Seed Assignments Aren't Easy....

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/0108Intel09-CP.html
Intel employees paying a difficult price
The cost of a new computer chip factory usually is measured in billions of dollars. For 1,000 Intel Corp. workers in Chandler, the cost is measured in separated families, missed holidays, long-distance phone calls and homesickness.

Shuttle Puts Intel’s Latest Extreme Chip into Small Form-Factor PC

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20050110052952.html
Shuttle Proclaims World’s Most Advanced PC Barebone

Shuttle Computer, a well-known maker of small form-factor PC barebones, announced its latest addition to the family of its chassis for PCs aimed at customers targeting premier performance at any price.

OT: TSMC, UMC sales continue to drop

http://tinyurl.com/5ohcf
Taiwan-based United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) reported that its December sales continued to drop to $277.6m, 4.3 per cent lower than in November, but up 6.4 per cent from $261m in December 2003.

Meanwhile, rival foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said its sales for last month totaled $622.5m, a drop of 5.1 per cent from November, but up 26.8 per cent from $592.7m in December 2003.

Intel Sonoma turns up in Sony Vaio machine
A handsome beastie

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20610
FOLLOWING Intel's early bird launch of the Sonoma and Pentium M 533MHz chips in Japan last week, another web site in Japan has specs of a Vaio machine using the technology.

Shuttle XPC Pentium M video player pictured
CES 2005 What a marvellous chip

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20615
WE HAD A CHANCE to take a picture of Shuttle XPC based on the Pentium M CPU and we have to say that this machine definitely looks like a video recorder.

LOL


Of course, someone (not me, of course) might point out, that the "AMD Strategy" (Less Parts/Higher Margin) is a philosphy stated by AMD, while the "Intel Strategy" (Benchmarks don't matter) is simply the opinion of "some people".

New AMD Chip Sales Strategy

http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert20050146463107.gif

Intel, eBay Launch Recycling Initiative

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050107/gadget_show_recycling_2.html
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- EBay Inc. and Intel Corp. launched a recycling program Thursday to motivate Americans to safely dispose of mounting piles of used computers and other electronic gadgets.

U.S. consumers retire or replace roughly 133,000 personal computers per day, according to research firm Gartner Inc. EBay lists roughly $2.5 billion worth of new and used computers every year, as well as $2.5 billion worth of consumer electronics such as cellular phones, gaming equipment and hand-held computers.

AOpen Offers Intel Pentium M Desktop Barebone

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20050107022813.html
AOpen, a well-known maker of mainboards and barebones and a subsidiary of Wistron Group, announced this week the world’s first small form-factor cube-like desktop barebone powered by Intel Pentium M processors, the chips originally developed for mobile applications.

Intel Smithfield captured in pictures

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20566
AS WE TOLD you a couple of hours ago, here Intel was indeed showing off its dual core CPU. In the last part we missed out the Intel codenames as Intel calls these CPUs X40, X30 and X20, but we were right that this CPU managed to come to Vegas.

I'm not so sure. It costs a fortune to build fabs and develop a new process. IBM's silicon operations has lost a lot of money recently and you have to wonder why they keep at it when they could contract out Power to Foundries. Sure they make a lot of money from other divisions and they can afford to stay in the game but why? Just what do they gain by spending a fortune to maintain their own fab and process?


IBM may continue to support Fab operations for it's own internal needs, but I don't see them continuing into the foundry business in a big way. As you well know, one of the advantages of doing it in-house, is that you can tweak the process, and get very quick feedback on the results. Doing it outside, you not only have to contend with an additional layer of bureaucracy with the foundry's own structure, IMO, there has to be additional delay associated with working with the foundry's systems, and the foundry's own priorities. When you make it yourself, for yourself, the only people you need to deal with, is yourself.

Of course, if you can get some suckers..... ummmm I mean "partners" to contribute to building your new Fab, and then promise Them foundry services, to soak up any additional unneeded capacity (With a lower priority then your stuff, of course), then that's all the better...... For IBM that is. Eh?

Intel to make strong closeout for 2004

Analysts expect chipmaker to meet or beat estimates

http://tinyurl.com/4gygc
Wall Street analysts expect Intel (INTC: news, chart, profile) to meet or beat consensus estimates of 31 cents per share in earnings on revenue of $9.4 billion. If the company reports in line with those estimates, the results would represent an improvement of 8 percent over revenue from the same period last year, though the earnings per share would be 2 cents lower.

