| March 19, 1999 |
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By Alexander Wolfe
March 18, 1999
EE Times
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Intel Corp.'s settlement this week of
Federal Trade Commission antitrust charges won't have any
profound or immediate effect on the PC or workstation
arenas, experts told EE Times, but could presage a subtle
shift in the industry's movement to 64-bit computing. In
its broadest terms, the FTC agreement requires Intel to
freely provide its OEMs with advance technical
information on upcoming chips. Faced with potential legal
restraints, Intel may have to tread more gently as it
attempts to promulgate its upcoming IA-64/Merced
processing hardware.
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The
great compromise
Intel-FTC: Chip maker can't cut off
supplies, doesn't admit it has monopoly.
By Tom Quinlan
March 18, 1999
San Jose Mercury News
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Both the Federal Trade Commission and
Intel Corp. walked away from their truncated
confrontation claiming victory, but whether Intel's
market power is so great that it must operate under a
significantly different set of rules than the rest of the
industry remains unclear. In discussing the settlement
-- details of which were made public officially on
Wednesday -- Intel made it clear that it did not concede
that it wields monopoly power in the microprocessor
industry. Nor would it concede that it has a dominant
position within that market. It did acknowledge it would
relinquish some control of its intellectual property,
however.
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By Brooke Crothers
March 18, 1999
C/Net
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Start-up Rise Technology continues to
ratchet up its processor offerings for the low-cost PC
market, further evidence that the most intense
competition in the chip market is taking place in the
low-end. Rise Technology said today that it will show
off its newest and fastest Intel-compatible x86 chips for
the low end of the PC market at the CeBit conference in
Germany, which starts today.
The company also previewed an upcoming processor that
could become, in effect, the first Pentium II or Pentium
III clone, a significant differentiator for the company.
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By David Lammers
March 18, 1999
EE Times
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National Semiconductor Corp. will target
the consumer PC market with versions of its SuperI/O
chips that leverage the company's analog expertise to
include voltage- and temperature-monitoring functions.
The devices are sampling now, and will go into full
production when Intel Corp.'s Camino and Whitney chip
sets go into volume production. National, which gets
about 10 percent of its overall revenue from the SuperI/O
sector, announced five SuperI/O chips that support the
low-pin-count (LPC) SuperI/O standard developed with
Intel (Santa Clara, Calif.). However, Intel's
cancellation of the Pentium IIX6 (PIC6) chip set, and the
delays of the Rambus-capable Camino and Whitney chip sets
pushed back the LPC SuperI/O market to the second half of
1999. Camino is now expected to hit volume production in
September and Whitney the following June.
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By Rick Boyd-Merritt
EE Times
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A key building block in Intel Corp.'s
drive toward a new performance plateau for Pentium-based
systems was unveiled here Wednesday (March 17) by the
company's Corollary subsidiary. The move came with
Corollary's first public demonstration of its Profusion
silicon, a chip set for eight-way multiprocessing
systems. While Profusion and a new turn of Pentium III
processors launched here hold the promise of bolstering
Intel's bottom line, the high-performance push also
presents unique design challenges for Intel and for
competitors planning their own high-performance products.
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| The Register Files |
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By Mike Magee
March 18, 1999
The Register
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Chip company AMD has shown a K7
processor running at 600MHz at the CeBIT trade show in
Hannover, and has revealed more details of its plans for
the product. We also have some good photos which we'll
file later
Gary Bixler, K7 product marketing manager at AMD's
Austin microprocessor division, said: "The K7's
going to very high performance and will allow us to
compete [with Intel] from the lowest to the highest
level. The combination of the K7 and the K6 will allow us
to compete with Intel and the K7 will compete in the high
end space."
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By Graham Lea
March 18, 1999
The Register
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Intel VP Pat Gelsinger was asked at his
CeBIT presentation this morning about the FTC deal. He
said he was happy that it was settled, and he didn't
"believe Intel would change its behaviour in the
market." But perhaps just a little bit of change in
behaviour might be advisable, under the circumstances. The
Register reported yesterday that Intel must "take no
steps to impede, alter, suspend, or withhold advance
technical information" for reasons related to an
intellectual property dispute, but already Intel is
ignoring the spirit of the agreement it would appear. We
recall a Mr. Bill Gates of Microsoft making claims
similar to those Gunslinger is making now, after the 1994
agreement to a consent decree, and look at what happened.
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By Linda Harrison
March 18, 1999
The Register
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Intel today launched 500 and 550 MHz
versions of the Pentium III Xeon chip, along with
previewing "the Formula One race car of
processors" – a PIII Xeon running at 800 MHz. Pat
Gelsinger, Intel VP and general manager desktop products
group, announced the chips to CeBIT this morning.
The high-end 500MHz, 412KB, 1MB and 2MB versions for
two, four and eight way servers and workstations will
start shipping today. The 550MHz, 512 KB, in 1 and 2MB
versions for four and eight way servers, will be
available from Q2.
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By Mike Magee
March 18, 1999
The Register
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National Semiconductor's decision to aim
for the low end has been vindicated by the latest Romtec
results, released at this year's CeBIT. According to
the figures, Cyrix has won market share of 53.4 per cent
in the sub 500 pound market, beating Intel which has 45.2
per cent of the market and making AMD look at a dwarf at
1.3 per cent.
