CPU QuickLinks
Chipset QuickLinks
Video QuickLinks
Software QuickLinks

20XX
2006
Q4 2005
Q3 2005
Q2 2005
Q1 2005
Q4 2004
Q3 2004
Q2 2004
Q1 2004
Q4 2003
Q3 2003
Q2 2003
Q1 2003
Q4 2002
Q3 2002
Q2 2002
Q1 2002
Q4 2001
Q3 2001
Q2 2001
Q1 2001
Q4 2000
Q3 2000
Q2 2000
Q1 2000
Q4 1999
Q3 1999
Q2 1999
Q1 1999

mike@mikeshardware.co.uk

2006

Previous Roadmap   Next Roadmap

Q1

Sun Niagara CPU is expected to be released in Early 2006 on a 90nm process. Niagara is a highly multi threaded (Chip Multi Threaded) design comprising of eight cores, each of which has a 6 stage pipeline and can process four threads simultaneously. Niagara will also contain an integrated memory controller, allowing access to 32GB of DDRII through a quad channel memory interface and will have 3MB of on-die L2 cache. The CPU will also have a cryptography co-processor attached to each core for security processing, e.g. encoding and decoding SSL for a web server, and contains integrated networking. The performance in a multi-threaded environment is expected to be extremely good, with a Niagara CPU expected to have 15x more throughput than 1Ghz USIIIi, but still retain a relatively low clock speed of around 1Ghz.

Intel Pentium-M (Jonah / Yonah) mobile CPU is expected to be released in Q1. Jonah is part of the Napa platform and the successor to Dothan. It is expected to be built on a 65nm process and contain two CPU cores on a single die taking 151.6 million transistors (compared to around 140m in Dothan). Jonah is expected to feature a 667Mhz FSB speed and a 2Mb L2 cache shared between the two cores. In addition to the featureset of Dothan, Jonah will feature an updated SSE instruction set (SSE3 support and SSE/SSE2 support tied to MicroOps Fusion, and throughput improvement in the SSE Decoder) along with improved performance of the x86 FPU. These improvements to the floating point performance of the processor are dubbed "Digital Media Boost" by Intel. Jonah will also feature improvements to power management and thermal output, meaning that the power consumption of Jonah will be similar to that of Dothan, despite the increased core size and complexity. Intel's Advanced Thermal Manager offers finer grained thermal management and Yonah will allow for one core to be slowed down independently of the other if power consumption or heat dissipation rises too much. Jonah will also feature Intel's Vanderpool technology and LaGrande Security technology, but will not contain x64 instruction set support in it's first incarnation.

The initial members of Yonah are expected to be the X20 (1.66Ghz), X30 (1.83Ghz), X40 (2.0Ghz) and X50 (2.16Ghz).

Intel Calistoga chipsets (955XM, 945PM, 945GM and 940GML), part of the Napa platform for Jonah, are expected to be released in Q1. Calistoga chipsets are expected to support a 667Mhz FSB, DDR-2 667 and PCI Express. Calistoga will be paired with ICH7-M, featuring 4xSATA-300 ports, and the Golan wireless chipset, supporting 80211a/b/g and WPA2.

Intel Xeon DP (Dempsey) is expected to be released in Q1. Dempsey is the 65nm, Dual Core successor to Irwindale featuring support for a 1066MHz FSB and containing two sets of 2MB L2 cache, one for each core. The clock speeds of Dempsey are expected to be 3.80GHz, 3.60GHz, 3.40GHz, 3.20GHz, 3GHz and 2.8GHz.

Intel E7520 (Blackford) chipset for Dempsey is expected to be released in Q1. This chipset is expected to feature support for a 1066Mhz FSB speed, Intel's I/O acceleration, Intel Virtualisation Technology (formally Vanderpool) and Active Management technology.

Intel Greencreek chipset for Dempsey is expected to be released in Q1. Greencreek is part of the Glidewell platform for Workstations and is expected to feature support for a 1066Mhz FSB speed, PCI-Express x16 and FB-DIMM memory.

Intel Xeon MP (Paxville) is expected to be released in Q1. Paxville is the 90nm, Dual Core successor to Tulsa, featuring a twin 1066Mhz FSB (one for each core).

Intel E8850 chipset for Paxville is expected to be released in Q1. The E8850 is part of the Truland platform, featuring support for Quad Channel DDR2 400 than can be arranged in a Mirror mode (like RAID1 to prevent data loss of a chip fails) and Hot Plug PCI Express.

Windows Media Player 11 is expected to be released in Q1. WMP11 (Polaris) is expected to be a significant upgrade to WMP 10.

Intel i945GZ chipset for the Pentium 4 / Pentium D is expected to be released in Q1 2006. The i945GZ is a cut down version of the i945G, supporting GMA950 integrated graphics, but no PCI Express x16 slots and removing support for the 1066Mhz FSB speed. The i945GZ also features a cut down, single-channel DDR2-533/400 memory interface.

