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x86 Weekly News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of November 30, 1998 |
Older News |
December 4, 1998 | ||
Intel gets restraining order against email spammerBy Jonathan Rabinovitz December 4, 1998 |
A judge has temporarily halted mass
e-mailings by a former Intel employee critical of the
company in a case that could have far-reaching free
speech implications. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge John R. Lewis last week took what legal experts say is the unprecedented step of issuing a temporary injunction, ordering the ex-employee, Ken Hamidi, not to send any more messages to Intel. The court must now decide whether to make the ban permanent. |
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SMSC ships first core logic chip setsDecember 4, 1998 |
Standard Microsystems Corp., Hauppauge,
NY, has begun shipping its first PC systems logic (core
logic) chip sets. Each chip set consists of two devices, aNorthBridge IC and a SouthBridge IC. These devices, developed by SMSC's Systems Logic Business Unit, are used in PC motherboards to connect and control various elements, including the microprocessor, memory, graphics, input/output, and the system buses. Over the past two weeks, Standard Microsystems has shipped several thousand NorthBridge and SouthBridge ICs to customers worldwide. |
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Intel gets PII demand wrong...By Jane Wakefield December 2, 1998 |
Intel has admitted that it "got its
sums wrong" in predicting the number of chips needed
in Europe this year. The news follows complaints from UK distributor Datrontech that demand for Pentium II 300MHz and 333MHz processors is outstripping supply. A spokesman for Intel said "Predictions for the last quarter of 1998 were made at the beginning of the year. We underestimated demand in Europe and had a more pessimistic view than proved necessary." Intel claims it is now "up to speed" on shipments and promised "people will get their chips", with only a two to three week delay. |
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December 2, 1998 | ||
Cyrix claims massive leap in corporate perceptionBy Mike Magee December 2, 1998 |
Cyrix claimed today that a survey it has
conducted shows that the number of corporate buyers
prepared to evaluate its chips has soared from three per
cent last year to 32 per cent now. Alain Tiquet, European strategic sales manager at NatSemi-Cyrix, claimed that success in the retail market was the reason IT managers were considering its chips. He said: "There's a very strong influence from the retail market. People go into stores and think why should they pay more for similar technology. |
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Transmeta's Ditzel looks to VLIW's future at Micro-31By Alexander Wolfe December 1, 1998 |
David Ditzel, president and chief
executive of Transmeta Corp., kicked off the Micro-31
conference yesterday (Nov. 30) with a warning that the
success of upcoming very-long-instruction-word (VLIW)
processors will hinge on good physical implementations
and on the availability of robust compilers. Ditzel's pronouncements are closely followed because Transmeta (Santa Clara, Calif.) is widely assumed to be designing a VLIW processor. Such speculation has been fueled by a patent recently issued to the company which proposes a technique for speeding up RISC operations by decomposing instructions into VLIW-like parallel streams. |
See Related Stories |
Major DRAM players announce support for double-data-rate memoryDecember 1, 1998 |
Eleven DRAM suppliers--Fujitsu, Hitachi,
Hyundai, IBM, LG, Micron, Mitsubishi, NEC, Samsung,
Siemens, and Toshiba--have announced they will support
Double Data Rate (DDR) synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) memory
components and modules. The open standard, developed by the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) of the IEEE, addresses the need to increase data throughput to keep parity with increasing microprocessor speeds in servers, workstations, PCs, data communications, and consumer products. Workstation maker Silicon Graphics Inc. today announced its support system designs using DDR SDRAM technology. |
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IBM takes five-year DDR SDRAM routeBy Mike Magee December 2, 1998 |
The microelectronics division of IBM
today outlined a five year roadmap for its memory
offerings based on double data rate (DDR) technology. But
Intel and AMD's backing of Direct Rambus looks set to
make that technology the memory winner. IBM Micro said it had started shipping samples of 0.20-micron 256Mb DDR parts and would achieve volume ramp in the middle of next year. It has also started making 0.20-micron 64Mb parts. |
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December 1, 1998 | ||
Shortage of PII 333MHz and 350MHz now acuteBy Mike Magee December 1, 1998 |
Demand for Pentium II 333MHz and 350MHz
has so outstripped supply that there is an acute shortage
of parts, a distributor has warned. Two weeks ago, Intel admitted that there was heavy demand for the PII processors, while yesterday it said that the PII 233, 266MHz and 300MHz were not now generally available. At the time, Intel said that supplies would begin to catch up with demand in a few weeks, but Mark Davison, processor product manager at UK distributor Datrontech, said today there is still a shortage. |
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Via signs patent license with IntelBy Mark Carroll November 30, 1998 |
In a move that lifts some of Taiwan's
core logic for Pentium II systems from legal limbo, Via
Technologies Inc. announced today (Nov. 30) that it has
reached a joint patent license agreement with Intel Corp.
