| March 12, 1999 |
|
March 11, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
A slump in Cyrix microprocessor sales
contributed to a $27.2 million net loss at National
Semiconductor Corp. in the third fiscal quarter, ended
Feb. 28, according to the company here today. National
said its net sales slipped 23% to $500 million in the
third fiscal quarter compared to $650 million in the same
period a year ago when the company reported a $22.3
million net income, including a $5.2 million charge.
Reduced sales of Cyrix MPUs from the previous quarter
were partly offset by improvements in wireless IC and
analog device shipments in the quarter, said the company.
National blamed the slump in Cyrix processor sales on a
seasonal slowdown in PC demand.
|
See
Today's Related Stories |
|
By Mark Hachman
March 11, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
National Semiconductor reported a loss
of $27.2 million on sales of $500 million for its third
fiscal quarter during a period of what executives
nevertheless called “slow improvement.” Revenue
dropped a sharp 23% from the same period a year ago, when
the company earned $26.2 million. The Santa Clara,
Calif.-based company lost 16 cents per share and
predicted a similar loss for the current fourth fiscal
quarter based on a 12% sequential drop in new orders.
Nevertheless, National beat the Wall Street consensus
estimate of a loss of 20 cents per share.
|
See
Today's Related Stories |
|
By Will Wade
March 11, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. here today
denied allegations within a class action lawsuit filed
this week that asserted the company artificially inflated
its stock price over the past few quarters with overly
optimistic projections for revenue from its K6
microprocessors. Even as the company rebutted the claims,
a second, nearly identical suit has also been announced. "The
lawsuit filed on behalf of a shareholder is totally
without merit," said Thomas McCoy, senior vice
president and general counsel at AMD, noting that the
company intends to fight the charges.
|
|
|
By Mark Hachman
March 11, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Advanced Micro Devices' manufacturing
difficulties and volatile stock price have prompted a
possible downgrade of its credit rating and two
class-action lawsuits. Moody's Investors Service has
placed AMD under review, evaluating its credit and
secured debt in light of AMD's recent announcement that
manufacturing difficulties would contribute to a
significant shortfall for the current quarter. Moody's is
reviewing all AMD's senior debt offerings, including its
$400 million Senior secured public debt, $517 million
unsecured public debt, $250 million bank loan, and
secured and unsecured shelf registrations.
|
|
|
By Jack Robertson
March 11, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
A jammed industry meeting on PC133
SDRAMs this week in San Jose was told that PC desktop and
servers with the new memory chip will be introduced in
June. Reliance Computer Corp., a San Jose-based
chip-set maker, sponsored the PC133 session, which drew
150 representatives from PC companies, memory vendors,
chip-set makers, and microprocessor producers. Originally
slated to take place at Reliance's headquarters, the
meeting was moved to a nearby hotel to accommodate the
overflow crowd.
|
|
|
By Ephraim Schwartz
March 11, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
|
Zero-Knowledge Systems, a company that
offers its customers anonymity while Web surfing, claims
to have hacked Intel's software utility program meant to
turn off the serial IDs in Pentium III processors. A
Zero-Knowledge programmer created an ActiveX application
that goes around Intel's Pentium Serial Number Control
Utility and places a cookie file inside the user's
system. Once the cookie is in place, even if the user
turns off the unique chip serial number, the number can
be broadcast.
Zero-Knowledge President Austin Hill says he was
concerned with his customers' right to privacy. "We
are developing privacy software. Our users are putting a
certain amount of trust in us to make sure information
about them can't be leaked," said Hill.
|
|
|
By Stephanie Miles
March 11, 1999
C/Net
|
Is the Pentium III, with its
much-criticized processor serial number, this
generation's Edsel? Probably not, say marketing
experts, but Intel's experience with promoting the chip
is a lesson in what can go awry in an ambitious marketing
campaign.
Like Ford with its Edsel, Intel included a number of
fancy new features in its product to improve performance,
including a processor serial number designed to improve a
major roadblock to e-commerce: security inside electronic
transactions.
|
|
|
By Robert Lemos
March 11, 1999
ZD Net News
|
PC chip giant Intel Corp. admitted on
Wednesday that its controversial processor serial number
had been inadvertently included in one of its lines of
mobile Pentium II processors. "We were informed by
a customer that the chip ID was present in the mobile
Pentium II processor in mobile module form," said
George Alfs, a spokesman for the Santa Clara, Calif.,
company.
The processor serial number, or chip ID, is a 96-bit
number that uniquely identifies the processor to any
piece of software that requests the ID.
|
See
Today's Related Stories |
| The
Register Files |
|
By Mike Magee
March 11, 1999
The Register
|
Sources close to Intel told The Register
today that if S3 had squeezed harder last year, it could
have forced Intel to back down on future technologies. S3
has bounced back this year on the technology and sales
front with its Savage 4 3D acceleration chipset. But last
year was a different story.
Our sources close said: "S3 was in a parlous
state because its strategy on the graphics front was not
good. The cash flow situation was not good either but it
had very good patents it bought in an auction, including
some from Exponential."
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 11, 1999
The Register
|
After we had our Merced photographs
blown up out of all proportion, we carefully counted the
pins on each side of the array and came to the following
conclusions. If a Merced cartridge contains two arrays
which amount to 418 balls and the chip costs $3,000, that
will mean each pin costs $7.71.
