Nanotech - The Circuits Blog

Updated on January 6 at 11:20 a.m. PST with correction about Nano 3000.

Dual-core Intel Atom rivals are in the works.

Via Nano procesor

(Credit: Via Technologies)

Via Technologies is planning a very low-power, dual-core Nano 3000 processor, according to Chinese-language Web site HKEPC.

Via's C7-M processor is used in Hewlett-Packard's 2133 Mini-Note, which preceded the crop of Netbooks based on the Atom CPU. Via processors, however, were subsequently eclipsed by Intel's Atom.

Advanced Micro Devices will target its low-power dual-core "Conesus" at the laptop market segment above Atom's Netbook-centric space.

Meanwhile, Freescale Semiconductor has indicated that it will bring out a very-low-power ARM chip that features a dual-core graphics engine targeted at Netbook-like laptops.

All of these developments indicate that the market for ultra-small devices and laptops should heat up in 2009.

Intel currently offers the dual-core Atom 330 that is targeted at Nettops--small desktop computers.

The dual-core version of the Via Nano--due in late 2009 or 2010--may use a Fujitsu 45-nanometer or TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) 40-nanometer manufacturing process, according to HKEPC. The Intel Atom is based on 45-nanometer process technology.

(Correction: the Via Nano 3000 will not be dual-core. The dual-core version of Nano will ship in the second half of 2009.)

The Via chip may also include SSE4 instruction support, HKEPC said. Generally, SSE4 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 4) instructions speed up multimedia applications.

Via is also slated to bring out other improved Nano processors in 2009, according to the report.

Advanced Micro Devices said Monday that it will incur $70 million in restructuring costs in the fourth quarter, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing also cited fourth-quarter layoffs of 600 employees. An AMD spokesperson said that approximately 500 layoffs were announced in November, but that the company "ended up closer to 600."

The restructuring dollar figure is new, AMD said. The company now estimates that the "restructuring expense that it will record in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 will be approximately $70 million, based on the restructuring plan approved by the Company on December 19, 2008."

Of the $70 million, about $34 million is related to severance and employee benefits, $13 million is related to contract or program termination costs, approximately $17 million is connected to asset impairments, and about $6 million is related to exit costs at facilities.

Previously, AMD had reported in a Form 10-Q filing that it expected to cut approximately 500 employees and take a charge to operations in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 of approximately $50 million.

Future cost reductions are also planned. "Further cost reduction actions will result in additional charges in the first half of fiscal 2009, which the company cannot estimate at this time," according to Monday's Form 8K filing.

AMD also said that on December 19 it determined that it would incur a material charge for impairment of assets during the fiscal quarter ended December 27 related to the 2006 acquisition of ATI Technologies. "The Company concluded that the current carrying value of its goodwill...was impaired." AMD added: "This conclusion was reached based on the results of an updated long-term financial outlook for the businesses of the former ATI Technologies Inc. in light of the current market conditions and economic outlook" and "due to the deterioration in the price of the Company's common stock and the resulting reduced market capitalization."

AMD expects that the impairment charge "will be material, but, as of the time of this filing...is unable to estimate the amount or range of amounts of the impairment charge. The Company will disclose such an estimate or range of estimates in a filing with the SEC promptly and in any event within four business days of determining such an estimate or range of estimates," according to the Form 8K.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker split in two earlier this year in order to defray the burdensome costs of its manufacturing operations. The manufacturing operations received a massive investment from Mubadala Development Co. and is now run as a separate concern called The Foundry Company.

The price of its stock has sunk from about $6 in June of this year to a little more than $2.

Intel has launched a low-cost quad-core mobile processor and added more mobile Core 2 Duo processors to its chip lineup, according to an updated price list dated December 28.

Acer was one of the first PC makers to announce a system with the new quad-core processor. On Monday Acer released the Aspire 8930G-7665 laptop designed for extreme gaming using the new Intel Core 2 Quad Mobile Processor Q9000, which runs at 2.53GHz. The laptop comes with a 18.4-inch WUXGA screen and Nvidia GeForce 9700M GT graphics. It is priced at $1,799.

The Q9000 processor is listed at $348, significantly less expensive than the existing QX9300 mobile quad-core processor, which is listed at $1,038, and the Q9100, listed at $851. Both of these processors, however, have 12MB of cache memory, twice the amount of the cheaper Q9000, which integrates 6MB of cache. Generally, the more cache memory, the faster the processor.

Intel also released other mobile processors: the 2.93GHz T9800 ($530), the 2.66GHz P9600 Core 2 Duo ($348), the 2.66GHz T9550 ($316), and the 2.53GHz P8700 ($241).

