8th February 2000 Archive

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AMD copperwhopper Intel heartstopper

1.1GHz Athlon will Cu-you, Jimmy

Just micro-seconds after Intel said how it had tweaked aluminium so that it was able to produce a 1GHz Pentium III at .18µ (micron), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) showed a 1.1GHz Athlon using copper interconnects with integrated cache on the chip. Both AMD and Intel make microprocessors, which many believe to be the brain in a …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 08:18
Acer finds Ideal channel partner

Big plans to raise profile, and sell kit too

Ideal Hardware has become a distributor of Acer notebook PCs, adding the Taiwanese manufacturing giant to its portfolio of systems. Although the agreement will cover the full range of Acer PC-based products, the initial emphasis will be on mobile computing, according to a statement issued by Ideal. The Chessington-based storage- …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 08:29
Gateway 600MHz Athlon box spotted

Where? For sale on the Gateway Web site, that's where

They said it could never happen, but it did. And now European sceptics can get to see it with their own eyes -- an Athlon-powered Gateway PC is on sale across the manufacturer's Europe, Middle East and Africa territory. The Gateway Select 600 is based on the (you guessed it) 600MHz AMD Athlon and is available now, so Gateway …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 08:54
DRAM VAT ‘scam’ nets £20m

Three deny charges

Two memory brokers exploited the VAT-free status of goods moved from one EU country to another to make millions of pounds from crooked trading in DRAM, a British court heard yesterday. In the dock are Daniel O'Connell, 46, Bernadette Devine, 33, and their "trusted lieutenant", Bernard Dawson, 58. O'Connell, from West London, …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 09:51
DRAM VAT ‘scam’ nets £20m

Three deny charges

Two memory brokers exploited the VAT-free status of goods moved from one EU country to another, to make millions of pounds from crooked trading in DRAM, a British court heard yesterday. In the dock are Daniel O'Connell, 46, Bernadette Devine, 33, and their "trusted lieutenant" Bernard Dawson, 58. O'Connell, from West London, …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 09:51
Tabloid trumpets Net IPO with binman's £20m fortune

It could be you

When a Net IPO story makes front page of The Sun, you know the Bubble Economy is near to bursting. Yesterday, Britain's best-selling tabloid newspaper splashed the "£20 million Web fortune of (former binman) Anthony Ashcroft, 23" just as if he had won the National Lottery. Which, in a way he has, only with paper rather than real …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 09:58
Intel stake in Esoft? 666,666 shares…

Five per centers name of the game

The investment wing of Intel, Intel Capital, is busying itself in the financial markets. Last November, the chip firm invested in Linux company Esoft, as the Intel press release here describes. But, according to US law, forms must be filed with the Security and Equities Commission (SEC) for transactions of this type. And the …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 10:08
MS makes its play to own Web voice APIs

The Next Big Thing?

The timing of the re-announcement that Microsoft will be incorporating DirectPlay Voice into DirectX is interesting. It has been known that Microsoft was serious about getting real-time voice into games ever since it acquired Canadian company ShadowFactor Software last June, when it announced that its Battlefield Communicator …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 10:24
Was Mattel CEO pushed from Microsoft's board?

The matters may be in some way connected...

The unanswered question following the resignation last week of Jill Barad as CEO and Chairman of toymaker Mattel is, was she pushed to resign from the Microsoft board as well last September? We can be pretty sure that Microsoft would not like to have a member of its board running an unsuccessful company. The problems at Mattel …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 10:33
Intel unveils cunning network mobo plan

ATX spex for home nets emerges

Chip giant Intel yesterday said it had designed a specification for ATX motherboards to support modem, networking and audio elements in chip sets. The communication and networking riser (CNR) specification will be made available to OEMs with the idea that they include it in future PCs used at home. The spec offers a riser …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 10:42
Boffins beat Moore's Law with quantum magic

Look, ma, no wires

IBM scientists believe they may have found a way to beat the physical limitations imposed on microprocessors as the chips' circuits become too small to support an electrical current. The technique, dubbed the Quantum Mirage Effect (QME), is positively mind-boggling. Essentially, information about an atom at point A appears at …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 11:14
QXL splashes £38 million in red ink

