Intel admits it overstated chips' speed; skewing data is called common in the industry
Article Abstract:
Intel says that microprocessor speeds reported from SPECint92 testing are 10% higher than actual performance, due to a bug in the compiler software used to test the chips. The Standard Performance Evaluation Corp (SPEC) administers the tests, which were designed to provide a common method for measuring performance. SPECint92 tests chip performance on typical mathematical problems and attempts to simulate real-world operating problems. Vendors typically optimize the tests for their specific products, adding specialized code that allows their product to recognize certain situations and use the added code to perform more rapidly than usual. Intel received inflated results because the specialized code it added to the compiler was flawed. SPECint92 numbers are typically used by scientific or technical customers and not by those purchasing personal computers for the home.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1996
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Where the chips may fall next; as U.S. manufacturers enjoy the PC boom, Asia plans for the next big market
Article Abstract:
The U.S. semiconductor industry is currently leading the world's semiconductor market with 43% of the $102 billion world market compared with 40% for the Japanese semiconductor industry. PArt of the dominance of the U.S. semiconductor industry is a result of trade barriers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Another significant factor is the strategic shift that U.S. semiconductor manufacturers made by not trying to compete with the Japanese in price, but rather in offering more complex processors at higher prices. The U.S. dominance has led some domestic semiconductor companies to become overconfident and this could lead to a downfall in the industry. The Japanese industry is now shifting its focus from competing against the U.S. in PC processors and towards developing processors for intelligent consumer products such as PDAs and set-top boxes.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1995
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I.B.M. to announce an advance in chips
Article Abstract:
IBM plans to announce today the perfection of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, a new process that can improve its semiconductor chip production speed by up to 35% in the first half of 1999. The new technique should allow IBM to gain an industry lead of one or two years, according to top company research experts. IBM engineers have discovered that they can embed an ultrathin insulating material layer, which greatly reduces a transistor's electronic charge storage necessary for activation, just under a silicon wafer's surface. Plans also call for IBM to deploy SOI in the second half of 1999 in order to cut chips's power requirements for portable appliances. IBM said its third significant semiconductor advance since Sep 1997 would add an initial 10% chip manufacturing cost that could fall to 5%.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1998
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