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Microprocessor
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Top Stories for October 1, 1999 (details below) |
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| EE Times | Samsung halts Rambus production after Intel delays Camino |
| C/Net | AMD's K8, a Merced competitor, among chips detailed next week |
| C/Net | Secretive start-up Transmeta takes aim at Intel |
| Silicon News | Intel admits bug in Pentium III chip |
| The Register Files | |
| The Register | Timing problem renders all Camino boards virtually useless |
| The Register | Via chipset found lurking in IBM PC |
| Today's Related Stories | |
| C/Net | Samsung halts production of Rambus memory chips |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of September 26, 1999 |
Older News |
October 1, 1999 |
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Samsung halts Rambus production after Intel delays CaminoBy Will Wade and Robert Ristelhueber September 30, 1999 |
With another delay of a key Intel Corp. chip set for enabling Direct Rambus DRAMs in PCs, Rambus systems have missed the window for the Christmas selling season, analysts say, potentially costing PC makers tens of millions, possibly hobbling the upcoming launch of Intel's next version of the Pentium III and causing at least one DRAM maker to halt production of Rambus parts. The
delay could also help give double-data-rate SDRAMs a stronger chance at becoming a mainstream alternative for high-end PCs sold next year.
Companies at every level of the supply chain are reeling from the impact of Intel's last-minute delay of the 820 chip set, code-named Camino. Designed to link direct Rambus memory chips with a microprocessor, the product has been seen as the critical last link needed to deploy RDRAM-based PCs. |
See Today's Related Stories |
AMD's K8, a Merced competitor, among chips detailed next weekBy Michael Kanellos September 30, 1999 |
Following its architectural triumph with the Athlon chip, Advanced Micro Devices next week will detail the K8, a 64-bit chip that will compete against Intel's Merced.
The K8, along with the upcoming Athlon Ultra chips, will constitute AMD's attempt to get into the lucrative market for server and workstation processors, a segment that the struggling chipmaker has long coveted. AMD microprocessors now almost exclusively go into desktop and notebook computers, and mostly into the cost-conscious consumer segment. |
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Secretive start-up Transmeta takes aim at IntelBy Stephen Shankland September 30, 1999 |
Transmeta, a top-secret Silicon Valley start-up, apparently hopes to offer Intel-compatible chips while sidestepping legal landmines, a new patent reveals.
A patent awarded to the Silicon Valley chip design firm yesterday, along with another patent issued in 1998, show that Transmeta is working on a new chip that can emulate an Intel chip. But the newest patent indicates that Transmeta is taking a very different tack than what other Intel chip cloners such as AMD and Cyrix have used, according to independent patent consultant Richard Belgard. |
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Intel admits bug in Pentium III chipSeptember 30, 1999 |
Intel has admitted there is a bug in two versions of its Pentium III Xeon chip,
which could cause a total systems crash if used on the Sabre processing platform.
The chips in question are the Xeon with a speed of 550 megahertz and a level two cache of 512 kilobytes and that with one megabyte of secondary cache. Both chips run in configuration of eight processors on an Intel motherboard called Sabre - where the bug will come into effect. |
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| Today's Related Stories | ||
Samsung halts production of Rambus memory chipsBy Michael Kanellos September 30, 1999 |
Now that PCs using Rambus memory are delayed, Samsung has halted production of the new type of memory chips until the recent problems are solved.
Samsung, which has made more Rambus memory chips than anyone else to date, said that the suspension of manufacturing is a direct result of Intel's decision earlier this week to delay the release of its 820 chipset, the part that will allow Pentium III processors to "speak" to the next-generation memory. Computers using the 820 and faster Rambus memory were expected this week. Recently discovered errata, or bugs, held up the release, which caught many by surprise. HP, for example, trotted out a PC with Rambus to reporters and analysts only a few days before the delay. |
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September 30, 1999 |
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New Transmeta patent reveals x86-killer designBy John Lettice September 29, 1999 |
Another patent granted to Transmeta seems to have established what the mysterious outfit is up to pretty clearly. Briefly, the company's processor is intended to be faster than anything built using current technology, and to be able to run any of the operating software for any existing processors - faster than the original.
This of course sounds like complete hokum, but Transmeta has the patent, US Patent Office number 5,958,061, and the application, which can be read here, explains in some detail how the company proposes to achieve this. Transmeta claims: "The present invention overcomes the problems of the prior art and provides a microprocessor which is faster than microprocessors of the prior art, is capable of running all of the software for all of the operating systems which may be run by a large number of families of prior art microprocessors, yet is less expensive than prior art microprocessors." |
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Chips bug IntelBy Richard Wilson September 29, 1999 |
Bugs in key chips have forced Intel to stop the planned introduction of its 820 chipset which
supports Rambus based DRAMs because of problems that can lead to data loss.
