Intel reported its highest earnings ever with revenue of $43.6 billion - up $8.5 billion or a 24 percent increase over last year. Net income topped $11.7 billion, up $7.3 billion. Fourth-quarter revenue reached $11.5 billion, up $355 million, or 3 percent sequentially.

“2010 was the best year in Intel’s history. We believe that 2011 will be even better,” said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO, in a statement.

This has been a week of good news for the processing giant. Earlier this week, Intel and NVIDIA buried the hatchet on a long-standing battle. Intel agreed to pay NVIDIA $1.5 billion over five years to put an end to ongoing litigation between the two companies as part of a patent-licensing deal.

"This agreement ends the legal dispute between the companies, preserves patent peace and provides protections that allow for continued freedom in product design," said Doug Melamed, Intel senior vice president and general counsel, in a statement. "It also enables the companies to focus their efforts on innovation and the development of new, innovative products."

Under the deal, Intel receives a license to NVIDIA's patents and, in turn, NVIDIA receives a license to Intel's patents including that x86 and certain other products are not licensed to NVIDIA under the agreement. The two parties have also exchanged broad releases for all legal claims, including any claims of breach of their previous license agreement.

And in December, TechZone360.com reported that Otellini filled in conference attendees on the details of the company’s consumer tablet products which will roll out over the first half of 2011. While it’s slightly slow to the market compared to the widely popular iPad, Otellini told press at the conference that manufacturers have agreed to use Intel chips in 35 tablet models, including a few already on the market, accidently spitting out the names Dell, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba.