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| Top Stories for September 3, 1999 (details below) | |
| EE Times | Via lays plans for future CPUs, core logic |
| Electronic Buyers' News | Intergraph pulls out of hardware business; blames Intel for woes |
| Special Edition: Intel Developer's Forum: 09/02/99 | |
| EE Times | Intel bows to call for PC133 SDRAMs |
| C/Net | Rambus shares fall on Intel chip decision |
| Electronic Buyers' News | Intel to design low-end Xeon servers |
| The Register Files | |
| The Register | How Intel raced flat out to demo Merced |
| Today's Related Stories | |
| C/Net | Intergraph to take $20 million charge, lay off 400 |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of August 29, 1999 |
Older News |
| September 3, 1999 | ||
Via lays plans for future CPUs, core logicBy Mark Carroll September 2, 1999 |
Via Technologies Inc. has laid out its grand plans for its recently acquired CPU makers: the Cyrix Corp. subsidiary of National Semiconductor Corp. and the Centaur subsidiary of Integrated Device Techology Inc.
And grand they are. "By 2001, we want to be the fabless Intel," said Wen-chi Chen, president of Via. "We will offer our own low-cost integrated CPU-core logic-graphics solution in 2000." For now, CPUs will continue to be made by current fab partners such as National Semiconductor. |
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Intergraph pulls out of hardware business; blames Intel for woesBy Mark Hachman September 2, 1999 |
Intergraph Corp. has pulled out of the PC and generic server business in a move company executives say is directly related to a long-running dispute with Intel Corp.
The restructuring will cost the Huntsville, Ala., OEM about 400 jobs, and will result in a $20 million one-time charge to earnings. In addition to discontinuing its PC and server lines, Intergraph is seeking third-party investments in both its ViZual Computing graphics workstation business and Intense3D add-on card operation, and hinted that an outright sale of the groups may be in the offing. Under its new plan, the company will focus exclusively on software and services. |
Editorial Comment:
This is evidence that proves my point to the FTC. When Intel
withholds vital "gold books," they control your ability to
compete in the market. Intergraph's business is suffering since
Intel has withheld these documents. This practice is inherently
anti-competitive. -- RRC |
| Special Edition: Intel Developer's Forum: 09/02/99 | ||
Intel bows to call for PC133 SDRAMsBy David Lammers September 2, 1999 |
Bowing to pressure from system OEMs and DRAM vendors alike, Intel Corp. announced this week that it will support PC133 synchronous DRAMs with an Intel chip set that the company said won't be ready until the first half of 2000.
The announcement here at the Fall Intel Developer Forum (IDF) was acknowledgement of what many have been saying for a year: that the cost of manufacturing, packaging and testing Rambus DRAMs is too high for most of the cost-sensitive PC industry. |
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Rambus shares fall on Intel chip decisionBy Reuters September 2, 1999 |
Shares of chip technology company Rambus fell 11 percent in morning trading, extending losses sparked yesterday by Intel's decision to slow its planned adoption of a Rambus technology, analysts said.
Rambus traded as low as $83.50, down $11.75. The shares have lost 19 percent of their value in two days and are now down nearly 30 percent from their 52-week high of $117.50. |
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Intel to design low-end Xeon serversBy Mark Hachman September 2, 1999 |
Now that Intel Corp. has secured a foothold in the 4- and 8-way server market, the company will design products for the low-end server market as well.
In a talk Wednesday at the Intel Developer Forum, John H.F. Miner, vice president and general manager of Intel's Communications Products Group in Beaverton, Ore., said the company will design servers for the "affordable low end of the market." Miner was previously general manager of Intel's Enterprise Server Group (ESG) in Hillsboro, Ore. |
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| The Register Files | ||
How Intel raced flat out to demo MercedBy Mike Magee September 3, 1999 |
The background to the introduction of Intel's Merced processor earlier this week has emerged.
The Register beat the world's press with the news that Intel had booted silicon in the week before the Forum. According to the report between that first boot and Intel's Craig Barrett showing it, engineers worked flat out to show a stable demonstration at the Intel Developer Forum. |
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| Today's Related News | ||
Intergraph to take $20 million charge, lay off 400By Stephen Shankland September 2, 1999 |
Intergraph, a maker of computer workstations and software, announced that it will take a $20 million charge and lay off 400 people as part of a restructuring.
