Conference ricks::dechips

+    EXPONENTIAL X704 POWERPC CLONE LOOKS SET TO DISAPPOINT 

Exponential Technology Inc's X704 PowerPC clone looks as if it 
is going to be a very big disappointment. According to the Wall 
Street Journal, the company is now saying that its first 
prototypes run more slowly than originally expected, and that 
company won't hit its target speed for the chips until the 
second half of the year, by when the fastest of the new 
PowerPCs should be snapping at its heels. Exponential, 
part-owned by Apple, will make its first chip shipments this 
quarter as planned, but the chips will run at speeds below 
500MHz, less than the 533MHz that the company originally 
predicted.

This makes reading .4 great fun.

PJDM

><<< Note 591.14 by 60675::nessus.cao.dec.com::Mayne
>
>This makes reading .4 great fun.

    I dont get it....They project a 533MHz chip, and announce that the first
    batch of chips they'll be shipping wont quite meet that.  the
    533MHz parts will follow in  a few months (of course this part of
    their announce seemed tohave been left off of this article).

    I'm missing the fun....

    Its true that the die shrink/redesign of the 603e (the G3 parts)
    will almost match Exponential's speed at far lower cost.  So this
    part may have no future.  But I'm still missing your 'fun'....
    bob

>>  I'm missing the fun....

They're hoping for Exponential to fail.

    
    +   EXPONENTIAL CUTS JOBS AS HIGH SPEED CHIPS FAIL TO APPEAR
    
    Exponential Technology Inc, the company working on
    high-performance variants of the PowerPC chip, has laid off a
    quarter of its 90 staff. The move was prompted by product
    delays that have led to lower than expected orders, and
    therefore lack of funds. But Exponential has also been
    handcuffed by licensing restrictions over the Apple ROM, which
    means it hasn't been able to sell its chips to the Macintosh
    clone makers. With no revenues coming in, Exponential has been
    forced to go back to its investors for more funding. The San
    Jose, California-based company has recently been admitting that
    its first chips, which uses biCMOS technology, are running well
    below the target 500MHz plus clock speeds it's been promising
    (CI No 3,145), and that it isn't likely to hit those speeds
    until the third quarter of the year. Exponential "unveiled" its
    533MHz chip last October, dubbing it "the world's fastest
    processor" (CI No 3,026). But the first chips, now available in
    production quantities, run only 410MHz. If Exponential does get
    its promised 566MHz variant out by the fall, it still may not
    have enough of a performance advantage over rival 300-400MHz
    PowerPC chips from IBM Corp and Motorola Inc. Critics of the
    company point out that the longer pipelines and smaller caches
    of the company's X704 chip will negate the performance
    advantages gained by the higher clock speeds, while the high
    power requirements will make it more expensive. There has been
    talk of 700MHz, and ever IGb PowerPC variants from Exponential,
    but no indication of when these might appear. Meanwhile the
    market for such high-end PowerPC chips continues to shrink.
    Apple Computer Inc, one of the company's major investors, dug
    into its emptying pockets once again for Exponential's recent
    $13m third round of financing at the beginning of this year (CI
    No 3,074). Yet although Apple has recently demonstrated a
    modified Power Mac 9500 with a 450MHz X704 microprocessor
    inside it at the Macworld Expo show in San Francisco, spokesman
    Russell Brady told the Journal that Apple "had no plans to use
    any of Exponential's chips." Exponential vice president of
    marketing Rick Bergman said that it wasn't the size of the
    market that his company was disappointed in, more the openness
    of the PowerPC technology.

    
    +               IS EXPONENTIAL HEDGING ITS BETS?
    
    Unsubstantiated talk on the wires has it that Exponential
    Technology Inc, the struggling company behind the supercharged
    X704 PowerPC chip (see Top Stories), has been hedging its bets
    and taking out patents relating to similarly souped-up Intel
    chips. Exponential, which would not confirm the rumours,
    nevertheless told us that given the situation in the PowerPC
    market, far different from when the company was formed back in
    1993, it would "be crazy not to look at other microprocessors"
    and that it did indeed "have other stuff in the pipeline." The
    San Jose, California-based company also has a little-known
    design center located where all the microprocessor action is,
    in Austin, Texas.

    Contrary to April reports, Schiller said [Apple] will not use
    Exponential Technology Inc.'s X704 processor.  "We had them in-house,
    but in tests with Mach 5 and Arthur it didn't outperform those products,"
    he said.

    MacWeek Online now reports that Exponential is closing its doors after
    failing to attract another round of funding.

    They claimed to have a batch of 410 MHz chips ready to go, and a bunch
    of orders ... but without Apple's business or Apple's blessing for the
    clone makers to use X704s in non-CHRP machines, they ran out of time.

    
    +        EXPONENTIAL GIVES UP ON POWERPC FOR INTEL CLONE
    
    Meanwhile Exponential Technology, which cut a quarter of its
    staff and began looking for further funding last week (CI No
    3,158) has given up on its PowerPC work altogether, and is said
    to be working, as we expected, on an Intel processor clone at
    its Austin, Texas-based Labs. The company is expected to close
    its San Jose, California-based unit.