<Paul Dilley wrote>
> I see that Intel have done it again. The new Pentium II will only be
> available in a new SEC (Single Edge Contact) card, incompatible with
> all existing motherboards.
>
> The PII will be released in 233 and 266 MHz versions and will
> eventually run at 500MHz.
>
> This is going to cause concern amongst other processor suppliers.
>
> Industry sources predict the existing configuration will dominate
> this year and most of 1998, but that, in the end, the Intel design
> will dominate.
>
> When considered along with the changes I outlined in a
> previous message, it seems the 'standard' PC may be a completely
> different beast this time next year.
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This is not necessarily bad though in my opinion. The Pentium Pro chip
is extremely difficult to manufacture and has a high scrap rate which
has kept the price of the chips up. By making the Pentium II on an SEC
the manufacturing process is much easier and so the prices of these
chips should drop quicker. The P II is roughly a Pentium Pro with MMX
and so this is likely to wipe out the standard Pentium Pro.
As for motherboards, these are already available (from Intel and 3rd
party manufacturers) that will take both the Pentium Pro and the Pentium
II by making use of a daughterboard.
This should not cause concern amongst other processor suppliers since if
they can make something as quick as a Pentium Pro or Pentium II and fit
it into an existing Pentium socket they will have a cheaper upgrade
route than going for a P II and so have an advantage over Intel. At the
moment none of the other chip manufacturers have released anything
matching the Pentium Pro level for PCs and since the Pentium Pro needs a
different motherboard than the Pentium anyway, changing the motherboard
design seems a perfectly reasonable move if costs will fall later.
The standard 98 Windows PC will still be using a Pentium processor, just
a high power one, but the price of these should fall rapidly with the
introduction of the Pentium II.
Heath Boffey
Special Needs Technical Support Officer
Lancaster University
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