The Pentium(R) 4 processor 2 GHz is the highest performance processor on
the desktop. Pentium 4 processor's modern architecture provides this high
performance and should scale to 10GHz over its lifetime. As well as
performance, Intel has processors, chipsets, motherboard, and software
stack that provides the reliability and quality that major OEMs, especially when
dealing with the corporate market, are looking for.
Not only that, but
If you put large tires on a Pinto, it is still a Pinto.
Question & Answer Session with Intel's George Alfs, Intel PR
By : Allan Stewart
October 31, 2001
I recently had the opportunity for a correspondence with a member of Intel's PR department, George Alfs. I had planned on a huge amount of questions, but at Mr. Alfs' request I cut it down to six. You can find the original questions, as well as a full transcript of our emails, on page two.
Most of these questions deal with Intel's reasoning and thoughts behind some of their decisions; if you need some roadmaps look elsewhere. There's a lot going on these days, with VIA/Intel lawsuits, rival chipsets, and a growing support for AMD. The answers below can hopefully give you an idea where Intel stands on these issues.
Q| Many people feel that the p4 is under-powered and cannot compete
without a heavy- handed marketing strategy, and overly-frequent clock speed increases. Do you think this is true, and why/why not?
The Pentium(R) 4 processor 2 GHz is the highest performance processor on
the desktop. Pentium 4 processor's modern architecture provides this high
performance and should scale to 10GHz over its lifetime. As well as
performance, Intel has processors, chipsets, motherboard, and software
stack that provides the reliability and quality that major OEMs, especially when
dealing with the corporate market, are looking for. If you look at
Pentium 4 processor's scaling per MHz bump, these MHz increases provide real
performance boosts to end users. We shipped quadruple the Pentium(R) 4
processors this quarter over what we shipped last quarter, and we now ship
more Pentium 4 processors than Pentium III processors. Our customers buy
Pentium 4 processor because it is cutting edge technology that their
customers want, not just because we market our products well.
Q| When will Intel release its DDR-based chipset? Has the VIA P4X266 and
the new SiS DDR chipsets influenced the release in any way, good or bad?
Our Intel 845 DDR chipset will be launched early in Q1'02. We will be
shipping production volumes by the end of this year. This schedule has
been our plan for quite a while now, and is based on ensuring high volume
interoperable DDR is available and after final DDR200 and 266 Jedec spec
addendums are complete.
Q| How does Intel view AMD's approach to 64bit processors, with its Hammer
line, which can potentially be able to run 32bit software as easily as
64bit?
If you put large tires on a Pinto, it is still a Pinto. The Itanium(TM)
processor is shipping solution that has the support of most major
operating system vendors and OEMs that sell into the corporate high-end server
market. I would rather not compare our widely supported 64-bit and 32-bit
processors to competitive processors that are not yet available.
Q| What reasons does Intel have for keeping Rambus memory on its chipsets,
despite its higher costs and lower availability than DDR SDRAM, and what
does the future hold for Rambus-based chipsets?
The Pentium(R) 4 processor is currently available with chipsets that
support all three major memory types. RDRAM has the highest memory bandwidth
available for apps that need it, we plan to continue to support it along
with DDR and SDRAM. It is true that RDRAM can be more expensive than
other memory types, but it is broadly available and all memory is extremely
inexpensive these days.
Q| The Pentium 4 motherboards using PC133 SDRAM show a considerable
performance loss compared to Rambus and DDR solutions. Why did Intel
decide to produce this solution, instead of a DDR SDRAM chipset first, when it's
obvious that the P4 cannot perform well without a high amount of memory
bandwidth?
Corporate market segment and the volume of PC's that get purchased there.
PC133 SDRAM is a known commodity that IT managers are comfortable with.
As Intel and the industry have brought Pentium 4 processor based systems into
mainstream price points, we needed a chipset that supported a memory type
that IT managers have qualified for wide corporate deployment. For
enthusiasts (your readers) who run high memory bandwidth applications, I
advise going with a RDRAM or DDR based chipset for Pentium 4 processor.
Q| What exactly is Intel's response to the other DDR Pentium4 chipsets, like the ones from SiS and VIA? I'd like to know how Intel views these, and perhaps how Intel's future DDR chipset will be implemented, compared to these 2. I'm sure a lot of users are hoping for a DDR solution supported 100% by Intel; something along the lines of the good old 440BX chipset, perhaps one of the most popular chipsets to date. Will Intel have another BX-type chipset on its hands in the upcoming future?
The Intel 845 chipset is already our fastest ramping chipset in history. Many of our customers are claiming it to be the next "440BX", so you may be right. I'd rather not compare it to our competition, but the Intel 845 chipset looks like a winner, and by adding DDR support in early 2002 this should cement that.
In conclusion, I'd like to thank Mr. Alfs for all his time, though I do wish there could have been a few more questions (20 was pushing it though). I tried to keep the final 5 as least-controversial as possible, as George pointed out that most of them deal less with current processors, than with the competitions' products. From what i've seen here, and some of Intel's recent comments about AMD, Intel seems be showing a little more aggression than usual. I guess this is justified though, seeing as they have a competitor with processors (whose clocks run at lower speeds) that can directly compete with them for once. If you have any questions that you'd like answered from Intel or AMD (for a future Q&A perhaps, hint, hint) send them in to me and i'll see what I can do. Maybe I'll get some unlocked cpu samples next time, who knows?
~AllanS
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