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| March 18, 1999 |
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By Stephanie Miles
March 17, 1999
C/Net
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The Federal Trade Commission this week
met with privacy groups to discuss the implications of
Intel's Pentium III controversial serial code. FTC
staff members met with representatives from Junkbusters
and other advocacy groups to discuss the privacy
implications of the serial code hardwired into every
Pentium III processor.
"We met with FTC staff at noon on Monday,"
said Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters, to discuss
a letter from Junkbusters asking the FTC to
"consider action it might take to prevent Intel's
Processor Serial Number (PSN) from severely damaging
consumer privacy and consequently stunting the growth of
ecommerce."
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March 17, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Phoenix Technologies and Advanced Micro
Devices said Tuesdaythey plan to jointly develop software
and products for desktop and mobile computers thatuse
AMD's microprocessors, core logic, peripherals, and NIC
functions. The agreement expands an existing
relationship, under which San Jose, Calif.-based Phoenix
has directly supported AMD's ICs. The two companies said
the new pact will extend their presence in the desktop
and portable PC marketplace as well as eventually provide
software and products for powerful servers and
workstation systems based on AMD's K7 microprocessors.
Plans are also set to support networking,
telecommunications, and industrial control-system designs
based on AMD's semiconductor offerings.
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March 17, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Rise Technology Co. unveiled two new
microprocessors here today at the CeBit trade show: a
faster version of its mP6 chip, and the first look at its
mP6 II. Although both devices offer improved performance
over the company's existing mP6 chips, it remains unclear
whether they offer enough power to make Rise a player in
the microprocessor marketplace. "We believe what
we're trying to do will match what the consumer
wants," said Joe Salvador, senior product marketing
manager for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based processor
startup. "We're not offering just low price, but
also improved value."
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By Michael Kanellos and Stephen Shankland
March 17, 1999
C/Net
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Intel took the wraps off its new Pentium
III Xeon chip today, another step in the manufacturer's
plan to elbow in on the turf of high-performance
processor companies. Intel boasts that the new chip,
which runs at 500 MHz and contains up to 2MB of
performance-enhancing cache memory will put it in the
same class as Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC)
chips, the powerful processors that run many high-end
corporate servers and workstations. With this chip, Intel
and the PC powers aim to take market share from companies
that sell multiprocessor RISC and Unix operating
system-based products, such as Sun Microsystems.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Will Wade
March 17, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Intel Corp. introduced today the Xeon
version of its Pentium III microprocessor, stressing the
high-end chip's role in the server and workstation space.
Analysts note that about 10% of Intel's current revenues
come from the Xeon line, but expect to see that increase
as the company tries to gain share in those markets. "We
are moving towards a world with a billion connected
computers," said Paul Otellini,
executive vice president and general manager of the Intel
architecture business group. "We would like people
to consider the proposition that the Internet is powered
by Intel."
Otellini said Intel now controls 80% of the total
server unit shipments, as well as 80% of Internet and
intranet servers. "Our ambitions in the server
market have been well known for some time," he said.
"This is a key business opportunity for us going
forward."
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By Matt Hines
March 17, 1999 Newsbytes.
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Aiming to bolster its position as a
supplier of microprocessors which power the server
hardware that acts as the backbone of the Internet, Intel
Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC] officially launched its Pentium III
Xeon chip family today. Intel executive vice
president, Paul Otellini, did not mince words in
conveying that Intel considers itself a key driver in
pushing the growth of the Web and demanding e-commerce
applications.
"What I would like to propose is that the
Internet is already powered by Intel-based
technologies," he said. "We have addressed
Internet viewing functionality with our P3 desktop
processors, and with the P3 Xeons we are helping to
change the way that developers create content and share
information."
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By Michael Vizard and Ed Scannell
March 17, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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Providers of graphics-intensive software
and online content are expecting to see a major boost in
performance following the deployment of Pentium III Xeon
servers and workstations. Announced here Wednesday,
the Pentium III Xeon family of processor provides higher
levels of cache and a new set of Internet Streaming
single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) extensions that
specifically boost graphics and multimedia applications,
according to Intel officials.
For example, officials from SAS said that higher
levels of cache and the new extensions to the Intel
instruction set, combined with the Intel server memory
architecture, will result in an 80 percent performance
gain for SAS analytical applications.
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| FTC vs. Intel Settlement Special
Coverage |
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By Rebecca Sykes and Elizabeth Heichler
March 17, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has
approved a settlement reached by FTC lawyers and Intel in
the government's antitrust case against the chip giant. The
settlement was announced last week, but its details were
unconfirmed until the FTC ruling, made public Wednesday,
to accept the proposed consent agreement. The 3-0 vote,
with one commissioner abstaining for medical reasons,
propels the proposed settlement into a 60-day period for
public comment.
As expected, Intel has agreed to refrain from
withholding or threatening to withhold technical
information from customers with whom it has intellectual
property disputes, according to a statement from the FTC.
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By FTC and Intel
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BEFORE FEDERAL
TRADE COMMISSION In the Matter of INTEL CORPORATION, a
corporation.
