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| Top Stories for March 16, 2001 (details below) | |
| C/Net | Rambus shares plunge on talk of trial ruling |
| TechWeb News | Intel's 1-GHz Mobile Chip To Launch Monday |
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The Register Files |
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| The Register | Racketeer Act enters Rambus Infineon discussions |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of March 11, 2001 |
Older News |
| March 16, 2001 | |
Rambus shares plunge on talk of trial rulingBy Michael Kanellos March 15, 2001 |
Shares in memory designer Rambus fell more than 30 percent Thursday after reports that the judge presiding over the company's lawsuit against chipmaker Infineon may limit the scope of Rambus' patent claims.
Rambus shares close regular trading down $11.26, to $24.09. The slide follows a report on Electronic News that asserts U.S. District Judge Robert Payne will limit the scope of Rambus' claims against Infineon. The story is based on anonymous sources. |
Intel's 1-GHz Mobile Chip To Launch MondayBy Mark Hachman March 15, 2001 |
Intel Corp. will announce its 1-GHz mobile Pentium III on Monday, sources said, almost certainly beating rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to the punch.
Intel and AMD have dueled before, both pre-announcing 1-GHz desktop Pentium IIIs last year. But this time is different: Intel's customers—OEMs such as Dell Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and IBM—have finished notebooks waiting to ship. |
The Register Files |
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Racketeer Act enters Rambus Infineon discussionsBy Mike Magee March 15, 2001 |
A report on Electronic News said that US judge Robert E Payne made a pre-trial ruling yesterday that may destroy Rambus' claims that it holds vital patents on double data rate (DDR) and synchronous memory
(SDRAM).
But according to Bloomberg, quoting Infineon lawyer Robert Tyler, no such ruling was issued yesterday. Yesterday, the judge heard arguments in connection with the Rico Act. Rico stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. |
| March 15, 2001 | |
Judge's
Ruling Could Kill Rambus
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A judge has made a pre-trial ruling limiting the scope of Rambus Inc.’s patents in the U.S. court case against Infineon Technologies AG, according to industry sources close to the case.
This afternoon’s ruling by judge Robert E Payne, who is hearing the case in the U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., could kill Rambus’ (nasdaq: RMBS) royalty claims on SDRAM and double data rate (DDR) memory, sources said. |
Athlon-based notebooks hit a snagBy John G. Spooner and Michael Kanellos March 14, 2001 |
Athlon-based notebooks from top-tier PC makers will arrive fashionably late this year.
Notebooks that run on Palomino--a version of Advanced Micro Devices' Athlon processor that consumes less power than standard Athlon chips--could come out as soon as next month, according to sources close to the chipmaker. But models from top-tier PC makers will likely show up a lot later. Industry sources indicate that major PC makers have recently pushed back until June or July plans to introduce notebooks based on the processors. Compaq Computer and Hewlett-Packard are among the major manufacturers expected to adopt the chip. |
Intel reorganizes business units, executivesBy Michael Kanellos March 14, 2001 |
Intel will merge its networking and communications divisions and has shifted its top-level management in a way that will likely heat up speculation over who might eventually succeed CEO Craig Barrett.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker announced Wednesday it will combine its Network Communications Group, which designs processors for telecommunications equipment, with its Communications Product Group, which makes servers and networking equipment, into a single business unit. |
Intel pushes back opening of Ireland plantBy Bloomberg News March 14, 2001 |
Ireland--Intel said it will further delay starting production at a new semiconductor plant in Ireland, as the chipmaker copes with falling demand and slowing economic growth.
The company will open the $2 billion factory in Leixlip, outside Dublin, in the third quarter of 2003 instead of the second half of 2002, spokesman Chuck Mulloy said. The move comes a week after Intel said first-quarter sales will miss its previous estimate, the third straight period in which the company has cut its targets midquarter. Sales will fall 25 percent from the prior period, as customers work through leftover chip inventory they bought before demand slumped, the company said. |
SiS unveils dual-mode memory modules to support DDRBy Faith Hung March 14, 2001 |
Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. has released the 184-pin SDR/DDR share mode memory modules for its new generation chipsets that support DDR DRAM.
SiS, a core logic and graphics chipset supplier, said that the new modules are designed to address issues facing motherboard manufacturers while transitioning from the current 168-pin SDRAM DIMM to the 184-pin DDR DIMM application platform. |
The Register Files |
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Crime fraud element enters Rambus caseBy Mike Magee March 14, 2001 |
A flurry of public pre-trial documents in the up-and-coming case of Rambus versus Infineon has revealed that both parties are now arguing over whether crime-fraud exceptions can be made in evidence.
