Mark Hachman

Intel Corp. has moved its “Dothan” mobile processor into the ultra-low-voltage space, scattering additional price cuts among its mobile microprocessor lineup. Intel introduced the LV/ULV Intel Centrino 1.40GHz model 738, 1.10GHz model 733, and 1GHz model 723 alongside the platform’s corresponding Pentium M counterparts. The Centrino bundles include, in addition to the processor, an Intel […]

Nvidia Corp., ATI Technologies Inc., and others are expected to benefit from a new Microsoft Corp. program to provide its Windows Media Center software to system builders. Previously, Microsoft had restricted sales of its Windows XP Media Center Edition to PC OEMs like Hewlett-Packard Corp. Now, a new version of the software due this fall […]

It’s official – WiFi has reached commodity status. On Tuesday, Conexant Systems Inc. preannounced lower earnings for the cureent quarter, based on an influx of low-cost WiFi chips produced by Taiwan manufacturers. Conexant executives said that the price of 802.11g components is now on the order of 802.11b chips in certain markets. Although the WiFi […]

A Dell VAR on Tuesday began offering OptiPlex desktops for sale in Italy with a Linux operating system from Lindows. Although the announcement was positioned as an official Dell release, a spokesman from Dell Inc.’s headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, said the program was not offered with Dell’s approval. Questar, one of Dell’s Italian VARs, […]

Adaptec said Tuesday that it has acquired RAID technology from IBM in return for a guaranteed supply agreement. According to a statement released late Tuesday by Milpitas, Calif.-based Adaptec Inc., the deal involves both products and intellectual property currently used by IBM inside its server line. A spokeswoman for Adaptec said the deal involves the […]

Nvidia Corp. announced Monday that it has designed technology to allow consumers to bundle two of its graphics cards together, allowing them to share the processing workload. The “Nvidia SLI” technology follows a similar announcement by Alienware, which designed a custom “X2” motherboard to accept a pair of graphics components, either from ATI Technologies or […]

Hewlett-Packard Corp. said Friday that it will replace memory modules in some of its notebooks with an “industrywide” design flaw that can cause system lockups. The problem is tied to the interaction of DRAM from several manufacturers and several chip sets, all designed by Intel Corp. The flaw, which could result in system lockups, is […]

Intel has discovered a glitch involving some of the I/O controllers in the company’s new “Grantsdale” chip set, which can cause a PC to fail to boot up or to freeze. An Intel Corp. official said the scope of the problem is not known and that the company has begun polling its customers for the […]

SanDisk Corp. said it would begin shipping a Secure Digital card combining flash memory and Wi-Fi connectivity beginning next month. The SanDisk Combination SD Card requires a Secure Digital I/O slot as well as either the Windows Pocket PC 2002, 2003, or Windows Mobile 2003 operating system, meaning that the technology will almost exclusively be […]

Gateway, Inc. said Thursday that it plans to close all of its 188 Gateway retail stores by April 9. The move, which had been predicted as a fallout of the company’s merger with eMachines Inc., will serve as an important step toward reducing Gateway’s cost structure, analysts said. Gateway said it still plans “wider retail […]

SANTA CLARA, Calif.— A Federal Communications Commission policy-maker underlined the financial implications of voice over IP in a speech here Tuesday. For months, FCC Chairman Michael Powell has argued that the government should take a hands-off approach to VOIP, which uses the Internet Protocol (IP) to transmit voice information. But if VOIP takes off, the […]

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—The semiconductor industry looks likely to enter a mild recession in 2005, an analyst firm said Monday, following a healthy recovery that will continue through this year. According to analysts here at the Semico Summit, the slowdown in chip sales will be triggered by a number of factors, including lower sales of consumer electronics […]