Ben Ames

Dell Inc. has stepped away from long-time supplier Intel Corp., launching one desktop that spurns the chipmaker's vPro business bundle and two others that use processors from chipmaking competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD).

NEC Corp. executives are negotiating the sale of the company's Packard Bell division, reportedly to eMachines founder Lap Shun "John" Hui. The move would leave NEC without a consumer PC brand, while it continues to supply the European professional market with NEC-branded computers.

IBM Corp. has begun shipping millions of microprocessors to Nintendo Co. Ltd., keeping the gaming company on track to launch its Wii gaming console.

Intel Corp. formally announced its "Merom" chip for notebooks Monday, as vendors including Dell Inc's Alienware, Gateway Inc. and Toshiba America Inc. announced new models built around the processor.

Intel Corp. hopes its "Tulsa" chip for multiprocessor servers

Sun Microsystems Inc. launched three

Sony Corp. has promised to share the cost of a massive battery recall announced by Dell Inc. after a series of notebook PCs burst into flames.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) on Tuesday released a new version of its Opteron processor, the popular server chip that has made AMD a serious competitor of rival Intel Corp.