x86 Headline NewsFor the week of May 18, 1998 |
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x86 Weekly News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of May 18, 1998 |
Older News |
May 22, 1998 | ||
Intel Worries Hurt Technology StocksBy Gabrielle Jonas May 21, 1998 |
Technology issues and the broader markets slumped on a cautionary note by Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, who said Thursday the United States has only just begun to feel the impact of Asia's economic problems. The Nasdaq Composite fell 10.75 to 1821, hurt by a Deutsche Morgan Grenfell analyst's comment that chip demand is slowing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 39.11 to 9132.37. | |
Intel falters on bearish commentsBy Reuters May 21, 1998 |
Shares of Intel fell in active trading
after some cautious comments by Deutsche Morgan Grenfell
sparked new fears about the company's second quarter,
analysts and traders said. Scott Nirenbirski, a DMG analyst, said in a note to clients that, while investors had been expecting a tough second quarter for the chip maker, the month of May has seen a softening in demand as European sales have slowed, which could lead to an earnings shortfall. Some analysts added that recent news reports about looming Federal Trade Commission action against Intel probably also was making some investors nervous. |
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AMD working quietly on copper interconnectsBy Alexander Wolfe May 21, 1998 |
Though overshadowed by IBM Corp.'s
high-profile effort to field copper interconnects,
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is quietly forging ahead with
development work to take the next-generation
semiconductor technology from the research lab into the
real world, EE Times has learned. To date, AMD has successfully fabricated two test chips with copper interconnects, a company official said. "One is what I'll call a pure test [chip]," said Don Wollesen, director of technology and reliability engineering at AMD here. "It has structures on it, such as transistors, wires and contacts all the nuts and bolts you use to make an IC. We made some of those and things looked pretty good." |
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Intel
Introduces Industrys First 66 MHz PCI-to-PCI Bridge
Chips
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At the PC Developers Expo in San Jose, Calif., Intel today announced the industrys first 66-MHz PCI-to-PCI bridge chips. These chips, which are used on motherboards and add-in cards, will allow a system designer to increase data throughput in a variety of data intensive server, workstation and high-end PC applications including networking and data storage. The new 66-MHz bridges, the 21150-BC and 21154-BC, will be available in a 32- and 64-bit versions and are PCI Local Bus Rev 2.1 Compliant. | |
Packard Bell seeks momentum with CyrixBy Michael Kanellos May 20, 1998 |
Packard Bell NEC is returning to what it
knows best: low-ball pricing. Thursday, the company is expected to announce that it is adopting processors from Cyrix for its consumer computers. Less expensive than Intel chips, Cyrix processors will allow Packard Bell to bring out PCs as low as $599 as well as undercut Intel-based wares from other major manufacturers at higher price points, sources said. |
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Cyrix, fresh from Packard Bell deal, to hook up with WyseBy Lisa DiCarlo May 21, 1998 |
Cyrix Corp.'s bid for a volume OEM isn't
going to stop with today's broad partnership with Packard
Bell NEC. Next week, Cyrix, a National Semiconductor Corp. subsidiary, will announce that Wyse Technology Inc. is using its MediaGX processors in Windows-based terminals, sources said. That will mark the first thin-client company to use Cyrix processors. |
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Packard Bell NEC Will Use Cyrix ChipsMay 21, 1998 |
Packard Bell NEC will announce Thursday
that it has agreed to incorporate microprocessors made by
National Semiconductor's Cyrix division in a new PC
lineup that ships this month, market sources said. Packard Bell NEC (company profile) officials have declined to comment on the prospect, first reported in Computer Retail Week on May 11. |
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May 21, 1998 | ||
Programmer Says He Cracked Katmai 3-D InstructionsBy Alexander Wolfe May 15, 1998 |
Intel's closely held instruction set for
its upcoming Katmai processor has been cracked, an
independent software expert said Friday. Katmai, an advanced 32-bit processor scheduled to hit the market next year, incorporates 70 new floating-point instructions that are intended to accelerate 3-D processing. Observers originally called the code "MMX2," because it was seen as a next-generation enhancement to Intel's original 57 Pentium multimedia instruction-set extensions. However, earlier this year, Intel said the 70 instructions would be officially named the "Katmai new instructions," or Katmai NI. |
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Intel Will Cancel Mobile Version Of KatmaiBy Mark Hachman and Sandy Chen May 18, 1998 |
Intel has canceled plans to produce a
mobile version of the forthcoming Katmai microprocessor,
according to an Intel customer in the notebook PC sector.
