Intel new Sandy Bridge chip was developed in Haifa
At the Intel Developers Forum in San Francisco, Intel Corporation revealed details about its new chip known as “Sandy Bridge.” The microprocessor, which was developed at Intel Israel Ltd.’s Haifa R&D Center, will enter production at the end of 2010 and will be available in early 2011. The most important attribute of the new microprocessor is the significant progress in its graphic capabilities. The chip is being presented as combining graphic core processing (GPU) alongside a central processing unit (MPU), and this will enable Intel to compete against Nvidia and AMD in the graphic processing market. To read the full story, please click here.
Prof. Elon Lindenstrauss of the Einstein Institute of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has become the first Israeli to receive the Fields Medal. Regarded as the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in mathematics, the award was bestowed on Lindenstrauss and three others by Indian President Shrimati Pratibha Devisingh Patil at the quadrennial International Mathematical Union in Hyderabad on August 19. To read the full story, please click here.
The Office of the Chief Scientist has signed an R&D cooperation deal with US pharmaceutical and medical devices company Abbott Laboratories Inc. Abbott is the 19th foreign company that has signed an R&D cooperation deal with Israel. The Chief Scientist will help Abbott find Israeli technologies that meet its needs, and will provide R&D incentives and financial support. Abbott has been operating in Israel for six years, and has more than 100 employees in the country. The company also markets 35 drugs in Israel. To read the full story please click here.
The Technion Ranked Thirty Eighth among World Top Tech Universities
Technion leads almost all European engineering-technology universities in the rankings According to Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s annual rankings, The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, was ranked 38th among the world’s top universities in technology in 2010, advancing two spots since 2009. Among the main criteria determining the rankings are the number and quality of scientific publications, as well as the number of leading researchers in the university’s field of specialization. Some 2,000 universities are analyzed each year, and 1,000 enter the ranking. To read the full story please click here.
Israel Offers Incentives to Launch Financial R and D Centers
In order to encourage large financial services companies and international banks to set up financial R&D centers in Israel, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Labor have established a special incentives program. The plan is part of the Relative Advantages Plan that will be managed by the Chief Scientist Office and aims to boost the development of an information-intensive financial services industry in Israel. To qualify, participating international financial companies have to commit to working in Israel for five years and employ at least 25 R&D employees in the first year. To read the full story please click here.
Gemini partner to be next Chief Scientist of Israel
Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Binyamin Ben-Eliezer has proposed Gemini Partners general partner Avi Hasson as the next Chief Scientist. He will submit Hasson’s name for government approval in the next few days. Hasson will replace Dr. Eli Opper at the start of 2011. Hasson’s approval is expected to be a technical formality. A statement put out by Ben-Eliezer’s office said that the new Chief Scientist will need to focus significantly on R&D in cleantech and the life sciences. Avi Hasson will be expected to focus more on cleantech and life sciences. To read the full story please click here.
R&D News from ISRAEL 
