Collected By Robert R. Collins

Week of July 22, 2001

Older News

Intel drops Rambus subsidies

By John G. Spooner

July 25, 2001, 12:40 p.m. PT
Semiconductor Business News

The chipmaker, as expected, has begun efforts to phase out subsidies for PC makers using RDRAM, high-speed memory based on designs by struggling chip company Rambus.

Intel says the subsidies, which include a rebate for PC makers and a Pentium 4/RDRAM bundle, are no longer necessary to lower prices and increase availability of RDRAM, which initially was the only memory supported by the Pentium 4.

Intel to end Rambus discount program

By Jack Robertson

July 24, 2001
EBN

An Intel spokesman said the price premium of Direct RDRAM memory has dropped sharply and Intel no longer needs the bundling incentive to spur Pentium 4 sales. Up to this point, Pentium 4 is supported solely by Rambus DRAM chips.

DDR SDRAMs will leave Rambus' RDRAMs in the dust by early 2002, says Elpida's CEO

By Mark LaPedus

July 24, 2001
Semiconductor Business News

Elpida--a joint DRAM venture between Japan's Hitachi Ltd. and NEC Corp.--claims that the majority of its DRAM shipments are based on the SDRAM architecture right now.

Intel, AMD square off over standard

By Stephen Shankland

July 25, 2001
C/Net

In February, Intel archrival AMD introduced a technology called HyperTransport to connect CPUs to other chips handling tasks such as networking or connections to the PCI data pathway. In a surprise move Tuesday, Apple announced it's one of the eight companies in charge of the newly-formed HyperTransport Technology Consortium that will govern the technology and license it to companies building it into their products.

AMD turns over management of HyperTransport bus to new consortium

July 24, 2001
Semiconductor Business News

In the works for months, the HyperTransport Technology Consortium consists of AMD, API Networks, Apple, Cisco, Nvidia, PMC-Sierra, Sun Microsystems, and Transmeta.

AMD studies use of silicon-28 wafers for MPUs, says Isonics

July 24, 2001
Semiconductor Business News

Silicon-28 material offers potential benefits in high-thermal conductivity, according to Isonics, which has been developing isotopically engineered wafers and chemicals for semiconductor fabrication. Earlier this year, the Colorado company hinted that a major microprocessor had become a development partner, but it only last week did Isonics identify AMD as that company.

Paul Engel says AMD chip broken

By Mike Magee

July 24, 2001
The Inquirer

It appears that some AMD Athlon and Duron chips are duff, said Paul, eager that our devoted readers should learn of the glitch.

In fact, we believe we saw this story up on the Wide World Web about a week ago, but as we know Mr Engel is concerned about the state of AMD, we shall point to Van's piece here.

RMBS share price slumps again

By Mike Magee

July 25, 2001
The Inquirer

At close of play on Wall Street yesterday, RMBS stood at $8.30, quite a difference from the $95 and above highs that used to characterise its share price.

The heights and depths to which RMBS share plunged now seem to have stabilised, with many analysts apparently now choosing to ignore what once was a Wall Street darling stock.

SiS Pentium 4 DDR chipset details leak

By Tony Smith

July 25, 2001
The Register

SiS' chipset, the SiS 645, comprises a Northbridge part of the same name and a Southbridge called the SiS 961. Connecting the two is a 533MBps bus.

The Northbridge supports PC333 and PC266 DDR memory and PC133 SDRAM - up to 3GB of it. It connects to the P4 over a 400MHz frontside bus. Oh, and it supports an AGP 4x bus too.

Intel and AMD lock horns in 0.13-micron battle

By Jack Robertson

July 23, 2001
EBN

The stakes are immense for both companies. The move to a new process generation promises significant advantages in terms of increased processor performance, lower manufacturing costs, and the ability to integrate a greater range of functions on chip.

Consumers are saying yes, so why won't business do AMD?

July 23, 2001
IT-Director

The article, by Linda Harrison, states that both Compaq and IBM estimate 50% of their consumer PCs run on AMD, while HP claim the fab Dresden all-stars account for 6 out of 20 of their consumer sales.

All round this is pretty stunning news. AMD spent most of the mid 90s on the wrong end of a kicking from Intel. With share prices dropping and the writing being writ large in weather-resistant poly-textured paint wherever you looked in the releavant press, AMD made a gamble on quality.

Casio to Debut Crusoe-Based A5-Size Notebook PC for Business Use

July 23, 2001
Asia BizTech

The new business-use PC comes pre-installed with Windows 2000 Professional.

In addition to the features in existing models for individual consumers, Casio added a recovery system that would enable users to do a recovery from the hard disk without a recovery CD-ROM in the event the OS cannot be started because of system failure. The product will be market-priced and is expected to be available in late August.

Transmeta meets reduced forecast

By Reuters

July 19, 2001
C/Net

For the quarter that ended June 29, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Transmeta posted a loss of $69.3 million, or 54 cents a share, including charges. That compares with a loss of $23.8 million, or 73 cents, in the second quarter last year.

Sales rose to $10.5 million in the second quarter from $354,000 in the same period last year but were down sharply from $18.6 million last quarter.

Intel to kill 100MHz notebook FSB

By Mike Magee

July 23, 2001
The Inquirer

The move to a 133MHz FSB will start in the second quarter of next year, at which time all new speed steps will cope with this bus speed.

By the same quarter, we will see 1.7GHz Northwood Pentium 4s, aimed at the so-called "full size notebook market", with Intel moving that speed to 2GHz and over by the third quarter 2002.

Pentium III suffers fake death

By Mike Magee

July 21, 2001
The Inquirer

Indeed, as general manager Paul Otellini told the financial community earlier this week, there is a plan to accelerate pricing to make the Pentium 4 become as cheap as $800 a system in this quarter.

And yes, the plan is to replace all Pentium III processor based designs with Pentium 4 processor based designs.

AMD and Intel's endgame

By Mike Magee

July 20, 2001
The Inquirer

Far from there being any letup in the furious price action between AMD and Intel, it is becoming increasingly obvious to us here at the INQUIRER that the chip giant is opening up additional fronts in its bid to stem the loss of market share.

Intel bangs Rambus drum noisily

By Mike Magee

July 20, 2001
The Inquirer

Two days ago we reported that Intel still officially views RDRAM memory as the choice for its top end Pentium 4 systems and will incorporate future Rambus technology in its "Tulloch" chipset, to be unveiled in Q3 next year.

Intel Banias SoC part to ensure PIII lives on

By Tony Smith

July 20, 2001
The Register

But the chip will live on, in Banias, Intel's second attempt at building a system-on-a-chip part.

Via's one chip system

By Fuad Abazovic

July 19, 2001
The Inquirer

Matthew is an on chip solution that includes all that you need to have a functional system. This will for the first time introduce a CPU, a graphics chip and a chipset all on a single chip.

Intel's Mobile Roadmap

By Tony Smith

July 20, 2001
The Register

Despite the major dash forward shown by Intel's desktop release schedule, the mobile roadmap remains relatively unchanged. O.13 micron parts will appear as will 0.18 micron Coppermine-T parts, but the former will come to dominate chip launches by early next year, replace first Coppermines then the more advanced Coppermine-Ts.

Fantastic Itanium product ships

By Mike Magee

July 23, 2001
The Inquirer

And just to show that Intel does indeed ship fantastic IA-64 products, here on the left is an Itanium pen the outfit gave us last week that spookily glows in the dark when you start writing. These pens are useful to hacks trying to scribble down stuff when the lights go down, of course.