Top Stories for September 24, 1999 (details below)

The Register Files

The Register

The Register

Collected By Robert R. Collins

Week of September 17, 1999

Older News

September 24, 1999

Costly new Rambus problem stings PC makers

By Stephen Shankland

September 23, 1999
C/Net

The problem could force PC makers to throw away critical parts of new high-end computers or face the prospect of shipping potentially faulty machines, CNET News.com has learned.

While it's too early to tell the extent of the damage, one analyst estimated that hundreds of thousands of computers are affected. 

Transmeta might come out of hiding at Comdex 

By Reuters

September 23, 1999
C/Net

Torvalds, the developer of the Linux operating system, has shot to fame this year as his system has been endorsed by a number of top computer industry companies and emerged as a serious rival to Microsoft. 

Torvalds and other people known to be involved with Transmeta, including chief executive David Ditzel and Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen, have been careful not to reveal what the company is up to. 

Intel brings PC makers up to SpeedStep

By John G. Spooner

September 23, 1999
ZDNet News 

"That will be the name for Geyserville when we announce it next year," said Intel spokesman Manny Vara. 

The SpeedStep technology, a feature in certain forthcoming mobile Pentium III processors, will lower power consumption while a notebook is running on battery power. A software applet will automatically switch the notebook into a mode that lowers the processor's clock speed and voltage when the applet detects that battery power is being used. 

Intel, Standard Micro agree to P6-bus chipset arrangement

By Mark Hachman

September 23, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News

Paul Richman, chairman of Hauppauge, N.Y.-based Standard, provided few details concerning the new agreement, which expands the scope of the two companies' previous relationship. A spokesman for Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., said the deal essentially provides Standard with "the implementation of the bus license." 

The new agreement follows two announcements by Standard in February that vaguely outlined the company's broad patent cross-license arrangement with Intel, dating back to 1987. Richman claimed at the time that the deal not only covered the P6 bus, but a wide range of other intellectual property. The agreement announced today, however, apparently gives Standard more details on how to actually manufacture the chipsets. Richman called the new agreement with Intel the most significant in Standard's history. 

Phoenix readies firmware for Intel IA-64 

By Terho Uimonen 

September 23, 1999
InfoWorld Electric 

Phoenix's Ready64 firmware package is the very basic system software that allows a system's hardware and software to interoperate. 

Featuring full backward BIOS compatibility with the current Intel IA-32 platform, Ready64 will support several operating systems optimized for the 64-bit IA-64 platform, Phoenix said in a statement. 

Intel Shares Dip 6 Percent In Down Market 
Semiconductors, PCs And Channel Stocks Suffer Declines

By Warren S. Hersch

September 23, 1999
Computer Reseller News

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 205 points to 10,319. The Nasdaq fell 112 points to 2,747, while the S&P 500 edged down 30 points to 1,280. 

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel finished at $77.50, down $5.31. 

Also on Thursday, Intel agreed to acquire for an undisclosed cash sum the Telecom Component Products division of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Stanford Telecommunications Inc. The division had been a unit of Kanata, Ontario-based Newbridge Networks Corp.  since Newbridge acquired Standard Telecom in June 1999. The division provides silicon components for head-end equipment used by cable companies and broadband wireless service providers, plus customer premise equipment such as cable modems and set-top boxes.  

September 23, 1999

Ruckus over Intel's Rambus technology
With its Rambus Dynamic RAM, the Intel 820 chip set is supposed to double processor bandwidth. But is it too soon and too expensive?

By John G. Spooner

September 22, 1999
ZD Net News

The company on Monday will officially announce the long-awaited new chip set, the Intel 820, along with two new supporting Pentium III chips, a 533MHz and a 600MHz version. An 810E chip set is also expected. The 810E is a variant of the 810 chip set for Celeron processors that will work with the Pentium III. The 820, not the 810E, is catching all the heat from PC makers and consumers, though 

The 820 has become controversial for a number of reasons -- but particularly for its timing, performance and price. 

September 22, 1999

Intel faces pressure over new chipset 

By Stephen Shankland

September 21, 1999
C/Net

Next Monday, Intel will debut its 820 chipset, but the advanced set of ancillary processors has been resisted by PC manufacturers. The 820 utilizes a new memory technology called Rambus, but PC makers so far prefer the established standard, synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), which is cheaper.

Analysts say that the 820 is facing limited demand, and at least one asserts that Intel has reduced its production plans.

Judge says Intel didn't violate Intergraph order 

By James Niccolai 

September 21, 1999
InfoWorld Electric 

U.S. District Court Judge Edwin Nelson issued the ruling after a two-day hearing in the case, in which Intergraph accuses Intel of behaving anticompetitively in order to secure rights to certain technology patents on favorable terms. 

Judge Nelson had earlier granted Intergraph a preliminary injunction that called for Intel to treat it as it would any other customer for the duration of the trial. In a motion filed last month, Intergraph accused Intel of violating that injunction, and said its workstation business has been irreparably harmed as a result. 

September 21, 1999

Big blow for AMD: Gateway switching to Intel 

By Reuters

September 20, 1999
C/Net

Citing "people close to the matter," the Wall Street Journal reported that Gateway, which in February unveiled its first personal computers using AMD chips, will not continue with purchases after its current models are replaced. 

The paper said sources told it AMD believes it lost the Gateway business because Intel began offering Gateway more favorable terms than it had previously. 

Gateway's AMD decision reflects changing battle 

By Jim Davis and Stephen Shankland

September 20, 1999
C/Net

The fighting now is over the performance of high-end processors, such as Pentium IIIs or Athlons, instead of the price of low-end ones, analysts say. And for AMD, the account to sell low-end chips to Gateway was expendable. 

