| October 23, 1998 |
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By Michael Kanellos
October 22, 1998
C/Net
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Intel has fixed a notorious bug with its
Xeon processors and says that volume shipments of the
high-end server chip, as well as four-processor servers
based around the chip, have begun. Intel got around
the bug--which disabled a crucial memory function on
chips used in sophisticated four-processor servers--by
changing the circuitry on the chip, according to Anthony
Ambrose, director of marketing for the enterprise server
group. As a result of the manufacturing fix, Intel can
now ship many more of the chips, which should alleviate
pent-up demand.
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By Tony Smith
October 23, 1998
The Register
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The US Federal Trade Commission's
hearing into Intel's alleged antitrust business practices
has been delayed again. An administrative judge
yesterday pushed the date of the trial back to 23
February 1999, citing the "unusually great"
accumulation of evidence being prepared for the case.
His decision was made after both Intel and FTC lawyers
requested more time to evalauate each others' evidence.
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By Robert Ristelhueber
October 12, 1998
Electronic News
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At the Microprocessor Forum this week,
Rise Technology is scheduled to take the wraps off its
first x86-compatible processor. Not long ago, such an
announcement was almost certain to instantly provoke an
aggressive legal assault from Intel, resulting in years
of exhausting courtroom battles. Not any more. Nobody
expects a repeat of Intel's epic courtroom clashes with
Advanced Micro Devices, Cyrix and Chips &
Technologies, to name just a few. For a number of
reasons, Intel's legal department today resembles a
leashed lapdog instead of the snarling pit bull of years
past.
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By Yardena Arar
October 23, 1998
PC World
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Competition is a beautiful
thing--especially for PC buyers. Competition between
Intel and other CPU manufacturers sparked the explosion
of sub-$1000 desktops and continues to sink prices for
systems equipped with even the newest and fastest
processors. But until now, similar competition has been
lacking in the mobile arena: When it comes to notebooks,
you almost always find "Intel inside." |
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AMD's
New Muscle Puts Heat On Intel
The gang that couldn't shoot straight
might be starting to make Intel sweat.
By Robert Ristelhueber
October 19, 1998
Electronic News
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During a panel session at last week's Microprocessor
Forum, a representative of the world's mightiest
microprocessor maker found himself on the defensive,
insisting that his company's next chip would keep up with
Advanced Micro Device's upcoming K7 device. "I
believe we have a competitive product," said
Srinivas Raman, manager of Intel's microprocessor
architecture and validation groups. Even the notion of
such a scene would have been absurd only a year ago. AMD
had once again stumbled, shooting itself in the foot by
failing to achieve adequate yields with its K6 processor.
Memories of the company's K5 debacle were still fresh in
industry minds. Intel was at the height of its power and
prosperity, and AMD couldn't seem to lay a glove on its
arch-rival.
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| October 22, 1998 |
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By Michael Kanellos
October 21, 1998
C/Net
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Graphics heavyweight ATI Technologies
today acquired Chromatic, a once promising media
processor venture that recently had to lay off a big
chunk of its workforce, for $67 million and will use the
new company to move into the market for integrated chips
for set-top boxes and other intelligent devices. The
acquisition and ATI's product plans seems to symbolize
everything that is going on in the turbulent graphics
chip market.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Mark Hachman
October 21, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
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The current sales leader of PC graphics
chips, ATI Technologies, has agreed to acquire multimedia
IC vendor Chromatic Research for $67 million in stock.
The move is part of ATI's ongoing push into set-top
boxes, analysts said. The acquisition should also
prove to be the final stake in the coffin of Chromatic's
Mpact, which combined various multimedia processing
functions into a single chip. Within the next few days,
Chromatic will announce it has completely divested itself
of the Mpact product line to a third party, according to
John Monti, vice president of marketing at Sunnyvale,
Calif.-based Chromatic.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Mike Magee
October 22, 1998
VNU News Wire
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After 2001, Intel's upcoming IA-64 chip
architecture will split in two, with separate platforms
for high end and low end machines. This became clear as
further details of the IA-64 roadmap leaked out this
week, indicating Intel's plans until around 2003.
According to Gordon Graylish, Intel's marketing
director for the Emea region, the IA-64 architecture will
split after the introduction, in 2001, of the second
generation of the 64-bit platform, codenamed McKinley.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Mike Magee
October 22, 1998
The Register
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Intel has stopped supplying its
processors in trays to all but its largest customers, it
confirmed today. It will now supply product in boxes,
according to a source at an Intel UK distributor.
He said: "The reason is that it is easier to
track sales, and remarks and it's also a branding
solution. Only the very largest players are interested in
tray supplies."
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Today's Related Stories |
| Today's Related Stories |
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By Andy Santoni
October 21, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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Graphics chip and board supplier ATI
Technologies on Wednesday entered into a definitive
agreement to acquire troubled Chromatic Research, a
designer of multimedia processors, for a total of $67
million. This summer, Chromatic Research stopped
development of its Mpact single-chip multimedia
processor, the last media processor to target PCs.
