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Microprocessor
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| Top Stories for September 1, 2000 (details below) | |
| San Jose Mercury News |
Intel recalls its fastest chip |
| eWEEK | Need for speed sent Intel down dubious path |
| San Jose Mercury News | |
| C/Net | |
| C/Net | |
| C/Net | |
| EE Times | |
| C/Net | |
| EE Times | |
| C/Net | |
| The Register Files | |
| The Register | First Pentium 4 benchmarks appear |
| The Register | Intel factories fail to keep up |
| The Register | Intel under attack at high end |
| The Register | Another AMD suit legs it |
| The Register | The Reg guide to interviewing Intel |
| The Register | Intel: Spot a problem and don't win a Metro |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of August 27, 2000 |
Older News |
| September 1, 2000 | ||
Intel recalls its fastest chip
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Intel Corp. said Monday it is recalling the fastest model of its Pentium III family after it found a failure in one of the chip's circuits, the latest in a string of missteps that has plagued the world's largest semiconductor maker.
The Santa Clara-based chip maker said it is recalling the 1.13 gigahertz version of the Pentium III, which was introduced late last month, because it found a circuit failure when the chip runs two programs, one of them a benchmark for performance evaluation. |
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Need for speed sent Intel down dubious pathBy Ken Popovich August 29, 2000 |
Intel Corp.’s decision Monday to recall the 1.13GHz Pentium III highlights a more serious issue, with critics concerned that the chip maker is sacrificing quality in order to rush processors to market for nothing more, in the words of one analyst, than “bragging rights.”
Over the past year, Intel has staked claims with each successive release of a new Pentium III to having the fastest processor on the market, only to see rival Advanced Micro Devices retake the lead with a new chip of its own. The fierce battle for an elusive speed title has resulted in a series of “vapor chips,” or new processors that consumers cannot readily acquire. |
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Intel should have done better on new chip-CEOAugust 29, 2000 |
Intel Corp's Chief Executive Craig Barret said on Tuesday that the company had fallen short in the development of its newest and fastest chip, which the chipmaker was forced to recall on Monday.
``We should have done a better job,'' he said, speaking to Reuters in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, during his tour of South America. ``We know what the problem is and are in the process of fixing it to ship new product.'' |
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Head of PC processor unit leaves AMDBy Ian Fried August 30, 2000 |
Advanced Micro Devices said today that Larry Hollatz, who oversaw PC processor operations, has left the company.
Hollatz, whose official title was group vice president of AMD's computation products unit, will be replaced on an interim basis by AMD's president, Hector Ruiz. Hollatz oversaw processor design operations in Texas and California, as well as the sales effort for AMD's PC chips. |
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Intel sues Broadcom, claiming patent infringementBy Ian Fried August 30, 2000 |
Intel today filed a federal patent infringement suit against Broadcom, charging the communications chip company is building its business on Intel's know-how.
"The violations of Intel's technology rights described below appear to be part of a carefully crafted plan to build Broadcom's business using Intel's technology," Intel said in its suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware. Broadcom shares opened at $250.38 today and climbed as high as $257. But as investors received word of the suit, which was reported first by CNET News.com, the shares began to slide. In late trading, the shares dipped to as low as $232.75 before closing at $238.44. |
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Intel adds patent infringement to suit against ViaBy Ian Fried August 30, 2000 |
Intel today updated its legal action against Taiwanese chipmaker Via Technologies to include new claims of patent infringement.
The two companies settled many of their differences last month, but Intel is still pursuing charges that a Via chipset supporting Advanced Micro Devices processors violates Intel patents. A chipset is a series of semiconductors that connect a processor to other components such as memory. |
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Micron suit charges Rambus with antitrust violationsBy Anthony Cataldo August 29, 2000 |
Two of the feistiest companies in the DRAM business — Micron Technology Inc. and Rambus Inc. — are headed for a battle that could determine whether the DRAM industry can say no to the high-flying Silicon Valley company and its vaunted patent portfolio.
