To all. This just in.
Intel Corp was gearing up production of its
microprocessors because demand exceeded supply,
Albert Yu, senior vice president and
general manager of Intel's Microprocessor Products
Group, said on Tuesday.
`People want products we can't ship, that is true,
particularly higher frequency ones,'' Yu told Reuters
during a visit to Hong Kong. ``I think demand has
jumped significantly, which is a change from quite a
long time.''
`We're gearing up manufacturing, we should be out of
it pretty soon,'' he added.
Earlier this month, Intel said it was experiencing
``some tightness'' in capacity for manufacturing
microprocessors and some fabrication plants were
running at 100 percent, but added it was not worried
about meeting customer needs.
Yu, who oversees development of Intel's Pentium,
Pentium Pro and future microprocessors, said the
surge in demand came suddenly in the last 30 to 60
days following a period of perhaps 18 months when
Intel could supply any product customers wanted.
Supply was tightest at the high end, but the
shortage existed across the board, he said.
Yu denied Intel was having any greater than
expected problems with Pentium Pro manufacturing
yields, and said tight supply for the top end
chips was due just to strong demand.
Yu said he thought there was now greater demand
for all chips used in making personal computers,
not just microprocessors, noting the recent
stabilisation in the price of memory chips.
`To build a PC you need more than processors,''
he said. But he said Intel continued to watch the
end-user market carefully to catch any hint of a
demand turn that could signal a potential
oversupply situation.
`Right now is great, but how do I know tomorrow
is great? We watch the market very carefully,''
he said. |