Intel, Kellogg among Smith Barney's '05 picks

http://tinyurl.com/4vhzb
NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Chip maker Intel Corp. (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , cereal maker Kellogg Co. (K.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and retailer J.C. Penney Co Inc. (JCP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) are among 59 stocks singled out by Smith Barney, the brokerage arm of Citigroup Inc. (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , as its "Top Picks" for 2005.

Intel to Enter China's Online Game Market

http://tinyurl.com/5o9jo
XIAMEN, Jan 06, 2005 (SinoCast via COMTEX) -- The US-based Intel had inked an agreement with China's Xiamen Taygata Information Technology Development Co., Ltd. to develop online game software.

IBM leads $2.7bn fab investment

http://tinyurl.com/6yx82
IBM will lead a $2.7bn investment in a next generation chip plant with help from co-investors Sony, Toshiba and Samsung.Tokyo Electron, Applied Materials, AMD and Infineon are also reported to be involved in the investment that includes a new semiconductor plant at IBM’s existing Fishkill, New York plant.


I'm not sure, but AFAIK, "reported" and "announced", are not the same thing, are they?

Rumour: Desktop Intel Prescott Can Enable 64bit

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20050104133604.html
A Taiwan based web-site reported a rumour claiming there is a possibility to enable 64-bit capability on Intel’s latest Pentium 4 microprocessors in LGA775 form-factor using a mainboard BIOS update. While the information may be correct, it is currently highly-unlikely that such operation will becomes popular.

I think it might be worth a lot more to HP than a mere pat
on the back. From what I understand Intel's manufacturing
division is one of the largest users of VMS on the planet.


AFAIK, VMS is the OS used for keeping track of the "wafers in process" in the Fab. All intel wafers, everywhere. So yeah, i'd say the statement "largest users of VMS on the planet" might even be an "understatement"

Yet their share price target is still well below the other analysts. $21->$22? How can they call that being positive? What a joke.


Maybe, but I'm still OK with the report. This reminds me of what one of my past managers said about one of my performance reviews, whose wording didn't come out as all that flattering, although the raise itself was decent. When I was in discussion with him about the wording of the performance review, he agreed that I had done well, and one of his statements was.... So, what's the big deal, your raise was pretty good, wasn't it? (Yes), Well, that's the important thing, isn't it? (NO IT'S NOT, because no future employer/manager will look at the amount of the raise, but they'll for sure, read the review).

IMO, 99.99999999% percent of the people don't look too closely at comparing the price target numbers between analysts, I think they rely mostly on the "Text Of The Message". I think most readers scanning these messages, and/or reports won't compare one analysts price target with another analysts price target, but you can be darned sure they're reading what they say.

OK, I admit it, before you mentioned it, I didn't notice the difference in targets myself

Samsung, LG to Unveil Laptop Computers with Intel's New Chip

http://tinyurl.com/5s2jr
SEOUL, Jan 4 Asia Pulse - South Korean notebook computer makers, including Samsung Electronics Co. (KSE:05930) and LG Electronics Inc. (KSE:66570), are poised to unveil new laptop models equipped with Intel Corp.'s new version of the Centrino chipset, code-named "Sonoma," an industry source said Tuesday.

Intel Sales Strong: Prudential

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/tech/hardware/10201585.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=...
Prudential Securities expects Intel's (INTC:Nasdaq - commentary - research) fourth-quarter revenue to come in at the high end of its previously stated range when it reports earnings next week. The brokerage raised its price target to $22 from $21 and maintained a neutral rating on the stock. The shares rose 13 cents, or 0.6%, to $23.20 in early trading.

Sun Is On A Roll.....


NOT


Run from Sun ahead of Q2 - analyst
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/03/analyst_downon_sunq2/
Sun Microsystems has benefited from some misplaced optimism and will likely see its share price fall in the coming weeks, according to one of the most respected financial analysts.
Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Toni Sacconaghi has called Sun out as an overachiever in a new research report. Sun, which has enjoyed a more than a 50 per cent surge in its share price since August, was downgraded to underperform from market-perform by the research firm. Investors have prematurely rewarded Sun for efforts such as its new line of Opteron-based servers, Solaris 10 operating system and JES (Java Enterprise System) software subscriptions, according to Sacconaghi.

