Microprocessor
Headline News

Top Stories for February 4, 2000 (details below)
EE Times	Intel forum to map three-front battle
IT Network	Transmeta's Crusoe explained
*The Register Files*
The Register	More Intel chip, chipset details leak
The Register	AMD spells out mobile plans for 2000

Microprocessor Headline News

Collected By Robert R. Collins

Week of January 30, 2000

Older News

February 4, 2000
Intel forum to map three-front battle By David Lammers February 3, 2000 EE Times	Intel Corp. executives will create a product triangle of sorts when the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) opens Feb. 15 in Palm Springs, Calif. Some 3,000 participants are expected to hear them describe the Timna processor with integrated graphics, the next-generation 32-bit Willamette microarchitecture and the Itanium 64-bit processor. The company expects that trio of products to be introduced to the market this year and to position Intel in the value, performance and high-end-server portions of the computer marketplace.
Transmeta's Crusoe explained By Ajith Ram February 3, 2000 IT Network	Transmeta’s Crusoe processor boasts full x86 compatibility and extremely low power consumption - it is an impressive innovation. Transmeta's Crusoe processors can be considered as the natural successors to the older RISC architectures. But they also boast full x86 compatibility by implementing the principles of a later development - VLIW design coupled with software translation. The Code Morphing software resides in a ROM and is the first program to start executing when the system is switched on. The operating system communicates directly only with the Code Morphing software. This software in turn converts these instructions into "words" which the VLIW hardware can process.
The Register Files
More Intel chip, chipset details leak By Mike Magee February 3, 2000 The Register	Overclocking site Hard OCP has published details of up and coming announcements from Intel during the year. According to the story, Solano II and Camino II will be designated the 815e and the 820e, while a 1GHz Pentium III is slated for the third quarter of this year. The roadmap shows a 933MHz Pentiun III in June, although our information is that will arrive in May, while an 866MHz Pentium III will click in by the end of this quarter.
AMD spells out mobile plans for 2000 By Mike Magee February 3, 2000 The Register	While mobile Athlons will not arrive until close to the end of this year, AMD aims to bridge the gap by introducing Gemini-based chips before June, it said today. Gemini is similar technology to Intel's SpeedStep mobile processors, which help to increase the length of time a notebook will stay active. Richard Baker, marketing director at AMD Northern Europe, said that the mobile K6-III+, a 100MHz front side bus part with 256K of on-die level two cache, and using .18 micron technology, will appear before June. The K6-2+ will have 128K of on chip cache.
February 3, 2000
Intel's SpeedStep is not worth the money Michael Caton February 2, 2000 PC Week Labs	The chip is ready, but the company has yet to ship the OS that runs on it Hewlett-Packard's new OmniBook 900 and IBM's new ThinkPad 600X offer solid performance gains over predecessor notebook PCs due to Intel's faster Pentium III processors with SpeedStep. However, the SpeedStep power-saving technology does not deliver tremendous gains in battery life. The Pentium III SpeedStep mobile processors, which Intel introduced earlier this month at 650MHz and 600MHz, operate at 500MHz when running off a notebook PC's battery. Earlier versions of the OmniBook and ThinkPad were outfitted with the 500MHz Pentium III.
Intel's 'Willamette' heats up GHz race By John G. Spooner February 2, 2000 ZDNet News	The curtain is about to be lifted on chip giant's upcoming 1GHz-plus processor, which will fuel home computers linked via broadband to the Web. The race to -- and past -- 1 gig heats up in two weeks. That's when Intel Corp. will lure developers to Palm Springs, Calif., for some winter golf and the semiannual Intel Developer Forum, where the company will unveil the latest in its processor technology. The highlights will include two new processor architectures along with a new -- yet familiar -- one, Itanium.
