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Microprocessor
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| Top Stories for October 18, 2001 (details below) | |
| PC World | Does Anybody Understand AMD's New Chip Names? |
| C/Net | AMD posts loss, warns of more to come |
| Semiconductor Business News | Intel to make 0.13-micron chips in six fabs over next 18 months |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
| The Inquirer | Intel likely to lay off staff |
| The Inquirer | Transmeta CEO ousted |
| The Inquirer | Notebook PCs using desktop chips threaten majors |
| The Inquirer | Intel Banias to be P6 based |
| The Inquirer | Rambus slows Intel DDR chipsets |
| The Inquirer | AMD K8: nails ready, Hammer not |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of October 14, 2001 |
Older News |
| October 18, 2001 | |
Does Anybody Understand AMD's New Chip Names?Tom Mainelli October 17, 2001 |
Athlon XP model numbers puzzle salespeople, but they're not
deterred from recommending AMD over Intel chips.
"I have no idea." That was the candid response of a customer service agent at Compaq's direct-sales service. Our question: What is AMD's new Quantispeed architecture, and how does it relate to the actual speed of AMD's recently launched Athlon XP 1800+ chip? |
AMD posts loss, warns of more to comeBy Michael Kanellos October 17, 2001 |
AMD reported a net loss of nearly $190 million for the third
quarter, as the PC market remained mired in a slump and rival
Intel continued its price war. Losses, excluding special charges and other non-recurring events, totaled $97.4 million, or 28 cents a share, which was roughly in line with analyst expectations. Including special items, the net loss for the third quarter came to $186.9 million. |
Intel to make 0.13-micron chips in six fabs over next 18 monthsBy Mark LaPedus October 17, 2001 |
While most of the fab activity has grinded to a halt during
the current IC downturn, Intel Corp. is moving full speed
ahead in the arena and at a dizzying pace: Gearing up its
0.13-micron process for its new Pentium 4 microprocessor
lines, the company here today announced plans to more than
double the production of this technology over the next 18
months. The move--which could enable the company to widen its lead over its rival in the microprocessor business, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.--will expand Intel's 0.13-micron chip production to a staggering total of six wafer fabs by 2003 or sooner. |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
Intel likely to lay off staffBy Mike Magee October 17, 2001 |
SOURCES DEEP INSIDE INTEL have told the INQUIRER that the firm
is likely to lay off staff following the disappointing results
it posted yesterday, and the equally dispiriting outlook it
expects in the fourth quarter. The company already has an employment freeze in force, but has not had to make big reductions in staffing levels so far. Intella, a past-master at trimming its jib to adjust to the prevailing trade winds, is expected to announce cuts in the near future, and has alerted its staff by internal e-mail that some layoffs are highly likely. |
Transmeta CEO oustedBy Mike Magee October 17, 2001 |
OUR OWN EVA GLASS, who has been seen hanging round the latte
shops Transmeta staff frequent, was dead right when she
reported the CEO was in danger earlier this month. Yesterday Mark Allen, CEO of Transmeta, only since March, got the order of the boot from Murray Goldman who will take over his job. The founders weren't happy. As we reported at the time, the problem was lack of .13 micron product, a fall in its share price and not as much dosh flowing into the startup as the board of directors wanted. |
Notebook PCs using desktop chips threaten majorsBy Mike Magee October 17, 2001 |
TODAY'S EDITION OF Digitimes confirms what we've known here at
the INQ for quite a few months - lots of manufacturers are
plugging pretty cool desktop CPUs into a notebook chassis and
undercutting giants in the biz such as Tosh, Big Blue, Big Q
and Fuji-Siemens. Well, that's not quite true, because we first became alerted to the existence of cheap and cheerful notebooks using desktop chipsets and chips in January, at t'other plaice, and since your soaraway Inquirer started at the end of March, we have reported much on the phenomenon. |
