israel

EIC Squared: Psystar on the firing line with Apple, etc.

I finally made it to the big time and got to fill in for the vacationing Dan Farber on the EIC Squared podcast. Check out my conversation with ZDNet Editor-in-Chief Larry Dignan as we riff on the circumstances surrounding Apple's legal tiff with Mac clone maker Psystar, as well as Intel's surprisingly strong quarterly earnings. Also, I recently got back from a visit to Israel's high-tech community. Take a listen.

Forecasting a dead end for chips

(Editor's note, 10:25 p.m. PDT: The original headline on this blog was altered to remove the word "subatomic" because its usage may not have been appropriate.)

TEL AVIV, Israel--One of Intel's legendary chip developers says that the computer industry may no longer be able to infinitely shrink microprocessor die size.

And if anyone should know, it's Marcian E. "Ted" Hoff.

The designer behind the 4004 chip, Intel's first microprocessor, Hoff says that a technical end of the road may soon be within sight.

"We are approaching atomic dimensions," … Read more

Israel's high-tech culture must rejigger, VC says

TEL AVIV, Israel--For one of the most important venture capitalists in Israel, the nation's recent burst of entrepreneurial success isn't going to be good enough to guarantee a productive future.

Chemi Peres, founder of the Pitango Venture Capital partnership, doesn't mince words when he talks about a high-tech landscape that he had a big part in shaping. The way he sees it, Israel's start-up culture will likely take one of two directions.

"Some people think we are only meant to innovate, and that once we build something, the best strategy going forward is to sell … Read more

Stef Wertheimer's tech road to Mideast peace

TEL AVIV, Israel--He's the richest man in Israel. And at 82, Stef Wertheimer is far from calling it quits. Two years after selling 80 percent of his Iscar Metalworking to Warren Buffett for $4 billion, Wertheimer has an idea on how to bring peace to a region scarred by decades of strife.

His idea: jobs.

More than two decades ago, Wertheimer built Tefen, an industrial park in an undeveloped and low-income region of the Galilee, offering employment both to Arabs and Jews. It worked out so well that he subsequently built three more industrial parks in Israel, as well … Read more

Making sense of Israel: A 60-year-old start-up

TEL AVIV, Israel--Watching the news from Israel over the last several years, it sometimes seems that the political culture in the country is broken. Yet at the same time, the economic and entrepreneurial trends seem stronger than ever. I've never been able to explain that contradiction. Now that I'm back in Israel, a country where I worked several years in the 1980s, that contradiction is more striking than ever.

As always, the "matzav" or the security situation, dominates discussions here. Just prior to my arrival, the Israeli cabinet OK'd a controversial prisoner swap with Hezbollah … Read more

Trying to erase the Ghosts of the past

CARLSBAD, Calif.--In the field of start-ups looking to replicate the computer operating system on the Web, Ghost is just one of many.

Like others, it sees an opportunity to not just re-create Windows on the Web, but perhaps to even replace the traditional operating system. I see some interesting notions, but a lot of challenges in these models.

But what struck me most about the company is its unique workforce. Ghost has a few workers in Israel, while most of the company is located in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The idea is to show the world as … Read more

San Francisco: Electric car city?

Who's bringing the electric car back to life? Mayor Gavin Newsom hopes he can help in San Francisco by partnering with Project Better Place, according to Earth2Tech.

The venture, founded by the mayor's friend Shai Agassi, aims for all passenger vehicles in Israel to run on batteries rather than gasoline. Drivers would subscribe to cars much like they subscribe to cellular phone plans. The biggest challenge is to create the electric car infrastructure, a network of stations for charging vehicles and replacing batteries.

In Israel last week, Newsom met with CEO Moshe Kaplinsky and volunteered to make the … Read more

Companies to watch in green tech: Food and drink

With Earth Day upon us again, News.com green reporters sat down and selected five leading companies in five different clean technology categories. Here are the ones to watch in the areas of food and drink:

1. Purfresh: Formerly Novazone, the company's goal is to become the giant in organic pesticides. It makes a system that kills fungi and microbes in bottled water and food with ozone, and also offers a sunscreen for fruit. It cuts back on industrial chemicals, boosts the amount of food that makes it from the field to the table without spoiling, and saves water. … Read more

Water specialist AqWise raises $3.6 million

AqWise, which builds condominiums for bacteria, has raised an additional $3.6 million in funding. The founder, though, is toiling in a new venture.

The company, with which we spoke during a swing through Israel in 2006 (just in time for the outbreak of border hostilities), has created an intricate polymer cylinder that, when placed in wastewater treatment ponds, clusters microbes that consume contaminants. The water can then be safely discarded or used to irrigate fields.

The trick is that the honeycombed cylinder sports a huge amount of surface area for microbes to grow. The greater amount of surface area … Read more