Intel

Somehow "Mad Men" just sounds cooler than "Sili Men." Still, there's no telling what sort of martini and microchip soaked show some wild-eyed TV exec might concoct after seeing PBS' upcoming "American Experience" documentary on the origins of Silicon Valley.

Take a peek at the photo above. Just look at that chrome-y Fairchild Semiconductor logo in that oh-so-midcentury interior. Check out those natty suits and spectacles. And (sigh) look at that dreamy, tieless rebel in the foreground -- he makes Don Draper look like a wuss.… Read more

A fresh review of a Windows 8 Acer tablet by chip site Anandtech shows it beating ARM-based devices pretty consistently on central processor unit performance benchmarks but not on graphics. The site also noted a "bug" that has delayed the release of some Intel-based tablets.

"The [Intel] Atom architecture is still faster than every single ARM based [processor] core on the market today with the exception of the Cortex A15," -- ARM's newest chip design -- wrote Anandtech when it posted a review of the Acer W510 today.

Intel's Atom z2760 "Clover Trail&… Read more

A tablet from Hewlett-Packard running the full version of Windows 8 is expected to finally ship to customers, though a full Win 8 tablet doesn't appear to be imminent from Lenovo.

HP's Envy x2 laptop-tablet hybrid "convertible" was originally slated for November 14 availability but is now expected to reach customers soon, HP said.

"Customers can expect to receive an Envy x2...in January, if they order today. Customers who ordered their units on Dec. 3 or prior are expected to receive their PC by Dec. 21 at the latest," an HP representative told … Read more

Is the desktop PC on the road to oblivion? Well, let's put it this way: it's hardly an Intel priority anymore.

Yeah, desktops will still be around in 2016, but it's not something Intel -- which makes most PC processors -- thinks about a lot.

Survival in the age of the big-screen smartphone and tablet is what Intel thinks about.

A recent 75-page study from Goldman Sachs titled "Clash of the Titans" puts it, rather delicately, this way: "We believe the ongoing share shift in consumer computing toward smartphones and tablets and away from … Read more

Intel today disclosed technology that it hopes will get more of its silicon inside smartphones and tablets.

At the International Electron Devices Meeting, Intel laid out its next-generation 22-nanometer "SoC" system-on-a-chip technology. An SoC puts most of a device's core functions onto one piece of silicon and is typically used in mobile devices where space and power efficiency are paramount.

"In the past...we were focused primarily on developing transistors with ever higher performance," Mark Bohr, an Intel senior fellow, said to journalists in a teleconference. "Now we're developing technologies with a much … Read more

Remember when a quad-core processor was the ultimate indicator of a super-smartphone? Well its 15 minutes are almost up.

Just as the current run of super-smartphones are destined for the bargain bin in a few months, so too will the novelty and obsession with the number of cores powering a phone begin to fade. Sure, smartphones with the latest quad-core chips still rule now, but companies are already preparing to change the conversation.

In its place, expect chip companies, handset manufacturers, and wireless carriers to shift their marketing away from an emphasis cores and more toward tangible benefits such as … Read more

Intel CEO Paul Otellini is leaving his post in May. When that happens, don't expect some grubby outsider CEO to get his or her hands on the controls.

Speaking yesterday at the Sanford C. Bernstein Conference, Otellini acknowledged that he won't be able to decide who succeeds him, but said there's an overwhelmingly strong chance that the next Intel CEO already works there.

"I'm very comfortable with the internal candidates and the track record of internal versus external in our industry shows pretty clearly you want to stay inside if you can," Otellini said. … Read more

Qualcomm today announced that it has expanded an agreement between a subsidiary and Sharp and taken an equity stake in the ailing electronics maker.

Sharp and Qualcomm subsidiary Pixtronix already have a display technology agreement between them, according to Qualcomm. This new deal extends that partnership. The agreement centers on displays using Sharp's IGZO technology, which is widely considered one of the best options for visual quality in the industry.

As part of the agreement, Qualcomm has dropped some cash in Sharp, earning it a minority stake in the company.

Sharp saw its sales drop 16 percent year-over-year to … Read more

The automotive presence at CES 2013 looks to be stronger than ever, with an array of aftermarket and GPS companies joined by some of the leading tech pioneers among automakers. In addition, equipment suppliers such as Nvidia, Intel, and Freescale show off their latest automotive-oriented chips.

Big iron Both Ford and Audi will run major press conferences at the Mandalay Bay. During last week's Los Angeles Auto Show, a Ford spokesman told us to expect big tech announcements at CES without being specific on what they were. We expect Ford to show off the latest iteration of its MyFord Touch … Read more