Looking back at 2000 - Part 1: CPUs, Chipsets, Motherboards

Looking towards the future

What is there to expect from the CPU, Chipset and Motherboard markets in 2001? 

We recently ran a poll on the AnandTech Home Page that asked a number of questions related to the Best of 2000.  Among those questions was the most hyped product of 2000, interestingly enough, DDR SDRAM was voted as one of the most hyped products of 2000. 

Currently DDR SDRAM is noticeably more expensive than regular PC133 SDRAM and motherboards with support for the memory are either rare or insanely expensive.  If DDR SDRAM is to succeed, you can expect it to gain some more ground in 2001.  However we may not see the performance benefits the technology could offer until it is paired with a more bandwidth hungry processor, either that or a more bandwidth hungry set of applications to run. 

Of course RDRAM was listed as one of the most hyped products of 2000.  At the time of publication tying DDR SDRAM with 20% of the surveyed electing it as the most hyped.  However, unlike DDR SDRAM, RDRAM has a processor that is already quite dependent on it to succeed, the Pentium 4.  It seems like contrary to what the belief was during this time last year, RDRAM will be here to stay.

We can expect the conventional North/Southbridge chipset design to fade away in 2001, being replaced by better connected alternatives such as Intel's Hub Architecture, VIA's V-Link and even more advanced incarnations such as AMD's LDT. 

The value segment will see quite a bit of competition as ALi, SiS and VIA all compete for the ability to provide home for AMD's Duron.  The mobile chipset market will heat up as well since AMD will be working towards releasing mobile versions of their Athlon and Duron processors very soon. 

Intel will most likely launch a hefty marketing campaign promoting the Pentium 4 processor, attempting to establish it as a mainstream brand name so that once the processor is affordable enough to be mainstream, there will already be demand for it.  Things will only really change for the Pentium 4 as it increases in clock speed, but more realistically when it receives its first major update at the end of 2001 with the 0.13-micron Northwood core. 

AMD is still in a very good position going into 2001, however even the slightest sign of complacency could leave them very open to serious competition from Intel.  Judging by AMD's decisions over the past 12 months alone there shouldn't be much to worry about for AMD, however as we have seen in the past, a lot can happen in 12 months. 

This year could turn out to be a very interesting year for the PC market in general and as usual, we'll be here to guide you through every step of the way.