Q2

AMD Athlon 64 FX (Windsor) is expected to be released in Q2.  Windsor is expected to be a dual core CPU built on a 90nm featuring AMD's Presidio Security technology and Pacifica Virtualisation technology. Windsor will introduce a new Socket M2 platform (940 pins) and is expected to feature DDR2 667 support and contain a 2Mb L2 cache.

AMD Athlon 64 (Orleans) is expected to be released in Q2.  Orleans is the cut down version of Windsor, featuring a single core design with 1Mb L2 cache alongside the features of Windsor such as DDR2 667, Presidio Security technology and Pacifica Virtualisation technology. Like Windsor, it will be built for the Socket M2 platform.

AMD Sempron (Manila) is expected to be released in Q2.  Based on the Windsor & Orleans cores, Manila is expected to be a single core CPU featuring 512Kb L2 cache and DDR2 667 support. Manila is not expected to feature Presidio or Pacifica technologies, but will be based on the Socket M2 platform.

Intel Celeron (Cedarmill) is expected to be released in Q2. Cedarmill will be built on a 65nm process and largely based on the (single core) Prescott 2M core. Targeted at the value sector, Cedarmill will be released at clock speeds up to 3.6Ghz.

Intel Pentium D 9xx (Presler) is expected to be released in Q2 as part of the Averill platform. Presler is the 65nm successor to Smithfield and features two physically separate cores in a single package, each with a 2MB L2 cache (for a total of 4MB of L2 cache). The two cores will communicate over a dedicated external 800Mhz FSB.

Intel Pentium Extreme Edition (Presler) is expected to be released in Q2. The Pentium Extreme Edition (Presler) is the 65nm successor to the Pentium Extreme Edition (Smithfield) In addition to the featureset of the Pentium D Presler, the Extreme Edition features Hyperthreading support in each of the cores and runs on a 1066Mhz FSB.

Intel Broadwater P/G chipset for Presler is expected to be released in Q2. Broadwater is part of the Averill platform and is expected to feature Intel's Active Management Technology 2 (AMT2) and will introduce the LaGrande security system.

Intel Sossaman CPU is expected to be released in H1 2006. Although Sossaman is expected to be a desktop CPU, based on the E7520 chipset, it is expected to be a dual core processor based on the Yonah core. Sossaman is a low power processor, with the 2Ghz revision having a TDP of 31W, with the 1.67Ghz LV version having a TDP of just 15W.

Sony Playstation 3, the successor to the PS2, is expected to be released in the Spring. The main elements to the Playstation 3 are a 7 SPE version of IBM's Cell processor and nVidia's Reality Synthesizer GPU. The Cell processor in PS3 runs at 3.2Ghz and consists of 1 PowerPC Processing Element (PPE) - an IBM PowerPC-based core - alongside 7 Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). Note that the Cell processor actually contains 8 SPEs, but for yield reasons Sony have decided to disable one of the cores. The PPE features 64KB L1 cache, 512KB L2 cache and also features Symmetric Multithreading (i.e. two threads can run concurrently rather like Intel's Hyperthreading). The SPEs are simplified processors, not being as general purpose as the PPE, but are ideal for highly parallel computations such as AI and physics, which is expected to be their main role in the gaming environment of the PS3. Each SPE has 256KB of local memory and seven execution units, of which one is dedicated to integer tasks (the remaining 6 are floating point units). Cell also contains an on-die dual channel XDR memory controller, which in the case of the PS3 connects to 256mb of Rambus XDR memory clocked at 3.2Ghz, giving a memory bandwidth of 25.6 GB/s.
The Graphics processing in Cell is provided by nVidia's Reality Synthesizer, a 300 million transistor GPU built on a 90nm process. It is based on nVidia's next-generation (G70) core and is expected to be more powerful than a pair of SLIed GeForce 6800 Ultras, with 136 shader operations/s being processed as opposed to 53 in a GeForce 6 series GPU. The GPU itself runs at a clock speed of 550Mhz and is connected to 256MB of dedicated 700Mhz GDDR3 local graphics memory. It can additionally access the 256MB of XDR main memory via the CPU with a technology based on TurboCache, with the GPU-CPU interface having a bandwidth of 35GB/s (20GB write, 15GB read). In terms of output, the PS3 supports dual screens up to 1080p (better than the X-Box 360's 1080i), allowing Panoramic gaming, an extended game display or even a different application on each head.
The PS3 additionally supports a removable hard disk up to 160GB (although it is not currently known what size - if any - the shipping HDD will be), support for up to 7 controllers via Bluetooth, 1 External and 2 'Internal' (?) Gigabit Ethernet ports, built-in WiFi 802.11b/g, 6xUSB2 ports, a card reader supporting CF, MS and SD memory cards, an AV Multi output port and an SPDIF audio port. Software will be distributed on BluRay disks, with the BluRay drive being backwardly compatible with CD and DVD media. The Playstation 3 will be backwards compatible with the PS2 and also most PS1 titles.
The main rival to the PS3 will be Microsoft's X-Box 360 console. Whilst the PS3 is technically superior, the X-Box 360 will be released 6 months ahead of the PS3 and Microsoft's X-Box Live package for X-Box 360 looks promising.

