| June 26, 1998 |
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By Gregory Quick
June 25, 1998
Computer Retail Week
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Intel is slowly phasing out its
finished-assembly program, through which it builds
systems for original equipment manufacturers, because of
a decline in demand as manufacturers develop their own
programs. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel (company
profile) will begin eliminating that segment of its
facility in August and complete the move by January. The
company's workstation business, as well as some R&D,
will still be housed at the Dupont plant.
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Today's Related Stories |
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By Will Wade
June 25, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
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Intel Corp. here confirmed this
afternoon that its Pentium Xeon processor has a glitch,
which appears when the chips are connected in a four-way
parallel configuration in servers. The company will
continue with the Xeon's official launch on Monday, but
announced today that the Xeon version designed to work
with the 450NX chip set for multiple microprocessors will
not be released for another three weeks. A spokesman
said that the company has identified both the problem and
a patch to solve the problem, but will require the extra
time to validate the solution.
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Related
Stories Chip
set bug to delay Xeon server rollout till late summer
Xeon
Launch A Go Despite Errata Reports
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June 26, 1998
The Register
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Chip giant Intel said it was close to
discovering a workaround for the erratum it discovered in
its range of Xeon processors. The company is keen to
stress that the problem is not a bug, and points out that
various errata are often discovered when new processors
begin to emerge from fab plants. Intel said that while
the problem will delay the shipment of processors for a
few weeks, it is already working with its OEMs to fix the
problem. The launch date of the multiprocessing
technology is this coming Monday.
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Today's Related Stories |
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By Andy Santoni
June 25, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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Intel on Thursday admitted there is a
problem with the Pentium II Xeon server chips to be
introduced on Monday, and claims a work-around has
already been developed and is being tested. "We
have identified that there is an erratum," an Intel
spokesman said. The company has also identified a fix for
the problem, and said they are in the process of
validating the workaround with OEMs.
To sidestep the problem will require an update to the
microcode in the CPU, the Intel spokesman explained.
"That's one of the ways you can fix errata," he
noted.
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| Today's Related Stories |
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By Michael Kanellos
June 25, 1998
C/Net
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Intel confirmed that a bug exists in the
Xeon Pentium II processor when the chip is used in
"four-way" server configurations, a problem
that rules out the release of some Xeon servers in
conjunction with the chip's scheduled debut on Monday. Regardless
of the bug, sources inside the computer industry say that
only a handful of Xeon workstations or servers may be
available for a month or more.
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By Alexander Wolfe
June 25, 1998
EE Times
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Intel Corp. today verified reports of a
bug in the Xeon microprocessor and its companion 450NX
core-logic chip set. Xeon is Intel's new Pentium II-class
microprocessor. "We have confirmed that there is
an erratum, which takes place between Xeon and the 450NX
chip set," an Intel spokeswoman said. The bug
affects Xeon-based servers that use the new NX chip set.
But it does not affect Xeon-based workstations, which use
Intel's existing 450GX chip set.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
June 25, 1998
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp. today publicly acknowledged
a bug in its 450NX server chip set, which will delay the
release of four-processor Xeon servers until late this
summer. As first reported by PC Week Online, Intel
began notifying OEMs of the problem late last week after
it suspected a disabling bug in the 450NX chip set, which
enables four-way and above multiprocessing.
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By Mark Hachman
June 25, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
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An Intel Corp. spokesman on Thursday
acknowledged that a flaw exists in its forthcoming 450NX
chipset, delaying new 4-way servers until a temporary fix
is tested. “There will be a delay of a few weeks
while the fix goes through the normal routines of
validation,” the spokesman said.
Industry sources and analysts also reported that Intel
had lowered the prices of its Slot 2 Pentium II
processors branded under the Xeon name.
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June 26, 1998
The Register
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The threat of Intel competing directly
with PC vendors to build systems has subsided, after the
company said it would now outsource the work. Intel
has quietly built vanilla PCs and servers for many years,
and sold them through a range of its channel partners.
