Intel Corp chairman Andy Grove kicked off the company’s Development Forum in San Jose this week by describing a new basic computer platform processor, codenamed Covington, and aimed at sub-$1,000 personal computers. The 266MHz chip, which is expected to be launched in April and begin shipping by mid-year, marks Intel’s intention to use the P6, or Pentium II architecture as the common basis for a wider range of systems, from mobiles to multi-processor servers. The basis of Intel’s solution for all computer segments is the P6 microarchitecture, said Grove, who also said that Intel intended to launch a new processor brand name, other than Pentium II, to be associated with the basic computing segment. Covington is cheaper because it uses Single Edge Processor packaging to plug into Intel’s Slot 1 packaging, so it doesn’t have Level 2 cache memory or Pentium II housing. A microATX smaller motherboard form factor will also help cut costs at the low-end, he said. Intel is naming systems likely to be based around the chips as Basic PCs, and has a low-cost core logic chipset, the 440LLX, to support them. A mobile version of the P6 is also under development, as is a faster version of Covington, with cache built into the microprocessor, codenamed Mendocino and expected later this year. Grove said Intel now has 650 engineers working on products for the sub-$1,000 market. Not to neglect the high-end, Grove went on to describe the fortcoming Slot 2 packaging development, supporting higher frequency processors, and full speed two level caches to be used in conjunction with multiprocessing. He said Intel is planning to launch an extension to the Pentium II processor family brand name to be associated with high- performance segments, a name still to be settled on.
