We knew the first quarter of 2009 wouldn’t be fantastic for chip makers. Frankly, so did they. But somehow or another, Intel managed to escape the vicious first three months of the year with quite a few dollars in its pocket, which — in our opinion — deserves applause in its own right given the circumstances.The company’s Q1 2009 filings show that it ended the quarter with a net profit of $647 million — a figure that some outfits would do anything to reach during these tumultuous times. That said, it was