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| Top Stories for October 25, 2001 (details below) | |
| Electronic News | AMD Accuses Intel of Anti-Competitive Behavior |
| EBN | Intel and AMD battle over antitrust documents |
| C/Net | Profit plunges for Via |
| C/Net | Fujitsu to bring Transmeta laptop to U.S. |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
| The Inquirer | AMD sues Intel |
| The Register | AMD widens Intel antitrust offensive |
| The Inquirer | Intel still struggling to supply P4 |
| The Inquirer | Via has views on the K8 Hammer |
| The Inquirer | Intel's notebook expansion plans |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of October 21, 2001 |
Older News |
| October 25, 2001 | |
AMD Accuses Intel of Anti-Competitive BehaviorBy Tom Murphy October 24, 2001 |
No. 2 PC processor maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD)
today said it has filed motions in the U.S. District Court of
Northern California in an attempt to compel Intel Corp. to
produce documents for European Commission (EC) investigators
looking into allegations that Intel is engaging in
anti-competitive behavior. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD (nyse: AMD) filed the motions early this month and said it is seeking testimony and other evidence it believes will provide proof of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel’s (nasdaq: INTC) alleged past uncompetitive practices. The documents and testimony being sought arise out of a 1997 sealed court decision involving Intel and a company known as Intergraph Corp. of Huntsville, Ala., according to an AMD spokesman. |
Intel and AMD battle over antitrust documentsBy Jack Robertson October 24, 2001 |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Intel Corp. are battling over
whether court documents from an U.S. antitrust case against
Intel can be used to bolster AMD's antitrust complaint against
Intel at the European Commission. AMD has filed suit in federal district court in San Jose, Calif., seeking to transfer expert witness testimony and other documents to the EU that were gathered in the Intergraph Corp. antitrust and patent infringement suit against Intel several years ago. An Intel spokesman said the antitrust portion of the Intergraph case was dismissed in 1999, although the patent infringement portion continues. |
Profit plunges for ViaBy Reuters October 24, 2001 |
Taiwan chip designer Via Technolgies reported a 64 percent
year-over-year slump in third-quarter pretax profit to $25
million (T$880 million), meeting market expectations. The company said a series of lawsuits by Intel, which allege patent infringements by Via, hurt the company's sales and market share. Analysts said the legal wrangle is scaring away Via customers and prompted Via's decision earlier this month to enter a new line of business a step down the PC production chain and launch its own line of Via-branded motherboards. |
Fujitsu to bring Transmeta laptop to U.S.By Ian Fried October 22, 2001 |
Transmeta got some welcome news Monday as Fujitsu announced it
is bringing to the United States a notebook PC using the
latest low-power Crusoe processor from the struggling
chipmaker. Transmeta, which last week ousted its CEO and reported it sold just $5 million worth of chips in the third quarter, has found a niche with Japanese PC makers but has struggled to crack the U.S. market. Sony, Casio and NEC have introduced notebooks for sale here, but Compaq Computer and IBM announced plans to stick with Intel's low-power chips. |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
AMD sues IntelBy Mike Magee October 24, 2001 |
A LEGAL CASE IS BREWING between AMD and Intel, the INQUIRER
can reveal. It's really not so much AMD attempting to sue
Intel as to force information to be revealed which it then
wants to turn over to European authorities investigating
alleged antitrust complaints. AMD has filed suit in the US district court for the Northern District of California, with the first action filed on the 1st of October last. It wants to see papers in the case of Intergraph versus Intel, a request that the latter is opposing. |
AMD widens Intel antitrust offensiveBy Andrew Orlowski October 24, 2001 |
AMD has filed a suit to release sealed evidence from Intel's
dispute with Intertrust to EU antitrust investigators. The request, filed in the Northern California District Court in San Jose, will be heard on November 12. The Integraph dispute was settled two years ago with the judge ruling in Intel's favour. Intel has responded by saying that the items contain trade secrets and that US law doesn't permit such trawling. |
Intel still struggling to supply P4By Paul Hales October 24, 2001 |
INTEL CLAIMS its Pentium 4 supply problems will soon be well
behind it and is looking forward to pumping out processors by
the cartload during the coming months. October though, will be
‘tight’ the corporation admits. It advises system builders to
hassle their Intel rep or their distributors for stocks of the
chip. ‘We got caught and did not plan for the amount of ramp up the ‘breakaway’ caused,’ Channel business manager Alexander Ward told system builders here in Poitiers. He claimed the ‘generous’ price drop Chipzilla made on the Pentium 4 during the summer caused a surge in demand that caught the corporation on the hop. |
Via has views on the K8 HammerBy Fuad Abazovic October 23, 2001 |
WHILE I WAS STUCK SOMEWHERE in Austria waiting for a train, I
mused about Via's attitude to AMD's up-and-coming Hammer
microprocessor. Last week I was in Muenchen and some neighboring EU countries, and attended a fair called symbolically Systems - always a good place to pick up some tips, info and gossip. We've already revealed a fair amount about Via's support for the K8 generation here at the INQUIRER some months ago. |
Intel's notebook expansion plansBy Mike Magee October 23, 2001 |
THE MEMO THAT INTEL sent to its distributors and dealers last
week was interesting not only because of the demand-supply
conundrum, and because of the lack of its 900MHz Xeon, but
because of the extended plans it has for its notebook
build-to-order scheme. Last time we wrote about these plans, only two companies - the largest of which was Asus - was supplying the screen, chassis and other essential parts, for machines which system integrators then reconfigure and re-badge. |
| October 23, 2001 | |
Intel axes its troubled consumer electronics unitBy Michael Kanellos October 18, 2001 |
Intel is winding down its consumer electronics division as the
