x86 Headline NewsFor the week of June 15, 1998 |
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x86 Weekly News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of June 15, 1998 |
Older News |
June 19, 1998 | ||
Intel countersues IntergraphBy Dan Goodin June 18, 1998 |
In a two-punch counterattack on
Intergraph, Intel has accused the workstation maker of
infringing seven of the chip giant's patents and argued
that an existing cross-licensing deal gives it
"absolute immunity" against Intergraph's
initial patent claims. As part of a portfolio that numbers more than 2,500, Intel's patents cover a broad range of technologies for high-end computing, including graphics, disk access, and memory. In addition to the patent infringement claims, the countersuit by Intel alleges misappropriation of trade secrets, intentional interference with business relations, and breach of contract. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Grove
squeezed between Pfeiffer and Gerstner
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Intel has found itself between a rock
and a hard place after reports that IBM is about to
license Alpha technology from Compaq. That will put the future of Merced in further jeopardy, following Compaq's decision, reported here last week, to push its volume servers using the Alpha platform. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had earlier this year forced Intel to allow third parties to license Alpha technology after Intel came to an arrangement with Digital at the end of last year. Under that deal, Intel was forced to license that technology to AMD and others. |
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Otellini Shows Off Intel's XeonBy Edward F. Moltzen June 18, 1998 |
Intel's executive vice president Paul
Otellini showed off the chip giant's new Xeon dual server
processor in a PC Expo keynote session in New York. "Intel is investing tremendously ahead of the curve to support [improvements in] servers," said Otellini, executive vice president architecture business group for Intel. "With Xeon, we're going to set new records in price performance." Xeon is slated to ship on June 29. |
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Intel's Otellini: Expect faster versions of CeleronBy Margaret Kane June 18, 1998 |
Executive Vice President Paul Otellini
took attendees at PC Expo through a tour of the company's
processor line, in a keynote speech that focused more on
how technology is being used than on where it is going. But while Otellini mostly focused on existing offerings from Intel he did shed some light on new technology coming in the next few months. In an interview after the keynote with PCWeek Radio, Otellini said that consumers can expect to see faster versions of Intel's low-end Celeron processor by the Christmas selling season. The newer version will feature a level 2 cache, he said. |
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New Intel design to cut costsBy Michael Kanellos June 18, 1998 |
To further cut manufacturing costs on
its low-end chips while beginning its move into
information appliances, Intel will release a version of
the Celeron processor next year that abandons the
"Slot 1" architecture that has become
synonymous with the Pentium II. The new chip package, currently called "370 Pin Socket," will eschew the long, steel, grooved connector of Slot 1 Pentium II chips. Instead, the new processors will be mounted into circuit boards through a series of metal pins. They will look more like traditional microprocessors, said Manny Vara, an Intel spokesman. |
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Today's Related Stories | ||
Intel strikes back at Intergraph
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Pre-empting a Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) investigation into alleged monopolistic practices,
Intel has filed a counter-suit against Intergraph, the
company that sparked US government against it. Intel filed its response to Intergraph's suit in an Alabama court and at the same time claimed the company had infringed seven of its patents. Intel also claimed that it had a long-standing cross-licensing deal with Intergraph which meant the case against Intel was null and void and asked for a summary judgement in its favour, according to reports. |
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Intel seeks summary judgment in suit, strikes back at IntergraphBy Margaret Kane June 18, 1998 |
Intel Corp. has asked a judge to
dispense with a trial and issue a ruling in its dispute
with Intergraph Corp. But its response to that original
suit may get it into hot water with the Federal Trade
