Intel

After Intel pushed its future-generation desktop Tejas chips at a later date last week, this was only a question of time when it transpired that DP server Xeon processors with “Jayhawk” core are also postponed till Q2 2005. On the 15th of February Intel will add new Xeon 1M SKUs into its lineup of processors for dual-processor servers – Xeon 2M 3.20GHz, Xeon 1M 2.80GHz and Xeon 1M 2.40GHz. Those chips will be intended for 533MHz processor system bus and will be based on 0.13 micron cores.

WHEN INTEL INTROS Pentium 4 Prescotts and a 3.40MHz Extreme Edition chip in early February, it will herald better hyperthreading, SSE software support and architectural changes to convince the world+dog to shift.
That's emerged from briefings it's given selected journalists prepared to keep their mouths shut here in Las Vegas over the last two days.

As we've already reported, the P4Es, which have 1MB of on die cache and are prepared on a shrunk 90 nanometer process, will come at speeds of 3.40GHz, 3.20GHz, 3GHz and 2.80GHz, displacing the current range of chips.

The worlds No.1 chipmaker this week reportedly confirmed existence of its own 64-bit x86 microprocessor, but then denied the reality of any Intel’s x86-64 CPU, when asked for clarification. Investor’s Business Daily on Wednesday published an article quoting Intel public relations’ officers saying that the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker has a working prototype of a 64-bit x86 design that it could bring to market “when customers request it.”

Moore's Law, as chip manufacturers generally refer to it today, is coming to an end, according to a recent research paper.

Granted, that end likely won't come for about two decades, but Intel researchers have recently published a paper theorizing that chipmakers will hit a wall when it comes to shrinking the size of transistors, one of the chief methods for making chips that are smaller, more powerful and cheaper than their predecessors.

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.

'Dothan', Intel's 90nm update of its Pentium M processor, will officially launch on 4 February, according to moles from within the Taiwanese notebook industry - the source of almost all of the world's branded and un-branded mobile computers.

And in addition to the anticipated 1.8GHz model, Intel will offer 1.6GHz and 1.7GHz part, according to a report at DigiTimes.

'Sonoma', the second generation of Intel's Centrino platform, may now appear later than anticipated, according to the latest roadmap information to leak onto the web.

Announced in September at Intel Developer Forum, Sonoma comprises a second-generation Wi-Fi adaptor, Calexico 2; the 'Alviso' chipset; and 'Dothan', the 90nm, 2MB L2 version of the Pentium M. Intel said the platform will debut in the second half of 2004.

The authorities are positive: the ITU will, this week, plump for the Motorola-endorsed ultra-wide band (UWB) technology. Meanwhile, the IEEE, which is also examining this direct-sequence CDMA UWB proposal in the IEEE 802.15.3a study group, is said to favour the Intel-sponsored MultiBand OFDM Alliance (MBOA) with Texas Instruments. Is it Europe vs America, yet again?

The race for control of UWB is, effectively, the bid to take over from Bluetooth. Both Bluetooth (already working) and UWB (still laboratory-based) do personal area networks.

DELL APPEARS to be charging through the nose for the Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition – or it will be when it starts shipping the boxes that use it.
A reader notices that if you use the Dell online site to configure two PCs identically, one with a 3.20GHz Pentium 4 and the other with a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 EE, the one with the newer chip costs a staggering $1,400 more.

Intel's list price for the Pentium 4EE is around $920 when you buy 1000 of them, but we suspect that Dell gets a considerable discount seeing as it's Chipzilla's biggest distributor.

THE 2.8GHz CELERON processor that we predicted would be on sale is now on sale in Japan, according to Akiba PC Watch.
We reported on details of new Celeron introductions in this story.

An English-language translation of the Akiba page, which you can find here, describes the 2.8GHz Celeron as the up-to-date model oven.

We're not sure about the oven bit.

Intel is ramping up these Celerons which must still soak up a fair bit of business