I'm sure Intel has multi-millions somewhere stocked. We won't be seeing that company going down,even if the recession takes another year or two.

You're probably right ProDig.

Intel hasn't been known to mismanage funds and has been running in the black for a loooong time now. They also don't hesitate to down size when its beneficial seeming to prefer shrinking instead of risking having too much red ink at the bottom line.

In the position they are now...they can afford to be careful.

Don't forget the millions Intel is spending trying to bully AMD and NVIDIA into paying more for licensing rights. That's going to bite them in the end too (especially when AMD and NVIDIA don't back-down and just pay Intel what it wants).

"We are seeing signs that the bottom of the PC market segment has been reached."

I have to agree, I built a box last November and i saw a lot of parts actually go up slightly a few months after and other parts now are only 10-15% bellow what i paid for them which is less depreciation then you normally see in a 7 month period on PC parts.

atom sales are weak because people want the DUAL CORE version in their netbook instead of this CRAP single core.....and are probably holding out in hopes of an ion based netbook.

i bought my daughter an acer aspire one....it IS a cool laptop, but why not add a dual core instead of a single?

and why not an ion chipset and a 720p screen?

1024x600 is really lame.

also it would be COOL to have HDMI output on a netbook.

they would be killer if this happened.

everyone who wanted one bought one? so lower sales now?

Lower your prices and you'll do better, much better.
Easy as that.

Misinformation abound in these comments. Atom sales are down from Q4 because many OEM built large inventories in Q4 due to the popularity of netbooks. Intel is forecasting a roughly 2X increase in sales for 2009 compared to 2008...I guess that's 'slowing' for the haters?

AMD does not pay Intel a SINGLE PENNY for licensing! They are not trying to bully more fees out of them, because they don't pay any! They have a royalty free cross-license. What they are trying to do is ensure the spinoff, ummm 'subsidiary', of Global foundries meets the contractual agreement and that the license isn't transferred to them (as AMD can't do that without INTEL's OK).

Intel has ~10Bil in cash on hand, even with handing out just under 1Bil/year in dividends.

Thank you, I knew this same information as you. AMD made a new company to make processors, which wasnt ok. AMD CAN make them tho, just not that Global watever its called company.

I'm pretty surprised that the media jumps on this information about the Atom likes it's really news. A revenue drop from fourth quarter to first quarter? Wow, that's really news! That really never happens. It's a sequential drop, it's what happens from fourth quarter to first quarter.

On top of this, there was some anticipation of the new units coming out.

I'd have no worries at all about the Atom, but I guess people have to write stories so they make a big deal out of something that's really not. If it were a year to year drop it would be a little more meaningful.

Oh, and AMD does pay royalties to Intel. AMD mentioned this is passing a few months, in a story about NVIDIA trying to make an x86 processor.

Here's an old link, but it applies to the 1995 agreement.

Under the terms of the settlement, both companies gained free access to each other's patents in a cross-licensing agreement. AMD agreed to pay Intel royalties for making chips based on the x86 architecture, said Mulloy, who worked for AMD when the settlement was drafted. Royalties, he added, only go one way. AMD does get to collect royalties from Intel for any patents Intel might adopt.

http://news.cnet.com/AMD-compatibi [...] 59067.html