| August 14, 1998 |
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By Michael Kanellos
August 14, 1998
C/Net
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Starting in the fourth quarter, Intel
will begin to deliver the Pentium II processor in a new
package that will allow it to push chip speeds to 500 MHz
and beyond. The plastic Pentium II cartridge--slightly
smaller than a cassette tape case--used inside computers
today will become smaller with the new design, according
to an Intel spokesman. Most of the changes, however, are
not cosmetic but substantive internal modifications that
affect the chip's performance.
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By Mark Hachman
August 13, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
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A shortage of low-end Pentium II
microprocessors has caused an increase in chip prices
which may last until late in the third quarter, according
to an Intel Corp. spokesman here. Rumors floating
about Wall Street this week said Intel was experiencing
production problems, but analysts and the Santa Clara
company dismissed those reports as being untrue. However,
analysts said an increase in processor prices was not
related to higher demand for the slower-speed grade
Pentium II products.
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By Mark Hachman
August 13, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
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A shortage of low-end Pentium II
microprocessors that has prompted an uptick in chip
prices may last until late in the third quarter, an Intel
Corp. spokesman said. Rumors floating about Wall
Street this week said that Intel was itself experiencing
production problems, a charge analysts and a company
spokesman said was not true. But analysts also cautioned
that the rise in prices did not signal a corresponding
rise in demand.
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By Reuters
August 14, 1998
C/Net
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The head of U.S. microchip giant Intel
said in Argentina yesterday that he saw good growth
possibilities in Latin America for the industry. "Latin
America has a small volume still today. But with a 450
million population in South and Central America, there is
the potential [for Latin America] to be as big a
consuming area as the United States eventually,"
Craig Barrett said.
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| August 13, 1998 |
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By Mark Hachman
August 13, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
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National Semiconductor reversed course
from its earlier optimistic forecasts, this week
predicting a "significant net loss" during the
second half of 1998. In management commentary
accompanying the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker's
fiscal 1998 annual report, National adopted a
significantly more pessimistic stance towards the same
numbers the company first reported in June.
Now, National predicts that its financial performance
through the end of the calendar year will be affected by
the growing trend towards sub-$1,000 PCs and a slowdown
in chip orders. The documents were filed this past
Monday.
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August 12, 1998
The Register
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Intel has now admitted that its 450MHz
CPUs for four way servers is now likely to be delayed
until the first quarter of next year. That follows blunt
assertions on Monday of this week that there were no
problems with the platform. An Intel representative
said today: "This isn't a problem as such. The
450MHz for the workstation platform is on schedule for
the second half of this year but now extra validation and
OEM schedules mean that it will be delayed."
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By Reuters
August 11, 1998
C/Net
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Chipmaker Samsung Electronics said today
it had completed development of the 64-megabit Rambus
memory module and was set to begin mass-producing the
device. The company said it has shipped samples to
major semiconductor and PC makers such as Intel, Compaq
Computer, and Dell Computer.
A Samsung statement said major PC makers were expected
to replace synchronous dynamic random access memories
(DRAMs) with faster chips, creating a big demand for
Rambus DRAM modules.
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| August 12, 1998 |
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By Mark Hachman
August 11, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
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Concerned with the Xeon's performance in
four-way servers, Intel will delay the launch of specific
450-MHz microprocessors until the first quarter of 1999. Although
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel will ship the 450-MHz
Pentium II microprocessors on schedule, the 450-MHz Xeon
with 1 and 2 megabytes of Level 2 cache will be held for
further testing, an Intel spokesman said. Both chips will
be delayed from the fourth quarter until the first
quarter 1999.
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August 11, 1998
Semiconductory Business News
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Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. here today
announced it has begun volume shipments of
next-generation 64-Mbit in-line memory modules based on
an architecture promoted by Rambus Inc. The Korean
chip maker said it is now delivering Rambus in-line
memory modules (RIMMs) to Intel Corp., Compaq Computer
Corp. and Dell Computer Corp. after completing
development on the product in July. Currently, Samsung is
producing 100,000 modules a month, and it plans to
increase its output to 1 million a month by the middle of
1999.
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| August 11, 1998 |
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By Michael Kanellos
August 10, 1998
C/Net
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Intel will put off releasing the 450-MHz
Xeon chip for 4-processor servers until the first part of
next year, although the chip for use in 1- or 2-processor
workstations and servers will come out later this year. This
latest delay will serve to allow more testing and product
validation, according to the company. "We took a
look at the validation process and decided to extend
it," an Intel spokeswoman said.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
August, 10, 1998
PC Week Online
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In a chip upgrade swan song, Intel Corp.
next week will release its final OverDrive upgrade
processors. The company will introduce two Pentium II
OverDrive upgrades for aging Pentium Pro systems. They
will be available in two modules: a 300MHz Pentium II for
150MHz and 180MHz Pentium Pro systems and a 333MHz
Pentium II module for 166MHz and 200MHz Pentium Pros.