DOCKET NO. 9288
AGREEMENT CONTAINING CONSENT ORDER
The Agreement herein, by and between Intel
Corporation, a corporation, by its duly authorized
officer, herein sometimes referred to as respondent, and
its attorney, and counsel for the Federal Trade
Commission, is entered into in accordance with the
Commission's Rule governing consent order procedures. In
accordance therewith the parties hereby agree that:
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By Dan Goodin and Sandeep Junnarkar
March 17, 1999
C/Net
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The Federal Trade Commission today
announced that it has approved the surprise settlement
struck last week with Intel. The consent order, which
was made public today, is being cast as a win for both
sides. While it prevents Intel in many cases from
witholding advanced product information and samples from
customers over intellectual property disputes, it is
significantly narrower than the relief the FTC originally
requested.
In an action filed last June, the agency alleged that
Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, was a monopolist
that illegally withheld crucial products from customers
unless they signed away valuable intellectual property
rights.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
March 17, 1999
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp. may not have had to admit it
was a monopolist as part of its antitrust settlement
announced today, but the Federal Trade Commission
chairman characterized the company as such countless
times in a morning conference call. That FTC Chairman
Robert Pitofsky still alleges Intel is a monopoly will
likely play a part in the commission's ongoing
investigation, which is completely separate from today's
settlement.
Pitofsky and lead FTC attorney Richard Parker together
spelled out the details of the settlement, which the
commissioner described as a "trade-off" for
both sides.
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March 17, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Intel Corp. today said it was pleased
with the final settlement of the government's
16-month-old antitrust investigation and that it can work
as a "framework" for handling intellectual
property disputes in the settlement reached last week. The
Federal Trade Commission and Intel worked out the
compromise just before FTC case was scheduled to go into
hearings in Washington (see March 8 story). The full
commission approved the settlement today.
The FTC case centered around Intel's refusal to
provide early product development details and samples to
three computer firms--Compaq, Digital Equipment and
Integraph. Eventually, Compaq and Digital settled their
disputes with Intel by signing cross-licensing deals last
year, but Integraph filed a patent violation suit against
the Santa Clara, Calif.-based microprocessor giant.
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By Daniel Rubin
March 17, 1999
PC World
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Intel escaped its antitrust case with
the Federal Trade Commission with two significant wins,
say industry watchers: A settlement that doesn't label
the firm a monopolist and the right to protect
intellectual property in hotly contested suits. While
Intel may have won the battle, it still has not won the
war. FTC officials indicate the commission is still
investigating some issues. And privacy advocates met with
the FTC Monday to discuss ways to deal with the Pentium
III chip and its controversial ID feature. One possible
solution may be forcing Intel to make two versions of the
chip, one of which lacks the identification feature, says
a source familiar with the meeting.
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Intel
looks like winner
Sources say details of FTC agreement
show the chip giant coming out ahead
By Tom Quinlan
March 17, 1999
San Jose Mercury News
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The agreement that settled the Federal
Trade Commission's antitrust charges against Intel Corp.
last week was presented as a compromise in which both
sides won key concessions. But when the details of the
agreement are announced today, Intel may well appear the
bigger winner. According to sources familiar with the
details of the agreement, Intel agreed to a consent order
saying it will no longer withdraw its technical
information and support from companies that challenge it
in court, unless those companies withhold payment or have
asked the courts for a restraining order that would
prevent Intel from manufacturing or selling its
processors.
The settlement largely meets the stated objectives of
both parties. The FTC can claim victory in that Intel can
no longer arbitrarily withdraw technical information
about its products in the case of a lawsuit, and Intel
still has the ability to protect its intellectual
property.
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By Bloomberg News
March 17, 1999
C/Net
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For Intel, the first hint it might be
able to negotiate its way out of a legal fight with
antitrust enforcers came on the tennis court. In
mid-February, only weeks before the world's biggest
computer chipmaker was to defend itself in an antitrust
trial against the Federal Trade Commission, Intel
attorney Michael Sohn and FTC antitrust chief William
Baer faced each other over the net, as they often have
for more than 20 years.
After Sohn won the game--as he does about two times
out of three--he suggested a few ways that the FTC's
antitrust case against his client could be resolved
without a long, arduous trial. The seemingly casual
message between old friends in fact came directly from
Intel's top management in Santa Clara, California.
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By Dan Goodin
March 17, 1999
C/Net
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Intel and the Federal Trade Commission
forged a pragmatic deal that sets new restrictions on the
world's largest chipmaker. The ruling may effect the
psychology of some other Silicon Valley companies but its
legal effect will likely be limited mostly to companies
selling general purpose microprocessors.
The ruling may make it virtually unthinkable for
companies to exercise some of the more drastic options
available when asserting patents and other intellectual
property against Intel, said Stephen Calkins, a professor
at Wayne State University and general counsel at the FTC
from 1995 to 1997.
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| The
Register Files |
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By Mike Magee
March 17, 1999
The Register
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Insiders at Compaq have told The
Register that the company is now taking a long hard look
at whether Merced is worth bothering with at all. According
to our highly unofficial source, Merced is showing little
signs of life at the corporation.
Engineers at Compaq whose job it was to look at the
Merced architecture are now being told to occupy their
time looking at other projects, our deep throat said.
