SiliconBeat

The blog world is abuzz with rumors that Intel is about to get spanked - and hard - by European authorities, who have been investigating claims the Santa Clara chipmaker engaged in anti-competitive practices.

Some are speculating that the European Union might even fine Intel more than $1 billion.

No one is commenting at Intel or at its chief competitor, Advanced Micro Devices, which long has accused Intel of monoplizing the market for high-powered computer chips. So we’ll have to wait until the Euros issue a public statement on the matter, a development that could occur as early as next week, according to some blogsters.

An investor wants Intel to establish “a comprehensive policy for the human right to water” when the Santa Clara computer-chip maker holds its annual stockholder meeting on May 20.

Northstar Asset Management says Intel used 7.5 billion gallons of water in 2007, largely to clean the silicon wafers used to make its semiconductors, according to a regulatory filing in connection with the meeting.

Having a water-rights policy would reduce the risk of “adverse publicity, consumer boycotts, divestment campaigns and lawsuits” over the company’s use of that natural resource, Northstar claims.

But Intel says such a policy is unnecessary, noting in the filing that it has invested more than $100 million in water conservation at its global facilities and conserved “more than 30 billion gallons over the last decade alone.”

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Santa Clara chip maker Intel has become a corporate sponsor of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, broadcast on PBS.

Intel’s support, which began on April 1, will continue through December 2009. Other sponsors of the show include Chevron, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Besides providing general programming support, Intel will pay for a series of mini-documentaries examining the role of innovation in the economy, but won’t have editorial involvement, according to PBS.

Intel also will work with the NewsHour and the Aspen Institute to create a series of salon dinners in Washington, DC, culminating in an October summit, which will focus on innovation.

Brian Halla, National Semiconductor’s chief exec since 1996, sees energy efficiency as a promising growth market for his computer-chip company.

So Halla, who’d been tooling around town in a Jeep Wrangler and a Hummer, recently decided to buy an all-electric Tesla Roadster, a vehicle that carries a $109,000 pricetag. And he dropped by the Mercury News to show it off the other day.

How’s it to drive?

“It’s awesome,” Halla declared. “It is unbelievable. You sit at an intersection three abreast. And you’re literally at the next light before the other two cars have crossed the intersection.”

But the tiny car is a bit of a tight fit for a big fella like Halla, he noted. And driving something that fast (he said it can hit 60 miles per hour in just under four seconds) is somewhat unnerving.

“I have nightmares. I’m not qualified to drive the thing,” he said. “I just need to figure out how to get in and out of it. Then I’m going to be a happy camper. And how to drive it safely.”