| May 22, 1998 |
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By Gabrielle Jonas
May 21, 1998
TechInvestor
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Technology issues and the broader
markets slumped on a cautionary note by Alan Greenspan,
chairman of the Federal Reserve, who said Thursday the
United States has only just begun to feel the impact of
Asia's economic problems. The Nasdaq Composite fell 10.75
to 1821, hurt by a Deutsche Morgan Grenfell analyst's
comment that chip demand is slowing. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average dropped 39.11 to 9132.37. |
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By Reuters
May 21, 1998
C/Net
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Shares of Intel fell in active trading
after some cautious comments by Deutsche Morgan Grenfell
sparked new fears about the company's second quarter,
analysts and traders said. Scott Nirenbirski, a DMG
analyst, said in a note to clients that, while investors
had been expecting a tough second quarter for the chip
maker, the month of May has seen a softening in demand as
European sales have slowed, which could lead to an
earnings shortfall. Some analysts added that recent news
reports about looming Federal Trade Commission action
against Intel probably also was making some investors
nervous.
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By Alexander Wolfe
May 21, 1998
EE Times
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Though overshadowed by IBM Corp.'s
high-profile effort to field copper interconnects,
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is quietly forging ahead with
development work to take the next-generation
semiconductor technology from the research lab into the
real world, EE Times has learned. To date, AMD has
successfully fabricated two test chips with copper
interconnects, a company official said. "One is what
I'll call a pure test [chip]," said Don Wollesen,
director of technology and reliability engineering at AMD
here. "It has structures on it, such as transistors,
wires and contacts — all the nuts and bolts you use
to make an IC. We made some of those and things looked
pretty good."
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May 20, 1998
Intel Corporation
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At the PC Developers’ Expo in San
Jose, Calif., Intel today announced the industry’s
first 66-MHz PCI-to-PCI bridge chips. These chips, which
are used on motherboards and add-in cards, will allow a
system designer to increase data throughput in a variety
of data intensive server, workstation and high-end PC
applications including networking and data storage. The
new 66-MHz bridges, the 21150-BC and 21154-BC, will be
available in a 32- and 64-bit versions and are PCI Local
Bus Rev 2.1 Compliant. |
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By Michael Kanellos
May 20, 1998
C/Net
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Packard Bell NEC is returning to what it
knows best: low-ball pricing. Thursday, the company is
expected to announce that it is adopting processors from
Cyrix for its consumer computers. Less expensive than
Intel chips, Cyrix processors will allow Packard Bell to
bring out PCs as low as $599 as well as undercut
Intel-based wares from other major manufacturers at
higher price points, sources said.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
May 21, 1998
PC Week Online
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Cyrix Corp.'s bid for a volume OEM isn't
going to stop with today's broad partnership with Packard
Bell NEC. Next week, Cyrix, a National Semiconductor
Corp. subsidiary, will announce that Wyse Technology Inc.
is using its MediaGX processors in Windows-based
terminals, sources said. That will mark the first
thin-client company to use Cyrix processors.
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May 21, 1998
Computer Retail Week
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Packard Bell NEC will announce Thursday
that it has agreed to incorporate microprocessors made by
National Semiconductor's Cyrix division in a new PC
lineup that ships this month, market sources said. Packard
Bell NEC (company profile) officials have declined to
comment on the prospect, first reported in Computer
Retail Week on May 11.
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| May 21, 1998 |
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By Alexander Wolfe
May 15, 1998
EE Times
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Intel's closely held instruction set for
its upcoming Katmai processor has been cracked, an
independent software expert said Friday. Katmai, an
advanced 32-bit processor scheduled to hit the market
next year, incorporates 70 new floating-point
instructions that are intended to accelerate 3-D
processing. Observers originally called the code
"MMX2," because it was seen as a
next-generation enhancement to Intel's original 57
Pentium multimedia instruction-set extensions. However,
earlier this year, Intel said the 70 instructions would
be officially named the "Katmai new
instructions," or Katmai NI.
