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x86 Monthly News
Collected By Robert R. Collins
| 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
|
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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| Headlines March
27, 1998 |
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By Tom Quinlan
March 26, 1998
San Jose Mercury News
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Andrew Grove propelled Intel Corp. to
the top of the electronics industry. Now he's handed
Craig Barrett what may be a tougher task: Staying there. With
the Thursday announcement that he will step aside as
Intel's chief executive, Grove, 61, is ending one of the
most remarkable managerial runs in corporate history.
This Hungarian immigrant -- who joined Intel at the
outset in 1968 and became CEO in 1987 -- took the company
from $2 billion to $25 billion in annual sales and
established its unquestioned dominance of personal
computer hardware.
|
See Today's Related Stories Other Related Stories
Years of preparation preceded transition
Intel's four CEOs
Behind every great company, there's a risk-taker
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By Andy Santoni
March 26, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
Intel's "divide and conquer"
strategy to target processors at specific applications
will extend from high-end servers to equipment even less
expensive than the lowest-cost "Basic PC" the
Intel Architecture (IA) can satisfy, according to Craig
Barrett, Intel's president and new chief executive
officer. At the low end, Intel will develop products
around the StrongARM architecture it recently licensed
from Advanced RISC Machines.
"That's one of the ideas," said Barrett in a
recent interview.
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By Larry Barrett
March 26, 1998
Inter@ctive Investor
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Sorry, no caption available. |
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By Tom Quinlan
March 26, 1998
San Jose Mercury News
|
Mercury News Staff Writer Tom Quinlan
spoke by phone Thursday with Intel Chairman Andrew Grove,
shortly after the announcement that Grove would hand the
chief executive officer's post to Craig Barrett. Grove
will remain chairman. Here is an edited transcript of
their conversation. |
Other Related
Stories Intel charts new course after Grove
Intel's four CEOs
Behind every great company, there's a risk-taker
|
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By Staff Writer
March 26, 1998
San Jose Mercury News
|
San Jose Mercury News profile of Intel's
four CEOs. |
Other Related
Stories Intel charts new course after Grove
Years of preparation preceded transition
Behind every great company, there's a risk-taker
|
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By Dan Gillmor
March 27, 1998
San Jose Mercury News
|
IN a few, harsh days in late 1994, Andy
Grove steered his company through a remarkable U-turn. Grove,
who said Thursday he will step down from his longtime
post as Intel Corp.'s chief executive officer, was
confronting an increasingly virulent backlash.
Researchers had found a rarely occurring calculating
error in the then-new Pentium chip. Intel was telling
worried customers that the bug was no big deal, certainly
not important enough to replace the chips except in rare
cases -- and Intel itself would decide which customers
deserved replacements.
|
Other Related
Stories Intel charts new course after Grove
Years of preparation preceded transition
Intel's four CEOs
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By Michael Kanellos
March 26, 1998
C/Net
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From Intel's perspective, it's better
late than never. Slow to recognize the sub-$1,000 PC
market, the chip giant will aggressively attack the
market for inexpensive TV set-top boxes with a new line
of low-cost Celeron processors, a company executive said
today. In the fall of 1999, computer makers will begin to
ship $399 set-top boxes based around an Intel Celeron
processor, predicted Mike Aymar, vice president and
general manager of Intel's consumer products group.
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By Kurt Oeler
March 26, 1998
C/Net
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Intel (INTC) again pushed back the
opening of a microprocessor production plant outside Fort
Worth, Texas, calling for a complete halt to construction
of a $1.3 billion facility that was originally slated to
open in 1999. "Fab 16" won't come online
until 2002, when it will produce chips on 300mm wafers in
the advanced 0.13 micron process, an Intel spokesman
said. The chip giants's most advanced chips now are made
on 200mm wafers in the 0.25 micron process. Larger wafers
are more economical because they can accommodate more
chips; smaller micron measurements mean more transistors
can be packed into the same-sized chip.
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By Jim Davis
March 26, 1998
C/Net
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When Intel announces the first Pentium
II processors for mobile PCs next week it will trigger a
flood of notebooks from the likes of Gateway 2000 and
Dell Computer. But there's more to it than that. Some
notebook vendors are already experiencing bloated
inventory levels, and the situation could worsen as a
raft of new portables with top-of-the-line mobile chips
arrives in April.
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| Related Stories March 27, 1998 |
|
Special Coverage
March 27, 1998
C/Net
|
Intel's surprise transition raises
questions about the leading chipmaker's future. Will the
paranoid still survive? |
Many Related
Stories Linked from this Page |
|
Special Coverage
March 27, 1998
PC-Week Online
|
What Andy Grove had to say today: Why
he chose this point in time to step down from the CEO
post.
Who will succeed Craig Barrett as COO?
Why he doesn't consider his new role to be
"ambassadorial."
The issues he plans to focus on in his new role as
chairman.
|
Many Related
Stories Linked from this Page |
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By Charles Cooper
March 26, 1998
ZD Net News
|
Craig Barrett rides horses. He rides
bikes. But Intel Corp.'s newly named chief executive does
not ride elevators -- at least not the one to his
fifth-floor cubicle at the company's Santa Clara, Calif.,
headquarters. "I don't think he's ever been on an
elevator here," one Intel manager said of the
58-year-old Barrett, a rangy, athletic man who owns a
Montana ranch and is an avid cyclist. "He's the most
physical guy I've ever seen. You just don't want to mess
with him."
Especially now.
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By Margaret Kane
March 26, 1998
ZD Net News
|
Andy Grove had three simple words today
to explain his decision to step down as CEO of Intel
Corp. "I was ready," Grove said in an
interview with ZDNN.
Grove plans to use his new-found free time to study
issues that would benefit not just Intel Corp. (INTC),
but the PC industry as a whole.
