A News.com report on advances, speeds and prices.

December 1, 2005 8:53 AM PST

Samsung ordered to pay $300 million for price-fixing

Samsung will pay a $300 million fine for conspiring with other companies to fix prices of computer memory chips under a plea agreement accepted on Wednesday by a federal judge in San Francisco, the Associated Press reported.

The fine is the second-largest ever in a criminal anti-trust case, the AP said. Samsung, based in Seoul, South Korea, agreed to the plea deal in October after a three-year investigation into price fluctuations in the market for dynamic random access memory, which are used in personal computers and other electronics.

Others that had previously agreed to pay fines for thier involvement in the scheme include Hynix Semiconductor, also based in Seoul, and Infineon Technologies of Germany. The Justice Department told the AP the investigation continues to examine other companies and people.

Victims of the scheme, according to prosecutors, included Apple Computer, Dell, Compaq Computer, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Samsung's fines do not include restitution for any victims, who are free to sue for damages. The price fixing led these companies to either raise PC prices or reduce machines' memory capacity.

In addition, seven Samsung executives were excluded from the terms of the plea deal and could still face government prosecution.

Posted by Alorie Gilbert
November 30, 2005 3:17 PM PST

Sun offers new tease for Niagara servers

Sun Microsystems President Jonathan Schwartz on Wednesday left the latest in a series of unsubtle hints that the company plans to launch a server line based on its new UltraSparc T1 "Niagara" processor next week.

"We're about to introduce an eight-core platform with four threads per chip," said Schwartz, describing the most notable attribute of the UltraSparc T1 during a conference call about Sun's latest software strategy.

Among the other indications that the Niagara systems are imminent: In November, Chief Executive Scott McNealy said the servers would debut late this quarter. The company repeated the deadline when it announced the new processor's official name earlier in November. And perhaps the most blatant hint came in the invitation to Sun's Network Computing event on Dec. 6, that touts new servers whose processors consume less than 80 watts--Niagara's official maximum being 72 watts--and that employ CoolThreads technology, the brand name for the UltraSparc T1's ability to run as many as 32 simultaneous instruction sequences called threads.

Posted by Stephen Shankland
November 28, 2005 12:00 PM PST

HP plans new utility computing services

HP plans new utility computing services

Hewlett-Packard plans to unveil new utility computing services Tuesday and tout its research efforts in the area.

Utility computing means a different things to different people, but generally involves paying for computer processing power as it's consumed. Sometimes that means switching on new capacity in a server when it's needed, in this case, it likely involves tapping into servers run by HP.

Two HP executives are scheduled to speak: Brian Fowler will discuss HP's new Flexible Computing Services, and Karen Walker talk about a collaboration HP Services and HP Labs involving high-performance computing. HP is competing with rivals Sun Microsystems and IBM for high-performance computing services in which customers can rent out the server makers' machines. DreamWorks is one customer, using HP servers for the later stages of digital animation.

Executives from DreamWorks and oil and gas services company Schlumberger will be at the event.

Schlumberger has been involved in utility computing in the past. Subsidiary SchlumbergerSema launched a utility computing partnership in 2003 with Sun in 2003 in which it would rent out Sun servers to customers in energy, finance, telecommunications and the government.

Oil and gas companies also have been interested in utility computing to handle peak computing demands for seismic data processing tasks, work that generates three-dimensional models of oil and gas fields.

Posted by Stephen Shankland
November 16, 2005 3:57 PM PST

Happy Birthday to the single-chip

Crack open the bubbly and light the candles.

The Intel 4004 Microprocessor debuted thirty four years ago on Wednesday. The chip sparked a technological revolution because it was the first product to fuse the essential elements of a programmable computer into a single chip.

Initially, team-Intel designed the processor to be a calculator component for a Japanese manufacturer, which initially owned all rights to the chip.

Intel 4004 processor
Credit: Intel
Intel 4004 processor

In addition to being functional, the gold and white chip was also one of the first processors to have a futuristic millipede look to it.

The chip is the brainchild of three engineers: Ted Hoff, Stan Mazor and Federico Faggin. At its release, the 4004 processed 4 bits of data, ran at 108 kilohertz (a tenth of 1 megahertz) and could perform mathematical calculations. Plus, it cost less than $100.

CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos brilliantly relates the rest of the back story, which you can read about here.