Company officials claim overall performance
improvement on business applications of 47 percent. The
OverDrives are priced at $599 and will be available
through resellers, distributors and catalogs.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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August 11, 1998
The Register
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Taiwanese chip company VIA has announced
its Apollo MVP4 chipset which it said integrates 2D and
3D AGP graphics, AC 97 audio, Super I/O and has hardware
monitoring features. The chipset will start being
produced in volume towards the end of the year, with
pricing at $39 in OEM quantities.
The chipset consists of the VT92C501 Share Memory
Architecture (SMA) north bridge and the VT82C686 Super
South bridge.
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By Reuters
August 10, 1998
C/Net
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Albert Yu, who is in charge of the crown
jewels at Intel --its microprocessor products--likes to
stay ahead of the technology curve. Once he even left the
chip giant's employ in the 1970s to jump on his belief
that personal computing was the next big wave. Yu
launched his home computer, called the Video Brain, in
1978, two years after Apple rolled out the first Apple
II, with an audio cassette as a storage device.
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By Larry Dignan
August 11, 1998
Inter@ctive Investor
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Wall Street is tripping over itself
trying to call the end of the semiconductor slump, but
unless analysts have ringing up the Psychic Friends
Hotline you shouldn't put too much stock in their
predictions. Semiconductor executives have admitted in
numerous conference calls that their visibility about
Asia is very limited. Many execs have indicated Asia
could get worse before it gets better. Asia will continue
to be the biggest drag on the chip sector even though PC
demand and pricing pressures are also problems.
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| Today's Related Stories |
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August 11, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
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Intel Corp. here has rolled out a new
Pentium II OverDrive processor which the company says
completes a series of upgrade products for its
microprocessors targeted at Pentium Pro-based systems. The
Pentium II OverDrive will increase the performance of
existing upgradable 150- and 180-MHz Pentium Pro-based
systems to 300 MHz, according to Intel. The new processor
will also enable upgrades of existing 166- and 200-MHz
Pentium Pro systems to 333 MHz, the company said.
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| August 10, 1998 |
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By Anonymous Intel Engineer
Face Intel
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Merced is facing extinction! Deliberate
mismanagement and abuse of employees, which is byproduct
of Intel's exploitive and unjust human resources polices
has been a major issue at Intel in recent years. But
today, it is so prevalent that it is seriously taking a
toll on Intel's leading projects like Merced. Intel
does not value and appreciate the experience and
knowledge of its veteran engineers. This is because Intel
has enjoyed enormous success by modifying existing
products without major changes. The documents, tools,
flows, etc. are readily available and standardized for
x86 processors. Hence, even new college graduates (NCGs)
can handle most of the design and validation tasks.
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See Related
Stories Is
Merced doomed?
Merced
mired
What's
Wrong With Merced
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By Alexander Wolfe
August 10, 1998
EE Times
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It's time for another edition of
"Making Book on Merced," the industry pastime
where we attempt to uncover the closely held
architectural details of Intel's upcoming 64-bit
microprocessor. First, some ground rules. Intel's
engineers would like to talk, but they're not allowed to
("We could tell you, but then we'd have to kill
you"). Hewlett-Packard's engineers would really like
to talk-they're afraid the world isn't aware of their
major contributions-but they're really not allowed to.
Management will talk, but it won't tell you anything you
don't already know.
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August 10, 1998
The Register
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Intel has released its Pentium II
OverDrive upgrade for the Pentium Pro, as revealed here
last month. That spells the virtual end of the Pentium
Pro as an Intel platform. The product, which will cost
$599, uses the socket eight slot, and will give a 300MHz
clock speed to Pentium Pro 150MHz, 180MHz machines, and a
330MHz clock speed for 166MHz and 200MHz Pentium Pro
machines.
Intel's release of the news confirms the reports here
that the Pentium Pro is now, finally, being phased out in
favour of the Pentium II and Xeon platforms.
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By Andy Patrizio
August 7, 1998
TechWeb
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Intel delayed delivery of its high-end
Pentium II Xeon-based servers, while it does extra
certification work to ensure compatibility with all
possible hardware configurations. The company has
already released the 400-MHz version of the Xeon chip and
the 440GX and 450NX chip sets. The 440GX allows for up to
two central processing units and 2 gigabytes of memory,
while the 450NX chip set handles up to four processors
and 8 GBs of memory. Intel (company profile) previously
delayed releasing the 450NX chip set when it found errors
in four-way configurations.
