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| Top Stories for April 26, 2000 (details below) | |
| Electronic News Online | Intel reportedly begins sampling Wilamette processor |
| ZD Net UK |
AMD fires new salvo in memory wars AMD demonstrates first Athlon system with DDR, as new memory technology prepares to do battle with Rambus |
| The Register Files | |
| The Register | Transmeta targets Intel's mobile underbelly |
| The Register | Intel: Willamette already sampling |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of April 23, 2000 |
Older News |
| April 26, 2000 | ||
Intel reportedly begins sampling Wilamette processorApril 25, 2000 |
Intel Corp. has reportedly begun sampling its next-generation Pentium III microprocessor (code-named Willamette) to some PC makers and software vendors, according to reports from the Japanese publication Asia
BizTech.
Patrick P. Gelsinger, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Desktop Products Group, said the company has shipped some samples and plans to start volume production and shipments in the July-December period, according to Asia BizTech, an affiliate of the Nikkei BP Network. Gelsinger reportedly made the comments at a press conference in Tokyo Monday. An Electronic News editor covering WinHEC (Windows Hardware and Engineering Conferences) in New Orleans, La., is currently trying to confirm those reports. |
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AMD fires new salvo in memory wars
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Chip maker AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) turned up the heat in the growing PC memory battle, with the first demonstration of
an Athlon system with support for double data rate (DDR) memory. DDR competes with the more expensive Rambus
memory (RDRAM), supported by dominant chip maker Intel.
AMD plans to roll out a new chipset, the AMD-760, supporting DDR in the second half of this year, at which time DDR memory modules will also be available. DDR and Rambus memory both increase overall system speed by greatly increasing the rate at which memory can be accessed. Memory speed is becoming a serious bottleneck as processor speeds have increased, recently hitting the 1GHz mark. |
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The Register Files |
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Transmeta targets Intel's mobile underbellyBy Mike Magee April 25, 2000 |
While folk in Blighty were noshing away at their choccie Easter eggs yesterday, start-up Transmeta was busy announcing support for its range of x86 mobile processors to the tune of a $73 million investment from some heavyweight PC names.
Transmeta also got additional dosh from some world class financial investors to the tune of $15 million, including the Deutsche Bank and Soros Fund Management, it said in a statement. |
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Intel: Willamette already samplingBy Mike Magee April 25, 2000 |
Intel has already started sampling Willamette, its next generation IA-32 microprocessor, according to Intel senior VP Pat
Gelsinger, as quoted by Nikkei Business Wire.
Gelsinger also said that Intel will continue to up the frequency of Coppermine Pentium IIIs beyond the 1GHz it has already achieved, the Asian news service reports. Although Gelsinger would not give an exact date for volume production of the Willamette, according to Nikkei it could be between July or December. Those dates seem unnecessarily vague, if the chip is already sampling. |
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| April 25, 2000 | ||
Transmeta Gets BoostersBy Clare Haney April 24, 2000 |
Notebook-makers Compaq, Gateway, Sony invest in Transmeta's chip technology.
Innovative chip startup Transmeta has scored some powerful supporters. America Online, Compaq, Gateway, and Sony are among the newest investors, who contributed to a $88 million round of financing. Formerly something of a secretive operation, Transmeta took the wraps off its Crusoe mobile processor in January. The chip is designed to power both notebooks and smaller Web-access devices, particularly those using wireless technologies. One of the company's main backers is Linus Torvalds, the developer of the Linux open-source operating system. |
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Intel soups up mobile Pentium III to 700 MHz, Celeron to 550 MHzApril 24, 2000 |
Intel Corp. today rolled out its fastest microprocessors yet for mobile PCs--a 700-MHz Pentium III and a 550-MHz Celeron central processor unit.
Intel said the 700-MHz Pentium III costs $562 and the new Celeron chip is priced at $150 in quantities of 1,000. Volume shipments are now underway, according to the Santa Clara company. |
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The Register Files |
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Intel Itanium found in Old Aberdeen reportBy Mike Magee April 24, 2000 |
An Aberdeen Group report on Intel's IA-64 strategy is suggesting that future platforms will benefit from microprocessors such as the Itanium, the McKinley, the Madison and Deerfield when they begin to permeate big system boxes.
We're from Aberdeen ourselves, so our eyes preternaturally light up when there's the possibility of combining details of the Scottish City with Intel's Itanium platform. Will we discover the Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen in Intel's chunky chip? Has granite a part to play in the strategy? How expensive is housing in the Silver City now that the oil industry has supplanted quarrying and fishing as major industries? |
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Today's Related Stories |
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Transmeta wins $88 million from AOL, othersBy Stephen Shankland April 24, 2000 |
Transmeta, which aims to take on Intel in the processor market, announced that it has received $88 million in funding from America Online, Gateway, Compaq Computer, Sony and several major Taiwanese electronics manufacturers in a deal that could lead to an initial public offering later this year.
Transmeta came out of hiding with great fanfare in January, unveiling two chips that the company promises will offer dramatically longer battery life for use in laptops and portable Internet devices. The chips also are compatible with Windows and applications written for the PC, as well as Linux. |
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Transmeta raises $88M in latest funding roundBy Anne Knowles April 24, 2000 |
Transmeta Corp., the maker of x86-compatible mobile processors, closed a new round of financing today that included America Online Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., Gateway Inc. and Sony Corp. among the investors.
