| January 15, 1999 |
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By Will Wade
January 14, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Share prices for Advanced Micro Devices
Inc. were hammered in morning trading today, after the
company failed to meet analysts' expectations for its
fourth-quarter earnings results announced here yesterday.
Despite a profit for the quarter, the company was unable
to meet customer demand for its most advanced
microprocessor, cutting its potential revenue figures by
as much as $30 million. AMD reported income of $0.15
per share, although Wall Street was predicting the
company would bring in $0.19 per share. As a result,
stock prices plummeted more than 17% in the morning
session, from yesterday's close of $31.50 to below $23.
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By Terry Costlow
January 14, 1999
EE Times
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Intel Corp. this week asked board
producers and their trade organizations to help develop
the standard mechanical format for its emerging NGI/O
technology. The request may help forge closer relations
between the feuding VME International Trade Association
(VITA) and the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers
Group (PICMG), which have pledged to work together to
help create the new architecture. Intel hopes that
NGI/O, a serial I/O technique that reduces pin counts for
high-speed communications, will become the mainstay for
forthcoming generations of servers. It provides a way to
communicate between CPUs and I/O cards, but Intel has
made no attempt to create a physical architecture for
holding those I/O boards.
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By David Lieberman
January 14, 1999
EE Times
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The PCI Industrial Computer
Manufacturers Group (PICMG), will include a 66-MHz mode
of operation in Rev. 3 of the CompactPCI specification,
now in development. Just as the group expanded the
four-slot capability of 33-MHz PCI to eight slots for
CompactPCI, so too will its 66-MHz spec expand the slot
count for the higher frequency. Commercial PCI can only
manage a single slot at a 66-MHz frequency, but
CompactPCI will handle up to five. |
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By Martyn Williams
January 14, 1999
Newsbytes
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Toshiba Corp. says it will switch from
Intel Corp.'s K6 processors for the latest models in its
DynaBook 2500 range of notebook computers. The new
2520 machines feature AMD's K6-2 300 megahertz processor,
64- or 32-megabytes main memory, 4.3 gigabyte hard disk
drive, internal CD-ROM and floppy drive and 12.1inch TFT
(thin film transistor) LCD (liquid crystal display) or
13.0inch DSTN (dual super twisted nematic) LCD screen.
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| Q1/99 Earnings Reports |
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By Michael Kanellos
January 14, 1999
C/Net
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Advanced Micro Devices, the Sisyphus of
the microprocessor world, reported its largest profit in
more than a year yesterday, only to get rewarded with a
sinking stock price, a host of downgrades from Wall
Street analysts, and skepticism that the company may end
up on the losing end of a looming processor price war. The
turn in AMD's fortunes comes as a result of disappointing
fourth quarter earnings yesterday.
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By Stephen Shankland
January 14, 1999
C/Net
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Rambus, a high-speed memory interface
designer, met Wall Street's expectations for its first
quarter of fiscal 1999, but the company cautioned
investors to expect earnings to stay level for the next
two or three quarters. The Mountain View, California,
company reported net income of $2 million, or 8 cents per
diluted share, compared to net income of $1.6 million, or
6 cents per diluted share during the same quarter a year
ago.
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By Jennifer L. Baljko
January 15, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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While posting strong double-digit,
year-over-year net income growth for the first fiscal
quarter, Rambus Inc. said it expects earnings to remain
flat for the next two or three quarters. For the
quarter ended Dec. 31, revenue grew 12.6% from $9.4
million last year to $10.6 million. Net income climbed
32.2% from $1.6 million in the year-ago period to $2.1
million this year. Earnings per share of 9 cents beat
First Call Corp.'s consensus estimates by a penny.
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By Stephen Shankland
January 14, 1999
C/Net
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Rambus, a high-speed memory designer and
one of the highest fliers among semiconductor stocks,
will likely post a decent profit today, but analysts
don't expect the company to really take off until the
second half of 1999. The trigger that will start
Rambus' revenue stream flowing is Intel's Camino chipset,
which will enable mainstream computers to take advantage
of memory built around Rambus' designs, said Dean
McCarron, an analyst with Mercury Research. Camino is due
in the second half of 1999.
