x86 Headline NewsFor the week of October 19, 1998 |
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x86 Weekly News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of October 19, 1998 |
Older News |
October 23, 1998 | ||
Intel fixes Xeon chipBy Michael Kanellos October 22, 1998 |
Intel has fixed a notorious bug with its
Xeon processors and says that volume shipments of the
high-end server chip, as well as four-processor servers
based around the chip, have begun. Intel got around the bug--which disabled a crucial memory function on chips used in sophisticated four-processor servers--by changing the circuitry on the chip, according to Anthony Ambrose, director of marketing for the enterprise server group. As a result of the manufacturing fix, Intel can now ship many more of the chips, which should alleviate pent-up demand. |
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Intel antitrust trial rescheduledBy Tony Smith October 23, 1998 |
The US Federal Trade Commission's
hearing into Intel's alleged antitrust business practices
has been delayed again. An administrative judge yesterday pushed the date of the trial back to 23 February 1999, citing the "unusually great" accumulation of evidence being prepared for the case. His decision was made after both Intel and FTC lawyers requested more time to evalauate each others' evidence. |
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Intel Muzzles LawyersBy Robert Ristelhueber October 12, 1998 |
At the Microprocessor Forum this week,
Rise Technology is scheduled to take the wraps off its
first x86-compatible processor. Not long ago, such an
announcement was almost certain to instantly provoke an
aggressive legal assault from Intel, resulting in years
of exhausting courtroom battles. Not any more. Nobody expects a repeat of Intel's epic courtroom clashes with Advanced Micro Devices, Cyrix and Chips & Technologies, to name just a few. For a number of reasons, Intel's legal department today resembles a leashed lapdog instead of the snarling pit bull of years past. |
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AMD Inside Your Notebook: Wait for Round TwoBy Yardena Arar October 23, 1998 |
Competition is a beautiful thing--especially for PC buyers. Competition between Intel and other CPU manufacturers sparked the explosion of sub-$1000 desktops and continues to sink prices for systems equipped with even the newest and fastest processors. But until now, similar competition has been lacking in the mobile arena: When it comes to notebooks, you almost always find "Intel inside." | |
AMD's
New Muscle Puts Heat On Intel
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During a panel session at last week's Microprocessor
Forum, a representative of the world's mightiest
microprocessor maker found himself on the defensive,
insisting that his company's next chip would keep up with
Advanced Micro Device's upcoming K7 device. "I
believe we have a competitive product," said
Srinivas Raman, manager of Intel's microprocessor
architecture and validation groups. Even the notion of such a scene would have been absurd only a year ago. AMD had once again stumbled, shooting itself in the foot by failing to achieve adequate yields with its K6 processor. Memories of the company's K5 debacle were still fresh in industry minds. Intel was at the height of its power and prosperity, and AMD couldn't seem to lay a glove on its arch-rival. |
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October 22, 1998 | ||
ATI buys struggling ChromaticBy Michael Kanellos October 21, 1998 |
Graphics heavyweight ATI Technologies
today acquired Chromatic, a once promising media
processor venture that recently had to lay off a big
chunk of its workforce, for $67 million and will use the
new company to move into the market for integrated chips
for set-top boxes and other intelligent devices. The acquisition and ATI's product plans seems to symbolize everything that is going on in the turbulent graphics chip market. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Merger Likely To Kill Chromatic's MpactBy Mark Hachman October 21, 1998 |
The current sales leader of PC graphics
chips, ATI Technologies, has agreed to acquire multimedia
IC vendor Chromatic Research for $67 million in stock.
The move is part of ATI's ongoing push into set-top
boxes, analysts said. The acquisition should also prove to be the final stake in the coffin of Chromatic's Mpact, which combined various multimedia processing functions into a single chip. Within the next few days, Chromatic will announce it has completely divested itself of the Mpact product line to a third party, according to John Monti, vice president of marketing at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Chromatic. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Intel 64-bit architecture to split in twoBy Mike Magee October 22, 1998 |
After 2001, Intel's upcoming IA-64 chip
architecture will split in two, with separate platforms
for high end and low end machines. This became clear as further details of the IA-64 roadmap leaked out this week, indicating Intel's plans until around 2003. According to Gordon Graylish, Intel's marketing director for the Emea region, the IA-64 architecture will split after the introduction, in 2001, of the second generation of the 64-bit platform, codenamed McKinley. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Intel to stop supplying chips in traysBy Mike Magee October 22, 1998 |
Intel has stopped supplying its
