By Dan Jones
Facing competition in all sectors of the 32-bit microprocessor market, Intel Corp will come out in full force next year, with a steady upgrade path to 1GHz in its desktop and server CPUs, an increased focus on mobile and Celeron processors and its first attempt at a ‘PC-on-a-chip’, Timna, which will arrive in January.
In the performance desktop market – systems costing $2,000 or more – the Santa Clara-based chip maker will introduce 866MHz and 850MHz Pentium IIIs in the second quarter, while the 750 and 800MHz parts will become mainstream processors. By Q3 Intel expects to have ramped up its top of the range chips to 933MHz. This clears the way for the company to introduce ‘Willamette’ processors running at 1GHz or higher in the final quarter of next year. These will be the first processors based on Intel’s new ‘P7’ microarchitecture. By the end of the year, chips at the low- end of the mainstream market – systems costing just over $1,000 – will be running at the same clockspeed as some fastest Intel CPUs currently available, 733MHz.
Intel will, of course, face competition from Advanced Micro Devices Inc throughout. The company has said it will introduce a 1GHz processor by the middle of next year, and has prototypes running at 900MHz.
In the server segment, Intel will start to ramp up its Xeon PIII chips to 800MHz early next year and they will broadly follow the desktop range’s path to 1GHz. In the mobile market, Intel intends to have 700MHz parts out in the first half of 2000 and ramp these chips above 750MHz in the second half, according to spokesperson Seth Walker. However, Intel could face competition from Transmeta in this sector, which is promising great things from its ‘Crusoe’ mobile CPU, due to launched on January 17.
Intel’s Celeron ‘value’ processor, once considered the ugly duckling of its line, will be an increasing focus in 2000. The company plans to ramp the chips, which currently run at 500MHz and below, to well above 600MHz by the end of next year. By the middle of next year, the chips are likely to have a 133MHz frontside bus as well, something that is only now taking off in Intel’s performance processors.
However, perhaps the most intriguing release from Intel is its very low-end integrated processor, Timna, which is being aimed at the PC and internet appliance market, systems costing $600 or less. The part will likely debut in January running at 433MHz. According to sources, the chip will not integrate as many functions as originally expected, bringing together the CPU with graphics, audio and some chipset functions. However, unlike the Whitney chipset, it will not offer ‘soft modem’ and other functions. Intel was apparently concerned that integrating too many functions on one piece of silicon would degrade performance.
However, Timna does show Intel’s readiness to take on new markets and new competitors such as Via Technologies Inc. The Taiwanese upstart is expected to bring out its own integrated parts, based on Cyrix and Centaur technology, next year and has said that it intends to hit at Intel in the very low-end of the market. Timna is Intel’s reply.
Along with the processors, the company will release a slew of new infrastructure to support them. The Rambus-supporting Camino 2 chipset will succeed the current 820 by the middle of next year. Meanwhile, the 815, or ‘Solano’ will likely emerge in January. The new chipset will become Intel’s mainstream offering, replacing the 440BX with basic specifications of integrated graphics, AGP 4X port, PC133 SDRAM support. The Solana 2 will be released around the middle of next year. Meanwhile, the Willamette supporting Tehama chipset is expected to be delivered with the new chips in the last quarter of 2000.
