Paul,
Someone took the liberty of PMing me this article.
Coppermine Pentium IIIs tough to find
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
November 11, 1999, 4:00 a.m. PT
Intel announced its newest Pentium III processors more than two weeks ago, but so far they
haven't been easy to find.
Nearly all major PC manufacturers and a number of retailers claim there is a dearth of "Coppermine" Pentium
III processors, especially the fast 700-MHz and 733-MHz versions. Individuals at two leading PC companies
say they barely have enough of the 733-MHz chips to perform testing or make review systems.
Smaller manufacturers and chip dealers aren't even advertising the 700-MHz and 733-MHz products, which
were announced with 13 other processors on October 25.
"There's a ridiculous shortage of these chips," according to one source who works at a major PC
manufacturer.
The situation markedly contrasts with the chipmaking giant's normal course of business. Typically, when Intel
releases a new chip the supply pipeline has been well stocked so that manufacturers can launch new systems
the day the processor is announced.
The shortage, likely caused by an earlier product delay, does not appear severe enough to dent the
fourth-quarter financial performance of PC makers. Nonetheless, aggravation is
rising among manufacturers and retailers. The four-day Thanksgiving weekend,
the official beginning of the holiday buying season, is two weeks away.
Although there's still time to get Coppermine products in front of consumers, the
production cycle is being compressed, sources said. Business systems using the
chip may not be available in great quantities until the end of the year, another
source said.
When Intel comes out with its 820 chipset for combining Coppermine Pentium IIIs
and Rambus memory on Monday, for instance, many PC makers will announce
support for the combination. Few, however, will start shipping products that day.
Supply will likely improve relatively soon, but the overall picture remains unclear.
"They are in very short supply," said a source. "Allocation is bad right now." Like
the other sources, this one spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Dealers who build their own systems and or sell processors to consumers paint a similar, but slightly worse,
situation. Some supplies of 533-MHz and 600-MHz Coppermine Pentium IIIs exist, but 700-MHz and 733-MHz
chips might not come to this segment of the market for weeks or even months, dealer sources said.
Still, not everyone is grumbling.
"We're getting all the Coppermine processors that we need," said one supplier of consumer and small
business systems. "But that's not surprising. We don't move the volumes of Gateway or IBM."
George Alfs, an Intel spokesman, noted Dell has been shipping PCs with the 700-MHz version of the chip
while Micron Electronics has been selling 733-MHz PCs.
"Demand is pretty hot, but we have been shipping a lot of products in all speeds," he said. Earlier, Intel said
that it had manufactured "hundreds of thousands" of the chips last quarter and will expand that number
greatly this quarter.
But the number of chips on the open market apparently remains low. "This is a serious problem for which
someone needs to hold Intel accountable for," said yet another PC manufacturer, who grumbled that
Coppermine shortages "add salt to the wounds of the 820 [chipset[ delay."
A spot check with Dell sales representatives illustrated some of the supply constraints. The sales
representative did not predict an exact date when a 700-MHz system, if ordered, could be delivered. A
600-MHz Coppermine system would be delivered by November 24, although it could arrive earlier. A
non-Coppermine Pentium III running at 600-MHz could be had by November 17, the representative said.
The chip giant isn't the first to experience a shortfall this year. A dearth of "motherboard" components stifled
supplies of PCs based around AMD's Athlon processor for about six weeks earlier this fall. Motorola also put
off its 500-MHz G4 processor because of defects.
Coppermine was the code name for a series of new, high-performance Pentium III processors. When it
debuted, Intel announced 15 different versions for desktops, servers, notebooks, and workstations.
The chips differ from previous Pentium IIIs chiefly because they come with a fast secondary cache, sort of a
data reservoir, integrated onto the same piece of silicon as the processor. Running at faster clock speeds,
the Coppermine chips also come with either a 100-MHz or 133-MHz system bus.
The shortage may have been caused by earlier delays to the new processors, theorized Nathan Brookwood,
principal at Insight 64. Earlier this summer, Intel delayed releasing the Coppermine from September to
November. At the time, the company said it had a technical problem which reduced the number of fast chips
that could be harvested from each silicon wafer.
In August, CEO Craig Barrett then promised that Intel would deliver 700-MHz Coppermine processors in
October.
The technical problems appear to be solved, said Brookwood. However, the delay has meant that a stockpile
of processors wasn't built up.
"It's a little bit of a problem to be sure. Usually when they introduce a chip, they have filled the pipeline," he
said.
News.com's Joe Wilcox contributed to this report |
