| April 24, 1998 |
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By Michael Kanellos
April 23, 1998
C/Net
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With the basic rights to Intel's Pentium
II technology beginning to snake their way to
competitors, it may become more difficult for the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) to bring charges against the
chipmaker even though questions about its business
practices still loom large. Last fall, the agency began
a far-reaching investigation into Intel's dominance in
certain processor markets. One avenue of investigation,
sources said, has been Intel's virtual lock over the
intellectual property (IP) needed to build Pentium II
computers. By holding these patents to itself, Intel was
effectively creating a monopoly in high-end desktop
computing, according to FTC thinking.
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By Patrick Waurzyniak
April 23, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
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Advanced Micro Devices said Thursday
that it has reached a tentative agreement to settle a
1995 class-action lawsuit that will cost the chip maker
$11.5 million and result in widening AMD's previously
disclosed first quarter 1998 loss to nearly $63 million. AMD,
in Sunnyvale, Calif., said the settlement of the
class-action lawsuit, filed in November 1995 by
shareholders against AMD and some of the company's
current and former AMD officers and directors, relates to
the company's K5 microprocessor development project.
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By Jim Davis
April 23, 1998
C/Net
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Advanced Micro Devices settled a
securities lawsuit regarding its older K5 processors, a
development that is expected result in a widening of the
company's first-quarter loss. The lawsuit, which dates
back to 1995, concerned the company's development and
release of the K5 chip. If approved, the cost of the
settlement to the Sunnyvale, California, company would be
$11,500,000.
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An Interview with Wade Patterson
April 23, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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A federal court recently granted
Intergraph Corp. a preliminary injunction stemming from a
lawsuit the workstation maker filed in November against
Intel Corp. In the suit, Intergraph, Huntsville, Ala.,
charged Intel with anticompetitive behavior, patent
infringement and later added antitrust claims. Santa
Clara, Calif.-based Intel has since filed an appeal. Wade
Patterson, chief executive officer of Intergraph Computer
Systems, Intergraph's parent company, explained to CRN
Section Editors Kelly Spang and Joe Wilcox the value of
its preliminary injunction against Intel. |
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By Mark Hachman
April 23, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Shortly after Intel Corp. announced its
own April 15 price reductions, Advanced Micro Devices
Inc. here has returned fire by cutting prices on its own
K6 microprocessor. Perhaps more importantly, an
unannounced prices on AMD-K6 3D processors--featuring
acceleration for 3-D graphics and video--will make the
chip cost competitive with Intel's Pentium II, according
to a company spokesman. "Essentially, the AMD-K6 3D
will offer performance comparable to Intel's Pentium II
processor, but we'll give away 3-D [acceleration] for
free," he said.
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By Margaret Kane and Lisa DiCarlo
April 23, 1998
PC Week Online
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The Federal Trade Commission today gave
conditional approval to Digital Equipment Corp.'s (DEC)
sale of its microprocessor operations to Intel Corp.
(INTC) The approval requires Digital to agree to
continue licensing arrangements with Advanced Micro
Devices Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and to
certify IBM Microelectronics or some other company to
manufacture Digital's Alpha processors.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
|
By Silicon Edge
|
Intel's Pentium II Xeon is a new branch
of the Pentium II brand intended for high-end server and
workstation applications. One thing you can be sure about
is that the Xeon won't be value-priced. Unlike the
standard Pentium II line, the Pentium II Xeon can
accommodate up to 2 MB of L2 cache and runs it at full
CPU speed, unlike the Pentium II, which runs its cache at
half speed. |
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| Today's Related Stories |
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By Kelly Spang
April 23, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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The Federal Trade Commission approved
the settlement between Digital Equipment and Intel, but
added its own modification to protect the future of
Digital's Alpha processor. As expected, the FTC said
Thursday it would not block the settlement, but the
Commission also did not outright approve the proposed
deal. The commission voted five-to-zero to accept the
consent agreement.
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By Staff Writer
April 23, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
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The Federal Trade Commission today
cleared the way for Intel Corp.'s acquisition of Digital
Equipment Corp.' semiconductor manufacturing operations,
provided that DEC license its high-speed Alpha chip to
other chip makers. The FTC said the original terms of
the sale would have threatened competition by giving
control of the Alpha technology to DEC's main competitor,
Intel. The Alpha is seen by some industry observers as
one of the world's fastest MPU architectures, which could
be controlled by Intel after it acquires DEC's chip
operations as part of a $700 million purchase agreement
announced last fall.