Intel Banias to be P6 basedBy Mike Magee October 17, 2001 |
THE LADS AND LASSES at Intel Israel appear to have decided
that the core used for the up-coming "Banias" microprocessor
will be based on the P6 rather than the P7. That is a defeat for voices at a senior level within Intel who had urged engineers to use the P7 core, according to sources familiar with Intel futures. But as Banias will be the "performance leader" in 2003, as revealed at the Microprocessor Forum earlier in the week, the powers have had to bite the bullet and accept the wisdom of the lasses and lads down on the shop floor. |
Rambus slows Intel DDR chipsetsBy Merveille du Jour October 17, 2001 |
MOTHS FLAPPING OUTSIDE Rambus' Los Altos windows have told the
INQUIRER, via clever pheromones, that Intel is hog-tied by its
elaborate ties with Rambus Ink. According to the chemical messengers, the reason the i845MP chipset only supports PC 1600, perhaps better known as DDR (double data rate) 200, is because Intel believes it has a licensing problem with Rambus. While those problems may be solved next year when the 845MP is produced, unfortunately Intella will be two generations of DDR technology behind the rest of the pack. |
AMD K8: nails ready, Hammer notBy Adamson Rust October 17, 2001 |
WHILE THE support chips for AMD's K8 microprocessor are either
taped out or will tape out within a few days, sources at Fab
30 in Dresden tell the INQUIRER the core chip still hasn't
quite reached that stage. The same sources continue to insist the Hammer chip itself is a different tale altogether. The support chips include the south bridge, the AGP 8X bridge and the PCI-X bridge, says our German mole. |
| October 17, 2001 | |
Transmeta fires CEO after its stock plungesBy Therese Poletti October 16, 2001 |
Transmeta, an upstart developer of low-power-consuming
computer chips, fired its chief executive Tuesday following
the collapse of its stock, another earnings shortfall and a
late product. The Santa Clara chip developer named Chairman Murray Goldman, a former Motorola executive, as the company's new CEO, replacing Mark Allen, who had been CEO since March. ``This was a very difficult decision made after considerable deliberation,'' Goldman said in a statement. |
Intel expected to scrap a planned Rambus chipsetBy Jack Robertson October 16, 2001 |
Intel Corp. has decided to cancel the Tulloch chipset slated
to support the four-bank version of Direct Rambus DRAM for Pentium 4, according to industry sources. Instead, Intel will introduce an upgraded 850-e version of its current Direct RDRAM chipset with an expanded I/O hub to support high end workstations and PCs. An Intel spokeswoman repeated the firm's standing policy of not commenting on unannounced products. |
Taiwan's Via to develop 'Pentium 4 clone' processor for high-end PCsBy Mark LaPedus October 16, 2001 |
Continuing to walk on a legal tightrope, Taiwan's Via
Technologies Inc. here let it slip out that it is working on a
2-GHz microprocessor, which is reportedly a "clone" of Intel
Corp.'s Pentium 4 processor. During a presentation at the
Microprocessor Forum on Monday, a Via executive briefly
mentioned the processor while curiously raising questions
about the need for 2-GHz processors. But later, in interviews, a Via engineer described the new "Pentium 4 clone"--dubbed the CZA--a device that utilizes the same design concepts as Intel's Pentium 4 chip. Based on 0.10-micron process technology, Via's CZA is being designed as a 2-GHz processor that can be scaled up to 3-GHz speeds. |
Intel profits drop 77 percent in third quarterBy Reuters October 16, 2001 |
Intel Corp. reported Tuesday (Oct. 16) that third-quarter
profits tumbled 77 percent as it suffered from slowing
economies and weak personal computer sales, prompting it to
forecast sluggish sales in the fourth quarter, typically the
industry's strongest. Intel, the No. 1 chip maker, said that net income before acquisition-related costs fell to $655 million, or 10 cents a share, from $2.89 billion, or 41 cents, a year ago, before 5 cents a share in acquisition-related costs. Sales fell 25 percent to $6.55 billion from $8.73 billion. |
Intel discloses 'Nocona' processor development for future 32-bit serversBy Mark LaPedus October 16, 2001 |
Hoping to prove that 32-bit microprocessors will remain viable
in servers for years to come, Intel Corp. here today disclosed