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January 14, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Rambus Inc. here today reported revenues
of $1.6 million for its first fiscal quarter, a gain of
13% over last year's first quarter and 9% over the
previous period. Despite the gains, the company warned
investors to expect flat earnings for the next six to
nine months. The figures translated into income of
$2.4 million for the three-month period ending Dec. 31,
or $0.08 per share. Income in last year's first quarter
was $2.1 million, and $1.8 million in the preceding
period.
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| January 14, 1999 |
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By Richard Richtmyer
January 13, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
After struggling along with other
chipmakers through the semiconductor industry's latest
downward cycle, Integrated Device Technology Inc.'s
outlook for 1999 is much brighter, according to the Santa
Clara, Calif., company's top executive. "With any
kind of decent economy in 1999, IDT should be in a good
position to make money, quarter-over-quarter, throughout
the year," said Len Perham, IDT's president and CEO.
Pitching his company to a group of investors gathered
at Needham & Co. Inc.'s Growth Conference here today,
Perham listed several reasons why IDT is a good stock
pick: IDT's continuing shift in focus from SRAMs into the
rapidly growing communications market; the growing
strength of its Centaur Technology subsidiary's WinChip
microprocessors; and the company's pending acquisition of
Quality Semiconductor Inc.
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By Dan Briody and James Niccolai
January 13, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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Advanced Micro Devices is taking aim at
Intel yet again by releasing versions of its K6-2
processors for mobile computers. Simultaneously, the
company announced that the K6-2 family has helped it
achieve record revenues for its fourth fiscal quarter. The
mobile chip, available immediately to OEMs, comes in
266-, 300-, and 333-MHz varieties, and includes AMD's
3DNow technology, which is currently available on the
desktop version of the chip.
The chips are designed to allow OEMs to create
high-performance, inexpensive notebooks.
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By Stephen Shankland
January 14, 1999
C/Net
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Rambus, a high-speed memory designer and
one of the highest fliers among semiconductor stocks,
will likely post a decent profit today, but analysts
don't expect the company to really take off until the
second half of 1999. The trigger that will start
Rambus' revenue stream flowing is Intel's Camino chipset,
which will enable mainstream computers to take advantage
of memory built around Rambus' designs, said Dean
McCarron, an analyst with Mercury Research. Camino is due
in the second half of 1999.
Still, analysts expect the company to announce a
profit when the company reports first quarter fiscal 1999
earnings this afternoon. Analysts expect earnings of
eight cents a share, an increase over the six cents a
share Rambus reported during the same quarter a year ago,
according to First Call.
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| AMD Earnings Reports |
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By Michael Kanellos
January 13, 1999
C/Net
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A design problem with the fastest
versions of the K6-2 processor drove revenues and profits
for Advanced Micro Devices below expectations, and more
difficulties loom. The chipmaker today reported net
income of $22.3 million today for the fourth quarter, or
15 cents per share, on record revenues of $788.8 million.
While earnings bested the results from last quarter,
and certainly beat a 9 cent per share loss for the same
quarter the year before, analysts were expecting profits
of around 18 cents a share and higher revenues.
Yesterday, archrival Intel surprised analysts with a
better-than-expected earnings of $1.19 per share.
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By Larry Barrett
January 13, 1999
ZDII
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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. reverted to
disappointing form again Wednesday when it missed
analysts' estimates by 4 cents a share in its fourth
quarter. The chip maker earned $22.3 million, or 15 cents
a share, on sales of $788.8 million. First Call
consensus expected AMD to earn 19 cents a share in the
quarter.
Its shares inched up 1/8 to 31 5/8 ahead of the
earnings report.
The irony here is that last quarter AMD (AMD) beat the
Street when it posted a profit of $1 million, or 1 cent a
share, on sales of $685 million.
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By Sergio G. Non
January 13, 1999
TechWeb
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Advanced Micro Devices fell 4 cents
short of consensus earnings estimates in its fourth
quarter. Just a day after rival Intel swept past
analyst estimates, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD reported
fourth quarter net income of $22.3 million, or 15 cents a
share, for the quarter ended Dec. 27. First Call's survey
of 23 analysts predicted a profit of 19 cents a share.
Fourth quarter sales rose 16 percent sequentially to
$788.8 million, less than Wall Street expectations, which
were roughly in the $800 million range. A year earlier,
AMD posted revenue of $613.1 million.
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January 13, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today
reported that revenues during its fourth quarter of
fiscal 1998, ended Dec. 27, were a record $788 million.
