Looking back at 2000 - Part 1: CPUs, Chipsets, Motherboards

Intel issues more recalls

As if things couldn't get much worse for Intel, a chip that was loosely associated with the i820 chipset was recalled.  This particular chip, known as the Memory Translator Hub or MTH for short, allowed for SDRAM to be used with the previously RDRAM-only i820 chipset.  It was also theoretically possible to use the MTH on i840 boards however this was not done very frequently. 

In May of 2000, due to problems discovered with the MTH, Intel issued a complete recall of their MTH.  Intel's fix for this was to exchange all of their boards for regular i820 based boards with a stick of RDRAM.  However in many cases, vendors implemented variations on this policy from not accepting the returns to allowing the users to return their boards and purchase Apollo Pro 133A based solutions instead.  The recall of the MTH was the final nail in the i820's coffin; Intel's flagship chipset was a failure. 

Later in May Intel launched their 933MHz Pentium III, two months after the launch of the 1GHz part. 

While we didn't hear much from AMD/VIA, the public was given an early warning of the storm that was soon to come.  In May VIA announced that they would be renaming their upcoming Socket-A chipset from KZ133 to KT133 out of respect for those that recognized a dark meaning behind the initials 'KZ', referring to the concentration camps during World War II. 

The release of the first Socket-A boards and thus the first Socket-A CPUs was no more than a month away.