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To: Tony Viola who wrote (60985)7/22/1998 8:40:00 PM
From: Adam Nash  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 186894
 
Re: Copper chips, AMD & Motorola.

Remember, several months ago IBM demonstrated a 1.1 Ghz PowerPC technology. It was based on copper, similar to the technology Motorola has. IBM said it expected to have PPC at speeds of 1GHz by the end of 1999.

Whether AMD can fab .13 micron copper-based K7s in 2000 is anyone's guess - I haven't been impressed with AMDs execution to date.

However, when it comes to chip technology, what they say is clearly doable. Just maybe not by them :)

- Adam



To: Tony Viola who wrote (60985)7/22/1998 9:22:00 PM
From: Paul Engel  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 186894
 
Tony - Re: " AMD hasn't built chip one with copper yet, at any freaking clock speed, and yet they come out with a prediction of when they'll have a chip 3X as fast as anything they have today! Talk about brass ba!!s­­­ Or is it Hail Mary time for them?"

You are 100% Correct.

It is Hail Mary time for AMD.

Let's face it. AMD made this deal with Motorola as an act of desperation. They are ADMITTING that they do not have the expertise, money or resources to develop technology in a manner to remain competitive with Intel.

Thus, they are "partnering" with Motorola - giving away something in return for a prayer - a chance - to catch up with Intel.

Remember - AMD is doing it's usual "spin city" routine - making a big hoopla out of an admission of near-defeat.

And the media let's them get away with it!

Paul



To: Tony Viola who wrote (60985)7/22/1998 9:27:00 PM
From: Paul Engel  Respond to of 186894
 
Tony & Intel Investors - More on Intel's 700 Mhz 0.18 micron Process

Here's another article discussing Intel's upcoming 0.18 micron process and expected clock speeds of 700 MHz.

At least Intel has already demonstrated 700 MHz operation on its 0.25 micron Pentium II !

Paul

{===============================}
Intel diagrams 700-MHz technology
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM
July 22, 1998, 4:10 p.m. PT
URL: news.com

A major manufacturing advance in the second half of 1999 will enable Intel to introduce smaller, faster, and less expensive chips running as fast as 700 MHz.

Late next year, the company will release two chips made on the 0.18 micron production process, according to a company spokesman. Generally, the smaller the production process, the more transistors can be packed into a chip and the faster it runs. Intel is currently using a "fatter" .25-micron process to produce mobile Pentium chips and Pentium II processors.

The new "Coppermine" will be a chip for desktops and notebooks, while "Cascades" is intended for use in servers and workstations.

Both will include the new Katmai instructions, a technology due earlier next year that will boost multimedia performance, the spokesman added. Katmai is informally known as "MMX 2."

Intel would not reveal the speeds of Coppermine or Cascades, but MicroDesign Resources recently predicted that the chipmaker would introduce the 0.18-micron process in the second half of 1999 along with a series of chips for different markets. A 600-MHz Pentium II for desktops and a 700-MHz Xeon chip for servers and workstations are slated for the second half, the noted industry analysts said prior to today's disclosure.

In addition, Intel will likely release a 366-MHz chip for mobile computers with 256K of high-speed cache memory integrated directly on to the processor.

Despite this spate of activity, Intel will not be the first company to begin shipping 0.18-micron chips. As reported earlier, IBM will release its first 0.18-micron PowerPC microprocessors for commercial consumption later this summer, according to sources close to IBM.

Moreover, these processors will use copper rather than aluminum wires to connect circuits, a change in metals that will in time improve performance. IBM's roadmap also seems to indicate that it will be producing 0.18-micron processors based around the Intel architecture by 1999 or 2000.

Although the exact timing and sequence of these events cannot now be determined, various analysts have pointed out that chips based around new process technologies typically come out first for the notebook
markets.

Certainly advances in chip manufacturing have been accelerating. In the past, the shift from one process technology to the next has taken three or more years. Intel began producing chips under the 0.25-micron
process in September 1997, or about two years before the first 0.18-micron chips are due.

