| July 17, 1998 |
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By Amber Howle
July 16, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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Resellers building their own systems to
meet falling PC price points should watch to see if
low-end motherboard prices drop a little more before the
end of the year. Taipei, Taiwan-based core logic
supplier Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (SiS) Wednesday
unveiled what it claimed to be the industry's first 100
MHz socket 7 chipset with integrated 3D VGA.
Using the SiS530, motherboard makers may be able to
pass savings otherwise spent on graphics cards to OEMs
and Build-Your-Own resellers.
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By Jim Davis
July 16, 1998
C/Net
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Taipei, Taiwan-based Silicon Integrated
Systems (SiS) introduced a Pentium chipset that
integrates 3D graphics chips, a precursor to more such
products from Intel and others. The move demonstrates
manufacturers' response to PC vendors trying to wring
cost from system components, in order to meet demand for
low-cost PCs while making money on these systems.
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By Mark Hachman and Sandy Chen
July 16, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel has begun advising its customers
of a minor revision in its chip-set road map, inserting
the 440ZX chip set as an option for low-cost PCs. The
440ZX -- a temporary name, according to customers -- is
designed to be a low-cost version of the 440BX core
architecture. The chip set will succeed the 440EX chip
set currently used with Intel's Celeron processors in PCs
costing less than $1,200.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
July 16, 1998
PC Week Online
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Now that industry bellwether Intel Corp.
has got its second quarter out of the way, it is trying
to spark demand for the second half of the year and
beyond. Next month, Intel will cut the list price of a
300MHz Celeron chip from about $160 to less than $100,
according to sources. As recently as last month, Intel's
plan was to cut the price by only $20, to $140, the
sources said.
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By Eric Hausman
July 14, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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After just missing earnings estimates
for its second quarter, Intel Corp. said it expects third
quarter revenue to be flat or only slightly up. The
company's revenue of $5.9 billion for the just-completed
quarter was essentially flat compared to the first
quarter. That flat growth was in-line with guidance Intel
had given Wall Street analysts.
However, earnings of 66 cents per share for the second
quarter were 2 cents lower than the First Call Corp.
consensus estimates.
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July 17, 1998
The Register
|
AMD and Motorola are to announce a
cross-licensing agreement to accelerate their development
of copper-based chip manufacturing. Motorola has already
said its development of copper technology is
well-advanced, and while AMD has so far been quieter, it
said it had struck a deal on the subject with wafer fab
equipment company Applied Materials last week. The
current generation of chips using aluminium
interconnects, but copper promises to make it possible to
make chips that are smaller, run faster and generate less
heat. IBM was the first out of the traps with a copper
announcement last year, and is probably still ahead, but
any lead it has is likely to be narrow, and it seems
inevitable that the industry will stampede towards
copper.
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May 11, 1998
Computer Retail Week
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Intel plans to battle the wave of
negative publicity surrounding its low-end Celeron
microprocessors by accelerating the launch of a
second-generation 300MHz chip incorporating level-2
cache, sources said. Early lackluster support for the
266MHz Celeron without L-2 cache appears to be the major
culprit. Explained one Circuit City sales associate:
"I have talked customers out of it. Intel didn't
sell me, so I ain't selling."
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| July 16, 1998 |
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By James Niccolai
July 15, 1998
CNN
|
Intel over the next 18 months will beef
up the performance of its desktop and notebook
microprocessors with new and enhanced products. But
unless everyday software applications used at work and at
home place increased demands on processors, the chip
giant may have trouble finding customers willing to pay
the higher prices for its new offerings, an industry
analyst said last week. Late next year Intel is
expected to introduce a chip code-named Coppermine, which
will take advantage of an advanced manufacturing process
to boost the speed of the company's forthcoming Katmai
processor to as much as 700 MHz in desktop PCs, said
Linley Gwennap, publisher and editorial director of
Microprocessor Report and a noted industry analyst.
