Compaq, Fujitsu-Siemens switch to AMD Athlons for Yule machines

Problems with Intel supply root cause of problem. Is Gateway next?

Major PC manufacturers Fujitsu Siemens and, we learn, Compaq have selected an AMD Athlon processor for a machine they hope to sell in volume before Christmas. That follows reports from The Register earlier this month that Fujitsu Siemens was being forced to re-adjust its Christmas schedules because it was unable to obtain enough fast Coppermines from Intel. It also coincides with outrage expressed by another major PC supplier, loyal to Intel, about problems with yields on the Coppermine processors. According to ct, Fujitsu Siemens will sell a PC using an AMD Athlon 600MHz part for under DM2,000. As for the Compaq machine, the unconfirmed but reliable information we have received is that it will also use a 600MHz Athlon, and an FIC or an Asus motherboard. It will have 64MB of memory, a Terratec sound card, and ATI Xpert 2000. According to our informant, the machine will be in the Presario range and cost DM1,998. German outlets including ProMarkt, Red Zac and Exper will sell it and it will be introduced in week 50. As we reported at the beginning of this month, Siemens Fujitsu is not expecting volume supplies of high end Coppermines until January next year. Over the last two weeks, hardware site AMD Zone has run persistent rumours from a number of sources that Gateway will also introduce a machine using the AMD Athlon processor in the near future. Neither Compaq nor Fujitsu Siemens could be contacted for confirmation at press time.® See also Siemens suffers from Intel Coppermine, chipset delays Big PC vendors furious over Coppermine delays Buy a PC for Christmas and Yule be sorry