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This Week's x86 Headlines
The Register 370-pin 366MHz Celeron to appear in January 1999
EE Times Spec set for next-generation PCI; replacement detailed
C/Net Intel touts new data path plan
Computer Reseller News Direct Rambus Samples Roll Out
C/Net Top secret chip less secret now
Electronic Buyer's News AMD begins testing K-7's at Dresden fab
Microsoft vs. Intel News
Computer Reseller News DOJ Says Microsoft Bullied Intel
Computer Reseller News Microsoft Cross Examination Will Rebut Intel Claims
The Register Gates memos show how Microsoft puts screws on Intel
Inter@ctive Week McGeady: Microsoft threats killed Intel's multimedia software twice
Infoworld Intel witness called 'prima donna'
Newsbytes Microsoft Turns Antitrust Tables On Intel
NewsBytes Microsoft Lawyer Brands Intel Executive A Liar

 

x86 Weekly News

Collected By Robert R. Collins

Week of November 9, 1998

Older News

November 13, 1998

Top secret chip less secret now

By Brooke Crothers and Stephen Shankland

November 13, 1998
C/Net

Transmeta, the highly secretive, well-funded Silicon Valley chip start-up may be offering the first glimpses of its well-guarded microprocessor design.

The company recently received a patent for certain portions of the chip design and in the process may be revealing a broader picture of what the chip does. In short, it is a novel design which appears to be extremely fast and can potentially run all Windows software.

 

Apology to Intel Corporation

By Mike Magee

November 13, 1998
The Register

At The Register we now believe that we have written wholly unjustifiable stories about large chip company Intel.

Far from it being a raving, paranoid Satan that does what it likes to innocent companies, countries and individuals, we now believe that it is actually a caring, sharing community of fair minded people which has the best interests of the whole world community at heart.

 

Microsoft Lawyer Brands Intel Executive A Liar

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran

November 12, 1998
NewsBytes

A Microsoft Corp. lawyer repeatedly questioned the credibility of an Intel Corp. executive during a tense cross-examination at the Microsoft antitrust trial this morning, accusing him of concocting some of his most colorful testimony and of harboring a grudge against the software giant.

Steven McGeady, an Intel vice president, had testified earlier this week that Microsoft had threatened to withhold crucial technical support from Intel if the chipmaker did not stop developing software that would compete with Microsoft's products. McGeady, called to testify by the government, also said that an executive at Microsoft told him of plans to "extinguish" one of the company's fiercest rivals, Netscape Communications Corp.

More Microsoft vs. Intel News

Intel to replace flawed motherboards

By James Niccolai

November 12, 1998
InfoWorld Electric

Intel has been alerted to a glitch in some of its desktop motherboards that has left some recent PC buyers unable to boot up their machines, a company spokesman has confirmed.

The problem affects Intel's SE 440BX-2 motherboards, which are designed for use with Pentium II-based desktop PC systems, Intel spokesman Robert Manetta said.

Only boards manufactured during the month of October were affected by the problem, and the issue only arises when the motherboards are used in conjunction with a certain type of power supply, Manetta said.

 

AMD begins testing K-7's at Dresden fab

By Jack Robertson

November 13, 1998
Electronic Buyer's News

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s new Fab 30 here has started processing its first full K7 microprocessor test wafers to qualify the production line. First silicon is expected to be completed by Jan. 23, 1999. Jack Saltich, AMD vice president and general manager of the Dresden operation, said initial K7 production will start here by the end of next year.

Some K7 processors will be launched next year also at AMD's Austin, Texas, fab, which will also continue to make the existing K6 series. Saltich said Fab 30--the most advanced ever built by AMD--will only make the new K7 MPU. The German fab will initially use 0.22-micron processes, which are understood, to launch mass production--but then quickly move to 0.18-micron design-rule processing.

 

New products to boost AMD sales

By Reuters

November 13, 1998
C/Net

Advanced Micro Devices chief executive Jerry Sanders yesterday forecast rising sales during the next three years as the chipmaker brings out more products to compete against rival Intel.

Speaking at a meeting with financial analysts at Advanced Micro Devices' headquarters, Sanders said revenue in 1999 could be $3.7 billion, rising to
$4.4 billion in 2000, and $5.8 billion the following year.