At $2.5 billion, revenues for all of fiscal 1998 were
also a record. AMD saw its revenues for 1998 grow by
8% in a year in which the semiconductor industry
experienced a double-digit revenue decline. Revenues in
the fourth quarter increased by 15% from the third
quarter, and by 29% from the fourth quarter of 1997. Net
income amounted to $22.3 million, or $0.15 per diluted
share.
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By Mark Hachman
January 13, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Advanced Micro Devices' inability to
meet its earnings projections for its fourth quarter
further roiled analysts' stomachs, already sour after
AMD's microprocessor prices failed to meet expectations. AMD,
Sunnyvale, Calif., did turn a profit for the quarter,
recording $22.3 million of net income on a 29% increase
in revenue, to $788.8 million. A year ago, AMD lost $12.3
million while posting revenue of $613.1 million.
For 1998 in total, AMD again reported record revenue
of $2.5 billion, up 8% from 1997. But AMD's $104.0
million net loss widened from the year before, when it
lost $21.1 million.
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| January 13, 1999 |
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by Tony Smith
January 13, 1999
The Register
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AMD has pegged 23 June as the release
date for its K7 processor, OEM sources in US have
revealed. That date, if correct, will mean the chip
will just meet AMD's original first half of 1999 release
schedule.
The news, reported this week on US newswire TechWeb,
confirms what The Register learned back in October 1998.
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By Michael Kanellos
January 13, 1999
C/Net
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Consumers and personal computer makers
wanting to improve Pentium II systems by adding Pentium
III processors should find it easy going because the
chips share design features. Upgrading won't be
difficult, according to Ming Chok, vice president of
technology at Soyo, a company that makes the main circuit
boards which house the processor. Consumers who want to
replace a Pentium II with a Pentium III (or a Pentium II
Xeon for a Pentium III Xeon) probably won't have to
change their "motherboards" or their chipsets.
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By Robert Lemos
January 13, 1999
ZD Net News
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Taking a second stab at one of the
industry's most lucrative markets, chip maker Advanced
Micro Devices Inc. unveiled on Tuesday its low-power
AMD-K6-2 line of processors for notebook computers. The
new processors, which include AMD's 3DNow!
3D-accelerating technology, will replace the Sunnyvale,
Calif., company's current K6 line of notebook chips and
will be available at speeds of 266MHz, 300MHz, and
333MHz.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Georg Schnurer
Volume 1, 1999
c't Magazine
|
Socket or slot, up to now Intel has been
answering this question quite clearly: The socket is
dead, long live the slot! Rapidly dwindling market shares
of low-cost processors now force the market leader to
rethink. Since the introduction of the new Celeron
core (Mendocino) with its integrated 128 KByte L2 cache
Intel is facing a dilemma: apart from a few passive
components the Slot 1 board that holds the processor is
quite empty and thus strictly speaking obsolete. A simple
processor socket would be cheaper here. But the latter
did not quite fit into Intels marketing strategy. After
all one had gone to some extend to convince the world
that the future belongs to the slot.
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By Eric van Ballegoie
January 7, 1999
Fast Graphics
|
Call me weird, but multiprocessor
systems have always intrigued me. And ever since I've
seen "The Zoo" at the university of Amsterdam
which is a giant system powered by 64 Pentium Pro 200's
with 512K, ever since that moment I've wanted to have a
SMP (Symmetrical Multi Processing) system as well.
However since cost is a limiting factor I never got to
buy a dual motherboard and two identical Pentium Pro or
Pentium II CPU's. |
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By Andreas Stiller
Volume 1, 1999
c't Magazine
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Intel kicks off the new year with a
rousing overture, S3 plays the violin, and AMD sets
'caustic' counterpoints. The PowerPC trio supposedly
found harmony again. After a few dissonant tunes IBM is
probably going appear in the AltiVec opera after all. In
1999 we will experience a whole medley of processors.
Especially Intel operates like a tormented theatre
director: who delivers a lot will deliver to many. And
therefore the market leader plans to ship many different
processors with different sockets and casings to various
markets - but: who is supposed to keep track here? The
'socketed' Celeron and the 400 MHz Celeron Slot1 SECC2
are followed - slightly delayed - by the Xeon Slot2
processors with 2 MByte cache. In the meantime Intel will
also offer a Pentium MMX for notebooks with 300 MHz, two
notebook Celerons (266 and 300 MHz) as well as Dixon
(with 366 MHz and integrated 256 KByte cache).
