| May 7, 1999 |
|
By Michael Kanellos
May 6, 1999
C/Net
|
Advanced Micro Devices is planning on
challenging Intel in the server and workstation market
next year with chip packaging and bus technology that
will allow computer makers to build multiprocessor
systems featuring its top-of-the-line K7. AMD is
currently working on an interface for the K7 processor
called "Slot B" that will be the cornerstone of
a multiprocessor push, according to sources close to AMD.
With Slot B packaging, the K7 processor will be
mechanically--although not electrically--compatible with
Intel's Xeon processors, a similarity that could diminish
the burden of designing K7-based systems.
|
|
|
By Brooke Crothers
May 6, 1999
C/Net
|
Intel has invested $15 million in a
leading chip equipment maker as it eyes future
generations of super-fast processors. Intel and
Silicon Valley Group (SVG) announced today that Intel has
made a $15 million equity investment in the supplier of
equipment for processing wafers. The wafer is a basic
building block of a microprocessor: The circuit
components of a chip are etched on the wafer.
In addition to the capital investment, the two
companies will collaborate on the development of
next-generation chip making technology used for
manufacturing future Intel microprocessors.
|
|
| May 6, 1999 |
|
By Reuters
May 5, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
National Semiconductor on Wednesday said
it will exit the PC processor business, and, as a
consequence, cut 550 jobs and take up to $300 million in
charges as it focuses on chips for new smart devices. "We
will immediately cease slugging it out in the PC
processor market,which has been dragging down our
financial performance for several quarters," said
Brian Halla, chairman, president, and CEO of National, in
a statement. "By contrast, the information appliance
market is now on the launch pad."
|
See Today's Special Coverage: Cyrix
Exiting PC Processor Market |
|
May 5, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
VIA Technologies Inc. here reported net
income of $10 million (325.3 million NT dollars) in the
first quarter ended March 31, up from $9.4 million for
the similar period a year ago. Sales for the quarter
totaled $52.4 million, up 35% from $38.8 million for the
same three months of 1998.
Sales for the core logic chip set maker until now have
predominately been for Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s
microprocessors for the sub-$1,000 PC market. The
Taiwanese company is slated soon to enter the market with
its first chip set for Intel Corp.'s Pentium and Celeron
processors after getting a license from Intel last year.
Future sales can be significantly boosted, depending on
how fast VIA can ramp up production of chip sets for the
Intel processors.
|
|
|
May 5, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
VIA Technologies reported net income of
$10 million in the first quarter ended March 31, up from
$9.4 million for the similar period a year ago. Sales
for the quarter totaled $52.4 million, up 27 percent from
$38.8 million for the same three months of 1998.
Sales for the core-logic chip set maker, until now,
have predominately been for Advanced Micro Devices'
microprocessors for the sub-$1,000 PC market. The
Taiwanese company is slated soon to enter the market with
its first chip set for Intel's Pentium and Celeron
processors after getting a license from Intel last year.
Future sales can be significantly boosted, depending on
how fast VIA can ramp up production of chip sets for the
Intel processors.
|
|
|
Newhouse News Service
May 5, 1999
SiliconValley.com
|
Chip-makers trample all over each other
to be first to adopt new technologies and cut costs --
with one big exception. No company wants to be first to
mass-produce circuits from the next-generation,
pizza-size silicon disks, though everyone agrees a shift
to the new manufacturing method is inevitable.
After years of delays and posturing, suppliers are
gossiping that Intel Corp.'s manufacturing team in Oregon
is poised to emerge as a pioneer. Intel executives, for
their part, remain publicly noncommittal.
|
|
| Special Coverage: Cyrix Exiting PC
Processor Market |
|
By Brooke Crothers and Michael Kanellos
May 5, 1999
C/Net
|
Burdened with financial losses and
declining prices, National Semiconductor will exit the PC
chip business and lay off more than 500 people in the
process. The announcement does not mean that National
is getting out of the chip market altogether, as it will
still make processors for so-called embedded devices such
as TV set-top boxes. National said it will "focus on
the emerging information-appliance market and on its
traditional analog [chip] business."