 

Rambus batters down bus-speed roadblocks

By John G. Spooner

November 12, 1998
PC Week Online

A groundswell of activity will surround Rambus Inc.'s high-speed RDRAM at next week's Comdex.

While the technology has been in development for several years, Rambus and partners such as Kingston Technology Co. will report at the Las Vegas show that Rambus dynamic RAM memory modules will be in volume production in the first half of next year. PC OEMs are expected to ship their first desktops supporting RDRAM, thanks to an Intel Corp. chip set, code-named Camino, in the second half of next year.

 
More Microsoft vs. Intel News

Intel Exec Defends Testimony Against Microsoft

By Darryl K. Taft

November 13, 1998
Computer Reseller News

Intel Corp. vice president Steven McGeady ended his time on the witness stand Thursday defending his objectivity in the landmark Microsoft antitrust trial.

As McGeady wrapped up his testimony, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson went to the heart of one of Microsoft's key criticisms about McGeady -- that he was resentful of Microsoft and was not representative of Intel's views regarding Microsoft.

 

Microsoft paints Intel exec as 'prima donna' with a grudge

By Lisa M. Bowman

November 12, 1998
ZD Net News

Microsoft Corp. attorney Steven Holley went all out to dent the credibility of government witness Steve McGeady Thursday morning, portraying the Intel executive as a disgruntled employee and "prima donna" who blamed Microsoft for being shipped off to MIT after his project was killed.

With the landmark antitrust trial reconvening after a one-day recess, the proceedings heated up. At one stage, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson stepped in and asked Holley whether he was seeking just to embarrass McGeady.

 

MS Depicts McGeady As Lone Wolf At Intel

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran

November 13, 1998
Newsbytes

The Microsoft Corp. [NASDAQ:MSFT] antitrust trial turned into a tense sparring match over the credibility of a witness from Intel Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC] yesterday, with a lawyer for Microsoft accusing the executive of concocting some of his most colorful testimony, and the government producing several documents to support the witness's claims.

On the witness stand was Steven McGeady, an Intel vice president called by the government. He testified earlier this week that Microsoft had threatened to withhold crucial technical support from Intel if the chipmaker did not stop developing software that would compete with Microsoft's products. He also made the dramatic allegation that a senior executive at Microsoft told him of an intent to "extinguish" rival Netscape Communications Corp. [NASDAQ:NSCP] and to "cut off Netscape's air supply."

 

Microsoft Picks Away At Intel Exec

By Darryl K. Taft

November 12, 1998
Computer Reseller News

A Microsoft Corp. attorney continued to pick away at a key government witness Thursday, claiming the witness harbored ill feelings toward Microsoft and had ties to Microsoft rival Netscape Communications Corp.

Continuing his cross-examination of Intel Corp. Vice President Steven McGeady, Microsoft attorney Steven Holley tried to rebut each of McGeady's claims against Microsoft and to establish that McGeady sought revenge against Microsoft for sidetracking his career.

 

Intel witness called 'prima donna'

By Patrick Thibodeau and Elizabeth Wasserman

November 12, 1998
Infoworld

Microsoft on Thursday lashed backed at Intel Vice President Steven McGeady, painting him as a prima donna and disgruntled employee who saw Microsoft as "Satan" and leaked stories to the press.

Essentially, Microsoft did all it could Thursday morning to discredit a witness that in earlier testimony had charged the company with making a "credible and fairly terrifying" threat against it.

 

Intel exec made up quotes, says Microsoft attorney

By John Lettice

November 12, 1998
The Register

Intel VP Steve McGeady came under sustained attack from Microsoft attorney Steve Holley today, who claimed he embellished his notes from a key 1995 meeting with Microsoft, that he'd made up the critical 'cut off Netscape's air supply' quote from Paul Maritz, and that his superiors regarded him as a prima donna.

McGeady held up well, pointing out that the Maritz quote was highly memorable, and that although it didn't appear in his notes of the meeting, these did include Microsoft claims that it would "kill HTML," and "keep the browser a commodity." He might also have mentioned, if he'd had the chance, the curious longevity of the "cut off their air supply" quote. This reached the press well in advance of the trial, and Microsoft has had ample opportunity to deny it. Until today, it had not done so.