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By Mark Hachman and Sandy Chen
May 18, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel has canceled plans to produce a
mobile version of the forthcoming Katmai microprocessor,
according to an Intel customer in the notebook PC sector.
The change in Intel's product road map was made at the
request of PC original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who
want to reduce the time and money spent redesigning
notebook PCs to accommodate Intel's latest microprocessor
products.
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By Michael Kanellos
May 19, 1998
C/Net
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Intel acknowledged that it has licensed
an underlying and hitherto proprietary piece of
microarchitecture to an unnamed third party, loosening
its stranglehold on the high-end computing market. The
licensing of the Pentium II's "P6 bus"
technology, earlier reported by CNET, will subject Intel
to competition in the chipset market for Pentium II
computers for the first time. It may also, at least in
one area, mollify Federal Trade Commission concerns that
chip giant company unfairly wields its monopoly over its
intellectual property.
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Related Stories Pentium II licenses weaken FTC case
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May 20, 1998
The Register
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IBM Microelectronics will produce a Slot
One microprocessor in 1999, prompting speculation as to
whether it is using an Intel licence, a licence from
National Semiconductor-Cyrix, or has entered an unholy
alliance with AMD. Earlier story and whole foil (70K) The
company will introduce Slot One models in 1999 dubbed the
PR333, the PR350 and the PR400. IBM Microelectronics gave
no indication last Monday as to where the technology came
from.
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By Lee Copeland
May 19, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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Speaking out on the government's
antitrust suit against partner Microsoft Corp., Intel
Corp. Executive Vice President Paul Otellini warned that
it is dangerous if the government begins to legislate
product integration. "I think, on the one hand,
as a nation of laws the government should ensure that any
company that circumvents or walks beyond the law is
checked," said Otellini, speaking here at PC Tech
Forum 98. "But it is dangerous if the government
gets into the business of legislating integration.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
May 15, 1998
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp. has lost another round in
its legal dispute with Intergraph Corp. A
Washington-based U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge has
denied Intel's request for an expedited appeal of an
earlier judge's decision that forced the chip giant to
resume a normal product and information supply
relationship with Intergraph.
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By Eric Hausman
May 20, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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A federal court has denied Intel's
request for a change of venue from Alabama to California
in the lawsuit filed against Intel by Intergraph. In a
lawsuit filed Nov. 17, 1997, in the U.S. District Court,
Northern District of Alabama, Intergraph alleged that
Intel is using its dominant market position in an attempt
to coerce the workstation manufacturer into giving up
certain key patent rights.
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By Brooke Crothers
May 19, 1998
C/Net
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Integrated Device Technology (IDT) today
previewed a product road map for its low-cost WinChip
family. In a presentation at the PC Tech Forum, Glenn
Henry, IDT's senior vice president and president of its
Centaur Technology design subsidiary, described future
generations of WinChip microprocessors targeted at
sub-$1,000 desktop and sub-$1,500 notebook computer
systems.
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See Today's Related Stories |
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By Kristen Kenedy
May 20, 1998
Computer Retail Week
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IBM plans to offer an alternative
333-megahertz 6x86 processor for the sub-$1,000 PC
market. The company Tuesday announced it will manufacture
Cyrix M2 300-MHz and 333-MHz processors under the IBM
label in May and June, respectively. IBM (company
profile) makes CPUs for Cyrix, and has an agreement to
use its technology in a private-label product. At press
time Cyrix, had not announced its 333-MHz offering.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Brooke Crothers
May 20, 1998
C/Net
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Thursday, Packard Bell NEC is expected
to announce that it will begin to incorporate processors
from Cyrix in a number of its computers, a bold move for
the ailing vendor that will likely bring industrywide PC
prices down further. Packard Bell is expected to
introduce a number of PC models across a range of price
points using Cyrix processors, according to industry
sources familiar with the rollout. Packard Bell will use
the MediaGX processor for lower-end machines as well as
the 6X86MX processor family for midrange computers. Cyrix
processors will allow Packard Bell to bring out PCs as
low as $599.
