Albert,
Micron Passes Over Pentium 4 For Athlon
(10/30/00, 8:01 a.m. ET) By Mark Hachman, TechWeb News
techweb.com ____________________
Micron Electronics Inc. will initially pass over Intel's Pentium 4 in favor of the AMD Athlon, Micron executives said.
Micron's choice comes as Advanced Micro Devices
Inc. (stock: AMD) launches the AMD 760 chipset
Monday, which supports faster double-data-rate
(DDR) memory.
AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif., is also expected to announce
three complementary Athlon microprocessors.
The decision to select the Athlon tips Micron, Nampa, Idaho. more firmly into the AMD camp, but doesn't rule out the possibility of a Pentium 4-based machine in the future. Other PC vendors are expected to hedge their bets with both Pentium 4- and Athlon-based machines.
Micron will begin selling the Athlon-based Millennia Max XP directly to consumers and retailers on Monday, a commitment the company has to date
refused to make. Micron sells PC using AMD's low-end Duron microprocessor, but only to retail customers.
In making its decision Micron (stock: MUEI) didn't simply compare the Athlon to the Pentium 4, executives said. Instead, Micron executives weighed the costs of the total platform -- including the microprocessor, chipset, and memory --and decided that the Athlon made more sense.
The Pentium 4 will be tied to Direct Rambus memory,
at least when it launches on Nov. 20, sources have said.
"We're always open to solutions that benefit our
customers, and circumstances could clearly change in
the future," said Rob Meissner, director of product
marketing at Micron. "But we based our decision between Intel and AMD on performance and on price. We found the DDR solution to be several hundred dollars less than the competitive solution."
For that reason, "we have no current plans for a Pentium 4 product today," Meissner said.
At least for this launch, Micron has aligned itself with AMD even more closely than with Gateway Inc. (stock: GTW), traditionally thought to be AMD's preferred customer.
Micron is the "lead partner" for the launch of AMD's
new Athlon microprocessors and AMD 760 chipset,
according to Mark Bode, divisional product manager
for AMD.
Aside from supporting DDR memory, the 760 chipset
runs at 266-MHz, faster than the 200-MHz bus
commonly used by the Athlon today.
AMD is also releasing three new Athlons that use the
faster 266-Mhz bus: a 1.2-GHz, 1.133-GHz, and a
1.0-GHz part, priced tentatively at $673, $506, and
$385, according to the company. The AMD 760
chipset itself costs $39.
Analysts said that Micron's decision made sense from a financial perspective, but that it could have interesting political ramifications.
But Micron's Meissner denied that the lawsuits between the company's parent, Micron Technology Inc. (stock: MU), and Rambus Inc. (stock: RMBS), drew Micron to favor DDR over the Intel/Rambus combination.
"I think it's a good move," said Roger Kay, an analyst with International Data Corp., Framingham, Mass. "It creates more variety and customer choice. It may also ratify DDR as a viable choice at the high end, next to Rambus."
So far, no other vendor seems willing to make the same
decision that Micron has. Representatives for Gateway,
Hewlett-Packard Co. (stock: HWP), and IBM Corp.
(stock: IBM) all said they plan to launch Pentium
4-based machines with Intel, both in the commercial
and consumer lines.
A representative for Compaq Computer Corp. (stock:
CPQ) said the company's commercial PC division will
also use the Pentium 4. However, a representative for
the company's Presario consumer PC line could not be
reached.
A spokesman for Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., declined to
comment.
Intel has indicated, through confidential roadmaps and
public statements, that it intends to widen its chipset
offerings to include SDRAM or DDR DRAM memory
options, but only in the second half of 2001, analysts
said.
With no wiggle room, vendors might still be weighing
their options.
"Is the situation causing problems? One has to imagine
that it isn't helping anything," said Dean McCarron,
analysts with Mercury Research Corp., Scottsdale,
Ariz. "If someone is using AMD, it presents one of
those situations where you need to ask, does loyalty to
one vendor cost you revenue? Only one OEM comes
to mind [Dell Computer Corp] where that's an
acceptable solution."
Weighing the costs of either the Athlon or the Pentium 4
platform may prove to be a Gordian knot, analysts have
said.
While Micron's memory-module subsidiary, Crucial
Technology, indicated last week that it was selling DDR
modules for only a slight premium over PC133, the
"Rambus tax" added from royalty payments to Rambus
might complicate matters.
Intel is also offering a rebate of between $60 to $70 for
OEMs that buy Rambus modules, confidential
roadmaps have said.
A Millennia Max XP with 1.2-GHz Athlon processor, the new 760 chipset, 128-Mbytes of PC1600 DDR memory, 20 Gbyte hard drive, an Nvidia GeForce card, DVD-ROM drive, CD-RW drive, and 17-inch monitor will cost $1,999.99, according to Micron.
Users can also purchase the same machine but with a dual-hard-drive RAID option and faster PC2100 DDR DRAM memory for a total price of about $2,600.
According to Micron, the cheaper system can be ordered Monday, and shipped within two weeks. A Millennia Max with the faster PC2100 memory, which runs at 266-MHz, will only be available for order on Nov. 6.
Micron is also warning that users will only have limited options to upgrade the new PCs.
Two versions of the PC, the Millennia B52-1003 and B53-1003, will also be sold at retail in Best Buy.
techweb.com ____________________
goutama |