The company has also suspended shipments of two versions of its high end Xeon microprocessors because of problems in eight-way servers. The suspension of the 820 chipset, due for release last week, is a problem for Intel as computer makers were ready to announce new computer models using Rambus memory. Intel discovered a bug in the chipset when used in motherboard designs with three slots. This bug could force tens of thousands of motherboards to be scrapped while Intel works on a solution. |
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| The Register Files | ||
Timing problem renders all Camino boards virtually uselessBy Pete Sherriff September 29, 1999 |
More details are emerging on Intel's woes with the ill-fated Camino chipset. Electronic Buyers' News in the US reports that the timing problem with the Rambus RIMMs stems from the fact that some of the motherboard traces are up to 10cm in length, causing timing-related signal integrity problems.
If this is indeed the cause of the problem, all existing Camino motherboards will have to be scrapped. It is not known if the trace lengths to the second memory slot are also long enough to cause problems. |
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Via chipset found lurking in IBM PCBy Linda Harrison September 29, 1999 |
IBM showed off its Autumn collection this week, though admitted it had been forced to withdraw one of its proposed PCs at the last minute due to technical hitches at Intel.
Big Blue treated the press to a sneak preview of its "secure" PC range and its first mini-notebook for the UK, along with a new ThinkPad line, at its London South Bank offices. IBM said it had been all fired up to announce a desktop PC supporting Rambus memory with the i820 -- aka Camino -- chipset from Intel. But Chipzilla's decision to can i820, for the time being at least, put paid to that. |
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September 29, 1999 |
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Xeon chip problem delays serversBy Michael Kanellos and Joe Wilcox September 28, 1999 |
Companies that manufacture server computers are grappling with a recently discovered flaw inside two Xeon processors that is holding up some of the highest-performing systems devised around the Intel chips.
Less than a month after shipping the first systems that can handle eight of the high-end processors, many server makers are putting on the brakes because of a problem involving the way some of the 550-MHz Pentium Xeon processors interact with a particular motherboard. Large, multiprocessor servers like these are used to power e-commerce sites and other major back-end operations. The eight-way Intel systems are designed to compete against servers from Sun and other RISC-Unix server makers. |
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Intel Releases 810 Chip Set, Delays 820By Larry Greenemeier September 28, 1999 |
Intel released on Monday two Pentium III microprocessors and its 810E chip set, while saying memory-related problems have further delayed the release of its 820 chip set.
The new Pentium III processors operate at 600 MHz and 533 MHz, and both support Intel's 133-MHz system bus. The Intel 810E chip set builds upon the performance of the 810 chip set for PCs with Celeron processors, adding support for Pentium III processors and enhanced graphics performance. Using PC100 SDRAM for main memory, the 810E is designed to offer integrated graphics as well as support for either a 133-, 100-, or 66-MHz side bus. |
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E in Intel 810E stands for chEap
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PCs based on Intel's Pentium III chip are set to break through the $1000 barrier.
The chip maker Monday announced a new desktop PC chip set, the 810E, designed for high performance -- but relatively low cost -- PCs. The 810E chip set works with Pentium III processors and offers support for 66MHz, 100MHz or 133MHz system buses. A system bus is the data pipeline between the processor and the rest of the PC's components. The release of Intel's other new chip set, the more up-market 820, has been delayed. Due to the 810E's relatively low cost -- about $39.50 (£24) per chip set in large quantities -- Intel hopes that PC makers will take advantage of the chip set to offer lower cost, Pentium III-based PCs. The company is targeting 810E for use in PCs that are priced between about $1200 and about $1500, company officials said. |
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IDC Predicts Intel Profusion Server Sales to Reach 1 Billion Euros in Europe by 2003September 23, 1999 |
By the end of September, more than 10 server vendors will have introduced new computers based on Intel's Profusion chip set. International Data Corporation
(IDC) believes that this new machine type will be extraordinarily successful, generating a billion Euros in annual revenues for vendors by 2003 in Europe.
