| May 14, 1999 |
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By Mark Hachman
May 13, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Advanced Micro Devices is sampling a
500-MHz version ofits K6-2 microprocessor, which will
ship in the third quarter,a spokeswoman for the chip
maker confirmed. Some distributors have already begun
promoting the new chip on their websites, labeled as
"coming soon." One, Lynn Computer Products, has
advertised the 500-MHz part at $439, which the North
Lauderdale,
Fla.-based distributor said is a tentative price. A
475-MHz K6-2 is being offered at $169, and should be
available in a few days, the company said.
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By Brooke Crothers
May 13, 1999
C/Net
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A small, struggling processor startup is
aiming to release the first clone of a Pentium II-class
chip in the second half of the year, amid a ravaging
price war. Rise Technology, which currently makes a
line of PC processors similar to the Pentium MMX, hopes
to bring out a chip that will utilize the same packaging
as Intel's low-cost Celeron chip, which comes from the
Pentium II generation.
The company is also hiring a number of employees and
is seeking additional financing, according to David Lin,
Rise CEO.
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By Sandy Chen and Mark Hachman
May 13, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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National Semiconductor Corp. is holding
discussions to sell all or part of its 8-inch wafer fab
in South Portland, Maine, to Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Co. Ltd., according to Y.C. Huang, vice
president of TSMC. A spokeswoman for National in Santa
Clara, Calif., confirmed the talks, but said National is
also in discussions with several other companies.
The South Portland fab, which is moving from
0.25-micron to 0.18-micron process technology, has been
the key production site for National's Cyrix
microprocessors. National announced its intent to sell
off a majority stake in the fab as part of its decision
announced last week to exit the PC microprocessor
business (see May 5 story).
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May 13, 1999
Electronic News
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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
said it is not in negotiations with National
Semiconductor to buy National's South Portland. Me. fab.
TSMC spokesperson Chuck Byers confirmed that the foundry
giant had visited the National facility, however, he said
that reports of talks were not true. National said last
week that it was in talks to sell a majority stake in its
South Portland, Maine, plant. According to a National
executive, the company has numerous suitors for the fab.
TSMC's Byers acknowledged that the fab contained capital
equipment compatible with TSMC's fab gear. |
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By Marcia Savage
May 13, 1999
Computer Reseller News
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Intel next week plans to make another
round of price cuts and introduce a faster version of its
Pentium III chip for desktop PCs, sources said. The
chip giant is expected Sunday to slash prices of its
Pentium III processors and continue to cut prices of
Pentium II chips.
Sources close to Intel's plans said the 500-MHz
Pentium III will drop to $483 from $637 and the 450-MHz
Pentium II will drop to $273 from $411, in volume
quantities.
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| The Register Files |
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By Mike Magee
May 13, 1999
The Register
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Just a few months after the US Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) effectively shut the door on an
investigation into alleged anti-trust activities, it now
seems perhaps that decision was a trifle premature. IDT
said a few days ago that it would need outside financing
to prop up its ailing x.86 project, and Cyrix said it
would get out of the discrete x.86 chip business and was
looking for a buyer.
Meanwhile AMD's CEO, Jerry Sanders, in announcing his
poor financial results, noted that was in large part due
to extremely aggressive pricing strategies from Intel.
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By Mike Magee
May 13, 1999
The Register
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Paul Otellini, general manager of
Intel's architecture business group, paid a whistle-stop
visit to London today and outlined the company's business
strategy. He also mentioned a new product which comes
out next week which we're not allowed to talk about. So
go here to find out about the 550MHz Pentium III.
Otellini said: "Two years ago, we realised how
important the Internet would be. We were looking for the
new killer application. It appeared underneath us and it
was the Internet."
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| May 13, 1999 |
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By Alex Wolfe
May 10, 1999
Byte Magazine
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This is the second installment of a
series of Byte.com columns that will explore the inner
workings of Intel's new IA-64 architecture -- officially
dubbed EPIC (for explicitly parallel instruction
computing) -- and its first incarnation, the Merced
microprocessor. Don't take Intel too seriously when it
says the transition from today's 32-bit Pentium
architecture to the upcoming 64-bit Merced is going to be
an easy one. For starters, two big issues immediately
spring to mind. First, there's the guessing game of when
Merced will actually be available.