Samsung ended development of its Multimedia Signal
Processor (MSP) shortly after its introduction two years
ago, and Philips Semiconductors has changed the focus of
its TriMedia processor to consumer electronics
applications such as high-definition television.
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By John Lettice
October 22, 1998
The Register
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Further details leaking out about the
Intel IA-64 roadmap flesh the company's plans out until
around 2003, and introduce two more codenames, Madison
and Deerfield. According to Gordon Graylish, Intel
marketing director EMEA, after McKinley's introduction in
2001, the IA-64 architecture will bifurcate into high-end
and low-end versions. These are Madison (high end) and
Deerfield (low end), and will be 0.13 micron. Ultimately
Deerfield will be a sort of IA-64 Celeron implementation
(although unless Celeron's reputation starts improving,
Intel might not fancy saying this in 2003), and will at
some point supplant the IA-32 line of CPUs which is
currently roadmapped at Tanner, Cascades, Foster and then
at least one other.
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October 22, 1998
VNU News Wire
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Intel is hitting out at the grey market
for chips by changing how it packages products for
customers. It has stopped supplying its processors in
trays to all but its largest customers, and will replace
these with boxes, which are easier to track and harder to
transport across borders, as they are far bulkier.
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| October 21, 1998 |
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October 5, 1998
Asia BizTech
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Integrated Device Technology Inc. (IDT),
a U.S. semiconductor manufacturer, is discussing
strategic alliances with Taiwan's Acer Semiconductor
Manufacturing Inc. IDT President Len Perham said that
because of the high OEM charges of
his company's present partner, IBM Corp., IDT is very
interested in cooperating with Acer Semiconductor on the
manufacturing of processors.
Perham indicated that IDT originally planned to have
IBM product its processors using technology more advanced
than 0.25 micrometer.
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By Tony Smith
October 21, 1998
The Register
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Graphics card specialist has confirmed
its intention to acquire media processor developer
Chromatic Research in a deal worth $67 million. As
predicted by The Register (see ATI prepares Chromatic
buyout), ATI's interest lies in Chromatic's work on
system-on-a-chip (SOC) products for set-top boxes.
Chromatic has been developing an SOC since it became
clear its Mpact 2 2D/3D graphics acceleration and video
chip had failed to win the support of PC manufacturers,
largely because users prefer the power of a dedicated
graphics acceleration system of the kind that ATI
produces.
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By Graham Lea
October 21, 1998
The Register
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Bill Gates did not threaten Andy Grove,
then CEO of Intel, during a three-hour dinner with him in
1995 at which native signal processing was discussed,
John Warden, Microsoft's trial lawyer claimed. Gates
was just urging Intel to drop the development of native
signal processing because the technology was technically
incompatible with Windows, and not because it would
remove some of the need for Windows. Microsoft has not
released the memo, but Microsoft's threat to be friendly
to AMD if Intel did not obey Gates' wish is sufficiently
well established.
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IV.
Inteliad
Katmai architecture, refrigerator
communication and other news
By Andreas Stiller
Volume 20, 1998
c't Magazine
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Of course the Katmai processor was the
highlight at Intels Developer Forum in the 45 °C heat of
Palm Springs. From September 15 - 17 Intel did not only
offer hot processor and chip set topics for the about
1700 developers from all over the world, but also
unveiled many software activities and shared their views
about the PC future where the refrigerator door will
serve as communication center. Searching for practical
interfaces in homes, Intels Architecture Lab (IAL) found
the refrigerator. Why should this not be the place where
we contact the central home computer via a water- and
milk-proof touch display to quickly retrieve a recipe for
almond croissants, check Intels stock price or watch the
Clinton video while we are cooking? The latter would have
worked very well with Web software developed by IAL.
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By Andreas Stiller
Volume 20, 1998
c't Magazine
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There was a time when the x86 processor
world was still all right: Intel had one single expensive
top of the range model which stood out unrivalled, then
there were a few cheaper chips for the mass market which
were in heavy competition with AMD's and Cyrix's range.
Nowadays, hardly anyone gets the full picture anymore -
and things will get worse. If need be, Intel will even
create competition for itself. There is the basic PC line
for home use intended for the Celeron, the business line
with Pentium II for advanced requirements and the
workstation and server line for wich the Xeon has been
available for two months. So far, so good, if it weren't
for the fact that the newly released Celeron models are
faster and cheaper thant the classic business line
mainstream processor, the Pentium II 300.
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By Carol Venezia
October 20, 1998
PC Week On-Line
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If you've been following AMD's history,
you're used to this chip vendor's introducing low-cost
alternatives to Intel processors. Indeed, AMD usually
follows in Intel's wake in terms of CPU speed, features,
and functionality. This gap has closed slightly in the
past year, with the AMD K6-2 CPU, which has reached clock
speeds of 350 MHz; and we expect the upcoming K6-3 to be
clocked up to 400 MHz.
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| October 19, 1998 |
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By Michael Kanellos
October 16, 1998
C/Net
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Although S3 has primarily been known as
a graphics chip vendor, the company may increasingly
become associated with patent litigation. Three
patents that the company acquired earlier this year in a
blind auction from defunct chipmaker Exponential may
provide the basis for a patent claim against chip giant
Intel, according to a prominent patent analyst.