Included in the charge, which is in the quarter ending September 30, are the costs of eliminating the jobs and the revaluation of hardware inventory caused by the company's exit from the PC and generic server business, Intergraph said in a statement. The company blames chip giant Intel for many of its troubles. Intergraph and Intel have been entangled in a lawsuit for months regarding whether Intel has withheld chips and technology information from Intergraph. |
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| September 2, 1999 | ||
Intel confirms support for PC133; will use current specsBy Jack Robertson September 1, 1999 |
Intel Corp. late today made it official: the company will add support to PC133 SDRAMs, citing the lack of rival Direct Rambus DRAM availability in the near future.
Peter MacWilliams, an Intel fellow, said the endorsement of PC133 has no impact on the transition to Direct RDRAM. "As soon as Direct Rambus production ramps up, we expect to move rapidly to the new memory chip," he told the Intel Developers Forum. He said that Intel's evaluation of PC133 indicated that the SDRAM showed little performance increase over existing PC100 chips. "However, it will be widely available in the market and the higher speed essentially comes at no extra premium -- so why not use it?" he said. |
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USB 2.0 Up To 3 Times Faster Than ExpectedBy Joseph F. Kovar September 1, 1999 |
The next version of USB will be two to three times faster than previously planned, according to the USB 2.0 Promoter Group.
At the Intel Developer Forum, the group on Tuesday estimated that the target speed for USB 2.0 would be in the 360-megabit-per-second to 480-Mbps range, which is 30 to 40 times current USB 1.1 specifications and two to three times the speed originally envisioned when USB 2.0 was first revealed last February. The USB 2.0 Promoter Group consists of Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, NEC Technologies, and Philips Electronics. |
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| Special Edition: Intel Developer's Forum: 09/01/99 | ||
Intel concedes memory issue, as expectedBy Michael Kanellos September 1, 1999 |
Bowing to pressure from computer makers and memory manufacturers, Intel formally committed to producing more chipsets that will work with standard computer memory, a move that could further stem the rush toward Rambus.
Until today, Intel's position has been that all of its future chipsets would support Rambus memory, which limited the horizon for using standard memory, or SDRAM, in Intel-based PCs. The change had been expected. Intel will now come out with a chipset that will work with 133-MHz SDRAM, said Pete MacWilliams, an Intel fellow, at the Intel Developer's Forum. |
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Intel executives insist Merced will be volume productBy Mark Hachman September 1, 1999 |
Is Intel Corp.'s Merced just a development platform? Absolutely not, insisted company executives during the Intel Developer Forum here this week.
In fact, Ron Curry, director of marketing for Intel's Microprocessor Products Group, claimed that the total number of Merced chips sampling next year will outstrip the production of all devices manufactured by rivals for the RISC-based processor market. The production version of Merced will also surpass, or at least be "pretty competitive" with the market's best-selling RISC chips, Curry added. At a lunch with reporters at the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday, company executives went on the offensive and attempted to counter the impression that Merced is merely marking time while its successor, McKinley, is in development. Curry claimed media reports that fostered a negative image of Merced have no basis in fact, nor were they backed up by actual OEM feedback. |
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Intel previews new Xeons, introduces IXABy Anne Knowles and John Spooner September 1, 1999 |
Intel Corp. plans to push its Pentium III Xeon processor into the low end next year.
In the first half of 2000, the chip maker plans to introduce two 700+MHz Xeon processors, one with 2MB and the other with 1MB of integrated Level 2 cache. "The integrated cache will allow us to extend Xeon into the more affordable low end," said John Miner, vice president and general manager of the company's communications products group, during his keynote speech here Wednesday at the Intel Developer Forum. |
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| The Register Files | ||
Intel in full cunning strategic retreat over PC-133By Mike Magee September 2, 1999 |
Chip giant Intel has now bent to inevitable pressure and said that, after evaluation, it will now support PC-133.
The news came from Peter MacWilliams, an Intel fellow, at an announcement at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF). MacWilliams said that Intel had realised the difficulties some companies had in moving from synchronous memory to Rambus technology. |
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Intel move to PC-133 mere lip serviceBy Mike Magee September 2, 1999 |
A press conference at the forum has revealed that Intel's commitment to PC-133 is essentially a lack of commitment.
