Intel news

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Itanium to get multithreading in 2005

Jockeying for position in the server CPU race, Intel Corp. announced on Friday (Nov. 14) that it will use multithreading and a whopping 24 Mbits of cache in the Montecito version of its Itanium processor, set to ship in systems in 2005.
The news could vault Itanium ahead of Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Ultrasparc, analysts said, but the Intel processor will still lag IBM Microelectronics' Power series.

Server CPU makers IBM, Intel and Sun are looking to pack their respective processors with multiple cores and multithreading capability, currently seen as the best techniques for bolstering systems performance.

Intel had already said the 90-nanometer Montecito would incorporate two Itanium 2 cores based on its Madison processor65-nm node it is feasible to fit three or more CPU cores on a die.

EE Times

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Intel prepares Alderwood, Grantsdale powered mainboards for 2004 launch
Intel desktop boards trends 2004xbit

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Intel's rush to regroup for 2004
Extreme's too expensive, and Prescott's past due

Usually, the CPU business offers a steady flow of interesting new product releases and endless flame wars between Intel and AMD loyalists, but not a lot of real intrigue or surprise. These days, however, PC processors are back in the limelight -- chip shipments are hot news, journalists are digging for bits of info on upcoming models, and most important of all, the desktop CPU market looks like it's anybody's game.

This shift really started with the AMD64 initiative and the traditional underdog's shipment of a full range of 64-bit processors. The Opteron, Athlon 64 FX-51, and Athlon 64 3200+ respectively run the gamut of server/workstation, enthusiast, and desktop segments, putting the onus on Intel to match AMD chip for chip.

Intel has so far been unable to comply, and although current Pentium 4 models are still very competitive, the fact that AMD has recaptured the desktop performance crown puts incredible pressure on the silicon giant. Now that 2003 is coming to a close, AMD will be working hard to maintain its advantage, while Intel looks to 2004 as its opportunity to take back the title.

The P4 Extreme Edition Debuts, Sort Of
Yes, Virginia, there is a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, or at least and at last a formally released CPU: Trumpeted front and center on Intel's Web site, the P4EE is outlined exactly as per prerelease specifications. These include a clock speed of 3.2GHz, an 800MHz front-side bus, and -- differentiating the newcomer from the Pentium 4/3.2C that debuted in June -- the addition of a 2MB Level 3 cache to other Pentium 4 processors' 512K of L2 cache.

Mass-market availability, however, is still an open question. We've been unable to find any Extreme Edition listings at the online-storefront level, and Intel's official comments hint that only complete systems will be available at launch, not that the new hardcore gamers' engine is likely to attract potential upgraders anyway -- judging by Alienware's system prices, the Extreme Edition might command a retail price of over $1,000.

Recent gossip also has Intel extending the P4EE line into 2004, with a 3.4GHz model a distinct possibility. This may depend on the sales success of the first Extreme Edition, as well as its performance in head-to-head enthusiast comparisons. The ultra-high-end market for custom gaming systems is not one that counts its pennies, and if specialty vendors find a real niche for the Extreme Edition, expect more from Intel -- possibly even 2004 models based on the upgraded "Prescott" core. How far Intel takes this new brand name hangs on buyer demand and AMD benchmarks, so anything's possible.

At Long Last Prescott
It's pretty well official that the long-awaited, 90-nanometer-process Prescott core won't be officially released until January or February 2004, which gives AMD even more time to polish its AMD64 platforms. Intel roadmaps show the initial successor to today's Pentium 4 offering a clock speed of 3.4GHz, with versions as low as 2.8GHz available to help the market transition.

Just as with its earlier move to 0.13-micron architecture, the plan is for Intel to first get the Prescott to market, then dare AMD to keep pace as it scales Mt. Megahertz. Current Intel estimates suggest the core's top end could be 5GHz or more, with faster bus speeds (1066MHz?) likely also on tap for 2004, along with a move to dual-channel DDR-2 memory.

Interestingly, it also seems a virtual done deal that Prescott will keep the Pentium 4 name, just as the previous "Willamette" and "Northwood" cores did. To be sure, this is a highly recognizable and valuable brand for Intel, but at some point in time, it's bound to give the company and its customers a headache. For instance, let's say you've got a 2.0GHz Pentium 4 Willamette desktop and are eager for an upgrade, but your budget stops at the 2.8GHz Prescott.

On paper, it looks as if you're merely trading a 2.0GHz for a 2.8GHz Pentium 4, or only 800MHz more speed, but that comparison doesn't take into account the doubling of Level 1 cache (from 8K to 16K) and front-side bus (from 400MHz to 800MHz), the quadrupling of L2 cache (from 256K to 1MB), or platform improvements like dual-channel memory and Hyper-Threading. You've got to ask yourself, what'll it take for Intel to finally call a chip the Pentium 5?

