SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Intel Corp has
agreed to make chips on behalf of Altera, a significant
step toward opening its prized manufacturing technology to
customers on a larger scale, potentially including Apple
.

Intel will make Altera’s programmable chips using its
upcoming 14 nanometer trigate transistor technology, the most
significant agreement of its kind announced so far by the
world’s top chipmaker.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Altera(ALTR.O: Quote, Profile, Research) announced an agreement with Intel Corp (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Monday for the manufacture of its programmable chips using Intel’s cutting-edge 14 nanometer technology, gaining an edge over rivals by accessing industry-leading chipmaking technology.

Altera, which with Xilinx(XLNX.O: Quote, Profile, Research) dominates the market for programmable microchips, touted its pact with the world’s top chipmaker as a major competitive advantage, as a slowdown in telecoms infrastructure spending continues to erode sales growth.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 24 (Reuters) – PC chipmaker Intel Inc
hopes its new smartphone processor will help it find a
foothold in a mobile market coalescing around Apple AAPL.O>,
Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm.

Intel says its latest processor for mainstream smartphones,
dubbed Clover Trail+, delivers up to double the computing
performance and three times the graphics horsepower of its first
smartphone chip, which was used last year in devices sold in
Europe, Africa, China and India.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Shares of companies that sell 3D printers fell on Thursday after Citron Research said they were vastly overvalued and that the technology, highlighted this week by U.S. President Barack Obama, has been hyped.

Makers of 3D printers in recent years have turned an evolving technology used by manufacturers for over two decades toward consumers, offering the prospect of producing everything from toys to tools in the home, and sending their share prices soaring.

, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Moving ideas from
sketches on napkins to factory floors is often the toughest
stage for a startup entrepreneur. Flextronics International Ltd
thinks it can help with that.

The contract manufacturer, which produces the Xbox game
console for Microsoft Corp and smartphones for Google
Inc, as well as networking equipment and other
electronics gear, has upgraded its campus in Milpitas,
California, with equipment aimed at creating product prototypes
for customers in a hurry.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Nvidia gave a
revenue outlook for the current quarter that missed
expectations, pointing to a slowing PC industry and slower
production of tablets using its chips ahead of the release of
newer models.

With PC sales losing ground to tablets, Nvidia is betting on
its graphics expertise to make high-performance processors for
mobile devices. Its earnings rose more than expected in the
fourth quarter with its chips appearing in popular devices from
Google.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Nvidia posted higher fiscal fourth-quarter earnings but its outlook for the current quarter missed expectations as the graphics chipmaker faces more competition in a growing tablet market where it hopes to offset soft PC demand.

With PC sales losing ground to tablets, Nvidia is betting on its graphics expertise to make high-performance processors for mobile devices.

DANA POINT, California (Reuters) – Top chipmaker Intel Corp (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to launch an Internet television service this year with live and on-demand content, entering a hotly competitive race as its core PC business erodes.

Shifting into an unfamiliar and potentially costly market in which Intel lacks experience and relationships, Erik Huggers, vice president and general manager of Intel Media, said he is negotiating with content providers.

, Feb 12 (Reuters) – Intel Corp
plans to launch an online television service this year that will
stream live TV as well as provide content on demand, confirming
reports that the world’s top chipmaker is getting into the media
market.

Intel is currently negotiating deals with content providers,

Erik Huggers, vice president and general manager of Intel
Media, told the AllThingsDigital “Dive into Media” conference on
Tuesday.

SUNNYVALE, California (Reuters) – Chipmaker Applied Micro Circuits Corp believes selling low-power processors for cloud data centers run by the likes of Facebook, Google and Amazon.com Inc could account for half of its business within three years.

AppliedMicro is one of a handful of chipmakers betting that energy-efficient microservers will become widely used in data centers and it appears to have an early advantage among rivals keen to challenge Intel.