The upcoming i820 Camino chipset will not have PC-133 support, and Intel appears to be saying that it will introduce a special chipset sometime next year which will only support PC-100 and PC-133. That is despite the fact that i820 has SDRAM support for PC-100 and Taiwanese mobo makers have successfully made PC-133 run with chipsets, such as Via's, which compete with Intel. |
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Cumine 7xx processors confirmed for late OctoberBy Mike Magee September 1, 1999 |
A US distributor told The Register today that he had been promised delivery of 7xx Coppermine Pentium IIIs by the end of October.
He said his Intel representative would not be pinned down on the exact speed of the chips, but would get them, in quantity, at the end of October or in very early November. Yesterday, Craig Barrett, Intel's CEO, tasked senior VP Pat Gelsinger to produce Coppermine Pentium IIIs in October. |
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Four way Merced: the pixBy Mike Magee September 1, 1999 |
Intel was exhibiting a two way and a four way system in its Showspace area.
The four way box is upgradeable to eight ways, and uses the AL460GX chipset, and supports up to 64GHz of memory. It also includes hotswap fans and HotPCI drives. Here are some pictures of this beastie. |
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Intel claims IA64 will outperform Risc offeringsBy Mike Magee September 1, 1999 |
Our busy day in Palm Springs yesterday finished off with a dinner with the Merced team.
You might remember that at the Spring Intel Developer Forum (IDF), we took snaps of the Merced cartridge, which was then siliconless, courtesy of Steve Smith, GM of the Merced group. This time, everyone was advised to bring a camera and Smith beamed away as he held the precious cargo, much as a proud dad might hold a new-born baby. |
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Merced could be a great games machineBy Mike Magee September 1, 1999 |
When the Merced, with 4Mb of on die cache, and at speeds of 750MHz on a .18 micron process, and a set of slightly different Screaming Cindy extensions, starts to appear in volume next year, it could be the perfect gamer's machine.
The microprocessor is being positioned as a heavyweight beast for the corporate server marketplace, but with tweaking could run the fastest Quake on the planet, it has emerged. Although Intel is still publicly denying that it will eventually replace the IA32 platform, it's likely that clever mobo manufacturers may turn out models to do the business for the lucrative games market. |
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| September 1, 1999 | ||
Intel shipping first engineering samples of MercedBy Reuters August 31, 1999 |
Intel Corp. said it has reached a major milestone in the development of its next generation processor, code-named Merced, and it is now shipping engineering samples to computer makers for testing.
Merced is the first chip in a family designed around a new 64-bit architecture, which Intel has been developing with Hewlett-Packard Co. since 1994. A 64-bit chip architecture will process data in chunks of 64 bits, versus the current standard 32-bit architecture. ``This is the very first Merced coming out of the manufacturing line,'' said Gadi Singer, vice president and general manager of Intel's IA-64 processor division, as he conducted the first public demonstration of the chip at the Intel Developer Forum here. |
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Intel Plans to Ship Faster Coppermine Chip in October, Moving Ahead of AMDBy Anthony Effinger August 31, 1999 |
Intel Corp., the No. 1 chipmaker, plans to introduce a microprocessor in October that runs faster than rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s best chip, sooner than some analysts expected.
Chief Executive Craig Barrett said Intel's new Pentium III, code-named Coppermine, will run faster than 700 megahertz, surpassing the 650-MHz chips that AMD is shipping now. Long an underdog, AMD is selling speedier chips than Intel today, putting pressure on Barrett to catch up. Intel's top-of-the-line production-model chip now runs at 600 MHz. Having the fastest processor is key for marketing computers, especially to sophisticated consumers and business customers. Some analysts expected Intel to unveil the new chip in November. Moving the introduction up a month will give Intel a jump on the holiday season, when personal computer sales usually surge. ``This will allow them to go head-to-head with AMD'' during the holidays, said Hans Mosesmann, a Prudential Securities Inc. analyst who rates Intel shares ``strong buy.'' |
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Server dispute settled, but products coming laterBy Stephen Shankland August 31, 1999 |
Seven newly allied computing companies announced a new server design standard today, but the new standard will arrive many months later than the companies had hoped.
As reported yesterday, the backing of a unified standard called System I/O heals a rift that had pitted Intel, Dell Computer, and Sun Microsystems against IBM, HP, and Compaq Computer. The standard, a critical part of future design of high-performance computers, governs how components such as network cards plug into servers and how the servers connect to each other. The new standard itself will arrive by the end of the year, and the first systems shipping with the new architecture will arrive in late 2001, executives said today as they announced the new agreement. |
See Today's Related Stories |
| Special Edition: Intel Developer's Forum: 08/31/99 | ||
Intel demos first Merced silicon at developer forumBy Alexander Wolfe August 31, 1999 |
Intel Corp. Tuesday demonstrated its first working samples of Merced silicon. Merced is a 64-bit microprocessor that is the first implementation of the IA-64 architecture, which was jointly developed by Intel and Hewlett-Packard Co.
