Intel puts big bet on small chips

Intel stock has sunk to about $13 in the stock market rout, its lowest levels since Bill Clinton's first term. So is it a bargain now?

Sure - if the chipmaker can figure out how to dominate cell phones the way it has PCs.

That won't be easy. Though Intel supplies about 80 percent of the world's computer chips, it so far has failed to repeat that success outside the PC business.

It shut down its consumer electronics business in the last downturn, and today doesn't offer the low-power chips at the heart of hit devices like Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhone, Nintendo's DS, and Research in Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry.

To turn that around, Intel is banking on its tiny Atom processor, which it hopes will soon be ready to power next-generation phones.

"Atom is the heartbeat of Intel; it is the growth strategy," said Pankaj Kedia, Intel's director of business development for mobile Internet devices.

Will it work? Investors should pray it does. Just look at Intel's financial warning from a couple of weeks ago: Sales this quarter will fall far short of Wall Street's expectations, to about $9 billion - from a growth perspective, it might be the company's worst holiday season on record.

Yes, Intel's core business selling PC and server chips remains wildly profitable thanks to its manufacturing prowess, patent portfolio and mammoth scale; the company generated $3 billion in cash last quarter alone, carries little debt, and has a $12 billion war chest.

But the issue is growth. While Intel may be one of tech's big fish, the PC pond these days is stagnant or shrinking. Research firm IDC projects that consumers and businesses will spend less on computers in 2009 than they did this year, the first sequential decline since 2001.

Some of the blame for Intel's plight lies with a global recession that has finally smacked the technology industry, but that's not the whole story. Intel is also scrambling to adapt to a tectonic shift in the digital world, where attention is moving away from powerful Intel-based PCs and toward more energy-efficient and mobile gadgets. The faster Intel proves it can navigate the changed landscape, the sooner its fortunes - and stock price - are likely to improve.

Focus on Atom

So during a recent visit to the company's Silicon Valley headquarters, the discussion centered on Atom, the tiny chip that arrived this spring that's the centerpiece of Intel's mobile growth strategy.

Atom isn't ready for phones yet - so far it's mostly turning up in low-cost laptops like the Dell (DELL, Fortune 500) Mini 9 and the HP Mini 1000. But unlike Intel's bread-and-butter computer chips, Atom is designed from the ground up for small, low-cost, energy-efficient devices (think phones), not performance-focused PCs.

It's a Corolla in a company that has specialized in Corvettes - and Intel is convinced that upcoming versions will be efficient enough to begin appearing in phones.

"By 2010, Atom will be competitive in every aspect of mobile computing," promised Pat Gelsinger, an Intel senior vice president and engineering veteran.

Why does Intel need phone chips? Because, as Willie Sutton put it when asked why he robbed banks, "that's where the money is."

From Manhattan to Mumbai, people around the world open their wallets to buy more than 1 billion cell phones every year, and today practically none of the spoils end up in Intel's pockets. Instead, handset makers like Nokia (NOK), Motorola (MOT, Fortune 500) and Samsung buy chips from companies like Qualcomm (QCOMM) and Texas Instruments (TI).

Common sense dictates that if Intel can cut itself into just a fraction of the cell phone market, voila - it will have the growth it craves.

"Where Atom's going, Intel has potential to gain market share where they have not been in the past," said Jim McGregor, director of semiconductors at the In-Stat research firm. "In cases where customers demand performance, it has potential."

Of course, cracking new chip markets isn't easy, and the cell phone business may prove an especially tough nut for Intel.

The king of the hill in cell phone chips, ARM Holdings (ARMH), plays a tough game. Rather than make its own chips as Intel does, ARM licenses its blueprints to companies like Qualcomm, TI and Samsung, and lets them customize and build the chips built on their own. The result: ARM gets a modest and comfortably profitable licensing business (operating profits so far in 2008 are about $126 million on sales of $397 million), and its customers get the security of knowing their phones aren't built on a cookie-cutter, industry-standard chip.

Some of the most powerful names in the tech industry seem to like that setup; IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) recently signed on to manufacture ARM-based processors, and Apple has engineers working on ARM-based chip designs for future versions of the iPod and iPhone.

To win despite those odds, Intel will have to woo high-profile ARM customers over to Atom - and that may be harder than it sounds. Case in point: the chip giant ended up with egg on its face in October, after Intel executives slammed the Internet performance of Apple's iPhone, suggesting it would work better with an Atom chip. The next day a more senior executive apologized effusively. Intel didn't comment on whether Apple CEO Steve Jobs personally called to demand the backpedaling, but it's safe to assume he didn't send flowers.

Still, analysts agree that there's no company better positioned to take on ARM than Intel. "Everybody's heard of Intel inside," said Will Strauss, president of the Forward Concepts research firm. "Nobody's ever heard of ARM inside."

