Stories by: Tom Krazit

Apple Computer's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Steve Jobs introduced a new notebook and an iMac computer that use Intel's latest processor on Tuesday, six months ahead of the schedule outlined by Apple last year.

Advanced Micro Devices will release a dual-core version of its most powerful and expensive PC processor for high-end gamers after using a single-core design in that segment for several months.

Articulating its own vision of the digital home days before its major rival unveils a similar marketing initiative, Advanced Micro Devices has announced plans to brand AMD-based PCs designed specifically for home media networking.

By now, we should be enjoying a true commodity market in which the pricing trends of x86 CPUs track those of other PC components and semiconductors. Today, we're celebrating the $US500 PC, even though economic forces should have that price closer to $200. With chip manufacturing capacity and yields being as high as they are, all but the most advanced x86 processors should be readily affordable. They should be as cheap as light bulbs. Well, designer store light bulbs.

PC vendors and digital media enthusiasts believe there's no such thing as too much storage. New disk drives from Seagate Technology introduced Wednesday at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show use a relatively new recording technology to allow users to take large amounts of data on the road.

Hewlett-Packard plans to announce new consumer notebooks that further its support for Advanced Micro Devices's Turion mobile processors at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show, according to the company.

The PC market has a somewhat unfair reputation as the mature, staid sector of IT. True, the basic PC is over 20 years old and no longer has the buzz factor of generated by Internet companies like Google, but some of the most fascinating, controversial, and relevant stories of the year involved PC makers and their chip suppliers. A sampling, in chronological order:

A recently formed industry consortium backed by PC and consumer electronics companies is pushing a new standard for the interface that links PCs and high-definition digital displays.

Remote attackers could gain control of systems protected by Symantec's antivirus software due to a flaw in Symantec's Antivirus Library, the company confirmed Wednesday.

PC shipment growth next year will decline from its current heights, but should still remain strong as users continue to upgrade to notebooks, IDC said Tuesday.