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Microprocessor
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| Top Stories for December 14, 2000 (details below) | |
| C/Net | Intel to postpone chip factory in Ireland |
| EE Times | Intel pared penthouse Pentium |
| C/Net | Rambus seeks royalties from Nvidia |
|
The Register Files |
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| The Register | Pentium 4 Linux problem all Chipzilla's fault, apparently |
| The Register | Rambus over-priced, over-specced and over there |
| The Register | World citizen Intel sued in diversity case |
| The Register | Athlon, Duron get new mobile chipset |
| Microprocessor
Headline News Collected By Robert R. Collins |
Week of December 10, 2000 |
Older News |
| December 14, 2000 | |
Intel to postpone chip factory in IrelandBy Michael Kanellos December 13, 2000 |
Intel will postpone opening a fabrication facility for making PC processors for a year because of current market conditions and the advent of larger, more economical wafers.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip giant announced Wednesday that it will postpone opening Fab 24 in Leixlip, Ireland, from the second half of 2001 to the second half of 2002. The factory is being built to make microprocessors such as the Pentium 4. Additionally, the facility will handle larger 300-millimeter wafers rather than the 200-millimeter wafers used by companies to produce chips today. |
Intel pared penthouse PentiumBy Anthony Cataldo December 13, 2000 |
If Intel Corp.'s microprocessor architects had had their way when they were designing the Pentium 4, it would have been a very different beast than it is today, said the company's principal processor engineer.
A third-level cache strapped to the die, two full-fledged floating-point units and a bigger execution trace cache and level-one cache were all part of the original blueprint for Intel's most recently introduced processor. As it turned out, these features had to be either modified, stripped down or dumped altogether to keep costs in line. |
Rambus seeks royalties from NvidiaBy John G. Spooner December 13, 2000 |
Rambus is seeking royalty payments from graphics chipmaker Nvidia, expanding its legal actions into a new sector of the chip industry.
Rambus, a memory chip designer based in Mountain View, Calif., has been involved in a number of lawsuits aimed at protecting its claims related to dynamic RAM, or DRAM, technology. The legal discussions between Rambus and Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia, the hot company of the moment in the graphics world, are spelled out in Nvidia's 10-Q quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated Dec. 8. |
The Register Files |
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Pentium 4 Linux problem all Chipzilla's fault, apparentlyBy John Lettice December 13, 2000 |
Intel seems to be largely to blame for the fact that many Linux distributions won't install on the Pentium 4. According to the latest Linux 2.2.18 kernel notes, Chipzilla's big mistake was to break the usual pattern in CPUID model numbering without telling people - or at least without telling them loudly enough. According to the notes: "Intel chose to ignore all precedent in model numbering via CPUID and report a family of '15'. This sudden jump broke assumptions in the kernel tree without any warning." |
Rambus over-priced, over-specced and over thereBy Mike Magee December 13, 2000 |
Kingston Technology, one of Rambus' major partners in the market for PC memory, has confirmed what we all know, or rather suspected: that RIMMs are still highly overpriced, selling for two and a half times the price of
SDRAM.
SDRAM prices have plummeted over the last two weeks, Kingston said. |
World citizen Intel sued in diversity caseBy Mike Magee December 13, 2000 |
Intel is being sued by Webhire Inc, a firm which describes itself as the "number one choice" in recruiting solutions.
The federal action, filed in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts - that's Boston to you and me - alleges that Intel breached a contract it had with Webhire. The case was filed on Pearl Harbor Day. |
Athlon, Duron get new mobile chipsetBy Andrew Thomas December 13, 2000 |
VIA has added PowerNow! support to its Apollo KT133 chipset, ready for the launch of AMD's Palomino and Morgan mobiles next year. The KT133A is pin-compatible with its predecessor and supports both 200 and 266MHz
FSB.
The mobile Athlons and Durons are due in the first half of 2001, but the KT133A is also suitable for desktop applications. It supports Socket A Athlon processors with a 266MHz Front Side Bus running at speeds of 1, 1.13, and 1.2GHz. |
| December 13, 2000 | |
Some Linux versions can't handle Pentium 4By Mary Jo Foley December 11, 2000 |
Chalk up to the list of Pentium 4 pitfalls the fact that not all versions of the Linux operating system support the new Intel processor.
A number of the prepackaged versions of the open-source operating system, including Caldera Systems' eServer desktop and server products, won't run on Pentium 4-based computers because the software cannot identify the chip, Intel executives acknowledged. Intel, however, said it was up to individual Linux sellers to update their operating system releases to bring them into compliance. |
Intel Finds Recipe For Faster ChipsBy Mark LaPedus December 11, 2000 |
Providing a sneak preview of its future technology roadmap, Intel Corp. will announce development of the world's fastest transistor -- a building block device that will open the door to 10-GHz microprocessors by 2005.
