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This Week's x86 Headlines
All other stories and details below
The Register IBM Micro to get big wedge from NatSemi
Semiconductor Business News IDT's Oregon fab overproduces resulting in a big write-down
TechWeb Intel Returns To Pin-Based Chip Design
InfoWorld Electric PCI rift bus between Intel and system vendors a symptom of bigger battle
EE Times Merced tipoff in HP compiler
The Register Intel layoffs and efficiencies mean brighter Q3
C/Net STMicroelectronics gains on Intel

 

x86 Weekly News

Collected By Robert R. Collins

Week of September 7, 1998

Older News

September 11, 1998

Intel layoffs and efficiencies mean brighter Q3

September 11, 1998
The Register

Intel has predicted a bright third quarter, particularly in the US and Europe, because of what it described as stronger than anticipated demand. It has managed to cut its costs by laying off staff and improving its manufacturing process.

That will mean its revenue for the third quarter will exceed its expectations. When it released its second quarter results in July, it had warned of flat expectations.

See Today's Related Stories

NatSemi reports big loss for Q1 '99

September 11, 1998
The Register

As expected, National Semiconductor reported a big loss for its first quarter of its 1999 financial year.

Turnover dropped by eight per cent compared to Q4 of 1998 and it showed a net loss of $104.8 million on turnover of $469.6 million.

That compares unfavourably with a profit in the equivalent quarter last year of $62 million on turnover of $656.7 million.

See Today's Related Stories

IDT's Oregon Fab Overproduces, Resulting In A Big Write-Down

September 10, 1998
Semiconductor Business News

Integrated Device Technology Inc. here is planning to take nonrecurring charges of $205 million to $240 million in the company's current fiscal quarter because its Oregon wafer fab is producing too many products for the marketplace.

Ironically, the wafer fab in Hillsboro, Ore., has done such a good job of converting to 0.25-micron technology that the company is still significantly overproducing products despite a recent decision to close its chip-processing plant in San Jose. IDT said it was taking nonrecurring charges of $50 million to $60 million for the shutdown of the San Jose plant.

 

STMicroelectronics gains on Intel

By Reuters

September 11, 1998
C/Net

Shares in European chipmaker STMicroelectronics surged more than 5 percent today and led the gainers in Paris with analysts saying there were no clear indication for the rise.

Intel yesterday gave a bullish outlook on its third quarter which could have helped ST, but the two companies are not strictly in the same business. National Semiconductors had a smaller than expected quarterly loss yesterday. Another bit of good news was that Toshiba decided to cut its capital spending on chip activities.

 

AMD appoints new chief financial officer

September 10, 1998
Semiconductor Business News

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. here has tapped Fran Barton to be the company's new chief financial officer and senior vice president. Barton will replace Marvin Burkett, who left the company in March, and will report directly to William J. (Jerry) Sanders III, chairman and CEO.

Barton has an extensive background in the industry and in corporate finance. He spent 22 years with Digital Equipment Corp., including a stint as CFO of that company's PC business unit. He comes to AMD from Amdahl Corp., where he served as vice president and CFO. Barton has a master's degree in finance from Northeastern University, and a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

 
Today's Related Stories

Intel sees strong revenue

By Adam Lashinsky

September 11, 1998
San Jose Mercury News

The market's tanking, Asia's imploding and the president's apologizing, but mighty Intel Corp. (Nasdaq, INTC) is reviving. Or is it?

Intel ended days of high-level chatter late Thursday by ``pre-announcing''
what Wall Street lovingly calls an ``upside surprise.'' In other words, the semiconductor giant now believes it will exceed analysts' carefully crafted
revenue estimates for the third quarter by about half a billion dollars. Intel had projected that revenue would be about the same as or slightly better
than the second quarter's $5.9 billion. Thursday, after the stock dipped along with the rest of the Clinton-concerned market, Intel said it now looks like sales will be about $6.4 billion to $6.5 billion, an 8 percent to 10 percent sequential increase for those without calculators.

 

Intel expects revenues to beat expectations

By Will Wade

September 10, 1998
Semiconductor Business News

Reversing a trend seen throughout much of the year, Intel Corp. announced here today that it has seen demand for its chips pick up significantly, and that it expects its revenues to be higher than previously expected.

This is a change from the chip giant's position in July, when Intel reported second-quarter sales of $5.9 billion and predicted that revenues this quarter would be flat (see July 14 story).

 

Intel Sees Strong 3Q Sales

By Reuters

September 10, 1998
TechWeb

Chip maker Intel said Thursday that it expects third quarter revenue will be 8 percent to 10 percent above the second quarter's $5.9 billion due to strong demand in North America and Europe.