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by Kim S. Nash
July 15, 1998
CNN
|
Pluck a hair from your head. Imagine
slicing it lengthwise into 555 strands. Each would be
0.18 microns thick, the same thickness as a wire destined
for Intel Corp.'s new Merced chip. In fact, they
aren't even called wires - traces is the term, and you
need an electron beam to arrange them in the specific,
and so far secret, layout that will become a Merced
microprocessor.
Merced is the code name for the first chip to be built
from a new 64-bit microprocessor design, dubbed IA-64,
created by Intel and Hewlett-Packard Co.
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By Gabrielle Jonas
July 15, 1998
TechInvestor
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Intel helped to lift the Nasdaq
Wednesday, even though its second quarter earnings fell
short of analyst expectations after market close Tuesday.
The chip company reported profits of $1.2 billion, or
66 cents per share, for the quarter ended June 27. The
First Call consensus was 68 cents per share. Intel [INTC]
climbed 2 to 82 11/16 in early trading.
Near noon, the Nasdaq Composite was up 12.14 to
1980.55, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 7.47
to 9253.01.
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By Michael Kanellos
July 15, 1998
C/Net
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At a major computer conference next
week, Intel will make a big play to ensconce its hardware
firmly in the workstation market by previewing a new
version of its 3D graphics technology as well as
providing details for a standard workstation blueprint. The
new workstation design and 3D graphics technology will
debut at Siggraph, a computer graphics forum held in
Orlando, Florida.
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| July 15, 1998 |
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By Jim Davis
July 15, 1998
C/Net
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Intel reported a 29 percent reduction in
earnings and sequentially flat revenues, but said that
cost-cutting measures and new products should give the
company a boost by next quarter. The chipmaker late
yesterday announced second-quarter revenues of $5.9
billion, compared to $6 billion a year ago as well as in
the first quarter of 1998.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Larry Dignan
July 15, 1998
Inter@ctive Investor
|
Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) fell short of
Wall Street estimates in the second quarter, but with a
few accounting gymnastics you can argue the chip maker
came out on top. Either way, it really doesn't matter.
Intel remains tops in the chip sector and the company
indicated that its slide could be over.
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By Mark Hachman
July 15, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
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Bellwether Intel Corp. disappointed Wall
Street twice yesterday, first falling short of consensus
earnings estimates, and then failing to satisfy analysts
who hoped for more concrete information for their own
forecasts. As it enters the second half of 1998, Intel
faces a barrage of difficult questions, including the
general demand for PCs, servers, and workstations;
whether its OEM customers have truly reduced inventories;
the effects of the recently introduced low-cost Celeron
and high-margin Xeon processors; the financial
difficulties of Japan and Asia; competition from Advanced
Micro Devices and others; and finally, the unknown
effects of government scrutiny.
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By Andy Santoni
July 14, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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Intel has all but completed its shift to
a 0.25-micron production process, and by this time next
year the company will begin producing even smaller,
cheaper, faster, and more capable chips using a
0.18-micron process. Almost all of Intel's processor
production has moved to a 0.25-micron process, said Paul
Otellini, Intel's executive vice president and general
manager of the Intel Architecture business group. The
older 0.35-micron technology is still being used only on
some Pentium MMX (P5) CPUs and on some of the earliest
Pentium II (P6) processors, he said.
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By Michael Slater
July 13, 1998
Microprocessor Report
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The debut of Mendocino this fall will
mark the beginning of the end of off-chip cache memory in
the PC market. This transition began with the
introduction of Pentium Pro, which brought the L2 cache
into the processor module. Now the L2 cache is well on
its way to becoming an integral part of the processor
chip. The rate at which this design approach moves
throughout Intel's product line will be limited not so
much by its technical merit as by its implications for
fab capacity and its effects on Intel's market
segmentation strategy. With Mendocino, Intel is
integrating a wimpy 128K L2 cache--one-fourth the size of
the cache in a Pentium II module. The relatively small
size is dictated in part by cost and volume concerns: a
larger on-chip cache would, of course, result in a larger
die, reducing total manufacturing capacity and raising
manufacturing cost. As part of the Celeron line,
Mendocino is a cost-focused chip, and it therefore made
sense to use the smallest reasonable cache size.
