* DDJ Home

* Today's Headlines
* Past Headlines
* Microprocessor Articles
* Intel Secrets
* Intel Errata
* Undocumented Corner
* Processor Manuals
* Motherboard Manuals
* Links

Microprocessor Resources

Microprocessor
Headline News

Top Stories for March 5, 1999 (details below)
EE Times Drive afoot to establish PC133 alternative
C/Net Intel plans party for new Xeon
InfoWorld Electric Intel-FTC antitrust case is about law, not facts

 

x86 Weekly News

Collected By Robert R. Collins

Week of March 1, 1999

Older News

March 5, 1999

Drive afoot to establish PC133 alternative

By Mark Carroll

March 4, 1999
EE Times

A groundswell of support for the PC133 DRAM specification is building in Taiwan and the United States. With Intel Corp. otherwise occupied with the difficult transition to the Rambus memory architecture, a growing number of memory and chip-set companies are working to establish PC133 as an alternative to Rambus in the marketplace.

An ad hoc group of companies backing the PC133 device and module specification is scheduled to meet in San Jose, Calif. on Tuesday (March 9) to discuss options. David Pulling, vice president of marketing at Reliance Computer Corp. (San Jose) said "it started out as monthly gatherings at our company, but now the attendance has grown to the point that we are going to move the venue to an outside location." About 120 representatives are expected to attend the meeting.

 

Intel plans party for new Xeon

By Michael Kanellos

March 4, 1999
C/Net

Intel will hold a coming out party for its first high-end Xeon processors based around the new Pentium III on March 17 in an event that will feature, among other technology demonstrations, servers running eight processors.

Xeon is Intel's answer for the server and workstation market. Xeon chips are essentially enhanced versions of the Pentium III chip found in desktop computers.

 

Intel-FTC antitrust case is about law, not facts

By James Niccolai

March 4, 1999
InfoWorld Electric

At what point does a company become so powerful that antitrust laws must be applied to regulate its behavior? That question lies at the heart of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust case against Intel, which is due to come to trial next week.

Legal experts say the conduct Intel is charged with -- that it coerced companies into sharing technology patents by denying them access to future microprocessors -- wouldn't be illegal when practiced by a smaller, less powerful firm. But the FTC will argue that Intel is a monopoly, and that it exploited its power to snuff out competition and cement its chokehold over the microprocessor market.

 
March 4, 1999

Vendor Pins Hopes On CompactPCI Spec

By Warren Hersch

March 3, 1999
Computer Reseller News

Vendor adoption of the new CompactPCI specification will significantly boost business acceptance of computer-telephony technologies.

That was among the key messages of a keynote given by Natural Microsystems chairman and CEO Robert Schechter, at CTExpo.

"Fueling the CT market is the ongoing convergence of voice and data technologies," said Schechter. "But to realize the market's full potential, CT vendors have to move aggressively to adopt open standards. And that includes CompactPCI."

 
The Register Files

Happy Cat posts i810 benchmarks

By Mike Magee

March 4, 1999
The Register

Standing up bravely against threats and dire Intel injunctions, corner shop Happy Cat in Hokkaido tonight has posted benchmarks relating to the 810 chipset.

Happy Cat attracted the ire of Intel by posting pictures of previous products the chip Godzilla has not yet announced.

Further down its pages, Happy Cat is still showing pix of the i820 chipset which drew down threats from the mammoth creature stalking the chip industry.

 

Merced has got to have steel backplate

By Mike Magee

March 3, 1999
The Register

A metallurgical reader of The Register has sent us facts and figures about different metals Intel may be using in its cartridge Merced design.

The photographs, developed by Boots the Chemist in the St Ann's Centre in Harrow, are here.

When we questioned Stephen Smith, who runs the Merced programme in the US, he told us he had no metallurgical knowledge and so therefore could not explain which metal was on the backside of the cartridge.

