Intel On the Offensive: Roadmap Details and Analysis
by Kristopher Kubicki & Jarred Walton on June 14, 2005 4:33 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Also mentioned in the roadmap were speed and feature revisions on the Celeron lineup. Aside from the extra speed boost, the new Celeron chips will also receive EM64T support.
The Celeron D 351/350 will launch this month at $127 with price cuts on all Celeron and Pentium chips almost exactly a month after. Unfortunately, our crystal ball doesn't go past Celeron 3.33GHz. We would expect to see a Cedar Mill revision of Celeron, perhaps with 512KB L2 cache. The roadmaps very specifically do not show any new value processors based on 65nm at least through Q2'06. The roadmap does hint at speed bumps in Q2'06, but the exact reason why there are no 65nm value processors seems quite vague.
Just before Broadwater, we will see the launch of 945GZ. G45GZ seems almost like a step back, with identical features to 915G including 800FSB and DDR2-533. However, the chipset will get an update on the integrated graphics to GMA950 and an updated Southbridge to ICH7. Oddly enough, Intel also claims that this will be a mainstream chipset, even though the FSB and DDR clocks are lower than existing 945P products. If anything, this might be just another indicator that Intel's push for 1066FSB wasn't really the solution that they had intended.
Intel has also decided to rework their motherboard SKUs and this should be evident already on the retail market. Each new Intel branded motherboard based on 945 or higher will receive one of several tags listed below:
Intel Single Core Value Desktop Lineup LGA775 |
||||
Processor |
Speed |
L2 Cache |
FSB |
Launch |
Celeron D 355 |
3.33GHz |
256KB |
533MHz |
Q4'05 |
Celeron D 351 |
3.20GHz |
256KB |
533MHz |
Soon |
Celeron D 346 |
3.06GHz |
256KB |
533MHz |
Soon |
Celeron D 341 |
2.93GHz |
256KB |
533MHz |
Soon |
Celeron D 336 |
2.80GHz |
256KB |
533MHz |
Soon |
Celeron D 331 |
2.66GHz |
256KB |
533MHz |
Soon |
Celeron D 326 |
2.53GHz |
256KB |
533MHz |
Soon |
The Celeron D 351/350 will launch this month at $127 with price cuts on all Celeron and Pentium chips almost exactly a month after. Unfortunately, our crystal ball doesn't go past Celeron 3.33GHz. We would expect to see a Cedar Mill revision of Celeron, perhaps with 512KB L2 cache. The roadmaps very specifically do not show any new value processors based on 65nm at least through Q2'06. The roadmap does hint at speed bumps in Q2'06, but the exact reason why there are no 65nm value processors seems quite vague.
Desktop Chipsets
The roadmap also starts to talk about Intel's Broadwater chipset. Broadwater sounds exciting because it replaces all chipsets for Intel - from 955X all the way down. Our guess is that Broadwater will act more like nForce; different revisions will fill differing demands. Where Intel always used to speak of two differing chipsets (like Canterwood/Springdale, Alderwood/Grantsdale, Glenwood/Lakeport), even if they were nearly identical, the fact that Intel talks about a single chipset family unifying all of their desktop platforms indicates that things won't be exactly business as usual come Q2'06 during the next chipset launch. Aside from the general updates (ICH8 and next generation iAMT), the roadmaps revealed almost nothing about Broadwater.Just before Broadwater, we will see the launch of 945GZ. G45GZ seems almost like a step back, with identical features to 915G including 800FSB and DDR2-533. However, the chipset will get an update on the integrated graphics to GMA950 and an updated Southbridge to ICH7. Oddly enough, Intel also claims that this will be a mainstream chipset, even though the FSB and DDR clocks are lower than existing 945P products. If anything, this might be just another indicator that Intel's push for 1066FSB wasn't really the solution that they had intended.