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By Michael Slater
May 10, 1999
Microprocessor Report
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Last year, Intel's competitors gained a
lot of ground, exiting 1998 with high hopes. With
low-cost processors becoming an increasing part of the PC
market, it seemed likely that Intel's profit margin would
be under intense pressure. Now that the first-quarter
results are in, Intel has emerged stronger than ever,
while its competitors are losing ground. Intel's
quarterly revenue of $7.1 billion was up 18% from the
same quarter last year. Net income was an impressive $2
billion, up 57% from 1Q98.
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Intel
Seeks Salvation on Internet
Trying to Build "Killer App"
for Pentium III While Waiting for Microsoft
By Linley Gwennap
May 13, 1999
Microprocessor Report
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"A lack of compelling new
applications is reducing demand for Intel's more
expensive processors, dampening the company's revenue
growth." I wrote that 18 months ago (see MPR
11/17/97, p. 3), and little progress has been made since
then. Intel's latest strategy is to use the Internet to
build demand for Pentium III--a strategy that has as much
to do with Microsoft's intransigence as with the
processor's technical capabilities. Over the past year
and a half, Intel has tried to build demand for
CPU-hungry technologies such as digital photography,
videoconferencing, 3D graphics, and voice recognition.
Although some have caught on to a modest degree, they
remain niche applications without appeal to broad
markets, particularly the businesses that still buy the
majority of PCs. These technologies have not become
ubiquitous for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the
biggest is Microsoft's refusal to embrace them.
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| The Register Files |
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By Drew Cullen
May 12, 1999
The Register
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Rise, the low-cost CPU contender, has
poached its new CFO from Intel. Newboy John Vinnanan
(four Ns -count them) will mastermind Rise finances, as
the company ramps up production big time in Q2.
Rise is keen to exploit the space left by Cyrix, which
last week retired hurt from the x.86 CPU market. Rival
Winchip supplier IDT could also soon be out of the
picture, if US reports that it is reconsidering its
finances are correct.
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By Mike Magee
May 12, 1999
The Register
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German magazine c't is reporting that
unofficial benchmarks they have for the AMD K7 platform
show that it trounces a Pentium III Xeon chip. If your
German's any good, go here.
The magazine, however, asks the same question we posed
some time back about the role of Coppermine in the
future. (See story: Coppermine could finish AMD off for
good)
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| May 12, 1999 |
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By Fred Langa
May 2, 1999
Windows Magazine
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It had to happen to happen, and it has. In
the current issue of WINDOWS Magazine, I write about
Intel embedding an individual "processor serial
number" (PSN) in each Pentium III chip (see
"Chipping Away at Our Privacy") The PSN is a
96-bit ID that can identify the user's PC to any software
that knows how to request it.
The PSN has many legitimate uses, but it is also a
fabulous way to track stealthily who you are and what you
do on the Web and with your software. In the
above-referenced column, I wrote, "When these chips
become common, software makers could use the PSN to
record on which machine a particular application had been
installed. Sure, this could reduce piracy, but it also
could cause problems if you legitimately wanted to move
your apps to, say, a new machine….Online, Web sites
could access the PSN to let in--or block out--people
using a particular PC, even if they changed their names,
ISPs or software."
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Chipping
Away at Our Privacy
Two recent events-one overt, one
not-illustrate just how easy it is to lose your PC
privacy.
By Fred Langa
May 2, 1999
Windows Magazine
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You've probably heard about Intel's plan
to embed an individual "processor serial
number" (PSN) in each machine running on a Pentium
III (PIII) chip. The 96-bit ID can identify the user's PC
to any software that knows how to request it. Of course,
there are legitimate and useful purposes for this kind of
identification: Resource-tracking within an enterprise is
one example. Indeed, some workstation manufacturers
already feature similar functions. And while some apps
use serial numbers for licensing, other software uses
hardware-based "dongles" ("keys" that
attach to a parallel or serial port) for the same
purpose. But Intel is going much further-it's putting
an ID number on every chip.
