Thread,
Intel news story:
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Friday September 11 9:47 PM ET
Intel chip strategy hinges on low cost, high power
PC Week
By Lisa DiCarlo, ZDNet
Lower-cost desktops will become attractive options for corporate buyers, not just consumers, early next year as Intel Corp. marries fast, low-end processors with networking and management features.
Intel is planning faster processor and bus speeds for its low-end Celeron chip while championing the use of 10/100M-bps Ethernet and client management standards in systems based on the chip, said sources close to the Santa Clara, Calif., company.
IT managers should benefit from Intel's rollouts by finding less expensive clients that meet their changing desktop needs. "Web-based applications put less stress on desktops, which means we will have a different mix of devices on the client side, which will be critical to our success,'' said John Anthony, director of IT at Seattle City Light, a municipal utility.
After introducing a 366MHz Celeron with integrated Level 2 cache in February, Intel will focus on 400MHz Celeron platforms with the 440ZX chip set, enabling the first 100MHz system bus for Celeron, sources said.
Intel's processor road map for early 1999 calls for basic business PCs priced as low as $800, sources said. These systems will include Celeron processors and an integrated chip set, formerly code-named Whitney and now called the 810, sources said.
Under that project, Intel will integrate audio and three-dimensional capabilities into the chip set.
PCs starting as low as $1,200 will be bolstered with Intel's WFM (Wired for Management) 2.0 specification. The new release of WFM, which Intel will roll out next week at its Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., includes several new features for managing desktop PCs.
For midrange PCs, Intel plans to ship next March 450MHz and 500MHz Katmai processors, which have 70 integrated 3-D instructions. In the second quarter of next year, the company will release a companion chip set to Katmai, called the 820, sources said.
The 820, code-named Camino, supports 4X AGP (four-speed Accelerated Graphics Port); AC97 Digital Link audio; and Direct Rambus dynamic RAM, a next-generation memory type. These systems will be ready to accept a 133MHz system bus architecture later in 1999, sources said.
Also in the midrange, Intel will turn up its graphics efforts with Portola, a 3-D graphics chip due in mid-1999, sources said. Late next year, Intel will unveil Coloma, a high-performance graphics option based on the 4X AGP bus, sources said.
Systems based on the 450MHz Katmai are expected to hit the market at between $2,000 and $2,500, with 500MHz systems starting at about $2,500. The 450MHz Katmai will cost about $575 at launch; the 500MHz version will be about $825, sources said.
Intel has an aggressive road map for its server processors as well. The 500MHz Tanner chip with 512KB of cache is due in the first quarter of 1999, with 1MB and 2MB versions coming in the second quarter, sources said.
Server platforms based on Intel's Profusion chip set may be pushed from the fourth quarter of this year to the first quarter of next year, sources said. Profusion, based on technology from Intel subsidiary Corollary Inc., enables eight-way servers.
A new Cascades chip for servers and workstations, due in the second half of 1999, will be coupled with a chip set code-named Carmel that enables two-way processing in a 133MHz system bus configuration or four-way processing in a 100MHz system bus configuration, sources said.
Not surprisingly, steep price cuts are in the offing across all of Intel's processors, which almost always means lower system prices for desktops and notebooks.
For example, the 450MHz Pentium II will drop from about $670 to $525 by the first quarter. After two price cuts, one of which is scheduled for later this month, the 400MHz Pentium II will go from about $590 to about $315 in the first quarter, sources said.
The 350MHz Pentium II will be cut later this month from about $420 to $300 and will fall to about $190 by the first quarter. The 333MHz Pentium II will be cut from about $315 to about $235 and will fall to about $180 by the first quarter, sources said.
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