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CPUs - a Roadmap for 2000
Cyrix
Cyrix may be down, but it's most definitely not out of the game. In the wake of its acquisition by VIA, after several money-losing quarters in the hands of National Semiconductor, the company continued work on the processor we first reported on in our Q4'98 CPU report and, in the company's demonstrations at Comdex Fall '99, the efforts looked like they were about to bear fruit. But, after a lengthy period of silence, June 2000 rolled around and at Computex 2000 in Taipei, Taiwan, the company introduced a Cyrix III based on an entirely different chip architecture. What happened?
Thanks to some National Semiconductor patent cross-licensing, the company's plan for 1999 was to produce a Socket370 chip that would be pin-compatible with the Intel Celeron, but with several enhancements: full-speed 256K L2 cache, support for a 133MHz FSB (!), 3DNow support, and -- here's a change from previous Cyrix models -- a high-performance FPU. Code-named Joshua, the new chip was to hit the market in late Feb., 2000, starting at speeds of 466MHz. And, best of all, according to reports from the period, the new processor was not expected to include a multiplier lock, potentially making it the most overclockable chip on the market.
Unfortunately, there were a few snags -- most significantly, the departure of several key members of the Joshua team crippled the project beyond recovery. Thus, the Cyrix III chip that was finally announced on June 6th, 2000 at the Computex 2000 trade show in Taipei, Taiwan is not based on the Joshua core, but is apparently based on technology the company acquired back in August '99 when it bought IDT's processor design subsidiary, best known as the developers of the IDT WinChip. VIA, it seems, felt that the Cyrix brand name was more recognizable than Centaur, and thus the new chip, code-named "Samuel," became a stand-in for the long-promised Joshua.
Let's take a look at what the "new" Cyrix III chip offers.
The "new" Cyrix III, based upon a .18 micron process, with 128 L1 Cache, 3DNow! support, 100/133 MHz front side bus, and an initial speed range of 533-667 MHz. The Cyrix III will feature no L2 cache at the present time. As well, Cyrix has decided to toss out its misleading "PR rating system" (a method of calculating performance ratings supposedly equivalent to Intel chips) for the new chip. VIAHardware.com has details, as does TomsHardware.com.
The chip is destined to be an also-ran in light of the debut of AMD's vastly more powerful Duron chip, officially released one day earlier and just $20 more expensive at comparable clock speeds. Even compared to the Intel Celeron, with a lowly 66 MHz bus, the Cyrix III, says Tom's Hardware, would have to operate at around 733 MHz just to equal the performance of a 500 MHz Celeron. But, price-points have a way of making up for lacklustre performance for some market segments. Our verdict: not recommended.
Intel
Intel on Jan. 4 released a 533 MHz version of the Celeron processor, rising to meet yet another challenge by AMD, which in Dec. began offering a 533 MHz version of its value-priced K6-II chip. Intel isn't saying much about the possibility that Celerons could jump to 100 MHz bus speeds in Q2, but a News.com article speculates that it probably will. Intel reportedly plans to boost Celeron to at least 633 MHz by the end of the year and release a low-cost version with an integrated graphics chip and memory controller, code-named "Timna," at 600 MHz in Q3.
Meanwhile, versions of the "Flip-chip Pin Grid Array" (FC-PGA) "Coppermine" Pentium III 500E and 550E are appearing in the marketplace, along with adapters from third party companies that allow these new CPUs to be used in some Slot 1 motherboards. The Coppermine PIIIs require a lower voltage (and a faster Front Side Bus) than is supplied by most Slot 1 motherboards and thus require a new mainboard design, such as Intel's i820-based VC820 or CC820, or one of these "Slotket" adapters.
EETimes, on Jan. 17th, reported that Intel and five other memory vendors were collaborating on a new, as-yet unspecified, DRAM specification to possibly take the place of the much-maligned RAMbus Memory -- a form of memory as much reviled for its latency issues as it is for its price -- it is currently about five times as expensive as standard PC100 SDRAM.
Then, on Jan. 18, the company launched a new Pentium III for portable computers with energy-saving "SpeedStep" technology. The chip was previously code-named "Geyserville."
AMD
As expected, AMD on Jan. 6, 2000, released an 800 MHz Athlon. Several leading OEMs, including Compaq and IBM, announced availability of computers based on 800MHz AMD Athlon™ processor. As noted in our AMD Athlon report, the company followed that up in Feb., 2000, by releasing an 850 MHz version and showing a sample of a unit running at a staggering 1.1 gigahertz.
To support the growing interest in the Athlon, a number of motherboard manufacturers have produced or announced Athlon-compatible motherboards, amid early reports of compatibility issues with some AGP graphics cards. To address these issues, nVIDIA released a special Athlon-compatible driver for graphics cards based on its GeForce 256 chip -- a driver that does little more than disable AGP2x. These issues sound suspiciously like the problems we saw in the last generation of AMD-compatible "Super 7" motherboards.
In the value segment, AMD is planning to release a new chip called the K6-2+. This will be a higher speed version of the K6-2 with an integrated secondary cache. Later in the year, look for AMD to release a budget version of Athlon, code-named "Spitfire."
In Sept. 2000, sources close to AMD say the K6-2 is officially dead. The company will reportedly cease accepting orders for it on October 1st, and will cease all shipments by October 22nd.
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