x86 Headline News

Intel Secrets Home Page

x86 Headline News

Dr. Dobb's Journal
Undocumented Corner

Intel Inside --
The Errata Series

In-Depth Articles

Productivity Enhancements
and Programming Tricks

Intel Secrets, Bugs and
Undocumented Opcodes

Intel Data Sheets and
Programming Manuals

Intel Motherboard Manuals
and Jumper Settings

Intel Art of the Month

Other Links

Frequently Asked Questions

This Week's x86 Headlines (11/02/98)
Electronic Buyers' News PC buyers won’t wait for Katmai CPU
PC Week Online Another I/O spec in the works
Switched fabric to double PCI's I/O speed
Electronic Buyers' News Perspective: Do Rambus licensees have “clause” for concern?
Semiconductor Business News AMD Releases K6 For Embedded Systems
Insanely-Great Intel follows in iMac's footsteps
Small Dog Electronics AltiVec versus KNI (MMX2) How do they compare?
Semiconductor Business News Samsung plans early ‘99 start for production of 144-Mbit Rambus DRAM

 

x86 Weekly News

Collected By Robert R. Collins

Week of November 2, 1998

Older News

November 6, 1998

AltiVec versus KNI (MMX2) How do they compare?

By: David K. Every

Small Dog Electronics

Both KNI and AltiVec are SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) implementations, or they are also called (short) Vector Processors. What they do is to allow a single instruction to work with multiple pieces of data at once (instead of one at a time), so they can do 8 things (or sometimes as much as 32 things) at once. Each piece of data, or path through an instruction, is called a vector.

If you still don't understand the basics of SIMD or Vector Processing (what MMX, KNI, and AltiVec are), then read What is AltiVec or the older MMX/VMX (from before the specifics of AltiVec were known). They can give you a pretty good understanding of SIMD and design decisions and tradeoffs.

 

Samsung plans early ‘99 start for production of 144-Mbit Rambus DRAM

November 5, 1998
Semiconductor Business News

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has completed development of a144-megabit Rambus DRAM Direct componentand 144-megabyte Rambus In-line Memory Module, providing twice the capacity and all the same functions as the 72-megabit Rambus it announced in July.

The South Korean memory maker said it expects to begin producing 100,000 of the devices a month beginning early next year and plans, and up to 1 million units in the third quarter.

 
November 5, 1998

Intel follows in iMac's footsteps

November 5, 1998
Insanely-Great

After Intel's Andy Grove made glowing comments about Apple's iMac, Intel appears to be following in Apple's footsteps. The Pentium chipmaker providing chips for a majority of PCs sold worldwide, Intel recently built a "concept" PC to demonstrate its own vision of the future. Intel added when demonstrating the concept PC that they were not getting into the PC-making business but wanted to show off their ideas.  

Intel touts pyramid PC

By Michael Kanellos

November 4, 1998
C/Net

Intel is out to convince people that it can make computing attractive and easy too--an elusive goal in the PC industry.

The chip giant this week is showing off prototypes of modular computers, most notably the ziggurat-shaped "Aztec," in an effort to promote how the company plans to better integrate technology into the home.

The prototypes seem to clearly take their cue from Apple Computer's iMac, which was the third highest selling computer in retail outlets for the month of September, according to analyst reports.

 
November 4, 1998

AMD Releases K6 For Embedded Systems

October 3, 1998
Semiconductor Business News

Advanced Micro Devices Tuesday introduced a new K6 microprocessor for embedded system designs needing compatibility with x86-based desktop PCs.

AMD said its AMD-K6E processor is designed to run both 16- and 32-bit software. It supports x86 operating systems, including the Windows CE, Windows 95, and Windows 98 operating systems and applications that run on them. The 8.8-million transistor chip also contains the industry standard MMX instruction set and is designed for the Socket 7 infrastructure.

 
November 3, 1998

Another I/O spec in the works
Switched fabric to double PCI's I/O speed

By Carmen Nobel

November 2, 1998
PC Week Online

They're at it again. IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Compaq Computer Corp., the three rival systems makers that developed the PCI-X specification for faster server I/O, are now developing an even faster switched-fabric-based I/O that could challenge a similar Intel Corp. project.

