Chipmaker News: Intel Corporation (INTC), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), Broadcom Corporation (BRCM)

…an up to 50 percent encoding efficiency improvement, compared to previous test broadcasts in MPEG-4 AVC (H.264). The end-to-end demonstration, which was presented at the SES Industry Days in Luxembourg, used Harmonic’s ProMedia Xpress and a HEVC decoder reference-design system based on Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM)’s BCM7445 device for receiving HEVC encoded Ultra-HD television transmission.

Intel: The Bears Are Out Of Ammo (Seeking Alpha)
It’s a good feeling to know that Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) bears have fired all of their ammo. Stacy Rasgon with Sanford Bernstein repeatedly cautioned about Intel’s proposed capital expenditures (“capex”) spending outline at the Q4 2012 call, James Covello of Goldman Sachs has had a $16 price target on the stock for what seems like an eternity, and then you had Mr. Alex Guana from JMP securities try to sell investors an, erm, “amusing” rumor about Haswell’s voltage regulators not working properly. All-in-all, the bears have pretty much exhausted all of the arguments, fired all the ammo, and have said every bearish thing that could possibly be said. And yet the stock keeps climbing. Why?

Broadcom Corp Price Target Lowered to $37.00 at Needham & Company (BRCM) (Mideast Time)
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) had its target price cut by Needham & Company from $39.00 to $37.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Stock Ratings Network reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock. Shares of Broadcom Corp traded down 0.44% during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $31.89. Broadcom Corp has a 52 week low of $28.60 and a 52 week high of $37.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently $33.98. The company has a market cap of $18.145 billion and a P/E ratio of 25.62.

AMD brought 64-bit to x86 10 years ago today (Inquirer)
A decade ago Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD) released the first Opteron processor and with it the first 64-bit x86 processor. AMD’s lavish New York launch for the Opteron processor was far more than a product launch, it was AMD showing it could reproduce the success of the Athlon K7 chip and take the fight to Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) by developing ground breaking new features and not just one-upping its rival on some benchmarks. The firm’s Opteron processor brought 64-bit computing to the commodity x86 chip market, along with an on-die memory controller and the Hypertransport bus all in one product.