Two years ago: Pentium Pro to meet early doom

Persistent and reliable rumours reach The Register that September will see the demise of the Pentium Pro chip but if true that will be bad news for people who make SMP servers.

According to two separate sources at major vendors, the price cuts Intel will make today on its MMX and Pro chips are merely the precursor of an early doom for the Pro. But doubts remain whether Intel will continue selling the Pro to vendors including Compaq because of the window remaining between September and the introduction of Slot 2 technology next February. (The Register, multiple passims - try a search on Deschutes).

Sources at Intel were unable to confirm or deny the extinction of the Pro when asked last week. But a distributor who sells SMP servers said he thought it unlikely. He said: "I’d heard that we were going to get a 1Mb cache Pro in September." A source at a major, tier one vendor, said: "I have seen the roadmap and it is true the Pro will disappear in that timeframe." Another source said: "Intel wants to bump the workstation market into Slot 1 and is determined to remove threats from Cyrix and AMD by making further price cuts in MMX chips."

In the original document exclusively revealed by The Register last year, Intel made no secret that its plans were to let the Pentium Pro slide in production in the second half of this year and to ramp up production of the Klamath PII. But it may seek to protect the tier one vendors creating SMP servers by assuring them supply until Deschutes Slot 2 stuff rolls off the production lines at the fabs.

Another source said it was possible that Intel would introduce Deschutes before schedule, now that it had assured quality control for the PII. ®