by Anton Shilov
11/19/2002 | 03:30 PM
Intel has always been one of the main driving forces of the industry. But even the most successful and strongest ones have their tough times of the life. It seems that now the company has found a number of obstacles on its way and they forced the largest semiconductor maker to revise its CPU and core-logic plans for the next year, as I learned over here.
The most important fact for today is that Intel will postpone its Pentium 4 “Prescott” processor made using 90 nanometer technology until the fourth quarter next year. The source of the problem is unknown, but it seems that either Intel or their partners, who supply the lithographic equipment to the company, have some technology related problems, and that is why the Santa Clara-based manufacturer postpones the introduction of their new products. <%BANNER[article]%>
It is likely that Intel will be pretty tough to manufacture 90% of their microprocessors using 90 nanometer process by the end of 2004, as they originally stated some time ago (see this news-story). Fortunately, the delay with the product transition will not affect the introduction of the faster CPUs next year.
According to sources, Intel will start to push 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus supporting platforms to the market in the second quarter 2003. Moreover, all the new Pentium 4 processors will offer the Hyper-Threading technology in April or May next year. The company will launch a line of new microprocessors, including 2.40, 2.60, 2.80, 3.0 and 3.20GHz chips, all for 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus and with Hyper-Threading support. Later the company may also launch 3.4GHz CPU in order to strengthen their market positions and compete with AMD’s ClawHammer chips in terms of performance.
Apparently Intel decided not to utilise 667MHz Quad Pumped Bus for the Pentium 4 processors at all, as a result, the chipset roadmap has also been changed. Intel’s Springdale PE and CanterWood chipsets will support 800MHz processor bus as well as dual-channel DDR400 memory that will probably be called as PC3200 then. The novelties will be equipped with ICH5 I/O controller. The CanterWood is targeted at workstations and entry-level servers, while the Springdale family of chipset will cover the remaining segments of the market. The Springdale-P is a core-logic for not expensive computers with 400/533MHz PSB support, while the Springdale-G also incorporates a graphics core and supports 400/533MHz bus. In fact, Intel may eventually launch Celeron processors with 667MHz Quad Pumped Bus (probably after the Pentium 4s will get 1066MHz QPB), hence, the Springdale chipsets may live longer than their predecessors.
The Pentium 4 “Prescott” CPUs with 800MHz PSB, 1MB L2 cache, Hyper-Threading II technology and manufactured using 90 nanometer process will be launched in the fourth quarter next year. The Pentium 4 “Tejas” CPUs with 1066MHz QPB and the Tumwater chipset will make their appearance sometimes in the second half of 2004.
Intel is very aggressive nowadays with their new products. I wonder if it is because the situation on the market or because AMD ClawHammer is coming?