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| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of November 7, 1999 |
Older News |
November 12, 1999 |
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Via Revives Cyrix Processors
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Via Technologies is lifting the veil on its product road map. At the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas next week, the company will reintroduce the low-cost M-II series of processors it inherited when it acquired National Semiconductor's Cyrix subsidiary earlier this year.
Show attendees will also get a sneak peek at a yet-to-be-named new processor family, which is code-named "Joshua" and scheduled for introduction in next year's first quarter, the company said in a statement issued Monday. The revived M-II series will feature chips with performance ratings of up to 433, which will offer performance comparable to a 433-MHz Celeron from Intel. The Cyrix M-II-433 will have a clock speed of 300 MHz and support a 100-MHz system bus, according to information from the company's Web site. |
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Taiwan's Via Challenges Intel's Chip DominanceBy Reuters November 11, 1999 |
Taiwan's Via Technologies already has irked mighty Intel by scoring a coup in chip sets, but now it is mounting an invasion on the chip maker's home turf -- microprocessors.
Taking advantage of two embarrassing Intel product delays, Via stole a march in September by marketing a core memory chip set -- the key link between a computer's processor brain and other systems -- that outpaces the U.S. company's swiftest chip sets. |
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Intel Software Spots Overclocked ProcessorsBy David Gabel November 11, 1999 |
VARs building white-box systems or reselling those made at a third-party shop might be interested in anew release of Intel software.
The software tests the clock speed of the processor installed in a PC. In the case of Pentium III processors, it can tell whether the CPU is overclocked or whether it is running at its design speed. |
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AMD turns up the Athlon heatBy John G. Spooner November 11, 1999 |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on Thursday outlined aggressive plans for new Athlon chips and predicted a
break-even fourth quarter.
In a surprise announcement, the company said it will begin shipping a 750MHz version of the flagship processor by the end of the year, according to Chairman and CEO W. J. Sanders. AMD (AMD) had planned to deliver the 750MHz Athlon in the first quarter of next year. Instead, it will begin shipping 800MHz Athlon chips during that time. AMD has also begun demonstrating 900MHz Athlon chips, which require no special cooling technology, Sanders said. |
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Benchmark battle brews between DDR, RambusBy Jack Robertson November 10, 1999 |
The opening salvo has been fired in the performance battle between double-data-rate PC266 SDRAM and Direct Rambus DRAM.
Bert McComas, analyst with InQuest Market Research, Gilbert, Ariz., issued a report today claiming that in benchmark tests DDR SDRAM had a 10% to 30% performance advantage over Direct Rambus when compared using evaluation programs from Intel Corp. |
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DDR vs. Rambus
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With the long anticipated release of Intel's new 820 chip set, the world has its first opportunity to evaluate the system level performance impact of DRDRAM. Until now, publicly available performance reports on DRDRAM have compared Rambus to PC100 or PC133
SDRAM.
According to these reviews, the benchmarkable performance difference between Rambus and SDRAM is usually between 0 to 2%. When differences attributable to DRAM performance are discovered, the advantage seems to flip flop unpredictably between SDRAM and Rambus. Amid this confusion and lack of clarity, the majority of users will tend to gravitate toward the low cost solution. |
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Micron claims DDR SDRAM shines in benchmark testsBy Jack Robertson November 9, 1999 |
Micron Technology Inc. said today that an internal demonstration platform of its double-data-rate SDRAM showed "significant advantages" in performance benchmark testing over other high-bandwidth solutions--a veiled reference to Direct Rambus DRAM, which has been the focus lately of industry wrangling.
Micron will demonstrate its DDR reference platform at Comdex next week in an effort to fuel support among server, workstation, and high-end desktop PC OEMs, said Jeff Mailloux, director of DRAM marketing for the Boise, Idaho, company. Mailloux said he expected the first OEM products using DDR PC266 SDRAM in all three sectors to be introduced in the first half of 2000. |
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The Register Files |
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Transmeta to come out of hiding next JanuaryBy Tony Smith November 11, 1999 |
Transmeta will launch its first processor on 19 January 2000, according to Germany's c't magazine, and not at Comdex next week after all.
