x86 Weekly News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of September 14, 1998 |
Older News |
September 18, 1998 | ||
Hatch advises FTC to be careful on Intel caseBy Reuters September 17, 1998 |
Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch
said Thursday that the Federal Trade Commission needs to
be ''careful'' as it pursues Intel Corp for alleged
violations of antitrust law. Hatch, a Utah Republican, dwelled mostly on potential violations of antitrust law by Microsoft Corp. in a speech to a conference sponsored by Summit Magazine. |
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Intergraph asks for summary judgment in Intel disputeBy PC Week Online Staff September 17, 1998 |
Intergraph Corp. has asked a federal
court for a summary judgment in its antitrust case with
Intel Corp., saying a trial is not needed. In the same
filing, the company also asked the court to dismiss
Intel's motion for a summary judgment accepting its
patent license defense against Intergraph's patent
infringement claim. According to the Huntsville, Ala., workstation manufacturer, "it is so clearly documented that the Intergraph patents were never licensed to Intel that a trial on the issue is not needed." |
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Intergraph argues trial unnecessary in Intel patent suitBy Nancy Weil September 17, 1998 |
Intergraph wants its patent infringement
lawsuit against Intel to be settled without a trial,
contending in a motion filed Tuesday in Alabama that it
can so clearly document its case that a judge should rule
in the company's favor. Intergraph says in its motion for summary judgment that it can prove the patents in question never were licensed to Intel. Such motions, which seek to have lawsuits dismissed before a trial begins, are common in court cases, but are seldom granted. |
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Intel spells out details of Merced simulation programmeSeptember 17, 1998 |
Intel is engaged in an attempt to sign
more developers up to its Merced pre-silicon development environment programme. Earlier this week, Craig Barrett, Intels CEO, said that a Merced processor will arrive in the middle of the year 2000. Silicon samples are expected in the second half of next year. |
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PCI-X Spec Gets Warm ReceptionBy Andy Patrizio September 17, 1998 |
The new Peripheral Component
Interconnect bus architecture, called PCI-X, could be in
Intel-based servers by the end of 1999 if everything goes
well with the PCI Steering Committee, a standards body. PCI-X was developed by IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Compaq, normally competitors in the PC server market, to provide a faster channel for high-speed input/output devices like gigabit Ethernet cards and Fibre Channel. The trio turned the specification over to the PCI Steering Committee for review, and so far, the committee likes what it sees. |
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Intel targets StrongARM chip at CEBy Michael Kanellos September 17, 1998 |
A funny thing is occurring at the Intel
Developer Conference here. Mention the word
"StrongARM"--the low-cost, low-power processor
that Digital assigned to Intel late last year in a legal
settlement--and no one runs away. Indeed some companies are flocking to it. At least two computer makers will incorporate 200-MHz versions of an Intel StrongARM chip in handheld computers using the "Jupiter" version of Microsoft's Windows CE that will be announced later this year, said sources familiar with the upcoming announcements. |
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Intel Joins Unix Interface EffortBy Eileen Colkin and Tom Davey September 17, 1998 |
At its annual developers' forum Wednesday in Palm Springs, Calif., Intel said it will join a group of Unix vendors, including Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, IBM, and SCO, in developing specifications for a standard driver interface for Unix operating systems. | |
September 17, 1998 | ||
Intel May Make Bid For 3ComBy Mark LaPedus September 16, 1998 |
Amid losses in its LAN-equipment
business, Intel is looking to expand that operation by
reportedly holding talks to acquire a surprising and
bitter rival, 3Com, according to analysts and other
sources. Reports have circulated for weeks that Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel may be looking to buy all or pieces of 3Com, which itself ran into trouble after its massive -- and painful -- acquisition of U.S. Robotics last year. 3Com (company profile said it hopes to pick up the pieces from the fallout, while also looking for a partner to fund its massive debt, analysts said. |
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Analysts Say Don't Count On Intel-3Com MergerBy Mark LaPedus September 17, 1998 |
While the industry is abuzz about talks
between Intel Corp. and 3Com Corp. about a possible
merger, industry analysts said they don't expect such a
