Technology News: Chips

Tuesday - May 6, 2008

A trio of semiconductor companies have banded together in a joint effort to push the industry into transitioning to a larger, 450mm-sized wafer by 2012. Led by Intel, Samsung and TSMC, the idea is to line up the industry so that all of the required components and manufacturing needs are developed in time to benefit from the larger design. The intended benefit: Lowering the production cost of a computer chip. Basically, a wafer is a slice of semiconductor material that's formed in a consistent crystalline process that provides the basis for microprocessors. [More...]

eBay, Craigslist Soap Opera Unfolds

Friday - May 2, 2008

eBay's strange legal dispute with Craigslist just got weirder. The auction giant has disclosed the details of its lawsuit against the king of online classifieds, and here's what the dispute boils down to: eBay took a stake in Craigslist, agreeing to certain conditions regarding competitive behavior. [More...]

HP Breakthrough Could Spawn Computers That Don't Forget

Thursday - May 1, 2008

Researchers at HP Labs have proven the existence of the "memristor," a component of electrical circuits that could lead to computer systems with memories that never forget, the company announced Wednesday. The memristor -- short for "memory resistor" -- was previously only theorized to be the fourth fundamental circuit element in electrical engineering. [More...]

Intel, Cray Ink Supercomputing Tech Deal

Tuesday - April 29, 2008

Intel has signed a multiyear agreement with supercomputer vendor Cray. The deal gives microchips from Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel an avenue into Cray supercomputer systems that serve some of the most highly advanced computing applications in the government, military and engineering sectors. [More...]

Finger-Pointing in the Senate, XP's Stay of Execution, Tech Profit Bonanza

Friday - April 25, 2008

It seems there's no love lost between FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Comcast. In testimony before a Senate committee about the practice of blocking peer-to-peer traffic on the Internet, Martin said Comcast lied when it described its practices to the FCC. Comcast maintained that it was merely engaging in justifiable management of network traffic in order to preserve the Internet experience for all customers. [More...]

Mac Bloggers Crunch Numbers, Chew on P.A. Purchase, Feast on Fine Italian

Friday - April 25, 2008

The Apple- and Mac-focused blog world is all over the map this week, but three stories stand out: How much money Apple is making, what it's spending that money on, and what's going on in Italy. With a whopping 51 percent increase in Mac sales, Apple released its financial results for the second quarter fiscal year quarter in 2008. However, just before that, news broke of its purchase of semiconductor company P.A. Semi. [More...]

AMD Stakes Claim on Tri-Core Niche With New Chips

Thursday - April 24, 2008

AMD has announced the availability of three new triple-core x86 processors in its Phenom X3 lineup. New offerings include the 8750, the 8650 and the 8450, with power levels ranging from 2.4 to 2.1 gigahertz. Appropriately enough, the triple-core X3 lineup seems to play well in the middle ground between dual-core and quad-core processors. [More...]

AMD CTO Departs, Company Eliminates Post

Monday - April 14, 2008

Phil Hester has exited the chief technology officer post at Advanced Micro Devices, according to reports, and he won't be replaced. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based manufacturer of computer processors, which reported more than $6 billion in revenue in 2007 and trails only Intel in that market, reportedly announced Hester's resignation last week and said it is not looking to fill the position. [More...]

The World's Smartest End Table, Smoking Your Phone, Document Standards Gone Wild

Friday - April 4, 2008

Last year, Microsoft successfully mated a touch-screen PC with one of those old Ms. Pacman games you might see at your typical dive bar. Thus the Microsoft Surface -- the world's smartest end table -- was born. At first, it spent most of its time finger painting and identifying objects placed on top of it. [More...]

Intel Unleashes Powerful, Power-Saving Atom Chips

Wednesday - April 2, 2008

Intel on Wednesday unveiled the Centrino Atom family of low-power processors for mobile Internet devices. It also announced a new class of inexpensive, simple Internet-centric computers, called "netbooks," which will hit the market later this year, and new developments in other chip families. [More...]

High Hopes for an Intel-STMicro Spin-Off

Tuesday - April 1, 2008

Brian Harrison needs to succeed where his counterparts at Intel and STMicroelectronics failed. As CEO of new chip company Numonyx, Harrison inherits two of those companies' worst-performing units -- and must make them pay off in a way they did not for their previous owners. Intel owns 45 percent of Numonyx, STMicro holds 49 percent, and private equity fund Francisco Partners owns 6 percent. [More...]

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