Commission. Intel on Wednesday filed a motion for summary judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, asking the court to decide on patent infringement claims filed by Intergraph last year. Intel maintains the patents are covered in a prior licensing agreement it signed with National Semiconductor Corp., which sold the patents to Intergraph in 1987 along with assets of its Advanced Processor Division. |
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Intel seeks dismissal, damages in Intergraph patent lawsuitBy Elinor Mills June 18, 1998 |
Intel said Thursday it is asking a judge
to dismiss patent infringement and other claims in a
lawsuit filed against it by Intergraph and is alleging
that Intergraph has infringed on seven of its patents
instead. In the motion for summary judgment and counterclaims filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Alabama, Intel also asked the court to rule that it does not have to disclose its trade secrets to Intergraph and to order Intergraph to return alleged Intel trade secrets. Intel's counterclaim seeks punitive damages and unspecified damages for breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, and patent infringement among other claims. |
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June 18, 1998 | ||
Intel dumps Slot 1 for MendocinoBy Richard Barry June 17, 1998 |
Sources close to Intel have confirmed
that the forthcoming Mendocino processor will not use the
Slot 1 architecture. Instead, Mendocino, which Intel
hopes will receive a more positive reaction than its
predecessor the Celeron, will sit on a pin grid array
(PGA) similar to socket 7. Intel has confirmed the report saying "the socket is a PGA called socket 370 and enables OEMS (Intel customers) to achieve cost savings. Slot 1 is more expensive because of its packaging". |
See Today's Related Stories |
Intel tests next-generation Direct Rambus DRAM from LG, ToshibaBy David Lammers June 18, 1998 |
Intel Corp. said it has tested the
initial 64- and 72-Mbit Direct Rambus DRAMs from Toshiba
Corp. (Tokyo) and found that they meet Intel's speed
targets. Intel confirmed on Tuesday that the parts had passed pipelined read/write testing at the 800-MHz speed, including initialization procedures and power management. Testing of initial silicon from LG Semicon (Seoul, South Korea) is currently in progress at Intel. Intel has not only stuck by the Rambus approach, but has even dropped the idea of using double-data-rate (DDR) DRAMs in graphics subsystems, said a DRAM technology manager for Fujitsu Ltd. The manager said that Fujitsu is also ready with engineering samples of its Direct RDRAMs. |
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Today's Related Stories | ||
Intel plans yet another socket design
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Intel has confirmed it will introduce a
new socket design next year aimed at the low end market
but claims it will not abandon its proprietary Slot One
technology. A representative said: "The idea is that it's cheaper to make and you won't need retaining clips on the processor, as with Slot One." OEMs, he said, were told of Intel's plans a few days ago. But he said that the new pin grid array (PGA) design, which Intel snappily dubs the 370-pin Socket, will be incompatible with either Socket Seven, used by competitors AMD and NatSemi-Cyrix, or the P6-based Socket Eight, which the Pentium Pro used. |
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Intel changes chip plansBy Matt Loney June 18, 1998 |
Intel Corp. confirmed Wednesday that the
next-generation Celeron processor will be available in
both a socket and a slot architecture, signaling that
some PCs with the processor will cost less than expected. The next Celeron, code-named Mendocino, will include 128Kb of on-chip level 2 cache and will launch later this year in the same Single Edge Processor Package as the current Celerons. |
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Intel plugs new socket for CeleronBy Andy Santoni June 17, 1998 |
Aiming to reduce the cost of Basic PCs,
Intel next year will offer Celeron processors in a
pin-grid array (PGA) package that plugs in to a new
socket that is an alternative to Slot 1. So far called simply "370-pin Socket," the interface is not compatible with either Socket 7, the Pentium interface, or Socket 8, the Pentium Pro interface. It is meant to complement, not displace, the Slot 1 design, according to an Intel representative. "We are not moving away from Slot 1," the representative said. |
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June 16, 1998 | ||
Cyrix Intros M II-333 Chip, Drop Price On 300-VersionJune 15, 1998 |
National Semiconductor's Cyrix Corp.