If it's only $2,000, each pin will be cheaper.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 11, 1999
The Register
|
Intel has continued to come under fire
over unique ID codes on the PII chip fiasco it
engineered. Yesterday, the chip giant claimed the
problem was a bug -– a phenomenon Intel prefers to
call an erratum. Now it is claiming the bug was driving
the van that delivered the chips.
Readers of The Register have since cried foul,
accusing Intel of hastily covering its tracks
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 11, 1999
The Register
|
AMD has decided to second source some of
its wafer production. It will use its long time partner
Fujitsu to help it produce Flash, thus freeing up more
capacity. Robert Stead, European marketing director of
AMD, acknowledged this morning that producing enough
chips to meet demand was the company's main problem.
The fab in Dresden will only produce K7s, he said. But
now it is to use Fujitsu, its long-time Flash partner in
Europe.
|
|
| Today's
Related Stories |
|
By Reuters
March 11, 1999
C/Net
|
National Semiconductor, a maker of a
wide range of computer chips, reported a
narrower-than-expected third quarterloss, but warned it
was more cautious about the fourth quarter due to an
uncertain market for personal computers. The Santa
Clara, California-based company reported a net loss of
$27.2 million, or 16 cents a share, compared with a
profit of $26.2 million, or 16 cents a share a year ago,
excluding a one-time charge for an acquisition in the
year-ago period.
|
|
|
By Sergio G. Non
March 11, 1999
ZD Net News
|
National Semiconductor Corp. lost a
little less than Wall Street expected in the third
quarter, but the fourth quarter won't be any better, the
company said. In results released after market close,
the chipmaker posted a fourth quarter loss of $27.2
million, or 16 cents a share. First Call's survey of 20
analysts predicted a loss of 20 cents a share.
Fourth quarter sales fell to $500 million from $650
million a year earlier, when National Semiconductor
earned $26.2 million, or 16 cents a share. Revenue
largely due to lower sales of the Cyrix processor used in
PCs, although National Semiconductor's analog and
wireless businesses made up for some of the Cyrix
decline.
|
|
|
By Marcia Savage
March 11, 1999
Computer Reseller News
|
Intel discovered a manufacturing error
produced a prototype of its controversial
processor serial number in some of its newer chips for
notebooks. An Intel spokeswoman said the company found
the prototype serial number in some 366-MHz and 333-MHz
mobile Pentium II chips with 256 kilobytes of integrated
cache and 266-MHz and 300-MHz Celeron processors. All of
those chips were introduced Jan. 25.
|
|
| March 11, 1999 |
|
By Michael Kanellos and Stephanie Miles
March 10, 1999
C/Net
|
Canadian software developers say they
have created a program that can obtain the Pentium III
processor serial number despite the privacy protection
measures taken recently by Intel. Zero Knowledge
Systems of Montreal said today that it has developed an
ActiveX control that can retrieve the serial number under
certain circumstances, even after a software repair
released last month by Intel has disabled the feature and
ostensibly "hid" the number from prying eyes.
|
|
|
By Michael Kanellos
March 10, 1999
C/Net
|
Intel conceded today that it has
incorporated a prototype version of its controversial
processor serial number feature on certain Pentium II and
Celeron chips for notebooks. The chipmaker said it
released a fix today to disable the feature, which until
now had been known to exist only on the new Pentium III
processor. Privacy advocates say such information can be
used to obtain private information of people who use
computers with such processors.
|
See
Today's Related Stories |
|
By Michael Kanellos
March 10, 1999
C/Net
|
AMD will add a 9th member to its board
of directors at the upcoming stockholders' meeting in a
compromise move to placate a pension fund upset with
chairman and chief executive W.J. "Jerry"
Sanders. An annual AMD stockholders' meeting wouldn't
be complete, it seems, without an attempt by disgruntled
shareholders to oust Sanders or limit his power inside
the company.
Sanders, the colorful and controversial founder of the
company, has been criticized in the past for lavish pay
packages, especially in light of the company's troubles,
and for holding an excess of power.
|
|
|
By Reuters
March 10, 1999
C/Net
|
The broader Federal Trade Commission
investigation of Intel is reportedly alive and active
despite the chipmaker's settlement of a narrow set of
antitrust charges earlier this week. FTC investigators
are expected to proceed on a couple of key issues, such
as whether Intel is using its market power in
microprocessors to bully its way into ancillary markets,
the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing industry
executives and others familiar with the matter.
|
|
|
By Lisa DiCarlo
March 10, 1999
PC Week Online
|
With Intel Corp. about to settle with
the Federal Trade Commission, what's next for Intergraph
Corp.? The workstation maker was a key part of the
FTC's antitrust case and remains embroiled in its own
legal battle with Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), dating back to
1997. Intergraph (Nasdaq: INGR) executives say the
company will push on with its own suit, which is expected
to go to trial early next year.
Why continue? Because, Intergraph officials contend,
the company has yet to recover from the wounds Intel
inflicted on it at the start of their patent-infringement
dispute.
|
|
| The
Register Files |
|
By Mike Magee
March 10, 1999
The Register
|
A Register reader is claiming that
Pentium II/mobiles using the Dixon cores embed unique
serial numbers and has posted information on his site to
back up his claim. And now Intel has confirmed it has a
manufacturing problem. Pierre Chassaing's Web site
produces evidence for his claim.
He used a utility called WCPUID to interrogate a Dell
Inspiron 7000 laptop.
An Intel representative confirmed there was a problem.
