| February 4, 1999 |
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By Reuters
February 3, 1999
San Jose Mercury News
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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. shares
tumbled almost 14 percent Wednesday after the chip maker
confirmed it has cancelled two upcoming appearances at
technology investment conferences amid a slew of rumors
about upcoming negative news. Scott Allen, an Advanced
Micro Devices spokesman, could not comment any further
except to say that AMD had cancelled its appearance at
the NationsBanc Montgomery Securities technology
conference Thursday morning. He also said AMD cancelled
its appearance at a Goldman Sachs technology conference
next Tuesday.
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Larry Dignan
February 4, 1999
ZD Net News
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Advanced Micro Devices' withdrawal from
two investment conferences may indicate the chipmaker is
wilting under a price war from Intel, according to Piper
Jaffray analyst Ashok Kumar. In early trading
Thursday, AMD shares were down 3 3/16 to 17 3/4, or 15
percent. On Wednesday, AMD shares (chart) were rattled
after the company pulled out of its scheduled appearance
at the Nationsbanc Montgomery Securities Technology
conference in San Francisco, and cancelled a presentation
at the Goldman, Sachs & Co. conference in New York.
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By Michael Kanellos
February 3, 1999
C/Net
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A Gateway PC sold into the Japanese
market will begin incorporating Advanced Micro Devices'
K6-2 processor, the two companies said, a break with
tradition that could lead to expanded market share for
AMD. On Monday, February 8, the direct vendor will
launch its Gateway Profile PC, a system based around the
400-MHz K6-2 processor, according to AMD. But an AMD
spokeswoman would not comment on whether Gateway has
agreed to use the K6-2 or the upcoming K6-3 in other
models.
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By Rob Guth
February 4, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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Mitsubishi will not accept an offer from
Intel for financial support of its next-generation memory
chips, the Japanese company said Thursday. The
Tokyo-based chip maker said for this year its own funds
will be sufficient to meet its production needs.
"We declined [Intel's offer] due to the fact that
we are able to achieve our current production plan with
our present capital investment levels," said Koichi
Nagasawa, general manager of Mitsubishi's Semiconductor
Group. Mitsubishi would not give details of the offer.
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By Mark Hachman
February 3, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Microsoft Corp. has shipped a new
version of its DirectX multimedia software that now
supports the multimedia instructions built into the
Pentium III. The new version of DirectX, version 6.1,
automatically recognizes the Pentium III. In addition,
the software release includes the first incarnation of
DirectMusic, a program that allows a computer game to
dynamically control music encoded in the MIDI file
format.
When the need to calculate geometry and lighting of 3D
objects is called for, DirectX 6.1 will route those tasks
to the Pentium III. The
Pentium III's new multimedia instructions, known among
the OEM community as the Katmai New Instructions, have
been optimized
for geometry and lighting among other tasks. The Pentium
III will then pass its calculations to the graphics chip
to render the data.
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By Marc Ambasna-Jones
February 4, 1999
ZD Net UK
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Chip upgrade specialist Evergreen
Technologies is planning to add a K6-2 processor to its
PCI upgrade boards, hot on the heels of the release of
its K6-2 333MHz with 3D Now! Spectra socket-based upgrade
product. The company launched an Intel PII-based chip
upgrade on a PCI card last month under the name of
EclipsePCI. Evergreen spokesman Andrew Calzetti said that
the AMD-based EclipsePCI card should be out in Q2 this
year, and that the company was merely responding to
demand for AMD product.
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By Rick Boyd-Merritt
February 3, 1999
EE Times
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In the wake of the debate over Intel's
use of ID numbers in its upcoming Pentium III processors,
National Semiconductor Corp. has tipped plans to take a
separate approach to security for e-commerce. The company
is in early discussions with at least two other
manufacturers to define a standard for a smartcard-like
mobile e-commerce device that could be used across a
broad range of computers, peripherals and information
appliances. While National is not ready to detail its
plans, it did sketch out its intentions and explained why
it thinks Intel's plan to embed an ID number in a Pentium
is a step in the wrong direction.
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By Matt Hines
February 3,1999
Newsbytes.
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With a wider array of low-cost
microprocessors rolling out for use by PC vendors, Intel
Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC] has been forced to speed up its
Celeron product road map. Sources close to Intel said
the chip maker will introduce its 433 megahertz (MHz)
Celeron processor several months ahead of schedule, on
March 15. The processor was not expected to arrive until
sometime during the second quarter.
Sources indicated that Intel is speeding production to
better compete for PC design wins with Advanced Micro
Devices' (AMD) upcoming K6-3 processor. The two chips are
targeted at vendors building PCs in the sub-$1,200 range.
