 |  |
 | |
|  |
|  |
|  |
|  |
|  |
|  |
|  |
|  |
|  |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Microprocessor
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top Stories for September 28, 2001 (details below) | |
| EE Times | AMD to close two fabs, Gateway to drop Athlon |
| Computer World | AMD to slash 2,300 jobs, close two plants in Texas |
| Network News | Flawed jewel in Intel's crown |
| C/Net | Transmeta server start-ups hit the wall |
| C/Net | Intel goes global with Via lawsuits |
| EE Times | Intel's Shen: 'microprocessor researchers at a crossroads' |
| EE Times | Intel packs Itanium push with EEs by the bushel |
| Electronic News | Intel Taps Gelsinger For New CTO Post |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
| The Inquirer | Pentium 4 'loudest processor on the planet' |
| The Inquirer | Intel increases investment in China |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of September 23, 2001 |
Older News |
| September 28, 2001 | |
AMD to close two fabs, Gateway to drop AthlonBy David Lammers and Will Wade September 26, 2001 |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) announced Tuesday (Sept. 25)
that it will close two older fabs in Austin, Texas, and
consolidate assembly operations in Penang, Malaysia.
Approximately 2,300 workers will be laid off in the moves. The fabs will close "no later than the middle of next year," an AMD spokesman said, and about 1,000 Austin employees will receive severance packages. Separately, AMD customer Gateway Inc. announced plans to eliminate its product line which uses the company's microprocessors. |
AMD to slash 2,300 jobs, close two plants in TexasBy Linda Rosencrance September 26, 2001 |
Faced with declining demand and slow PC sales, Advanced Micro
Devices Inc., Intel Corp.'s chief rival in the chip market,
said it will cut 2,300 employees, or 15% of its workforce, and
close two chip-making plants in Texas to cut costs. The company said the job cuts and plant closings will allow it to focus on its core businesses of flash memory devices and PC processors. AMD officials could not be reached for comment at deadline. |
Flawed jewel in Intel's crownBy David Rae September 26, 2001 |
Is Intel losing its touch, or does it have less confidence in
the newly-launched Itanium processor than some if its
predecessors? The reason I ask is that if you don't know already, Itanium was launched last month. That's right, the brightest jewel in the future crown of Intel has arrived with no more than a whimper. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Itanium supposed to mark the day when Intel could really claim to compete with the Risc boys? Was it not to spark the arrival of 64bit Windows platforms that would elevate Microsoft to the heady heights of true enterprise computing? |
Transmeta server start-ups hit the wallBy Michael Kanellos September 26, 2001 |
Two start-ups that hoped to popularize skinny,
energy-efficient servers using Transmeta Crusoe processors are
throwing in the towel. FiberCycle, which hoped to market ultradense "blade" servers with Crusoe chips, is in the process of winding down operations, CEO Spero Koulouras said Wednesday. The size of the staff has dropped from 33 to about 10. "FiberCycle will go away," he said. "The technology and remainder of the team will go into something new." |
Intel goes global with Via lawsuitsBy Michael Kanellos September 26, 2001 |
Intel expanded its legal fight with Via Technologies on
Wednesday by filing patent infringement suits in Germany, the
United Kingdom and Hong Kong. The suits primarily revolve around a chipset released by Taiwan-based Via earlier this year that can be matched with Intel's Pentium 4 processor. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel claims Via's chipset, called the P4X266, violates eight of its patents. |
Intel's Shen: 'microprocessor researchers at a crossroads'By David Lammers September 25, 2001 |
The trade-off between instructions per cycle and the
increasing emphasis on microprocessor clock frequency needs a
thorough re-examination, said John Shen, director of Intel
Corp.'s microarchitecture lab. In a keynote speech here Tuesday (Sept. 25) at the International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD), Shen said microprocessor researchers are at a crossroads, moving toward deeper pipelines with higher frequencies, a trend which can impact instruction-level parallelism and overall processing efficiency. |
Intel packs Itanium push with EEs by the bushelBy Rick Merritt September 26, 2001 |
Intel Corp. is digesting massive chunks of semiconductor
expertise from struggling OEMs in its effort to dominate the
high-margin business for computer server silicon. So far,
Intel has hired design teams numbering almost 500 en masse. A 90-person-strong ASIC design team from Hewlett Packard Co. officially started work in their new offices at Intel Corp. Monday (Sept 24). |
