2006: Important events in the field of PC and chip

A series of interesting issues such as: AMD merged with ATI; Macs run on Intel chip platforms; laptop battery recovery; Intel fired thousands of workers; The US Department of Justice investigates the market of SRAM and graphics chips; Intel launches quad-core chips for PC .

Mac runs on Intel chips

In January 2006, Apple Computer marketed the first Mac running on Intel processor platform, replacing the IBM and Motorola chips as they once did, fulfilling the promise made half a year earlier. (June 2006) of the company's board of directors. Apple quickly equipped Intel Core Duo chips for PowerPC, iMac, MacBook Pro (15-inch), and MacBook (13-inch) models.

The move also allows Apple to expand its own operating system. In April 2006, Apple launched Boot Camp software that allows Macs - Intel chips to choose to run on OS X (Apple) or Windows XP (Microsoft).

AMD merged with ATI

In July 2006, AMD announced it would buy Canadian graphics chip maker ATI Technologies for $ 5.4 billion. Thanks to integrating its processor with ATI chipsets, AMD can sell multiple technology-integrated platforms that will compete with Intel's technology packages such as Centrino, Viiv, and VPro. ATI merged with AMD, the remaining market for Nvidia is a graphics chip vendor.

In November 2006, Nvidia also announced that it would scale up the company by buying a vendor of digital media player for digital media player - PortalPlayer for $ 357 million.

Revoke laptop battery

In August 2006, Dell decided to recall 4.1 million sets of laptop batteries after a series of reports from customers said the batteries had caught fire and caused fires. Dell's move is "responsive" by a host of other manufacturers such as Sony (recalling 8.1 million battery packs), Apple, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Lenovo, and Toshiba.

Intel restructured, fired thousands of employees

In September 2006, Intel gave out 10,500 employees, equivalent to 10% of its employees. Intel's decision to "realize" the restructuring promise made by Intel CEO Paul Otellini earlier, including selling off some business units; laid off nearly 1,000 leaders, and resold the smartphone chip maker XScale.

Otellini blamed the slow development of the PC market when he predicted Intel's 2006 profit would be only about $ 9.3 billion, lower than 2005's $ 12.1 million. Analysts also pointed out that Intel's revenue was down because it lowered chip prices in an effort to compete with the rival AMD.

US Department of Justice investigates SRAM market

In October 2006, the US Department of Justice decided to investigate the business operations of the SRAM memory chip market, and blacklisted a range of firms such as Cypress Semiconductor, Mitsubishi Electric, Samsung Electronics, Sony Electronics, and Toshiba. . Shortly after that, the US Justice Department has gathered sufficient evidence and ruled on companies for millions of dollars because of the price settlement of SRAM products.

Not only that, December 2006, the US Department of Justice continued to investigate the market for graphics chips with questions like AMD and Nividia. These firms have been forced to provide documents that prove that they do not perform monopoly acts on the market.

Meanwhile, AMD went on to fight persistent antitrust with Intel, which accused Intel of preventing some manufacturers from using AMD chips. This lawsuit is expected to be tried in April 2009.

HP surpassed Dell to become the world's largest PC supplier

In October 2006, HP surpassed Dell to become the world's largest PC supplier, after exactly a year since Dell "flooded" in a series of financial investigations by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and its disappointing revenue reports.

Meanwhile, HP also has its own problems, the most prominent is the internal spy scandal, causing a series of "big ears" to go out, including CEO Patricia Dunn.

Intel launches quad-core chips for PCs

In December 2006, Intel launched the first quad-core chip for major PC and server systems, continuing its efforts to gain market share with rival AMD. The new chip includes versions: Core 2 Extreme QX6700 - for gamers; Xeon 5300 - for servers; Core 2 Duo (codename "Conroe") - for PC; and "Woodcrest" Xeon 5100 - for servers.

Meanwhile, AMD also promises to release a quad-core version of Opteron 8000 (codename "Barcelona") for servers around the second quarter of next year.