Intel adjusts future plans

In a nod toward developing trends in the computer industry, Intel has slightly altered its roadmap for 1998 and 1999 and presented its plans toattendees at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) this weekin Orlando, Florida. Mike Aymar, the vice president of Intel's Consumer Product Group, talked about his company's plans for microprocessors, chipsets, and how Intel devices would work in a range of products spanningeverything from handhelds to servers.

"We need to design specific products for specific segments," Aymar said, stating that Intel's old plan of introducing high-end microprocessors thateventually trickle down to the desktop was out of synch with the market.

Aymar said that Intel was working on a chipset specific to the workstationmarket that will add Advanced Graphics Port Pro (AGP Pro) support and morepowerful graphics modes. He also discussed the next-generation Pentium IICPU, code-named "Katmai", which will run on 200 MHz motherboards and add 70new floating point instructions.

"[Katmai] will do for floating point what MMX did for graphics," he said.

Aymar says that Intel motherboards for laptops will reach 100 MHz by 1999,though 66 MHz buses will be supported through the end of 1999.

One surprising note: Intel is working on at least three "set-top box" PCdesigns; machines that would connect to the Internet and use a standard TVas a display device. Intel's basic set-top PC will include the Celeron processor (a Pentium II with no L2 cache); it will work as a functional PCand will sell for about $400. A high-end set-top PC will include a DVDdrive and a more powerful CPU