Advanced Micro Devices CEO Dirk Meyer on Wednesday addressed the latest antitrust lawsuit filed against Intel, saying his company's claims about Intel's alleged illegal behavior have been "ratified" worldwide.
AMD CEO Dirk Meyer addresses analysts on Wednesday.
(Credit: AMD)"We've said for a long time that our success in the marketplace was hampered by anticompetitive behavior on the part of our competitor [Intel]," Meyer said. "And I think it's clear over the last 12 months that we've seen our statements be ratified...by regulators around the world. We've seen action in the EU take place this year. And just last week we saw the action of New York State's attorney general office," he said.
Meyer made the comments at the AMD Financial Analyst Day, which was streamed live from company headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif.
"As you know, we have a court date scheduled in March," Meyer said. "So, in summary, I'm looking forward to a future in which our ability to succeed as a business is really governed by the quality of our products and the quality of our customer relationships. And I can tell you that hasn't always been true. But in the future that will be increasingly true. So, access to customer demand is key. "
Intel declined to comment.
New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo filed a federal lawsuit against Intel earlier this month accusing it of paying computer makers rebates to illegally maintain its monopoly power and preventing AMD from gaining business with PC makers.
In a similar case earlier this year, the European Commission fined Intel $1.45 billion, alleging illegal rebates to PC makers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard. AMD also made analogous allegations in its case filed against Intel in June 2005 that is slated to come to trial in March 2010.
And this may not be the last major case filed against Intel that makes these allegations. The Federal Trade Commission may also bring charges against Intel, according to reports.
Advanced Micro Devices discussed the Hemlock high-end graphics card due next week and third-generation ultra-thin laptop technology, among other topics, at the AMD Financial Analyst Day on Wednesday.
AMD Vice President Rick Bergman holds up the 'Hemlock' graphics card at AMD Financial Analyst Day on Wednesday. The product is due next week.
(Credit: AMD)"Hemlock will get launched next week," said AMD Senior Vice President Rick Bergman, speaking Wednesday morning at the conference which was streamed live. "It's in production. You'll be able to buy it at e-tailers around the world. You can see there are two GPUs. Five Teraflops out of this baby," he said. (GPU stands for graphics processing unit. A teraflop is a trillion floating point operations per second, a key indicator of graphics performance.)
Hemlock is expected to be appear as an HD 5900 series product--what some reports have called the HD 5970.
Bergman also addressed AMD's third-generation "Nile" ultra-thin laptop platform. "Bring the real PC experience into the ultra-thin. Battery life well north of seven hours," Bergman said. This is due ... Read more
Best Buy is set to launch its lowest-advertised-price laptop to date--an Acer model based on Intel's venerable Celeron chip.
Acer laptop
(Credit: Best Buy)Thought Netbooks were as low as a laptop's price can go? Another category of ultra-low-cost laptops has quietly emerged. These aren't small or ultra-thin or frugal with power consumption. There's nothing remarkable about these laptops--except price.
Best Buy said it will start selling on Wednesday the $249 Acer laptop--the retailer's lowest-advertised-price laptop ever. The laptop comes with an Intel Celeron processor, 15.4-inch screen, 2GB memory, a 160GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Premium. The model is available while supplies last.
Currently, the lowest-priced laptop listed on Best Buy's Web site is an Acer Aspire with an Advanced Micro Devices Athlon Processor (model: AS5532-553). On Tuesday, it was selling for $329.
Why the proliferation of low-cost laptops? "It's gone from one PC per household to one PC per person," said Justin Barber, a Best Buy spokesman. "And sometimes more than one laptop per person," he said, referring to Netbooks, which are marketed as companion devices to a higher-end PC.
At the core of the low-cost Acer laptop is an Intel Celeron Processor 900--not an Intel Atom chip, which is standard fare for sub-$300 Netbooks. The Celeron is a faster design than Atom: the 900 series packs 1MB cache of cache memory and is rated at 2.20GHz.
By comparison, the Z550 Atom is rated at 2.0GHz and integrates only 512K of cache. The Atom's performance is also hampered by fundamental design constraints: it is built for power efficiency not speed.
Netbooks continue to be the most popular low-cost laptop category, however. Best Buy lists dozens of Netbooks on its Web site from Hewlett-Packard, Asus, Samsung, Gateway, Nokia, Lenovo, and Toshiba, among others. Most are priced around $350.
