Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: mauser96 who wrote (43651)	1/2/1998 7:54:00 PM
From: paul flint	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

I don't think "Slot 1" was a marketing decision. Even though at first it might seem like it's a more expensive architecture, or a way to lock out the competition, it has a real technical purpose. In fact, it's probably the cheapest way to achieve high-reliability, high-performance, tight linkage between the cpu and cache. Performance tests show the clear superiority of the Pentium-II in 32-bit operation, so it obviously works. The fact that it works well is getting it adopted rapidly. The fact that it's more expensive to achieve the same thing with socket 7 will hold back the competition at the high end. Unfortunately for the competition, no one but Intel could pull off a change like this, from Socket 7 to Slot 1 and set a new standard. Can you imagine AMD trying to introduce its own version of a solution for the cache-linkage problem and getting anyone to adopt it absent Intel's approval? Not likely, eh?

To: mauser96 who wrote (43651)	1/2/1998 11:33:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Lucius - Re: "slot 1 costs about $20 more than socket 7." First of all, what do we mean by this? If we talk about a socket 7 PGA socket and an SEC edge connector - the costs are only a few dollars apart. Just how expensive do you think an edge connector is - they are a part of nearly every mother board. And the Slot 1 is ONLY A FRIGGING EDGE CONNECTOR! Next, Intle includes the L2 cache on the Pentium II SEC. This eliminates an L@ SRAM and possibly L2 SOCKET - advantage Intel by perhaps $10 or $15. The chip set is another item, Intel provides a single chip 440LX as the Northbridge chip set for Pentium II's. Standard socket 7 chip sets cannot reduce the number of chips below ONE - like the 440LX - so it then becomes a matter of what the 440LX chip costs vs what a competitive chip/chip set costs for a Pentium/K6. I recollect Intel sells the 440LX for $35 - I may be off a few dollars here. The salient point is - do Socket 7 chip set vendors sell a chip set for $15 - to account for a $20 difference? Paul

To: mauser96 who wrote (43651)	1/4/1998 12:37:00 AM
From: Ali Chen	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 186894

<I understand slot 1 costs about $20 more than socket 7.> This is a strong underestimation. If you would check out www.pricewatch.com you will find out that the average price difference is about $80: Category: P-II MB Pentium MB difference --------------------------------------------------- Lowest $139 $62 $77 #19 $167 $83 $84 #39 $179 $96 $85 -------------------------------------------------- If you add the higher cost of P-II (+$100-$300), there remains very little justification for the mediocre performance increase(~20-25%).