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| Headlines
March 26, 1998 |
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By Reuters
March 26, 1998
C/Net
|
Intel (INTC) plans to
elect Craig Barrett, current president and chief
operating officer, as its next chief executive officer,
succeeding longtime CEO Andrew Grove, who will continue
working full time as chairman, the company said today. The move, which Intel's board will enact
after the company's annual meeting on May 20, marks the
second switch in the giant chipmaker's executive ranks in
a year.
|
See Today's Related Stories Other Related Stories
Barrett Inside
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By Dawn Yoshitake
March 26, 1998
C/Net
|
Advanced Micro
Devices (AMD) last year cut back the compensation package
of its chairman and chief executive Jerry Sanders, a chip
executive who in the past has been taken to task for
being one of the industry's highest paid executives
during times when his company didn't shine. Sanders received a slight reduction in his
base salary to $1 million last year, down from $1.03
million the previous year. And he did not earn a bonus or
receive any options last year, according to a Securities
and Exchange Commission filing yesterday.
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By Michael Kanellos
March 25, 1998
C/Net
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Although the 100-MHz
system bus is yet to be released, it will likely have a
short life, industry pundit Michael Slater said at
Microsoft's WinHec Conference. Slater, a keynote speaker at the conference
and the founder of MicroDesign Resources, said that by
1999 Intel will likely move to a 200-MHz system bus for
its high-end chips with Katmai, the next generation of
Intel processors. Katmai chips are expected to run at
speeds as high as 750 MHz.
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By Brooke Crothers
March 25, 1998
C/Net
|
General Instrument,
the largest manufacturer of TV set-top boxes, has chosen
a MIPS processor for its next-generation set-top box, a
device that will include many features similar to a
personal computer. Major
chipmakers Intel and Cyrix lost out in the decision,
which is important because General Instrument supplies
set-top boxes to cable TV giant TCI and last year won an
agreement to supply 12 large cable companies with 15
million new devices. The potential market for set-tops
with computer-like features dwarfs the PC market, perhaps
numbering in the hundreds of millions, and is a critical
area of chip growth.
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By Stuart Glascock
March 25, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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Despite faster
processing speeds and heightened consumer interest in
computing, the PC industry is stuck in a rut, a leading
microprocessor analyst told a gathering hardware
engineers at Microsoft 's 7th annual Windows Hardware
Engineering (WinHec) Conference. "The desire to preserve legacy hardware
and software drags down advances," said Michael
Slater, principal analyst for MicroDesign Resources, in
Sebastopol, Calif.
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| Related Stories March
26, 1998 |
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By Margaret Kane
March 26, 1998
ZD Net News
|
Intel Corp. President
Craig Barrett has been named the company's next CEO,
replacing Andy Grove, who will continue as chairman of
the board of the semiconductor giant. According to an Intel spokesman, Grove will
now focus his attention on overseeing Intel's
relationship with the rest of the computer industry.
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By Larry Dignan
March 26, 1998
TechInvestor
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Intel said Thursday
that Craig Barrett, president and chief operating officer
of the company, will take over as CEO for Andrew Grove. Grove, 61, will remain chairman of the
company. Intel said the hand-off will occur at the chip
maker's annual meeting May 20. In early trading, Intel
[INTC] was up 1 1/4 to 77 5/16.
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By Staff Writer
March 26, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
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Intel Corp.'s board
plans to elect Craig R. Barrett, current president and
chief operating officer, as its next chief executive
officer at the next organizational meeting which will
immediately follow the company's annual meeting on May
20. Barrett, 58, succeeds Andrew S. Grove, 61, who will
continue working full time as chairman. |
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By Staff Writer
March 26, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
|
Intel Corp. Thursday
said its board of directors plans to elect Craig R.
Barrett, Intel's president and chief operating officer,
to succeed Intel chairman and chief executive Andrew S.
Grove as Intel's next CEO. Barrett,
58, Intel's longtime chief operating officer who was
named president last June, will be elected as Intel's CEO
at the board's next organizational meeting immediately
following the company's May 20 annual meeting.
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By Rebecca Sykes
March 26, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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Craig Barrett,
Intel's president and chief operating officer, will
replace Andrew Grove as CEO, Intel said Thursday. The change will take place at an
organizational meeting following Intel's annual meeting
on May 20, and Grove will continue on as the company's
chairman, according to a statement from Intel.
Grove, 61, said in the statement
the change will give him more time to focus on broad
strategic issues affecting the industry and Intel, which
he helped found in 1968.
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| Headlines
March 25, 1998 |
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By Brooke Crothers and Kurt Oeler
March 24, 1998
C/Net
|
Chip resellers are
already shipping 350-MHz and 400-MHz versions of the
Pentium II, in advance of April 15's scheduled
announcement of speed upgrades to Intel's (INTC)
top-of-the-line microprocessor. Now in stock, the 350-MHz and 400-MHz
Pentium II chips will sell for $610 and $800,
respectively, according to sources at one chip reseller.
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By Aaron Ricadela
March 24, 1998
Computer Retail Week
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Intel isn't the only
chip in town for information appliances. Rival Advanced
Micro Devices is supplying the processor for a PC/TV
planned for release this summer in the United States. Genoa System, in Fremont, Calif., showed a
combination PC, television, and DVD-ROM player powered by
an embedded AMD Elan 400 processor at the CeBit '98 trade
show last week in Hannover, Germany. Alex Klocksin, Genoa
associate director of international sales and marketing,
said the processor, which has no bus, is an embedded
version of the K6 chip AMD uses in the PC market. It runs
at the equivalent speed of a Pentium 166-MHz processor,
he said.
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By Robert Lemos
March 24, 1998
PC Week - Australia
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It's no longer just
about processors - it's about architectures. PC chip maker Advanced Micro Devices is in
danger of becoming boxed out of the PC industry by
Intel's move towards a proprietary PC architecture,
according to industry analysts.