Despite persistent rumors, Nvidia's chief executive says the graphics chip supplier is not working on an Intel-compatible chip.
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang
(Credit: Nvidia)In an exclusive interview with CNET Thursday, I asked CEO Jen-Hsun Huang about the possibility of Nvidia coming up with its own x86 (Intel-compatible) chip technology, after the company reported strong third-quarter earnings. A recurring rumor has it that Nvidia is developing a chip that would be able to run the same software that runs on all Intel- and AMD-based PCs worldwide.
"No," he said when asked if there was any truth to the rumor. "Nvidia's strategy is very, very clear. I'm very straightforward about it. Right now, more than ever, we have to focus on visual and parallel computing."
Huang went on to describe where the chip supplier sees its best opportunities for growth. "Our strategy is to proliferate the GPU (graphics processing unit) into all kinds of platforms for growth," he said. "GPUs in servers for parallel computing, for supercomputing--and cloud computing with our GPU is a fabulous growth opportunity--and streaming video."
"And also getting our GPUs into the lowest power platforms we can imagine and driving mobile computing with it," Huang added, referring to its Tegra chip, which, for example, powers Microsoft's Zune HD media player.
Despite Huang's denials, Doug Freedman of Broadpoint AmTech is the latest to postulate that Nvidia will enter the x86 central processing unit market. "We feel Nvidia could become a supplier of x86 CPUs by necessity, perhaps in the next 12 months (if not sooner) to preserve both GPU and chipset revenue," Freedman said in a note recently.
"We believe the company has hired former Transmeta staff extensively," Freedman said. Transmeta was at one time a low-power x86-compatible chip supplier. Earlier this year, Intellectual Ventures acquired the patent portfolio of Transmeta.
Huang also dismissed the the possibility of Nvidia using Globalfoundries as a manufacturing partner--typically referred to as a "foundry" or a "fab"--for its chips, after saying in the earnings conference call that Nvidia's longstanding foundry partner--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)--was not allocating it enough capacity.
"Globalfoundries is an AMD fab, right?" he said. "Globalfoundries is AMD's fab. Our strategy is TSMC."
If the iPhone didn't finish off Windows Mobile in the smartphone market, the Motorola Droid may.
Windows Mobile is losing the last vestiges of its mojo--if it really had any to begin with--as the Droid and other phones based on the Android 2.0 operating system push the buzz meter needle into the red zone. Many in the media--which can play a big role in steering users to one technology platform or another--sense that Windows Mobile has now been relegated resolutely to has-been status.
The Motorola Droid's high-resolution screen.
(Credit: Verizon)Let's do a quick canvas of what some in the press are saying now that we're at the start of the Droid era. A post on SFGate.com (the Web site of the San Francisco Chronicle) is, like other commentary out there, clearly dismissive of Windows Mobile. "Curiously, Microsoft is nowhere to be seen in this battle royal," the author states, referring to the iPhone and Android.
And there's this more damning comment from a blog at SeattlePI.com. "Rarely mentioned, however, is another player in the mobile OS market--Microsoft. Why not? Because not many people in the smartphone world seem to really give a hoot about Windows Mobile anymore."
The litany of like articles is long. This post on PC World asks: "Has Microsoft Placed Its Last Mobile Bet?" The article cites research from Canalys showing Windows Mobile slipping from 13.9 percent of the worldwide smartphone market in 2002 to 9 percent in the second quarter of 2009.
The numbers are even less favorable in an accounting by ad service Admob, which compiles data on which operating systems are in use on mobile devices that access online ads. In August, according to AdMob, Windows Mobile had only a 4 percent share of the mobile OS market worldwide, down from 7 percent in February.
But getting back to my original premise of no mobile mojo for Windows. The fact is that consumers don't care about Windows on smartphones. In other words, while Windows seems to be a prerequisite for many consumers when buying a PC, it just doesn't come into play in a big way in a smartphone purchase.
This will have ramifications beyond Microsoft of course. Companies like Toshiba (and its attractive TG01 smartphone) will probably not be as successful on Windows Mobile as they would (will) be on Android 2.0. Or, at the very least, will not get the necessary buzz.
Then there's the Intel factor. Intel also wants to be a player, eventually, in the smartphone space. If it is indeed able to beat back Texas Instruments (whose chip is used in the Droid), Samsung (iPhone), Qualcomm (BlackBerry), and Marvell, it probably won't do it by sticking to the tried-and-true "WinTel" combination that's been so outrageously successful in the PC space.
