"With the Embedded Initiative, Altera is enabling designers in markets such as automotive, industrial, military and wireless to easily leverage a rich ecosystem of processor, OS and IP support all through a single design flow, and to reduce overall system cost..."

Earlier this week Samsung unveiled the new processor for smartphones, tablets and netbooks, which is codenamed Orion. Analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said our "checks suggest that this processor also uses ARM GPU".

China-based Hanvon has selected Freescale Semiconductor's i.MX51 applications processor for its next-generation e-reader products.

2011 will likely see the release of a more powerful series of smart phones thanks to a new Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm. And of course there will be another set of Apple iPhones and iPads next year, which will have their own ARM processor, most probably running at faster speeds than the 1GHz at present.

The Medfield platform will include a power-efficient version of the Atom processor, which will be integrated inside a chip code-named Penwell, according to a document originally posted on Intel's website, which is still available on Google cache.

The rumored RIM tablet may have a 7-inch screen, a 1GHz processor and dual cameras.

Their system-on-a-chip (SoC) platform is based on ARM's Cortex-A9 processor and Globalfoundries' 28nm manufacturing process, and will be used in smartphones, tablets and smartbooks.

By the end of 2011, ARM will be a "small but significant" PC processor architecture, said a Gartner analyst.

AMD's first quarter earnings, as expected, show the amount of red ink on the company's balance sheet is growing. Still, there was a slight bump in processor revenues, though unfortunately the company's GPU business is still down.

In a recent interview, Globalfoundries vice president of manufacturing systems and technology Tom Sonderman said that the company plans to make GPUs using 28nm processes in the near future.

Sony's new 20x super-zoom camera uses a more powerful processor so it can eliminate noise, capture 10 frames per second, record 1080p HD video, and merge pictures for panoramic shots just by whipping the camera around.

Freescale Semiconductor cut more jobs in Austin and elsewhere Wednesday as part of a yearlong campaign to reduce costs in the face of weak market demand. Through the end of January, Freescale had disclosed 228 job cuts in Austin. The company employed about 5,000 people in Austin and 23,000 worldwide before this week's job actions.

Global chipmakers, battling slower technology demand, are betting size matters as they pin their hopes for future growth on small and easy to carry mobile devices such as netbooks and smartphones.

ARM, the company that has designed most of the processors in mobile phones, on Monday announced a new, low-cost processor called "Sparrow" at the Mobile World Congress trade show. The company said it is aiming to conquer the netbook market with its multi-core Cortex A9 architecture.