Micron, the world's third-largest DRAM supplier, announced Monday (Aug. 28) that it has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Delaware alleging that memory interface developer Rambus (Mountain View, Calif.) has violated federal antitrust laws. Micron also seeks to show the "invalidity, non-infringement and non-enforceability of Rambus patents pursuant to a number of different bases," according to a statement from Micron (Boise, Idaho). Neither Micron nor Rambus was available for comment by press time. |
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Hyundai sues Rambus, claiming SDRAM patents invalidBy Jack Robertson August 30, 2000 |
The legal warfare swirling around Rambus Inc.'s synchronous patents has escalated with Korea's Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. filing a lawsuit in a San Jose federal court on Tuesday in an attempt to declare the patents invalid.
Hyundai filed one day after Micron Technology Inc. announced an antitrust suit against Rambus, accusing the firm of using its synchronous DRAM patents to restrain trade and block double data rate (DDR) memories (see Aug. 29 story). The DDR format is a competitor of the Direct Rambus DRAM architecture. |
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Patent lawsuits mount against RambusBy Ian Fried August 30, 2000 |
Hyundai has joined Micron Technology in going to court to challenge Rambus patents on memory chip technology.
The Korean chipmaker, like Micron, filed suit yesterday, pre-empting any legal action from Rambus. Rambus, which developed a high-speed memory interface and has a variety of patents on memory chip technology, has been seeking to force memory chipmakers to pay a license fee, not only for the Rambus memory standard but also for standard memory. |
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Intel processor integrates North Bridge componentsBy Will Wade August 31, 2000 |
Intel Corp. is focusing its engineering skills on a highly integrated device that incorporates both a graphics engine and a Rambus memory controller into a single processor chip aimed at the low-cost PC segment. Known as the Timna, the device is expected to launch early next year. The Santa Clara, Calif., company gave a sneak peek at the design at the recent Intel Developer Forum trade show.
"We are designing the Timna for the low-cost, value PC market," said Ilan Spillinger, a principal engineer at Intel and head of the Israel-based design team working on the chip. Implemented at the 0.18-micron production level, the design is essentially recycling many of the elements already in use today. It is based on the same processor core as the Katmai-class MPUs that began shipping in 1999 as the first generation of the Pentium III. It also features the same graphics engine currently used in Intel's integrated 810 chip set, and the same 128-kbyte Level 2 cache used in the current generation of Celeron chips, Intel's primary entry in the low-cost PC segment today. |
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Via to pay less for S3 graphics chip businessBy Bloomberg News August 29, 2000 |
S3 amended an agreement to sell its graphics chip unit to a new joint venture with Via Technologies, lowering the transaction price to address accounting concerns raised by the Taiwanese government.
Under the revised accord, S3, which is looking to speed growth of its Internet device business, gets $208 million in cash at closing and the benefit of $60 million in assumed liabilities. That's compared to the $377 million in cash and stock paid over four years in the original plan, said Ken Potashner, chairman and chief executive of Santa Clara, Calif.-based S3. |
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The Register Files |
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First Pentium 4 benchmarks appearBy Andrew Thomas August 30, 2000 |
2CPU.com has the first benchmarks of Intel's upcoming Pentium 4 aka Willamette. The most startling numbers are what can only be described as phenomenal memory performance from the Rambus memory in the test system.
SiSoft Sandra memory benchmarks show the P4 delivering an ALU memory bandwidth of 1407 Mb/sec, and an FPU figure of 1520 Mb/sec. By comparison a 1GHz PIII looks very ordinary with 325 and 345Mb/sec |
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Intel factories fail to keep upBy Mike Magee August 31, 2000 |
A story in Asia Biztech has highlighted difficulties Intel has with production at its factories and at the same time underlined further difficulties ahead for the chip giant.
This last Monday we reported price cuts Intel had made on its CPUs, while yesterday we also reported the dearth of 1GHz Pentium III processors available to huge distributors including Ingram Micro and Tech Data. |
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Intel under attack at high endBy Mike Magee August 30, 2000 |
OEMs close to Intel's plans are reporting that its 1GHz Pentium III flip chip microprocessor is suffering from big heat problems which are being addressed with a fresh stepping of the part.