He said: "There is an erratum in a limited number of
the mobile processors. Some prototype circuitry has gone
through. We'll do a BIOS patch in the next day. This was
not intentional."
|
|
|
by James Snider, chairman 1394 Trade Association
March 7, 1999
The Register
|
I have just read Intel Snubs IEEE 1394
for USB 2.0 by Tony Smith. On balance, I found it to
be an accurate portrayal. I would like to add some more
facts for your consideration.
1394 is the undisputed winner in the Consumer A/V
realm. It is being promoted by the Federal Communications
Commission for inclusion in DTVs. It has been shipping in
digital camcorders since the summer of 1995 and is
currently in camcorders from Canon, Sony, Panasonic,
Sharp and JVC.
|
|
| Today's
Related Stories |
|
By Robert Lemos
March 10, 1999
C/Net
|
PC chip giant Intel Corp. admitted on
Wednesday that its controversial processor serial number
had been inadvertently included in one of its lines of
mobile Pentium II processors. "We were informed by
a customer that the chip ID was present in the mobile
Pentium II processor in mobile module form," said
George Alfs, a spokesman for the Santa Clara, Calif.,
company.
The processor serial number, or chip ID, is a 96-bit
number that uniquely identifies the processor to any
piece of software that requests the ID.
|
|
| March 10, 1999 |
|
By Reuters
March 9, 1999
TechWeb
|
Intergraph said it will continue to
pursue its own separate court case pending against Intel
despite the chip giant's proposed antitrust case
settlement with the government. The U.S. Federal Trade
Commission announced a surprise settlement with Intel
earlier on Monday, one day before a major antitrust trial
against the company was to begin.
The government had accused Santa Clara, Calif.-based
Intel of coercing three major, established customers,
including Intergraph, into granting access to their
technology free. Details of Monday's settlement were not
disclosed.
|
|
|
By Tony Smith
March 9, 1999
The Register
|
Intel's favourite 3D graphics
specialist, S3, today announced a heap of statistics to
show it's growing strength in the PC graphics arena. Hints
also emerged about the company's future products,
including a possible 3D-enabled PC-on-a-chip part,
jointly developed with Intel.
The numbers centred on the success S3 is having with
its Savage4 3D acceleration chip-set. The company claimed
it had signed up 36 new customers this year, and was on
target to make over $150 million out of the deals.
|
See more stories in The Register Files |
|
By Michael Kanellos
March 9, 1999
C/Net
|
Real estate is at the heart of AMD's
problems. Analysts say Advanced Micro Devices--which
announced yesterday that it would report a
"significant" financial loss for the first
quarter and lay off about 300 workers in the first
half--is essentially facing problems because it does not
have enough fabrication facilities, or fabs, to
consistently compete with archival Intel.
The "fab" question goes to the heart of the
pricing and volume dynamics of the microprocessor
industry. In short, AMD has one microprocessor fab, while
Intel has 13 and is building more. When Intel wants to
boost the speed on a chip, it tries out the new design in
one fab and, when the kinks are worked out, it rolls the
manufacturing technique out to the rest of the factories
in a process called "Copy Exact."
|
|
|
By Eric Hausman
March 9, 1999
Computer Reseller News
|
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said it
plans to lay off 300 employees as part of a restructuring
program in the wake of an anticipated
"significant" loss in the current quarter. S.
Atiq Raza, AMD co-chief operating officer and chief
technical officer, said the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based
company will fall short of its goal of shipping 5.5
million units of AMD-K6 family processors in the current
quarter, ending March 28, which will result in the loss.
|
|
|
March 9, 1999
SiliconValley.com
|
Shares of computer chip maker AMD
tumbled more than 10 percent this morning after the
company forecast a ``significant'' loss for the current
quarter and a restructuring program that will cut about
300 jobs over the next six months. In an announcement
after financial markets closed Monday, AMD also said it
would fall short of its goal of shipping 5.5 million K6
processors during the quarter ending March 28.
|
|
|
By David Jastrow
March 9, 1999
Computer Reseller News
|
Investor fears of a slowdown for chip
companies caused tech stocks to slip during a shaky
Tuesday on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial
Average dropped 34 points to 9694 and The Nasdaq fell 5
points to 2393. Analysts said the decrease was caused by
rumors of disappointing first-quarter results for
technology stocks.
Chip makers took the biggest hit but seemed to have a
domino effect on other hardware stocks. Shares of Intel
plunged 4 5/16 to 115 5/16 amid whispers that it will
report a disappointing first quarter. Monday, the chip
giant rose 5 points after settling antitrust charges with
the Federal Trade Commission.
|
|
|
By Reuters
March 9, 1999
C/Net
|
Intel declined to comment on market
rumors that it would soon pre-announce a first quarter
earnings shortfall, fueling a drop in its stock today. "I
can't comment on market rumors," said Tom Waldrop, a
spokesman for Santa Clara, California-based Intel.
Intel shares dropped $4.31 to $115.31 in very heaving
trading, especially in the last hour before the market
closed.
|
|
| The
Register Files |
|
By Mike Magee
March 9, 1999
The Register
|
A kindly reader has taken the trouble to
read through Intel's application note literature on the
Pentium III and has discovered the company has no faith
in its own serial number technology. The reader said:
"Today I was perusing through to bone up on CPU ID
and PSN of the Pentium III and found the following
interesting disclaimers"
PSN not reliable From page 16, section 4.0 entitled:
"Processor Serial Number": (Identical paragraph
in App Note AP-909, March 1999,"Intel Processor
Serial Number", Order #245125-001, Page 4-5):-
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 9, 1999
The Register
|
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
was supposed to begin its legal case against Intel
Tuesday but reached a settlement late Monday, thus
denying us the courtroom dramas witnessed in the trial
between the Department of Justice (DoJ) and Microsoft. The
FTC had based its case on the proposition that Intel
effectively holds a monopoly on the lucrative
microprocessor industry.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 9, 1999
The Register
|
The delay of Camino and Whitney chipsets
is pushing major vendors, including Dell and Compaq, into
using the alternative VIA chipset. But Intel is
responding to the small Taiwanese firm's challenge by
saying it will support both PC-133 and AGP in a new BX-2
chipset, a reliable source tells us.
