| December 4, 1998 |
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By Jonathan Rabinovitz
December 4, 1998
San Jose Mercury News
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A judge has temporarily halted mass
e-mailings by a former Intel employee critical of the
company in a case that could have far-reaching free
speech implications. Sacramento County Superior Court
Judge John R. Lewis last week took what legal experts say
is the unprecedented step of issuing a temporary
injunction, ordering the ex-employee, Ken Hamidi, not to
send any more messages to Intel. The court must now
decide whether to make the ban permanent.
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December 4, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
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Standard Microsystems Corp., Hauppauge,
NY, has begun shipping its first PC systems logic (core
logic) chip sets. Each chip set consists of two
devices, aNorthBridge IC and a SouthBridge IC. These
devices, developed by SMSC's Systems Logic Business Unit,
are used in PC motherboards to connect and control
various elements, including the microprocessor, memory,
graphics, input/output, and the system buses. Over the
past two weeks, Standard Microsystems has shipped several
thousand NorthBridge and SouthBridge ICs to customers
worldwide.
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By Jane Wakefield
December 2, 1998
ZD Net UK
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Intel has admitted that it "got its
sums wrong" in predicting the number of chips needed
in Europe this year. The news follows complaints from
UK distributor Datrontech that demand for Pentium II
300MHz and 333MHz processors is outstripping supply.
A spokesman for Intel said "Predictions for the
last quarter of 1998 were made at the beginning of the
year. We underestimated demand in Europe and had a more
pessimistic view than proved necessary." Intel
claims it is now "up to speed" on shipments and
promised "people will get their chips", with
only a two to three week delay.
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| December 2, 1998 |
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By Mike Magee
December 2, 1998
The Register
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Cyrix claimed today that a survey it has
conducted shows that the number of corporate buyers
prepared to evaluate its chips has soared from three per
cent last year to 32 per cent now. Alain Tiquet,
European strategic sales manager at NatSemi-Cyrix,
claimed that success in the retail market was the reason
IT managers were considering its chips.
He said: "There's a very strong influence from
the retail market. People go into stores and think why
should they pay more for similar technology.
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By Alexander Wolfe
December 1, 1998
EE Times
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David Ditzel, president and chief
executive of Transmeta Corp., kicked off the Micro-31
conference yesterday (Nov. 30) with a warning that the
success of upcoming very-long-instruction-word (VLIW)
processors will hinge on good physical implementations
and on the availability of robust compilers. Ditzel's
pronouncements are closely followed because Transmeta
(Santa Clara, Calif.) is widely assumed to be designing a
VLIW processor. Such speculation has been fueled by a
patent recently issued to the company which proposes a
technique for speeding up RISC operations by decomposing
instructions into VLIW-like parallel streams.
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See Related
Stories Patent
hints at Transmeta's plans
Read
the Transmeta Patent
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December 1, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
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Eleven DRAM suppliers--Fujitsu, Hitachi,
Hyundai, IBM, LG, Micron, Mitsubishi, NEC, Samsung,
Siemens, and Toshiba--have announced they will support
Double Data Rate (DDR) synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) memory
components and modules. The open standard, developed
by the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council
(JEDEC) of the IEEE, addresses the need to increase data
throughput to keep parity with increasing microprocessor
speeds in servers, workstations, PCs, data
communications, and consumer products. Workstation maker
Silicon Graphics Inc. today announced its support system
designs using DDR SDRAM technology.
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By Mike Magee
December 2, 1998
The Register
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The microelectronics division of IBM
today outlined a five year roadmap for its memory
offerings based on double data rate (DDR) technology. But
Intel and AMD's backing of Direct Rambus looks set to
make that technology the memory winner. IBM Micro said
it had started shipping samples of 0.20-micron 256Mb DDR
parts and would achieve volume ramp in the middle of next
year. It has also started making 0.20-micron 64Mb parts.
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| December 1, 1998 |
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By Mike Magee
December 1, 1998
The Register
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Demand for Pentium II 333MHz and 350MHz
has so outstripped supply that there is an acute shortage
of parts, a distributor has warned. Two weeks ago,
Intel admitted that there was heavy demand for the PII
processors, while yesterday it said that the PII 233,
266MHz and 300MHz were not now generally available.
At the time, Intel said that supplies would begin to
catch up with demand in a few weeks, but Mark Davison,
processor product manager at UK distributor Datrontech,
said today there is still a shortage.
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By Mark Carroll
November 30, 1998
EE Times
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In a move that lifts some of Taiwan's
core logic for Pentium II systems from legal limbo, Via
Technologies Inc. announced today (Nov. 30) that it has
reached a joint patent license agreement with Intel Corp.
The agreement solidifies the legality of Via's Pentium II
Slot 1 core logic products, and helps to resolve several
outstanding intellectual property issues relating to
Via's chip sets. Prior to today's announcement, core
logic vendors from Taiwan hid behind manufacturing
licenses and/or claimed that their products did not
infringe Intel's patents.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Mark Hachman
November 30, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel Corp. is now providing technical
documentation on its web site for its forthcoming 440ZX
and 440ZX-66 chipsets for mid-range and low-cost PCs. However,
Intel has still not formally announced the chipset,
according to a spokesman for Intel, Santa Clara, Calif.
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By Mike Magee
November 30, 1998
The Register
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AMD has decided to take a stance against
Microsoft and give away the Win95 patch that cured the
crippling of its K6-2 chips after The Register revealed
it was frit of the software company. Two weeks after
we wrote the story, it started appearing on American
wires too, but without attribution to us.
But now the Great Satan of Taperecorders has posted
the patch on its Web site -- which was down for most of
the weekend -- and it can be found at this
spot.