T series processors typically have a power envelope (TDP, or thermal design power) of 35 watts, while P series chips have a 25W TDP.

2009 may be the year of the Netbook. But there's a big if.

Here's the choice: Will consumers buy a thin, light, relatively fast $1,800 MacBook Air or a thin, light, ultrasmall, not-as-fast $450 Hewlett-Packard Mini 1000 Netbook? (Correction: the HP Mini 1000 configuration cited here was originally stated incorrectly as $700.)

A $400-$700 Netbook or a $1,800-$2,500 notebook?

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard, Apple)

If many people, fully aware of this choice, opt for a Netbook then we have the foundation of, at the very least, a rethinking of the pricey ultraportable.

At most, we have many more consumers buying into the Netbook concept--particularly if 3G broadband wireless comes as a standard option.

Here's the dilemma in more detail: Do you want an ultralight subnotebook replete with a Core 2 Duo processor, 64GB solid-state drive, and 12-inch (or 13-inch) LED screen that will set you back at least $1,800?

Or do you want a Netbook with an Atom processor, 16GB solid-state drive (or 60GB or 120GB hard disk drive), and a 10-inch screen for $450 to $500? (Clarification: Netbooks are generally thought of as sub-$400 designs; but for comparison's sake, upscale Netbooks with 10.2-inch screens are cited here.)

The dimensions and weight are the key to both the Netbook and the ultraportable, and differentiate them from standard laptops. Both are small and light. But here's where Netbooks become disruptive. To date (that is, for at least the last 10 years), consumers have had to pay a big premium for smallness and thinness (and still do with the Air, Dell Latitude E4200, and Toshiba Portege, for example). With the Netbook, they don't. (The one obvious downside to Netbooks, however, is that they're too small--cramped screens and keyboards.)

(See CNET review of the HP Mini 1000.)

Of course, the design and internals are different, but are they different enough? To rephrase the question posed above: Is a $2,500 13-inch MacBook Air with a 128GB solid-state drive (and no 3G) different enough from (or that much better than) a high-end $600 or $700 11-inch Netbook with a 32GB (or 64GB) solid-state drive and 3G? I would expect that most consumers (even ones that must have an ultraportable laptop) won't be able to justify paying an extra $1000-$2,000 for a MacBook Air- or Toshiba Portege-style design in the face of a compelling array of Netbook offerings. Especially if Netbooks (or a facsimile of the Netbook) start sporting larger screens.

Consumers will ultimately decide the fate of the Netbook of course--though it remains problematic whether PC suppliers will really push Netbooks in front of consumers that aggressively if Netbooks are eating into their laptop sales. Advanced Micro Devices or Via Technologies, however, could change this by aggressively promoting their newest silicon (AMD's Yukon and Via's Nano) for slick, upscale Netbook-like designs.

When Apple converted to Intel in 2005 that was big. But 2008 Intel Atom converts make this look like a small-town baptism.

Overall, it was a good year for the Intel faithful despite the Wall Street financial crisis. Intel handily beat Advanced Micro Devices in the PC processor performance war. (Not coincidentally, AMD was forced to spin off its manufacturing operations to save itself.) But that really was last year's news since AMD had not been delivering competitive processors for almost two years.

iBook G3: Apple's conversion from IBM-Motorola to Intel pales against the conversion of PC makers to Intel's Atom

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The tectonic shift in 2008 came as one PC maker after another adopted Intel's new Atom processor. Count 'em: Acer, Asus, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Toshiba--to mention only the largest vendors. (Atom shipments in the third quarter were strong and expected to hit between 10 and 20 million units this year.)

This wasn't one sole convert (like Apple), this was a Pentecostal conversion of biblical proportions. Almost overnight, the entire top tier of the PC industry got the Atom religion. In fact, it happened so quickly and so massively that companies like AMD and Qualcomm didn't know what hit them.

Wait a minute, Qualcomm seemed to say, we specialize in making chips for small devices, why is Intel running away with this market? (Even Intel was a bit surprised at the swiftness of Atom adoption in Netbooks.) And though AMD had helped pioneer the market by supplying its Geode processor for the progenitor of the Netbook, the One-Laptop-Per-Chip XO laptop, the Geode never came close to the commercial success (or performance) of the Atom.

AMD took notice, however, and said it plans to deliver a processor for the ultraportable market (an upscale Netbook or cheap notebook--however you want to look at it) at the Consumer Electronics Show.

And Nvidia followed suit. And seemed to be posing the same questions. Hey, if everyone's doing this, is this the Second Coming of the PC? Or, at least, a restructuring of the traditional price structure of the PC market? (The other question Nvidia is asking itself is whether it can bust the Intel bundling Juggernaut).

