IDF CPU Report - Intel & AMD

New Mobile Parts

On the mobile side of things we have the 100MHz FSB Celerons that shouldn’t be much different from their 66MHz desktop counterparts other than the increase in FSB frequency.  These 100MHz FSB Celerons boast SSE support, a 0.18-micron fabrication process, and 128KB of on-die L2 cache running at clock speed and should thus offer some fairly decent competition to the more expensive 256KB mobile Pentium III parts that share the same features as the 100MHz FSB Celerons with the addition of an extra 128KB of L2 cache. 

The new 100MHz FSB Celerons are available in 400MHz (400A), 450MHz and 500MHz parts.  The mobile 400A runs at a 1.35v core voltage and requires 10W of power while the 450/500MHz chips both run at 1.60v which explains the 16.8W power consumption figure for those two.  If you’re concerned about battery life, the Celeron 400A is the way to go, otherwise the 450/500MHz parts are excellent alternatives to their more expensive Pentium III counterparts.

For most users, a 500MHz notebook based on a Celeron 500/100MHz with 128KB of L2 cache would offer a much better value than their 256KB L2 mobile Pentium III counterparts.  As of the date of publication, one of the new 500MHz mobile Celerons is approximately 40% cheaper than a 500MHz mobile Pentium III in OEM quantities of 1000.  This translates into quite a noticeable difference in the overall cost of laptops based on these two processors, and for most users, the extra 128KB of L2 cache isn’t worth the added cost. 

In order to keep the 100MHz FSB mobile Celerons from competing with the mobile Pentium IIIs, Intel will keep the clock speeds of these down to around the 500MHz level while the mobile Pentium III ramps up to 750MHz towards the middle of this year. 

Another feature that the mobile Celerons don’t have is Intel’s recently announced SpeedStep technology that allows the dynamic adjustment of a processor’s clock frequency and core voltage depending on whether it is running off of battery power or plugged into a wall outlet.  SpeedStep is currently reserved for the mobile Pentium IIIs.

Keep in mind that not all mobile Pentium IIIs feature SpeedStep, only the 600 and 650MHz parts do.  The 600/650MHz SpeedStep parts drop to 500MHz when running on battery power and drop their core voltage from 1.60v to 1.35v at the lower frequency.  Then we have the Pentium III 450 and 500 which run on a 1.60v core voltage in addition to two newer Pentium IIIs a 400 and an updated 500 that run at 1.35v core. 

The updated 500s are essentially SpeedStep 600/650MHz chips that always run at the lower speed, ah how nice it would be if we could overclock laptops…