The terse c't report claims the chip is codenamed Crusoe because it's aimed at the notebook market. In other words, we're talking about a low-power chip, which while nonetheless welcome does seem a tad less groovy than most of the rumours leaking (or purporting to leak) out of the mysterious silicon company have suggested. |
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Intel beset by further Coppermine, chipset delaysBy Mike Magee November 9, 1999 |
Lack of fast Coppermine chips from Intel is causing even big players in the PC industry to drastically adjust their schedules, costing them time, money and face.
Reliable reports say that Intel will not now be able to ship its 700MHz Pentium III part until January 2000 at the earliest, while there are also availability problems with a number of other components, as previously reported. |
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No hooplah to Intel Rambus performance, analyst claimsBy Mike Magee November 11, 1999 |
A semiconductor analyst has written a piece about Rambus and synchronous DRAM which appears to damn the former and praise the latter.
Bert McComas, over at InQuest, has posted a lengthy piece comparing the performance between DDR (double data rate) memory and Rambus. According to McComas, there is no perceptible performance benefit from moving to the Rambus platform, despite vaunted figures flourished by Intel at its last Developer Forum in September. |
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Merced, Pentium patents threatened in $8 billion suitBy Mike Magee November 11, 1999 |
Techsearch LLC, which earlier this year threatened Intel with all sorts of dire consequences, has won the first round in its legal fight against the chip giant.
The patent in question relates to technology first designed by a firm called International Meta, which was originally under the wing of Apple. International Meta went belly up and Techsearch LLC took over the patent, despite heated opposition from its shareholders, who lost cases against the lawyers earlier this year. |
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Chipzilla's Coppermine - we've got oneBy Pete Sherriff November 9, 1999 |
You might not be able to actually buy a Coppermine Pentium III right now, but early results from the RegMark Institute suggest you might want to put an order in - at least for one of the 100MHz FSB variants.
As one of the lucky few to have a 700MHz/100MHz FSB CuMine to try, we can report that it runs just fine in an Intel Sun River SR440BX, despite the BIOS initially refusing to let it run any faster than 650MHz - a quick tweak with NEWSPEED.EXE soon put things right. |
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Coppermines rise from the channel shallowsBy Mike Magee November 10, 1999 |
Two large distributors, Ingram Micro and Tech Data, have begun to offer Pentium III processors using the Coppermine .18 process to their dealer base.
According to one dealer, both distributors have "really good" availability on the 600EB, the 650MHz and the 666MHz part. Ingram is promising to have other of the parts in stock shortly, except for the 500E and the 550E Pentium IIIs. |
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AMD pumps up Athlon speed to 1GHz for ComdexBy Mike Magee November 9, 1999 |
Chip contender Advanced Micro Devices is now expected to demonstrate a 1GHz Athlon using a .18 micron process technology at next week's Comdex/Fall exhibition in Las Vegas.
At the same time, it will announce availability of the 750MHz Athlon, and is likely to show a .18 micron 800MHz part, either on the stand or behind closed doors. It will also introduce an ad campaign in the US this Saturday, focusing on the performance of the Athlon versus the Pentium III. |
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AMD confirms 750 Athlon a go-go, mentions Register in despatchesBy Mike Magee November 11, 1999 |
A conference call between analysts and chip firm Advanced Micro Devices has confirmed that a 750MHz Athlon is close to the starting gate.
AMD told the analysts that it had managed to produce a 750MHz Athlon ahead of all expectations, but also said that the average selling price of its flash memory had suffered degradation. Top tier OEMs will ship the Athlon 750MHz part, as revealed here earlier, while some analysts are speculating that AMD may break even this quarter. |
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Is Intel sorted for Es?By Peter Sherriff November 9, 1999 |
It's been some time since The Sherriff took a cheap shot at Chipzilla's marketing goons, so we reckon they're well overdue for a slapping, as some English chums might say.