Although this has antagonised not only other resellers as
well as PC vendors, the chip giant has always maintained
that these activities were only a minor part of its
business.
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| June 25, 1998 |
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By Edward F. Moltzen
June 24, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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Intel Corp. is still ready to unveil its
Xeon line of Pentium II processors Monday, despite
reports of an errata that has been found in the chip,
sources said. Meanwhile, major OEMs including IBM Corp.
are saying publicly in some forums that they still plan
to ship products with Xeon--which boasts dual-processing
capabilities--within about eight weeks of its scheduled
June 29 launch.
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By Alexander Wolfe
June 24, 1998
EE Times
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Amidst reports of a bug involving its
upcoming Xeon microprocessor, an examination of Intel
Corp.'s technical data shows that the company's Pentium
II microprocessor is no stranger to glitches when used in
multiprocessing systems. That conclusion comes as
Intel declined to comment on reports of a bug involving
Xeon — its new Pentium II-class CPU — and its
companion 450NX multiprocessing core-logic chip set.
The reports claimed that a glitch caused four-way
multiprocessing systems built with the chips to lock up
under certain unspecified operating conditions.
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June 24, 1998
The Register
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"It's not a bug - it's an
erratum," said the Intel rep, keen to get us back on
message, following our Xeon delay story yesterday. Sounds
like semantic finessing to us. But we'll let that pass. Intel
doesn't want to say what the erratumnotbug is, but it
does say it will fix it quickly. IDC is more helpful. It
says the erratumnotbug causes systems to reboot at
random.
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| June 24, 1998 |
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By Christian Persson and Georg Schnurer
December 1998
c't Magazine
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Although our test software ctP2Info has
only been able to identify a certain type of counterfeit
Pentium IIs, the cases revealed indicate how thoroughly
the worldwide PC market has been infiltrated with the
forgeries. Small as well as big companies, discount
stores as well as upmarket addresses are on the long list
of suppliers. A major respectable German manufacturer
from Swabia even put Intel distributor Actebis on the
list of suppliers of counterfeit processors.
In February, the Swabian firm had found counterfeit
CPUs in a spot market delivery. 'After this desaster, we
changed suppliers and obtained our processors only from
official Intel distributors only' a company spokesman
assured c't. While some of the cases reported by
customers can still be attributed to the spot market
purchases, two of the processors have definitely been
supplied by Actebis.
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June 24, 1998
The Register
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Intel has pressed ahead with its plans
for Rambus DRAMs but the move means memory manufacturers
will be forced to pay royalties to the firm. Rambus
said that it has started to test working DRAM products
and that LG Semicon as well as Toshiba are also testing
the technology. Speeds of Rambus DRAMs can be as high as
1.6Gb a second, with clock speeds of around 800MHz.
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By Margaret Ryan
June 23,. 1998
EE Times
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Though DRAM prices drifted downward,
SRAMs and some other semiconductor products showed signs
of recovery in the early part of this year. SRAMs were
one of only four IC types that displayed a market
increase in the first four months of 1998, compared with
the same period in 1997, according to IC Insights Inc.
(Scottsdale, Ariz.), a market research company. Analog
ICs, MOS special-purpose logic and microcontrollers also
showed growth. Digital signal processors are included in
the microcontroller category.
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Three
Against One
An outlook on the future of the
processor market
By Sabine Cianciolo
December 1998
c't Magazine
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Once a year MicroDesign Resources,
organizer of the Microprocessor Forum and publisher of
Microprocessor Report, hosts the PCTech Forum. Visitors
of the four day event, that took place in the Fairmont
Hotel in San Jose this year, learn about the different
aspects and trends in the PC industry. Currently five
companies are sharing the desktop arena: Intel, AMD,
Cyrix, IBM and IDT/Centaur. With about 85 percent Intel
holds the largest market share. Last year the enterprise
sold between 80 and 85 million x86 processors,
interestingly enough only about 15 percent of these were
Pentium II chips. This year Intel wants to get into the
lost-cost market with their new processor family named
Celeron and is presently offering the first member named
Covington, a Pentium II without L2 cache. Principally
Covington is nothing but a temporary solution and serves
no other purpose than to get a Slot-1 chip into low-cost
PCs while staying ahead of the Socket-7 competition.
