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| Top Stories for April 12, 2000 (details below) | |
| C/Net | S3 sells graphics chip unit, shifts focus |
| PC Week Online | Intel faces another 820 chip set snafu |
| Semiconductor Business News | National shows low-power Geode processor |
| Semiconductor Business News | Rambus sues Hitachi in Germany to stop SDRAM and DDR chip sales in Europe |
| The Register Files | |
| The Register | Readers solve Pentium III laws of physics dilemma |
| The Register | Rambus PC figures give that FUD feeling |
| Today's Related Stories | |
| Electronic Buyers' News | S3 confirms reports, sheds graphics-IC business |
| PC Week Online | S3 sells graphics chip business to Via |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of April 9, 2000 |
Older News |
| April 12, 2000 | ||
S3 sells graphics chip unit, shifts focusBy Michael Kanellos and Joe Wilcox April 11, 2000 |
In the latest sign of consolidation in the graphics industry, S3 today announced it would sell its graphics chip business to focus on the booming market for Internet appliances.
Under terms of the deal, the company's graphics technology unit will be transferred to a joint venture owned primarily by Via Technologies for $323 million. The business will then work with Via to produce chipsets, a crucial piece of silicon that connects the processor to the rest of the computer, with integrated graphics capabilities. |
See Today's Related Stories |
Intel faces another 820 chip set snafuBy Ken Popovich April 11, 2000 |
Intel Corp.'s problem-plagued 820 chip set is coming under attack again, this time by frustrated users reporting its failure to work with SDRAM. But Intel says the blame resides with memory makers who are producing sub-standard components.
However, an official with at least one major SDRAM maker contends the fault lies with the 820, not the memory. |
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National shows low-power Geode processorApril 11, 2000 |
National Semiconductor Corp. today announced the Geode GX1 processor for information appliances, featuring low power consumption, high performance, and an X86 multimedia architecture.
The Geode GX1 Pentium-class processor integrates a display controller with a 2D accelerator, system memory, and PCI bus host controller. Typical power consumption for the CPU and its on-chip peripherals is between 0.8 and 1.2 W. Full-on power consumption ranges from 1.4 to 2.4 W. |
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Rambus sues Hitachi in Germany to stop SDRAM and DDR chip sales in EuropeApril 11, 2000 |
Rambus Inc. here today announced it has expanded its legal battle with Hitachi Ltd. by filing a patent infringement suit in Germany. Rambus wants to halt the importation, sale, and manufacturing of Hitachi synchronous DRAMs and double data rate (DDR) memories, which the Mountain View company claims violates its European patents. | |
The Register Files |
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Readers solve Pentium III laws of physics dilemmaBy Andrew Thomas April 11, 2000 |
You may not want an Intel Coppermine Pentium III. You might well be better off with an older Katmai processor instead. For although the newer part boasts a level two cache running at full core speed, it is now clear that despite Chipzilla's claims that 256K running at full speed is equal to 512K at half speed, Coppermine is outperformed by the older chip when handling large amounts of data, and outperformed by slower chips to boot. | |
Rambus PC figures give that FUD feelingApril 11, 2000 |
Following an article we published yesterday in which we mentioned that Rambus has posted figures showing that its RIMMs do not need to be more expensive than synchronous memory, a reader (email address supplied) has sent us the following letter:
Sorry if I keep writing about nitpicky techie things, but I noticed another one today. The Rambus figures [on its Web site] quote a machine equipped with RDRAM as being only marginally more expensive than a SDRAM machine, and they are right, it can be. |
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Today's Related Stories |
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S3 confirms reports, sheds graphics-IC businessApril 11, 2000 |
S3 Inc. today validated the rumors that have swirled about the market in recent weeks, saying that it will divest its graphics-IC business and will assume a new corporate form as an Internet-oriented company.
Confirming speculation raised by market watchers late last month (see March 31 story), the Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker said it will channel its graphics-IC operations into S3-Via Inc., a joint venture formed last year with Taiwanese chipset vendor Via Technologies Inc. |
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S3 sells graphics chip business to ViaBy Ken Popovich April 11, 2000 |
S3 Inc. today announced it has agreed to transfer its PC graphics chip business to a newly formed joint venture with Via Technologies Inc. of Taiwan in exchange for approximately $323 million.
Under the terms of the agreement, S3, of Sunnyvale, Calif., will still maintain ownership of its established Intel cross-licensing and bus-licensing agreement. The company now plans to shift into the Internet appliance business. |
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| April 11, 2000 | ||
Intel plans Timna release this yearBy Jack McCarthy April 10, 2000 |
Intel executives leaked out a few more bits of information Monday about the company's secretive Timna, or "system-on-a-chip," saying it will deliver greater performance for low-cost computers.
The processor, named after a canyon in Israel where work was carried out on its development, will be released in the second half of the year and is targeted for sub-$600 computers, Jeff McCrea, Intel's director of marketing for desktop products, said Monday in a presentation at company headquarters in Santa Clara, California. |
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Intel to spend $6 billion to boost chip productionBy Reuters April 10, 2000 |
Intel chief executive Craig Barrett said today his company will invest $6 billion this year to increase its chip production capacity amid rising global demand for computer chips.