development of a new central processing unit for use in
high-end 32-bit systems. The new CPU, code-named "Nocona," is a 32-bit chip that will ship in the 2003 time frame, said Dileep Bhandarkar, director of the Enterprise Architecture Lab at Intel of Santa Clara, Calif. "Nocona extends our IA-32 line of processors," he said. "It's targeted for the high-volume, dual-processor server market," he said in a brief interview at the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose. |
Intel looks to bridge gap in multithreading CPU landscapeBy Anthony Cataldo October 16, 2001 |
With instruction-level parallelism out of fashion and
thread-level parallelism the buzzword du jour, Intel Corp. is
proposing "pseudo-parallelism" as the next step in
microprocessor design. The approach lets a CPU force
single-threaded applications to act as if they have multiple
threads. The new wrinkle in parallelism, which Intel discussed here at the Microprocessor Forum, builds on a multithreading scheme called hyperthreading that Intel disclosed earlier this year. Hyperthreading, a latent feature in the P4 architecture that will be activated first in a Xeon processor next year, allows one CPU to act as two logical processors when it encounters applications that are split into separate threads. |
AMD provides a glimpse of Hammer MPUBy Jerry Ascierto October 16, 2001 |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. provided a glimpse of its upcoming
64-bit "Hammer" family of microprocessors, charged with
battling Intel Corp.'s Itanium processors at the high-end of
the server market, at the Microprocessor Forum here Monday
(Oct. 15). AMD hopes the architecture will expand its presence in the 4-way and 8-way enterprise market, while serving as a platform personal computing markets. AMD's approach to 64-bit computing looks to make the migration away from 32-bit as painless as possible, with the Hammer running both 32-bit and 64-bit software. |
For AMD's new chips, connection is keyBy Michael Kanellos October 16, 2001 |
For Advanced Micro Devices' upcoming Hammer chips, it's all
about the connections. One of the major performance enhancements of Hammer, the code name for a family of microprocessors coming from AMD next year, will derive from how the chip connects to other components, Fred Weber, the company's chief technical officer, said at the Microprocessor Forum here Monday. Right now, chips communicate to the outside world through a series of buses, or data paths, which often run slower than the processor. |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
Intel talks vague multi-threading talkBy Mike Magee October 16, 2001 |
THE FUTURE OF HYPER THREADING technology on Intel processors,
possibly with Alpha Inside, got an airing at the
Microprocessor Forum yesterday with Glenn Hinton and John Shen
taking the audience through some of Chipzilla's Jacksonville
plans. Hinton opened by contrasting single stream performance on processors with "thread level parallelism" involving four CPUs attached to one system bus. |
AMD's Hammer to smash Intel's plansBy Mike Magee October 16, 2001 |
CHIP FIRM AMD introduced hard details of its Hammer 64-bit
family at the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose yesterday and
early indications are this one's a winner. The architecture Dirk Meyer and his team has put together will eventually migrate to desktops and notebook platforms. As noted here some weeks ago, Hammer has an integrated North Bridge but it is AMD's plans for migrating the chip which are likely to breach a hole in Intel's own, somewhat controversial, 64-bit strategy. |
Via-Centaur outlines futuresBy the World Wild Web Watcher October 16, 2001 |
YOUNG GLENN HENRY presented his view of Via-Centaur's future
at the Microprocessor Forum yesterday and there's an extensive
summary up at Van's Hardware Pages. Henry told delegates its
CZA 478-pin P4 compatible chips will scale above 3GHz at low
power. Have a peek. This will annoy La Intella some. There's a deal of AMD stuff up at Ace's Hardware today including an Athlon XP review as well as a lengthy piece about the Hammer architecture that's well worth a read. |
| October 16, 2001 | |
Intel discloses mobile Pentium 4 and chip set strategy at Microprocessor ForumOctober 15, 2001 |
During the Microprocessor Forum here today, Intel Corp.