Playing the HT Card ... and Maybe the 64-Bit Card?
Speaking of Hyper-Threading, if you've got it, flaunt it. Those are words Intel should take to heart, considering that this compelling feature gets lots of attention but simply hasn't been marketed enough -- or shown up in any real volume in terms of application support.

Hyper-Threading gives Intel a real advantage over AMD in the area of multithreading or smoother multitasking, so why not create a nifty HT logo (that Pentium 4 flag with the miniscule H and T ribbons doesn't cut it), sign up some high-profile application and even higher-profile game support, and fire back at the AMD64-logo crowd? Windows XP does offer basic Hyper-Threading support and a bit of a performance increase even with non-HT applications, but slapping the HT label on the next Doom or Unreal game box is really the way to get attention.

Stepping further into the fog, the AMD64 offensive seems to have changed some minds at Intel, and everyone from geek-site writers to Lehman Brothers stock analysts is now saying that the Prescott core will incorporate some form of 64-bit functionality. It would be quite a leap to expect a fully 64-bit architecture, but with the new CPU experiencing significant delays, who knows?

Realistically, it's more likely that Prescott will include not only the next-generation SSE3 multimedia instructions but the long-rumored, long-denied "Yamhill" 64-bit extensions to x86 architecture (not to be confused with the official Intel 64-bit architecture of the Itanium family). The question then would be whether Yamhill is partly or wholly incompatible with the AMD64 extensions, and whether different 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows will take up a whole shelf at Best Buy.

Finally, while Intel may be firing up for a serious 2004 offensive, AMD isn't exactly sitting on its hands. Faster Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX chips are on the way, new platforms are in the works, and even Hyper-Threading and SSE3 are at least potentially on the table for upcoming AMD introductions. Intel is almost certain to keep the overall market lead, but the company needs to maximize its existing advantages and fast-track new models in order to maintain its dominance through 2004. Otherwise, AMD's trickling stream could become a torrent in the next 12 months.

Hardware Central

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Intel sets the bar at 4GHz

The chipmaker, which discussed its plans in a wide-ranging meeting with financial analysts on Thursday, said it aims to boost the performance of a broad range of its products next year, including cranking up its desktop PC processors. "Our goal is to hit 4GHz in 2004," Intel President Paul Otellini said during a meeting that was Webcast. Intel is aiming to reach that clock speed with Prescott, an upcoming processor for desktop computers that will be built using a 90-nanometer manufacturing process. (A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.) Prescott is scheduled to ship this quarter to PC makers, Otellini said. But it's not expected to come in desktop PCs until early next year. Right now, Intel's fastest chip is the 3.2GHz Pentium 4.

While a 4GHz processor may seem fast, as least one analyst said the jump isn't a particularly large one for a brand-new processor. "I would be really surprised if Intel didn't hit 4GHz in 2004. But don't dismiss the possibility it could blow that mark," Mercury Research analyst Dean McCarron said. Opinions on the importance of raw processor clock speed differ. Where Intel has always emphasized the speed of its high-end desktop processors--saying the Pentium 4's extra speed helps boost the performance of multimedia applications--other chipmakers, like rival Advanced Micro Devices, maintain that overall performance, measured by the work a chip can accomplish per clock cycle, is more important. The Athlon FX-51 chip is currently AMD's fastest chip, at 2.2GHz.

Neowin

[The__tweaker]

Originally posted by weta
"Our goal is to hit 4GHz in 2004"

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Socket 775 - DDRII

Here are some specifications that were sent to us this morning that fall outside of our NDAs so we wanted to share them with you. Below is an outline of specifications that will surely mirror many boards during the next two quarters. A new socket for Pentium4, DDRII, and PCI Express are things to get excited about for sure. All of this in an ATX form factor to boot. It seems that BTX is not going to come up on us as quickly as we had originally thought.

Socket 775 - 533/800 Intel Grantsdale P - ATX - 2 Dual Channel DDRII 400/533 - PCI-Express x 16 - 3 PCI & 2 PCI Express x 1 - 5.1 AC97 - 8 USB 2.0 - 10/100M & Gbit LAN(Optional) - 4 SATA & RAID - IEEE 1394

HardOCP

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Prescott shipments by end Dec

Looking to beat its rivals to the punch, Intel is currently ramping up its new 90-nm process technology, with product shipments due by year's end. Intel, which claims its own process is on schedule, initially plans to ship a 90-nm version of its Pentium 4 microprocessor, code-named Prescott. This 32-bit processor is expected to be one of the fastest ramping products in the company's history.