The news comes only 36 hours after Intel pulled the plug on its 1.13GHz Pentium III, which is currently at stepping cC0. |
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Another AMD suit legs itBy Andrew Thomas August 31, 2000 |
Larry Hollatz, AMD's group vice president of the Computation Products Group, has quit Chimpzilla to 'pursue other interests'. Hector Ruiz, AMD president and chief operating officer, will stand in as acting group vice president for the business unit which produces PC processors.
"Following Intel’s announcement of their recall and suspension of shipments of their 1.13-gigahertz processors earlier this week, AMD stands alone as the only supplier of PC processors with clock speeds above 1 gigahertz," gloated Ruiz. |
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The Reg guide to interviewing IntelBy Mike Magee August 30, 2000 |
After all the PR folk bogged off at the Intel Developer Forum last week, the legions of international hacks still left at the San Jose Towers and Hilton asked the elected spin doctor whether the firm kept records on journalists.
"Indeed they do," replied the bogus PR representative. "It all depends on the country you live in on the nature of those records."
By this, we believe she meant that in some territories, such as the UK, data protection legislation allows individuals to ask corporations to share the info they're holding in electronic form, although here, at least, paper briefings were formerly not accessible to outside requests. |
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Intel: Spot a problem and don't win a MetroBy Andrew Thomas August 29, 2000 |
Following the good Doctor Tom's travails with a recalcitrant Pentium III 1.13GHz and The Reg's fabled DOA 1.13GHz system, we asked Intel what the deal was regarding remuneration for helping the great Stan of Chips identify "challenges" with its products.
You will be astounded, gobsmacked, flabbergasted, bowled over, stunned and astonished to discover that there will be absolutely no reward for pointing out that an Intel product doesn't work properly. |
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| August 28, 2000 | ||
Patent Problems for Intel?By Steven Fyffe August 25, 2000 |
Intel could end up owing alimony money to Rambus, whether they break up or stay together.
If Rambus’ patents for SDRAM and DDR prove to be valid, Intel will have to pay up just like everybody else, said Mark Edelstone, semiconductor analyst for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. “The bottom line is that Rambus has patents that they need to enforce, and you can't selectively enforce those,” Edelstone said. “They will be collecting tremendous royalties, which cover the entire DRAM space post-EDO, and will also cover the logic portion of the business.” |
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Pentium 4: Worth the price?By John G. Spooner August 24, 2000 |
Intel's forthcoming Pentium 4 chip will be fast, but will it be faster than a Pentium III? Some analysts say it will be slower.
Intel Corp., which revealed a host of new details about its Pentium 4 processor this week here at the Intel Developer Forum, is betting the chip will become the most desirable engine for high-horsepower PCs. But for analysts attending the conference, the big question was: Why pay more for a Pentium 4 when a Pentium III may be faster? |
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Intel, Rambus mull overhaul for RDRAMBy Anthony Cataldo August 25, 2000 |
In an effort to cut the high manufacturing costs of Rambus DRAM, Intel, Rambus and memory vendors are discussing overhauling the RDRAM core. By reducing the number of banks inside the core, the companies expect to realize a smaller chip size, closer to SDRAM, and so boost yields.
The so-called 4i initiative comes as Intel is on the verge of launching its next-generation PC processor. The Pentium 4 is expected to roll out at speeds of 1.4 GHz as early as October. But analysts said the fast chip could face a slow ramp because it is tied to still-costly Rambus memory. |
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AMD prepares for 64-bit battleBy Jack Robertson August 25, 2000 |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. plans to begin mass production of its 64-bit Sledgehammer processor in 2002, a year after Intel Corp.'s 64-bit Itanium is expected to hit the market. But that doesn't worry AMD's president, Hector Ruiz.“Intel is launching an entirely new [64-bit] architecture. They need time to get people introduced to it,” he told
EBN in a wide-ranging interview last week in his Sunnyvale, Calif., office.