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By Brooke Crothers
January 13, 1999
C/Net
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Compaq, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard have
formed a server technology alliance which highlights a
falling out with Intel in this critical area. Compaq
along with Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Adaptec announced an
"open" alliance that will define standards for
handling data inside powerful server computers. This
technology is generically referred to as I/O, or
input/output.
The companies said the "Future I/O"
technology will create a new I/O standard for "data
transfer between high-performance servers and peripheral
subsystems for the next generation of high-performance
systems."
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By John Lettice
January 13, 1999
The Register
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Bus wars seem certain to break out
between two rival camps, Intel-led NGIO and Future I/O,
which was announced today (PCI-X gang challenges Intel).
The new model has the PCI-X triad, Compaq, IBM and HP, as
ring-leaders, but will be locking horns with a
heavyweight bunch of rivals, including Dell, Hitachi,
NEC, Siemens and Sun. With the announcement of Future
I/O it begins to seem that last week’s announcement
of an NGIO Forum "to develop and implement a new
open I/O architecture for optimising information flow and
reliability between mission critical servers2 was a
pre-emptive strike.
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By John Lettice
January 13, 1999
The Register
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The PCI-X gang of three has recruited
Adaptec to the fold, and announced a "Future I/O
alliance" intended to build a high-performance I/O
standard to replace PCI/PCI-X. In September (Earlier
story) Compaq, HP and IBM peeled away from Intel to push
the PCI-X. Intel gave the new standard a guarded welcome,
but muttered through its teeth that PCI-X would have to
be the last iteration of the old bus standard, and that a
"fundamentally new architecture" would be
needed for the future. By fortunate happenstance, Intel
has a number of candidates for just such a new
architecture in the labs.
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January 12, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Acer Laboratories, in Taipei, Taiwan,
announced Tuesday that it has licensed 800-MHz
memory-interface technology from Rambus. The company said
this will make the higher speeds of Rambus -- 1.6
gigabytes per second of peak bandwidth from a single
device -- available to more-affordable PCs. "With
Rambus memory support, the consumer PC owner will enjoy
ample performance for CPU-intensive, video, and 3-D
graphics programs and games," said Chin Wu,
president of Acer Laboratories. "Rambus technology
is a key element in our new products and will be a
primary interface to DRAM for PC main-memory controllers
for 1999 and beyond."
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By David Becker
January 11, 1999
TechWeek
|
On one side is the multibillion-dollar
corporation, loaded with enough lawyers and public
relations muscles to crush you like a bug. On the other
side is you, the mistreated consumer or bitter
ex-employee, loaded with grievances and itching to let
off some steam. You could try to sue or file a complaint.
Or you could take the battlefront to the Web.
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| Today's
Related Stories |
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January 13, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today
introduced the low-power Mobile AMD-K6-2 processor for
notebook computers, featuring 3DNow! graphics technology
and a top speed of 333 megahertz--faster than Intel
Corp.'s recently announced 300-MHz mobile Pentium. "The
Mobile AMD-K6-2 products will build on the success we
achieved in the notebook market during 1998 with the
original Mobile AMD-K6, and brings a number of firsts to
the notebook PC, including support for a 100-MHz
frontside bus and our innovative 3DNow! technology
enhancements," said S. Atiq Raza, AMD's co-chief
operating officer and chief technical officer.
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By Michael Kanellos
January 13, 1999
C/Net
|
Let the price wars begin. Advanced
Micro Devices rolled out the first advanced K6
microprocessors specifically designed for notebook
computers today and announced a design win with long-time
Intel customer Toshiba.
The notebook achievements come the same day that AMD
is expected to report bullish earnings for the fourth
quarter. The company is expected to post earnings of 18
cents a share, according to a consensus estimate on First
Call, up from a loss of 9 cents a share for the year-ago
period.
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| Intel / AMD Earnings Reports |
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By Michael Kanellos
January 12, 1999
C/Net
|
Intel blew past analysts' estimates
today by reporting record revenues and earnings for the
fourth quarter, although overall totals for the year were
down from 1997. The chipmaker reported earnings of $2.1
billion for the fourth quarter, or $1.19 cents a share,
higher than the consensus estimates for earnings of $1.07
and even for optimistic projections of $1.15. The fourth
quarter returns were up 18 percent over earnings of $1.7
billion for the same quarter in 1997 and 32 percent over
third quarter earnings of $1.6 billion.