"Having standard eight-way machines for the first time is a vitally important step forward," said Martin Hingley, senior research director at IDC. "Intel has proved its credentials in the four-way market, where the whole industry has adopted its Standard High Volume architecture. Pushing upwards to eight-way machines will test its abilities as a systems supplier and increase its reach into the heart of the server market." |
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Intel, Cisco Most Popular Shorts On NasdaqBy Eric Hausman September 28, 1999 |
Intel and Cisco Systems remain the most shorted stocks on Nasdaq for the third straight month, according to information just released by the exchange.
As of Sept. 15, there were nearly 41 million short positions in Intel, up 1 percent compared with the previous month, and 35 million shorts in Cisco, up 7 percent. Amazon.com placed third on the list, with a 15 percent jump in shorts to just under 35 million, while Dell Computer, which was third last month, now places fourth, with more than 31 million shorts, up 8 percent. |
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| The Register Files | ||
Cam in no 820, your time is upBy Peter Sherriff September 28, 1999 |
Oh dear, it's almost enough to make you feel sorry for poor old Chipzilla. Betting the farm on the whizz-bang i820 chipset and Rambus is starting to look like being a really bad move for the Great Satan of Chips.
The inability of the 820 to run correctly on mobos with three memory slots is embarrassing enough, but those with longer memories will recall that back in April The Register ran the very first 'What the Hell is...' feature, explaining what Camino was all about. Even then, Camino was late. |
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Confusion over Profusion, Coronary over CorollaryBy Drew Cullen September 27, 1999 |
Intel has put on ice shipments of two flavours of 550MHz Pentium III Xeon chips after discovering a bug that caused eight–way servers to freeze.
The bug disrupts communication between the processor and Intel's Saber motherboard. It is appears to affect only Xeons with 512KB and 1MB cache -- the 2MB beast has escaped unscathed from the bug, which causes machines to hang on boot up and serving up instead the dreaded Blue Screen of Death. |
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September 28, 1999 |
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Intel confirms Camino delay amid scathing Wall Street criticismBy Mark Hachman September 27, 1999 |
Intel Corp. today confirmed the delay of its Camino or Intel 820 chipset, while launching the 810E chipset and two related microprocessors.
A spokesman for Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., could not specify the scope of the Camino push out. The delay, the latest of two to afflict the device since its initial launch date last March, was blamed on "memory integration errors, and we're working to determine the cause of these errors," the spokesman said. Sources at Intel's customers added that OEMs have not been told when to expect the Camino. In the interim, as expected, Intel launched the 810E chipset and 533- and 600-MHz versions of its Pentium III microprocessor. |
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Via gaining clients in wake of Intel-Rambus delayBy Michael Kanellos and Joe Wilcox September 27, 1999 |
With the delay of Intel's 820 chipset, scrappy Via Technologies is finding itself rapidly growing in popularity among computer makers.
IBM will announce tomorrow that it is using chipsets from Taiwan-based Via for three new systems in the wake of the delay of the 820 chipset, sources at IBM said. Today, Micron Electronics said it is incorporating Via products into its boxes for the first time. As reported earlier, Intel today delayed the release of its 820 chipset, which is the component that will eventually allow Intel processors to "speak" to the next-generation Rambus memory, because of technical problems. |
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| The Register Files | ||
i820 derailed as Intel goes RambustBy Linda Harrison September 24, 1999 |
Intel has delayed shipment of its i820 chipset due to problems with Rambus, leaving PC builders dreaming of a Whitney Christmas.
The chip giant today told systems builders that it would not start shipping the i820 on Monday – the planned launch date. The i820 chipset – called "Camino" - is needed for the use of Rambus memory, which also suffered a set back to its launch date earlier this year. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Graphics cards, Intel chipsets hit badly in quake aftershockBy Simon Burns September 24, 1999 |
Manufacturers of a wide range of computer and electronics products will be hit by a shortage of key components following Tuesday's earthquake, say analysts and industry sources in Taipei.
"Some companies simply can't produce right now, for example the fabs (chip makers) in Hsinchu," said Paul Meyer of Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia, "Other companies aren't willing to produce until they get a steady feed of power.... So you may get a notebook company that's ready to ship a notebook, but they're waiting for a tiny plastic component." Chip makers in Hsinchu's science park hope to be back in operation next week, but say uncertainties over power prevent them giving a firm date. |
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| Today's Related Stories | ||
Intel delays chipset as Rambus falls furtherBy Michael Kanellos and Joe Wilcox September 27, 1999 |
Memory maker Rambus and chipmaker Intel today acknowledged that the key component for making PCs with next-generation Rambus memory will be delayed, a development that will affect a wide variety of technology companies.
