Diamond Jim and Thread - ZDNet on Intel Inside X-box
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Friday March 10 06:30 PM EST
Intel wins X-Box deal at 11th hour
By Ken Popovich, PC Week
How did Intel snatch away the coveted role of primary chip vendor for MS' game system?
One of the biggest unanswered questions surrounding Microsoft's X-Box gaming console announcement is how Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news) stole Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s (NYSE:AMD - news) nearly guaranteed spot as the primary chip vendor for the system.
While industry watchers are speculating that Intel simply undercut AMD's Athlon price with its Pentium III, Microsoft's role in playing one company off against the other remains shrouded in mystery.
Intel, for its part, is guardedly gloating, but not providing specifics.
"Obviously, we're happy that it's one of our processors," said an Intel spokesman. He added that he was aware of press "speculation" that AMD's Athelon would be the X-Box CPU. But he added that "I don't think that anybody should be surprised that when Microsoft went out to design a high-performance box they came to us for a processor."
AMD, on the other hand, is licking its wounds.
"Our focus is on mainstream PC processors, and gaining share in the high-end performance spot where margins are higher. X-Box would have been good incremental business and we're always looking for ways to work with Microsoft," said a company spokesman. "But we were not prepared to get into a sort of scorched-earth price war with Intel to get their business. The net result is that we don't have the business."
Rumors aplenty but no comment
Rumors have been circulating for a year as to the specifics of Microsoft's X-Box announcement, which finally took place on Friday at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose. In the weeks building up to the launch, industry sources claimed it was all but certain that the CPU powering the box would come from AMD. As guesses swirled, Microsoft steadfastly declined to comment.
When Microsoft officially lifted the X-Box veil on Friday, it announced the CPU would be a 600MHz Pentium III from Intel. The graphics chip inside the system will be the custom-designed 300MHz X-Chip codesigned by Microsoft and Nvidia Corp.
Rumors also had the X-Box based on some type of Microsoft WindowsCE derivative. Instead, the gaming system, due out in Q3 2001, will run some type of derivative of Windows 2000, sources say. |
