Intel unveils First Merced & Coppermine Silicon at IDF

Computergram International, Sept 1, 1999

Intel Corp debuted the first silicon versions of its Merced IA-64 and "Coppermine" processors at the Intel Developers Forum in Palm Springs yesterday. As we predicted (CI No 3,723), Intel's first 64-bit silicon - Merced - formed the centerpiece of CEO's Craig Barrett's keynote speech. An 800Mhz version of Coppermine, Intel's first 0.18 micron desktop CPU, was demonstrated as the engine behind the a range of prototype 'designer' PCs, and Barrett said it would be officially launched in October.

After its elephantine gestation period the first Merced chip was delivered two weeks ago. Barrett and members of the design team demonstrated machines using "A0 Silicon" processors, running Windows 2000 and Linux. The team demonstrated real-time 3D rendering on the Windows workstation and surfed the web using a Linux Apache server. Both demonstrations used cross-compiled 32- bit code. "We have started delivering engineering samples for OEMs," Barrett said.

The Coppermine desktop processor is the first step on Intel's ramp to the 0.18 micron process. The chip was used in conjunction with Intel's 820 'Camino' chipset, although Intel did not reveal whether the chipset was being used with SDRAM memory or Rambus DRAMs. Barrett said that the 800MHz version was for demonstration purposes only and that the first silicon would run at a clock speed of 700MHz or over. The mobile version of Coppermine will be rolled out hard on the heels of its desktop sibling. "0.13 micron gets introduced about two years from now," Barrett said.