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Microprocessor
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| Top Stories for April 25 2001 (details below) | |
| C/Net | AMD server push fraught with peril |
| Electronic News | Rambus vs. Infineon Trial Kicks Off |
| EBN | Rambus/Infineon trial gets underway in Richmond |
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Truths...from the rumor mill |
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| The Inquirer | IBM runs out of 1GHz Mobile PIIIs |
| The Register | Rambus changed RDRAM patent to include SDRAM - Infineon |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of April 22, 2001 |
Older News |
| April 25, 2001 | |
AMD server push fraught with perilBy Stephen Shankland April 24, 2001 |
Advanced Micro Devices has signed up its most significant customer yet to help it win a place in the server market, but the chipmaker faces numerous obstacles competing with Intel in the new area.
NEC, the second-largest Japanese server seller after Fujitsu, said Monday it's using AMD's 1.33GHz Athlon chips--its fastest CPU so far--to power a special-purpose server "appliance" that will be able to send streams of video over the Internet. The rack-mountable system uses one server to encode video and audio information and two more servers to send the information out over the network. |
Rambus vs. Infineon Trial Kicks OffBy Steven Fyffe April 24, 2001 |
Rambus Inc.’s patent infringement lawsuit against Infineon Technologies AG went to trial this week at the U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., with both sides making their opening arguments to the men and women of the jury.
The trial is set to be the strongest test so far of Rambus’ patents, which the Los Altos, Calif.-based company claims cover crucial elements of SDRAM, DDR and the memory controllers that allow the devices to communicate with processors. Hitachi Ltd. fought Rambus’ SDRAM and DDR royalty claims to the brink of a courtroom showdown last year, but capitulated and signed a licensing agreement before the case went to trial. Other memory companies have since signed licenses, including: Samsung Electronics Co., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Oki Electric Industry Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., Toshiba Corp., NEC Corp. and later the joint NEC-Hitachi DRAM venture Elpida Memory Inc. |
Rambus/Infineon trial gets underway in RichmondBy Jack Robertson April 24, 2001 |
After two delays, Rambus Inc.'s patent suit against Infineon Technologies AG commenced yesterday in a U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va.
Rambus attorney David Monihan told the jury he will show that Infineon took parts of his client's Rambus DRAM intellectual property and included the technology in the JEDEC SDRAM standard. Specifically, Monihan cited features such as delay line latency, variable block size, dual-edge clocking, and delay lock loop (DLL), which he said Infineon learned of as part of nondisclosure negotiations in 1990-91 regarding RDRAM licensing. |
Truths...from the rumor mill |
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IBM runs out of 1GHz Mobile PIIIsBy Mike Magee April 23, 2001 |
RUMOURS OF SHORTAGES of mobile Pentium IIIs seem to be confirmed, judging by an email IBM has decided to send its customers. And, according to the memo, it's an industry wide shortage.
The memo says it all, really, but will put further pressure on Intel, seeing as the 1GHz mobile PIII is its flagship notebook chip. Subject: Urgent - Important Information on ThinkPad 1Ghz Models - Update ... |
Rambus changed RDRAM patent to include SDRAM - InfineonBy Tony Smith April 24, 2001 |
Rambus' alleged attempts to manipulate its patents to give it control of SDRAM technology went right to the top of the company, chip maker Infineon claimed yesterday.
The Siemens spin-off made the claim during an opening statement as it prepares to defend itself against Rambus' charge that it ripped off the memory developer's intellectual property. Rambus officials frequently discussed how "the RDRAM patent could be amended to cover the JEDEC industry SDRAM standard", the company said. |
| April 24, 2001 | |
Intel downgraded on demand concernsBy Bloomberg News April 23, 2001 |
Intel and other semiconductor makers are overvalued because demand will rebound more slowly than some investors expect, Merrill Lynch analyst Joe Osha said.
Osha cut his near-term rating on Intel and three makers of chips used in communications gear--Applied Micro Circuits, PMC-Sierra and Vitesse Semiconductor--to "neutral" from "accumulate." Aside from weak demand, Intel also appears to be losing ground to its smaller rival in the personal-computer microprocessor business, Advanced Micro Devices, Osha wrote in a note to clients. |
Rambus trial expected to produce legal fireworksBy Jack Robertson April 20, 2001 |
Rambus Inc.'s twice-delayed SDRAM patent infringement trial against Infineon Technologies AG opened this week in a Richmond, Va., federal court with jury selection, but the legal fireworks will get under way next week and promise more surprises.
