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June 18, 1999
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By Mark Hachman
June 17, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel Corp. has confirmed analyst reports that problems ramping faster processors will delay the launch of its Coppermine microprocessor.
A desktop version of the Coppermine -- the generic code name given to a 0.18-micron Pentium
III with on-chip level 2 cache -- was originally expected to ship in September at 600-MHz.
Instead, a 600-MHz Pentium III without on-chip cache on a 0.25-micron process will ship this
summer, and the Coppermine's ship date will be pushed out until about November, an Intel
spokesman said.
Unlike rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc., whose wafers were plagued this spring with slow and
non-functional microprocessor dice, analysts and the Intel spokesman said the impact of the
delay would be minor since Intel has experienced better than expected performance of its
0.25-micron manufacturing process, which has allowed the chip maker to increase both the pace
and the speeds of its microprocessor introductions.
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Today's Related Stories |
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By Michael Kanellos
June 17, 1999
C/Net
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A two-month delay to Intel's "Coppermine" Pentium III chip could mean that AMD will take the performance crown for
desktop processors.
The delay to Coppermine--a high-performance version of the Pentium III--means that the Intel chip will not appear until November.
That may mean that the chip won't appear in many PCs in 1999, since new systems don't often come out so late in the year.
Meanwhile, the anticipated summer release of AMD's K7 means that the company will have several months to market its new
product as the industry's top performer. The K7 is expected to exceed standard Pentium IIIs but be closer to
Coppermine.
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The Register Files
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By Mike Magee
June 17, 1999
The Register
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Intel has released the latest update to the Pentium III specification and has published a
list of 46 errata.
Erratum is Intel's marchitecture-speak for a bug.
But the majority of the 46 bugs shown are unlikely to be fixed, according to the
document.
That is likely to be because there are either workarounds for the bugs or they are
non-significant.
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By Mike Magee
June 17, 1999
The Register
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Alpha Processor Inc (API) has finally realised that The Register exists and will meet
us next week.
However, we now know for sure that there will be volume shipments of Alpha at over
1GHz by this time next year.
This is interesting, given that Compaq's plans for the Alpha and Intel IA-64 platforms
are in a state of flux, as reported here.
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Today's
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By Dan Briody
June 17, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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Intel's highly anticipated Mobile Pentium III processor, code-named Coppermine, has been significantly delayed due to a failure to reach anticipated clock
speeds.
Originally slated for release at the end of September, Intel has spent the day contacting hardware OEMs to inform them of the delay. The Coppermine chips
will also be the first processors that carry the dual-mode power technology, code-named Geyserville, which will enable notebooks to operate in a lower
power state when running on battery life.
An Intel representative said the chip giant is not reaching the anticipated frequencies for the .18 micron chips, causing the changes to the launch schedule.
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June 17, 1999
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By Jack Robertson
June 16, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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If Intel chooses to launch a chipset that supports the 600-MHz initial speed grade of Direct
RDRAM, Samsung Electronics said its customers will notshow much interest.
"Our customers are not interested in a 600-MHz
Rambus," said Y.W. Lee, president and CEO of Samsung's semiconductor division.
Because memory makers are getting their highest initial yields of Direct RDRAM in 600-MHz parts, Intel said it is planning to debut its Camino Intel 820 chip set with support for that speed grade at the end of September, then launch another chip set several weeks later that would support 700- and 800-MHz Rambus chips. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel denied the reports, and said it will simultaneously roll out chip sets that support all Rambus speeds grades.
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By Jack Robertson
June 16, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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It's deja vu all over again for chip production equipment makers. Just as the stalled 300-mm wafer effort put a stopper last year on next-generation equipment purchases, the new delay in moving to Direct Rambus DRAMs is having a deadly effect on orders for the new gear needed to test the new wideband memory. Earlier this year, chip makers had been hustling to get ready to move into volume production with the new DRAM that Intel Corp. had designated as the standard memory for its next-generation microprocessors. It was due to arrive this spring.