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By Larry Barrett
January 12, 1999
ZD Net News
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To absolutely no one's surprise, Intel
Corp. smashed analysts' estimates in its fourth quarter
Tuesday, returning a profit of $2.1 billion, or $1.19 a
share, on record sales of $7.6 billion. Its shares closed
off 4 3/16 to 135 9/16 ahead of the earnings report. First
Call consensus expected Intel (INTC) to earn $1.07 a
share, although so-called "whisper" numbers
circulating Wall Street pegged it for a profit of at
least $1.15 a share.
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By Marcia Savage
January 12, 1999
Computer Reseller News
|
Intel on Tuesday beat Wall Street
expectations for its fourth quarter. The chip giant,
based in Santa Clara, Calif., earned $1.19 per share,
compared with First Call's consensus estimates of $1.07
per share.
For the quarter ended Dec. 27, Intel earned $2.1
billion on $7.6 billion in sales. That compares with $1.7
billion in net income and $6.5 billion in sales in the
same quarter last year.
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January 13, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
Intel Corp. here today reported its 12th
consecutive year of revenue growth, as it posted
across-the-board quarterly records in earnings, revenues,
income, and unit sales. The company earlier projected its
final-quarter sales would be stronger than initially
expected, and the strong second half of 1998 raised
annual revenues to record levels. This was not enough,
however, to offset a weak first half, and income for the
year declined from 1997.
Despite the healthy showing, the company expects to
see revenue and gross margins to dip this quarter, and
will trim its capital spending in 1999 by as much as 25%.
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By James Niccolai
January 12, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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Seasonally strong PC demand in the
second half of 1998 helped lift Intel's fourth-quarter
revenue to $7.6 billion, a record for the company and a
17 percent increase from the $6.5 billion revenue
reported for the same quarter one year ago, Intel said
Tuesday. Fourth-quarter earnings per share were $1.19,
handily beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 per share
from analysts polled by financial watchdog First Call,
and up from 98 cents per share one year ago. Net income
for the quarter was $2.1 billion, up 18 percent from $1.7
billion a year ago.
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By Michael Kanellos
January 12, 1999
C/Net
|
Semiconductor rivals Intel and Advanced
Micro Devices are expected to post robust earnings today
and tomorrow, but some analysts warn that pricing
pressure could start to exact a toll after the first
quarter. Stronger-than-expected PC demand in the final
quarter of 1998 laid the groundwork for the expected
upbeat earnings reports. Some analysts estimate that AMD
may have shipped as many as 5.3 million K6 and K6-2
chips. Likewise, retail PC sales, in terms of units,
jumped approximately 26 percent in December over the same
month in 1997.
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By Mark Hachman
January 13, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Despite reporting record earnings,
revenue, net income, and microprocessor shipments for the
fourth quarter of 1998, Intel Corp. said that the normal
January slowdown should contribute to lower revenues
during the first quarter of 1999. Intel reported net
income of $2.1 billion on revenues of $7.6 billion, up
18% and 17%, respectively, over the same period a year
ago. Earnings per share rose 21% to $1.19, handily
beating Wall Street's estimate of $1.07. Intel's net
income and revenue rose 32% and 13%, sequentially.
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| January 12, 1999 |
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By Mark Hachman and Sandy Chen
January 12, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Intel Corp. said today it is keeping the
Pentium name for its next generation of microprocessors
that it plans to launch in March, nearly three months
ahead of rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Formerly
code-named Katmai, Intel's Pentium III microprocessors
will include the Katmai New Instructions, plus additional
features such as memory streaming enhancements and
Intel's Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD)
technology, applied to floating-point instructions.
The combined features will offer additional
performance enhancements beyond simple increases in clock
speed. A spokesman for Intel, Santa Clara, Calif.,
confirmed that the chips would be released at initial
clock speeds of 450 and 500 MHz. The “Tanner”
chip for workstations and servers will be known as the
Pentium III Xeon, and will initially run at 500 MHz, he
said.
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By John G. Spooner
January 11, 1999
PC Week Online
|
As expected, Intel Corp. on Monday
officially trotted out the Pentium III, its
next-generation processor for desktop PCs. Although
some PC users quibbled about the lack of creativity in
today's announcement, Intel (INTC) chose to continue
using the Pentium brand name because of its wide
recognition, said company officials in Santa Clara,
Calif.