The display came on stage at the Intel Developer's Forum here, during the keynote speech by Craig Barrett, the company's president and CEO. The demo comes a little more than a month after Intel disclosed it has taped out the microprocessor. Barrett showed a workstation-like platform, containing Merced, running operating systems Microsoft Windows 2000 as well as Linux. (Windows 2000 is the upcoming version of Windows NT. Although previously referred to as Windows 5.0., it is not a full 64-bit OS but rather a hybrid 32/64-bit offering.) |
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Intel Demonstrates Merced Shipping samples to OEMsBy Marcia Savage August 31, 1999 |
Intel Corp.'s president and chief executive Craig Barrett kicked off the company's developer forum Tuesday with a demonstration of the Merced chip.
Intel produced the first Merced silicon two weeks ago, and is now shipping engineering samples of the processor to its OEM customers, the company announced. Merced is the first processor in Intel's 64-bit architecture for high-end servers and workstations. The chip is scheduled for production in mid 2000. Calling Merced a "new engine for E-business," Barrett demonstrated the Merced processor on an engineering prototype platform running a version of Microsoft Corp.'s 64-bit Windows operating system. He also demonstrated the Merced-based system running on Linux. |
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Intel to describe 133-MHz SDRAM fallback plan at forum on WednesdayBy Jack Robertson August 31, 1999 |
Intel Corp. here late Wednesday afternoon is expected to present details of its plans to support 133-MHz synchronous SDRAM as an interim memory until its favored Direct Rambus DRAM ramps up in production.
The microprocessor giant has scheduled a last minute presentation on Wednesday at its Intel Developers Forum here to tell the industry how it will deal with delays in the availability of Rambus technology. An Intel spokesman today declined to comment about the presentation, adding "wait and see what we have to say on 133-MHz SDRAMs." DRAM chip makers who have been briefed by Intel said the first chip sets to support 133-MHz memory will be available at the end of the first quarter next year. Most welcomed Intel's belated 133-MHz endorsement as helping to boost memory chip sales, although the microprocessor maker won't go all the way and support the industry standard PC133 memory interface in its chip sets. |
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Intel to speed Coppermine rampBy David Lammers August 31, 1999 |
Intel said Tuesday (Aug. 31) that it will bring its Pentium III Coppermine processor to market faster than expected and at a higher clock speed that anticipated.
The semiconductor giant in October will ship a 700MHz version of the processor, implemented in 0.18-micron CMOS, said Pat Gelsinger, Intel vice president for desktop products. Previous reports had the CPU coming out in November at something closer to 600MHz. The processor, which is now sampling in Taiwan, will ship from four fabs in volumes for all segments: mobile, home, desktop, workstation and servers. An early system spin will be "legacy-reduced," which will include USB 1.1 but not serial or parallel ports. "It's all about ease of use," Gelsinger said, in an interview during the annual Intel Developer Forum here. |
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Enhanced Pentium III will hit 700 MHzBy Michael Kanellos August 31, 1999 |
Intel will push to release the "Coppermine" Pentium III processor, an enhanced version of its high-end chip, in October and bring it out at a speed of at least 700 MHz, Intel chief executive Craig Barrett said here today.
The October surprise advances the Intel road map, because it means the new chip will arrive sooner and work faster than expected. The chip is an important part of the firm's plan to stave off the threat posed by AMD's Athlon processor, which performs better than Intel's current Pentium III chips, according to many tests. Before now, most analysts predicted that Coppermine would come out at a speed of 600 MHz or 667 MHz. Originally due in September, Intel recently pushed it back to November, because it was having difficulty making large volumes of the chip at 600 MHz and faster. |
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Intel previews what's in store for notebooksBy Anne Knowles August 31, 1999 |
Intel Corp. is working to turn notebook PCs into more secure, less power-hungry
wireless devices.