However, Intel is denying this story. A spin paramedic
in the UK said: "We're still 100 per cent committed
to Rambus technology." Ahem.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 9, 1999
The Register
|
For the last couple of days, we have
badgered Cyrix to give us some kind of statement about
the MII-366 pictures we found on the Web. This is our
original story: Hard core multiple Cyrix chips found in
cyberspace
But despite a stream of phone calls, so far no-one has
taken the trouble to call us back. The only official
statement we've got out of them is that there's "no
news". Excuse us, but as news journalists, please
let us be the judge of that. This is news.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 9, 1999
The Register
|
The K6-III is still in desparately short
supply in Europe, The Register has learned. A letter
from AMD to a dealer confirms that there are problems
supplying the parts.
AMD said yesterday: "The K6-III is unfortunately
not yet available from stock (and the K6-III
Processor-in-a-Box hasn't been launched yet), but the
AMD-K6-2/450AHX will become available (from stock!)
during this week."
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 9, 1999
The Register
|
An unspecified problem in manufacturing
microprocessors led AMD to warn it will make a loss
yesterday, as it announced 300 jobs will go. Rumours
had circulated ever since the beginning of this year that
a yield problem was affecting AMD K6 production.
Last week, we reported that there was already a dearth
of its newest K6-III processors in the marketplace.
|
|
| March 9, 1999 |
|
By Reuters
March 8, 1999
C/Net
|
Advanced Micro Devices, a maker of
microprocessors and other chips, said today it now
expected a "significant loss" in its first
quarter because of manufacturing problems earlier in the
quarter with its core K6 family of chips. The company
also said it would cut 300 jobs over the next two
quarters, which will result in a charge against earnings
in the first quarter, ending March 28, and in the next
quarter.
The job cuts, which represent about 2.2 percent of
AMD's total workforce of 13,800, are the first job cuts
at AMD in about three years, a spokesman said. More
details on the charges will be given when AMD reports
first quarter earnings after the market closes on April
6, AMD said.
|
See
Today's Related Stories |
|
By Jack Robertson
March 8, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.
Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) today confirmed that it had
"informal" contact with Intel Corp. about
making an unspecified device, which industry sources said
would be Direct Rambus DRAMs either for Intel or other
memory makers. A TSMC spokesman said no formal
discussions have resulted. An Intel spokesman declined to
comment.
Taiwanese foundries have been qualifying themselves
with Intel and Rambus Inc. for potential orders in a
projected production rampup for the next generation
wideband memory chip.
|
|
|
By Stephanie Miles
March 8, 1999
C/Net
|
Consumer watchdog groups will continue
to press the Federal Trade Commission for an
investigation into a security feature of Intel's latest
processor next week, at the same time adopting a
"wait and see" attitude about the latest
privacy flap surrounding Microsoft's Windows 98 operating
system. Representatives from the Center for Democracy
and Technology will meet with the FTC next Monday to
discuss an investigation into the serial code hardwired
into Intel's new Pentium III processor.
Privacy advocates charge that a permanent
identification number associated with a computer's
hardware is an invitation to exploitation and is moreover
an ineffective method of security.
|
|
|
By Marcia Savage
March 8, 1999
Computer Reseller News
|
The race for megahertz in the mobile
market heated up today with Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s
launch of its 380MHz K6-2 P chip for notebooks. At
380MHz, AMD's latest chip is faster than Intel Corp.'s
fastest mobile chip, the 366MHz Pentium II. AMD, based
here, also announced 366MHz and 350MHz K6-2 P
microprocessors for portables.
At the same time, Houston-based Compaq Computer Corp.
rolled out new notebooks based on the 380MHz and 350MHz
K6-2 P chips, the Presario 1670, 1675 and 1270. Compaq is
the second major notebook OEM, after Toshiba America
Information Systems Inc., to use AMD chips in notebooks.
|
See
Today's Related Stories |
| Intel
vs. FTC Coverage |
|
By Dan Goodin and Sandeep Junnarkar
March 8, 1999
C/Net
|
Lawyers for Intel and the Federal Trade
Commission have reached a tentative agreement to settle
the government's antitrust case against the world's
largest computer chipmaker. The company and the FTC's
filed a joint motion to delay start of the antitrust
trial so that commissioners can vote on an 11-hour
settlement the two parties reached over the weekend. The
trial, which was to start tomorrow, is stayed
indefinitely while the agency's four active commissioners
consider the proposed settlement, which litigators on
both sides signed yesterday.
|
|
|
By Michael Kanellos and Dan Goodin
March 8, 1999
C/Net
|
The witnesses in the FTC-Intel case were
the last to know about the surprise settlement, details
of which began to emerge this afternoon. The terms have
not yet been made public and lawyers on both sides would
not comment on them. But one source familiar with the
settlement said that in the general terms of the
agreement, Intel will agree not to use access to its
chips or product information as a lever to settle
intellectual property claims. In other words, companies
will be able to pursue legal actions against Intel
without necessarily running the risk of finding itself
with no chips.
|
|
|
By Lisa DiCarlo and John G. Spooner
March 8, 1999
PC Week Online
|
Intel Corp. could walk away from its
antitrust case with the Federal Trade Commission
relatively unscathed, thanks in large part to changes the
chip maker has already made in the way it does business. One
day before their antitrust hearing was scheduled to start
in Washington, Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) and the FTC announced
Monday they had reached a settlement agreement that, if
approved by FTC commissioners, would eliminate a large
chunk of the FTC's case.
