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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yougang Xiao who wrote (73027)	9/24/1999 6:36:00 PM
From: Petz	Respond to of 1571815

Yougang, the problems with the Camino 820 chipset and platform must be formidable -- 1. Apparently reducing speed from 800 MHz to 600 MHz on the RAMBUS bus (I'm not stuttering here) doesn't fix the problem. Another article said that RAMBUS at 800 MHz is unavailable (yield at 600 MHz is only 30-40%). So if 800 won't be there anyway, why doesn't Intel just re-spec the i820 to 600 MHz? -- because it still won't work. 2. Apparently there's a heat problem if 3 RIMM's are installed 3. Apparently there's a motherboard layout problem with the reference motherboard. 4. There must be other bugs with the Camino. Why? The path lenght problem would go away at 600 MHz and the heat problem would go away by soldering a terminator in place of the third RIMM socket, but Cnet claims the motherboards have to be destroyed. ALso, Dan Niles said its about chipset bugs. techstocks.com Petz

To: Yougang Xiao who wrote (73027)	9/24/1999 6:40:00 PM
From: Goutam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571815

Yougang Xiao, Another flavor of Intel/Rambus glitch (I hope you guys are not getting tired of these posts). The comments from DELL are shown in bold Last-minute glitches threaten delay of Intel chipset By Will Wade and Craig Matsumoto EE Times (09/24/99, 5:41 p.m. EDT) SANTA CLARA, Calif. ? A last-minute hardware glitch is prompting Intel Corp. to delay the release of its 820 chipset, code-named Camino. Again. Reports from PC OEMs have confirmed that the chipset, which is designed specifically to allow Rambus DRAM chips to be implemented in computers, is riddled with bugs. As a result, computer makers are facing at minimum a lengthy delay before rolling out RDRAM-based boxes, and at worst may have to scrap the systems they have already produced. "Our engineers have determined that the 820 platform is not now production-quality ready," said a spokesman for Dell Computer Corp. (Round Rock, Texas). He said the bugs were discovered, "very recently," and that Intel will not be formally launching the Camino on Monday, as scheduled. Rambus stock tumbled 19 percent Friday to $71.12 after BancBoston Robertson Stephens analyst Dan Niles cut his rating on the company "long-term attractive" from a "buy" rating. Niles was concerned that system OEMs would be slow to adopt the technology. It wasn't clear whether the market had time to digest the Rambus/Camino news. Intel stock was virtually unchanged on the news, closing down $1.82 to $75.67 per share. An Intel spokesman declined to comment. "We are not issuing any guidance in this matter," he said. "Monday is the scheduled launch date for the 820, and we will not be able to talk about the product until then." Responding to reports from OEM customers unsatisfied with the problems in the Camino, he added, "OEMs will have to do whatever is appropriate for them." Analyst Peter Glaskowsky of Microdesign Resources said Intel has acknowledged the problem. "I talked with Intel, and yesterday (Sept. 23) they confirmed it to me," Glaskowsky said. The issue is in the way the memory slots interface with the rest of the motherboard. Rambus' design allows for three memory slots containing up to 32 chips each. A typical OEM strategy has been to put all three slots on the motherboard but fill only one, leaving space for expansion. But the third slot in some cases behaves unreliably, even if it's empty. "Intel basically had to advise (PC OEMs) they can't use all three slots," he said. "It's my understanding they can't ship motherboards they've already manufactured," said Glaskowsky. The problem occurs even if the third slot is empty, although it is "probably worst in the more heavily loaded configurations," he said. In scratching their existing motherboards, OEMs face a delay of at least one month, "if not two or three," before Rambus-laden systems can debut, Glaskowsky said. The Dell spokesman said he was unsure if the problem can be fixed in systems that have already been built. "We are waiting for Intel to advise us of any potential workarounds," he said. Dell was poised to announce RDRAM-systems based around the Camino on Monday to coincide with the Intel launch. At this point the company is uncertain whether those machines can be salvaged, or if they are destined for the scrap heap. In the meantime, the glitch is certain to delay the rollout of Rambus memory. "We will not introduce any systems until we feel they are production-ready," said the Dell spokesman. "We are relying on our chipset vendor to provide the components." "This is definitely something Intel would not want to happen," said George Iwanyc, memory analyst at Dataquest. "Right now is pretty much when this needs to come out in order to get RDRAM systems on the shelves this year. Once you start missing milestones, it pushes everything back. If you give alternative technologies more time to catch on, they just might catch on." This is the second time that Intel has been forced to delay the Camino rollout. The product was originally expected in the spring, but the company announced in February that it was pushing it launch out until September. eet.com Goutama