Is Intel Corp falling behind in the innovation race? The Microprocessor Report this week points out that Intel’s pace of innovation has slowed recently, just as Advanced Micro Devices Inc has stepped up its own innovation. The 3Dnow graphics instructions hit the market nine months in advance of Intel’s Katmai New Instructions, due to be introduced in the middle of February along with the Pentium III. And, says the Report, the AMD K7 currently looks as if it will be a year ahead of Intel’s seventh generation, the chip codenamed Willamette. Once Katmai arrives, however, the impact of 3Dnow is likely to diminish, despite the lead. Pentium III itself looks unlikely to add much value to the Pentium II apart from the new instructions, which only accelerate 3D games and a few other applications. Its application performance is likely to be the same as the Pentium II’s at the same clock speed. The Microprocessor Report thinks Intel should really be introducing Willamette now, perhaps using a larger 0.25 micron die to begin with and moving down to 0.18 micron by year’s end. That would have given it a clear performance lead over AMD. What appears to have happened, is that the California team that developed the Pentium was redirected onto Merced. The Oregon team, which developed the P6, was then left to start again with Willamette. Going by previous schedules, that task should have taken three to four years. But Willamette has yet to tape out, and shipments aren’t expected until late 2000. รก
