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| Top Stories for September 21, 2001 (details below) | |
| EE Times | Via sues Intel in U.S. court |
| Semiconductor Business News | Via accuses Intel of violating patent for storage of formats in MPUs |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
| The Inquirer | VIA debuts radical new CPU packaging |
| The Inquirer | Memory misery deepens |
| The Register | VIA cans 800MHz C3 |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of September 16, 2001 |
Older News |
| September 21, 2001 | |
Via sues Intel in U.S. courtBy Mike Clendenin September 20, 2001 |
Via Technologies Inc. is suing Intel Corp. — again. The Taiwan
core logic maker filed suit Wednesday (Sept. 19) in U.S.
Federal District Court in Austin, Texas, spelling out the
patent infringement it alleged in a similar lawsuit filed in
Taiwan last week. The company is seeking monetary damages and
a prohibition on the sale of Pentium 4 processors. Via claims that Intel's Pentium 4 processors "infringe, contribute to the infringement of, or induce others to infringe" a Via patent that concerns "different formats in which numeric data may be stored in a microprocessor." The intellectual property (U.S. Patent No. 6,253,311) in question is co-owned by Via and Centaur Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of Via that handles its microprocessor design. |
Via accuses Intel of violating patent for storage of formats in MPUsSeptember 20, 2001 |
Via Technologies Inc. today stepped up its legal counterattack
against Intel Corp. by providing more details about a U.S.
patent lawsuit filed against the microprocessor giant. Last
week, Via disclosed it had filed a counter suit against Intel,
which is suing the Taiwan chip maker for infringement of
Pentium 4 chip-set technology. Today, Via officials said the company was suing Intel in a U.S. District Court in Austin, Tex., alleging that the Pentium 4 violates a U.S. patent that covers different formats in which numeric data may be stored in a microprocessor. The patent is jointly owned by Via and its wholly-owned subsidiary Centaur Technology in Austin. |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
VIA debuts radical new CPU packagingBy Andrew Thomas September 20, 2001 |
VIA has a special edition of its 800MHz C3 Processor in what
it calls 'Cool Chip In A Can' packaging. That's interesting,
we thought, will this be FCPGA, some new Slot format or what? Unfortunately, when we read on, the truth turned out to be a tad more prosaic - it's the box the thing comes in, the chip itself is unchanged. Available in limited quantities only, the special packaging will be distributed first in Japan and will later be released worldwide. |
Memory misery deepensBy Paul Hales September 19, 2001 |
Memory chip makers face another six months of misery says
Powerchip Semiconductor president Michael Tsai, the China
Daily reports. ‘We think the downturn is probably going to continue for another two or three quarters, he told reporters. ‘"We were expecting a comeback. It's just not going to happen." Tsai said the smaller Dramurai would be lining up behind their favoured top tier DRAM firm, Samsung Electronics or Micron Technologies. He said rumours suggested Micron would use its financial muscle to elbow out some smaller players. "I think we are in Micron's camp,’ he is reported as saying. |
VIA cans 800MHz C3By Tony Smith September 20, 2001 |
In a bid for a little publicity for the chip, big in China but
not too popular throughout the rest of the PC using world, VIA
is offering its 800MHz C3 in a "special edition" metal can
aimed at individuals building their own PC or upgrading an
existing processor. The 'Cool Chip in a Can' edition will be sold initially in Japan and later through the rest of the world, where it will become the latest in a long line of silly packaging designed to tickle the fancy of consumers. Our particular favourite is the original version of graphics application Painter, which shipped in a... er... paint can. |
| September 20, 2001 | |
Intel drops dual-processor XeonBy Jerry Ascierto September 19, 2001 |
Intel Corp. has cancelled the release of a dual processor
version of its current Xeon line for servers, slated for the
second half of this year. The chip, part of the Foster generation, would've been manufactured on 0.18-micron CMOS with speeds reaching 1.7Ghz. But due to unnamed difficulties in bringing that chip up to speed in time, it will now be replaced with a more powerful part, code-named Prestonia. |
Intel cancels one Xeon, accelerates anotherBy Michael Kanellos September 19, 2001 |
Intel has scrapped plans for a 2GHz Xeon processor for servers
but has accelerated release of a 2.2GHz Xeon with enhanced
performance features to fill the gap. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker had planned to release a 2GHz version of Xeon for two-processor servers in the fourth quarter of this year, according to an Intel representative. That project has now been snuffed. However, the company will now release "Prestonia," the code name for a 2.2GHz Xeon for dual-processor servers, at the beginning of the first quarter of 2002 rather than toward the end of the quarter. A 2GHz Xeon for two-processor workstations will come out in September. |
VIA Releases Special Edition of the VIA C3 800MHz Processor "Cool Chip In A Can" PackagingBy Brandon Hill September 19, 2001 |
VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer
of core logic chipsets, microprocessors, and multimedia
and communications chips, today launched a special edition of
the VIA C3(tm) 800MHz processor in distinctive new packaging.