"Given the strength in the information technology (IT) economy...we're liable to see a shortage of semiconductors across the board in the year 2000 and perhaps next year," Barrett told a news conference here. Barrett was in town to attend a forum on e-business. |
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SteelEye Receives Investment From the Intel 64 Fund to Support Linux Product Plans Apr 11, 2000, |
"SteelEye Technology Inc., an emerging leader in high-availability solutions for Linux announced today that it has received funding from the Intel 64 Fund. Full financial details were not disclosed, but the investment was made in support of SteelEye's commitment to develop and port a version of its newly acquired flagship product LifeKeeper(R) for Intel's upcoming IA64 product family, beginning with the Itanium(R) processor." | |
The Register Files |
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AMD's Spitfire victim of own performanceBy Mike Magee April 10, 2000 |
Sources close to Advanced Micro Device (AMD) said that the firm's up-and-coming Spitfire range of microprocessors are forcing the firm's hand on its integrated cache Thunderbird chips.
Thunderbirds are versions of the Athlon microprocessor with large level two caches, which come in Slot A configurations. Caches for the T'birds are likely greater than for the Spitfires. |
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Via to buy S3 graphics chip operationBy Tony Smith April 10, 2000 |
Via will today "announce its decision to purchase US-based S3's graphics chipset unit" today, according to a report in Taiwan's Commercial Times.
The question is, does this mean Via will announce it has bought S3's chip division, or that it has decided to buy said operation. These are not, you'll note the same thing at all. |
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| April 10, 2000 | ||
AMD: Mid-year high-speed chip debutBy John G. Spooner April 7, 2000 |
The code name is Thunderbird and AMD hopes it will make life for rival Intel utterly miserable.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is getting ready to turn the key on Thunderbird, a chip that will offer consumers increased computing performance without needing to pay a large price premium. The chip maker has begun sending samples of Thunderbird, which is the code name for its next-generation Athlon desktop processor, to PC makers. The chip features an improved processor core and is expected to debut in the second half of this year. |
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OEMs confronting thermal issues in gigahertz-plus PCsBy Mark Hachman April 7, 2000 |
As microprocessors break the 1-GHz barrier, PC OEMs and component designers are facing the growing challenge of how to cool their components without resorting to new, expensive alternatives.
Already a watchword in the portable-electronics industry, thermal management as it is applied to notebook PCs often requires custom designs that minimize heat through the use of exotic materials and cooling solutions. The hurdle now is to accomplish the same task in the desktop segment, but |
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Intel could boost spending to $7 billionBy Reuters April 7, 2000 |
Intel may boost capital spending this year by as much as 40 percent to $7 billion, as the world's biggest chipmaker looks to raise production to meet demand, analysts said.
Intel, expected to be the industry's top spender this year, has said it will spend $5 billion, up from $3.4 billion last year. The biggest component of capital spending for the chipmaker is manufacturing and testing equipment. |
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Rambus is expanding into communicationsBy Ken Popovich April 7, 2000 |
Rambus Inc., in the midst of a crucial battle over its patent rights and facing slower-than-expected adoption of its memory technology, is moving to tap into the high-growth communications market.
The Mountain View, Calif., company this week unveiled a new product, an I/O cell it will license for use in routers and switches. The 3.125G-bps Quad SerDes (Serializer/Deserializer) Cell marks the first license of the company's technology for a non-memory-related product. |
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The Register Files |
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Pentium III defies the laws of physicsBy Andrew Thomas April 7, 2000 |
Amid the horror of Caminogate and Rambus, an increasing number of observers are singing the praises of Chipzilla's earlier chipsets, the desktop BX and the server
GX. They may not be state of the art, but they have a major benefit: they work. In the case of the GX, they appear to work better than conventional wisdom would allow.
Intel's Lancewood server mobo is a dual slot 1 device with all the usual server gubbins thrown in - LAN, graphics, etc. Having two CPUs is usually reckoned to give between 1.5 and 1.75 times the performance of a single processor. |
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Domino Dell denies it will use AMD chipsBy Mike Magee April 7, 2000 |
Fevered speculation that Dell, a major distributor of Intel technology, might be the last domino to fall to AMD with its Athlon microprocessor, was dampened down by an executive at the PC firm late yesterday.
Kevin Rollins, a vice chairman at the Dull Corporation, told the Reuters wire that the reports were not true. He confirmed that Dell regularly met with officials from AMD, as reported here previously, but said the meetings were just that, meetings. |
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Intel IA-64 architecture to last 25 yearsBy Mike Magee April 9, 2000 |
Intel, very quietly, posted an Adobe PDF all about the Itanium and its IA-64 roadmap on its FTP site just a week ago.
And one of the slides claims that IA-64 architecture will survive for an amazing 25 years. Lest we forget, Intel has said in the past there will be Itanium machines available from June onwards this year, which means that behind the scenes everything must be happening at 64-bit speed, albeit running at 800MHz. |
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AMD starts sampling copper whoppersBy Mike Magee April 6, 2000 |
A report in EE Times said yesterday that AMD's CEO, Jerry Sanders III, has confirmed that its Dresden fabrication plant 30 has started shipping samples of x86 microprocessors using the copper interconnect process.
Sanders is reported as saying that his firm will turn in its first quarter next week with turnover of $1 billion, with sales improving because of sales of its Athlon processor and Flash memories. Yesterday, AMD's share price rose sharply on this news. |
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