Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Thethingthat started itall wastheintroduction oftheEnhanced IndustryStandard Archi-
tecture(EISA)busdesignedbyCompaqin1989.Atthattime,Compaqhadsharedthebus
with other manufacturers in an attempt to make it a market standard. However, Compaq
refused to share its EISA bus chipset—a set of custom chips necessary to implement this
bus on a motherboard.
Enter Intel, who decided to fill the chipset void for the rest of the PC manufacturers want-
ing to build EISA bus motherboards. As is well known today, the EISA bus failed to be-
come a market success, except for a short-term niche server business, but Intel now had
a taste of the chipset business—and this it apparently wouldn't forget. With the introduc-
tionofthe286and386processors,Intelbecameimpatient withhowlongittooktheother
chipsetcompaniestocreatechipsetsarounditsnewprocessordesigns;thisdelayedthein-
troduction of motherboards that supported the new processors. For example, it took more
than two years after the 286 processor was introduced for the first 286 motherboards to
appear and just over a year for the first 386 motherboards to appear after the 386 had
been introduced. Intel couldn't sell its processors in volume until other manufacturers
made motherboards that would support them, so it thought that by developing mother-
board chipsets for a new processor in parallel with the new processor, it could jumpstart
the motherboard business by providing ready-made chipsets for the motherboard manu-
facturers to use.
Inteltestedthisbyintroducingthe420serieschipsetsalongwithits486processorinApril
1989. This enabled the motherboard companies to get busy right away, and in only a few
months the first 486 motherboards appeared. Of course, the other chipset manufacturers
weren't happy; now they had Intel as a competitor, and Intel would always have chipsets
for new processors on the market first!
Intel then realized that it made both processors and chipsets, which were 90% of the
components on a typical motherboard. What better way to ensure that motherboards
were available for its Pentium processor when it was introduced than by making its own
motherboards as well and having these boards ready on the new processor's introduction
date? When the first Pentium processor debuted in 1993, Intel also debuted the 430LX
chipsetaswellasafullyfinishedmotherboard.Now,besidesthechipsetcompanies being
upset, the motherboard companies weren't too happy, either. Not only was Intel the major
supplier of parts needed to build finished boards (processors and chipsets), but it was now
building and selling the finished boards as well. By 1994, Intel dominated the processor
and chipset markets and had cornered the motherboard market as well.
Now as Intel develops new processors, it develops chipsets and motherboards simultan-
eously, which means they can be announced and shipped in unison. This eliminates the
delaybetweenintroducingnewprocessorsandwaitingformotherboardsandsystemscap-
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