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By Andy Santoni
August 7, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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Intel has delayed the introduction of
the four-way server version of its 450-MHz Pentium II
Xeon processor from later this year to early next to make
sure the faster parts work with the company's server chip
set, the 450NX. The 450-MHz Pentium II processor is
still on schedule for an Aug. 24 launch, and the 450-MHz
Pentium II Xeon will still ship later this year for one-
and two-way workstations and servers.
However, Intel wants more time to test the highest
performance configuration of processor and chip set: the
450-MHz Pentium II Xeon with 2MB of Level 2 (L2) cache
and the 450NX in a four-way system. Intel has already
tested processors that run at 350 MHz or 400 MHz with
512KB or 1MB of L2 cache.
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August 10, 1998
The Register
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Reports that higher end Xeon processors
are delayed are spurious, Intel said today.
But at the same time, details of pricing changes to
arrive on the 24 August have emerged, as well as future
plans for its high end chip platforms. Reports on US
wires had said Intel had delayed four way server versions
of its Xeon
processors because of a problem with its high end NX
chipset. But an Intel representative said that Xeon
multiway processors had already started to ship and that
no delays were anticipated for four way systems.
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August 10, 1998
The Register
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Flashpoint has struck a deal with chip
manufacturer IDT-Centaur to sell its processors in the
UK. But the deal may cause ructions because Avnet and
Arrow are master resellers in this country.
Sukh Rayat, general manager at Flashpoint UK, said:
"We anticipate strong demand from our OEM and Var
customers for IDT's highly efficient processors."
The WinChip IDT makes is much cheaper than x.86 parts
offered by Intel, AMD or Cyrix, even given recent price
reductions.
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August 6, 1998
The Register
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Intel has confirmed it will use copper
technology in the future. At the same time, a report on a
US Web site claimed that Intel could drop Merced
altogether. Intel said it had a plan for the future
based on what a representative described as its Organic
C4 Flip-Chip circuitry. This is an Intel, home grown
solution, to the copper technology IBM and Motorola
claimed as a first last year.
A representative said: "Yes, we will be using
copper technology on our .13 micron technology. This is a
technique that minimises delays in the interconnect. It
uses copper in couple with aluminium and it is much
cheaper than copper."
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August 6, 1998
The Register
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The head of chip company AMD has
compared his company to a monkey, Motorola to a
chimpanzee and Intel to a gorilla. Jerry Sanders, CEO
of the company, speaking in California last week, said:
"It is not illegal to be an 800 pound gorilla, nor
is it illegal for the gorilla to wind up with more
bananas than the much smaller monkeys and chimpanzees
that forage in the same hunting grounds."
Sanders said that "size counts" in the
semiconductor industry. "Being big is not only good
- it's essential," he said. "In the
semiconductor industry, Intel is a gorilla, Motorola is a
chimpanzee and AMD is a monkey."
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August 6, 1998
The Register
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A statement from Hyundai's HQ in Seoul,
Korea, today confirmed that the two companies had never
been in talks over the acquisition of its Fife, Scotland,
fab plant. That is likely to make a lot of journalists
red-faced after they insisted, even today, that
the deal was still on.
Reports in today's UK national papers said that
unelected Scottish minister Gus McDonald is still
attempting to broker a deal between the two.
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By Yoshiko Hara and Michael Santarini with additional
reporting by Ron Wilson
August 7, 1998
EE Times
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Sharp Corp. confirmed this week that it
is pushing SOI into communications ICs and that it will
begin a foundry business for SOI devices. Meanwhile,
executives at Motorola Inc. told EE Times that the
company is preparing a module for its CMOS
process that would enable the use of SOI in a design. And
design-automation experts also weighed in, asserting that
while SOI won't pose many tools challenges, the
technology could throw over traditional CMOS-based design
methodologies.Interest in silicon-on-insulator
technology surged on the heels of IBM's announcement that
it is deploying SOI technology in a version of the
PowerPC. IBM officially announced it was using SOI on the
PowerPC 750 microprocessor, expected in the first half of
next year. This 15-year-old technology, which has long
searched for profitable applications, is a way to bring
lower power and high performance to high-speed designs.
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By Roy Taylor
August 9, 1998
The Register
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After a few dull weeks, the component
market has become interesting again. Last week we saw the
hike in price for DRAM up from $1.25 for a 4MX4 EDO to
around $1.60 and lots of interest and purchase orders to
boot. At VML we do not believe that this is a shortage of
any kind but rather a ‘re-alignment’ as
manufacturers start to try out increases to see if they
will stick. They did until yesterday (5 August) but we
suspect that they have hit a lull until the next major
cutback or other event happens. |
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