"Steve Wright" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Some undeserving colleague of yours has been all smiles for the last two
months because of the new 300MHz Pentium II on his desk. Want to deflate
that smarmy grin? Mention the word Deschutes.
No sooner had Intel introduced its 300MHz chip than it unveiled a faster,
entirely revamped packaging of the Pentium II, code-named Deschutes. More
than just an uptick in megahertz, Deschutes promises speedier performance
across a wide range of applications. And it guarantees to further baffle
already confused system buyers selecting among the menagerie of processors
on the market.
PC Computing's Performance Labs put a quintet of top-tier 333MHz Deschutes
systems through their paces. As expected, when we tested systems from
Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Gateway, NEC, and Compaq we saw a modest increase in
performance. But to the bemusement of current Pentium II owners (see smarmy
grin above), we saw virtually no increase in price. Deschutes PCs won't get
a big kick in speed until Intel releases its BX chip set for motherboards by
this summer, which adds a 100MHz PCI bus. No matter: As price-performance
goes, Deschutes is today's sweet spot.
Nothing changes in the CPU's core instruction set from the current Pentium
II. But the new packaging introduces several new ways to goose performance
from the existing chip, depending on which version you choose. There will be
two flavors of Deschutes, drably dubbed Slot 1 and Slot 2.
Most stand-alone systems and notebooks running business apps will come with
a Slot 1 Deschutes; servers and high-end workstations will ship with the
Slot 2 version. The unfortunate designation of slots refers to the
motherboard connector into which the CPU is plugged. Unlike plain-Jane
Pentiums, the Pentium II chip comes on a circuit board with an L2 cache. The
whole affair requires a proprietary slot.
Slot 1 Deschutes systems can plug into existing Pentium II motherboards. The
difference between the two CPUs? The Deschutes runs at a faster clock speed,
devours less power, and stays cooler. But future versions may come with a
1MB L2 cache. More important, Deschutes will run on 100MHz system buses, up
from today's 66MHz bus.
Because Deschutes chips are rendered by a .25-micron process, they consume
less electricity (1.2 volts to 2.2 volts) and run cooler. This makes them an
ideal platform for notebooks--or so Intel hopes. But already notebook makers
have begun to balk. The CPU's form factor won't fit into many super-skinny
portables. Also, while the CPU runs cool for its clock speed, heat
dissipation is still an enormous challenge.
Like the Pentium II, Deschutes systems accommodate up to two CPUs. The
initial 333MHz version of the chip will be followed by 350MHz and 400MHz
versions. Only later this year will manufacturers begin delivering PCs with
100MHz buses, however. And the cost to you will go up precipitously, since
these faster buses require expensive 100MHz DRAM chips. But the performance
boost for video decompression, 3-D modeling, and other high-bandwidth chores
promises to rock you back on your heels.
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As big bird spreads the word, anybody with a heart votes love.
- Fluke.
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