Intel Developer Forum: New Pentium 4s, More 64-Bit Details, Faster Bus Speeds

Intel

Open standards will continue to be a focus for the microprocessor maker as it tries to engineer a smooth transition to Gigabit bus speeds and encourage the industry to rally around wireless networking.

Servers

Intel delivered its first Pentium 4 processors for the server market at the show. The Xeon chips run at 1.8GHz to 2.2GHz and support a 400MHz system bus, 215 Kbytes of cache, DDR memory and increased I/O bandwidth. Unisys, IBM and others were demonstrating Xeon-based servers at the show.

Intel executives said the 64-bit McKinley CPU plans to ship this summer, and IBM demonstrated an e-commerce site running on a four- to 16-way server for its DB2 database.

McKinley predecessors, a 64-bit Madison chip that will support up to 6 Mbytes of memory and a dual-processor Deerfield version, is slated to ship in 2003, Intel said. In 2004, Intel plans to deliver a redesigned 0.09-micron 64-bit processor code-named Montecito. This CPU is expected to include Intel's Hyper-Threading technology, which helps the CPU route and process instructions more efficiently.

Read more details about the Xeon server announcements here.

Read more about Intel's next-generation 64-bit processors here.

Desktops

Intel plans to significantly enhance the power to desktop PCs over the next several years. At the show, company executives unveiled new Pentium 4 CPUs, code-named Prescott, that the company said will run at up to 4GHz and ship by 2003. At the same time, executives said they will continue to evolve the client form factors, in the short term shrinking the case and improving cooling technologies. Connectivity will be a standard feature, and Intel promised to bring up to 10Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop within the next few years, as well as continue to evolve wireless networking technologies for desktop users.

Read more about Intel's desktop plans here.

Mobile

Intel is expected to reveal next week its first Pentium 4 processors for the mobile market. The company said it is on track to ship in the first half of 2003 a new CPU, code-named Banias, which was designed from the ground up for mobile systems. Power management will be a key driver for systems using either CPU, as lighter systems and better wireless technology enable notebooks to be used more effectively outside the office.

In particular, Intel is working to push 802.11 open standards for security, billing and roaming, aiming to allow users to seamlessly roam between different networks and different network technologies. Intel said it is developing integrated 802.11 wireless into future chipset products and also is working on a combination wired/wireless networking products for notebooks.

Read more about Intel's notebook plans here, and check out CRN Online for additional information on Monday.

Bus Technologies

At the show, Intel said a specification for the next-generation 3GIO standard is currently in the review process. 3GIO is expected to supercede PCI over time, providing speeds of 2.5 Gbits per second. PCI-X currently taps out at 1 Gbps. Intel is looking for 3GIO to be a standard feature as processor speeds reach more than 10GHz and Gigabit Ethernet products become the norm on the desktop. Intel said it will deliver products that support 3GIO by the second half of the year.

3GIO isn't expected to replace InfiniBand, a standard best-suited for shared I/O devices in a multiple server environment, or Serial ATA, a faster connection for storage devices, Intel said. At the show, the Serial ATA working Group said it is working on a second revision of the specification to support networked storage and to improve connection speeds.