Neither side will discuss details of the proposed
settlement until the commissioners approve it. A vote is
expected within 10 days.
|
|
|
By Dan Goodin and Michael Kanellos
March 8, 1999
C/Net
|
Although the FTC and Intel are calling
today's surprise settlement proposal a
"win-win" for both parties, observers say the
situation was more of a "can't win" where the
risks of losing for both parties outweighed the gains to
be had in a face-saving settlement. Both the FTC and
Intel faced uphill battles in the legal action brought by
the FTC that was supposed to begin tomorrow, say
legalanalysts. and technical
To win, the FTC was going to have rely on untested
legal arguments that have been criticized by experts. The
agency was also faced with the specter of hanging a
monopolist's label on a company that has lost market
share in the past year.
|
|
|
By Jack Robertson
March 8, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
Intel Corp. had already had secured the
right to continue its business practices without fear of
most antitrust issues long before today's last-minute
settlement the Federal Trade Commission's case against
the microprocessor giant (see today's story). The FTC
had elected to pursue only the narrow issue of whether
Intel was strong-arming other firms in industry to accede
to patent cross-licensing agreements on its own terms.
That meant other potential concerns were not pursued by
the FTC in its case, including Intel's competitive
pressure on rival microprocessor suppliers and the
possibility that the Santa Clara, Calif., company could
take advantage of de facto standards set in the PC arena.
|
|
|
By Charles Cooper
March 8, 1999
ZD Net News
|
When it comes to taking on the federal
government, the so-called Wintel partnership, usually
joined at the hip in the PC market, offers a study in
contrasts. The take-no-prisoners corporate cultures at
both Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) and Intel Corp.
(Nasdaq:INTC) are equally fierce but, at least in this
instance, Intel has decided that pragmatism is more
important than principle.
On Monday, Intel and the Federal Trade Commission
agreed to settle antitrust charges against the chipmaker
one day before the case was scheduled to go to trial. The
deal, which is still not public, awaits approval by FTC
commissioners, but one source close to the agency said
the government got everything it wanted from Intel except
a declaration that it's a monopoly. But even then, the
source added, Intel came out a winner by splitting the
difference.
|
|
|
By Rebecca Sykes
March 8, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
|
Mum's the word on the details of the
jointly filed proposed settlement between the U.S.
Federal Trade Commission and Intel announced Monday, but
observers said it is likely that Intel agreed to mild
restrictions. "The one thing [Intel] said was
that they're happy with the settlement, so I would assume
that the costs are fairly low," said Linley Gwennap,
a senior analyst at MicroDesign Resources, in Sebastopol,
Calif.
|
|
|
By Mary Mosquera
March 9, 1999
TechWeb
|
A proposed settlement between the
Federal Trade Commission and Intel has some potential
benefits for both sides, said a former FTC senior
attorney Monday. At the same time, the settlement
boosted the stock of the giant chip maker, sparking a
narrow Nasdaq rally. Intel [INTC] rose 3 5/8 to 118 1/4
in early-afternoon trading.
The proposed settlement between the FTC and Intel
eliminates the need for the landmark antitrust trial,
which was slated to start on Tuesday here in Washington,
D.C.
|
|
|
By John Lettice
March 8, 1999
The Register
|
If Intel's settlement with the Federal
Trading Commission stands, the chip giant still has one
outstanding piece of business to deal with - Intergraph,
and it could turn out to be a pricey business. Earlier
today it was announced that Intel had struck a courtroom
steps deal with the FTC, and provided that the terms
(which are currently confidential) are approved, the
company will have escaped from antitrust action by the US
government. ntergraph's own antitrust action is still
pending, so the next move will be for Intel to square the
company. But how? The solution will lie somewhere between
what the FTC wanted from Intel, and what Intergraph
wants. The FTC's preferred remedy calls for "relief
sufficient to foreclose the possibility that Intel might
again attempt to maintain its monopoly power by using
exclusionary practices to compel others to grant
intellectual property licences."
|
|
|
By George Leopold and Rick Boyd-Merritt
March 8, 1999
EE Times
|
The surprise decision by Federal Trade
Commission attorneys to propose a settlement of its
antitrust case against Intel Corp. still leaves open the
possibility of the FTC pursuing a broader case against
Intel that may include a look at the company's actions in
the chip set market, industry sources said. "There
are remaining issues under investigation by the
Commission," said William Baer, director of the
FTC's Bureau of Competition, in announcing a proposed
settlement today (March 8). Baer did not elaborate, but
agency and industry sources have said the FTC was looking
beyond the general-purpose microprocessor market to
examine Intel's growing dominance of the chip set market.
|
|
|
By Dan Gillmor
March 8, 1999
San Jose Mercury News
|
INTEL Corp. is dominated by engineers
who look at the data, argue vehemently about the options
and then make a pragmatic choice. The company can act
with cold brutality, especially with customers, but raw
hubris is not among Intel's defining traits. So it was
entirely in character for the Santa Clara-based chip
maker to settle an antitrust case with the Federal Trade
Commission, rather than hold fast to a dubious,
in-your-face principle of libertarian rights to do
anything it pleased. The terms of the proposed settlement
are murky for now, but it's not too early to make some
educated guesses about why Intel and the commission staff
made their 11th-hour deal.
|
|
|
March 8, 1999
SiliconValley.com
|
Microchip giant Intel Corp. reached a
tentative agreement with federal regulators to settle
claims that it illegally bullied rivals to maintain its
dominance in the high-tech industry. But the
announcement Monday, on the eve of an antitrust hearing
expected to last three months, came with a reminder from
the Federal Trade Commission: A larger antitrust battle
still looms.
