Every single point in this News Flash is interesting so I’m just posting the full quote. It’s good to see that the rumors about the chipset licenses are not true. ATI got a big new friend now and everyone who runs an AMD CPU should consider ATI in the future ;).

On ATI’s Intel License: There is no truth to the rumor that Intel has pulled ATI’s chipset license. We continue to ship Intel chipsets under license.

On AMD’s commitment to GPUs: The merger with AMD reinforces ATI’s position as the world’s best GPU supplier. AMD is absolutely committed to maintaining and extending that leadership. The merger gives access to AMD technologies and resources - for example, custom memory design - which will raise performance and reduce costs, further increasing ATI’s competitiveness. Also, AMD has been extraordinarily effective in the channel, and access to their know-how, experience, and network, will be a powerful plus for ATI.

On Intel platforms: AMD acquired ATI so it could be the world’s number one graphics processor supplier. AMD is absolutely committed to supporting graphics on Intel platforms. Hector Ruiz, AMD’s CEO, made this completely clear on the conference call that announced the merger. He stated that AMD wanted to increase choice in the market, and that included ATI graphics on an Intel platform.

On the gift to Nvidia: Nvidia has seen the writing on the wall, and doesn’t like what it’s saying. The PC market is a tough place to be without any friends. ATI now has all the resources of AMD behind it, and will be producing faster, more compact GPUs and reaching the channel more effectively than ever before. Nvidia’s words are bravado, designed to confuse the market while the company tries to find a way to compete now that it’s standing alone.

Intel insiders have confirmed to DailyTech that the license for ATI to manufacture chipsets for the Intel bus has not been revoked. ATI’s board of directors recently approved a takeover bid from AMD which would make ATI a division of AMD if approved.

A report on The Inquirer yesterday claims “ATI had its chipset bus license pulled, or at least not renewed by Intel.” Aside from the fact that it is probably not legal for Intel to retract the agreement, the cross-license agreement between Intel and ATI has not come up for review either. It’s not impossible to fathom that Intel would opt to not renew the ATI cross-license agreement, but at this time the agreement is still working and will continue to function until an announcement is made by Intel and ATI.

This seems to be turning into an interesting story..

AMD & ATi have officially announced their plans to merge.

The rumour mill had been running for a good month or two about AMD planning to merge with ATi.

AMD have announced their merger under a “Processing Powerhouse” slogan.

According to AMD, the companies will become a new competitor, better equipped to drive growth, innovation and choice for its customers in commercial and mobile computing segments and in rapidly-growing consumer electronics segments. The transaction, valued at US $5.4 billion, is expected to close in Q4 2006 subject to approval by ATI shareholders, court approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

AMD and ATI will develop commercial platforms that deliver simplicity, stability, and manageability in graphics-rich and mobile environments. As a combined company, AMD and ATI will advance mobile computing by delivering integrated platforms that are designed to extend battery life while optimizing graphics and media processing. AMD and ATI will deliver highly-integrated, low-cost, power-efficient solutions to meet the expanding demands of billions of new users in emerging markets.

That’s an interesting evolution. AMD will encounter problems with the new Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs and this seems to be a step forward to the battle.

No matter how advanced the technology is, sooner or later it will migrate to mainstream and even entry-level microprocessors. According to a report from an Asian web-site, AMD Sempron processors will acquire second core as early as in the Q3 2007, a year from now. “AMD’s entry-level processors will all feature dual-core architecture by the third quarter of 2007, when its last single-core CPU – the Athlon 64 – will start to be phased out in the market,” a news-story over DigiTimes web-site claims, citing industry sources.

The dual-core AMD Sempron chips, which are likely to be called Sempron X2, are expected to be produced using 65nm process technology, thus, will not consume a lot of power. Cache sizes and clock-speeds are unclear, however, the chips are to be compatible with socket AM2 and will feature dual-channel PC2-6400 (DDR2 800MHz) memory controller.

Sounds like the dual-core Technology will be something to count on. I still remember the Intel hyperthreading technology (HT) which weren’t that successful in the end.

The first functional prototype of the $100 laptop was recently unveiled at the Seven Countries Task Force meeting last week. These computers will be made available to children in third world and developing countries through the One Laptop Per Child initiative.

The $100 laptop is no longer expected to cost $100 when it is expected to be made available during mid-2007. Rather, the price will initially be about $135. The $100 price point won’t be possible until late 2008, and won’t be a reality until at least 5 million units have been manufactured. The price may drop below $100 eventually, when even more units are produced.

The increase in price is significant - over 40% - however, governments still seem to be interested. A meeting was recently held and attended by representatives from Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, Nigeria, India and several other countries, who all expressed interest in the program.

The laptops will be available in shades of green, yellow & orange, and blue (see photo). It is important to note that the screen displays on the prototypes are 25% smaller than those that will be mass produced. Each of the laptops in the photo is slightly different - some include speakers and four-way controllers around the screen, while some do not. The laptops will run on Linux technology, which significantly reduces costs and may in turn help catapult Linux into more mainstream acceptance.

For more photos of the laptops, check out the photoset on Flickr.

If you can’t afford to buy a new computer, why not try a pay-as-you-go PC?  It sounds a bit weird, but Microsoft is hoping that this will take off and work in the same fashion as a prepaid mobile phones.

The computers were released today in Brazil, and are powered by FlexGo, a technology that lets users pay by the hour using cards bought from local vendors.

A consumer would pay roughly half the cost of a regular PC for a FlexGo powered PC, and from then on would purchase prepaid cards for hourly access to the computer.  When the card runs out, the computer stops working and you must buy a new card to use it again.

A computer that would normally cost $600 would cost $300 if it was powered by FlexGo, and would include 10 hours of usage time.  The prepaid cards will then need to be purchased to, in theory, pay off the rest of the cost of the computer.

Microsoft has not said how much more it would be to buy a FlexGo PC than a traditional PC.  Interest rates and financing models will vary by market.

FlexGo computers will be equipped with 80GB hard drive, 17 inch monitors, 512 megabytes memory, and a variety of processors.

Microsoft is working with Lenovo Group Ltd. and others to produce these new computers, and will be launching them within the next 90 days in several other countries, including: Mexico, China, Russia, and India.

Personally, I just think its another way for Microsoft to try to extract money out of every possible person they can.  With this new financing option, those with lower incomes may be able to get a PC for the first time.  The goal seems to be to get these emerging markets dependent on Microsoft, so that they won’t want to use other competing or even open-source products.