Consider that alongside the fact that Intel was already running a tight ship before tough times hit, and it's easy to feel good about Intel's chances of figuring out phones, and rescuing its stock.

But this much is also true: It'll feel a lot better to see an Atom chip shipping in an iPhone or a BlackBerry. And for now, it's anyone's guess when that will happen.

Kontron and LynuxWorks Release Intel COTS Safety Critical Platform

Kontron and LynuxWorks today released an Intel based COTS platform for safety critical, deterministic real-time embedded applications, using the Kontron PENTXM2 single board computer running the LynxOS-178B RTOS.
"By porting the world's only RTOS certified as a Reusable Software Component (RSC) by the Federal Aviation Administration onto a server class single board computer, LynuxWorks and Kontron have created the perfect solution for the new wave of dedicated safety critical applications built in the Intel environment," commented Richard Pugnier, marketing communications director at Kontron. "A growing number of such systems are seeking to exploit the immense base of development expertise and code available in the x86 domain. This solution allows avionics, vehicle electronics and other safety critical applications to adopt this path whilst reducing development time, cost and risk."
"Leveraging the development effort targeting a large European global positioning system program, our LynxOS-178 is now ready for deployments in harsh environmental conditions on the Kontron PENTXM2 rugged conduction cooled SBC. With that, our customers benefit from an instant boost in their schedule and not only can go to market aggressively with an outstanding head start, but can also create a complete range of new opportunities," added Joe Wlad, director of certification, marketing and services at LynuxWorks.
The Kontron PENTXM2 uses the 1.67 GHz dual-core Xeon, Intel's advanced low-power x86 technology, combined with the Intel E7520 server class memory controller hub (MCH). The PENTXM2 is available with up to 4GB of DDR2-400 SDRAM. When paired with the support of VITA 31.1 backplane networking, the PENTXM2's VITA 38 intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) feature provides for easy scaling into a multiprocessing system. The PENTXM2 provides a dual SATA-150, a triple USB 2.0 port and an EIDE interface for an on-board disk or compact-flash support. LynuxWorks LynxOS-178B is the only hard real-time RTCA/DO-178B level A operating system to offer the interoperability benefits of POSIX(R) with support for the ARINC 653 APplication EXecutive (APEX) on a x86 platform. It has LynxOS, a mature UNIX(R)-style operating system (born in 1988) that was designed from the ground up for hard real-time determinism at its core.

Intel All Set To Develop Self-Powered Sensors

With the aim to invent something extraordinary and unique, Intel is creating self-powered microchips. The unique thing about these microchips would be that it could be implanted in the human body, a mobile phone, a building, or anyplace else where people wish to gather information.

During a meeting on Friday with reporters in San Francisco, Intel CTO Justin Rattner described it as "wireless identification and sensing platform," or WISP and it was among several other technologies described by Rattner during the meeting.

Rattner described, "All of the inventions are designed to be energy-efficient. The WISP sensors would use Intel technology for drawing power from the environment. These are install-and-forget kind of systems."

He added, "The power would come from wireless transmissions, such as a Wi-Fi hotspot, a cellular tower, or a TV broadcast, making it possible for the sensors to continuously gather information in almost any environment."

Sensors implanted in street sweepers were used to monitor air quality throughout the city, in an experiment conducted by Intel in San Francisco.

"We could, in fact, litter the planet with these things. Rather than depend on satellite information, we could literally get instantaneous, near-global indication of the state of the planet," Rattner reported.

Moreover, these self-powered sensors could one day even land into human body and thus help a lot to observe health-related activities, such as heart beating. Researchers could even be capable of detecting viruses in the environment one day in order to determine the potential health risks, if they could shrink detectors to the molecular level.

Rattner said, "Within the data center, sensors could be used to map the heat levels of the different systems in order to create a thermally aware load management system."

Roadmap points to future Intel netbook chips

Details have emerged of a future 32nm Intel chip for netbook-style devices that will merge the processor and chipset into a system-on-a-chip (SoC) component.

Codenamed Medfield, the processor is expected sometime in 2010, and will be preceded by Pineview, another future netbook processor due in 2009.

The information originated from a roadmap in a report published by UBS Securities in the US, and has been seized on by various technology newswires. An Intel spokesperson told vnunet.com that Medfield is an Intel codename, but declined to give any further details.

According to the reports, Medfield will integrate virtually all of the functions of a PC onto a single chip, including the memory controller, I/O and graphics accelerator. It will also be available in dual-core and single-core versions.

Pineview is also expected to ship as a high integration SoC, but will be built from a 45nm process, the same as Intel's current Atom processor that powers the majority of the netbook models now on the market.

Intel claims opto-electronic breakthrough

A breakthrough in opto-electronics detectors by Intel promises to address the shortage of network bandwidth which some believe could lead to the collapse of the internet. The system could also improve inter-chip and on-chip communications.

