here is your monday gap material...
Fri, 22 Oct 1999, 7:02pm EDT
Intel to Introduce Faster Pentium Chips to Take on Advanced Micro, Others
By Bundeep Singh Rangar
Intel to Unveil Faster Pentium Chips to Take On AMD (Update3)
(Updates with closing stock prices.)
Santa Clara, California, Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp.,
the world's No. 1 computer-chip maker, on Monday will unveil a
group of new Pentium microprocessors aimed at recapturing the
lead in performance from archrival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
The new Pentium III chips, code-named Coppermine, will run
at speeds of 700 and 733 megahertz, faster than AMD's 700MHz
Athlon chips. The chips include secondary memory, or L2 cache,
making them faster. The cache used to be on separate chips.
AMD sprinted past Intel in the race to have the fastest
processor earlier this year with the new Athlon. Having the
fastest chip is crucial for marketing computers to sophisticated
buyers, especially during the back-to-school and holiday buying
season. Intel fell behind AMD in part because manufacturing
problems caused delays in bringing Coppermine to market.
``There is no doubt that (Athlon) is a very competitive
product,' said Mark Edelstone, an analyst at Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter, who rates Intel shares ``outperform.'
Intel shares rose 1 3/4 to 73 7/16. They've risen 24 percent
so far this year. AMD fell 3/16 to 18 11/16 today and is down 36
percent in the same period.
Intel was expected to unveil the Coppermine chip in
September. The delay gave AMD the opportunity to steal the lead.
Intel plans to fight back with 15 processors for use in desktop
and laptop computers as well as servers and workstations.
``The products will speed applications used for the Internet
and e-commerce,' Intel spokesman Graham Palmer said.
Rambus
In addition to the new chips, Intel will unveil a new
chipset that uses memory technology from Rambus Inc. Chipsets are
a collection of semiconductors that work with the microprocessor.
Rambus technology speeds the flow of information from computer
memory, improving the machine's performance.
The chipset that Intel plans to unveil is the 840, Palmer
said. The 840 is designed for workstations and servers.
Workstations are high-powered computers used for industrial
design and other tasks. Servers are machines that control
information on computer networks, including the Internet. Another
Rambus-enabled chipset, the 820, code-named Camino, will be out
by year-end, he said.
Delays in getting the chipsets to market have weighed on
Rambus stock. They've fallen 34 percent since setting a high of
115 1/4 on July 15. They jumped 9 13/16 to 75 5/8 today.
``This is good news for Rambus,' said Seth Dickson, an
analyst at Warburg Dillon Read who rates Rambus ``strong buy.'
What's more important for Rambus is that Intel ship its 820
chipset, because it's used for personal computers. Many more PCs
are sold each year than workstations or servers.
Intel's new chips use thinner circuitry -- 0.18 micron
instead of the current 0.25 micron -- that increase speed, use
less power and generate less heat. That makes it cheaper and more
versatile for smaller devices, such as notebook computers.
One micron is 1/100th the width of a human hair. The term is
a gauge of how finely the circuits are etched into a chip.
Santa Clara, California-based Intel said two of its plants
now are producing chips based on 0.18-micron circuits. By the end
of the first quarter of next year, five plants will manufacture
0.18 micron chips, Intel's Palmer said.
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