By Dan Jones
With a tough year of competition ahead in the value PC processor, Intel Corp has confirmed that it will introduce a 600MHz Celeron in the first half of 2000. We are going to continue to be very aggressive in the value PC segment, said Intel’s Seth Walker. And the San Jose chipmaker will need to be as it faces the toughest challenge to its ascendancy in the low end since Advanced Micro Devices introduced the K6-2 last year. Via Technologies Inc is readying a series of chips, which are likely to undercut Celeron prices. While AMD says it will have a 533MHz version of the K6-2 before the end of the year and is introducing new editions of its low-end family in the new year. Intel is expected to launch a 566MHz Celeron early next year.
In preparation for the holiday season, Intel has shaved between 5% and 16% off Celeron prices. A 400MHz Celeron now costs $69, while the top of the range 500MHz part goes for $157. Into 2000, Intel will speed up the chips as it starts producing Celeron parts on a 0.18 micron design rule; currently the chips are made at 0.25 micron.
However, Taiwanese contender Via has made it clear that it intends to undercut Intel on price with its Joshua and Samuel chips (CI No 3,753). The Cyrix-derived Joshua range, running at 433MHz, 466MHz and 500MHz, will sit in the same socket 370 connection on a PC’s board as Celeron. The chips are slated to be in systems by the very end of this year. Then in the third quarter, Via is expected to introduce Samuel, WinChip-based deigns – probably marketed under the Cyrix brandname. Via hasn’t given any firm prices but analysts expect that it will try and bring chipsets out – including a graphics accelerator and a main CPU for under $100, ideal for OEMs who want to make systems for under $400.
Meanwhile AMD, which has been concentrating on its Pentium III competitor, the Athlon, will give its low-range fresh juice next year with a move to 0.18 micron and two new chip ranges – the K6- 2 Plus and the K6-3 Plus. These will give the 600MHz Celeron some competition in the first half of 2000.
One trend that the market will see next year is the splintering of the value PC market into smaller and more rigorously defined sectors. The movement has already started with Intel’s integrated graphics 810 Whitney chipset. Walker expects that the 810, combined with a Celeron 500MHz will be the hot choice in the value PC sector this quarter. However, S3-Via Inc, Rise Inc and SiS and Acer Labs Inc will all offer a low-cost chipset with integrated graphics functions by next year. And as the line between what a PC is and what an internet appliance is becomes more fuzzy, chips like National Semiconductor Inc’s Geode PC-on- a-chip and its Intel counterpart, the Timna, will find their way into the low end.