What is it about Intel that it seems hell bent in confusing the world+dog at every opportunity? Not content with launching ten processors a week, Chipzilla insists on devising arcane numbering systems to ensure that no one has a clue about what CPU does what. Try going into Chips 'R' Us and asking the ten-year-old sales assistant to explain to you what the A, B and EB suffixes mean -- he won't have a clue, so what chance does the average user have? |
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November 9, 1999 |
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Acer pulls graphics ace out with ArtXBy Will Wade November 8, 1999 |
Acer Laboratories Inc. has teamed up with a new graphics partner, ArtX Inc., to deliver a core logic chip set that integrates a graphics controller, aimed at the Socket 7 PC
marketplace. The merger of graphics onto a north-bridge device has been seen as a dumping ground for lower-cost, aging graphics designs, but this partnership will use cutting-edge technology. The solution seems likely to stand out among other recent entries, including a new joint venture between Via Technologies and S3 Inc.
"If you look at the integrated graphics and core logic products available today, most feature trailing-edge graphics because they use older chips. This allows the companies to amortize the costs over time, and extends the life cycle of the design," said Rick Calle, director of marketing at ArtX (Palo Alto, Calif.). "We are going to turn this marketing approach on its end." |
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The Register Files |
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Via to intro new Athlon chipset, DDR desktop next weekBy Mike Magee November 8, 1999 |
Shaken but not stirred by repeated legal action Intel has taken against it since June, Via Technologies is to take the giant head on at Comdex/Fall next week.
Publicly, Via will unveil its long-awaited support for the AMD Athlon processor, a move that will further put heat on Intel. And sources close to the company say that Via will unveil a DDR (double data rate) synchronous memory strategy aimed at desktop PCs, rather than servers. This might be behind closed doors but Via doesn't seem to get scared very easily, so may well go public on the whole shebang. |
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Intel backs down on i740 supportBy Pete Sherriff November 8, 1999 |
Maybe Chipzilla is mellowing in its old age. The venerable i740 graphics chip may still be on the train to the gulag, but the chip behemoth has done a total U-turn on support.
Interactive support was discontinued a month or so back, but it would appear that users have been bombarding Intel with complaints about being left in the lurch to the extent that its support site now sports the following message: "Dear Intel740™ Graphics Accelerator Customer: Due to the overwhelming interest with the Intel740™ Graphics Accelerator, Intel is extending support for the Intel740™ product line. |
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Intel's Solano, Amador only a bubble'n'squeak awayBy Mike Magee November 8, 1999 |
The effect of Intel's debacle with the 820 Camino chipset has been to speed up development of its own PC-133 and Double Data Rate (DDR) chipsets, it has emerged.
Intel will move to fill a hole by adapting its 815 (Solano) chipset so that the generally poorly regarded graphics in the i810 and i810e will put an AGP 4X slot on motherboards, our sources still insist. That motherboard will also support PC-133 synchronous memory, rather than Rambus memory, a scheme set to satisfy a multitude of PC manufacturers who want to build inexpensive PCs that use the far cheaper, and also far more available, SDRAM memory. |
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| November 8, 1999 | ||
Court lifts injunction in Intel-Integraph caseBy Michael Kanellos November 5, 1999 |
Intergraph suffered a major defeat today in its legal battle with Intel as an appeals court ruled that the evidence does not support the argument that Intel is a monopolist.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today overturned an injunction in Intergraph vs. Intel that effectively held that Intel violated sections of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Specifically, the underlying injunction held that Intel held a monopoly in microprocessors and, as such, could not arbitrarily cut off supplies of chips and technical information to Intergraph. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Intergraph's antitrust case is dealt a severe setbackBy Tom Quinlan November 5, 1999 |
A federal appeals court has undermined severely Intergraph Computer Corp.'s claims that Intel Corp. violated the nation's antitrust laws, turning what had been a forum on Intel's overall business practices into a far more routine trial about a failed business relationship.
After suing Intel in 1997 for antitrust violations, patent infringement, breach of contract and interference with customer relationships, Intergraph was granted last year a temporary injunction -- largely on antitrust grounds -- that forced Intel to continue supplying Intergraph with products and technical information. It was that injunction that the three-judge panel vacated Friday. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Disputed chipset prompts new round of court filings from IntelBy Mark Hachman November 5, 1999 |
After apparently failing to directly prevent Via Technologies Inc. from manufacturing a controversial chipset line, Intel Corp. is now falling back on a time-honored tactic: blocking Via's customers from distributing it.
