Newsgroup: it.comp.hardware
Titolo: AMD Vs. INTEL

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The Intel Pentium II ('Klamath') CPU, Intel's Policy and the
Competitor AMD with Its K6
The word is out now and although Intel doesn't like it, it's just a
fact that the upcoming Pentium II CPU, formerly known as 'Klamath', is
not living up to the expectations at all. This new processor is meant
to be the successor of the Pentium Pro, but it's hardly any faster.
Even compared to the recently released Pentium MMX it is not able to
impress any of us performance freaks.
'Now what is the reason for releasing a product with this poor
performance improvement ?', I hear lots of you ask. Well, I'm still
wondering about the same question and I will try to tell you my very
own opinion.
The most important change the Pentium II will confront us with is a
new connection to the motherboard. Since the days of the 386 there
used to be specially designed CPU sockets on the motherboard, where
these square or rectangular little black chips in 'pin grid array'
design used to fit in. A short time after the 486 was released, the
motherboards started being equipped with so called 'Zero Insertion
Force' or short ZIF sockets, which made it pretty easy to change the
CPU. The Pentium as well as the Pentium Pro CPUs also plug in these
ZIF sockets and hence there is no problem to change one CPU type of
the same socket specification for another. After the P54C was
released, first the Socket 5 and a little while later the Socket 7
specification was used for Pentium CPUs. This socket was not licensed
by Intel and hence AMD and Cyrix just had to apply to the Socket 7
specification and you could swap an Intel Pentium CPU against an AMD
or Cyrix one. The Socket 8 specification for the Pentium Pro should be
the first one licensed by Intel, so that Intel's competitors couldn't
just built chips to fit in this socket as well. However, although
Intel doesn't want to believe this, the Socket 7 is still very popular
and will probably stay as popular as well.
Before I will talk more about the bright future of the Socket 7, I
would like to mention the latest idea of Intel. The upcoming Pentium
II will for the first time NOT fit in a normal PGA CPU socket. Intel
had a different idea this time and on the first look it seems very
convenient to us users. The new idea is called 'Slot One' and is
looking a little bit like an EISA slot. In this slot you can plug in
the Pentium II, and if Intel's promises should be true, the next CPU
type, the 'Deschutes', will fit into this socket as well.
Now since Intel obviously saw a need for a new CPU connection to the
motherboard, we are certainly allowed to ask what great new features
this new 'Slot One' is coming along with and especially what the
benefits are over the old Socket technique. Well, as far as the
Pentium II is concerned, there is no change whatsoever compared to the
Socket 8 of the Pentium Pro. The Pentium II will also not run at a
faster bus speed than 66 MHz and it doesn't have any other new
performance or reliability enhancing features either. 'What's the beef
with this socket then ?', we ask and why couldn't the Pentium II come
with an adapter for Socket 8 ?? After all this would have helped all
users with a Pentium Pro carrying board, to just swap the Pentium Pro
for a Pentium II CPU, in case anybody would be crazy enough to do
this. Well, I've been racking my brains, but I could find only one
explanation and justification for the 'Slot One' at this stage. In
short it's just called "MAKING $$$$"!!! The Slot One is licensed by
Intel and is meant to be the connection for the next future Intel
CPUs. AGP (advanced graphics port) is at the horizon and some other
performance enhancements as well, and Intel wants to combine all these
with one simple word - SLOT ONE. If other companies shouldn't fight
against this, Intel will be able to push all the others from the
market, because even though the Pentium II is no big improvement at
all, everyone who wants AGP and high bus speeds will have to go for a
board with Slot One and if you've once got one, you won't be able to
use AMD or Cyrix CPUs in this board anymore.
Here a little list, how Intel is trying to push us towards the Pentium
II and Slot One:
· 
Intel is not planning to produce any Pentium or Pentium MMX CPUs at
higher clock speed than 233 MHz, because it wants us to pull out of
the Pentium systems.
· 
Intel is not planning to release any new chipset for Pentium CPUs
after the 430TX chipset anymore. The 430TX chipset only supports 64 MB
cacheable RAM and doesn't support ECC or even AGP. Anyone who wants a
high performance system with these features will have to move to the
Pentium II
· 
Intel doesn't seem to plan any higher clock speeds for Pentium Pro
CPUs. Hence this CPU will become a performance dead end street.
However it is rumored very strongly, that Intel will release a Pentium
Pro Overdrive with MMX. The question is at which clock speed. Intel
will also shortly release Pentium Pro CPUs with 1 MB L2 cache, which
is very interesting for server system, but fairly neglectable for the
average user, especially since it'll cost more than 2000 bucks.
Now what is standing against this threat and why is the future of the
Socket 7 brighter than you may think?
AMD's K6 will be a screamer CPU. This CPU - believe it or not - will
still fit into a Socket 7!!! The performance of the K6 is higher than
the performance of the Pentium II (Klamath) at the same clock speed.
Although it was first said that AMD will in the beginning only release
the 166 and 200 MHz version, I know now that the 233 MHz version is
already around and it's performing extremely well. At AMD is gold rush
atmosphere and this is another reason why Intel doesn't feel very well
at all. On April 3, 1997 the AMD K6 will be released and there will
already be a 233 MHz version available.
Now this is only one half of the success story of the Socket 7. The
second half will be officially announced at the CeBIT here in
Hannover, Germany. AMD will announce an addition to the Socket 7
specification to up to 100 MHz bus speed !!! Now isn't this cool
news?? This is the proof that there is no necessity for a new Slot One
at all! The good old Socket 7 has anyway been proving to work just
great at 83 MHz bus speed and if you have read my Pentium II review,
you'll know that the fastest Windows 95 CPU currently is a Pentium MMX
at 250/83 MHz. Now AMD has seen the signs of the time and will go
ahead and push the Socket 7 to even 100 MHz bus speed!!
Now AMD is also planning to release an own K5/K6/Pentium chipset,
which will run up to 100 MHz bus speed. This could be the biggest
crack of Intel's monopoly! If we start buying K6 CPUs and Socket 7
boards, if AMD will supply the CPUs and the chipset, maybe even
including AGP or even an own AMD version for fast graphics support,
then Intel will go mental. That's why AMD is in the best mood ever.
They could for the first time have the power to hit Intel really hard.
And Intel knows this. That's why they don't like ruthless reviews of
their Pentium II such as mine.
The Original Pentium II Review is on a GERMAN server now.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Paolo Lombardi      E-Mail: 
plom...@racine.ra.it
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    //\   Fan #(?+1) Saint Seiya ,Descent e la Cioccolata
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------------------------------------[Un-Fixed Pitch Font Version]----

fact that the upcoming Pentium II CPU, formerly known as 'Klamath', is
Interessante ma scontato, chi poteva aver dubbi sull'utilita' di
cambiare MB all'uscita di ogni nuova CPU??? 
Basta chiedersi : a chi giova tutto cio'??? sicuramente non agli
utenti.
ciao
Stefano Martini
Email: 
st.ma...@agora.stm.it