Intel says to respond to regulators on STMicro deal
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Intel Corp , the largest  maker of computer processors, said on Wednesday it would  respond quickly to provide additional information sought by  U.S. regulators over its plans to merge its chip unit with  STMicroelectronics .
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Intel will offer a detailed look at a new processor next week during a presentation at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) that should set the stage for an unexpectedly&#160;close battle with Taiwan&#39;s Via Technologies.Intel&#39;s presentation will cover technical details of an unnamed low-power processor that is made using a 45-nanometer process and designed for mobile Internet devices, according to an abstract contained in the ISSCC program. That&#39;s the same general description used by Intel to describe its&#160;upcoming Silverthorne processor.Intel executives declined to confirm whether the ISSCC presentation covers Silverthorne but said the abstract provided an accurate description of the unspecified processor. If the chip described is indeed Silverthorne, the presentation appears set to confirm many rumored details of the chip&#39;s architecture and characteristics.Most importantly, Silverthorne is rumored to be an in-order processor, the same as the processor Intel will detail next week, according to the abstract.In layman&#39;s terms, this means the chip functions like a factory with a single assembly line and is capable of processing one operation at a time. An in-order processor must complete that operation before it can move on to another operation. This is a different chip architecture from that used in Intel&#39;s other processors but it&#39;s the same as Via Technologies&#39; low-power C7 chip, which has proved popular among the portable device makers that are Silverthorne&#39;s target market.The processor that Intel will discuss next week is also a dual-issue processor, just as Silverthorne is rumored to be. This feature -- which Intel is likely to emphasize at ISSCC -- allows two instructions to be issued at a time and should give Silverthorne a performance advantage over the C7, which can issue only one instruction at a time.If these rumored characteristics of Silverthorne are confirmed next week, the stage will be set for an unexpectedly close contest between Intel and&#160;Via&#39;s upcoming low-power Isaiah processors, which are also designed for small, portable computers.Tiny by comparison to Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, Via has nevertheless managed to carve out a comfortable niche selling the inexpensive, low-power C7. Beset by a dying third-party chipset business, Via hopes to become a mainstream processor supplier with its upcoming Isaiah processors, which the company unveiled last week.Unlike the C7 and Silverthorne, Isaiah uses a superscalar, out-of-order processor architecture. This architecture, which is used in high-end chips from Intel and AMD, generally offers better performance than an in-order design and is akin to a factory equipped with multiple assembly lines capable of processing different operations at the time.The performance of Isaiah is further enhanced by being superscalar, or having the ability to process multiple instructions during every clock cycle.Centaur, the Via subsidiary that handles processor design for the company, is confident that Isaiah will outperform Silverthorne, even though an accurate comparison of both chips won&#39;t be possible until the two processors can be benchmarked and assessed by independent observers.Nevertheless, Isaiah looks good on paper. Via chips based on the new architecture will offer 1MB of L2 cache and support a front-side bus running at speeds up to 1.3GHz. By comparison, the chip that Intel will reveal next week has 512KB of cache and a 533MHz front-side bus.But the ISSCC abstract raises as many questions as it appears to answer. For example, it doesn&#39;t specify how many cores the new Intel chip will use and gives no indication for how fast these cores will run.Silverthorne, and arelated processor called Diamondville, are widely expected to be available in single-core and dual-core versions. They are also expected to run at roughly the same clock speeds as the Isaiah chips, will be available in versions running from 400MHz up to 2GHz.&#160;
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Chip maker Intel is being investigated by New York Attorney General following anti-trust concerns.
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The Japanese unit of Intel Corp., the world's biggest chip maker, declined comment on Saturday on media reports that it would receive a warning from Japan's antitrust regulators about its business practices.
