AllThingsD » Don Clark

Google Joins Supercomputing Project

Don Clark — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:00:15 +0000

Google Inc. plans to help create a new laboratory to study quantum computing, a high-profile endorsement of the esoteric technology — and a Canadian company that has been pursuing it since 1999.

An unusual supercooled machine built by D-Wave Systems Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, will be installed at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research Center, near Google’s campus in Mountain View, Calif. It will be operated by the nonprofit Universities Space Research Association.

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Two Views From Samsung About its "Octa" Chip

Don Clark — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:00:00 +0000

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Samsung described an unusual eight-brained processor as a major step above competing chips. Now that U.S. buyers will be late to get it, the company is playing down the differences.

So-called “teardown” analyses of the new Samsung Galaxy S 4 smartphone by TechInsights and Chipworks this week confirmed that the chip known as “Octa” has arrived in handsets aimed at Europe and Latin America. But in a model for the high-profile U.S. market, iFixit found a popular chip from Qualcomm in the new flagship phone.

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Texas Instruments Continues Shift

Don Clark and Kristin Jones — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:30:32 +0000

Texas Instruments Inc. continued a shift away from some mobile-chip markets in the first quarter, putting a squeeze on revenue while profit rose 37 percent on a one-time gain.

The numbers issued Monday were at the high end of the company’s predictions. TI also forecast ranges for profit and revenue in the current quarter with midpoints that were higher than analysts expected.

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New Venture Enters Patent Fray

Don Clark — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 23:58:06 +0000

Firms that buy and enforce patents make life hard for technology companies. A new San Francisco startup hopes to turn the tables.

Unified Patents plans to recruit companies for a collective effort to deter patent lawsuits or legal threats against its members.

The first to join United are Internet giant Google and NetApp, which makes data-storage hardware. But the venture plans to set itself apart by also recruiting small tech companies, which often have trouble defending themselves.

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Cellphone Pioneer Wins Prize Named for Radio’s Inventor

Don Clark — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:00:24 +0000

It seems hard to imagine a time before mobile phones. But they may not have arrived when they did without the work of Martin Cooper, which this week is being recognized with the $100,000 Marconi Prize.

The first cellphones were built into cars, along with a lot of circuitry in the trunk. Cooper led the team at Motorola that helped prove the feasibility of a handheld version, culminating in a celebrated demonstration on a New York street in 1973.

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Qualcomm Aims at New Mobile-Chip Segment, Roiling Rivals

Don Clark — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:35:18 +0000

Qualcomm is already the biggest player in chips for mobile phones, with annual revenues topping $19 billion. Now it is invading another major chunk of the market, spooking investors in several other companies.

The San Diego-based company is best known for baseband processors, which manage the overall chore of communicating over cellular networks. These are digital chips, handling data in the form of ones and zeros.

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Applied Materials Sees Bounce After Hitting Bottom

Don Clark — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:00:12 +0000

Applied Materials Inc., long whipsawed by the chip industry’s business cycles, reported a 71 percent drop in first-quarter profit but pointed to signs of a rebound.

The company, a major supplier of machines used to make semiconductors, on Wednesday said its orders in the fiscal quarter for such tools rose more 80 percent from the fourth period. Applied also projected revenues in the current quarter will rise 15 percent to 25 percent from the first.

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Cisco, NXP Place Bet on Connected-Car Company

Don Clark — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:00:26 +0000

Most cars may one day be smart enough to drive themselves. Before then, some companies expect them to communicate safety information among themselves, with Cisco Systems and NXP Semiconductors placing a new bet on that direction.

The two companies have each agreed to put an undisclosed amount of money into an Australian company called Cohda Wireless. Executives from Cisco and NXP say it is particularly well positioned to benefit from such “car-to-car” communications.

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Intel's Push Into Web TV Hits Delays

Don Clark and Christopher S. Stewart — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 05:23:43 +0000

Intel Corp.’s effort to develop an Internet-based TV service and associated hardware is taking longer than expected, people familiar with the company’s plans say, in part due to delays in reaching content agreements with media companies.

The chip maker’s surprise interest in the crowded pay TV business was disclosed last March by The Wall Street Journal, which reported Intel had told media companies it hoped to launch a service by the end of 2012. The timing now seems uncertain.

