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June 10, 1999
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By Brooke Crothers
June 9, 1999
C/Net
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Intel will start making chips with more advanced production techniques in 2002, including copper, to deliver
less costly silicon for the age of Internet devices.
On a broad scale, the announcement means that a chip battle in the next millennium is beginning to take shape.
Intel said today it will use larger "wafers" to reduce manufacturing costs by 30 percent. Intel will also move to the next generation
of production technology called "0.13." Motorola also said today that together with Infineon Technologies it has transitioned
successfully to bigger wafers on a pilot line for making memory chips. Infineon Technologies was formerly Siemens
Semiconductors.
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By Rick Merritt
June 9, 1999
EE Times
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Intel Corp. will start outfitting a development fab early next year for making 300-mm
(12-inch) wafers using a 0.13-micron process technology with copper interconnects. The plans involve a fab
which Intel had put on hold in Hillsboro, Ore., and come as the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) is
optimistically projecting that the chip industry is coming out of its three-year slump and is headed for what could
be a three-year upturn.
Intel will finish building the 120,000-square-foot clean room facility here this year and will begin buying
equipment for it early in 2000. Ultimately the development facility will be turned into a full production fab, with
volume production of 300-mm wafers expected in 2002. In parallel, Intel will bring up a 200-mm production line
for the 0.13-micron copper process. The 200-mm line is expected to hit volume production in 2001.
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The Register Files
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By Mike Magee
June 9, 1999
The Register
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As reported here yesterday, the Camino (i820) chipset is now unlikely to arrive until
the end of September at the earliest.
And that is likely to mean more compromises to ensure that Direct Rambus
RIMMs, processor and board all work together.
Our inside information now is that Intel's PC partners -- in particular IBM, Compaq and
Dell -- are very unhappy about the delays to the technology after a meeting in
California last week.
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By Mike Magee
June 9, 1999
The Register
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A group of shareholders and creditors have managed to postpone an attempt by
Randolph Osherow to obtain the patents for the Meta 3240.
This is the case where it emerged that Intel had created a Cayman Island shell
company called Maelen in a bid to grab the patents for itself.
Now, the judge looking after the case will hear an objection to Osherow's proposed
settlement.
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June 9, 1999
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By Dan Goodin
June 8, 1999
C/Net
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Yet another company is accusing Intel of antitrust violations, this time for allegedly manipulating an industry
standards body so that it favors Intel chips.
In a federal lawsuit filed late last month, Multivideo Labs of Princeton, New Jersey, alleges that Intel crushed a new device for
universal serial bus technology, because it would harm Intel's dominance in the chip market. Intel called the suit "frivolous." A
universal serial bus, or USB, allows peripheral devices such keyboards or Zip drives to plug into personal computers without
having to be configured first.
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By Sylvia Pennington
June 8, 1999
VNU Wire Service
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Intel expects to conduct 90 per cent of its business over the
Internet within three years, one of the company’s top executives has revealed.
Intel general manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Rob
Eckelmann, told the BancBoston Robertson Stephens international technology and telecoms conference today that the
company was already transacting half its business on the Web, up from nothing a year ago.
Intel was recording Web sales of $1 billion a month, with 200 customers in 30 countries now choosing to conduct dealings
with the vendor electronically, Eckelmann said.
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By Jane Wakefield
June 8, 1999
ZD Net UK
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The technology road map for DRAM manufacturers will be dictated by Intel and Rambus technology, according to leading chip analysts.
Speaking at Dataquest's Predicts '99 conference in Paris, senior Dataquest analyst Richard Gordon foresees a revolution in DRAM
technology and with Intel putting its money behind Direct Rambus technology, he believes 60 percent of total DRAM shipments will be
Rambus by 2002.
"Rambus is the only technology available that will get its [Intel] microprocessors to market," Gordon said.
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June 8, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Taiwan foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) has paid graphics vendor S3
$42 million to license 29multimedia patents, as well as the expected proceeds from a
stock sale in a joint venture.
A spokeswoman at Santa Clara, Calif.-based S3 said her understanding was that the patents, covering
multimedia products and IC design, will be used by UMC in its foundry business, and not to develop its
own products. Representatives from UMC, Hsin-Chu City, Taiwan, were not available for comment.
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June 8, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and the Acer Group announced in
Hsinchu, Taiwan, an expansion of their strategicalliance, including TSMC's
agreement to acquire 30 percent of Acer Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc. As part
of the agreement, ASMI will be renamed TSMC-Acer Semiconductor Corp.