Next year, the company will deliver a Bluetooth radio module that is designed to make it easier for PC OEMs to design notebooks capable of using the short-range wireless technology, according to Frank Spindler, vice president and marketing director of Intel's mobile and handheld products group. Several radio modules, in development now, will be available for OEMs sometime next year, Spindler said. |
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Intel's Barrett: Merced reeling in PC makersBy John G. Spooner August 31, 1999 |
What does fishing have to do with building a better Internet?
Plenty, according to Craig Barrett, Intel Corp.'s president and CEO, who spends Friday nights surfing the Web to find out the conditions at his favorite Montana fishing spots. Barrett put down the fly rod to deliver the Intel Developer Forum opening keynote address to some 2,600 developers here Tuesday -- using his online fishing experiences to illustrate how people will use the Internet as an information source in the future. But, he said, as the number of Internet users and the uses for the medium increase, so will the challenges of building and maintaining networks. |
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Intel, Rambus work to lower memory costsBy Michael Kanellos August 31, 1999 |
Rambus and Intel today announced a cooperative consortium designed to bring the cost of Rambus memory down, although price and other issues continue to hang like a cloud over the technology.
The Direct RDRAM Implementers Forum, which will include Intel, Samsung, Micron, NEC, Rambus, and others, will work together to develop ways to make testing, packaging, and even manufacturing of Rambus-style memory less expensive, said Pat Gelsinger, vice president and general manager of the desktop products group at Intel. "The goal is to reduce that [the price difference between Rambus and standard memory] very significantly," he said here at the Intel Developers Forum. "We will be able to improve and accelerate cost reduction and accelerate the pace of Rambus technology." |
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Rambus group tackles cost issuesBy David Lammers August 31, 1999 |
A Rambus DRAM Implementers Forum, announced Tuesday (Aug. 31) here at the Fall Intel Developer Forum (IDF), will consider ways to trim costs associated with the Rambus memory architecture, including taking a common approach to reducing the number of memory banks in the current Direct RDRAM design.
Intel and Rambus Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.) have worked on a one-to-one basis with a growing number of RDRAM suppliers, but the implementers forum is intended to come up with commonly accepted ways to reduce costs. |
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IDF update: Rambus group may explore scaled-back design to cut costsBy Jack Robertson August 31, 1999 |
The newly-formed Direct Rambus DRAM Implementers Forum may consider a new chip design with fewer memory banks as a way to cut the cost of the new packet-memory device.
Farhad Tabrizi, director of strategic marketing for memory products with Hyundai Electronics America's Semiconductor Division, San Jose, said some members of the new forum have proposed the concept as a means for hastening use of the high-speed interface in the mainstream PC market. Tabrizi said the suggestion is preliminary, but should be explored by the Direct RDRAM forum. The new group, formed earlier today at the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., includes Intel, six DRAM producers-Hyundai, Infineon Technologies, Micron Technology, NEC Corp, Samsung Electronics, and Toshiba-memory-interface architect Rambus Inc., and one PC OEM, Dell Computer Corp. |
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| The Register Files | ||
Intel 810e to slow down Rambus adoptionBy Mike Magee August 31, 1999 |
Intel's introduction of the 810e chipset will slow down introduction of Direct Rambus DRAM, said Wayne Jane, of Acer group affiliate, Apacer Technology Inc, a Taipei-based memory module manufacturer.
Intel is strongly promoting the Rambus memory technology, however serious delays and cost problems have apparently forced the company to provide support for an alternative system, PC 133 SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM), in the 810e chipset. Ironically, earlier this year, Intel took legal action against a Taiwanese company, VIA Technologies, after it introduced a chipset with PC 133 SDRAM support - the case is still unresolved. |
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Intel pushes Rambus hardBy Mike Magee August 31, 1999 |
Senior Intel VP Pat Gelsinger said today that Rambus would ramp in quantity throughout the rest of this year, with 46 types of RIMM (Rambus inline memory modules) available from seven vendors.
In his keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, Gelsinger also gave details of the delayed Camino i820 chipset, and said it was on track for its new launch date, tipped to be the end of September by The Register The i820 chipset supports Rambus modules, has a 133MHz FSB, AGP 4x and ICH/ATA66. (See earlier story, with pictures, here). |
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Chipzilla leapfrogs Chimpzilla in desertBy Mike Magee August 31, 1999 |
The CEO of Intel, Craig Barrett, who had earlier been described by underling Patrick Gelsinger as "the ruthless dictator of Intel", today showed he was only human by thumbing his nose at AMD.
