chip were made public at the recent Fall Intel Developer Forum, officials declined to elaborate on clock speed and other details about the chip.
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