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By Mike Magee
March 17, 1999
The Register
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One of our friends at AMDzone reports an
interesting snippet. He said he was on the way home
when he heard an AMD ad. The company is looking to
recruit motherboard designers.
The 300 people out of the 13,800 personnel on its
payroll which AMD said it would lay off are not connected
with its chip business at all.
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By Mike Magee
March 17, 1999
The Register
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Sources close to Intel confirmed today
that it will introduce its 433MHz version of the Celeron
this coming Monday. The 466MHz Celeron part is now
expected to arrive in June.
The 433MHz Celeron will cost around $165 at launch and
will come in both Slot One and socket versions.
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By Drew Cullen
March 17, 1999
The Register
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Well that didn’t take long. Last
week Intel looked set for a short sharp shock in court
with the FTC. This week, the company has wriggled more or
less completely free from the anti-trust charges levelled
against the company. For the Federal Trade Commission
settlement -- agreed with Intel last week behind closed
doors -- is not exactly a heavy cross for Intel to bear.
The FTC says that Intel must "take no steps to
impede, alter, suspend, or withhold advance technical
information "for reasons related to an intellectual
property dispute with such customer.".
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By Mike Magee
March 17, 1999
The Register
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Reports in the San Jose Mercury News
late yesterday said that one reason Intel has got off the
Federal Trade Commission's hook is because it promised to
be more "sharing" in the future. The
newspaper reported sources close to the FTC as saying
that it will now give advance information to its
customers (such as Compaq) even if they appear to be in
some way or other competing with them.
According to the report, the FTC is to announce
details of the deal when the US gets up out of bed, later
today.
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| Today's
Related Stories |
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By Mark Hachman
March 17, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel Corp. introduced a version of its
Xeon microprocessor based upon the Pentium III, whose
success will be partly predicated upon the software that
drives it. Today, Intel announced 500-MHz and 550-MHz
versions of the Xeon. The 500-MHz chip supports 512
Kbytes, 1 Mbyte, and 2 Mbytes of level 2 cache, contained
within the 330-pin SECC2 processor module. The new chips
may be used as part of 1- and 2-processor systems.
Intel released the 550-MHz version with only 512
Kbytes of cache, but 1- and 2-Mbyte versions will be
released in the third quarter, according to Paul
Otellini, executive vice-president and general manager of
the Intel Architecture Business Group in Santa Clara,
Calif. The ability to combine four Pentium III Xeon
microprocessors within a single system will also be added
in the next couple of months, said Anand Chandrasekher,
general manager of Intel's Workstation Products Division,
based in DuPont, Wash.
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March 17, 1999
SiliconValley.com
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Intel Corp. said it introduced the
latest in its recently launched Pentium III line, the
Pentium III Xeon processor for computer workstations and
servers that connect networked computers. A vast array
of computer makers also said they were launching
workstations and servers designed around the Pentium III
Xeon, including Dell Computer Corp ., Hewlett-Packard
Co., Silicon Graphics Inc., Compaq Computer Corp. and
International Business Machines Corp.
The chipmaker said the new chip is intended to bolster
its presence in e-commerce and high-end computing
solutions.
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By Carmen Nobel and John G. Spooner
March 17, 1999
PC Week Online
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Four-leaf clovers were out-hyped by
two-way workstations, four-way servers and eight-way chip
sets this St. Patrick's Day, as Intel Corp. officially
announced both its Pentium III Xeon processor and the
long-awaited Profusion chip set. The new Xeon chip,
previously code-named Tanner, will be ready to ship this
week. Initial shipments will run at 500MHz, with 512KB,
1MB or 2MB of Level 2 cache.
The chip works in two-, four- and, eventually,
eight-processor servers and workstations. A 550MHz
version will be available with 512KB of Level 2 cache by
mid-April, with 1MB and 2MB versions due later in the
third quarter, Intel officials said here today at a press
conference at the Chelsea piers.
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By Edward F. Moltzen
March 17, 1999
Computer Reseller News
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Intel took the wraps off its Pentium III
Xeon processor Wednesday, debuting new four-way
technology with improved performance. Intel will
initially supply the new Xeon processor at 500 MHz
initially with 512 kilobytes, 1 megabyte, and 2 MB of
level 2 cache for two-, four-, and eight-way servers and
workstations.
The company will then make available a 550-MHz
processor for two-way servers and workstations next
month. By the third quarter of 1999, Intel will ship the
Xeon at 550 MHz in all three cache options for four- and
eight-way servers.
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| March 17, 1999 |
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By Mark Hachman
March 16, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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National Semiconductor's Cyrix
subsidiary now factors in processors designed by Advanced
Micro Devices in its performance rating, a company
spokeswoman said. Cyrix's PR, or performance rating,
now is designed to compare its chips against a class of
microprocessors that includes the Intel Celeron and AMD
K6, a company spokeswoman said. Historically, the rating
has been compared only with chips designed by Intel.
"As we became wholly focused on the sub-$1,000 PC
market, we began comparing them against the Intel Celeron
and the AMD K6," she said. AMD was added as the
company became "more and more of a player," she
said.
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By Ted Bridis
March 16, 1999
SiliconValley.com
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To settle an antitrust case, Intel Corp.
promised the government to share with customers advance
information about upcoming new computer chips except in
rare circumstances, people familiar with the secret
consent decree said Tuesday. Customers can be denied
the advance information only if they have not paid Intel
as agreed or have asked a court to halt its manufacturing
of microprocessors, the sources said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
The settlement makes no mention of monopoly power the
Federal Trade Commission had accused Intel of holding
through its 85 percent share of the market for processors
running the world's personal computers, the sources said.
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By Mark Hachman
March 16, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Intel has developed software to identify
an overclocked and remarked Pentium III, giving
distributors the confidence to sell genuine Intel
microprocessors. The utility, available at http://support.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/,
asks Intel's Pentium III processor to compute a software
algorithm. The time in which the microprocessor computes
that algorithm is cross-referenced against the time a
processor of a known clock speed should perform that task
to determine if the chip is legitimately marked.
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March 16, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Phoenix Technologies Ltd. and Advanced
Micro Devices Inc. today said they plan to jointly
develop software and products for desktop and mobile
computers that use AMD's microprocessors, core logic,
peripherals and network interface card (NIC) functions. The
agreement expands an existing relationship, under which
San Jose-based Phoenix has directly supported AMD's ICs.
The two companies said the new pact will extend their
presence in the desktop and portable PC marketplace as
well as eventually provide software and products for
powerful servers and workstation systems based on AMD's
K7 microprocessors. Plans are also set to support
networking, telecommunications and industrial control
system designs based on AMD's semiconductor offerings.
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By Jason Carter
March 16, 1999
ZD Net UK
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Whilst Pentium III dominates Intel's
current marketing blitz, as always the chip giant has a
new processor in the works. Merced is the next big thing
from Intel... As with any other significant advance in
PC technology, the planned launch of Intel's next
generation processor, Merced, has caused huge amounts of
confusion among users. In this particular case rumour,
speculation and overzealous reporting have muddied the
waters to an almost unprecedented level of
misunderstanding.In a series of articles in this week
ZDNet will seek to clarify the Intel roadmap for Merced.
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By Stan Runyon
March 16, 1999
EE Times
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With the expected huge leap in Rambus
DRAM shipments next year, memory manufacturers are under
pressure to find new ways to test these gigabit-data-rate
chips. Schlumberger ATE says it has solved the problem
and is already shipping testers carrying the solution. Testers
in the company's RDX2200 series boast ±50-ps multisite
edge-placement accuracy, a 1-Gbit/second data rate and
new software that accommodates the RDRAM's requirements
for packet-data generation. Chris Mack, director of
product marketing at Schlumberger, said the testers were
the first to meet Rambus speed and accuracy specs across
eight sites.
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| The
Register Files |
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By Mike Magee
March 16, 1999
The Register
|
The question of Intel's Merced's future
has again come into focus as a senior executive from Sun
Microelectronics described it as a "failure". Harlan
McGhan, architecture marketing manager at Sun
Microelectronics in California, said: "Everybody's
agreed that Merced is already a failure. I'm not
expecting very much from Merced and it's a lot more
expensive than its x.86 chips."
McGhan was reacting to claims revealed here that Sun's
UltraSparc III is late.
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By Mike Magee
March 16, 1999
The Register
|
A reader who is a chip architect told us
today that finding processor serial numbers (PSNs) on .25
micron Pentium IIs is not necessarily easy. He
said:"The bus multiplier is in that same PIROM [as
the serial number] and while there is an interface to the
PIROM it isn't accessible without some fancy hardware
work. I can confirm your other source is correct [about
processor serial numbers being in .25 micron PIIs.]"
He added: The serial number and bus multiplier value
(among other things) is written into the PIROM after the
chip has been bonded out/packaged. The testing unit
determines what the speed of the processor is and then
writes the serial number information along with bus
multiplier into the PIROM. A simple mistake in the test
software would give the wrong value to the PIROM bit that
allows the serial number to be read by the CPU."
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By Mike Magee
March 16, 1999
The Register
|
Jonathan Hou at Fullon3D has posted an
interview with an AMD executive suggesting that its
Dresden fab won't reach full capacity until early next
year. That squares with our feelings but AMD is being
particularly tight-lipped about its plans of late, as it
seeks to supply the demand its K6-2s and K6-IIIs are
generating.
In particular, this AMD exec is very coy about chipset
and motherboard infrastructure. We know that towards the
end of this year, there will be motherboards supporting
both Alpha and K7 chips but were warned last week by
Robert Stead, European marketing director at AMD, that
there is less to this Alpha relationship than we thought.
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By Mike Magee
March 16, 1999
The Register
|
The UK advertising standards authority
(ASA) has upheld a complaint against Cyrix/IBM and its
re-seller Time Computer Systems, for claiming that a chip
that in reality clocks 233MHz is being sold as a 300MHz
part. In an adjudication delivered in its latest
monthly report, the ASA upheld a complaint from someone
who said that Time, a subsidiary of the Granville
Technology Group, had advertised a processor called the
IBM/Cyrix MII-300.
But when the complainant tested the chip, he or she
measured it at 233MHz and "objected to the the
impression that that the package contained a 300MHz
processor."