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Intel agreed on Wednesday to settle a dispute with Transmeta&#160;for $250 million, ending patent litigation between both companies.Under the agreement, Intel will pay Transmeta $150 million initially and $20 million in each of the next five years. In exchange, Intel will be granted a right to license Transmeta patents for use in future products. It will also end pending patent litigation between both companies and release all claims between them.Transmeta, based in Santa Clara, California, sued Intel&#160;in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware in October last year, claiming some Intel processors violated 10 Transmeta patents covering processor design and power-efficiency techniques. Nine patents covered basic processor functions like scheduling and addressing instructions on a chip, and the tenth related to Transmeta&#39;s LongRun technology, used to adjust a processor&#39;s voltage based on its workload.In January,&#160;Intel countersued Transmeta&#160;for infringing seven patents, also alleging Transmeta withheld and mischaracterized information about other patents and technologies in its patent applications.Under the agreement, Intel will be in a binding agreement not to sue Transmeta for the development and licensing of LongRun technology to third parties, Transmeta said in a statement.Transmeta, founded in 1995, tried to break Intel&#39;s dominance in the notebook PC market with its Crusoe processor, which allowed PCs to run longer by reducing power consumption. Consumers responded poorly to the processor, leading to Transmeta changing its business model to licensing its technology.The settlement pumped life into Transmeta&#39;s stock (TMTA), which rose 253.11 percent to $14.76 on the Nasdaq stock exchange Wednesday.&#160;The company faced delisting in March&#160;when its stock price dropped to under $1.Transmeta reported a net loss of $11.5 million and revenue of $171,000 for the most recent quarter ending June 30. Earlier this year, Intel&#39;s rival,&#160;AMD, invested $7.5 million in the cash-strapped Transmeta.Intel&#39;s settlement agreement will realize immediate financial value for Transmeta&#39;s intellectual-property rights and will support the company&#39;s technology development and licensing business, said Les Crudele, the president and CEO of Transmeta, in a statement.Intel could not be reached for comment.
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SAN FRANCISCO The president of Intel, Paul Otellini, outlined plans Tuesday for computer chips due next year that simultaneously run tasks such as burning CDs and playing video games as he seeks to allay concerns about product delays.
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Intel Corp. INTC.O, the world's   biggest microchip maker, is set to announce sweeping job cuts   later on Tuesday, the Financial Times said, amid speculation   that up to 10 percent of its staff could go.
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Chipmaker Intel  has been  granted a further short extension to respond to antitrust  charges leveled by the European Commission, an Intel spokesman  said on Friday.
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SAN FRANCISCO/SEOUL  - South Korean regulators have sent a "statement of objections" to Intel Corp following a two-year investigation into whether the U.S. microchip company violated antitrust laws.
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Intel should have to share documents that could show it used monopolistic practices to force overseas PC vendors and retailers to shun Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) chips, the special master to a U.S. federal court recommended Friday.
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Officials of the European Commission stated this morning they may be ready to pursue antitrust charges against Intel, based on information they've acquired regarding possible company misconduct in relation to the German retail electronics market.
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(InfoWorld) - U.S. government antitrust regulators have asked Intel Corp. and STMicroelectronics NV to provide more information about theirÂ plan to spin off their flash memory unit into a new company, the vendors said Thursday. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission made the request as part of its regulatory review in an effort to ensure the deal does not violate antitrust laws, according to Intel. If FTC investigators approve the terms, Intel and ST will be able to close the deal after a 30-day waiting period, the company said. "These kinds of transactions are reviewed by the FTC and it's not unusual for them to come back and ask for more information," said Intel spokesman Tom Beermann. Intel plans to comply with the request, but gave no deadline for providing the new information. "As part of the regulatory review, they do look at antitrust issues. This is a fairly complicated deal because there are three partners and there are different types of technology, and it is a fairly large deal," Beermann said. Intel and STMicroelectronics will share ownership of the new semiconductor business with ST holding a 48.6 percent stake, Intel owning 45.1 percent and private equity firm Francisco Partners LP holding 6.3 percent. The new company will be based in Switzerland and incorporated in the Netherlands. It will compete against flash vendors including Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Spansion Inc. Intel's main chip rival AMD spun off its flash unit in December 2005 to create Spansion. Intel and ST announced plans for the new business in May and expect it to employ about 8,000 staff. They will make NOR and NAND-type flash chips, which are typically used for storing data in consumer and industrial products such as cell phones, MP3 music players and digital cameras. Intel has struggled for years to make a profit from its flash business, and earlier in May said it would lay off as many as 1,000 workers when it closed an outdated flash plant in New Mexico. A spokeswoman for ST said the company also planned to comply with the FTC request, but would not confirm whether it was related to antitrust concerns. "We will provide all the information they need. The FTC needs it by the second half of 2007," said ST spokeswoman Carol Brown. "This is just part of the approval process." Â
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The announcement sets up a potential confrontation between I.B.M. and Intel over the design of new, faster microprocessors.
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Panel trying to decide whether to bring formal antitrust charges against the chipmaker, according to a source.
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Intel argues that some of chip rival's complaints fall outside U.S. borders.
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It will be a busy week for leading semiconductor chip manufacturer Intel. According to Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer and head of Intel Labs, the company will present 14 papers at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.
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Intel will pay $250 million to settle a patent-infringment lawsuit over chip design.