Three separate but related actions, filed a little less than a week ago in federal courts in San Jose, Singapore, and London, charge Via, board maker First International Computer Corp. (FIC), and several of FIC's customers with violating Intel patents. |
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S3 partnership offers Via technology edge, legal refugeBy Mark Hachman November 5, 1999 |
While more and more graphics and core-logic IC companies are joining hands to combine their technical resources, legal concerns appear to have pushed at least one courting couple into the equivalent of a shotgun marriage.
Graphics-chip vendor S3 Inc. and chipset house Via Technologies Inc. sanctified their un- ion with a joint venture this week, partly to refine their sales and marketing efforts, and partly to soothe fluttery customers concerned with legal recriminations from Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif. |
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Intel readies two chipsets for PC133 SDRAM interfaceBy Jack Robertson November 5, 1999 |
Hoping to make up for its belated decision to support next-generation
SDRAM, Intel Corp. will roll out two PC133-enabled chipsets in 2000: the Solano and a more full-featured device that sources last week identified as the
Amador.
In the meantime, Intel on Nov. 15 will introduce its twice-delayed Camino chipset, offering OEMs their first chance to build Direct Rambus DRAM into their desktop PCs. Recognizing that the market will only partially embrace the Rambus architecture, however, Intel has begun to solidify plans to offer chipsets that support an SDRAM interface, including PC133 and double-data-rate (DDR) PC266 SDRAM. |
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Intel to launch delayed 820 chip set at ComdexBy Terho Uimonen November 5, 1999 |
Intel will launch its long-awaited 820 chip set on Nov. 15, the opening day of the Comdex trade show held in Las Vegas, a spokeswoman at Intel's U.K. office confirmed on Friday.
Among the new features in the 820 chip set are support for Rambus' speedy memory interface technology, a faster 133-MHz system bus, and 4x Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP). Chip sets are key components found on PC motherboards, the printed circuit boards that define a system's functions. |
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The Register Files |
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AMD Athlons undercut equivalent Pentium IIIsBy Mike Magee November 5, 1999 |
The battle between AMD and Intel in the high end desktop sector seems to be getting more, rather than less intense. Bill Henning at CPU Review has just updated his regular comparison between Athlons and Intel's clocked at 500MHz, 550MHz and 600MHz, and has released figures showing the AMD parts are cheaper at both the low and the high end. |
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Intel postpones Celeron cuts as Slot 1 shortage bitesBy Mike Magee November 6, 1999 |
Chip giant Intel was scheduled to make one of its now very frequent cuts on its low-end Celeron processors this weekend.
But PC manufacturers tell us that the company has now postponed such action, and will make the cuts at a later date. That comes as Intel's customers find themselves faced with a shortage on all Slot 1 parts, as revealed here at the end of October. |
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How much is that Rambus in the window? Woof, woofBy Mike Magee November 5, 1999 |
Now that Intel has finally confirmed that it will introduce the i820 chipset, and presumably its VC820 (Vancouver) and its CC820 (Cape Cod) motherboards too, it's worth looking at what you will get for your dollars.
Although Intel will use Comdex/Fall to demo its flagship chipset and the Coppermine processors it recently announced, that does not mean that it will be all that easy to go out, buy a mobo, stick in a 733MHz part and a couple of Rambus RIMMs for the VC820 platform. |
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Today's Related Stories |
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Court lifts injunction on requiring chip maker to disclose informationNovember 5, 1999 |
In another blow to Intergraph's antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corp., a federal appeals court Friday lifted an order requiring the chip maker to turn over certain proprietary information to Intergraph.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that forcing Intel to give Intergraph access to confidential information and product supply was a drastic remedy. For it to apply, the court said, Intergraph would have to show that Intel had violated antitrust law. |
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Intel wins round in legal battle with IntergraphBy Robert Ristelhueber November 5, 1999 |
Intel Corp. on Friday (Nov. 5) won a favorable ruling from a federal appeals court, which lifted a lower-court order that compelled Intel to provide microprocessor technology to Intergraph Corp. (Huntsville, Ala.)
The Appeals Court ruled that Intergraph had not shown a substantial likelihood of success in its antitrust lawsuit against Intel. A federal trial judge earlier had found that Intel was a monopolist, and that Intergraph had the right to receive advance product information and samples of upcoming microprocessors. |
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