processors in trays to all but its largest customers, it
confirmed today. It will now supply product in boxes, according to a source at an Intel UK distributor. He said: "The reason is that it is easier to track sales, and remarks and it's also a branding solution. Only the very largest players are interested in tray supplies." |
See Today's Related Stories |
Today's Related Stories | ||
ATI acquires Chromatic ResearchBy Andy Santoni October 21, 1998 |
Graphics chip and board supplier ATI
Technologies on Wednesday entered into a definitive
agreement to acquire troubled Chromatic Research, a
designer of multimedia processors, for a total of $67
million. This summer, Chromatic Research stopped development of its Mpact single-chip multimedia processor, the last media processor to target PCs. Samsung ended development of its Multimedia Signal Processor (MSP) shortly after its introduction two years ago, and Philips Semiconductors has changed the focus of its TriMedia processor to consumer electronics applications such as high-definition television. |
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Madison and Deerfield to split Intel IA-64 architectureBy John Lettice October 22, 1998 |
Further details leaking out about the
Intel IA-64 roadmap flesh the company's plans out until
around 2003, and introduce two more codenames, Madison
and Deerfield. According to Gordon Graylish, Intel marketing director EMEA, after McKinley's introduction in 2001, the IA-64 architecture will bifurcate into high-end and low-end versions. These are Madison (high end) and Deerfield (low end), and will be 0.13 micron. Ultimately Deerfield will be a sort of IA-64 Celeron implementation (although unless Celeron's reputation starts improving, Intel might not fancy saying this in 2003), and will at some point supplant the IA-32 line of CPUs which is currently roadmapped at Tanner, Cascades, Foster and then at least one other. |
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Intel uses packaging change to dent grey marketOctober 22, 1998 |
Intel is hitting out at the grey market
for chips by changing how it packages products for
customers. It has stopped supplying its processors in trays to all but its largest customers, and will replace these with boxes, which are easier to track and harder to transport across borders, as they are far bulkier. |
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October 21, 1998 | ||
IDT to Place OEM Orders with Acer SemiconductorOctober 5, 1998 |
Integrated Device Technology Inc. (IDT),
a U.S. semiconductor manufacturer, is discussing
strategic alliances with Taiwan's Acer Semiconductor
Manufacturing Inc. IDT President Len Perham said that
because of the high OEM charges of Perham indicated that IDT originally planned to have IBM product its processors using technology more advanced than 0.25 micrometer. |
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ATI confirms Chromatic buyoutBy Tony Smith October 21, 1998 |
Graphics card specialist has confirmed
its intention to acquire media processor developer
Chromatic Research in a deal worth $67 million. As predicted by The Register (see ATI prepares Chromatic buyout), ATI's interest lies in Chromatic's work on system-on-a-chip (SOC) products for set-top boxes. Chromatic has been developing an SOC since it became clear its Mpact 2 2D/3D graphics acceleration and video chip had failed to win the support of PC manufacturers, largely because users prefer the power of a dedicated graphics acceleration system of the kind that ATI produces. |
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Gates didn't threaten Intel's Grove, says Microsoft attorneyBy Graham Lea October 21, 1998 |
Bill Gates did not threaten Andy Grove,
then CEO of Intel, during a three-hour dinner with him in
1995 at which native signal processing was discussed,
John Warden, Microsoft's trial lawyer claimed. Gates was just urging Intel to drop the development of native signal processing because the technology was technically incompatible with Windows, and not because it would remove some of the need for Windows. Microsoft has not released the memo, but Microsoft's threat to be friendly to AMD if Intel did not obey Gates' wish is sufficiently well established. |
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IV.
Inteliad
|
Of course the Katmai processor was the
highlight at Intels Developer Forum in the 45 °C heat of
Palm Springs. From September 15 - 17 Intel did not only
offer hot processor and chip set topics for the about
1700 developers from all over the world, but also
unveiled many software activities and shared their views
about the PC future where the refrigerator door will
serve as communication center. Searching for practical interfaces in homes, Intels Architecture Lab (IAL) found the refrigerator. Why should this not be the place where we contact the central home computer via a water- and milk-proof touch display to quickly retrieve a recipe for almond croissants, check Intels stock price or watch the Clinton video while we are cooking? The latter would have worked very well with Web software developed by IAL. |
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Processor,
Quo Vadis?
|
There was a time when the x86 processor
world was still all right: Intel had one single expensive
top of the range model which stood out unrivalled, then
there were a few cheaper chips for the mass market which
were in heavy competition with AMD's and Cyrix's range.