And Intel is chasing a fast-moving target. TI, and all the other ARM-based chip suppliers cited above, are slated to bring out dual-core designs that can hit speeds as high as 2GHz (think next-generation tablets and media pads). In other words, they'll also be able claim the coveted speed mantle on phones, such as the Droid, where Windows Mobile is no where in sight.
So the Droid may not be the iPhone killer but rather the Windows Mobile slayer. Microsoft, of course, will always have the unassailable PC franchise. But, wait, isn't Android coming to Netbooks next year? Maybe the real battle royal for Microsoft is yet to come.
Experts say Intel has been instrumental in driving down PC prices, one of the key indicators of competition and one charge New York's Attorney General cannot easily level against Intel in its antitrust lawsuit.
New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit against Intel accusing it of paying computer makers rebates to illegally maintain its monopoly power and preventing AMD from gaining business with PC makers.
One of the operative charges in the complaint centers on prices. "Intel launched an illegal campaign to deprive AMD of distribution channels and consumers of product choice and lower prices," the complaint alleges.
Not so fast, say some experts. "Prices are falling, buyers are not complaining about Intel's loyalty discounts, and the lower prices produce obvious and immediate benefit for consumers," said Joshua D. Wright, professor at George Mason University School of Law, and a scholar in residence at the Federal Trade Commission until 2008.
"Given the intuitive and easy to grasp nature of the consumer benefits of discounting contracts in the Intel case, I suspect that judges will be less likely to condemn these practices without real proof of actual consumer harm. I'm skeptical that AMD, (New York), or the (Federal Trade Commission) will be able to produce that here," Wright said.
And prices continue to fall. One of the most recent examples of steep downward PC price pressure is ... Read more
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang seemed unsurprised by allegations made Wednesday by New York's attorney general that Intel has illegally tried to maintain its monopoly.
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.
(Credit: Nvidia)"Where there's smoke there's probably fire. It blows my mind that's it's taken this long," Huang said in an interview Thursday, just after the graphics chipmaker posted solid fourth-quarter earnings. Nvidia competes with Intel in the PC graphics chip market.
"Even bribes and kickbacks can't stop somebody from buying our graphics processors," he said, referring to the allegations made in the lawsuit.
When contacted, Intel had no comment.
"Tactics good for AMD are tactics good for Nvidia," he added. "We have far superior products to Intel, that's how we survive by innovating far ahead of (Intel)."
Nvidia is locked in a legal battle with Intel, preventing Nvidia from making chipsets for Intel's "Nehalem" Core i series of chips--the lastest and greatest line of processors from Intel. Nvidia's Ion chipset--used in Apple MacBooks and Hewlett-Packard Netbooks, for example--has been very successful.
Huang also commented on the wave of next-generation tablets and media pads expected to hit the market next year, such as the rumored Apple tablet. Nvidia is already working with device makers who will use its Tegra chip in these designs next year.
"I think that's going to be the next big form factor," he said. "More and more people that use the iPhone would like to have a bigger iPhone. And the fact that 4g is coming--20 megabits per second. What can't you do. I think this (market) space is about to go nuts," he said.
"I really think we're on the cusp of our second personal computer revolution," he said.
An antitrust lawsuit filed Wednesday by the New York attorney general alleges a longstanding symbiotic relationship between Intel and Dell.
New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo filed the federal lawsuit against Intel accusing it of paying computer makers rebates to illegally maintain its monopoly power and preventing AMD from gaining business with PC makers.
In a similar case earlier this year, the European Commission fined Intel $1.45 billion, alleging illegal rebates to PC makers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard. AMD also made analogous allegations in its case filed against Intel in June 2005 that is slated to come to trial in March 2010.
And this may not be the last major case filed against Intel that makes these allegations. The Federal Trade Commission is also expected bring charges against Intel, according to reports.
"It is the AMD case filed 4.5 years ago. It's the same case the EU brought. There's nothing significant or new here that hasn't been discovered," Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy said about Wednesday's complaint filed by the New York Attorney General. "Neither consumers--who have consistently benefited from lower prices and increased innovation--nor justice are being served by the decision to file this case now," Mulloy said.