``There are remaining issues under investigation by
the commission,'' said William Baer, to antitrust
investigator for the FTC. ``The commission's staff is
committed to working expeditiously to resolve those
concerns.''
|
|
|
By Reuters
March 8, 1999
C/Net
|
Technology stocks powered ahead this
morning on news that Intel had reached a major antitrust
deal with the Federal Trade Commission. The Dow
industrials drifted in what traders said was a
consolidating move after Friday's record run. The Dow
this morning was off 7.64 points, or 0.08 percent, at
9,728.44. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 1.36 percent, or
31.9 points, at 2,369.01.
"I still think the market looks solid," said
Barry Hyman, market strategist at Ehrenkrantz, King &
Nussbaum.
|
|
|
By David Jastrow
March 8, 1999
Computer Reseller News
|
Intel shares climbed 5 points to 119 5/8
after the processor giant entered into a proposed
antitrust settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The
settlement appears to have avoided a lengthy legal battle
for Intel and the possible negative impact of a lengthy
public trial.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 9 points Monday,
The Nasdaq climbed more than 2 percent. The Dow closed at
9,727 after Friday's record-setting gain. Meanwhile, the
Nasdaq jumped 60 points to 2,397.
|
|
| Today's
Related Stories |
|
By Mark Hachman
March 8, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Advanced Micro Devices preannounced a
significant loss for the current quarter, exacerbated by
a persistent manufacturing flaw that will force the
company to lay off as many as 300 employees in an effort
to cut costs. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD announced
the moves Monday as part of a restructuring program that
will be further detailed on April 6, when the company
reports its first quarter earnings. Analysts and an AMD
spokesman indicated that the lay offs were designed to
continue lowering operating costs by streamlining product
areas, with an emphasis on the company's microprocessors
and communications devices.
|
|
|
By Will Wade
March 8, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. here today
announced it would eliminate 300 jobs over the next two
quarters. AMD said it will take a charge against earnings
in the current quarter to finance the restructuring
program. AMD said the cuts are aimed at increasing its
focus on microprocessors and other ICs related to
computers and communications. Although AMD has four main
technological divisions, only its processor unit is
seeing growth. Despite that, it's the K6-2 line that has
held the company's profits down in the past few quarters,
as manufacturing problems have hindered AMD's ability to
produce the fastest K6-2 chips in high volume (see story
in March 1 publication of SBN).
|
|
|
By James Niccolai
March 8, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
|
Advanced Micro Devices said Monday it
expects to report a significant loss for its first fiscal
quarter, and announced plans to lay off 300 workers as
part of a restructuring program. The chip maker also said
that microprocessor shipments for the current quarter
will fall short of its goal of 5.5 million by about half
a million. This is the second time in a little more
than four weeks that AMD has warned of an expected
shortfall for the quarter.
The company has admitted to a manufacturing issue that
it says harmed output in the first eight weeks of the
quarter. It said today it is over the hurdle, but that
the problem dragged down its output for the quarter. AMD
has also been locked in a pricing battle with Intel that
analysts say has been hurting AMD financially.
|
|
|
By Lisa DiCarlo
March 8, 1999
PC Week Online
|
Despite snagging two top-tier customers
this month, the bad financial news continues for Advanced
Micro Devices Inc. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company
today said it would fall short of delivering its goal of
5.5 million K6 processors in the first quarter, resulting
in a "significant loss for the current
quarter," said Atiq Raza, co-chief operating officer
and chief technical officer. At the same time, AMD
(NYSE:AMD) said it would eliminate about 300 jobs as part
of a restructuring program.
Speaking at a semiconductor conference, Raza said the
company will ship "no more than 5 million" K6
processors. AMD successfully implemented
performance-enhancing processes in the K6 chips but
suffered a manufacturing setback during the first eight
weeks of production, he said.
|
|
|
By Mark Hachman
March 8, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Betting that OEMs will sacrifice low
power consumption for a faster clock speed, Advanced
Micro Devices Inc. is rolling out the latest version of
its mobile K6-2 microprocessor. “We've developed a
new family of mobile microprocessors based upon a new
trend in the marketplace,” said Dana Krelle, vice
president of marketing for AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif. That
trend, Krelle continued, relates to the notebook PC
housing, or enclosure, which is being designed to
accommodate increasingly powerful CPUs capable of burning
16 watts or more.
|
|
| March 8, 1999 |
|
By Sandeep Junnarkar
March 8, 1999
C/Net
|
A day before the Federal Trade
Commission was to begin trying Intel in a major antitrust
court battle, attorneys for both parties today submitted
a joint motion to consider a proposed settlement. Intel
and the FTC filed motions with the commission's secretary
withdrawing the FTC's case against Intel. The motion
allows the commission time to consider a proposed
settlement agreed to this weekend by the FTC's complaint
counsel and Intel. Details of the agreement were not
disclosed. The FTC's complaint was originally filed last
June.