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3D Toy
AMDs K6 with 3DNow! technology
By Andreas Stiller
December 1998
c't Magazine
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The special feature of the now
officially introduced AMD K6-2 is actually not the clock
frequency up to 333 MHz, but rather the extended MMX unit
called 3DNow!, that is supposed to more than just balance
out the recent weakness in floating point operations. With
unerring accuracy, K6-II was the name we gave to the
prototype, that we already used as a touchstone for the
100-MHz boards three months ago [1]. Now we received the
final version with the official name AMD K6-2. The test
system AMD sent to us was well equipped: a Microstar-
MS5169 board with ALI-Aladdin-5C chip set, IBM hard
drive, DGVS09U ultrawide SCSI, AGP graphics card Diamond
Viper V330 AGP and 64 MByte SDRAM, and - though still
labeled as 300 MHz - a K6-2 processor approved for 333
MHz. AMD modified the board slightly, so it works with 95
MHz (95 x 3,5 = 333). In this case the PCI clock
decreases a negligible amount to 31,6 MHz. System and
processor ran very stable, we did not experience any
unmotivated crashes.
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June 23, 1998
PC Week
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As the top executive in charge of Intel
Corp.'s processor businesses, Paul Otellini has a lot of
irons in the fire. The Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker is
expanding into the high-end server and low-end PC
markets, even as it fights off anti-trust charges from
the Federal Trade Commission. Otellini, a 24-year Intel
veteran who holds the titles of executive vice president
and general manager of the Intel Architecture Business
Group, sat down with Senior Executive News Editor Rob
O'Regan and Senior Editor Lisa DiCarlo at PC Expo last
week to talk about his company's strategic game plan. |
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By Tom Quinlan
June 24, 1998
San Jose Mercury News
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Intel Corp. intends to introduce on
Monday a new class of microprocessor known as Xeon
intended for use in high-end workstations and high-priced
servers that is expected to drive virtually all of the
company's economic growth for the next five years. The
Xeon microprocessors will move Intel-based systems into
direct competition with mid-range RISC-based servers and
workstations from companies such as Sun Microsystems Inc.
and IBM.
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Today's Related Stories |
| Today's Related Stories |
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By Michael Kanellos
June 23, 1998
C/Net
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Corporate computer manufacturers will
join Intel Monday to announce new lines based on the Xeon
processor, though a potential bug may put off
four-processor Xeon servers. Built around a Pentium II
core, Intel's newest chip for workstations and servers
contains more performance-enhancing secondary cache
memory than standard Pentium II chips. The first Xeon
chips will run at 400 MHz and come with 512K or 1MB of
cache memory, while a 450-MHz version with up to 2MB of
cache memory will follow in September.
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June 23, 1998
The Register
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Intel OEMs will have to make do with
twin processors a little while longer, following the
discovery of a major bug in the Xeon server
multiprocessing chipset. Intel will now put back the
launch date of the server chipset by up to two months.
The company had intended to launch the 450NX chipset next
week. Dell had indicated its intention to come to
market early with the technology, basing a data centre
proposition around the Pentium II Xeon server.
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By Andy Santoni
June 23, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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Despite its best efforts, Intel has been
unable to clear a problem with the design of its four-way
Pentium II Xeon server chips, scheduled to debut next
Monday. The problem, or erratum, may be in the CPU
package itself, according to industry sources. It might
also be in the 450NX core-logic chip set, which is at the
heart of four-processor systems.
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| June 23, 1998 |
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By Lisa DiCarlo
June 22, 1998
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp. has discovered an errata in
the 450NX chip set that will delay the chip set's release
by six to eight weeks. As a result, the release of many
Pentium II Xeon servers will be delayed until late this
summer.