"Not only will TSMC purchase 30 percent of ASMI shares, but we will also provide full support to
transform ASMI into another leading dedicated foundry," said Morris Chang, chairman of TSMC. "This
agreement will help both companies establish a mutually complementary capacity support system and further
strengthen the already strong alliance between TSMC and Acer."
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The Register Files
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By John Lettice
June 8, 1999
The Register
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Friday's ruling against Intel by Alabama district judge Edwin Nelson (Earlier Story)
threatens the entire Pentium family of processors, If Intergraph is to be believed.
Judge Nelson ruled that Intel does not have the right to use "Clipper" technology, and
according to Intergraph this means that the entire Pentium family infringes its patents.
Intel is naturally appealing the ruling, which was made as part of Intergraph's antitrust
suit against the chip giant. This isn't actually scheduled to go to trial until February 14
next year, but in the meanwhile Intergraph seems to be getting the best of the
skirmishing.
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By Mike Magee
June 8, 1999
The Register
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Intel is not confirming or denying that its Coppermine process will be delayed,
because it won't speak about unannounced products.
But the word on the street is that CuMine, is, indeed, on the back burner.
According to various reports, Intel will release 550MHz and 600MHz parts at the end
of the year, and a 666MHz part in the first quarter of next year.
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By Mike Magee
June 8, 1999
The Register
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The aptly named "Rambus Meltdown" er, Plugfest, was hosted by Intel in a Silicon
Valley hotel Tuesday and Wednesday of last week.
Revision B0 (B-Zero) silicon has just started sampling, but it will not go to production
as planned. Intel calls pre-production silicon A0, A1, A2 until it is certain that the next
rev will really work - then it calls that rev B0.
Well, you guessed it, Camino rev B0 didn't quite make it. Now Intel is hoping that Rev
B1 (sampling in July) will be the real thing. But Intel has not yet officially changed its
already thrice delayed launch date.
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By Mike Magee
June 8, 1999
The Register
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Our friends over at JC's have put together a cold collation of what is known about
AMD's up-and-coming K7.
The information on the site includes motherboard and other information about
chipsets.
It's a useful aide memoire to what we're about to see and our information is that high
premiums are already being paid for available boards by Taiwanese hardware
manufacturers.
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By Mike Magee
June 8, 1999
The Register
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Moscape is collaborating with AMD to create a circuit analysis tool for the K8, it said.
According to the Moscape release, its patented "assertion based" technology will
allow chip designers to increase quality and performance before a design is taped
out.
Bruce Gieseke, K8's circuit design manager, said that AMD has chosen Moscape
because it needs to enforce a good methodology for complex chip designs.
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By Mike Magee
June 8, 1999
The Register
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Taiwanese chipset firm Via said today that it sold NT$648.7 million of its kit in the
period up to May 1999.
That represents a rise in revenues of 218 per cent compared to the same period last
year.
On a sequential basis, claimed Via, its sales rose by 65 per cent from January to May
1999.
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By Mike Magee
June 8, 1999
The Register
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One of our Big Blue readers has penned some thoughts on how Alan Turing might
have regarded the IA-64 architecture.
Turing (1912-1954), for those readers who may not have encountered him, helped
found computer science and in the Second World War cracked Nazi Germany's
Enigma cipher.
Here's what our IBM reader has to say: "Almost nobody has related Intel's proposal
with the theoretical works of Turing.
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By Mike Magee
June 8, 1999
The Register
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The question whether Merced has taped out or not is now becoming something of a
burning issue, with Intel still refusing to give details on where it is on the 64-bit chip
platform.
Yesterday, we reported that architects were divided over the viability of the platform, with one British scientist claiming that
Merced will run slower and hotter than IA-32 architecture. Earlier this year, Stephen Smith, who runs the Merced
programme at Intel in the US, said silicon samples would be ready in June.
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By Mike Magee
June 8, 1999
The Register
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A bitter argument has broken out over a claim that Russian technologists were the first
to develop superscalar microprocessors, later adopted by Intel.
Mark Smotherman, writing from a US university, said: " I would like to correct, for the
record, the statement in by Andrei Fatkullin in which he says: "Superscalar architecture was invented in
Russia."
"The first superscalar design was the IBM ACS-1 supercomputer,
designed in Menlo Park, California, in the mid-1960's at IBM's Advanced Computing Systems by a team that included John
Cocke. In fact, the vision for a computer that decoded and issued
multiple instructions per cycle was due to Cocke.
