x86 Headline NewsFor the week of June 22, 1998 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Intel
Secrets Home Page x86 Headline News Dr. Dobb's
Journal Intel
Inside -- Productivity
Enhancements Intel
Secrets, Bugs and Intel Data
Sheets and |
|
x86 Weekly News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of June 22, 1998 |
Older News |
June 26, 1998 | ||
Intel To Eliminate PC Assembly ProgramBy Gregory Quick June 25, 1998 |
Intel is slowly phasing out its
finished-assembly program, through which it builds
systems for original equipment manufacturers, because of
a decline in demand as manufacturers develop their own
programs. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel (company profile) will begin eliminating that segment of its facility in August and complete the move by January. The company's workstation business, as well as some R&D, will still be housed at the Dupont plant. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Intel confirms Xeon chip has a bug, delays product launchBy Will Wade June 25, 1998 |
Intel Corp. here confirmed this
afternoon that its Pentium Xeon processor has a glitch,
which appears when the chips are connected in a four-way
parallel configuration in servers. The company will
continue with the Xeon's official launch on Monday, but
announced today that the Xeon version designed to work
with the 450NX chip set for multiple microprocessors will
not be released for another three weeks. A spokesman said that the company has identified both the problem and a patch to solve the problem, but will require the extra time to validate the solution. |
Related Stories |
Intel
close to finding workaround for Xeon problem
|
Chip giant Intel said it was close to
discovering a workaround for the erratum it discovered in
its range of Xeon processors. The company is keen to stress that the problem is not a bug, and points out that various errata are often discovered when new processors begin to emerge from fab plants. Intel said that while the problem will delay the shipment of processors for a few weeks, it is already working with its OEMs to fix the problem. The launch date of the multiprocessing technology is this coming Monday. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Intel tests fix for Xeon flawBy Andy Santoni June 25, 1998 |
Intel on Thursday admitted there is a
problem with the Pentium II Xeon server chips to be
introduced on Monday, and claims a work-around has
already been developed and is being tested. "We have identified that there is an erratum," an Intel spokesman said. The company has also identified a fix for the problem, and said they are in the process of validating the workaround with OEMs. To sidestep the problem will require an update to the microcode in the CPU, the Intel spokesman explained. "That's one of the ways you can fix errata," he noted. |
|
Today's Related Stories | ||
Intel confirms server chip bugBy Michael Kanellos June 25, 1998 |
Intel confirmed that a bug exists in the
Xeon Pentium II processor when the chip is used in
"four-way" server configurations, a problem
that rules out the release of some Xeon servers in
conjunction with the chip's scheduled debut on Monday. Regardless of the bug, sources inside the computer industry say that only a handful of Xeon workstations or servers may be available for a month or more. |
|
Intel confirms bug in XeonBy Alexander Wolfe June 25, 1998 |
Intel Corp. today verified reports of a
bug in the Xeon microprocessor and its companion 450NX
core-logic chip set. Xeon is Intel's new Pentium II-class
microprocessor. "We have confirmed that there is
an erratum, which takes place between Xeon and the 450NX
chip set," an Intel spokeswoman said. The bug
affects Xeon-based servers that use the new NX chip set.
