Microprocessor Report

AMD's 1.25-GHz Athlon
beats Intel's 1.5-GHz Pentium 4

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--Advanced Micro Device INC.'s 1.25-GHz Athlon outperforms Intel Corp.'s Pentium 4 running at 1.5 GHz, according to tests run by The Microprocessor Report.

Despite the AMD clock speed being less than Intel's P4, typical systems perform 12% faster even given the fact that Intel's MPUs are equipped with fast Rambus memory, said senior analyst Peter Glaskowsky.

While AMD's Athlon is generally faster than the Pentium 4, "this is not a very strong statement," he adds. Over time the Pentium 4 will have the edge on AMD's Athlon as programmers adapt themselves to what he describes as its "unusual characteristics."

Intel has to price the chip according to the value it delivers to its customers, he warns. And he notes that when Intel introduced its MMX design five years ago, it too needed special optimization. Many applications, he adds, still don't take advantage of this.

ZDNet News

Intel goes after Transmeta
with a slew of new low-power MPUs

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Intel Corp. now plans to power down its 2001 mobile processor offerings with a slew of new low-power chips. It will begin this month by launching what it has described as an "ultra-low power" mobile Pentium III chip.

With notebook sales going strong, especially compared with the current desktop market, Intel is looking to protect its mobile market share from rival chip makers Transmeta Corp. and AMD, analysts say. Intel is taking the "buckshot approach," says Mike Feibus, analyst at Mercury Research. "The idea is to achieve total coverage so as to not leave the other guys a beachhead," he explains.

The 500-MHz chip originally was planned for introduction in the second half of 2001, but was moved up in response to a perceived threat from Transmeta, Intel representatives have said. The chip is a 500-MHz Pentium III that will be released at the end of January, according to sources. Pricing is expected to be about $200. Intel also plans to introduce an ultra-low-power 500-megahertz mobile Celeron chip at about the same time for around $100. Intel will make its power reduction goals by using its SpeedStep technology, which reduces clock speed by lowering the processor's core voltage. As a result, the chip runs slower, but it uses less power.

The new ultra-low power mobile Pentium III chip runs at 500 MHz and 1.1 volts on AC power but powers down to 300 MHz and less than 1 volt on battery power. At this rate, average power consumption is less than half a watt. The chip also produces very little heat, eliminating the need for a fan, Intel has said.

"Intel was definitely motivated by competition. There's no doubt about that," Feibus says. Transmeta has touted low-power consumption as one of the chief advantages of its notebook processors.

Transmeta intends to one-up Intel with even lower power chips due out in the second half of this year. "The only way to go thinner and lighter is to reduce the power consumption even more," according to Ed McKernan, Transmeta's marketing chief.

Economic Daily

AMD and Taiwanese supplier
may jointly build 300-mm fab

TAIPEI, Taiwan--Advanced Micro Devices Inc. may ally with a Taiwan company to help build a chip factory that could cost as much as $4 billion, the Economic Daily newspaper reports. AMD may join either Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMS) or United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) to build the plant, it says. AMD would also consider investing directly in TSMC or UMC, the report says.

Earlier this week, AMD's president said the company is looking for joint venture partners to build a new 12-inch silicon wafer plant, called Fab 35, which is expected to start operating in 2004 (see Jan. 8 story).. After its success in the consumer market, AMD says it plans to introduce chips for notebook and server computers that run Web sites, meaning that the chip maker will need more capacity.

Chip makers need partners to share the multibillion dollar cost of building a 12-inch silicon wafer factory, says Janardan Menon, analyst with Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Such a joint venture "might help either TSMC or UMC to break into the processor business," he adds.

Nikkei Market Access

DRAM demand in 2001
predicted to jump 50%

TOKYO--Global demand for DRAM chips in 2001 is likely to rise by 50% year-on-year in the number of total bits to 370 petabits, according to a Nikkei Market Access survey.

While that sound to be a large jump in demand, Nikkei says, it would be quite a drop from the 65% year-on-year growth rate logged in 2000. Due to the expected worsening of the market for DRAMs, makers are already reining in capital investment plans, and the pace to reduce the size of their chips is showing a slowdown. Supply will continue to outstrip demand in the first half of 2001, but in the latter half of the year the market demand and supply will stabilize, it was predicted.

There were three main reasons for the slowdown in DRAM demand in the fourth quarter of 2000. Many DRAM buyers were expecting supplies to be scarce in the second half of the year, so they started purchasing chips in bulk early and stockpiled them for use later. Then in the summer DRAM prices rose to a high level, which caused PC makers to stop increasing the capacity of DRAM chip memories in their PCs. And the final reason was the general slowdown in the PC market.

The high inventory levels are expected to come down to their normal levels by the end of 2000 and are unlikely to have a strong affect on the supply-demand equation in 2001, according to Nikkei. The problems in 2001 are the continuous recession of DRAM demand per-PC and the sluggish state of the global PC market. The outlook is bleak for per-PC DRAM levels to increase.

Maeil Business Newspaper

DRAMs continue
to fall in January

SEOUL--The price of DRAMs, which had dipped to the $3 range at the end of 2000, is continuing its downward trend.

The 64-megabit PC-100 type SDRAMs and 64-Mbit PC-133 type SDRAMs have dropped to around $2.90-to-3.07 per chip, down by 2.68% and 3.97% respectively from prices at the end of 2000, according to industry watchers.

In addition, they add, 128-type SDRAMs were also down, with PC-100 and PC-133 type memories falling to an average of $6.10-to-$6.47 per unit, down by about 5.43%.