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No more desktop chips in three years

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c627627

c(n*199780) Senior Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2002
Intel to consolidate chips for desktops and notebooks in 2007

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article.asp?datePublish=2004/04/02&pages=A7&seq=39

"Intel is likely to give up its current practice of launching processors for desktops and notebooks respectively. Instead the chipmaker is expected to launch a brand new processor, dubbed Merom, for all PCs starting 2007, according to sources at Taiwanese motherboard makers.

The Merom will be made using a 0.65nm process and will run under the current architecture used by Intel’s Pentium M processors, said the sources. The Merom will be offered with different amounts of cache for varying markets.

Intel’s Netburst architecture that supports the Pentium 4 processors is likely to be phased out from the PC market when the Merom comes online, according to the sources. Under Netburst, Intel’s Prescott processors have been constantly haunted by problems such as heat dissipation and high power consumption.
 
There will still be desktop chips. They will just have the same core architecture as the mobile chips.
 
The big question I have with their current Pentium M cores is whether Intel will be able to scale these (and subsequent designs of this school) up. If I recall correctly, the Pentium M is an adapted sixth generation P3 core. Are the adaptations so profound that it can scale up to say 2.5Ghz or twice the L2 cache etc. without again running into thermal problems?
 
Pentium M is not a revamped P3 - it was built from the ground up. It shares some similar features with the P4 and P3, but it's certainly not just a modified P3. Whether it can scale well I couldn't speculate.
 
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