presented a glimpse of its Pentium 4 microprocessor and chip
set strategy for mobile applications. Intel plans to roll out a 1.5-GHz Pentium 4 processor for mobile applications in the first half of 2002, and a 2-GHz version in the second half of next year, according to the company. Based on its 0.13-micron technology, the company's Pentium 4 mobile processors includes its NetBurst microarchitecture, a 400-MHz system bus, and a streaming SIMD extensions. |
Mobile Pentium 4 to debut above 1.5GHzBy Michael Kanellos October 15, 2001 |
Intel's Pentium 4 for mobile computers will come out at speeds
above 1.5GHz in the first half of next year, but it won't be
matched with memory based on technology from Rambus. The Pentium 4, which currently is available only in desktops, comes to notebooks by virtue of a manufacturing shift that cuts the power consumed and heat dissipated by the chip, said Bob Jackson, principal engineer in Intel's mobile processing group. By cutting the power, Intel can squeeze the chip into portables. |
AMD unveils 64-bit Hammer, new 32-bit Athlons at processor forumOctober 15, 2001 |
During the Microprocessor Forum here on Monday, Advanced Micro
Devices Inc. will provide the first details of its Hammer line
of 64-bit microprocessors, while also announcing its new,
high-end Athlon chips for servers and workstations. On the 64-bit side, AMD will unveil Hammer, a processor based on 0.13-micron and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technologies. According to AMD's own roadmap, the company will officially ship three versions of Hammer in the second half of 2002. |
AMD Says MHz Doesn’t Matter In Workstations, ServersBy Tom Murphy October 15, 2001 |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) is planning to make the same
claim in workstations and servers today as it did last week
for personal computers. AMD today announced three processors for the multi-processing workstation and server space, and it said its devices perform more instructions per cycle than comparable processors from the competition. Last week, AMD introduced three processors to the desktop PC market and said those processor also perform more work per clock cycle than Intel parts spinning at higher clock speeds. |
AMD's new server processors face an uphill fightBy Jack Robertson and Bruce Gain October 15, 2001 |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. this week will unveil its
highest-speed two-way server microprocessors to date. But
although AMD may have temporarily bested Intel Corp. in the
clock-rate race, many analysts expect AMD's introduction to
have little impact on the server battle. In terms of raw speed, there is no argument that the chips-1.4GHz and 1.53GHz MPUs in the Athlon MP family-will zip past Intel's 1.26GHz Pentium III Tualatin-class dual processor. But server makers have notoriously long development cycles, and clock frequency is not the magic bullet for this market that it is for the retail PC space, observers note. |
Will timing of next Pentium 4 help AMD?By Michael Kanellos October 11, 2001 |
Intel won't release another version of the Pentium 4 until
early 2002, sources say, in a move that will likely put the
performance crown back on Advanced Micro Devices' head--at
least for a short time. "Northwood," a 2.2GHz Pentium 4 based on the 130-nanometer (0.13-micron) manufacturing process, will come out commercially in the first part of 2002, sources said Thursday. Earlier, sources speculated that the chip would debut in late 2001. |
National's new info-appliance MPU packs enhanced x86 core, power managementOctober 15, 2001 |
Pushing ahead with its information appliances chip strategy,
National Semiconductor Corp. this week will officially launch
its new Geode GX2 series of integrated processors, based on a
re-engineered x86-based core, 0.15-micron process technology,
and a new modular architecture with built-in power management
circuits. The Geode GX2 integrated processor and companion chip (for I/O bus and peripheral control) will be priced together at less than $50 each in high-volume quantities. Production is expected to begin in the first half of 2002, according to National, which will introduce the GX2 at this week's Microprocessor Forum in San Jose. |
Transmeta promises 1-GHz processor integrating graphics, PC chip-set functionsOctober 15, 2001 |
Transmeta Corp. today announced plans to ship a highly
