Intel Microarchitecture (Nehalem)

Intel's latest-generation microarchitecture first exemplified as the Intel Core  i7 processor, represents the next step in unprecedented processor performance and dynamic scalability. Designed from the ground up to take advantage of hafnium-based Intel 45nm hi-k metal gate silicon technology, Intel Microarchitecture (Nehalem) unleashes parallel processing performance enabled by Intel QuickPath technology providing an integrated memory controller and high-speed interconnect per independent processing core.

Maximum multitasking performance Intel Microarchitecture (Nehalem) offers the latest in processor innovation, including:

Dynamic scalability, managed cores, threads, cache, interfaces, and power for energy-efficient performance on demand.

Design and performance scalability for servers, workstations, notebooks and desktops with support for 2-8+ cores and up to 16+ threads with Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel HT Technology), and scalable cache sizes, system interconnects, and integrated memory controllers.

Intel Turbo Boost Technology delivers additional performance automatically when needed by taking advantage of the processor's power and thermal headroom. This enables increased performance of both multi-threaded and single-threaded workloads.

Intel Hyper-Threading Technology brings high-performance applications into mainstream computing with 1-16+ threads optimized for a new generation multi-core processor architecture.

Scalable shared memory of Intel QuickPath technology features memory distributed to each processor with integrated memory controllers and high-speed point-to-point interconnects to unleash the performance of future versions of next-generation Intel multi-core processors.

Multi-level shared cache improves performance and efficiency by reducing latency to frequently used data.

Intel Announces its First Home Medical Device to Better Connect Clinicians with Patients

Intel Corporation today announced its Intel® Health Guide, a care management tool designed for health care professionals who manage patients with chronic conditions. The Health Guide represents Intel's entry into a new category of personal health systems that go beyond the simple remote patient monitoring systems available today.

The Intel® Health Guide, which received 510(k) market clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July, is a comprehensive personal health system that combines an in-home patient device - the Intel® Health Guide PHS6000 - as well as an online interface - the Intel® Health Care Management Suite - allowing clinicians to monitor patients in their homes and manage care remotely.

"The Health Guide is a step forward in offering more personalized and effective management of chronic health conditions in the home," said Louis Burns, vice president and general manager of the Intel Digital Health Group. "Intel has spent years researching the needs of both caregivers and patients, and we are now moving to launch a series of products that will help extend care from the hospital to the home. Our products will help address the challenges of an aging population and rising rates of chronic disease."

Intel is collaborating with health care industry leaders around the world to validate the clinical benefits of the Health Guide for a wide range of chronic disease conditions and health and wellness applications. Pilot studies in the United States are currently planned with health care organizations such as Aetna, Erickson Retirement Communities, Providence Medical Group in Oregon and SCAN Health Plan. The goals and objectives are to assess how the Health Guide integrates with different care management models in the home. These first studies focus on the ability to demonstrate improved health outcomes for conditions such as heart failure, diabetes, hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Customers such as Advanced Warning Systems, Inc., (AWS), a provider of health care discovery products and web-based services, monitor people for acute cardiovascular symptoms that can cause sudden death. AWS will use the Intel Heath Guide to connect with a targeted class of users, including retired athletes and post-war veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with the highest incidence of cardiovascular related illnesses.

The Health Guide promotes greater patient engagement and more efficient care management by enabling communication between patients and health care professionals and providing clinicians with access to the most current, actionable data. This solution offers interactive tools for personalized care management and includes vital sign collection, patient reminders, surveys, multimedia educational content, and feedback and communications tools, such as video conferencing and alerts. Clinicians have ongoing access to data so that they can better manage each patient's conditions while patients benefit from customized care in the comfort of their own living room.

Intel is working with leading health care organizations that have an understanding of health care delivery to develop unique patient care plans as well as multimedia educational content for chronic conditions. Specifically, Intel is working with the Mayo Clinic to have licensed educational content from MayoClinic.com made available to customers using the Health Guide. In addition, Intel is working with the American Heart Association to create care plans based on the organization's treatment guidelines for a pilot project for the ongoing management of patients with heart failure. The intent is to help health care professionals monitor patients and remotely manage their care in accordance with science guidelines and also to provide patients with ready access to credible and targeted education material. Intel has also hired a team of clinical experts to provide a range of professional services to enable health care organizations to successfully integrate the personal health system into their current disease management programs and models of care.

Additionally, Intel plans to use the core technology components of the solution to build products targeted for new areas such as independent living and programs for health and wellness management and to support new devices such as mobile phones and handhelds.