But when the MPU giant suddenly delayed its big Direct Rambus launch until later this year, most DRAM vendors put their volume production plans on hold. And major new orders for the 1-gigahertz testers that chip makers had been pressing their gear suppliers to deliver as quickly as possible were pulled back.
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Wound Up
More processor performance with overclocking?
By Georg Schnurer
Volume 10
c't Magazine
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Especially the newest processors with the highest clock frequency are expensive. But looking at price differences up to
1000 Marks for a clock rate that is often only 20 percent higher brings up the question whether it is possible to get more
performance out of cheap CPUs - after all there are also enough possibilities to tune up a car. Well, a processor can also
be operated at the red revs - but not always without piston seize-up.
The processor manufacturers are offering their products in several different performance classes. For example in case of Intels
Celeron the customer can currently choose between models from 300 to 466 MHz. Do AMD and Intel actually manufacture six or
eight different CPU types?
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By Anthony Cataldo
June 16, 1999
EE Times
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Drawing attention to what it sees as a looming problem with submicron logic devices, Intel
Corp. has developed a simulation tool to examine errors that occur in microprocessors as a result of intruding
alpha particles, which can cause so-called "soft errors."
Such errors will become a bigger problem in sub-0.25-micron process technologies, and the modeling and
simulation process Intel has developed is the first step to alleviate it, the company said in a presentation this week
at the Symposium on VLSI Technology.
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The Register Files
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By Mike Magee
June 16, 1999
The Register
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Compaq analyst Terry Shannon is reporting in the latest edition of his newsletter
Shannon knows Compaq that Merced samples are not now expected until September.
The latest take on the plagued processor is that the taping out has taken longer than
thought, Shannon reports.
This confirms reports throughout the year that Intel is struggling to produce samples.
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By Mike Magee
June 16, 1999
The Register
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The Elbrus E2K processor, dubbed the Merced Killer, has received unexpected endorsement from a senior Microsoft executive.
Gordon Bell, who heads the Microsoft research unit, and developed DEC PDP and
Vax, presented a table at this year's International Symposium on High Performance Computing which shows Merced in a poor light compared to the Russian chip.
The slide Bell showed gave the E2K's clock frequency as 1.2GHz, compared to Merced's .8GHz, SPECint85/SPECfp95 as 135/350 compared to 45/70, Due size as 126 sq mm compared to Merced's 300 sq mm, power dissipation as 35 watts compared to 60 watts.
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By Mike Magee
June 16, 1999
The Register
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A source with an interest in doing down Intel has told The Register that rev B1 of
Camino i820 silicon has reached board manufacturers but it is still rather unwell.
According to the source, who we know but who wishes to remain anonymous, rev B1
Camino drops dead when power is supplied to it.
If this rather unremarkable problem is not just a minor glitch, that could mean we may
not see Camino powered PCs until November, December, or even the year 2000.
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By Mike Magee
June 16, 1999
The Register
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A couple of years ago, The Register was down Satan Clara way and bumped into the
P7 engineers in a bar.
They got tipsy and tipped us the wink on future Intel
marchitectures.
Now, it appears, AMD engineers enjoy a tipple or two, too.
A source who got drinking in an Austin bar with some AMD engineers a few weeks
ago gleaned some good info on K7 yields and process technology.
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By Mike Magee
June 16, 1999
The Register
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Several of our readers wondered why we didn't cover AMD's Dirk Meyer's speech last
Thursday. Thanks, those who emailed.
The answer is as follows: we were at a wedding in Italy, near Lake
Orta, and didn't
take our StinkPad or any other technology with us, apart from our mobile phone. And
by the way, a black mark for Al Italia, who couldn't seem to get us home on time last
night. Our invoice will be in the post.
Now we've had a chance to look at the available material, it's worth summarising it.
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By Mike Magee
June 16, 1999
The Register
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Chip company AMD has been awarded a patent for a method of fabricating copper
and aluminium metallisation.
The patent number is 5,913,147, granted today and applied for on 21 Jan 1997.
The inventors are Valery Dubin and Chiu Ting.