Available in limited quantities only, the unique "cool chip in
a can" packaging will be distributed first in Japan and will
later be released worldwide through VIA's global distribution
channels. In stark contrast to the industry's standard retail box designs, the special edition package consists of a brightly colored alloy container that measures 7.3cm (height) X 10.5cm (caliber). Its contents are the same as the standard VIA C3(tm) processor retail box, which includes a ball-bearing fan and heatsink, as well as a multi-lingual installation manual and three-year limited warranty. Hologram stickers guarantee the authenticity of the processor and ensure peace of mind for both retailers and consumers |
Intel and Rambus sign five-year patent licensing agreementBy David Lammers September 18, 2001 |
Rambus Inc. and Intel Corp. said Monday (Sept. 17) that they
have reached a patent cross-licensing agreement that will
extend for five years and may put about $10 million into
Rambus' coffers each quarter. Under the agreement, Rambus (Los Altos, Calif.) will get access to Intel's interface technology, including Infiniband-related patents, while Intel will be able to use all of Rambus' patented intellectual property, including the synchronous interface patents that have proved so contentious over the past two years in various court battles. |
Intel expected to introduce 533MHz front side busBy Jack Robertson September 19, 2001 |
Intel Corp. will shortly introduce a 533-MHz front-side
processor bus for the Pentium 4 processor, according to
industry sources. The faster bus is a logical extension of a quad-pumped 133-MHz bus that Intel developed for the previous Penitum III generation. An Intel processor spokesman said only that the firm "hasn't talked about a 533-MHz FSB." The reported new bus would offer higher performance and take greater advantage of the PC266 double data rate memory, which would have a compatible clock speed match. |
AMD's Athlon: Give me an X...Give me a PBy Michael Kanellos September 18, 2001 |
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices will call its upcoming
desktop processor the Athlon XP in what seems to be an odd
marketing coincidence. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD next month will release a 1.5GHz Athlon desktop processor. Unlike current chips that merely go by the name "Athlon," the new chip and its successors will carry the XP suffix, similar to Windows XP, the name of Microsoft's next operating system. |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
SpeedStep notebook problems continueBy Mike Magee September 17, 2001 |
READERS WHO BOUGHT Dell and other laptops under the impression
they implemented Intel power management technology SpeedStep,
only to find they do not, are still complaining that their
problems are being ignored. Earlier this year, Dell shipped some notebook PCs using a desktop rather than a notebook chipset to customers but in a laptop chassis. |
AMD processors crash and burnBy Andrew Thomas September 18, 2001 |
Those wacky funsters over at Tom's Hardware have put together
a video of unimaginable cruelty - four processors are tested
with the heatsinks removed, two from Intel and two from AMD. We recommend you download the video (all 9Mb of it) from here. You'll also need the Divx plugin (700K) which can be found at the same place. It's a right riveting viewing experience and genuinely hot stuff. |
AMD-Intel battle takes techie twistBy Mike Magee September 17, 2001 |
THE TANTALISING WORDS Intel used about its Jackson
simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) at its Developer Forum last
month seem to hint at a Holy Grail which may or may not be
realised in the near future. But the significance of SMT, and for that matter symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), to Intel cannot be understated, particularly since the chip giant has acquired Compaq (DEC) engineers who already have implemented some aspects of the technology in the Alpha chip. |
TSMC yields better than Intel's?By Andrew Thomas September 18, 2001 |
David Sheng, senior director of advanced technology product
marketing at Taiwanese foundry TSMC, has done the unthinkable