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By Andy Santoni
April 23, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has
notified Intel and Digital that the commission will not
seek to enjoin the settlement of a legal dispute between
the companies the companies agreed to in October but will
require that Digital license Alpha processor technology
to other semiconductor manufacturers. The settlement,
which ended litigation over Alpha patents and access to
Intel processors and early design data, was announced
last Oct. 27, and was subject to FTC review under
provisions of the Hart Scott Rodino Improvements Act.
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| April 23, 1998 |
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By Tom Quinlan
April 23, 1998
San Jose Mercury News
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The Federal Trade Commission is expected
Friday to sign off on the deal that ended the high-stakes
legal confrontation between Intel Corp. and Digital
Equipment Corp., resolving the second of three recent
federal probes of the Santa Clara chip giant. Sources
familiar with the investigation said the FTC has decided
to accept the settlement of Digital's patent infringement
claim against Intel without major modifications,
following five months of delay. Under the settlement,
Intel forged a patent cross-licensing arrangement with
Digital, bought a semiconductor manufacturing plant and
acquired the StrongARM processor, a popular low-cost
chip.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Staff Writer
April 22, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
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Integrated Device Technology Inc. here
today reported a 4.2% increase in revenue to $150.2
million in the fiscal quarter, ended March 29, compared
to $143.2 million in the same period last year. IDT's
earnings totaled $1.4 million compared to $2.1 million in
the quarter last year. "Our microprocessor, logic
and communications memory divisions performed well
offsetting sluggish demand for SRAM products," said
Len Perham, IDT's president and chief executive officer.
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By Mark Hachman
April 23, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Shortly after Intel announced its own
April 15 price reductions, Advanced Micro Devices has
returned fire by cutting prices on its own K6
microprocessor. Perhaps more important, a spokesman
for AMD (company profile), in Sunnyvale, Calif., has
indicated the unannounced prices of the K6 3D will be
priced competitively against the Pentium II.
"Essentially, the AMD K6 3D will offer performance
comparable to Intel's Pentium II processor, but we'll
give away 3-D [acceleration] for free," he said.
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By Rick Boyd-Merritt and David Lammers
April 23, 1998
EE Times
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Intel Corp. is pressing ahead with plans
to bring up a next-generation 0.18-micron process
technology even as it postpones its shift to 300-mm
(12-inch) wafers to beyond the year 2000. The bullet
points on the technology road map for the world's largest
semiconductor company emerged at an analysts meeting this
week where Intel executives expressed cautious optimism
that the PC market — sluggish in the first months of
1998 — will rebound later this year.
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By Marc Ferranti
April 22, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
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Intel executives Tuesday met with the
Wall Street community, reassuring investment analysts
that the company has programs in place to take care of
inventory problems as it transitions to new-generation
technology, including 500-MHz chips in the first half of
next year. The event here came in the wake of last
week's disappointing quarterly financial report, with
news that Intel's net income in the first quarter, ended
March 28, tumbled 36 percent from $2 billion in the same
period a year ago. (See Intel to cut 3,000 after profits
plummet 36 percent.)
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| Today's Related Stories |
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By Kimberly Caisse
April 22, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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Federal Trade Commission may approve the
Intel Corp.-Digital Equipment Corp. patent lawsuit
settlement by the end of this week, industry sources
said. FTC approval of the Intel-Digital deal clears the
way for the government agency to speed up its review of
Digital's pending merger with Compaq Computer Corp.,
sources said.
