This article is riddled with inaccuracies:
<1>The company, which had $29 billion in sales for 1999 - Even though the author posted the number as fact, 1999 isn't over, thus full-year revenues are unknown.
<2>Currently, the world's fastest PC processor, the 750-MHz Athlon, is not manufactured in San Jose, but instead in Sunnyvale, Calif. - We'll never be able to agree who has the faster processor, but the author also mistakenly implies Intel is in San Jose. HQ is in Santa Clara, and there is no manufacturing in San Jose that I know of.
<3>The chipset [820] is yet to be introduced - Flat out wrong. The Intel 820 chipset was introduced on 15-November.
<4>Intel, on the other hand, still produces its chips using a 0.25-micron process. - Wrong again, 0.18-micron parts launched on 25-October.
Some surprising mistakes. At best, the article is poorly written. I could make excuses for the author (e.g., chips are metaphorically manufactured in Sunnyvale, perhaps he was referring to the fiscal rather than calendar year...what is Intel's fiscal year?) but my excuses would be presumptuous and still not explain why he missed the .25mu issue and the delayed, but introduced, i820.
The mistakes are unfortunate, of course, because they undermine what is probably a sound premise: a series of missteps by intel providing an opportunity to AMD. From the Rambus boondogle, the stealth cumine launch, the i820 initial delay and failed launch, and now the "sample" launch.
Eventually someone will get it right. Probably after earnings.
-Scot |
