2nd March 1999 Archive

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Intel's Flash presentation

Strategy for Flash foils from Fab 11

At Intel's Albuquerque fab last week, Curt Nichols, marketing director of Intel's Flash Group, presented a set of foils which we thought of interest to our readership. See in particular slides 10 and 11, which outline Intel's future packaging plans. These were supposed to be under NDA but somehow these slides made it into the …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 08:47
Intel to back Linux hardware outfit

An investment in VA Research gives it a matched software and hardware set

Intel is due this week to announce another one of its small investments in a Linux specialist -- VA Research, this time. VA produces Intel-based machines running Linux, and alongside Red Hat, which Intel put money into last year, gives the chip giant a matched set. Intel habitually downplays what you might call its pseudo- …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 08:55
Merced chieftain outlines futures

Verbatim notes from our pow-wow with Stephen Smith

At the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs last week, Steve Smith, VP and general manager in charge of the company's IA-64 programme, was pleasantly forthcoming about the Merced package he showed us. He even allowed us to take photographs, which we considered was something of a breakthrough. What follows are the verbatim notes …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 09:15
Sun to intro ‘open source chips’ licences

No up-front licence fee, don't start paying till you're selling product

Sun is to take a step towards what you might call open source hardware. According to US reports, later today the company will announce that it will distribute its chip designs for free. They won't however be entirely free in the long term, as licensees will have to pay fees once they're actually selling product. But Sun's move …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 09:20
Compaq woos ISVs for 64-bit applications

A port in every storm

Further details of Compaq's plans to leverage 64-bit platforms have emerged, with the company pumping marketing money into an application porting strategy. It will start five porting centres across the world. Documents The Register has seen, show that Compaq is pursuing a dual strategy in order to protect its customer base in …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 09:36
Nokia pushes WAP into consumer market

Analysis GSM Data over cellular finally looks like taking off, in a big way

Nokia's launch of its 7110, the world's first GSM WAP phone, and a related blizzard of news releases are making WAP seem suddenly a much earlier prospect than anticipated. The WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) standard is intended to allow low-resource devices to link to the Internet despite low bandwidth, but had recently …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 09:48
Intel runs private, compulsory licence regime – FTC

Air supplies a go-go as Stan reserves right to trade IP in 'value for value commercial exchanges'

Intel has been running "its own privately administered compulsory licensing regime," says the US Federal Trade Commission in pretrial documentation released yesterday. The FTC is due to open its antitrust case against the chip giant on 9 March, and although its case is a lot tighter-looking than the rival attraction, DoJ versus …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 10:32
Intel PIII number generator could aid psychic research

Spookier and spookier but Ma Shipton reveals all

While The Register was out in Palm Springs, we had an email from an academic at the Department of Parapsychology at Edinburgh University. That department came into being because Arthur Koestler left money in his will to set it up. The academic said he was interested in Intel's hardware random number generator (RNG) because if it …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 11:53
HP to split in twain – WSJ

Stresses Internet hardware sales

Hewlett-Packard is preparing to split itself into two separate companies, according to a good old-fashioned scoop in today's Wall Street Journal. The computer giant will make the announcement after the NYSE this evening, the paper reports. HP management recently hired posh management consultants McKinsey & Co to investigate " …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 11:55
Real3D falls out with Intel

Cobra mints of the season

At the Intel Developer Forum last week, both myself and Markus Pfeffinger from Tom's Hardware Guide pressed Ron Smith, a VP in charge of chipsets, about his company's relationship with Real3D these days. Answers came there none. Just checking on our email on our return from Albuquerque, we noted an email from Jonathan Hou, who …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 12:06
IBM to support all major Linux distributions

Software porting programme continuing apace, too

IBM today said it will offer a global support service for corporate Linux users. The deal will take on board all the major Linux distributions, including Caldera's OpenLinux, Red Hat Linux and Pacific HiTech's version. The company also pledged to ship its WebSphere and OnDemand Server applications for the open source variety of …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 12:07
AMD fab plans leak out

Nothing on wafer numbers but it goes ball grid array

A reader sent us some interesting information from a Japanese Web site and thoughtfully translated it for us too. According to this information, AMD will shift the manufacturing process of the K6-III from 0.25 micron to 0.18 micron in the second half of 1999, but has not yet decided whether to perform that miracle on the K6-2, …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 12:16
AGP party bit of a puzzle