The agreement solidifies the legality of Via's Pentium II
Slot 1 core logic products, and helps to resolve several
outstanding intellectual property issues relating to
Via's chip sets. Prior to today's announcement, core logic vendors from Taiwan hid behind manufacturing licenses and/or claimed that their products did not infringe Intel's patents. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Intel puts specs for 440ZX chipset onlineBy Mark Hachman November 30, 1998 |
Intel Corp. is now providing technical
documentation on its web site for its forthcoming 440ZX
and 440ZX-66 chipsets for mid-range and low-cost PCs. However, Intel has still not formally announced the chipset, according to a spokesman for Intel, Santa Clara, Calif. |
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Chip cloner AMD sort of responds to The Register pressureBy Mike Magee November 30, 1998 |
AMD has decided to take a stance against
Microsoft and give away the Win95 patch that cured the
crippling of its K6-2 chips after The Register revealed
it was frit of the software company. Two weeks after we wrote the story, it started appearing on American wires too, but without attribution to us. But now the Great Satan of Taperecorders has posted the patch on its Web site -- which was down for most of the weekend -- and it can be found at this spot. |
See Related Stories |
Today's Related Stories | ||
Via breaks Intel grip on chipsBy Stephen Shankland November 30, 1998 |
Intel and a processor rival have reached
an agreement paving the way for more competition in the
market for Pentium II chips. Intel and Via Technologies, a manufacturer of companion chips to the main processor, have signed an agreement that should enable Via to make further inroads into a critical computer chip area now dominated by the Santa Clara giant. |
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Via Licenses Intel's 'Slot 1' TechnologyBy Sandy Chen and Mark Hachman November 30, 1998 |
Chip set maker Via Technologies
announced Monday that Intel has granted the company a
license to use Intel's "P6 bus," a technology
that Intel has closely guarded. Under the agreement, Via may build and sell core-logic chip sets for Intel's Pentium II microprocessors using Intel's "Slot 1" architecture. Via will sell certain versions of its Apollo Pro chip set family designed to use the P6 bus, paying Intel a royalty for each one. In addition, Intel has also licensed certain undisclosed patents from Via. |
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Intel, Via finalize Slot 1 license agreementBy Terho Uimonen November 30, 1998 |
Intel and Via Technologies on Monday
announced they have signed a licensing agreement that
allows Via to sell chip sets for Intel's Celeron and
Pentium II processors. The long-expected agreement was delayed due to tough negotiations about the royalties Via would pay for the rights to Intel's P6 bus architecture, sources close to the companies said. No financial details about the confidential deal were announced. |
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November 30, 1998 | ||
Windows 95 patch for K6-2 chips now freeBy Michael Kanellos November 25, 1998 |
A patch that corrects an obscure glitch
that occurs when Windows 95 is run on AMD K6-2 processors
running at 350-MHz or faster is now free. The problem, which was both reported and repaired in September, comes because of a "software timing loop" incorporated in Windows 95, said executives at both Advanced Micro Devices and Microsoft. The Windows 95 operating system was not originally designed for processors running at speeds of 350-MHz or more, said sources. As a result, computer users with Windows 95 and a 350-MHz chip would occasionally get a "Windows Protection Error" when booting up. A similar problem existed with 333-MHz Pentium II chips that ran Windows 95, but it was fixed early on. |
Click here to get patch |
Patch for Windows 95 OEM SR2 and aboveAMD |
Please note that this patch will not resolve issues associated with any other versions of Windows 95 other than the OEM SR2 version. If you have any other version other than OEM SR2, please contact technical support for further options available to you. To determine the version that you have on your system, please read below. | See Related Stories |
Transmeta reveals radical new chip designBy John Lettice November 29, 1998 |
Chip design operation Transmeta has finally tipped its hand by filing a patent application for a radical new product which could conceivably run virtually any application faster than the original. If the company is barking up the right tree, it will be able to build a completely new line of processors which will be able to run all existing Intel software, without Transmeta having had to maim its own hardware in order to do so. | |
Intel Faces Stiff CompetitionBy Andy Santoni November 30, 1998 |
A blizzard of new CPUs will hit the
market next year--and buyers will come out the winners. Buyers will get more choices in PCs, and Intel will get more paranoid, as CPU competitors field an array of chips in 1999--some of them more capable than Intel's high-end offerings. "These guys are going to be fighting each other tooth and nail," said Nathan Brookwood, a principal at Insight 64, a consulting firm in Saratoga, California. |
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Top PC makers withhold support from Intel I/O schemeBy Rick Boyd-Merritt November 25, 1998 |
Citing concerns about Intel Corp.'s
approach to open standards, three top PC server makers
are refusing to endorse an Intel effort to define a
next-generation computer I/O architecture. It's not yet clear whether Compaq, IBM and Hewlett-Packard will hammer out a unified response or separate counterproposals to Intel's so-called NGIO, which Intel rolled out at a high-profile conference earlier this month. But the trio is sending signals that it takes issue with both business and technology aspects of the Intel plan. |
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Intel, VIA settle chipset rowMike Magee November 30, 1998 |
Intel and VIA have settled their dispute
over chipsets for the Pentium II family, it was confirmed
today. Under the terms of the agreement, Intel will receive royalties from the Taiwanese company and will have rights to build its Apollo chipset. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. |
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Eleven DRAM vendors pledge support for DDRMike Magee November 30, 1998 |
Eleven DRAM manufacturers have pledged
their support for the DDR (double data rate) SDRAM
standard, despite the rise and rise of Direct Rambus. Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hyundai, Big Blue, LG, Micron, Mitsubishi, NEC, Samsung, Siemens and Toshiba all said they would use the standard, which was developed by the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council (JEDEC). And SGI said it would also develop systems using DDR. |
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Original Celeron bites dustMike Magee November 30, 1998 |
The original Celeron is discontinued,
Intel confirmed today. The processor, launched in spring
this year, gave way to later revisions of the brand name
with a faster Mendocino core. And Intel has also decided to discontinue the PII/233, the PII/266 and the PII/300. It will continue to supply the processors to those with existing orders until November 1999, a representative said. |
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Analysis: Intel regroups to strengthen StrongARMBy Anthony Cataldo November 27, 1998 |
After a year of uncertainty, the
embedded StrongARM processor has found a home with its
new parent, Intel Corp., which is scheduled to have its
first home-grown version of the processor ready by the
second half of 1999. The company has come a long way since it announced it would buy Digital Equipment Corp.'s fabrication facility in Hudson, Mass. as part of its antitrust settlement with Digital, a deal that gave it rights to StrongARM. Some analysts remain skeptical. |