Oh, and we almost forgot Microsoft. Not initially enthusiastic about the Netbook market because of its XP-centric nature, Microsoft seems to have also gotten the Netbook religion with Windows 7 which will be ready for Netbooks from day one.

Updated at 7:15 p.m. PST with additional information from earnings conference call.

Memory chipmaker Micron Technology posted its eighth-straight loss as it was hit by a steep drop-off in chip prices caused by global oversupply.

In the quarter ended December 4, 2008, the Boise, Idaho company posted a net loss of $706 million or 91 cents per diluted share, on net sales of $1.4 billion, down 8.7 percent. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a loss of 45 cents a share.

The 2009 fiscal first quarter results include a $369 million write-down of memory chip products, Micron said.

The largest U.S. manufacturer of memory chips said it saw steep drops in the average selling prices for its DRAM and NAND Flash memory products, which dove 34 percent and 24 percent respectively. DRAM is used as the main memory in PCs. Flash is used for storage in digital cameras, digiital music players, and solid-state drives.

As a result, sales of memory products fell 4 percent from the previous quarter due to "significant decreases in market selling prices for the company's products," Micron said. Sales, however, measured in gigabits, increased 35 percent for DRAM and 40 percent for NAND flash memory.

Micron said anticipated capital expenditures for fiscal 2009 have been revised downward from last quarter's "guidance" of between $1 billion and $1.3 billion to between $650 million and $750 million.

Micron Chief Executive Officer Steve Appleton also addressed the global memory chip production situation in the earnings conference call. "Most of the (memory chip) companies have announced in the neighborhood of 20 percent, 30 percent," he said referring to year-end production capacity cuts. Appleton cited Hynix, the second largest memory chip manufacturer, which is cutting capacity 30 percent.

"The rate at which capacity comes back online will be determined by what the demand profile is through the first half of '09," he said.

He added that chip production equipment vendors may face a dire 2009. "If you talk to the equipment guys, they will tell you that they may not have any business in '09 in certain categories."

Speaking to the possible bailout of the Taiwan memory chip industry, Appleton said that this money is not likely to increase capacity (i.e., increase supply) because most of the money would simply go for things like debt relief, not necessarily to build new capacity.

During the quarter, Micron announced plans to cut its global workforce 15 percent through 2010 and slashed NAND flash production at a joint venture with Intel by approximately 35,000 (200 millimeter) wafers per month.

Micron currently has about $1 billion in cash and short-term investments.

Global notebook shipments exceeded desktops on a quarterly basis for the first time ever, with Netbooks playing a decisive role, iSuppli said on Tuesday.

Acer's Netbook shipments appear to have been a deciding factor that catapulted notebook shipments over desktops.

(Credit: Acer)

Notebook PC shipments rose almost 40 percent in the third quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007, hitting 38.6 million units, said iSuppli, a market research firm based in El Segundo, Calif.

Netbooks may have been the deciding factor in pushing notebooks over the top.

"The big news from iSuppli's market share data for the third quarter was undoubtedly the performance of Taiwan's Acer," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms at iSuppli, in a statement. "Acer shipped almost 3 million more notebooks in the third quarter than it did in the preceding quarter, with the majority of those 3 million being the company's Netbook products," Wilkins said.

And Acer is close to catching No.2 Dell because of the surge in Netbook shipments, according to Wilkins.

All of this resulted in lower desktop PC shipments, which fell by 1.3 percent in the third quarter over the previous year to 38.5 million units.

Global PC unit shipments rose 15.4 percent over the third quarter of 2007, with 79 million units shipped. Overall third-quarter PC shipments exceeded iSuppli's expectations of 12 percent year-over-year growth for the third quarter, the market researcher said.

Hewlett-Packard remained the No.1 PC supplier in the third quarter, with shipments of 14.9 million units, and a market share of 18.8 percent. Dell held onto second place with shipments of just under 11 million units, translating into a market share of 13.9 percent. Acer was No.3 with a market share of 12.2 percent, as shipments hit 9.7 million during the quarter.

Lenovo and Toshiba were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

iSuppli is revising its 2008 forecast upward. "In view of the better-than-expected third-quarter PC shipments, iSuppli has slightly increased its full year 2008 unit growth forecast from 12.5 percent to 13.0 percent," the firm said, adding that its revised 2009 outlook calls for PC unit growth of 4.3 percent.

Updated at 1:40 p.m. PST with pricing information.

Intel is now shipping 160GB solid-state drives as it vies with Samsung and Toshiba to deliver high-capacity SSDs that rival hard-disk drives in capacity. Price, however, remains a big obstacle for many consumers.