Coppermine shortage, shelf space on AMD's side February 2, 2000 Electronic News Online	Trips to local computer retailers in New York City brought to light some interesting developments in the PC marketplace. For one, the Coppermine shortage may not be resolved. A Gateway spokesman said that systems running 750MHz or 800MHz versions of Intel's "Coppermine" processors had a lead time of seven days. However, Gateway Country Store sales staff said such systems would not ship until February 11. When asked if there would be any problems receiving immediate delivery on Coppermine-based systems, the staff consulted a delivery status document and concluded that systems would not ship until Feb. 11. Meanwhile, Gateway Select systems running 800MHz version of Athlon processors are no lead times and are available today for delivery, a Gateway spokeswoman said.
Intel To Acquire Former Rockwell Fab By Loring Wirbe February 2, 2000 EE Times	Intel will Wednesday announce its purchase of the 8-inch fab building in Colorado Springs, Colo., that was built but never facilitized by Rockwell International before its Rockwell Semiconductor division became Conexant Systems. While no purchase price for the building was disclosed, sources close to Intel said the deal is final and that installation of test equipment could begin by late winter. Intel plans to use the fab for advanced sub-quarter-micron CMOS processes for 32- and 64-bit processors, according to an analyst who asked to remain anonymous. A fairly rapid ramp for the fab is foreseen. While employees at Intel's Rio Rancho fab in New Mexico said limited cutbacks have begun at the Fab 9 facility on the West Mesa near Albuquerque, an Intel spokesman said any slowdown in hiring is related to equipment refurbishing, and that Rio Rancho remains on a fast growth path.
The Register Files
How did Intel get it so wrong? By Mike Magee February 2, 2000 The Register	Chipzilla is keeping a brave face on things in the face of shortages of Pentium III processors that seem to be pushing its customers into the arms of AMD. So what's gone wrong in Chipzilla Centrale? Chatting to a colleague here, he suggested that perhaps the real problem is that for once, the fire drill isn't a drill. And it isn't. For the first time ever, since AMD and Intel engaged in fisticuffs, the chip contender has got the champion on the run, and appears to be knocking the stuffing out of him.
Intel confirms huge Pentium III chip shortage By Mike Magee February 1, 2000 The Register	The following letter from Intel to its channel partners is self explanatory. It includes information about up and coming price cuts, the big shortage of Pentium IIIs in February, the move to FC-PGA and the shipping of Intel Pentium IIs to the channel. January 18, 2000 This is a notice to inform you of the current availability outlook for the Intel boxed processors sold through authorized distribution channels. This outlook statement is based on current expectations -- it is forward looking and actual results may differ. We recommend that system integrators contact their authorized distributors for specific availability and pricing information.
Willamette coming real soon now By Peter Sherriff February 1, 2000 The Register	The headless chicken scenario at Intel goes from strength to strength. As OEMs queue up to build Athlon-based systems, the once-almighty Chip behemoth is plumbing new depths in the panic department. Not content with being unable to supply enough Coppermine Pentium III chips, Athlon's performance is forcing Intel to torture the venerable P6 processor core by running it well above its original design spec. 750MHz PIIIs do exist in small numbers, but reports from UK system builders indicate that they run so hot that only the very best dual-fan heatsinks are good enough to keep them running.
February 1, 2000
Intel developing 'quad-pump' bus design to speed processor data By Jack Robertson January 31, 2000 Electronic Buyers' News	Intel Corp. is developing a new "quad-pumped" processor bus that is expected to reach a clock speed of 400 MHz when running in Intel's next-generation Foster and McKinley server microprocessors, according to industry sources. Sources contacted last week at the Platform 2000 Conference in San Jose said the new frontside bus (FSB) will be common to both the 32-bit Foster and 64-bit McKinley, the latter of which is slated to succeed the Itanium processor. Foster is expected to be unveiled late this year or early in 2001 and will be available with up to a four-processor configuration per server. The device will be supported by the new Colusa chipset, which sources said also is in development.
