silicon

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Silicon-Based Light Bulbs a Big Step Closer, Startup Says

Don Clark, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on March 9, 2011 at 12:00 am PT

Silicon has shaken up many industries. A startup called Bridgelux says the next big target will be light bulbs. The Livermore, Calif., company on Tuesday claimed a breakthrough in using the material to fabricate light-emitting diodes, the new-wave components that are finding a place in many lighting applications because of their superior energy-efficiency and longevity.

IBM "Jeopardy" Challenge Day One Ends in a Tie

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on February 14, 2011 at 4:55 pm PT

Day one of the IBM “Jeopardy” challenge ends with a human player and the computer tied, and with some interesting wrong answers from the computer. Plus: “Final Jeopardy” author Stephen Baker fills us in with some first-hand details.

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AMD to Start Shipping "Fusion" Chips

Don Clark, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on November 9, 2010 at 11:32 am PT

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said it has begun shipping its first chips that combine microprocessor and graphics circuitry on the same piece of silicon, fulfilling the promise of a costly 2006 acquisition that reshaped the company.

Intel Intent on Ingesting Infineon Unit

John Paczkowski in Mobile on August 27, 2010 at 3:00 am PT

Intel’s in an acquisitive mood these days. A week after buying antivirus software maker McAfee for $7.68 billion, the company is reportedly finalizing a deal to acquire Infineon Technologies’ wireless business.

New Intel Chips Could Make Ultrathin Laptops Worth Buying

John Paczkowski in News on May 24, 2010 at 12:01 pm PT

Intel fleshed out its mobile processor line this morning, adding to it a series of low-voltage chips intended for ultrathin laptops. Covering the broad spectrum of Intel’s silicon–everything from the Celeron and Pentium to the higher-end Core line–these new chips theoretically provide double the graphics performance and 35 percent to 40 percent of the computing performance of their predecessors.

You Still Can’t Buy Plastic Logic’s Que E-Reader. Want to Buy Plastic Logic? [UPDATED]

Peter Kafka in Media on April 6, 2010 at 4:43 am PT

Want to buy an e-reader from Plastic Logic? You will have to wait until “sometime this summer.” Want to buy the whole company? That’s a different story.

New Freescale Chip Could Herald Cheaper Kindle

John Paczkowski in News on March 1, 2010 at 9:01 am PT

Freescale Semiconductor, an ARM licensee and the company responsible for the chips used in the majority of e-book readers, has developed some new silicon that it claims could help drive prices of the devices below $150 before the end of this year.

Intel Shelves Larrabee

John Paczkowski in News on December 7, 2009 at 5:12 am PT

Good news for Nvidia and AMD: Intel is delaying commercial release of its chronically delayed Larrabee graphics processor. The company had initially promised to deliver the first version of the discrete multicore graphics processor in 2009. Later, it conceded that Larrabee might not arrive until 2010. Now, Intel has postponed the processor indefinitely.