Intel is the biggest CPU maker in the world and is routinely far ahead of AMD, its closest rival, in sales. The poor global economy has meant that PC sales are down and that means that Intel’s CPU sales are down as well.

Intel announced the financials for Q2 2009 and reported a net loss of $398. The quarter also reports the $1.45 billion fine by the European Commission. Intel has revenue in the quarter of $8 billion and without counting the EC fine. The company had an operating income of $1.4 billion and a net income of $1 billion.

Remember the BenQ MID S6 that we told you about last year? The Mobile Internet Device is now available for purchase. The device features a 4.8-inch high-resolution touchscreen display, built-in 3.5G and Wi-Fi connectivity, and has embedded VoIP functionality.

The BenQ MID S6 is the first MID equipped with built-in Windows XP Home Edition and embedded VoIP in Taiwan. In addition to letting you browse the internet at any time, it can also function as a digital photo frame to share all of your pics with family and friends.

One of the coolest things to read about for gadget and technology fans is the gear we will be using in the future. You only have to look at the huge interest that the iPhone 3G S generated before it was officially announced to see that future products are very popular.

Intel held its Research@Intel day yesterday and unveiled some of the projects that the chipmaker is working on in its labs. One of the things covered was the platform power manager, a key technology behind the Moorestown platform and an integral component of the Atom processor that will end up in MIDs and smartphones.

MIDs and mobile phones are growing in capability and performance all the time. Intel launched its Moorestown MID platform not so long ago that promises higher performance computing in portable devices with low power consumption.

At Computex this week Elektrobit (EB) has unveiled a reference design for a MID that is built on the Intel Moorestown platform. The design is targeting wireless and PC OEMs looking for a MID design that can be customized to meet their needs.

It’s no surprise that Intel unveiled a bunch of new processors at Computex. The T9900, P9700, P8800, SU2700 processors and GS40 chipset. The T9900 Core 2 Duo stands out from the crowd, clocked at a fast 3.06 GHz, which makes it the first Penryn-based Core 2 Duo chip to accomplish that. The P9700 and P8800 are “performance kickers” that pack a whole lot of super-fast cache memory.

The SU2700 is aimed at ultra-thin laptops, which is where Intel predicts a “boom” this year. Decent performance and low-power is the key here.

One of the things that the new Intel Core i7 platform offered that was good or bad depending on how you looked at it was support for triple-channel RAM and lower power consumption. The good was that the machines offered more memory bandwidth and needed less power. The bad was that those looking to upgrade to the new platform couldn’t use memory already on hand.

Kingston has now announced its first 12GB triple channel DDR3 HyperX memory kit specifically for the Intel Core i7 platform. The kit includes three 4GB RAM modules and operates at 1600MHz. The RAM is optimized for XMP.

Typically when you think about a server you think about massive, power gulping machines with lots of performance packed with multiple CPUs and lots of RAM. Some applications don’t need all that power though and would work just as well on lower performance servers optimized for power savings.

Supermicro has announced a pair of new servers to suit the low performance, low power needs in the datacenter. The servers are both based on the Intel Atom processor and the most efficient of the pair needs 4W of power while the higher performance server needs 8W.

It’s hard to believe that with the popularity and adoption rate of netbooks today that the devices only hit the market at the end of 2007. At the beginning of the netbook revolution the machines lacked a purpose built CPU for their portable nature. However, it didn’t take long for Intel to offer a CPU just for the class with its Atom line.

Intel is celebrating the 1-year anniversary of the Atom processor by announcing a pair of new Atom parts. The high-end part is the Z550 and the bad boy runs at 2GHz and features Intel’s hyper threading technology. All of that performance is crammed into a power envelope of 3 watts so it shouldn’t be a battery killer.

Intel is the biggest maker of computer processors on the planet. The company makes processors for all sorts of electronic equipment from high-end gaming desktops and servers to netbooks. Typically, we think of the Intel Xeon line of CPUs as being inside large rack servers used for hosting websites and massive enterprise databases. However, the CPUs are also used inside super powerful workstation computers as well.

Dell has announced a new Precision workstation line that uses the newly announced Intel Xeon 5500 series processors. The line has three models including the Precision T7500, T5500, and T3500 workstations.

Office workers who work in certain industries need special computers to get their work done. A standard desktop that is used for checking email and writing word documents in a normal office just won’t cut it in a graphics design or CAD department. For this type of environment, a powerful workstation computer is needed.

HP has announced its new Z series workstations today that use the new Intel Xeon 5500 series processors. The new series includes the Z800, Z600, and Z400 workstations that are aimed at the CAD, engineering, medical imaging, finance and oil/gas industries.

When I was a kid, my doctor’s nurse would always bust out of the door to the exam room with an arm full of paper folders with all my medical records inside. More often than not she gave the doctor the wrong folder resulting in more agonizing wait time before I found out if I had to get a shot or not.

Today when I take my son to the doctor the nurse comes out with a small tablet computer in hand with access to all the medical records in the office. A new rugged tablet computer for health pros has been launched by GammaTech called the Durabook RT10. The machine is fully rugged and can withstand drops of up to four feet and features Intel Health technology.

iBUYPOWER has teamed up with Tiger Direct to launch the new Gamer Power 906, which sports an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 Processor, 4GB DDR-2 RAM, Nvidia 9600GT1GB GPU, 500GB SATA storage and 600-watt PSU. It’s an affordable performance system with enough juice for graphic intensive games.

The components inside the Power 906 are housed in a roomy NZXT Alpha Chassis with a silent cooling solution, professional cable management system, clear side panel and is preinstalled neon lights. Not bad for under $750.

Today your average notebook has integrated graphics that are built into the notebook and many desktop systems have the same sort of graphics. Some of the higher-end gaming and multimedia notebook and desktop computers have discrete graphics, which are graphics cards that fit into motherboard expansion slots.

Today the bulk of the notebook market has integrated graphics. However, JPR says that by 2012 integrated graphics will be all but gone. The research shows that in 2008 67% of graphics processors shipped were integrated.

Panasonic has announced its W8 Premium Edition laptop. These are tough laptops that sport an 80GB Intel X-25M SSD with 250MB/sec reading speed and 70MB/sec writing speed.

The notebook comes in three different lid cover flavors including Black, Silver and Pink Splash. No info on pricing or availability just yet. Panasonic simply wanted you to notice them.

It wasn’t so long ago that adding a SSD to your computer meant $1000 or more in additional costs. Buying a SSD to add as an upgrade was only marginally cheaper with even small capacity SSDs selling in the $800 range.

SSD prices are coming down quickly in part thanks to the technology getting cheaper and in part due to the poor global economy putting price pressure on manufacturers. Intel’s X25-M SSD can now be had on Newegg.com for under $370.