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May 10, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Intel Corp. here today announced the
creation of a $250 million equity investment fund to help
companies develop new Internet and enterprise
applications for the company's upcoming IA-64
architecture. The IA-64 architecture slated to hit the
market in the middle of 2000 with the launch of Intel's
first 64-bit processor, code-named "Merced." The
Intel 64 Fund LLC pools investments from a group of large
technology companies and corporate users. The technology
companies include Intel, Compaq, Dell Hewlett-Packard,
NEC, and Silicon Graphics. The fund's other investors are
Bank of America, Circuit City, Ford, General Electric,
McKessonHBOC, Reuters, Sabre, SmithKline Beecham,
Sumitomo, Sun America, and Telmex. The fund will be
managed by Morgan Stanley.
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By Anthony Cataldo
May 10, 1999
EE Times
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In a move to lower the future cost of
Direct RDRAMs, Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. said they will
soon produce 128- and 144-Mbit versions of the ultra-fast
DRAM in 0.2-micron process technology. The chips are
slated to move into volume production by the time of
Intel Corp.'s expected release of Camino, its first
core-logic chip set to support Rambus DRAM, in September.
Toshiba announced on Monday (May 10) that it is now
shipping samples of what it calls is the industry's
smallest die-size 128- and 144-Mbit ECC Direct Rambus
parts based on its latest 0.2-micron process technology.
The company plans to start producing the chips in volume
at its fab in Yokkaichi, Japan in the third quarter.
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| The Register Files |
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By Mike Magee
May 11, 1999
The Register
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We just took a quick glance at Intel's
release about the quarter of a billion greenbacks it is
pushing into its IA 64 platform and realised we were
right, earlier this year. IA-64 is undead. Go to its
web site to check it out.
For the sake of our worldwide readers who don't know
what this phrase "undead" means, we shall
explain.
The famous island of Haiti, populated as it is mostly
by West Africans, has a native religion, mixed with
Catholicism.
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By Mike Magee
May 10, 1999
The Register
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Intel still refuses to comment on the
$200 million+ IA-64 initiative it will announce in
California when people on the West Coast wake up later
today. But every indication now is that Intel will
build the fund to position McKinley as the premier IA-64
platform, with Merced effectively becoming a development
platform for future growth.
Willamette IA-32 technology, due out in the middle of
next year, could even beat Merced on price and
performance.
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By Mike Magee
May 11, 1999
The Register
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A senior executive at Hewlett Packard
today denied that the company will move directly to
McKinley, bypassing Merced. Hugh Jenkins, enterprise
product marketing manager at Hewlett Packard UK, said:
"We will do Merced. We would not have invested money
in the Intel IA 64 fund otherwise."
That news is likely to make Intel feel better.
Although Compaq also put money into the new IA64 fund,
sources close to the company suggested that its views on
the future of the IA64 platform were not so clearcut.
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By Mike Magee
May 10, 1999
The Register
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Taiwanese chip manufacturer Silicon
Integrated System has now delivered prices and delivery
dates for its SiS 630 chipset. The 630 will cost
$35/10K and be available in volume this summer. It
integrates north and south bridges, includes super I/O,
integrated 128-bit 3D, phoneline networking support, soft
modem, TV out and soft DVD capabilities.
A combination of five USB ports, Ultra ATA 66IDE and
four PCI slots can be built into motherboards. There is
an AC97 codec for stereo sound and 3D surround sound is
supported through software.
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By Mike Magee
May 10, 1999
The Register
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Sources close to National Semiconductor
told The Register today that the company has two
potential buyers for its Cyrix and x.86 fab business. And
one of them is likely to be AMD, according to the source,
who said that IBM was definitely not in the frame.
NatSemi wants to conclude a sale within the month, the
source said.
