Dell Computer Corp., the world's No. 2 personal computer maker, on Monday offered its first desktop PC using a combination of long-awaited memory chips from Intel Corp. based on Rambus Inc.
technology.
The new OptiPlexGX300 desktop PC features the Intel 820
chipset, which uses Rambus Inc.'s memory-enhancing technology,
known as RDRAM, which had been delayed in the fall after Intel
discovered several bugs.
The delays caused a headache for Dell, which already had
customer demand for personal computers with the powerful Intel
820 chipset.
Rambus shares rose 6 to 94-1/4 in trade on Nasdaq Monday
morning, while Dell fell 1/4 to 36-5/8. Intel held steady at
105-7/8.
Dell last month warned of a fourth quarter shortfall, which
it blamed in part on a shortage of processors and the delay in
the Intel 820 chipset using Rambus technology. Last week, Dell
reported fourth quarter results that met lowered expectations,
and said the processor situation was improving.
Dell used this week's release of Microsoft Corp.'s
Windows 2000 as a selling point for the new desktop, saying the
operating system could deliver performance gains when using
certain software programs on the dual processor system.
