| Headlines April
3, 1998 |
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By Mark Hachman
April 2, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
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Integrated Device Technology Inc.'s Centaur
Technology division has decided to redesign its
forthcoming C6-2L Intel-compatible microprocessor to
minimize the die size and increase performance. Like
the forthcoming AMD K6+3D microprocessor, the WinChip
C6-2L was expected to integrate 128 kilobytes of level 2
cache. Now, the chip's designers say they will replace an
integrated level 2 cache with a larger 128 Kbyte on-chip
Level 1 cache. The C6-2L will double the cache over the
previous C6+ microprocessor, resulting in increased
performance. The C6-2L chip is scheduled for release at
the end of 1998, IDT executives said.
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By Jeff Pelline
April 2, 1998
C/Net
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In another reminder that Intel's (INTC) Craig Barrett
faces a tough challenge when he succeeds Andy Grove as
the chip giant's chief executive next month, a Wall
Street analyst today initiated coverage of the company's
stock with a more cautious rating. In assigning the
"market performer" rating, Terry Ragsdale, an
analyst with J.P. Morgan, reiterated many of the concerns
that analysts have been expressing about Intel. (Intel is
an investor in CNET: The Computer Network, publisher of
NEWS.COM.)
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By Mark Hachman
April 2, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
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A combination of savvy design and an attractive
pricing strategy appear to have offset initial concerns
about the power consumption of Intel Corp.'s mobile
Pentium II. Early reports characterized the chip as
power hungry, but OEMs said they found only a slight
decrease in battery life in products built around the
device. Any increase in power consumption, they said, had
been balanced by updated power management software, a
redesigned motherboard, or both.
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By Reuters
April 3, 1998
C/Net
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Kulicke & Soffa Industries (KLIC) said late
yesterday that a major customer, possibly Intel, had
canceled an order, and the company expected to report a
net loss for its quarter ending in June instead of the
profit Wall Street had expected. The latest consensus
among Wall Street analysts was for the company to earn 36
cents per share in the June quarter, according to First
Call, which collects brokers' estimates.
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By Reuters
April 2, 1998
C/Net
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Newly named Intel(INTC) CEO Craig Barrett said today
that the chip giant's plans to invest up to $500 million
at three facilities in Malaysia remain unchanged despite
the regional economic crisis. Barrett said Intel was
committed to participating in Malaysia's Multimedia Super
Corridor, a high-technology zone outside the capital
Kuala Lumpur, but had not yet finalized its plans.
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| Headlines April
2, 1998 |
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By Kelly Spang
April 1, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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Editor's note: The industry looked on with great
interest as Andrew Grove, Intel's co-founder, chairman,
and CEO resigned last week. CRN section editor Kelly
Spang spoke with Craig Barrett, Intel's chief operating
officer, just three weeks prior to his being named
Grove's replacement. As CEO, Barrett will lead the chip
giant through its newest move of processor segmentation. |
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By Alexander Wolfe
March 27, 1998
EE Times
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Sometimes the true measure of a leader lies not in
how he runs the race but in how he departs. Here, Lou
Gehrig is the defining example of grace in the face of
the setting sun. On the flip side, there are lots of
folks who don't know when it's time to throw in the
towel. Mike Jagger of the Rolling Stones comes
immediately to mind. The case of Intel's Andy Grove
fits into neither of these neat categories. Grove
announced on March 26 that he will turn over his post as
chief executive officer to Craig Barrett, effective May
20. Grove will retain his job as chairman. Barrett, 58,
is being promoted from his current position as president
and chief operating officer.
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By Michael Slater
March 30, 1998
Microprocessor Report
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Ever since the creation of the microprocessor, there
has been a natural fascination with the prospect of
boosting performance by using more than one processor in
a system. Today, multiprocessor (MP) systems have reached
the mainstream of the server market, but they remain
nearly nonexistent in the desktop PC market. |
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By Linley Gwennap
March 30, 1998
Microprocessor Report
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Due to severe overcapacity in the DRAM market, prices
have fallen by nearly 90% in the past two years. Could
such a calamity happen in the x86 microprocessor market?
With Intel, AMD, and National all aggressively building
fab capacity over the next few years, the x86 market
could become oversupplied in the near future. |
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By Margaret Kane
April 2, 1998
ZD Net News
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Notebook makers are gearing up for today's formal
launch of a mobile version of Intel Corp.'s (INTC)
Pentium II processor, code-named Tillamook. Among
companies readying announcements are Gateway 2000 Inc.