 

Reader of the Month: Paul Engel

March 3, 1999
The Register

This month, The Register was unanimous about our Reader of the Month Award.

The prize -- a picture of Merced -- goes to Paul Engel, an investor in Intel, who regularly writes about us on influential Web site Silicon Investor.

The fact he writes about us means he reads us and we award him high marks for partiality.

 
March 3, 1999

Intel Executives Among Massacred Tourists In Uganda

By Martyn Williams

March 3, 1999
Newsbytes

Two senior executives from Intel Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC] were among the eight foreign tourists massacred in Uganda Tuesday, company officials have confirmed to Newsbytes.

Rob Haubner, Intel's director of world-wide customer support, 48, and Susan Miller, a senior tradeshow manager, 42, were on a vacation in Uganda when, according to surviving members of their tour party, they were kidnapped by Rwandan rebels.

 

Merced chieftain outlines futures

By Mike Magee

March 2, 1999
The Register

At the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs last week, Steve Smith, VP and general manager in charge of the company's IA-64 programme, was pleasantly forthcoming about the Merced package he showed us.

He even allowed us to take photographs, which we considered was something of a breakthrough. What follows are the verbatim notes from our discussion at the dinner table.

See More Stories in "The Register Files"

Intel Links To Linux For Merced

By Marcia Savage

March 3, 1999
Computer Reseller News

Intel and VA Research announced an agreement to port the Linux operating system to Intel's 64-bit architecture.

VA Research, in Mountain View, Calif., will deliver the optimized port in mid-2000, the same time as systems based on Intel's upcoming Merced processor are available. Merced is the first chip in the IA-64 architecture for high-end servers and workstations.

 
Intel Anti-Trust Special Edition

FTC says Intel curbed PC differentiation

By James Niccolai

March 2, 1999
InfoWorld Electric

In court filings made public Monday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission enlarged its antitrust complaint against Intel by charging that the chip maker's actions stifled attempts by PC makers to differentiate their products.

Although the new allegation does not expand the FTC's case to the extent some press reports speculated it would, it provides the commission with one more avenue by which to try and convince the administrative law judge overseeing the case that Intel's actions harmed competition.

 

Intel Antitrust Case: Not About the Facts

By James Niccolai

March 2, 1999
PC World

Unlike Microsoft suit, squabbles about the facts should be minor, and the government isn't looking at expansion into other markets.

When does a company become so powerful that antitrust laws must address some standard business practices? That question lies at the heart of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust case against Intel, which is due to come to trial next week.

 

FTC's pretrial brief levels monopoly charges at Intel

By Jack Robertson

March 3, 1999
Semiconductor Business News

The Federal Trade Commission has charged Intel Corp. with "abusing its monopoly position" to coerce competitors to cross-license their technology on the most favorable terms to Intel.

In a pretrial brief, the FTC argued that "in effect, Intel set up its own prviately-administered compulsory licensing regime to acquire at reduced cost any technology that it perceived to be a competitive threat." The FTC said Intel forced Digital Equipment Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. to cross-license their technology for competitive microprocessors and motherboards. Intergraph Corp. was able to resist Intel only because it gained a preliminary injunction in federal court.

 

FTC, Intel Face Off In Antitrust Action Briefs

By Marcia Savage

March 2, 1999
Computer Reseller News

The Federal Trade Commission outlined its case against Intel Corp., and the processor giant presented its rebuttal to the government's antitrust allegations in pretrial briefs.

The briefs set the stage for a March 9 showdown where an administrative law judge here will begin hearing arguments from both Intel and government lawyers to determine whether Intel is a monopoly that unfairly used its market position to hurt competition, as the government alleges. The FTC launched its antitrust suit against Intel last June.

 

Intel: Government Admits No Evidence Of Harm

By Jack Robertson

March 3, 1999
Semiconductor Business News

Intel argued in a pretrial brief released Tuesday that the government's own expert witness admitted he could find no evidence that Intel had "diminished innovation by industry" in withholding proprietary data from Digital Equipment, Compaq, and Intergraph.