"The competition here, instead of devolving into a price-cutting mess as it did in the low end, is being fought on the basis of performance," said Insight 64 analyst Nathan Brookwood. 

Micron Snubs Intel's Next-Generation Chip Set 
Systems will cost $200 to $300 less by using Taiwanese chip set.

By Tom Spring

September 20, 1999
PC World

Micron will continue to use Intel Pentium III microprocessors, but the chip set will be that of the Taiwanese chipmaker VIA Technologies. A computer chip set is located on a PC's motherboard and controls the movement of data between the system's microprocessor, main memory, and other devices. 

The-soon-to-be-released Intel 820 system chip set supports faster system bus (133MHz vs. 100MHz), 4X accelerated graphics ports, and Rambus DRAM memory. Rambus is the company that designs and licenses RDRAM technology to memory manufacturers like Samsung and Toshiba. A computer system bus is the traffic lane for data between a PC's microprocessor and the rest of the system. AGP is the data path between the computer's graphics chip and, through the chip set, to main memory.

AMD Rolls Out Faster Mobile Chips 

By Marcia Savage

September 20, 1999
Computer Reseller News

The K6-2-P now is available at speeds of 475MHz, 450MHz and 433MHz. The K6-III-P is available at clock speeds of 450MHz, 433MHz and 400MHz. 

AMD executives claimed the chips outperform Intel's mobile processors, including the mobile Pentium II, which operates at a top speed of 400MHz. 

The Register Files

AMD mobiles outsmoke Intel

By Drew Cullen

September 21, 1999
The Register

With its latest mobile CPUs, AMD is running ahead in the MHz race, outclocking Intel’s fastest equivalents. 

AMD is stepping out six new mobile CPUs, three apiece for the Mobile K6-III-P and K6-2-P lines. For the K6-111-P line, clock speeds come in at a useful 400MHz, 433MHz and 450MHz, compared with 400MHz for Intel’s fastest mobile Pentium -- the 400MHz Pentium II. 

Overclocking -- just say yes/no/maybe

By Peter Sherriff

September 20, 1999
The Register

Some agree that overclocking is ill-advised; some say that scumsucker Pete Sherriff should watch his back; but most say: "Who gives a damn if it blows up – I’m gonna replace it within six months, anyhow". 

Some of the more rabid emails (which were probably originally written in green crayon) claim that Sherriff is in the pay of evil Chipzilla. Would that this were the case (Note to Intel – bank account details available on request). 

September 20, 1999

Next-generation chip passes key milestone

By Stephen Shankland

September 17, 1999
C/Net

Monterey-64, an advanced version of Unix, has been up and running on a prototype of Intel's "Merced" chip since Monday, IBM said today.

Monterey-64 is the combined product of operating system software written by IBM, Sequent, and Santa Cruz Operation, three companies that each have their own variants of Unix, while Merced is the flagship of Intel's effort to include its technology in more powerful machines. Although the chip's development schedule has slipped, Intel says it is on track to debut the chip in computers in mid-2000.

Motorola looks to add capacity, stake in AMD's Dresden fab

By David Lammers

September 17, 1999
EE Times

Though a deal to share Dresden is far from complete, several Motorola executives noted that AMD uses a licensed Motorola 0.18-micron process with copper interconnects at the German fab, and that would make it relatively easy for the two companies to coexist there. 

"It is AMD's fab, and it is up to them to decide if they need all of it for the Athlon [processor]. We could certainly use the capacity, and because we already use the same process, it would be relatively easy for us to share capacity," a senior Motorola official confided.

The Register Files

AMD takeover rumours re-emerge

By Mike Magee

September 17, 1999
The Register

But AMD has said "it has no knowledge of such a move" and we think it's highly unlikely too.

According to the speculation, Siemens is preparing to offer as much as $40 a share for AMD stock. That is double its current share value on the New York trading floors.

We think this has to stay at the level of pure speculation. Reports have been surfacing over the last few days that its financial position is better this quarter than it was, but it is hard to see what Siemens would get out of the deal. 

Who will pay extra $200 for i820-Rambus PCs?

By Mike Magee

September 17, 1999
The Register

Yesterday, we reported that Intel will release two mobos to coincide with its 27 September launch -- the Cape Cod and the Vancouver. One supports RIMMs while the other has support for SDRAM using PC-100. 

But prices of Rambus are currently prohibitively high, meaning that people buying PCs, and people making them, will have to be convinced of the benefits of the new memory technology. 

Via completes IDT x86 deal as fresh legal action looms

By Mike Magee

September 16, 1999
The Register

IDT will get $51 million for its WinChip intellectual property, a statement from Via said.

The transaction will be completed by the end of the month, with Via's CEO, Wen-Chi Chen, saying that the deal will give it a full line up of CPUs. 

That frightens Intel. According to sources close to the company's plans, its legal department is readying another challenge to Via. 

Dealer sells 1000s of overclocked Celerons -- with guarantees

By Mike Magee

September 17, 1999
The Register

That emerged after a story about the electro-mechanics of overclocking written by Pete Sherriff yesterday. (Overclocking -- just say no) 

According to the dealer, he has sold 2,000 PCs using 300a Celerons clocked to 450MHz or more and tested in the last six months. He has provided guarantees to his customers and claims that only two pieces have been returned, and that because people tried to run the machines at over 2.6 volts. 

Slot 1 close to death as Intel's plans for CuMine unfold

By Mike Magee

September 17, 1999
The Register

Documents seen by The Register show that Intel plans to release a whole rash of .18 micron processors, not only at higher clock speeds, but also with 256K of on die, full speed level two cache. 

The processors will have the naming conventions E, B, and EB, to distinguish them from current Pentium III Slot 1 processors. However, it will be some time before Slot 1 parts disappear entirely, and Intel will run the two lines in tandem, cutting prices as it ramps up its production.