"The 90-nm technology is up and running," Fravel said. "We have parts coming out of the fab right now. We're going to have revenue shipments this quarter," he said in an interview with Silicon Strategies. Intel has big plans with Prescott, which is aimed for both the consumer and business markets, he said. "We are going to ship extraordinary large quantities of the part next year," he said. "Thermal is an engineering challenge," Fravel said in the addressing the reports. "We are pretty confident that we have a solution to address the thermal issues."

V Zone / Silicon Strategies

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Intel's 64-bit X86 "on the way"

A note from analyst Rick Whittington at AmTech to his clients said Intel will "soon unveil" a 64-bit X86 processor. But, claimed Whittington, it will take Intel nearly a year to build support in the way of motherboards, chipsets and graphics accelerators for such a device. That, he claimed, will leave 2004 "wide open" for AMD.

But, reckons Whittington, such a move by Intel would freeze AMD's momentum as customers wait and see how the chip giant deals with such an announcement. Additionally, said Whittington, even though Intel's "cache laden" Extreme Edition version of the P4 may well be migrated to 90 nanometers, such chips have a 3X die size compared to an ordinary Pentium 4 and 2X to a 130 nano Athlon 64. The Itanium, claims AmTech, is in for a "rough ride" but Intel now says it will "go with the market" on 64-bit X86. So such a chip could be delivered in volume in 2005.

That move would ghettoise the Itanium to low volume high end computing solutions. Whittington says Intel's statement that it will "deliver whatever processing solutions the customer requires" has to be taken in context with the hundreds of millions it's spent on the Itanium.

Neowin / The Inquirer

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LGA775, Grantsdale, Alderwood launch date unveiled
Intel accelerates socket switchxbit / X86-secret

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Intel expected to focus chipmaking clout on TV

Intel is planning to do to digital television what it has already done to computing.

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, plans next month to disclose the development of a class of advanced semiconductors that technologists and analysts say they believe will have a significant impact on the cost of large-format digital televisions, according to industry executives close to the company. The announcement is expected at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which opens on Jan. 8.

The chipmaker's prodigious manufacturing capability and its ability to integrate display, television receiver and computer electronics all on a single piece of silicon are likely to open up new markets for a class of products that have generally sold for between $3,000 and $10,000 until now.

It could open opportunities to cut prices sharply over the next few years even as the technology continues to improve at a pace that resembles the relentless doubling every 18 months of what computer chips are capable of accomplishing - known as Moore's law for the Intel co-founder who first propounded it. "I think this brings Moore's law to digital television," said Richard Doherty, a consumer electronics industry analyst who is president of Envisioneering, a Seaford, New York, consulting firm.

Intel's decision to enter the television market would be another indicator of the accelerating computer industry assault on the consumer electronics industry. Both Gateway and Dell are already selling large-format digital televisions and Hewlett-Packard has indicated it will also enter the market.

The Intel disclosure, which is expected to made by Paul Otellini, the company's president and chief operating officer, will come at a time when the market for high-definition television is just beginning to take off in parts of the world.

A spokesman for Intel said the company would not comment on Otellini's presentation.

International Herald Tribune Online

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<img src="http://images.tweaktown.com/weta/intel/lga-775_roadmap.gif">

AnandTech

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Intel to demo 'CT' 64-bit processor line at IDF

Intel is expected to provide a sneak preview of its x86-based, 64-bit processor line during the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) Feb. 17-19.
"They will demonstrate it at IDF," said Nathan Brookwood of market watcher Insight64 in Saratoga, Calif.

The new processor is a major change in strategy for Intel. Seeking to fend off a sudden charge from rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Intel has been working on its code-named "CT" technology for 32/64-bit processor designs. Formerly called "Yamhill", "CT" enables a 32-bit chip to support 64-bit programs.

Most observers believe an Intel processor based on "CT" is not due out until 2005.

Brookwood said Intel's x86-based, 64-bit chip is codenamed "Tejas." That desktop microprocessor is expected to be the follow-on to the newly-announced Prescott processor, which is basically a 90-nm version of the Pentium 4. The Pentium 4 processor line is based on 130-nm process technology.

Intel's Prescott can also support 64-bit extensions, but it is unlikely the company will offer that chip in a 64-bit version, Brookwood. The Prescott, with 64-bit extensions, is not compatible with AMD's 64-bit devices, he said.

When Intel rolls out its new processor, the real challenge is how the company will market the Itanium line of 64-bit processors. Intel's Itanium is a 64-bit chip, but the product runs x86-based, 32-bit applications in emulation mode.

EE Times

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Intel to redesign Pentium 4 E processors
Prescott to receive new steppingXbit

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Intel helps improve Power Supply Units efficiency
PSUs to waste 25% less energyXbit