Greg In The Desert

The US Federal Trade Commssion is joining the EU and going after Intel on antitrust charges. Updated: link and text changed to the FTC’s website.

The Federal Trade Commission today sued Intel Corp., the world’s leading computer chip maker, charging that the company has illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly.

In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Intel has waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals’ competing microchips by cutting off their access to the marketplace. In the process, Intel deprived consumers of choice and innovation in the microchips that comprise the computers’ central processing unit, or CPU. These chips are critical components that often are referred to as the “brains” of a computer.

Intel responds. Updated: Link changed to Intel’s official press release.

“Intel has competed fairly and lawfully. Its actions have benefitted consumers. The highly competitive microprocessor industry, of which Intel is a key part, has kept innovation robust and prices declining at a faster rate than any other industry. The FTC’s case is misguided. It is based largely on claims that the FTC added at the last minute and has not investigated. In addition, it is explicitly not based on existing law but is instead intended to make new rules for regulating business conduct. These new rules would harm consumers by reducing innovation and raising prices.”

New Mexico Business Weekly has an article on Intel’s Fab 11X build out. This is the factory I work for.

When Intel Corp. finishes upgrading its chip-making factory in Rio Rancho next year, it will operate one of the world’s largest clean rooms.

The company started a $2.5 billion upgrade to its Fab 11X manufacturing complex early this year to produce Intel’s next generation, 32 nanometer chip technology. The new chips are smaller and faster and consume less energy than Intel’s current 45 nanometer chip technology.

When the upgrade is complete, Fab 11X will include 400,000-square-feet of clean room space, said Tim Hendry, vice president of the Intel Technology Manufacturing Group and the Fab 11X plant manager.

“It will be the largest clean room operated by Intel globally, and one of the largest in the world in general,” Hendry said. “The corridor that runs along the outside edge of the clean room is a quarter-mile long.”

Sometimes I have to walk the distance of that factory frequently. It’s a good way to get exercise. Read the whole article at New Mexico Business Weekly.

• Crazy Croc’s, Rio Rancho, New Mexico – It's a long haul from the east side where I live, but tonight I made the journey to Crazy Croc's on Unser in Rio Rancho. From what I heard tonight, Crazy Croc's has come a long way from their historical reputation as a very dark biker bar. New owners have gutted the place and redone everything inside and out. With a dance floor, Techno programmable music, 3 pool tables, and a large outdoor patio, Croc's is set up for success.
• Deseret News | ‘Love advocates’ plan ‘kiss-in’ at Main Street Plaza – Former Salt Lake City Councilwoman Deeda Seed is organizing a "kiss-in" at Main Street Plaza on Sunday following an incident in which two gay men were cited for trespassing on the LDS Church-owned property.
• The Official Site of Rio Rancho, NM – Rio Rancho Isotopes Night – Special $6 tickets for the Tuesday, August 11, 2009, Albuquerque Isotopes game are on sale now for Rio Rancho residents and businesses. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. as the Isotopes face the Tacoma Rainiers.
• Dispute over flag protest erupts in Wisc. village – Yahoo! News – An American flag flown upside down as a protest in a northern Wisconsin village was seized by police before a Fourth of July parade and the businessman who flew it — an Iraq war veteran — claims the officers trespassed and stole his property.
• Southwest tops, US Airways near worst in passenger complaints in May – New Mexico Business Weekly: – Southwest Airlines Co. ranked best and US Airways Group Inc. ranked next to last for consumer complaints among the 19 top U.S. airlines, according to May data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
• May semiconductor sales show slight increase from April – New Mexico Business Weekly: – Sales of semiconductors in May showed a slight increase from April, but year-over-year sales fell as the industry remains in the grips of the recession. The Semiconductor Industry Association reported sales of $16.5 billion in May, up from $15.6 billion in April. Still, those numbers were down from $21.5 billion in what the SIA uses as a three-month rolling average.
• TomTom for iPhone en route | Software | iPhone Central | Macworld – Macworld recently had a chance to talk with with Tom Murray, Vice President of Market Development for TomTom, and while the company hasn’t yet announced a release date or final pricing information, Murray was able to expand on some of the information presented at WWDC.
• Why Intel’s Processors Aren’t Big on Cellphones | Gadget Lab | Wired.com – Intel is being held back in the mobile sphere by its inability to offer power consumption on par with ARM’s chips, say analysts. Add to that the notion that Atom is untested for mobile phones and the fact that many proprietary mobile-phone operating systems are not compatible with Intel’s x86 architecture, and it makes breaking into the cellphone market an uphill climb.
• Canon “G”MOS [CR2] – I received an email that Canon does indeed have an APS-C sized sensor “G” camera being tested/developed.
• www.KOB.com – Lightning strike kills one, hospitalizes several – Lightning in Rio Rancho turned deadly on Saturday after one man was killed and the rest of his family was injured after being hit by lightning while waiting to watch fireworks.