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| March 16, 1999 |
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By Robert Lemos
March 15, 1999
ZD Net News
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Intel Corp. plans to release new
software on Monday to help it fight 'remarkers' -- black
marketers who over-accelerate the company's flagship PC
chips, relabel them and sell them to unsuspecting
customers at a higher price. The new software, called
the Processor Frequency ID Utility, is available on
Intel's (Nasdaq:INTC) Web site and will help PC makers,
customers and law enforcement officials identify the
speed -- expressed in megahertz -- at which Intel's
(INTC) newest processor, the Pentium III, was sold. If
the chip was illegally modified, the software will detect
it and alert the consumer.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Stephen Shankland
March 15, 1999
C/Net
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Intel will debut its new Pentium III
Xeon chip Wednesday, and a torrent of new servers and
workstations will be unleashed along with it. Compaq,
IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, Silicon
Graphics, Sequent, and Data General all will show new
systems at the Intel rollout next week.
Xeon chips are souped-up versions of their more
ordinary Pentium brethren. Xeons have larger amounts of
the high-speed "cache" memory that satisfy the
information appetite of ever-faster processors, and that
cache runs just as fast as the chip itself. In ordinary
Pentium III chips, the cache runs at half the speed of
the CPU.
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By Will Wade
March 15, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Advanced Micro Devices denied
allegations Friday within a class-action lawsuit filed
last week that said 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, adding the company
intends to fight the charges.
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By John G. Spooner
March 15, 1999
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp. breathed a sigh of relief
last week after it reached a tentative settlement of its
antitrust case with the Federal Trade Commission. But
that doesn't mean the chip maker is out of the legal
woods yet. Although the agreement defuses most of the
charges the FTC filed against Intel last June, the
commission is not ending its investigation of Intel's
business practices. If it turns up evidence of additional
anti-competitive practices, it could file additional
charges.
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March 15, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
NEC Electronics, in Santa Clara, Calif.,
will being shipping samples of a new 800-MHz 128-megabit
DRAM device in April 1999. Targeted for manufacturers
of high-end workstation and desktop systems, the 800-MHz
Rambus technology offers 1.6 gigabytes per second of peak
bandwidth from a single device.
The company reports that the devices are slated to be
priced at $85 per unit, with volume production beginning
in July 1999.
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| The
Register Files |
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By Mike Magee
March 15, 1999
The Register
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Intel's re-marking utility it announced
today is likely a diversionary tactic, according to
sources close to the company. They referred us to the
problem with Pentium IIs having ID numbers as an example
of PR retro-engineering.
They also took the time out to point that the infamous
FDIV problem was only one of nearly 40 problems with the
Pentium (585) processor.
Intel has a poor record on re-marking.
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| Today's
Related Stories |
Intel
Tool Prevents CPU Fraud
Free software lets you know if
someone's tampered with a CPU.
By Andrew Brandt
March 15, 1999
PC World
|
In Intel's latest move to deter
fraudulent "remarkers" of its processors, the
company on Monday released a free software application
that can let you know if the chip you bought has been
tampered with. The software, which initially will work
only with the company's newest Pentium III generation of
processors, identifies hidden codes in the processor and
allows users to see if the chip they bought is actually
running at its rated speed.
If the chip is running faster than the rated speed,
and you didn't knowingly "overclock" the chip
yourself (which isn't illegal but voids the chip's
warranty), then you should alert the source of the chip
immediately and obtain a replacement or refund.
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By Michael Kanellos
March 15, 1999
C/Net
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Intel is stepping up its efforts to
combat chip "remarking"--or the practice of
fraudulently disguising slower chips so they can be sold
as newer, more expensive processors--although the changes
will make it more difficult for home users to goose the
speeds on their own chips through
"overclocking." The chip giant today posted a
free software utility to its Web site that, when
downloaded, will tell consumers both the actual speed of
their processor and the speed it was intended to run at
when it left the factories of Intel.
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| March 15, 1999 |
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By Brooke Crothers
March 12, 1999
C/Net
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Motorola has filed a lawsuit against
Intel claiming that the world's largest chip company is
depleting its PowerPC chip design center of engineers and
intellectual property. Motorola Semiconductor Products
Sector filed a lawsuit yesterday against Intel and a
former Motorola executive alleging "actual and
threatened misappropriation of trade secrets,"
according to the lawsuit.
"This is a concerted, predatory approach,
pirating away key designers and Motorola intellectual
property," said Ken Phillips, a Motorola
spokesperson in Austin, Texas.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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March 12, 1999
The Economist
|
MODERN computers are masters of
disguise. They have to be. For although technological
progress is good at making computer hardware quicker,
smaller and cheaper, it often leaves behind the software
that made the machines useful in the first place. Since
many people resent having to junk perfectly good programs
when they buy the latest computer, a host of tricks has
been developed over the past few years to stop software
becoming redundant. The idea is to get modern computers
to impersonate—or “emulate”—older
ones, providing the appropriate environment in which to
run old-fashioned software. |
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By Michael Kanellos
March 12, 1999
C/Net
|
Intel's upcoming 64-bit chips, already
beset by delays, most likely won't find an immediate home
in server vendors' product lineups. Intel's 64-bit chip
technology, which will initially be embodied in the
Merced and McKinley processors, may eventually come to
dominate the high-end server market but two of Intel's
staunchest supporters are reviving their own chip
architectures due to delays in the Intel chip.