today announced the M II-333 X86 microprocessor for
desktop PCs, dropping the price on its older M II-300
chip. The new M II-333 does not run at 333 MHz; rather, the 333 rating is used to give buyers a sense of the chip's performance compared against an Intel processor. After the company developed versions of its 686MX line at the equivalent of 300 and 333 MHz, Cyrix renamed those chips as the "M II" product family. |
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June 15, 1998 | ||
FTC extends Intel antitrust probe to PC chip setsBy George Leopold and Brian Fuller June 12, 1998 |
As it prepares to present its antitrust
case against Intel Corp. to an administrative law judge,
the Federal Trade Commission continues to pursue a
broader investigation of Intel's chip-design and
licensing procedures that could have far greater
implications for the PC industry. Sources confirm that FTC lawyers are probing whether interface changes Intel made in its Pentium chip design represented an improvement in performance or instead created incompatibilities that locked in OEMs. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Intel Charges May Have Limited ImpactBy Mark Hachman and Chandra Steele June 12, 1998 |
Government allegations that Intel
misused its monopoly control over the microprocessor
marketplace are likely to have little effect unless
prosecutors widen the scope of their investigation,
according to industry observers. The case, which was filed last week by the Federal Trade Commission, charges Intel (company profile) withheld crucial documents from customers who refused to relinquish key patent rights. Those patents would have enabled Intel to tighten its monopoly grip on the processor industry, according to the FTC. |
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Copper
bottomed RAMs to speed IBM chips
|
News that IBM is considering building
its copper interconnect technology into Intel-based Xeon
servers last week was followed by announcements of other
ways it will use the super-fast process. And CPU
manufacturers Cyrix, AMD and Centaur-IDT are also set to
benefit from the technology. Last week, a senior executive from IBM Emea, said that the technology, which uses copper rather than aluminium, would eventually result in x.86 based systems which would give a 40 per cent performance boost. Intel then expressed surprise at the announcement, saying that while it will use copper interconnect, it would come with its .13 micron technology, which is some years off. Earlier this year, IBMs CEO Lou Gerstner, promised such technology would arrive by this summer. |
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Overclocking:
Intel accused of indifference and manipulation
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A Taiwanese engineer is seeking help in
mounting a lawsuit against Intel in the US. I-Ming Lin,
who filed against Intel in Taiwan last December, claims
Intel has been involved in defrauding consumers via a
combination of indifference to and complicity in
overclocking. He is seeking help in Chinese-English
translation and expert witnesses who could help him put
together a case for the US courts. I-Ming Lin has produced a document outlining his case, a translation of which is available on the Inside Intell site, http://www.pro-desk.com/inside/special/remarking/lawsuit_p1.htm. The basis of his action is that "regardless of the manufacturer, Intel, AMD or Cyrix, the processor dies from wafers within the same family are identical in cost and design in the process of manufacturing, testing, and packaging." Therefore, he says, all of the processors produced from these dies are capable of the same clock speed, which in Intel's case is defined by a rating standard as "the targeted core speed which can be considered "good" after manufacturing and rating procedures." |
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Toshiba ships 800-MHz RDRAMsBy Will Wade June 12, 1998 |
Toshiba America Electronic Components
Inc. here today announced it has shipped functioning
direct Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) silicon that is running at 800
MHz. The company says this would make its chips the first such devices to operate at that speed. Toshiba says its samples are now undergoing system testing and chip set validation. |
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Today's Related Stories | ||
FTC set to widen Intel investigation
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Investigators from the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) are set to extend their inquiries into
Intel's business by focusing on other areas than patents.
According to several unconnected reports, the FTC will broaden its case against the chip giant by investigating whether its introduction of proprietary Slot One technology put competitors, including Cyrix, AMD and Centaur-IDT at a disadvantage. |
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FTC could broaden Intel caseBy Lisa DiCarlo June 12, 1998 |
Although the Federal Trade Commission
lodged a complaint against Intel Corp. earlier this week,
the agency is far from finished with its investigation. The FTC slapped Intel with a lawsuit charging that the semiconductor manufacturer unlawfully used its monopoly power to separately force Compaq Computer Corp., Digital Equipment Corp. and Intergraph Corp. into giving up specific patents-royalty-free-to Intel. |