But it does not affect Xeon-based workstations, which use
Intel's existing 450GX chip set. |
|
Intel confirms Xeon server bugBy Lisa DiCarlo June 25, 1998 |
Intel Corp. today publicly acknowledged
a bug in its 450NX server chip set, which will delay the
release of four-processor Xeon servers until late this
summer. As first reported by PC Week Online, Intel began notifying OEMs of the problem late last week after it suspected a disabling bug in the 450NX chip set, which enables four-way and above multiprocessing. |
|
Intel Spokesman Confirms Bug In MPU For ServersBy Mark Hachman June 25, 1998 |
An Intel Corp. spokesman on Thursday
acknowledged that a flaw exists in its forthcoming 450NX
chipset, delaying new 4-way servers until a temporary fix
is tested. There will be a delay of a few weeks while the fix goes through the normal routines of validation, the spokesman said. Industry sources and analysts also reported that Intel had lowered the prices of its Slot 2 Pentium II processors branded under the Xeon name. |
|
Intel to cease building PCs
|
The threat of Intel competing directly
with PC vendors to build systems has subsided, after the
company said it would now outsource the work. Intel has quietly built vanilla PCs and servers for many years, and sold them through a range of its channel partners. Although this has antagonised not only other resellers as well as PC vendors, the chip giant has always maintained that these activities were only a minor part of its business. |
|
June 25, 1998 | ||
Xeon Launch A Go Despite Errata ReportsBy Edward F. Moltzen June 24, 1998 |
Intel Corp. is still ready to unveil its
Xeon line of Pentium II processors Monday, despite
reports of an errata that has been found in the chip,
sources said. Meanwhile, major OEMs including IBM Corp. are saying publicly in some forums that they still plan to ship products with Xeon--which boasts dual-processing capabilities--within about eight weeks of its scheduled June 29 launch. |
|
Multiprocessing bugs aren't new to Pentium IIBy Alexander Wolfe June 24, 1998 |
Amidst reports of a bug involving its
upcoming Xeon microprocessor, an examination of Intel
Corp.'s technical data shows that the company's Pentium
II microprocessor is no stranger to glitches when used in
multiprocessing systems. That conclusion comes as Intel declined to comment on reports of a bug involving Xeon its new Pentium II-class CPU and its companion 450NX multiprocessing core-logic chip set. The reports claimed that a glitch caused four-way multiprocessing systems built with the chips to lock up under certain unspecified operating conditions. |
|
Xeon
erratum scuttles out of woodwork
|
"It's not a bug - it's an
erratum," said the Intel rep, keen to get us back on
message, following our Xeon delay story yesterday. Sounds
like semantic finessing to us. But we'll let that pass. Intel doesn't want to say what the erratumnotbug is, but it does say it will fix it quickly. IDC is more helpful. It says the erratumnotbug causes systems to reboot at random. |
|
June 24, 1998 | ||
Intel Distributor accused of supplying counterfeit Pentium IIsBy Christian Persson and Georg Schnurer December 1998 |
Although our test software ctP2Info has
only been able to identify a certain type of counterfeit
Pentium IIs, the cases revealed indicate how thoroughly
the worldwide PC market has been infiltrated with the
forgeries. Small as well as big companies, discount stores as well as upmarket addresses are on the long list of suppliers. A major respectable German manufacturer from Swabia even put Intel distributor Actebis on the list of suppliers of counterfeit processors. In February, the Swabian firm had found counterfeit CPUs in a spot market delivery. 'After this desaster, we changed suppliers and obtained our processors only from official Intel distributors only' a company spokesman assured c't. While some of the cases reported by customers can still be attributed to the spot market purchases, two of the processors have definitely been supplied by Actebis. |
|
Rambus
announcement to cost DRAM manufacturers
|
Intel has pressed ahead with its plans
for Rambus DRAMs but the move means memory manufacturers
will be forced to pay royalties to the firm. Rambus said that it has started to test working DRAM products and that LG Semicon as well as Toshiba are also testing the technology. Speeds of Rambus DRAMs can be as high as 1.6Gb a second, with clock speeds of around 800MHz. |
|
SRAMs stay above the pricing frayBy Margaret Ryan June 23,. 1998 |
Though DRAM prices drifted downward,