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Marcia Savage
March 15, 1999
Computer Reseller News
|
Palm Springs, Calif. -- Intel Corp. is preparing to hit
the server market big
time next year with the introduction of its 64-bit Merced
processor.
At the Intel Developers Forum held here last month, the
company presented
an update on its ambitious plans for the high-end chip
market. Intel is
scheduled to produce Merced, the first chip in the
company's 64-bit
architecture, in mid-2000.
"Merced and the IA-64 [architecture] will extend our
reach in terms of
performance," said John Miner, vice president and
general manager of the
Intel Enterprise Server Group.
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By Brian Fuller and Mark Carroll
March 12, 1999
EE Times
|
Besieged from all sides, Advanced Micro
Devices Inc. this week warned of a 300-person layoff and
another major quarterly loss, and was quickly hammered by
a pair of investor lawsuits. The company traced its
difficulties to severe price competition on the low-cost
K6-2 family of CPUs and production problems with the
newly announced K6-III processor. AMD's strategy in the
X86 CPU market has always involved price competition, and
the company has historically suffered manufacturing
problems early in the life of a new product. But AMD
— which recently took the Draconian step of selling
its temple-like corporate headquarters here to investors
— may have problems that go much deeper, to the core
question of its ability to execute its strategy.
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By Jack Robertson
March 12, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Poseidon Technology Inc. plans to
introduce a memory interface that could put Advanced
Micro Devices Inc. into the PC-server market. Poseidon,
a former maker of Intel chipsets, is developing a
“simultaneous switched-matrix” chipset to
connect upto eight of AMD's forthcoming K7 processors.
The chipset, which is expected to reach the market later
this year, would allow AMD to take on archrival Intel
Corp. in the server market.
Rick Shriner, chief executive of Poseidon, claimed the
chipset would enable AMD to offer higher PC-server
performance than Intel's upgraded Pentium III Xeon. The
new Xeon, in a faster Carmel chipset, is also expected to
be introduced later this year. “The timing couldn't
be better,” Shriner said.
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By Dan Goodin
March 12, 1999
C/Net
|
The agreement to settle antitrust
charges against Intel may be finalized as early as July,
but it's not a done deal yet. Although legal experts
say there is a high probability the Federal Trade
Commission's four commissioners will approve the proposed
settlement, it still faces opposition from third parties,
such as Intel competitors.
Announced Monday, just one day before trial was to
start in FTC administrative court, the agreement would
resolve charges that Intel illegally coerced three
customers into signing over valuable intellectual
property rights.
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By Mark Hachman
March 12, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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While Intel Corp.'s eleventh-hour
agreement with the Federal Trade Commission should
resolve the central issues of its antitrust case,
evidence collected in pre-trial hearings could come back
to haunt the chip maker in its legal battle with
Intergraph Corp. Although details of the settlement
won't be disclosed for another week, sources said the
government's consent decree will merely restrict Intel's
behavior in dealing with its customers, forcing it to
treat legal disputes separately from its business
relationships. The decree, according to an FTC statement,
“would resolve the allegations contained in the ...
complaint.”
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| The
Register Files |
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By Mike Magee
March 12, 1999
The Register
|
Pentium II Xeons also have personal
serial numbers, a reader told The Register today. That
is in line with senior VP Pat Gelsinger's statement at
the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) two weeks ago.
He said in September last year that Intel would
proliferate the ID numbers on every chip, bar none.
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By Mike Magee
March 13, 1999
The Register
|
An architect who currently works for
Intel US has now confirmed what we were beginning to
suspect all along -- every .25 micron Intel chip has the
processor serial number (PSN). The chip designer, who
revealed the news under strict conditions of anyonymity,
said: "Any .25 micron core including the PII, all
Celerons and all current Xeons have had serialisation
ever since .25 micron technology started."
This means that Intel is and was shipping products
with the serialisation number switched off. The only
exception is the Tillamook P5 .25 micron parts, he said.
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By Mike Magee
March 12, 1999
The Register
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At an Intel lunch at its Intel Developer
Forum two weeks ago, Pat Gelsinger admitted he was the
brains behind shipping the Katmai-PIII with the ID number
switched on. We were interested in this PR disaster.
Sometimes, to outsiders like us, Intel seems like a
lumbering dinosaur where the brain doesn't know why the
tail is twitching.
We said, at the time, this was a PR gaffe, rather than
an error, per se.
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By Mike Magee
March 14, 1999
The Register
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Our latest revelation about the ID
number being embedded in all types of PII .25 micron
cores apart from Tillamook, this time came from a deep
throat, well inside the Intel Corporation. It appears
that the number is there because the Corporation was
concerned about people re-marking chips.
It became a feature because someone thought: "Hey
let's help out the cosmos and announce it along with the
Pentium III-Katmai. We won't bother switching it off this
time round, and won't the world think we're
wonderful."