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By John G. Spooner
February 3, 1999
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp. is accelerating the rollout
of its next Celeron processor. Following closely on
the expected late-February release of its 450MHz and
500MHz Pentium III, the Santa Clara, Calif., company
plans to ship a new 433MHz Celeron on March 15, according
to sources. The processor was originally scheduled for
release in the second quarter.
A 466MHz Celeron is expected to follow later in the
first half.
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| February 3, 1999 |
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By Tom Quinlan
February 3, 1999
San Jose Mercury News
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The Federal Trade Commission is casting
a wider net in its upcoming case against Intel Corp. than
originally expected, as investigators sift through
evidence that the company may have abused its monopoly
power in a number of disputes with customers and
competitors. The FTC based its original complaint --
filed last June and headed for a March 9 hearing --
solely on Intel's actions toward Digital Equipment Corp.,
Intergraph Computer Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. But
industry sources say the agency is now considering
witnesses from additional companies, including longtime
Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. of Sunnyvale.
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By Matthew Sheerin
February 2, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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While it is building a complex
infrastructure to support the memory market's transition
to the Direct Rambus interface, module maker Smart
Modular Technologies Inc. believes there could be strong
demand for competing technologies and plans to support
them. “The transition [to Rambus] is going slower
than had been expected, so I think there is a window of
opportunity for the others,” said Ajay Shah,
chairman and chief executive of Smart Modular, Fremont,
Calif. Shah spoke today at the NationsBanc Montgomery
Securities financial conference in San Francisco Shah
said Smart was working closely with DRAM manufacturers
supporting Double-Data Rate, SDRAM and SLDRAM chips. Shah
indicated, however, that Rambus will be widely supported
following a transition that he called “the most
important in the history of the memory market.”
“Rambus is not just another technology change - it
will force the change of the entire infrastructure,”
Shah said.
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By Brooke Crothers
February 2, 1999
C/Net
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Intel has offered to provide Toshiba
with funds to boost next generation memory chip
production, further evidence that Intel and Rambus are
struggling to get this new technology accepted by the
beleaguered memory chip industry. Intel is talking
with Toshiba about an investment in that company to boost
production of Direct Rambus DRAM memory chips, according
to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a major Japanese business
daily.
An Intel spokesperson would not comment, stating only
that Intel enters into private discussions with many
companies.
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Today's Related Stories |
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By Anthony Cataldo
February 2, 1999
EE Times
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Intel Corp. is negotiating to make an
investment in Toshiba Corp., as a way to help secure a
stable supply of Direct Rambus DRAMs. "Intel has
offered us a proposal," said a spokesman for
Toshiba, Japan's second largest semiconductor
manufacturer. "They are interested in assisting
funding Toshiba to support Rambus DRAM production. We are
studying that offer at this moment."
Details of the offer have not been disclosed, the
spokesman said. Intel has already invested $600 million
in Micron Technology Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. to
fund the development of Direct Rambus devices.
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Today's Related Stories |
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By Marcia Savage
February 3, 1999
Computer Reseller News
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Intel will launch its Pentium III
processor Feb. 26 and two days later open "the blue
door" in its promotions for the new chip. Gordon
Casey, director of investor relations at Santa Clara,
Calif.-based Intel, said PCs based on the Pentium III
will be available Feb. 26. The blue door, pictured on the
company's website, is a "metaphor for the better
Internet experience you'll get with the Pentium
III," he said.
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By Mark Hachman
February 3, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Just in case you had any doubt, the
Pentium III is coming -- and in some cases, it's already
here. Even before Intel Corp.'s Pentium III
"preview" on Feb. 17, Intel has begun notifying
end users that a 450 and 500 MHz version of its chip will
be released on its web site. Through an "Intel
Owners' Club" newsletter, users are directed to
Intel's web site and a showcase of the chip's features
and specifications.
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By Jack Robertson
February 3, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Intel Corp. here has decided to go ahead
with its delayed 300-mm development fab in Hillsboro,
Ore., and next month the company plans to announce a
ten-year, $10 billion program to fund IC production on
the larger wafer diameters, according to sources today. Intel's
300-mm development fab was put on hold last April after
the company decided production tools were not ready in
1998. Intel then decided to revisit the decision at the
end of 1998, and now it has apparently determined the
time it right to restart the $1.5 billion pilot line
project.
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By Mike Magee
February 3, 1999
The Register
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An article in top US magazine
Information Week has posed the question whether its
64-bit Merced platform is based on RISC or CISC. And
now a controversy has arisen over whether Intel's Merced
is attempting to bridge the gap between its possibly
doomed Willamette IA-32 architecture and other chips that
will come out this year, from both Transmeta Inc and IBM.