SRAMs and some other semiconductor products showed signs
of recovery in the early part of this year. SRAMs were one of only four IC types that displayed a market increase in the first four months of 1998, compared with the same period in 1997, according to IC Insights Inc. (Scottsdale, Ariz.), a market research company. Analog ICs, MOS special-purpose logic and microcontrollers also showed growth. Digital signal processors are included in the microcontroller category. |
|
Three
Against One
|
Once a year MicroDesign Resources,
organizer of the Microprocessor Forum and publisher of
Microprocessor Report, hosts the PCTech Forum. Visitors
of the four day event, that took place in the Fairmont
Hotel in San Jose this year, learn about the different
aspects and trends in the PC industry. Currently five companies are sharing the desktop arena: Intel, AMD, Cyrix, IBM and IDT/Centaur. With about 85 percent Intel holds the largest market share. Last year the enterprise sold between 80 and 85 million x86 processors, interestingly enough only about 15 percent of these were Pentium II chips. This year Intel wants to get into the lost-cost market with their new processor family named Celeron and is presently offering the first member named Covington, a Pentium II without L2 cache. Principally Covington is nothing but a temporary solution and serves no other purpose than to get a Slot-1 chip into low-cost PCs while staying ahead of the Socket-7 competition. |
|
3D Toy
|
The special feature of the now
officially introduced AMD K6-2 is actually not the clock
frequency up to 333 MHz, but rather the extended MMX unit
called 3DNow!, that is supposed to more than just balance
out the recent weakness in floating point operations. With unerring accuracy, K6-II was the name we gave to the prototype, that we already used as a touchstone for the 100-MHz boards three months ago [1]. Now we received the final version with the official name AMD K6-2. The test system AMD sent to us was well equipped: a Microstar- MS5169 board with ALI-Aladdin-5C chip set, IBM hard drive, DGVS09U ultrawide SCSI, AGP graphics card Diamond Viper V330 AGP and 64 MByte SDRAM, and - though still labeled as 300 MHz - a K6-2 processor approved for 333 MHz. AMD modified the board slightly, so it works with 95 MHz (95 x 3,5 = 333). In this case the PCI clock decreases a negligible amount to 31,6 MHz. System and processor ran very stable, we did not experience any unmotivated crashes. |
|
Otellini:
Focused on integration
|
As the top executive in charge of Intel Corp.'s processor businesses, Paul Otellini has a lot of irons in the fire. The Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker is expanding into the high-end server and low-end PC markets, even as it fights off anti-trust charges from the Federal Trade Commission. Otellini, a 24-year Intel veteran who holds the titles of executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Business Group, sat down with Senior Executive News Editor Rob O'Regan and Senior Editor Lisa DiCarlo at PC Expo last week to talk about his company's strategic game plan. | |
Bug found in design of Intel's XeonBy Tom Quinlan June 24, 1998 |
Intel Corp. intends to introduce on
Monday a new class of microprocessor known as Xeon
intended for use in high-end workstations and high-priced
servers that is expected to drive virtually all of the
company's economic growth for the next five years. The Xeon microprocessors will move Intel-based systems into direct competition with mid-range RISC-based servers and workstations from companies such as Sun Microsystems Inc. and IBM. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Today's Related Stories | ||
Potential bug clouds Xeon releaseBy Michael Kanellos June 23, 1998 |
Corporate computer manufacturers will
join Intel Monday to announce new lines based on the Xeon
processor, though a potential bug may put off
four-processor Xeon servers. Built around a Pentium II core, Intel's newest chip for workstations and servers contains more performance-enhancing secondary cache memory than standard Pentium II chips. The first Xeon chips will run at 400 MHz and come with 512K or 1MB of cache memory, while a 450-MHz version with up to 2MB of cache memory will follow in September. |
|
Bug
delays Xeon launch
|
Intel OEMs will have to make do with
twin processors a little while longer, following the
discovery of a major bug in the Xeon server
multiprocessing chipset. Intel will now put back the
launch date of the server chipset by up to two months.