Intel today delayed the release of its 820 chipset, which is the component that will allow Intel processors to "speak" to Rambus memory, because of technical problems. Rambus stock took another hit on the news today, dropping 12 to close at 59.06. The company's stock has been declining rapidly since CNET News.com first reported the chipset problems last week. |
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Intel confirms 820 chip set delayBy John G. Spooner September 27, 1999 |
Intel Corp. confirmed Monday it has again delayed its 820 chip set for high-performance desktop PCs and is
working on a fix.
Intel (INTC) is working with manufacturer Rambus Inc. to iron out memory errors seen in tests of certain system configurations with the chip set. In morning trading, Rambus (RMBS) shares were down 13 percent. "We will announce the launch of the 820 when the issues are solved," said Intel spokesman Dan Francisco. |
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Intel confirms Camino delayBy Will Wade and Craig Matsumoto September 27, 1999 |
Intel Corp. today confirmed that hardware glitches are prompting it to further delay the launch of its long-expected 820 chip set, code-named Camino. Used to link Rambus DRAMs with a system microprocessor, the chip set is seen as the critical last link in the deployment of
RDRAM-based PCs.
Intel announced today that the Camino will be delayed indefinitely, as the company has determined that the product is not ready for use. An Intel spokesman said that bugs were discovered in validation tests when the chip set was used in some configurations that utilized all three memory expansion slots that Camino was designed to support. Intel is working to validate a two-slot version of the product, but so far the company has yet to determine the exact cause of the problems. |
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Rambus confirms delays in Intel 820 chipsBy Reuters September 27, 1999 |
Rambus Inc. Monday said it is working to resolve several bugs with Intel Corp. and leading personal computer makers on upcoming Intel computer memory chips using Rambus technology.
In a statement, Rambus said that ``some issues'' have been identified in testing of three modules of Rambus-based computer memory that are part of the highly anticipated, but already behind schedule, Intel 820 chipset, code-named Camino. |
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September 27, 1999 |
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Camino chipset stalled; redesign likely, sources sayBy Mark Hachman and Jack Robertson September 24, 1999 |
Intel Corp. has delayed the Camino, or Intel 820, chipset until pending signal-integrity issues are worked out, according to Intel customers and industry sources. The problem, discovered Thursday night by top-tier OEMs, concerns a decline in signal integrity when a third memory slot is used in conjunction with the Camino chipset, sources said.
Top-tier OEMs, including Dell Computer Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp., confirmed the problem, which will delay their own shipments. OEM officials said they were not willing to populate their systems with only 512 Mbytes of DRAM, the maximum allotted by the two memory slots. Micron Electronics Inc., Nampa, Idaho, said earlier this week that it would use a competing chipset from Via Technologies Inc. because of the estimated cost of Rambus DRAM. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Last-minute glitches threaten delay of Intel chipsetBy Will Wade and Craig Matsumoto September 24, 1999 |
A last-minute hardware glitch is prompting Intel Corp. to delay the release of its 820 chipset, code-named Camino. Again.
Reports from PC OEMs have confirmed that the chipset, which is designed specifically to allow Rambus DRAM chips to be implemented in computers, is riddled with bugs. As a result, computer makers are facing at minimum a lengthy delay before rolling out RDRAM-based boxes, and at worst may have to scrap the systems they have already produced. "Our engineers have determined that the 820 platform is not now production-quality ready," said a spokesman for Dell Computer Corp. (Round Rock, Texas). He said the bugs were discovered, "very recently," and that Intel will not be formally launching the Camino on Monday, as scheduled. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Intel to delay new chipset as Rambus reelsBy Stephen Shankland September 24, 1999 |
Intel has canceled a planned Monday unveiling of a new chipset that would have enabled the first use of next-generation Rambus memory in PCs, computer makers say.
"The Intel 820 launch will not happen Monday," said Jon Weisblatt, a spokesman for Dell Computer. The 820 "Camino" chipset is a package of chips necessary to use Rambus memory. "Dell engineers have determined that the 820 platform is not production-quality ready," Weisblatt said. Shares of Rambus dropped as much as 19 percent in midday trading today on news of last-minute technical problems and a negative report from BancBoston Robertson Stephens analyst Dan Niles. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Intel halts Xeon 550 shipments after flaw discoveredBy Ed Scannell and Mike Lattig September 24, 1999 |
Intel has put a hold on shipping two versions of its 550-MHz Pentium III Xeon 550 chips to OEMs for at least a couple of weeks because of a bug that is causing eight-way servers to hang, company officials confirmed.
Although company officials said they are still evaluating the full extent of the problem, to this point the glitch has been limited to versions of the chip containing the 512Kb and 1MB caches, which have a problem involving communication between the processor and Intel's Saber motherboard. Vendors who have chosen not to utilize the Saber motherboard, such as Compaq, have not experienced any problems to date. In addition, the 2MB cache version of the chip does not appear to have the problem, and the company is continuing to ship that product. |
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Intel battery-saving technology to debutBy Matt Hamblen September 24, 1999 |
Intel Corp. in Santa Clara, Calif., said its laptop computer battery-saving technology, code-named
Geyserville, will become available in the first quarter of 2000 under the name SpeedStep. A company spokesman said today that the first mobile processor with SpeedStep will be a 600-MHz Pentium III. Currently, Intel's fastest Intel mobile processor is a 466-MHz
Celeron.
SpeedStep, a software applet, will lower power consumption by lowering the processor's clock speed and voltage when a notebook runs on battery power. Intel originally wanted to introduce SpeedStep this fall but delayed to be able to raise the processor speed it will make available, a spokesman said. Intel prefers to call the technology a "power enhancement," focusing on how laptops will run faster when plugged in to AC power, the spokesman said. |
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| Today's Related Stories | ||
Flaw in high-speed memory processor designed to work with Intel chip setBy Tom Quinlan September 25, 1999 |
Intel Corp.'s latest effort to establish a new type of memory by Rambus Inc. as a standard for personal computers hit an unexpected snag this week when Intel discovered that systems designed around the high-speed memory wouldn't work correctly in some configurations.
Late Thursday, the Santa Clara-based chip giant told PC makers that computers built around the Direct RDRAM memory designed by Rambus and supported by Intel's 820 ``Camino'' chip set might not work properly if they had more than two memory slots, according to computer manufacturers and analysts said. The design flaw will force major computer makers like Dell Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. to delay shipment of high-end PCs built with the Rambus design just as they planned to announce the machines Monday. |
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Intel delays Monday's release of 820 chipsetBy Tom Spring September 24, 1999 |
In a stunning last-minute change of plans, Intel has postponed the launch of its highest-performance PCs, previously scheduled for Monday.
Calling system vendors on Thursday night, Intel acknowledged memory problems associated with the Rambus memory design in its 820 chipset. Intel reportedly found a "memory bit error" that curtails top memory capacity and speed. The 2MB version of the chip is still being shipped, Intel said. The stumble will impact high-end computers designed to run the fastest Pentium III processors. In this niche, "everybody is going to be reeling: Compaq, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Dell, and Gateway," said Kevin Knox, Gartner Group research director. |
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Camino chipset delayed again; workaround proposed in interimBy Mark Hachman and Jack Robertson September 24, 1999 |
While Intel Corp. has indefinitely delayed the Camino or Intel 820 chipset due to signal integrity issues, workarounds have been proposed that could allow systems to ship.
The problem, revealed Thursday night by Intel to top-tier OEMs, concerns a decline in signal integrity when a third memory slot is used in conjunction with the Camino chipset, according to Intel's customers and industry sources. A chipset redesign is likely in any event. If that is the only solution available, then the adoption of Direct Rambus DRAM will be pushed out one to three months while a new version is designed, analysts said. The question on the minds of all involved is whether a board-level fix can be implemented to allow systems to ship in the interim. More details are expected Monday, but not through an official press release from Intel. |
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Intel's 820 Chipset Delayed Again
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The introduction of Intel Corp.'s Rambus-supporting 820 chipset will be delayed due to a technical problem, sources said.
PC OEMs Friday confirmed that shipments of 820-based systems also will be delayed. "Our engineers have determined that the 820 platform is not production-quality ready and we're not announcing any products in the near term," said a spokesman for Dell Computer Corp., Round Rock, Texas. Officials at Intel, based here, would not comment on the chipset Friday, but earlier this week said it was on schedule for a late September launch. |
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Intel delays launch of 820 chip set againBy John G. Spooner September 24, 1999 |
Intel Corp. for the second time has delayed the introduction of its 820 chip set.
The Santa Clara, Calif., company had scheduled to launch the chip set Monday, but has now delayed it indefinitely. The 820 chip set is significant because it will replace the 440BX chip set used with Pentium II and Pentium III processors. Intel says the 820 will eliminate or reduce many PC system performance bottlenecks, such as memory performance and graphics performance, and increase overall system performance. It will also offer "headroom" for transitions to new operating systems, such as Windows 2000, and newer applications. |
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