(Credit: Intel)

Intel said Monday that it will add 160GB versions of its X25-M and X18-M Serial ATA (SATA) solid-state drive. To date, Intel has limited shipments to its 80GB versions. Laptop-size 2.5-inch versions of the 160GB drive are shipping now; 1.8-inch models for ultraportable laptops will ship next month, Intel said.

Larger-capacity drives from other SSD suppliers are also on the way. In November, Samsung said it had begun mass production of 256GB SSDs. And Toshiba recently said it would show a 512GB drive at the Consumer Electronics Show in January that would ship in the second quarter of 2009.

Solid-state drives are generally faster at getting data than hard-disk drives (and in some cases, much faster) but pricing is a big hurdle for consumers. Toshiba indicated last week that sample quantities of its new solid-state will range in price from $220 for the 64GB drive to $1,652 for the 512GB drive.

That kind of pricing--even if it's for pricey sample drives--is hard to swallow when a laptop-class 500GB hard-disk drive sells for well under $200.

"Introductory" pricing for the Intel 160GB solid-state drives is $945 for less than 1,000 units, Intel said.

Currently, adding an Intel 80GB solid-state drive option to an HP EliteBook 2530p ultraportable laptop adds $659 over the cost of a 5400RPM 1.8-inch 120GB hard disk drive.

Adding a 128GB solid-state drive to an Apple MacBook Air ups the price by about $500.

Additional comments:: Note that the only first-tier PC vendor to publicly say it is using Intel SSDs is Hewlett-Packard. This is a significant customer for Intel since HP is the largest PC vendor in the world. HP offers Intel SSDs in all of its EliteBook notebooks.

Intel and Nvidia are entering into a new, nasty phase of competition. What's at stake? Only the future of the personal computer.

Although the Santa Clara, Calif., neighbors (located only a couple of miles from each other) have never really been on speaking terms, the rivalry is intensifying with the emergence of the Netbook--small, lightweight laptops priced below $500.

The competitive backdrop is still the same--Intel's longstanding (and very successful) vision of a CPU-centric universe versus Nvidia's creed that graphics processing matters more and more in a multimedia-intensive world.

The challenge for Nvidia is that as laptops downsize into Netbooks, a graphics vacuum has been created. And Nvidia abhors a graphics vacuum.

Nvidia's vision of the Netbook core

(Credit: Nvidia)

Inside almost every Acer, Asus, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell Netbook beats an Intel silicon core. Intel accounts for both central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU)--the latter in the form of the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950.

Nvidia wants in. It maintains that Intel-only Netbooks choke on high-quality multimedia content and, as a result, consumers will demand better graphics hardware as the Netbook increases in size to 10-inch diagonal screen sizes and beyond. (The Netbook began as a tiny 8- or 9-inch form factor, but it has been moving to 10-inch and even a 12-inch screens, in the case of Dell's Inspiron Mini 12 Netbook.)

This is where it gets complicated. Intel has fairly strict parameters for the Netbook. It would rather not see Atom-based systems with 12-inch screens or extra silicon (read: horsepower) that kicks thermals (read: power consumption) into laptop territory. Need I explain why? (Cannibalization.) Netbooks should not aspire to be notebooks because the Atom processor is not nearly as capable as a Core 2 Duo, according to Intel.

At a recent demonstration, Nvidia claimed that 1080p video is smoother with a GeForce 9400M graphics assist to the Atom processor (screen on left shows lower CPU utilization).

(Credit: Brooke Crothers)

Nvidia, on the other hand, sees the silicon and screen size as an artificial restriction. It believes that Atom is a fairly capable processor that simply lacks a capable graphics engine.

And here's where it gets nasty: chipsets. Apple serves as a perfect example of why it may get rough-and-tumble, and what's at stake. In the newest MacBooks, Nvidia not only seized graphics turf from Intel, but it also took the chipset socket. Intel was relegated to supplying only the processor. That's analogous to Nvidia snagging a piece of prime Manhattan real estate right from under Intel's nose. While Intel holds on to Times Square, Nvidia walks off with Rockefeller Center.

To put it charitably, Intel doesn't like to lose socket space. But that is exactly what Nvidia is aiming for with Netbooks.

Will Nvidia be able to convince Netbook makers like Acer and Asus to make the switch, in the face of Intel's very persuasive bundling offers? (The word "persuasive" may not be strong enough.) These vendors may not be as open-minded as Apple, which has always prided itself on a feisty independence (i.e., no one takes center stage but Apple, and no Intel stickers).

Nvidia's GeForce 9400M may appear initially (perhaps circa the Computex convention in June) in Netbooks from smaller vendors. Larger suppliers may wait to see if turbo-charged graphics are the Netbook wave of the future--or not.