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Alpha 21264 and AMD K7,
Platform of the Future?
By Brian Neal This month, October, is the month when semiconductor companies will disclose a great deal of information and release new products. Machines using the new 21264 Alpha are scheduled to be introduced this month, with actual Slot A based Alphas shipping in November. In addition to this, AMD will be releasing a great deal of information on their upcoming microprocessors. Slot A, a new open standard socket, will be used by the 21264 Alpha, as well as AMD's next generation CPU, the K7. The K7 chipset will be supported on Slot A, making the two microprocessors interchangeable on the same motherboard. How Does the 21264 Perform? The 21264 is a major improvement over the current 21164. The next-generation Alpha CPU is roughly twice as fast as current DEC Alpha chips. SPECint95 performance is estimated to be around 40.0, while floating point performance is estimated to be around 60. In actual testing, the 575 MHz 21264 receives a SPECint95 rating of 30.1 and a SPECfp95 rating of 44.8. For comparison, a 296 MHz UltraSPARC II obtains a SPECint95 score of 13.2 and a SPECfp95 score of 18.4. The Intel Xeon is further below on the scale, with the 400 MHz version receiving a SPECint95 score of 16.3 and a value of 13.2 for floating point performance. It is obvious from these benchmarks that both Sun and Digital value floating point performance much more than Intel. Indeed, both the Alpha and the UltraSPARC are largely used in higher CPU-intensive, 3D rendering environments. In accordance with their high performance, these microprocessors are also priced according to the markets they sell in, but AMD and Alpha Processor have something different in mind with Slot A. In order to survive against the threat of Slot 1 and an increasingly Intel-based market, AMD and Alpha Processor are sharing the same bus architecture, thus expanding their user base and opening up new opportunities for both companies. For AMD, the K7 combined with Slot A will finally give them a high end product that will perform as well as, if not better than, Intel's offerings. Additionally, with the two chips being able to run on the same board, the Alpha may see more use on the desktop, as well. Pricing While AMD has been pricing it's products signifigantly below Intel's microprocessors, this will change with the introduction of the K7. It is my suspicion that AMD will assume a multi-tiered pricing system, similar to what Intel has now. The K6-2+, a K6-2 the various architectural enhancements of the K6-3 (but no L2), will be at the low end, roughly competing with the Celeron A. The K6-3 will be a midrange processor, going head to head with the Pentium II (Katmai). The K7 will be a high-end offering, priced well below Xeon, but about the same as Coppermine. With AMD's advertising campaign getting into gear and the recent successes of the K6 and K6-2, AMD is hoping to have enough mindshare by the time the K6-3 arrives to be able to begin pricing their upper level products closer to Intel, thus attaining profitability. The Socket 7 platform will be far from gone by the time the K7 arrives, as it will still be used as the platform for AMD's mid to low-range offerings. As Atiq Raza (CTO of AMD) stated in MaxPC, "It looks like Socket 7 will now last until 2000." The first K7 processors on the market may get their start in mid-range workstations, bought by individuals or companies looking for an easy upgrade path to the 21264. The use of a respected, high-performance microprocessor in Slot A will legitimize the architecture in customers' minds. In addition, a few other companies (IDT will probably be one) will most likely adopt Slot A as well. So, at least three different products will be running off of Slot A, which should be enough to make it viable for computer manufacturers. Slot A motherboards will have to be priced competitively with Intel in order to get computer manufacturers to use them, however, and this may be a problem if Alpha Processor wants fatter margins. Slot A should be accepted relatively easily, especially considering the current fragmentation in CPU/bus interfaces that exists among semiconductor manufacturers. Intel alone has three (P-MMX included), with a fourth (Socket 370) to arrive shortly. As time passes, there will be a consolidation around the two base architectures, Slot 1 and Slot A. Slot A will, in fact, have a number of marketing advantages over Intel's various interfaces. Slot A will drive several CPUs of varying strengths, where Intel will have different CPUs on different motherboards (Slot 2 for Xeon, Slot 1 for P2/Katmai, Socket 370 for socketed Celeron). Intel is talking to companies about licensing their P6 bus, increasing support for their architectures by adding new 3rd party manufacturers like Rise (and others later on). Still, Intel will remain the only maker of Slot 1 CPUs for at least the next couple of quarters. Where does all this leave Socket 7? In the dust...but it will be phased out slowly over the next year or two. Remember, AMD needs Socket 7, as it is AMD's only platform for the moment and it will remain AMD's primary platform for some time after the release of the K7. Both AMD and IDT will be selling microprocessors for Socket 7 next year, and the first x86-compatible processor to use Slot A (AMD K7) is not expected until the middle of '99. Until then, the 21264 will be the only real product shipping on the Slot A platform. The K6-3 will become AMD's mainstay processor until the K7 becomes available, it will appear in midrange systems competing with Pentium II and Katmai-based machines. The K6-2 will still be around in the form of the K6-2+, which will go up against the low-cost Celeron A systems. So, through at least the middle of next year, AMD will have two offerings running on Socket 7, after the release of the K7, the K6-2+ will probably be relegated to Notebooks. Despite my initial skepticism, Slot A is shaping up to be what looks like a robust and well supported platform for multiple microprocessor makers. We'll get to see our first glimpse of Slot A, along with a great deal of information on the K7, later on this month at the microprocessor forum. After that, in November, we'll see the first 21264-based machines shipping, using the first Slot A motherboards. It's going to be an interesting month! |