Intel 'Smithfield' chipsets said to support SATA 2

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/04/intel_945_955_chipset/
Intel's next-generation Pentium 4 desktop chipsets, 'Glenwood' and 'Lakeport', will support Serial ATA 2, 667MHz DDR 2 and a 1066MHz frontside bus clock frequency, it has been claimed.
The claim was made by Taiwanese motherboard-maker sources in a DigiTimes report.

AMD: some of our chips are missing

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20508
THE INQ got a call from AMD's HQ in Sunnyvale at midnight last night, but it wasn't about defective chips swilling around in the channel, or for all we know, sitting in peoples' machines.

We kept trying to ask him about what in our view is a far more interesting story - exactly how someone got their mitts on 60,000 "defective" AMD chips. For all we know, and AMD is being singularly defensive on this one, people who bought chips through the grey market have sold machines containing them in Europe.

Linksys, Intel team up on screaming media

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20513
INTEL AND WIRELESS outfit Linksys said they will support a standard for streaming content from online and on demand services.

Fake AMD Chips
Why would anybody go to all that effort?


Why? How about, making lots of money? The remarked chips can be sold for higher prices, then they were purchsed for, and since they siezed over 1 million units, they were probably buying in bulk. 1 million times whatever the difference between the original speed/purchase price, and the increased speed/sale price could amount to several million dollars.

Counterfeit AMD Microprocessors Discovered in Taiwan

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20050102084049.html
Taiwan Authorities Suspend Workshop Dealing with Fake AMD Chips. Local authorities on Friday suspended a workshop that made fake, or remarked, AMD microprocessors in Taipei, Taiwan, and seized unprecedented number of chips of nearly one million units.

Intel’s Notebook Partners to Showcase New Centrino PCs at CES

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20050101102559.html
Intel Corp. said Friday its partners among makers of notebooks would showcase their laptops powered by Intel’s forthcoming platform code-named Sonoma in early January, 2005, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Intel Confirms Sonoma in January

“In January, Intel will launch the Sonoma platform, enabling mobile entertainment PCs that support accelerated graphics for superb DVD playback and gaming, theater-quality sound for MP3s and TV tuner ExpressCards that will be available soon,” Intel said in the statement.

IBM hands Lenovo billion-dollar PC loser

IBM sold Lenovo a real clunker of a PC business, according to a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In the filing, IBM revealed that its PC business has been a huge money loser over the past three years. The PC unit lost a staggering $397m in 2001, $171m in 2002, $258m in 2003 and $139m through the first six months of this year. All told, IBM is handing Lenovo a business with nearly $1bn in losses in recent years.

"The Business has a history of recurring losses, negative working capital and an accumulated deficit. The ability to settle obligations as they come due is dependent on IBM funding the operations on an ongoing basis."


Ummmmmm. Wasn't Lenovo supposedly supposed to lead to the immenent demise of intel? It doesn't seem to me like that "scenerio" will occur anytime soon, if ever. Gee, I hope none of the AMD fans were holding their breath hoping for that. Actually, on second thought, I kinda hope some were.....

Intel LGA775 sockets bend INQ's brain

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20475
AS A BRIEF FOLLOWUP to the LGA775 articles (parts one, two, three and four), I came across a few minor things that I thought were worth reporting.
The first one was the impending apocalypse over the new sockets. As you remember, anything stronger than a warm breeze was reported to lead to bent pins and consequently dead mobos. People said this was all a conspiracy to do one thing or another, and Intel was a bad bad company for doing it.

Fast forward half a year or so, and I can say that none of the mobo vendors I have talked to since then have complained about piles of dead sockets littering the returns department of their offices. Some may complain about how they are still massively outsold by their 478 predecessors, but not many bitch about the sockets shuffling off this mortal coil.

Again, it works, and I have not heard of this causing any problems in the field. I would put it, and the bending, down to engineering curiosities of the new socket. LGA775 did what it should, and works just fine. I saw these things and thought they were interesting. Six months later, LGA775 continues to surprise me. µ



Yeah, "reported to lead to bent pins"...... Yeah, "engineering curiosities", right. Or maybe, the freekin people doing it didn't know WTF they were doing, and "somebody" in their intel bashing zeal, blew the "story" up out of proportion due to thier AMD bias. I wonder who it was that "reported" that. Boy, I can tell ole "Charlie Groo" almost choked on admitting he was wrong.

