More competition predicted for PC processor market

If the PC microprocessor market turned competitive in 1998-99 after nearly a

decade of Intel domination, the 2000 PC processor market will only extend the

level of competitiveness with faster chip coming to the market at an ever faster

pace and entry-level performance jumping to 500 MHz and beyond. This was stated

by Michael Slater, founder and executive editor of the Microprocessor Report

industry newsletter.

Slater keynoted the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, an industry event

sponsored by MicroDesign Resources Having caught up with Advanced Micro Devices

in the low-end of the PC processor market, both companies will soon have to

contend with Taiwan's Via which is planning a Celeron pin-compatible processor.

In anticipation, Intel is reportedly readying a new Celeron chip with a new

cache system based on Intel's high-end Coppermine architecture.

Intel's Timna processor will combine a regular Celeron core with new system

logic, while VIA's "Samuel" Celeron-compatible processor will deliver

a very low-cost Socket 370 solution. AMD too is getting ready to do battle in

the low-end market it helped create by launching a new "Spitfire"

Athlon K7-based chip in the first half of this year. At the high-end, AMD will

continue to play one-upmanship against Intel's Coppermine line of Pentiun III

processors, Slater predicted.

The biggest microprocessor event of the year will be the launch of Intel's

64-bit Itanium (Merced) IA-64 chip, which will offer 1 gigahertz-level

performance with the power consumption of a typical light bulb and a $4,000

price tag. Other microprocessor developments that are expected for 2000 include:

• Intel will add new on-die L2 cache for its Xeon server processor in a new
  
  chip called "Foster." The chips bus bandwidth will increase to
  
  3,200 MB/s.
• AMD's Athlon is likely to beat Foster in the race to break the 1-GHz
  
  clock-speed barrier.
• Compaq's Alpha processor will be the first commercial chip to reach the
  
  1-GHz mark, while IBM's POWER3 chip will reach speeds in the 400- to 500-MHz
  
  range.
• The rapid growth in the router and switch market is prompting the emerging
  
  of a new market of "network processors" (NPUs), which will replace
  
  the general-purpose CPUs and ASICs currently used in most of these devices.
• Another high-growth segment for microprocessors and ASIC logic devices is
  
  a new generation of video and audio products, for digital cameras, cell
  
  phones, MP3 players, electronic toys, and TV set-top boxes. Increasingly,
  
  these will be built also around high-performance CPU specifically designed
  
  for these applications which require low cost, low power consumption and
  
  high performance.
• Key trends in 3D-accelerator chips include faster rendering engines and
  
  faster geometry acceleration, with speeds up to eight times that of the host
  
  CPU. Notable products scheduled for 2000 release include Intel's Solano chip
  
  set and Timna integrated processor, while 3dfx and Nvidia will continue to
  
  battle for supremacy in the 3D space.