 

Microsoft, Intel wage war of words

By Dan Goodin

November 12, 1998
C/Net

Microsoft today portrayed a senior Intel executive as a disgruntled "prima donna" who fabricated allegations as part of a vendetta. But despite the sometimes dramatic cross-examination, Microsoft was unable to rebuff the executive's most damaging claim--that the software giant sought to use its dominance to suffocate competitors.

Microsoft attorney Steven Holley introduced evidence that contradicted key claims made earlier by Intel senior vice president Steve McGeady, the government's fourth witness in the ongoing antitrust trial here.

 

Mud flies as Microsoft brief goes for Intel exec's throat

By Graham Lea

November 13, 1998
The Register

Relationships within the Wintel alliance have been much more hostile than had previously been realised, it emerged during the third day of Intel VP Steve McGeady's evidence.

The most acrimonious cross-examination so far took place yesterday when Microsoft attorney Steve Holley of Sullivan & Cromwell tried to give McGeady a rough time in the witness box. At one point, Judge Jackson intervened and admonished Holley about one of his lines of questioning: "What is the point of this? What are you trying to demonstrate? Are you just trying to embarrass him?" The judge also wanted to know if McGeady was in the court "with the blessing of your CEO".

 
November 12, 1998

Microsoft Turns Antitrust Tables On Intel

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran

November 11, 1998
Newsbytes

Microsoft Corp. [NASDAQ:MSFT] turned on its close ally of almost two decades, Intel Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC], in a Washington courtroom yesterday, suggesting that the company has used its clout in the computer-chip market to strong-arm customers and withhold technology from rivals that it wants to "punish."

The allegations, delivered in a tense cross-examination of Intel Vice President Steven McGeady at the Microsoft antitrust trial, were intended to neutralize his testimony on Monday that Microsoft bullied Intel into dropping development of computer software that would compete with Microsoft's products.

See Today's Related Stories

Grilling of Intel exec to continue in Microsoft antitrust hearing

By Marc Ferranti

November 12, 1998
InfoWorld Electric

Microsoft Thursday is expected to try to poke holes in the testimony of perhaps the most damaging witness so far in the U.S. government's antitrust trial -- Steven McGeady, an Intel vice president.

McGeady is returning to the witness stand after telling how Microsoft pressured Intel to drop, among other development efforts, native signal processing (NSP) technology designed to improve PC multimedia capabilities.

 

Microsoft said drop NSP or MMX gets it, says Intel exec

By Graham Lea

November 11, 1998
The Register

"[Bill Gates] was very upset we were making software of any sort... He became quite enraged." So said Steven McGeady, the Intel VP who led the development of Intel NSP software (to make a computer "dance and sing"), as he continued to give testimony to DoJ trial attorney David Boies.

McGeady said that Gates had "made it very clear that Microsoft would not support our next processor offering" unless Intel realigned its software development to meet Microsoft's requirements. Microsoft viewed Intel as a competitor, he said. It was "Microsoft's desire we clear and essentially get approval for our software programs before proceeding with them", McGeady testified.

 

Intel touts new data path plan

By Stephen Shankland

November 11, 1998
C/Net

Intel released further details of its new way to connect devices to server computers at an industry forum today in San Diego, but it may find it's at odds with other computer makers.

The architecture has been going by the code name of NGIO (next generation input/output) and is the sequel to the PCI bus, the main data path in a PC that lets computer users plug network cards, disk drives, and other devices into the computer. The PCI architecture is in virtually every Intel-compatible personal computer shipping today and has been for about five years.

 

Direct Rambus Samples Roll Out

By Amber Howle

November 12, 1998
Computer Reseller News

Resellers should expect to see systems containing Direct Rambus memory by the middle of next year.

In the past two weeks, a few memory vendors have said they have made progress on their Direct Rambus efforts. Some have started in-house testing, while at least one is already shipping samples to PC OEMs.

 
Today's Related Stories

Microsoft Battles Back: Calls Intel Bully Too

By Darryl K. Taft

November 11, 1998
Computer Reseller News

Microsoft Corp. battled back Tuesday against claims the software giant bullied partner Intel Corp. into staying out of the software market, even turning the accusation around on Intel and claiming the chip maker itself has bullied competitors.