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Chip Design Luminary Leaves Samsung for Apple

Don Clark — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 21:14:20 +0000

Samsung recently raised eyebrows by beefing up its team of Texas-based chip designers, including those whose backgrounds pointed to an interest in chips for server systems. Now, one of the most prominent of those recruits has left the South Korean company for Apple.

The gadget maker has hired Jim Mergard, a 16-year veteran of Advanced Micro Devices who was a vice president and chief engineer there before he left for Samsung. He is known for playing a leading role in the development of a high-profile AMD chip that carried the code name Brazos and was designed for low-end portable computers.

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Chip Start-Up Calxeda Raises $55 Million

Don Clark — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:00:05 +0000

Calxeda Inc., a start-up that provides chips for a new breed of server systems, has raised an additional $55 million as computer makers like Hewlett-Packard Co. prepare to offer its technology.

The latest infusion from venture capitalists brings the money raised by the Austin, Texas, company to more than $100 million and ranks among the largest recent deals in the semiconductor sector.

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Google Tablet Analysis Points to Thin Margins

Don Clark — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:00:06 +0000

It’s not surprising that the first tablet to carry Google’s brand would attract attention from hardware analysts. Nor is one of their key conclusions much of a shock — the $199 price tag on the new Nexus 7 doesn’t leave Google much of a profit margin.

The Nexus 7 tablet costs $199 handheld computer and features a 7-inch screen. The research firm UBM TechInsights has come up with a $184 preliminary estimate for the costs of components in the Google tablet. That compares with its $153 estimate in November for the components inside Amazon.com’s identically priced Kindle Fire.

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Lanai Holds Lots of Potential, and Questions, for Ellison

Don Clark — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 21:13:50 +0000

Lanai’s current owner says Larry Ellison will bring money and jobs to one of the least-developed Hawaiian islands. But the software billionaire is keeping mum about exactly what he plans to do.

The deal by the Oracle Corp. chief executive to buy about 98 percent of Lanai from Castle & Cooke Inc., which came to light late Wednesday, comes along with two luxury resorts, two golf courses, water and transportation utilities, a large solar-energy farm and more than 88,000 acres of land.

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Chip Maker Buys Rival in $939 Million Deal

Don Clark and Kristin Jones — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:00:11 +0000

Microchip Technology Inc. agreed to buy Standard Microsystems Corp. for about $939 million, the latest sign of market forces pushing mid-sized semiconductor makers together.

The chip sector has many specialized vendors, some regularly hit by cyclical swings in the business. Others with ample cash reserves or borrowing power are snapping up smaller players, betting they can quickly make better returns on their money than other investments.

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Google Engineer Told Others of Data Scoop

Amir Efrati and Don Clark — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:34:22 +0000

A Google Inc. engineer told others at the company about his plan to scoop up personal information from wireless-network users as specially equipped cars drove by their homes, but the practice continued for two years after the internal disclosures, a Federal Communications Commission investigation found.

The engineer, whose name hasn’t been disclosed, explained his plans to other engineers and at least one senior manager involved with the project, known as Street View, in 2008, the FCC report states. Nevertheless, it says, Street View managers told the agency they didn’t learn the Google cars were collecting the personal information until 2010.

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Cisco CEO Sees China's Huawei as Toughest Rival

Don Clark — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 23:29:57 +0000

Cisco Systems Inc. Chief Executive John Chambers identified Huawei Technologies Co. as its toughest rival, stating that the Chinese company doesn’t always “play by the rules” in areas such as intellectual property protection and computer security.

Mr. Chambers, who was responding to a question at a Wall Street Journal event, didn’t cite any specific actions by Huawei, which competes with Cisco in sales of networking equipment. But he suggested that, by contrast, Cisco is considered trustworthy by governments around the world.

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The New Cable-TV Guy: Intel

Sam Schechner and Don Clark — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:13 +0000

Intel Corp. is developing an Internet-based TV service that it hopes to sell to U.S. consumers, a strategic shift for the chip maker that makes it the latest technology company to look at a foray in the pay-TV business.

The Silicon Valley company has for several months been pitching media companies on a plan to create a “virtual cable operator,” which would offer their U.S. TV channels nationwide over the Internet in a bundle similar to subscriptions sold by cable- and satellite-TV operators, according to people familiar with the effort. Intel wouldn’t provide Internet access, which subscribers would obtain separately.

