Process Boy - Confirmation that Whitney Chip sets contains Portola Graphics engine.
The following article describes some confusing issues regarding Intel's near-term Chip Set road map.
But it does confirm that the upcoming Whitney chip set - with integrated 2D/3D graphics - is based on the new Portola Graphics engine, NOT the older i740 engine.
"The Intel 810 and the new Intel 810E will integrate a derivative of the i752, Intel's next- generation Portola core, and not its existing i740 graphics chip, as once thought. Both chipsets will support a unified memory architecture Intel calls Dynamic Video Memory, as well as dedicated PC-100 SDRAM."
The remaining issues seem top be centered around Rambus/Camino Delays and 100 vs 133 MHz SDRAM options.
Paul
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Intel veers from IC roadmap
By Mark Hachman, Electronic Buyers' News
Apr 2, 1999 (2:02 PM)
URL: ebnews.com
Silicon ValleyThe uncertainty surrounding Direct Rambus DRAM has again jostled Intel Corp.'s chipset roadmap, threatening to unseat the stable platform the company hopes to establish. OEMs are being notified that the chipset once known as the Intel 815 has been renamed the Intel 810E, offering low-cost PCs a 133-MHz frontside bus by September-three months earlier than the original shipping date of the Intel 815.
That has complicated Intel's chipset roadmap, which was supposed to be relatively straightforward. At Intel's fall analysts conference, company executives had promised a simple 1999 chipset lineup, minimizing the qualification testing OEMs needed to perform on each device.
Ideally, that meant OEMs would choose from only three desktop-PC chipsets-one each for low-end, midrange, and high-end PCs.
According to the roadmap outlined in late 1998, Intel would have introduced both the Intel 820 (Camino) chipset for high-end PCs and the Intel 810 (Whitney) chipset for low-end, Celeron-based PCs. Both releases had been scheduled for the first week of May. The 815, meanwhile, was aimed at the midrange market.
But the unexpected delay of the Camino until September has complicated matters. OEMs say that instead of three chipsets by the end of the year, six could coexist: the new Intel 820, 810, and 810E, plus the older 440ZX and 440BX, and even the 440LX.
A spokeswoman for Intel in Santa Clara, Calif., declined to discuss future products. But one customer said his company is coping with the roadmap revisions. "We're used to it," he said. "It's been that way for the past year."
The Intel 810 and the new Intel 810E will integrate a derivative of the i752, Intel's next- generation Portola core, and not its existing i740 graphics chip, as once thought. Both chipsets will support a unified memory architecture Intel calls Dynamic Video Memory, as well as dedicated PC-100 SDRAM.
The features of the various chipset families add still more wrinkles. The frontside bus of the 440BX and Intel 810, for example, can run at either 66 or 100 MHz, while the Intel 820 and Intel 810E can run at either 100 or 133 MHz, according to sources and Intel's confidential documentation. And a rumored 440BX2 chipset would even add 133-MHz frontside-bus capabilities to the BX platform.
"If the Pentium III is to reach 700 MHz by the end of the year, the processor bus has to run at 133 MHz, or else the system performance drops," said another Intel customer, who requested anonymity.
Even so, the introduction of all three chipsets will likely be beat by Via Technologies Inc., which sources say will sample its Apollo Pro Plus 133 chipset for a 133-MHz P6 bus early next month. Executives at Via's U.S. operations in Fremont, Calif., declined to comment.
Confusing the chipset roadmap further is the fact that Intel has reapplied the Intel 815 moniker to yet another chipset shipping at the end of the year, according to two OEMs. The 815 label is being applied to a chipset that integrates the Coloma, Intel's third-generation graphics chip, to be introduced in May, sources said. Alleged problems integrating the graphics core forced a delay as well as the name change.
Intel's DRAM roadmap is only slightly clearer: By the end of 1999, Direct RDRAM will be included in high-end PCs, with PC-100 SDRAM in lower-end machines.
The problem is that the Intel 810E, as a low-end to midrange chipset, falls somewhere in between the low and high ends of the PC spectrum. According to industry sources, Intel has scheduled the chipset's September launch opposite the Intel 820 for lower-performance PCs. Like the Intel 820, the Intel 810E adds a 133-MHz frontside bus.
But while the Intel 820's 133-MHz bus interfaces to Direct Rambus DRAM, Intel has not broadly specified a memory interface for the Intel 810E. Only two of five sources indicated that Intel will mismatch a 133-MHz processor bus with a 100-MHz memory interface to PC-100 SDRAM. "It doesn't make sense to me either," said a senior executive at one motherboard manufacturer. "But our thinking is that there may be some performance advantage in tying together the processor and graphics in this fashion."
Intel apparently has not changed its position against support for the PC-133 SDRAM interface.
"History says, if Intel introduces a new memory interface for a chipset, they'll send a preliminary specification out to suppliers very early on," said Kevin Kilbuck, manager of memory engineering for Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc., Irvine, Calif.
Observers speculated that any reversal of policy on Intel's part would likely come at the end of the year, when the PC-133 interface is expected to be well established.
Additional reporting by Jack Robertson, Andrew MacLellan, and Sandy Chen. |