Mark Murray, a spokesman for the Redmond, Wash.-based software company, said Microsoft's attorney, Steven Holley, had been effective in establishing that the government's witness, Steven McGeady, an Intel vice president, had distorted facts in the case.

 
November 11, 1998

Microsoft Lawyer Grills Intel Witness
Microsoft begins cross-examining the Intel executive who says the company pressured Intel to drop multimedia technology.

By Patrick Thibodeau

November 11, 1998
PC World

Microsoft began its cross-examination Tuesday of the Intel executive who has accused the software giant of pressuring it to drop a technology that would have improved the PC's multimedia capabilities.

Steven McGeady, an Intel vice president, has testified that the company abandoned its work on native signal processing software after Microsoft pressured equipment manufacturers not to adopt it. McGeady has claimed that the technology would have improved the speed and reliability of multimedia applications.

 

Microsoft on trial: Intel's McGeady refuses Microsoft bait

By Will Rodger and Lisa M. Bowman

November 11, 1998
ZD Net News

Microsoft is having trouble rattling the Intel witness it promised in the beginning to discredit.

At yesterday afternoon's proceedings in the landmark antitrust trial, Microsoft attorney Steven Holley tried to get Intel vice president Steve McGeady to admit that his company dropped a multimedia project because it wouldn't work with Windows 95, but McGeady wouldn't bite.

McGeady testified earlier that Intel killed the so-called Native Signal Processing (NSP) project under pressure from Microsoft. Under cross-examination he said Microsoft badmouthed the project to computer makers. "This was the beginning of the end [for NSP]," he said.

 

McGeady: Microsoft threats killed Intel's multimedia software twice

By Will Rodger

November 11, 1998
Inter@ctive Week

Microsoft Corp. succeeded not once but twice in killing multimedia software efforts at Intel Corp., a steadfast Intel Vice President Steve McGeady testified Tuesday in the software giant's continuing antitrust trial.

In nearly 3 hours of often rapid-fire exchanges with Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) attorney Steven Holley, McGeady reasserted his claim that it was Microsoft's pressure, not technical incompatibilities, that killed a multimedia technology known as Native Signal Processing. Microsoft lawyers, in turn, tried to show that Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) produced an inferior product.

 

DOJ Still Focused On Microsoft-Intel Relationship

By Darryl K. Taft

November 10, 1998
Computer Reseller News

Attorneys from both sides of the antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. Tuesday continued to explore the relationship between the software giant and Intel Corp., its largest partner.

Intel vice president Steven McGeady asserted again that Microsoft tried to control or contravene Intel software efforts and make sure the chip maker did not work with Sun Microsystems Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., on Java.

 

Intel details Microsoft pressure

By Dan Goodin

November 10, 1998
C/Net

Microsoft today tried to cast doubt on the testimony of a senior Intel executive, but by day's end had failed to get the government witness to budge from claims that the software giant pressured his company to stay out of the software business.

Under today's cross-examination, Intel vice president Steve McGeady reiterated testimony he made yesterday that Microsoft in 1995 threatened to withhold support for forthcoming Intel chips if it developed software that Microsoft viewed as a threat. McGeady's testimony came as Microsoft attorney Steven Holley introduced evidence today that he said contradicted McGeady's claims.

 

Testimony by Intel's McGeady continues; cross-examination looms

By Lisa M.Bowman

November 10, 1998
ZD Net News

Microsoft Corp. attorneys appeared to be salivating over the prospects of tearing into Intel Corp. executive Steve McGeady, who continued his powerful testimony here against the software giant Tuesday morning during the Department of Justice's landmark antitrust trial.

But DOJ objections stopped Microsoft attorneys from showing a videotape of McGeady's boss, Ron Whittier, that may have undermined McGeady's testimony.

 

Torch the emails? Intel exec claims Gates considered it

By John Lettice

November 11, 1998
The Register

Showing less than his usual prescience, the author of The Road Ahead seems to have mislaid his maps back in mid-1995. At a meeting with Intel executives that July, Bill Gates is claimed to have said: "This antitrust thing will blow over," and added that the battle with the DoJ so far meant that "we may change our email retention policies."

