21st September 1999 Archive

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AMD mobiles outsmoke Intel

Faster, Higher, Stronger

The mobile chip race is turning into a two-horse race with AMD completing its re-invention from also-ran to strong contender. With its latest mobile CPUs, AMD is running ahead in the MHz race, outclocking Intel’s fastest equivalents. AMD is stepping out six new mobile CPUs, three apiece for the Mobile K6-III-P and K6-2-P lines. …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 00:44
Motorola mulls over AMD Dresden stake

Fab news for AMD fans and - maybe - for G4 nuts

What do Motorola and AMD have in common? Neither can make chips quickly enough to satisfy demand. What’s the difference between Motorola and AMD? In essence it boils down to one thing – money. Motorola has heaps of the stuff, while AMD has very shallow pockets indeed. But now seems likely that Motorola is going to help out AMD, …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 01:24
Massive quake hits Taiwan

Update: Death toll rising as capital hit by power cuts

Taiwan has been rocked by the biggest earthquake to hit the island in more than century. More than 1,400 people have been killed, around 4,000 are injured many thousands of others are trapped in collapsed buildings. The quake is understood to have registered an initial reading of as much as 7.6 on the Richter scale -- putting it …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 06:34
Datrontech to shrink further in wake of poor results

FD quits but Mulford not ready to give up the ghost just yet

Datrontech Group released "very disappointing" half-year results yesterday, but chief executive Mark Mulford denied he was about to resign his position. The distributor that further cuts were inevitable as it posted pre-tax losses, before exceptional items, of £700,000 for the six months ended 5 July 1999. Total losses on …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 08:39
MS unveils developer kits for Digital Dashboards

Implementation of Gates vision surprisingly on track

Microsoft is pushing development of products based on its Digital Dashboard Initiative with the launch of three tool kits, available for download free for licensed users. Digital Dashboard was announced as part of Bill Gates' latest knowledge workers without limits 'vision' back in May, but as subsequent events have shown, it …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 10:32
Seagate boxes clever with new packaging

Super-box reduces damage in transit rates

Seagate has developed new packaging technology for its hard drives that would make a cardboard-box blush with inadequacy. Seagate claims that the SeaShell 3D Defence System - which shields the drive from electrostatic discharge during installation - can also withstand 1000 Gs of shock. The whole system is designed to reduce the …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 10:49
S3 Savages Packard Bell-NEC PCs

Latest graphics offering to feature in Spirit PCs

S3 has won a deal to supply Packard Bell-NEC Europe with its Savage4 accelerator. S3's graphics accelerator will power Packard Bell's new range of consumer Spirit PCs, according to Business Wire. The US manufacturer's Spirit line of computers is due to start shipping this month and will use the Pentium III chip along with the …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 11:05
Freeserve shares drop below offer price

Beginning of the end or just market jitters?

Despite being massively over-subscribed when it floated in July, Freeserve's shares fell yesterday below their offer price. From a starting point of 150p in July, Freeserve soared to the dizzy heights of 244p in early August, but at one point yesterday dropped to 135p. While some pundits are heralding this as the beginning of …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 11:14
Lotus dishes out redundancy notices

170 jobs at risk

Lotus is scrapping three support centres in Staines, Paris and Munich, consolidating the operations into one site in Dublin Up to 170 jobs could go in the reorganisation, with 100 redundancies planned for Paris and Munich, while 70 customer support reps in Staines, are being offered relocation packages to Dublin. The …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 11:31
Dane-Elec goes for gold

Top level Intel gong awarded to manufacturer/distributor

Dane-Elec has become the first memory module vendor to net a place on Intel's new Gold certification programme. CMTL (Computer Memory Test Labs), the outfit responsible for testing companies for the scheme, said Dane-Elec had the dependability and size to qualify. The Gold programme is a step ahead of Intel's Advanced Memory …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 12:38
Micron 1 decks Rambus, Micron 2 chins Taiwanese government

Talk about kicking someone when they're down

Micron Electronics, the US PC manufacturer, has spurned Rambus-ready chipset by Intel in favour of VIA Technologies, as well as hitting back at the Taiwanese government over dumping allegations. The vendor will use VIA's VT82C694X chipset in its next generation computer platform, saving between $200 and $300 on the price of …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 12:46
Apple issues shock profit warning

Motorola delays to G4 shipments hurt Mac makers sales

After pulling off one the all-time great comebacks, Apple has issued an unexpected profit warning. The problem is due - the company says - to a shortage of G4 processors from Motorola. The G4 is the super-chip that will power Apple's next generation of PowerMacs and iMacs. In fact the company is claiming to have taken 150,000 …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 13:22
Pentium III 600 overclocks as standard

Intel doesn't put its money where its mouth is

Amidst the invective and praise heaped on my shoulders following last week's overclocking story, some interesting snippets emerged. Several readers claimed that Intel itself, while corporately standing on a chair screaming its lungs out at the very mention of overclocking, resorts to upping core voltages to achieve reliable …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 14:52
Earthquake costs Taiwan semicon industry $300m

Nightmare for Hsinchu chip makers, writes Simon Burns from Taipei

After a massive earthquake hit Taiwan, major electronics manufacturers in the Hsinchu science park were struggling to cope with a continuing power outage Tuesday evening, but said production facilities did not appear to have suffered serious damage. "It's a kind of nightmare for us," said Winbond Electronics assistant vice …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 15:04
Korean stocks soar on Taiwan disaster

... In every ton of rubble, a silver lining

Shares in Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest DRAM chipmaker, jumped 10 per cent today on the back of the Taiwan earthquake. Other Korean chipmakers and chemical companies which compete directly with Taiwanese counterparts, also gained on the news. "It's a terrible thing to say but what is a disaster for Taiwan is good for …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 15:27
Java-based car brings new meaning to the word automatic

How long before you don't even need to steer the damn things

Motorola, IBM, Embedded Planet and QNX have teamed up to develop MobileGT architecture, designed for in-car information systems. What this means is that we will shortly find ourselves in some very Star Trek-like situations. Soon you will be informed by your car on the way to the airport that the bad traffic you could have …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 16:52
Media Y2k frenzy may trash economy – Greenspan

It's all under control. But if nobody believes that - tick, tick, tick

Media exploitation of the Y2K rollover will determine its disruptive power upon the finely-tuned American economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told reporters last week. The Chairman reckons America's businesses and financial institutions are well enough prepared for the rollover, but "we have not yet reached the …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 17:52
Taiwan quake sees DRAM prices rise

Panic buying likely to cause shortages in supply as industry does its best to carry on

Memory prices went up by more than five per cent last night as news of the Taiwan earthquake broke. The price hikes have been labelled by some as callous profiting in the wake of human suffering, while others point to market uncertainties as the cause of the increase. Initial feedback on the impact of yesterday's earthquake on …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 18:05
QXL scales down IPO expectations

We think it's worth a punt

Tim Jackson, the UK’s leading Net pundit and founder of QXL.com, has seen his putative paper fortune shrink from £127 million to as little as £32 million. Today, QXL, the UK’s biggest Net auction house, announced the price range for its IPO offering would be 180p to 205p per share, valuing the company at £212 million to £242 …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 18:23
WinLinux Linux on Windows goes into public beta

Strewth... Dragon's teeth plague MS acquisitions department

Department of strange coincidences. On Friday Microsoft bought one Linux for Windows (See story),but on Tuesday another one pops up. JRCP's WinLinux 2000 was released for a public final beta today, and the final product is expected to ship in early November. Softway's Linux version of Interix didn't actually make it out of …

Business 21 Sep 1999, 18:46