Stories about: Mercury Research

Advanced Micro Devices's move to spin off its manufacturing operations generated praise from analysts and questions from Intel about whether it violates a cross-licensing agreement between the two companies.

By splitting off its manufacturing operations into a separate company, Advanced Micro Devices could be on track to become the nimble, innovative company that once had Intel on the run.

Hardware vendors, which are just getting a first look at AMD's next-generation server chip, are giving the Shanghai processor an initial thumbs-up, analysts say.

Demand for Intel's Atom processor is strong, with computer makers clamoring for more chips to plug into the small, portable laptops called netbooks, but the chips remain in short supply. The problem isn't that Intel can't make enough of the silicon chips -- the company can, and it is -- but availability remains stymied by a testing bottleneck that prevents the chip maker from meeting demand.

Advanced Micro Devices is putting some focus back on the business desktop market with the launch this week of four new processors.

Advanced Micro Devices plans to deliver a new server platform in the first half of 2009, the company announced on Friday, with the platform revolving around a new chipset.

The change in AMD's leadership may have come late, but it is a kick the company needs to become more competitive in the microprocessor market, analysts said.

Arm wants to challenge Intel's server market dominance by plugging its multicore chip designs into servers, but the company faces an uphill battle, including the market's preference for x86 architecture and the lack of software infrastructure to support Arm's chips, analysts said.

Thirty years ago, on June 8, 1978, Intel introduced its first 16-bit microprocessor, the 8086, with a splashy ad heralding "the dawn of a new era." Overblown? Sure, but also prophetic. While the 8086 was slow to take off, its underlying architecture -- later referred to as x86 -- would become one of technology's most impressive success stories.

The market for hardware that can run mobile Internet devices heated up considerably Monday with the unveiling of Nvidia's Tegra family of processors, whose models contain chips for multiple functions.

After watching the market's giants move into its territory, Via Technologies Thursday began moving to push back against the likes of Intel and Advanced Micro Devices with five new processors.