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| Top Stories for April 12, 2001 (details below) | |
| SiliconValey.com | Intel's bid for rehearing on adverse ruling denied |
| EBN | Rambus-Infineon trial delayed again |
| EBN | Gordon Moore to leave Intel's board of directors |
|
Truths...from the rumor mill |
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| The Inquirer |
Intel's Pentium 4 strategy in tatters Or do they have deep, deep pockets? |
| The Inquirer | Windows XP riddled with Intel code |
| The Inquirer |
Intel discovers lost book of the Bible Book of Errata stuns clerics |
| The Register | VIA sees SIS as a threat |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of April 8, 2001 |
Older News |
| April 12, 2001 | |
Intel's bid for rehearing on adverse ruling deniedApril 11, 2001 |
Intel Corp. lost a bid for a rehearing before a federal appeals court that ruled the firm had no license to use Intergraph Corp.'s computer chip technology in its Pentium product.
Intergraph is suing for royalties on Intel's profitable Pentium line, which Intergraph says incorporates technology it owns. The Intel Pentium line tripled computing speed when introduced in 1993, and now includes three faster versions. |
Rambus-Infineon trial delayed againBy Jack Robertson April 11, 2001 |
The Rambus Inc. SDRAM patent infringement trial against Infineon Technologies AG has been delayed once again for six more days before opening arguments by both sides in a U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va.
The oft-postponed trial had last been scheduled to start April 17. Jury selection is now scheduled to take place on Friday, April 20, and opening arguments by attorneys is slated for 1:30 p.m. Monday, April 23. Rambus is then scheduled to start presenting its evidence later that day. |
Gordon Moore to leave Intel's board of directorsReuters April 11, 2001 |
Intel Corp., the world's largest semiconductor maker, said on Wednesday it has nominated former Federal Communications Chairman Reed Hundt for election to its board to replace chip industry icon and company co-founder Gordon Moore.
During Hundt's tenure as head of the FCC, he presided over the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which effectively deregulated the industry and opened the doors for the massive consolidation seen in recent years with AT&T Corp. expanding into cable television and WorldCom Inc.'s rapid growth. |
Truths...from the rumor mill |
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Intel's Pentium 4 strategy in tatters
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THE NEWS THAT Intel is to cut prices on its Pentium 4 family twice in April and by over 50 per cent, which we revealed exclusively here last week, spells exceptionally bad news for the chip maker.
The latest roadmaps, which again we revealed over the last week, show that Intel's Pentium 4 strategy is very creaky indeed. At the same time, it has also caused heads to shake woefully at vendors who are not favoured by La Zilla, while distributors and dealers, once more, have got, to somewhat pervert the Righteous Brothers' line "that shafted feeling". |
Windows XP riddled with Intel codeBy Mike Magee April 11, 2001 |
THE FIRST gentlemen of the press to get their mitts on copies of Win XP on a UK press junket to Seattle last week tell how a hexadecimal scan of the code reveals large segments of Intel support lurking within.
That may cause Bill Gates to receive yet another custard pie to further mess up his features, as word reaches The Inquirer that senior Intel suits are furious at his declaration of virtual USB 2.0 independence. But whereas Belgian anarchists lob pies at famous people, Intel suits are trained in confrontation, an integral part of their corporate culture. |
Intel discovers lost book of the Bible
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BUILDERS WORKING at Intel's Swindon UK offices have discovered documents believed to form part of a hitherto-unknown book of the Bible.
Whilst digging the foundations for a new warehouse to store errata prior to their installation in chips, workers uncovered the remains of the ancient slaughterhouse on which the Intel building is located. In centuries gone by, pigs were brought to the location giving Swindon its name - Swine Town. [This is absolutely true, honest - Ed] |
VIA sees SIS as a threatBy Tony Smith April 11, 2001 |
VIA has dismissed fellow Taiwanese chipset maker Silicon Integrated System's attempts to date to make a move on its dominance of the DDR SDRAM chipset market, but is does expect SIS to impact its business later this year.
Taiwan's Silicon Integrated System recently began shipping its SiS735 DDR SDRAM-based chipsets designed to work with AMD's CPUs. It shipped its SiS635 chipset, which connects Intel's Pentium III processor family to DDR memory, last month. SIS says its is producing a few thousand parts a month right now, but expects this to ramp up considerably in the near future. |
| April 11, 2001 | |
Rambus may face rough sledding in next week's trialBy Jack Robertson April 10, 2001 |
Federal Judge Robert Payne has questioned whether Rambus Inc. will face "a great embarrassment" in having almost no case to present in its SDRAM patent infringement trial against Infineon Technologies AG, according to court transcripts.
The Rambus trial is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. April 17 in the federal district court in Richmond, Va. After ruling last month that Rambus synchronous patents essentially didn't cover Infineon SDRAMs, Judge Payne asked Rambus attorneys in a pretrial hearing whether they could mount an effective case. |
SIS Deploys DDR Chipsets to Compete With VIAApril 11, 2001 |
Silicon Integrated System Corp. of Taiwan this month began delivering core logic double data rate chipsets supporting Advanced Micro Devices Inc. microprocessors.
