Also

* Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp.’s biggest competitor in computer processor chips, said sales of those semiconductors were better than expected in July and August. The company also sees signs of improvement in sales of flash memory, used to store data in cell phones and cameras.

* Rusty McDowell, president of San Carlos, Calif.-based McDowell & Co., was sentenced to two years in federal prison and a year in a halfway house for stealing blueprints from Applied Materials Inc., the world’s biggest maker of semiconductor equipment.