According to a recent report from Bloomberg, Intel is in talks with investment banks about a possible spin-out of its foundry business, as well as scraping some existing expansion plans to cut losses. As the report highlights, sources close to Intel noted that the company is exploring various ways to deal with the recent Q2 2024 earnings report. While Intel's revenues are in decline, they are still high. However, the profitability of running its business has declined so much that the company is now operating on a net loss, with an astonishing $1.61 billion in the red. CEO Pat Gelsinger is now exploring various ways to control these losses and make the 56-year-old giant profitable again. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are reportedly advising Intel about its future moves regarding the foundry business and overall operations.

The Intel Foundry unit represents the biggest consumer of the company's funds, as the expansion plans across the US and Europe are costing Intel billions of US Dollars. Even though the company receives various state subsidies to build semiconductor manufacturing facilities, it still has to put much of its capital to work. Given that the company is running tight on funds, some of these expansion plans that are not business-critical may get scraped. Additionally, running the foundry business is also turning out to be rather costly, with Q2 2024 recording a negative 65.5% operating margin. Separating Intel Product and Intel Foundry may be an option, or even selling the foundry business as a whole is on the table. Whatever happens next is yet to be cleared up. During the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference on Thursday, Pat Gelsinger also noted that "It's been a difficult few weeks" for Intel, with many employees getting laid off to try to establish new cost-saving measures.

Today, Intel announced the release of its newest quantum research chip, Tunnel Falls, a 12-qubit silicon chip, and it is making the chip available to the quantum research community. In addition, Intel is collaborating with the Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS) at the University of Maryland, College Park's Qubit Collaboratory (LQC), a national-level Quantum Information Sciences (QIS) Research Center, to advance quantum computing research.

"Tunnel Falls is Intel's most advanced silicon spin qubit chip to date and draws upon the company's decades of transistor design and manufacturing expertise. The release of the new chip is the next step in Intel's long-term strategy to build a full-stack commercial quantum computing system. While there are still fundamental questions and challenges that must be solved along the path to a fault-tolerant quantum computer, the academic community can now explore this technology and accelerate research development."—Jim Clarke, director of Quantum Hardware, Intel

Acer today announced its refreshed range of TravelMate business laptops for SMB (Small- and Medium- Sized Businesses) and hybrid workers, offering them a wider choice of mobility and performance. Each of the durable Acer TravelMate P4, TravelMate Spin P4 and TravelMate P2 laptops offer workers at the office, home or on the move a highly refined experience with larger touchpads and quieter key presses with a comfortable 1.55 mm travel distance. These durable laptops are designed to deliver powerful performance throughout the work day, enhanced security, advanced connectivity and military-grade durability. They are engineered to handle real life situations such as being bumped through an airport security checkpoint or accidentally dropped, and meet MIL-STD 810H specifications, meaning they can withstand drops, humidity and water spills.

The Acer TravelMate P2, TravelMate P4, and TravelMate Spin P4 laptops provide business-grade security and productivity. These Microsoft Secured-core PCs deliver advanced security down to the firmware level. A SecureBio fingerprint reader and IR camera with a privacy shutter support Windows Hello for secure logins. All models offer advanced connectivity with Wi-Fi 6 to ensure a smoother wireless experience, and optional LTE support so business travelers can enjoy immediate connectivity to local networks.

Acer today unveiled three new Chromebooks designed for consumers needing a secure, easy-to-use, and affordable device for productivity, entertainment and communication. These new Chromebooks come in three sizes and form factors, and are furnished with everything consumers need, plus exceptional audio and video technology for entertainment and video conferencing.

"This new trio of Acer Chromebooks offers the best of several worlds; they deliver solid performance capabilities, have great extra features, and give users the latest technology while staying within budget," said James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, IT Products Business, Acer Inc. "Today's users need a reliable, easy-to-use means to stay productive, connected and entertained when they're at home—these three new Acer Chromebooks fit that bill."

Everspin Technologies, Inc., the world's leading developer and manufacturer of Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), today announced an amendment of its Spin-transfer Torque (STT-MRAM) joint development agreement (JDA) with GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF ), the world's leading specialty foundry. Everspin and GF have been partners on 40 nm, 28 nm, and 22 nm STT-MRAM development and manufacturing processes and have now updated their agreement to set the terms for a future project on an advanced 12 nm FinFET MRAM solution. Everspin is in production of discrete STT-MRAM solutions on 40 and 28 nm, including its award winning 1 Gb DDR4 device. GF recently announced it has achieved initial production of embedded MRAM (eMRAM) on its 22FDX platform.

It's only a matter of time before microchip production as we know it disappears entirely, at least for leading-edge tech designs. Either via new materials applied to trusted techniques (such as carbon coating/nanotubes) or entirely new and exotic fabrication technologies, we're rapidly approaching the limits of traditional silicon-based microchips. One solution to the problem, as it stands, might be found in spintronics - an interesting concept which bases processing and data retention not simply on whether current is being applied to a given transistor (as is the case for current silicon chips), but on a property of electrons called spin. Crucially, changing the magnetic orientation of electrons requires but a single charge, instead of a continued supply of power - which allows for much lower power consumption and heat output, two of the encroaching, limiting factors for the usual chips.