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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (16403)	1/14/1998 9:21:00 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

If true- Intel sheds light on forthcoming 'Katmai' processor January 14, 1998 4:13 PM PST PC Week Online Intel Corp. today disclosed some technical details about the processor family, code-named Katmai, that will surface in the first half of 1999. The 32-bit chips will incorporate 70 new MMX instructions that improve floating-point and 3D-intensive application performance, as well as next-generation technologies such as natural-speech recognition and other human interface types. Unlike the original MMX instructions, which focused primarily on consumer applications such as games, Katmai's new instructions will focus on business applications, including object-oriented databases, said Richard Dracott, marketing director in Intel's Microprocessor Products Group, in Hillsboro, Ore. As such, Intel's ISV group has already been evangelizing the platform for more than a year and expects many business and consumer applications to be ready when the chip is introduced. Intel will ship Katmai-based development systems to ISVs this summer. ISVs, in turn, will use the prerelease systems to write software that exploits the instructions. Intel is also working with Unix ISVs such as Sun Microsystems Inc. to write applications for Katmai. At the same time, the Santa Clara, Calif., company is at work on peripheral improvements to system architecture that will boost performance further, such as 4X AGP (accelerated graphics port) and increased memory bandwidth. The former will double the performance of today's dedicated graphics bus, while the latter technology is based on advanced memory being developed by Rambus Inc. These improvements are expected to be available when Katmai ships. The processors will initially be built on a 0.25-micron process and will shrink to 0.18 over time, Dracott said. They will be available in multiple form factors. For example, the processors will be packaged in the Slot 1 cartridge for mainstream desktops, MMO (mobile module) for portables, and in Slot 2 for high-end workstations and servers. Intel hopes to have mobile versions of Katmai available in lockstep with the desktop version. Company officials have said that, despite the move to 64-bit computing and Merced (the code name for Intel's first 64-bit chip), they will continue to evolve the 32-bit architecture. In fact, Intel has another 32-bit project on its road map, code-named Willamette, an X86 microprocessor that will be delivered after Katmai and possibly before Merced, which is due in late 1999. Although clock speed and pricing details for Katmai and Willamette are scarce, Microprocessor Report editor Linley Gwennap wrote in a report recently that a "combination of features will allow Intel to charge a premium price for Katmai, even if it appears at essentially the same clock speeds as Deschutes.'' than look out for company making .25 micron process within Klac KLic Fsi and SVGI- one of them is a leader I think -can some one identify?