In a technical paper presented at the International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM), Intel (stock: INTC) will describe its transistor, which is based on 0.07-micron design rules and capable of 0.5-picosecond switching speeds. |
AMD caught in PC slowdown tideBy Michael Kanellos and Stephen Shankland December 11, 2000 |
Following in the footsteps of rival Intel, Advanced Micro Devices warned Monday that fourth-quarter revenue and profit will be lower than expected.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker, which sells processors for consumer PCs, said net income will be 50 cents to 60 cents a share, lower than the 68 cents a share forecast by analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial. Revenue will be flat or nominally higher than the third quarter's $1.2 billion. |
TSMC ships 0.13-micron wafers with new Cyrix MPUs to ViaDecember 12, 2000 |
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. here today announced delivery of processed wafers with functioning 0.13-micron microprocessors to foundry customer Via Technologies Inc. According to TSMC, these microprocessor wafers are the foundry industry's first 0.13-micron products to be shipped to a customer.
The announcement comes nearly two months after TSMC announced it had begun processing customer IC designs with a new 0.13-micron process technology (see Sept. 15 story). TSMC and foundry rival United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) are racing each other to take an early lead in 0.13-micron chip-processing services. |
SIS to introduce DDR chipsets for Intel, AMD processorsBy Faith Hung December 11, 2000 |
Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. is planning to introduce its first double data rate (DDR) core logic chipsets that support processors made by Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
One of the new stand-alone chipsets, called SiS635, will be used to back up Intel's Pentium III, Tualatin and Celeron processors, while the SiS735 supports AMD's Athlon and Duron processors. Sample products of both chipsets are slated for shipment later this month, according to the Hsinchu-based chipset company. |
Rambus Spreading Legal Wings? It's Simple LogicBy Mark Hachman December 11, 2000 |
Rambus Inc. is apparently widening its litigation net.
In a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp. (stock: NVDA) said the firm has been contacted by Rambus (stock: RMBS) to negotiate royalty payments on memory technology Rambus claims to own. The filing appears to indicate that Rambus is now staking out its legal turf in the logic market rather than target large, multinational corporations that manufacture both DRAM and logic products. |
The Register Files |
|
Intel fouls up two years in a rowBy Mike Magee December 11, 2000 |
Intel must be quite eager to put the 20th Century behind it, given that this is the second calendar year in a row that it has a) suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or b) fouled up on its strategy, that answer depending on whether you believe in kismet or kiss-ass.
At the end of last year, we reported on Intel's annus horribilis, and wondered if things could possibly get any worse for the semiconductor giant, pointing out that it had a slender window of opportunity to prevent competition from shape shifters AMD and Via nibbling away at its big cake and slowing down its gravy train. |
AMD-Intel 'big willy' boasts backfireBy Mike Magee December 12, 2000 |
Computer and chip journalists found themselves the unwilling pawns of the PR wings of both AMD and Intel throughout this year and the end of last, but it looks like their boastful claims have cost the industry dearly.
Throughout the year, Chipzilla and Chimpzilla each beat their hirsute chests, and month after month leapfrogged each other, saying 'my chip is faster than yours'. That sometimes boosted their share price, and certainly generated huge column inches of newsprint. |
Taiwanese axis beats AMD, Intel to .13 micronBy Mike Magee December 12, 2000 |
Via and the Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) may have had their differences earlier this year but those seem to have been settled behind the scenes.
That is, if you believe the joint statement just issued by the two firms which claim the first "functional" wafers which will power future Via chips. Functional is computer speak for "working". Marmosetzilla (Via) is already manufacturing x86 processors using the process, at least that's what TSMC is saying. |
Baby Pentium 4 materialisesBy Andrew Thomas December 8, 2000 |
Intel's IPD Web site, the prime source of information for small system-builders, now lists a 1.3GHz Pentium 4 alongside the 1.4GHz and 1.5GHz parts launched last month.
The new baby P4 is aimed at plugging the price/performance gap between the top of the Pentium III range and the existing P4s - a space briefly occupied by the ill-fated 1.13GHz PIII, hastily recalled due to reliability problems. Like its faster siblings, the new part should ship bundled with 128MB RDRAM. |
More DDR chipsets coming RSNBy Andrew Thomas December 12, 2000 |
Another brace of DDR chipsets are on the way. SiS' 635 and 735 are designed for Intel Socket 370 and AMD Socket A processors respectively. The 635 will also support Intel's forthcoming 0.13 micron Pentium III die shrink, Tualatin.
The 635 and 735 support DDR 266, DDR 200 and PC133 SDRAM and integrate the South and North Bridges, multi-threaded 1.2Gbps PCI, plus AGP 4x, audio, voice, networking and communications, but do not include on-chip graphics. |
Rambus-Infineon legal spat delayedBy Andrew Thomas December 11, 2000 |
Legal rottweiler Rambus' pending court case against Infineon has been postponed due to the judge being promoted.
The court in Mannheim, Germany has rescheduled the case, originally set for 22 December, to May next year due to the judge originally assigned to hear the patent infringement suit being promoted to the appeals court. The Rambus lawsuits against Hyundai and Micron in Mannheim are still scheduled for February. |
Rambus growls at NvidiaBy Andrew Thomas December 11, 2000 |
Graphics behemoth Nvidia warns in its quarterly SEC form 10Q filing that it has been advised by Rambus it may be in breach of patents.
Nvidia's SEC filing says: "We have been advised by Rambus Inc. that it believes our products infringe certain patents owned by Rambus and requesting that we agree to certain licensing terms, including royalty payments. We believe the Rambus patents are invalid, not infringed and unenforceable. |
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