Paul, Re
<<Mani - Re: "Merced was due in 1998"
WRONG AGAIN !!!
Where do you come up with this nonsense?>>
Paul, were have you been? Are pretending to be an idiot or are you really this clueless? You claim to be a long term Intel shareholder, then where were you in 1996 when the Merced hype started? You are a complete joke.
techweb.com
Power To The Intel Platform -- With RISC/Unix platforms
losing ground, IT managers may soon be left with only Intel
hardware, from PCs to high-end systems
Bob Francis
Who's left to challenge Intel? One by one, its most formidable competitors
slink away in the night like barroom tough-talkers who have finally sobered
up. Cyrix Corp., the x86 clone maker, acknowledged last week that it's
rethinking its chip strategy following the departure of the company's top
executive. Also last week, IBM and Motorola disclosed plans to drop
Microsoft's Windows NT as an operating system platform for the PowerPC,
seriously limiting that chip's chances to attack Intel's Pentium Pro head on.
This comes on the heels of Microsoft's decision to stop development of
Windows NT for the Mips microprocessor-one of Windows NT's original
platforms.
Only Digital Equipment, struggling to broaden the appeal of its Alpha RISC
processor, is attempting to keep up the pressure. Digital cut prices last week
in hopes of building market share so it can attract a much-needed chip
manufacturing partner.
Corporate computer buyers may soon face their own sobering
proposition:Intel as the dominant hardware platform not only on the corporate
desktop, but also increasingly across the enterprise.
As its competitors weaken, Intel grows stronger. In two weeks, Intel will
unveil the Pentium MMX chip, a multimedia engine that analysts say will let the
company grab even more corporate desktops. At the end of the quarter, Intel
will unveil Klamath, a version of the Pentium Pro for competing with RISC
workstations. And at the other end of the enterprise spectrum, Intel last week
unveiled the world's fastest supercomputer, a Pentium Pro-based system
capable of more than 1 trillion floating-point operations per second.
In 1998, Intel is expected to begin delivery of Merced, its next-generation
RISC-influenced microprocessor, a product it developed with
Hewlett-Packard that will challenge Intel's highest-speed competitors. Merced
will be the basis for a new generation of high-end servers and workstations.
According to sources briefed by Intel, the 64-bit Merced chip will include
32-bit emulation to allow corporate customers to protect investments in x86
applications.
That could leave IS managers with one dominant processor platform that
scales throughout the enterprise, but severely limits the choices involved in
enterprise planning. IS managers see that as both an advantage and a
disadvantage.
William Balew, president and CEO of TransQuest Inc., the IS subsidiary of
Delta Air Lines in Atlanta, says Intel's momentum can be a plus for IT buyers.
"I think that the high volume of sales Intel has had helps keep their costs
down, and they've passed those on to their customers," Balew says.
TransQuest has been using Intel microprocessors in departmental servers,
such as the NCR 5100, for several years, and Balew says he believes the
technology has proved itself at the high end.
Richard Warren, VP of IS at Judd's Inc., a $150 million printing company in
Strasburg, Va., that uses Alpha-based servers, says there's an advantage to
having a single Intel platform from top to bottom in the enterprise. "If the
instruction set up and down is completely Intel, support issues will go down
and reliability of those systems is bound to go up," he says.
But some users are concerned that without a choice of hardware
architectures, competition will be stifled in the marketplace and users will be
forced to accept Intel's standards-and prices.
Vince Pepe, a network specialist with Washington Mutual Bank in Seattle,
says Intel's dominance could limit innovation in technology. "If everything
becomes Intel, whatever they do, you'll have to live with it, even if it's bad. So
you need these little companies to pressure them," Pepe says.
Intel's dominance in the desktop market is apparent in the numbers.Intel's
share of the worldwide desktop PC market this year totaled 50.8 million units,
according to In-Stat, a research company in Scottsdale, Ariz. The entire
market for RISC-based PCs and workstations, including PowerPC-based
Apple Macintoshes, totaled less than 5 million units. In fact, workstations
based on Sun's Sparc, Silicon Graphics' Mips, Digital's Alpha, and
Hewlett-Packard's PA-RISC chips accounted for sales of just 800,000 units
this year.
"Intel is continuing to gain momentum at everybody's expense, and hope for
the PowerPC in particular is diminishing," says Mark Kirstein, a senior analyst
with In-Stat. The Alpha platform still has potential to widen its appeal,
especially since Digital is targeting the $2,500 to $3,000 price point. But
Kirstein says "it's all uphill and will take a couple of years."
