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<< Intel Plans to Ship Faster Coppermine Chip in October
Palm Springs, California, Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp., the No. 1 chipmaker, plans to introduce a microprocessor in October that runs faster than rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s best chip, sooner than some analysts expected.
Chief Executive Craig Barrett said Intel's new Pentium III, code-named Coppermine, will run faster than 700 megahertz, surpassing the 650-MHz chips that AMD is shipping now. Long an underdog, AMD is selling speedier chips than Intel today, putting pressure on Barrett to catch up. Intel's top-of-the-line production-model chip now runs at 600 MHz.
Having the fastest processor is key for marketing computers, especially to sophisticated consumers and business customers. Some analysts expected Intel to unveil the new chip in November. Moving the introduction up a month will give Intel a jump on the holiday season, when personal computer sales usually surge.
''This will allow them to go head-to-head with AMD'' during the holidays, said Hans Mosesmann, a Prudential Securities Inc. analyst who rates Intel shares ''strong buy.''
Barrett announced the October launch date of Coppermine at the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, California.
''That's my timetable,'' Barrett said.
He also demonstrated a PC running on an Intel chip operating at speeds of 800MHz. The chip in the machine was a production part running without special cooling devices, he said. As chips run at higher speeds, they generate more heat. Cooling them is one of the biggest challenges to boosting performance.
Merced Demo
Barrett also showed off Intel's new Merced chip, a product that it's counting on to push into the market for high-powered microprocessors that run servers, the machines that control computer networks. That market is dominated by Sun Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and others.
Barrett demonstrated a Merced running a computer for the first time, generating three-dimensional images of swimming sharks. Merced, delayed because of technical issues, is expected to hit the market in the middle of next year.
The market for servers using Merced and other advanced chips is enormous, Barrett said. Right now, the world only has 4 percent of the servers that it will need to run the Internet and associated networks in 2005, Barrett estimated.
''We need millions of servers as the backbone of the Internet,'' he said. ''We have a hell of a lot of work to do.'' One can never own enough DELL
Intel executives said they were pleased because they got two computer operating systems running on Merced -- Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT and the Linux system -- just two weeks after the first chips rolled off the assembly line. Intel is working on five more.
''We're pretty impressed,'' Intel vice president Stephen Smith said. ''This is a huge milestone for us.''
Ease-of-Use Concerns
Barrett predicted that the PC would remain the primary machine for getting on the Internet, even as simpler devices like mobile phones and set-top boxes become more advanced.
The biggest challenge for PC makers and their suppliers is making the machines easier to use, he said. Barrett said he struggled to load a screen-saver program showing pictures of his Montana ranch on his wife's laptop and eventually gave up.
''I'm using the hammer solution: I'm buying her a new laptop,'' he told the audience of chip developers.
Santa Clara, California-based Intel's shares fell 1/16 to 82 3/16. AMD, based in nearby Sunnyvale, rose 7/16 to 20 11/16.
Aug/31/1999 18:51 |