The patent is a method for fabricating copper aluminium metallisation using the
technique of electro-less copper deposition. The method provides a self-encapsulated copper aluminium metallisation structure.
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By Mike Magee
June 16, 1999
The Register
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We've been sunning ourselves in the Italian lakes for the last few days so managed to
miss Dirk Meyer's presentation on the K7 last week.
Sorry about that. He told an assembled group of diners that the K7 has a SpecFP a
groovy 40 per cent higher than Intel's Xeon with a full speed cache. The K7 only has a
half speed cache.
As we ate our schinken, we were not thinken about the name AMD will give the K7.
Some hardware sites say it will be called Athlon.
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June 16, 1999
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June 15, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. here today announced a 400-MHz version of its K6-2-P microprocessor for notebook PCs. AMD's announcement
comes just one day after Intel Corp. announced 400-MHz versions of its Pentium II and Celeron
notebook processors.
The 400-MHz processor will be manufactured with 0.25-micron process technology, while some
of Intel's 400-MHz chips will be fabricated on a 0.18-micron manufacturing line.
"AMD is committed to delivering high levels of performance at all system price points,'' said
Dana Krelle, vice president of marketing at AMD's Computation Products Group
(CPG), in a
prepared statement. "The new 400-MHz mobile AMD K6-2-P processor builds on our
leadership in the growing value segment of the notebook market," he said. "The mobile AMD
K6-2-P and the recently introduced mobile AMD K6-III-P processors offer our OEMs and end
users a very competitive choice in the value and high-performance segments of the notebook
market.'' The Sunnyvale chip maker plans to capture 30% of the total PC microprocessor
market by 2001, up from its current share of about 15%, according to Dirk Meyer, vice
president of engineering at AMD's CPG, during a recent technical presentation.
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June 15, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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As part of its renewed bid to gain market share, Advanced Micro Devices announced
on Tuesday a 400-MHz version ofits K6-2-P microprocessor for notebook PCs.
AMD made its announcement just a day after archrival Intel announced its 400-MHz Pentium II and Celeron
notebook processors.
AMD's new chips will be manufactured on a 0.25-micron process geometry, while some of Intel's
new 400-MHz chips will be fabricated on a 0.18-micron manufacturing line.
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By Jack Robertson
June 15, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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If Intel Corp. chooses to launch Direct Rambus DRAM in initial speed grades of 600 MHz,
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is not enthusiastic. "Our customers are not interested in a 600-MHz
Rambus," said Y.W. Lee, president and chief executive of Samsung's semiconductor division.
Industry sources said last week that because chip companies are initially getting their highest yields on the
600-MHz Direct RDRAM, Intel is planning to debut that version and the companion Camino Intel 820 chipset at the
end of September. Intel reportedly would delay by several weeks launching core-logic chipsets that support the 700-
and 800-MHz Rambus chips, until production yields are higher at memory companies. Intel has denied the reports
and said it will simultaneously roll out chipsets that support all Rambus speeds grades.
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By Andreas Stiller
Volume 11
c't Magazine
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Rumor has it that Intel chose the code name Whitney because Whitney reminds of Houston and Houston of Compaq ...
and Compaq had the audacity to spurn Intel in the low-cost segment and buy the Cyrix MediaGX instead. Now Intel
wants to use Whitney to get rid of the MediaGX.
Many ideas that Intel is now implementing in Whitney Cyrix had actually realized in the GX design already - and was even one step
ahead by integrating processor and chip set. Intel does not go quite as far with Whitney and the processor (mainly an Intel
Celeron) will remain external. But similar to the GX there is an integrated memory and graphics controller that addresses a common memory for
graphics and CPU accesses (UMA: Unified Memory Architecture) and thus has no special video RAM.
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By C/Net Staff
June 15, 1999
C/Net
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Most locales are elated when a high-tech company like Intel beds down in their backyard.
But at least one community, Washington County, Oregon, wants to control the development and traffic big businesses can bring
while supporting the benefits Silicon Valley transplants can provide.