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See Related
Stories AMD
issues K6-2 advisory
Windows
95 patch for K6-2 chips now free
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| Today's Related Stories |
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By Stephen Shankland
November 30, 1998
C/Net
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Intel and a processor rival have reached
an agreement paving the way for more competition in the
market for Pentium II chips. Intel and Via
Technologies, a manufacturer of companion chips to the
main processor, have signed an agreement that should
enable Via to make further inroads into a critical
computer chip area now dominated by the Santa Clara
giant.
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By Sandy Chen and Mark Hachman
November 30, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
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Chip set maker Via Technologies
announced Monday that Intel has granted the company a
license to use Intel's "P6 bus," a technology
that Intel has closely guarded. Under the agreement,
Via may build and sell core-logic chip sets for Intel's
Pentium II microprocessors using Intel's "Slot
1" architecture. Via will sell certain versions of
its Apollo Pro chip set family designed to use the P6
bus, paying Intel a royalty for each one. In addition,
Intel has also licensed certain undisclosed patents from
Via.
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By Terho Uimonen
November 30, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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Intel and Via Technologies on Monday
announced they have signed a licensing agreement that
allows Via to sell chip sets for Intel's Celeron and
Pentium II processors. The long-expected agreement was
delayed due to tough negotiations about the royalties Via
would pay for the rights to Intel's P6 bus architecture,
sources close to the companies said.
No financial details about the confidential deal were
announced.
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| November 30, 1998 |
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By Michael Kanellos
November 25, 1998
C/Net
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A patch that corrects an obscure glitch
that occurs when Windows 95 is run on AMD K6-2 processors
running at 350-MHz or faster is now free. The problem,
which was both reported and repaired in September, comes
because of a "software timing loop"
incorporated in Windows 95, said executives at both
Advanced Micro Devices and Microsoft.
The Windows 95 operating system was not originally
designed for processors running at speeds of 350-MHz or
more, said sources. As a result, computer users with
Windows 95 and a 350-MHz chip would occasionally get a
"Windows Protection Error" when booting up. A
similar problem existed with 333-MHz Pentium II chips
that ran Windows 95, but it was fixed early on.
|
Click here to
get patch Patch
for Windows 95 OEM SR2 and above
|
|
AMD
|
Please note that this patch will not
resolve issues associated with any other versions of
Windows 95 other than the OEM SR2 version. If you have
any other version other than OEM SR2, please contact
technical support for further options available to you.
To determine the version that you have on your system,
please read below. |
See Related
Stories AMD
advises K6-2 buyers of Windows 95 glitch
AMD
issues K6-2 advisory
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By John Lettice
November 29, 1998
The Register
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Chip design operation Transmeta has
finally tipped its hand by filing a patent application
for a radical new product which could conceivably run
virtually any application faster than the original. If
the company is barking up the right tree, it will be able
to build a completely new line of processors which will
be able to run all existing Intel software, without
Transmeta having had to maim its own hardware in order to
do so. |
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By Andy Santoni
November 30, 1998
PC World
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A blizzard of new CPUs will hit the
market next year--and buyers will come out the winners. Buyers
will get more choices in PCs, and Intel will get more
paranoid, as CPU competitors field an array of chips in
1999--some of them more capable than Intel's high-end
offerings.
"These guys are going to be fighting each other
tooth and nail," said Nathan Brookwood, a principal
at Insight 64, a consulting firm in Saratoga, California.
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By Rick Boyd-Merritt
November 25, 1998
EE Times
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Citing concerns about Intel Corp.'s
approach to open standards, three top PC server makers
are refusing to endorse an Intel effort to define a
next-generation computer I/O architecture. It's not yet
clear whether Compaq, IBM and Hewlett-Packard will hammer
out a unified response or separate counterproposals to
Intel's so-called NGIO, which Intel rolled out at a
high-profile conference earlier this month. But the trio
is sending signals that it takes issue with both business
and technology aspects of the Intel plan.
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Mike Magee
November 30, 1998
The Register
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Intel and VIA have settled their dispute
over chipsets for the Pentium II family, it was confirmed
today. Under the terms of the agreement, Intel will
receive royalties from the Taiwanese company and will
have rights to build its Apollo chipset. Terms of the
agreement were not disclosed.
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Mike Magee
November 30, 1998
The Register
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Eleven DRAM manufacturers have pledged
their support for the DDR (double data rate) SDRAM
standard, despite the rise and rise of Direct Rambus. Fujitsu,
Hitachi, Hyundai, Big Blue, LG, Micron, Mitsubishi, NEC,
Samsung, Siemens and Toshiba all said they would use the
standard, which was developed by the Joint Electronic
Device Engineering Council (JEDEC). And SGI said it would
also develop systems using DDR.
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Mike Magee
November 30, 1998
The Register
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The original Celeron is discontinued,
Intel confirmed today. The processor, launched in spring
this year, gave way to later revisions of the brand name
with a faster Mendocino core. And Intel has also
decided to discontinue the PII/233, the PII/266 and the
PII/300. It will continue to supply the processors to
those with existing orders until November 1999, a
representative said.
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By Anthony Cataldo
November 27, 1998
EE Times
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After a year of uncertainty, the
embedded StrongARM processor has found a home with its
new parent, Intel Corp., which is scheduled to have its
first home-grown version of the processor ready by the
second half of 1999. The company has come a long way
since it announced it would buy Digital Equipment Corp.'s
fabrication facility in Hudson, Mass. as part of its
antitrust settlement with Digital, a deal that gave it
rights to StrongARM.
Some analysts remain skeptical.
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