Intel just held a teleconference outlining some information on its next Atom platform, code-named “Pine Trail” and introduced a new beta version of its “Moblin” user interface for upcoming Atom-based netbooks, nettops, MIDs, embedded systems, and in-vehicle entertainment systems. Here are some notes from the call…

AMD launched the Break Free Page: a collection of articles and quotes ramming about Intel’s bad behavior. I understand that Intel was a bad boy and revenge is sweet but making a website about it seems a little cheap. Maybe the time and effort put in slapping Intel should go to making processors.

Bad news for Intel for two days in a row. Fujitsu yesterday took the wraps off a new CPU made for supercomputers that can perform 128 billion computations per second, which is 2.5 times faster than the super processor of the current record holder Intel.

The European Commission today announced that it has fined Intel a record €1.06 billion ($1.45 billion) for abusing its dominance in the market for computer chips to exclude its biggest (and frankly, the only serious) rival AMD by paying computer manufacturers Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and NEC as well as retailers to postpone, cancel or downright avoid using or selling the latter’s products.

That’s one hell of a fine, considering the previous record for similar abuses in the EU was ‘only’ €497 million (Microsoft, back in 2004).

The European Commission has ordered Intel to stop the exclusion practices immediately, and said it would closely and actively monitor Intel’s compliance with its decision. E.U. regulators first began investigating Intel in 2001, after AMD filed a complaint in Brussels the year before.

The 9-year-long antitrust battle between Intel and the European Union (the European Commission, to be exact) ended today and there is a clear loser: Intel. The company faces a $1.45 billion fine for abusing its No. 1 position in the market for computer chips. This is the highest fine the European Commission has ever imposed on a company.

So XP Mode is a major bullet point in the list of Windows 7 features. Yay! Except that the way it works — by using Microsoft Virtual PC and a legit copy of Windows XP SP3 — requires that your CPU have Intel VT virtualization support. Whoops, not all CPUs have that!

What’s the matter with AMD? The number two chip maker in the whole world just posted some numbers that don’t reflect too kindly on its performance over the last few months. The big, bad Sunnyvale, Calif.-based corp lost $416 million last quarter; about $195 million of that was related to a corporate spinoff (see: GlobalFoundries). When put into scary percentages, AMD’s sales fell off 21 percent. Meanwhile, Intel, what with its Core 2 Duo and, more importantly, its Atom, continues to hum along nicely, expecting sales to rise for this same quarter. So what gives, AMD?

The Intel Atom had a great first year. There probably wasn’t a day on CrunchGear where we didn’t announce or talk about a random gadget powered by the the Intel CPU. The new models keep on rolling too, with two new options announced today. One, bumps the CPU into previously unavailable speeds, and the other should find its way into MIDs.

Case badges are getting out of control. Every manufacture simply must have a shiny sticker on the front of a tower; laptops are worse too. Thankfully, Intel is launching a new campaign to not only update its badges, but also educated consumers on what said badges mean.

Expect to see less processor brands as Intel moves into the Core age headed by the Core i7 CPU. Hopefully this rebranding and simplifaction will take some of the confusion out buying a computer and back to the simple days of just the Pentium, Celeron, and K.I.S.S.

Intel’s new Nehalem chipset allows for hugenormous amounts of high-speed RAM, a selling point companies like Dell and Cisco are now touting in their latest high-end server systems. Microsoft Vista flavors can support up to 128GB of RAM.

If you’ve been computerizing a long time, you’ll probably remember the days of putting together systems with 4MB of RAM, freaking out about the Turbo button, and you may remember a few of these motherboards. During a tour of Intel’s mobo-designing facility, Tom’s Hardware encountered a hallway filled with framed motherboards, the way you might find platinum records displayed in Atlantic Records or whatnot. Being slightly nerdy, they decided to stop and take a trip down random access memory lane. (See what I did there?)

According to some, Intel is trying to focus its future business on their Atom processor, vying to get it included in anything that needs a CPU. Not servers, of course: Intel will keep pushing its Xeon CPUs for servers. Except for those instances where an Atom processor actually makes sense in a server…

Remember that Phantom i7 laptop from Eurocom we heard about last month — the one sporting a non-mobile Core i7 processor? Well, there’s a little more info on it now, and it’s even better/worse than you imagined. Check out these ridiculous specs. Remember, this is a laptop.

Intel is always looking for new stuff to put Atom in, as it’s proven so effective in netbooks — sorry, not netbooks — lappytops, maybe? In any case, they’re proposing a “media phone” that uses an Atom processor and is essentially a more powerful MID that replaces your home phone. There’s still room for a shared media hub in the home, they think, and they want it to be this thing.

We may see Lenovo netbooks packing NVIDIA and VIA chips pretty soon here. Digitimes is reporting that “Lenovo plans to launch 11.6-inch and 12.1-inch netbooks combining Intel’s Atom processor and Nvidia’s Ion platform in the second quarter of this year.”

These jokers will never get along. They’re in court at the moment, arguing over whether an agreement made in 2004 applies today. Intel says that Nvidia is not licensed to create chipsets for Nehalem-based Intel products. Nvidia says that actually, they are licensed. And now it’s down to the lawyers to doubletalk it out.

LG and Intel announced that they are partnering to produce MIDs (mobile internet devices) based on Intel’s Moorestown hardware platform and Moblin OS. LG hopes to release internet devices with low power consumption. They are also tapping Ericsson to provide 3G capabilities for the devices.

DigiTimes is reporting that Lenovo is prepping a 12-inch IdeaPad netbook called the S20. The machine will apparently use an Intel Atom N280 CPU while ignoring Intel’s specification that Atom-based machines must feature screens smaller than 10 inches.

Over the next two years, Intel plans to invest in 32nm manufacturing plants at a cost of $7 billion. The current plan is to upgrade facilities in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico, and the company estimates that they’ll be able to create 7,000 new jobs. Intel’s 32nm production focuses on Westmere in 2009, with more chips to follow in 2010.

While Intel is working on taking on the GPU sector (and may just have a deal with Sony to do it), its main rival, Nvidia, is looking to get into the x86 processor business. The video hardware giant is assembling a team from scratch to make a competitor to the Intel and AMD’s CPUs — but doesn’t seem to care that the technology is proprietary and must be licensed from the very companies they’re trying to overthrow.