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To: Michael Bakunin who wrote (73603)	2/13/1999 9:07:00 PM
From: Diamond Jim	Respond to of 186894

News February 13, 00:30 Eastern Time Feb. 12, 1999 (Electronic Engineering Times - CMP via COMTEX) -- San Francisco - Difficulties in taking the Intel Camino chip set to the speeds necessary to accommodate a 133-MHz system bus may delay the rollout of personal computers based on the full-speed Rambus technology, sources said. Instead, Intel Corp. may support a 100-MHz system bus for its initial Pentium III processors, using Direct Rambus DRAMs operating at 600 MHz. The Pentium III, or Katmai, will formally launch this week. Analyst Mark Edelstone at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter said the 820 Camino chip set needed to support the 800-MHz Rambus memories will be delayed to the third quarter. PC OEMs, he said, will go ahead with June introductions of Rambus-based systems, but with the memory speeds slowed to 600 MHz. "Although these systems will not offer the full bandwidth benefit inherent in the Rambus memory architecture, we believe that PCs with the 600-MHz version of Direct Rambus DRAMs will offer twice as much bandwidth as PC/100 versions when they run bandwidth-intensive applications like video and 3-D graphics," Edelstone wrote in a report. Major PC makers had expected to introduce initial full-speed Rambus systems in June, moving to full-volume shipments in the second half. That schedule, while never officially endorsed by Intel, may now be pushed back, with a 100/600-MHz specification inserted. "We are on track to introduce the Rambus technology in 1999," said an Intel spokesman. At Rambus, marketing vice president Subodh Toprani said that the 600-MHz specification-referred to by Intel as "the down bin"-has been in the Rambus product plan since 1997. "At this point, there is not enough data. No one can say there won't be an 800-MHz introduction as planned," Toprani said. Edelstone wrote that his firm still believes "Intel is on track to introduce a version of the chip set that will support 600-MHz versions of Direct Rambus DRAMs toward the end of the second quarter. However, we believe difficult technical hurdles will likely cause upwards of a three-month delay in Intel's ability to deliver a version of the 820 chip set to support the full Direct Rambus DRAM spec of 800 MHz." Intel has said it will reveal modified plans for its Rambus program at the Intel Developers Forum set for Feb. 23-25. A likely scenario is support for a two-stage introduction, with the initial Pentium III processor linked to a 100-MHz system bus by a Camino chip set that supports RDRAMs operating at 600 MHz. Once Camino silicon is ready that can support the 133-MHz system bus, and once yields on the full-spec RDRAMs reach sufficient quantities, PC OEMs could introduce the 133/800 systems. Performance balance The issue is how to balance the overall performance of the system, sources said. Without a chip set that can support a 133-MHz system bus, there is little need to move to the 800-MHz Rambus technology. The 600-MHz Rambus parts can provide 1.2 Gbytes/second of peak bandwidth, compared with 1.6 Gbytes/s for the 800-MHz RDRAMs and 500 Mbytes/s for the PC100 SDRAMs. The bandwidth is divided among the system bus, the Accelerated Graphics Port and the PCI bus. PC OEMs would like to refresh the top ends of their product line in the second half. But one source said that some IT managers are reluctant to move to the Rambus technology while the year-2000 problem is putting demands on the software used in corporate America. Another source noted that delays in the delivery of full-spec Rambus parts would make more room for the PC133 SDRAM specification to be adopted in the personal-computer sector.

To: Michael Bakunin who wrote (73603)	2/13/1999 9:09:00 PM
From: Diamond Jim	Respond to of 186894

News February 13, 00:05 Eastern Time Feb. 12, 1999 (Computer Reseller News - CMP via COMTEX) -- Santa Clara, Calif. -- Intel Corp. is moving to a next-generation manufacturing process that promises leaner and meaner microprocessors this year. Company executives last month outlined plans to move from the current 0.25-micron process technology to 0.18-micron technology, starting in mid-1999. The advanced manufacturing process will allow the company to produce smaller and faster chips, they said. Essentially, transistors on the chip will shrink, creating smaller chips that run cooler and faster. Santa Clara-based Intel eventually plans to produce processors on the 0.18-micron process that reach a clock speed of 1GHz, said Sunlin Chou, vice president and general manager of Intel's technology and manufacturing group. In the second half of 1999, chips made on the process will have target clock speeds of 600MHz and greater. In moving to 0.18-micron technology, Intel sees greater opportunity for integrating the processor and secondary cache into a single die, Chou said. Pentium II chips have 512 Kbytes of off-die cache "I would expect a range of different [Level 2] cache integrated onto processors," Chou said. Intel has said the first products made under the new manufacturing process will be tailored to the mobile market. The process produces low-voltage chips, which translates into lower power consumption-essential to extending battery life. The 0.18-micron process will "allow mobile performance to be comparable to desktop PC performance," Chou said. Intel has ordered enough manufacturing capacity to ensure that the shift to the new technology is faster than in previous manufacturing generations, he said. Intel rivals Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., and Cyrix Corp., Richardson, Texas, a subsidiary of Santa Clara-based National Semiconductor Corp., both plan to move to 0.18-micron technology later this year. Unlike IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., Intel said it is not switching to copper technology-at least now. While IBM is beginning volume production of copper-based microprocessors, Intel is sticking to aluminum for the 0.18-micron generation. "At this generation, we feel we can achieve high performance with aluminum," said Mark Bohr, director of process architecture and integration at Intel's technology and manufacturing group. The benefits of copper "are not sufficient to justify the additional risk," Chou said. Intel's decision not to use copper yet makes sense, said Ron Dornseif, analyst at Dataquest, San Jose, Calif. "Intel is probably one company-maybe even more so than most semiconductor companies, that [doesn't] gamble with the reliability of the devices," he said. Rich Favaro, president of Bellevue, Wash.-based PC Help Corp., said the faster processors made under 0.18-micron process promises should boost business. "If I can have someone do eight hours of work on their old computer and when they get a new one, they can get it done in seven, I can sell them computers all day long because they're getting a return on their investment," he said.