The relentless price war in the PC processor arena
largely led to National Semiconductor's retreat in its
Cyrix line of chips. The company bought Cyrix in July of
1997 with the hopes of becoming a force in the
microprocessor market for personal computers. Processor
pricing, however, was just beginning its steep decline,
and Cyrix became a drag on National's balance sheet.
|
|
|
By Eric C. Fleming
May 5, 1999
PC Week Online
|
After less than two years, National
Semiconductor Corp. is divesting itself of Cyrix Corp. National,
of Santa Clara, Calif., bought Cyrix in July of 1997 for
$550 million to complete its vision of a "system on
a chip," where a processor performs the functions of
several separate components.
National said Wednesday that it plans to exit the PC
chip market by selling its fabrication plant in Maine and
letting go 550 employees.
|
|
|
By Michael Kanellos and Stephanie Miles
May 5, 1999
C/Net
|
Higher-priced PCs, trouble for AMD, and
even the return of IBM to the PC-processor market are
some of the potential ripple effects that could occur in
the wake of the decision by National Semiconductor to
dump its Cyrix microprocessor division. Although
National holds a relatively small market share in
processors, the effect of the decision will likely be
important because of its singular personality in the
marketplace. Cyrix is one of the leaders in providing
processors to sub-$500 computers. Without Cyrix, whose
processors cost less than those from AMD or Intel, those
PC prices could rise.
|
|
|
By Robert Lemos
May 5, 1999
ZD Net News
|
Despite its announced departure from the
PC market, chip maker National Semiconductor Corp.
stressed that it will continue to fill all its
commitments to PC makers who use its Cyrix Corp.
subsidiary's MII processor. In fact, as the
disposition of Cyrix's technology and design teams are
debated over the next three to six months, the company
hopes to garner more business.
"It is pretty much business as usual for the PC
part of the Cyrix business," said Steve Tobak, vice
president of marketing for National (NSM). "I don't
expect there to be any sales falloff. If there are new
orders, we'll take them."
|
|
|
May 5, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
National Semiconductor Corp. here today
announced a major restructuring of its business that will
eliminate its PC processor business and increase the
company's use of outside silicon foundries for
leading-edge products. As part of the restructuring,
National plans to sell off a majority interest in its
0.18-micron wafer fab in South Portland, Maine. The
company will also eliminate 550 jobs, which it said is
less than 5% of its worldwide workforce.
|
|
|
By Marcia Savage
May 5, 1999
Computer Reseller News
|
National Semiconductor Corp. will pull
out of the PC processor business in order to focus on the
information appliance market and its analog business, the
company said Wednesday. The company, based here, said
it will cut 550 jobs and sell a majority interest in its
fabrication plant in South Portland, Maine.
National bought Cyrix Corp. in July 1997 for $550
million. A National spokesman said the company will be
looking for a buyer for its PC processor business, but
that Cyrix's plans to develop its MII chip line for
low-priced PCs remain unchanged.
|
|
|
Associated Press
May 5, 1999
SiliconValley.com
|
Facing declining sales, National
Semiconductor Corp. plans to eliminate 550 jobs and stop
developing technology for sub-$1,000 personal computers
business. The decision came less than two years after
National bought Richardson, Texas-based Cyrix Corp. for
about $550 million to build microprocessors for low-cost
PCs.
Since then, a highly competitive market, including
Intel and AMD, coupled with widespread drops in low-cost
computers, has been tough for National's balance sheet.
|
|
|
By Mark Hachman
May 5, 1999
Electronic Buyer's News
|
National Semiconductor Corp. said today
it would exit the PC microprocessor business, sell its
South Portland, Maine-based fab, and transfer the bulk of
its manufacturing to outside foundries. The move will
result in the elimination of approximately 550 jobs and a
one-time charge of $250 million to $300 million in the
current fourth fiscal quarter ending May 30.
However, the decision could increase the company's
quarterly gross-profit margin to about 50% a year from
now, National executives said. In the most recent
quarter, National's gross-profit margin was 31%.
|
|
|
By Mary Lisbeth D'Amico
May 5, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
|
Pointing to the financial beating it has
taken over the past few quarters, National Semiconductor
on Wednesday said it is getting out of the PC processor
business. The company said in a statement that it will
quit manufacturing PC-socket-compatible microprocessors,
but will keep and further develop its integrated
processor line.