In pretrial sparring this week, Rambus introduced corrections to its SDRAM patents in an effort to offset U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne's ruling that the patents relate only to multiplexed memory bus lines. |
Infineon claims top Rambus execs were involved in patent schemeBy Jack Robertson April 23, 2001 |
In opening arguments at the Infineon/Rambus trial here Monday, an Infineon Technologies attorney told a federal court jury that "the highest levels of Rambus Inc. management and its board of directors" approved working with the firm's patent lawyers to amend its basic RDRAM patent in 1998-1999 to include SDRAM technology years after the industry open standard had been adopted.
It was the first revelation of what Infineon claimed it found in just-concluded depositions of Rambus officials and theirpatent attorneys. |
New Pentium 4 portends PC price fracasBy Michael Kanellos April 22, 2001 |
Intel will release a 1.7GHz Pentium 4 processor on Monday and with it a scorched-earth approach to the PC market.
The new chip, which will be featured in a number of PCs from major manufacturers, will increase overall desktop performance, especially on entertainment applications such as video encoding, according to company executives. Equally important, though, Intel will slash the price of the Pentium 4 line and pour millions into advertising and software-developer programs to ensure the chip penetrates nearly every segment of the sleepy PC market. |
Price war appears inevitable between Intel and AMDBy Jack Robertson April 20, 2001 |
Rivals on several fronts, Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. are partners in financial pain.
And with neither company clear on whether the PC market is nearing recovery, another heated pricing war looks likely as AMD tries to wrest market share away from its much larger competitor. AMD chairman and chief executive Jerry Sanders fairly gloated this week as he reported that first-quarter sales held steady with the previous period, compared with Intel's 23% sequential drop in quarterly revenue. |
Transmeta "bullish" for the yearBy John G. Spooner April 19, 2001 |
Transmeta reported a first-quarter loss of $13.2 million, or 10 cents per share, on revenue of $18.6 million, excluding amortization of deferred charges. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Transmeta reported a loss of $16.7 million, or 56 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
A consensus of analysts had expected the chipmaker to post a loss of 11 cents per share, according to First Call. |
Truths...from the rumor mill |
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Rambus tried to deceive patent office - InfineonBy Tony Smith April 23, 2001 |
Infineon will attempt to prove that Rambus has not only tried to hoodwink the chip industry's standards body, JEDEC, but used similar tactics on the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The case finally comes to court later today after various delays. The Siemens spin-off's allegation comes in its final pre-trial case summary and follows Rambus' admission of corrections to its SDRAM patents. The amendments were accepted by the PTO on 2 January - five months after Rambus launched its patent infringement case against Infineon. |
Rambus RIMMs set to rise in price
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THANKS TO our spot channel watcher Marco Fumagalli for alerting us to an anomaly in Rambus CEO Geoff Tate's estimation of the price difference between RDRAM and double data rate (DDR) memories at an analyst meeting last week.
Tate suggested that customers would not wish to pay for DDR given that Rambus RDRAM was practically the same price and with better performance. |
Chipzilla wakes up to gamingBy Nicholas Knupffer April 24, 2001 |
THERE WAS A TIME when AMD was trying to feed off scraps left over by Intel's 800 pound gorilla. The budget market is where AMD found a home for its low cost CPUs, gradually chipping away at Intel's market share.
Of late AMD has changed tactics, and has found itself with good high performance products in the guise of the Athlon and its little brother the Duron. AMD offered these potentially Intel beating processors up for sale but at first carried little favour with the big OEM manufacturers. AMD was looking for a chink in Intel's armour. |
How Via and Intel could squeeze AMDBy Mike Magee April 23, 2001 |
WE'VE BEEN A TAD PUZZLED for many moons now at an apparent failure on behalf of Via executives to fall right over and worship the ground that AMD occupies. Some have even gone so far, in private, to mutter darkly that Intel is much more the friend of Via than AMD.
But it now appears that in typical Tsun Tzu mode, Via may be attempting to implement a long term strategy that, because it leaves AMD dependent on it, may also weaken its position in the marketplace. |
Foster chip pix up on WebBy Mike Magee April 23, 2001 |
PICTURES OF INTEL'S FOSTER microprocessor, along with a preview of what they will achieve, have popped up on the World Wide Web.
The Foster chip, which is a server version of Intel's Pentium 4, is expected to be released to the world on the 8th of May next. Although the first chips to be released are expected just to match the Pentium 4s, and will be named Xeons like the previous family based on the Pentium III core, we expect Intel to do far more clever things in the course of this year and next with the chips. |
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