Manufacturing advances lead to smaller circuitry and smaller chips. In turn, this means processors that are cheaper, because a company can get more chips out of a single wafer, and faster, because closer circuits means less travel time for electrons.

Intel is an investor in CNET: The Computer Network.



To: Tony Viola who wrote (60985)7/22/1998 9:30:00 PM
From: Paul Engel  Respond to of 186894
 
Intel Investors - Intergraph is Whining about Intel's Evans & Sutherland Investment

Read it an weep.

Paul

{=======================}
Intergraph: Intel deal
confirms threat
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM
July 22, 1998, 5:55 p.m. PT

Intel says that that its investment in graphics
chip vendor Evans & Sutherland is about
enhancing the performance of workstations,
but Intergraph claims the move confirms all of
its fears.

Intergraph, which
makes both
Intel-based
workstations and also
high-end graphics
subsystems for
workstation vendors
such as Dell, today
said that Intel's $24
million investment in
Salt Lake City-based Evans & Sutherland
(E&S) bolsters the argument that Intel is
using its weight in microprocessors to
muscle into the graphics arena. The issue is
central both to a lawsuit brought by Intergraph
and an antitrust suit filed by Federal Trade
Commission.

"Obviously, this further confirms key points
Intergraph is making in its lawsuit against
Intel, that Intel is a competitor of Intergraph's
and that Intel is actively expanding deeper
into graphics," said an Intergraph
spokesman. "We are sure that the Federal
Trade Commission will find this interesting."

Most observers canvassed by CNET's
NEWS.COM do not see the investment as a
direct assault on Intergraph, but the
circumstances give Intergraph room to
argue. This is the fourth investment in
graphics companies that Intel has made in
the past few years. E&S is also one of
Intergraph's prime competitors in the
graphics subsystem arena.

"They [E&S] are definitely an up-and-comer,"
said Dan Dolan, workstation analyst at
Dataquest. "They have some of the better
chips out there," he continued, adding that
the company has recently acquired smaller
competitors.

"Evans & Sutherland has a history for being
one of the strong players in the marketplace,"
said Dave Mack, president of Technology
Business Research.

Intergraph and E&S in fact battled it out for
attention at Siggraph this week. E&S
announced that it would work with Compaq
to develop graphics subsystems for that
company's high-end workstation PCs, based
around both Intel and Alpha processors.
Intergraph, meanwhile, announced the next
generation of its graphics subsystem.

For their part, Intel and E&S stated that the
investment is being made to enhance the
graphics capability of Intel-based
workstations. Although Intel workstations
currently account for 70 percent of
workstation sales, they produce less than 50
percent of the revenue, said Pat Gelsinger,
vice president and general manager of the
Business Systems Division at Intel. To get
into the higher echelons of the market, better
graphics subsystems are needed.

"Our objective is to expand the Intel
architecture, period," he said.

Mack agreed, saying Intel's stake in E&S
only comes to 8.2 percent, hardly a
controlling interest. (Intel is also an investor in
CNET: The Computer Network.) "This is
being done to facilitate higher-end systems,"
he said. "They have been making
investments in a wide range of companies."

Still, Intergraph and sources close to the FTC
have said that Intel's interest presents a
concern. Intergraph has alleged in its suit that
Intel pulled a nondisclosure agreement with
Intergraph in an attempt to get access to
Intergraph's graphics technology. The FTC
has raised Intel's handling of Intergraph as a
major issue in the agency's case.

In addition, the graphics market has been a
focal point of an ongoing investigation into
Intel's business practices by the FTC.
Graphics vendors reported last year that the
agency contacted them with regard to its
antitrust investigation. Former FTC
investigators have also said that the FTC is
looking into the competitive effects of a
product code-named Whitney, a combination
chipset-graphics chip for low-end
workstations that Intel plans to bring out next
year.

Nonetheless, the agency approved Intel's
acquisition of Chips & Technologies earlier
this year.

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