The 450NX chip set was originally expected to be
released next week, along with the Pentium II Xeon
processor line. Intel began notifying OEMs of the errata,
or bug, late last week, sources said.
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June 22, 1998
The Register
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A war of words between Intergraph and
Intel has escalated after the chip giant filed a counter
suit in Alabama last week. Jim Meadlock, CEO of
Intergraph, which is cited by the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) along with Compaq and Digital in
antitrust allegations against Intel, was also responding
to a request for a summary injunction it made in the same
court. He hit out at Intel for attempting to delay the
legal process.
Meadlock's company is separately suing Intel for
anti-competitive behaviour, patent infringement and
alleged antitrust violations.
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June 22, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
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In a counterclaim filed against
Intergraph Corp., Intel Corp. here refuted a federal
court's claim that it was a monopoly, and added that it
has still refused to divulge confidential technical
information to Intergraph. Last week, Intel Corp.
filed a counterclaim alleging that Huntsville, Ala.-based
Intergraph had infringed upon Intel's own patents, and
asked the court for a summary judgment of the
proceedings. Among other damages, Intel seeks financial
penalties. However, the action is not a formal
countersuit, as such an action would require a separate,
lengthy legal battle that Intel wishes to avoid, an Intel
spokesman said.
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By Elinor Mills
June 22, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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Intel wants the U.S. Federal Trade
Commission to clarify which market it claims the chip
giant is monopolizing and acting anti-competitively in so
it can prepare its defense, an Intel spokesman said
Monday. Intel asked an administrative law judge on
Friday to require the FTC to "provide a more
definite statement identifying the market we're alleged
to possess dangerously high market share [in] and where
we're threatening its competition," Intel spokesman
Chuck Mulloy said.
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June 22, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
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Intel has begun system testing of
functional direct Rambus dynamic RAM devices (RDRAM),
Rambus said Monday. Toshiba and LG Semiconductor also are
testing DRAM devices running at 1.6 gigabytes per second,
Rambus added. "It is exciting to see the first
direct RDRAM silicon," said Peter MacWilliams, Intel
fellow and director of platform architecture for Intel
Architecture Labs, in Santa Clara, Calif. "We expect
to see several more vendors delivering direct RDRAM
silicon in the next quarter, and we believe the industry
is still on track to ship direct RDRAM memory technology
in PC platforms in 1999."
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By Sergio G. Non
June 22, 1998
TechInvestor
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The technology sector started the week
with a bang, despite stagnation among broader issues. The
Nasdaq Composite Index rose 24.53 to 1805.82 on Monday,
with decliners just ahead of advancers. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average dipped 1.74 to 8711.13.
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| June 22, 1998 |
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June 22, 1998
UGeek
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Questions arose about a possible dumping
of i740 graphics chips by Intel Corp. in order to gain
market share. Intel claimed to sell the chips for US$28
in volume; however, they have been showing up for as low
as $7 on the spot market. Intel’s CEO denied the
charges. Graphics chip makers will surely be keeping a
watchful eye on Intel as they try to take over another
aspect of the PC market.
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By Reuters
June 22, 1998
C/Net
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Intel said it filed a motion late on
Friday asking an administrative law judge in Washington
to demand from the Federal Trade Commission a clearer
definition of what market it is allegedly
"monopolizing." On June 8, the FTC charged
the chipmaker with antitrust violations and allegations
that it withheld key technical data from three companies:
Intergraph, Compaq Computer, and Digital Equipment, now a
part of Compaq.
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By Reuters
June 20, 1998
C/Net
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Intergraph said the judge in its
antitrust suit against Intel set a deadline of
Valentine's Day in the year 2000 for the companies to
settle or go to trial. In a statement, computer
graphics developer Intergraph said U.S. District Judge
Edwin Nelson set the trial date for February 14, 2000.
The hearing followed a motion by Intel Wednesday for the
Alabama judge to grant a summary judgment on Intergraph's
allegations of anticompetitive behavior and patent
infringement.
