Intel

During the back half of the 1990s, I was in charge of corporate marketing at Cyrix, a Texas-based microprocessor company, and at National Semiconductor, the company that bought Cyrix.

Today, I looked at some of the CNET news stories I was quoted in back then. I couldn't believe some of the blustery crap that spewed effortlessly out of my mouth.

Everything we did was the fastest, most powerful, most highly integrated, lowest cost, blah, blah, blah. The processor gods blessed everything we designed. Customers were lining up around the block. Intel was the devil incarnate. Advanced Micro Devices was just a lowly also-ran, doomed to forever live in Intel's shadow.

As the story turns out, Cyrix imploded and National Semiconductor blew I-don't-know-how-many-billion dollars cleaning up the mess. Intel's still the world's largest semiconductor company, and AMD--well, AMD at least survived.… Read more

As expected, Dell is now offering Inspiron notebook PCs with the Intel Core 2 Duo "Penryn" chip as an optional configuration. This is the first time that Dell has included the 45-nanometer processor as an option in the consumer-oriented Inspiron line.

An Inspiron 1720 with a T9300 (2.5GHz, 6MB cache) processor, 17-inch (1440x900) screen, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, 2GB shared dual channel DDR2 memory, and a 250GB SATA hard drive (5400RPM) is priced at $1,299.

An Inspiron 1420 with a T8300 (2.4GHz, 3MB cache) processor, 14.1-inch (1280x900) screen, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, … Read more

Intel is expected to bring out new Core 2 Duo processors and a Celeron in the April-May time period, according to Chinese-language Web site HKEPC. These are minor models that do not constitute a major model rollout like the mobile Montevina processors due late spring or early summer.

HKEPC cites motherboard manufacturers as the source for this information.

New processors include the 45-nanometer 2.83-GHz Core 2 Duo E8300 (6MB L2 cache/1333-MHz front-side bus), priced at $163, the 2.53-GHz Core 2 Duo E7200 (3MB cache/1066-MHz FSB), priced at $133, and the 2.0-GHz Celeron E1400 (512K cache/… Read more

Intel has spent a lot of time and money backing WiMax as a next-generation wireless standard, and it looks like the company isn't ready to watch its partners falter just yet.

The Street.com reported Tuesday that Intel is preparing to fund a $2 billion joint venture formed by Sprint and Clearwire that would own the spectrum rights held by both companies. The two companies had previously planned to build a nationwide WiMax network but shelved those ambitions after Sprint CEO Gary Forsee was sent packing last year. Still, talks remained alive, and it sounds like they might be … Read more

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., the world' largest chip foundry, will start making microprocessors for Sun Microsystems, a big change for both companies.

Sun has employed Texas Instruments for years to make its chips. TI, however, is ramping down a its foundry work. TI makes most of its money by producing chips for the cell phone market, where cost is often more important than cutting edge manufacturing technology. As a result, TI has signaled it won't race ahead with companies like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices to be the first (or one of the first) to graduate to an advanced … Read more

PDAs aren't dead yet. Nor is Intel's XScale chip technology. Hewlett-Packard's new, attractive big-screen handheld packs an application processor that still includes plenty of Intel's XScale DNA.

HP is now shipping production units of the long-awaited iPaq 210 (originally slated to ship last year) that features a 4.0-inch, 640x480 (VGA) resolution screen. The 210 (which is rebranded internationally as the 211, 212, and 214), comes with a Marvell PXA310 processor running at 624MHz, 128MB of memory, and 256MB of flash ROM.

Though Intel sold the business that made XScale processors to Marvell more than a … Read more

While some sectors of tech were reliving the years 2001 through 2003, the world of laptops soldiered on, driven by the harsh master that is Moore's law. Intel's 45-nanometer Penryn chips crept into several laptops, including the Dell XPS M1730 and two Acer Aspires. Meanwhile, Best Buy is currently showing a one- to two-week delay on MacBook Pros--we'll let you connect the dots.

In other component news, Nvidia was met with yawns when it revealed the specs for two mainstream notebook video cards. A supersecret start-up called Montalvo Systems just might be on the verge of … Read more

A back order of MacBooks at Best Buy could be yet another sign that Apple has new notebooks around the corner.

Best Buy is showing a one- to two-week delay on both 15.4-inch $1,999 MacBook Pros--the exact configuration that was rumored to be on tap earlier this month--as well as 13.3-inch MacBooks. AppleInsider has also heard from a reseller who claims orders are "trickling in" in preparation for a new launch.

Rumors of new notebooks have been swirling for weeks as a confluence of different events point to the possibility of new MacBook Pros. Intel … Read more

The graphics processing unit (GPU) is in, the central processing unit (CPU) is out. That was one of the main themes running through the Nvidia fourth-quarter conference call earlier this week. Nvidia is the largest graphics chip supplier.

During the call on Wednesday, Jen-Hsun Huang, President and CEO of Nvidia, repeated one thing often: GPUs are playing more of a central role in PCs, CPUs less so. "The CPU has become fast enough for the vast majority of (PC) users," he said. "PC enthusiasts, gamers, and design professionals have know this for some time." The GPU … Read more