Only three weeks ago, Intel unveiled its 45 nm fabrication technology in the shape of the Penryn processor. However, the only model available at launch was the Extreme Edition model QX9650. Since the Extreme Edition models have always come in at just under $1,470, the energy efficient 45 nm technology will remain out of reach for most users. In other words, for now there will be no revolution in the mass market. As we were gearing up to cover the launch of AMD’s highly anticipated Phenom quad-core processor, we received an email with the following information (our paraphrase). Intel is planning to unveil a new 45 nm processor with the designation Core 2 Extreme QX9770 only hours before AMD launches its new processor. This new part will become available in the first quarter of 2008. (Full article ‘Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770: Paper Tiger?’)

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development said on Friday it had bought 8.1 percent of US-based AMD, the second-largest maker of computer processors.

“We have already bought the stake as of today,” Mubdala’s chief operating officer, Waleed al-Mokarrab al-Muhairi, told Reuters in a text message.

He did not say how much Mubadala, owned by the government of the world’s sixth-largest oil exporter, had paid for the stake.

AMD said in a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday it would sell up to $700m (340m) in common stock and use the proceeds for general corporate purposes.

An 8.1 percent stake in AMD would be worth more than $550m at the stock’s last traded price.

The deal would cost Mubadala about $700m, the Financial Times said on Friday, citing people close to the situation.

The company was likely to welcome the investment after reporting its fourth consecutive quarter of losses last month in the face of competition from rival Intel, the world’s biggest chipmaker, the paper said.

Still, the deal could attract the attention of the US Committee on Foreign Investment, which vets acquisitions by overseas investors, particularly in technology and defence companies, on national security grounds, it said.

A spokesman for AMD declined to comment on a deal, and said that, contrary to the Financial Times report, the company’s work did not include government contracts.

AMD has been strapped for cash since its $5.4bn purchase of Canadian graphics chip company ATI.

250 GB notebook hard drives have been around since June of this year, when Western Digital launched its latest WD2500BEVS Scorpio drive. But others followed quickly: Samsung also has a 250 GB model, the Spinpoint M5S HM250JI, and Fujitsu has the MHY2 that we haven’t reviewed yet. The same applies to Toshiba’s 46GSX series, and Seagate is ramping up its fourth generation Momentus, the 5400.4. But for now, it is Hitachi that wants to take the 2.5″ notebook drive crown. The Travelstar 7K200 is aimed at outperforming its competitors, while the 5K250 is positioned to deliver both high performance and maximum capacity. The performance differences in the 3.5″ desktop hard drive segment have been less significant than advances made in the 2.5″ notebook drive space. (Full article ‘TravelStar 7K200 and 5K250 Beat the Band’)

Damaged. Lost. Stolen. Too big, too small. Insecure and unreliable. And just plain annoying. If you’re in IT, there’s just not much to like about laptops.

To be sure, portable computers have changed the way business operates, so much so that we literally cannot imagine a work life without them. That said, IT professionals, whether they’re dealing with accident-prone users or keeping the network secure, say laptops are nothing short of a support nightmare.

Some cope by outsourcing support altogether (see To outsource or not at the end of this article); others by rigidly adhering to standards and trying not to personally take the hate mail they receive from disgruntled end users.

(Full article ‘10 things we hate about laptops’)

Today marks a historic occasion for AMD. After delays of more than a year, the company can finally present its new, highly anticipated processor - and not a moment too soon. AMD needs a fresh product. While this CPU was originally meant as a competitor to Intel’s Core 2 CPUs, the balance of power in the CPU arena has shifted over the past 18 months. The new processor, dubbed Phenom by AMD, is the first quad-core CPU by AMD and, as the company likes to remind us, the first native quad-core design. The exhaustion in the faces of our editors in the Munich lab is a testament to the hard work they’ve put into this article over the past few hours and days. We tested all three models of the new processor, the Phenom 9700, Phenom 9600 and Phenom 9500 , running each of them through our benchmark suite. (Full article ‘Phenom 9700, AMD’s 1st Quad-Core CPU’)