Intel has also decided to rework their motherboard SKUs and this should be evident already on the retail market. Each new Intel branded motherboard based on 945 or higher will receive one of several tags listed below:
- X - Extreme Series
- M - Media Series
- E - Executive Series
- C - Classic Series
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segagenesis - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - link
Although it still sounds vague in explanation, if VT tech lets you run two *different* operating systems at the *same time*, similar to using VMWare in full screen mode... that would be pretty nice.The savings of having to buy extra hardware (or VMWare itself) for another OS without dual booting would help those on a budget.
Shintai - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - link
#42A geforce 6600GT runs at 500Mhz GPU..a 7800GTX runs at 430Mhz..does the 7800GTX suck compared to the 6600GT?
Sometimes you just don´t need huge CPU power, but you need low powerusage for either batterytime and/or how compact you can make it.
The 1.06Ghz Yonah most likely uses a few watts only. And with few we are talking a low single digit number. Or the same as having 30 1.06Ghz for 1 2.4Ghz AMDx2. Or having 45 1.06Ghz instead of 1 3.2Ghz P4D.
Araemo - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - link
"All of the Cedar Mill cores clearly have VT support (as do the Prescott 2M cores), so why Intel would want to deactivate it in one model is anyone's guess."Binning!
Intel is expecting noticeable issues getting high yields out of the VT portions of the silicon, or at least are expecting a noticeable failure rate(30% or so higher than the average failure rate for the rest of the chip?), so they are planning something to do with all the chips that fail VT qualification, but pass everything else.
(At least, that's my guess.)
sgtroyer - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - link
your wording in paragraph 4 is a little wierd:"Presler will in fact be nothing but two Cedar Mill cores sharing the same core, just as Smithfield is only two Prescotts sharing the same core."
Wouldn't it make more sense to say Presler is two Cedar Mill cores sharing the same *die* or sharing the same package? Two cores sharing the same core doesn't make any sense.
Viditor - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - link
Eug - "But it doesn't HAVE to be 2006. If it's out by 2007 for laptops that's fine"Fair enough...but remember that the important factor here is the PERCEPTION of release.
By that I mean that the imminent release of 64 bit apps would be a big deterrent (IMHO) to anyone thinking of buying a Yonah based laptop next year. If true, then Yonah would be the only chip unable to run the apps. Software in 2006 will most likely be both 32 and 64 bit...but if people believe that any of the apps they use will be released in 2007 as a 64 bit only, then they have to accept that their new laptop will only have a 1 year lifespan (something that businesses would probably avoid, and they buy the most laptops).
This is especially true as AMD should have a very competitive product (both in power and low power usage) that is already 64 bit and will probably cost a few dollars less...
blwest - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - link
Ok. 1.06ghz... that was soooo 5 years ago.Eug - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - link
I disagree. 64-bit on laptops can be important, if only because it allows you to do 64-bit development and testing on a laptop.But it doesn't HAVE to be 2006. If it's out by 2007 for laptops that's fine. By that time both Windows Longhorn and OS X 10.5 Leopard should be out, perfect timing for Merom.
mino - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - link
Viditor:I wasn't completely sure(maybe next Yamhill:).
That's it. For now 64bits on mobile doesn't make sense(except *nix). Howerever in '06 it's gone be pretty much a mainstream feature on desktop(not to mention server).
Also in the big picture this makes sense since it will put SOME(just on niche markets) pressure on AMD with minimal resources amd will also limit P-M into low-power space so it will not interferewith next-ge chips.
But here come BIG BUT! it seams that only single possible serious contender in performance race from intel camp is out of the game!
So it seems AMD has free ground to play for another at least 1.5yrs ! (That makes it 3.5 in total!!!). Anyway i like smart moves by AMD this is NOT gona be GOOD FOR US. (customers)
little sorry for my screams, not slept for too long ;)
Viditor - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - link
mino - no, Yonah will not be 64bit (as Shintai explained)...but I disagree that it will not be important. For software in 2006, it won't be important but for software in 2007 it will be (IMHO).There you have 2 differing OPINIONS...we shall see! :-)
Shintai - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - link
#37No..and it´s not really important. Meron(mobile) and Conroe(desktop/server) will be 64bit and with characteristics of pentium M. They are an 8th genration core tho. And not based on the 6th(p-M) or 7th(p4)