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By Mike Magee
June 8, 1999
The Register
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It seems like there's a mad rush to jump on AMD's bandwagon before the K7 cart
pulls out of the station.
Our friends over at WWW.AMDZONE.COM have confirmed that they have registered
WWW.SLOTA.COM.
And two days ago we reported that an individual has registered the domain
WWW.ADVANCEDMICRODEVICES.COM.
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June 8, 1999
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By Dan Goodin
June 7, 1999
C/Net
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A federal judge hearing Intergraph's patent infringement lawsuit against Intel has rejected a key defense
raised by the chip giant, holding that it did not have rights to the disputed technology at the core of the case.
The ruling undercuts an important argument by Intel, which said in a motion filed last June that a 1976 cross-license it signed with
National Semiconductor gave it the right to use patented technology covering Intergraph's microchips.
Intergraph obtained the patents when it bought a portion of Fairchild Semiconductor from National in 1987. Intel had argued that
the earlier cross-license gave it the rights to all technologies in National's control, including subsidiaries such as Fairchild.
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Today's Related Stories |
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June 7, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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IBM Corp. and Acer Group here today announced a seven-year, $8 billion procurement and technology alliance, including joint development of system-on-chip ICs using the PowerPC RISC processor for future Internet appliances and computing devices for the Asian market.
Under the pact, Acer will purchase hard-disk drives, semiconductors, networking, and display technology from IBM for integration into computer systems, including servers, desktop PCs, and notebook personal computers. Acer will also sell IBM technology, including hard disk drives, through its distribution channels, under the agreement.
"This agreement will significantly expand the relationship between Acer and IBM," said James T.
Vanderslice, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Technology Group. Acer and IBM's Personal Systems Group currently have a multi-billion dollar agreement under which the Taiwan company manufactures IBM PCs.
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June 7, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Graphics chip supplier S3 Inc. here today unveiled a pair of 3-D
accelerator ICs for mobile PCs which the company says brings "true desktop-equivalent"
graphics capabilities to portable computers. The devices contain 16-Mbytes of integrated
memory and are fabricated in 0.18-micron drawn CMOS technology by S3's foundry, the UMC
Group in Taiwan.
The Santa Clara-based fabless chip company disclosed the accelerators last December when
UMC began promoting its next-generation process technology. The Savage/MX and Savage/IX
3-D mobile accelerators feature more than 2 million gates (see Dec. 8, 1998, story).
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The Register Files
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By Mike Magee
June 7, 1999
The Register
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While we were on our way back from the Computex show in Taiwan, it appears that
US company Multivideo Labs filed an antitrust suit against Intel.
The information comes from US legal wire, MarketSpan.
The legal action was filed on the 28th of May, but details are very sketchy at present.
Multivideo Labs, based in Arcadia, California, is involved in the video display and
USB businesses.
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By Mike Magee
June 7, 1999
The Register
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A domain name called ADVANCEDMICRODEVICES.COM was registered last week but it
is unclear whether AMD itself has taken out the name.
Ten days ago, we reported that AMD had registered the name Advanced Micro
Devices as a trademark. That is trademark no 75-659234, with the application taken
out on the 12th of March last.
This domain is registered by one Sanaxay Phommachanh, of Downey, CA, who
doesn't sound like one of Atiq Raza's or Dana Krelle's acolytes or lieutenants.
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By Andrei Fatkullin
June 7, 1999
The Register
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Former Elbrus employee, Vladimir Pentkovski is a leading Intel processor architect.
The core of the Russian Elbrus team has been together for over 40 years, developing
supercomputers for the former Soviet Union's defence establishments.
Pentkovski carried to Intel many advanced Elbrus technologies. According to
microprocessor expert Keith Diefendorff: "Elbrus has developed computers based on
superscalar, shared memory multiprocessing, and EPIC techniques, long before
papers on those subjects appeared in the West."
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By Mike Magee
June 7, 1999
The Register
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A scientist who has taken time out to read Intel's IA-64 material is concluding that the
processor may well be a pup.
The boffin, who has supplied his name and address to The Register, is concluding
that Intel may have a real problem persuading the world+dog that its IA-64 architecture
is a goer.
He said: "Like many other computer architecture techno-junkies I downloaded Intel's
IA-64 instruction set document. As a scientist, I'm fascinated; the most informative
experiments are those that fail to produce the predicted results.
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By Mike Magee
June 7, 1999
The Register
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A letter from an architect who thought IA-64 marchitecture does not cut it was
described by another, Australian architect, as "total crap" today.
