Intel cancels plans for faster Pentium chips

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "John F. McMullen" <observer () westnet com>
Date: October 16, 2004 4:00:19 PM GMT+01:00
To: johnmac's living room <johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com>
Cc: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
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.
*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose 
use
has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The
'johnmacsgroup' Internet discussion group is making it available without
profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding 
of
literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes 
a
'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of
the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for
purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain 
permission
from the copyright owner.

For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml


   "When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra
   "Always make new mistakes" -- Esther Dyson
   "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from 
magic"
    -- Arthur C. Clarke
    "You Gotta Believe" - Frank "Tug" McGraw (1944 - 2004 RIP)

                          John F. McMullen
   johnmac () acm org johnmac () computer org johnmac () m-net arbornet org
                  johnmac () tmail com johnmac () echonyc com
           jmcmullen () monroecollege edu johnmac () alumni iona edu
              ICQ: 4368412 Skype, AIM & Yahoo Messenger: johnmac13
                  http://www.westnet.com/~observer

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/