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Andy Tai writes "The US Federal Trade Commission issues an order motifying the Intel-Digital deal. The FTC disallows Alphas to be produced by Intel. Instead Digital has to certify another company such as IBM as manufacturers of the Alpha chip. Digital also will license Alpha to AMD, Samsung, and others. The FTC aims to keep Alphas as "viable competitive alternatives" to Intel chips. " Read about it here.

Neil Corlett wrote in to give us "This PCWeek Article on implications of Intel ruling on Microsoft's DoJ problems... Interesting. "According to a white paper drafted by the American Committee for Interoperable Systems, the essential facilities doctrine applies as much to intellectual property as to physical property. Hardware and software must interoperate with products from other vendors in order to be "merchantable," so a dominant player that withholds vital information about buses, protocols or interfaces is in violation of antitrust law.""

Roger Bolton wrote in to complain that we ran a bit on SGI dropping MIPS, and unfairly neglected the good stuff happenin'. Specifically he says " a) SGI is porting IRIX to IA-64, IRIX will continue to be developed for high scalability, true 64 bit, fault tolerant systems. b) SGI has teamed up with Intel to develop new high bandwidth architectures and graphics pipes for IA machines. c) As well as Windows NT IA-32 (Pentium II) machines, SGI will release IA-64 workstations which can dual boot IRIX or Windows NT. d) SGI's servers with IA-64 processors will only run IRIX and will scale to 128+ CPUS using SGI's ccNUMA architecture."

I had high hopes for SGI, but it just doesn't seem like they are really going to matter now that they are trying to just be an uber clone maker with a few extra spiffy technologies. They should ditch IRIX, endorse Linux, and concentrate on awesome hardware and software. High end SGI Hardware/Software running an optimized, open Linux? It would fly! I'd prefer an SGI running Linux to an x86 box any day, they just need to throw their weight behind it and make it cost effective. It would be an excellent alternative to Wintel.

Dirt Nap writes "AMD isn't the only one with financial problems, Intel announced this week that earnings, down 7% from the same time last year, would result in the culling of 3,000 jobs over the next 6 months. It seems that Intel is blaming an over estimation of the market, while others are pointing the finger at a late and lack-luster entry into the sub $1000 PC market. More can be found at this location. "

AMD apparently has gained the right to build Slot 1 processors, via its use of IBM as a fab. That means that all of Intel's major competitors now can build Slot 1 processors at their option... which was precisely what Intel tried to prevent with its patents. The big beneficiary is IBM, and the losers are for CPUs Intel (wasted money) and smaller x86 companies, and for chipsets VIA and Acer (assuming that Intel's claims that they violated its patents stand up in court).

Trey Gruel writes "CNet news is running an article about Intel and HP's planned successor to the Merced processor. According to sources "close to HP" the processor, McKinley, which is planned to come out in 2001, will run at 1,000 MHz."

Microsoft and Intel are apparently discussing a new PC architecture: PC 2000 or Legacy-free PC. This should, in a way, not surprise us: in the era of the low-cost PC, rarely used features are a target for cost-cutting. WinModems are a case in point, since the microcontroller that parses the AT command set can be eliminated by a Windows Driver. What is interesting is the radical way in which even respected APIs like Soundblaster will be eliminated. By making it more expensive to support legacy features, Microsoft and Intel will probably get their way. The concern for free software, is that old hardware at least is documented and standard, whereas cutting-edge hardware often requires NDAs and many new drivers.

Eddis Jefferson wrote in to tell us that it looks as if Intel might sue Apple over the recent (extremely funny) commercials that have been aired. You can read more here. Personally I thought the ads were great- the G3 hardware is great. To bad it has MacOS8 on it reducing it to a snails pace. Rhapsody, Be or Linux will make that machine killer.

Andy Grove, Time's "Man of the Year", and CEO of Intel has stated that he will no longer serve as CEO of Intel. He will remain President of the company, but another gentleman, Barret, a long time mucky-muck at Intel will be the new CEO.

Intel had a demo of the latest version of the Pentium II at a convention in Germany. The latest version of the chip speeds along at 700 mhz, an insane number when I think about the old machine I used to have.

Allright guys, this could be complete fiction, but I'm going to share it because I think it's an interesting idea. Lunglet wrote in to say "Unconfirmed rumours from within Intel are that Andy Grove has been meeting with Netscape Communications officials discussing nothing other than a buy-out by Intel.". I have absolutely no reason to think this rumor has any truth to it, but it is still an interesting thought. 6mos ago I would have seen this as a great idea (Intel could gain some ground on the NC front with Netscape at its side. As it sits, Intel loses a lot if NCs catch on). Anyway, I await everyone's thoughts on this.

Intel will be using the StrongARM design for handheld devices, and other low cost appliances. This is the first time Intel has used a non in-house design and architecture: it is a licensee of ARM , which keeps control of the direction of the chip. Hopefully this will boost rather than diminish ARM's chances of survival. StrongARM may now replace i960 as RISC chip for the I2O spec. While being good news for Corel, it may prove problematic for x86 vendors hoping to build x86's for the information appliance market.

Intel has just announced that it has swallowed Chips and Technologies. The register reports that Cirrus and S3 have signed a patent cross-licensing deal. As the rat-race grows even more furious, what do you think the long term effect of these deals will be?

Intel has gone from strength to strength in the past ten years, but the growth of the Internet and the sub-1000$US computer, according to Forbes may spell problems for Intel in the future.

Intel today announced the release of their new Pentium II-class chip. Deschutes is available immediately in 333MHz models from vendors. Pricing on full systems starts at under US$3000.

Intel today announced the release of their new Pentium II-class chip. Deschutes is available immediately in 333MHz models from vendors. Pricing on full systems starts at under US$3000.

Intel today announced the release of their new Pentium II-class chip. Deschutes is available immediately in 333MHz models from vendors. Pricing on full systems starts at under US$3000.

Intel will be rolling out, the next level for the Pentium II at the end of this month, clocking in at 333 mhz. Some truly amazing speeds going on, and at not-entirely unreasonable price.

Intel will be shipping the Katmai processor in 1999, formerly known as the MMX 2. Continuing the trend of more multimedia friendly processors, Katmai is expected to run at about 500 mhz, and apparently will preced the Merced, Intel's 64 next-gen chip.