"AMD is going to be left to
develop their own computer architecture to compete with
Intel," said Nathan Brookwood, industry analyst for
market researcher Dataquest. "Unless they get 10 to
20 percent of the market, they are in trouble."
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By Staff Writer
March 25, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
|
Advanced Micro
Devices Inc. (AMD), Sunnyvale, Calif., on Wednesday said
Marvin Burkett, senior vice president and chief financial
officer for AMD, has resigned to accept a senior position
with a non-competing company. Burkett, 56, joined the semiconductor
manufacturer in 1972 and was promoted to AMD's chief
financial officer in 1989. Prior to joining AMD, he
worked at Raytheon Corp.
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By Rick Boyd-Merritt and Anthony
Cataldo
March 23, 1998
EE Times
|
Far from its usual
businesslike venue in Redmond, Wash., Microsoft Corp.
will lay out its views on the next stage of the evolution
of the PC at its annual tête-à-tête with PC makers,
the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC). But
the laid-back locale of the hometown of Disney World
masks lingering tensions between Microsoft and PC makers
as OEMs scramble to get their hardware and driver models
in place for the summer debut of Windows 98. Microsoft is expected to make at least some
public comment on its plans — so far discussed
mainly in private with OEMs — for a PC 2000
document. Sources say this will be be a watershed in
detailing a PC architecture that sheds support for legacy
technologies such as the ISA bus, serial and parallel
ports, and full DOS compatibility.
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By Cade Metz
March 23, 1998
PC-Week Australia
|
Klamath. Tillamook.
Deschutes. In the past, geographical code names and the
processor enhancements they represented were always
leaked by Microprocessor Report and other leading trade
publications--never by Intel. With Katmai, the Pentium II
desktop processor that followed Deschutes, Intel made its
own public statement a full year before the chip's
arrival. Katmai, named for a
volcano in Alaska, will arrive sometime in the first half
of 1999. Built around the Pentium II core, the chip will
be the first processor to use what Intel calls
"Katmai New Instructions Technology." Over a
year and a half ago, Microprocessor Report first referred
to the supplementary instructions as MMX2, but Intel has
no plans to use such a moniker.
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By James E. Powell
March 24, 1998
Windows Magazine
|
Imagine a video card
that borrows from system memory when it needs to render
complex images. That's the promise of Intel's Accelerated
Graphics Port (AGP). But after three months of testing, I
believe that AGP really stands for A Grievous Process.
Drivers provided by the graphics card vendors are
changing constantly (far more frequently than drivers for
PCI cards). In addition, of the three computer systems I
ultimately used for testing, not one worked properly with
all the cards. Graphics card and system makers are still
finding their way through the AGP maze-one system even
came with an AGP card but no AGP-enabled drivers. |
Many
Related Stories Linked from this Page |
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By Kelly Spang
March 24, 1998
Computer Reseller News
|
Although Intel Corp.
and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. lately have not
introduced any new chips to the reseller channel,
faster-speed processors from both companies are popping
up in the open market. The
latest Pentium II Slot 1 processors, yet to be introduced
by Intel, and the 266MHz K6 from AMD, which is not yet
available in the reseller channel, are both currently
available from multiple online sources for a premium
price.
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| Headlines
March 24, 1998 |
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By Lisa DiCarlo
March 23, 1998
PC Week Online
|
Intel Corp.'s X86
chip competitors have decided that there is strength in
numbers. Advanced Micro
Devices Inc. (AMD), Cyrix Corp., and Integrated Device
Technology Inc. (IDTI) have agreed to collaborate on a
single design for a 100MHz main bus, which improves upon
the existing Socket 7 infrastructure.
The three chip makers are also
working on alternatives to Intel's 3-D-enhanced MMX
instructions due next year.
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By Kurt Oeler and Michael Kanellos
March 23, 1998
C/Net
|
Intel (INTC)
confirmed it will introduce its first Pentium II
microprocessors for notebook computers on April 2 at the
company's Santa Clara, California, headquarters. Stephen Nachtsheim, general manager of
Intel's Mobile and Handheld Products Group, will host
next Thursday's event, the company said in a short
statement. The proceedings begin at 9:30 a.m.
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By Stuart Glascock
March 23, 1998
Computer Reseller News
|
Novell on Monday
announced a strategic relationship with Intel to optimize
the 64-bit Intel Merced chip, which is on track for
delivery in 1999, for the Novell NetWare architecture. "We plan to build the fastest
Intel-based server platform in the world, bar none,"
said Chris Stone, vice president of strategy and
corporate development at Novell.
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By Mark Hachman
March 23,. 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
|
As expected, Intel
has cut the price of its 333-MHz Slot 1 Pentium II
processor by 19 percent, from $722 to $584, a side
benefit of the company's conversion to a 0.25-micron
process. |
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By Deborah Gage
March 23, 1998
Sm@rtReseller
|
At least one dispute
about which platform is better for running Java is over. After more than a year of negotiations,
Intel Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. have finally agreed
on how floating-point arithmetic operations should be
specified in Java.
The two companies are circulating a
proposal to Java licensees and will formally announce
their agreement today.
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| Headlines
March 23, 1998 |
|
By Tom Quinlan
March 23, 1998
San Jose Mercury News
|
Since 1993, Intel
Corp.'s not-so-secret weapon in the battle for
microprocessor dominance has been its ability to produce
more chips faster and cheaper than anyone else. Now three companies with strong
microprocessor technology -- National Semiconductor,
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Integrated Device
Technology Inc. -- have come up with a common solution to
the manufacturing problem: IBM.