Nowadays, hardly anyone gets the full picture anymore -
and things will get worse. If need be, Intel will even create competition for itself. There is the basic PC line for home use intended for the Celeron, the business line with Pentium II for advanced requirements and the workstation and server line for wich the Xeon has been available for two months. So far, so good, if it weren't for the fact that the newly released Celeron models are faster and cheaper thant the classic business line mainstream processor, the Pentium II 300. |
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AMD rolls a K7By Carol Venezia October 20, 1998 |
If you've been following AMD's history,
you're used to this chip vendor's introducing low-cost
alternatives to Intel processors. Indeed, AMD usually follows in Intel's wake in terms of CPU speed, features, and functionality. This gap has closed slightly in the past year, with the AMD K6-2 CPU, which has reached clock speeds of 350 MHz; and we expect the upcoming K6-3 to be clocked up to 400 MHz. |
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October 19, 1998 | ||
S3 to go after Intel next?By Michael Kanellos October 16, 1998 |
Although S3 has primarily been known as
a graphics chip vendor, the company may increasingly
become associated with patent litigation. Three patents that the company acquired earlier this year in a blind auction from defunct chipmaker Exponential may provide the basis for a patent claim against chip giant Intel, according to a prominent patent analyst. If a suit were filed, it would be the second major patent case for S3 this year. And, like the existing case, a suit against Intel would revolve around patents that S3 acquired from another company a scant few months earlier. |
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Intel keeps silence over 64bit patent claimsOctober 19, 1998 |
Intel has remained tight-lipped amidst
growing speculation that its upcoming IA-64
microprocessor architecture - and in particular, Merced,
its first 64bit chip - will violate a patent held by S3,
a company that makes graphics accelerator chips. The controversy surrounds patents S3 bought from the now defunct chip-maker, Exponential Technology. |
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Intel Katmai chip will give voice to applicationsBy Ephraim Schwartz October 19, 1998 |
If Intel has its way, every application
running on its next-generation processors would
automatically be speech-enabled this time next year. Intel is including the speech technology in its next processor, code-named Katmai, due out in the first quarter of 1999, and experts are predicting that by 2000 the technology will be able to go beyond simple speech-to-text input. "You will be able to say, 'What were sales for last September and how does that compare for this September?'" said Steven Rondel, president of Conversational Computing, in Redmond, Wash. |
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Vendors vie with Intel at X86 feeding frenzyBy Lisa DiCarlo October 18, 1998 |
Despite Intel Corp.'s seemingly
insurmountable lead in the X86 processor world, a record
number of rivals are busy laying out X86 road maps of
their own. At the Microprocessor Forum here last week, five processor manufacturers--Intel, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., National Semiconductor Inc.'s Cyrix subsidiary, Centaur Technology Inc. and newcomer Rise Technology--unfurled their 18-month X86 product plans. |
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Battle lines drawn for next-generation MPUsBy EE Times staff October 18, 1998 |
The end of the century will be marked by
architectural wars as intense as the battle between RISC
and CISC, but far more complex. That was the repeated message from a series of major microprocessor papers at the latest Microprocessor Forum. Intel Corp., IBM Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Compaq Computer Corp. each unveiled details of their new flagship CPUs, revealing both common trends and profound differences in the pursuit of power. |
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AMDs
K-7 set to out-muscle
|
Intel Corp. will face strong competition
from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s K-7 processor in the
second half of next year, said Keith Diefendorff,
editor-in-chief of the Microprocessor Report. If I were Intel, I would be a little nervous, Diefendorff said at a day-long Thursday seminar focused on comparing high-performance microprocessor designs, at the Microprocessor Forum here. |
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Experts applaud Intel's Micron memory dealBy Matthew Broersma October 16, 1998 |
Industry analysts said Intel Corp.'s
$500 million stake in Micron Technologies Friday is a
long-term bet that could lead to a big payoff once the
memory market comes out of its downturn. The investment also continues an Intel strategy to eliminate bottlenecks that may keep users from taking advantage of the speed of faster and faster microprocessors. "Once the [memory] market starts to tighten up, and comes out of its present slump, in 2000 or 2002, we could see a pretty significant DRAM shortage," said Mel Thomson, a senior analyst with MicroDesign Resources Inc. "That's happened before ... [and Intel] is trying to get in front of that, and make sure it doesn't happen." |
See Related Stories |
Rambus shines in Intel-Micron dealBy Michael Kanellos and Stephen Shankland October 16, 1998 |
With Intel's $500 million investment in
Micron Technology, memory designer Rambus will
increasingly move to center stage in the world of
computer design. Rambus--which designs, but does not make, high-speed memory chips--is the premier company working on a solution to what is perhaps the biggest bottleneck in computer performance today. Namely, the speed at which data can be delivered to the processor. |
See Related Stories |
Intel Juices Memory BankOctober 16, 1998 |
Intel today gave memory manufacturer
Micron Technology a US$500 million cash injection to ensure the continued development of high-speed memory technology needed to support Intel's forthcoming multimedia and graphics processors. Shares of Micron Technology (MU) jumped nearly 6 percent Friday after Intel (INTC) said it will buy a 6 percent stake in the memory-chip maker. |
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Intel invests in RDRAM futureOctober 19, 1998 |
Intel is to pay $500m for a 6 per cent
equity stake in Micron Technology, a US memory chip
maker. Intel has not been a player in the memory chip business for many years, but has said investing in the future of Micron's Direct RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic RAM) memory interface technology, will help drive PC growth. |
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Intel buys ShivaBy Rebecca Sykes October 19, 1998 |
Intel announced Monday it will buy
Shiva, a maker of remote access and virtual private
network products for small and medium-size businesses. Under the terms of the definitive merger agreement that the companies have signed, each share of Shiva stock will be converted into the right to receive $6 per share in cash, except for shares held by stockholders who exercise statutory appraisal rights, according to a statement from Intel. |
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Rambus rides earnings falloutBy Stephen Shankland October 16, 1998 |
Shares of Rambus, developer of an
up-and-coming computer memory technology, jumped in early
trading but then retreated after the company announced
fourth-quarter earnings yesterday that were in line with
Wall Street expectations. Rambus reported fourth-quarter net income of $1.75 million, or 7 cents per diluted share, compared with net income of $1.06 million, or 4 cents per share, for the same quarter a year ago. |