integrated, system-on-chip version of its low-power consuming
Crusoe PC processor during the second half of 2002. The
x86-compatible processor will have 1-GHz speeds and combine
Northbridge, Southbridge, and graphics functions on a single
device, according to the company. Transmeta said the new TM6000 processor will integrate functions typically found in today's three- or four-chip microprocessor solutions. Compared to Transmeta's current Crusoe processor, introduced last year, the new TM6000 will take up about one-third the board space and use much less power in portable computers and other applications requiring small size as well as low cost, said the company, which is disclosing the integrated processor at today's opening of the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose. |
Via selling motherboards to spur P4 chip set salesBy Mike Clendenin October 15, 2001 |
Chip designer Via Technologies Inc. is moving into motherboard
production to boost sales of its flagship product, the P4x266,
a Pentium 4 compatible chip set. The decision, announced
Monday, Oct. 15, surprised many familiar with the company, who
generally viewed it as a desperate gamble in the company's
showdown with Intel Corp. over licensing fees for the chip
set. Via will outsource the motherboard production, most likely to one of Taiwan's second-tier suppliers, and will only offer one line compatible with the P4x266, which is based on the double-data-rate DRAM memory standard. |
Intel's P6 chip architecture not dead yetBy Michael Kanellos October 15, 2001 |
The core technology behind the Pentium II and Pentium III
apparently will go on and on. Banias, a low-power chip for notebooks and Internet devices coming from Intel in the first half of 2003, will be based around the P6 architecture, the processor design that is being phased out in other Intel product lines, according to Kevin Krewell, an analyst at subscription newsletter "Microprocessor Report." The chip will contain significant new modifications for saving power but will effectively feature the same computing core as the Pentium Pro, which debuted in 1996. |
AMD, Intel set tempo for chip sectorBy John G. Spooner October 15, 2001 |
Chipmakers will pump up new chip designs in the face of grim
earnings reports this week. Advanced Micro Devices, IBM and Intel, among others, will unveil new details about forthcoming PC processors at this week's Microprocessor Forum. Meanwhile, AMD and Intel will also mark the week with third-quarter earnings announcements. The chipmakers will confront the semiconductor market downturn by offering chips with greater performance or lower power consumption. Some purport to be offering both. |
Results mixed from Athlon, Pentium testsBy John G. Spooner and Michael Kanellos October 9, 2001 |
Results of benchmark tests are in on the new Athlon XP
processor, and the winner of the performance crown is...well,
it's hard to say. Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday unveiled its new Athlon XP processor for PCs. With the announcement, the chipmaker said that its Athlon XP 1800+ chip outperforms Intel's 2GHz Pentium 4 chip, even though the XP 1800+ runs at 1.53GHz. AMD adopted the new naming strategy to reflect performance relative to market-dominating Intel products. |
Transmeta chip packs a compact punchBy Reuters October 15, 2001 |
Transmeta, which designs energy-efficient chips for laptops,
on Monday announced a new Crusoe chip that it said uses
one-third the space on a notebook's motherboard than its
current processors do. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Transmeta said that because the Crusoe 6000 takes up less space than current versions of its chip, it is ideal for use in a growing number of smaller, thinner and lighter notebooks and handheld PCs. |
Transmeta Staging ComebackBy Tom Murphy October 15, 2001 |
Transmeta Corp. will put on its gloves today to try and
deliver a one-two combination to the solar plexus of Intel
Corp. on the issue of energy-saving microprocessors, according
to a company executive. "We’ve taken it on the chin the last few months because we’ve been very quiet," said Dave Ditzel, Transmeta’s co-founder, vice chairman and chief technology officer. "We have some brand new parts that feature lower power and we’re ready to offer some apples-to-apples comparison with Intel." |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