A paper published in Nature Photonics details the performance of an Avalanche Photo Detector (APD) based on silicon rather than the normally used indium phosphide.

Intel's research team created a sensor for light detection and amplification using silicon and Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor processing to give a "gain-bandwidth product" of 340GHz, which they claim is the "best result ever measured for this key APD performance metric".

'Gain' is an electronic system's ability to increase the signal power of the device, and Intel claims that its research could "lower the cost of optical links running at data rates of 40Gbit/s or higher" and "proves for the first time that a silicon photonics device can exceed the performance of a device made with traditional, more expensive optical materials such as indium phosphide".

"The gain [multiplied by] the bandwidth is a fixed number," said Dr Mario Paniccia, of Intel's Photonics Technology Lab, explaining the significance of a 'gain-bandwidth product'.

"Commercial APDs made with indium phosphide have a typical gain bandwidth of 120GHz. For use in 10Gbit/s long-haul communications links, typical APDs would cost $200 to $300 [£134 to £202].

"Because of the high gain bandwidth we're achieving here in a low-cost device, we can produce a device that gives better performance at 10Gbit/s, and can also operate better at 20Gbit/s and 40Gbit/s and higher."

Dr Paniccia added that, depending on the application, Intel could adapt the device to focus on speed, distance or power savings.

"We can reduce the laser power, but still get the same gain as current APDs, " he said. "The potential applications of the new APD range from communications interconnects to quantum cryptography, biochips and eventually chip-to-chip and on-chip interconnects."

Questioned about commercialisation of the product, Paniccia admitted that Intel still has to optimise the device for performance and increase its sensitivity. "We are working to drive this aggressively into our platforms and also looking at the reliability of these systems," he said.

Dr Paniccia explained that optics would evolve in the next five to seven years, but that it will be difficult to replace copper at distances of under six inches for chip-to-chip interconnects.

"Predicting something five years ahead - an eternity in this industry - would be difficult," he said. "On-chip interconnects are still quite a way out. Ten plus years."

Intel trumpets world's fastest silicon photonic detector

Intel researchers are claiming "world record" performance with their latest push in silicon photonics — or chips with friggin' laser beams.

The vendor published results from a new silicon-based photodetector, which uses light pulses to make stupidly fast connections rather than more conventional (and slower) electrical interconnects.

A team lead by Intel researchers created a silicon-based Avalanche Photodetector (APD), a fancy bit of atom-wrangling in a light sensor that can amplify weak signals directed on to silicon. The research was (naturally) published in the trade journal Nature Photonics

Intel said it uses standard silicon and CMOS processing to achieve a "gain-bandwidth product" of 340 GHz. That figure is the best result ever measured for a APD performance metric, the company claims.

"This opens the door to lower the cost of optical links running at data rates of 40Gbps or higher and proves, for the first time, that a silicon photonics device can exceed performance of a device made with traditional, more expensive optical materials such as indium phosphide," said Intel.

Chipzilla expects affordable photonic kit to play a major role in its schemes to cram 10's, even 100's of cores into future processors. All the compute capability Intel is dreaming up will require speedy links, and using standard fabbing technology may help bring volume economics to optical communication.

Other companies like Sun Microsystems and IBM are also hard at work to chip the light fantastic with less exotic materials, although the work is still in the early stages.

The research was jointly funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), with manufacturing and process aide from the memory firm, Numonyx.

Intel has provided a handy Flash animation to explain how the APD detects and amplifies optical signals.

There's also publicity shot of a ladybird/ladybug crawling across the experimental chip. Someone apparently made this insect a unit of measurement without telling us.

Intel, AMD to Cut Down the Number of Employees

As the global financial downturn continues, major companies in the IT industry are expected to register revenues lower than estimated, thus determining some major cost reduction plans, which could also include major layoffs. After recently lowering its fourth quarter estimations, Sunnyvale, California-based chip maker AMD is expected to set forth a number of cost reduction measures, including the layoff of some of its personnel. In addition, Intel is also expected to lower its Q4 predictions and to come up with several cost-reduction measures as well, in an attempt to diminish the effects of the financial slump.

Despite the fact that, this year, Intel launched its highly successful Atom processor, which helped it maintain a steady growth rate during the last quarter, the company is still expected to cut approximately 6 to 7 percent of its total headcount, in an attempt to salvage Q4 2008 earnings, thus saving as much as $1 billion annually. According to a recent article on EE Times, the Santa Clara, California-based chip maker could soon announce a lower revenue outlook, as opposed to the company's November 12 revision.

Additional measures that the Santa Clara chip maker is expected to take include lower bonus payments, a fact that could be influenced by the profitability numbers. These measures are believed to be put in place by sometime in late 2009, which is when the global economy is expected to slightly improve.