Transmeta chip may hold key for computing's future By Don Tapscott January 31, 2000 Computer World	The subdued reaction of some analysts to the Transmeta chip announcement tells me that they just don't get it. A powerful microprocessor that was designed from scratch to facilitate wireless Internet access will have a big impact on the workplace. Transmeta's target market of wireless Internet appliances and ultralight laptops isn't — as some commentators claim — simply a computing "niche." It's the market of the future, and in this arena, Transmeta's Crusoe chip is dramatically more appealing than Intel's products. Intel's mission in life is to build increasingly muscular chips through increasingly complicated hardware.
Faster, cheaper memory could threaten Rambus By Michael Kanellos January 31, 2000 C/Net	A faster version of PC memory will start to appear in workstations and server computers toward the end of the year, a development that could present yet another challenge to the much-hyped Rambus memory technology. Although the clamor isn't universal, a number of executives and analysts are predicting that the technology with an unwieldy name--Double Data Rate Dynamic Random Access Memory, or DDR DRAM--is in line to become the de facto standard for computer memory.
Micron ships 2.5-volt 128-Mbit DDR memories, plans 256-Mbit this year January 31, 2000 Semiconductor Business News	Micron Technology Inc. today announced it has begun shipping samples of 2.5-volt 133-MHz 128-megabit double data rate (DDR) SDRAMs. The company said the 133-MHz and 100-MHz speed grades are the first 128-Mbit density offerings planned in a new series of 2.5-V DDR SDRAM products. "These next-generation DDR SDRAMs support a variety of applications, ranging from servers to desktop PCs, as well as provide benefits in graphics and networking," said Deb Freitas, DRAM marketingmanager at Micron.
The Register Files
Intel to go for McKinley before Itanium-Merced By Mike Magee January 31, 2000 The Register	Chipzilla's follow up to the Merced-Itanium platform, McKinley, is likely to beat its predecessor to the market, informed sources told The Register late today. McKinley is close to taping out and the IA-64 development team believes that limited clock speeds on Itanium yields have forced Intel to this conclusion. The Merced-Itanium has so far failed to achieve over 600MHz clock speeds on the part, although Intel and its partners want it to clock at at least 1GHz. Official HP charts show that they want 800MHz from Itanium-Merced before it can be a viable microprocessor for the competitive 64-bit market.
How Rambus lost the PC memory war By Mike Magee January 31, 2000 The Register	You would expect Hyundai's controversial statement that DDR will hog the memory market for servers this year, followed by an estimate from Semico that Rambus memory will hold only a tiny fraction of the market by the year 2003, would dent its share price. But there's no accounting for investors, is there? On Friday Rambus Ink (RMBS) dropped a couple of bucks to close at $74.5625, but despite the barrage of bad press RMBS has had, it still seems it's hanging on in there. (By the way, thank goodness the SEC has decided that all share prices must be shown in decimals by July 3rd this year -- fractions in HTML are a nightmare).
Camino chipset poses new lamps for old question By Mike Magee January 31, 2000 The Register	Intel is keeping its card close to its corporate chest on when it will roll out its Solano II chipset, following the news last week that it will produce a combined DIMM-RIMM i820 in the very new future. Solano II (i815) is designed to support PC-133 memory, and according to our information will also have additional AGP4X facilities. Samples of Solano II have been with PC manufacturers for some weeks now, but it is unclear, given the new version of Camino, when Intel will roll out the chipset.
January 31, 2000
AMD, Via Tout Top Bus Speeds For Chip Sets By Mark Hachman January 28, 2000 Electronic Buyers' News	Now that Advanced Micro Devices has its Athlon microprocessor chugging along under a full head of steam, the company and its chip set associate, Via Technologies, are tipping plans to keep the platform moving at top speed. Not surprisingly, the announcements were made at Platform 2000, a conference sponsored by InQuest Market Research, Gilbert, Ariz., and dedicated to non-Intel PC components. Via and AMD both chose to focus on their chip set road maps rather than their microprocessor designs.