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By Lisa DiCarlo
May 19, 1998
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp. Executive Vice President
Paul Otellini said today that the industry is in danger
of facing "anemic" growth rates if software and
hardware vendors don't collaborate to create new computer
users. One way Intel (INTC) can help is by opening up
its Pentium II bus architecture. During a keynote speech
here at PC Tech Forum, Otellini said the company has
licensed the bus design to a third-party chip set
manufacturer. He declined to name the company.
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By Margie Semilof
May 20, 1998
Computer Reseller News
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With the semiconductor market stuck in
neutral, Intel executives on Wednesday presented a plan
to help the chip maker shake off several years of flat
growth. At its annual shareholders meeting, Andy
Grove, Intel co-founder and chairman, and Craig Barrett,
CEO, said Intel will invest more in manufacturing and in
research and development as a means of turning around
that trend.
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By Staff Writer
May 18, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News
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The sale of Digital Equipment's
semiconductor manufacturing operations to Intel has been
completed. The transaction, which closed over the past
weekend, includes the transfer of the assets of Digital's
semiconductor manufacturing operations in Hudson, Mass.,
along with design and marketing facilities in Austin,
Texas, and Jerusalem, Israel, to Intel for about $625
million, after taking into account closing adjustments.
Approximately 1,800 Digital (company profile) employees
became Intel (company profile) employees at the closing.
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By Mark Hachman
May 18, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News
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As part of the company's apparent exit
from the market, OPTi Inc. announced yesterday the
immediate resignation of CEO Jerry Chang, Chang, one
of the company's original co-founders, will be replaced
by Bernard Marren as acting chief executive officer and
president of OPTi, Milpitas, Calif. Marren, former chief
of wafer tester Die Enhancements, has served on the
company's board of directors since May 1996.
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| Today's Related Stories |
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By Lisa DiCarlo
May 20, 1998
PC Week Online
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Intel Corp.'s competitors said this week
they are taking dramatically different paths to compete
against the chip giant's proprietary Slot 1 bus
interface. Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which will
announce its K6-2 next week, will base all of its
next-generation processors (starting with the K7 next
year) on Digital Equipment Corp.'s 21264 Alpha bus.
Centaur Technology Inc., meanwhile, will eliminate the
system bus altogether in its next-generation processor,
the C7.
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By Staff Writer
May 18, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
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IBM Corp. today announced it has begun
shipping samples of its own line of x86-compatible
microprocessors that operate in the 300-MHz speed range
and priced for the sub-$1,200 PC market. IBM
Microelectronics claims its two new chips are the first
alternatives to Intel Corp.'s fast MPUs aimed at this
personal computer segment.
The two processors are the IBM 6x86MX PR333, a 333-MHz
device, and the IBM 6xMX PR 300, a 300-MHz version. The
faster version is priced at $299, while its sister chip
is listed at $217, both in quantities of 1,000. The
high-end device is scheduled for volume availability
later this month, while the other one is expected to ramp
next month. Both are manufactured using 0.25-micron
technology.
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By Michael Kanellos
May 19, 1998
C/Net
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The chipmaking arm of IBM will release
two new versions of a Cyrix-designed processor later this
month, even though IBM's PC division dropped the
processor family from its U.S. product lineup. The
upcoming 6X86MX processors, which are based around a
design from Cyrix, will come to market with performance
ratings of 300 and 333. A performance rating roughly
corresponds to a megahertz speed rating of a Intel chip,
according to the company, although the actual speed of
the chip is lower.
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By Will Wade
May 18, 1998
Semiconductor Business News
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Glenn Henry, president of Centaur
Technology, has a simple strategy to promote his
company's IDT WinChip2 microprocessor--make the
x86-compatible MPU cheaper than any other product
available for low-end PC systems. "I guarantee it
will be priced lower than anybody else's chip," said
Henry here today as he introduced the company's newest
device during the 1998 PCTech Forum.
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