Today the Washington County Board of Commissioners is expected to approve a $200 million tax-break package for Intel. The
chipmaker, in return, has agreed to pay a fine of $1,000 for every manufacturing worker it brings in over a cap of 5,000.
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June 15, 1999
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By Richard Richtmyer
June 11, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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After taking a one-time restructuring charge for the divestiture of its PC-processor
business, National Semiconductor Thursday reported a quarterly loss of $783.5
million, or $4.65 per share, for the period ending May 30.
Excluding the special charges for the quarter, which totaled $743.5 million, National said it lost $40 million,
or 24 cents per share, during its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with a loss before charges of $69.3 million,
or 42 cents per share, a year ago.
The Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker's revenue also declined during the quarter, falling to $477 million from
$510 million a year ago. Brian Halla, National's chairman, president, and chief executive, attributed
virtually all of the quarter's losses to the company's PC-processor business.
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By Carmen Nobel
June 11, 1999
PC Week Online
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Another delay in an Intel Corp. chip set will push the release of new eight-processor servers into the fall.
Several vendors will demonstrate eight-way servers at PC Expo in New York later this month, but they won't be
shipping them in July, as originally planned. That's not an issue for many potential customers, who say the
servers won't meet their full potential until Microsoft Corp. ships Windows 2000, which is due in October.
Intel officials this week acknowledged that the company's Profusion chip set has been delayed again.
The length of the delay is unknown until results of "validation tests" come back, they said.
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By Mark Hachman, Andrew MacLellan, and Sandy Chen
June 11, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel Corp. will launch its Camino chip set in two stages, thus
delaying its support for high-speed Direct Rambus DRAM by at least a few weeks, according to
a number of Intel customers.
While a version of the Camino, or 820 chip set as it is officially known, will indeed ship as
scheduled during the third quarter, industry sources said the device will support only 600-MHz
Direct Rambus DRAM, the slowest speed defined in the Rambus memory specification.
A second, full-fledged Camino chip set supporting 600-, 700-, and 800-MHz Direct RDRAM
will ship at least a few weeks later, and possibly not until November, according to Intel
customers.
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By Jack Robertson
June 11, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel Corp. is not ruling out a contingency plan to supportPC133 SDRAM if the new
memory interface becomes theprevailing technology in the market, according to
company president and chief executive Craig R. Barrett.
At the same time, Intel is blocking a rival from marketing a chipset that would support the memory
interface.
While Intel has disclosed no plans to field its own PC133-compatible chipsets, “if it happens that PC133
becomes a preferred choice, Intel has lots of options for [creating] new memory bus lines in chipsets,” Barrett
said in an interview with EBN.
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By Dean Takahashi
June 14, 1999
Wall Street Journal
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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said it is preparing to ship K7
microprocessors that will outperform the fastest available chips from Intel Corp.
Burned by similar promises in the past, analysts are withholding their judgment on the new AMD
(NYSE:AMD) chips until they ship later this month. But they acknowledge that AMD's chance to
catch up with Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) is better than ever.
Dirk Meyer, an AMD vice president and architect of the K7, said at an industry dinner on
Thursday night that the chip will be faster than an Intel Pentium III chip with an equivalent
megahertz rating on key performance measures, including crunching numbers for a spreadsheet or
creating graphics and video for a game. He said AMD's tests show the K7 beating comparable
Intel chips by 7 percent to 42 percent, depending on the software being run.
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By Mark Hachman
June 11, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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In a technical presentation held Thursday night, AdvancedMicro Devices said its
forthcoming K7 desktop microprocessor would outperform Intel's Xeon workstation
processor, running at the same frequency.
Dirk Meyer, vice president of engineering for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD, offered the first
performance estimates for the final K7 silicon, though the tests were run by AMD and not a neutral third
party. At a dinner sponsored by analyst firm MicroDesign Resources, Meyer added he was
confident AMD would be able to satisfy the expected K7 demand when the chip launches later this month.
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By David Lammers
June 11, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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The new K7 microprocessor that Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will ship later this month will include 25 additional instructions that the company has added to
the 3DNow! instruction set.
