| February 12, 1999 |
Graphics
Apps Scream on Intel PIII
It's not a generational leap, but new
CPU boosts software that's tailored to it.
February 11, 1999
PC World
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Intel has turned the crank again, and
this month will release its latest microprocessor--the
Pentium III (code-named Katmai). The first of the new
CPUs will run as fast as 500-MHz, and tests by the PC
World Test Center rank PIII-powered systems as the
fastest Windows 98 systems we've yet seen. But there's
more to the PIII than raw megahertz. Intel has added 70
new processor instructions, called Streaming SIMD
Extensions. Programs that take advantage of these new
instructions get a sizeable performance boost. One
graphics package tested 24 percent faster on a 500-MHz
PIII system. Games, graphics, Internet plug-ins, and
speech recognition applications can take particularly
good advantage of the new instructions.
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By Brooke Crothers and Michael Kanellos
February 11, 1999
C/Net
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As Intel and PC makers prepare for their
biggest product introduction for the year, the old mantra
of "where's the beef?" may be finding new
resonance. The Pentium III chip, which will be
previewed at the San Jose Convention Center on Wednesday
and officially released in systems on February 26, offers
users benefits over the Pentium II, including an ID
feature, but not the earth-shattering sort of changes, at
least not initially, that one might expect.
The Pentium III will be faster than the Pentium II,
and soon feature additional architectural innovations
that will boost performance. But one of the main reasons
to buy a Pentium III that computer makers will tout--a
series of 70 new multimedia instructions--won't really
have much of an effect on the user experience. Benefits
from the new "Katmai" instructions won't become
apparent until software vendors adopt them, and that is a
process that will take time.
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February 11, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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A Federal Trade Commission
administrative law judge has agreed to allow the
government to add executives from Micron Electronics Inc.
and Data General Corp. as witnesses in its antitrust case
against Intel Corp. FTC is slated to begin its hearing in
case on March 9. Some press reports have interpreted
the expanded witness list as a government attempt to
broaden the antitrust investigation against Intel. An FTC
spokesman today declined to comment on the case, but
other industry sources said executives from Micron
Electronics--the computer systems maker--and Data General
will testify on their company relations with Intel
regarding licensing issues, which are at the heart of the
government's allegations against the microprocessor
giant.
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By Jack Robertson
February 12, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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The oddsmakers are saying Intel's
next-generation Camino and Carmel chipsets and the
133-MHz Pentium III processor bus, slated to debut in May
or June, will be delayed until fall. By contrast, the
same chip bookies are betting Advanced Micro Devices will
introduce its K6-3 in the next month with a 133-MHz bus,
gaining perhaps a half-year edge on Intel. And therein
could lie a tale of fierce competition. For the record,
Intel says there is no delay in Camino, Carmel, or the
133-MHz bus, although the company hasn't specified a
rollout date. And AMD has declined to discuss what
processor bus speed its upcoming K6-3 will have. But
independent chipset and PC133 SDRAM suppliers are all
gearing up to link with the K6-3 and are banking on an
AMD 133-MHz bus.
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| The Pseudo Rumor Mill |
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By Mike Magee
February 12, 1999
The Register
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Chip Goliath Intel claimed this morning
that its 0.18 micron technology is really 0.13 micron
technology and that puts it ahead of the chip rat-pack. Said
Pierre Mirjolet, architecture marketing manager at
Intel's European HQ in Munich: "The 0.18 micron
generation is a path set up by the industry. We're
achieving better performance than that. In actual fact,
our 0.18 micron performance is 0.13 micron
performance."
He said: "We're able to get a little bit more out
of 0.18 micron technology. We're moving faster than the
industry. You can say [in Intel's case] that 0.18 micron
is 0.13 micron."
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By Mike Magee
February 12, 1999
The Register
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There is no need for Intel to implement
copper interconnects in its processors until 0.13 micron
process technology arrives, a senior executive said
today. Pierre Mirjolet, architecture marketing manager
at Intel EMEA, claimed that while copper does have a
resistivity less than 40 per cent than aluminium, Intel's
interconnect technology provided better performance than
current copper interconnect.
"We have copper technology but from a volume
production point of view, it doesn't make sense
yet," he said. "We're not necessarily against
new technology. For us, the new technology is not cost
effective."
