Intel’s move to mobile is picking up steam. The company has unveiled Silvermont, a new architecture that Intel says delivers three times the peak performance of its current Atom processors. Silvermont will be made using Intel’s 22-nanometer process. The company says it has already shipped 100 million 22-nanometer chips, and is on track to ship [...]

Intel has picked its new CEO, and T-Mobile USA has completed its merger with MetroPCS. Today’s Mobile Minute: T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS are now one company. Their merger was completed yesterday and the merged company is trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The symbol is TMUS and at last check the stock was trading just [...]

The semiconductor market is expected to improve in 2013, and first quarter results from leading mobile chipmakers support that forecast. Intel showed continued weakness, but chipmakers that primarily supply mobile device makers did very well. Intel The world’s largest chipmaker is working hard to break into mobile, but the company’s revenue and earnings are still [...]

Heavy spending on research and development could depress profits somewhat in the short-term for chip giant Qualcomm, and that has investors bailing out of the stock today. The leading maker of chips for mobile devices also pointed to Asian competition as a concern going forward. But for the quarter ending March 31, Qualcomm beat Wall [...]

Intel makes its move in SDN Intel is courting the carriers with hardware and software to enable software-defined networking (SDN). The company’s reference designs use standard x86 servers and programmable switches to virtualize networks. “SDN and NFV are critical elements of Intel’s vision to transform the expensive, complex networks of today to a virtualized, programmable, [...]

Intel (INTC) said in its first quarter earnings call that its tablet business is doubling every quarter, with first quarter semiconductor shipments to tablet makers twice as high as the volumes from fourth quarter, and second quarter shipments expected to be double first quarter volume. The company said its smartphone business is growing, and that [...]

Nvidia delays Tegra 4 launch Nvidia (NVDA) says it will delay the launch of its Tegra 4 processor and accelerate the launch of the Tegra 4i, which integrates an LTE modem. Nvidia calls the Tegra 4 the world’s fastest mobile processor, a claim that has been supported by independent analysts. But the company clearly sees [...]

Semiconductor startup Quantance has raised another $12 million from investors including DoCoMo Capital, TD Fund, Granite Ventures, InterWest Partners and DoCoMo Capital. The company makes power supply chips that use envelope tracking technology. Envelope tracking regulates power in LTE phones by matching radio power input with output. Battery life has been a significant problem for [...]

Apple is finally ending its relationship with Samsung Semiconductor, according to a report in The Korea Times. For years Apple’s devices have used mobile processors made by Samsung, and some say the expertise Samsung gained while making chips for Apple helped it create the chips for its own top-selling smartphones. Now that those phones are [...]

Gartner estimates worldwide chip sales at $300 billion for 2012, and IHS iSuppli puts the number at $304 billion. Both firms agree that worldwide semiconductor sales were down more than 2% last year, with sales falling at most of the major chip companies. IHS iSuppli said that only eight chipmakers on its list reported sales [...]