Its PC processor line included two separate lines of
Intel-compatible x86 processors, one of which it acquired
when it bought chip maker Cyrix in November 1997. The
integrated processor line that it will keep includes
Cyrix's MediaGX multifunction graphics chip -- used in
set-top boxes, thin clients, thin servers, and portable
Web devices -- as well as systems on a chip, which
integrate all components of computer systems on one piece
of silicon. The latter, still under development, will
include graphics, video, and communications functions,
National Semiconductor said.
|
|
| The Register Files |
|
By Mike Magee
May 5, 1999
The Register
|
Sources at Hewlett-Packard today
confirmed that it will skip supplying Merced to its
customers and instead move directly to the McKinley
platform, when that is released. When HP launched its
upward-compatible version of its N Series a few weeks
back, which includes a chipset for the IA-64 platform, it
also said it would continue creating future versions of
its PA Risc chip platform (see HP to debut Merced box).
Now an informed source has confirmed that it will not
introduce Merced, even as an evalutation platform for its
customers.
|
|
|
By Peter Sherriff
May 5, 1999
The Register
|
Through the mists of time comes swimming
a whole bunch of new Intel codenames for Xeon, Foster and
Merced systems. For low end servers in late Q3, expect
to see the single processor Mimosa and dual CPU Pine and
Hemlock boards using 133MHz FSB and the 820 chipset.
Higher up the scale come the Willow 2-way and the Koa
4-way, both using the 840 chipset.
|
|
|
By Peter Sherriff
May 5, 1999
The Register
|
Those awfully nice people at Intel have
decided what we all should be doing with our hard-earned
cash in a coupla years’ time. And, surprise
surprise, it involves handing over loads of cash for
shiny new IA64 systems.
Despite HP’s ‘McKinley or die’
approach, Merced still looms large in Chipzilla’s
own road maps. In the middle of next year, Intel aims to
supply 8-way Merced servers at a price tag of around $17K
– or at least it aims for OEMs to supply them.
|
|
| May 5, 1999 |
|
By Lisa Di Carlo
May 4, 1999
PC Week Online
|
After less than two years, National
Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:NSM) will announce tomorrow
that it is divesting itself of Cyrix Corp., sources said.
National has an early morning conference call scheduled
for financial analysts to discuss the move. It is not
known if National has a buyer for Cyrix. National, of
Santa Clara, Calif., bought Cyrix in July of 1997 for
$550 million, to complete its vision of "system on a
chip," where a processor performs the functions of
several separate components. |
|
|
By Reuters
May 4, 1999
SiliconValley.com
|
National Semiconductor Corp., a maker of
diverse computer chips, said it will host a conference
call with analysts Wednesday morning, amid rumors that it
is looking at selling off parts of its Cyrix business. The
company said it will issue a press release at 745 EDT, to
be followed by a conference call with analysts at 830
EDT.
``We are calling it a Q4 financial update,'' said a
spokesman for National, which is based in Santa Clara,
Calif. National's fourth quarter ends May 31 and it is
expected to report fourth quarter earnings on June 11.
|
|
|
By Leander Kahney
May 4, 1999
Wired
|
Via Technologies got a surprise package
in the mail last week from a potential business partner
-— court documents that were labeled
"Intel" inside. Intel had been negotiating a
deal to cross license technologies with the Taiwanese
chipmaker, and filed a suit in US District Court
accidentally, according to Intel officials.
The lawsuit was a "draft," prepared as a
contingency in case talks broke down. It was meant to sit
in the files until needed.
|
|
| The Register Files |
|
By Mike Magee
May 4, 1999
The Register
|
An article posted on The Register last
weekend has highlighted the hype mill in the industry
over future K7 performance. After we posted
comparisons between the K7/500 and the Pentium III,
allegedly from an Acer engineer, we contacted AMD for
clarification on performance.
Our story drew an unprecedented number of readers but
many cast doubt on the veracity of the figures.
|
|
| May 4, 1999 |
|
By Jack Robertson
May 3, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
Intel Corp. today confirmed that it has
dropped a lawsuit "filed by mistake" against PC
logic chip-set supplier Via Technologies Inc. of Taiwan.