Current market expectations also include the number two player in the processor market, AMD, which has recently lowered its previsions regarding the revenue for the fourth quarter of this year. This is the reason why Intel's long-time archrival is also said to be considering reducing the number of its employees, as part of a series of cost reduction measures.

“We do think that Intel's product roadmap is much stronger than AMD's, possibly allowing it to outperform its competitor,” Craig Berger, an analyst for FBR Capital Markets, said, as cited by EE Times.

Intel: New silicon to redefine Netbooks

Move aside, Intel. New chips from Advanced Micro Devices, Freescale Semiconductor, and Qualcomm may redefine the Netbook and ultraportable market next year.

To date, Intel has pretty much defined Netbook performance and features with the popular Atom processor. "We're very comfortable with our product leadership but we don't take anything for granted. And we expect competition in this space. Stay tuned," said Bill Calder, an Intel representative.

Stay tuned indeed. As the Netbook market grows, other chip heavyweights want a piece of the pie. Netbooks--which typically weigh less than 3 pounds and have screens under 11 inches diagonally--got a lift this week when they became one of the top sellers at resellers on "Cyber Monday."

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, AMD is expected to introduce its ultraportable platform. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker is targeting "Yukon" technology at consumers that want "smaller, sleeker, and lighter notebook form factors that offer great performance," the company said.

AMD is hoping to one-up Intel by focusing on ultraportables that would have larger screens (ranging up to 13 and 14 inches), bigger keyboards, better graphics horsepower, and ultimately dual-core processors. (Though Netbook vendors are expected to come out with dual-core Atom designs, Intel says its current dual-core offering is targeted at Nettops, not Netbooks.)

Yukon, which AMD first discussed at a November analyst meeting, comprises the Huron single-core processor, RS690E graphics, and the SB600 chipset. A dual-core Conesus chip (as part of the "Congo" platform) with RS780M graphics silicon would come later.

In addition to standard 802.11n Wi-Fi, the Yukon platform also includes 3G broadband wireless, according to AMD slides.

And 3G may be the next big leap for Netbooks. A source at one large chipmaker said that a Japan-based telecommunications company may roll out a subscription-based "$1" Netbook with 3G. And this may also be the next big feature included on Netbooks in Europe where the form factor has proven to be popular.

Enter telecommunications chip giant Qualcomm, which comes at these devices from the opposite direction of PC chipmakers Intel and AMD. Qualcomm has been making and designing highly integrated chips for cell phones since it was founded in 1985.

The San Diego, Calif.-based company has been showing off a Netbook-like design based on its Snapdragon chip. (See photo.) While Snapdragon supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it is designed from the ground up as a 3G platform. And Qualcomm does this all on silicon that can fit inside a smartphone. Like a cell phone, Snapdragon-based Netbooks would have always-on connectivity.

In November, Qualcomm introduced a 45-nanometer chip (Atom is 45nm too) with "two integrated computing cores" running at speeds up to 1.5GHz. The dual-CPU Snapdragon single-chip QSD8672 offers long battery life and a full range of 3G mobile broadband options.

Sampling of the newest Snapdragon chip is scheduled for the second half of 2009.

A Qualcomm spokeswoman said Thursday that the company is working with end-product Netbook manufacturers including Acer, Toshiba, and HTC, with products expected in the first half of 2009 using current Snapdragon technology.

The 3G wireless broadband technology uses integrated multi-mode modems including HSPA+ for up to 28 Mbps when downloading data and up to 11 Mbps when uploading. Other features include support for Linux and Windows Mobile, GPS, Bluetooth, 1080p high-definition video recording and playback and support for Wi-Fi and mobile TV technologies such as MediaFLO, DVB-H and ISDB-T.

The integrated 2D and 3D graphics support display resolutions up to WSXGA (1440 x 900).

Freescale--formerly Motorola's chipmaking arm--also plans to get in on the Netbook act. It plans to announce its entry into the Netbook market at CES with an addition to its i.MX application processor family.

Freescale says its processor will be the "only one in the space that offers a dual-core graphics engine targeting OpenVG and OpenGL, which enables 2D and 3D graphics as well as Flash and SVG." (SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics.)

Intel unveils Nehalem desktop processors

Intel Corp. has introduced what it claims to be its most advanced desktop processor.

The Core i7 is the first member of its Nehalem micro-architecture. It speeds up high performance applications like video editing and immersive 3D gaming by up to 40 percent without increasing power consumption, said Ricardo Banaag, country manager of Intel Technology Philippines Inc., in a briefing.

Featuring on-die power control and Intel’s 45 nanometer high-k metal gate manufacturing process, the Core i7’s so-called “Turbo Boost” technology adjusts the clock speeds of one or all of the four physical cores to boost performance while maintaining power consumption, said Banaag.