In the last few weeks, both IDT and
AMD have announced agreements under which IBM's
Microelectronics Division will manufacture their latest,
Pentium compatible chips. National's microprocessor
subsidiary, Cyrix Corp., has been taking advantage of
IBM's manufacturing prowess for years and now hopes to
strengthen the relationship.
|
Other
Related Stories IBM becomes low-cost chip power
IBM, Integrated Device Technology
Partner On Chip Manufacturing
AMD may get copper technology from
IBM
IBM deal no panacea for AMD
AMD nabs IBM chip deal
|
|
By Kelly Spang
March 20, 1998
Computer Reseller News
|
Stepping up processor
clock speed, both Cyrix and Advanced Micro Devices will
begin shipping a 266-MHz chip in the coming quarter. By May, AMD (Profile) is expected to begin
shipping its K6 266-MHz processor to its distributors,
according to industry sources. The K6 266-MHz is
available in consumer systems from IBM as AMD ramps
volumes.
|
|
|
By Reuters
March 20, 1998
C/Net
|
National
Semiconductor said today that its Cyrix subsidiary is set
to improve profitability after taking steps to solve a
number of manufacturing hurdles. "Moving forward, our ability to be
profitable looks quite good for entry-level
products," Steve Tobak, national vice president of
corporate marketing, said in an interview at the CeBIT
computer trade fair.
|
|
|
By Michael Kanellos
March 20, 1998
C/Net
|
With the world awash
in an excess of desktop computers, Intel (INTC) will
sharply cut prices over the next two quarters and likely
give special deals on high-end chips to its major
partners in a effort to clear the path for new products. The semiconductor giant kicked off a new
season of price reductions yesterday when it reduced the
volume price of its 333-MHz Pentium II from $722 to $583.
|
Other
Related Stories 333-MHz Pentium II price slashed
|
| Headlines
March 20, 1998 |
|
By Reuters
March 19, 1998
C/Net
|
At the CeBIT trade
fair, Intel (INTC) demonstrated a PC with Pentium II
processor running at 700 MHz--more than twice the rate of
today's speed king, which runs at 333 MHz. At that speed, a Pentium II-based PC will
have the performance of what was the world's fastest
supercomputer only a few years ago.
|
See Today's Related Stories |
|
By Reuters
March 19, 1998
C/Net
|
Intel (INTC) cut the
price on the fastest version of its Pentium II processor
by 19 percent, to stimulate demand at the high end of the
PC market. Intel said it
reduced the price of a 333-MHz Pentium II processor to
$583 from $722 per processor, when purchased in
quantities of 1,000. The price action comes less than two
months after the top-of-the-line chip debuted.
|
|
|
By Michael Kanellos
March 19, 1998
C/Net
|
Notebooks will
finally incorporate Intel technology introduced more than
two years ago when the chip giant unveils its first
Pentium II processors for portables on April 2, according
to major PC vendors and other sources. Back in November 1995, Intel introduced its
P6 architecture, the foundation of the Pentium Pro and
the newer Pentium II. Both of these top-line chips have
been featured prominently in desktop PCs, workstations,
and servers, but never have they made it into portable
computers. To date, this class of chip wreaked havoc on
battery life and generated too much heat to be used in
mobile PCs.
|
Other
Related Stories IBM to debut thin Pentium II
notebooks
|
|
By Michael Kanellos and Brooke
Crothers
March 20, 1998
C/Net
|
Cheap PCs, home
computing, Windows 98, and new chips headline the topics
slated for discussion at next week's Windows Hardware
Engineering Conference, a major industry event for
engineers who design the latest and greatest hardware for
the Windows operating system. The three-day conference serves as a
touchstone for changes in hardware architecture.
Microsoft typically uses the conference to promote and
announce new PC technologies for the coming year.
|
|
|
By Stephanie Miles
March 19, 1998
C/Net
|
Microsoft and Intel
have leveraged their symbiotic relationship to dominate
the PC industry, but that mutually beneficial
relationship may be at a crossroads, according to an
International Data Corporation (IDC) analyst. Speaking at IDC's Directions 98 conference,
analyst Dave Vellante today outlined how the
"Wintel" dominance came about as a result of a
series of misfires and miscues from competitive forces,
specifically IBM, Apple, Lotus, and the Unix camp.
|
|
|
By Reuters
March 19, 1998
C/Net
|
Shaking off a recent
profit warning, Intel (INTC) remains bullish on midterm
PC demand and confident about a profitable entry into a
new market segment that has so far generated only red ink
for its rivals. The
chipmaking giant expects the number of PCs installed
worldwide to rise fivefold from 200 million now to more
than 1 billion after the turn of the century--an increase
that it plans to meet by churning out different lines of
chips designed specifically for corporate, mobile, and
high-powered computers.
|
|
| Special Feature: Intel
Press Room Stories |
|
|
The volume and
complexity of data processed by today's enterprise
servers and workstations is increasing dramatically. New
applications for internet communications, e-commerce,
compute-intensive CAD, 3D graphics and the rapid growth
of the visual computing model all place increasingly
heavy workloads on high-end workstations and servers.
Although today's processor performance-such as Intel's
IA-32 line of products-continues to increase, new
applications and environments demand new performance,
scalability and reliability levels. |
|
|
by Richard Dracott
Director of Marketing MD6
Intel Corporation
Microprocessor Products Group
|
Intel is bringing the
advanced capability and performance of the P6
microarchitecture* to a variety of unique market
segments. First introduced with the Pentium® Pro
processor in 1995, Intel has continued to develop the P6
microarchitecture into the Pentium II processor of today
with the scaleable performance features of Dual
Independent Bus (DIB) architecture and Dynamic Execution.
