Vol 16, Issue 25

June 24, 2002

Microprocessor Report: A User's Guide

By Peter N. Glaskowsky

We at Microprocessor Report have been conducting a reader survey online, in person, and by telephone since earlier this year, and we want all of you to know we value your comments and suggestions. Please keep this input coming, even after we stop asking for it. This feedback is providing one basis for changes we hope will improve the quality and relevance of our newsletter and the associated Microprocessor Forum and Embedded Processor Forum conferences. Many of you are both our clients and the suppliers of our most valuable raw material—information—so I'll also explain how you can make the most of both aspects of our relationship.

We've changed some of our coverage areas, in part because of the departure of In-Stat/MDR analyst Cary Snyder. Markus Levy has assumed the role of primary analyst for high-performance embedded processors. Markus's new assignment aligns well with the other half of his professional life, the presidency of the nonprofit Embedded Microprocessor Benchmarking Consortium (EEMBC). Markus works with the leading embedded-processor vendors in both capacities, and we believe this relationship benefits both organizations.

In-Stat/MDR principal analyst Max Baron will now focus on low-power embedded processors, including those aimed at demanding consumer-electronics applications such as PDAs and cell phones. Low-power processors tend to have smaller transistor counts than do their high-performance cousins, but they require the same leading-edge circuit design and manufacturing technology. System designers give these processors typical power budgets of less than a quarter of a watt but insist on PC-desktop levels of interactivity and signal-processing performance.

Our colleague Kevin Krewell has more on his plate than the rest of us. Kevin is MDR's primary analyst for PC, server, and workstation processors and is the author of the reports published by In-Stat/MDR's Intel Microprocessors Service. As I reported last month, Kevin is also MDR's general manager—a full-time job in itself.

In addition to my responsibilities as editor in chief of Microprocessor Report, I'll be helping Kevin by covering the architecture of high-end microprocessors, with occasional articles about PC-platform technology, my original coverage area at MDR six years ago. I will continue to cover other topics as well, including networking, graphics, and media processing. As with all our coverage, I'll be most interested in products illustrating microprocessor-technology critical trends that extend beyond individual chips.

If you're with a company that makes microprocessors—or any product or technology that works with, depends on, or enables microprocessors—we want to hear from you. We can't cover everything that happens in the microprocessor industry, but we will often report on topics outside our primary coverage areas. The evolution of process and packaging technology, operating systems and application programs, peripheral devices, and usage trends substantially affects the way microprocessors are designed and used.

Email addresses for all our analysts can be found on the Microprocessor Report masthead and at www.MDRonline.com. These addresses should be used for direct communication with the individual analyst—to set up briefings, for example. All distribution lists for press releases and other material, even if they fall into a specific coverage area, should now be addressed to mdr-pr@reedbusiness.com. We'll sort this material at our end and make sure the appropriate analysts see it.

If you have comments about MDR content, including Microprocessor Report articles, the Intel Microprocessors Service, and Forum presentations, please write to mdr-comments@reedbusiness.com. All our analysts will read these comments, and we will provide a personal response when needed.

If you'd like to suggest topics for coverage in Microprocessor Report—or possibly write something for the newsletter yourself—please write to mdr-mpr@reedbusiness.com. We can't accept articles written by vendors about their own products, but if you have an independent viewpoint on a topic of importance in the microprocessor industry, please send us a brief description of what you'd like to say. We request that you contact us before submitting complete manuscripts or confidential information, however.

When we write an article for Microprocessor Report, we generally need a week for the initial research and a week to write the first draft, which is distributed to the analysts and Microprocessor Report's editorial review board on a Friday. Most articles are also offered for technical review to the vendors of the products discussed in the piece. This vendor-review process is central to Microprocessor Report's goal of providing accurate and complete information. Of course, our analysts draw their own conclusions from the facts supplied to them. Analysts provide the final draft of each story to our production staff ten days after the review draft, and, after final review and proofreading, stories go online on Monday, one week later.

This whole process takes about four weeks from start to finish. With sufficient advance notice, we can publish articles about your company's announcements on the Monday morning after your press release comes out—and on the same day for Monday announcements. As we have always done, we honor all embargo dates and nondisclosure agreements.

We've received many excellent proposals for presentations at Microprocessor Forum 2002, to be held October 14–17 in San Jose. If we accept your proposal, we're likely to write about your chip or technology in Microprocessor Report. To ensure prompt coverage of your company's announcement, please schedule advance briefings with the appropriate analyst about six weeks before the conference. Newsletter articles on Forum announcements can be published on the same day the presentation is given.

MDR analysts are available for consulting work and on-site seminars. Please contact the individual analyst or Kevin Krewell for more information.

Last, but equally important: members of the print and broadcast media are welcome to contact us for comments and insight on industry news. "Press quotes" are a valuable marketing tool for us, and we like to think they improve the quality of press coverage, too.

I hope you don't mind my hijacking our normal editorial slot for this one-time-only administrative note. I welcome your comments and questions at png@reedbusiness.com.