Intel

Intel is planning price cuts to its lower-end mainstream quad-core processors on January 18. Barron's Tech Trader Daily first reported the news, citing Pacific Crest analyst Michael McConnell.

These cuts are happening because of the recent introduction of Advanced Micro Devices' 45-nanometer Phenom II and "Shanghai" Opteron processors. AMD's quad-core Phenom II "Dragon" processor platform has been garnering solid reviews and its Shanghai server chip has been adopted by top-tier server suppliers including Hewlett-Packard, Sun, Dell, IBM, and Fujitsu.

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.

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.

In an effort to personalize the TV, Intel on Monday said it will show off prototype devices that bring the Internet to the TV viewing experience.

The company plans to show off consumer electronics prototypes that run "widgets," or mini-applications that could complement TV viewing with information from the Internet, the company said. These widgets will also allow TV watchers to talk to friends in real time or buy products advertised on TV from online stores.

Intel's processor roadmap calls for a relentless shrink of the manufacturing process every two years. It went to 45nm late last year and Intel has just announced that it's on track to move to 32nm towards the end of 2009.

This pattern, or cadence, is referred to by Intel as "tick-tock", with the shrink being the tick phase and a new micro architecture, such as Nehalem/Core i7, being the tock phase, which occurs ever even year. Intel says that when it produces 32nm chips next year, this would mark the fourth year in a row that this cadence has been adhered to.

Intel issued a fourth-quarter warning on Wednesday, noting its financial performance will be less than previously forecast and comes a day after downgrades by analysts. The chip giant is scaling back its forecast as its revenues come in "significantly weaker" than expected across all its market segments and the countries that it operates in. Gross margins, as a result, also received a revised outlook.

Several online stores have begun offering their clients the much-talked-about Intel Core i7 microprocessors ahead of Intel’s official deadline on the 17th of November. The situation could be easily foreseen since Intel Corp. began shipping its code-named Bloomfield processors for revenue a long time ago.

A former Intel Corp. engineer has been charged with stealing trade secrets worth $1 billion from the chip maker while he worked for its main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Intel issued a "correction" Thursday regarding comments one of its executives made earlier this week slamming the iPhone as incapable of working correctly with the Internet.

Intel has said it is prepared for an economic downturn and will not halt development of new processors.

The uncertain economic climate would not harm spending on new technology, such as the forthcoming 32 nanometre line of chips, said Paul Otellini, Intel’s chief executive in a press conference around the company’s 3rd quarter earnings.

The bulk of the costs of shifting to the new 32 nanometre manufacturing process would come in the first half of next year but there were no plans to cut funding. “This is not a dot com style downturn,” said Otellini.

MICROSOFT’S CEO, Steve Ballmer yesterday bellowed out some rather uncomplimentary comments about Intel at Technologies to Change Your Business, in London.

Interviewed on stage by a hack called Martin Veitch [Who he? Ed.], Ballmer laid into Intel big time. “Intel is running to the limit of physics in chip design”, said the EmBallmer, “They can still double the number of transistors on a chip every 18 months but they can’t use the traditional transistors to make the chips run faster.”