These advanced features of the P6 microarchitecture will
continue to evolve, offering an affordable and flexible
core design capable of supporting the increasingly rich
variety of 32-bit PC application segments. |
|
|
|
Intel is expanding
its family of processors based on P6 microarchitecture to
bring its power and scalability to all segments of the
computing market – from high-end servers and
workstations to desktop and mobile computers. |
|
| Related Stories March
20, 1998 |
|
By Terho Uimonen
March 19, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
Intel at the CeBit
show here Thursday gave a preview of what kind of
processor performance PC users can expect this year,
along with a look at the future with the demonstration of
a system running a Pentium II chip at more than 700 MHz. The technology demonstration of a
0.25-micron Pentium II processor running at clock speeds
as high as 702 MHz shows off the processor family's
speed, said Albert Yu, Intel's senior vice president of
the microprocessor products group.
"This is the first time we
have reached 700 MHz," Yu said.
|
|
|
By Reuters
March 19, 1998
PC Week
|
Intel Corp. on
Thursday put the PC world on notice that its dizzying
gains in computing power will only accelerate -- even for
home computers priced under $1,000. At the CeBIT trade fair, Intel (INTC)
demonstrated a PC with Pentium II running at 700 Mhz --
more than twice the rate of today's speed king, a 333 Mhz
model.
|
|
| Headlines
March 19, 1998 |
|
By Reuters
March 19, 1998
C/Net
|
Intel (INTC) today,
at the CeBIT trade fair, presented a simulation of its
next-generation Merced processor and demonstrated an
array of computer chips due for release later this year. The Merced simulation showed the technology
that Intel is counting on to keep chip performance
doubling about every 18 months well into the next decade.
|
See Today's Related Stories |
|
By Michael Kanellos
March 18, 1998
C/Net
|
Cyrix released a
233-MHz version of its MediaGX processor and said it
would try to foster the chip's adoption in Windows CE
devices, making it the first Intel-compatible chipmaker
to seek out this market. The
latest version of Cyrix's integrated processor comes
after a series of design setbacks for the company. Both
Compaq Computer and IBM scaled back their use of Cyrix
products earlier this year.
|
See Today's Related Stories |
|
By Staff Writer
March 18, 1998
Computer Retail Week
|
IDT has released its
microprocessor roadmap for the balance of 1998, now that
its manufacturing agreement with IBM for WinChip C6
microprocessors is official. The
company is currently supplying a 200MHz version of the
WinChip C6 processor to Trigem, which is building an $899
system now available at Costco. Other IDT customers
include retailer PC Club and system manufacturer
Techmedia.
|
|
|
By Michael Kanellos
March 18, 1998
C/Net
|
Which company poses
the greatest competitive challenge for Intel in the
processor market? Advanced Micro Devices? Cyrix? Try IBM, which makes chips for both of these
companies and more.
A good argument can be made that
Big Blue is building a large chip portfolio based on
low-cost architectures to challenge industry leader Intel
in the coming years.
|
|
|
By Reuters
March 19, 1998
ZD Net News
|
Chip maker Intel
Corp., shaking off a recent profit warning, said on
Thursday it remains bullish on PC demand in the mid-term
and confident about a profitable entry into a new market
egment that has so far only generated red ink for its
rivals. Intel (INTC) expected
the number of PCs installed worldwide to rise fivefold
from 200 million now to more than one billion after the
turn of the century -- an increase that it planned to
meet by churning out different lines of chips designed
specifically for corporate, mobile and high-powered
computers.
|
|
|
By Lisa DiCarlo
March 18, 1998
PC Week Online
|
National
Semiconductor Inc. and its Cyrix Corp. subsidiary are
pushing forward with advances in system management and
performance. National, which
acquired Cyrix last fall, will announce next week at the
Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Orlando, Fla.,
a remote management controller and firmware package that
sends IT managers immediate alerts when a component
misbehaves.
For its part, Cyrix today announced
a 233MHz version of its MMX-enabled MediaGX integrated
processor.
|
|
|
By Reuters
March 19, 1998
C/Net
|
Intel (INTC), the
world's leading microprocessor maker, formally opened a
huge computer chip plant in Costa Rica yesterday. Intel said in a statement that it would
export Pentium II microprocessors from the factory,
located at La Ribera de Belen, about 12 miles northwest
of the capital, San Jose.
|
|
| Related Stories March
19, 1998 |
|
By Richard Barry
March 19, 1998
PC Week
|
The evolution and
future of the Intel microprocessor and platform will be
presented by the company's senior VP, Dr. Albert Yu, at
CeBit this afternoon. Yu
will demonstrate the forthcoming PII 350Mhz which is due
next month, as well as a first look at the Pentium II for
"Slot 2".
But perhaps the most interesting
preview will be Intel's IA-64 technology: in other words
Merced, scheduled for production on Intel's 0.18 micron
process in 1999. Yu will demonstrate how Merced uses a
new design philosophy called EPIC (Explicitly Parallel
Instruction Computing) which, says the company,
"overcomes the performance limits of traditional
processor architectures," while maintaining
compatibility with applications designed for 32-bit
architectures.
|
Other
Related Stories Intel details 1999 Merced release
Intel, HP say Merced will be EPIC
|
|
By Staff Writer
March 18, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
|
Cyrix Corp. here
today announced a 233-MHz version of its MMX-enhanced
MediaGX microprocessor family. The wholly-owned
subsidiary of National Semiconductor Corp. also said its
MediaGX processor platform has been certified as
compatible with the Windows CE operating system from
Microsoft Corp. |
|
| Headlines
March 18, 1998 |
|
By Mary Mosquera
March 17, 1998
TechWeb
|
Leaders of the
largest American semiconductor companies, including Intel
president Craig Barrett and Advanced Micro Devices CEO
William Sanders III trekked to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to
lobby Congress and heighten awareness of the industry's
needs. On the same day
International Data released the results of a study
showing chip revenue growth will slow this year, the
executives used a full court press in the nation's
capital.
|
|
|
By Staff Writer
March 17, 1998
ZD Net News
|
Credit rating firm
Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co. (DCR) lowered the
rating of chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s senior
debt, citing the company's recent losses and expected
future losses. In its annual report, AMD (AMD) stated
that it "expects revenues in the first quarter of
1998 to decline significantly, and the net loss to
increase significantly as compared to the fourth quarter
of 1997." |
|
|
Motherboard manufacturers are
cutting time-to-market by using the Intel chipset, and
cutting prices with Taiwan-made
Socket 7 chipsets.
|
Most of the
motherboard manufacturers in Taiwan are starting to make
the transition from the original equipment manufacturing
(OEM) market to the do-it-yourself (DIY) market. Over the
last few years an increasing proportion of users in
Taiwan are building their own personal computer (PC)
systems. According to AsusteK Computer Inc of Taiwan, a
major supplier of motherboards, 30-40% of the desktop
systems sold in Taiwan are destined to be custom built.
