National Geographic is getting into the video game business. Through its for-profit unit National Geographic Ventures, the nonprofit National Geographic Society is set to announce Tuesday that it has created National Geographic Games.

The division’s first game, “Herod’s Lost Tomb,” was developed in-house and is a free download for PC, Mac and the iPhone. After that, NGG is coming out with games for Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and handheld devices.

Some will be developed in-house while others will rely on partnerships, like “National Geographic Panda” from Namco Bandai and “National Geographic: Africa” from Sony.

Chris Mate, previously an executive with Take-Two Interactive Software and Bethesda Softworks, was named GM of NGG.

Intel began selling its new Core i7 processor on Monday, finally matching the lower power consumption and ability to handle multiple tasks offered by smaller competitor Advanced Micro Devices.

Intel is already one year ahead of AMD in offering chips with 45 nanometer features that improve efficiency and power consumption, but in some ways the Core i7 is playing catch-up to AMD.

The new Intel chip, formerly code-named “Nehalem,” has four processing cores on a single piece of silicon and automatically cuts down power usage when the chip is doing less — both features that AMD has boasted.

Until now, AMD has argued that Intel strapped together two separate double cores and called them a quad core, while AMD has had a true quad core.

Each of the Intel chip’s four cores can handle two different “threads,” or processes, at once.

The new features translate into improved speed for such calculation-intense operations as video editing and games, without using more power, Intel said.

Analysts say these features are available with AMD’s new Shanghai chip, but note that it serves only the thinnest slice of the market at the high end.

AMD buyers must wait until next year to get the consumer version for desktops.

Intel took the opposite approach, offering its desktop version first. That will be followed over the next year by versions for laptops at the low end and servers at the high end.

Video compression software maker DivX Inc said on Monday it filed a lawsuit against Yahoo Inc for planning to end a two-year advertising services agreement.

DivX said the termination would hurt its results for 2008 and 2009.

The lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court in Santa Clara County, seeking damages and specific performance under the agreement, which was announced in September 2007.

“Yahoo’s decision to breach is unjustified given DivX’s fulfillment of its obligations under the agreement,” said DivX Chief Executive Officer Kevin Hell, adding that his company would aggressively pursue legal action.

Yahoo said it has been working with DivX to restructure their previous agreement but the two companies could not come to an amicable resolution at this time.

Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang is stepping down as chief executive, ending a rocky reign marked by his refusal to sell the Internet company to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion - more than triple Yahoo’s current market value.

The change in command announced Monday won’t be completed until Yahoo finds his replacement. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said it is interviewing candidates inside and outside Yahoo in a search led by its chairman, Roy Bostock, and the executive recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles.

“Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level,” Bostock said.

Yang, who started working on Yahoo with Stanford University classmate David Filo in 1994, will revert to “Chief Yahoo,” a titular role he filled before replacing former movie studio boss Terry Semel as CEO in June 2007. He will also remain on Yahoo’s board of directors.