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| April 22, 1998 |
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By Stephanie Miles
April 22, 1998
C/Net
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IDT is starting volume production of its
new low-cost 200-MHz processor, with faster speed chips
to come later this year, the company announced. IDT
offers its Intel-compatible WinChip to PC vendors
building low-cost PCs. IDT has said in the past that its
chips are targeted at the sub-$800 desktop PC market and
sub-$1,000 notebook computer market.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Dan Niles
April 21, 1998
C/Net
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Remember the Intel clones? Now that the
sub-$1000 PC threatens to alter the fundamental landscape
of the technology industry, a little bit of history might
be in order. Before "Intel inside" took over
the world and the age of the chip giant's 90 percent
market share in microprocessors had dawned, there were
two other companies making Intel-like microprocessors,
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Cyrix. |
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By Andreas Stiller
August 1998
c't Magazine
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Big spring cleaning at Intel, the master
of the house Andy Grove retires and lots of shiny
processors appear before the public. Apart from the PC
processors more and more powerful signal processors get
themselves much talked about. Now Siemens is surprising
us with a smart new design. |
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By CNET STAFF
April 21, 1998
C/Net
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Intel is embarking on new initiatives
designed to help PC makers better estimate production and
inventory needs. The chip giant plans to rapidly shift to
an advanced manufacturing process that promises to
deliver 500-MHz chips in a year. Intel also believes that
the second half will bring a cyclical upturn in the
market. Meanwhile, Dell is phasing out PCs using the
older Pentium chip in favor of exclusive use of Pentium
IIs. |
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By Michael Kanellos
April 21, 1998
C/Net
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What company is devising methods to beat
direct vendor Dell at its build-to-order game?
Ironically, it's chipmaker Intel. During an analyst
meeting today, the microprocessor giant said it is
developing two new programs that will help computer
vendors, distributors, and resellers micromanage
inventories of computers and components down to the
minute.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Michael Kanellos
April 21, 1998
C/Net
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In a break with past practice, Intel
plans to move quickly to manufacturing technology that
will allow it to pack more processing power into less
chip real estate, eyeing 500-MHz chips next year, Intel
CEO Craig Barrett said today. Processor technology
generations, which used to last two to three years, will
start to get shorter as companies try to devise ways to
save on research and development costs, Barrett said at a
meeting for Intel analysts this morning in New York. This
likely will mean a more rapid transition to advanced
processors than seen in the past, at least for high-end
machines.
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By Michael Kanellos
April 21, 1998
C/Net
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The PC inventory glut and
slower-than-expected demand will keep a lid on
second-quarter revenue growth for the PC industry, but it
will return to form during the second half of the year,
Intel executives said in a meeting with analysts in New
York today. Boosting PC revenue growth back into the
mid- to high teens will come as a result of new product
releases, a cyclical upturn in demand, and the
elimination of some of the problems that slowed down
demand during the first half, executives at the company
told the analysts during a nearly four-hour presentation.
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By Mo Krochmal
April 21, 1998
TechWeb
|
Although Intel is expected to release
its next-generation chip, the 64-bit Merced, next year,
32-bit chip architecture will continue to be an important
part of its product line through the next decade,
according to a report from Aberdeen Group. Also known
as the P7, Merced uses a new instruction architecture
called IA-64. It is expected to run x86 and PA-RISC
software natively, with clock speeds at 600 MHz and
higher, and will be targeted at the workstation and
server markets.
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By Mark Hachman
April 21, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
|
To broaden its customer base, Intel
Corp. Tuesday told Wall Street analysts that it too plans
to expand its product line into the workstation and
low-cost PC markets. Save for the announcement that
future Pentium II processors would break the 500 MHz
barrier, Intel's roadmap held almost no surprises.
However, to make its products attractive to the PC
community, the company also described a broad list of
initiatives, investments, and third party programs to
accelerate data moving in and out of Intel's chips.
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| Today's Related Stories |
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By Margaret Kane
April 21, 1998
ZD Net News
|
With PC manufacturers facing severe
inventory troubles, Intel Corp. is creating two programs
aimed at helping companies deal with the torrid pace of
processor innovation. Speaking at an analysts' briefing
here today, Sean Maloney, Intel's vice president of sales
and marketing, described a new inventory management and
order process that will allow OEMs to place orders in
real time by uploading exact copies of a customer's
manufacturing requirements to Intel's database. The
system uses Intel's ProShare live video conferencing
technology.
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By Kelly Spang
April 21, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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Intel is launching programs to help
original equipment manufacturers more efficiently manage
inventory, and ease inventory fluctuations that have
plagued the PC industry over the past couple of quarters. "Inventory
has become a life or death issue for our industry,"
said Sean Maloney, Intel vice president and director of
sales and marketing at the Intel spring analyst
conference. "The lesson of the past two quarters is
that inventory has moved from being a concern of the
purchasing department of the computer manufacturer to an
issue of life or death to the whole company."
