Ibexx and Intel Investors - A VERY GOOD ARTICLE on Intel's SEGMENTATION Strategy and future product roadmaps.
The "media" and "pundits" and "distributors" are finally realizing the significance and importance of Intel's new Segmentation strategy.
Read this article carefully!
Note - the Carmel Chip set and 133 MHz Front-Side Bus speeds coming next year!
Paul
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techweb.com
August 03, 1998, Issue: 1120
Section: News
Intel covers all bases -- Chip maker offers OEMs a dizzying array of choices
Mark Hachman
Silicon Valley- Having secured a beachhead in the mainstream PC arena, Intel Corp. is adopting an increasingly sophisticated strategy of segmentation as it renews its push into the server and low-cost PC markets.
What was once considered a "consumer PC," designed around a Pentium or Pentium II processor, has plintered into no fewer than seven distinct classifications, each with its own price point. At least three separate "Mainstream Performance" and three "Basic PC" classes now complement an "Enthusiast" category. And at the high end of the market, Intel has identified six server and four workstation segments, according to the company's latest confidential road map, which was obtained from an OEM customer.
"Our segmentation strategy was developed because the [PC] market itself has segmented," said an Intel spokesman.
To illustrate how varied Intel's menu has become, consider that in the first quarter of 1999, OEMs will be able to choose from two distinct Celeron processors and two different mainstream processors, matching those against any of five different chipsets.
Though the array of products may seem bewildering to the casual observer, analysts and customers say the variety is spicing up OEMs' lives-and their systems.
"Segmentation only becomes fragmentation when it becomes too confusing to know what to buy," said Dean McCarron, principal at Mercury Research, Scottsdale, Ariz.
"But in every one of these segments, there's an exact product that matches [what PC designers want]," he added.
In the desktop segment, observers said, Intel has traditionally carved out segments through "banding," a model that used different speed grades of the same processor to create different classes of PCs.
Now, however, unique processor and chipset combinations are stratifying Intel's Pentium II, Pentium II Xeon, and Celeron product lines even further, creating new performance and price slots.
It's a complex but welcome diversification, customers say.
"Before it added the Xeon and Celeron lines, Intel essentially sold a monolithic line of microprocessors," said Ross Ely, director of product marketing at
Micron Electronics Inc., Nampa, Idaho. "I think at this stage of the industry's development, segmentation is what the industry expects to see."
Throughout 1999, for example, Intel's high-end desktop segment will be driven by the Katmai and Coppermine processors. Running at clock speeds of 450 and 500 MHz, the Katmai is slated for a first-quarter 1999 release,
while the Coppermine will follow in the second half of the year. The latter chip, which will be produced on 0.18-micron linewidths, will debut at 533 MHz and will increase in speed to at least 600 MHz by the end of 1999, according to Intel's road map.
Both chips will be targeted at the Enthusiast and high-end Mainstream Performance categories, designed for PCs priced at $2,000 and up.
At the lower end of the PC market, Intel will combine both its Celeron chips-one equipped with level 2 cache and the other not-into a single version by the end of next year, raising clock speeds to 400 MHz and integrating 128 Kbytes of L2 cache into the entire line. The move should help OEMs that initially had trouble distinguishing between the two versions of the chip, according to observers.
"By 1999, it appears, Intel will have cleared up the confusion associated with the Basic PC," said Martin Reynolds, an analyst at Dataquest Inc., San Jose.
While a wide selection of processors will allow OEMs to continue differentiating their PCs, their choice of chipset is also becoming increasingly important.
By the first half of 1999, for instance, Intel's 440ZX chipset will be produced for low-cost PCs, and will be sold in 66- and 100-MHz-bus versions.
The 100-MHz version of the 440ZX chipset will be paired with the Pentium II processor to create an entry-level class of PCs costing just over $1,000.
The 440ZX 66-MHz version, meanwhile, will support Intel's "socketed Mendocino" chip, which is a Celeron processor with integrated L2 cache. The processor/chipset duo will be introduced for PCs in the $1,000 range, but will soon find its way into models costing $800, according to Intel documents.
The Celeron will also support Intel's 810, the Whitney chipset, which will include an integrated i740 graphics chip and is slated for a second-quarter 1999 introduction.
In addition to the PC arena, Intel is addressing the enterprise server market, using its processors and chipsets to create six distinct segments ranging in price from $3,000 to $50,000.
Bolstered by the Profusion chipset line it acquired with its purchase of high-end-chip maker Corollary Inc. last year, Intel-based servers will allow eight-way processing as early as the current quarter.
Intel's weapons in the workstation and server markets will be the Tanner-a 500-MHz processor it willintroduce in early 1999-and a 0.18-micron processor called the Cascades, which will come out in the second half of
1999 at 600 MHz or above.
Cascades-based servers will be supported by Intel's Carmel chipset, which is also slated to appear in the second half of 1999. The Carmel will enable Cascades-based two-way servers to run on a 133-MHz system bus, and four-way servers to use a 100-MHz system bus.
The Carmel will succeed Intel's existing 82450NX server chipset, as well as a lower-cost version of the NX device that Intel will introduce in the first quarter of 1999.
Copyright r 1998 CMP Media Inc. |