The brief quoted Frederic Scherer, professor of corporate management at Harvard University, in a deposition saying he "could not find evidence" of any Intel conduct that "would adversely affect the R&D expenditure or adversely affect price competition" by any other companies in the industry.

 
The Register Files

Cyrix, Wyse push "terminal on a chip"

March 3, 1999
The Register

NatSemi-Cyrix and Wyse have jointly announced a WinCE based terminal using the MediaGX processor.

The announcement is the result of collaboration started last June, with Wyse releasing its Winterm 3350SE machine.

According to Wyse, the 3350SE thin client is its highest performance machine.

 

Intel Developer Forum Feb 99

March 3, 1999
The Register

Once again, Mike Magee represented The Register at Intel's Developer Forum in the heart of a desert. Here is some of the coverage...

Pictures of the Merced cartridge
Merced chieftain outlines futures
Intel's Flash presentation
Intel NDA found on floor
Lion roars because of Intel chip pricing
Intel decks more chips
Intel employee saves UK journalist's life

 

K6-IIIs as rare as hen's teeth

By Mike Magee

March 3, 1999
The Register

Web sites are reporting that supplies of AMD's K6-III are extremely limited.

According to the CPU price check at Sharky Extreme, both the K6-III 450MHz and K6-III 400MHz are not yet available in the US.

It quotes vendors as saying that they were told it would be several weeks before supplies were assured.

 

Two senior Intel execs butchered in Uganda

By Mike Magee

March 3, 1999
The Register

Intel confirmed today that two of their senior executives, Rob Haubner and Susan Miller, were among eight tourists massacred by Rwandan rebels yesterday.

The two were married and were based in Hillsboro, Oregon. Haubner was Intel's director of world wide customer support and Miller was a senior tradeshow manager.

 
March 2, 1999

HP Merced chipset to arrive next month

By Mike Magee

March 2, 1999
The Register

Sources close to HP's plans said today that the company will release its chipset supporting the Merced platform next month.

For the time being at least, HP will maintain its dual strategy of selling HP/UX boxes at the high end and Windows NT servers at the low end.

But the sources added that the long-term commitment is to the IA-64 platform, with HP's roadmap, which stretches five years ahead, consistently moving towards that goal.

See More Stories in "The Register Files"

Cyrix media processor featured in new Wyse thin-client terminal

March 1, 1999
Semiconductor Business News

Cyrix Corp. today announced that Wyse Technology Inc. is offering its first Microsoft Windows CE-based terminal built around Cyrix's integrated MediaGX processor.

Wyse and National Semiconductor Corp., the parent company of Cyrix, banded together last June to develop high-performance thin-client solutions that would culminate in the "terminal-on-a-chip." The Winterm 3350SE, the first product to come out of this joint venture, incorporates other National chips, including Super I/O, audio codec and several power devices

 

More Accusations Against Intel
Federal Trade Commission adds new point to its claim that the company stifled competition.

By James Niccolai

March 1, 1999
PC World

In court filings made public Monday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission enlarged its antitrust complaint against Intel by charging that the chip maker stifled PC makers' attempts to differentiate their products.

The new allegation doesn't broadly expand the FTC's case, as speculation had suggested, but it is one more point the commission can offer to the administrative law judge who is overseeing the case. The judge will decide whether Intel's actions harmed competition.

The government made the new allegation in a pretrial brief filed with the court last week. But Intel's pretrial brief, also released Monday, claimed that even the FTC's own expert economic witness found no evidence that Intel reduced competition or harmed innovation in the microprocessor market.

 

Intel, FTC File Pretrial Briefs

By Mary Mosquera

March 1, 1999
TechWeb

With the antitrust trial set to start on March 9, the government and Intel Monday released dueling pretrial briefs.

The Federal Trade Commission's brief charged that the chip maker pressured its partners to turn over technology patents that could have encouraged competition.