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By Mike Magee
February 12, 1999
The Register
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Chip company Intel has started
manufacturing 0.18 micron silicon at its fab 20 chip
plant and is likely to demo a 1GHz processor by year end,
it said today. Pierre Mirjolet, architecture marketing
manager at Intel EMEA, would not be tied down to when
samples will go out to customers but his slide
presentation showed that could be as early as February
2000.
He did, however, say that Intel will have 0.18 micron
processors in production at year end of clock speeds
600MHz and greater.
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By Mike Magee
February 11, 1999
The Register
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Speculation mounted today that the
massive drop in Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD) share
prices over the last two weeks had made it vulnerable to
one of its suppliers, Compaq-Digital. IBM had
previously been interested in taking over AMD but has
decided that its Microelectronics division is not its top
priority. Its top priority is services. Just after
Christmas, IBM announced it was doing the outsourcing for
genetic engineering company Monsanto.
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By Drew Cullen
February 11, 1999
The Register
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Cyrix is has signed up for Rambus,
joining AMD on the Intel-led memory bandwagon. The
NatSemi sub is licensing the Rambus interface for use in
future versions of its integrated processor.
It will be interesting to see how this squares up with
Cyrix’s low pricing model. Is it planning a server
on a chip, or what?
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By Mike Magee
February 11, 1999
The Register
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A further salvo in the war between AMD
and Intel over streaming extensions was fired by the
smaller company today. AMD said that Digital Anvil,
3DO and a gaggle of others have already brought thousands
of games to the party.
But on the 17th, next week, Intel is likely to bring
thousands more game companies to the party.
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| February 11, 1999 |
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By Stephanie Miles
February 10, 1999
C/Net
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Microsoft's Windows operating systems
will not properly recognize Intel's upcoming high-speed
Pentium III processor, the companies have confirmed,
although the upgrade glitch is not expected to cause any
performance problems. Intel's soon-to-be released
Pentium III processor is mistaken for a Pentium II
processor by Windows 95 and 98 PCs, according to
Microsoft. Pentium III PCs will actually be identified as
Pentium II systems in Windows system folders, according
to a warning about the problem posted to its technical
support Web site.
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By Mark Hachman
February 10, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel Corp. chipsets supporting the new
800 MHz DRAM interface developed by Rambus Inc. will be
delayed until at least the third quarter, according to a
prominent Wall Street analyst. Mark Edelstone, an
analyst with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in San Francisco
has issued a report in which he stated that a version of
the Intel 820 or "Camino” chipset had suffered
"upwards of a three-month delay” from the
scheduled introduction date in June. Among other
features, the Intel 820 is the first to include an
interface to Direct Rambus DRAM, the memory standard
promoted by Mountain View, Calif.-based chip designer
Rambus.
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By Alexander Wolfe
February 10, 1999
EE Times
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Two newly issued patents appear to
provide the deepest insight yet available into the inner
workings of Intel Corp.'s upcoming Merced microprocessor. Word
of the patents comes at a timely moment, as Intel gears
up for its Developer Forum, to be held in Palm Springs,
Calif., Feb. 23-25. Intel officials said they will brief
developers at the conference on some heretofore
undisclosed features of Merced and its companion IA-64
architecture. Those will include at least a peek at some
detail of the processor's 64-bit instruction set as well
as some additional data on its registers.
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By Mark Hachman
February 11, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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National Semiconductor Corp. has become
the third major PC microprocessor vendor to license a
high-speed DRAM interface from Rambus Inc., following
Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. In an
announcement late Wednesday evening, National said it had
licensed the 1.6-Gbyte Rambus high-bandwidth 800-MHz
memory interface, which is believed to be the Direct
Rambus interface that will also appear on forthcoming
chip sets from Intel. The interface will be used in
future integrated microprocessors.
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See
Today's Related Stories |
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By Mike Magee
February 11, 1999
The Register
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A UK company told The Register today it
was already selling systems based on the Pentium III
processor and the chips are the genuine article. Digital
Networks UK is selling 500MHz systems and 450MHz systems,
and has verified details of their authenticity with
Intel.
According to a representative at Digital Networks, the
ID strings for the Pentium IIIs show model number 7 and
CPU ID 3. The Pentium II is model number 5 and CPU ID 2.
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By Mike Magee
February 11, 1999
The Register
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An interview obtained by Jonathan Hou at
PC One has revealed SiS future chipset roadmap. (The full
interview is here). Hou interviewed SiS executive
Sylvia Lin, who claimed that Intel had "copied"
her company's approach to integrating graphics.