Intel samples new spin of i820 chipset January 28, 2000 Electronic News Online	Intel is sampling a new version of the i820 (Camino) chipset supporting Direct Rambus memory for PCs. The latest iteration supports three slots of Rambus in-line memory modules (RIMMs) on a motherboard. Numerous delays and design glitches have dogged the i820, originally slated for release in the first half of last year. The Intel chipset is key to Intel's plan to migrate the PC market to high-bandwidth Rambus memory.
Transmeta Crusoe Preview At Platform 2000 By Jon Simon January 31, 2000 SharkyExtreme.com	Transmeta Corporation, founded in 1995 and based in Santa Clara, California, recently unveiled two new CPUs. Intended to take the portable world by storm, these CPUs are the x86 capable Crusoe TM3120 and TM5400 VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) processors. We've been asked by our readers to give our thoughts about the Crusoe, but until recently, we had no direct experience. At this year's Platform 2000, we took a good long look at the Crusoe, watched presentations by Transmeta engineers and asked plenty of questions. Here's what we think so far:
...as Intel processor shortage pinches OEM earnings By Crista Souza January 28, 2000 Electronic Buyers' News	While PC OEMs are learning to cope with a fragmented DRAM market, the supply chain is being further impaired by a shortage of microprocessors from Intel Corp. Caught off guard by unusually high post-holiday demand for certain desktop models, Intel is unable to fulfill new orders, and said it may not be able to catch up with the backlog until the latter part of this quarter. The impact is already being felt in the customer base. Two major PC makers that had relied exclusively on Intel processors blamed their weak year-end sales figures, at least in part, on a shortage of the chips. Dell Computer Corp. last week said the lack of Coppermine and Pentium III parts ate into its fourth-quarter sales by $300 million. Earlier this month, Gateway Inc. cited a similar situation as contributing to its lower-than-expected earnings.
DDR-II fuels fires of DRAM debate By Will Wade and Rick Merritt January 28, 2000 EE Times	Fresh details have emerged about the second spin of double-data-rate DRAM, the newest contender for the throne of next-generation high-performance memory. Though DRAM makers and analysts were split over how significant DDR-II will be, a consensus was forming that the DRAM market is headed for changes based on diversifying memory types and a fundamental restructuring in PCs — the memory market's major driver. DDR-II is expected to offer a minimum bandwidth of 400 Mbits/second per pin based on 100-MHz signaling. With chip frequencies rising, a 150-MHz core could produce bandwidth as high as 600 Mbits/s per pin. The interface is expected to run at 1.8 volts, down from the 2.5 V of DDR-I, and it will demand new packaging at both the chip and module levels, as well as a new data-capture and synchronization scheme.
Rambus confounds market share estimation By Tom Murphy January 28, 2000 Electronic News Online	Rambus DRAM continues to confound market estimation. While some analysts remain confident in Direct Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) memory technology and its future place in the marketplace, other analysts have begun to rock the boat. In her "DRAM Market Direction" address at the Platform 2000 conference, Sherry Garber, senior vice president of Semico Research Corp., charted the RDRAM as gaining 2.6 percent of the total units shipped in 2000 and then trailing off to about 2.3 percent in 2001. Rambus RDRAM then declines to 1.1 percent of the units shipped in both 2002 and 0.8 percent in 2003. Garber predicted DDR SDRAM, the rival high-density memory device to Rambus, will gain approximately 8 percent market share this year and then experiences significant growth through 2004. For Garber, the high costs associated with RDRAM do not jib with the low-cost aspirations of PC consumers.
Chips embark on road to 20 gigahertz By Michael Kanellos January 28, 2000 C/Net	If certain technological hurdles can be cleared, processors running at a mind-boggling 20 gigahertz could be commercially available in the next eight years. But what does that mean for the companies producing the chips? Mastering lots of arcane technology and lots of headaches for the research department. It's not just about transistors anymore: Tantalum oxide chip gates, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, new microarchitecture and better insulation are some of the developments that will come to the microprocessor arena in the next decade so that chips can continue to increase in performance according to Moore's law, Intel researchers said this week.
