Intel Says Does Not Plan Any Y2K Stockpiling

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Intel Says Does Not Plan Any Y2K Stockpiling

Updated 1:45 PM ET November 9, 1999

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading computer chip maker Intel Corp. said Tuesday it did not plan to stockpile inventory in the event of possible Y2K-related problems at its U.S. and foreign facilities.

Intel said its microprocessor production sites rely on electricity, water and power furnished by local private and governmental suppliers.

A year 2000-related failure of an electricity grid or an uneven supply of power would be a worst-case scenario that would completely shut down the facilities, Intel said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company said it was working with infrastructure suppliers for its manufacturing sites, major subcontractor sites and transportation hubs to better ensure continuity of services.

"Contingency planning regarding major infrastructure failure may include considering increases in inventory levels above normal reserve stocks or evaluating the need to relocate inventory geographically," Intel said in the SEC filing.

"The company currently believes that it will not be necessary and therefore does not intend to maintain a buffer of additional finished goods inventory."

Intel has said it sees little to no Y2K impact based on a study of business conditions, backlog and inventory.

It said in the SEC filing that Y2K costs were expected to reach about $120 million.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), November 09, 1999

Answers

Too bad. Big part of the economy in Cascadia ...

More power to the Mac world! :-)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 09, 1999.


Do Pentium chips come in Ketchup flavour???

-- buzzz (humpty@dumpty.had), November 09, 1999.

Can INTL stockpile chips if it wanted to? Or is its entire production schedule married to a JIT philosophy? I'm betting they have no choice anyway (but will defer to superior knowledge).

-- Scarecrow (somewhere@over.rainbow), November 09, 1999.

Don't waste your breath on INTEL.

They are BEHIND the curve by at least 3 months in the CPU market, with AMD's ATHLON seriously out-classing the PIII.

Just look at the latest fiasco about 10 days ago where INTEL makes a big "non-announcement" about a whole series of price cuts to its PIII, just to draw fire away from the announcement, in the same release, that the CHIPSET made for its highest speeds is CRAP, and it will be at least the end of November before they can get it right. This release was SOLELY to placate those contemplating switching to AMD.

Meanwhile, Athlon is running 700 mhz on .25u technology, and will be at 1GHZ with .18u technology by spring 2000.

Assuming, of course, that we get through Y2K in reasonable shape.

-- profit of doom (doom@helltopay.ca), November 09, 1999.


Non story. Intel are hand-to-mouth (that's one step beyond JIT) for the forseeable future due to a whole raft of reasons, including but not limited to the Tiawanese earthquakes, and being doofuses (RAMBUS, i820).

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 10, 1999.


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