Intel making Pentium 4s too slowly - analystBy Mike Magee October 15, 2001 |
A US FINANCIAL ANALYST warns today that Intel's Q4 results
this year will be "plagued" by a slow ramp of its Pentium 4
flagship chip and has decided to trim its estimates for the
corporation. Robertson Stephens said in a note to its clients that Intel's Q4 "seems a challenge from any number of vantage points". Those include tight supplies of 478-pin Pentium 4s and 845 processors, as reported here, and the quick demise of the PIII, coupled with weak PC sales. |
Transmeta pre-announces TM6000By Mike Magee October 15, 2001 |
ALTHOUGH IT HASN'T started yet, Transmeta will today announce
its TM6000 Crusoe chip at the Microprocessor Forum in San
Jose. The chip, Transmeta claims, will take a third of the real estate and less power than the existing range of chips. Transmeta claims its TM6000 technology has better power efficiency that othe X86 offerings and includes Longrun power management in the North Bridge, the South Bridge and for graphics. |
ATI A3 chipset to support Athlon XPBy Tony Smith October 15, 2001 |
ATI's upcoming A3 chipset, the graphics company's attempt to
tackle arch-rival Nvidia's nForce initiative head on, will
support AMD's Athlon XP processor as well as the Pentium 4. Yes, we were surprised too. Given the recent cosying up between AMD and Nividia, and Intel and ATI, we, like many others, assumed these four companies would set themselves in two, warring camps. Yet what did we spy this morning but a reference to ATI's offering on what appears to be an internal AMD document listing third-party chipsets for the Athlon XP. The roadmap was posted on German site Threecom.de along with other documents purporting to outline AMD's plans for the coming year. |
| October 15, 2001 | |
Intel hit by class actionBy Mike Magee October 9, 2001 |
THE INTEL CORPORATION was served today by a class action by
Milberg Weiss alleging the chip giant violated the SEC Act of
1934. According to the lawyers, Intel is alleged to have made "extraordinarily bullish statements" on the 28th of August 2000 meaning its stock hit over $75. Those "positive statements" at an Intel Developer Forum were to the effect that there was strong demand for Intel products, better manufacturing processes, the development of its PIII chip, the development of its Pentium IV, Itanium and "Timna" processors and the outlook for Q3 200, claims which the lawyers allege are false. |
Transmeta lowers revenue outlookBy Reuters October 8, 2001 |
Transmeta, which makes power-saving chips for notebook
computers, said Monday that it expects third-quarter revenue
of $5 million as the slowdown in its customer spending dragged
on through the summer. Transmeta said its business is based primarily in Japan and customers there are reducing unit volume shipments because of worsening economic conditions. The company is also experiencing delays in completing the process qualification for its 5800 micron product. It decided not to ship the device in production volumes during the third quarter. |
Next Crusoe chip bogged down in testingBy Michael Kanellos October 9, 2001 |
Transmeta is having trouble getting its next Crusoe chip out
the door. Four months after it was first announced, the energy-efficient Crusoe 5800 still isn't shipping in production volumes to notebook makers. And although notebooks using the chip are expected to appear around the time of the Comdex trade show in mid-November, Transmeta is still performing final tests. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip designer is concerned that an unacceptable number of chips may be statistically subject to failure. |
Results mixed from Athlon, Pentium testsBy John G. Spooner and Michael Kanellos October 9, 2001 |
Results of benchmark tests are in on the new Athlon XP
processor, and the winner of the performance crown is...well,
it's hard to say. Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday unveiled its new Athlon XP processor for PCs. With the announcement, the chipmaker said that its Athlon XP 1800+ chip outperforms Intel's 2GHz Pentium 4 chip, even though the XP 1800+ runs at 1.53GHz. AMD adopted the new naming strategy to reflect performance relative to market-dominating Intel products. |
AMD's Sanders Calls Pentium 4 a Step BackwardTom Mainelli October 9, 2001 |
Advanced Micro Devices came out swinging with its Athlon XP
processor launch here, calling Intel's Pentium 4 a performance