(GTW), Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ), Dell Computer Corp.
(DELL), Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), Hewlett-Packard
Co. (HWP), Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. and
Acer America Corp.
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Related Stories
Mobile Pentium II questions raised
Pentium II notebooks boost
performance, cut battery life
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By Terho Uimonen
April 2, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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In advance of its U.S. launch, Intel here Thursday
formally introduced the first mobile versions of its
high-end Pentium II processor family targeted at notebook
PCs, running at 233 MHz and 266 MHz. The chip giant
later this quarter will also release mobile Pentium II
versions in its proprietary Intel Mobile Module (IMM)
format with support for accelerated graphics port (AGP)
signals, the company said.
Sources close to Intel said AGP support will likely be
introduced with the forthcoming 300-MHz version of the
processor series.
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By J. Robert Lineback
April 1, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
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While chip makers are showing some willingness again
to resume their migration to 300-mm wafers, the lack of
early prototype tools has become a major roadblock for
pilot line projects, which are needed to integrate
process steps and debug fab automation software,
according to industry managers attending Semicon Europa
here this week. |
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| Headlines April
1, 1998 |
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By Scott Rosenberg
March 31, 1998
Salon Magazine
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No one could claim real surprise at last week's
announcement that Intel CEO Andy Grove would step down in
favor of his No. 2 man and heir-apparent, Craig Barrett.
This was no boardroom upset; Intel has always groomed its
line of succession with the kind of rigorous long-range
planning typically found only at places like Windsor
Castle or the Vatican. |
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By Michael Kanellos
April 1, 1998
C/Net
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Intel (INTC) and most of the industry's major
notebook PC manufacturers will gather in Santa Clara,
California, tomorrow morning to showcase the first mobile
computers
using the Pentium II processor. But behind the veneer
of flashy new systems lurk questions about performance.
The Pentium II processor, or at least the first
generation of the chip, presents a design dilemma for
notebook vendors, some analysts and notebook executives
say.
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By Reuters
March 31, 1998
C/Net
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A new, much-anticipated chip developed by Intel
(INTC) aimed at the sub-$1,000 PC market is not as fast
running applications as its clone competitors, according
to tests performed by computer magazine PC World. The
chip, called Celeron, is expected to be launched on April
15, but PC World said it obtained a preproduction PC with
a Celeron chip running at a speed of 266 MHz.
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By Suzanne Galante
March 31, 1998
C/Net
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Despite warning earlier this month that its
first-quarter results would "decline
significantly," Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD) stock
has been on a roll as analysts and investors look beyond
the current quarter and toward the revenue potential of
improved yields announced by the company today. AMD's
stock gained more than 9 percent on the news, to 29-1/16,
up 2-1/2 from yesterday's close of 26-9/16. Since the
holidays, the chipmaker has seen its stock appreciate
about 70 percent from trading in the high teens as of
late December.
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By Reuters
March 31, 1998
C/Net
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Semiconductor giant Intel (INTC) is struggling to
revive growth after facing more than a year of stagnant
revenues, company president Craig Barrett said today. "The
biggest issue that we face right now is getting back on
the growth track," Barrett told a news conference
here. "We have been flat in revenue for the past 15
to 18 months. We need to continue to focus on
microprocessors and find new users and uses for personal
computers. We also need to grow in other businesses in
and around computers."
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By Michael Kanellos
March 31, 1998
C/Net
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Despite production snags in 1997, Advanced Micro
Devices and Cyrix are engaging in ambitious product
strategies that will likely challenge Intel in the cheap
computing arena. Both companies will try to maintain
performance parity with Intel's Pentium II processors
while selling their chips for significantly less.
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By Yoshiko HaraWith additional reporting by Rick
Boyd-Merritt
March 31, 1998
EE Times
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Fujitsu Ltd. has worked with Intel Corp. to come up
with a way to deal with heat dissipation, a notoriously
weak link in Intel's technology for mobile systems. As
Intel prepares to roll out its next-generation notebook
processors next week, Fujitsu will unveil a cooling
module that satisfies the power-budget requirements of
high-performance microprocessors for notebook systems. |
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| Headlines March
31, 1998 |
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By Michael Kanellos
March 30, 1998
C/Net
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An imbalance between the price and
supply of Intel microprocessors is leading to a rise in
"remarked" chips with bogus speed ratings in
Europe and North America. Computer makers in the United
States claim that there have been recent instances of
chips sold as 200-MHz Pentium Pro processors were in fact
166-MHz Pentium Pros that had been repackaged and
renumbered by unscrupulous chip brokers to look like
their 200-MHz counterparts. The German magazine c't has
reported on a rash of 266-MHz Pentium II chips being sold
as 300-MHz versions in Germany.