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Intel
Accused Again
Reports of Cheap 740s Lead to Claims
of Dumping
By Linley Gwennap
July 12, 1998
Microprocessor Report
|
As if Intel weren't in enough trouble
already for its actions in the CPU and core-logic
businesses, the company is coming under fire for alleged
anticompetitive practices in the graphics market. The
claim is that Intel is selling its 740 graphics chips
below cost to Asian graphics-card vendors to increase its
market share at the expense of its competitors; some have
suggested the FTC should add this complaint to its case
against Intel. Intel has responded with unusual candor
to these claims. The company says it has two sales
channels in the Asian market: direct sales, for
high-volume buyers, and distributors, to handle the
smaller customers that represent the bulk of the market
there.
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July 14, 1998
BootNet
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With everyone dancing to the tune of
Intel's 440BX core-logic AGPset, First International
Computer (FIC) has decided to change the music beat by
releasing three VIA Apollo Pro-based motherboard
models--the KA-6013, KA-6010, and KA-6100--all of which
are based on the first alternative Slot1 chipset
solution. The mainboards are available in three form
factors--microATX, ATX, and Baby AT. The KA Series is
expected to make Pentium II-based systems attractive to
all market segments. The motherboards are targeted at
system integrators and OEMs (KA-6130, microATX), power
users and high-end business users (KA-6010, ATX), and
entry-level Pentium II system integrators/DIY users
(KA-6010, Baby AT).
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| Today's Related Stories |
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July 14, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
|
Intel Corp. here today reported lower
profits, revenues, and earnings for its second quarter,
but predicted second-half revenues would exceed those in
the first half. The company reported net income of
$1.2 billion on sales of $5.9 billion. Revenues were down
slightly from both the second quarter of 1997 and the
first quarter of 1998, when Intel reported revenues in
both periods of $6.0 billion. Net income was off 29% from
the second quarter of 1997, but down only 8% from the
first quarter of 1998. Earnings per share declined 28%
from the same period in 1997, falling to $0.66.
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July 15, 1998
The Register
|
Mighty Intel made a profit of $1.17
billion on turnover of $5.92 billion for its second
quarter, those figures revealing a drop in profitability
of 29 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Then, Intel made a profit of $1.65 billion on turnover of
$5.96 billion. The company forecast that its third
quarter turnover is expected to be flat, but that the PC
market was showing signs of recovery. That will cause
other high technology financial officers to breathe a
sigh of relief. Gross profit margin in the quarter fell
to 49 per cent, down from 54 per cent in its previous
quarter.
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By Larry Dignan
July 14, 1998
Inter@ctive Investor
|
Intel Corp. disappointed Wall Street
Tuesday with second quarter earnings of $1.2 billion, or
66 cents a share, on sales of $5.9 billion. First Call
Corp. consensus was 68 cents a share. Earnings for the
quarter declined 29 percent from a year ago and was off 8
percent from first quarter earnings of $1.3 billion. In
the second quarter a year ago, Intel reported earnings of
92 cents a share.
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By Sergio G. Non
July 14, 1998
TechInvestor
|
Intel's second quarter earnings fell
short of analyst expectations, the company said Tuesday. In
results released after market close, the chip company
reported profits of $1.2 billion, or 66 cents per share,
for the quarter ended June 27. The First Call consensus
was 68 cents per share, with some analysts expecting as
much as 70 cents a share.
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By Eric Hausman
July 14, 1998
Computer Reseller News
|
Intel Corp.'s second quarter earnings
fell short of analyst expectations. For the period
ended June 27, the Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., earned 66
cents per share, 2 cents lower than First Call Corp.
estimates.