At the same time she confirmed that SiS will support
the K7, and will continue to support the Super7 platform.
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By Marcel Michelson
February 11, 1999
Silicon Valley News
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The French seaside resort of Cannes is a
frequent setting for previews and Wednesday a tiny
microprocessor was the star here as U.S. giant Intel Corp
turned the spotlight onto its Pentium III processor. Rob
Eckelmann, managing director Europe, Middle East and
Africa at Intel, told Reuters in an interview that the
Pentium III, to be officially launched on February 17,
would be priced in the same range as the current Pentium
II.
``The Pentium III will be placed at the same price
points as the Pentium II when it hits the market by the
end of the year,'' he said in Cannes at the Milia
multimedia trade fair. He declined to be more specific.
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By Mike Magee
February 11, 1999
The Register
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System integrators and dealers can
expect little help from Intel if they buy re-marked
processors, it has emerged. That is the conclusion
that must be drawn after Digital Networks UK (DNUK)
bought a consignment of Pentium II/450 parts that turned
out to be re-marked PII/300MHz chips.
According to DNUK, when it contacted Intel technical
support for assistance, a representative was told:
"Call your local police or consumer rights group. If
it's an OEM product, we can't give you any support at
all."
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By Michael Kanellos
February 11, 1999
C/Net
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A slew of leading game publishers and
developers formally pledged to support Advanced Micro
Devices' 3DNow technology, a move which will give AMD a
bit of marketing ammo on the eve of the release of
Intel's Pentium III. The agreements essentially mean
that game makers will release versions of several hundred
of their most popular game titles--including Tomb Raider,
Diakatana, and Loose Cannon--optimized for computers
running K6-2 and K6-III processors, both of which contain
3DNow technology, said Dana Krelle, vice president of
marketing at AMD.
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By Craig Matsumoto
February 10, 1999
EE Times
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As former chip designer Willie
McAllister tells it, the temptation is like having a
fresh slab of wet cement at your feet. You discover a
pocket of unused space, virgin territory for fresh metal
lines on a chip. How could you resist carving your
initials in the corner? "It's the same emotion. It's
been going on since caveman days," McAllister said.
And if you have a microscope powerful enough —
or, now, just a Web browser — you can find these
silicon successors to cave drawings. Once invisible,
silicon artistry is being revealed to the world by
Michael Davidson, whose Web site features some of the
best available photographs of chip circuitry.
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| Today's
Related Stories |
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By Terho Uimonen
February 11, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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National Semiconductor on Wednesday
announced a licensing deal with Rambus that allows the
chip maker's Cyrix subsidiary to use the Rambus 800-MHz
memory interface in future integrated microprocessors. The
Rambus interface technology offers data transfer rates of
up to 1.6Gbps -- the highest DRAM performance currently
available -- and will allow future Cyrix processors to
offer advanced 3-D acceleration, digital video disc
playback, and increased overall system performance,
National Semiconductor said in a statement issued
Wednesday.
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| February 10, 1999 |
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By Dan Goodin
February 9, 1999
C/Net
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The Federal Trade Commission will
introduce allegations at next month's trial with Intel
that go beyond those made in a complaint filed last
summer, a brief filed in the antitrust action suggests. The
new allegations stem from recently unearthed evidence
that Intel allegedly threatened computer makers Micron
Electronics and Silicon Graphics. Additionally, a
government economist is likely to allege that Intel's
conduct harms competition in the markets for chipsets and
"motherboards"--not just the market for
microprocessors.
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By Dan Goodin
February 9, 1999
C/Net
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The judge hearing the Federal Trade
Commission's antitrust action against Intel denied the
chip giant's request to oust one of the agency's top
litigators from the case, just weeks before it is set to
go to trial. In a motion filed under seal last month,
Intel sought to disqualify Richard Parker, deputy
director of the FTC's bureau of competition and the lead
attorney prosecuting the agency's case against Intel, as
first reported by CNET News.com. The Santa Clara,
California, chipmaker objected to work Parker performed
on behalf of Intel archrival Advanced Micro Devices. A
top AMD executive is scheduled to testify against Intel
in the trial, which is set to start March 9.