Intel's pretrial brief countered the FTC's claims of an Intel monopoly and illegal business practices by stating that competition and innovation in the microprocessor market has accelerated since the government began investigating the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker.

 

U.S. outlines antitrust charges against Intel

March 1, 1999
SiliconValley.com

The U.S. government Monday laid out its charges against leading computer chip maker Intel Corp. ahead of the start next week of the second big antitrust case against a high-tech industry leader.

In a 50-page court filing, the Federal Trade Commission said Intel was still abusing its monopoly power and repeated charges that it had bullied three of its customers to maintain a stranglehold on the market.

 

Intel denies allegations in FTC brief

By Dan Goodin

March 1, 1999
C/Net

Even the FTC's top economist can't find that Intel harmed innovation in the microprocessor industry, the chip giant alleged in its pre-trial brief filed today.

Intel's brief, filed in advance of next week's administrative trial at the Federal Trade Commission, argues that the admission undermines the agency's case that Intel is a monopolist that used its intellectual property to stifle competition among would-be competitors.

 

Intel comes out swinging against FTC in pretrial brief

By John G. Spooner

March 1, 1999
PC Week Online

Intel Corp. will vigorously defend itself against charges by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it has used its leading market position to limit innovation in the microprocessor market, according to its pretrial brief.

The brief, which outlines Intel's defense, shows the company will come out swinging at next week's hearing before FTC Administrative Law Judge James Timony.

Filed under seal but released in a redacted version Monday, Intel's brief outlines a strategy designed to poke holes in the FTC's charges by, among other things, using the depositions of the agency's own expert witnesses.

 

Intel says government expert admits no evidence of wrongdoing

By Jack Robertson

March 1, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News

Intel Corp. argued in a pretrial brief released today that the government's own expert witness admitted he could find no evidence that Intel had "diminished innovation by industry" in withholding proprietary data from Digital Equipment Corp., Compaq Computers Corp., and Intergraph Corp.

The brief quoted Frederic Scherer, professor of corporate management at Harvard University, in a deposition saying that he "could not find evidence" of any Intel conduct that "would adversely affect the R&D expenditure or adversely affect price competition" by any other companies in the industry.

 
The Register Files

AMD fab plans leak out

By Mike Magee

March 2, 1999
The Register

A reader sent us some interesting information from a Japanese Web site and thoughtfully translated it for us too.

According to this information, AMD will shift the manufacturing process of the K6-III from 0.25 micron to 0.18 micron in the second half of 1999, but has not yet decided whether to perform that miracle on the K6-2, as yet.

 

Intel runs private, compulsory licence regime - FTC

By John Lettice

March 2, 1999
The Reigster

Intel has been running "its own privately administered compulsory licensing regime," says the US Federal Trade Commission in pretrial documentation released yesterday. The FTC is due to open its antitrust case against the chip giant on 9 March, and although its case is a lot tighter-looking than the rival attraction, DoJ versus Microsoft, this one should run and run as well.

The FTC intends to argue that Intel is a monopoly, and uses it power to extract patents and deals from its partners. Spats between Intel and Compaq, DEC and Intergraph (currently running its own antitrust action against Intel) will be used in evidence will figure prominently, and Intel's practice of cutting-off access to technical data during disputes will be argued over in some detail.

 
March 1, 1999

Intel falls after downgrade

By Eric C. Fleming

March 1, 1999
PC Week Online

Intel Corp. dropped 3 3/8 to 116 9/16 on Monday after being downgraded to "market perform" from "buy" at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, which also lowered its 1999 and 2000 earnings estimates.

Intel's estimate for this year was pared to $4.50 a share from $4.65 a share and 2000 expectations were lowered to $5.30 a share from $5.45 a share by Charles Boucher, analyst at DLJ. The First Call Corp. estimate of 32 analysts for 1999 is $4.70 a share, and 27 analysts polled by First Call see earnings at $5.50 a share in 2000 for Intel.

