Hardware freaks flocked to San Francisco last week to hear Intel (INTC) talk about microprocessors, the electronic brains in PCs. But Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) made some pretty brainy claims of its own.

The smaller Silicon Valley microprocessor maker expanded its focus several years ago by buying ATI Technologies, known for the chips called graphics processing units that generate realistic-looking scenery in videogames. AMD says the high-end GPU it announced last week sports a whopping 2.15 billion transistors.

That’s more features than any chip now for sale by Intel, which prides itself on packing the most tiny components on a given square of silicon. AMD used a production process at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) that creates lines of circuitry measured at 40 nanometers, or billionths of a meter; that is a bit finer than the most advanced chips currently on the market from Intel, which have features rated at 45 nanometers.

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Tessera Technologies (TSRA) shares have fallen nearly in half in late trading after the company announced that the Administrative Law Judge overseeing its patent infringement case before the International Trade Commission asserting violation of its wireless patents by a group of semiconductor companies had found no infringement.

The company said that the Initial Determination of the judge upheld the validity of the patents, but found no infringement. Tessera had asserted infringement against the ATI Technologies unit of Advanced Micro Devices, Fresscale Semiconductor, Motorola, Qualcomm, Spansion and STMicroelectronics.

Tessera said it is “disappointed” in the ruling and will review the decision before determining its next steps.

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