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By Graham Lea
March 13, 1999
The Register
|
AMD is the recipient of a new
class-action complaint, filed yesterday in the District
Court for Northern California. AMD and its CEO, Jerry
Sanders, are charged with security law violations
following
projections for K6 demand that excited financial
analysts, and resulted in AMD shares rising from $17 on
22 October 1998 to $32 shortly afterwards. But on 13
January, when AMD disclosed that there were design and
production problems, the shares dropped to $22.50,
declining around 20 per cent overnight.
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By Mike Magee
March 13, 1999
The Register
|
We decided to scan in our Merced
pictures again so we could provide more detail for our
readers. Our original pictures, in their entirety, are
here: Merced -- those pictures.
The blow-ups will allow you to have a better idea of
the features of the cartridge.
At the same time, we managed to scan in the Merced
logo from the mug Intel gave us. We've a flatbed scanner
and so that is why this logo is a little wobbly. The sun
on the left of the mountains is a tad obscured.
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By Mike Magee
March 12, 1999
The Register
|
NatSemi made a loss of just over $27
million in its latest financial quarter and said it was
partly due to poor sales of its Cyrix chips. Turnover
fell to $550 million for the Q, compared to $600 million
in the same Q last year. On the other hand, AMD said
it will make a significant loss but if only it had loads
more fabs, it would probably turn in a profit.
Jerry Sanders III, the CEO of AMD, is famous for his
line: "Only real men have fabs."
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By Mike Magee
March 12, 1999
The Register
|
Japanese Web site Happy Cat is listing a
Cyrix 370-pin processor called the MXs which it says will
be available in early April. Specifically, it will be
released on the 6 April next.
No wonder Cyrix is keeping quiet about its product
plans. There's no point us asking Cyrix about any of
this, because this week has shown us it won't tell us...
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By Mike Magee
March 12, 1999
The Register
|
An ex-Intel employee has lost his case
at appeal that the company "injured his psyche"
during his employment with the company. Last year, the
Workers' Compensation Board in California found that
Hamidi had suffered "an industrial injury to his
psyche", resulting in temporary disability.
But Intel appealed the finding and now the Appeals
Board has found in its favour. Intel claimed that Hamidi
had engaged in "a pattern of deliberate
mis-representation and fraudulent efforts".
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| Today's
Related Stories |
Intel
sued by Motorola
Case challenges Santa Clara firm's
attempts to hire away chip engineers
By Tom Quinlan
March 13, 1999
San Jose Mercury News
|
Motorola Inc. has sued Intel Corp. over
the Santa Clara company's efforts to hire its top chip
engineers, publicizing a dispute that reportedly would
have figured in the government's antitrust case against
Intel. The suit, filed Thursday in a Texas state court,
asks that Intel be forbidden to use ex-Motorola engineers
in areas where they could reveal information Motorola
considers sensitive. It says Intel has hired at least 15
engineers away from Motorola's chip design center in
Austin for Intel's own local facility -- and identifies
former Motorola employee Mark McDermott, head of the
Intel center, as the chief recruiter.
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By Reuters
March 13, 1999
SiliconValley.com
|
Motorola Inc., a leading
telecommunications equipment and semiconductor maker, has
filed a lawsuit against one of its former executives and
Intel Corp., No. 1 in the chip industry, for allegedly
misappropriating trade secrets, Motorola said Friday. The
lawsuit, filed Thursday in a Texas state district court
in Austin by Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector,
charges that Intel gained vital trade secrets by hiring
Mark McDermott and 15 other former employees who worked
at Motorola's Somerset Design Center.
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By J. Robert Lineback and Will Wade
March 12, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
Motorola Inc. here said it has filed a
lawsuit against Intel Corp., accusing its rival and a
recently hired Intel manager of trying to obtain trade
secrets by employing Motorola chip designers. The
suit, filed here in state court here on Thursday, accuses
Intel of trying to get trade secrets by hiring Motorola
executive Mark McDermott and 15 other employees since
September to work at a new IC design center in Austin.
Motorola's suit says these employees have sensitive
information about its chip technology.
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By Clare Haney
March 12, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
|
Motorola reportedly filed suit against
Intel late Thursday over the alleged misappropriation of
trade secrets following the hiring of former Motorola
employees by Intel. According to a report in Friday's
Wall Street Journal, Motorola alleged in a suit filed in
the State District Court in Austin, Texas, that Intel
gained access to Motorola trade secrets following the
hiring of Mark McDermott and 15 other ex-Motorola staff.
McDermott was previously the director of Motorola's
Somerset Design Center in Austin, which designs PowerPC
chips.
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By John G. Spooner
March 12, 1999
PC Week Online
|
Fresh from dodging the Federal Trade
Commission's legal bullet, Intel Corp. is now the target
of another lawsuit, this one filed by Motorola Corp. On
Thursday, Motorola filed suit in Travis County District
Court in Austin, Texas, charging that Intel attempted to
obtain Motorola's semiconductor trade secrets by hiring
its employees.
The incident, according to Motorola's suit, began when
Intel hired Mark McDermott, the former director of a
Motorola PowerPC chip design center in Austin. The suit
alleges that McDermott conspired with Intel to hire 15
more Motorola employees to work at a new Intel chip
design center, also in Austin.
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