Macintosh clone manufacturers plan to design systems based on the PowerPC
Platform in 1997. But they are deemphasizing the multiple-operating-system
strategy that incorporated Windows NT-the only real chance they had of
challenging Intel and expanding the PowerPC chip's 5% share of the
microprocessor market, say analysts. "I don't see NT as a key factor," says
Andy Chang, senior VP of worldwide sales for Mac cloner Umax Computer
Corp. in Fremont, Calif.
Kim Brown, an analyst with Dataquest Inc. in San Jose, Calif., says dropping
NT dooms the PowerPC camp's chances of growing significantly. "Now that
IBM and Motorola are not going to do it, no one is," says Brown.
In fact, Microsoft raised questions last week about whether it will continue to
support NT on the PowerPC. "We've got to evaluate what we're going to do
now," says Rich Tong, VP of marketing for Microsoft's personal and business
systems division. IBM's and Motorola's decisions to drop NT are "a
disappointment to us," says Tong, "but we can understand the financial
reasons."
Apple said last week that it's reviewing plans for offering NT on future
PowerPC systems.
Prices Remain Stable
So far, say analysts and customers, Intel has not used its influence at the
expense of IT buyers, particularly with pricing. On Jan. 6, the company is
expected to announce significant price cuts on its Pentium Pro, which analysts
say will help drive the cost of high-performance PCs below $2,500.
Intel also continues to push higher into the enterprise. Sequent Computer Inc.
last week delivered pre-release versions of an Intel-based symmetric
multiprocessing server to test customers. The server employs the high-speed
NUMA (non-uniform memory access) processor-interconnect technology.
The high end of the Sequent line, when delivered next year, could support as
many as 63 four-way Pentium Pro processor nodes on a single system.
Sequent CEO Casey Powell says it's proof that Intel-based systems are ready
for the high end.
"I would predict all corporate data centers will be run by connected Intel
processors," says Powell.
Intel says its path leads straight to the top of the enterprise-at the expense of
RISC. "We plan to continue the trend to push the 32-bit architecture higher
into corporate computing environments, and that includes higher-end
workstations and higher-end servers," says Perry Lynn, director of business
desktop marketing for Intel.
For Intel, it seems, the sky's the limit. Last week, it unveiled the fastest
supercomputer, a 9,200-chip Pentium Pro machine that processes more than
1 trillion floating-point operations per second, or 1 teraflops. "I never
expected Intel to be involved with a teraflop of computing," says Judd's
Warren.
Any chance for a serious run at Intel may now lie with Digital's Alpha.
Dataquest analyst Nathan Brookwood says that despite its early struggles,
Alpha could be a credible opponent. "They've got good 32-bit emulation,
they've got a fast 64-bit chip, and now they'll have a strong price point," he
says. Intel's Pentium Pro is a 32-bit chip. But will users see those strengths as
a big-enough advantage over a lower-cost Intel workstation? "That's the
64-bit question," quips Brookwood.
Digital cut prices on its Alpha chips by as much as half last week to build sales
volume and attract a partner to help run its expensive chip manufacturing plant.
Digital also is reportedly readying a 633-MHz Alpha chip for early next year,
well beyond the top speed of 200 MHz Intel offers on its Pentium Pro.
However, it will take time for such processor speeds and a 64-bit design to
translate into sales:Windows NT is a 32-bit operating system and won't have
64-bit addressing until Windows NT 5.0 ships around the beginning of
1998-in time for Intel's Merced.
So with the challengers unable to stand up to Intel, the future of the corporate
enterprise is looking more and more like it's a lock for the chip giant.
-with additional reporting by Mary Hayes, Stuart J. Johnston, Martin J.
Garvey, and Hakhi Alakhun El
SIDEBAR:Intel's Competitors Weaken
AIM Alliance's PowerPC
- Losing NT support
- Consolidating around MacOS
AMD's K-class
- Late with underpowered Pentium clone
- Pentium Pro clone due in first quarter
Cyrix's CX586/686
- Searching for competitive x86 strategy following CEO's exit
Digital Equipment's Alpha
- Seeking much-needed manufacturing partner and OEMs
Hewlett-Packard's PA-RISC
l Integrating with Intel x86 platform in 1998
Silicon Graphics' Mips
- Lost NT support
- Shifting from direct competition with Intel
Sun Microsystems' Sparc
- Sticking with workstation market
- Being pressured by Intel machines
Copyright ® 1996 CMP Media Inc. |
