As reported here on the 30 April, Merced engineers will now have to get their socks off if they want to make the due date of the 27 May. Although two chapters of the Merced manual have appeared -- and disappeared off the Intel FTP site in the last three days, it does not make the task any easier. Our friends at sandpile.org alerted us to the fact that the first two chapters were out -- so we got those ones. Here's the logo we photographed from a cup, lest you forget. Merced pix blown up out of all proportion The cartridge boys are ready, and the hype is ramping up, so the pressure is on the old boys to deliver by Jume, as revealed here earlier. Otherwise they might suffer a tremendous humiliation at the hands of the Russian engineers who originally designed EPIC and a 64-bit x.86 compatible architecture. Even though it might be .35 micron at first... Intel on target for Merced -- unofficial is the story that might break the back of the old boys... ®