Judging by the blizzard of emails the DoJ is using against it, Microsoft's policy on email retention does not seem to have changed, although in the Caldera case there have been some allegation of destruction of evidence. But if Bill really said this, the inescapable conclusion must be that he was thinking about torching internal communications which the DoJ might use against him later. The matter of email retention would certainly have had some piquancy in the context - Intel bosses Andy Grove and Dave House had previously been right-royally skewered by juicy Intel emails subpoenaed by AMD.

 

Lousy Intel software 2: Windows 98's full of the stuff

By John Lettice

November 10, 1998
The Register

In video testimony yesterday Bill Gates claimed Microsoft didn't like Intel's NSP technology because of the poor quality of Intel's software (see earlier story). "We thought the quality of their work was very low as well as not working with any of our new Windows work," he said. "We may have suggested at some point that the net contribution of their software activities could even be viewed as a negative."

The records however show that Microsoft has relied heavily on this low-quality software from Intel. At the time of the Windows 98 launch in June, Intel issued a modest list of 15 key technologies it had made a major contribution to in the product. Microsoft, happily, carries a list of new features in Windows 98 on its Web site, so for the edification of our readers, we compare and contrast below:

 

Intel online sales skyrocket

By Reuters

November 10, 1998
C/Net

Intel expects $2.5 billion in revenues from online sales for the fourth quarter, compared with nil a year ago, Paul Otellini, head of the architecture business group for the world's largest computer chipmaker, said today.

The $2.5 billion would exceed the company's own internal goal of $1 billion, Otellini told Reuters in an interview.

Intel has an effort in place to boost its business with computer vendors via the Internet, said an Intel spokesman. The $2.5 billion in revenue refers to the amount of processors, motherboards, and other equipment that partners will buy from Intel during the quarter. A substantial portion of this equipment formerly was purchased by phone or other means.

 

Advertising agency loses Intel consumer account

By Guy Boulton

November 10, 1998
The Salt Lake Tribune

Euro RSCG DSW Partners -- the Salt Lake City advertising agency that created Intel Corp.'s ``dancing disco bunnies'' -- will no longer handle the company's consumer advertising.

The change led DSW to eliminate 23 jobs in its Salt Lake and San Francisco offices. It also means the loss of an account that produced the agency's most high-profile work.

 
November 10, 1998

DOJ Says Microsoft Bullied Intel

By Darryl K. Taft

November 9, 1998
Computer Reseller News

Microsoft strong-armed not only competitors, but also Intel, its biggest ally, according to testimony Monday in the Microsoft antitrust case.

Intel vice president Steven McGeady, appearing under subpoena, said Microsoft chairman Bill Gates got very upset at Intel's software investment, "became enraged" over work Intel engineers did in the company's Internet Architecture Laboratory, and even asked Intel chairman Andy Grove to shut the lab, according to an Aug. 2, 1995, memo from McGeady.

See Today's Related Stories

Microsoft Cross Examination Will Rebut Intel Claims

By Darryl K. Taft

November 10, 1998
Computer Reseller News

Despite potentially damaging testimony Monday by a an Intel Corp. executive charging Microsoft Corp. with anti-competitive practices, a Microsoft spokesman told trial watchers to stay tuned, as Microsoft's attorneys hope to discredit the witness' testimony.

Mark Murray, a spokesman for Microsoft, said that Intel vice president Steven McGeady, who testified Monday that Microsoft threatened to withhold support for Intel microprocessors if the chip maker continued its software efforts, is contradicted by the sworn testimony of other ranking Intel executives.

See Today's Related Stories

Gates Denies Pressuring Intel
Microsoft chair describes Intel's software products
as "low quality" and incompatible with Windows.

By Elizabeth Wasserman

November 9, 1998
PC World

Microsoft Chair Bill Gates denied taking steps to dissuade Intel from developing Internet software, but he did describe the chipmaker's software products as being of "low quality" and "incompatible" with Windows during his video-taped deposition in preparation for Microsoft's antitrust trial.

In a 15-minute segment of the videotape played in U.S. District Court on Monday, Gates steadfastly rejected government claims that Microsoft attempted to press Intel to stick to hardware and stay away from the software trade. He also denied--in a series of simple "no" answers accompanied by long pauses and his characteristic rocking--that his company sought to keep Intel from aiding Microsoft's rivals, Sun Microsystems and Netscape Communications.

