There has always been competition in the world of microprocessors, but until recently there’s been little in the way of innovation or choice.
Ever since IBM decided to use Intel Corp.’s 8088 processor in its first PC back in 1981, the Santa Clara, Calif., chip company has been able to define how a processor running Microsoft Corp.’s DOS and later the Windows operating system was designed, what it would do, and to a large extent what it would cost.
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At best the choice users had in the 1980s was whether they wanted to get the latest Intel innovations as soon as possible, or wait a few months and pay slightly less to get the same processor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. or NEC Corp.
No more.
Chip manufacturers once focused almost exclusively on offering chips designed to mimic the function of Intel’s processors as exactly as possible are now looking for ways to do things a little differently, offering users options that aren’t available from Intel.
While the ability to run Windows applications remains the common denominator, manufacturers of Intel-compatible processors are increasingly offering a number of different designs that improve performance or lower the price of personal computers targeted at very specific market segments.
For consumers, the results have been immediate and gratifying. Computer companies that once rarely strayed from a pricing range of $1,500 to $3,000 are now scrambling to offer PC buyers compelling systems at $500 to $1,000.
“There have always been systems priced below $1,000,” said Michael Feibus, founder of the market analysis firm Mercury Research in Scottsdale, Ariz. “The difference now is that these are fully functional PCs.”
But the very choice that benefits people’s pocketbooks has made the traditional lament of “so what should I buy?” even more poignant.
Every chip still supports a common set of software–most significantly Microsoft’s Windows family of operating systems, including the multimedia extensions known collectively as DirectX–and built-in instructions such as Intel’s multimedia extensions, known as MMX.
Right now, that means users can buy any of these chips and be able to run typical consumer software on the market at least adequately.
The same factors that applied two years ago–How much performance do I want right now? How adaptable do I want the computer to be? How much am I willing to pay?–still apply.
What’s more, just determining the performance of these various chips is becoming more difficult.
Instead of the traditional clock speed that most chip manufacturers cite, Cyrix Corp. employs a “power rating” for its M2 processor. An M2-300, for example, promises to match the performance of a 300 megahertz, or MHz, Pentium processor, but actually runs at 233 MHz.
Also, while every chip supports Intel’s MMX multimedia instructions, there is a new wrinkle. A separate set of multimedia instructions called 3DNow will soon be introduced by AMD and offered to other chip manufacturers with the goal of improving a computer’s ability to handle complex graphics.
And the size and location of a Level 2 cache–memory that improves the performance of a computer by making information available to the processor more quickly–is becoming ever more important.
Intel, which controls an estimated 85 percent of the total market for microprocessors, mandated that change when it abandoned its traditional packaging design for Pentium microprocessors–which involved a square plastic case that was plugged into a socket inside the computer–in favor of the Pentium II design that looks more like a card that slides into a slot in the computer.
According to Intel, that new design was necessary to continue improving performance while making it easier to move increasingly large amounts of data for tasks like watching digital movies, videoconferencing, usable speech recognition software, “realistic” 3-D graphics for games, or just playing back multimedia data from the Internet quickly.
But right now, those applications are still waiting for advances in software design or modem speed to be practical, whatever the speed of the processor.
The appeal of technologies that will arrive first–DVD-ROM drives for playing digital movies, and complex games that rely on 3-D images–is still uncertain.
And home users accessing the Internet with a modem capable of retrieving information at 28,800 bits of data per second just aren’t going to notice much of a difference yet whether using Intel’s Pentium II or an AMD chip that looks more like a traditional Pentium.
This dichotomy between what computer users can do today and what they might want to do tomorrow has created a unique opportunity that Intel’s competitors are moving to quickly exploit.
Cyrix, with its highly integrated MediaGX processors, helped clear the way for fully functional PCs that sell for less than $500 plus monitor.
By integrating such necessary functions as graphics and stereo quality sound directly that would separate chips, Cyrix–which has since been acquired by National Semiconductor Inc.–was able to boast that even if Intel gave its Pentium chips away, computers using the MediaGX would still be cheaper to make.
Integrated Device Technology–the newcomer to the x86 chip wars–took the opposite approach, stripping away features and capabilities that added to the cost and complexity of the chip, but offered few benefits to most desktop users.
Thus IDT’s WinChip runs desktop Windows software, but doesn’t include support for multiple processors–integrating two or more chips together in a PC so that they function as a single unit for better performance–that Intel included with its Pentium-class processors.
IDT’s initial offering was targeted toward business users, but the WinChip 2 it plans to ship in the summer will attempt to do the same thing for multimedia applications, by adding instructions designed specifically to improve the performance of Windows multimedia.
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Even AMD, which once defined itself as being the most compatible of the x86 clone manufacturers, is promising new chip designs it says will duplicate the performance of Intel’s new slot technology while still using the older, less expensive socket design.
This month AMD will offer a new version of its K6 processor that adds support for the Accelerated Graphics Port, or AGP. Developed by Intel, AGP provides a faster, direct connection between graphics processors and system memory.
At the same time, AMD will introduce 3DNow, a set of 21 instructions written by AMD and supported by Cyrix, IDT and Microsoft, that will speed up the processing of 3D graphics data. According to AMD officials, those enhancements should make the upcoming K6-2 capable of matching the Pentium II’s 3D graphics performance.
But Intel isn’t standing still. Recognizing the appeal of low-cost computers in the fast-growing consumer market, Intel came out with a lower-cost version of its Pentium II design called Celeron that kept some of the same advanced features–such as dual bus architecture, which creates more paths for handling data–while reducing the cost of the chip and its packaging.
One way Intel cut costs, however, was by taking off built-in Level 2 cache that’s a standard feature of other Pentium II chips, reducing the performance of the chip significantly.
This fall, Intel will introduce a version of Celeron–currently known by the code-name Mendocino–running at a faster clock speed and putting Level 2 cache directly on the chip.
As these chip choices proliferate throughout the rest of the year, PC buyers are going to be faced with increasing variety in the types of systems they will be asked to choose from.
For running traditional applications, such as word processors, spreadsheets and Internet access, all of the current crop of x86 processors should meet most consumer needs. After determining how fast a processor you want, other features such as the amount of memory, the size of the hard drive, the quality of the graphics subsystem, the expansion capabilities of the PC and, of course, the price are the more important factors to consider.
If playing the latest, most graphically complex games, or watching DVD movies on a computer are on the must-have list, buyers should pay more attention to the graphics, looking for processors that support AGP or–in the case of non-Intel processors–those offering specific software enhancements designed to improve graphics performance.
But for users who want to be sure they can take advantage of any and all enhancements that might be introduced over the next few years, the choice is more complex.
Intel’s Pentium II line offers clear support for upcoming features, but each of the other manufacturers are also promising new chip designs that will provide the same advanced functionality as the Pentium II in early 1999.