During his keynote speech, Barrett told Gelsinger that Intel had to release a 700MHz Coppermine chip in October. That piece of forward thinking is intended to galvanise Intel engineers into action and at the same time put the wind up AMD, in the ruthless game of "my chip is faster than yours". |
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| Today's Related News | ||
Warring NGIO and Future I/O groups to mergeBy Will Wade August 31, 1999 |
Two dueling camps attempting to define an input/output architecture for future server generations reached a compromise Tuesday and decided to merge. The Future I/O organization and the Next-Generation Input/Output (NGIO) team will join to form System I/O. Initial systems based on the architecture will be available by 2001.
"We are uniting to combine the best ideas from NGIO and Future I/O into a single specification," said John Miner, vice president and general manager of Intel Corp.'s communications product group. "The industry realizes this is the right approach, and with this combined effort, both the industry and the end users will benefit." |
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| August 31, 1999 | ||
Intel to demonstrate Merced silicon tomorrowBy Mike Magee August 30, 1999 |
The CEO of Intel, Craig Barrett, will tomorrow demonstrate the company’s 64-bit Merced chip in silicon rather than simulation.
Barrett will open the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) with a keynote speech and position Merced as a solution for high end services, including e-commerce. Intel will also announce a further series of IA-64 initiatives including a specification called DIG64, intended to promote cross interoperability between Merced and other platforms. |
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AMD evens speed race with K6-2By Michael Kanellos August 30, 1999 |
Although it is focusing most of its attention on the new Athlon processor line, chipmaker AMD today released a new version of the K6-2 that cranks the processor up to 500 MHz.
As previously reported, the 500-MHz K6-2, AMD's main chip before Athlon's debut, evens the speed race in the budget-processor arena. Intel released a 500-MHz Celeron processor earlier this month. IBM will use the new K6-2 in an Aptiva system in the United States while Hewlett-Packard is releasing a 500-MHz K6-2 system in Asia, sources at AMD said. IBM is also one of the big supporters of the Athlon chip, the new generation processor released earlier this summer. |
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AMD's K6 microprocessor generation lives onAugust 30, 1999 |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has eked out a 500 MHz device on its aging 0.25-micron process, confirming that its K6 microprocessor generation will live another day.
Previously, AMD executives at the company's Sunnyvale, Calif. headquarters have said its K6 chip line, which includes the K6-2 and K6-III devices, would be supported well into the year 2000. AMD's new chip seems to confirm that fact. The K6-2 family continues to be priced against Intel Corp.'s Celeron processor at $167 each, in units of 1,000 lots. The chip is packaged in a 321-pin ceramic pin graid-array (CPGA) package, using AMD's existing 0.25-micron technology. |
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Truce is called in I/O warBy Sonia R. Lelii August 30, 1999 |
The two camps that have been battling over next-generation I/O architecture are joining forces to
develop a unified switched fabric interconnect called System I/O.
The Next Generation I/O Forum and the Future I/O group have come to terms on several major issues of disagreement and are expected to announce an agreement Tuesday at the Intel Developer Forum that will lead to the replacement of the PCI bus-based interconnect, according to a source close to the negotiations. NGIO is led by Intel Corp., while FIO was founded by Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM, three of the largest users of Intel's chip technology. |
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Two sides set to reveal I/O compromiseBy Michael Lattig August 30, 1999 |
The fight brewing over who should set the standard for forthcoming I/O architectures seems to be over before it ever really began, saving users the hassle of deciding between at least two different designs.
Last week a representative at Intel, one of the leading proponents of the Next Generation I/O (NGIO) specification, said negotiations to create a unified I/O architecture for upcoming hardware releases have heated up of late, and a compromise may be near. "Something could break soon," the Intel representative said. It appears now that "soon" is Tuesday. |
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Micron, Rambus address DRAM cost issuesBy Will Wade and David Lammers August 30, 1999 |
The first PCs using Direct Rambus memory technology are expected to debut here this week at the Intel Developer Forum. But lingering questions over the cost of using RDRAM may hinder the chips' full-scale deployment.
Claiming Rambus prices will stay high for some time in a fragmenting memory market, Micron Technology Inc. will announce today that it is sampling both Direct Rambus and competing double-data-rate synchronous DRAM chips. Meanwhile, Rambus chief executive officer Geoff Tate said in an interview that the company is addressing issues on several fronts to cut Direct RDRAM costs to just a 10 percent premium over SDRAM by the end of next year. |
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| The Register Files | ||
Intel says Via bigger threat than AMDBy Mike Magee August 30, 1999 |
Senior Intel VP Pat Gelsinger said at a round table meeting today that the company saw Via as a bigger threat than AMD.