Semi Sales Slow in Second Half

http://tinyurl.com/52h7z
Worldwide semiconductor revenue is on track for a 23 percent increase this year to reach $218.5 billion in revenue, even with industry experiencing a significant slowdown in the second half, according to Gartner Inc.

Intel held onto its top seat for worldwide semiconductor revenue at $30.6 billion for the 13th consecutive year, based on its strength in compute microprocessor sales, the Stamford, Conn.-based market research firm said.

Intel Invests in Wireless Device Management Start-Up

http://tinyurl.com/5dfa6
Wireless device and service management start-up mFormation Technologies Inc. today said it has closed a $9 million round of financing, led by Intel Capital, with participation by existing investors including Battery Ventures, Carmel Ventures, Kingdon Capital and North Bridge Venture Partners.

What happened to the URL from that article?
Joe


http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20456

FEATURE/Ten Resolutions from Intel for a Mobile 2005

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/041231/315068_1.html
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 31, 2004--According to the Chinese calendar, 2005 is the year of the Rooster. However, a technology calendar might suggest that it is the year of mobility. In that spirit, Intel proposes 10 mobile resolutions:

Intel to strike up 'out-of-band' technology

http://www.eet.com/semi/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=LXMNNXPKLIVE0QSNDBCSKHSCJUMEKJVN?articleId...
Intel is taking out-of-band technology to the chip level. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip giant is developing what it calls Active Management Technology (AMT), which promises to give developers more ways to leverage out-of-band system controls, according to Frank Spindler, vice president of Intel's corporate technology group and director of industry technology programs.

Samsung may pursue ‘Intel Inside’ success with new ‘Itzin’ brand for components

http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20041230A1001.html
Samsung Electronics is planning to introduce a brand name called “Itzin” for its electronics components in the first half of 2005, according to sources. Sources indicated that customers are already aware of the plans and that a public announcement could be made in January.

In 2004, Intel was the fifth most valuable brand name, valued at US$33.5 billion, according to a top 100 top brand ranking published by BusinessWeek in August. The Samsung brand was ranked 21 and valued at US$12.6 billion. The valuations happen to be close to the annual revenues of both companies.

6XX family of desktop processors in week nine of 2005

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20426
SOURCES SAID Intel is likely to introduce its 6XX family of desktop processors in week nine of 2005. As we've revealed before, the first processors will be at speeds of between 3GHz to 3.6GHz. The chip giant is hoping to introduce the 3.8GHz version in the second quarter. All these processors have 2MB of level two cache and the chip giant has been busy sampling them since the middle of November.

They also all support EM64T, as Intel calls 64-32 tech, and hyperthreading. The firm is encouraging its channels to market to sell up the 6XX chips over the 5XX on cache, and on branding, as well as using the XD (execute disable) bit, which AMD describes as the NX bit, and which will stop certain kinds of viral attack.....

AMD told not to execute 'no execute' ad campaign

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/24/amd_dutch_ads/
Chip manufacturer AMD can no longer claim in a Dutch advertising campaign that users of its Athlon 64 processors don't have to worry about viruses.

Initial reports from Intel facilities in Asia indicate that the powerful tsunami that struck the coastal regions of Asia early Sunday has apparently not directly impacted company operations or employees on the job.


More....


Early Monday, The Intel Foundation pledged a direct donation of $100,000 in support of relief efforts in that region. Foundation staffers Monday morning are working with Intel employees in Asia to determine which organizations there are able to offer the best and quickest response.

Presler – Intel’s Mainstream Dual-Core Desktop Chip

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20041227052829.html
While Intel’s code-named Smithfield microprocessor set to be released in mid-2005 will open the doors to dual-core computing on desktops, the mainstream market will only get chips with two processing engine in 2006, along with the microprocessor code-named Presler.....

SGI to make dual-core Altix in late 2005

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-5501320.html
Silicon Graphics Inc. plans to overhaul its high-performance Altix computers a year from now to accommodate dual-core Itanium processors from Intel.

SGI, which specializes in machines for high-performance technical-computing jobs such as aerodynamics simulations, plans to release its next-generation Altix model at the same time that Intel releases its new "Montecito" version of Itanium, said Dave Parry, senior vice president of SGI's server and platform group. That processor is scheduled to debut in the second half of 2005.