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Intel Shows Off 'Banias' Chip for Mobile Devices

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the eating-transmeta's-lunch dept.

deano writes "Intel has unveiled the first prototypes of their latest mobile "Banias" processors. The article states Banias systems with the Intel Odem Chipset will come out early 2003 and feature 802.11b. The article also speaks of the new Itanium with a 6Mb cache!"

15 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Which, of course, will be referred to as "Banana". by Bowie+J.+Poag · · Score: 3, Funny



    Why Intel is setting themselves up for this, I have no idea. ;)

    Cheers,

    --
    Bowie J. Poag

  2. bigger isn't always better by PissingInTheWind · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The poster seems to be all excited saying:
    The article also speaks of the new Itanium with a 6Mb cache!"

    Well, it's important to see that a fast and useful cache technology is much more than a big cache. You need good access times, good hit ratio, etc. Sometimes you can even get better performance by disabling the cache.

    It's application-specific, don't assume bigger is better.

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    1. Re:bigger isn't always better by VAXman · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sure it can hurt. If increasing the size of the cache causes your access time to increase, then it can hurt very badly, because you're overall latency could increase if the benefit from a lower miss rate if offset by the higher hit time. Although it's true that the latency of second and third level caches affect performance much less than the first level.

      Cache size is one of the most misleading processor benchmarks, more misleading than frequency, yet big caches command huge price premiums.

  3. Meaning of Banias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    Posted AC to leave the concept of karma with at least a little dignity. Taken from a March 2001 ZDNet article:

    Banias, formerly Caesarea Philippi, is the Arabic name for the Hellenistic city of Paneas whose name derives from Pan, the Greek god of herds and shepherds. His cult was observed in a large cave at the foot of Mount Hermon, where a source of the River Jordan emerges.

    Pepperdine University has conducted digs in the area that have unearthed parts of a palace from Herod Agrippa II. Modern-day Banias is located in Israel, where the Intel design team for the new chip is based. The company typically code-names its chips after geographical features.

  4. Really? by Indras · · Score: 4, Funny

    I heard you could make a battery out of a potato or a lemon, but a processor out of a banana?

    --
    The speed of time is one second per second.
    1. Re:Really? by Dirtside · · Score: 3, Funny

      Why not a banana? They already made all those celery-powered processors...

      --
      "Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
  5. Re:6 MB cache? by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Funny


    6 MB cache? The UltraSparc III has an 8 MB cache. Intel is still playing catch-up.

    No, they're playing cache-up.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  6. Meaning of Banias by Dicky · · Score: 5, Informative

    For reference, Banias is the name of a river in northern Israel - one of the three sources of the river Jordan. It's a pretty area, and great for gentle hiking. There are nice pictures of it here, here, here and through Google image search

    --
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  7. Instead of "banana",... by SamTheButcher · · Score: 4, Funny
    ...I read "ba~nos", the spanish word for "bathroom".

    Where intel chips belong, of course.

  8. Re:6 MB cache? by Glonk · · Score: 4, Informative

    6 MB cache? The UltraSparc III has an 8 MB cache. Intel is still playing catch-up.

    The UltraSparc III has off-die L3 cache. The Intel chip would be on-die.

    Off-die L3 cache isn't too hard to do, and it's significantly slower.

  9. Laptops only? Surely not. by Ed+Avis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It sounds like this chip will become 'unexpectedly' popular for desktop systems as well as portables. Things like wireless Ethernet will be useful on the desktop too, and if the chip runs cool then it won't need a noisy fan. (And reduced power consumption means you can use a fan-less PSU as well.)

    I wouldn't be surprised to see Intel making a desktop version of this chip as the Celeron replacement, depending on what AMD come up with.

    --
    -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
  10. New Poll!! by dbretton · · Score: 5, Funny
    With the new "Banias" line of Intel portable processors, which of the following should be Intel's new company mascot?


    1. This guy
    2. This guy
    3. This guy
    4. This guy
    5. This gal
    6. CowboyNeal!

  11. Re:Banana chip? by tps12 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why this story wasn't called "Intel Goes Banias" is beyond me.

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  12. Re:Laptops only? Surely not. by Peyna · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The wireless ethernet is part of the chipset, so basically, it'd be like onboard ethernet, but why on earth would you want a friggin mobile cpu in a desktop? You don't have to worry about power consumption, space limitations, excessive heat, etc.

    There are already alternatives for wireless on desktops as well, I believe linksys makes a PCI card for wireless now, you can also buy a pcmcia thingy for a desktop and slip a pcmcia wireless card in that.

    The chipset probably won't have AGP or PCI support, or limited, so why on earth would you want it in a desktop?

    The article does mention that:
    To cut energy consumption, Banias automatically shuts off its different subcomponents when not in use. Although it's designed for notebooks, the chip will also appear in thin "blade" servers.

    I'm curious what the cost of turning off the subcomponents is to performance? Anyone have a clue?

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    What?
  13. lots of karma burnt today by Sebastopol · · Score: 3, Insightful

    sure is lots of "+5 funny" goin' to people for saying "huh huh... banana.. huh huh... huh huh ... odius ... huh huh... "

    is everybody on this thread six years old or what?

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