Q3

Microsoft Visual Studio 'Orcas' is expected to be released in August / September. Visual Studio 'Orcas' is the successor to Visual Studio 'Whidbey', released to coincide with Longhorn. Visual Studio 9 will provide support for Longhorn's enhanced UI, managed interfaces,  new trustworthy computing and security models, new application model, improved communication and collaboration, integrated data storage, and innovations in presentation and media.

Microsoft Office 12 is expected to be released in August / September (Late 2006?). Amongst other improvements, Word, Excel and Powerpoint will save documents in a zipped XML format by default, with Microsoft providing a royalty-free license for the format.

Q4

Windows Longhorn , the successor to Windows XP, is expected to go gold in August - November, although is is not expected to be released until Late Q4. Longhorn is expected to feature improvements in networking and mobility, digital media and entertainment, smart displays (Mira 2.0), A/V streaming and concurrency, and compatibility with new TV/client adapters that will connect next-generation "Media Center" PCs. Longhorn will feature native support for Mt Rainier for CD-R/RW, DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, HD DVD and probably other formats (e.g. Blue Ray) and will also feature native Spyware detection, but not Anti Virus protection. Longhorn will also feature an improved graphics interface (referred to as the Longhorn Graphics Infrastructure), enabling a 3D interface to Windows. Other new features include Microsoft's Visualize and Organize Instant Desktop Search, which will still be included despite the removal of WinFS,  new SyncManager for syncing content to mobile phones and other PCs through both wired and wireless networks, and enhanced security. Users will be created as standard users, instead of administrative users, which lessons the damage the user can make with the system. Additionally, Longhorn will feature whole-volume encryption preventing unauthorized access to data and a much
improved version of Internet Explorer, which is expected to be a significant upgrade to IE 7.0 for Windows XP, including support for the parental control system included in Longhorn, advanced graphical capabilities, and revamped search functionality linked in with the search built into the OS. Longhorn IE will be much safer than XP SP2 + IE 7 due to it's integration into the more secure OS.

AMD Opteron 874 & 872, based on an improved K8 core, are expected to be available in Q4. These processors are expected to released with a clock speed of 2.6Ghz and will be built for the Socket F platform, featuring a 1207 pin interface.

Intel Merom Mobile processor, the successor to Jonah and part of the Santa Rosa platform, is expected to be released in Late 2006. Merom will be built on a 65nm process and is expected to feature a different architecture to previous Banias-based processors, providing a 20-30% performance improvement per clock. Merom is expected to be a dual-core CPU.

Intel Crestine-GM (Crestline?) chipset for Merom is expected to be released in Late 2006. Crestine-GM is part of the Santa Rosa platform and is expected to support an 800Mhz FSB speed, DDRII 800 SDRAM and PCI Express. Crestine is expected to interface to ICH8-M, featuring support for Serial ATA 300, and the Golan2 / Annadel wireless chipset supporting 80211a/b/g and 11n WiMax.

Intel Conroe desktop CPU is expected to be released in Late 2006. Conroe is a dual core CPU based around the Merom core (i.e. it is based on a non-Netburst architecture). In order to increase the performance of this CPU for the desktop market, some of the power constraints from Merom will be removed. Conroe will feature virtualization capabilities, LaGrande technology and 64-bit capability in addition to EDB, EIST and iAMT2.
 

2006

Nintendo Revolution is expected to be released in 2006. The physical hardware of the GameCube 2 currently appears to be similar to that of X-Box 360 with Revolution featuring an IBM processor and ATI GPU. The media used by Revolution will be a new, proprietary format, but will also be able to read GameCube disks. An add on unit will be available to enable DVD playback through the console. Unlike the PS3 and X-Box 360, Revolution will be a games machine only and won't offer any digital hub functionality. However, it will have built-in WiFi support, with which Revolution owners will be able to download every console game Nintendo has ever made, from every console it has ever shipped (currently it has not been stated whether this will be a chargable service) over the Internet - Revolution is fully backwardly compatible with all Nintendo's previous hardware. Revolution will additionally feature wireless controllers, two USB ports and 512MB of flash RAM.

Windows Server Longhorn Beta 2 is expected to be released in 2006.

Windows Server 2003 SP2 is expected to be released in 2006. This update will be for both the original version of Windows Server 2003 as well as Windows Server 2003 R2.

Intel Shavano IA-64 CPU is expected to be released in 2005/2006. Shavano is the successor to Intel's Montecito IA-64 CPU. Shavano is expected to be a dual core processor design and may introduce an asynchronous serial FSB. (Still on Intel's Roadmap?)

AMD Trinidad mobile processor is expected to be released in 2006. Trinidad is a dual core CPU designed for desktop replacement notebooks. The processor is M2-based, and will therefore feature a DDR2-667 memory interface.

AMD Taylor mobile processor is expected to be released in 2006. Taylor is a dual core CPU designed  for Thin and light laptops. Like Trinidad it is expected to be based on the m2 platform and feature a DDR2-667 memory interface.
 

Previous Roadmap   Next Roadmap