Intel the Silverback......stumbling about in the mist???
See bolded text below.
UPDATE 1-Intel scrubs plans for low-cost Timna to run PCs
(Updates with closing stock price)
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept 29 (Reuters) - Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), the world's largest semiconductor maker, on Friday said it was scrapping plans for its Timna microprocessor that would run personal computers costing less than $600 because of further design delays and an absence of demand by PC makers for the low-cost chip.
The cancellation of the chip, which was first put on Intel's public microprocessor roadmap in 1999, is not expected to hurt sales or earnings. "We believe the decision will not have a financial impact," Intel spokesman Michael Sullivan told Reuters.
Due to problems with a component called a memory translator hub, or MTH, that would allow the Timna chip to work with standard memory chip technology as well as the Rambus memory technology it was designed for, Intel would have needed an additional month to ready the chip for introduction, Sullivan said.
"Basically the product would have arrived outside of the launch window of the customers that wanted to use the part," Sullivan said.
The Timna chip was already delayed once, until the first quarter of 2001, and was originally slated to be introduced in the second half of this year. The initial delay was also related to the MTH issue and was directly related to the May recall of nearly 1 million chipsets by Intel which used an MTH and Intel's 820 chipset.
The chipsets, which compose the guts of a PC, had problems with the MTH that could cause computers to crash in some instances. Intel, at the time, needed more time to make the Timna chip work with standard memory technology, such as synchronous dynamic random-access memory, which is cheaper than Rambus technology that speeds up the performance of memory chips.
Coupled with the design problem, Sullivan said that PC makers found they were able to make cheap PCs at the price they wanted using Intel's low-cost Celeron microprocessor in conjunction with Intel's 810 chipset and other components.
"The bottom line is the market need for a highly integrated solution to achieve the sub-$600 price-point has gone away because the other components have gone down enough in cost," Sullivan said.
The Timna processor was Intel's first chip that combined the central processor unit core, the "brains" of a PC, with a memory controller and also a graphics controller.
Separately, Intel declined to comment on reports that Intel's forthcoming Pentium 4 microprocessor, the successor to the Pentium III, would be delayed until later in the fourth quarter.
Intel's Sullivan said that the Pentium 4 is still on track to be introduced in the final three months of this year, though he declined to comment on when in the fourth quarter the chip would be launched.
Intel shares declined $2-7/8 to $41-9/16 on Nasdaq amid a sell-off in the stocks of technology comapnies.
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