The change in Intel's product road map was made at the request of PC original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who want to reduce the time and money spent redesigning notebook PCs to accommodate Intel's latest microprocessor products. |
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Intel unlocks Pentium IIBy Michael Kanellos May 19, 1998 |
Intel acknowledged that it has licensed
an underlying and hitherto proprietary piece of
microarchitecture to an unnamed third party, loosening
its stranglehold on the high-end computing market. The licensing of the Pentium II's "P6 bus" technology, earlier reported by CNET, will subject Intel to competition in the chipset market for Pentium II computers for the first time. It may also, at least in one area, mollify Federal Trade Commission concerns that chip giant company unfairly wields its monopoly over its intellectual property. |
Related Stories |
IBM
Micro to go Slot One in 1999
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IBM Microelectronics will produce a Slot
One microprocessor in 1999, prompting speculation as to
whether it is using an Intel licence, a licence from
National Semiconductor-Cyrix, or has entered an unholy
alliance with AMD. Earlier story and whole foil (70K) The company will introduce Slot One models in 1999 dubbed the PR333, the PR350 and the PR400. IBM Microelectronics gave no indication last Monday as to where the technology came from. |
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Intel's Otellini Warns Of Danger In Legislating IntegrationBy Lee Copeland May 19, 1998 |
Speaking out on the government's
antitrust suit against partner Microsoft Corp., Intel
Corp. Executive Vice President Paul Otellini warned that
it is dangerous if the government begins to legislate
product integration. "I think, on the one hand, as a nation of laws the government should ensure that any company that circumvents or walks beyond the law is checked," said Otellini, speaking here at PC Tech Forum 98. "But it is dangerous if the government gets into the business of legislating integration. |
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Intel rebuffed in bid for expedited appealBy Lisa DiCarlo May 15, 1998 |
Intel Corp. has lost another round in
its legal dispute with Intergraph Corp. A Washington-based U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge has denied Intel's request for an expedited appeal of an earlier judge's decision that forced the chip giant to resume a normal product and information supply relationship with Intergraph. |
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Court Keeps Intel Lawsuit In AlabamaBy Eric Hausman May 20, 1998 |
A federal court has denied Intel's
request for a change of venue from Alabama to California
in the lawsuit filed against Intel by Intergraph. In a lawsuit filed Nov. 17, 1997, in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama, Intergraph alleged that Intel is using its dominant market position in an attempt to coerce the workstation manufacturer into giving up certain key patent rights. |
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IDT lays out low-cost chip plansBy Brooke Crothers May 19, 1998 |
Integrated Device Technology (IDT) today
previewed a product road map for its low-cost WinChip
family. In a presentation at the PC Tech Forum, Glenn Henry, IDT's senior vice president and president of its Centaur Technology design subsidiary, described future generations of WinChip microprocessors targeted at sub-$1,000 desktop and sub-$1,500 notebook computer systems. |
See Today's Related Stories |
IBM Will Make 6x86 Chips For Sub-$1,000 PCsBy Kristen Kenedy May 20, 1998 |
IBM plans to offer an alternative
333-megahertz 6x86 processor for the sub-$1,000 PC
market. The company Tuesday announced it will manufacture
Cyrix M2 300-MHz and 333-MHz processors under the IBM
label in May and June, respectively. IBM (company profile) makes CPUs for Cyrix, and has an agreement to use its technology in a private-label product. At press time Cyrix, had not announced its 333-MHz offering. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Packard Bell to use Cyrix chipsBy Brooke Crothers May 20, 1998 |
Thursday, Packard Bell NEC is expected
to announce that it will begin to incorporate processors
from Cyrix in a number of its computers, a bold move for
the ailing vendor that will likely bring industrywide PC
prices down further. Packard Bell is expected to introduce a number of PC models across a range of price points using Cyrix processors, according to industry sources familiar with the rollout. Packard Bell will use the MediaGX processor for lower-end machines as well as the 6X86MX processor family for midrange computers. Cyrix processors will allow Packard Bell to bring out PCs as low as $599. |