failure while chastising the company for "taking advantage of
consumer ignorance" in the way it markets the processor. The Athlon XP offers several performance enhancements, as well as a new naming scheme that AMD says better illustrates its capabilities compared to other processors. The first round of chips--available immediately in systems from Hewlett-Packard and Compaq--include Athlon XP chips sporting the model numbers 1500+,1600+,1700+, and 1800+. |
AMD tries to wean PC industry from CPU-megahertz benchmarksOctober 9, 2001 |
With the formal launch of its high-end Athlon XP
microprocessor series, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today
announced an effort to literally change the way PC processors
are gauged. Instead of measuring PC central processing units by the megahertz of clock speeds--as has been the industry's practice for nearly two decades--AMD today said it was launching an initiative to develop a new reliable metric to judge CPU performance in standard personal computer applications. |
Athlon XP packs new 'hooks' for added speed in Windows XP systems, says AMDOctober 9, 2001 |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today formally launched its most
powerful PC processor series, called Athlon XP, and it
announced support from Microsoft Corp., which has added
features to its upcoming Windows XP operating system to take
advantage of unique features in AMD's newest central
processing units. Along with the Athlon XP rollout in San Francisco, AMD announced an effort to de-emphasize the use of clock speeds as a key measure of PC processor performance. Instead of focusing on megahertz, AMD wants the PC industry and users to look at other benchmarks to measure the CPU performance in standard PC applications. |
AMD shuffles numbers with new AthlonBy Michael Kanellos October 9, 2001 |
Although AMD's new Athlon XP processors will hit the stage
Tuesday, the real showstopper will be if the company can get
the public to forget about megahertz at the same time. As previously reported, the Athlon XP offers a number of features not found on previous Athlon desktop processors. For example, the chip consumes less power than current desktop Athlons, allowing PC makers can to insert the chip into more compact computers. Compaq, Fujitsu, Micron and NEC all plan to come out with PCs featuring the new chip. |
Intel plans to house CPU in bumpless packageBy Anthony Cataldo October 8, 2001 |
Intel Corp. has developed a packaging technology that embeds a
processor die into a specialized, pc-board-like package,
getting rid of solder bumps and much of the interconnect used
by most high-performance flip-chip package designs. The bumpless buildup layer (BBUL) package is intended to replace conventional flip-chip technology as a way to overcome some of the interconnect, power dissipation, speed and power-delivery problems that threaten processors as they get faster and denser. Intel plans to deploy the packages by 2006 or 2007, when it expects its processors to contain 1 billion transistors and run at 20 GHz. |
Intel's Xeon move needs closer scrutinyBy Jack Robertson October 9, 2001 |
There may be more than meets the eye to Intel Corp.'s recent
decision to cancel its 2GHz Foster-class Xeon processor,
according to analysts. But while the real story may be more revealing than the chip giant is letting on, the net effect is unlikely to diminish Intel's hold on the server processor market. Intel will bring out a successor 2.2-GHz Xeon server chip, code-named Prestonia, in Q1'02. Server OEMs, who introduce new lines far more slowly than the rapid-fire PC competitors, are more willing to wait on the new processor. |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
AMD K8 still not taped outBy Mike Magee October 8, 2001 |
IT WOULD BE NICE to report along with some other Web sites
that AMD's X86-64, currently being fashioned on the wheel by
Dirk Meyer and associates, has already taped out. But sources close to the chip firm tell the INQUIRER that it won't now tape out until Q1 2002, along with its integrated North Bridge and the like. However, AMD is expected to leak quite a few more details of the K8 at next week's Microprocessor Forum, while the intriguing capabilities of SMP-on-a-chip are being explored in several places, particularly so in Chip Architect. |
Via pokes round Transmeta buyBy Eva Glass October 8, 2001 |
