Nvidia

California: Too Big Not to Fail?

The state of the state? "A train wreck," says one official.

If the world's eighth-largest economy were a member of the proper religious order, it'd be time to call in a priest to administer last rites.

Name almost any serious malady and the state of California has it: the nation's highest marginal tax rate coupled with an abysmal public education system; the most home foreclosures; a free-falling commercial real estate sector; lame-duck MORE

Hardware nerds are hot

Changes in computing mean software companies need hardware-savvy employees

By Sam Blackman, CEO and co-founder, Elemental Technologies

Whether we knew it or not, we've all been relying on something called "Moore's Law."  Back in the 1960s, Intel (INTC)  co-founder Gordon Moore noticed that the number of transistors that could cheaply be placed on an integrated circuit had been doubling every two years.

That MORE

PC showdown: Netbook threat heats up

There's going to be a PC retail showdown this holiday season. Let's call it the netbook vs. the nymph.

In the netbook corner: the cheap, small, underpowered laptops that are all the rage lately. Asian manufacturers like Asus first introduced them, and consumers love them because they handle documents, e-mail, and web surfing for as little as $300. The big PC makers offer their own models, but also secretly hate that MORE

AMD prays for Black Friday surprise

AMD's chips are often found in low-cost PCs, which means executives can't get a true sense of fourth-quarter sales until after Black Friday. Image: AMD

Based on Intel's dramatic sales warning Wednesday, you might expect rival Advanced Micro Devices to just crawl into a hole and die. If the economic mess is tripping up the most powerful chip company on the planet, how could its underdog challenger stand a chance?

Indeed, investors MORE

Intel's dire warning

In a surprise announcement, Intel (INTC) said Wednesday that its gloomy fourth quarter forecast wasn't nearly gloomy enough. Instead of pulling in between $10.1 billion and $10.9 billion in sales, the chip giant expects closer to a dreadful $9 billion. The stock tumbled more than 7 percent after hours.

It's hard to articulate just how bad this news is.

AMD investors look for a Shanghai surprise

Despite the downturn, AMD is hopeful that it can sell its higher-performance server chips; and the early reviews are positive. Image: AMD

Sun Microsystems sells a lot of servers to the financial services industry, which has been hard-hit by the credit crunch. So when Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz recently asked a banking executive how he was doing, he probably wasn't surprised at the response: "I'm curled up in the fetal position."

Investors MORE

Apple's next act: Changing PC buying habits

Nvidia inside: Apple's latest MacBook laptops have an Nvidia graphics processor next to their Intel chips, which puts the spotlight on graphics chips as an important part of today's basic computer system. Image: Apple

Take Our Poll

With all the presidential campaign talk about American exceptionalism, it might be easy to forget that we do a pretty unexceptional job at some things -- like shopping for computers.

No question, we Americans buy a MORE

Rough holiday season ahead for PCs

It's going to be a frightful holiday season for PC sales, no matter what.

That was the hidden message Intel (INTC) executives delivered in an earnings conference call with analysts Tuesday afternoon after reporting better-than-expected quarterly profits but disappointing sales. They also said Intel is better off than competitors because of its streamlined workforce, world-class manufacturing operation, popular new Atom chip and rebounding profit margins. But tucked into that happier talk MORE

[video] With graphics power, AMD still has fight left

Click above for video of AMD vice president Patrick Moorhead talking about how the chipmaker will face the competition from Intel and turn things around.

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Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang's chip shot

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang shows up to our chat in a black muscle shirt and jeans, and a casual attitude to match. The co-founder of the world's largest maker of dedicated graphics chips doesn't pull a lot of punches – but he does want to clear up something about his widely covered war of words with Intel.

In statements earlier this year, Intel (INTC), which is nearly MORE