“The device brings to computer enthusiasts better processing performance without compromising power consumption,” said Banaag. “It gives them enough computing muscle previously available to high-end computers, thus allowing them to handle process-intensive applications like 3D gaming and video rendering.”

Today’s home PC users are big consumers of multi-threaded applications, such as digital video and media, gaming and communications, Banaag said.

Banaag said the new Intel processor will likely attract PC enthusiasts wanting richer user interface and experience.

When asked if the release of the Core i7 processor will stop the manufacture of Intel Core 2 Duo and Core 2 quad processors, Banaag said they will maintain all lines, noting that the strategy is in line with Intel’s aim to promote the “Core” brand.

The Core i7 processor and the X58 Express Chipset-based Intel desktop board DX58SO Extreme series are now available through PC manufacturers and boxed retail product via online sales.

The new processor line, which includes an “Extreme Edition” version, will carry an “i7” identifier, the first of several new Intel identifiers to come as products are launched next year.

Banaag said a desktop powered with Core i7 sells at a P65,000.

Intel launches 'fastest processor on earth'

Flying in the face of prevailing industry trends, Intel treated Australasian media, channel partners and assorted followers from the gaming world to what in the current climate counts as a lavish launch of its Core i7 processor in Sydney last week. According to Intel the Core i7, the second Intel processor series to use the company’s 45-nanometre process, runs 40% faster than the fastest chip in Intel’s existing Core 2 line.
Challenged over the timing of the launch of what Intel is billing as “the fastest processor on earth”, Phillip Ingham, Intel general manager Australia, admitted that 2009 would be an “interesting year”. However, he said Intel had traditionally taken a long term view and was more focussed on the struggle to meet Moore’s Law than economic cycles. The company was already planning for 2012, when it expected to be using a 32-nm process, and researching as far out as 2015, when 8-nm processes would be employed.
At the heart of the Core i7 are four cores which are capable of running up to eight threads, all of which are visible to the Task Manager in both Windows XP and Vista.
The processor’s piece de resistance is its on-chip “Turbo Boost” software which automatically adjusts the frequency of each core to optimise performance depending on the thermal environment and whether the application is using a single thread or all eight. At the launch event, Intel staged two convincing demonstrations of the capability of the Core i7 compared to the Core 2. In the first, a Core i7 powered PC achieved a frame rate of around 40 frames per second when converting a high definition video clip from one format to another.
This compared with about 25 frames per second achieved by an equivalent Core 2 system running the same task. In the second demo, both systems ran a graphics-intensive gaming type simulation involving fire and smoke.
While both systems ran the demo at near identical speed, the simulation running on the Core i7 was based on real time calculations according to Newtonian physics, whereas the simulation running on the Core 2 system was rendering from pre-calculated values.
Most of the early Core i7 systems to be commercially available will be aimed at high end gamers, but Ingham predicted that the increased performance of the chip would re-invigorate voice recognition applications and perhaps make face recognition technology more viable.
But will gamers stump up for a premium processor that could add $2,000 or more to the price of a desktop PC?
Chris Dagher, system product manager at Altech Computing, which this week is launching a Core i7-based desktop retailing for around A$8,000 ($9,460), said the initial response from a review in an Australian Sunday newspaper had been encouraging.
“There are plenty out there who don’t mind the price, these are people who want the best,” Dagher said.
Acer product specialist Aaron Jambrovic, whose company is launching Core i7 systems in the A$7,999 to A$8,999 price range, said that it was obvious that volumes were lower at the high end of the desktop PC market. However the Core i7 would appeal to a wide range of users, from graphics industry users and hard core gaming enthusiasts to students, though the latter wouldn’t necessarily be paying for a Core i7 PC themselves.

Intel loses interest in netbooks

When AMD said two weeks ago that it was not really that interested in netbooks, people in the know thought it was leaving the field to Intel.Apparently Intel is re-evaluating the Netbook market as possibly not the next big thing to hit the IT industry, even if it is making a lot of cash from the Atom processor.
Stu Pann, vice president in the sales and marketing group at Intel, said Intel thought Netbooks would be for emerging markets and younger kids, and there is some of that.
But the bulk of the Netbooks sold today are Western Europe, North America, and for people who just want to grab and go with a notebook.
In other words, the people buying them are going to want a better more powerful bit of hardware somewhere else.
Intel has worked out that if you own a netbook it is not something you are going to want to use every day. In fact it is probably unbearable to use longer than an hour.
For once it looks like Intel is following AMD which said it was not interested in netbooks because too many people were unhappy with the experience then were having with the gadgets.

Bush regrets Iraq intel, immigration flap

George Bush said Iraq was both his biggest disappointment and his greatest accomplishment during his eight-year tenure as U.S. president.
"(The) biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq," Bush said in an interview with ABC News that aired Monday. "A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. And, you know, that's not a do-over but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess."
Yet Iraq also provided him with his greatest accomplishment, Bush said.
"I keep recognizing we're in a war against ideological thugs and keeping America safe," he said.
The failure to enact immigration reform was another disappointment, Bush said.
"I firmly believe that the immigration debate really didn't show the true nature of America as a welcoming society. I fully understand we need to enforce law and enforce borders," Bush told ABC News. "But the debate took on a tone that undermined the true greatness of America, which is that we welcome people who want to work hard and support their families."

Intel donates $6 million to United Way of the Columbia-Willamette

Intel Oregon employees and retirees in 2008 donated $2.9 million to the United Way of the Columbia-Willamette.The Intel Foundation will match the employee and retiree contributions, bringing the total Intel Community Giving Campaign to almost $6 million, a 12 percent increase from last year and a new record for Intel.Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) largest presence is in Washington County, where it employs about 15,000 workers in Hillsboro, Aloha and Beaverton.

Intel Core i7's microcode sparks discussion

Computer experts enjoy talking about processor bugs. Newly-introduced products are a welcome opportunity to air stories about the flaws that AMD and Intel euphemistically call "errata". Unlike other microprocessor manufacturers, AMD and Intel publish the details of discovered flaws; AMD writes about them in what is called a Revision Guide, while Intel uses its Specification Updates. Both the Revision Guide for AMD Family 10h Processors and the Specification Update for the Core i7 describe dozens of bugs. The CPU vendors rate some of the bugs as critical enough to fix them with a revised mask set for the next production batch, which results in a new CPU stepping. Other bugs are fixed via microcode updates. These special updates are written to the processor by the mainboard's BIOS during initialisation, or loaded into the processor's respective memory areas via special drivers by operating systems like Windows and Linux. Some bugs are considered extremely rare or only occur in very particular conditions, and are not worth correcting. Yet another type of bug is disclosed particularly to software developers so that they can allow for these bugs and 'program around them' when developing operating systems or applications.
Some CPU bugs are rated as critical by security experts; they could, for example, potentially be exploited to execute malicious code. In mid-2007, OpenBSD and OpenSSH founder Theo de Raadt kicked off a discussion about some particular bugs in Intel Core 2 processors. He criticised Intel for specifying ways in which operating systems are to handle TLB invalidation. This issue involves discarding certain buffers called Translation Lookaside Buffers (TLB) and is pointed out in the Specification Updates for all of Intel's Core 2 processors as well as an application note published by Intel. The vendor also recommends that programmers strictly adhere to the specified TLB invalidation process with Core i7 processors; Volume 3A of the Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual explains the details of how to handle the cache structures of current Intel processors.
The potential danger of CPU bugs is difficult to assess. More of these bugs appear as the range of processors' features increases. Some of them are, for example, related to the virtualisation features that – together with protected operating modes and with main memory areas protected by memory controllers (AMD: Secure Virtual Machine, SVM; Intel: Trusted Execution Technology, TXT) – are actually designed to provide increased security. However, this is the very area targeted by the Blue Pill attack already demonstrated two years ago; a rootkit has now become freely available. Another potential attack via the System Management Mode included in all current x86 processors has also been described, and Kris Kaspersky of Endeavor Security, who was also present a the most recent Intel developer forum, discussed the potential risks of numerous further CPU bugs at the "Hack in the Box" security conference. However, his presentation – which he has now published – did not include the promised proof of concept. He did say that the chip makers are making an effort to reduce bugs and the number of CPU bugs are falling with each new processor release.