See Today's Related Stories

Gates memos show how Microsoft puts screws on Intel

By John Lettice

November 10, 1998
The Register

Threats? What threats? Bill Gates' claims that Microsoft was just trying to discourage Intel from wasting its money on NSP (see Intel writes lousy software, says Gates) took on an increasingly hollow ring as emails from the Great Man himself clearly indicated something entirely different -- if this was not pressure, then it becomes exceedingly difficult to explain.

It is agreed by all parties that Microsoft did not want Intel to pursue NSP, a software technology Intel wished to add to its CPUs -- the dispute is over why Microsoft didn't want NSP, and what steps it took to stop it.

 

Government Sets Up Intel-Microsoft Showdown

November 9, 1998
Information Week

An attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice Monday spent time building up a potential showdown between the twin towers of the PC business.

Monday morning, Justice Department attorney David Boies played more of the videotaped testimony from Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates during which the attorney grilled Gates on his and Microsoft's relationship with microprocessor king Intel Corp.

 

Intel writes lousy software, says Gates

By John Lettice

November 9, 1998
The Register

Here's a puzzle. One of the long term Wintel buddies, Andy Grove of Intel, says Microsoft strongarmed him over Native Signal Processing and he caved. Another one, Bill Gates, says he never threatened Intel, and what's more Intel software stinks.

Those of us who got the beta of Windows 1.0 will understand that Bill's something of an expert on low quality software, so we'll take notice of his video testimony this morning, which was deftly inserted by the DoJ prior to the Intel verbal testimony. Said Bill of Intel's programming: "We thought the quality of their work was very low as well as not working with any of our new Windows work... We may have suggested at some point that the net contribution of their software activities could even be viewed as a negative."

See Today's Related Stories

Microsoft on trial: Intel treads softly over Java

By Lisa M. Bowman

November 10, 1998
ZD Net UK

Intel executives appeared to wring their hands over the Java debate back when the language first gained momentum, threatening to unseat Microsoft's dominance in the operating system market.

Internal emails and memos, released during yesterday's proceedings in the Microsoft antitrust trial, paint a picture of Intel executives worrying about whether they should support the growing Java platform -- even as Microsoft urged them not to.

 

Intel Inside ad agency loses Intel consumer business

By Tony Smith

November 10, 1998
The Register

Intel has withdrawn its consumer advertising business from Salt Lake City, Utah-based Euro RSCG DSW Partners, the company that devised the abyssmal
'dancing bunnies' ads and popularised the 'Intel Inside' slogan.

Responsibility for promoting the Great Satan of chips to the great unwashed will now go to New York agency Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG. DSW will continue handling Intel's Internet and business-to-business advertising.

 
Today's Related Stories

Microsoft made threats to Intel

By Dan Goodin

November 9, 1998
C/Net

Microsoft made "credible and fairly terrifying" threats against Intel, trying to bully it into killing certain research projects, a senior executive from the chip giant testified today.

Microsoft was especially concerned about a technology known as NSP, or native signal processing, as well as Internet software Intel's research arm was developing, Steven McGeady, the company's vice president for content, testified.

 

Intel to testify about Microsoft pressure

By Elizabeth Wasserman

November 9, 1998
Infoworld

Intel Vice President Steven D. McGeady is expected to take the stand Monday and back up the government's claim that Microsoft dissuaded Intel from developing Internet software.

McGeady, who manages the Intel content group's software and Java development efforts, is the first witness so far whose direct testimony has not been released. In the three-week-old government antitrust trial against Microsoft, direct testimony from other witnesses -- including executives from Netscape, America Online, and Apple -- has been released to the public in the form of transcripts from depositions.

 

Microsoft targets Intel exec after damning testimony

By Will Rodger

November 10, 1998
Inter@ctive Week

An Intel Corp. executive testified against his company's most important business partner Thursday, accusing Microsoft Corp. of denying consumers a host of new technologies through iron-fisted control of its PC operating system monopoly.

Steve McGeady, an Intel vice president, said that in the long run, Microsoft hopes to own the Internet. Its strategy: To "embrace, extend and extinguish" the competition by substituting the company's proprietary software for the public-domain, open technologies that have driven the Net's frenetic growth, he said.