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See Related
Stories Intel
trying to oust FTC lawyer
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By James Niccolai
February 9, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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A lead attorney in the U.S. Federal
Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit against Intel can
remain on the case despite having ties to an Intel rival,
the administrative law judge overseeing the case ruled
Tuesday. Judge James Timony's order came in response
to a motion filed by Intel in January, asking to have
Richard Parker, senior deputy director of the FTC's
bureau of competition, disqualified from the case.
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By Robert Lemos
February 10, 1999
ZD Net UK
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It's almost an annual ritual: PC chip
maker Advanced Micro Devices suffering from manufacturing
problems, gets whacked by price pressure from its rival
Intel. Last year, AMD recovered, but at the cost of
three losing quarters in a row. This year could be worse.
Both AMD (NYSE:AMD) and Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) cut prices on
Monday. "They are clearly having problems attaining
a profitable business model," said Linley Gwennap,
analyst at chip-technology follower MicroDesign
Resources. "They are really counting on K6-3 and
then the K7 to save them."
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By Mary Lisbeth D'Amico
February 9, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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Siemens plans to gradually move its
entire lineup of servers to a platform based on the new
generation of IA-64 microprocessors from Intel. This
will mean a big change, especially for the segment of
Intel-based servers currently based on RISC processors,
according to Joseph Reger, marketing director of
enterprise computing at Siemens. He made the comments at
a Siemens press event in Berlin.
"The same thing that happened in the PC market
will happen in the server market," Reger said.
"Intel will begin to dominate. We have bet the
future of our business on Intel."
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By Mike Magee
February 9, 1999
The Register
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Sources close to Intel architects told
The Register late today that there is now a ruckus
between them and engineers from Microsoft. The problem
is that compilers produced for Merced do not perform
inherent parallelism in the codelines and Intel engineers
have now gone back to the drawing board.
The situation between the two companies has become so
bad that Intel engineers working on site have stopped
checking Win64 code.
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By Mike Magee
February 10, 1999
The Register
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A US government programme which will be
implemented in April of next year has been linked to the
current furore over serial numbers in Intel's Pentium
III. The US government's "Know your
Customer" programme requires that all transactions
identify the individuals or companies concerned.
Because it is practically impossible to be sure of the
identity of individuals using IP numbers and the like,
that means that the serial number embedded in Intel's
Pentium III and subsequent processors could be used as
proof of identity by the programme.
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By Tom Quinlan
February 10, 1999
San Jose Mercury News
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Hundreds of software and hardware
companies will spend the next two weeks extolling the
abilities of Intel Corp.'s Pentium III processors to
handle vast amounts of audio and video data in record
time. But Intel's marketing prowess will be tested this
time around, because more attention is being given to the
inclusion of a serial number in the Pentium III than to
the technological advances in this new processor that
should improve everything from games to speech
recognition.
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By Mike Magee
February 10, 1999
The Register
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Chip company Rise has appointed VML to
rep its x86 products in the UK and Northern Europe. VML's
joint managing director, John Byrne, said his company was
already in discussion with a number of OEMs to use the
family of processors.
The company is expected to announce its fab partner
within the next few weeks, and already has its mp6
available in both 233MHz and 266MHz flavours. The 300MHz
mp6 is sampling to companies at the moment.
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By Jack Robertson
February 9, 1999
Semiconductor Business News
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Samsung Electronics Co., playing no
favorites in the wideband memory race, today unveiled a
128-megabit double-data-rate SDRAM. Only last month,
Intel Corp. invested $100 million in Samsung Electronics
to spur the company's production of the rival Direct
Rambus DRAM. A unique feature of the latest Samsung
DDR-SDRAM is its ability to connect with either the
100-megahertz processor bus speeds that Intel and
compatible MPUs now use, or the upcoming 133-MHz buses.
That would allow wide use of the new wideband DDR chip in
most high-speed PC systems, competing head-to-head with
Direct RDRAM.
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By Mo Krochmal
February 9, 1999
TechWeb
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Intel blew it last quarter, failing to
meet demand for Pentium II and overestimating demand for
the Celeron chip. Still, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based
semiconductor manufacturer beat Wall Street estimates.
Andy Bryant, chief financial officer at Intel, said
Monday the chip maker is finally having some success at
the low end of the chip market this quarter.
But Intel isn't limiting itself.
