What IBM's x86 exit may mean for rivals

By Patrick Thibodeau in Computer World

Computerworld - IBM's reported interest in selling parts of its x86 server business to Lenovo may bring major changes to the global market.

IBM is the third-largest seller of x86 servers by factory revenue, with 15.7% of the global market in 2012, according to IDC. That represents $5.6 billion for a company that earned $104.5 billion in revenue last year.

IBM's share of the x86 server segment has declined over the last several years. In 2010, it had 17.4% of the market and $5.5 billion in revenue.

By divesting at least part of its x86 server line, IBM gains additional investment dollars that it can spend on its higher margin efforts, especially its analytics and business intelligence, putting more pressure on rivals in these areas.

Lenovo, which is on its way to becoming the world's top PC vendor, may gain more than an x86 server line. It may also get, as part of any deal, IBM executive talent and capability to reach North American customers served today by Hewlett-Packard and Dell, said Richard Fichera, an analyst at Forrester.

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Lenovo Set to Design Own Microprocessors - Report.

by Anton Shilov

Lenovo Group, one of the largest suppliers of personal computers in the world, is developing its own system-on-chip solution for mobile devices, a media report claims. The application processors are set to be integrated into the new generation of media tablets and smartphones offered by the company.

Lenovo, which only had a small IC design team that employed around 10 people over the last decade, is now committed to expanding this team to about 100 engineers by the middle of this year, according to a China-based industry source with direct knowledge of Lenovo’s recruitment of chip designers, reports EETimes web-site.

Read Full story @ X-bit Labs

Intel Unveils First Ever Smartphone Featuring x86 Microprocessors - X-bit labs

Intel Unveils First Ever Smartphone Featuring x86 Microprocessors - X-bit labs:
At the Consumer Electronics Show 2012, Intel Corp. introduced the world's first smartphone based on the company's Atom Z2460 platform formerly code-named Medfield. The new Lenovo K800 handset will be available in Q2 2012 in China and will be the first smartphone ever to use an x86 microprocessor.

No precise specifications of the Lenovo K800 are available at the moment, but what is known is that the device sports 4.5" screen (with up to 1280*1024 resolution) and has Hyper-Threading technology activated, which points to the fact that the K800 belongs to high-end (so-called "superphones") breed of products.

Intel Medfield is powered by Atom architecture 1.60GHz x86 core with Hyper-Threading technology, enhanced Intel Deeper Sleep, C6E estate, S0i1/S0i3 power reduction features and 512KB of cache. The SoC also includes Intel GMA graphics core (OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenGL 2.1, OpenVG 1.1, 400MHz) with hardware accelerated high-definition 1080p video playback, 32-bit LPDDR2 memory controller, Intel's new image signal processor and various improvements to speed up various multimedia or security demands. The Atom Z2460 SoC can dynamically scale its clock-speeds and also supports the new Smart Idle technology (SIT) which enables it to switch off while the operating systems remains in the "on" state (S0); the technique takes full advantage of clock and distributed power gating across power islands and can instantly resume from idle states thanks to L2 cache peculiarities. The new chip is in production now using 32nm process technology.

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HP shift on PCs could boost rivals - Computerworld

HP shift on PCs could boost rivals - Computerworld

Computerworld - With Hewlett-Packard (HP) likely spinning off its PC manufacturing business, other major vendors will almost certainly be looking for a way to get a bigger piece of the hardware pie.

HP announced on Thursday that, among other moves, it is may sell its PC manufacturing business. That news rocked the hardware industry since HP is by far the dominant PC maker in the world.

So while HP decides just what to do, PC makers like Dell, Acer and Lenovo should be plotting their next move, say industry analysts.

Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group, said HP's shift could easily be great news for other major vendors who want to take advantage of it. After all, companies and consumers may not be so quick to buy HP desktops or laptops if they feel the company or products are in flux.

That could mean more business for the other top vendors.

"Whoever takes over HP's PC business could, if it is successful, emerge in 18 months as very powerful. But, for those 18 months, the others will be able to gain share at HP's cost," said Enderle. "The leader is weakened until the divestiture stabilizes, and there is no certainty it will be successful. This will focus the others on HP's share."

All of these changes come just as the PC market isshifting into a slower pace.

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