Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/04/03/idt_chip_info_crawls_above/

IDT chip info crawls above parapet

Shall we socket and see 370 pins?

By Mike Magee

Posted in On-Prem, 3rd April 1999 09:09 GMT

We've tried over the last six months to get a dialogue going with US semi company IDT but to no avail, despite the fact that all of the other x.86 firms, including Great Stan itself, are more than happy to talk to us. For that reason, we've relied on distributors and dealers which IDT does talk to, plus hardware sites, including JC's Pages and Jonathan Hou at Fullon3d. Once again, those two sites have some information for us. The former provides a translation of a Japanese article from Nikkei Net which we can briefly summarise. According to this, IDT has decided to stay with Socket Seven. Earlier this week, we had very reliable information that the company was going the Socket 370 route and we still stand by that story. However, unlike both Rise and Cyrix, which have also said they will adopt Socket 370, it is conceivable that IDT does not want to fall foul of Intel lawyers (who does?). Rise's partner is almost certainly STMicroelectronics while Cyrix has cross-licensing arrangements with Intel, too. WinChip 3, according to the Nikkei Net piece will ramp in time for Christmas, with a 76 square millimetre die size and 128L level one cache. WinChip 4 will sample in Q3 of this year, and have 11.6 million trannies. Jonathan Hou's site, FullOn3D, meanwhile, has posted a review of the WinChip2/300 and has also obtained some benchmarks for the WinChip 3... We think IDT has to ramp up its production and its profile a little faster than this if it has to an earthly against rival Cyrix, and even for that matter, Rise... Once again, we will find out at the Computex Trade Fair in Taipei, in June. The Register will be attending and when we take a walk around the stands, we're going to see up and coming motherboards that will reveal all... ® Related Stories Now IDT takes S370 route Rise CEO confirms S370 chip on way Cyrix goes 370 pin Intel FlexATX motherboard to use 810 chipset