Slashdot Mirror
Intel Pushes Low-Power Crusoe Challenger
axis-techno-geek writes: "It seems that Intel now is trying to fight back against Transmeta with their new chips. Intel plans to have their new speed-step Pentium III's out in about a year (which in computer time means about 18 months :)."
Great, so what this is really saying is that it took some upstart startup to come up with a really good idea AND bring it all the way to market before Intel would get off it's ass and admit that just MAYBE a more power-efficient mobile processor was something that their customers NEED?!? This is a perfect example of WHY monopolies are a "bad thing".
Personally, I don't see this as being any great news from Intel. As far as I'm concerned, the most impressive thing about Crusoe isn't the fact that it's much better for battery life (though that's certainly a good thing, and it's about time SOMEONE did something about it), it's the code-morphing abilities of the chip. This chip has the ability to emulate any processor that TransMeta puts its mind to emulate. And this can be accomplished with SOFT patches (no more difficult that upgrading your BIOS). For now they have chosen to stick the the x86 market, which makes perfect sense. But Apple and Sun better look out, once they get themselves firmly established...
Fight back against vaporware with more vaporware? Sounds like a fair fight to me.
-
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Ditzel says: [Speedstep] validates his company's approach to the market. This joke has been used so many times it's no longer funny.
As others have said here, Speedstep is not progress--it should be called "SpeedStumble" because it drops the clock frequency on battery power--it can't dynamically adjust the frequency depending on the CPU load, like Crusoe can.
The critical point here is if Intel can drop power consumption and thus heat production low enough to be able to do away with the fan. Laptops should not have fans, and should not be too hot to keep in your lap. With Crusoe (or other low-power CPUs) you don't need a fan--with Intel notebook CPUs you still do, so far.
Would this not work better than slowing down the clock?
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
It would seem the above links aren't helpful at this time, so here's a few that might shed some light in this already ageing news piece:
/news/0-1003-200-3156114.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed. ni
- http://www.pcworld.com/news/ar tic le.asp?aid=31482
Also next year, Intel will probably announce an ultralow-voltage 500-MHz chip for subnotebooks that should be extremely battery-friendly. The company demonstrated a processor running at 300-MHz.
- http://www.zdnet.c om/ zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2639424,00.html
When Intel Corp.'s Frank Spindler disclosed that the chip giant is fast tracking the production of a new ultra-low-power chip for notebooks, there was an interested eavesdropper nearby.
- http://cnet. com
SAN JOSE, Calif.--Intel said it will enhance energy-saving features in processors for laptops and begin shipping new mobile Pentium chips next year as competition intensifies.
It's clear that Crusoe's LongRun technology is a more elegant approach
to conserving power by reducing clock speed than Intel's Speedstep,
but how much difference does it make in practice? It's quite possible
that Intel's crufty hack might give 90% of the benefit. I'm waiting
for independent tests...
Intel recalls the 1.13 P3
AMD rolls out 1.1 and announces near term avail of 1.2 GHz Athlons.
Intel repurposes P4 systems after performance issues, show that tick for tick they run slower than P3, Athlon & Duron. (at least until they can shrink the die small enough to run at 2GHz which puts them on par with todays chips)
AMD announces SMP chip set with initial 2 way (this year) support for their Athlon line. And the SMP is higher bandwidth than current Intel systems...(Finally!!)
Micron's MAMBA DDR SDRAM chip set is announced for Athlon systems - with 8 MB built in cache!
Intel initial chipsets for the P4 will be RAMBUS ?
Now they are going after the Crusoe chipsets with more underclocking tech ?
No I have to admit my info may be flawed, as I have not been watching the processor news for the past 20 minutes, but it seems to me Intel is now fighting battles on all sides (in the CPU arena at least) and, at least right now, losing ground on most of the fronts. Of course if I were Intel I would be most concerned with Athlon SMP invading the traditional server and highend workstation market...but that's just me.
Wonder what their release schedule would have been pre-Transmeta?
Is there?
--SpookComix
You read fiction? I write it! Lemme know what you th
Here's the right one.
-atrowe: Card-carrying Mensa member. I have no toleranse for stupidity.
It seems that Intel now is trying to fight back against Transmeta with their new chips. Intel plans to have their new speed-step Pentium III's out in about a year...
Yeah, but will they look like barf?.
--Jim
...but isn't competition a violation of the DMCA?
We must stop piracy at all costs... including freedom.
Intel calls it "Speedstep technology". I call it underclocking. This is nothing new. The *really* sad part about all this is that it's going to take another year for this *amazing new technology* to be available.
-atrowe: Card-carrying Mensa member. I have no toleranse for stupidity.
You're obviously confused: SpeedStep only offers you two different steps. Crusoe has a gradient (i.e. it can operate at a number of speeds between it's min and max speeds) and is much more intelligent about deciding what speed to run at. If not much is happening, it drops down a notch or two. If it needs more cycles, it hops up again. With Intel, it's all or nothing. And I think we all know that comparing raw clock speeds (MHz) is just crap. YES, a 600MHz Crusoe, performs on average more like a
Finally, keep in mind, a year from now, when Intel finally rolls out their "new" technology, Transmeta will more than likely have a new surprise.
Personally, I like SpeedStep. With the Crusoe, you're going slow as hell all the time, because at a 600MHz clock, it performs like a P2 350. However, with the P3 SpeedStep, it limits itself to 500, then jumps up to the proper clock when you're plugged in. Also, you can override SpeedStep if you happen to get an extended battery pack or a weird long-life big-ass hybrid battery (I've heard of them on cameras, they should be useful for laptops). Of course, AMD won't be able to compete on the laptop front with Intel because the K6-2 just isn't fast enough, and the Athlon draws too much power. I've heard talk of a low-power Athlon for laptops, but I'll believe that when I see it.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
I have a Dell inspirion 7500 lappy whichi I bought in March/April of this year. For the most part it is a great machine and the PIII processor clocks at 500mhz when on battery power and 600 when plugged in. I can't tell any real performance difference between the two modes and the battery times feel the same as the inspirion 5000 that my wife has so I guess the speedstep thing is really pointless. The machine runs really hot and it is not something you would want to put on your lap per se. The screen is huge for a laptop but the drawback to this particular (the 7500) is that it is very heavy and when closed is about 2" thick. The plus is I have dragged this puppy all over and though it has had quite a beating in the 6 months I have had it is a real workhorse very capable as a desktop replacement.
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
Who else could take something as technologically innovative as underclocking and give it a name like "Speedstep Technology". Just look at the phrase. It screams progress, when in fact it's a step down!
-- Anne Marie
Ok, I found it... ht tp://www.lycos.com/cgi-bin/pursuit?query=288089&fs =docid&cat=zdnet&mtemp=zdnet
Mark Duell