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By Adam Lashinsky
February 10, 1999
San Jose Mercury News
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YOU know a company is clicking on all
cylinders when it can afford to joke about its own
deficiencies. Consider the self-deprecating tone at Intel
Corp. (Nasdaq, INTC), the world's leading maker of
microprocessors. Intel's no failure, of course. But it
doesn't always achieve its publicly stated goals. One
result, acknowledges Intel Chief Financial Officer Andy
Bryant, is that investors can become confused.
But make no mistake. Even when Intel slips, it's
probably not down for long. First case in point is
Intel's prediction at the beginning of last year's fourth
quarter that it would cease to lose market share for
chips that go inside low-end personal computers. At one
point in mid-1998, rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
(NYSE, AMD) had more than half the market for chips in
sub-$1,000 computers; by year's end, AMD had dipped
slightly but still comfortably outpaced Intel.
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| February 9, 1999 |
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By Dan Goodin
February 8, 1999
C/Net
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Just weeks before its antitrust trial
with the Federal Trade Commission is set to start, Intel
is trying to oust one of the agency's top litigators from
the case, FTC records show. In a motion filed under
seal last month, Intel is seeking to disqualify Richard
Parker, deputy director of the FTC's bureau of
competition and the lead attorney prosecuting the
agency's case against Intel.
Intel apparently objects to ties that Parker's former
firm, O'Melveny & Myers, has to Intel archrival
Advanced Micro Devices, which is testifying against Intel
in the trial. The FTC, Intel, and AMD all declined to
comment.
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By Mike Magee
February 9, 1999
The Register
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An Intel presentation on the future of
its IA-32 and IA-64 technology has revealed mechanical
details of how its Merced processor will be implemented. And
the document, available for download from an Intel FTP
site, reveals other, hitherto unknown details of its
implementation, as well as information about Foster and
McKinley.
Clive Turvey first discovered the URL.
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By Mike Magee
February 9, 1999
The Register
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An Intel downloadable document has
revealed more about its EPIC 64-bit architecture than
most of us would want to know. The document, written
by Intel fellow John Crawford and HP lead architect Jerry
Huck, goes into massive detail about the future shape of
software to come.
Currently, according to the presentation,
mispredictions limit performance and small blocks
restrict code scheduling freedom.
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By Mark Hachman
February 9, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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Intel Corp. cut the prices of its
Celeron microprocessors by as much as 24%, forcing
competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to do the same. AMD
last week warned that a price war with Intel could
contribute to a possible operating loss in the current
quarter.
A spokesman for Intel, however, said that the AMD
announcement had nothing to do with the Santa Clara,
Calif., company's decision to reduce the prices, which he
said had been scheduled for months. "It's nothing
new, nothing out of the ordinary," the spokesman
said.
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By Michael Kanellos
February 8, 1999
C/Net
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The chip-pricing limbo contest continued
today as Advanced Micro Devices cut prices on its K6-2
processors by 10 percent to 24 percent in an effort to
match accelerated discounts on Intel's Celeron chip
announced earlier today. The price war between the two
companies has dropped the bottom line cost of processors
to historic lows. Under the new price regime, only two
AMD processors sell for more than $100 in volume while
only one Celeron, the 400-MHz version of the chip debuted
last month, sells for above the $100 mark.
The rest of the Celeron line, which was invented in
1998 for the cheap PC market, sells for between $93 and
$63. Historically, Intel discontinued chips when they hit
the $100 or $85 mark.
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| February 8, 1999 |
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By Adam Lashinsky
February 8, 1999
San Jose Mercury News
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Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE, AMD) has
burned investors again. The question worth asking now is
why anyone bothers investing in the stock. The short
answer is that the semiconductor also-ran's stock has
fallen so far that it is being valued almost solely for
its hard assets, otherwise known as book value.
This isn't to say reasonable folks think AMD is a good
buy. Its ``pre-announced'' earnings shortfall last week
and the effects of a price war with Intel Corp. (Nasdaq,
INTC) drove down the stock to a level it hadn't seen
since the trough of the tech-stock market in October. But
if AMD falls any further it finally may become bait for
an industry bottom fisher.
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See Related
Stories AMD vs. Intel Price War
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By Eric Lundquist
February 5, 1999
PC Week Online
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Few topics draw as fervent a response
from the techno crowd as security issues. Intel recently
discovered this in a big way when it found itself plunked
right in the middle of the privacy debate as word leaked
out (courtesy of some intrepid ZDNN reporting, by the
way) that Intel was going to bring identification right
to the chip level. To its credit, and as an indication
that the company learned a couple of good public
relations lessons from its earlier brush with math bugs
in its chips, Intel was quick to backtrack and said the
plan now was to offer a privacy on-and-off switch rather
than leave the chip in the permanent "on"
position.