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By Edward F. Moltzen
June 19, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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Countering charges by Intergraph, chip
maker Intel said in a recent court filing that a federal
lawsuit against it should be tossed out. In a motion
filed this week, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel (company
profile) asked the judge to throw out Intergraph's suit,
which was filed last year in U.S. District Court in
Birmingham, Ala. The suit charged Intel with abusing its
monopoly power to strong-arm Intergraph (company
profile). Intel's latest motion says Intergraph's suit
stemmed from a patent dispute with it.
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Coming
to Grips with Antitrust
Settlements Likely on Business
Practices, But Not on Product Integration
By Michael Slater
June 22, 1998
Microprocessor Report
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Since I last wrote about the issue of
Intel's and Microsoft's power a mere six weeks ago (see
MPR 5/11/98, p. 15), a lot has happened: Microsoft
negotiated until the 11th hour but ultimately decided to
fight the U.S.Department of Justice (DOJ) in court, and
the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed suit
against Intel (see MPR 7/22/98, p. 8). Intel and
Microsoft are both aggressive companies, to say the
least--and their shareholders have reaped the rewards.
Both are also smart companies with legions of lawyers
working for them, and it seems very unlikely that either
company would knowingly pursue an illegal strategy. But
the line between what is illegal and what is merely
aggressive is not precisely defined, and it is now
apparent that the government's view of where the line
belongs is quite different than Intel's and Microsoft's
views.
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June 22, 1998
UGeek
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A couple weeks after IBM released their
version of the 333PR 6x86MX chip, Cyrix has released
their own MII (previously called 6x86MX) running at
333PR. The chip is manufactured on a .30 micron process,
and will sell for US$180 in quantities of 1000. The 300PR
MII will now sell for $135 in quantities of 1000. |
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June 22, 1998
The Register
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This week Intel will launch its Zeon
server and workstation processor, with a whole raft of
heavyweight tier one vendors supporting the platform. But
many of the machines are not expected to be available
until autumn, with faster flavours promised in the
future. Intel will announce the platform, supported by
the 440GX chip set on June 29, and companies including
IBM, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, HP and others will also
announce they will introduce machines using the fast chip
and chipset.
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By Carmen Nobel
June 19, 1998
PC Week Online
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When Intel Corp. rolls out its
next-generation Pentium II Xeon processor later this
month, server vendors will be on hand to release systems
based on the chip. But the most intriguing features of
these systems will not center on the CPU. While the
Xeon enables support for more than four CPUs and
increases the amount of supported cache to 2MB, most
server vendors are looking beyond the chip to features
such as Fibre Channel connections on the hard drives and
enhanced management to differentiate their machines.
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By Mark Hachman
June 19, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
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Taking the low-cost concept to a new
level, Intel Corp. will offer OEMs the option of a socket
connector for its forthcoming “Mendecino”
Celeron microprocessor. The idea, according to an
Intel spokesman, was not specifically to reduce the cost
of the microprocessor, but of the surrounding components.
“Later this year,” he said, Intel will offer
both a 300-MHz and a 333-MHz version of its Celeron
processor with 128 Kbytes of integrated level 2 cache.
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June 22, 1998
UGeek
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After a legacy of P6 sockets, including
Socket 8, Slot 1 and Slot 2, Intel has decided to release
yet another form factor for its chips. This form factor
will be a 370-pin socket design, as opposed to
Intel’s recent Slot designs. It will not be
compatible with Socket 7 or Socket 8. Intel’s
forthcoming 300 and 333 MHz Celeron chips with 128 KB of
L2 cache will be available in Slot 1 as well as socket
370. Slot 1 will continue to be Intel’s mainstream
Pentium II physical processor interface.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
June 22, 1998
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp. is about to initiate a
breakneck round of price cutting for its processors,
pushing down the cost of PC systems across the board. The
company's latest pricing actions reflects the company's
strategy to serve several markets with different chip
architectures. As a result, Intel is moving from its
traditional quarterly, across-the-board price cuts to
monthly price cuts on individual product categories, such
as mobile, desktop or server processors, sources said.
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