News Bits: AMD is Angry, Sun Laptop, Patriotic PC Auction, Electrovaya Tablet

AMD Sues Intel All over the Place

Lookout! AMD and its legal team just brought the guns out of the holsters and are apparently going to blaze away all over the globe with litigation against Intel now. AMD has filed suits from the U.S. to Japan.

One claim AMD is making is that Intel paid PC makers Hitachi , NEC , Fujitsu, Toshiba and Sony not to buy AMD processors for their notebooks. This is of course illegal and a monopolistic move if AMD can prove it indeed happened. AMD also insists Intel has used bullying and coercion in many other instances with computer manufacturers that has prevented AMD from selling their processors.

In honor of this court battle we've created a new smiley for use in our forums:

More: http://news.com.com/AMD+files+antitrust+suit+against+Intel/2100-1001_3-5765844.html

Sun MicrosystemsLaptop

Sun Ultra 3 Mobile 64 Laptop

No, Sun Microsystems is not moving into the consumer market space with the announcement and release ofthe Ultra 3 Mobile64-bit UltraSparc-based laptop. The laptop will cost $3,400 and is purely targeted at Sun workstation users that want to be able to access their Sparc-based applications in the field, not just from inside the confines of their data centers. This includes workersat companies involved in oil and gas exploration that do resource simulation to ascertain where on the ocean floor they should be drilling and want to be able to tweak such simulations from the rig and not back on land.

The laptop comes witha 1.2-GHz UltraSparc IIIi chip or a 550-MHz or 650-MHz UltraSparc IIi chip; it can be equipped with either a 15-in. or a 17-in. thin-film transistor LCD screen,hasup to 2GB of double data rate RAM, 512MB of RAM and a 40GB disk drive. The laptop also includes entry 2-D graphics and 802.11b wireless networking.

Unless you have your own oil drilling company or are really into geo-analysis then skip buying this!

More: http://www.sun.com/desktop/workstation/ultra3/details.xml

Alienware July 4th American Flag Edition Desktop eBay Auction

Not a notebook, but of note due to the July 4th Independence Day holiday, is the fact computer maker Alienware is auctioning off a special American flag decorated edition of its Aurora ALX system. All proceeds from the auction will go tothe United Service Organizations (USO) who aid in sending care packages to overseas U.S. troops.

Auction page: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=52475&item=5214094518&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Electrovaya Announces New Scribbler SC3000 Tablet PC Notebook Convertible

Calling the new SC 3000 "The best Tablet PC at the best price", the following list of features appears on Electrovaya's website:

Main Features:

• State-of-the-art SuperPolymer Lithium-ion 75 Whr battery
• New Toshiba Wide Viewing Angle Display
• Dual Array Microphone System for better quality of sound
• Now available "Outdoor Viewable Screen" for your Scribbler
• Extended battery run-time of up to 9 hours
• Fast Intel Centrino 1.5 GHz processor with 2MB L2 Cache ensures superior performance, efficiency and power management
• Very bright 12.1 inch Pressure Sensitive Screen
• Light Sensor adjusts screen-to-environment brightness
• Integrated Biometric Device for Finger Print Sensor
• Integrated IEEE 1394, Intel 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless network connectivity
• Sleek, thin, and lightweight design
• Over $300 worth of software included

More: http://www.tabletpcreviewspot.com/default.asp?newsID=270

New Light Sensing Chip for Possible Future Use in Noteboook LCDs

Microsemi has developed a new microchip that's designed to act just like a human eye. It senses light in the same way as the eye's rods and cones, the company says. The LX1973 is a new visible light sensor with nearly perfect human eye spectral response.One potentialuseis controlling anotebook LCD displays brightness in a very fine manner

More: http://www.microsemi.com/catalog/part.asp?ID=71664

An Apple Notebook with an Integrated iPod?

It's impossible to keep up with Apple rumors, but this one that flew across the radar caught my attention:

This is an image submitted by Apple to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It's an iPod integrated into a notebook where the touchpad would usually be. So much for asking about the secure digital slot feature hey, where's the iPod slot on my notebook? Honestly though, if Apple thinks people are willing to give up a touchpad for a place to store and transfer files to their iPod then they might want to think again. My guess is Apple foresees using the jog dial as a touchpad instead, but I wouldn't be too happy with such a solution for a touchpad. Oh well, it's an idea at least and ideas beget other ideas.

More: http://laptops.engadget.com/entry/1234000460048872/

PROPortable Asus Z63a Special Offer for NotebookReview.com Members

Justin O'Dea of PROPortable.com has decided to run a promotion for those that are members of the NotebookReview.com forums, to quote:

OK, well we came up with a little promo that should interest some of you. For any of you who saw the pictures of my aluminum case that I store my w3 in, this will be very familiar.... For any of you who got a chance to see my case in person, your comments would be nice. We put together a great deal for just the members of this forum..... part of the deal is you must be a member of this site and have at least 10 posts to your credit. We have roughly enough stock of these cases to last about 2-3 weeks, so this is a limited time offer and won't last the month. Once we are out of them, I'll make a post and let everyone know. Have a great holiday weekend! (Anyone who comes in and makes 10 useless posts just to get this promo will be denied)

More: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=19646

 

I'm so happy AMD is finally taking on Intel. Finding a decent competitive AMD laptop is impossible outside of Acer. I hope AMD wins on many points since I am tired of Intel's rule over our CPU's and wireless adaptors with this new Centrino push they've begun.

