Intel Trades Frequency And Cache For Less PowerIntel Trades Frequency And Cache For Less Power

Intel's IT sales pitch this year will emphasize better server performance, chips that integrate computing and networking, and more design stability that's supposed to make it easier for companies to undertake large PC upgrades.

The world's largest chipmaker said Thursday at the Intel Developer Forum in San Jose, Calif., that it plans to ship a low-voltage version of its Itanium 2 processor for 64-bit computers at a speed of 1 GHz with 1.5 Mbyte Level 3 cache during the second half of the year. The LV Itanium 2, previously code-named Deerfield, will cycle more slowly and include less on-chip memory than the Madison generation of Itanium 2 chips due this summer, but will draw less than half as much power, at 62 watts. By trading frequency and cache size for lower power, Intel hopes to make sales to supercomputing centers and businesses serving large Web sites that can benefit from packing more CPUs inside a computer's cabinet.

Intel is also moving its 64- and 32-bit server chips this year from a 0.18-micron to a 0.13-micron manufacturing technology. "That shrink gives them the ability for many more transistors and larger cache sizes," Illuminata analyst Jonathan Eunice says, and can help Intel improve its chips' performance on business-computing benchmarks. Intel says an Itanium 2-based server from NEC Corp., running a version of Microsoft Windows Server 2003, achieved the No. 1 TPC-C benchmark result for a 32-way SMP system.

Intel is also investing heavily in its networking chip division. The company introduced three embedded XScale processors to run networking gear that can deliver Web and voice services to small and midsize businesses. During the second half of the year, Intel plans to ship an XScale processor for Java-based cell phones that includes computing, memory, and communications functions on the same silicon die. That can boost performance and reduce power requirements, VP Gadi Singer says.

In the business PC market, Intel plans next quarter to begin a program called Granite Peak, in which it will keep the drivers for its chipsets unchanged for six quarters at a time and ship a single software image for desktops and notebooks.