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| Today's
Related Stories |
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By Jack Robertson
February 3, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Toshiba Corp. today confirmed reports in
Japan that the firm has received a proposal from Intel
Corp. for a cash infusion to cover the investment for
ramping up production of Direct Rambus DRAM memory chips.
A spokesman declined to discuss the details of the
Intel offer. "We are studying it now, but have made
no decision," he said.
The Intel offer to Toshiba is the latest in a series
of moves the microprocessor giant has made in the last
six months to provide cash to memory firms to spur Direct
RDRAM production. Intel has specified that the Direct
RDRAM wideband memory chip be used exclusively with its
upcoming 500-MHz Pentium III processor and 133-MHz Camino
core logic chip set.
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By Rob Guth
February 2, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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Intel has offered to financially support
Toshiba's investment in the production of advanced memory
chips, a move designed to encourage the Japanese vendor
to keep its chips flowing into the market, according to a
Toshiba official who asked not to be named. The
proposal appears to be just one of several similar offers
Intel is using to coax memory chip makers to increase
production of next-generation DRAMs. The chips Intel is
targeting use a high-speed interface from Rambus called
Direct Rambus DRAMs (RDRAMs).
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By Andrew MacLellan
February 3, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Subsidizing a growing number of its
struggling DRAM partners, Intel Corp. has made overtures
to Toshiba Corp. in an effort to assist the Japanese chip
maker with its transition to Direct Rambus DRAM. The
offer follows similar deals already struck with Micron
Technology Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to
ensure ample supplies of the emerging Direct RDRAM chips
come on the market this year.
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| February 2, 1999 |
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By Michael Kanellos
February 2, 1999
C/Net
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Intel's legal department is looking into
ways of stopping sales of Pentium III processors in
advance of the chip's official release, but isn't likely
to do much about the irksome practice. As reported
last week, some computer resellers and chip dealers are
already selling Pentium III processors to consumers--even
offering to build systems around the chip--although the
product's official rollout won't come until the end of
the month. The 500-MHz version of the Pentium III is
selling for $823 to $899 in retail while the 450-MHz
version of the chip can be had for $569.
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By Mike Magee
February 2, 1999
The Register
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Major chip manufacturers are set to
unveil new microprocessors at a conference in the US in
mid-February. The agenda of the IEEE Solid State
conference, lists presentations from executives from IBM,
AMD, Intel and HP, and accidentally discloses details of
chips they have in the offing.
According to the programme HP will show a 64b PA RISC
chip using a .25 micron process, together with 1Mb of
level one cache data and 0.5Mb level on instruction
caches. The processor will run at 500MHz on a 21.3 x 22mm
square die.
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By Mark Hachman
February 1, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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While Advanced Micro Devices is speaking
softly to direct PC OEMs about its K6 microprocessor
family, the government is the one holding the big stick. Industry
analysts and sources confirmed discussions between AMD
and Gateway Inc., North Sioux a vendor of PCs direct to
the consumer and businesses., to incorporate AMD's K6 in
its PCs. While the sources did not report a deal had been
hammered out, they did say it seemed more likely now than
in the past.
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By Dan Goodin
February 1, 1999
C/Net
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Some of the top hardware executives and
antitrust experts are being lined up to testify in the
Federal Trade Commission's antitrust suit against Intel,
scheduled to start March 9. Topping the list of high
tech executives that may appear in the action are
Advanced Micro Device's chief operating officer Atiq
Raza, Intergraph chief executive Jim Meadlock, and two of
his top lieutenants, sources familiar with the case say.
Their testimony is expected to go to the heart of FTC
allegations that Intel used its might in the market for
microchips to bully companies into licensing their
intellectual property in ways that benefited Intel.
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| February 1, 1999 |
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By Michael Kanellos
January 29, 1999
C/Net
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Although Intel won't officially release
the Pentium III until February 28, a number of resellers
are already offering the chip and systems built around it
to customers. These pre-opening sales come because
Intel has already shipped the processor to distributors
and chip brokers. In turn, these companies have turned
them over to resellers. The debut of the Pentium III will
also coincide with price cuts across the Pentium II line.
A 500-MHz Pentium III costs in retail anywhere from
$823 to $899, and will likely drop when the official
release occurs. Intel's current wholesale price for the
processor is $790 for quantities of 1,000, but it will
drop to $764 by the time of the release.
