Intel Delays Laptop Chipset’s Release Until Next Year
Jul. 20–Intel said Monday it is delaying a new chipset for laptop computers until next year as the chip giant suffered yet another manufacturing and design setback.
The chipset, code-named Alviso, was to be ready by this year’s holiday shopping season. A chipset handles communications between a computer’s core microprocessor and memory chips and cards for audio, video and graphics.
Intel spokesman Tom Beermann attributed the delay to a “combination of technical and marketing factors.” He said the Santa Clara chipmaker would not offer more specific information.
The Alviso chipset is a component in Intel’s next version of its popular Centrino line that brings wireless computing and longer battery life to laptops.
The chipset, along with the Pentium M processor and a radio chip, together will form a new wireless platform — code-named Sonoma — to replace Centrino.
Peter Glaskowsky, an independent analyst in Cupertino, said the delay implies that Intel needs to re-do some part of the chipset’s design.
Last month, Intel recalled another chipset a week after it launched because of a manufacturing glitch caught by a customer. The recall of the chipset, code-named Grantsdale, cost the company $38 million, Intel said last week when it reported its second quarter earnings.
Like Grantsdale, Alviso is expected to give laptops better built-in graphics and audio capabilities.
“What’s really going on is that these components are getting increasingly complex and manufacturing is more complex too,” said Dean McCarron, an analyst with Mercury Research in Cave Creek, Ariz. “There are more opportunities for things to go wrong.”
Analysts said it was difficult to estimate what kind of impact the Alviso’s postponement would have on Intel.
McCarron noted that even though Intel has been marketing Centrino-equipped computers to consumers, corporations are currently the biggest buyers of wireless notebooks.
Separately Monday, Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale launched a new version of its Athlon-64 chips for mobile computers. The chips, called the Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 3400plus, are aimed at PC enthusiasts and gamers.
AMD, which could benefit from Intel’s delays, said that systems with its new chip are available now from Averatec and Epson Direct. Alienware is expected to offer notebooks with the new AMD chips later in July.
“I don’t know if it’s a big deal…but the longer Intel delays bringing these technologies to market, the more chance it gives AMD and Transmeta to gain market share,” said Kevin Krewell, editor in chief of the Microprocessor Report in San Jose. “That said, the Centrino platform with the Pentium M is still extremely competitive.”
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