and divulged details of the yields the company is achieving
across a range of its products. Semiconductor firms have traditionally clammed up when asked about what percentage of their output actually works and what percentage is only good for making key fobs, so TSMC's openness is to be warmly applauded. |
| September 17, 2001 | |
Former Intel engineer pleads guilty to stealing trade secretsBy Howard Mintz September 14, 2001 |
A former Intel engineer Friday pleaded guilty to stealing
technology from the chip giant, ending the first criminal case
brought in Silicon Valley under a stricter 1996 federal
trade-secrets law. In a brief hearing in federal court in San Jose, Say Lye Ow, a 30-year-old Malaysian national, pleaded guilty to one felony count of illegally copying Intel technology when he left the company in 1998. Ow originally was charged with stealing materials connected to the design and testing of Intel's Itanium microprocessor, now used for high-end servers. |
AMD: Intel is 'devaluing' megahertzBy Ken Popovich August 29, 2001 |
Intel is "devaluing the meaning of megahertz" with its Pentium
4 design, charges rival chip maker Advanced Micro Devices,
which claims the chip's design makes Intel's frequency claims
misleading. Just over a year ago, AMD proudly proclaimed its success in beating Intel to the 1GHz level with its Athlon chip. But now, following Intel's release of a 2GHz Pentium 4, the smaller chip maker is crying foul. AMD representatives this week sought out reporters attending the Intel Developers Forum in San Jose, Calif., to raise awareness of the issue. |
Intel 'hyperthreading' doubles chip powerBy Michael Kanellos August 28, 2001 |
Intel showed off a new chip technology Tuesday that, if
successful, will allow one chip to act like two. Called "hyperthreading," the new technology essentially takes advantage of formerly unused circuitry on the Pentium 4 that lets the chip operate far more efficiently--and almost as well as a dual-processor computer. With it, a desktop can run two different applications simultaneously or run a single application much faster than it would on a standard one-processor box. |
HP transfers server-oriented chip set group to IntelSeptember 14, 2001 |
In an apparent move to cut costs, Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to
transfer the engineers from its server-oriented chip set group
to Intel Corp. Under the terms of the deal, Intel will hire under 100 engineers from HP's Cupertino Systems Lab. Based in Cupertino, Calif., the engineers in the lab develops chip sets for HP's computers based on its proprietary PA-RISC processor. |
AMD holds onto desktop crownBy Guy Dixon September 13 2001 |
Intel's success in pipping rival AMD to the 2GHz post has
failed to cut the mustard with PC Advisor readers. Responding to a recent poll on the PC Advisor website, nearly three quarters (73.7 percent) of voters indicated they thought PCs primed with a combination of AMD's Athlon processor with DDR RAM offered better performance than systems housing Intel's fastest P4 chip. This is despite the fact that AMD's fastest Athlon runs at only 1.4GHz. The 'Intel inside' brigade managed to muster a mere 26.3 percent. Making up just over a quarter of respondents, they reckon Intel has regained its desktop crown by hitting the 2GHz mark first. |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
Unseemly HP-Intel squabble startsBy Mike Magee September 14, 2001 |
INTEL, GROWING COCKY AGAIN because it thinks it has got its
Risc competitors on the run, has started throwing its weight
around HP offices, the INQUIRER has learned. While Intel is now reasonably satisfied with the speed that McKinley is running at, it has expressed its displeasure at HP for its contribution to some elements in the IA-64 design which prevent it reaching its full capacity, according to some sources. |
Intel sued over unpaid billsBy Mike Magee September 13, 2001 |
A US LOCAL NEWSPAPER reports that Intel has had another "lien"
placed on it, meaning that there's now an outstanding amount
of such actions filed against the chip giant to the tune of