Hitachi, Intel To Jointly Develop Enterprise SSDs

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and Intel (NSDQ:INTC) said Tuesday they have agreed to jointly develop enterprise-class, solid-state hard drives. The two are collaborating to develop drives featuring SAS and Fibre Channel interfaces aimed at the enterprise data center market, said Brendan Collins, vice president of marketing at Hitachi GST.
The drives, which are expected to be available for OEM qualifications during the first quarter of 2010, will be branded with the Hitachi name, and will be sold and supported by Hitachi, Collins said.
Hitachi brings to the joint development its system-level expertise and support of large OEMs, while Intel brings its flash memory expertise, Collins said. "When you bring the two of us together, it's a compelling solution that neither of us could do on [our] own," he said.
There has been a flurry of activity in the past year as storage vendors started looking seriously at the potential of solid-state drives in the enterprise market.
Intel in October introduced a line of solid-state drives based on the SATA interface for the server, workstation and storage system market. Those 32-GB drives followed the introduction earlier this year of solid-state drives for the PC and notebook market.
Other vendors, including Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba and SanDisk (NSDQ:SNDK), are also offering solid-state hard drives.
On the OEM side, Sun Microsystems last month said it would begin to offer solid-state drives in its new Storage 7000 Unified Storage Systems, part of Sun's Open Storage platform, under which it aims to help customers build high-performance storage products using commodity components.
Sun follows EMC (NYSE:EMC) which early this year introduced solid-state drives as part of its Symmetrix array line.
The primary difference between the Hitachi GST-Intel design and those of other offerings, including Intel's current products, is the interface, Collins said.
"For the enterprise, the large OEMs aren't considering the other products because they don't offer SAS or Fibre Channel married to flash," he said.
Intel, in the meantime, will continue to offer its line of SATA-based solid-state drives, Collins said.
"But 90 percent of the enterprise market is SAS and Fibre Channel," he said. "Intel will sell some SATA-based drives into the enterprise market, such as one or two drives for a blade server. But the vast majority of the market is for SAS and Fibre Channel."
Hitachi GST's first generation of solid-state drives will feature single-level cell technology, in which one bit of data occupies one cell of the flash memory, Collins said. The second or third generation may feature multilevel cell technology, in which four bits of data occupy one cell of the flash memory, he said.
Single-level cell technology is more suitable for performance and data reliability, while multilevel cell technology is more suitable for capacity.

Intel joins $3.2B Clearwire investment

Intel Corp. is one of five investors that have put $3.2 billion into wireless broadband company Clearwire Corp.
Kirkland, Wash.-based Clearwire announced Monday that it has received the cash. The investment was announced in May.
Intel is the only company of the investors that now holds a seat on Clearwire’s board. The other investors are Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Bright House Networks LLC.
Trilogy Equity Partners, which is also investing in Clearwire, will also have a director on the board: John Stanton the Bellevue, Wash., investment firm’s chief executive officer and chairman. Craig McCaw, who founded Clearwire, is the company’s chairman.
Clearwire, which sells Internet-access and phone service on its WiMax mobile broadband network, has just combined its network with the wireless Internet business of Sprint Nextel Corp. Clearwire will operate as an independent company, and its stock will trade as CLWR on the Nasdaq exchange. It is now trading as CLWRD and will continue to do so for its first 20 days of trading.
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), headquartered in Santa Clara and employing 5,500 in Folsom, has been experimenting with WiMax for years from its Hillsboro, Wash., campus. The company plans to sell WiMax-capable chipsets to laptop manufacturers. Intel rolled out Wi-Fi capable chipsets in a $300 million advertising campaign five years ago, and quickly established itself as the dominant brand in Wi-Fi processing.
Sprint and the cable companies that invested in Clearwire will sell the WiMax broadband service to their own customers. Google will create services to run on the network and will likely redesign its own mobile operating system to work on WiMax technology.

Intel Gets Ambitious With Flash Memory

Flash memory, so far identified with consumer products, is set to become commonplace in large enterprises.
Intel and Hitachi said they will jointly develop and deliver flash-based solid state drives for servers, workstation and storage systems. The first products are expected to be available in early 2010.
"Intel is already in mass production of 32-nanometer lithography," says Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing for Hitachi. "If you already have that it gives you a big advantage in being able to deliver a lot of flash technology at low cost."
The new solid state drives are intended to complement hard disk drives in business environments and in storage applications where high performance and power efficiency are the main requirements, say the two companies.
The drives will be branded, sold and supported by Hitachi and will use Intel's NAND flash memory technology and manufacturing. Intel and Hitachi jointly developed the controller for the flash memory and future development on the product will be shared by the two companies.
Solid state drives (SSDs), once popular in just consumer products such as ultra light notebooks are slowly spreading into business applications. SSDs are less fragile than hard disk drives and offer high response times but they tend to be also much more expensive than the latter.
"Though it has always been fast enough, this is the first time that SLC (single level cell) flash is actually mature enough in terms of data integrity and endurance for large enterprise customers," says Collins.
Other hardware companies such as Sun Microsystems are also evangelizing SSDs for enterprise users.
Intel and Hitachi are yet to determine pricing on their upcoming flash drives but say it is likely to still cost about eight times that of hard disk drives.