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AMD-SeaMicro Deal Shows Strange Server Bedfellows

Don Clark — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 17:42:07 +0000

Companies that need to catch up to competitors sometimes try what seem like odd ideas. The deal by chip maker Advanced Micro Devices to buy server maker SeaMicro seems to fit the pattern, and it isn’t the only option that was considered.

People familiar with the matter say that AMD — for decades a distant second to Intel in microprocessor chips — also flirted with the possibility of buying Calxeda, another start-up developing technology for energy-efficient servers.

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Advanced Micro to Buy Server Start-Up SeaMicro

Shara Tibken and Don Clark — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:58:20 +0000

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., vowing to change the game in its longtime competition with Intel Corp., has forged a deal to buy a Silicon Valley start-up that takes the chip maker into the server business.

The Sunnyvale, Calif., company said it will pay $334 million for SeaMicro Inc., a company known for products called micro servers that pack together many chips in ways that save space and energy. Such products are particularly popular among companies that buy servers in huge volumes to run popular consumer websites.

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Auto Tech Is Target of Intel $100 Million Fund

Don Clark — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:20:40 +0000

When Intel wants to build or penetrate a market, it has a few favorite tricks–including putting up a hefty pot of money into start-ups that could become partners or supporters of its chip technology. The auto industry is the latest example.

The Silicon Valley company on Wednesday is announcing a $100 million venture capital fund to accelerate technology innovation in cars. Intel said it will also establish a product development center in Germany that will focus on the field.

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Intel Awaits Microsoft's Next Number

Don Clark — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:00:27 +0000

Microsoft Corp. sent shock waves through the tech sector a year ago with a radical shift in strategy, a plan to develop a next generation of software that relies less exclusively on 30-year partner Intel Corp.

A year later, it isn’t clear whether the software giant’s shift will do much to improve its lagging position in mobile devices — or whether it is quite as ominous for Intel as it originally appeared.

On Monday night, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is set to return to the stage of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where he laid out the company’s plans for the new software, known as Windows 8. He isn’t expected to demonstrate any new features or give details about its progress.

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Google Says LG, Samsung, Vizio, Sony Planning Google TVs

Shara Tibken and Don Clark — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:44:33 +0000

Google Inc., seeking to reboot its flagging efforts in television, said consumers will soon have a broader choice of TV sets using its software — with lower prices also a likely outcome.

The Internet giant said Thursday it has lined up LG Electronics Inc. to join its roster of TV makers supporting Google TV. It also provided additional details about plans for the first products from Samsung Electronics Co. and Vizio Inc., which had previously said they would adopt the Google technology.

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Intel Antitrust Case Heads to State Court

Don Clark — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:05:00 +0000

Intel Corp.’s last major antitrust fight, against New York state officials, appears headed to state court after rulings by a federal judge in Delaware.

U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark on Friday canceled a Feb. 14 trial in the high-profile case filed by New York’s attorney general, who charged Intel with monopolistic tactics in the market for microprocessor chips.

The order followed a letter to the judge from Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who proposed dropping the federal case in view of recent developments that reduced the amount of damages that New York could seek. Mr. Schneiderman said his office would instead pursue damages in New York state court to address “Intel’s egregious and illegal conduct.”

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AMD Claims Major Gains in Graphics Chips

Don Clark — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:00:41 +0000

Advanced Micro Devices hasn’t had much to brag about lately, amid layoffs, management changes and chips associated more closely with low price than impressive performance. But one part of the company is downright jazzed.

That would be the unit that sells graphics chips to dedicated PC gamers and others that pay top dollar for blazing speed. Its latest offering is definitely styled as a silicon Ferrari, not a Honda Civic.

“A single one of these is the fastest thing on the planet,” says Devon Nekechuk, a product manager at the AMD operations in Canada, acquired as part of the 2006 acquisition of ATI Technologies.

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HP Offers Customers Path Away From Maligned Chip

Ben Worthen and Don Clark — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:45:25 +0000

Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday offered help to customers who want to shift away from systems that use a microprocessor called Itanium. But HP insists it is not dumping the chip, nor reacting to a nasty dispute with Oracle over the technology.

The vast majority of servers — including those from H-P — use the chips sold by Intel and AMD that are based on a technology called x86. But HP, which jointly developed Itanium with Intel in the 1990s, continues to use that chip for three lines of large systems used for heavy-duty computing jobs.

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