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Intel: AmTech Reports Trouble With Centrino FCC Certification; Graphics Issues With Montevina Chipset
Posted by Eric Savitz
Intel (INTC) has developed a pair of technical issues, American Technology Research analyst Doug Freedman asserts today.

One, Freedman says the company had a “mis-step in the completion of FCC certification” for the next-generation Centrino processor with support for the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard. “Without the certification,” he contends, “the CPUs can only be sold outside the U.S.” He says the impact of the issue is likely to be a slower ramp of 802.11n, as the new Montevina chipset can ship with processors that support 802.11 a/b/g.

Meanwhile, he also says that issues have cropped up with the integrated graphics in the Montevina platform. He says failures are occurring at notebook OEMs. Freedman says the company’s options are to screen for failures in completed systems or to retest the chips at Intel. “It is too early to measure the impact to the launch until the severity of the issue is understood in terms of percentage of output affected,” he writes. “We believe the potential impact is to lower-end systems as higher-end notebooks are designed with discrete graphics cards. In fact, the impact on INTC is a possible improvement in mix within the chipset business; however, it is offset by the yield loss related to the functional issues.”

Freedman says this could be a boost for Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) Puma notebook platform, Nvidia’s (NVDA) chipsets for Intel processor and discrete graphics parts from Nvidia and AMD’s ATI unit.

Despite all that, Freedman maintains his Buy rating and $27.50 price target on the stock.

Intel today is down 54 cents, or 2.3%, to $23.34.

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