'Tsunami' 21264 core logic to come from 'multiple vendors.'

Electronic News, Feb 9, 1998

Hudson, Mass.--The Digital Alpha microprocessor design and engineering group based here is currently engineering two more generations beyond the 21264 detailed last week (see story, page 20), Dan Cassaletto, VP for Alpha engineering, said. "The nomenclature inside Digital is EV-5 for the current generation (21164), EV-6, which is the 21264 we just announced, and design teams are working on EV-7 and EV-8 right now. We are working on the next two generations, which will take us well beyond the year 2004," he said.

However, the matter of the 21264's bus core logic goes beyond how many 21264 microprocessors end up shipping and what comes next, because the forthcoming K7 from Advanced Micro Devices is going to use the same bus, a fact with which AMD chief executive Jerry Sanders surprised last fall's Microprocessor Forum attendees.

In turn, Digital sees AMD's decision as great news; Mr. Cassaletto said this is sure to increase the number of motherboard makers experienced with the bus, which is known internally as the "Tsunami" chipset, DEC's David Jessell, senior product manager for Alpha, said.

The Tsunami chipset is nothing to sneeze at on performance, and Digital hinted that independent chipset vendors are to step in. Tsunami is "a system bus running at 300MHz and higher frequencies," he said, "it's a 64-bit bus that can run over 300Mhz because we use a clock forwarding point-to-point connection" within this "cross bus switch" type of chipset. It's the first time this architectural route has been used on a system bus, Mr. Jessell said, and its engineers do not become employees of Intel if and when the (sale to Intel) is completed.

"The P2 bus runs at 66MHz, and they're trying to get to 100Mhz," he said. AMD, rather than use an Intel-compatible or P2 like bus, will gain ground, Mr. Jessell said. "Using our technology they will come out of the chute with three times the performance that Intel is trying to get to," he said. And, "it is also more scalable, so better in a multiprocessing environment. (Symmetric processors will be on) our 1.6 gigabyte (GB) per seconds bus vs. the P2 bus, where all the processors are competing on a slow, limited bandwidth."

Interest is growing among the independent core logic vendors, according to Mr. Jessell. "You could assume that there will be multiple vendors' chipsets, and Alpha will be able to work with those chipsets, which will naturally benefit our system designs," he said. But is Digital in talks to exchange IP and draw contracts for other companies to offer the Tsunami chipset? "I couldn't comment on that," Mr. Jessell said. "Just from a general perspective, for a large volume part like the K7, you could expect that there will be other chipset vendors involved," he said.