Dirk Meyer, vice president of AMD and chief architect of the K7, said that 19 single-instruction
multiple-data (SIMD) integer instructions and five new digital signal processing
(DSP) control
function instructions have been added to the previous 21 instructions of the 3DNow! instruction
set.
With 45 instructions, the expanded 3DNow! instruction set will more than match the
performance of the 71 instructions that Intel Corp. has recently added to its MMX instruction
set, Meyer said. The extended 3DNow! ISA, combined with the K7's more powerful
floating-point hardware, will more than match Intel's streaming SIMD extension (SSE)
implementation on its Pentium III processors, he said.
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By Mark Hachman
June 14, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Among the 400-MHz, mobile Pentium II and 400-MHz Celeron microprocessors shipped this morning by Intel
Corp., were MPUs manufactured using the chip giant's new 0.18-micron process technology, the company
reported.
The long-awaited 0.18-micron process technology will allow Intel to manufacture a greater number of chips per
wafer, at faster speeds than using a 0.25-micron process.
By shipping the parts now, Intel hopes to capture a number of design wins in "back-to-school" PCs, said
Frank Spindler, vice-president of marketing for Intel's Mobile/Handheld Products Group in Santa Clara, Calif.
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By Brooke Crothers
June 14, 1999
C/Net
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Dell, Compaq, Toshiba, and Hewlett-Packard, among others, are releasing new notebook PCs with Intel's
fastest notebook processor yet.
Dell Computer today expanded its Latitude line of notebooks for corporate users to include support for the new Pentium II mobile
processors. Dell introduced three new configurations, which share common docking stations and peripherals, to allow companies
to easily upgrade and swap components.
Dell introduced the Latitude Cpi R400GT, with 400-MHz Pentium II processor, 14.1-inch display, and up to 512MB of memory.
Although most users do not require that level of memory capacity, Dell offers these options on its high-end notebooks to help
buyers protect against obsolescence, said Jay Parker, product manager for the Latitude line.
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By Marcia Savage
June 14, 1999
Computer Reseller News
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PC Expo attendees are sure to see a wave of new notebooks based on Intel Corp.'s fastest mobile
chips ever which were unveiled on Monday.
Intel's new Pentium II and Celeron processors run at 400MHz.
The latest mobile Celeron will show up in notebooks costing less than $2,000 and in
many cases, less than $1,800, said Frank Spindler, vice president of marketing for Intel's
mobile products group.
The new Pentium II for notebooks follows the mobile 366MHz Pentium II introduced in
January, and features the same 256-Kbyte on-die Level 2 cache. The chip offers up to 70
percent better performance than a 233MHz mobile Pentium II processor and comparable
power consumption to the 366MHz version, Intel executives said.
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By Craig Matsumoto
June 10, 1999
EE Times
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Despite some jitters along the way, suppliers at a technology conference here reported
that the infrastructure is in place for Rambus DRAMs to move into the PC market.
Die size remains a concern, suppliers conceded, but all of them maintained that neither the 10-to-25-percent
die-size penalty nor a higher price tag should hamper the acceptance of RDRAM for high-performance PCs.
The panel, organized at the Warburg Dillon Read technology conference, included Rambus Inc. chief executive
Geoff Tate along with representatives from DRAM suppliers and test and assembly executives.
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By Stephen Shankland
June 11, 1999
C/Net
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The chief executive of Rambus adamantly denies that his company's next-generation memory technology is
threatened, but analysts and chipmakers indicate that the transition to its products isn't smooth sailing.
Since its highly successful IPO drew wide attention two years ago, Rambus has faced threats from competing memory systems,
memory manufacturers unhappy with Rambus costs, and the explosion of low-cost PCs. But the Rambus rollout in the last three
months of the year will be bolstered by two major players: Dell and Compaq.
Warburg Dillon Read analyst Seth Dickson said Dell will snap up two-thirds of the Rambus memory
chips in the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2000. Rambus first will arrive in high-end
servers and workstations.
