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01-11-2005, 07:56 PM
CES 2005 Special Report: Intel and AMD’s Plans Revealed
Written by Gundeep Hora
Monday, 10 January 2005
As everyone knows, Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the largest technology tradeshow in the IT Industry. CES is the place to be for information on next generation of digital products and future IT pipeline. We had the opportunity to visit the show this year and gathered quite a bit of industry insider information directly from companies and outside sources. As majority of you know, Intel and AMD will launch their dual core microprocessors this year, which are expected to establish a new name in performance in multithreaded applications. Both companies were fairly quiet about their plans, since the launch is still far away and the information is too early to discuss openly, but they did offer some insightful information.
Intel, continuing on their 18-month chipset refresh rate, will introduce their Glenwood and Lakeport chipsets for the Smithfield dual core desktop microprocessor in 2005. The chipsets will support SATA II, Matrix RAID and a higher system bus speed for the new Pentium 4 name holder.
As far as Intel’s dual core strategies are concerned, they will most likely bring their dual core additions by the very end of Q2 or Q3 this year, so for those waiting for these next generation chips are better off with a due upgrade. Secondly, if you are hoping for a noticeable performance gain in regular computing tasks are in for a disappointment. Dual core microprocessors are for those who like to do multitasking or work on multithreaded applications. For example, if you are gaming and burning a DVD at the same time, dual core chips will come in handy and will definitely give a smooth computing experience.
AMD, on the other hand, is also working on a similar time frame launch, so you can expect to see the products from both companies around the same time. While Intel is focusing its attention on mobile computing and digital content, AMD’s focus is set on its newly introduced Alchemy chip. AMD’s Athlon 64 sales are soaring and they have experienced profitable quarters in the past year.
There is dreadful news for Socket 754 owners; AMD is going to end the production of Athlon 754’s with its 3700+ microprocessor. You can expect to see 754 chips off the roadmap by the end of this year. For those looking to upgrade to a Socket 939 chip, AMD is expecting to launch their FX57 chip sometime mid-2005. The support for higher clocked Socket 939 chips and FX chips is on a positive outlook and AMD may even launch a FX59 this year. AMD also has no plans to break the 4GHz barrier, but they will most hit the 3GHz this year.
Intel and AMD both aren’t interested in clock speeds anymore and would rather work on architecture enhancements this year, so you can expect to see architectural improvement with little clock speed gains. AMD has always been working to disprove the MHz Myth, but Intel’s stance against clock speeds was quite strong at CES this year.
Intel's specially modded system Strombringer by Hobbes - Gruntville.com
From a thermal and power consumption perspective, Intel is going to focus on their new BTX design. The BTX design will consume less power, hence resulting in lower thermal output microprocessors and a cooler system, overall. AMD is doing fine in that sense and shouldn’t need to worry in the distant future for the problems that Intel is facing with their high-end microprocessors currently.
Intel has plans to heavily promote their BTX design, and they will try to sway away the market from the standard ATX standard, but they are expecting for that to take time. Intel is expecting a five-year time frame for the BTX standard to catch on among Intel users. While the idea is there, the probability of BTX getting immense attention from the community will take some time.
As far as booth presentation is concerned, AMD’s booth was a mere disappointment. They were located in a far corner of one of the busiest halls (which is one step better than worse) and had a few mobile, desktop and workstation systems available with Athlon 64, Athlon 64 Mobile and Opteron chips. They also had a few digital devices with their Alchemy chip. Their booth was one of the few empty booths on the show floor.
Intel, however, had a strong presence at the floor and captured quite a bit of area, along with Microsoft, at the show. AMD’s limited booth presence is understandable, since their primary focus is on microprocessors while Intel is spanned across various markets. Even if you take everything, but microprocessors out of the picture, Intel had an immense crowd gathered at the demo.
We discussed pricing and marketing viewpoints with AMD in a meeting, in which they informed that they will continue to keep their chips at as much lower price points as possible, but there was a twist to that. AMD said one of the reasons they were behind Intel was because of the limited promotion and marketing they do. They were actually saddened by the thought and stated that they were working on this. This brings us to another point; will AMD’s chips be as affordable as they are now after they add their promotion and marketing costs to it? It doesn’t seem that way, but apparently it’s inevitable.
Unlike Intel, AMD has no plans to enter other market segments such as mobile devices like their rival at this point.
In another discussion, we did receive information that Intel will most likely announce future additions of their popular Pentium M chips, at higher clock speeds, this year. AMD will also continue on the streak to provide more mobile Athlon 64 solution to consumers throughout 2005. Both Intel and AMD kept quiet on their mobile solutions.
In summary, you will see dual cores from both companies towards the third quarter of this year, the prices are expected to be above average for dual core processors, the power consumption for dual cores shouldn’t pose a problem; it should be lower than the current Pentium 4 chips from Intel. The performance scaling will be measured by multitasking and multithreaded application usage rather than single-threaded applications. You can expect to not see a huge performance gain, if any, with regular computing tasks. All in all, there is no doubt about AMD’s future plans in this year, keeping their previous track record with the launch of Athlon 64 processors. Intel’s plans seem promising, but we are more than interesting to see what the chip giant has to bring to the market after a poor 2004.
