Intel Selects Northwest Logic to Provide SDRAM Controller Cores for its ASIC Business Unit

Intel Adds SOC Partners, Extends Xeon Line

In a move to expand itself on the SOC front, Intel Corp. has announced eight new partnerships for its 1-year-old ASIC business.

Intel Microelectronics Services (IME), a design and manufacturing service focused on wired communications market segment, extends Intel’s custom offerings by complementing the standard part and application specific standard part products with ASICs.

Today IME has announced additional relationships with eight commercial IP providers — Alcatel, ARM, ARC, GDA Technologies, 3DSP, Northwest Logic, Silicon Interfaces and Virage Logic — doubling its number of suppliers.

The deals put more IP at Intel’s disposal, allowing it to dig deeper into various markets including consumer and DSP. In separate news, Intel today introduced a dozen Intel Xeon processor family products including processors, chipsets and platforms for Intel-based servers and workstations.

Today’s product introductions mark the company’s largest enterprise product launch to date and come seven years after the company shipped its first multiprocessor-capable chip, according to Intel.

“Intel has consistently invested and innovated our way through the current economic downturn,” said Richard Dracott, group director for Intel’s enterprise platforms group, in a statement. “Today’s introduction of Intel Xeon processor products will contribute to achieving analyst predictions that 2003 will see revenue from Intel-based servers for the first time exceeding RISC-based server revenue.”

The chip giant has begun shipping its four latest Intel Xeon processors, built on its 0.13-micron process technology designed for two-way servers and workstations at speeds up to 2.8GHz with 512KB integrated cache.

In addition, Intel launched three chipsets today: Intel E7501 chipset, aimed at the embedded computing market segment; Intel E7505 chipset for two-way workstations using Intel Xeon processors; and the Intel E7205 chipset for single processor, entry level workstations based on the Pentium 4 processor.

Intel also announced five server platforms based on the processors and chipsets, supporting the likes of embedded serial ATA, Ultra320 SCSI, AGP 8x and Intel Server Management version 5.5.

The server platforms will begin shipping in two weeks and into Q1 2003. The processors and chipsets are available now.