Posted by Michael Singer
November 8, 2005 3:31 PM PST

Dual-core Xeons show thirst for power

Intel has caught up to rival Advanced Micro Devices with its dual-core chips for dual-processor and four-processor servers. But with the chips, Intel still lags AMD in one important domain: power consumption.

Intel recommends server maker design power and cooling around a chip's "thermal design power." TDP measures the power needed to run conventional software at full tilt and is generally about 90 percent of the maximum power that the chip could conceivably require.

Intel argues that its dual-core chips, code-named Paxville and released in October, can be dropped into the same server designs as their single-core predecessors. Indeed, Dell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and others are doing just that. But from a power and cooling perspective, doing so isn't trivial.

The single-core "Irwindale" Xeon for dual-processor servers has a TDP of 110 watts and a maximum of 120 watts, according to Intel data sheets. But Paxville for dual-processor servers runs at 135 watts and 150 watts for the comparable figures.

In Xeon MP models for servers with four or more processors, the gap is significantly larger. The single-core "Cranford" has a TDP of 110 watts and a maximum power of 120 watts, but the dual-core Paxville Xeon figures increase to 165 and 173 watts, respectively.

In contrast, AMD's Opterons--single- and dual-core--consume a maximum of 95 watts, though the company sells faster 120-watt "special edition" models to Sun Microsystems. It also sells premium Opterons that use only 68 watts but that run at 2.2GHz, a step shy of the the current 2.4GHz top speed of mainstream Opteron models. Those premium models are used in IBM and HP blade servers, and a 2.4GHz version will go on sale to select customers in the first quarter of 2006, spokesman Phil Hughes said.

Intel isn't standing idly by. Like AMD, it offers slower models that consume less power. And in the second half of 2006, the chipmaker plans to bring its "next-generation microarchitecture"--a chip core derived from that used in the Pentium M chip for mobile PCs--to the server line.

Opteron's lower power consumption is an advantage that AMD and allies such as Sun have been quick to pounce on. For example, power issues got prominent placement in a Sun announcement Monday that NewEnergy Associates, an energy consulting company, bought Opteron-based Sun Fire X4200 servers to replace its older Intel systems.

"Power consumption and cooling costs were a big factor for us, and according to the projections we've run, replacing up to eight Intel processor-based servers with one Sun Fire X4200 server can save us between 60 to 79 percent in power watts of energy usage and can reduce heat output by 70 to 84 percent," said Neal Tisdale, NewEnergy's vice president of software development, in a statement.

Posted by Stephen Shankland
November 8, 2005 9:59 AM PST

Sun could debut Niagara servers Monday

Sun Microsystems executives last week were eager to talk about the early arrival of servers using the company's "Niagara" processor, and now it appears that launch could come as soon as Monday.

Niagara is the spearhead of Sun's effort to reinvigorate its Sparc processor family, which after delays and lackluster performance has lost popularity to IBM's Power family and to x86 processors such as Intel's Xeon and Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron. Niagara has eight separate processing cores, each able to handle four instruction sequences called threads.

During a conference call last week about Sun's quarterly financial results, Chief Executive Scott McNealy, President Jonathan Schwartz and retiring Chief Financial Officer Steve McGowan all spotlighted the 2005 arrival of the Niagara machines. The systems had been scheduled to arrive in early 2006, though years ago 2005 had been the goal.

One source familiar with Sun's plans said the company plans two Niagara server families--the lower-end 3000 line and the higher-end 5000 line.

Niagara servers perform well running database and Java server software, according to Marc Tremblay, Sun's chief chip architect. Although the chips have eight cores, Sun plans to sell Niagara versions with six and possibly four cores as well, said David Yen, head of Sun's Sparc group.

The initial Niagara systems come in two rack-mountable versions, the 1.75-inch thick "Erie" and the 3.5-inch-thick "Ontario." The systems share the same chassis as the X4100 and X4200 models of Sun's "Galaxy" line of Opteron servers that started shipping in October.

Posted by Stephen Shankland
November 7, 2005 1:13 PM PST

At least Ballmer didn't say Athlon

It's always fun to watch Microsoft and Intel on stage together.