Although this figure includes the so-called "shop
brand" products assembled by PC retailers, the DIY
market has grown in volume by several hundred percent
over the past two years. |
Other
Related Stories Dropping Pentium II Prices Drive
Slot 1 Expansion
|
|
|
How Slot 1 moves in
the market will play a major part in deciding Intel's
product roadmap (Fig A1). The pace of evolution in Slot 1
motherboards is rapid, and if you buy one without knowing
Intel's plans, you may end up with a brand new board that
is already behind the times. |
Other
Related Stories Taiwan Motherboards Hedged with
Slot 1, Socket 7
|
|
By CRW Business Desk
March 17, 1998
Computer Retail Week
|
Integrated Device
Technology (IDT) has entered a chip-manufacturing
partnership with IBM in an attempt to expand its presence
in the low-cost PC market. IDT
announced Tuesday that it signed an agreement for IBM to
make IDT WinChip C6+ microprocessors using 0.25-micron,
2.5-volt IBM Blue Logic technology. IDT's WinChips are
offered in a limited release of 200-MHz systems from
TriGem and sold in warehouse clubs.
|
See Today's Related Stories |
| Related Stories March
18, 1998 |
|
By Kelly Spang
March 17, 1998
Computer Reseller News
|
Integrated Device
Technology, Inc. (IDT) is the latest chip maker to
partner with IBM Microelectronics to gain additional
manufacturing capacity. In a
three-year foundry agreement announced today, IBM will
manufacture the IDT WinChip C6 processor and future
generation. IBM will produce the IDT chips using its 0.25
micron technology at its Burlington, Vt., facility.
IDT has its own manufacturing
capacity with facilities in Hillsboro, Ore., and San
Jose, Calif., which are currently in production at 0.30
micron and are migrating to 0.25 micron technology.
|
|
|
By Staff Writer
March 17, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
|
Integrated Device
Technology Inc. announced today it has signed a foundry
agreement with IBM using their 0.25-micron, 2.5-volt IBM
Blue Logic technology to manufacture IDT WinChip C6+
microprocessors. The
three-year agreement, which includes the production of
future generations of the IDT microprocessor, gives IDT
access to IBM's leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing
technology and provides IDT with the additional capacity
needed to meet demand in the low-cost PC market.
|
|
|
By Robert Lemos
March 17, 1998
ZD Net News
|
It's official: IBM is
the manufacturer of choice for Intel's rivals. On Tuesday, chip maker Integrated Device
Technology Inc. signed up Big Blue to make x86
processors, joining Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and
Cyrix Corp. (CYRX) as IBM (IBM) customers.
"(Signing with IBM) gives our
customers confidence that IDT will have adequate supply
to meet their requirements," said Len Perham, IDT
(IDTI) president and CEO, in a statement.
|
|
| Headlines
March 17, 1998 |
|
By Reuters
March 17, 1998
C/Net
|
Integrated Device
Technology (IDTI) today will announce a deal with IBM
(IBM) in which the computer giant will manufacture IDT's
Intel-compatible processors. IBM
will manufacture IDT's WinChip C6+ microprocessors, in a
three-year agreement, at its Burlington, Vermont, plant.
The pact will give IDT another
manufacturing source for its processors, which it
launched in September. IDT is targeting the market for
sub-$1,000 PCs and the sub-$2,000 notebook market with
its processors, which it says consume less power.
|
See Today's Related Stories Other Related Stories
IBM drops Cyrix processor
AMD may get copper technology from
IBM
IBM deal no panacea for AMD
AMD nabs IBM chip deal
|
Merced tempts some
But other Unix
users are undecided about making the leap
By Esther Shein
March 16, 1998
PC Week Online
|
Merced appeals
strongly to certain sectors of the Unix community, but it
is not a platform to which all Unix users will migrate. Current users of Unix on Intel Corp.
platforms are eagerly awaiting next year's anticipated
arrival of Merced. But users who are doing fine on
non-Intel platforms see no reason to pull up stakes.
|
|
|
By Robert Lemos
March 16, 1998
ZD Net News
|
With almost 72
percent of the market and a $20 hike rumored for its next
set of logic chips, Intel Corp. looks ready to rake in
the profits. Yet, rivals Acer
Laboratories Inc., Silicon Integrated Systems Inc., and
Via Technologies Inc. are raring to enter the market. All
have potential Pentium II-compatible chip sets being
tested by potential customers.
|
|
Wintel Watch
Intel takes issue
with yours truly
By Alexander Wolfe
March 13, 1998
EE Times
|
Making book on Merced
could become my full-time occupation. Last Wintel Watch,
I weighed in with some inside dope on the upcoming 64-bit
microprocessor from Intel. I
opined that Intel will have its hands full getting the
yields up on the new, 0.18-micron CMOS process in which
Merced will be fabricated. I noted that Merced's
companion software compilers will be far more complex
than anything in use today. And I said that Intel's plan
to ship Merced in the second half of next year may be
subject to delay.