In a deposition filed on the 7th of March and now available as Docket 164 on the Rambusite pages, Robert E Payne, the judge in the jury case, which starts on the 20th of March in Richmond, Virginia*, set aside a Rambus claim for summary judgement, and, further, allowed Infineon to depose a number of people including Geoff Tate and Neil Steinberg in the case concerning licensing terms. |
| March 14, 2001 | |
Rambus signs Matsushita to license for controllersMarch 13, 2001 |
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. and Rambus Inc. said they have signed a patent license agreement for SDRAM controllers and Double Data Rate
(DDR) controllers that directly interface with these types of memory.
Matsushita is Rambus' first logic-only SDRAM and DDR controller licensee, the companies said. |
SiS claims to ship chipset for Intel's TualatinMarch 13, 2001 |
Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) of Taiwan Tuesday claimed it is shipping production quantities of a single-data rate SDRAM chipset and also a double-data rate
(DDR) chipset for Intel Corp.'s upcoming Tualatin 1.13-gigahertz Pentium III processor.
Intel is slated to unveil Tualatin at midyear, using its new 0.13-micron processing technology. Intel itself will modify its existing 815 chipset to support Tualatin, and will be competing head-on with SiS and other third party vendors also planning to jump into the market. |
Transmeta's new tag teamBy Michael Kanellos March 13, 2001 |
Unlike a lot of recent management shuffles, the changing of the executive guard at chipmaker Transmeta was celebrated by the brass as a planned photo-op.
And for good reason. Company founder Dave Ditzel, who guided the start-up from its inception in 1995, is sticking around as vice chairman. But he's also stepping into a role more suited to his background--chief technology officer--while turning over the CEO reigns to Mark Allen. |
Transmeta taking Linux gadgets mobileBy Stephen Shankland March 13, 2001 |
Transmeta, the employer of Linux founder Linus Torvalds, has released Midori Linux, its version of Linux for mobile devices.
Transmeta, which sells low-power, Intel-compatible processors called Crusoe, previously referred to Midori as Mobile Linux. Transmeta has been working on the Midori additions to Linux for more than a year. Now it has released the software as an open-source project at VA Linux Systems' SourceForge site. |
The Register Files |
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Itanic Zombies check into Motel of DistinctionBy Andrew Orlowski March 13, 2001 |
Intel has fleshed out its www.itanium.com page, although the website, much like the moribund processor itself, promises much more than it actually delivers.
Itanium.com features the bug-eyed Blue Men Group striking a particularly un-dead pose (zombie flick auteur George Romero may have been advising on this shot, we suspect) and if the central Blue Man isn't Bez from Happy Mondays, we’ll eat our maracas. |
AMD Palomino, Morgan slide back on scheduleBy Tony Smith March 13, 2001 |
AMD may not have delayed Palomino, ClawHammer and co. after all. The updated AMD desktop processor roadmap published yesterday by Germany's c't magazine doesn't appear to be quite as up-to-date as we had first supposed.
That, at least, is what a presentation AMD's president and COO, Hector Ruiz, made to the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Semiconductor and Systems Conference on 6 March suggests. Along with much pro-AMD fluff, the presentation contains a processor roadmap which pretty much matches the one we saw last December. |
Intel boxes clever on mobiles, desktop chipsetsBy Mike Magee March 13, 2001 |
The Celeron can't be long for this world, can it?
Customers, oh yes, are important to Chipzilla, but the lumpen proletariat to Intel is its distributor and dealer channel, which is almost the last to know what the company is up to. (The last to know is usually the press or possibly the end user who after all only pays through the nose for PCs.) This causes rather understandable anger in what's whimsically called the channel, a term which includes small system integrators as well as giant distributors like Ingram Micro. |
| March 13, 2001 | |
AMD's Athlon lands slot in IBM's server lineBy Jack Robertson March 11, 2001 |
Putting another dent in Intel's armor, IBM Corp. will shortly introduce a line of front-end network servers using dual Athlon processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., making it the latest OEM to break ranks and put AMD MPUs in its corporate systems.
IBM will be among the first tier-one companies to design Athlon into a server line. Sun Microsystems is using older AMD K6-II chips in a low-cost front-end server offered through Sun's Cobalt division. Compaq Computer, NEC, and Micron Electronics have selected Athlons for high-end workstations and business desktop PCs. |
Intel tries to extend life
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Intel is to try and get PC component makers to reduce power consumption in order to reverse the increasing demands on laptop battery life.
