From JCs....
99/06/17, 1:05pm - Hmm.... Analyst group Credit Suisse First Boston, apparently a very respected group according to an investor friend of mine, is lowering their earnings estimates for Intel this year. Reason? You may be shocked: They say that Coppermine is going to be late. Allow me to lazily quote: "Coppermine ... appears to be delayed again (from September to November) due to lower speed yields its on 0.18 micron, limiting Intel's ability to quickly follow up its initial 600MHz processor with 700MHz+ versions". BTW, they mention that not only the yields are low, but the "bin-out" (the MHz spread, I believe?) is lower than hoped for, as well). I should mention that Tom's put up an Intel Roadmap recently which asserted that there would be a 600MHz quarter micron version (actually, to be accurate, in the slightly shrunk 0.23ish process that should be running at 1.8v) released in August. This move would certainly back up the idea of a slight delay in 180nm PIII-600+ for Intel. By the way, I have heard a strong rumour that these PIIIs (which, by the way, are still regular PIIIs, and not with the modified cache structure of Coppermine) are running a bit ... hot. Could I perhaps suggest the possibility that this processor is running at 2.1v to make for higher yields at this difficult-to-reach speed? Oh, by the way, the analyst reported that the mix of Celerons were much higher than expected this year, which could hurt ASP a little. Very interesting, the report seems to confirm about Merced: "Aside from Coppermine, the only other processor news expected will be the commencement of sampling for Merced sometime around August, and a technical unveiling at the Microprocessor Forum this November". Cool, but ... ummm, what about Willamette? will indeed sample in August and will get a "technical unveiling at the Microprocessor Forum this November".
What do Intel bulls make of this? Any comments from John Hull?
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