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By Mike Magee
February 8, 1999
The Register
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Details leaked from Rise Technology
demonstrate that its mP6-266 chip is not as fast as first
hoped. This will come to a disappointment to PC mobile
manufacturers which had hoped to incorporate the chip
into their systems.
According to test results we have already seen, the
Rise core is something of an underperformer at CPU Mark
522, using the Winbench98 test. The FPU mark in the same
test amounts to 688.
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By Mike Magee
February 7, 1999
The Register
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Readers in Japan have told The Register
that the Pentium III is now available in quantity in
shops in Tokyo. Chips are available in both 450MHz and
500MHz flavours, one source said. He gave this reference
as an example and cited several more.
He said that the second column from the left is the
lowest street price, the third is the change from the
previous week, and the very right column is the number of
shops sampled.
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By Mike Magee
February 7, 1999
The Register
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More details of the Cyrix Jalapeno and
NatSemi's strategy, have emerged after the company spoke
at a VIA conference today. And now (Sunday the 7th), a
reader has sent The Register a Japanese URL which
demonstrates that Cyrix will produce not only stand-alone
versions of the Cayenee and Jalapeno but a Media GX part
based on the 6x86/MII core called the MediaPC.
That followed a presentation from motherboard
manufacturer Chaintech, a company whose overheads said
that the MII+366 would sample in Q2 of this year, with
production in Q3.
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By Mike Magee
February 7, 1999
The Register
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Chipset company VIA has decided to push
the PC133 SDRAM standard and said that Direct Rambus was
too expensive a solution. Dean Hays, director of
marketing at Via, said: "We're working with a number
of memory companies to develop the PC133 spec. Intel took
the lead on PC100 but VIA is taking a lead on developing
PC133. We intend to create a specification for it."
VIA, said Hays, was working with NEC, Micron and
Samsung. He had received numerous calls from other memory
vendors over the last two weeks interested in the
specification.
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By John G. Spooner
February 5, 1999
PC Week Online
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For IT managers who are tired of mobile
chip upgrades that yield only minimal performance
improvements, Intel Corp. has several CPUs up its sleeve. Intel
(Nasdaq:INTC) plans to significantly increase notebook
performance before the third quarter with new, mobile
Pentium II processors. But a bigger boost will come later
in the year when the Santa Clara, Calif., company unveils
its first mobile Pentium III processors, which will use
the 440BX chip set with a 100MHz system bus.
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By Dan Briody
February 8, 1999
InfoWorld Electric
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As the computer industry approaches the
new millennium, Gordon Moore's 30-year-old law is alive
and well. Intel has begun briefing its system partners
on a processor rollout schedule driven by an impressive
array of server technologies, including an 800-MHz chip,
that are all intended to run complex mission-critical
applications.
Following the introduction of its 500-MHz Pentium III
Xeon processor, code-named Tanner, on March 17, Intel
will drive speeds of the high-end server processor to 800
MHz by the middle of next year, according to sources
close to the company.
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By Mike Magee
February 8, 1999
The Register
|
Sources close to AMD in Japan told The
Register today that the K6-3 is to be called the K6-III,
using Roman numerals. But that is likely to spur Intel
to fury, given that it insisted AMD did not call the K6-2
the K6-II, a suggestion to which AMD agreed.
At the same time, dealer selling prices of AMD parts
showed that the smaller chip player was ready and willing
to take on Intel at its pricing game.
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By Mike Magee
February 5, 1999
The Register
|
A senior executive at core logic company
VIA said today that the company will float on the
Taiwanese stock exchange on 5 March. Sean Davidson,
international marketing manager at the company, said:
"Over the long term, we aim to be the world's
largest core chipset supplier."
Currently, said Davidson, VIA is number ten in the
world but by the end of the year hopes to have climbed
further up the chart and will have nearly 1000 employees.
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By Andrew MacLellan
February 5, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
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As the sun rises on a new fiscal year,
Japan's DRAM makers may be looking for a helping hand to
assist them in keeping pace with the global chip market. Short
on working capital, these industry icons have lost much
of the luster that set them apart during the boom years
of the DRAM gold rush. Now, as they prepare their annual
budgets for the start of the April 1 corporate year,
executives at Japan's top DRAM companies are entertaining
options that would have been anathema just a few years
ago.
