News
Analyst: Pentium 4 a Dangerous Transition for Intel
- By Scott Bekker
- May 31, 2001
Intel Corp. is a notoriously paranoid company. An analyst with consultantcy Cahners In-Stat says this is no time for the chipmaker to take a more relaxed attitude.
Analyst Kevin Krewell's report deals with the Pentium 4, Intel's 32-bit desktop processor launched earlier this year.
"Intel must be careful in migrating to the Pentium 4, as any miscalculation could further reduce … shipments," Krewell says.
The report, "Desktop PC Processors," cites AMD and non-PC devices as competitive threats to Intel.
But the company also faces a non-product challenge – making buyers believe that they need all this desktop speed.
"To spur demand for Pentium 4, the company must identify and promote applications that make effective use of a 2.0 GHz processor," Krewell says.
"Software vendors are specifically concerned about when to use new instructions, such as 3DNow, SSE and IA-64. PC and system-logic makers need to know what sockets Intel and other CPU vendors will be targeting during the next few years," Krewell says.
Other findings of Krewell's report are that Intel will retire the Pentium III from the desktop market segment by the first quarter of 2002 and that Intel will add SDRAM support in late 2001 and DDR SDRAM support in 2002. –
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.