 

Intel NDA found on floor

By Mike Magee

March 1, 1999
The Register

At the Intel Developer Forum, The Register was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. We never do so, partly for legal reasons and partly because we believe journalists should not and need not sign NDAs. We prefer to operate on trust and contacts and absolutely hate burning our contracts. For example, if an Intel representative said he or she trusted us not to publish before a certain date, we might or might not do so.

There is another issue here. NDAs were invented by computer companies so they could tell their partners and customers something ahead of time. Journalists are neither partners nor customers of Intel, nor of any other computer company.

See More Stories in "The Register Files"

Consumers buy more PCs with AMD chips than with Intel chips in January

February 26, 1999
SiliconValley.com

Tarnishing the launch of Intel's newest Pentium chips, a report Friday revealed that consumers bought more computers in January with semiconductors made by Advanced Micro Devices -- knocking Intel from the No. 1 spot for the first time.

Shares of Intel slid $8, or more than 6 percent, to $119 on Wall Street amid news that 43.9 percent of all desktop PCs sold in January were equipped with AMD-K6 processors, according to the research firm PC Data.

 

Is Intel not paranoid enough?

By Robert Lemos

February 26, 1999
ZD Net News

Intel Corp. chairman Andy Grove likes to say that only the paranoid survive. Judging from the
most recent numbers, though, being paranoid may not be enough.

According to a new study from PC Data, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD) for the first time outsold Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) in the chip retail market.

PC Data's study, which looks only at the U.S. retail market and not at the market for direct or corporate PC sales, shows that systems based on AMD's K6 processor family accounted for 43.9 percent of unit sales in January, with Intel-based systems accounting for 40.3 percent of sales.

 

Intel promises Merced samples by midyear

By David Lammers

February 26, 1999
EE Times

Intel Corp. said its Merced processor development effort has reached a significant milestone: the running of the Unix operating system in a software simulation of a four-way Merced implementation.

The successful interoperability of multiple logic models of Merced opens the door for a full-scale push to finish the physical implementation of Merced in time for sampling to OEMs by the middle of this year, Gadi Singer, an Intel vice president who co-manages the Merced development effort, said at the Intel Developers Forum here.

 

Intel fills in details of its 64-bit chip story

By Ephraim Schwartz

February 27, 1999
InfoWorld Electric

Intel announced last week at its Professional Developer's Conference in Palm Springs, Calif., plans to ship manufacturing samples of its 64-bit Merced processor in mid-1999, with the production version following in mid-2000.

The company also announced that using a PC running the Merced simulator, it successfully booted seven different operating systems, including Microsoft's forthcoming Win64, Sun's Solaris, SCO's UnixWare Monterey, Novell's Modesto, and Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX. Intel also plans to fully support a 64-bit version of Linux.

 

III's A Crowd: AMD Takes on High End

By Kristen Kenedy and Doug Olenick

February 26, 1999
TechWeb

AMD's efforts to claim a share of the high-end retail PC market seem to be working. As systems based on the K6III, AMD's new high-end CPU, go on sale in stores this week, research shows AMD gaining ground in PCs with price points above $1,000.

Once strong only in the sub-$1,000 market, where it held about a 50 percent share in January, AMD's cut of the $1,000-to-$1,500 PC market grew from 33 percent in November to 39 percent in January, according to PC Data, in Reston, Va.

 

AMD rolls out fastest K6-2

By Marcia Savage

February 26, 1999
Computer Reseller News

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Friday introduced its fastest K6 2 processor and PC makers introduced new systems based on AMD chips.

The launch of the 450MHz K6 2 was boosted by a report from a market-research firm that showed Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD surpassing Intel Corp. in retail market share.

 

AMD takes retail lead, rolls out faster K6-2

By Will Wade

February 26, 1999
Semiconductor Business News

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today introduced its fastest K6-2 microprocessor, which is expected to help to company solidify its lead in the basic PC segment. One market research firm has now reported that AMD is the dominant MPU vendor in the U.S. retail market, with 44% of all sales.