deal to take place. Its not going to happen, said Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Piper Jaffray Inc., Minneapolis. What happened is that 3Com and Intel are involved in some product development areas, but the market may have misconstrued this into takeover talks. |
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Katmai details lead Intel's push to high-end PCsBy Rick Boyd-Merritt and David Lammers September 16, 1998 |
In an effort to drive PCs forward, Intel
Corp. rolled out new details about multimedia
instruction-set extensions for its upcoming Katmai
processor as the vanguard of a small army of new
technologies, products and specifications it marshaled at
the company's developer's forum here. Despite the well-orchestrated barrage, debate was still sharp on the question of whether sluggish PC demand especially at the high end will rebound in the near future. |
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Intel's Katmai chip aimed at videoBy Michael Kanellos September 16, 1998 |
If anything, the upcoming Katmai
processors from Intel will be a boon for budding
filmmakers. The Katmai Pentium II processors due in the first quarter of 1999 will provide a boost to how 3D graphics and video data get viewed and manipulated on standard PCs. Katmai technology has also been referred to as "MMX 2," which is the successor to Intel's current MMX technology found in Pentium II processors. |
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Intel ships utility to aid development of apps for MercedBy Andy Santoni September 17, 1998 |
Intel is shipping a "pre-silicon
development environment" to independent hardware and
software vendors to ensure that complementary products
are available when the IA-64 Merced processor ships in
mid-2000. Provided at no charge, the software runs on an Intel architecture, 32-bit (IA-32) Pentium II-class system, explained Rumi Zahir, senior computer architect at Intel. The utilities aim to help developers get to market more quickly, he said. |
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Intel signs partners to drive Unix server interfaceBy Andy Santoni September 16, 1998 |
Intel on Wednesday disclosed plans to
join more than a half dozen I/O hardware and Unix OS
vendors in a consortium to develop a standard device
driver interface to drive growth in standard, high-volume
servers. The announcement was made by John Miner, Intel vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Server group, in a keynote address here at the Intel Developer Forum. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Despite slump, Halla pushes National forwardBy Brian Fuller September 17, 1998 |
A year ago, Brian Halla was king of the
world. He'd just turned National Semiconductor Corp.
around in the wake of Gil Amelio's lackluster reign. He
pumped life into earnings and helped lift the stock price
to more than $40 a share. He sold businesses that didn't
make sense and whittled the company strategy down to
something that employees and customers alike could
understand: system-on-a-chip. This year, it's a different story. National's stock price has collapsed to $8 and the company is reporting losses instead of earnings. A financial report two weeks ago offered a glimmer of hope, but Halla acknowledges that neither the company nor the industry is out of the woods yet. For a moment, it seemed, National was back to the bad old days. |
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Rambus validates integrationSeptember 16, 1998 |
Rambus has announced a component
validation programme, designed to smooth the transition
to Direct Rambus memory systems next year. Standard
procedures required for verification in the new system
will make it easier for customers to integrate the new
products, Rambus said. Validation procedures are being established for all the major components of a Direct Rambus memory system, which are the Direct RDRAMs devices, RIMM modules, RIMM connectors and clock components. |
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Intergraph asks for Intel rulingBy Reuters September 16, 1998 |
Intergraph yesterday asked a federal
court for a summary judgment in its antitrust lawsuit
against Intel. The Huntsville, Alabama, workstation maker said in a statement it had asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to use existing evidence to decide whether Intel took part in anticompetitive behavior, patent infringement, and antitrust violations, as Intergraph alleges. Intergraph also asked for a dismissal of Intel's earlier motion for a summary judgment on Intergraph's allegations of anticompetitive behavior and patent infringement. |
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Intel aims Celeron at notebooksBy Michael Kanellos September 16, 1998 |
Intel will release Celeron processors
for notebook computers in the $1,299 to $1,399 range
during the first half of 1999, in an effort to hitch onto
