So much for the R&D C-Cube and everybody else spent to port their DVD chips to this........................
techserver.com
Intel abandons standalone graphics chip business
Copyright ¸ 1999 Nando Media
Copyright ¸ 1999 Reuters News Service
From Time to Time: Nando's in-depth look at the 20th century
SAN FRANCISCO (August 19, 1999 4:59 p.m. EDT nandotimes.com) - Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker, is exiting a segment of the booming market for chips that process two and three dimensional graphics in personal computers after entering the market just last year.
An Intel spokesman confirmed a report Thursday on CNET's News.com that said Intel is getting out of the market for stand-alone graphics chips, which it entered in February of 1998, with a graphics controller chip called the i740.
But the company will continue to develop integrated chip sets, which combine a graphics processor with a standard PC chip set that accompanies the microprocessor, Intel said.
"As we look at the market, we see the integrated approach becoming more popular," said Mike Sullivan, an Intel spokesman. "The 810 has been a very popular product," he said, referring to the Intel chip set that integrates graphics, which was introduced in the first half of this year.
Analysts said Intel could not keep pace with rival graphics chip companies, such as ATI Technologies Inc., NVIDIA Corp. and S3 Inc., who were churning out better performing stand-alone graphics controllers faster than Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel.
"There has been a lot of speculation that they would do this," said Dean McCarron, an analyst with Mercury Research in Scottsdale, Ariz. "They were competing against ATI, Nvidia, S3 and all of those vendors who have similar products and many were higher in performance."
McCarron estimates that sales of the i740, plus some stand-alone graphics processors for the notebook market developed by its Chips and Technologies business, totaled about $150 million, less than one percent of Intel's total revenues, where were $26.3 billion in 1998.
The i740 chip initially sold well, analysts said, but as the chip was not upgraded quickly, it ended up in the low-end or the sub-$1,000 PC market.
"They sold several million of those parts, but toward the end of last year it was getting old in the tooth," said Peter Glaskowsky, an analyst at Cahners' MicroDesign Resources in Sunnyvale, Calif. "Its popularity declined and its sales declined and so forth, which happens really fast in graphics."
Intel had plans for follow-on graphics chips, the i752 for this year and the i754 for 2000, but decided to scrap those plans and focus on chip sets that include the graphics controller chips, Sullivan said.
Now the company plans a graphics chip set targeted to the mainstream computing market for the Pentium III processor. This chip set, the 810e, will be available sometime later this year, Intel said. Its current offering, the 810 chip set, is for its Celeron processor, which targets the low-cost PC market.
Intel said no layoffs will occur as a result of its leaving the market segment. Engineers in the Chips and Technologies business purchased last year are working on integrated chip sets that will follow the 810e product. |
