Intel said Wednesday morning that its Q4 results, due out next week, are gonna be lousy - which won't come as a surprise to anybody given all the warning signs; it was just a matter of how bad; now we know.

Intel, a harbinger of how things are going throughout high tech, said revenue will come to about $8.2 billion, down 20% sequentially and down 23% year-over-year.

In mid-November, half way through the quarter, the semiconductor giant sheared a billion dollars off its projections but still thought it might clear $8.7 billion-$9.3 billion. Alas, end-user demand failed and inventory reductions followed in the "global supply chain," it says.

The Street was thinking $8.74 billion.

Intel now expects its Q4 gross margin to come in at "the bottom of the previous expectation of 55%, plus or minus a couple of points," which seems to mean it won't see 55%.

Intel's VC investments also took a nasty stick in the eye. It figures they lost $1 billion-$1.2 billion, more than double its forecast of ~$50 million two months ago. And it's going to take a non-cash impairment charge of about $950 million because of the drop in value of its Clearwire investment.

Apparently Intel cut back on R&D and MG&A and managed to save itself about $200 million there, spending only $2.6 billion. It's left unchanged its estimate of ~$250 million in restructuring and asset impairment charges.

It said nothing about the current quarter. It reports January 15.