the next wave of low-cost computing. Meanwhile, the chipmaker has already launched a new line of extra low-power chips for mini-notebooks, handheld computers that run the Windows 95 and 98 operating systems. A new low-power 266-MHz Pentium MMX was released today. |
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Intel updates guidelines for mobile power consumptionBy Ephraim Schwartz September 16, 1998 |
Intel chose the perfect venue here this
week, where temperatures climbed to 106 degrees, to
unveil the next version of its Mobile Power Guidelines
2000 and to discuss "thermally manageable
limits" for notebook PCs. Working with most of the major system OEMs and component manufacturers, the goal of the initiative is to continue to increase notebook performance and battery life while limiting voltage and power consumption as well as the internal heat of a closed notebook system. |
See Today's Related Stories |
One-On-One With Intels Albert YuBy Mark Hachman September 16, 1998 |
Intels Barrett Plans For Most
Intense Year Yet After a keynote speech at the Intel Developers Forum in Palm Springs, Albert Yu, senior vice-president and general manager for Intel corp.'s Microprocessor Products Group, sat down with EBNs Mark Hachman. |
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Today's Related Stories | ||
Intel pushing unified UnixBy Brooke Crothers September 16, 1998 |
Intel will work toward establishing
common standards among different versions of the Unix
operating system, a critical requirement as the company
lays the groundwork for its high-end server and
next-generation 64-bit Merced technologies. In the creation of a "unified Unix," Intel will work with Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and SCO, among other companies. |
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Intel sets power guidelines for mobile PCsSeptember 16, 1998 |
Intel Corp. announced here today at the
Intel Developer Forum a revised set of specifications
aimed at defining power consumption targets for chips
used in mobile PCs. To emphasize its point, the company also introduced a new version of the Pentium processor with a redesigned core and lower power usage, specifically targeted at the mobile market. |
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September 16, 1998 | ||
Katmai out of the bagSeptember 15, 1998 |
Intel has provided sneak details of its
processor roadmap up until the year 2001 and has also
given additional details of the Katmai instruction set it
will introduce early next year. Albert Yu, senior vice president in charge of the microprocessor unit, said that the development of additional instructions in Katmai was driven by the need for rich data applications, including MPEG and voice recognition. |
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Intel readies Katmai onslaught for 1999By James Niccolai September 15, 1998 |
Intel's top brass sketched out the
company's microprocessor road map at its biannual
developer forum here Tuesday, including plans for
high-speed chips that support Intel's new,
multimedia-enhancing Katmai instruction set. "1999 will probably be the most intensive year for product announcements that we've seen for some time," said Craig Barrett, Intel's president and CEO, in his keynote address kicking off the three-day forum. |
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Intel foresees fork in its process road mapBy Rick Boyd-Merritt September 15, 1998 |
Intel Corp. is positioning itself to put
as much of its manufacturing clout behind low-cost,
highly integrated peripheral chips as it traditionally
has placed on its high-end microprocessors. In a small group meeting here before delivering a keynote address at its Intel Developer's Forum, Intel president and chief executive officer Craig Barrett revealed the company is currently ramping up in tandem two "mainstream" 0.18-micron logic processes one that would be geared for the needs of its high-end processors and another tailored to the requirements of its core logic, graphics and embedded semiconductors. |
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Intel sets sights on McKinley, set-top boxes, securityBy Lisa DiCarlo September 15, 1998 |
The good news is that Intel Corp. (INTC)
predicts worldwide penetration of connected PCs to
explode from about 100 million today to 1 billion by
2005. The bad news is that computing is still dogged by
ease-of-use, bandwidth and e-commerce security problems. At its Developer Forum here, President and CEO Craig Barrett said Intel will increase its rate of investment in other companies and technologies to eradicate those problems and spark growth. |
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Next
Exit: Mendocino
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Intels cheap CPU is growing up: Celeron
is getting an integrated L2 cache with the Mendocino
processor core. This lets the come-on drug for Slot 1 get
extremely close to the established Pentium-II processors.
