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

To: Tony Viola who wrote (51745)	3/5/1999 9:37:00 PM
From: kash johal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572940

Tony, Re: More AMD news Compaq laptop to offer new AMD mobile K6-2 By Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com March 5, 1999, 6:00 p.m. PT update AMD will debut a faster, 380-MHz version of its mobile K6-2 processor Monday, and has won Compaq as a major new customer to sell the chip in its laptops, sources said today. AMD claims the processor is 50 percent faster than Intel's mobile Celeron 300 chip, according to people familiar with the new product, and will sell it for less than a comparable Pentium chip. Lining up backing from well-known computer vendors is critical to AMD's strategy of taking on Intel. Until now Compaq has offered AMD chips in desktop computers but not laptops. "It's not as fast as a Pentium II-366 in all regards, but it's a whole lot cheaper," one source familiar with the chip said. "They used to be not even in the same ballpark [as Intel]. Now they're in the same ballpark, and there's savings to be had." Do you want to know more? Read related news View story in The Big Picture Go to Message Boards Search News.com Critical to AMD's goal of keeping the heat on Intel is its ability to boost its chips to higher and higher clock speeds. But the task has proven difficult for the Sunnyvale, California, chipmaker, which hasn't been able to produce enough of its faster chips. AMD missed its fourth-quarter target, for instance, on a 400-MHz K6-2 desktop chip. The shortcoming has hurt AMD with PC manufacturers and bruised its stock price of late. "If they've solved that problem, that's going to help them a lot competitively," one source predicted. Intel isn't resting on its laurels, however, aiming to push its mobile processors to 500 MHz or 600 MHz by the end of the year. In addition, Intel benefits from its ability to manufacture its own chipsets, while AMD must rely on industrial partners such as VIA. Chipsets connect the main processor to other components in the computer. "It remains to be seen whether AMD can work with its platform partners," the source noted. Still, the notebook chip rivalry seems likely to heat up with AMD's introduction of its mobile K6-3, due in the second half of 1999. The new chip will be still faster because of cache running at the full speed of the chip itself, said Microprocessor Report editor-in-chief Linley Gwennap. While the K6-3 may not exceed Intel's offerings in speed, it is more compact, less power-hungry, likely to be less expensive than Intel chips, Gwennap said. AMD could not be reached for comment. News.com's Michael Kanellos contributed to this report.