Sources close to Merced's plans said today that Intel has an ambitious plan to hire 70 engineers to help it sort out various problems with the microprocessor. And the same source, a senior executive at one of Intel's largest OEMs, said that while his company had still not yet seen silicon, even if samples arrived on time, systems using the Merced chip would not appear until the very end of 2000. Intel has publicly committed to providing silicon samples in June this year, and shipping chips in June 2000. He said that his company will make Merced boxes and expected to sell "hundreds of the systems" in Europe. Corporate customers, however, were likely to evaluate Merced rather than buy systems in droves. He admitted that many would buy Merced boxes, which will initially appear in four way configurations, so they could prepare for McKinley technology in the future. ®