True entrepreneurs will go to any length to get their companies off the ground. And, they're known for accepting the consequences of the risks they take. Some businesses never make it to launch, never bring in a dime, never lead to that killer IPO. In even rarer cases, these adventures can put two people behind the defendants' table on charges of corporate espionage. Lan Lee, an American, and Yuefei Ge, a Chinese citizen, allegedly swiped computer chip blueprints and tried to gain Chinese government support for a startup using these illicit goods. Now, they could face up to 65 years on charges of corporate espionage.

National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) reported first-quarter earnings on Thursday after the bell. Net sales came in at $314 million, and net income was 13 cents per diluted share. According to our earnings preview, that 13-cent profit beat analyst expectations by a whopping six pennies. I'll tell you, I always enjoy when a company can beat by a little more than the boring penny. The top line also went beyond projections. The call was for roughly $300 million in sales.

Although these numbers represented steep drops when compared to year-ago data, it should be noted that, on a sequential basis, National Semiconductor showed significant improvement. Gross margin went up sequentially on better product mix and a benefit from a plant closing in China.

Late yesterday, Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) reported a lower second-quarter profit, thanks to a large drop in sales amid struggles throughout the chip sector. That said, the company did vault higher after its announcement, thanks to its sales forecast.

The chipmaker reported second-quarter earnings of nine cents per share, down from 11 cents per share a year ago. Adjusted quarterly income checked in at 18 cents per share. Quarterly revenue slipped to $640.6 million, which was down from $842.6 million in the second quarter a year ago. Expectations called for earnings of 13 cents per share on revenue of $615 million.

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), whose colleagues include Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), gave shareholders quite a boost in morale on Monday. The chip company issued a nice outlook for the bottom line.

Here are the stats. Net sales in Q2 should come in between $2.3 billion and $2.5 billion versus the old guidance of between $1.95 billion and $2.4 billion. The bottom line should come in between 14 cents per share and 22 cents per share, versus previous estimates of between 1 cent per share and 15 cents per share.

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), the arch competitor of fellow chip maker Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), continues to be nothing more than a short-sale candidate. Its Q4 was horrible. Net sales nosedived 33% on a year-over-year basis, coming in at roughly $1.2 billion. On a GAAP basis, the net loss from continuing operations was $2.32 per diluted share versus $2.24 per diluted share in Q4 2007. According to this source, on an adjusted basis (which excludes write-downs related to the ATI transaction), the loss was $0.69 per share, and that missed Wall Street's expectations by a wide amount. The call was for a loss of $0.54 per share.

AMD is in a terrible state. Sure, it's not necessarily all management's fault. What can they do about the sinking economy? Not much. Demand is down and everyone is going to have to live with it. The press release talks about lack of visibility and concentration on restructuring. That translates to "we're doing everything we can just to make it through the tough times." Gross margins, both on a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis, have been challenged. Considering the bad news recently reported by both Intel and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), it's not a stretch to say that shares of AMD are heading lower.

Although I alluded to shorting AMD at the top of this piece, I should point out that shorting is a risky proposition and not for everyone. My main point in saying this is that I believe the situation is so dark right now in this sector of tech that 52-week lows may certainly be retested. And then there is the price war between AMD and Intel that this article mentions. That's an important issue to consider when thinking about both of those companies. The worst of times brings out the fiercest of competitive natures. Since AMD's brand is arguably not as strong as the Intel name, one can see why it would be best to avoid AMD's stock at all costs.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

When Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) was developing its new and powerful i7 chip, the economy was peachy. Today, it finally launched the microprocessor chip, but into a completely different economic environment, which may mean the payout from the chip will take years.

Intel does not seem to be concerned by the timing, but perhaps it should be. According to The Wall Street Journal, "You recover from a recession with tomorrow's products, not today's," said Sean Maloney, Intel's executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer.

Maloney's assessment may be flawed. After years of being behind Intel in product development, AMD (NYSE: AMD) seems to be finally catching up as it launches new chips of its own. If i7 sales are undercut by the tech recession, when the industry recovers, Intel will be faced with tough competition while it rebuilds its sales and earnings. In a strong economy it could build a market share lead during a period when the entire market is expanding. In a downturn, facing strong competition, its revenue could be significantly undermined

Intel also has to face a long payout cycle for the i7, which could hurt earnings. After many quarters of R&D costs, the world's largest chip company probably assumed it could recoup its investment in the i7 in a fairly short period of time. Now, that short period has become unpredictably long.

Intel's casual attitude about the i7 being an important product during a recovery is a smoke screen to hide the fact that its ROI plans have almost certainly been damaged.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Semiconductor company Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) reported results for the second quarter, and the stock sold off during the after-hours session on Monday. At one point shares were down 11%.

I can sort of see why this happened. It wasn't an exciting earnings release at all, especially in a bad market. First, the top line decreased by about 2% to $3.35 billion. Earnings from continuing operations on a diluted basis grew by only 5% to 42 cents per share. Operational cash flow declined by 42% to $520 million. Nope, not my kind of earnings release, let me tell you. Texas Instruments doesn't seem to have the right stuff in terms of bottom-line growth. Management pointed out that the challenging economy has led to weak demand. Also, let me add that, according to this article, the results missed estimates by two pennies.

I don't really want to own Texas Instruments here. If I had to buy a tech stock, I'd be more inclined to look at a Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) or an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Apple also reported earnings on Monday and saw its shares slide after delivering a much stronger quarter than the one delivered by Texas Instruments. That about says it all, doesn't it?

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

You are supposed to be able to own tech right up until the last week of this month. At least that's when the big institutions like to hold on until, with the last holdouts keeping the big techs on the sheets until the Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) (Cramer's Take) tech conference in February.

But the big downgrade of the semis such as National Semi (NYSE: NSM) (Cramer's Take), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) (Cramer's Take) and AMD (NYSE: AMD) (Cramer's Take) -- insult to injury there for all of you year-end tax-loss buyers -- by Bank of America smacks of gun-jumping: legal gun-jumping to get out of a group before a consumer-led slowdown.

A federal judge has told Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) that it can no longer make chips based on three patents held by rival Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM). The company can make use of the intellectual property for another year, giving its some time to reach resolution with its rival.

Qualcomm will almost certainly have to pay royalties if it wants to keep marketing chips based on the Broadcom patents.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "The chips are used in two kinds of third-generation cellular networks -- one called EV-DO, which Qualcomm developed, and another called WCDMA that is supported by a broader array of chip makers."

Reuters quotes Broadcom's general counsel as saying, "Broadcom should not have to compete against companies that use Broadcom's own patented technology against us, and this injunction puts a stop to Qualcomm doing just that."

It now appears that Qualcomm's strategy of leaning on customers and rivals has come to an end.

Up until the stock market bubble burst, many viewed the semiconductor sector as a leading indicator for other technology shares. Lately, however, the relationship has gone signficantly awry.

Since the year began, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index -- which has an equivalent exchange-traded fund, the Semiconductor HOLDRs Trust ETF (AMEX: SMH) -- has lost 3.4%, trailing far behind the 25.5% rise in the Nasdaq 100 index -- which has an equivalent exchange-traded fund, the Powershares QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ: QQQQ) -- as well as the 8.6% gain in the S&P 500 index.

Although many technology stocks have been boosted by the prospect of strong overseas growth and momentum-driven buying, semiconductor shares have been under a great deal of pressure, hurt by disappointing earnings and outlooks from companies like KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC) and SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK), along with persistent talk of a chip glut.