This follows its roll-out of the chipsets specified for Intel Corp. processors in March. Taiwan's industry experts believe that SIS's move is aimed at VIA Technologies Inc., Taiwan's largest chipset vendor. However, VIA emphasizes SIS will not become a threat until the second half of this year at the earliest, since VIA presently holds an advantageous competitive position. |
Intel and AMD continue processor speed battleBy Jack Robertson April 9, 2001 |
The microprocessor speed battle between Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. continues to rev up. Intel plans to unveil its 1.7-GHz Pentium 4 chip in a few weeks, while AMD is expected to introduce a 1.4-GHz--or possibly faster--Athlon processor in a few months, according to industry sources.
Neither firm would comment on the yet-unannounced new processors. Because of its much deeper pipeline, the Intel Pentium 4 may have similar data throughput performance as slightly lower Athlon clock speed processors, due to prefetch misprediction operations, according to Nathan Brookwood, principal of InSight64 market research firm, Saratoga, Calif. |
Truths...from the rumor mill |
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Intergraph inches closer to Intel patent winBy Linda Harrison April 10, 2001 |
Intergraph has won the latest round in its ongoing patent battle with Intel.
Last month the Court of Appeals ruled that Intel did not have the right to use the Clipper Technology patented by Intergraph. Intel promptly petitioned for a rehearing by the court. The petition was denied yesterday. |
Intel shifts emphasis on Rambus memoryBy Mike Magee April 9, 2001 |
AS WE REPORTED ELSEWHERE a long time ago now, the 845 chipset, which will support synchronous PC-133 memory will arrive in the middle of the third quarter this year.
DDR (double data rate) and PC-133 simultaneous support will not arrive until the first quarter of next year, but Intel does seem to have moved the priority of Pentium 4 chipsets supporting these type of memories up its internal ladder, according to roadmaps it is showing its mobo vendors. |
WinXP hits snag, Microsoft blames IntelBy Andrew Thomas April 11, 2001 |
According to the Windows XP Beta 2 readme, users of Photoshop may hit a minor glitch causing a total system lockup. Allegedly, "few other programs move memory as rapidly as Photoshop does", and it can all get a bit much for Pentium III motherboards.
Dell Optiplex GX1 computers and ASUS P2B-F and P3B-F motherboards are known to have a problem, and other mobos "may be affected" - so it isn't just a case of an ancient Caminogate Cape Cod mobo causing the memory timing issue for which it was justly famous. |
Intel delays departure of rafts in IA-64 boatBy Mike Magee April 10, 2001 |
AT ACE'S HARDWARE, there is a link to this Tweaker Net report which suggests Intel has delayed some significant elements of its IA 64 strategy.
According to the report, part of which is translated at Ace's, Madison and Deerfield have now slipped to 2005, and that is when the IA-32 family will come to an end. Mind you, the IA-32 family has been coming to an end for some time, in the same way that Itanic and McKinley have been coming to market for some time. |
AMD's Hammer will support Screaming Sindies I/II and P3DBy Peter Sherriff April 10, 2001 |
A REPORT ON German site Planet3D claims that AMD's Itanic busta, will support Screaming Sindies I and II as well as 3DNow! for maximum compatibility. (Does the Itanic support any type of screaming apart from those heard from developers?).
Watch out what our own Zach Gusky will have to say about the Itanium and the Hammer families - coming shortly on The Inquirer. |
Tualatins edge way into Intel's pretty picture
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TUALATIN .13 MICRON desktop processors with 256K cache and at speeds starting at 1.2GHz will enter Intel's mainstream segment of the market in the middle of Q3 this year, according to roadmaps seen by The Inquirer.
In Q4, those speeds will begin to clock at greater than 1.2GHz, but the roadmaps show that Intel will continue to push its Pentium 4 for all it's worth during this year, and, as we revealed earlier this year, will intro 2.2GHz Pentium 4 and 2.0GHz Pentium 4s using a new process in Q4. |
Intel plots mobile products future
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CHIP GIANT INTEL has now got its act together on its boxed mobile processors and outlined its cunning plans to its dealers and distributors at the beginning of the week. We looked over the shoulder of one dealer to see what it was saying.
It is a strange but true fact that the mobile division of Intel seems to be executing pretty well on its own strategy, and has done so for quite a while. True, we're still trying to figure out this clock throttling business but La Intella has, thus far, done what it said it would. |
| April 9, 2001 | |
Appeals court rules against Rambus on fraud issueBy Jack Robertson April 6, 2001 |
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. has upheld a lower court ruling that deals with the issue of whether Rambus Inc. may have committed fraud in failing to disclose its SDRAM patent applications to the JEDEC standards body in the 1992-96 time period.