|
|
| Related Stories March
17, 1998 |
|
By Mark Hachman
March 17, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
|
In preparing to ramp
up volume of its X86 WinChip microprocessors, Integrated
Device Technology Inc. Tuesday secured a 0.25-micron
foundry agreement with IBM Microelectronics Inc. Under a three-year agreement, IDT will
secure access to IBM's 0.25-micron, 2.5 volt Blue Logic
technology to manufacture current and future generations
of WinChip processors on IBM's 8-inch wafer fab in
Burlington, Vt. The capacity will not only be used as a
hedge against future demand, but also to ease the
transition of IDT's own 0.24-micron conversion at its new
8-inch production fab in Hillsboro, Ore. Currently, IDT's
0.25-micron production has been restricted to its fab in
San Jose, also used for research.
|
|
| Headlines
March 16, 1998 |
|
By Michael Kanellos
March 13, 1998
C/Net
|
Despite the fact that
its microelectronics division makes the 6X86 processor,
IBM has quietly dropped the chip from its Aptiva line of
home PCs. IBM's migration
from the chip, an Intel-compatible processor which is
manufactured by IBM and marketed under the Cyrix and IBM
brand names, is symbolic of the intensifying competition
among Cyrix, Advanced Micro Devices, and Intel.
"It's not great news,"
said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury
Research. "I'm sure they represented a large
percentage of sales."
|
|
|
By Robert Lemos
March 14, 1998
ZDNN
|
Risking further
investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, Intel
Corp. is preparing to shut out its rivals from competing
in the huge secondary chip set market for Pentium II
computers, said industry experts this week. "(Intel is) locking out a lot of
competition and that's just bad for the market,"
said Peter Glaskowsky, senior analyst for semiconductor
research firm MicroDesign Resources Inc.
|
|
|
By Dan Briody
March 13, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
When Intel's Mobile
Pentium II processor debuts on April 2, the chip giant
has promised a wide variety of form factors and price
points from notebook vendors that plan to base systems on
the chip. But some vendors are singing a slightly
different tune. While
Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, NEC, Toshiba, and
others prepare notebooks based on the Mobile Pentium II,
some find themselves unable to fulfill Intel's promises
for the chip -- particularly that it will proliferate
among high- and low-end notebooks alike.
"We would love to make an
inexpensive system based on the Pentium II, but the fact
is that the chip is still too expensive," said one
vendor official who asked to remain anonymous.
|
|
|
|
Short version of the
Intel driven PC development road map. People interested
in other processor manufacturers will have to check with
other sites. Dates may change before release, but this is
the most current info available as of 1998-03-16. |
|
|
By Michael Kanellos
March 13, 1998
C/Net
|
Although Cyrix helped
create the sub-$1,000 PC, manufacturing and marketing
problems as well as increased competition have thwarted
its efforts to increase microprocessor sales--a situation
that may have a lasting impact on parent company National
Semiconductor. Cyrix's
difficulties were brought into sharp relief yesterday
during a conference call with National. Difficulties in
producing adequate volumes of Cyrix processors, combined
with the Asian financial crisis, produced
lower-than-expected earnings for the parent corporation's
third fiscal quarter.
|
|
|
By John G. Spooner
March 13, 1998
PC Week Online
|
The parade of vendors
planning to introduce notebook PCs based on Intel Corp.'s
upcoming mobile Pentium II processor keeps getting
longer. Toshiba America
Information Systems Inc., Dell Computer Corp., Gateway
2000 Inc., Compaq Computer Corp. and Digital Equipment
Corp. will join IBM, NEC Computer Systems and
Hewlett-Packard Co. in introducing notebooks using the
233MHz and 266MHz mobile Pentium II processors that are
set to debut on April 2.
|
|
|
By Sandy Chen
March 13, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Acer has set up a
division to promote and design its next-generation,
low-cost PCs that could carry a price tag as low as $299.
Acer's so-called XC Division
will develop the company's "XC computers," an
x86-based line of cheap PCs that will be introduced as
early as this June, according to Stan Shih, chairman and
CEO of the Taipei, Taiwan-based concern, in a recent
interview.
Acer's XC computers are
easy-to-use, affordable systems designed for use in
education, entertainment, and e-commerce, Shih said.
|
|
|
By Lisa DiCarlo
March 13, 1998
PC Week Online
|
Intel Corp. is
developing a series of CPU packages for PC makers
designed to speed the production of everything from
3-pound notebook PCs to eight-way servers. The kits will include the processor, chip
set, motherboard, memory types, I/O interfaces and
graphics buses. Intel's goal is to let PC makers offer
more readily available, lower-priced systems.
However, for some corporate users
tired of Intel's rapid CPU treadmill and busy with larger
enterprise issues, such as the year 2000 problem, more PC
iterations are not a priority.
|
|
The 64-bit question
Merced will level
the OS field, but which ones will survive?
By Claudia Graziano
March 16, 1998
PC Week Online
|
Intel Corp.'s Merced
architecture has created a brave new world of opportunity
for Unix developers. Four
primary Unix operating system vendors--Sun Microsystems
Inc., SCO, Digital Equipment Corp. and Hewlett-Packard
Co.--are feverishly trying to position their respective
Unix derivative as the standard environment for Merced,
the first chip based on Intel's IA-64 server
architecture.
|
|
|
By Peter Coffee
March 13, 1998
PC Week Online
|
Intel wants to keep
on selling complex, high-value microprocessors to an
ever-expanding population of PC users. Its next target:
the potential PC buyer who can't (or won't) even read. With today's announcement of its forthcoming
AnswerExpress help center, Intel achieves two goals.
First, it lowers a barrier to the entry of new customers
into the PC market. Second, it continues its brilliantly
successful strategy of turning PC manufacturers into
commodity packagers of Intel's high-profile brand.
|
|
| Headlines
March 13, 1998 |
|
By Staff Writer
March 13, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
|
Alpha Pro Tech here
today announced a new line of cleanroom suits and apparel
that is easier to put on and packaged to help reduce the
risk of contamination. The
company said its Easy-Donning cleanroom apparel is are
pre-folded and packaged with interior surfaces turned
outward to help eliminate the risk of touching and
contaminating the outside of the garment. This can save
time by making the suits easier to put on while avoiding
contamination from contact with floors, for example.