The Aussie architect, who does not wish to be named on the grounds that he wants to
work in the future, was responding to a letter which claimed Merced would run "hotter,
harder and slower" from a British architect.
But the Aussie architect said: "This is a load of crap. As both a chip designer and a
member of SPEC (www.spec.org) I think I'm qualified to say that IA-64 allows
processors to run cooler, and faster, than more traditional RISC (or CISC or VLIW or
whathaveyou) architectures."
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By Mike Magee
June 7, 1999
The Register
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To tape-out or not to tape-out, that is the question many are asking as a whole slew of
IA-64 jobs came up for grabs at Intel at the end of last week.
Our source close to the employment agency has sent us a massive list of job
vacancies at Intel, all of which suggests there are still a few problems with
screwdrivers at the chip giant.
Here is the list, in full:
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Today's
Related Stories
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By George Leopold
June 7, 1999
EE Times
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A federal judge late last Friday (June 4) rejected a key Intel Corp. argument in its patent
dispute with Intergraph Corp., ruling the Intel has no license to use Intergraph's Clipper CPU patents.
Intel had argued that it held rights to Intergraph's Clipper patents through a longstanding cross-license agreement
it held with National Semiconductor Corp. Intergraph sued Intel in November 1997 for patent infringement,
illegal coercive behavior, and antitrust violations.
U.S. District Judge Edwin Nelson ruled that "The undisputed facts establish that [National] had no legal authority
to grant a license, as the patents at issue belonged not to [National] but to a legally distinct corporation —
Fairchild. Intel thus never received a license from any entity with the power to grant one." Nelson added that
"The fundamental flaw in Intel's license defense is that the alleged license would have originated from [National],
while the Clipper patents quite clearly belonged not to NSC but to Fairchild, a separate corporation."
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By Reuters
June 7, 1999
SiliconValley.com
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Workstation computer maker Intergraph Corp. said on Monday that a U.S. District Court has rejected Intel Corp.'s claim that it had the right
to use Intergraph's ``Clipper'' chip technology.
The decision is part of a broader lawsuit filed by Hunstville-based Intergraph against
the world's largest computer chip maker in November 1997 alleging patent
infringement, illegal coercive behaviour and antitrust violations.
The broader case is set to go to trial at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on Feb. 14, 2000.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
June 7, 1999
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp. suffered a setback today in its fight with Intergraph Corp. when the Federal judge hearing the
case ruled that Intel has no license to use Intergraph's proprietary chip patents.
Whether Intel actually infringed on Intergraph's patents will be decided by a jury. The case goes to trial in
February 2000.
Intel (INTC) claimed it had a right to use Intergraph's Clipper technology through a cross-licensing agreement
with National Semiconductor Inc. Intergraph claimed that the patents, which it originally bought from Fairchild in
1987, were not covered under the Intel/National cross-licensing agreement.
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By Reuters
June 7, 1999
SiliconValley.com
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Taiwanese computer maker Acer Group , tightened its ties to IBM with a 7-year, $8 billion technology pact that marks the latest in a string of mega-supply deals for the world's largest computer maker.
On Monday, officials of International Business Machines Corp. and Acer confirmed news leaks from Friday that Acer would buy $8 billion worth of IBM hard disks, computer chips, network adapters and display technology for use in Acer computers.
In return, IBM agreed to buy Acer-manufactured liquid crystal flat-panel displays to incorporate in IBM's ThinkPad line of notebook computers, helping alleviate a shortage of such screens that have constrained shipments of IBM notebooks. IBM initially agreed to buy up to $1 billion of Acer displays.
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By Reuters
June 7, 1999
C/Net
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S3, a maker of computer graphics chips, announced two
new chips for the portable PC market that will enable both video
gamers and business users to have better graphics on the road.
S3 announced two new versions of its popular Savage graphics
accelerator chip, called the Savage/MX and Savage/IX, in its latest
bid to regain lost share of the graphics market.
The new chips will provide faster and more realistic
three-dimensional graphics for notebooks, where so far the market for
graphics is smaller than desktop PCs. Graphics chips usually consume
more power, a key issue in mobile computing.
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June 7, 1999
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By Michael Kanellos
June 4, 1999
C/Net
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While discussions have taken place, executives from the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company stated flatly that are not interested in buying the Cyrix microprocessor division from National
Semiconductor, though they are increasingly serious about the microprocessor business.
