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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tony Viola who wrote (83813)	6/18/1999 1:02:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

Tony - Re: "Are you saying that the Coppermine design is coming up mysteriously slower than expected, and Intel is trying to make up the difference with process tweaks?" Yes - Intel is doing precisely that. Bear in mind, the Coppermine DESIGN and the Designers are actively involved to sort out what is wrong at their end, but the PTD (Portland Tech. Development) guys are being asked to "Come To The Rescue" of the "Design In Distress". This isn't the first time. The original Pentium - circa 1992 - could barely reach 60 MHz on Intel's 0.8 micron CMOS process - and the Technology Group was told to "Go Add a BiCMOS module" to the process to bail out the design. Now, BiCMOS is no easy thing and hardly any companies have been successful making them - but Intel's TD guys pulled it off - within about 6 months or so. At the same time, they spun a 0.6 micron version on EIGHT INCH wafers - also new at that time - and in May 1993, Intel had improved the Pentium to 90/100 MHz on a 0.6 micron BiCMOS process on 8 inch wafers after barely meeting 60 MHz on the original 0.8 micron/6 inch CMOS process. Quite an accomplishment. Now, the Designers still have their challenges to figure out what went wrong and speed up whatever circuits they can - so the end product - maybe MANY MONTHS down the road - will incorporate BOTH process improvements AND design changes. One thing to keep in mind - Intel is not the type of company to STOP and try and figure out who screwed up what and assign blame. They generally try to assess the current status and look at their engineers and decide what each group can do in the short term to HELP get them out of the current problem(s). Paul