The world's largest chip maker said in July it had expected third quarter sales to be flat to slightly higher than second quarter levels.

 

Intel expects better third quarter

By Andy Santoni

September 10, 1998
InfoWorld Electric

Stronger than anticipated demand, especially in North America and Europe, will cause revenues to exceed Intel's expectations for the third quarter of 1998, Intel projected Thursday.

When Intel announced second-quarter earnings in July, the company's expectations were that revenues in the third quarter of 1998 would be flat to slightly up from second-quarter revenues of $5.9 billion.

 

National Semi Ekes Past Wall Street

By Gabrielle Jonas

September 10, 1998
TechInvestor


National Semiconductor reported Thursday a whopping
63 cents per share loss for its first quarter, but managed
to beat revised Wall Street estimates by 2 cents.

For the three months ended Aug. 30, National
Semiconductor's loss was $105 million, or 63 cents per
share, on sales of $470 million. In the same quarter last
year, the company earned net income of $63 million, or
38 cents per share, on revenue of $657 million.
 

National posts $100 million loss, but sees improved bookings

September 10, 1998
Semiconductor Business News

National Semiconductor Corp. announced here today a loss of $104.8 million for its first fiscal quarter of 1999, ending Aug. 30. However, the company also saw an upturn in bookings, which may signal that the company is on the rise again after a disastrous year.

"Sales continued soft during the summer quarter," said Brian Halla, National's chairman, president and CEO. "We think, however, we may have touched bottom as bookings in the first quarter improved for the first time in a year."

 
September 10, 1998

Merced tipoff in HP compiler

By Alexander Wolfe

August 31, 1998
EE Times

The latest news to leak out of the tightly wound Merced community makes it abundantly clear that software will be the linchpin of Intel Corp.'s upcoming 64-bit architecture. Sure, the silicon itself will be significant. But without smart compiler technology, which can turn complex applications programs into uninterrupted parallel streams of machine instructions, Merced won't outperform today's superscalar architectures.

Now, a first glimpse of that technology is available thanks to Hewlett-Packard, which has authorized the release of a research compiler called Trimaran and a related set of performance-monitoring tools.

 

Compaq, IBM, HP hop on bus spec

By Michael Kanellos

September 9, 1998
C/Net

IBM, Compaq, and Hewlett-Packard have announced a joint development initiative on a computer specification that, if implemented, would wrest some control over the internal structure of PCs and servers from Intel.

The PCI-X specification, as the initiative is called, reflects a growing frustration among server vendors with the slow pace of innovation around how data moves inside a computer, according to sources. Intel boosts the speed of microprocessors on roughly a quarterly basis. However, when it comes to boosting the speed at which data can be shuttled around from the microprocessor to other components in a computer, change has been glacial.

 

HP and NEC prep Unix for Intel's Merced processor

By Alexander Wolfe

September 9, 1998
EE Times

Hewlett-Packard Co. and NEC Corp. have entered a development pact that aims to optimize the HP-UX operating system to run on systems using Intel's upcoming 64-bit Merced processor. Merced will be the first implementation of Intel's new IA-64 architecture. HP-UX is HP's brand of Unix.

The HP-NEC pact extends a deal the two companies inked this past April, when NEC licensed HP-UX.

 

Intel Launches 300-MHz Pentium II For Laptops

By Andy Patrizio

September 9, 1998
TechWeb

Intel introduced Wednesday the 300-MHz version of its mobile Pentium II processor for high-performance computing and software-only DVD playback.

The mobile Pentium II 300 comes in two forms, a CPU mounted on the motherboard and a mobile module.

Laptop vendors that use the mobile module design can easily remove older 233-MHz and 266-MHz Pentium IIs, and even Tillamook Pentium 233-MHz and 266-MHz chips, without having to redesign the computer.

See Today's Related Stories
Today's Related Stories

Intel Unveils Fastest Mobile Processor

By Jennifer Hagendorf

September 9, 1998
Computer Reseller News

Intel Corp. Wednesday announced its 300MHz mobile Pentium II processor, its fastest mobile processor that also consumes the least amount of power, said Jeff McCrea, product marketing manager for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company's mobile/handheld product group.

The new processor consumes 1.6 volts, compared with its predecessor 233MHz and 266MHz mobile processors, which consume 1.7 volts, McCrea said.

 
September 9, 1998

IBM Micro to get big wedge from NatSemi

September 8, 1998
The Register

National Semiconductor is to pay a large amount of money to IBM Microelectonics to sever the contract to fab its 6x68 chips, according to reliable sources close to the company.

