[IP] Intel cancels plans for faster Pentium chips
Begin forwarded message:
From: "John F. McMullen" <observer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 16, 2004 4:00:19 PM GMT+01:00
To: johnmac's living room <johnmacsgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Dave Farber <farber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Intel cancels plans for faster Pentium chips
From the Financial Times --
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d8e790b4-1e15-11d9-82ec-00000e2511c8.html
Intel cancels plans for faster Pentium chips
By Simon London
Intel has abandoned plans for further big increases in the speed of its
Pentium microprocessors, signalling the end of a 30-year technology
strategy for improving computer performance.
The world's largest semiconductor company told cutomers that it no
longer plans to introduce a Pentium chip with a clock speed of 4
gigahertz.
The processor, designed for use in high-performance desktop personal
computers, was first due to have been release by the end of this year.
In August, Intel told customers it would be delayed until early 2005.
The fastest Pentium now on the market runs at 3.6 Ghz.
Intel's technology strategy has been very consistent over the years:
squeeze more transistors on a chip and dial up the clock speed. Now the
second part of that is changing, said Rob Rutenbar, professor of
electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
The move will poses marketing challenges for both Intel and the
personal computer manufacturers who are its largest customers. The
industry has for years used clock speed as a proxy for PC performance.
The clock speed of a processor is the fequency at which it carries out
instructions. By doubling clock speed roughly every two years, Intel
has been able to deliver substantial increases in computer performance.
The first microprocessor, Intel's 4004, which was introduced in 1971,
could execute 60,000 instructions per second.
However, clock speeds are now so fast that electrical signals no longer
have time to traverse the processor in a single cycle. A 3Ghz processor
carries out three billion instructions a second.
At such high speeds data cannot be retrieved from computer memory fast
enough to satisfy the demands of the processor, leading to 'wasted'
cycles.
The heat generated by very fast processors has also become difficult to
manage. Heat is generated every time transistors, the basic building
blocks of integrated circuits, are turned from 'on' to 'off'.
The business as we know it is changing, said Risto Puhakka, vice
president at VSLI Research, a semiconductor industry research company.
Intel said that it plans to increase the performance of future Pentium
chips by using larger on-chip memories and, from next year, new 'dual
core' designs that contain two slower processors on a single chip.
Engineers working on faster Pentium products would be redeployed. No
job losses are expected as a result of the move.
Intel is not alone in moving its technology strategy to concentrate on
slower, dual core designs. Advanced Micro Devices, the company's main
rival in the market for PC microprocessors, last months demonstrated a
dual core version of its Opteron processor.
Sun Microsystems, which makes processors for servers, plans in 2006 to
release chips with up to 8 cores on a single chips.
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2004.
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