From The Inquirer.
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ATI likes Compaq. Suddenly.
ATI likes Intel, loves Compaq
By Fuad Abazovic, 01/07/01 17:29:04 BST
THINGS CAN always get a bit more complicated when you talk about IT. Few days back ATI announced that they will "combine force" with Compaq and build into Compaq Presario 7000 their well known All in Wonder Radeon 32 DDR card inside of it!
Since this will be remembered as the week of Compaq–Intel-Alpha, it seems to me that ATI has performed a great marketing/timing miracle to announce such a product.
Compaq will offer these cards through some sort of their interesting "kiosk program", built for you [Ain't this a dumb name, Ed?] where a user can build his own PC and chose the one and only AIW card which offers you almost everything you would like from one graphics card, including a TV tuner, a DVI port, DDR memory but only 166 MHZ clocked through PVR personal video recorder which will give you opportunity to record a few hours of MPEG 1 or MPEG 2 Video and store it on your DVD-R, if you are rich enough to possess one.
Gemstar-TV Guide GUIDE Plus+™ system is a way to make your TV watching "easier" through a Web based TV planar.
The most interesting part for me is that ATI arrives with this announcement just after Intel starts to like Compaq (and vice versa) and we all know that ATI has "special relations" with Intel. They like to call it a "broad cross-licensing agreement". Surely Intel cannot have been the catalyst that brought ATI and Compaq together? Shucks. It's probably only hasard, coincidence.
So If you like Compaq and AIW here is a choice for you. -- the AIW based on Radeon 2 is still not so close -- it's a few more months away. µ
* SO FRIGHTENED ARE THEY of Graphzilla that ATI, SiS and Trident are keeping very quiet about the fact they're ignoring Nvidia, according to this report in Friday's Digitimes. DON'T SHOUT ABOUT IT!
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AMD and Samsung could save Alpha day
Root and branch speculation
By Mike Magee, 01/07/01 12:05:03 BST
SO WE NOW KNOW that Samsung and API Networks are in the clear on being able to produce Alphas for whenever.
But what if AMD and Samsung - and the API Networks bunch - were to get together and make a go of the "non-exclusive" technology that, according to Compaq's Capellas and Intel's Otellini, means that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be disinterested in the deal?
We know some facts. First, the old DEC and Compaq engineers on the Alpha project are very very unhappy with the odd move that came out of the blue for them a week ago last Friday.
Secondly, we know that Samsung, despite retaining a lofty silence throughout, is also unhappy about the moves.
Samsung has an Alpha architectural licence that covers EV8 and beyond and also has cross licensing deals with La Intella which also, we suspect, last forever.
Thirdly, we know that AMD is not going to just sit around while Intel sews up the 64-bit world, seeing as Sun is looking a tad shaky without an Itanic offering, HP has more or less given up the PA RISC project and the Alpha is... well... almost an ex-Alpha.
Wouldn't it be possible for AMD, Samsung and said engineers all to cabal together to work on an EV8 with backward X86 compatibility?
Just think - four way motherboards, a fast bus, and all that Alpha whoosh...
It's just a what if and sheer speculation, but should such an initiative form, we believe it would be in the best interests of the industry and of consumers.
If the industry players that are cut out of the equation act quickly, they might just have a chance to give La Intella a run for the unknown amount of money it lashed out. µ
* AMD IS being offered close to $100 million to build a new fab in Austin, AMD Zone reports today. |