I love ArsTechnica, but I have to question part of an article that Jon Stokes wrote today about Intel making car batteries.

I bring this up because Intel doesn’t actually make as many chips over here as they used to. Most of the company’s sales are overseas (Asia is the biggest market), so that’s where a large and growing percentage of its workforce is, as well. The company’s pronounced shift in moving jobs abroad has been a sore spot for American Intel employees over the past decade, but I hear that, internally, the Intel top brass makes no bones about the fact that they have no qualms about moving the plants closer to the customers.

I am employed by Intel in the manufacturing side of their business. I don’t pretend that I know everything that is going on but I’m pretty sure this part of the article is incorrect. Most of Intel’s manufacturing is in the United States with the rest in Ireland and Israel. The only Asian capacity is in China and it hasn’t finished construction.

I also don’t know anything about Intel replacing manufacturing capacity in the US with factories outside of the US. My opinion: It costs billions of dollars to build a factory, Intel isn’t about to move capacity from existing locations to overseas unless there’s economic reasons to do so and highly skilled worker base. Just because the customers are there doesn’t seem like a good enough reason.

As far as Intel making batteries? I have to agree with the rest of the article. It’s better if Intel invest in battery tech R&D rather than try it themselves. Not that I wouldn’t love to see Intel broaden out in other ventures. Intel has failed at every attempt to make non microchip businesses (see LCOS and the watches they made that I can’t find a link to) as profitable as chips and top management knows that.

Steve Jobs pretty much said that a 3G iPhone will come eventually. That shouldn’t be a surprise. TheStreet is the one saying that it will be in the first quarter of 2008. I’m 100% sure it will be here in the next 5 years, within the next 9 months is a little less certain.

Navigadget says that Apple will add GPS hardware in the first quarter of 2008

The reason behind this rumor is the fact that Apple has been in touch with Broadcom’s Global Locate unit to supply chips for the phone. Global Locate, which was recently acquired by Broadcom, makes assisted GPS chips that use a combination of GPS satellites and cellular network signals to get a location fix. A-GPS will improve what’s a called TTFF, even making it possible to get acquire correct position indoors

I’m not holding me breath for either. What I am still waiting for is a minimum 16 GB of memory. I will keep my money until then.

Apple product delays seem to be a bit better nowadays, with Intel providing the chips. But this is still annoying.

“Wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected, and we now expect to begin shipments mid-March,” spokeswoman Lynn Fox said by email.

My order status still says Ships by: Feb 28, Delivers by: Mar 6. Perhaps they are trying to get these out for people who ordered them on the first day?

Update: Guess I was wrong. Got this email.

To Our Valued Apple Customer:

Thank you for ordering the new Apple TV, an easy to use and fun way to wirelessly play all your favorite iTunes content from your Mac or PC on your widescreen TV.

Wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected, and we now expect to begin shipments in mid-March, not in February as originally anticipated.

You may check the status of your order any time by visiting our online order status website at http://www.apple.com/orderstatus.

A shipment notification, with tracking information, will be emailed to you as soon as your order is shipped. There is no need to contact us unless you choose to change or cancel your order.

We appreciate your business and thank you for shopping at the Apple Store!

Sincerely,
The Apple Store Team

Intel Corp. said on Monday it will spend $1 billion to $1.5 billion to retool a factory in New Mexico, which will start to make chips with cutting-edge 45-nanometer-wide transistors in the second half of 2008.

The factory to be renovated in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, is known as Fab 11X and will be the fourth Intel plant to use 45-nanometer technology, which includes new materials that boost chip efficiency by cutting leakage of electrical current.

My employment is secure.

Here’s a little bit more information about the IRB that was used to fund this upgrade. Looks like there’s some money left in the pot.

News that Intel wants to rip off the Mac mini.

A new Wintel prototype that openly apes Apple Computer’s popular Mac mini is due out this week, sources told Wired News, giving Intel a showcase to prove its chips are a match for anyone when it comes to tiny PC designs.

Working prototypes of the Mac mini look-alike running Microsoft Windows and based on Intel’s Pentium M CPU have already been built by Taiwan PC maker AOpen at Intel’s request, according to two sources in Taiwan’s PC manufacturing industry who have seen them.

This Mac mini review, I can’t figure out if it’s a serious review or a joke.

…its sleek look comes at the expense of the parallel port, serial ports, the PS/2 ports and the drive bays… did I forget to mention that the Mini has no PCI slots either? And no floppy disk drive? Well, no wonder they got the unit to be so small… or I could grab an equally stylish, full-featured eMachine at the gas station with a bag of chips for less than half the Mini’s price, with the added benefit of being able to run Windows XP. Decisions, decisions… The Mini boots up into a stripped-down operating system which Apple calls OS X, similar to the stripped-down WindowsCE OS found on many handhelds

I admit to being an Apple Fan Boy, so my opinion might be a little biased. But it’s so close to completely missing the point, it must be a joke.