In a decision released today (April 6), the appellate court denied a petition by Rambus for a Writ of Mandamus to overturn Federal Judge Robert Payne's decision in its patent infringement case against Infineon Technologies AG. |
Hot-button Rambus-Infineon trial delayedBy Michael Kanellos April 6, 2001 |
A federal district court has delayed the start of the patent-infringement trial pitting memory designer Rambus against German chipmaker Infineon for a week to allow further discovery.
The case, which is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, will now start April 17 rather than April 10, a Rambus representative confirmed. The intensely scrutinized trial--which has generated "insane" public reaction, according to one of the trial attorneys--is expected to have substantial repercussions in the memory industry. Rambus claims patents it owns allow it to collect royalties from memory manufacturers that produce SDRAM, the most common form of memory in computers today, and DDR DRAM, a high-speed successor now coming to the market in volume. |
Rambus allegedly had spy at JEDECBy Jack Robertson April 5, 2001 |
Rambus Inc. had a mole called "Secret Squirrel" tipping it off to private SDRAM deliberations at JEDEC (Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council) in 1997, Infineon Technologies has charged in the federal district court in Richmond, Va.
Rambus had resigned a year earlier from the JEDEC committee drafting the SDRAM standard. However, Infineon attorneys presented internal e-mails from Rambus files from a hidden source identified only as "Secret Squirrel," allegedly leaking details of the JEDEC discussions on SDRAM after Rambus had left. |
RDRAM vs. DDR: Will A Lawsuit Lead To A Price War?By Steven Fyffe April 6, 2001 |
Price is the sharpest weapon in the battle between direct Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) and double data rate
(DDR) SDRAM for supremacy in the mainstream PC memory market.
If Los Altos, Calif.-based Rambus Inc. should sweep the upcoming court cases against Infineon Technologies AG, Micron Technology Inc. and Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. Ltd., and win the right to charge royalties on DDR, it will erode the price difference between the competing technologies, which is probably DDR’s biggest advantage. |
EU probes Intel's marketing practicesBy Bloomberg News April 6, 2001 |
Giant chipmaker Intel faces a European antitrust investigation into complaints that its marketing practices discriminate against rivals, the European Commission said.
The commission is examining Intel's general business practices and the way it licenses the design of the "bus" connections that link chips with other computer components, Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said. Europe generated a quarter of Intel's $34 billion in sales in 2000. |
Intel Is Center Of EU Competition ProbeBy Jayant Mathew April 6, 2001 |
Seems like the Europeans are taking up what the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) dropped last year. Intel Corp. is being investigated by the European Commission (EC) on possible exclusionary effects of the “Intel Inside” marketing campaign, and other subsidies offered to PC makers.
In particular, the EU is looking at whether Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel (nasdaq: INTC) favors companies that use its chips exclusively, while punishing PC makers that use competitors’ chips. The Europeans are also looking at Intel’s licensing of bus architecture. |
Via expects flat salesBy Bloomberg News April 4, 2001 |
Via Technologies, Taiwan's biggest chip designer, is forecasting stagnant sales in the second quarter.
There's no sign yet the PC business will improve from the first quarter, according to Via. “Our customers think (their) sales in the second quarter will stay flat,” company spokesman Frank Jeng said Wednesday. Via sells products to all the largest PC companies--except Dell Computer--according to Charlton Chen, Via’s investor relations manager. |
Truths...from the rumor mill |
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Intel sued for alleged trademark violation
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INTERNATIONAL Telecomms, Intelsat Services Corporation, Intelsat UK, Intelsat Ltd, Intelsat Holdings and Intelsat Bermuda have ganged up on Intel and are sueing the chip giant for alleged trademark violation.
The case, filed on the 30th of March, must be a first. Usually Intel puts the boot into anyone who uses those five dread letters of the alphabet in any way at all. [Austin, Texas] And in other litigation news, Richard Tuschhoff is sueing the Intel Corporation over alleged breaches of Erisa legislation. |
Intel attempted to trademark AMD nameBy Mike Magee April 7, 2001 |
SOURCES CLOSE TO the Intel Corporation showed The Inquirer a document towards the end of last week which showed that at one point the firm tried to trademark the phrase AMD 386.
This is just one of the amazing facts about Intel's trademarking propensities which we learned when we quickly checked out the 430 page document from the firm's legal department. The AMD 386 name belongs to the "abandoned" category - these are trademarks which Intel tried to apply the tag to, but which, for different reasons, it decided to drop. |
Rambus claims IBM, others recruited to Siemens causeBy Mike Magee April 8, 2001 |
THE LATEST THICK SHEAFof pre-trial documents in the case of Rambus vs Infineon is yielding more treasure trove for those already enjoying this case before it started.
And Judge Robert "Dramurai" Payne, as always, is showing himself to have that excellent crotchety spirit a beak will undoubtedly need when dealing with IT companies. In the latest batch, posted here at Rambusite , His Honor responds to Rambus' counsel whipping out his PowerPoint presentation, presumably on a non-Rambus notebook, with these words: "Put that thing back over there. I can see that far with my glasses." |
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