NatSemi-Cyrix will hand over a figure in the region of $40 million, according to the source. That will mean that IBM Micro will, effectively, stop producing x.86 clone processors. Although it has an existing contract with AMD, that is understood to be close to termination also.

 

IDT's Oregon fab overproduces resulting in a big write-down

September 9, 1998
Semiconductor Business News

Integrated Device Technology Inc. here is planning to take non-recurring charges of $205 million to $240 million in the company's current fiscal quarter because its Oregon wafer fab is producing too many products for the marketplace.

Ironically, the wafer fab in Hillsboro, Ore., has done such a good job converting over to 0.25-micron technology that IDT said it is still significantly over producing products despite a recent decision to close the company's chip-processing plant in San Jose (see July 22 story). IDT said it was taking non-recurring charges of $50 million to $60 million for the shutdown of the San Jose plant.

See Today's Relates Stories

Intel Returns To Pin-Based Chip Design

By Andy Patrizio

September 8, 1998
TechWeb

Intel plans to gradually move its family of Celeron chips to the old pin-based design, beginning next year.

In the first half of 1999, Intel will ship 300-MHz and 333-MHz Celerons that use a 390-pin chip form, called plastic pin grid array (PPGA). That form will make the chip about the same size as the Pentium Pro chip, but it will have a different pin configuration, according to Carl Larson, marketing manager in Intel's microprocessor group.

 

Intel feeling the heat
National Semi, IBM forging alternative chip paths for users

By Lisa DiCarlo

September 7, 1998
PC Week Online

Competitors both large and small, in desktops and servers, are putting increasing pressure on Intel Corp. with alternative processor plans.

In addition to Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel's longtime rival in mainstream desktop processors, National Semiconductor Corp. and IBM Microelectronics are renewing efforts to give corporate users new chips to consider.

National Semi, for example, is developing a range of integrated processors for entry-level PCs, thin clients, single-function devices and portables.

 

Newest mobile Pentium II consumes least power

By John G. Spooner

September 8, 1998
PC Week Online

Intel Corp. on Wednesday plans to introduce its fastest, lowest-power mobile processor to date.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company's new mobile Pentium II processor running at 300MHz is expected to usher in a parade of new notebooks.

The processor's low power consumption is made possible by advances in manufacturing. The chip consumes 1.6 volts, as opposed to the 1.7 volts consumed by the 266MHz mobile Pentium II, sources said.

 

Is 300MHz mobile Pentium II overkill?

By John G. Spooner

September 4, 1998
PC Week Online

Intel Corp. and its latest mobile Pentium II chip will usher in a new wave of high-performance notebook PCs. But are IT managers clamoring for such powerful portables?

The Santa Clara, Calif., semiconductor maker's 300MHz mobile Pentium II, to be announced next Wednesday, will include 512KB of Level 2 cache and be available on either a mobile module or a cartridge for thin-form-factor notebooks. The mobile module will include a built-in bridge to a notebook's accelerated graphics port, a separate 66MHz bus for processing graphics, sources said.

 

PCI rift bus between Intel and system vendors a symptom of bigger battle

By David Pendery and Andy Santoni

September 8, 1998
InfoWorld Electric

System makers are planning improvements to the PCI bus, with or without the support of Intel, PCI’s original champion.

IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Compaq Computer are developing an improvement on the PCI bus called PCIx. Other OEMs are pressing for Mini PCI, a proposed communications standard that could bring smaller size, greater design flexibility, and lower cost to mobile products. And, after lukewarm interest in doubling the bus width and speed of the PCI bus to 64 bits and 66 MHz, Intel is just beginning to support this change.

See Today's Related Stories
Today's Related Stories

IDT suffers from gross overcapacity

September 9, 1998
The Register

IDT is still producing too many chips. Today it announced details of its plans to restructure its business following poor financial results for its second quarter.

The company, which makes the x.86-compatible range of WinChips, as well as a number of other semiconductor products, said it was still suffering from overcapacity, despite the closure of its San Jose fab.

 

Intel and PC makers clash over the future of PCI

By Rick Boyd-Merritt

September 8, 1998
EE Times

Intel Corp. and a group of top PC makers are pushing the future of the PCI bus in different directions. A debate over PCI is now brewing in the arena of high-end PC servers, but promises to spill over into communications and embedded systems designs.

Intel is planning a PCI upgrade that will differ from PCI-X, an incremental upgrade that specifies an increase in PCI speeds from 66 to 133 MHz. Unlike PCI-X, which was drafted by Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and other computer makers, Intel's unannounced upgrade to PCI does not involved a move to 133-MHz speeds. Intel received a copy of the PCI-X specification, also called PCI-133, on Aug. 31, an Intel spokesman said.

 

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