Intel Will Cancel Mobile Version Of Katmai

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May 18, 1998 (11:03 AM EDT)

By Mark Hachman and Sandy Chen,

Intel has canceled plans to produce a mobile version of the forthcoming Katmai microprocessor, according to an Intel customer in the notebook PC sector.

The change in Intel's product road map was made at the request of PC original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who want to reduce the time and money spent redesigning notebook PCs to accommodate Intel's latest microprocessor products.

"We relayed the information [to Intel] that our own customers required fewer product revs, and that they wanted each [new processor] to be significant," said a PC OEM executive who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The executive said he learned of the mobile-Katmai cancellation through conversations with Intel (company profile). In addition to the executive, Intel's decision was confirmed by a third-party Intel sales representative in Taiwan.

One industry analyst also reported the mobile Katmai is not included in Intel's official road map, but said he had not heard definitively from the company that the project had been pulled.

If the cancellation is true, Intel, in effect, would be consolidating its notebook-product road map, eliminating the Katmai and leaping directly to its next major Pentium II revision for the portable market, the Coppermine.

The change is not expected to affect Intel's first-quarter 1999 introduction of the Katmai processor for the desktop PC.

The Pentium II-based Coppermine will be introduced in September 1999, with production slated for November. The 450- to 500-megahertz device is expected to be released on a 0.18-micron process to satisfy a 10-watt power budget, according to the OEM source.

The source noted the chip will run on both AC and DC operating voltages, using Intel's new Geyserville technology to establish a lower operating voltage when powered by batteries.

The Coppermine also will include the same microprocessor instructions Intel is releasing with its Katmai desktop device.

A spokesman for Intel declined to comment on future products or road maps.

In addition to the high-performance Coppermine, Intel is said to be readying its Dixon processor, the first chip specifically designed for low-cost notebook PCs.

Slated for a fourth-quarter 1998 release at 266 MHz, the Dixon is a derivative of the Celeron desktop processor with 128 Kbytes of integrated Level 2 cache. Like the Celeron, the Dixon will use minimal packaging, although details of the design were not immediately available.

With the Dixon and Coppermine chips, Intel's mobile-processor road map appears to be breaking down into various performance classes, much like its desktop road map. However, notebook chips must contend with power issues, a factor that has prevented them from keeping pace with their desktop cousins.

To satisfy customers' power demands, Intel continues to refine its process technology, and has variously reduced the operating voltage of its mobile components and even slowed its transition to higher clock speeds.

Analysts have noted, for example, that Intel's mobile Pentium II processor now lags four speed grades behind the desktop version.