With this, we conclude our CES coverage of Intel and AMD. Please stay tuned for more information on graphics vendors, memory vendors, white box notebooks and much more…
Written by Gundeep Hora
Monday, 10 January 2005
As everyone knows, Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the largest technology tradeshow in the IT Industry. CES is the place to be for information on next generation of digital products and future IT pipeline. We had the opportunity to visit the show this year and gathered quite a bit of industry insider information directly from companies and outside sources. As majority of you know, Intel and AMD will launch their dual core microprocessors this year, which are expected to establish a new name in performance in multithreaded applications. Both companies were fairly quiet about their plans, since the launch is still far away and the information is too early to discuss openly, but they did offer some insightful information.
Intel, continuing on their 18-month chipset refresh rate, will introduce their Glenwood and Lakeport chipsets for the Smithfield dual core desktop microprocessor in 2005. The chipsets will support SATA II, Matrix RAID and a higher system bus speed for the new Pentium 4 name holder.
As far as Intel’s dual core strategies are concerned, they will most likely bring their dual core additions by the very end of Q2 or Q3 this year, so for those waiting for these next generation chips are better off with a due upgrade. Secondly, if you are hoping for a noticeable performance gain in regular computing tasks are in for a disappointment. Dual core microprocessors are for those who like to do multitasking or work on multithreaded applications. For example, if you are gaming and burning a DVD at the same time, dual core chips will come in handy and will definitely give a smooth computing experience.
AMD, on the other hand, is also working on a similar time frame launch, so you can expect to see the products from both companies around the same time. While Intel is focusing its attention on mobile computing and digital content, AMD’s focus is set on its newly introduced Alchemy chip. AMD’s Athlon 64 sales are soaring and they have experienced profitable quarters in the past year.
There is dreadful news for Socket 754 owners; AMD is going to end the production of Athlon 754’s with its 3700+ microprocessor. You can expect to see 754 chips off the roadmap by the end of this year. For those looking to upgrade to a Socket 939 chip, AMD is expecting to launch their FX57 chip sometime mid-2005. The support for higher clocked Socket 939 chips and FX chips is on a positive outlook and AMD may even launch a FX59 this year. AMD also has no plans to break the 4GHz barrier, but they will most hit the 3GHz this year.
Intel and AMD both aren’t interested in clock speeds anymore and would rather work on architecture enhancements this year, so you can expect to see architectural improvement with little clock speed gains. AMD has always been working to disprove the MHz Myth, but Intel’s stance against clock speeds was quite strong at CES this year.
Intel's specially modded system Strombringer by Hobbes - Gruntville.com
From a thermal and power consumption perspective, Intel is going to focus on their new BTX design. The BTX design will consume less power, hence resulting in lower thermal output microprocessors and a cooler system, overall. AMD is doing fine in that sense and shouldn’t need to worry in the distant future for the problems that Intel is facing with their high-end microprocessors currently.
Intel has plans to heavily promote their BTX design, and they will try to sway away the market from the standard ATX standard, but they are expecting for that to take time. Intel is expecting a five-year time frame for the BTX standard to catch on among Intel users. While the idea is there, the probability of BTX getting immense attention from the community will take some time.
As far as booth presentation is concerned, AMD’s booth was a mere disappointment. They were located in a far corner of one of the busiest halls (which is one step better than worse) and had a few mobile, desktop and workstation systems available with Athlon 64, Athlon 64 Mobile and Opteron chips. They also had a few digital devices with their Alchemy chip. Their booth was one of the few empty booths on the show floor.
Intel, however, had a strong presence at the floor and captured quite a bit of area, along with Microsoft, at the show. AMD’s limited booth presence is understandable, since their primary focus is on microprocessors while Intel is spanned across various markets. Even if you take everything, but microprocessors out of the picture, Intel had an immense crowd gathered at the demo.
We discussed pricing and marketing viewpoints with AMD in a meeting, in which they informed that they will continue to keep their chips at as much lower price points as possible, but there was a twist to that. AMD said one of the reasons they were behind Intel was because of the limited promotion and marketing they do. They were actually saddened by the thought and stated that they were working on this. This brings us to another point; will AMD’s chips be as affordable as they are now after they add their promotion and marketing costs to it? It doesn’t seem that way, but apparently it’s inevitable.
Unlike Intel, AMD has no plans to enter other market segments such as mobile devices like their rival at this point.
In another discussion, we did receive information that Intel will most likely announce future additions of their popular Pentium M chips, at higher clock speeds, this year. AMD will also continue on the streak to provide more mobile Athlon 64 solution to consumers throughout 2005. Both Intel and AMD kept quiet on their mobile solutions.
In summary, you will see dual cores from both companies towards the third quarter of this year, the prices are expected to be above average for dual core processors, the power consumption for dual cores shouldn’t pose a problem; it should be lower than the current Pentium 4 chips from Intel. The performance scaling will be measured by multitasking and multithreaded application usage rather than single-threaded applications. You can expect to not see a huge performance gain, if any, with regular computing tasks. All in all, there is no doubt about AMD’s future plans in this year, keeping their previous track record with the launch of Athlon 64 processors. Intel’s plans seem promising, but we are more than interesting to see what the chip giant has to bring to the market after a poor 2004.
With this, we conclude our CES coverage of Intel and AMD. Please stay tuned for more information on graphics vendors, memory vendors, white box notebooks and much more…