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By John G. Spooner
January 29, 1999
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp. is breaking new
manufacturing ground with its forthcoming Pentium III
processors with an advanced process that should yield
low-cost chips that require less power. The Pentium
III, due in March, will eventually be built using the
0.18-micron manufacturing process, superseding the
0.25-micron process, said officials at the Santa Clara,
Calif., company.
Moving from 0.25 micron to 0.18 micron will improve
performance and lower power requirements from the
0.25-micron Pentium II's 1.8-volt core voltage to 1.5
volts for desktops and 1.1 volts for mobile PCs, said
Mark Bohr, an Intel fellow and director of the company's
process architecture and integration technology and
manufacturing group.
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By Maria Seminerio
January 29, 1999
ZD Net News
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Online privacy advocates, saying they
emerged from a meeting with Intel Corp. officials angrier
than ever about the chip maker's plans to put
identification numbers on its forthcoming Pentium III
microprocessors, may eventually demand a recall of the
chips. The Electronic Privacy Information Center,
Privacy International, and anti-spam group Junkbusters on
Thursday asked the Federal Trade Commission to induce
Intel to recall the chips, and are renewing their call
for a boycott of Intel and any PC maker shipping systems
that include them.
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By Mary Mosquera
January 29, 1999
TechWeb
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The Electronic Privacy Information
Center said Friday that it will file a petition with the
Federal Trade Commission requesting the agency
investigate Intel for consumer-privacy concerns raised by
its next-generation chip. Intel's new Pentium III chip
contains a serial number that is accessible by browsers
and other software when users visit a site. The new chips
let consumers be followed as they click through the
Internet, collecting data about them without their
knowledge or consent, said David Banisar, policy director
at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in
Washington, D.C.
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By Mark Hachman
January 29, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel Corp.'s competitors will not
duplicate the chip giant's security initiatives, which
has provoked outrage and a boycott from privacy
advocates. At the crux of the debate is Intel's plan to
embed in its Pentium III processors a unique 96-bit
identifying code, or serial number, which it designed to
verify the identities of buyers and sellers on the
Internet. The ID feature would complement a random-number
generator embedded in the Pentium III chipsets for
additional security.
An Intel spokesman said the company will make the
technology behind an ID initiative available to its
competitors to allow compatibility across the industry,
in much the same way that Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and
Cyrix Corp. include the MMX instruction set without
duplicating Intel's processors.
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By Chris Oakes
January 29, 1999
Wired
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Power Technology thinks it can do Intel
one better with its new chip identification technology. The
firm introduced a chip identification scheme Friday that
it says will offer all the anti-piracy features of
Intel's controversial Pentium III, without the privacy
snags. Intel said that its technology was designed for
entirely different purposes.
"The ID we do is statistically pretty strong, but
not so strong that we have a 100 percent guarantee that
the ID belongs to that particular individual," said
Paul Titchener, Power Technology's president.
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By John G. Spooner And Lisa DiCarlo
January 29, 1999
PC Week
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In one of the most stunning examples yet
of PC makers breaking ranks with Intel Corp., longtime
Intel loyalist Gateway Inc. is preparing to introduce in
March PCs based on the forthcoming K6-3 chip from
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The North Sioux City,
S.D., company has been evaluating the chip, code-named
Sharptooth, for some time, according to sources, and
plans to offer the new computer line at prices
unattainable when equipped with Intel chips.
More significant than the forthcoming Gateway (GTW)
systems, however, is the negative impact Gateway's move
to AMD, and others like it by Gateway rivals, could have
on Intel.
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By Brooke Crothers
January 29, 1999
C/Net
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Somewhere at the Federal Trade
Commission, there is probably an investigator who wishes
the rollout of Intel's Celeron chip hadn't been such a
flop. The FTC's case against Intel, now slated to
start March 9, alleges that the company used its dominant
position in the microprocessor market to unfairly force
three computer makers--Intergraph, Digital Equipment, and
Compaq--to license their intellectual property in a way
that benefits Intel.
In addition, sources close to the FTC have said that
the agency is investigating a broader suit that examines
whether the Santa Clara, California, company's other
business practices violate U.S. antitrust law.
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January 31, 1999
The Register
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You've got to watch those pesky guys at
Intel, y'know. The Pentium III with Screaming Cindy
instructions now arrives earlier than anticipated,
requiring all independent software vendors to re-write
for it from "the ground up", and meanwhile a
"new" IA-32 architecture is promised with the
introduction of Willamette. (ye storie: Intel brings PIII
launch forward) But when will Willamette appear? One
rumour is along the lines that Intel will bring it
forward from its end of Q4 in a bid to spanner AMD's K7,
while another rumour says it is delayed.
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