Lenovo arms ThinkPads with Intel's built-in security

Lenovo Group Ltd. is slated this month to launch ThinkPad laptops armed with Intel Corp's new anti-theft technology coupled with Absolute Software Corp.'s Computrace technology.
The companies jointly announced this morning that Lenovo's ThinkPad T400 notebook computers will be some of the first to ship with Intel's Anti-Theft PC Protection and Absolute's product built in. The two technologies will enable the laptops to automatically detect and respond to a potential theft situation in accordance with the user company's IT policy, Intel said.
Intel noted that if a laptop is reported stolen, an IT technician can remotely render the machine inoperable. And when the laptop is turned on, the anti-theft technology will "check in" with its home base, where engineers can remotely delete data and lock the system. In a statement, Intel noted that its technology works with Absolute's to enable IT techs to remotely handle security and management jobs on a laptop computer -- even if it's turned off or has an inoperable hard drive.
"The notebook lost in the airport or stolen from a car can be devastating and is a common nightmare in the back of every business traveler's mind," said George Thangadurai, general manager of Intel's Anti-Theft Program, in a statement. "The collaboration with Absolute and Lenovo is aimed at helping solve that problem."
Lenovo has been strongly pushing its ThinkPad line this year. Last February, the company unveiled its ThinkPad X300 laptop, an ultrathin machine that was designed to compete with Apple Inc.'s MacBook Air laptop. Then in August, Lenovo threw its hat into the increasingly hot netbook ring with the launch of its $399 Windows XP-based IdeaPad S10 netbook PC, which runs Intel's Atom processor. Also in August, the PC maker unveiled the ThinkPad W700, a 17-in. widescreen mobile workstation designed for high-end gamers and power users.
Now this week, Lenovo is throwing the wrapper off of the anti-theft technology for its laptops. Any ThinkPad T400s with Intel's Centrino 2 Processor Technology will ship with the anti-theft technology already built in. It can be activated and by the user company's IT department, which also can program it to adhere to specific corporate IT policies. And if the embedded Computrace theft-recovery and data-deletion technology is activated, it can be managed through Intel's Anti-Theft PC Protection.

AMD accuses Intel of trying to stall EC antitrust case

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices has accused Intel of deliberately stalling a European Union antitrust investigation through Intel's appeal to Europe's second highest court in October, a senior AMD executive said Wednesday.
Intel complained to the Court of First Instance (CFI) in Luxembourg that the European Commission, Europe's top antitrust authority, was "discriminatory" and "partial" in its pursuit of the long-running case against the world's biggest chip manufacturer.
It demanded access to AMD documents cited in the Commission's formal charges and an extension to the mid-October deadline for written responses to those charges. Intel allowed the deadline to pass without responding to it.
Jens Drews, AMD's director of government relations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, dismissed Intel's move as posturing, designed to drag the case out. "This seems to be another attempt by Intel to delay the Commission's proceedings; proceedings which have yielded evidence and formal charges that Intel illegally abused its monopoly power," Drews said. Similar arguments were made by an official close to the Commission's antitrust case. He said that the case handlers would continue building their case, despite the failure of Intel to submit a written response, and in spite of its appeal to the CFI.
The Commission refused to grant Intel the extension it requested, having already granted the company an extension in an earlier part of the case, the official said, pointing out that the Commission had fulfilled its legal obligations by granting Intel the right of response.
He added that if the antitrust case handlers put the whole case on ice, pending the CFI's ruling "that would amount to an open invitation to companies to apply similar delaying tactics in future."
Intel denied it is trying to stall proceedings, explaining that its appeal to the CFI is grounded in "fundamental fairness issues," said its London-based spokesman Robert Manetta.
Intel has been accused of abusing its dominant position in the computer chip market, and more specifically, of attempting to shut its nearest rival AMD out of the CPU market.
Intel allegedly sold chips below cost and paid rebates to a computer maker and a chain of retail stores, which have not been named officially, in exchange for a commitment to only sell the company's processors and not rival products. The chip maker also allegedly paid the computer maker to delay the launch of products based on AMD chips.
Intel claims it is innocent and has said it expects to be cleared of the charges.

Intel is tops, Nvidia is bottom of the Chip top 20

INTEL IS AT THE TOP and Nvidia is at the bottom of the 2008 Top 20 chip rankings, according to industry analyst outfit Isuppli.
Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, and ST Microelectronics occupy the top five positions. AMD is at number 11 and Nvidia is number 20 in the ranking.
Economic factors played havoc with this year's Top 20 with memory chip manufacturers being some of the hardest hit. South Korea-based Hynix slid from Number six to Number nine. Hynix is looking for people who want to invest in the foundering foundry company.
Micron is expected to post a 9.2 percent revenue decrease in 2008 and Hynix's revenue should dive by about 29 percent in 2008, Isuppli said.
The world's Number two chipmaker, Samsung Electronics, is set for a 9.1 percent revenue decline for the year.
Isuppli also said that 2008 will go down as "a year to forget" for memory chip suppliers.
Infineon, which is ranked at Number 10, expects 2009 revenue to fall at least 15 percent from the previous year.
Global semiconductor revenue is expected to decline by two percent in 2008 due to a 16.9 percent plunge in sales of memory integrated circuits.
Texas Instruments, Renesas Technology, and Sony are also expected to see their chip making profits slump.
Still, it is a lot better than 2001 when chip sales fell by 48.2 percent. It was also good news for Qualcomm which is expected to jump five places to Number eight in the rankings in 2008.