TSMC's stance pares down the field of potential purchasers. Earlier this year, National Semiconductor said that it will sell the bulk
of its Cyrix microprocessor subdivision, which makes the Cyrix M2 processor found in many sub-$500 computers, as well as the
majority interest in its South Portland, Maine, fabrication facility, to one or separate buyers. With both properties, a
semiconductor company could enter the PC processor market virtually overnight.
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By Jack Robertson
June 4, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Via Technologies Inc. put the PC133 SDRAM market into full swing last week with the introduction of its
long-awaited Intel-compatible core-logic chipsets.
Via unveiled the Apollo Pro133, an Intel-compatible PC133 chipset, at last week's Computex '99 show in Taipei,
Taiwan. In addition, motherboard vendors ASUSTek Computer Inc., Giga-byte Technology Co. Ltd., and
Micro-Star International Co. Ltd. displayed PC133 boards using the Via chipset.
With chipsets on the market and DRAM makers ready to go with their devices, “almost all PC OEMs will unveil
PC133 SDRAM models within the next few months,” said analyst Robert Merritt of Semico Research Corp.,
Phoenix. “This will include sub-$1,000 and even sub-$600 PCs as well as midrange systems.”
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By Mark Hachman and Sandy Chen
June 4, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel Corp. is planning to introduce a socketed version of
its microprocessors to enable new, innovative PC form factors, according to customers briefed by the Santa
Clara, Calif., company earlier this week.
Essentially, the new "FC-PGA 370" configuration is nothing more than a Pentium III in a low-cost socket,
similar to the 370-pin pin grid array (PGA) socket used by Intel's low-cost Celeron microprocessor, according to
sources close to Intel. Intel will use "flip-chip" technology to bond the die to the package.
Sources said the flip-chip design will allow new, thinner PCs to be developed, allowing for more creativity in
designing a PC chassis. By contrast, a Pentium III will usually ship inside Intel's single-edge cartridge module,
whose physical dimensions are considerably larger than the microprocessor inside it. In addition, the module is
mounted vertically, perpendicular to the motherboard.
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By Crista Souza, Mark Hachman, and Mark LaPedus
June 4, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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If Intel Corp. had invested in gingham and calico instead,
this could have been the world's biggest quilt.
The company's effort to stitch together a patchwork of opportunities outside the PC sector has triggered equity
stakes in technologies as seemingly mismatched as Internet cable services and Linux software.
In the short history of its equity program, the microprocessor giant has set an instant halo over the
heads of scores of promising start-ups. But by seeding everything from broadband backbones to online video
content, Intel's strategy assumes a formless, almost random appearance. And then, from this furious
hodgepodge, patterns emerge.
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The Register Files
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By Mike Magee
June 4, 1999
The Register
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Motherboard manufacturers FIC and Asus have officially confirmed they have pinned
their flags to the K7 mast and have motherboards for the microprocessor.
Although AMD has insisted that no-one publicly shows the K7 at
Computex, representatives at both companies confirmed they were showing their motherboards
in suites at the Grand Hyatt.
FIC's motherboard uses the AMD/DEC Irongate chipset, while Asus's board is using
the Via chipset, representatives from the two companies said.
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By Pete Sherriff
June 4, 1999
The Register
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Shock horror revelations on the increasingly-out-of-touch ZDNet are bemoaning an
alleged compatibility problem between the Katmai instructions in the Pentium III and
Intel's new cheap'n'cheerful 810 chipset.
This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, however, because the 810 was never
supposed to support Katmai in the first place -– being entry-level, the 810 was
designed for the Celeron processor which won't be equipped with Screaming Cindy's
Extensions until the next Millennium.
However, the real question is why on earth anyone would want to use the cheapo 810
with the expensive PIII –- until the appearance of the 810E and 820
(aka Camino)
chipsets alongside the 600MHz PIII in September, OEMs with any sense will stick with
the venerable BX chipset.
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By Pete Sherriff
June 4, 1999
The Register
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Details are only now emerging of a sneak attack on everyone's favourite chip
behemoth late last year. Intel Towers in sunny downtown Swindon contains many a top
secret part that the competition would love to get its hands on.
Chipzilla played the whole affair down, but the reason for this wasn't down to any
concern over the loss of Intel secrets. Of all the hundreds of systems, both current and
future available to the thieves, only two were removed in the dead of night.
And when we discovered what they were we understood Chipzilla's reluctance to give
details -– they were two Sun SPARC boxes used to drive the big colour copiers in the
print room –- the only non-Intel processors in the entire building.
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