Intel Taps Gelsinger For New CTO PostSeptember 26, 2001 |
In a move unprecedented in the company’s 33-year history,
Intel Corp. has named Pat Gelsinger as chief technology
officer. Intel has never had a CTO post in its corporate
management structure. Gelsinger will report to Craig Barrett, the Santa Clara, Calif., company’s (nasdaq: INTC) president and chief executive officer. Gelsinger is expected to provide research and technology direction across many of Intel’s product lines, including microprocessors, flash memory and chips for communications infrastructure. |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
Pentium 4 'loudest processor on the planet'By Andrew Thomas September 25, 2001 |
Forget all your TeraFlops and MegaHurtz™, there's a new
measure of chip performance - Intel's Pentium 4 chip is
officially the LOUDEST processor in the world. Explaining why Intel is sponsoring the truly unwonderful MTV Europe Music Awards in November, Dave Mitchell, Intel UK Marketing Manager says "The MTV Europe Music Awards was the right choice for Intel because of it’s young, tech-savvy audience who appreciate the benefits our latest Pentium 4 Processor has to offer - a louder, faster digital audio and video experience, just like the Awards themselves." |
Intel increases investment in ChinaBy Paul Hales September 21, 2001 |
As the US prepares for a ‘negative growth period’ - with even
Alan Greenspan hinting that recession is now a possibility
thanks to a week of minimal economic activity in the world’s
most powerful economy - American high-tech companies will be
searching out new markets to keep their gloomy band of
shareholders happy. Maybe it was pure coincidence that China should this week conclude 15 years of negotiations with the World Trade Organisation clearing the way for full membership to be ratified this November. Far be it from us to suggest that China’s endorsement of theoretical US reprisals should come at a price. |
| September 25, 2001 | |
Transmeta's revenue soaringBy Therese Poletti September 24, 2001 |
Chip maker Transmeta -- no longer a Silicon Valley darling --
made a surprising appearance on the SV Fastest 50 list as the
company with the fastest-growing revenue in Silicon Valley in
the last four quarters. But the Santa Clara company, which was once one of the hottest chip start-ups around, has fallen sharply out of favor with investors since its initial public offering in November. While its revenue for the most recent second quarter of $10.5 million was almost 30 times higher than year-ago revenue of $354,000, it was a big disappointment to Wall Street. |
Intel speeds Xeon chip to 2GHzBy Stephen Shankland September 24, 2001 |
Intel's Xeon processor for workstations--and eventually for
servers, the company hopes--is available at 2GHz speeds, the
Santa Clara, Calif., chipmaker will announce Tuesday. The Xeon chip is the big brother of the Pentium 4, which reached 2GHz in August. The Xeon, though, comes with higher-end features for working in multiprocessor computers and addressing larger amounts of memory. |
Intel boosts China operationsBy Reuters September 21, 2001 |
Intel said Friday it is spending $302 million to expand its
chip assembly and testing plant in China, even as the global
economy may be teetering on the brink of recession. The chipmaker is more than doubling its investment in the plant in Shanghai's free-trade Waigaoqiao zone, to $500 million from an initial $198 million in 1998. The investment would be used to build a new production line for the validation, testing and assembly of Intel 845 chipsets for Pentium 4 processors, Intel said in a statement. |
Intel launches chip outsourcing businessBy Reuters September 24, 2001 |
Intel announced Monday it has opened a one-stop shop for chip
designers seeking to bring their product to market quickly and
at a lower cost, offering to manage the chipmaking process
from concept to final product. Intel will utilize factories in Asia owned by companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and rely in part on its own experience in chip design and project management. |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
AMD narrows Palomino launch timeframeBy Tony Smith September 21, 2001 |
'AMD confirms Palomino will launch in Fall' shouts a PC
World.com headline today, though really it's not much of
admission that the chip company has actually made. AMD's roadmap has long shown Palomino - the latest generation desktop Athlon - shipping in the second half of this year. Narrowing the focus from six months to three isn't that big an issue. Our ears have heard the date 12 October whispered in relation to the Athlon XP's currently scheduled launch date, three days before AMD techies spill the beans on Hammer at Microprocessor Forum and three days after AMD launches the 1.53GHz Athlon MP chip. |
| Advertisement |