The Pentium III, which will begin at 450MHz and
500MHz, is expected to raise the bar on several fronts,
including raw clock speed, graphics, Internet performance
and security, said spokesman Seth Walker.
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By Andy Patrizio
January 11, 1999
TechWeb
|
Jeremy Allford, who runs the
hardware-review site AGN Hardware, has succeeded in
making a 366-MHz Celeron run at 550 MHz, faster than any
chip Intel has on the market. But Allford had to drag
his PC outside his Ohio home, where temperatures fell
below zero and the snow was up to his knees.
Overclocking the CPU is the 1990s equivalent of
souping up a standard-issue automobile into a muscle car.
It is an especially popular practice among hard-core PC
gamers, who want to get as many frames per second out of
graphic-intensive games as possible.
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By Joe Wilcox & Marcia Savage
January 11, 1999
Computer Reseller News
|
Launching a preemptive strike, Intel has
assembled a consortium of companies in support of its
Next-Generation I/O (NGIO) server architecture. Dell
Computer, Hitachi, NEC, Siemens Information
Communications Network, and Sun Microsystems, will join
Intel's NGIO Industry Forum and will serve on the
steering committee.
Intel's move comes as top PC makers Compaq, IBM, and
Hewlett-Packard, which according to San Jose,
Calif.-based Dataquest collectively account for about 55
percent of the worldwide server market, reportedly will
introduce their own server I/O standard.
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| January 11, 1999 |
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By Mike Magee
January 11, 1999
The Register
|
Sources said the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) is widening its scope against Intel in
the run-up to its anti-trust case which starts in
February. According to the sources, FTC officials are
calling a number of vendors and analysts with questions
relating to other aspects of Intel's business activities.
The case against Intel, set to start February 19th,
rests on allegations it unfairly acted against Compaq,
Digital and Integraph, after they took legal action
concerning patents they held. There is currently a
separate anti-trust case which Intergraph is making
against Intel.
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By Mary Mosquera
January 8, 1999
TechWeb
|
The government expects its antitrust
trial against chip maker Intel to be quick and narrow in
focus when it gets underway in February, unlike another
antitrust trial taking place down the street in the
nation's capitol, antitrust attorneys said Friday. The
case will not carve new law, according to an FTC senior
attorney, who did not wish to be identified. Intel has
said the case is chiefly an intellectual-property rights
case; the government contends that Intel is using its
chip monopoly illegally to maintain its monopoly.
"We are establishing rules only for a
monopolist," the FTC attorney said. "This trial
will be positive for intellectual property. It will make
those rights real," he said. It will also encourage
choice.
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By Carmen Nobel
January 8, 1999
PC Week Online
|
Three major server vendors next week
will publicly unveil their plans for a switched-fabric
I/O architecture that could greatly improve server
processing performance. Hewlett-Packard Co., Compaq
Computer Corp. and IBM's Future I/O switched-fabric
technology, due in products next year, reportedly will
double the clock speed and transfer rate of the troika's
other I/O initiative, PCI-X. That bus technology, due
this year, promises a bus speed of 133MHz and a transfer
rate of up to 1GB per second.
|
See
Today's Related Stories |
|
By Mike Magee
January 8, 1999
The Register
|
The EV6 system bus in the AMD K7 means
both it and Compaq will benefit from the use of its slot
architecture. According to a very reliable source
close to Digital in the US, AMD gets an extremely fast
bus out of the deal, while in the future, Compaq will be
able to use the same motherboards for their products.
The source added that K7 systems will be upgradeable
to Alphas just by swapping CPUs while Compaq will benefit
from AMD's ability to leverage its motherboard contacts
in Taiwan and elsewhere.
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By Michael Kanellos
January 8, 1999
C/Net
|
Advanced Micro Devices is expected to
roll out its first K6-2 microprocessor specifically
designed for notebook computers next week, one of the
first in a series of chip releases that will likely lead
to lower-priced notebooks in 1999. Additionally, the
chip release may be accompanied by an announcement from
Toshiba that it will adopt AMD chips for notebooks in its
domestic market, said sources.
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By Anthony Cataldo
January 8, 1999
EE Times
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Cyrix Corp. has established a design
division in Boxboro, Mass. that will push for more X86
design wins in mobile systems. The New England Mobile
Architecture and Design Center will collaborate with OEM
customers on mobile computing motherboard designs for a
range of mobile platforms, including notebook PCs and
Jupiter-class WinCE systems, based on Cyrix' MediaGX
processors. The division is also working with Cyrix
parent National Semiconductor Corp. on dc/dc circuits and
audio devices.