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By Staff Writer
March 30, 1998
PC World
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INTEL'S NEW CELERON CHIP, the low-end
processor aimed at the sub-$1000 PC market, has failed to
live up to even modest expectations in our PC WorldBench
testing. In this exclusive report from our upcoming May
issue, a 266-MHz Celeron test system performed
significantly poorer on business applications than
similarly configured systems from AMD and Cyrix. |
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By Bill Snyder
March 30, 1998
PC World
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You've probably noticed the
proliferation of astonishingly cheap yet capable PCs. But
have you also noticed that a surprising number of these
sub-$1000 systems don't sport the "Intel
Inside" logo? Intel hopes that will change
beginning April 15, when the company introduces the
Celeron, a stripped-down Pentium II-class chip aimed
squarely at the fast-growing market for entry-level PCs.
The good news: Continued competition at the high and low
ends of the market will force manufacturers to slash
prices and push performance further. The bad news:
Celeron falls short of the mark.
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By Reuters
March 30, 1998
C/Net
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Shares of Advanced Micro Devices rose
today after getting a boost from two analysts who said
the chipmaker's manufacturing is improving. The signs
of confidence came from analyst Eric Rothdeutsch of Volpe
Brown Whelan and Dan Niles, a BancAmerica Robertson
Stephens analyst and an occasional columnist for CNET's
NEWS.COM. Both said AMD was getting better yields of its
K6 processor, meaning that it is getting more good parts
to ship to customers.
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The article basically discusses the
ambiguity of benchmarks (like ByteMarks) which Apple used
for this test. Fine. But remember Intel was claiming that
MMX made their processors 4 or 8 times faster or more? I
do. |
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By Michael Kanellos
March 31, 1998
C/Net
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Despite production snags in 1997, both
Advanced Micro Devices and Cyrix are engaged in ambitious
product strategies this year that will likely challenge
Intel in the cheap computing space. Both companies
will try to maintain performance parity with the Intel
Pentium II processors in 1998 and, at the same time, sell
their processors for significantly less. The two
companies, along with Integrated Device Technologies are,
in addition, making a concerted effort in graphics. All
three are currently hammering out standards for an
additional, common set of 3D instructions that will be
incorporated into processors this year.
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By Brooke Crothers
March 30, 1998
C/Net
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Intel (INTC) will delay construction of
an office building at its Folsom, California, site, as
the company adjusts to a more severe business climate
than previously anticipated. The central California
site includes Intel's Peripheral Component Interconnect
(PCI) components division, flash memory products
division, and math co-processors and microprocessor
upgrade products division, among other businesses.
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By John G. Spooner
March 30, 1998
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp.'s first Pentium II
processors for notebook PCs will offer better performance
but will place a real drag on battery power. Intel this
week will introduce 233MHz and 266MHz Pentium II
processors packaged on an MMO (Mobile Module) or on a
cartridge including the CPU and 512KB of Level 2 cache,
said officials at the Santa Clara, Calif., company.
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By Sonali Verma
March 31, 1998
PC Week
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Semiconductor giant Intel Corp is
struggling to revive growth after facing more than a year
of stagnant revenues, company president Craig Barrett
said on Tuesday. "The biggest issue that we face
right now is getting back on the growth track,"
Barrett told a news conference.
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| Headlines March
30, 1998 |
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By Staff Writer
March 26, 1998
Asia Biz Tech
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Intel KK Chairman Ikuo Nishioka said the
company's new Celeron microprocessor for low-priced
personal computers might build up only a relatively small
market share. During a March 19 seminar in Tokyo for
reporters on Intel's future product plans, Nishioka said
Celeron could account for about 10 percent of the entire
microprocessor market for PCs.
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By Kurt Oeler
March 27, 1998
C/Net
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Though it hasn't yet reached the market,
Intel's first chip to specifically target low-cost PCs,
the Celeron, will probably meet with a cool welcome in
Japan, mirroring its advance reception in the United
States. Celeron is unlikely to gain more than ten
percent market share, Intel Japan chairman Ikuo Nishioka
recently told a Tokyo seminar, business daily Nihon
Keizai Shimbun reported today.