An Intel spokesman said the two companies had been
negotiating to resolve a dispute over Via Technologies'
use of a license to build Slot 1 x86-compatible chip sets
when an outside counsel filed the suit in error. The
Intel spokesman said the law suit was being held in
abeyance as a contingency, but should not have been filed
last week. He declined to say whether the suit might be
refiled in the future.
|
|
|
By Dr. Sabine Cianciolo, Andreas Stiller
Volume 5, 1999
c't Magazine
|
While Intel only presented Pentium III
and AMD only had a few new K7 features on show at the
International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in
San Francisco, others like Toshiba, Sony and IBM put
themselves in the limelight. However, the virtual Golden
Bear was awarded to a company from the outbacks of
techno-land: Elbrus in Moscow. Until now, PC industry
has been the driving force in the development of CPUs,
memory chips and similar components. According to ISSCC
experts, however, consumer electronics and networking
requirements are becoming more and more important.
|
|
|
May 3, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
Intel Corp. today announced a new
stacked chip-scale package (CSP) that vertically mounts
flash memory and SRAM onto a single package. Intel
Stacked-CSP combines with Intel Flash Data Integrator
(FDI) software, which integrates the functions of EEPROM,
integrates the functionality of flash memory, EEPROM. and
SRAM.
|
|
|
By Tom Quinlan
May 3, 1999
San Jose Mercury News
|
Perhaps the oddest portion of the 1997
legal settlement between Intel Corp. and Digital
Equipment Corp. was Intel's acquisition of the StrongArm
processor design. Odd because it didn't seem that Intel
-- creator of the most successful microprocessors in
history -- would have much use for a microprocessor it
didn't design. Today, however, Intel will unveil a
revamped StrongArm, putting the low-powered chip at the
forefront of the Santa Clara chip company's plans for the
digital appliance market. And what Intel isn't saying
about StrongArm could be even more significant.
|
|
|
By Jim Davis
May 3, 1999
C/Net
|
Intel, again showing it is taking the
market for non-PC devices seriously, is cranking up
600-MHz processors for handheld computers and other
devices. At the same time, SGI spinoff MIPS
Technologies today detailed development plans for its
competing processor technologies.
Intel announced plans today for a StrongARM line of
chips that would enable handheld computers, Internet
access devices such as TV set-top boxes, and other
devices to process data at up to 600 MHz while consuming
very little power: less than half a watt. The upcoming
StrongARMs, which are expected to ship in limited
quantities by 2000, can also be incorporated in
networking equipment.
|
|
|
By Mark Hachman and Sandy Chen
May 3, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Intel has released its April pricing
road map to OEMs, which gives the first specifications of
the new Coppermine or Pentium III microprocessor with
integrated cache. As Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel
moves to its 0.18-micron manufacturing process, the
company will integrate greater amounts of on-chip cache
on its mainstream microprocessors, as it already does on
its Celeron chips for low-cost PCs. The smaller die size
of the processor core will allow Intel to integrate a
total of 256 kilobytes of cache directly onto the Pentium
III and Pentium III Xeon processors designed for desktop
PCs, as well as workstations and servers.
|
|
| The Register Files |
|
By Mike Magee
May 3, 1999
The Register
|
Chip giant Intel has taken legal action
against chipset manufacturer and chief rival Via
Technologies. The federal action was filed against the
Taiwanese company in the US on the 28th of April last.
At the same time, Motorola and Intel appear to have
settled their differences, following an allegation that
the latter had stolen trade secrets from Motorola. (See
original story: Motorola legals Intel)
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
May 3, 1999
The Register
|
Despite getting heckled by an
octegenarian, ceding control of day to day issues to Atiq
Raza, and appointing Bob "walk in closet"
Palmer to the board, Jerry Sanders III, CEO of AMD
remains upbeat about his company's future. So much so,
that Sanders wheeled out his famous gorilla slides again.
He is fond of describing Intel as a gorilla.