Scheduled to begin later this year, Intel's ambitious program will be a major step towards realising the company's vision of a full-size notebook computer that can run all day on a single battery charge. The program, still under wraps at Intel, will create power consumption guidelines for the makers of monitors, fans, drives and other laptop components. It will also establish a budget for power consumption in all future Intel-based laptops, according to an Intel source who at one point referred to the program as 'Here-um'. |
The downcycle begins? Intel can't see 'a lot of hope'By Anthony Clark March 9, 2001 |
Intel has issued its gloomiest sales warning in recent times - and its third in successive quarters - seriously undermining the chip sector's claims that the current slowdown is merely an inventory correction.
Andy Bryant, chief financial officer, officially kept to the received wisdom of a better second half for 2001. But he added an important caveat when outlining his company's view of near term prospects during a conference call. |
Intel giveth, Intel taketh awayBy Ashlee Vance March 12, 2001 |
Looking to cut costs in a tough economic climate, Intel has postponed until next year a plan to provide free PCs to all its employees in the U.S., a senior Intel official said Friday.
The chip giant first announced the scheme in March of last year. It planned to provide each of its 87,000 employees worldwide with a free high-performance PC and bundled Internet access. The goal was to make its workforce more Web savvy and bring the benefits of Internet access to its staff and their families, Intel said at the time. |
National says new 333-MHz Geode GX1 is 'easy' on the eyesMarch 12, 2001 |
An enhancement to the Geode GX1 processor from National Semiconductor Corp. will speed up synchronous DRAM performance in systems by 10% and provide users of thin-client devices with improved graphics, said the Santa Clara chip maker.
The 333-MHz Geode GX1-333 and a new CS5530A companion chip from National supports display resolution of 1,280-x-1,924-x-16-bit/pixel color depth at 85-MHz screen refresh rates, said the company today (March 12). According to National, the improved display performance will reduce system user eyestrain. |
The Register Files |
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AMD Palomino, Morgan slide to JulyBy Tony Smith March 12, 2001 |
AMD's Palomino processor - the next-generation Athlon - will not ship until July, according to a revised desktop roadmap leaked to Germany's c't magazine.
Palomino, the successor to the current Athlon core, Thunderbird, was originally due to ship this quarter at over 1.2GHz, according to a roadmap we saw at the tail end of 2000. We're now looking at Palomino coming in at 1.4GHz, presumably because AMD has managed to get Thunderbird up to 1.3GHz and wants to give it some room to sell before bringing in the faster part. Palomino will begin sampling next quarter. |
| March 12, 2001 | |
Transmeta notebooks on fast track to U.S.By Michael Kanellos March 9, 2001 |
A slew of notebooks that incorporate Transmeta's Crusoe processor will hit the United States over the next two months, including one that includes both a Windows operating system and a version of Linux.
This spring, Casio will release its Crusoe -based Fiva notebook in the United States, according to the company. Among other features, the Fiva runs on Windows 2000 but also comes with version of Linux that lets consumers skirt the Windows boot-up when it comes to certain applications. |
Via shares surge on report of HP's interestBy Bloomberg News March 7, 2001 |
Via Technologies shares surged Wednesday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange after a report that Hewlett-Packard may buy processors from the chip designer for use in new notebooks.
Via shares rose to their 7 percent limit after Salomon Smith Barney Securities issued a report asserting that Hewlett-Packard and other major PC makers may buy from Via. The report also asserts that the company's market share in its mainstay chipset business will increase. |
Rambus trial could hinge on patent datesBy Jack Robertson March 9, 2001 |
The first trial to air antitrust charges against Rambus Inc. will delve into what opponents say are contradictory claims related to the dates Rambus filed patent applications for its synchronous-interface technology.
The outcome, according to observers, will profoundly influence a raging control issue: whether one company or an entire industry owns rights to technology used in virtually every DRAM made today. |
DDR makers wrestle with interoperability issuesBy Jack Robertson March 9, 2001 |
Memory chip makers are working to solve interoperability issues with their double-data-rate SDRAM parts, which in some instances have prevented customers from using modules from different suppliers in a common platform.
In a year when many vendors hope the emergence of DDR SDRAM will excite growth and shore up prices in the memory market, companies are scrambling to tighten their timing signal and impedance specifications to make sure DIMMs from different sources will work in desktop PC and other computing systems. |
AMD downgraded because of Intel warningBy Reuters March 9, 2001 |
Robertson Stephens said on Friday it lowered earnings estimates on semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. because the slowdown in the personal computer market has spread to non-PC related businesses.