The company had intended to launch the 450NX chipset next
week. Dell had indicated its intention to come to market early with the technology, basing a data centre proposition around the Pentium II Xeon server. |
|
Intel finds flaw in Xeon designBy Andy Santoni June 23, 1998 |
Despite its best efforts, Intel has been
unable to clear a problem with the design of its four-way
Pentium II Xeon server chips, scheduled to debut next
Monday. The problem, or erratum, may be in the CPU package itself, according to industry sources. It might also be in the 450NX core-logic chip set, which is at the heart of four-processor systems. |
|
June 23, 1998 | ||
Chip set bug to delay Xeon server rollout till late summerBy Lisa DiCarlo June 22, 1998 |
Intel Corp. has discovered an errata in
the 450NX chip set that will delay the chip set's release
by six to eight weeks. As a result, the release of many Pentium II Xeon servers will be delayed until late this summer. The 450NX chip set was originally expected to be released next week, along with the Pentium II Xeon processor line. Intel began notifying OEMs of the errata, or bug, late last week, sources said. |
|
Intergraph
CEO claims Intel "grossly misreprented" facts
|
A war of words between Intergraph and
Intel has escalated after the chip giant filed a counter
suit in Alabama last week. Jim Meadlock, CEO of Intergraph, which is cited by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) along with Compaq and Digital in antitrust allegations against Intel, was also responding to a request for a summary injunction it made in the same court. He hit out at Intel for attempting to delay the legal process. Meadlock's company is separately suing Intel for anti-competitive behaviour, patent infringement and alleged antitrust violations. |
|
Intel fights back against IntegraphJune 22, 1998 |
In a counterclaim filed against
Intergraph Corp., Intel Corp. here refuted a federal
court's claim that it was a monopoly, and added that it
has still refused to divulge confidential technical
information to Intergraph. Last week, Intel Corp. filed a counterclaim alleging that Huntsville, Ala.-based Intergraph had infringed upon Intel's own patents, and asked the court for a summary judgment of the proceedings. Among other damages, Intel seeks financial penalties. However, the action is not a formal countersuit, as such an action would require a separate, lengthy legal battle that Intel wishes to avoid, an Intel spokesman said. |
|
Intel wants FTC to specify market threatened in antitrust caseBy Elinor Mills June 22, 1998 |
Intel wants the U.S. Federal Trade
Commission to clarify which market it claims the chip
giant is monopolizing and acting anti-competitively in so
it can prepare its defense, an Intel spokesman said
Monday. Intel asked an administrative law judge on Friday to require the FTC to "provide a more definite statement identifying the market we're alleged to possess dangerously high market share [in] and where we're threatening its competition," Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said. |
|
Intel Leads Testing Of Rambus DRAM DevicesJune 22, 1998 |
Intel has begun system testing of
functional direct Rambus dynamic RAM devices (RDRAM),
Rambus said Monday. Toshiba and LG Semiconductor also are
testing DRAM devices running at 1.6 gigabytes per second,
Rambus added. "It is exciting to see the first direct RDRAM silicon," said Peter MacWilliams, Intel fellow and director of platform architecture for Intel Architecture Labs, in Santa Clara, Calif. "We expect to see several more vendors delivering direct RDRAM silicon in the next quarter, and we believe the industry is still on track to ship direct RDRAM memory technology in PC platforms in 1999." |
|
Intel Leads Technology Shares HigherBy Sergio G. Non June 22, 1998 |
The technology sector started the week
with a bang, despite stagnation among broader issues. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 24.53 to 1805.82 on Monday, with decliners just ahead of advancers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 1.74 to 8711.13. |
|
June 22, 1998 | ||
Intel dumping i740 chipsJune 22, 1998 |
Questions arose about a possible dumping
of i740 graphics chips by Intel Corp. in order to gain
market share. Intel claimed to sell the chips for US$28
in volume; however, they have been showing up for as low
as $7 on the spot market. Intels CEO denied the
charges. Graphics chip makers will surely be keeping a watchful eye on Intel as they try to take over another aspect of the PC market. |
|
Intel wants FTC to clarify chargesBy Reuters June 22, 1998 |
Intel said it filed a motion late on
Friday asking an administrative law judge in Washington
to demand from the Federal Trade Commission a clearer
definition of what market it is allegedly
"monopolizing." On June 8, the FTC charged the chipmaker with antitrust violations and allegations that it withheld key technical data from three companies: Intergraph, Compaq Computer, and Digital Equipment, now a part of Compaq. |
|
Intergraph, Intel given deadlineBy Reuters June 20, 1998 |
