intel

AMD has managed to push past the effects of a disastrous inventory problem last quarter, but not all the way.

Mercury Research reports that AMD gained back four of the six points of market share it lost in the first quarter after an inventory screwup. Intel shipped 76.3 percent of all x86 chips for the desktop, notebook and server markets in the second quarter, while AMD shipped 22.9 percent. Intel hit 80 percent in the first quarter of this year, but that was an anomaly based on AMD's supply-chain troubles, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury … Read more

Intel recently hired Christopher Guest (of "This Is Spinal Tap" fame) to direct two music videos in support of a company ad campaign. (The videos are on YouTube, here and here.)

Genuine computer-security guru Bruce Schneier mentioned one of these videos in his blog (here), but apparently couldn't bring himself to comment further.

I covered security products for Microprocessor Report, and I've been following the subject for about 25 years. I even won a CNET-sponsored contest by writing about hardware-based computer security and got a free trip to speak at Esther Dyson's PC Forum 2005 (… Read more

Intel's legal team will be very busy for the next 10 weeks.

That's how long the world's largest chipmaker has to come up with an explanation for business practices that the European Commission has declared "abuse of a dominant market position." The Directorate-General for Competition on Thursday sent Intel a "statement of objections," which sounds like a polite way of doing business but is quite serious.

The EC cited three examples of objectionable conduct after it investigated Intel's practices and the European PC market at the request of AMD. First, it said … Read more

Maybe it took extra long, 'cause it was so hard to get these giant things on the truck. In any event, the 20-inch HP HDX--a massive multimedia laptop we previewed extensively back in May--comes with some cool new hardware tweaks and is finally ready to hit dorm rooms and CEO offices around the country.

One of the first systems to be announced with Intel's revamped Centrino Duo platform, the HDX won us over with its huge 20-inch display (which moves back and forth on a giant hinged arm), touch-sensitive media control buttons, pop-out remote control, and gamer-worthy specs. … Read more

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--Apparently sometimes, you just can't say no, even when you know it's going to hurt.

That seems to be where AMD finds itself, as it tries to reconcile a draining price war against the high demand for its chips. Intel has been squeezing AMD's margins for over a year through processor price cuts, but AMD has still managed to expand its foothold inside customers like Dell and gain new customers like Toshiba.

The problem is that much of that growth is coming at the low end of the market, where less profits can be had. … Read more

Researchers at Intel this week are showing off an silicon modulator that can pass 40 gigabits of data in a second, a new record that indicates that fiber-inside-computers is really coming.

A modulator is an component from the fiber optic industry. It essentially chops up light from a laser into blips that ultimately will be understood as 1s and 0s by a computer. Right now, computers (and chips) pass signals via electrons traveling along metal wires. Metal wires give off heat, which has created an energy crisis inside computer.

By contrast, fiber optics transmit data with photons, which are faster … Read more

Intel's running a special on quad-core chips this summer just ahead of the back-to-school rush.

The company cut the price of its Core 2 Quad Q6600 (PDF) processor in half on Monday, just a week after it introduced a new quad-core chip for desktop PC customers. This is how it has worked in the chip game for years: new processors push older ones down a series of pricing steps until they become obsolete.

But while $266 may seem like a bargain (though remember, that's the 1,000-unit price), most PC users don't need four cores. Unless you … Read more

Peter Galli at eWeek is reporting on Intel's open sourcing of its Threading Building Blocks 2.0 software, a C++ template library that simplifies the development of software applications running in parallel. The software solves a big problem: helping developers write applications that live and breathe well in a multi-processor world.

Intel is not doing this out of pure charity, though after spending some time with Dirk Hohndel this morning, I think there is some of that involved. No, the more value people find in applications, the more applications they'll buy/systems they'll buy. That helps Intel.

Intel, however, shows its open source acumen in how and why it's open sourcing TBB:… Read more

Cracks are a bad thing in general, but they might help speed up chips.

AmberWave Systems, which specializes in semiconductor substructures, discussed a new method for growing germanium and other, faster semiconductor materials on top of silicon at the recent Semicon West conference, according to the Technology Review magazine of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In a nutshell, AmberWave digs trenches of about 500 nanometers deep in silicon. The trenches are then filled with germanium. This causes the silicon to crack, but the cracks go up only about half of the height of the trench wall. Regular germanium can be … Read more