 

Intel exec's testimony contradicts Gates' version of events

By Elizabeth Wasserman

November 9, 1998
Infoworld

Microsoft made a "credible and fairly terrifying" threat to dissuade Intel from working on Internet-related and other software programs, according to testimony Monday from Steven McGeady, a vice president at the chip giant. His words were in contradiction to videotaped deposition by Bill Gates

Unlike other witnesses called so far during the trial, McGeady's direct testimony was not made public beforehand at the request of Intel. But under questioning in the government's antitrust trial against Microsoft today, McGeady, who oversaw Intel's work on development of Internet software and in the Java programming language, backed up the government's claims that Microsoft used its dominance in the operating system market to stop Intel from working on certain software projects.

 

Gates Describes 'Low-Quality' Intel Software

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran

November 9, 1998
Newsbytes

Microsoft Corp. [NASDAQ:MSFT] Chairman Bill Gates made his second extended electronic appearance in the antitrust trial of his company this morning, denying in a videotaped deposition that he or Microsoft threatened microchip giant Intel Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC] to prevent it from competing with Microsoft.

The Justice Department's lead attorney said he intends to juxtapose Gates's denials with internal Microsoft electronic mail messages and the testimony of an Intel executive, who is scheduled to take the witness stand this afternoon. The attorney, David Boies, called the deposition segments played in court "just the predicate for the questions that will come this afternoon and the documents that will be released."

 

Gates, in testimony, bashes Intel's 'low quality' software

By Lisa M.Bowman

November 9, 1998
ZD Net News

A testy, fidgety, yet surprisingly candid Bill Gates was the highlight of Monday morning's testimony here at the Microsoft Corp. antitrust trial.

In a taped deposition, Microsoft's chief executive roundly bashed close ally Intel Corp.'s entry into the software market. He told prosecutors that "Intel was wasting its money writing low-quality software that created a negative experience for users."

 

Microsoft Trial - Intel Exec blasts Gates

November 10, 1998
Insanely Great

Bill Gates ordered Intel during an August 2, 1995 meeting to shut down its Intel Architecture Labs division, some 750 engineers strong, or face loss of Windows support for Intel chips, according to Intel Vice President Scott McGeady. Gates reportedly became livid when Intel demoed some of the Internet technologies IAL had developed.

"I think it was clear to everyone in the room ... that if those processors didn't run Windows they would be useless in the marketplace," McGeady said. "So the threat was both credible and fairly terrifying."

 
November 9, 1998

370-pin 366MHz Celeron to appear in January 1999

By Mike Magee

November 9, 1998
The Register

Sources close to Intel confirmed today that the first iteration of its 370-pin slot will appear at the very beginning of next year, as part of the chip giant's two pronged attack on its competition.

But Intel is not -- as yet -- dropping its Slot One design for the Celeron, the sources confirmed.

The first 370-pin device will appear in the first week of January at a 366MHz clock speed and with the Mendocino core and will be supported by a number of motherboard vendors, including Gigabyte.

 

A year ago: Slit One will be an integrated motherboard

By Mike Magee

November 9, 1998
The Register

Our friends at Infoworld repeat some speculation this weekend about a cut-down version of the PII appearing next year. We're mighty glad and flattered to have our friends over the pond read our stuff.

But here at The Register we have a slightly different take on the now-famous Slit One technology, prompted by talking to both a pesky OEM with a particular "in" at Santa Clara and also a distributor, who will here remain unnamed.

 

Spec set for next-generation PCI; replacement detailed

By Rick Boyd-Merritt

November 7, 1998
EE Times

In its struggle to catch up with advances in microprocessors, the venerable PCI bus is becoming a push-me/pull-you, shifting into high gear and getting shunted aside all within one week.

On Wednesday (Nov. 11) Intel Corp. will unveil, here, full details of its vision of what lies beyond the Peripheral Component Interconnect, a technology it has generically dubbed next-generation I/O (NGI/O), and ask the PC industry to begin building products based on it. Meanwhile, the PCI Special Interest Group was expected to make a key move on Friday (Nov. 6) in its effort to ratify a life extension of PCI, called PCI-X, stretching the capabilities of the aging bus for several generations of new designs.

 

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