<< Intel's Yamhill Technology is a secret weapon against upcoming chips from rival Advanced Micro Devices. It's also a hedge against the possible failure of Intel's flashy new Itanium chips for computer servers, which have so far gotten a disappointing reception from customers and partners. >>
<< The Yamhill features are being built into the next version of Intel's Pentium chip, code-named Prescott, with an option to turn the features on or off. In 2003 or 2004, when the Prescott chip is expected to be available, Intel will evaluate AMD's offerings and the success of the Itanium and then decide whether to activate the Yamhill code. >>
<< With its upcoming Hammer family, AMD is betting that server buyers want 64-bit chips compatible with Intel's popular Pentiums and Xeons and AMD's Athlons. Those chips, used in most of today's PCs and low-end servers, operate at 32 bits and are known as x86 designs, a reference to the names of early PC microprocessors, which all ended in the digits ``86.'' >>
<< Yamhill, named after a small town near an Oregon river of the same name, is Intel's backup plan. The extra features, called extensions, will make the Prescott chip a 64-bit chip compatible with Intel's traditional x86 designs, like AMD's Hammer, in case that's what customers really want. >>
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