Introduction
After being at the IDF for five days listening to Intel keynotes, speaking with Intel PR, conversing with other journalists and taking a few labs, I have a good picture on what Intel has planned for the future of the PC industry. The Internet angle that Intel has taken for the future of their products was the major focal point of all their products. From the IA-64 to the new USB 2.0, everything had its place in Intel's big picture to thrust homes and businesses into the Internet scheme of things.
Merced/Coppermine
The first big announcements came when I attended Craig Barrett's keynote speech. He talked about Intel's predictions for the future of PC's stating that there would be huge growth in the home, businesses and Internet infrastructure. He went on to give a demo of Merced running a 64-bit Windows OS that just happened to expire when he started the system! After a few laughs and Mr. Barrett saying he could afford to renew the license, the demo went on to show a few simple demos. After this a prototype of IA-64 Linux was demonstrated. It was stated that engineering samples have already began shipping to Intel customers. Most of the information that was disclosed here wasn't really anything too new besides proving that the Merced is alive and kicking with proof. We were told that Merced was still on track to be released sometime in mid-2000. Next was a showcase of the Coppermine based CPUs that were running at 800MHz air-cooled. Mr. Barrett made a quick joke by stating that the machine didn't need any special type of cooling devices to reach the 800MHz speed (obvious kick at AMD). He stated that we would see Intel CPUs with the "7" in the beginning sometime in October and told Pat Gelsinger (VP and General Manager of Intel Corps Desktop Products Group) to make it happen in a joking way.
The developers interface guide (DIG64) for Merced was launched at IDF () that details system building blocks (processor, memory, chipset, I/O bus) and software interface. The idea is to build requirements that would utilize the power of the 64-bit processor and to be able to keep the platform scalable for future IA-64 servers. The founding members of DIG64 are Compaq, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Siemens and NEC. With standards being developed for Merced, we should see a much smoother introduction of IA-64 products.