Doling to Dell
The complaint singles out Dell as a large recipient of Intel's "largesse," echoing the 2005 AMD lawsuit. Quoting often graphic exchanges between Intel and Dell executives, the suit alleges that Intel gave Dell massive rebates totaling in the billions of dollars over a period of, at least, several years. Hewlett-Packard and IBM, among others, are also cited in the complaint, but Dell is the focus of some of the most egregious Intel behavior, as alleged by the attorney general.
"We use both Intel and AMD chips and we do provide customer choice," Dell spokesman David Frink said Wednesday. Dell used Intel processors exclusively until May of 2006, when it adopted AMD chips for the first time.
"In pure dollar terms, Dell was far and away the leader in receiving Intel's ... Read more
Chip supplier Marvell is hooking up with e-reader companies, hoping to take the lead in silicon design for this nascent market.
Entourage Edge has both a 9.7-inch e-reader display and a 10.1-inch color LCD and runs Google's Android OS on top of Marvell silicon.
(Credit: Entourage)The market for e-readers, currently led by the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader, is poised for growth, according to Weili Dai, a Marvell co-founder and general manager of the consumer and computing business unit. "The timing is right for the e-reader market to take off in volume," Dai said in an interview.
Marvell, though not a household name like Intel, is a major supplier of communications, storage, and wireless chips. Marvell, for example, supplied the Wi-Fi chip in the original iPhone and is a leading supplier of controller chips for solid-state drives.
In the e-reader market, Marvell is hoping to play a leading role in making e-readers a low-cost, mass-market device. "We're targeting a retail price of $150," Dai said. Partners include E Ink, a supplier of electronic paper displays; FirstPaper, an e-reading and advertising start-up; and Plastic Logic, an e-reader maker. Both E Ink and FirstPaper are backed by media company Hearst.
E-reader from Spring Design runs Android and integrates two displays.
(Credit: Spring Design)The Marvell Armada 166E system-on-a-chip, which will power a number of upcoming e-readers, integrates key features onto a single piece of silicon, such as the main processor--called an application processor--and the display controller. Armada is based on intellectual property from U.K.-based ARM, whose designs power most of the world's cell phones. Marvell ships 1 billion chips per year, two-thirds of which include Marvell processors running the ARM instruction set.
Marvell processors running at 1GHz will be used in many of the initial e-readers, though Marvell has designs that scale up in performance to 2GHz, according to Dai.
One of the first products to use the Marvell chip is the Entourage Edge, which claims to be the first "dualbook"--combining an E Ink EPD (electronic paper display) with an LCD and Netbook, notepad, and audio/video player functions.
Marvell will also power the dual-screen Alex e-reader from Spring Design. Like the Edge, Alex's dual-screen display design combines a monochrome electronic paper display with a color LCD screen.
"Periodicals are the next big frontier in eReading," Gil Fuchsberg, president of FirstPaper, said in a statement. To enable better newspaper and magazine reading experiences, e-reading devices will need richer layouts and more complex content, according to FirstPaper.
Corrected on November 3 at 7:40 a.m. PST: This story initially described FirstPaper incorrectly. It is an e-reading and advertising start-up.
Intel on Monday said it is investigating a glitch that prevents an Apple iPhone from synching with certain PCs that use a new Intel chipset.
"Our leading theory is a BIOS or system configuration issue, but we are still investigating," Intel said Monday. The BIOS, or basic input/output system, is the initial code that runs when a PC is powered on. The BIOS identifies and initializes system devices such as the chipset, graphics card, and hard disk drive. Makers of PC circuit boards, aka motherboards, typically offer their own BIOS.
The problem is thought to be tied to the Intel P55 chipset and desktop motherboards from certain manufacturers, according to a report in The Register.
The Intel P55 Express chipset supports the Intel Core i7-800 and Core i5-700 series processors, according to Intel. The chipset is new and has only been available since summer.
As depicted in an "Apple Discussions" thread, on certain PCs or motherboards with the P55 chipset, Apple iTunes 9 for Windows will recognize the iPhone, but when a sync is attempted, an "error 0xE8000065" is generated, indicating an iPhone connection failure. Windows 7 is also cited as a common problem, particularly the 64-bit version of Windows 7.
"Microsoft has not seen this particular question posed in the Microsoft Answers for Windows 7 community forum, nor in any of our call centers," Microsoft told the The Register on Friday. "If we determine this to be a problem specific to Windows 7, we will post an update on the Microsoft Answers site."
The Apple Discussions thread proposes a number of possible solutions.
Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.
