850 chipset delays Pentium 4 launch

Tehamagate - it really takes the Garibaldi biscuit

Updated A flurry of behind the scenes activity at the Intel Corporation has failed to convince tier-one vendors they should stand up on 30 October and pledge their whole hearted support for the Pentium 4 platform.

And the problem, once more, lies with the chipset rather than the so-called "brains of the computer", the microprocessor.

As we reported here several weeks back, tier one vendors were delivered test samples of Intel's own reference motherboard for the Pentium 4, codenamed Garibaldi.

That is completely insufficient time for the vendors to test the microprocessor properly, and come up with their own tweaks and tricks to make it sing properly.

One vendor told The Reg then that the Garibaldi platform he had been sent didn't even have everything soldered onto the motherboard.

According to Tec Channel, Intel and Dell have now confirmed there is an issue with the i850 Tehama chipset affecting graphics performance.

Tehama is used in Intel's Garibaldi TTM (Time To Market) Pentium 4 mobo which shipped to OEMs in June. Dell is concerned that an instability within the chipset can cause the system to crash under heavy graphics load.

Tier one vendors are now chary of going ahead with chipsets after they experienced the fiasco of last year of introducing machines using Intel's i820 chipset which ended up not working properly and forcing a recall. We called it Caminogate, although we hesitate about calling this Garibaldi-gate, seeing as the great Italian patriot did such a good job uniting the country, last century. ®