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Intel Says No SMP Support For Pentium 4
the Man in Black writes: "AMD dropping the Mustang core to concentrate on an SMP solution seemed to bode ill at the time, but it seems that this was the wisest possible decision, given the below news.
ZDNet is reporting that Intel will not have dual-processor support for the Pentium 4 at launch time ... indeed, not until the second half on next year, when the Pentium 4 is re-released with a new core."
That's the short version of things, anyway.
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Ok, so SMP is not supported at launch time. Is this the same "not supported" as Celeron SMP, which many people have in their box right now? Could a mobo maker come out with a board that allows P4 SMP, and just not have it supported by intel?
Or is this "not supported" as in not doable?
Oh, wait. Damn.
Revive Burger Kings flop Herb ads
Symbolic sheep or lemmings leaping off a cliff, but falling much faster now.
Bunny suited dancers and 'Who let the dogs out'
Something so incomprehensible you're not ever positive it's an Intel ad
A big chart illustrating how it's nearly as fast as the Piii
Co-venture ad with Alcoa, on the virtue of 1Lb aluminum heatsinks
The invisible man showing off the available motherboards against a black background (indistinguishable from your set being off)
Other ideas?
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
even Apple has a dual-processor system available, fer chrissakes. Soon AMD-baseds dual-processor motherboards will be available. What are the guys at Intel smoking?
Maybe they're trying to emulate Motorola's slide into desktop-processor oblivion...
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
Strangely enough, the Pentium 4 is actually targeted at the market where Intel is being hurt the most by AMD, the home computer. The Pentium 3 has been getting thrashed by AMD's chips in the home market. The home market is also where MHz (or now GHz) count. I could create a 2GHz 386 and it would probably sell better than anything else on the market, even if it was inferior in every other way. This is once again proof that the common Joe user is entirely overwhelmed by the actual differences in different solutions. I mean... the bigger the number, the better it should be, right?
The "new" Pentium 4 is already slated to be obsoleted by the next Pentium 4 chip/chipset. I honestly believe that Intel is releasing the P4 to slow the spread of AMD. On the server side, they are still pushing the Pentium 3 Xeon line... and probably will until they get the P4 going in SMP where they'll probably make a "P4 Xeon" so that they can rape companies even harder.
What I am really curious about it exactly how viable AMD's chips are going to actually be in the server market. They are going to need to make large cache versions of the chip... not to mention, does the 760MP chipset have the scalability? Can it support Quad and 8-way SMP configurations? AMD may overtake Intel on the lower-end server market by offering a Dual CPU solution, but unless they are capable of these other configurations, Intel will still be king in the server room. Remember, one of the main differences between the P3 and the P3 Xeon is the extra "glue" logic that Intel has added to the chips to allow for more than Dual CPU configurations.
I really am looking forward to seeing what AMD has to offer in this area. I also can't wait to see the great commercials that Intel puts out to advertise the new chip. Those blue guys crack me the hell up. Just think, in a couple months, we'll have Joe User going to Best Buy and picking out his 1.5GHz P4 systems out of the showcase.
For a uniprocessor system, I think that the P4 may actually reclaim the crown for fastest chip in the x86 market... I just wonder how long Intel will be able to hold out with AMD right on their back.
wolf31o2 Developer, Gentoo Linux Games Team
Not really. The P4 is a consumer chip. Sure, it might be used in small servers, but that's not where Intel make their money. You can bet that when Intel release a Xeon version of the P4, it'll scale to lots of CPUs. The Xeon line is what Intel expect to go in servers, not the current P4.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
If it's big, black and you can't figure out why you need one, it must be impressive!
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
personally, i don't know if i could ever go back to single proc machines. i've been doubling up since the p-pro.
screw intel. my next machine will be a double amd box.
http://kered.org
It will not. I mean NOT AT ALL. No servers. Nada. Non. The reason is very simple - server also means lots of RAM. And there is no non-RDRAM solution for P4 currently available. The average server currently ships with at least 0.5G RAM, usually 1G or 2G (for those brave or stupid to run Intel on a 32 bit system in non-flat mode). The price tag on such RDRAM system puts P4 outside of the server market completely for now.
And IMHO this is the reason for Intel strange behaviour and trying to bail out of the RDRAM obligations. They got their marketing onto completely new grounds (no server release to show off and the much thinner profit margins) where they do not feel comfortable.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Maybe I'll just call IBM and see if I can get one of those ASCI yellow's. Or was it green? Beige? Magenta? Oh, hell, I can't remember.
Anyway, I thought that the Pentuim 4 itself was supposed to be physically huge, yes? Wouldn't haveing multiple P4's then require you to have a case the size of a coffin? Though it could be possible o heat your home with such a system...
Hi! This is the Sig, blatantly attached to the end of this comment.
"It's possible that some of our sales force overstated the benefits of dual-capable CPU systems, unfortunately, by being overly critical of single-CPU-capable systems," said the executive, who asked not to be named.
Intel usually targets new systems at servers. That way they can charge thousands for the new chips. How will that work if SMP is not available for several months?
The Mustang had some serious fab-cost problems (mainly in the large amount of cache). There's nothing wrong with this if you can sell a large volume, but AMD just didn't see the volume for the server market right now.
With Intel lacking SMP support for the P4 through next year, AMD will be ahead with a Dual [name your Athlon variation here].
At the same time, this doesn't make Intel incompetent. Intel knows that most servers are not built on the latest chip, rather, chips that have been well tested. Server CPU's are usually a few steps before the top of the line. By the time Compaq, Dell, etc. are comfortable with the P4, SMP will most likely be available.
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
Okay, wait a second... a one pound heatsink??? Can anyone explain this one to me? I thought heat sinks could be made light because what you're theoretically after is something shaped so it has lots of surface area and a good heat disapation index.
So how did they manage to make the sucker weigh a pound? Does the P4 generate so much heat (a bad sign, IMAO) that it needs a one pounder?
I have to wonder if the second or third generation P4's will be any better (well, from the looks of things, they can't get worse).
Christ, I think the heat sink on my POS computer weighs a couple of ounces...
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Multimedia encryption? What the hell is that? Where does ZDNet find these people it tries to pass off as writers, anyway?
I've been a long time supporter of AMD and really love their products. I'm glad that there is competion now pushing prices down and developement ahead. Unfortunately it seems like intel is rushing too much trying to keep ahead and making several mistakes. While I prefer AMD I certainly don't want to see intel loose too much of the market (I know it would take quite a few years for this to happen if it does). I'd hate to see a one processor market again.
Looks like AMD did bring the dual board in at the right time. It will be interesting to see if this stratagy and Intel's mistakes can really get them in the server market. As of right now, I don't know many people willing to give up there Pentium servers for AMD, but without dual support they may not have much choice.