Pentium II for settops.............
news.com
Pentium II package may change
By Michael Kanellos
December 22, 1997, 11:45 a.m. PT
Intel (INTC) is contemplating changing its
distinctive "Slot 1" design on certain upcoming
versions of the Pentium II chip as a way to drive
down costs.
The debate reflects the balancing act the company
faces as it tries to accommodate its premier
processor to the wide spectrum of computing
devices. On one hand, Intel wants to make Pentium
II chips for everything from expensive
eight-processor servers to set-top boxes costing
$300 to $500. On the other, the company
acknowledges that this creates cost/design issues.
"If we want to get down to the $999 [system] price
point, which we will do with the Pentium II in the
second half of next year, we have to do some
radical things, so we are looking at new form
factors--"cacheless" parts, integrated cache, new
kinds of packaging," said Mike Aymar, vice
president and general manager of Intel's consumer
products group.
While Intel has said it will eliminate or reduce the
cache memory on certain Pentium IIs to drive the
price down, a switch away from the Slot 1 is new
and would change the characteristic look and feel
of the chip. The Slot 1 package--a sleek, black,
and rather large unit that resembles a consumer
product more than a traditional microprocessor
package--has thus far been synonymous with
Pentium II. The shift would also mean that Intel
would be moving away from a popular design that,
right now, only Intel has the ability to manufacture.
Aymar stated that a decision to move away from
the Slot 1 design has not been made, but clearly
indicated that such a shift is on the company's mind.
"The version of the Pentium II we move to the
consumer market will use that 'PII' system
architecture," he added. "Eventually, as we keep
focusing on costs, we may find that we have to
come out with a more traditional package, a plastic
or ceramic package. Right now, we don't plan on
that but it's part of our learning curve."
A shift from the Slot 1 is a logical step, but also one
that will require additional work on Intel's part,
according to Mike Feibus, principal at Mercury
Research.
The Slot 1 design debuted when the Pentium II
processor came out earlier this year and marked a
radical departure in chip packaging. Slot 1 allowed
Intel to attach a secondary memory cache, with its
own bus, to the processor, a change that enhanced
the chip's computing power. Cache memory is used
to bridge the shortfall between the speed at which
memory makes data available to the processor, and
the faster speed at which the processor itself
operates.
Positioned as a high-end workstation and desktop
chip, the Pentium II/Slot 1 chip also held the
potential to stifle competition, said many, because it
was based on a proprietary and heavily guarded
design that Intel showed no desire of licensing to
competitors.
If the low-end versions of the Pentium II do not
have the additional cache, much of the reason for
having a Slot 1 package vanishes, Feibus said. Slot
1, however, also provides insulation for the
processor. If Intel moves away from the design, the
company will have to compensate for this factor.
"My understanding is that they are working on the
mechanical issues," Feibus said. "With Slot 1, there
is an established way to attach a fan and a heat sink
to the [processor] package. When you remove it,
you have to come up with something else."
Shifting away from the Slot design would also cut
costs, which may be necessary even after removal
of the cache.
"I have no doubt that they will get Slot 1 into a
sub-$1,000 box, but getting it into a sub-$700 or
-$500 box? They've still got some work," Feibus
added.
Nathan Brookwood, semiconductor analyst at
Dataquest, who was contacted before Aymar's
statements, agreed with Feibus. Removing the
cache will drive down costs, but further changes
are necessary on Intel's part to make the Pentium II
a low-end candidate.
"In the long run, they have to do more," he said.
Steve Tobak, vice president of corporate
marketing at National Semiconductor, said that the
debate around Slot 1 shows that Intel is playing
catchup in the low-cost arena.
"It is an indication that Intel was caught by surprise
by the sub-$1,000 market," he crowed. "They
appear to be struggling to me."
National, which earlier in the year acquired Cyrix,
has claimed that it has obtained the intellectual
property necessary to make Slot 1 chips. The
company, however, said that it has not decided
whether to make Slot 1 devices.
Intel is an investor in CNET: The Computer
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