Scott Ferguson

Micron Technology, one of the world’s largest producers of memory chips, is closing down its NAND flash memory production facility in Boise, Idaho, and will cut 15 percent of its 22,600-person work force, the company announced Oct. 9. In closing this facility, Micron is reacting to the continuing worldwide drop in the price of memory. […]

The ongoing Wall Street financial crisis, along with an oversupply of DRAM (dynamic RAM) and NAND flash memory, is likely to slash what the semiconductor industry spends on manufacturing and other capital expenditures by 25 percent in 2008, according to a new survey by Gartner. In 2008, the semiconductor industry, which includes Intel, Advanced Micro […]

Unisys, which announced a plan earlier this year that would offer customers more software and services, is reaching back to its hardware roots to update its midrange ClearPath systems with new Intel processors. In addition to adding Intel’s X7300 series Xeon processors to its ClearPath Dorado 4000 and Libra 4000 server systems, Unisys also announced […]

While Lenovo, Acer and a host of other PC vendors are offering up WiMax options with their laptops, the world’s two largest suppliers of PCs-Hewlett-Packard and Dell-are taking a wait-and-see attitude for the time being. On Oct. 8, the same day Sprint and Intel in Baltimore rolled out Xohm, the first commercially available U.S. WiMax […]

The deal that will spin off Advanced Micro Devices’ manufacturing facilities into a new joint venture company will not violate the company’s licensing agreement with Intel, an AMD spokesman said. On Oct. 7, AMD announced that it would take a bold step and split the company in two in order to better compete in the […]

While Sprint and Intel are busy setting up the first large-scale WiMax network in the United States, Lenovo and Acer are each rushing a number of notebooks into the market that are equipped with the new wireless broadband technology. The first large-scale deployment of WiMax technology is taking place in Baltimore Oct. 8, as Sprint […]

Advanced Micro Devices is finally detailing its long-talked-about “asset smart” plan, which will allow the chip maker to spin off its manufacturing facilities into a new company while allowing AMD to reduce its financial debt and better compete against Intel. The new manufacturing company, which will be temporarily called “The Foundry Company,” will be a […]

IBM is looking to widen its offering for the Unix market with new Power Systems that support more processing cores based on IBM’s Power Architecture as well as new management and virtualization features. IBM Power Systems were introduced in April as a new set of offerings that combined the older IBM Systems i and System […]

While Advanced Micro Devices is busy spinning off its fabs into a new joint venture, the chip maker’s executives said AMD still plans to deliver its 45-nanometer “Shanghai” processors by year’s end. In an interview, Nigel Dessau, executive vice president and AMD’s chief marketing officer, said despite plans to spin off AMD’s manufacturing facilities in […]

Intel is selling off its carrier-grade and network server business to a German company that specializes in creating embedded systems and other products for the telecommunications industry, the two companies announced Oct. 6. In a statement, Intel announced that it had sold the division, which makes carrier-grade and IP network security systems to Kontron AG, […]

Freescale Semiconductor is looking to unload its cellular handset microprocessors business after the chip company cited slowing order from Motorola-Freescale’s largest customer for mobile handset chips. The news that Freescale would either sell off or develop a joint venture agreement for its handset chip business was first disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities […]

Dell gained back some share of the worldwide PC market in the second quarter of 2008, thanks to its retail and channel strategies, but the company still ranked behind Hewlett-Packard, according to research company iSuppli. The iSuppli report, released Oct. 2, showed that HP shipped a total of 13.4 million desktops and notebook during the […]