- Reuters - Freescale Semiconductor said on Thursday it was exploring strategic options for its cell phone chip business and intends to complete a sale, joint venture or other options in the coming months. - Reuters - Semiconductor makers have turned cautious about year-end sales, amid worries the global financial crisis is hurting consumer confidence and could put a dent in holiday sales. - AP - Semiconductor sales totaled $22.7 billion in August, up 5.5 percent from a year ago and 2.4 percent from the previous month, the Semiconductor Industry Association said Thursday. - AP - Semiconductor maker Standard Microsystems Corp. said Wednesday its fiscal second-quarter profit declined, and shares fell after-hours after its outlook fell short of expectations. - PC Magazine - The Acer Aspire Predator features an Intel Core 2 Quad 9300 processor, a nVidia GeForce 9600GT graphics card, 8GB of DDR2 memory, and two 640GB hard drives. - PC Magazine - Here's a thought for you lonely gamers: for less than the price of a dinner out with a blind date, you can buy yourself a graphics card. - AP - In a Sept. 24 story about the fiscal 2008 pay package for Sun Microsystems Inc. Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Sun's share of the computer server market fell 7 percent in the last quarter, and that IBM Corp.'s share rose nearly 14 percent. - AP - Sun Microsystems Inc. Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz received an $11.1 million pay package in the server and software maker's most recent fiscal year. - NewsFactor - Intel has begun shipping a new dual-core Atom processor for use in "nettops" -- affordable desktop computers that are expected to be purpose-built primarily for Web surfing, e-mail and basic Internet usage. The Atom 330 is priced at $43 in 1,000-unit quantities. - AP - With Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s cash reserves dwindling and the chip maker's overall financial health deteriorating to dangerous levels last year, the company was thrown a lifeline by Lehman Brothers, the investment bank now in bankruptcy. - AP - Toshiba Corp. lowered its profit forecast lower Friday, blaming the plunge in semiconductor prices and weaker-than-expected demand, slipping into the red for the fiscal first half for the first time in five years. - 
Reuters - Forget about specs. PC chip maker
Advanced Micro Devices is rebranding itself by showing
leaves, scorpions and a teenager playing the guitar.
- 
Reuters - Japan's NEC Electronics Corp (6723.T) and
Germany's Elmos Semiconductor AG said they would
jointly develop semiconductor products to better compete in the
automotive and industrial markets.
- NewsFactor - If quad-core CPUs are good, six cores must be better -- especially for servers. On Tuesday, Intel announced a six-core Xeon 7400 CPU, positioning it as the premier virtualization and transaction-processing platform. - 
AFP - Intel on Monday rolled out its first chip with six brains, unveiling a "multi-core" microprocessor that boosts computing muscle while cutting back on electricity use.
