Intel to match MMX tech with embedded market

Electronic News, Oct 6, 1997 by Jim DeTar

San Jose, Calif.--Intel is driving its MMX multimedia technology into the embedded market and last week said it will provide embedded applications support for its existing 200MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology. The company introduced a newly-developed Embedded Processor Module, dubbed the EMDMOD166, that incorporates the 166MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology and includes L2 cache and the 82430 PCIset chipset for the embedded systems market.

The move maintains the company's recent strategic position of keeping the portable systems and embedded systems markets in synch with the technology available for desktop systems. For example, when the company recently debuted its 0.25-micron P856 process technology (EN, Sept. 8), the first chip in that portfolio--previously code-named Tillamook and also at the 200MHz level--was targeted for the mobile systems market.

"The embedded systems market segment is looking for a stable, long-term processor architecture with strong tools support, a good development environment and a defined upgrade path," said Tom Franz, GM of Intel's Embedded Microcomputer division, of last week's developments. 'The 200MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology meets these requirements and gives our customers another option in performance and capabilities."

The 200MHz Pentium with MMX technology and the 166MHz Pentium with MMX technology in the new Embedded Processor Module both feature double 32 kilobytes of on-chip cache, and enhanced branch prediction and pipeline, and deeper write buffers than previous-generation Pentiums for embedded systems--features designed, the company said, to optimize overall processor performance. The processor is pin-compatible with previous embedded Pentium processors.

The 200MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology is available now in 296-pin plastic pin grid array (PPGA) packages for $252 in 1,000-unit quantities. The new EMDMOD166 module, featuring the 166MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology, will sample in 1Q98 with production quantities slated for 2Q98. Anticipated pricing is $400 in same quantities as above. The Intel 82430TX PCIset chipset is also available, separately priced at $28.25 in lots of 1,000 units.

Joe Jensen, Intel director of marketing for the Computing Enhancement group, Embedded Microcomputing division, said in an interview that the strategy behind the new module is not that it be a revenue product in itself, but that it provide the company's customers with a way to achieve quicker time to market, and in the process, Intel will sell more processors and chipsets. "The way to think of EMD (Embedded Microcomputing division) is that our division takes those same technologies (as the PC group) and we put them into embedded form factors.

"The concept for our new module is the customer will build his baseboard which has his differentiating logic, and he can spend his R&D resources on software. This (module) is just the compute subsystem and all the high-speed logic which is pretty standard in every system. He can buy this off the shelf from us, which saves him from having to put resources there."

Intel's 200MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology can run existing software 10-20 percent faster than the Pentium processor at the same frequency. Planar Corp., Beaverton, Ore., is moving to the 200MHz embedded processor for its high-end display units. Stacey Ewton, director of marketing for Planar display solutions, commented, "Intel's MMX media enhancement technology allows for vastly faster video-response times, which is key for improving performance."