|
See
Special Intel vs. FTC Coverage |
|
By Stephanie Miles
March 5, 1999
C/Net
|
Consumer and privacy organizations are
lining up to stop shipments of Intel's Pentium III
processor until additional controls are in place to
address the chip's controversial serial number feature. Representatives
of the American Civil Liberties Union, the National
Consumers League, the Consumer Federation of America,
Privacy Times, and the Center for Media Education signed
a letter supporting the Center for Democracy and
Technology in a complaint filed to the Federal Trade
Commission. They are asking the government to stop
shipments of Intel's Pentium III processor, which
contains serial numbers ostensibly designed to aid in
secure e-commerce transactions and help track computers
in large corporations.
|
|
|
By Reuters
March 8, 1999
C/Net
|
Intel is betting China's rush to embrace
the Internet will fuel demand for its new Pentium 3
microprocessors, company executives said today. Personal
computers with the Pentium 3 chip went on sale in China
on February 26 as part of a global launch.
"We now have the Internet in mind with every
product we design," Intel senior vice president
Albert Yu told reporters at a demonstration for Chinese
computer company executives.
|
|
|
By Tom Davey
March 8, 1999
Information Week
|
Graphical applications should see a big
performance boost when Intel introduces a
faster chip for high-end servers and workstations on
March 17. But the company has delayed until midyear a
technology that would standardize eight-way servers.The
Pentium III Xeon chip will run at 550 MHz, up from the
current Xeon's 450 MHz, and will be available with cache
sizes of 512 Kbytes to 2 Mbytes. The chip will
incorporate Intel's new set of multimedia instructions,
which stand to greatly enhance workstation applications.
Kinetix, a division of Autodesk Inc., for example, will
demonstrate a 30% leap in rendering speed on its
animation authoring software for film and video, says
Jimmy Giliberti, senior director of product development
at Kinetix. Many applications, particularly those
residing on servers, will see more modest improvements.
|
|
|
By Tom Davey
March 8, 1999
Information Week
|
Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the leading
microprocessor maker for the sub-$1,000 consumer desktop
market, continues to inch its way into business products.
Later this month, Toshiba America Information Systems
Inc. will ship an AMD- based notebook to U.S. business
users. In January, Toshiba began shipping a notebook with
an AMD CPU to the Japanese market. Toshiba's Satellite
2540CDS will be aimed mainly at small to midsize
businesses with up to 500 employees. At $1,699, the
2540CDS will have a 333-MHz K6-2 chip with AMD's 3DNow
technology, 32 Mbytes of memory, a 4-Gbyte hard drive, a
13- inch display, and a 56-Kbps modem. Comparable
notebooks with Intel chips start at $2,000.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 8, 1999
The Register
|
A small consortium of chip architects
have outlined their thoughts on the future of x.86
architecture post the Pentium III. The architects, who
have a site here, say there's life in the old dog yet.
According to the site: "The x86 architecture has
longer time life than one can imagine just few years ago.
Performance of the x86 microprocessor can be still
dramatically improved through using new architecture
approaches. We will study post Intel's Pentium-III
development of x86 architecture."
|
See more stories in The Register Files |
| Intel
vs. FTC Coverage |
|
By George Leopold
March 8, 1999
EE Times
|
Intel Corp. and the Federal Trade
Commission announced a proposed settlement of their
antitrust dispute early Monday (March 8), one day before
a hearing was scheduled to begin. The hearing has been
halted indefinitely while the FTC's commissioners
consider the proposed deal, which was worked out over the
weekend.
"If approved by the Commission, the proposed
settlement being recommended by [government lawyers] and
Intel would resolve the allegations contained in the
Commission's complaint issued on June 8," said
William Baer, director of the FTC's Bureau of
Competition. "There are remaining issues under
investigation by the Commission. The Commission's staff
is committed to working expeditiously to resolve those
concerns."
|
|
|
Associated Press
March 8, 1999
SiliconValley.com
|
Federal Trade Commission lawyers and
Intel have reached a proposed settlement over government
charges that the microchip giant illegally used bullying
tactics to quell competition, an FTC spokeswoman said
today. FTC staff members and Intel jointly filed a
motion with the commission that would withdraw the FTC's
case against Intel, spokeswoman Michelle Muth said. She
said she could not discuss details of the settlement --
which must now be considered for approval by the
commission -- or even if the settlement would end all
ongoing government litigation with the company.
|
|
|
By Mark Hachman and Jack Robertson
March 5, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
The Federal Trade Commission next week
will open its case against Intel Corp. for engaging in
allegedly anti-competitive business practices. But as the
gavel drops in Washington, it's the role of intellectual
property in the market that may be placed on trial. The
hearing, which is expected to last two to three months,
is unlikely to strike at Intel's core in quite the same
manner as the Justice Department's ongoing suit against
Microsoft Corp. Narrower in focus, this case will instead
home in on specific instances in which Intel customers
claim their competitive position was compromised by the
chip giant.
|
|
|
By Jack Robertson
March 5, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
This is no Teddy Roosevelt trust-busting
case. The FTC docket “In the Matter of Intel
Corp.” is an intellectual-property spat. It won't
break up Intel. It won't recast Pentium, Merced, or any
of the myriad code-named upcoming processors and
chipsets. At most, the end result will be an order
affecting the way Intel negotiates its cross-licensing
agreements or how it provides early development data and
samples of next-generation chips.
|
|
Intel's
turn to face inquiry
Antitrust: Chip giant's case is more
relevant than that of Microsoft.