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| AMD
vs. Intel Price War |
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By Brooke Crothers
February 8, 1999
C/Net
|
Intel is slated to cut prices on its
line of low-cost Celeron chips today, causing some
analysts to wonder whether this aggressive low-end chip
strategy might ultimately do more harm than good. In a
move that will likely rattle the PC and chip markets,
Intel will cut prices on its increasingly popular Celeron
line of chips. But some analysts think if Intel continues
to sell more of these low-priced chips, revenues could
suffer. In short, as Intel boosts Celeron shipments, the
overall average selling price of Intel chips dips.
Prices will fall about $10 on the cheapest Celeron
chips and more on higher end versions, according to
industry sources familiar with the price cuts today.
Pentium II prices are slated to be cut on February 28
when the Pentium III arrives, Intel has said.
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By Mark Hachman
February 7, 1999
Electronic Buyers' News
|
Sources close to Intel Corp. have
confirmed the Celeron processor will exceed the clock
speed of the Pentium II by the second quarter, as Intel
prepares a low-end onslaught against competitor Advanced
Micro Devices. Intel's manufacturing push towards
0.18-micron will result in a 433-MHz Celeron released
March 15, with a 466-MHz version released in the second
quarter. The sources reported that the chip will cost
between $120 to $130 in volume.
Meanwhile, the Pentium II will end life at 450 MHz,
although Intel will probably still build Pentium II
processor wafers for its customers for another year, the
source said.
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By Margaret Quan and Brian Fuller
February 5, 1999
EE Times
|
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
continued falling today, a day after the company said it
would lose money in its fiscal first quarter because of
price wars in its key microprocessor business. AMD
stock fell $2 to $16 per share in morning trading, after
falling another $2 Thursday before trading was halted. On
Thursday (Feb. 4), chief executive officer W.J. Sanders
III said the company would suffer an unspecified loss in
the quarter following one in which the company reported a
penny-a-share profit. AMD has hustled to fix yield
problems on the K-6 MPU at Fab 25, its flagship
fabrication facility in Austin, Texas. "We will not,
however, realize the benefits of the change in production
output until the back half of the current quarter,"
Sanders said.
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By Larry Dignan
February 5, 1999
Inter@ctive Investor
|
Advanced Micro Devices' (NYSE: AMD)
chronic "Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) is beating us
up" excuse is getting old. What's lost in AMD's talk
of price wars and battling Intel is this -- it's time for
new management. You won't hear it from Wall Street
analysts who need access to AMD, but you'll sure hear it
from the individual investors crying over their message
boards. The common refrain: CEO W.J. "Jerry"
Sanders III has to go.
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By Michael Kanellos
February 4, 1999
C/Net
|
Semiconductor stocks took a beating
today as trading of Advanced Micro Devices shares was
halted after the company said it may suffer an operating
loss for the quarter. Meanwhile, Intel slid amid concerns
over price cuts. AMD has been falling this week
because of worries that stiff competition from Intel is
forcing the company to sell at prices that leave it with
too little profit margin.
AMD's stock dropped $2 to 18.9375, a decline of almost
10 percent as 12,720,100 shares traded hands today. The
Sunnyvale, California, company's shares have dropped 24
percent since Monday.
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By Michael Kanellos
February 5, 1999
C/Net
|
Stock in Advanced Micro Devices dropped
today, a day after trading was halted when the chipmaker
reported that it may suffer an operating loss for the
quarter. AMD has been falling this week because of
worries that stiff competition from Intel is forcing the
company to sell at prices that leave it with too little
profit margin. But Intel too saw its stock slide amid
concerns over price cuts.
With less than two hours before the closing bell,
AMD's stock had dropped more than 12 percent. Before
trading resumed this morning, the Sunnyvale, California,
company's shares had already dropped 24 percent from
Monday.
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By Larry Barrett
February 5, 1999
ZD Net News
|
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
fell 2 1/16 to 16 7/16 on Friday after the company said
it would likely incur an operating loss in its first
quarter thanks to price cuts by its bitter rival Intel
Corp. It was the third consecutive down day for AMD
(AMD) . Its shares closed off 2, or 10 percent, to 18
15/16 ahead of the announcement on Thursday. Shares also
took a hit Wednesday after AMD abruptly pulled out of two
technology investment conferences.
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