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By Mike Magee
May 10, 1999
The Register
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Cyrix may be languishing in the x.86
boondocks (whatever they are), but Rise is not lying down
with the lambs, sources said today. The company, a
Taiwanese startup with serious investment capital behind
it, is
expected to announce who its fab partner will be over the
next few weeks. Our information is that it is ST
Microelectronics (formerly SG Thomsen).
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By Peter Sherriff
May 10, 1999
The Register
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Those awfully clever Zero Knowledge
folks have placed a cookie on the web here which it
claims can read your Pentium III serial number even if
it’s turned off. See The Sherriff's earlier
story: PSN back from the dead
We tried it on The Register’s P3 system (which
had the serial number turned on).
It was hardly, shall we say, sneaky and underhand. The
system fell in a heap and had to be restarted from cold
(which is what Chipzilla has always said you need to do
in order to enable the serial number), so the chances of
your number being read without your knowledge are rather
slim unless you have brain cells numbering in single
figures.
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By Peter Sherriff
May 11, 1999
The Register
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Yesterday, the Register challenged
all-comers to identify the person who currently uses the
Pentium III system with the serial number
00000672000226FA025D71BF. Surprise, surprise, there
have been no takers.
A few folks have posted comments on the Register
Bulletin Board pertaining to HDTV transmissions in the
Dallas area (no, we didn’t see the connection
either) but as yet, our mystery user remains just that.
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By Peter Sherriff
May 11, 1999
The Register
|
It's official. Mike Magee worked for
Intel before he set up his own company. Magee left
Intel two years ago to create his own startup in Oregon,
specialising, strangely enough, in AMD upgrades.
Now Magee is continuing his task with the introduction
of a PCI upgrade called Accelera, and previously called
Eclipse.
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By Mike Magee
May 11, 1999
The Register
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Worried about whether Intel is Big
Brother or not? Concerned about the Processor Serial
Number? Relax. Your secrets are safe in the hands of
Intel's government affairs division,
conveniently situated a mere block away from the White
House.
A kindly old gentleman who works for Intel's
Information Security division (the thought police), faxed
us this map which proves it.
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| May 10, 1999 |
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By Mark Hachman
May 7, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Integrated Device Technology Inc. has
now fallen victim to the microprocessor flu,
acknowledging it will need outside help to keep its
ailing PC-chip business afloat. The disclosure follows
National Semiconductor Corp.'s decision to exit the
discrete PC-microprocessor business, either by phasing
out the business or by selling it off to a third party.
IDT, Santa Clara, Calif., reportedly is considering
several options, including licensing its patents or
selling an equity stake in IDT to a third party. One
potential candidate is IBM Microelectronics, but an IBM
spokesman declined to comment.
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See Special Edition: Cyrix Exiting PC
Processor Business |
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By Michael Kanellos
May 7, 1999
C/Net
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In the wake of National Semiconductor's
bowing out of the PC processor market, another company
admitted that it too is having trouble surviving the PC
processor price war. IDT, which manufactures the
WinChip family of low-cost PC processors, is currently
looking for a "partner" that will provide the
company with financial backing and marketing clout so
that it can continue in the PC processor market, said
Dave Cote, vice president of marketing. In exchange, IDT
will potentially give its partners anything from a
cross-licensing of intellectual property to an equity
stake in the company.
"We are looking at a number of different
scenarios," he said. "We can't do this
alone."
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See Special Edition: Cyrix Exiting PC
Processor Business |
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By Mark Hachman
May 7, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
After failing to find a safe harbor for
its PC-microprocessor strategy, National
Semiconductor didn't weigh anchor -- it scuttled the
ship. Conceding defeat to x86 market leader Intel,
Nationalthis week said it will exit the discrete
PC-microprocessor business and sell most or all of its
South Portland, Maine, fab in the process. The
restructuring will cost the Santa Clara, Calif., company
550 jobs and up to $300 million in one-time charges.
"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 L. Halla, National's chairman, president, and CEO.