By Tom Quinlan
March 8, 1999
San Jose Mercury News
|
After nine months in the shadow of the
Microsoft Corp. legal extravaganza, the antitrust case
against Intel Corp. is stepping into the spotlight, in a
proceeding that may have more day-to-day impact on the
high-tech industry than its infamous predecessor. On
Tuesday, an administrative law judge for the Federal
Trade Commission will begin hearing charges that Intel
illegally leveraged its monopoly power to force three
computer companies to surrender their technology. The
case is narrow and promises few courtroom theatrics; if
the Microsoft antitrust trial were not on a six-week
hiatus, the Intel hearing might command little attention.
|
|
|
By George Leopold
March 5, 1999
EE Times
|
With the antitrust case against Intel
Corp. set to open next Tuesday (March 9), EE Times has
learned that U.S. and Intel attorneys agreed as early as
last August to narrowly focus the Federal Trade
Commission's case on general-purpose microprocessors,
excluding key areas of concern like graphics controllers
and chip sets. The move to limit the scope of the case
was reaffirmed this week when Administrative Law Judge
James Timony, acting on his own initiative, excluded
evidence presented by the government concerning alleged
anticompetitive conduct by Intel in the chip-set market.
Timony's ruling in Intel's favor cited the FTC's
"promise" that it "will not undertake in
this case to prove or offer any evidence of the existence
of any adverse competitive effects in any market for
graphic controller or chip set devices, or on the
development of graphics controller or chip set
technology."
|
|
|
By Dan Goodin
March 8, 1999
C/Net
|
The Federal Trade Commission's antitrust
trial against Intel, which opens tomorrow in Washington,
may have profound consequences for the technology
industry, even if it lacks the drama of the other
high-tech legal battle being waged in the nation's
capital. Just blocks from the courthouse where
Microsoft has fought the Justice Department and 19 states
for the past four months, Intel attorneys will square off
against the FTC in a trial that could set new rules for
monopolists and lower the burden of proof in competition
cases.
|
|
|
By John G. Spooner and Carmen Nobel
March 5, 1999
PC Week Online
|
When Intel Corp. walks into its hearing
with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on March 9, it
will do so with a lot more ammunition than originally
anticipated. At the core of the FTC's antitrust case
against the semiconductor maker is the government's
premise that Intel has adversely affected competition in
the market for "general-purpose"
microprocessors.
Since the FTC filed its charges last June, however,
competition in the processor market has heated up
considerably, with more PC makers turning to Advanced
Micro Devices Inc. for chips for consumer and low-end
business PCs.
|
|
|
By Mary Mosquera
March 5, 1999
TechWeb
|
It's a hectic and volatile time for
Intel and there is no sign things will get calmer as the
Federal Trade Commission prepares to take the chip maker
to court Tuesday for antitrust violations. In the last
month alone, the company made a huge acquisition, lost
two executives in a tragic slaying, rolled out its
next-generation Pentium processor, and saw its lead in
the chip market slip.
|
|
| The
Register Files |
|
By Mike Magee
March 8, 1999
The Register
|
Once again, Japanese Web sites seem to
have pix of chips that few, if any of us, have seen in
the West. This is the unofficial announcement of Cyrix
366/100 parts with new packaging. NatSemi obviously does
things differently in the East, because its own Web site
in Japanese has the details. (URL below).
Between this morning and now, more pix giving
intriguing details have appeared on the Web.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 8, 1999
The Register
|
The oldest UK newspaper, The Observer,
published only on Sundays, today quoted an unnamed Intel
UK spokesperson as saying: "You have to put licence
plates on your car if you want to drive, this development
is the electronic extension of that." He or she
was driven to say so because a reporter from The Observer
was asking
about the significance of the "unique" serial
number contained in Pentium IIIs (Katmais).
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 7, 1999
The Register
|
This is a presentation jointly given by
John Crawford, Architect & Intel Fellow at Intel, and
Jerry Huck, leading architect at Hewlett Packard at the
Intel Developer Forum. Because it is a long
presentation, each of the files IA64-1.JPG to IA64-18.JPG
contains three slides each.
You can see photographs of the Merced package here,
while our full coverage of the Intel Developer Forum is
is here.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 6, 1999
The Register
|
As well as keynote speeches and
breakouts at the IDF, Intel also holds a series of
tracks on different topics. The first Merced track was
presented by Hemant Dhulla, IA-64 Programme Manager at
Intel US. Here are the slides for his presentation. For
our exclusive photographs of the Merced cartridge, go
here.
The next presentation we will post is titled Intel
architecture innovations, made jointly by Intel and HP
execs.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 76, 1999
The Register
|
Various hardware sites are reporting
that AMD will demonstrate a K7 chip running at 600MHz at
the CeBIT trade fair in Hannover in two weeks time. According
to AMD Zone, engineers at AMD have also succeeded in
manufacturing K7 samples which clock at 650MHz.
The reports suggest that AMD will show the K7 clocking
600MHz but do not need Kryotech technology to achieve
these speeds.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
March 8, 1999
The Register
|
The case between US .gov and Intel has
fallen over, as first predicted here. As revealed here
earlier, Intel would never go through with the public
humiliation of a court trial.
On the 22nd of February, The Register had information
to this effect. (Story: Intel to surrender to higher US
authorities)
|
|