AS REVEALED HERE some weeks back, AMD decided to spurn buying
Transmeta. But flies on the Transmeta wall tell the INQUIRER that a surprise candidate in the shape of Chinese company Via Technology may instead be interested in snapping up the ailing X86 newcomer. Transmeta is currently priced on Nasdaq at $1.33 and, the same sources add, is in some difficulties with its .13µ (micron) processors. |
AMD blames Intel for PR RatingsBy Mike Magee October 9, 2001 |
CHIP FIRM AMD has now formally announced the existence of its
Athlon XP+ family and said that Arthur Andersen will audit the
ratings to help re-assure consumers of their authenticity. The so-called "PR Ratings" compare the performance of AMD Athlons with Palomino cores against their own processors and are based on 35 different benchmarks, according to a representative at the launch of the chips in Milano today. |
AMD PR rating claims first victimBy Mike Magee October 9, 2001 |
IF EVEN VENDORS are getting their knickers in a twist about
whether an Athlon 1800 is a 1.8GHz Athlon, what chance Mr or
Ms Newtocomputers, we ask here at the INQUIRER. That follows a story we wrote at the weekend in which NECX was listing a 1.8GHz AthlonMP processor on their site, and responded to a readers' inquiry by saying yes indeedy, that is a genuine 1.8GHz part. (See Is an AMD 1.8GHz Athlon MP a goer?). |
Intel to dump Tulloch for Tehama-EBy Mike Magee October 8, 2001 |
INTEL HAS MADE DRASTIC changes to next year's chipset roadmaps
in a bid to fend off the opposition from other vendors - some
with P4 licences, some not. According to the most recent roadmaps seen by the INQUIRER, the up-and-coming Tulloch chipset, which was intended to be released in summer 2002, has now been replaced with the Tehama-E chipset. In addition, Northwood, the .13 micron shrink of the Pentium 4 processor, will not be re-branded but continue to be called the Pentium 4, will go into production in this quarter and launch in January of next year. |
Intel goes "balanced mobility" crazyBy Mike Magee October 9, 2001 |
ROADMAPS VIEWED THROUGH the blur of an anaesthetic indicate
that 2002 will see Intel offering an unprecedented range of
processors for the notebook market. These will be in addition to the Pentium 4-M notebook chips, details of which we revealed yesterday. The first of these will be a 1.50GHz Pentium 4 using the 845MZ chipset. But Intel will also introduce mobile Intel Celeron processors at 1.20GHz, 1.13GHz and 1.06GHz early next year aimed at what it is now calling the "Performance Mobility" segment, and it will add a 1.33GHz Celeron to that range in the second quarter, scaling to 1.40GHz by the end of the year. |
Pentium 4 mobiles in Q1 next yearBy Mike Magee October 8, 2001 |
INTEL WILL MAKE A BIG SPLASH by introducing Pentium 4 notebook
processors - which it will brand as Pentium 4-M processors,
towards the end of the first quarter next year. Confidential Intel roadmaps seen by the INQUIRER indicate that the processors will first come at speeds of 1.70GHz, 1.60GHz, 1.50GHz and 1.40GHz, using the 845MP and MZ chipsets. But by the third quarter of next year, Intel will have a 1.80 GHz Pentium 4-M, and by the end of next year a 2GHz Pentium 4-M, the roadmaps indicate. By then, 1.60GHz Pentium 4-Ms and 1.50GHz Pentium 4-Ms will be sold in the $1.4 to $2,000 notebook sector of the market. |
Intel Banias details leakBy Mike Magee October 8, 2001 |
THE INTEL BANIAS chip currently being prepped as the shape of
notebook microprocessors to come will use an ATI design, the
INQUIRER can reveal. Sources close to Intel in Israel have told us that Banias will not have an integrated north bridge, rather like Transmeta's microprocessor, and will also include a completely different front side bus (FSB). The reason is that architects consider GTL to hog too much power, and besides from that there is an important marketing consideration. |
Why Nvidia likes AMDBy Fuad Abazovic October 8, 2001 |
IF YOU GAZE deeply into the water you can see the bottom
however deep the river is – or so the old Bosnian saw says. It
is now old since I made it up a few hours back, but it has the
authentic ring of truth and wisdom about it, though I say so
myself. We all know about the nice warm co-operation between Nvidia and AMD. Nforce is once of the first product of that good cooperation, as we first revealed earlier this year when we shouted SNAP! |
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