Stories by Ben Ames

Analysts skeptical of AMD outsourcing plan

Advanced Micro Devices's move to cut overhead costs by outsourcing its chip manufacturing business may backfire in the long run, according to several analysts who have downgraded the company's stock.

Vista and notebooks boost PC sales

Attracted by aggressive prices and the launch of Microsoft's Windows Vista OS, consumers purchased more notebooks during the first quarter than expected, pushing IDC to raise its 2007 PC industry forecast.

PC shipments rise on notebook sales

Dell denies plan to exit LCD TV business

Dell will sell a wider variety of television sets made by other manufacturers over its Web site, but denied reports that it plans to stop making LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs.

HP, IBM add to blade PC market

Hewlett-Packard is sticking with processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) in a new family of blade PCs designed to compete with offerings from IBM.

Barcelona delay could hurt AMD earnings

AMD will delay its launch of the Barcelona quad-core Opteron server chip from its expected date in July until October, setting the company back in its effort to compete with new processors from Intel, according to analyst reports.

IBM borrows Power6 design for telephony chips

IBM is pulling out the heavy artillery in its quest to build custom chips for both telephony backbone and handheld wireless devices, announcing a processor family built with silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology that is usually reserved for server pr...

Dell to lay off 10 percent of employees, Australia safe

Dell will lay off 10 per cent of its 88,100 workers, in a continuing effort to improve profits as the company also completes an investigation of accounting fraud.

OLPC seeks educational games for XO laptop

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project is asking software coders to develop free, open-source educational computer games for the XO laptop, continuing its push toward a September launch date.

Dell moves beyond direct sales with Wal-Mart deal

Dell will begin selling two models of its desktop PCs at Wal-Mart Stores in the US on June 10, fulfilling a series of recent hints from CEO Michael Dell that the company would move beyond the direct sales model that once made it the world's largest P...

PDA sales surge in Q1 on GPS, e-mail, Gartner says

Even though major vendors have shifted their focus to expensive and profitable smartphones, shipments of PDAs (personal digital assistants) jumped nearly 40 percent in the first quarter of 2007, according to a new survey

Intel, STMicroelectronics merge flash units

In a continuing search for profits in the flash memory business, Intel and STMicroelectronics agreed on Tuesday to spin off some of their chip units to create a new semiconductor company.

Gartner: IBM, HP lead server market thanks to x86 sales

IBM edged out Hewlett-Packard in first-quarter server revenue, as both companies relied on a rebound in sales of x86-based computers, according to a market report released Tuesday.

Dell steps closer to enlisting sales partners

Dell is moving forward with plans to begin selling PCs through solution providers, channel partners and retail partners, instead of sticking with the pure direct sales model championed by company founder, Michael Dell.

AMD strikes back at Intel with Puma notebooks

Hustling to keep up with Intel's "Santa Rosa" notebook PC system, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) said Friday it planned to launch its own new bundle of mobile processors and chipsets, code-named "Puma."