Intergraph said the judge in its
antitrust suit against Intel set a deadline of
Valentine's Day in the year 2000 for the companies to
settle or go to trial. In a statement, computer graphics developer Intergraph said U.S. District Judge Edwin Nelson set the trial date for February 14, 2000. The hearing followed a motion by Intel Wednesday for the Alabama judge to grant a summary judgment on Intergraph's allegations of anticompetitive behavior and patent infringement. |
|
Intel To Judge: Toss Intergraph's SuitBy Edward F. Moltzen June 19, 1998 |
Countering charges by Intergraph, chip
maker Intel said in a recent court filing that a federal
lawsuit against it should be tossed out. In a motion filed this week, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel (company profile) asked the judge to throw out Intergraph's suit, which was filed last year in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala. The suit charged Intel with abusing its monopoly power to strong-arm Intergraph (company profile). Intel's latest motion says Intergraph's suit stemmed from a patent dispute with it. |
|
Coming
to Grips with Antitrust
|
Since I last wrote about the issue of
Intel's and Microsoft's power a mere six weeks ago (see
MPR 5/11/98, p. 15), a lot has happened: Microsoft
negotiated until the 11th hour but ultimately decided to
fight the U.S.Department of Justice (DOJ) in court, and
the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed suit
against Intel (see MPR 7/22/98, p. 8). Intel and Microsoft are both aggressive companies, to say the least--and their shareholders have reaped the rewards. Both are also smart companies with legions of lawyers working for them, and it seems very unlikely that either company would knowingly pursue an illegal strategy. But the line between what is illegal and what is merely aggressive is not precisely defined, and it is now apparent that the government's view of where the line belongs is quite different than Intel's and Microsoft's views. |
|
Cyrix releases 333PR MIIJune 22, 1998 |
A couple weeks after IBM released their version of the 333PR 6x86MX chip, Cyrix has released their own MII (previously called 6x86MX) running at 333PR. The chip is manufactured on a .30 micron process, and will sell for US$180 in quantities of 1000. The 300PR MII will now sell for $135 in quantities of 1000. | |
Widespread
support gathers for Zeon launch
|
This week Intel will launch its Zeon
server and workstation processor, with a whole raft of
heavyweight tier one vendors supporting the platform. But
many of the machines are not expected to be available
until autumn, with faster flavours promised in the
future. Intel will announce the platform, supported by the 440GX chip set on June 29, and companies including IBM, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, HP and others will also announce they will introduce machines using the fast chip and chipset. |
|
Xeon servers wait in the wingsBy Carmen Nobel June 19, 1998 |
When Intel Corp. rolls out its
next-generation Pentium II Xeon processor later this
month, server vendors will be on hand to release systems
based on the chip. But the most intriguing features of
these systems will not center on the CPU. While the Xeon enables support for more than four CPUs and increases the amount of supported cache to 2MB, most server vendors are looking beyond the chip to features such as Fibre Channel connections on the hard drives and enhanced management to differentiate their machines. |
|
Intel To Offer Socket Connector OptionBy Mark Hachman June 19, 1998 |
Taking the low-cost concept to a new
level, Intel Corp. will offer OEMs the option of a socket
connector for its forthcoming Mendecino
Celeron microprocessor. The idea, according to an Intel spokesman, was not specifically to reduce the cost of the microprocessor, but of the surrounding components. Later this year, he said, Intel will offer both a 300-MHz and a 333-MHz version of its Celeron processor with 128 Kbytes of integrated level 2 cache. |
|
Intel releases yet another socketJune 22, 1998 |
After a legacy of P6 sockets, including
Socket 8, Slot 1 and Slot 2, Intel has decided to release
yet another form factor for its chips. This form factor
will be a 370-pin socket design, as opposed to
Intels recent Slot designs. It will not be
compatible with Socket 7 or Socket 8. Intels forthcoming 300 and 333 MHz Celeron chips with 128 KB of L2 cache will be available in Slot 1 as well as socket 370. Slot 1 will continue to be Intels mainstream Pentium II physical processor interface. |
|
Intel steps up price cut paceBy Lisa DiCarlo June 22, 1998 |
Intel Corp. is about to initiate a
breakneck round of price cutting for its processors,
pushing down the cost of PC systems across the board. The company's latest pricing actions reflects the company's strategy to serve several markets with different chip architectures. As a result, Intel is moving from its traditional quarterly, across-the-board price cuts to monthly price cuts on individual product categories, such as mobile, desktop or server processors, sources said. |