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By Staff Writer
March 30, 1998
Asia Biz Tech
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Makers of computer peripheral equipment
said that purchases of PCs are expected to be stagnant in
Taiwan, as uncertainties surround the Covington
microprocessor and the 440EX chip set, two parts of Intel
Corp.'s Celeron motherboard that is slated to appear
later this year. For this reason, suppliers say PC prices
are likely to continue sliding, and earnings of computer
companies may decline. Intel's Pentium II line has
obtained a large share of the local market since the
beginning of this year.
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By Brooke Crothers and Michael Kanellos
March 27, 1998
C/Net
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One the chip industry's leading pundits
today said that Intel (INTC) faces a rash of threats
including emerging chip powerhouse IBM and the Federal
Trade Commission. Speaking at one of the computer
industry's largest and most prestigious gatherings of
engineers, the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference,
Michael Slater said that Intel will increasingly have to
compete against IBM's chipmaking arm, which has become a
major manufacturer of low-cost, Intel-compatible chips
for Advanced Micro Devices, Integrated Device Technology
(IDT), Cyrix, and possibly others. Slater is the founder
of MicroDesign Resources and founder and editorial
director of the Microprocessor Report.
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By Mark Hachman
March 27, 1998
Electronic Buyers News
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Microsoft Corp.'s annual Windows
Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Orlando,
Fla., proved to be an occasion for the software giant to
get in its two cents worth on several hardware
initiatives. Perhaps most significantly, Microsoft
rescued microprocessor manufacturer Advanced Micro
Devices Inc. when it announced that its DirectX 6.0
software API would ship in July, rather than on some
future undisclosed date, as originally planned.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
March 30, 1998
PC Week Online
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Cyrix Corp. has seen the future of its
microprocessors, and it's integrated. The company will
begin transforming its entire product line next year into
a series of low-cost processors with varying levels of
integration. The first chip to incorporate such
integration will be the company's next-generation
processor core, code-named Jalapeno.
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By Robert Lemos
March 23, 1998
ZDNN
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PC chip maker Cyrix Corp., a subsidiary
of chip giant National Semiconductor Corp. (NSM), may try
to reverse-engineer Intel Corp.'s proprietary bus design
to make Pentium II-compatible chips, said industry
insiders on Friday. "Now that Cyrix belongs to
National, they are legally covered to do (the Pentium II
bus)," said Jim Turley, a senior analyst with
semiconductor market watcher MicroDesign Resources Inc.
"Now they just have to make the chips."
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By Rick Boyd-Merritt and Anthony Cataldo
March 30, 1998
EE Times
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Despite surging revenue for Microsoft
Corp.'s products, executives of the company readily
admitted at its annual Windows Hardware Engineering
Conference that the PC, in many respects, is a
technological mess. While the confession was hardly
surprising to the enginers gathered for WinHEC, public
and private comments revealed nascent plans to overhaul
the PC's 17-year-old hardware and software underpinnings. |
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By Stuart Glascock
Mar. 27, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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The closing session of Microsoft Corp.'s
seventh annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference
(WinHEC) this week was dominated by discussion about chip
giant Intel Corp., its emerging field of competitors, and
their implications across the computing spectrum. Intel's
x86 competitors stand a good chance to build up to 20
percent to 30 percent combined market share. However, the
biggest challenge facing those companies will be to
increase profits, Michael Slater, principal analyst for
MicroDesign Resources, Sebastopol, Calif., told the
gathering of some 3,500 hardware engineers. "We do
have a vibrant microprocessor market out there,"
Slater said in his talk today.
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By Mike Feibus
March 23, 1998
PC Week Online
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Clear off your desk. I don't want to see
anything but a pencil and a blank sheet of paper. This
column is a pop quiz. I know you didn't prepare. Don't
worry. This won't go on your permanent record.
Here we go: Write down the names of all the X86 PC
processor vendors you can think of. (I'm humming the
"Jeopardy" jingle while you scribble.) Time's
up. That means pencils down, people! Let's see how you
did.
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By Gregory Quick
March 27, 1998
Computer Retail Week
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An Intel executive discussed the chip
maker's set-top box efforts during his keynote address at
the Windows Hardware Engineering (WinHec) Conference in
Orlando, Fla., this week. Mike Aymar, Intel's vice
president and general manager of its consumer products
group, said Intel [profile] is developing three products
for set-top users who also want some computing
capabilities. Intel sees the family room as a PC growth
area and a place where a great deal of experimentation
will occur before any design becomes a standard, Aymar
said.
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