American Medical Alert Corporation, a national provider of remote patient monitoring devices and 24/7 health care communication services, will be the first U.S. market channel partner for the Intel Health Guide. By adding the Intel Health Guide to its portfolio of offerings, AMAC will be further equipped to provide its customers with the best in care management technologies. The Health Guide is designed to be used by health care professionals to manage their patients at home and is not currently available for general consumer purchase.

H.P. Expects Revenue and Profits Will Top Forecasts

Hawlett-Packard dazzled Wall Street on Tuesday by hopping over a low bar. The company said its core business was not declining as quickly as it was at other major technology companies, prompting investors to drive its shares up nearly 15 percent

In a preview of a full earnings report it plans to give Monday, the company also said that its fourth-quarter results had exceeded its earlier projections.

The relatively good news comes as the broader technology industry has started to report the effect of a worldwide economic retrenchment in recent weeks. Companies like Cisco Systems and Intel, reporting a rapid decline in consumer spending starting in October, have prepared investors to expect revenue declines of 10 percent or more.

More insight on how the tech sector is faring will come on Thursday when Dell is scheduled to release its third-quarter results.

For Hewlett-Packard’s investors, even flat financial results look like up.

“It was a relief rally,” said Brent Bracelin, a technology industry analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. “People were relieved that it wasn’t worse.”

The company did not provide details or reasons for its relative strength, saying it would not comment further until Monday. But industry analysts said that Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest technology company, was benefiting from its geographic diversity, broad product portfolio, and, in particular, its recent $14 billion acquisition of Electronic Data Systems.

For its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on Oct. 31, the company said net income was $1.03 a share. That figure, which excludes one-time charges, compares with analyst estimates of $1 a share. It said revenue was $33.6 billion, a 19 percent increase from the $28.3 billion of a year ago. A consensus of industry analysts had projected that its revenue would be $33 billion.

Like other technology companies, Hewlett-Packard is geographically diverse, with 70 percent of its revenue coming from overseas. But the company’s product portfolio is also unusually diversified in that it competes in computers, software and, increasingly, in services that provide recurring income. Up to 40 percent of Hewlett-Packard’s revenue and 65 percent of its profit come from long-term, steady deals, A. M. Sacconaghi, a securities analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, said.

Mark Hurd, the chief executive, has also carried out cost-cutting.

“The strength in their results is really a testament to a highly defensive business model and a very strong focus on costs,” Mr. Sacconaghi said.

Yet the economy appears to be catching up to Hewlett-Packard, especially going toward the 2009 fiscal year.

Despite the worldwide economic uncertainty, the company forecast revenue for its 2009 fiscal year could be as much as $130 billion. On its face, that appears to be a sharp increase from the $118.4 billion in revenue for this fiscal year.

However, the company’s acquisition of E.D.S., a global computer services company, is expected to bring in $21 billion in revenue. Factoring that out, Hewlett-Packard’s year-over-year revenue from its existing core businesses will fall, or narrowly rise, depending on how currency exchange rates affect overseas revenue, industry analysts said.

In its 2008 fiscal year, Hewlett-Packard said that about $3.5 billion of its sales came from E.D.S.

Analysts said that the timing of the E.D.S. acquisition now appeared to be particularly lucky or a sign of great foresight by Mr. Hurd. The company provides not just additional revenue, but further diversification, analysts said.

“E.D.S. is so essential to H.P.’s guidance,” said Richard Kugele, an analyst with Needham & Company.

But analysts continue to cast a skeptical eye on Dell. A consensus of industry analysts projects Dell will report net income of 32 cents a share, in contrast to 34 cents last year. Mr. Kugele said the economy was eroding so quickly that Dell might well not meet those estimates.

Dell has taken steps to revive its slowing PC business. It has pushed into retail marketing, helping raise its market share in the United States; lowered costs through outsourced manufacturing; and paid closer attention to consumer tastes, Mr. Kugele said.

But Dell relies more heavily on the personal computer business than Hewlett-Packard. And that is a business under heavy pressure. Mr. Sacconaghi projects that unit shipments of PCs will grow 4.9 percent in 2009, but revenue will fall 2 percent during that period.

And Dell’s operating margins of about 5 percent are half of what they were in the late 1990s.

“Dell is doing the right things,” Mr. Kugele said. But given the economic environment, Dell’s results are not likely to offer the investor-pleasing surprise of Hewlett-Packard’s. “It’s going to be a very depressing, sloppy earnings call.”