In terms of scaleability, a word US computer firms use
over and over again, if Intel is a gorilla, then AMD is
not even a chimp.
|
|
| May 3, 1999 |
|
By Peter Sherriff
April 30, 1999
The Register
|
Reuters in the US reports that the Intel
Pentium III serial number fiasco refuses to lie down and
die. A hitherto-unknown Canadian software house,
Montreal-based Zero-Knowledge Systems, has placed a
program on the web that it claims can switch on the
serial number and read it without the user knowing. Intel
has persuaded long-term buddy Symantec to include the
utility on its list of known viruses.
And a good thing too, we say. What exactly are these
people afraid of? The serial number cannot be used to
identify an individual, it can't even identify a
particular system.
|
|
|
By Dan Goodin
April 30, 1999
C/Net
|
Motorola has settled a lawsuit accusing
Intel of illegally hiring away employees from the
Motorola division responsible for the PowerPC
microprocessor, the two companies announced today. Terms
of the settlement were not disclosed. The companies said
they expect the lawsuit, which was filed in Texas state
court in Austin, to be dismissed within the next two
weeks.
Motorola sued Intel in March, alleging that Intel
violated laws against trade-secret misappropriation when
it hired about 15 PowerPC designers away from Motorola.
Motorola sought a court order forbidding the engineers
from taking positions in Intel where Motorola trade
secrets would be used.
|
See
Today's Related Stories |
|
By Mark Hachman and Sandy Chen
April 30, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Intel Corp. has released its April
pricing roadmap to OEMs, which gives the
firstspecifications of the new Coppermine or Pentium III
microprocessor with integrated cache. As Intel moves to
its 0.18-micron manufacturing process, the company will
integrate greater amounts of on-chip cache on its
mainstream microprocessors, as it already does on its
Celeron chips for low-cost PCs. The smaller die size of
the processor core will allow Intel to integrate a total
of 256 kilobytes of cache directly onto the Pentium III
and Pentium III Xeon processors designed for desktop PCs,
as well as workstations and servers.
|
|
|
By Reuters
April 30, 1999
C/Net
|
Advanced Micro Devices, perennial No. 2
finisher to computer chip giant Intel, took steps to
assuage angry shareholders at its annual meeting
yesterday but resisted calls to fire its CEO. Executives
at the Sunnyvale, California-company faced withering
criticism for a three-year slump in AMD's stock price,
frequent financial disappointments, lack of board
diversity, and refusal of AMD founder Jerry Sanders to
step aside as chief executive.
In his remarks to shareholders, Sanders said he hoped
in the next decade to give investors "more thrills,
less spills" than in his first 30 years of running
AMD.
|
|
|
By Reuters
April 30, 1999
C/Net
|
No. 2 computer chipmaker Advanced Micro
Devices said today it named Richard Previte vice chairman
and S. Atiq Raza president and chief operating officer, a
day after shareholders lambasted company officials at the
annual meeting. AMD also said that it named Robert
Palmer, the former chief of Digital Equipment, to its
board of directors, as previously reported.
At the annual meeting in New York yesterday,
shareholders were sharply critical over a long slump in
its stock price, financial disappointments, and the
refusal of founder Jerry Sanders to step aside as chief
executive.
|
See
Today's Related Stories |
|
By Will Wade
April 30, 1999
EE Times
|
More than 20 memory-industry players
have joined an effort to promote double-data-rate (DDR)
DRAMs. The new body, Advanced Memory International Inc.,
grew out of the remains of SLDRAM Inc., which quietly
slipped from the limelight this year after trying to
promote the SLDRAM format. Desi Rhoden, president of
the new body, said that while AMI2 is not technically an
offshoot of SLDRAM Inc., it has adopted its predecessor's
bylaws and functional framework. "The purpose of
AMI2 is to promote the development of the infrastructure
to support the next level of DRAM technology," he
said.
|
See
Today's Related Stories |
|
By Jack Robertson
April 30, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
As expected, a group of 20 companies
today launched Advanced Memory International Inc. (AMI2)
to help the industry develop a next-generation Double
Data Rate-2 synchronous DRAM standard. AMI2 will be
headquartered in Santa Clara. AMI2 is a reincarnation
of the former SLDRAM consortium. As reported earlier this
week by SBN, Desi Rhoden is heading the group as
president and CEO. "AMI2 will have a symbiotic
relationship and work closely with the memory
standards-setting efforts of JEDEC," Rhoden said.