Intel immediately used the opportunity for shipping a
450-MHz model in the latter category. Apparently Intel wanted to show them already at CeBIT Home, Celeron 300A, Celeron 333 and Pentium-II-450. The first two processors should make us forget about the 'old and weak' Celeron without L2 cache. At a first glance the new 450 is just a Pentium-II with a slightly higher clock frequency. |
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Intel's Barrett outlines PC futuresSeptember 15, 1998 |
Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel, has opened
the Intel Developers Forum in Palm Springs by outlining
what he sees as the future of the PC. At the same time he
said that there needed to be industry wide initiatives to
address technological and security problems. Those include building security into CPUs, chipsets and motherboards to make e-commerce safer, he said. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Rambus Rolls Out Validation Program To Help Chip SuppliersBy Andrew Maclellan September 15, 1998 |
Locking in another component of its
high-speed DRAM memory strategy, Rambus Inc. today rolled
out a validation program to help memory chip suppliers
and OEMs in their transition to Direct Rambus DRAM
(RDRAM). Announced at the Intel Developers Forum, the validation program will allow all components developed for the emerging 800-MHz memory interface to be verified, including the Direct RDRAM chip, Rambus In-line Memory Module (RIMM), RIMM connector, and clock source. |
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Intel thinks intelligent fridge will rule roost in 2005September 15, 1998 |
Intel has outlined a vision of the
future where entire families lives will be
controlled by a know-it-all PC built into the
superstructure of a house. But, perhaps fortunately, it could be as long as seven years before this vision comes to pass. At a demonstration of future technology held at Intels Developer Forum today, a representative from Intel showed a video demonstrating the future as the chip company foresees it. |
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Today's Related Stories | ||
Intel's CEO Promises Intense YearBy Mark Hachman September 15, 1998 |
Speaking Tuesday at the opening morning
of the Intel Developers' Forum, Intel president and CEO
Craig Barrett said 1999 would become the most intense
year of new processor introductions in the company's
history, despite what some analysts are calling an
industry downturn. While some companies may hesitate and let their competitors get ahead in a down cycle, Intel (company profile) intends to aggressively pursue processor and other technology introductions in the coming year. "I guess the message I'd like to get out is don't let the cycle, the economic cycle, get you down," said Albert Yu, senior vice-president of Intel's Microprocessor Products Group. |
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September 15, 1998 | ||
Intel says PCI-X last increment of busSeptember 15, 1998 |
Intel has given a qualified welcome to
the PCI-X specification proposed by IBM, Compaq and HP,
but said that it was likely to be the last iteration of
PCI. Mitch Schultz, head of IO initiatives at Intel US, said that the company had only just received the proposed specification. "In general our view is that its potentially very positive," he said. |
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Senior Intel executive confirms 370-pin socket by year endSeptember 15, 1998 |
Albert Yu, senior vice president of
Intels microprocessor products group, said today
that the 370-pin socket version of the Celeron is now
likely to arrive towards the end of the year. Speaking on the eve of Intels Developers Forum, Yu said that the primary reason for moving to the socket was because of cost considerations. The socket is aimed at the Basic PC end of the processor market. |
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Intel moves to reassure industry on bugsSeptember 14, 1998 |
Intel has admitted that it is impossible
to prevent bugs from escaping its testing process. But
today it moved to reassure end users and customers that
its bug testing process is up to the task of dealing with
the complexity of this and future generations of its
microprocessors. That follows bad publicity given to Intel earlier this year over an erratum with its Xeon line of server chips. |
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Intel slashes chip pricesBy Brooke Crothers September 14, 1998 |
Intel, pushing to blanket the market
with Pentium II technology, announced price cuts today
across its line of chips. "Continued strong acceptance of Pentium II processors enables Intel to aggressively ramp these products into higher volume price points," the company said in a statement. After Intel introduced its "market segmentation" strategy--which targets chips for specific markets--earlier this year, price cuts are occurring on a monthly basis, an Intel spokesman said. |
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September 14, 1998 | ||
Intel chip strategy hinges on low cost, high powerBy Lisa DiCarlo September 11, 1998 |
Lower-cost desktops will become
attractive options for corporate buyers, not just
consumers, early next year as Intel Corp. (INTC) marries
fast, low-end processors with networking and management
features. Intel is planning faster processor and bus speeds for its low-end Celeron chip while championing the use of 10/100M-bps Ethernet and client management standards in systems based on the chip, said sources close to the Santa Clara, Calif., company. |
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Kodak, Intel team on chips, photo CDsBy Stephanie Miles September 11, 1998 |
Later this month at an industry event,
Kodak and Intel will detail a plan to offer consumers
digitized photographs on CDs and elaborate on a digital
camera technology based on a lower-cost design, the first
fruit of their six-month-old digital imaging alliance. On September 28, the two companies are expected to launch Kodak Picture CDs, low-priced CD-ROM disks intended to store digitized versions of photographs taken with a traditional camera and film. |
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Intel to spell out 1999 notebook plansBy John G. Spooner and Lisa DiCarlo September 11, 1998 |
With new processors and chip sets in
hand, Intel Corp. (INTC) is looking to close the price/
performance gap between notebook and desktop PCs. The Santa Clara, Calif., company will outline its 1999 notebook plans at next week's Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, Calif. On next year's docket: a new Celeron-based class of notebooks and next-generation Pentium II chips with Katmai New Instructions, a set of 70 instructions for three-dimensional graphics, said sources familiar with Intel's plans. |