"This is a major milestone for AMD," said Stephen Baker, senior hardware analyst at PC Data Inc., a Reston, Va.-based research firm. "This is the first time that a processor family other than one manufactured by Intel led the U.S. retail market."

 

And now, it's the real Pentium III launch

By Will Wade

February 26, 1999
Semiconductor Business News

Intel Corp. today officially introduced its much-covered Pentium III in a bid to lock in its position as the dominant microprocessor vendor. Recognizing that the Internet is now one of the main PC drivers, Intel optimized the new chip for enhanced graphics, especially the three-dimensional images used over the World Wide Web.

"The Pentium III processor enables the most powerful personal computers for running media rich in software, both on and off the Internet, in the home and in business," said Mike Aymar, vice president and director of Intel's platform launch operation. The chip has 70 new instructions all aimed to delivering better graphics capabilities, although rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has long stated that its own 3DNow! Technology is at least the equal of Intel's feature. The 3Dnow! Feature has been available for nine months.

 

Pentium III OK now, gets better later

By Michael Kanellos

March 1, 1999
C/Net

The Pentium III processor went on sale last week, and the one you may want to buy comes out in September.

While Intel's latest processor will improve the quality of video, audio, and multimedia on PCs through its new "SIMD" processor instructions, some analysts and observers believe that the premier benefit of upgrading to a Pentium III machine won't appear for seven months.

By then, Intel will be shipping a new version of the Pentium III, code-named Coppermine, which will run at 600 MHz and contain new architectural improvements that boost performance.

 

Intel's latest chip eagerly awaits new applications

By Kevin Railsback

February 27, 1999
InfoWorld Electric

With all of the marketing hype surrounding Intel's Pentium III processor, it is tough to know whether it will actually help your business.

I compared the performance of two typical business desktop systems, from Compaq Computer and Hewlett-Packard, testing with both Pentium II and Pentium III CPUs. Many vendors are now, or soon will be, shipping business desktop machines that include the new chip.

 

AMD moves into Toshiba notebooks

By Stephanie Miles and Brooke Crothers

March 1, 1999
C/Net

Toshiba, one of the largest notebook PC suppliers in the United States, said today that it will use chips from Advanced Micro Devices, a strong signal that the chipmaker is making headway in the portable computer market.

On Friday, a a report said that Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) K6 family of desktop processors outsold all Intel-based desktop PCs in the U.S. retail market for the first time.

But the Toshiba deal provides further evidence that AMD is also well on its way to taking a large chunk of the retail notebook market. Compaq already uses AMD chips in most of its Presario portables.

 

Intel Reviews Pentium III's Identity Problem
Software, not chip, is flawed; but consumer group cries foul to FTC.

By Mary Lisbeth D'Amico

February 26, 1999
PC World

A German computer magazine's finding that it could thwart the software utility program that deactivates an ID feature of Intel's newest chip has caused a stir amid Intel's marketing push for the Pentium III.

The latest spark is the Center for Democracy and Technology's announcement that it will file a formal complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission charging that the identification technology constitutes an unfair and deceptive trade practice.

And some systems vendors say they'll disable the ID feature in their new Pentium III systems.

 

Intel, FTC gear up for showdown

By John G. Spooner

February 26, 1999
PC Week Online

Intel Corp. and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, in preparation for their court showdown, filed pretrial briefs this week.

Filed under seal, the briefs outline how each side will present its case in a hearing before FTC Administrative Law Judge James Timony.

The FTC filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel last June, claiming the Santa Clara, Calif., company used its position in the market to unjustly influence Compaq Computer Corp.(NYSE:CPQ) , Digital Equipment Corp. (now part of Compaq) and Intergraph Corp.(Nasdaq:INGR)

 

Rivals Prep For Antitrust Case Against Intel

By George Leopold

February 26, 1999
EE Times

The combatants in the government's antitrust case against Intel are revving up their public-relations machines as they prepare for the start of a landmark Federal Trade Commission hearing next month.