Transmeta CPU surfaces in Taiwan January 28, 2000 Electronic News Online	Following the debut of two Crusoe processors from Transmeta World, company representatives were in Taiwan last week to promote the new processors for the notebook market. Silicon Valley startup Transmeta says the very low power consumption of the processors will benefit portable PCs. According to John Lin, country manager for Transmeta in Taiwan, not only will Crusoe-based notebooks run longer on battery power, they should also be lighter.
Is Ruiz right choice to replace Sanders at AMD? By Darrell Dunn and Mark Hachman January 28, 2000 Electronic Buyers' News	What will Hector A. Ruiz's shift from Motorola to Advanced Micro Devices mean for both companies? The nomination of Ruiz to the post of president and chief operating officer at AMD this week caught the chip community off guard. Ruiz inherits the position vacated by Atiq Raza last year, and is the heir apparent to AMD chairman and chief executive Jerry Sanders, whose contract expires next year. At Motorola, Ruiz was a strategist who formulated a turnaround plan for the company's Semiconductor Products Sector. But it will be Ruiz's tactical skills that are put to the test at AMD, where problems with manufacturing execution have only recently been put to rest.
The Register Files
Intel to make major CuMine stepping change April 7th By Mike Magee January 30, 2000 The Register	Chip giant Intel is set to make a major revision of its .18 micron Coppermine cores on the 7 April next, according to internal documents we have seen. The product change notification (PCN 904), dated the 27th of December last, will affect both SECC2 (Slot One) and FC-PGA (Flip Chip) packaging. Intel cites the reasons for the changes to improve product performance, allow the introduction of higher CPU frequencies, to change the microcode, and to correct errata discovered since it first started shipping the .18 micron Coppermine processors sometime towards the end of last year.
Fresh Intel i820 chipset close to completion By Mike Magee January 28, 2000 The Register	Intel's embarrassment over the i820 chipset looks set to be resolved at last. Maybe. Sources close to the company's plans have informed us that Intel will ship an updated chipset for sampling to mobo vendors in mid-February which will, at last, support both Rambus memory and synchronous DRAM memory on the same planar. The boards will have support for two Rambus sockets and two additional SDRAM sockets, and also will include a revised, B2 stepping of the memory translator hub (MTH) which is now called the memory conversion hub (MCH).
Semico sees little future for Rambus memory By Mike Magee January 28, 2000 The Register	Presentations from market research company Semico and Hyundai have cast further doubts over the future of Rambus memory as a successful PC platform. At this week's Platform 2000 conference, Sherry Garber, a senior vice president at Semico Research, claimed that Rambus would only achieve two per cent of the market during this year, and that by the year 2004, that will shrink to a minority share of 0.1 per cent, along with EDO RAM.
When Crusoe met Speedstep By Drew Cullen January 28, 2000 The Register	Transmeta's Crusoe chips represent the first serious technical challenge to Intel mobile processors, but can the company overcome Chipzilla's market dominance, the IT Network asks. Crusoe could end up "like Betamax -- leaner, meaner, arguably better -- and a long long way from widespread adoption", author John Sabine argues. He compares and contrasts the low-power consumption approaches of Intel Speedstep and Crusoe -- and comes out in favour of Transmeta.
First Via Joshua silicon chip flee from fabs By Mike Magee January 30, 2000 The Register	Sources not a million miles away from the capital of Taiwan have told The Register that production quality .18 micron silicon for Via's Joshua microprocessor arrived at the end of last week. The Joshua processor is likely to be officially rolled out with a product line in early March, according to the same sources. The silicon is manufactured in National Semiconductor's South Portland fabrication plant, and the first units to ship will be PR-533 parts, the same sources said.