Revenue of $5.9 billion was essentially flat compared
to the same quarter last year. Net income of $1.2
billion, was 29 percent lower than the $1.6 billion
earned in the second quarter a year ago. Earnings per
share in last year's second quarter were 92 cents per
share.
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By Mark Hachman
July 15, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
|
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel Corp.
reported a net income of $1.2 billion on revenues of $5.9
billion. Revenues were down slightly from both the second
quarter 1997 and the first quarter 1998, when Intel
reported revenues in both periods of $6.0 billion. Net
income declined 29% from the second quarter 1997, but was
only down 8% from the first quarter 1998. Earnings per
share, meanwhile, declined 28 percent from the same
period in 1997, falling to $0.66. Gross margins fell to
49%, but are expected to average out to about 52% for
1998 overall, executives said.
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By Andy Santoni
July 14, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
Intel on Tuesday reported second-quarter
revenue of $5.9 billion, essentially the same as
second-quarter 1997 and first-quarter 1998 revenue, each
$6.0 billion. Earnings were $1.2 billion, or 66 cents per
share. Revenues in the second quarter in the Americas
and Japan were higher; Asia-Pacific had relatively flat
revenue and revenue in Europe was lower.
Net income in the second quarter was $1.2 billion,
down 29 percent from second-quarter 1997 net income of
$1.6 billion, and down 8 percent from first-quarter 1998
net income of $1.3 billion. Net income in the first
quarter of 1998 included a nondeductible charge of
approximately $165 million, or nine cents per share, for
in-process research and development associated with the
acquisition of Chips and Technologies.
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| July 14, 1998 |
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By Michael Kanellos
July 14, 1998
C/Net
|
Despite weeks of doom and gloom in the
hardware sector, a better-than-expected second quarter
from Intel today could prove the first step in a
turnaround. The Santa Clara, Caliornia, chipmaker,
which will report its second-quarter results after the
market closes, is expected to announce earnings per share
of 65 cents or more, excluding charges, on revenues of
approximately $5.9 billion.
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July 14, 1998
The Register
|
Chip giant Intel has filed details of
its case against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with
a full trial expected to begin in early January next
year. Intel admitted that it had deprived customers,
including Compaq, Digital and Intergraph, of both
information and samples of processors after it entered
into arguments over patents. But the company claimed it
had the right to refuse to give its intellectual property
to its customers or to license such technologies, because
Intel does not have a monopoly in the chip business. The
companies concerned are not competition but customers,
Intel said.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By James Niccolai
July 13, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
The trial date for the U.S. Federal
Trade Commission's antitrust suit against Intel has been
pushed back a week, to Jan. 12, 1999, an FTC
representative said on Monday. The FTC refused to
comment on the reason for the postponement.
"It has been delayed, and that is all the
information being made public," an FTC
representative said.
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By Sergio G. Non
July 13, 1998
TechInvestor
|
Microsoft, Intel, and e-commerce stocks
helped carry the technology sector upward during morning
trading. Around noon, the Nasdaq Composite Index was up
17.99 to 1961.03. The S&P Technology Index rose 16.42
to 964.98, the PSE Tech Index gained 2.11 to 357.05, and
the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 5.66 to
9111.40.
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| Today's Related Stories |
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By Michael Kanellos
July 13, 1998
C/Net
|
Intel defended its right to cancel
agreements with three computer vendors in its answer to
the antitrust complaint filed by the Federal Trade
Commission, claiming, among other grounds, that the
information constituted proprietary information that the
chipmaker could retrieve at any time. The Santa Clara,
California, microprocessor maker also requested that the
case be dismissed.