...but meets key strategic objectives

QXL.com lost a whopping £38 million in Q3, the European online auction house reported today. Operating losses for Q3 up to 31 January 1999 accounted for £10.7 million (£8.1 million in the previous quarter) and acquisition related charges added a further £12.6 million (£2.9 million). National Insurance provisions of £14.8 million …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 11:16
1999 a record year for chip sales

Net drives up demand for silicon after late 90s' downturn

The world clearly can't get enough silicon, as demand for products made out of it shows. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), global sales of semiconductors hit a record $149 billion during 1999, an increase of 19 per cent on the previous year. The big sellers were memory chips and embedded processors …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 11:55
HP lens focuses Itanium-Merced strategy

What we see is what we haven't yet got

It's time to revisit Intel's Merced-Itanium strategy, but this time through the curved lens of partner Hewlett Packard. As we have reported here earlier, initial speeds of Merced will be 800MHz+, the IA-64 at its heart will be a .18 micron processor, it will have cache of four megabytes plus and a frontside bus speed of 133MHz, …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 12:06
Riot police prep batons for MS Demo 2000

Eat the Rich Version 2

The Seattle Robo Cops were out in force yesterday, this time to protect the Microsoft Redmond, Washington campus from 60 or so anarchist protestors. Two dozen police, dressed in full riot gear (and boy do those guys look mean) faced down 60 marchers protesting the "globalization of corporate power" and what they called -- AP …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 12:22
Teenage dot com sensation sweeps Mystery Awards

Rich and sexy too

British teenage dot com sensation Benjamin Cohen has scooped a bag-full of awards celebrating his e-ntrepreneurial skills and the massive contribution he has made to the industry. He was ranked second place in the Internet Icon category behind Lastminute.com's Martha Lane Fox. He was also voted sexiest male webmaster. His portal …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 13:20
Akamai snaps up rival for $2.8bn

Stock swap nabs InterVu in expansion-by-acquisition bid

Internet acceleration specialist Akamai yesterday agreed to hand over $2.8 billion in stock to buy up streaming media company InterVu. InterVu shareholders will receive roughly 0.6 Akamai shares for each InterVu share they own. Akamai said it would issue 9.3 million common shares to cover the swap. The combined operation -- the …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 14:08
MP3.com countersues music industry trade body

We're not paranoid -- the RIAA really is out to get us, claims virtual CD player company

Online music company MP3.com has countersued the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and its president and CEO, Hilary Rosen, following legal action launched by the RIAA against it last month. MP3.com is alleging the RIAA is essentially attempting to beat up on it for its pro-MP3 stance. In a sense, MP3.com only has …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 14:41
DDD: system claims to circumvent Internet

Updated Cloudy net mystery surrounded by enigma

A system called DDD, which removes the need for an ISP for connecting to various devices including PCs, mobile phones, and interactive television, is causing a stir in the City. Several multinationals, computer and telecomms firms are talking to London-based Keith Grant to acquire the technology, according to what could be "a …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 15:27
Callnet backlog claims come under fire

Not cleared, some users say

CallNet 0800's claims yesterday that it has successfully cleared the backlog of Net users trying to register for its service has been challenged by users who say they have been ignored by the ISP. A number of users have contacted The Register attacking the ISP for mishandling its heavily over-subscribed launch last year. …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 16:05
Say hello to hologram RAM

Japanese researchers bring optical memory one step closer to practical reality

Japanese researchers have finally figured out how to plug the data leak that is preventing the widespread use of holographic memory -- a high-density, high read speed storage optical system that works on the same principle as the 3D security labels on credit cards. Holographic memory itself isn't new. Just as a visual hologram …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 16:18
Net Q&A for UK home secretary

Jack offers to handle your queries

UK home secretary, Jack Straw, is to face the online electorate tomorrow in an Internet Q&A session courtesy of The Guardian’s news site, newsunlimited.co.uk. The site – there’s a link at the foot of this story – is inviting the UK public to email questions for the country’s second most powerful politician to answer tomorrow at …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 16:59
Via, AMD, others strike back at Intel riser plans

SiG will develop extremely cunning response

Only a few hours after Intel announced it would release a specification for a comms riser card, a group of vendors including AMD and Via announced their alternative. The advanced communications riser special interest group (ACRSiG) includes AMD, Acer, 3Com, Via, Nvidia, Lucent, Motorola, Conexant, and Texas Instruments among its …

Business 8 Feb 2000, 17:26