Of those with the most at stake in the outcome of the Intel case is workstation vendor Intergraph and its down-home chairman Jim Meadlock. Meadlock, a government witness in the antitrust case, is also battling Intel in a federal court back in Alabama over Intel's alleged infringement of its cache-management patent.

 
The Register Files

Intel makes The Register sweat
Inside Fab 11

By Mike Magee

March 1, 1999
The Register

Executives at the Intel Corporation took The Register for a bunny-suited tour of Fab 11 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and made us sweat. But more on perspiration later.

From the outside, the plant looks unexceptional, a two or in some places three story building, but there are three floors below ground.

Security at the front of the building is relatively tight. Employees and visitors have their bags examined as they enter, and there are several guards posted at the entrance. Most of the functions of the fab itself are controlled from one room, but as far as we could tell, this room does not have fail over. At the back of the building, is a car park but we couldn't tell what security was like there. One of our journalistic colleagues on the tour said, that as far as he could tell, there were no major back up systems in place for electrical supply.

 

Intel makes The Register sweat - II
Inside Fab 11

By Mike Magee

March 1, 1999
The Register

Executives at the Intel Corporation took The Register for a bunny-suited tour of Fab 11 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and made us sweat. But more on perspiration later.

According to representatives from the company, it is extremely unusual for journalist to be allowed into the clean room and while we weren't allowed to dawdle, we were shown quite a lot.

First of all, we were shown the sub-fab area, the plumbing, so to speak, of the fab. Down there in the depths there are huge scrubbing machines that remove the toxic waste, including hydrofluouric and hydrochloric acid, from the process. Most of the water is purified and returns to the system.

 

Intel makes The Register sweat - III
Inside Fab 11

By Mike Magee

March 1, 1999
The Register

Executives at the Intel Corporation took The Register for a bunny-suited tour of Fab 11 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and made us sweat. But more on perspiration later.

Intel did not put us under a geas (NDA) in our tour around the clean room but we weren't allowed to loiter and forbidden to stray outside of the yellow lines into the chases.

Gowning Up
We were told the night before that when we showered in the morning, we had to wash off all traces of scented soap and perfume. Women or men are not allowed to wear make-up or fragrances of any kind.

 

Intel makes The Register sweat - IV
Inside Fab 11

By Mike Magee

March 1, 1999
The Register

Intel does not allow any cameras inside its fab besides from its own for obvious reasons. We did point out to them that these days you can get really good cameras that will fit in your tie if you're wearing one, but we didn't have one of those...

Diffusion area

A technician carries a lot box of wafers down an alleyway of diffusion surfaces. He or she is coming from the photographic area (see colour at back). The furnaces grow layers of oxide on the wafers and the oxide is then etched using a pattern photographically imprinted on the surface in a later step. See the robots on each of the technician loading and unloading the furnaces.

 

The MS campaign to rein-in Intel multimedia development

By Graham Lea

March 1, 1999
The Register

In the Microsoft trial, Eric Engstrom is being used to challenge the account of Microsoft's Intel relationship, as told by Steve McGeady and Intel's documents. Strangely, McGeady's name was never mentioned: he has evidently become a non-person.

An Intel internal email from Gerald Holzhammer on 13 April 1995 summarised a face-to-face meeting with Engstrom, Carl Stork and Marshall Brumer of Microsoft. He concluded that Microsoft wanted to own the drivers in Windows 98; that nobody but Microsoft was qualified to do good driver software; that Microsoft would not collaborate on NSP; and that Microsoft had "completely missed the boat" on developing a compelling state of the art media subsystem for Windows 95", according to a confession by Carl Stork.

 
Advertisement
Copyright © 2008 Dr. Dobb's Journal