The Future I/O switched fabric will double the sustained I/O speed of PCI and scale better than any PCI architecture, IBM officials said.

The new architecture will likely be available in servers in late 2000, about a year after the PCI-X architecture, said Tom Bradicich, director of server architecture and technology at IBM, in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

 

Perspective: Do Rambus licensees have “clause” for concern?

By Andrew MacLellan

November 2, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News

Intel Corp.'s $500 million investment in Micron Technology Inc.-and the Boise, Idaho, company's subsequent capitulation to the Direct Rambus DRAM camp-could trigger a royalty windfall for technology architect Rambus Inc.

Having taken the king's shilling, Micron will do the king's bidding and accelerate its ramp-up of Direct RDRAM into next year's PC market. The investment will allow Micron to fulfill its capital-investment agenda and will likely guarantee that a few million more Rambus chips hit the street in 1999.

 
November 2, 1998

PC buyers won’t wait for Katmai CPU

By Mark Hachman

October 30, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News

Although PC OEMs can't be certain what they'll find in their stockings this Christmas, the 1999 release date of Intel Corp.'s Katmai processor should put to rest one ghost from Christmas Past.

Third-quarter earnings from PC and chip companies alike indicate a strong seasonal growth pattern, bolstered by a sudden unexpected boost in demand (see story on page 20). As a result, industry executives and analysts don't expect holiday buyers to delay their PC purchases until Katmai-based machines are available next spring.

 

See how politically correct Intel’s Barrett really is

By Mark Hachman

October 30, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News

An Intel Corp. spokesman has said that Craig Barrett, president and chief executive of Intel Corp., will match wits with Bill Maher in a spoof of the “Politically Incorrect” TV show Tuesday, November 17th at Las Vegas' Comdex trade show.

The “Technically Incorrect” panel will feature Penn Gillette, the vocal half of magician duo Penn & Teller; Bill Nye, “The Science Guy”; and industry pundit Esther Dyson in debating and berating a variety of high-tech topics.

 

ST and Microsoft collaborate on software for PC-on-chip

November 2, 1998
Semiconductor Business News

STMicroelectronics here today said it was working with Microsoft Corp. to support its STPC series of PC-on-a-chip products with Windows CE operating system software.

For a couple of years, St. Genis, France-based ST has been pursuing embedded x86-based solutions offering highly integrated ICs with 486 cores. The latest to be introduced is aimed at industrial and commercial systems (see Oct. 26 story).

See Related Stories

ST rolls out its latest PC-on-chip for industrial, embedded applications

Compaq, Intel Fight Digital Brain Drain
Alpha, StrongArm Technology May Suffer Under New Ownership

By Linley Gwennap

October 26, 1998
Microprocessor Report

Buying a technology company is tricky: the key assets go out the door every night, and you never know if they will all walk in again the next morning. Digital's fate provides a good example. After Compaq and Intel carved up Digital like a Thanksgiving turkey last year, both felt satisfied with their portions. But like giblets that fell on the floor, the CPU designers who walked out on their new employers may turn out to have been the best parts of the bird.

Digital has been bleeding CPU designers (as well as many other employees) for the past few years as the company spiraled down toward its ultimate demise. The pace accelerated with last November's announcement that Intel would purchase some of Digital's assets (see MPR 11/17/97, p. 1). As a result, the Alpha and StrongArm teams suffered significant losses.

 

Doh! Homer Simpson sells out to Satanic Intel

By Pete Sherriff

October 30, 1998
The Register

The Great Satan of Chips has lured Homer Simpson into one of its secret skunk operations and will "upgrade" his brain, the company said today.

Simpson, who has in the past criticised both Intel and Microsoft, is to receive the ultimate insult to his IQ.

This is all very intriguing. At the Intel Developer Forum some weeks ago, which The
Register attended, a very senior Intel architect said that even given Moore's Law, Intel chips will not be able to deliver the power of the brain of a bumble-bee by the year 2012.

 

News from the x86 Monthly Archives

1998 News Archives

December 1997

November 1997

October 1997


Back to x86 Headline News Home Page