If a suit were filed, it would be the second major
patent case for S3 this year. And, like the existing
case, a suit against Intel would revolve around patents
that S3 acquired from another company a scant few months
earlier.
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October 19, 1998
Silicon News
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Intel has remained tight-lipped amidst
growing speculation that its upcoming IA-64
microprocessor architecture - and in particular, Merced,
its first 64bit chip - will violate a patent held by S3,
a company that makes graphics accelerator chips. The
controversy surrounds patents S3 bought from the now
defunct chip-maker, Exponential Technology.
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By Ephraim Schwartz
October 19, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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If Intel has its way, every application
running on its next-generation processors would
automatically be speech-enabled this time next year. Intel
is including the speech technology in its next processor,
code-named Katmai, due out in the first quarter of 1999,
and experts are predicting that by 2000 the technology
will be able to go beyond simple speech-to-text input.
"You will be able to say, 'What were sales for
last September and how does that compare for this
September?'" said Steven Rondel, president of
Conversational Computing, in Redmond, Wash.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
October 18, 1998
PC Week Online
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Despite Intel Corp.'s seemingly
insurmountable lead in the X86 processor world, a record
number of rivals are busy laying out X86 road maps of
their own. At the Microprocessor Forum here last week,
five processor manufacturers--Intel, Advanced Micro
Devices Inc., National Semiconductor Inc.'s Cyrix
subsidiary, Centaur Technology Inc. and newcomer Rise
Technology--unfurled their 18-month X86 product plans.
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By EE Times staff
October 18, 1998
EE Times
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The end of the century will be marked by
architectural wars as intense as the battle between RISC
and CISC, but far more complex. That was the repeated
message from a series of major microprocessor papers at
the latest Microprocessor Forum. Intel Corp., IBM Corp.,
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Compaq Computer Corp.
each unveiled details of their new flagship CPUs,
revealing both common trends and profound differences in
the pursuit of power.
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By David Lammers
October 18, 1998
EE Times
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Intel Corp. will face strong competition
from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s K-7 processor in the
second half of next year, said Keith Diefendorff,
editor-in-chief of the Microprocessor Report. “If
I were Intel, I would be a little nervous,”
Diefendorff said at a day-long Thursday seminar focused
on comparing high-performance microprocessor designs, at
the Microprocessor Forum here.
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By Matthew Broersma
October 16, 1998
ZD Net News
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Industry analysts said Intel Corp.'s
$500 million stake in Micron Technologies Friday is a
long-term bet that could lead to a big payoff once the
memory market comes out of its downturn. The investment
also continues an Intel strategy to eliminate bottlenecks
that may keep users from taking advantage of the speed of
faster and faster microprocessors.
"Once the [memory] market starts to tighten up,
and comes out of its present slump, in 2000 or 2002, we
could see a pretty significant DRAM shortage," said
Mel Thomson, a senior analyst with MicroDesign Resources
Inc. "That's happened before ... [and Intel] is
trying to get in front of that, and make sure it doesn't
happen."
|
See
Related Stories Intel to invest in Micron
Intel Invests $500 Million
In Micron
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By Michael Kanellos and Stephen Shankland
October 16, 1998
C/Net
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With Intel's $500 million investment in
Micron Technology, memory designer Rambus will
increasingly move to center stage in the world of
computer design. Rambus--which designs, but does not
make, high-speed memory chips--is the premier company
working on a solution to what is perhaps the biggest
bottleneck in computer performance today. Namely, the
speed at which data can be delivered to the processor.
|
See
Related Stories Intel to invest in Micron
Intel Invests $500 Million
In Micron
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October 16, 1998
Wired News
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Intel today gave memory manufacturer
Micron Technology a US$500 million cash injection to
ensure the continued development of high-speed memory
technology needed to support Intel's forthcoming
multimedia and graphics processors. Shares of Micron
Technology (MU) jumped nearly 6 percent Friday after
Intel (INTC) said it will buy a 6 percent stake in the
memory-chip maker.
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October 19, 1998
Silicon News
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Intel is to pay $500m for a 6 per cent
equity stake in Micron Technology, a US memory chip
maker. Intel has not been a player in the memory chip
business for many years, but has said investing in the
future of Micron's Direct RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic RAM)
memory interface technology, will help drive PC growth.
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By Rebecca Sykes
October 19, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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Intel announced Monday it will buy
Shiva, a maker of remote access and virtual private
network products for small and medium-size businesses. Under
the terms of the definitive merger agreement that the
companies have signed, each share of Shiva stock will be
converted into the right to receive $6 per share in cash,
except for shares held by stockholders who exercise
statutory appraisal rights, according to a statement from
Intel.
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By Stephen Shankland
October 16, 1998
C/Net
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Shares of Rambus, developer of an
up-and-coming computer memory technology, jumped in early
trading but then retreated after the company announced
fourth-quarter earnings yesterday that were in line with
Wall Street expectations. Rambus reported
fourth-quarter net income of $1.75 million, or 7 cents
per diluted share, compared with net income of $1.06
million, or 4 cents per share, for the same quarter a
year ago.
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