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By Staff Writer
April 21, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
|
Integrated Device Technology Inc. here
today said it has begun production shipments of its
WinChip microprocessor from its 8-inch wafer fab in
Hillsboro, Ore. "Transitioning production to our
Hillsboro fab allows us to significantly increase the
rate at which we can ramp our production output during
the next few quarters," said Len Perham, president
and CEO of IDT. The X86-compatible WinChip was moved into
volume production during the first quarter from IDT's
R&D fab in San Jose.
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By Patrick Waurzyniak
April 21, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
|
Integrated Device Technology Inc. (IDT)
Tuesday said it has begun production shipments of the IDT
WinChip microprocessor from its state-of-the-art, 8-in.
wafer fabrication plant in Hillsboro, Ore. IDT, Santa
Clara, said it began production of the 200- and 225-MHz
WinChip microprocessors with a .35-micron process at the
Oregon fab during its quarter ended March 29.
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| April 21, 1998 |
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By Margaret Kane
April 20, 1998
ZD Net News
|
Intel Corp. announced today that its
newest line of Pentium II processors, a high-end family
called Xeon designed for servers and workstations, will
be available soon. The processors use Intel's Slot 2
technology, featuring a larger and faster Level 2 cache.
They also feature multiprocessor capabilities.
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By Charles Cooper
April 20, 1998
ZD Net News - Australia
|
The moniker may sound odd to some, but
not to the executive who spent the last three months
coining the name for an upcoming line of high-end
microprocessors from Intel. On Monday, Intel disclosed
plans to introduce the Pentium II "Xeon," a
brand name for a line of processors targeted at mid-range
and higher server and workstation applications, by
mid-year.
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By Jim Davis
April 20, 1998
C/Net
|
IBM's first-quarter earnings, not unlike
those of competitors such as Compaq Computer, took a hit
today as bloated inventories caused a
"terrible" price war that resulted in a
significant decline in PC business revenue. IBM said
hardware sales dropped 8 percent to $7.1 billion during
the first quarter of 1998 and gross profit margins for
hardware sales fell 4.1 percent amid a torrent of price
cuts by competitors.
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By Charles Babcock
April 20, 1998
ZD Net News
|
Hewlett-Packard Co. is upping the ante
in its competition with Sun Microsystems Inc. by pouring
resources into producing a high-performance environment
for the execution of Java applications that is based on
Intel Corp.'s next-generation microprocessor, known as
Merced. HP is producing its own Java Virtual Machine
(JVM) and Java compilers for the upcoming Merced chip,
due from Intel late next year. And, because HP is a
co-designer of Merced, HP is in a position to use its
knowledge of the chip's design and instruction set to
write compilers that make Java run faster than when other
companies' compilers are used.
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By Michael Kanellos
April 20, 1998
C/Net
|
Xeon will be the name for the family of
sophisticated corporate processors coming this summer
from Intel, the company announced today, introducing the
second phase of a branding strategy the chip giant is
executing this year. Xeon, however, represents more
than just another fancy galactic name. The upcoming
workstation and server processors, which will be based
around the Pentium II core, will likely be a linchpin in
Intel's future business strategy.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
April 20, 1998
PC Week Online
|
As Intel Corp. gears up for the high-end
Xeon processor, it is quickly winding down its Pentium
Processors with MMX Technology and Pentium Pro CPUs. The
Santa Clara, Calif., company said today that the Xeon
Pentium II processors, for high-end workstations and
servers, will be available in June. Pricing was not
announced.
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By James Niccolai and Andy Santoni
April 20, 1998
InfoWorld Electric
|
Intel on Monday announced it would call
the Slot 2 processors it is introducing midyear Pentium
II Xeon. The processors, which have been carrying the
temporary name Pentium II ABC, are designed for midrange
and higher workstation and server applications. The
first Xeon processors will be introduced midyear, with
systems from Intel's manufacturing partners built around
it expected to follow soon after, Intel said. The first
processors are expected to run at 400 MHz, Intel has
said.