"Industry response has been phenomenal given only
the limited communication to date," he added.
|
|
| The Register Files |
|
By Peter Sherriff
April 30, 1999
The Register
|
It's the same old story: Chipzilla shows a new
fastest-ever CPU to a bunch of analysts or
developers and a few weeks later, AMD cobbles together
something using 20 gallons of
liquid nitrogen and 5Kw of fans (and sacrifices a couple
of virgins to be on the safe side) in
a bid to match Intel’s performance.
This fixation with raw MHz is as meaningless as the MIP
rating beloved of old mainframers,
yet both Chipzilla and the Great Satan of Taperecorders
persist in playing the "mine’s
bigger than yours" game. |
|
|
By Mike Magee
May 2, 1999
The Register
|
A hardware research engineer from Acer
who does not wish to be named, has provided The Register
with some comparative tests between the AMD K7 and the
Pentium III. NB: We're not quite sure why, but the
benchmarks did not appear in this story when first
posted. Apologies for that. They're now included.
Oh, and BTW, we haven't tested these configurations.
The info was supplied by the reader mentioned above. So
please don't bombard us with hate mails or love mails --
you're always welcome to post your thoughts on our
Message Forum.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
April 28, 1999
The Register
|
Impeccable sources at Intel have
described AMD's floating point (FP) performance as
disappointing. Last week, an engineer at AMD told us
that a K7-500MHz scores an FPU Winmark of 2767, compared
to a Winmark of 2562 for a Pentium III/500. (See story)
That is if these figures are true.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
April 28, 1999
The Register
|
Sources close to Intel's plans have told
The Register that for a period of time .25 micron Katmai
was cancelled. But Intel resuscitated the beast
because of the ominous threat of the K6-III, the
well-informed source said today.
"Time to market rules at Intel, always," the
source said. "Coppermine with more L2 cache is a
further attempt to kill the K6-III and prepare for the
introduction of the K7."
|
|
|
By Peter Sherriff
April 28, 1999
The Register
|
The new Pentium III is hot stuff. And
that's for sure. Early reports from OEMs sampling
Intel's stopgap 550MHz Pentium III (see Camino cockup
panics Chipzilla) indicate that there are serious thermal
issues with the new top-end desktop chip due for launch
on May 16.
"We've cooked several already," said one
assembler who asked not to be named.
Readers will recall that Intel introduced the new
SECC2 package for the PIII in a bid to avoid the need for
active heatsinks (fans to you and I).
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
May 1, 1999
The Register
|
Microprocessor Report analyst Peter
Glaskowsky sent us this email, which may be useful to
readers. (See story Direct Rambus shows no gains over
current memory technology). Glaskowsky writes:-
This paper is not relevant to the PC market for the
following reasons:
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
April 30, 1999
The Register
|
A simple mistake by the PR company which
represents AMD in Europe has led to enraged journalists
wondering why a press release was issued by Mike Magee. The
press release, which was something to do with home
networking, was sent to several hundred journalists in
the UK and Europe but with the email address of The
Register's Mike Magee in the FROM field.
Peter Kirwan, until recently the editor of influential
British computing newspaper Computing emailed Magee,
saying: "Mike, I didn't realise you'd gone into
PR."
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
April 30, 1999
The Register
|
The outraged managing partner of a high
powered American Internet law firm has emailed The
Register to say that he was absolutely incensed at the
shabby treatment we have received at the hands of AMD's
European press relations company, PBA, and has offered to
look into and prosecute the matter for us without charge.
(Story: AMD spams Mike Magee)
Robert Helmer, a managing partner of a law firm based
in St Louis, thinks we have a case and says the charges
could be "intentional, negligent, reckless, and
wanton disregard of the truth leading to damage to Mike
Magee's reputation as a serious journalist".
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
April 28, 1999
The Register
|
Isonics Corporation, which has a licence
with Yale University to intellectuall property rights for
isotopically-pure silicon-28, said it has shipped wafer
samples to AMD. According to Isonics, AMD will test
the performance of wafers using the technology on device
performance, evaluation of overall chip yield and speed
sorting, comparing that to ordinary silicon epitaxial
wafers.