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By Ephraim Schwartz
January 9, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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Intel will announce on Jan. 25 two
mobile Pentium II processors and three mobile Celeron
processors, all of which will arrive just one week after
the introduction of a new mobile 300-MHz Pentium
processor. The addition of six mobile processors in a
two-week time span may have IT managers more puzzled than
pleased with the number of choices.
"IT managers are going to have to step up and buy
smarter," said Gerry Purdy, president of Mobile
Insights, in Mountain View, Calif. "Intel is
offering a family of products for users with different
needs, and IT is going to have more of a challenge."
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January 8, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., has
announced a 300-MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology
for low-cost mobile PCs and mini-notebooks. "Intel
is developing and delivering products to meet the unique
requirements of the mobile market segment,” said
Frank Spindler, vice president of Intel's Architecture
Business Group and marketing director for the Mobile and
Handheld Products Group. "The 300-MHz Pentium
processor with MMX technology represents a new high-water
mark for the emerging category of mini-notebooks, while
at the same time offers a performance boost for low-cost
mobile PCs." |
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By Carmen Nobel and John G. Spooner
January 11, 1999
PC Week
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Less than a week after announcing its
450MHz Xeon chips, Intel Corp. is preparing this week to
take the wraps off a new line of 500MHz Pentiums, called
Pentium IIIs. In a branding announcement, the Santa
Clara, Calif., company will introduce the Pentium III,
formerly known by the code name Katmai, sources close to
the company said.
Although Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) declined to comment on
the name Pentium III, the company has stated publicly
that it intends to ship Katmai processors running at
450MHz and 500MHz in the first quarter.
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By Michael Kanellos
January 11, 1999
C/Net
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Semiconductor rivals Intel and Advanced
Micro Devices are expected to post robust earnings this
week, but some analysts warn that pricing pressure could
start to exact a toll after the first quarter. Stronger-than-expected
PC demand in the final quarter of 1998 laid the
groundwork for the expected upbeat earnings reports. Some
analysts estimate that AMD may have shipped as many as
5.3 million K6 and K6-2 chips.
On Tuesday, Intel is expected to post quarterly
earnings of $1.07 per share and $3.43 for 1998, according
to the consensus estimate from First Call. A year ago,
Intel reported quarterly earnings of 98 cents a share and
$3.88 for the year.
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By David Lammers
January 8, 1999
EE Times
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Memory makers are struggling with
decisions on how much back-end equipment to purchase to
support Direct Rambus DRAMs later this year. Their
decisions are complicated by uncertainty over demand for
the new memory and how much of a premium customers will
pay for it. Bullish analysts predict about 250 million
units of the Direct RDRAMs will ship in 1999. Intel Corp.
will ship prototypes of its Camino chip set with support
for Direct RDRAMs this quarter, and major PC OEMs are
expected to ship systems with a 0.18-micron Katmai
processor, Camino and Direct RDRAMs by the third quarter.
But the ramp of the Direct RDRAM remains a big unknown.
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By Rick Boyd-Merritt
January 8, 1999
EE Times
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A standoff over next-generation I/O
schemes broke into a full-fledged bus war this week as
Intel Corp. and three of its largest customers squared
off with separate technology proposals, and one side
lobbed the first threat of legal action. At stake is a
strategic advantage in the PC server market, which has
become one of the last bastions of significant profits
and technical differentiation in mainstream computing. Compaq
Computer Corp., IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. are
expected to announce next week the formation of the
Future I/O coalition to drive a new specification for a
switch-based I/O architecture in high-end PC servers. A
source close to the group said Compaq and IBM each will
claim that a separate proposal from Intel, dubbed
Next-Generation I/O, infringes on their intellectual
property, opening the door to royalty claims against any
of its adopters.
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By Marcia Savage
January 9, 1999
Computer Reseller News
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When Intel releases the 450-MHz version
of its next-generation Pentium chip, it is expected to
cost less than the current fastest Pentium II processor
costs now. The company is also expected to drop prices
on its existing lineup of Pentium II processors, sources
said.
The new Pentium chip is expected to debut in early
March at speeds of 450 MHz and 500 MHz.
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