May 19, 1997
Pentium II isn't what it should be
By Bob O'Donnell
Everybody loves faster computers. There's just no denying the rush associated with
working on a zippy new machine. So it's no surprise that Intel's new Pentium II processor
and the systems based it around are off to a successful start.
The Pentium II incorporates the fastest speeds and latest technology available from
Intel and tests have shown that it sits at the top of the performance heap, outrunning
even the strong competition offered by Advanced Micro Devices' K6. But as fast as the
Pentium II is, its true potential is being crippled by a sorely out-of-date chip set.
As the result of bad timing, poor planning, or some other set of circumstances,
virtually all of the Pentium II systems available are forced to use Intel's 440FX chip
set, the same set of supporting circuitry found in Pentium Pro systems for more than a
year. There's nothing inherently wrong with the 440FX, but it lacks support for several
critical performance technologies, including Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) and the ATA-33 bus
(for higher speed disk access), that are enabled in other Intel chip sets. The company's
430TX chip set for Pentium MMX-based systems, for example, has supported these
technologies since February.
Even more important, the 440FX chip set used in current Pentium II systems doesn't
support Advanced Graphics Port (AGP), the new video bus that Intel has been actively
promoting and commonly mentioning in conjunction with Pentium II. In fact, Intel has been
saying that the combination of Pentium II and AGP make for an impressively powerful team
and I wouldn't doubt it. Unfortunately, there's no way to find out right now.
Intel is, of course, working on a new chip set for Pentium II-based systems that will
enable all of these technologies and more, but this chip set, the 440LX, isn't expected
until the end of the third quarter or the beginning of the fourth according to reports
I've read. (Intel isn't commenting.) Until then, there's no choice but the 440FX.
This isn't the first time Intel has hamstrung a microprocessor. The previously
mentioned 430TX chip set was introduced about six weeks after the Pentium MMX processor,
and systems incorporating the two technologies only started appearing in the last month or
so. Following a similar time line, it may be close to the end of the year before
"real" Pentium II systems are available.
It's true that even the current Pentium II systems are the fastest you can buy, but I
think that many power users and IS managers looking for the best possible investment over
the long term may end up waiting for the completely enabled Pentium II computers. By
offering support for all the latest technologies, these systems are bound to be faster and
have a longer, useful life. Theoretically, I suppose that you could buy a Pentium II
system today and take advantage of Intel's Slot One architecture to move your expensive
processor over to a new 440LX-equipped motherboard when they become available, but that
seems like a lot of extra work and expense to keep up to date.
At a certain level, it's pointless to worry about performance improvements occurring
over time, because they always will. But it does seem unfortunate that early adopters of
Intel's latest technologies are being cheated out of all of the performance they're
buying.
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Copyright 1997, by InfoWorld Publishing Corp., a
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