The two halves of the WinTel duopoly are strong partners, but nonetheless have a "strange bedfellows" quality that still manages to come across after 20-plus years of making billions together.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini joined Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer on stage for the SQL Server 2005/Visual Studio 2005 launch on Monday, touting the fact that for the first time Intel's compilers and tools would be accessible from within the Visual Studio toolset.

Ballmer decided to use the opportunity to note it was an example of Microsoft supporting Itanium. Microsoft has offered a mixed bag when it comes to Itanium, supporting it for some tasks but not others. But, since the Visual Studio support included both Itanium and Xeon, Ballmer saw an opportunity to score some points with the Intel chief.

"I want our press friends to note that--strong support for Pentium and strong support for Itanium both," Ballmer.

"Xeon," Otellini interjected, referring to Intel's brand name for its Pentium-based server chips.

"Xeon, Pentium, Xeon," Ballmer said, shrugging. Whatever.

We'll see if Otellini mispronounces Vista at the next Intel Developer Forum.

Posted by Ina Fried
November 2, 2005 2:35 PM PST

AMD's 65 nano question solved: it's a second half thing

Advanced Micro Devices has been cagey about when it will start to manufacture chips on the 65-nanometer process. Chips cranked out on this process will be faster than current 90-nanometer chips, and likely be smaller too, which will reduce AMD's costs.

Intel started shipping 65-nano chips to PC makers in October and announced this week that a second factory just came on line.

The closer AMD follows Intel in this regard, the better for AMD. Until Wednesday, the official word from AMD was that it would move to this process in 2006, sometime between January 1 and December 31.

Today, however, Mike Haase, director of investor relations, said that AMD would start to transition to 65-nanometer chips in the second half of 2006.

The timing could hurt AMD a little because it means that Intel will have a manufacturing advantage for around nine months.

"I'm guessing it (65-nanometer production at Dresden) will happen closer to mid-2006," said Nathan Brookwood at Insight 64 last week. "Second quarter 2006 if they are lucky, and third quarter if they aren't."

Posted by Michael Kanellos
November 1, 2005 6:00 PM PST

Intel says buy 65 nano, buy American

Intel has started to produce chips made on the 65-nanometer process in a fabrication facility in Arizona, making it the second factory it has cranking out these chips.

The company said in October that it started shipping Presler, a dual-core processor made on the 65-nanometer process, to PC makers out of its D1D fab in Oregon. Adding an Arizona facility will greatly increase the volumes of these and other new chips.

Intel will also start producing 65-nanometer chips out of fabs in Ireland and New Mexico in 2006. By the third quarter, more chips will be being made on this process than the current 90-nanometer process.

Although chip designs and novel transistor concepts often gain headlines, semiconductor producers live and die by manufacturing, and much of Intel's success can be attributed to relentless advances in production.

Chips made on the 65-nanometer process sport features that measure, on average, 65 nanometers. A nanometer, derived from the ancient Greek word "nano" or midget, is a billionth of a meter. A human hair measures about 90,000 nanometers in diameter.

Current chips sport 90-nanometer features. Shrinking those features decreases costs because more chips can be punched out of a single wafer, and also improves performance.

Bob Baker, senior vice president and general manager of the technology and manufacturing group at Intel, also points out that many of Intel's recent investments in fabs have been in the U.S. The company has committed to investing $4 billion in the U.S. in fab expansions, which will result in about 2,000 jobs. Although labor costs are higher here, there are more technicians skilled in chipmaking here as well.

"Their experience and ability to troubleshoot and get capital equipment back into production can make or break" a company's cost goals.

Posted by Michael Kanellos
October 13, 2005 12:30 PM PDT

AMD beats Intel in U.S. retail desktops in Sept.

The back-to-school season was a good time for Advanced Micro Devices. The company accounted for 52 percent of all desktops sold in retail outlets in the U.S., according to Current Analysis. Although AMD has topped Intel in this metric a few times for a week or so, the firm says this is the first time that AMD has lead Intel for an entire month.

This partly explains why AMD did so well in the third quarter.

Conspiracy theorists, however, need to put this one in perspective. (Often, after these studies come out, a few emails trickle in claiming we are "lying" by continuing to write that AMD overall is smaller than Intel.) The figure only includes U.S. retail. It does not take into account direct PC sales, which means Dell is excluded entirely.

It also excludes notebook sales, a fast growing market, sales to businesses and overseas sales. Nonetheless, it's a notable achievement.

Posted by Michael Kanellos
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