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This week's x86 headlines (details below)
The Register Microsoft Exec recommends buying AMD or NatSemi
Electronic Buyers' News AMD advises K6-2 buyers of Windows 95 glitch
San Jose Mercury News RAM speed set to increase
EE Times Intel demo shows Rambus getting ready to roll

 

x86 Weekly News

Collected By Robert R. Collins

Week of November 23, 1998

Older News

November 25, 1998

Microsoft Exec recommends buying AMD or NatSemi

By John Lettice

November 25, 1998
The Register

Microsoft OEM division senior VP Joachim Kempin seems to be a specialist in thinking the unthinkable, being a loose cannon, or both. Last week his radical recommendation that Microsoft move over to a rental model for its software became public, and now it emerges that at the same time he was suggesting Microsoft buy NatSemi or AMD.

Given the timing (December 1997, in a suggestion to Gates), our verdict on Kempin has to start tilting towards loose cannon. Microsoft was immersed in the Windows 95/Internet Explorer integration battle with the DoJ, and had for quite some time been taking a ‘heads down’ view of major acquisitions. The high tide came when the DoJ effectively warned it off from buying Intuit, and although the company slipped WebTV in afterwards, that didn’t necessarily look such a big deal at the time.

See Related Stories

Microsoft's plan to levy annual rental fee for Windows

AMD advises K6-2 buyers of Windows 95 glitch

By Richard Richtmyer

November 25, 1998
Electronic Buyers' News

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is advising buyers of the latest versions of its K6-2 processors that there is a compatibility problem between the processors and some versions of Windows 95.

The problem, which is intermittent at 350 MHz but occurs more frequently at higher speeds, stems from a software timing loop that is sensitive to processor frequency, AMD is reporting in an advisory on its Web site.

 

RAM speed set to increase

Howard News Service

November 23, 1998
San Jose Mercury News

Next year's computers will run significantly faster, not just because Intel, the world's largest chip manufacturer, plans to deliver faster versions of the Pentium processor, but because PC manufacturers will start to move to a faster type of memory known as RDRam (Rambus Direct Random Access Memory).

Rambus of California has been developing RDRam for several years, but the first samples have only just been delivered to PC manufacturers. However, 15 memory manufacturers have signed licenses to produce the chips, including Fujitsu, NEC and Toshiba from Japan, Siemens from Germany, LG Electronics and Samsung from South Korea and IBM. RDRam chips should appear in reasonable volumes in the second half of 1999.

 
November 23, 1998

AMD issues K6-2 advisory

By Lisa DiCarlo

November 20, 1998
PC Week Online

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) has advised customers of an incompatibility between the latest versions of its K6-2 processors and certain versions of Windows 95. If the incompatibility occurs, systems will fail to boot.

The Sunnyvale, Calif., company posted an advisory on its Web site stating that "when you are starting Windows 95 OSR [OEM Service Release] 2, 2.1 or 2.5 on a computer with an AMD K6-2 processor running at speeds of 350MHz and above, you may receive one of the following error messages:

Device IOS failed to initialize. Windows Protection Error. You must reboot your computer.

Windows Protection Error. You must reboot your computer."

 

Intel demo shows Rambus getting ready to roll

By David Lammers

November 20, 1998
EE Times

Taking its Rambus program closer to the goal of having next-generation systems on the market next summer, Intel Corp. booted a Windows machine based on the Rambus memory architecture at Comdex earlier this week.

The demo, which ran a game called Forsaken, came as PC makers are knee deep in the process of testing newly received samples of the processors, chip sets and memory modules that are expected to drive the new memory architecture forward.

 

Intel Sacrifices Share on ASP Altar
Despite Plunging PC Prices, Intel's Average Selling Price Remains Steady

By Linley Gwennap

November 16, 1998
Microprocessor Report

We have all seen reports of plummeting PC prices. Some indicate that the average selling price (ASP) of desktop PCs has fallen by 20% or more during the past two years. Yet Intel continues to report that the ASP of its processors has dropped only slightly during this period. How can the largest PC processor maker defy gravity so brazenly?

The first part of the trick is that PC prices and processor prices are not directly related. Most of the drop in PC prices has been due to falling prices of DRAM and disk drives. During the first half of this year, an overstuffed channel resulted in even more price competition than usual, leaving PC makers with dwindling margins. As a result, processor vendors saw only a fraction of the decline in system price.

 

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