company continues its return to its core chip business. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker Thursday confirmed that its Connected Products Division, which specializes in digital cameras, digital-audio players and toys, is in the process of being phased out. The company will sell the existing inventory of these products, which should last through the first part of 2002. But further manufacturing will cease. |
Via challenges Intel in high-stakes gambleBy Faith Hung October 19, 2001 |
Via Technologies Inc. is looking for new pastures even as
Intel Corp. tries to raise a fence around the company's
Pentium 4 chipset business. In a bold move, Via said it will enter the motherboard market to stimulate business for its controversial -- and unlicensed --double-data-rate SDRAM-enabled Pentium 4 chipset. If that wasn't enough to raise Intel's blood pressure, the Taipei-based chipmaker said the same day that it will field a 2GHz P4 clone based on Intel technology-again, without a patent license. |
Fujitsu to bring Transmeta laptop to U.S.By Ian Fried October 22, 2001 |
Transmeta got some welcome news Monday as Fujitsu announced it
is bringing to the United States a notebook PC using the
latest low-power Crusoe processor from the struggling
chipmaker. Transmeta, which last week ousted its CEO and reported it sold just $5 million worth of chips in the third quarter, has found a niche with Japanese PC makers but has struggled to crack the U.S. market. Sony, Casio and NEC have introduced notebooks for sale here, but Compaq Computer and IBM announced plans to stick with Intel's low-power chips. |
Transmeta's revenue remains thinBy Michael Kanellos and Richard Shim October 18, 2001 |
Although Transmeta's Crusoe chips have been showing up in
notebooks for about a year now, the company's financial
picture hasn't changed dramatically. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip designer on Thursday reported third-quarter revenue of $5 million with a net loss of $29.4 million, or 22 cents a share, including charges. Its net loss, excluding special charges, came to $20.5 million, or 16 cents per share. A consensus of analysts was expecting a loss of 15 cents per share, according to First Call. |
Rambus introduces memory-interface technologiesBy Andrew MacLellan October 22, 2001 |
Rambus Inc. today took the wraps off of two new
memory-interface technologies aimed initially at boosting
bandwidth in consumer and communications devices. The technologies, which together comprise Rambus' new Yellowstone memory signaling architecture, are said to enable 3.2GHz data transfer rates in memory subsystems in applications like game consoles and communications line cards. |
Cost questions cloud Rambus' 3.2-GHz signaling technologyBy Paul Kallender and Mike Clendenin October 22, 2001 |
Rambus Inc. is due to unveil it next-generation Yellowstone
signaling technology at the Rambus Developer Forum in San Jose, Calif., Monday (Oct. 22), implementing a differential-signaling approach that hits 3.2-GHz frequencies on the data bus. Rambus claims that Yellowstone will meet the bandwidth demands of mulitgigahertz processors, but analysts and OEMs are questioning whether Rambus will be able to meet the cost structures of quad- and double-data-rate SDRAMs. Yellowstone's octal-data-rate scheme boosts the memory's 400-MHz clock to 1.6 GHz. The phase-locked loop samples on both the rising and falling edges, allowing Yellowstone to pump out data at 3.2 GHz. |
Rambus Supporters Out In ForceBy Tom Murphy October 22, 2001 |
Analysts say that Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel Corp.’s
support for Rambus Inc.’s RDRAM as main memory for its Pentium
4 microprocessors is dwindling, but you wouldn’t know that
from the overtures at today’s Rambus Developer Forum in Santa
Clara. During opening speeches at the two-day forum, Los Altos, Calif.-based Rambus (nasdaq: RMBS) President Dave Mooring said the company’s latest signaling technology scales to supply bandwidth of 10GHz processors. Representatives with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. of Seoul, South Korea, still believe RDRAM memory will comprise 25 percent of their memory product mix. And an Intel (nasdaq: INTC) vice president said the company’s roadmap includes Rambus chipsets for years to come. |
| Truths...from the rumor mill | |
Intel confirms Pentium 4 shortagesBy Mike Magee October 19, 2001 |
SHORTAGES OF 478 PIN Pentium 4s are being blamed on excess
demand, Intel has told its distributors, although it claims
that any problems will be short, rather than long term. That follows a story we wrote earlier in the week after we heard that availability of 478 pin chips was so constrained that Intella might suffer in its fourth quarter. Sure enough, it is October which is affected, as the following memorandum from Intel to its disties makes evident. |
Intel lawyers can relax over Via Pentium 4 cloneBy Mike Magee October 19, 2001 |
SOURCES CLOSE TO VIA said that an employee who seemed to hint
that the firm had a Pentium 4 clone it might launch in 2004
hasn't been taken out and shot but is being advised to shop
around for a bullet with his name on it. The report, on a US wire, said that Via was working on a Pentium 4 compatible design. Via says there's no truth at all in the story. But if you could put Via's HQ in Old Taipei in one of those little glass globes with fake snow in it and shake it, then the resulting blizzard would be writs from Intel for allegedly infringing its patents on the Pentium 4. |
Intel warns notebook buyers: caveat emptorBy Mike Magee October 19, 2001 |
INTEL HAS SAID that people buying notebook machines must
exercise their judgement when buying, if they want to take
advantage of Speedstep technology. That follows an article we wrote yesterday, based on a Digitimes story, which suggested that major notebook vendors including IBM and Acer, were racing to shove machines out the door which use desktop rather than mobile processors. |
Intel confirms 845 supplies are 'very tight'By Tony Smith October 22, 2001 |
Intel has admitted that its 845 chipset is in short supply,
for the immediate future, at least. Speaking to reporters in Taipei today, Jason Chen, Intel's Asia-Pacific general manager said: "Overall for the whole quarter we believe we will be able to supply the market demand, but we believe we will see some short-term tightness." "If you're talking specifically about a hot item, like the 845, it will be very tight," he added. |
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