Roadmap Information
Carmel will be successor of 450NX, designed for servers and workstations and the Tanner CPU. It will be a server version of Camino, supporting 4x AGP, Direct Rambus DRAM (direct RDRAM), ATA66 and integrated AC'97 digital link as well as the 66 MHz 64 bit PCI bus.
will be the high end chipset for Slot 2 servers, offering quad or even octal CPU support, up to 4 GB of main memory and 66 MHz PCI bus, but no SDRAM support.
will be the less sophisticated Slot 2 chipset, the only important difference to 440BX will be the support of up to 2 GB of main memory.
Camino is the code name of the chipset that will be particularly targeted for the Katmai CPU on the beginning of next year. It will support 4x AGP, Direct Rambus DRAM (direct RDRAM), ATA66 and integrates AC'97 digital link. AC97 is something typical for Intel. It represents an interface for a cheap modem/audio codec, which is supposed to do the job of a real modem or sound card, but using the CPU power for its operations. Thus taking the sTRain from an absolute low cost part, as modems and sound cards already are, and putting it onto the CPU without any real sense, except from ensuring the upgrade to the next more powerful Intel CPU.
All chipsets above the 440LX will run at 100 MHz front side bus or higher. It seems likely that Carmel as well as Camino will run at 133 MHz FSB to take advantage of direct RDRAM and 4x AGP.
440ZX is nothing but a cheap version of 440BX for Celeron, just as 440EX was a sTRipped down version of 440LX. The funny thing about this chipset is that it will first ship as an official 66 MHz FSB version, so that nobody would get the idea and run his Celeron at 100 MHz FSB. The same and certainly completely identical chipset will ship as a 100 MHz version as soon as the 100 MHz FSB Celeron will be released.
Whitney will be a chipset for the Celeron CPUs, being a combination of the 440LX chipset with included i740 core, thus offering a low cost solution that doesn't require a graphics card anymore. Whitney will probably ship later than 440ZX, so that it will support 66 as well as 100 MHz FSB in the first place.
1394 Direction
"Intel is committed to 1394 and will continue to play a major role in developing and enabling the technology, but 1394's initial adoption does not justify chipset integration. Thus the PIIX6 program has been discontinued. Intel recommends PCI add-in card or motherboard down solution. Intel is investigating a future implantation to facilitate a broad adoption of 1394 technology in the PC."
Intel's 3D Graphics Plans
In the graphics sector Intel is currently working on Whitney as a chipset plus i740 in one solution and on the successor of the i740, called 'Portola '. We can expect Whitney and Portola in the second quarter of 1999.
Portola is supposed to offer 5 times the 3D performance of the i740 and calls itself a 'Katmai processor balanced solution'. It's 'designed for 440BX and Camino chipsets'. Portola will support TV-out and video capture, but it will only use 2x AGP. Portola is targeted to the 'performance PC' market segment, Intel is also working on a 'enthusiast PC' 3D graphics chipset.
Coloma will be Intel's high end 3D graphics chip to work with AGP 4x and Coppermine, expected in the second half of 1999.
