|
computerwriter.com
|
Pentium, Pentium MMX, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, K6? Mommy, I want an aspirin!Toronto Star Fast Forward Computer Wares column for May1/97 Copyright ©, Myles White, 1997 If you're setting out to buy a PC today, you're faced with a sometimes bewildering series of choices. Over the next month, ads for new computers will offer four basic processor choices from Intel and couple of attractive alternatives from its competition. What's a poor consumer to do? Intel's current crop of products include the classic Pentium (in a range of speeds), the Pentium with MMX technology (multimedia extensions -- currently two speed choices with more on the way), the classic Pentium Pro (only one real choice, but that could change) and the about-to-ship-in-quantity Pentium II (a Pentium Pro with MMX -- with a whole range of speed choices coming). Intel's competitors -- Cyrix (and IBM. Big Blue manufactures all Cyrix processors based on a Cyrix design, a lot of them at the Celestica plant in Don Mills, and they're sold under both names), as well as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) -- are also in the market with Pentium workalike processors. In the pseudo-Pentium category, these Intel wannabes further muddy the waters by quoting their products' performance using speed comparison figures. For example, processors such as the Cyrix/IBM 6x86 or AMD K5 are marketed with phrases such as P-166 or PR-166, to give the impression that they'll run programs just as fast as a Pentium running at 166 MHz. In fact, the actual internal speed of both products is slower. Both groups are also either shipping or are poised to ship Pentium II workalikes. Cyrix isn't shipping its M2 yet, but AMD is shipping the 200 MHz K6 with a 233 MHz version soon to come (more on AMD's K6 below). Sorting it outTo help you sort some of this out, we first need to fall back on basic principles. The leading edge always exacts a price premium. New products arrive at the top of the scale (which doesn't move much), pushing the price of existing products down. The price v/s performance "sweet spot" is always one to two steps back from that edge. Having said that, however, we also have to consider instant obsolescence. I've been taken to task by readers in the past for misusing the term, "obsolete," so perhaps I'd better define the context in which I'm using it. For my purposes, a computer processor is current if it will run today's software products reasonably quickly and efficiently and stands a good chance of running what I see coming for the next three years. Beyond that I can't (and I don't believe anyone can) make any guarantees. A system that I consider inadequate (such as any PC processor older than a Pentium and any Pentium slower than 133 MHz) will still run the software that was released when it was the top of the heap. However, it will run today's software either very slowly by comparison to newer products, or it won't run it at all. Other factors, such as motherboard architectures that won't allow new hardware products to be added to the system extend the definition. And that brings us to the dilemma posed by MMX technology as well as some other pending hardware innovations. Earlier this year, Intel added 57 new instructions to the Pentium processor's bag of tricks. In theory, these multimedia extensions, together with software written to take advantage of them, could bring faster 2D and 3D graphics, better audio, motion video, telecommunications and a host of additional services without having to upgrade existing hardware components. The problem is that the hardware is ahead of the software. As I write this, there may be as many as a half-dozen software titles currently supporting MMX. One of the better known is Adobe Photoshop. In tests conducted by some of the US glossies, a Pentium with MMX running the MMX version of Photoshop gets faster results than a classic Pentium of the same speed running the standard version of the program. Will there be several dozen MMX titles we'll just have to use by this time next year? It's too soon to tell. A couple of things are certain. Intel will phase out the classic Pentium sooner instead of later. The company wants the MMX versions of its products front and centre. And, if it hasn't already done so by the time you read this, the price of the Pentium processor will plummet. The identity of the sweet spot appears to be getting clearer. The debate over Pentium v/s Pentium Pro has been around for over a year now, but if you're new to this, a recap won't hurt. If Intel had kept to its original part numbering scheme (80286, 80386, 80486), the Pentium processor would have been the 80586 and the Pentium Pro would have been the 80686 (and the Merced, due for release sometime in 1998, would have been the 80786). When the company was developing the Pentium Pro, it mistakenly assumed that all of us would have migrated from the Windows 3.1x/Windows 95 operating environments to something much more similar to Windows NT. Microsoft had been promising to merge the streams so that we'd all be using 32-bit operating systems and software by now. Unfortunately, the company has a habit of being over-optimistic about software delivery dates. Based on this erroneous belief, the Pentium Pro was optimized for 32-bit software and, in its first incarnations, didn't run older, 16-bit applications as fast as a Pentium of the same speed. With this as the