chips

Intel chooses 'Atom' name for new chips

Intel announced Sunday that is has chosen the name "Atom" for a new family of ultra-small chips.

The "Atom" moniker will be applied to a family of chips with two members that are expected to be released later this quarter. One--previously know as Silverthorne--is a low-power mobile processor destined for the next generation of mobile Internet devices. It incorporates a new low-power state, allowing it to essentially shut down in between processing tasks and limit power consumption.

The other, code-named Diamondville, is a single-core processor for ultra-low-cost laptops. Intel refers to the low-cost notebook design … Read more

Gadgettes 77: The Songs Of Gadgettes Episode

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No links today... just a bunch of random clips. You're welcome!

Intel still optimistic despite some economic uncertainty

Though cable news pundits may predict hard times ahead, reports from IBM and Intel for 2008 show the technology industry isn't ready to mimic the banking industry's financial woes just yet.

Intel announced its second consecutive record-breaking quarter Tuesday, though earnings just barely met the company's own projections.

The chipmaker reported its highest-ever fourth-quarter revenue of $10.7 billion and earnings of 38 cents per share. Intel set expectations for this quarter at between $10.5 billion and $11.1 billion, while analysts were anticipating revenue of $10.8 billion and earnings between 38 cents and 44 … Read more

AMD expects sizable write-down for declining value of ATI purchase

Advanced Micro Devices said Wednesday it expects in the fourth quarter to take a sizable write-down for the declining value of intangible assets related to its $5.4 billion acquisition of graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies.

AMD, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, said it doesn't yet know the exact size of the write-down but expects it to be "material"--or in other words, substantial--when it concludes its review.

The chipmaker said it's planning to write off the value it assigned to the ATI acquisition that was above the actual value of ATI's assets, otherwise … Read more

Photos: Nvidia's weekend gameaway

Nvidia is hosting a weekend-long party to celebrate the release of Electronic Arts' Crysis, and gamers from around the San Francisco Bay Area are spending all hours competing for prizes and respect in a desolate warehouse at the former Alameda Naval Air Station.

Several hundred gamers are expected to attend and compete in tournaments playing Crysis, Team Fortress 2, and Madden NFL '08. Nvidia also unveiled a new processor for notebooks during the event at the Area 51 Events Center, which included a look at the state of the PC gaming industry.

For gamers who run out of steam, the … Read more

Qualcomm likely to avoid another chip ban

Qualcomm has likely dodged a bullet that could have halted the import of some of its chips into the United States.

On Friday, the company said a judge recommended putting an end to an investigation conducted by the U.S. International Trade Commission that is looking into complaints filed by handset maker Nokia against Qualcomm.

Nokia, which sells more mobile phones than any other manufacturer in the world, asked the ITC in August to ban imports of phones that included Qualcomm chips that Nokia says infringe on its patents. The patents are related to technology that enhances device performance, lowers … Read more

Novellus sued for racial bias

The federal government is suing seminconductor company Novellus for discrimination and racial bias on behalf of an African-American employee who says he was forced to leave his job after complaining about a fellow worker's racially insensitive behavior.

Assembly technician Michael Cooke complained to his bosses about a fellow employee who listened to and sang along to rap lyrics aloud, which included slurs against African-Americans.

"That kind of language pains me. The N-word is not something I take lightly," Cooke told the San Francisco Chronicle.

When his co-worker's behavior did not stop and Cooke complained again, Cooke … Read more

Live from Hot Chips 19: Session 9, Big Iron

Okay, this is it for Hot Chips. Read the whole set of Hot Chips blogs here. Comments? You know what to do...

This final session opens with a presentation by Sun of "Victoria Falls," a multicore server processor due out in 2008. This chip is… Read more

AMD's Griffin core has few changes from older designs

The basic design of AMD's forthcoming Griffin processor isn't all that different from its predecessor, according to a company engineer.

Griffin has been billed as AMD's "next-generation" mobile processor, with significant changes designed to make AMD's chip design more suitable for power-sensitive notebook PCs. But those changes are mostly implemented in things like the memory controller; the cores themselves are almost identical, said AMD's Jonathan Owen, speaking at the Hot Chips conference.

AMD's first Turion mobile chips was essentially a power-optimized version of its Opteron server processor. AMD and Intel took different … Read more