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Intel's Otellini warns of 'anemic' growth in the industryBy Lisa DiCarlo May 19, 1998 |
Intel Corp. Executive Vice President
Paul Otellini said today that the industry is in danger
of facing "anemic" growth rates if software and
hardware vendors don't collaborate to create new computer
users. One way Intel (INTC) can help is by opening up its Pentium II bus architecture. During a keynote speech here at PC Tech Forum, Otellini said the company has licensed the bus design to a third-party chip set manufacturer. He declined to name the company. |
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Intel Plans To Boost Growth Through R&DBy Margie Semilof May 20, 1998 |
With the semiconductor market stuck in
neutral, Intel executives on Wednesday presented a plan
to help the chip maker shake off several years of flat
growth. At its annual shareholders meeting, Andy Grove, Intel co-founder and chairman, and Craig Barrett, CEO, said Intel will invest more in manufacturing and in research and development as a means of turning around that trend. |
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Intel Completes Purchase of Digital's Semi Manufacturing OpsBy Staff Writer May 18, 1998 |
The sale of Digital Equipment's
semiconductor manufacturing operations to Intel has been
completed. The transaction, which closed over the past weekend, includes the transfer of the assets of Digital's semiconductor manufacturing operations in Hudson, Mass., along with design and marketing facilities in Austin, Texas, and Jerusalem, Israel, to Intel for about $625 million, after taking into account closing adjustments. Approximately 1,800 Digital (company profile) employees became Intel (company profile) employees at the closing. |
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Jerry Chang Steps Down From OptiBy Mark Hachman May 18, 1998 |
As part of the company's apparent exit
from the market, OPTi Inc. announced yesterday the
immediate resignation of CEO Jerry Chang, Chang, one of the company's original co-founders, will be replaced by Bernard Marren as acting chief executive officer and president of OPTi, Milpitas, Calif. Marren, former chief of wafer tester Die Enhancements, has served on the company's board of directors since May 1996. |
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Today's Related Stories | ||
Intel's rivals blaze different pathsBy Lisa DiCarlo May 20, 1998 |
Intel Corp.'s competitors said this week
they are taking dramatically different paths to compete
against the chip giant's proprietary Slot 1 bus
interface. Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which will announce its K6-2 next week, will base all of its next-generation processors (starting with the K7 next year) on Digital Equipment Corp.'s 21264 Alpha bus. Centaur Technology Inc., meanwhile, will eliminate the system bus altogether in its next-generation processor, the C7. |
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IBM rolls out 300-MHz x86 chipsBy Staff Writer May 18, 1998 |
IBM Corp. today announced it has begun
shipping samples of its own line of x86-compatible
microprocessors that operate in the 300-MHz speed range
and priced for the sub-$1,200 PC market. IBM Microelectronics claims its two new chips are the first alternatives to Intel Corp.'s fast MPUs aimed at this personal computer segment. The two processors are the IBM 6x86MX PR333, a 333-MHz device, and the IBM 6xMX PR 300, a 300-MHz version. The faster version is priced at $299, while its sister chip is listed at $217, both in quantities of 1,000. The high-end device is scheduled for volume availability later this month, while the other one is expected to ramp next month. Both are manufactured using 0.25-micron technology. |
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IBM makes faster Cyrix chipsBy Michael Kanellos May 19, 1998 |
The chipmaking arm of IBM will release
two new versions of a Cyrix-designed processor later this
month, even though IBM's PC division dropped the
processor family from its U.S. product lineup. The upcoming 6X86MX processors, which are based around a design from Cyrix, will come to market with performance ratings of 300 and 333. A performance rating roughly corresponds to a megahertz speed rating of a Intel chip, according to the company, although the actual speed of the chip is lower. |
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Centaur to shoot low in pricing WinChip2 chips for cheap PCsBy Will Wade May 18, 1998 |
Glenn Henry, president of Centaur
Technology, has a simple strategy to promote his
company's IDT WinChip2 microprocessor--make the
x86-compatible MPU cheaper than any other product
available for low-end PC systems. "I guarantee it will be priced lower than anybody else's chip," said Henry here today as he introduced the company's newest device during the 1998 PCTech Forum. |