Lab tests by Isonics show that silicon-28 has a 50 per
cent higher thermal conductivity than natural silicon.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
April 30, 1999
The Register
|
AMD has decided to elect Robert Palmer,
ex CEO of Digital before Compaq took it over, to its
board of directors. The company held its annual
general meeting yesterday.
As predicted here, Jerry Sanders III will now take a
back seat to Atiq Raza, who becomes president and chief
operating officer of the company.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
April 30, 1999
The Register
|
Sources extremely close to Intel's plans
at Compaq said that engineers have until May 27th to tape
out the piece. Said the insider: "Many a false
deadline has come and gone but a May 27 Merced tapeout
has been chiselled in stone or etched in silicon at
Intel."
The Compaq insider, who does not wish to be named,
said: "If this date is not met, heads will
roll."
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
April 28, 1999
The Register
|
Reliable sources said yesterday that a
future Intel IA-64 chip called Northwood would hit
3000MHz at its release. At the same time, it emerged
that McKinley is likely to launch using P858 aluminium
technology.
The source who requested anonymity, works at Intel's
R&D centre in Israel. He said that all generations of
microprocessors following Deschutes are developed in
pairs: Katmai-Tanner, Coppermine-Cascades and
Willamette-Foster.
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
April 30, 1999
The Register
|
Chip manufacturer Cyrix has posted an
interesting presentation it made at the WinHEC conference
at the beginning of the month. Thanks to JC for
pointing us to the PDF file here.
The presentation contains clear diagrams which show
the layout of typical frontside and traditional
"backside" (ahem) architecture.
|
|
|
By Peter Sherriff
April 30, 1999
The Register
|
The Pentium Xeon platform is to overtake
PIII in the performance stakes for the first time. The
high-end, high-priced Pentium III Xeon will overtake its
little brother in MHz terms in September. The two ranges
have always matched each other evenly since the launch of
the original Pentium II Xeon last year, but now the Slot
2 chip is set to carry the performance banner alone.
And if early reports from Intel insiders are to be
believed, Coppermine is yielding so well that it could
conceivably launch at 733MHz. (See story: Coppermine
could finish AMD off for good)
|
|
|
By Mike Magee
May 2, 1999
The Register
|
SiS (Silicon integrated Systems) has
announced the next generation of its graphics and video
accelerator technology, the SiS 300. According to the
Taiwanese company, the SiS 300 will deliver five times
performance for 3D and acceleration, using 128-bit
technology.
The chipset will also support DirectX 6, built in DVD
and AGP 2x/4x support, SiS claimed. It said it is the
only mainstream 3D graphics accelerator to provide 64Mb
local frame buffer memory support through a 128 bit
memory interface.
|
|
| Today's
Related Stories |
|
By David Lammers
April 30, 1999
EE Times
|
Motorola Inc.'s semiconductor products
sector and Intel Corp. announced an agreement to settle a
lawsuit Motorola had filed which claimed that Intel was
hiring away Motorola microprocessor design engineers. The
settlement is expected to be finalized within two weeks,
and both parties expressed "satisfaction" with
the settlement. A hearing on the lawsuit had been
scheduled for June 1 in an Austin district court. The
suit claimed that Intel was acquiring Motorola's trade
secrets by hiring key design engineers.
|
|
|
April 30, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
S. Atiq Raza has been elected president
and chief operating officer of Advanced Micro Devices,
and Richard Previte has been elected vice chairman of the
board of directors, said AMD Friday. In addition,
Robert Palmer, former chairman and CEO of Digital
Equipment, has been elected to the company's board. The
actions took place Thursday at a board meeting held in
conjunction with the annual meeting in New York.
|
|
|
By Marcia Savage
April 30, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
|
DRAM suppliers and associated vendors
have joined forces to step up adoption of Double
Data-Rate SDRAM, an alternative new memory technology to
Direct Rambus DRAM. The new group, Advanced Memory
International Inc. (AMI2), was unveiled Friday. The group
will work to create the infrastructure for DDR by
facilitating the development of memory modules, chipsets,
test equipment and other support devices.
DDR essentially doubles the rate of data transfer from
a DRAM chip to the main processor and is scalable with
the current generation of SDRAM.
|
|