only consideration, the choices were simpler. If you were going to run Windows 3.1x or Windows 95 with mostly older applications, the Pentium was the best choice. If you were planning to run Windows NT, Windows 95 with mostly 32-bit software, or some other 32-bit operating system, the Pentium Pro was the way to go. The Pentium II (Pentium Pro with MMX) will upset that applecart. While Intel "had the hood up," the company did some tweaking with the Pentium II to make it run 16-bit applications better. It's now faster, across the board, than either a classic Pentium, Pentium with MMX, or Pentium Pro, at any speed and running just about any application. Now we come to a real fly in the ointment: the ability to upgrade. One way to save money in the Pentium era, while giving yourself an edge on the future, has been to plan an upgrade strategy before you bought your system. For a while that was easy. All Pentium systems are based on a main system board running at 60 or 66 MHz and the internal speed of the processor is a multiple of those two rates. For example, a 60 MHz motherboard will run Pentiums of 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 MHz. A 66 MHz board will run 66, 100, 133, 166 and 200 MHz processors. Until the introduction of the Pentium with MMX, the classic Pentiums of 90 MHz or better used the same operating voltage -- 3.3 volts -- and processor socket pin configuration. The result? You could buy in at a low speed (say 100 MHz) and at some future time, once the price had dropped, pop in a faster Pentium later to boost performance significantly. All that went away with the Pentium with MMX. Although Intel has brought out an OverDrive version for the MMX running at 150/166 MHz, a 180/200 MHz version won't be around until later this summer. Without the OverDrive's built-in voltage regulator, the MMX requires two different voltage values (2.8 volts to the core, 3.3 volts for input/output operations) which limits how many owners of existing systems can upgrade to it. The situation with the Pentium II is even worse. There is no upgrade path at present for people with Pentium Pro systems, because the Pentium II uses a special cartridge mounted in a unique slot. Physically, it won't fit an older Pentium or Pentium Pro board. And here, I think, Intel has made a blunder of monumental proportions. Enter AMD. If you've been following Computer Wares over the past few weeks, you'll remember my earlier report on the K6. Currently there's a 200 MHz version of the part. It uses the Pentium Pro instruction set and MMX (AMD and Intel agreed out of court that given certain conditions, AMD is allowed to use the term "MMX" in its advertising). What I reported was preliminary tests comparing a pre-production computer with a 233 MHz version of the K6 to a pre-production unit running the next Pentium II at 266 MHz. The K6 came that close to matching the Pentium II's performance. To make things even more interesting, if you have a system you can alter to accept a Pentium with MMX, you can probably upgrade directly to the K6 (visit www.amd.com for a list of compatible products). And it may not be long before AMD strategic partners such as Evergreen Technologies or Kingston Technologies release a kit to allow the rest of us to do the same. Notwithstanding the uncertainty about the near future of MMX software, I appears inevitable that the industry is moving in that direction. I think the only question is whether it will take one year, two years or more before a processor with MMX technology is required to run the basic applications that a typical computer user will need. So, if I were buying a new system today, here's what I'd do. The price split between Pentium and Pentium with MMX isn't that much but it's going to widen when the Pentium price falls. I'd make certain that the main system board in my new computer was not only compatible with the Pentium MMX, but also satisfied AMD's requirements for the K6. I'd also try to make sure it utilized Intel's new 430 TX chipset so I could take future advantage of advanced memory types, universal serial bus (USB) and a new scheme for faster hard drive performance called Ultra DMA. Once that was out of the way, I could then buy in at whatever level of classic Pentium I could afford (166 MHz minimum, but 200 by preference). I could put whatever money I saved into additional memory, a larger hard drive, a better monitor, a faster modem, or some extra software. Then I'd start saving for an upgrade processor. A year from now, not only will the current Pentiums with MMX be less expensive, but the next version probably will be, too. We'll not only be looking at a 233 MHz version of the AMD K6, but faster models of it as well. And, who knows, perhaps Intel will backtrack on its new Pentium II cartridge (it will depend on how many people ignore it) and offer a competitive alternative as well. Next week: Microsoft and Intel are working toward a new minimum design specification for PCs. Dubbed PC98, some of the suggestions may surprise you. This document is protected by international copyright. You can download and read it for your own amusement and if you want to include a link to this site at your own website, that would be nice and I'll be grateful. However, before you can post the article at your site, make copies for your class or your friends, or publish all or any part of it in any other medium for any reason, you must ask me first. Okay? |
|