Intel's answer, filed with the FTC today, outlined in
broad strokes the chip giant's defense when the trial
begins early next year. The FTC has pushed back the start
date of the trial to January 12, from January 5.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
July 13, 1998
PC Week Online
|
Intel Corp. today formally answered the
Federal Trade Commission's antitrust complaint,
maintaining it did not monopolize or attempt to
monopolize any market, nor did it use any unfair methods
of competition. In a 12-page reply, Intel attorneys
offer a point-for-point rebuttal of every charge levied
against the company by the FTC in early June.
The FTC has charged that Intel violated federal
antitrust law by denying three customers --- Intergraph
Corp., Digital Equipment Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp.
--- access to technical information after the companies
separately sought to enforce patents against Intel.
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By Reuters
July 14, 1998
Tech Web
|
Semiconductor giant Intel Monday denied
many of the charges leveled against it by the Federal
Trade Commission last month, saying it has not
monopolized any market, used unfair methods of
competition, or violated any antitrust laws. The Santa
Clara, Calif.-based company also said the current lawsuit
filed against it is not an appropriate matter for action
by the FTC.
Intel's response was its formal answer to the
complaint filed in early June by the FTC.
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By James Niccolai
July 13, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
Intel on Monday filed its response to
the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit,
denying it has monopolized the market for microprocessors
and saying its actions did not harm competition "in
any relevant market." "Intel has not
monopolized any market, attempted to monopolize any
market, or used any unfair methods of competition,"
the company said in its response.
In a point-by-point rebuttal of the FTC's claims,
Intel also restated its position that it acted within the
law when it denied confidential future product
information to companies with which it was in legal
disputes, and said the FTC has no cause to investigate
its actions.
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| July 13, 1998 |
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By Ephraim Schwartz
July 12, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
Major hardware vendors, led by Compaq
and 3Com, are in the early stages of forming an alliance
designed to rein in the scattershot research and
development practices of both Microsoft and Intel. Tired
of having new operating systems and technology foisted on
them and their corporate customers, major vendors are
privately forming an organization called the Mobile
Advisory Council.
The Council will attempt to increase pressure on
Microsoft and Intel to consult with systems vendors and
component manufacturers before initiatives are launched.
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By Craig Menefee
July 10, 1998
News Bytes
|
Advanced Micro Devices confirms it has
settled on Applied Materials ion metal plasma (IMP)
technology for copper-based interconnects in its
next-generation microprocessors. For its part, AMAT says
it will work closely with AMD to accelerate copper
development. The implication that a new generation of
AMD chips may have gone into full development comes on
the heels of a disappointing second-quarter report that
resulted in a one-day AMD stock price drop of around 15
percent earlier this week (Newsbytes, July 9, 1998).
An AMD spokesperson declined to confirm or deny
whether the announced technology selection and implied
collaboration with AMAT will affect AMD's processor
development roadmap, as revealed last November at the
giant Comdex trade show in Las Vegas (Newsbytes, November
21, 1997).
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By Lisa DiCarlo
July 10, 1998
PC Week Online
|
Intel Corp. and the Federal Trade
Commission today wrangled over a start date for their
upcoming antitrust trial. At a scheduling hearing in
Washington, Intel pushed for a February trial start,
while the FTC asked for a date in early December. An
administrative law judge will choose a trial date
relatively soon, Intel officials said.
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Today's Related Stories |
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By Michael Kanellos
July 10, 1998
C/Net
|
January 5 will be the start date for the
Federal Trade Commission's high-profile antitrust case
against Intel, an administrative law judge ruled today. Judge
James Timony, administrative law judge for the FTC, ruled
that the trial would begin on the first Tuesday in the
new year, a starting time that nearly splits the starting
date requests of the FTC and Intel. Earlier in the day,
FTC prosecutors made a motion to have the trial start in
December while Intel argued for a mid-February start
date.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Grant Buckler
July 9, 1998
News Bytes
|
Making computers easier to use and
taking up less of people's time with administrative
headaches such as virus checking and security may finally
allow technology to deliver the kind of benefits its
proponents have been promising for years, said Sean
Maloney, vice-president and co-director of Intel Corp.'s
sales and marketing group, in a keynote address at
Comdex/Canada today. The World Wide Web, with its
widely used and easy to understand interface, will help
in this. And whether businesses are making money on the
Web or not, Maloney said in a question period with
reporters after his speech, it is here to stay.