``Intel last night in its pre-announcement conference call indicated that the slowdown seen over the last few quarters in the PC market now has spread to its non-PC related businesses -- namely, server, cell phone, and networking products -- across all sectors and geographies,'' analyst Eric Rothdeutsch said in a research note. |
Global woes a part of Intel's worriesBy Margaret Kane March 9, 2001 |
Analysts said Friday they are worried that Intel's job cuts and warning of a revenue shortfall could be a sign of trouble overseas.
Intel shares fell $3.94, or more than 11 percent, to $29.31. The giant chipmaker said Thursday that first-quarter revenue would be off 25 percent from the fourth quarter, at about $6.5 billion. It had previously told investors that sales were expected to drop 15 percent in the quarter. The company also announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its workforce. |
Intel's MPU inventory builds up while it plans new capacity
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Intel Corp.'s internal inventory of microprocessors is reaching the upper end of its acceptable range despite the fact that customers have managed to reduce their supplies of MPUs in most locations, according to company executives. The internal inventory buildup underscores just how bad the computer business is being hit by weakening economic conditions around the world.
"I have a pretty good idea of what we will have in the warehouse when we finish this quarter and quiet frankly it is as much as I would want," said Andy D. Bryant, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Intel. The CFO would not release inventory estimates during a conference call with analysts on Thursday, but he said Intel's supply of processors was at the top range of acceptable levels. |
Anxiety grows about chip outlookBy Bolaji Ojo March 9, 2001 |
Barely halfway into what many industry forecasts projected would be a four-year expansion, semiconductor companies are staring at the possibility of a long downturn and wondering when the market will swing up again.
This week, several top chip makers, including No. 1 microprocessor supplier Intel Corp., further muddied the waters by announcing sharp declines in first-quarter sales. Their announcements helped douse expectations that a turnaround was possible within the next two quarters. |
IT wary of trade-offs in 'ultradense' serversBy Ken Popovich March 9, 2001 |
A new crop of ultrathin servers on tap from computer makers may not be all they're cracked up to be.
In recent weeks, a number of computer makers have disclosed plans to market new rack-mounted server designs that can pack four times as many processors as today's common rack configurations. Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp., IBM and Intel Corp. are among the leading companies that have disclosed plans to market the new designs in the coming months. In addition, several startup companies have entered the fray, including RLX Technologies (headed by Compaq co-founder Gary Stimac), FiberCycle Networks Inc. and Rebel.com. |
The Register Files |
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Register becomes part of Rambus trialBy Mike Magee March 11, 2001 |
The legal squabble between Rambus and Infineon over who owns the rights to DDR and SDRAM patents has taken a further twist with the Los Altos firm filing a response to witness testimony from Dr P.Michael Farmwald and Richard Crisp which seems to fly in the face of evidence we can offer.
According to the deposition, filed on the 2nd of March in the run up to the court case now set to begin on the 20th of March, and which you can find in its entirety here , testimony from ex-Rambus employee Richard Crisp, while being "extrinsic to say the least", is sort of irrelevant anyway because his association with Rambus Ink "ended in 1996". |
Intel puts dicks in legal viceBy Mike Magee March 9, 2001 |
The chip company which once tried to trademark the letter 'i', a squiggly loop and the word surfboard, has now turned its attention to a retired group of private dicks, otherwise known as investigators.
According to sources close to US firm Intelnetworks, the Intel Corp has recently made a call to the non-profit organisation and ticked them off for using the "intel" prefix. Intelnetworks Inc has no computer element to its business. |
DRAM drama: cheaper than beerBy Linda Harrison March 9, 2001 |
It is cheaper to buy a DRAM chip than a beer with the way memory prices have been nosediving this month.
The spot price for 64Mb PC 100 DRAM chips has dropped eight per cent to $2.08 in the last week. Today memory reseller Insight was offering 128Mb PC 100 DIMMs for £33.99. An Insight salesperson said prices were "at rock bottom" at the moment, but were about "to rocket". |
VIA to get 0.13 micron Cyrix III out ahead of Intel TualatinBy Tony Smith March 9, 2001 |
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company will fab the next-but-one version of VIA's Cyrix III processor, codenamed the C5C and dubbed Ezra.
TSMC will produce the part at 0.13 micron, which is a revision of VIA's Samuel II CPU, marketed as the Cyrix III. The smaller size of the chip will allow it to achieve speeds of 1GHz and up, VIA reckons. |
AMD out on memory rebate limbBy Mike Magee March 10, 2001 |
Microprocessor manufacturers including Intel and Via are likely to step up rebates on memory bundled with their chips during the course of this year but AMD may find itself a wallflower at the annual Mobo and Reseller Hop.
The reason for that is that both chip giant Intel and plucky not-so-little Via have very close relationships with memory manufacturers while AMD seems to have neglected to cement the relationships its CPU competitors have. |
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