A spokesman late today confirmed that the 820 Camino using a so-called Memory Translator Hub (MTH) conversion chip and the 840 Carmel using a similar Memory Repeater Hub (MRH) encountered random data errors when operating in the error correction code (ECC) mode. He said no error trouble was incurred when the 820 or 840 supported only Direct Rambus memory or weren't operating with ECC with either Rambus or SDRAMm

Industry analysts have long questioned the need for the 820 and 840 Direct RDRAM chip sets to be converted on the motherboard with extra chips to run SDRAMs instead. Bert McComas, principal with InQuest Research, of Gilbert, Ariz., called the 820 MTH and 840 MRH "nonsense."

"Why add a special conversion chip nobody wants?" he said. "Either use a pure Direct Rambus board or a pure SDRAM board."

In fact, Intel inferred as much in trying to play down the MTH and MRH errors. A spokesman said "only a limited number of customers who use the SDRAM configurations of the 820 and 840 boards are affected." McComas said the only buyers of the converted SDRAM versions of the boards were customers that wanted to try out the 820 or 840 chip sets without having to pay for expensive Rambus DRAM. "It's a very small niche market," McComas noted.

Sources said the MTH glitch shouldn't impact the upcoming Timna sub-$500 PC processor that will use the special conversion chip to support SDRAM. Originally, Timna has slated to use Direct Rambus, but Intel confirmed last week it had switched because Direct RDRAMs were too costly and had low availability. The MTH was added to allow the Timna Direct Rambus interface to support SDRAMs.

The rock-bottom priced Timna, however, will certainly not operate in an ECC mode, which is almost exclusively used in very high-performance workstations and servers. Only if the MTH is found to have data errors in other modes would Timna be threatened, sources said.

Intel also confirmed it was canceling three projected new server motherboards that used the MRH conversion chip to support SDRAMs instead of Direct Rambus. All three were dual-processor boards, which Intel said no longer will be needed in the SDRAM configuration for servers. A spokesman said uniprocessor and dual-processor 820 boards supporting SDRAMs through the MTH will remain in the line for desktops.