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| April 20, 1998 |
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By Mo Krochmal
April 17, 1998
TechWeb
|
Intel may have to put off the
introduction of its next-generation, 64-bit chip,
code-named Merced, said Zona Research. Also known as
the P7, Merced uses a new instruction architecture called
IA-64. It is expected to run x86 and PA-RISC software
natively with clock speeds at 600 MHz and beyond. The
Merced chip, which Intel is building in collaboration
with Hewlett-Packard, is the next-generation computer
chip for the high-end workstation and server market.
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By Andy Patrizio
April 17, 1998
TechWeb
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Sales of x86 microprocessors will grow
at a slower rate than they have in the past, and there
will be increased pressure on CPU makers, particularly
Intel,as consumers opt for low-end machines over
high-performance systems, according to a Dataquest report
released Wednesday. |
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By Anthony Cataldo
April 17, 1998
EE Times
|
Despite Intel Corp.'s attempts to
promote the Direct Rambus architecture across all systems
starting in 1999, a number of PC makers are designing
high-end systems that use alternative SLDRAM and
double-data-rate DRAM components now under development.
Such moves could provide the first base of customers
critical for the continued evolution of alternative
high-performance DRAMs. At least two top-tier systems
companies are developing core logic that will conform to
the modified SSTL interface used for SLDRAMs, sources
told EE Times. These devices are being positioned in some
circles as the next memory technology to follow
synchronous DRAMs.
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By Reuters
April 20, 1998
PC-Week
|
Monday it plans to introduce the Pentium
II Xeon, a new brand name for a line of processors
designed specifically for midrange and higher server and
workstation applications. Intel will introduce the
processors at mid-year. with system products to follow
shortly thereafter, the company said in a statement.
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April 17, 1998
The Register
|
As revealed here earlier, Intel duly
rolled out its Celeron, 100MHz bus and two high speed
PIIs on Wednesday. A spate of vendors endorsed the
announcement and at the same time Intel cut prices on its
existing processors and confirmed that it will no longer
make wafer starts on its Pentium MMX line. Again, as
revealed here earlier, that means that the Pentium will
be a dead duck by the end of the year. |
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Big Blue not convinced PII/mobile
better than Tillamook
April 9, 1998
The Register
|
The alliance between Intel and IBM
showed signs it was under strain today after Big Blue
described the performance of its Pentium II mobile as
"indifferent". An IBM representative said at
a breakfast briefing in London that there was little
performance difference between the Pentium II/mobile and
Intel's previous offering, the Tillamook processor.
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April 17, 1998
The Register
|
Secret discussions between Advanced
Micro Devices and IBM are set to produce PIIs from the
AMD stable, according to sources close to the company. That
emerged last week after reports on the US wires said that
IBM and AMD were close to signing a deal, further
increasing their closeness. Rumours have existed for some
time that IBM is interested in buying AMD, with both
companies refusing to comment.
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By Kelly Spang
April 17, 1998
Computer Reseller News
|
Intel's new Celeron processor is
challenging Advanced Micro Devices' long-standing policy
of providing comparable performance at a 25 percent price
advantage. Both Intel (company profile), Santa Clara,
Calif., and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)(company
profile), Sunnyvale,Calif., cut processor prices this
week.
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April 17, 1998
The Register
|
Midrange and workstation systems will
drive worldwide growth in x86 computational
microprocessor sales, with market value jumping 16 per
cent in 1998. In 1997, desktop systems revenue soaked
up 60 per cent of the total x86 computational
microprocessor market, but this will fall to 39 percent
of the total market by 2002, Dataquest forecasts.
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By Anthony Cataldo
April 17, 1998
EE Times
|
In an effort to fuel demand for its
fastest processors as it faces falling margins and weak
demand, Intel is quietly offering PC makers a software
DVD decoder optimized to run on its newest Pentium II
processors without the need for a hardware MPEG-2
decoder. Intel's decision to distribute the decoder
coincides with the introduction of its 440-BX chip set,
which provides the underlying system-bandwidth boost for
such memory-intensive applications as DVD.
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Moore's Law doesn't necessarily
translate to sales
April 14, 1998
The Register
|
Intel turned in very disappointing
results for its Q1 1998, confirming the warnings that
senior executives delivered to Wall Street some weeks
ago. Profits fell severely. Intel will slash 3,000 jobs -
around five per cent of its staff - and cut its capital
spending. Turnover fell seven per cent from the
equivalent period in Q1 1997 to $6 billion dead, but that
was also an eight per cent drop from its last Q.
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