Because the Itanium requires entirely new 64-bit programs, Ruiz believes it will take Intel a year to ramp up a sizable array of software from developers, and for customers to convert from a galaxy of existing X86 32-bit legacy programs required by Intel's new processor. |
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Inside Intel's plans for the futureBy Steven Musil August 26, 2000 |
Intel stole the spotlight this week, showing off new chips for cell phones and handheld computers, talking strategy and predicting a rival's doom.
Intel released details on the Pentium 4 and showcased new chips for cell phones and handheld computers. The Pentium 4 features a completely new architecture called "NetBurst" designed to handle tasks--such as data encryption, video compression or Napster-like peer-to-peer networking--that have grown in popularity with the Internet. |
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Intel Announces Graphics Port InitiativeAugust 25, 2000 |
Intel Corp. has announced an Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) roadmap, starting with a AGP8x specification the company said is designed to double the graphics processing speed of PC desktop and workstation platforms.
AGP8x is the specification for the next-generation parallel AGP interface. Like AGP4x, it implements a 32-bit wide bus, but the new specification reportedly allows a doubling of speed to 533 MHz and supports a data rate of 2Gbytes/sec. |
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S3 To Launch Transmeta Web Pad SubsidiaryBy Mark Hachman August 25, 2000 |
S3 has quietly formed an internal subsidiary to design and sell Transmeta-based Internet access devices, part of a retooling of S3 itself.
S3 Inc., the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company that once dominated the graphics market, is in the midst of trying to reposition itself as a dual-purpose digital media and Internet-access company. The process began in April, once the company had shifted its graphics chip unit to a joint venture between itself and Via Technologies Inc. |
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The Register Files |
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Transmeta chips not up to scratch - ToshibaBy Tony Smith August 25, 2000 |
Transmeta claims its Crusoe CPU offers very low power consumption and heat generation. And Toshiba reckons that claim is bollocks, according to the notebook nabob's UK product marketing manager, Steve Crawley.
Interviewed by VNUNet - a UK newswire we're told - Crawley said: "[Crusoe] does give a reasonable increase in battery life, but nothing like Transmeta's publicity is claiming. The back light consumes a lot of power - one quarter of the power is used pushing light out. Realistically, in sub-notebooks it gives a 30 to 40 per cent increase in battery life." [our italics] |
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Alpha strikes back against IntelBy Mike Magee August 27, 2000 |
Sources close to Samsung in Korea have revealed the roadmap that Alpha Processor Ink (API) hopes will give it an edge over Intel in 2001.
The firm is readying its Caspian chipset, which will give full support for the 1GHz Alpha, and, in addition is set to roll out three mobos which will be in full production by the end of Q1 next year. |
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Intel Irish fab expansion hits snagBy Andrew Thomas August 25, 2000 |
Intel's plan for a £1.5 billion expansion of its County Kildare, Ireland plant is facing protests from environmentalists, according to the Irish Independent. The expansion of the Leixlip plant would create 1000 additional jobs, but locals are objecting that pollution from the semiconductor manufacturing process, linked with additional road traffic, pose a threat to the environment.
Desmond Guinness, owner of Leixlip Castle, is fronting the protest. His pollution and health claims are rejected by Intel, and the Irish Environmental Protection Agency says the company has always complied with its pollution control licence. |
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IDF roundup and rumoursBy Mike Magee August 27, 2000 |
From Intel's point of view, there are clear advantages holding its technical fest in San Jose rather than Palm Springs. One, it's more spread out – so you minimize the risk of journalists chatting to engineers and delegates. Two, it's half an hour's drive to Satan Clara's HQ in Mission College Boulevard, so Intel folk can't get a sly round of golf in when no-one's looking. But Intel underestimates the ways of The Reg. Do its executives not know that we have a Ways and Means Committee, specifically held to overcome these grave obstacles to speculation and misdirected instructions? | |
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