Intel pulling back on DDR2 for the moment

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips,comp.sys.intel (More info?)

On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 00:26:36 -0500, Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@ezrs.com> wrote:

>X-bit labs - Hardware news - Intel to Remove DDR2 Support from
>Forthcoming Mainstream Chipsets
>http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/chipsets/display/200412230...
>
> Yousuf Khan

Looks like Intel has defined a new even-cheaper-to-implement entry-level
chipset...

nbd...

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips,comp.sys.intel (More info?)

On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 00:26:36 -0500, Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@ezrs.com>
wrote:

>X-bit labs - Hardware news - Intel to Remove DDR2 Support from
>Forthcoming Mainstream Chipsets
>http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/chipsets/display/200412230...

Doesn't sound so much like backing away from DDR2 rather than simple
market segmentation. Standard Intel fare. Note that they already
have an i910GL which also lacks DDR2 support. This particular chip is
a single-channel DDR only and has no external graphics port.

The pricing is actually likely to make these i915GL and i915PL
chipsets rather popular, since basically no one uses DDR2 in their
i915G and i915P chipsets anyway.

-------------
Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips,comp.sys.intel (More info?)

Tony Hill wrote:
> Doesn't sound so much like backing away from DDR2 rather than simple
> market segmentation. Standard Intel fare. Note that they already
> have an i910GL which also lacks DDR2 support. This particular chip is
> a single-channel DDR only and has no external graphics port.
>
> The pricing is actually likely to make these i915GL and i915PL
> chipsets rather popular, since basically no one uses DDR2 in their
> i915G and i915P chipsets anyway.

The existing 915G & P chipsets were supposed to be for value systems.
Why didn't they make these chipsets themselves cheaper?

Yousuf Khan

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips,comp.sys.intel (More info?)

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 22:06:26 -0500, Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@ezrs.com>
wrote:

>Tony Hill wrote:
>> Doesn't sound so much like backing away from DDR2 rather than simple
>> market segmentation. Standard Intel fare. Note that they already
>> have an i910GL which also lacks DDR2 support. This particular chip is
>> a single-channel DDR only and has no external graphics port.
>>
>> The pricing is actually likely to make these i915GL and i915PL
>> chipsets rather popular, since basically no one uses DDR2 in their
>> i915G and i915P chipsets anyway.
>
>The existing 915G & P chipsets were supposed to be for value systems.
>Why didn't they make these chipsets themselves cheaper?

The i915G and i915P are definitely not "value" chipsets, they're just
not the super-expensive chipsets that the i925X(E) is. Basically
there are no OEM systems that sell using the i925X chipset (I think
Dell has one that they sell with a P4EE, marketing at people with more
money than brains).

Again, it all comes back to market segmentation. Intel likes to have
lots of different products (all made from the same silicon) that they
can toss into a variety of markets and price-points. They need to
have enough extra features and enough of a spread to justify the super
high cost at the top end while still being able to sell products down
into the low-end.

-------------
Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca