Intel

Intel Corp. said Thursday it will lay off 1,000 managers, or about 1 percent of its work force, in an effort to streamline its business amid heated competition with rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Any doubts about Intel's commitment to its fledgling WiMax business were just dashed. Despite rumors the computer chipmaker has considered dumping the business as part of a broad reorganization now under way, Intel (INTC) on July 5 announced it would invest $600 million in Clearwire, the wireless broadband provider founded by cellular pioneer Craig McCaw. The goal: to help build a nationwide service that equips notebook PCs for fast Web access and Internet-based calling over vast swaths of the U.S.

Intel's venture capital arm yesterday made its biggest ever investment in a single company - putting $600m into Clearwire, the wireless provider founded by cellphone pioneer Craig McCaw.

The investment is a strategic one for the world's biggest chipmaker. Mr McCaw is offering high-speed wireless broadband services and Intel has been the main driver of a new wireless standard called Wimax, which is being incorporated in its chips.

Intel (INTC), facing rough competition and slowing demand for personal computers, is selling its division that makes processors for handheld devices in a $600 million deal announced Tuesday with Marvell Technology Group (MRVL).

Marvell will be acquiring the business that makes processors based on Intel's XScale technology, which produces the chips used in the popular BlackBerry and Treo handheld devices. The unit employs 1,400 people, and Marvell said it expects to retain the "vast majority" of them.

During the Computex trade show in Taiwan on Tuesday (June 6), Intel Corp. provided a sneak preview of a new line of microprocessors and chip sets, based on its next-generation Core Duo architecture.

On the microprocessor side, Intel (Santa Clara, Calif.) said that it will introduce the Core 2 Extreme processor at speeds of 2.93-GHz in July, and a faster 3.2-GHz version later in the year.

THE vainglorious People's Republic of China is taking chipmaker Intel to the International Standards Organization (ISO) for imposing a near-monopoly on encryption standards for wireless local area network gear.

Intel has decided to borrow the sequential naming scheme it used for its famous Pentium brand and apply it to the new Core line of chips.

Earlier this year, Intel released the Core Duo processor, and in a few months it will unveil Core 2 Duo processors. The Core 2 Duo name will be used for desktop chips based on the Conroe chip, as well as for notebook chips based on the Merom chip. Merom processors consume less power than Conroe chips, but they're otherwise very similar.

Telecommuting has become a way of life as more companies allow employees to work from home doing jobs that might otherwise be done on corporate premises. As a result, IT managers are adapting security policies to encompass home PCs.

Last year an estimated 8.9 million telecommuters worked from home in the US for three or more days each month, during regular business hours, according to market research company IDC.

Intel wants to lay a virtual trap for hackers. The chip maker, which launched its vPro brand for business desktops April 24, aims to increase PC security by stepping up the vPro machines' abilities to proactively guard against malware.

The company will employ virtualization technology—which can partition a PC to run different types of software simultaneously—to set up a new type of security checkpoint inside each machine.

In an attempt to check a slide in its market share, Intel said Monday it would deliver a new package of chip technologies later this year to better differentiate its products from those of rival Advanced Micro Devices.