$75 million. According to The Gazette, Southland Industries, based in Irvine CA, has filed a $16 million lien against Intel over alleged non-payment of bills at its Colorado Spring manufacturing plant. The firm claims it is owed $16.5 million after it undertook construction work on the Garden of the Gods Road, the newspaper claimed. |
Intel chips nearly equal of ant's brainBy Mike Magee September 16, 2001 |
THIS TIME next year, engineers and designers of Intel and
other microprocessors will have pushed the so-called "brain"
of a computer to speeds of 3GHz and their roadmaps will show
speeds edging 4GHz and above for 2003, just like they
promised. Analogies between computers and "brains" only go so far. Three years ago I met a senior Intel designer who told me that by the year 2010, microprocessor engineers might manage to compress enough transistors into a packaged chip to equal the numbers of logical circuits of a bee family member, the bumblebee. |
AMD, Intel, Transmeta, VIA to go into launch frenzy on 15 OctoberBy Tony Smith September 13, 2001 |
AMD will spill the beans on its Hammer 64-bit CPU architecture
and how it extends the x86 instruction set into the 64-bit
space on 15 October. On the same day, Intel is expected to make public its desktop, mobile and server processor roadmaps - and reveal further details of its next-generation mobile processor, Banias. And if that weren't enough, Transmeta will be unveiling its Crusoe roadmap and - we think - formally unveil its 1GHz+ Crusoe TM5800. The chip was expected to have been launched by now, and with shareholders breathing down the company's neck over the delay, we reckon the time is right for Transmeta to tell the world all about it. |
Transmeta and AMD. No dealBy Mike Magee September 12, 2001 |
THE STOCK MARKET IN THE US remained closed today after
yesterday's catastrophic events, but last time we looked,
Transmeta's share price stood at a dismal $2.50. The company apparently chose the worst and most unfortunate time to launch its products, right before the start of the semiconductor downturn. That gave rise to rumours that some company - perhaps AMD for example - might just go and snap it up. |
Intel vs VIA - get it sorted, demand Mobo makersBy Tony Smith September 13, 2001 |
Intel suing VIA? Pah! VIA countersuing Intel? Tish and pish!
Taiwan's mobo makers couldn't give the proverbial flying fig
for the two chip makers' spat. It will have no effect on their
shipment plans, sources close to the likes of Asus, MSI and
Gigabyte have said, according to DigiTimes. In a way they're actually looking forward to the fight's outcome. As we here on the Reg suggested last month, taking the case to court will allow an independent authority to judge each company's claims as to the legitimacy of VIA's rights to use the Pentium 4 bus. |
AMD's Hammer vs Intel's ItanicBy Mike Magee September 16, 2001 |
WE CANNOT EVEN BEGIN to imagine how much money La Intella has
poured into its 64-bit project since it started seven or more
years ago. It's probably, no almost definitely, billions of dollars. Currently, a 800MHz/4MB Itanium costs $4,227, a 800MHz/2MB $1,980, a 733/4MB $4,227 and a 733MHz/2MB $1,177. |
IA-64 frontside bus takes P4 twistBy Mike Magee September 13, 2001 |
RELIABLE SOURCES close to Intel's future plans suggest that
the firm will adapt the front side bus used on the Pentium 4
to help bring down costs of microprocessors in its 64-bit
Itanic family. The move is part of a long term strategy which will eventually see all La Intella's 32-bit microprocessors "go away and stay away", in Blondie's words, to be eventually supplanted by the 64-bit family. The same sources even claim that Intel has managed to tape out current IA-64 designs using the Pentium 4 frontside bus. |
Via's Zoetrope revealedBy Mike Magee September 14, 2001 |
AS WE REVEALED in a set of roadmaps we saw last month, Via's
cunning plans include a technology it codenames "Zoetrope",
which is an improved 3D engine which it will use in future
products. The technology, estimated to sample in Q4 this year, has a dual pipe/twin texture, 166MHz core, will come in with 128-bit DDR support at .15µ (microns), and deliver 3DWB of over 100. It will be used in what Via describes as its SMA chipsets. |
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