"This thing is just moving into people's lives in
the same way that television did," he said.
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By Lisa DiCarlo and John G. Spooner
July 10, 1998
PC Week Online
|
Notebook prices, which have remained
relatively stable compared with the plummeting prices of
desktop PCs, should begin to drop more quickly beginning
this fall. Intel Corp. plans to cut prices on its
mobile Pentium II processors in September, the first step
in a broader plan to lower the cost of notebooks.
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By Andrew MacLellan
July 10, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
|
In a sign that the overcrowded graphics
industry may finally be undergoing a period of
consolidation, multimedia house Chromatic Research Corp.
will discontinue its highly touted Mpact media processor
line and lay off a substantial percentage of its
workforce. Saying it was disappointed with the
long-term viability of the Mpact, the Sunnyvale,
Calif.-based company said there will be no follow-on to
the architecture, although existing devices, including
the Mpact 2 3DVD and the Mpact 2 3DVA with integrated
2D/3D graphics and PC audio, will continue to be
supported.
|
See These
Related Stories Chromatic
to lay off 50%
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By Will Wade
July 10, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
|
In a drastic cost-cutting move,
Chromatic Research Inc. here today said it plans to lay
off up to half of its employees, as the graphics chip
company attempts to redefine its product line and
business model. Although the company will continue to
support its existing base of Mpact media processor
design-ins, it is abandoning new applications of the
architecture in favor of a new product that is scheduled
to debut next year.
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| Today's Related Stories |
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By Darryl K. Taft
July 11, 1998
Computer Reseller News
|
At Friday's scheduling conference in the
Federal Trade Commission's case against Intel, both sides
proposed trial start dates and argued what key points the
case should contain. Intel (company profile) requested
the trial begin in February, while the FTC requested a
Dec. 7 start. FTC attorney John Horsley said the federal
agency should wrap up its case three weeks after the
start date.
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July 13, 1998
The Register
|
A preliminary court meeting between the
US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Intel lawyers has
led to a date for a trial being agreed between the two
parties. The FTC had asked for the trial to start on
the 7 December but a US judge has given Intel a few extra
weeks to prepare its case. The trial will now start on
the 5 January 1999, which represents a compromise between
Intel and the FTC.
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By Lisa DiCarlo and Rob O'Regan
July 10, 1998
PC Week Online
|
It's set: An administrative law judge
has picked Jan. 5, 1999, as the hearing date for the
Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit against
Intel Corp. The ruling represents a compromise to the
dates requested by Intel and the FTC earlier Friday.
Intel had asked for a date in February, while the FTC had
requested a date in early December.
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By Reuters
July 11, 1998
TechWeb
|
The Federal Trade Commission antitrust
suit alleging that Intel used monopoly power to pry trade
secrets from competitors will go to trial Jan. 5, 1999,
an FTC official announced Friday. FTC Administrative
Law Judge James Timony conducted a hearing Friday
morning, at which FTC attorneys asked for a Dec. 7, 1998
start and Intel asked for Feb. 18, 1999. FTC Secretary
Donald Clark announced later that Timony had decided to
start the trial Jan. 5.
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By James Niccolai
July 10, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
U.S. Administrative Law Judge James P.
Timony on Friday set a trial date of Jan. 5 for the
Federal Trade Commission to begin its antitrust suit
against Intel, representatives for the FTC and Intel said
Friday. At a scheduling hearing Friday morning in
Washington, the FTC asked the judge to grant a trial date
of Dec. 7., while Intel had requested the trial to begin
in February, giving the chip maker more time to prepare
its defense.
Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said the company will
"adjust its schedule accordingly."
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