The Sunnyvale, Calif., startup received $72 million from AOL, Compal Electronics, Compaq, First International Computer, Gateway, Phoenix Technologies, Quanta Computer, Samsung and Sony, all new investors. Previous investors -- Soros Fund Management, Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures, Van Wagoner Capital Management, Invemed Associates, Tudor Investment Corp., Five Points Capital and Deutsche Bank -- contributed $16 million to the round for a total of $88 million. |
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Transmeta lands $88M in investments to finance processor effortsApril 24, 2000 |
Transmeta Corp., the microprocessor market hopeful that emerged from stealth mode in January with the launch of its much anticipated line of high-speed, low-power integrated
MPUs, received an $88 million shot in the arm today from a wide range of corporate investors.
Those lining up to drop an offering in the Santa Clara, Calif., company's coffers included a string of well-heeled electronic-component and PC software suppliers, systems OEMs, and assembly houses, and a leading Internet service provider. |
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| April 24, 2000 | ||
Intel delays Celerons because of manufacturing crunchBy Michael Kanellos April 20, 2000 |
Intel has pushed back the release of two desktop processors because of a manufacturing crunch that has created shortages.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker has delayed the release of 633- and 667-MHz Celeron chips by approximately two months, according to industry sources close to the company. |
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AMD, Intel juggle capacity to meet upside PC demandBy Mark Hachman and Jack Robertson April 21, 2000 |
Facing an unexpected uptick in PC demand, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Intel Corp. are using their manufacturing capacity and component supply to maximum advantage.
AMD, for instance, may not share its new fab in Dresden, Germany, with another company, as previously planned, because it needs the capacity to meet expected demand for its Athlon microprocesssors, a company executive said. |
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Intel may license I/O scheme to link Itanium processorsBy Anthony Cataldo April 20, 2000 |
Intel Corp. may license a proprietary I/O scheme that links its upcoming Itanium processors or clusters of processors. The I/O will allow OEMs to design systems with independent but connected multi-processor nodes rather than employing a common bus for all the 64-bit processors residing in the same box, according to a company official.
The I/O scheme can serve as a chip-to-chip or node-to-node link between single- or multiple-processor nodes in the same box. The I/O has a different purpose than the Intel-backed Infiniband I/O proposal, which is described as a switching fabric that will connect multiple boxes or peripherals like storage systems and eliminate the expensive crossbar switches found in mainframes. |
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USB 2.0 specification to spark new round of chipsBy David Lammers April 21, 2000 |
The final Universal Serial Bus 2.0 specification is expected to be released next week at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in New Orleans, and to become available on the USB
Iplementers Forum Web site next Wednesday, EE Times has learned.
The release is expected to kick off a wave of chips that support USB 2.0, which will extend the full-speed transfer rate of USB from a possible 12 megabits per second in USB 1.1 up to 480 Mbits/sec. |
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The Register Files |
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We're Intel. We make muthaboards™By Andrew Thomas April 20, 2000 |
Welcome to Intel ® technical support. Here is a genuine post:
Hello Peter Regards Hey! This guy got an A+ in his Microsoft exams! That means he must know everything there is to know about hardware (even if he obviously has a few lessons still to learn in modesty). |
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1GHz Coppermine shouldn't be hot stuffBy Andrew Thomas April 20, 2000 |
Tom's Hardware Guide – one of our favourite sites – was bemoaning its observation that all the Gigahertz Pentium III systems it had seen had gigantic heat sinks, featuring a special copper 'heat pipe' that leads to yet another heat sink outside the case. THG reckoned that this heat sink added an extra cost of between $50–80 to the system price.
We were surprised at this extra cooling requirement as the fastest machine we're running at the moment is a 750MHz Cumine clocked at 800MHz (sorry, Intel). This box runs about 12 hours a day, six days a week and has a cheap (£10) and cheerful active heatsink no bigger than the old Pentium II ones. The chip runs stone cold. So why all the extra gubbins for a part running just 150MHz faster? |
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AMD Athlons as scarce as hen's teethBy Mike Magee April 23, 2000 |
Just a few days after we reported on Intel's continuing shortage of Coppermine microprocessors -- which the long-toothed will remember started the day after they were launched last October 25th -- the effects are beginning to have an effect on AMD and its performing Athlon platform.
European distributors reported to us last Thursday that from having a healthy supply of AMD microprocessors from the very beginning of this year, a combination, made up of several factors had caused shortages to appear in the marketplace. |
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NeoMagic quits notebook graphics marketBy Tony Smith April 21, 2000 |
Notebook PC graphics specialist NeoMagic is pulling out of the business that made its name, beaten off by the major 3D graphics chip companies. Instead, it's going to focus on wireless networking.
NeoMagic has pretty much controlled the notebook graphics market for the last couple of years, but as market analysts cited in an Electronic Buyers' news (EBN) report point out, it's not exactly been known for its expertise in 3D. |
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Price of Rambus RIMMs drops shockBy Mike Magee April 20, 2000 |
Kingston Technology, purveyor of memory modules, said today that it has dropped the price of some of its Rambus RIMMs by as much as 68 per cent.
The average amount of the drop is 35 per cent, Kingston said, and a representative from the firm said that the reason was greater availability and shorter lead times for RIMMs. This will be great news for those who wish to use Rambus memory on their 820 motherboards but will be bad news for people who have just bought RIMMs before the price dropped by 68 per cent. |
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