In a pre-eve briefing before his keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) tomorrow morning, Gelsinger said there were several factors which made the company paranoid about Via. He said: "We're concerned about competition. Are we paranoid about competition from Asia? Yes, we are. We're seeing more and more first class silicon from Taiwan. Furthermore, they've got cheap capital. We are paranoid about Taiwan and we expect them to be very competitive, more so than AMD. They're a very potent force and we take them seriously." |
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Intel to roll Camino i820 details out this weekBy Mike Magee August 30, 1999 |
Chip giant Intel will use its Developer Forum this week to give its Camino i820 chip a boost as launch date nears.
The chipset, delayed for around six months, will include a random number generator, support for smart cards, so called boot integrity services and Internet protocol security. But the real question is how Intel will tackle the thorny question of support for Direct Rambus. |
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Pentium III/mobile at .18 micron to arrive fallBy Mike Magee August 31, 1999 |
Notebook versions of the Pentium III/mobile manufactured using a .18 micron process technology will arrive this autumn, Intel said today.
Frank Spindler, VP of Intel US mobile division, said that the chip will be released at speeds of up to 500MHz. But, he said, Geyserville would not be incorporated into PIII/mobile parts until processor speeds matched those of desktop chips. |
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Micron to push high end Rambus memory Q3By Mike Magee August 30, 1999 |
Chip manufacturer Micron claimed it will deliver fast and competitively priced .18 micron Rambus memory in the autumn.
But in a company statement, Micron stressed that it will also support competing products including PC-133 parts, to its customers. The company said that it has started samplying 356MHz and 400MHz chips at 128Mbit and 144Mbit capacities with data rates of 712MHz and 800MHz respectively. Micron said that its RIMMs (Rambus inline memory modules) use a proprietary fine pitch ball grid array packaging technology. |
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| August 30, 1999 | ||
Intel talks Camino, while OEMs plunder spot market for older chipsetsBy Mark Hachman and Sandy Chen August 27, 1999 |
Intel Corp. will reveal key details of its long-awaited Camino core-logic chipset next week, even as OEMs scramble to snatch up waning supplies of the company's older chipset components.
Delayed since its scheduled March launch, the Camino-or Intel 820 chipset as it is officially known-is not receiving the kind of rousing reception Intel had hoped for. Indeed, with a gray-market shortage of legacy 440xx chipsets pushing spot prices through the roof, PC makers are calling on the company to bring new capacity on line to fill contract sales channels with the older devices. At next week's Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Palm Springs, Calif., the chip maker will serve customers a wide menu of technological hors d'oeuvres, including its strategies for the IA-64 microprocessor and embedded computing markets, and a glimpse into its plans for I/O and communications devices. But it's the Camino that will most likely whet the appetites of PC manufacturers, which are hoping the device lives up to expectations. |
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Intel Denies Non-Compliance ChargeBy Reuters August 27, 1999 |
On Thursday, Intel denied charges made by workstation maker Intergraph that the chip maker failed to comply with afederal court's injunction, saying that it has fully met the terms of the ruling.
"Intel believes it is in full compliance with both the letter and spirit of the judge's preliminary injunction," said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. Late on Wednesday, Huntsville, Ala.-based Intergraph said it filed a court motion to force Intel, the world's largest chip maker, to comply with a preliminary injunction assuring Intergraph access to product samples and information. Intergraph said that in its motion filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, it alleged Intel failed to comply with a federal court's injunction in April by "withholding or delaying delivery of critical information, support, and products." The company said Intel has given the information and products to Intergraph competitors. |
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Intel to Discuss Plans for New Memory Technology, Merced Chip at ForumBy Molly Williams August 27, 1999 |
Intel to Discuss Rambus, New Chips at Conference This Week
Santa Clara, California, Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp., the world's largest computer-chip maker, will outline plans for using new memory technology and unveil details about its new Merced chip and network processors at a conference this week. Chief Executive Craig Barrett will kick off the Intel Developers Forum Tuesday in Palm Springs, California. Other executives scheduled to speak include Mark Christensen, head of Intel's networking group, Patrick Gelsinger of the business products group and John Miner, head of the server business. |
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Intel preparing megahertz megablitzBy By John G. Spooner August 27, 1999 |
Intel Corp. is preparing to pump out a serious amount of megahertz over the next two months.