Actually, a lot of a puzzle

At Intel's six-monthly jamboree, last week, every delegate+dog got an invite to an AGP party held at the aircraft museum in Palm Springs. Everyone got a drink ticket and much fun was had by all. But it must have cost the AGP lot a fortune. And none of the journalists, nor, for that matter the Intel spin paramedics, could figure …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 12:28
Netscape ramps up ISP-oriented Linux efforts

Preview server apps released -- full versions to come in a few months

Netscape yesterday extended its strategy of winning the hearts and minds of Linux-running Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with the release of three key server products. The company unveiled Directory Server 4.0 and Messaging Server 4.0 for Linux and promised the preview releases would be followed up with final versions within …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 12:36
Big Blue goes green with recycled PC release

We've heard of junk PCs, but this is ridiculous...

Big Blue yesterday unveiled its first commercial PC made from plastic stripped and recycled from junked computers. The IntelliStation E Pro will ship in the US for a whopping $2155, so IBM clearly reckons that if bog roll manufacturers can charge a premium for recycled product, it can too. The PC is based on 450MHz and 500MHz …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 13:13
Compaq fails to deck French, German DEC staff

Who threw that spear?

French and German Digital staff members who Compaq wanted to lay off before Christmas are still in place, The Register can confirm. The labour laws in two of the largest European countries are preventing them from receiving their P45s (pink slips), according to an informed source. "It's like Michael Caine in Zulu, holding the …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 15:02
Intel, Sun schmoozing for a chip cruising

Will Sun become another SGI?

Reports are reaching The Register that Sun's Scott McNealy and Intel's Craig Barrett are in preliminary talks over the future of chip technology. According to our source, Barrett is going behind the scenes in an attempt to persuade Sun to adopt some elements of Intel technology in its product line-up. Although Microsoft is …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 15:03
HP Merced chipset to arrive next month

Company committed to two revs of PA-RISC and that's it

Sources close to HP's plans said today that the company will release its chipset supporting the Merced platform next month. For the time being at least, HP will maintain its dual strategy of selling HP/UX boxes at the high end and Windows NT servers at the low end. But the sources added that the long-term commitment is to the IA …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 15:09
Japanese economic decline continues to hit PC makers

Big names revise earnings expectations

Toshiba has issued a statement revising forecasts for its financial year, ending 31 March. It expects turnover to stand at Y3,400 billion, with no recurring profit and a net loss of Y20 billion. Last year, Toshiba forecast that turnover would stand at Y3,500 billion, with Y15 billion recurring profit and Y12 billion net income. …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 16:34
FTC girds taffeta for Intel action

intro

How ready is the US Federal Trade Commision for the start of its antitrust sauit against Intel next week? Well, judging from its web site, not very. Yesterday it filed its opening shots with the court, but today's "latest release" on ftc.gov doesn't seem to have quite caught up yet. It's headed "What Every Bride-to-be Should …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 16:40
Vendors vie for No 1 slot in cheap PIII chart

Greta Stan still has manufacturers’ hearts and minds - and souls too, no doubt

Less than a week after the introduction of Intel’s Pentium III chip, PC sellers are falling over themselves to provide the cheapest machines based on the new processor. A whole host of PCs running on the PIII are available in the UK high street and from PC builders. The choice ranges from PC World's £899 machine and - at the …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 17:18
Does 3Dfx really support Linux?

Or was its LinuxWorld announcement just marketing spin? Register readers ask

In our story on 3Dfx's marketing-led Linux support announcement we pointed out that most of the developments the company had highlighted were actually programmes already in place within the open source community. However, some Register readers kindly got in touch to detail the extent of that development work. In particular, …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 18:37
Microsoft to ship beta 3 of W2000 on 21 April

New guard meets the old guard as Alpha hits 1GHz by year-end

Highly reliable sources said today that Microsoft will ship Beta 3 of Windows 2000 to 100,000 end users on April 21st. And the beta will come with support for four way clustering, we are given to understand. A Microsoft executive said at the Intel Developer Forum last week that Win2000 will be ported to the Alpha platform. We …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 22:19
Intel Developer Forum Feb 99

Extensive coverage of the week's events

Once again, Mike Magee represented The Register at Intel's Developer Forum in the heart of a desert. Here is some of the coverage... (For the September 98 IDF, go here) Presentations Merced Solutions Overview IA-64 Architecture Innovations News Stories Microsoft outlines Win64 futures But they'd better sort out beta three first …

Business 2 Mar 1999, 23:10