Go AMD! :amd64-2:

Here is a listing of what I've seen been reported about Intel on this matter:

-- Forcing major customers such as Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Gateway, and Hitachi into Intel-exclusive deals in return for outright cash payments, discriminatory pricing or marketing subsidies conditioned on the exclusion of AMD;

-- According to industry reports, and as confirmed by the JFTC in Japan, Intel has paid Dell and Toshiba huge sums not to do business with AMD.

-- Intel paid Sony millions for exclusivity. AMD's share of Sony's business went from 23 percent in '02 to 8% in '03, to 0%, where it remains today.

-- Forcing other major customers such as NEC, Acer, and Fujitsu into partial exclusivity agreements by conditioning rebates, allowances and market development funds (MDF) on customers' agreement to severely limit or forego entirely purchases from AMD;

-- Intel paid NEC several million dollars for caps on NEC's purchases from AMD. Those caps assured Intel at least 90% of NEC's business in Japan and imposed a worldwide cap on the amount of AMD business NEC could do.

-- Establishing a system of discriminatory and retroactive incentives triggered by purchases at such high levels as to have the intended effect of denying customers the freedom to purchase any significant volume of processors from AMD;

-- When AMD succeeded in getting on the HP retail roadmap for mobile computers, and its products sold well, Intel responded by withholding HP's fourth quarter 2004 rebate check and refusing to waive HP's failure to achieve its targeted rebate goal; it allowed HP to make up the
shortfall in succeeding quarters by promising Intel at least 90% of HP's mainstream retail business.

-- Threatening retaliation against customers for introducing AMD computer platforms, particularly in strategic market segments such as commercial desktop;

-- Then-Compaq CEO Michael Capellas said in 2000 that because of the volume of business given to AMD, Intel withheld delivery of critical server chips. Saying "he had a gun to his head," he told AMD he had to stop buying.

-- According to Gateway executives, their company has paid a high price for even its limited AMD dealings. They claim that Intel has "beaten them into 'guacamole'" in retaliation.

-- Establishing and enforcing quotas among key retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City, effectively requiring them to stock overwhelmingly or exclusively, Intel computers, artificially limiting consumer choice;

-- AMD has been entirely shut out from Media Markt, Europe's largest computer retailer, which accounts for 35 percent of Germany's retail sales.

-- Office Depot declined to stock AMD-powered notebooks regardless of the amount of financial support AMD offered, citing the risk of retaliation.

-- Forcing PC makers and tech partners to boycott AMD product launches or promotions;

-- Then-Intel CEO Craig Barrett threatened Acer's Chairman with "severe consequences" for supporting the AMD Athlon 64(TM) launch. This coincided with an unexplained delay by Intel in providing $15-20M in market development funds owed to Acer. Acer withdrew from the launch in September 2003.

-- Abusing its market power by forcing on the industry technical standards and products that have as their main purpose the handicapping of AMD in the marketplace.

-- Intel denied AMD access to the highest level of membership for the Advanced DRAM technology consortium to limit AMD's participation in critical industry standard decisions that would affect its business.

-- Intel designed its compilers, which translate software programs into machine-readable language, to degrade a program's performance if operated on a computer powered by an AMD microprocessor.

(Source: Beyond Unreal at http://forums.beyondunreal.com specifically http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showpost.php?p=1843006&postcount=11 )

 

I don't believe Intel is paying htose companies. AMD is just trying to justify some lower sales!! :centrino: all the way!

 

Well then how do you justify the extreme lack of AMD notebooks, the fact that most of them have very restrictive options/poor components (I would love to see an AMD + 6800 ultra but it's not going to happen), and the appearent abandoning of the Turion 64 launch despite it being competing less expensive technology as compared to Centrino? It's obvious something wrong is going on behind the scenes and Intel has too much power. They need a competitor. The facts of what they've done plus the current state of the market (all these intel-exclusive dealers or dealers offering more intel systems than AMD ones, consistently across the board) speak for themselves. Intel is a monopoly.

 

HaHa...that doesnt hold any truth, they have recently found guilty of paying off companies not to buy AMD chips in Japan by the JFTC.

:amd64-2: :amd64:

 

I'm thinking AMD could win this battle (finally). All they have to prove is that Intel used marketing practices and predatory pricing that prevented a smaller company (AMD) from selling its goods to the same people Intel was selling to. In the past (the 1990s) it generally had to be proven that such practices hurt the consumer, and most courts didn't think that it did, but lately courts have been cracking down even if the consumer does not seem directly hurt but a smaller company is.

It does kind of sound to me that Intel has been using tactics that are overly agressive, their sales channels are notorious for being very secretive and a bit on the bullying side.

 

Arrg that sounds pretty horrible. I know practically nothing about Intel vs AMD and which DESERVES to win, but if one wins, it should be in a competition. What Intel is doing is so unfair and discouraging. Then again, a good portion of business is like that. I hate business... Hope AMD wins this battle so that they have a chance to compete.

Malia

 

Re: Apple integrated iPod

The iPod scroll wheel is just a synaptics touchpad. Maybe the iPod would sense being docked with a laptop and act like a regular touchpad.

???

 

AMD vs. Intel needs to be the same as Nvidia vs. ATi. That's competition.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=19459