Alpha Pro Tech said patents are pending for the garment
design, folding technique and packaging concept.
|
|
|
By Staff Writer
March 13, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
|
National
Semiconductor Corp. has reported net income of $22.3
million for its third fiscal 1998 quarter, including the
one-time charge of $5.2 million pre-tax for in-process
R&D related to the acquisition of audio compression
technology from Gulbransen Corp. Excluding the charge,
net income was $26.2
million, which is down from the $28.7 million figure for
the year-ago quarter (as restated to exclude the gain
related to the sale of Fairchild and to include the
affects of the Cyrix Corp. acquisition in November 1997).
|
|
| Headlines
March 12, 1998 |
|
By Lisa DiCarlo
March 11, 1998
PC Week Online
|
Already plagued by
yield problems, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) is
pushing the envelope to reach its goal of delivering the
K6 3D chip in the first half of this year. The Austin, Texas, company hoped to announce
availability at next week's CeBIT trade show in Hannover,
Germany, according to spokesman Dwayne Cox. But AMD is
holding out for more application and OEM support, Cox
said.
|
|
Tech Report: Cyrix's Blazing New CPU
The newest
processor from Cyrix has a power rating of 266, but it's
likely to challenge even 300MHz Intel systems.
By Jonathan Blackwood
March 1, 1998
Windows Magazine
|
Cyrix Corp.'s new
6x86MX PR266 CPU produces the kind of price/performance
numbers that will open some eyes-and maybe have Intel
looking over its shoulder at this persistent competitor.
WINDOWS Magazine put the chip-a high-end Socket 7
processor that uses Intel's MMX technology-through its
paces, with excellent results. Cyrix is clearly pumped up and ready to try
to muscle in on Intel. Expected to be a minor update with
a slightly higher clock rate than the previous 6x86MX
(the PR233), the 6x86MX PR266 is instead a chip capable
of blistering performance on just about any task you can
throw at it.
|
|
Muzzle Decree
CeBIT: Intel keeps
new developments under wraps
By Staff Writer
May 1998
C'T Magazine
|
Chip giant Intel is
muzzling their OEMs for CeBIT. No details about the new
generation of the Pentium II is the motto. Visitors are
left with looking into the tube, in the true sense of the
word. In an internal Intel
paper that was available to c't, the manufacturer states
what the public may and may not find out. For example
Intel is going to display (apart from known technology)
notebooks based on the Pentium II at their booth for the
first time. However, everything beyond processor speed
and size of the L2 cache is kept hidden from the curious
visitor. A glance into the casing is prohibited.
|
|
|
By Andreas Stiller
May 1998
C'T Magazine
|
'My nightmare is to
wake up one day and not sense any need for additional
computing power', says Gordon Moore, Intels retired
chairman. Oh dear, - you would think that Intels
multimillionaires are more than content when going to
bed, and then they wake up in the morning soaked in sweat
from nightmares ... well, well, the paranoia. |
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By Andy Santoni
March 10, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
Aiming to ease the
transition from 32 to 64-bit CPUs, Intel next year will
introduce an IA-32 processor that will fit into the same
slot as the IA-64 Merced, according to an industry
analyst. Quoting sources,
Linley Gwennap, publisher and editor in chief of
Microprocessor Report, in Sunnyvale, Calif., said the
processor, code-named Tanner, "is designed to bridge
the gap between the company's high-end x86 products and
Merced."
"Tanner, due to ship in 1999,
is said to incorporate an x86 processor core, probably
Katmai, along with an interface to the so-called Slot M
interface that will be used by Merced," Gwennap
explained.
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By Ephraim Schwartz and Andy
Santoni
March 9, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
In a technical
advance that promises to give users the best of both
desktop and notebook computing, Intel is developing a
mobile version of its next-generation Pentium II
processor, code-name Katmai, that runs at almost desktop
speeds when plugged in and at a slower speed when running
off the battery. Due out
late this year or early in 1999, the Katmai design will
allow notebooks to run at 450 MHz when used as a
replacement for a desktop running an operating system
such as Windows NT when plugged into an electrical
outlet, and it will throttle down to 350 MHz when used as
a portable system, numerous industry sources said.
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By C/Net Staff Writer
March 11, 1998
C/Net
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"Thin-client"
computing, so named because the desktop unit often relies
on a server computer for storage and even processing
functions, first gained attention with the much-hyped
network computer. But the Windows-based Terminal stepped
into prominence this week--and, lacking the notoriety of
the NC, these terminals are gaining momentum. |
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| Related Stories March
12, 1998 |
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By Kristen Kenedy
March 11, 1998
Computer Retail Week
|
In an effort to make
computing easier for home and SoHo users, Intel today is
introducing AnswerExpress Support Suite, a new service
package set to retail for $49.95 for three months of
toll-free technical support, with a provision for a
monthly subscription thereafter. The product is currently
available at CompUSA, Computer City SuperCenter and CDW
Computer Centers. |
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By Andy Santoni
March 11, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
Intel expanded its
Web developer tool offerings Wednesday with products that
aim to deliver animated effects and rich audio and video
content to Web pages. The company also introduced
AnswerExpress Support Suite, an Internet-based service
that will deliver PC help, support, and protection to
home-and small-business users. Intel Web Design Effects enables developers
to quickly author animated effects such as fire, clouds,
and neon plasma. The program outputs a single bitmap file
and the performance of the effects depends on the
end-user's system capabilities. The processor generates
the effects on the client, which requires less bandwidth
to deliver larger animated files.
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By Margaret Kane
March 11, 1998
ZD Net News
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