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June 14, 1999
SiliconValley.com
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In the past decade Intel's billion-dollar computer chip
plants have transformed this sleepy farm town into a silicon forest of high-paying jobs,
new subdivisions and rush-hour traffic jams.
Now, having found out that it's possible to have too much of a good thing, the locals
are offering Intel a new set of tax breaks that contain a unique proviso: Don't create too
many jobs.
As part of a $200 million tax-break package expected to be approved Tuesday, the
county will, in effect, fine Intel $1,000 for every manufacturing job created over a cap of 5,000
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The Register Files
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By Linda Harrison
June 11, 1999
The Register
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National Semiconductor will shut its Cyrix PC processor business unless it receives a
"solid and acceptable" offer by 30 June.
The company blames stiff competition in the PC chip market for its fifth consecutive
quarter of losses. it lost around $45 million in the quarter from Cyrix x86
microprocessors. Last month NatSemi announced plans to sell its PC processor
business, which it picked up through its acquisition of Cyrix in 1997 for about $550
million.
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By Mike Magee
June 10, 1999
The Register
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After we revealed at last week's Computex that VIA was facing tough pressure from
Intel over its PC-133 chipset, further evidence has emerged of the chip giant's
Machiavellian manoeuvres.
According to the latest issue of Forbes magazine, Intel has sent out a heap of letters
in an attempt to dissuade PC vendors from shipping a VIA chipset which offers better
performance than Intel can.
Intel is relying on its Camino chipset to deliver a 133MHz front side bus (FSB) but as
we reported earlier this week, the chipset is delayed again. (Story: Camino delay will
mean Intel compromises)
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By John Lettice
June 12, 1999
The Register
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Earlier Register stories (Intel outed on PC133) suggesting Intel is planning a volte
face on support for PC133 SDRAM have been partially confirmed by a highly reliable
source - company CEO Craig Barrett. In an interview with CMP mag Electronic
Buyers' News Barrett concedes Intel has "contingency plans," but we think it's a wee
bit stronger than that.
Says Barrett: "If it happens that PC133 becomes a preferred choice, Intel has lots of
options for new memory bus lines in chipsets." Not exactly what you'd call a firm
commitment, but it certainly means Intel has shifted visibly from the previously official
'not in million years' policy.
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By Mike Magee
June 10, 1999
The Register
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Sources said that AMD will formally introduce its K7 processor on the 28th of June
and will have one processor running at 600MHz.
There will also be 500MHz and 550MHz flavours, as previously revealed.
Processors will ship to system integrators on the 3rd of August. In the first two weeks
of August, there will be volume shipments of the product, and at introduction time,
AMD will also have tier one vendors demoing machines based on the K7.
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By Mike Magee
June 10, 1999
The Register
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A decision by the World Customs Administration to re-classify CPUs as components
rather than chips could raise prices of PCs worldwide.
According to English-language newspaper The Korea Herald, local customs
authorities have imposed a retrospective tariff on Pentium IIs and Pentium IIIs
imported since May 1997.
Korean customs have just imposed an additional six per cent levy on the CPUs after a
ruling by the WCO last May. That brings the tariff up to nearly 10 per cent.
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By Mike Magee
June 10, 1999
The Register
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Rambus shares rose sharply at the beginning of the week after Micron said it was
ready to provide samples for the memory technology.
Over the last month, Rambus shares have seesawed between $75 and around $90.
When we checked for the purposes of this piece, its share price was $84.75.
Last year, Intel invested half a billion dollars in Rambus, and before then, Micron had
been reluctant to promote the technology.
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By Mike Magee
June 10, 1999
The Register
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One of the interesting things we saw wandering around the halls of the Computex
trade show in Taipei last week were the so-called "free PCs".
These systems, which we saw on the Cyrix and one or two other stands, use
microprocessors and other components which cost peanuts, while delivering a fair bit
of functionality by yesterday's standards.
Celeron processors -- a Pentium II by any other name -- almost cost peanuts too but in
the next year or so, x86 chips, whether from the like of Cyrix, IDT, Rise, AMD or Intel,
will cost practically next to nothing.
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