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By Stephen Shankland
May 7, 1999
C/Net
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Intel will unveil an investment fund of
about $250 million Monday to spur long-term adoption of
its new 64-bit chip architecture, sources said today. Contributors
to the fund include Intel and "most of the important
system vendors," a list which likely includes
Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer, and Compaq Computer,
sources familiar with the plan said today.
The fund is geared to encourage start-ups to build
products around the upcoming server and workstation chips
as well as to encourage established companies, such as
Internet service providers and software developers, to
build products centered around the "IA-64" bit
architecture. The first of these chips, the Merced, is
due out in 2000. These companies will also be encouraged
to adopt servers and workstations containing IA-64 chips
for their operations.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Mark Hachman
May 7, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
"Benchmarks don't lie, liars
benchmark." After two years of work, a coalition
of chip makers and independent companies hopes to prove
that statement wrong, having developed what it believes
is an improved scheme to measure the performance of
embedded chips.
The EDN Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium
(EEMBC) intends to provide purchasers with the equivalent
of a miles-per-gallon rating-a set of tests that will
consolidate the representation of a chip's performance
within a manageable series of numbers.
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By Michael Kanellos
May 7, 1999
C/Net
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Intel shows no signs of easing up the
pressure in the processor market and has slated multiple
price cuts and chip introductions through September. The
chip making giant will kick off the summer silicon social
season on May 16th with a round of price cuts on the
Pentium III and Pentium II lines and also introduce the
550-MHz Pentium III, according to sources. A number of
computer manufacturers are expected to come out with
machines incorporating the new processor.
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By Stan Runyon
May 7, 1999
EE Times
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Rambus Inc. said it has selected a
digital oscilloscope and software package from LeCroy
Corp. to test high-speed clock signals produced by the
Direct Rambus Clock Generator. The validation
procedures published by Rambus assure that those
incorporating the high-speed clock chips into
next-generation products will meet the jitter
specifications required by Rambus memory subsystems. The
Rambus DRAM is expected to penetrate mainstream markets
and propel memory speed to new heights—up to 800
MHz.
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| The Register Files |
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By Mike Magee
May 9, 1999
The Reigster
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An Intel representative would not tell
us Friday what tomorrow’s teleconference about IA-64
is about. We will listen to it, when the time comes. But
our rivals, news.com, are saying Intel will plunge over
$200 million into a scheme tomorrow in a bid to revive
interest in the platform.
If true, the news represents a tactical move by Intel,
which has seen its closest partners, Compaq and Hewlett
Packard, edge away from their commitment to Merced.
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By Mike Magee
May 8, 1999
The Register
|
We first met Jerry Rogers, who
co-founded Cyrix, about nine years ago at an Etre
conference, in a bar. He's a tough boy. The Texan, who
formerly worked for Texas Instruments, had some strong
ideas about microprocessor design and was finding venture
capital to put those ideas into practice.
The guy has guts and also a sound engineering
background which made us listen to what he had to say.
You didn't need fabs to compete with Intel, he said, and
you didn't need to do what AMD was doing then,
essentially cloning Intel designs. Jerry Sanders III's
statement that "only real men have fabs" was
just talk, Rogers said.
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By Mike Magee
May 8, 1999
The Register
|
The Semiconductor Industry Association
(SIA), which is a trade body for chip firms, has revised
its roadmap and shown every sign of playing follow my
leader. The organisation, which exists to lobby
governments and promote its membership, said yesterday
that .15 micron process has been "eliminated,
shortening the time needed to arrive at .13 micron in
2001."
This echoes strangely with an Intel presentation we
reported earlier this year, in which the chip giant said
.18 micron was "really" .13 micron.
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| Today's
Related Stories |
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By Reuters
May 9, 1999
SiliconValley.com
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Intel Corp. is expected to announce
Monday a new $300 million venture capital fund to foster
companies that design key building blocks for the next
generation of Intel microprocessors. US Bancorp Piper
Jaffray analyst Ashok Kumar said Sunday he expected
Intel, the world's No. 1 computer chip maker, to
contribute $100 million in seed capital to the new fund
while the remaining $200 million would come from outside
investors.
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