By the end of October, Intel will have introduced more than 13 new Pentium III chips for desktop and mobile PCs as well as workstations and servers, sources said. Industry watchers could not recall any company releasing as many chips in such a short time. The chip barrage will actually begin in late September, when Intel's 820 chip set for high performance desktop PCs is rolled out. |
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AMD raising chip's speed to 500 MHzBy Michael Kanellos August 27, 1999 |
Although it is focusing most of its attention on the new Athlon processor line, chipmaker AMD will release a new version of the K6-2 on Monday that will crank the processor up to 500 MHz.
The 500-MHz K6-2, AMD's main chip before Athlon's debut, will even the speed race in the budget-processor arena. Intel released a 500-MHz Celeron processor earlier this month. IBM will use the new K6-2 in an Aptiva system in the United States while Hewlett-Packard is releasing a 500-MHz K6-2 system in Asia, sources at AMD said. IBM is also one of the big supporters of the Athlon chip, the new generation processor released earlier this summer. |
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Intel CEO Barrett relishes the heatBy Lisa DiCarlo August 27, 1999 |
Having just delivered a slightly botched keynote address at Dell Computer Corp.'s
DirectConnect customer conference here Thursday, Intel Corp. CEO Craig Barrett could be excused for
being in an off mood. But he was relaxed and jovial as he spoke with PC Week Senior Editor Lisa DiCarlo on
a wide range of topics.
PC WEEK: You just got done with a keynote in which there were several technical glitches during the demos. Given the inherent instability of computers, how can Intel realize its goal of a world where there are 1 billion connected computers? BARRETT: First you have to build 1 billion computers. |
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| The Register Files | ||
Has Intel been caught sabotaging Intergraph?By Graham Lea August 27, 1999 |
Intergraph's return to the Alabama District Court (Earlier story) over what it claims is Intel's failure to comply with the terms of a Preliminary Injunction could spell big trouble for
Chipzilla. If Intergraph is to be believed, Intel has just carried on screwing up its business, despite what the judge says.
Intergraph claims in a Motion to the court that Intel is not complying with the Preliminary Injunction Order of April 1998 that obliged Intel to provide inter alia information and samples to Intergraph. As a result, CEO Jim Meadlock says he has had to lay off 200 people and withdraw from the general-purpose server market. Specifically, Intergraph claims that Intel refused to supply Carmel chipset information, so that Intel's Brigantine motherboard had to be used instead. Competitors were given the information, Meadlock said. It was a double whammy, because Intel has now told Intergraph that it is discontinuing Brigantine sales to Intergraph. Meadlock also says that Intel has not fixed a bug in Marlinspike that was reported in March. |
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Intel's Grove admits Rambus will take timeBy Mike Magee August 30, 1999 |
In an interview on CNN TV last Friday, Intel's chairman Andy Grove, acknowledged that it will be some time before Direct Rambus technology becomes part of the PC mainstream.
Speaking in an interactive debate using telephones and email, Grove also forecast a continuing shrinking of silicon technology but using aluminium, rather than copper interconnects. This coming week, at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), which we will cover in full, the chip giant is expected to formally announce its plans to integrate the competing PC-133 memory technology into chipsets to integrate with its processors. |
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AMD resists Intel price cut pressureBy Linda Harrison August 27, 1999 |
AMD has denied claims that it will cut prices on its Athlon chip to match rival Intel's moves earlier this
week.
AMD said that rumours of price drops were untrue, and it would stand firm with its current prices. Rana Mainee, AMD's European research director, said Intel was following AMD's lead, and not vice versa. "We changed our prices two weeks ago, and Intel reacted to this action," he said. |
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Intel's Barrett proposes bus jaw-jaw rather than war-warBy Mike Magee August 27, 1999 |
The long running bush-war over the future shape of bus technology looks set to come to a peaceful conclusion, as Intel CEO Craig Barrett offered a laurel branch of peace at a Dell jamboree yesterday.
The dispute pitched mighty Intel, Dell and Sun, with a solution they call NGIO (new generation input/output) against the equally mighty IBM and HP and not so mighty Compaq with their Future/IO proposals Barrett went out of his way yesterday to suggest that the rift might be healed in the near future at a Dellfest yesterday. |
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