Chad Weirick
Chad Weirick
Recent posts
The ultimate demise of the single-core desktop chip from AMD will have to be postponed for a little while longer. AMD is still phasing out chips such as the Sempron LE-1150, but they're actually planning a higher-frequency replacement part called the LE-1660. Intel is currently in the process of phasing out all single-core CPUs...
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While everyone is still “oooohing” and “ahhhhing” at the raw power and efficiency provided by 45nm chips such as Intel's Penryn lineup, TSMC was looking forward to the next big thing: 40nm.“Following successful tapeouts and customer announcements of its 45nm process technology in 2007, TSMC has moved forward quickly and developed an enhanced...
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Formerly known as the netbook, we're now hearing a nearly complete list of details for Intel's new mini-laptop."The 2go features an Intel Celeron M CPU on top of the 915GMS chipset, 512MB of RAM (upgradeable to 1GB), a 9-inch, 800 x 480 LCD display, 40GB hard drive, 802.11b/g, SD / MMC reader, and a full complement of standard ports and jacks....
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Some say Microsoft chose poorly when they backed Toshiba's HD DVD standard, and that had Microsoft backed Blu-ray instead, there wouldn't have been much of a format war. There's another group, including Michael Bay, that thinks Microsoft intentionally chose a standard that they didn't think would win in an attempt to undermine consumer confidence...
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We often take the internet for granted, not necesarilly aware of the struggles that go on behind the scenes, such as that between U.S. based Cogent and Swedish TaliaSonera. Presently these two large bandwidth providers are fighting over peering issues:“According to Cogent CEO David Schaeffer, TeliaSonera peered data selectively and refused...
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India is actually starting to outsource some of their IT functions back the U.S. One example of this is new trend is Tata's new facility:"Tata Consultancy Services said last week it has opened a development center in a former paper plant outside Cincinnati, with initial plans to employ 1,000 people, which would make it one of the largest...
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DRAM prices have been at incredibly low levels for so long that it's hard to imagine that they'll stay this way forever. So how long will this trend continue? Apparently a year or more if the analysts are on target:The current DRAM downturn will likely last more than a year and possibly two, said Simon Woo, memory chip analyst at Merrill...
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The ongoing saga of Vista SP1 continues, and today we're hearing about problems with Vista SP1 and i945G Express chipsets causing behavior ranging from disapearing cursors to unmounting hard drives.“The service pack also won't work with computers that use certain, widely-deployed audio drivers from Realtek and certain drivers for security...
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We've been excited about hybrid SLI technology since we first heard about it. Of course new technologies are always plagued by delays, and hybrid SLI is no exception:“NVIDIA representatives notified its board partners this week that its new Hybrid SLI technology has been delayed. NVIDIA's Hybrid SLI technology offers an innovative new...
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The “switcher's” Mac hasn't done so well in sales, but it seems that somebody in Cupertino thinks that at least having a low-cost Mac brings people into Apple Stores and thus the little Mac is going to get a refresh instead of the axe:“Among the improvements destined for the new lineup are 45-nanometer Core 2 Duo mobile chips starting at 2.1GHz...
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AMD's highly successful HD 3800 series of GPUs is about to get a new member, the HD 3830. Since the card hasn't shipped yet, all the details are subject to change. Now on to the details:“AMD's Radeon HD 3830 will be based on the RV670 core and will feature a 128-bit memory bus, potentially providing roughly half the memory bandwidth...
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On Wednesday a rumor started circulating that AMD was starting to making cutbacks in its workforce, not entirely uncommon for a company that is attempting to become profitable again. As with all rumors, they don't always turn out to be factual:An AMD representative denied that any cuts have taken place as of Thursday morning, but when...
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NVIDIA's 9600GT has had a dramatic impact since its arrival, showing performance that a sub $200 video card provide surprising levels of performance.“Since then retailers such as Newegg cut pricing below the original MSRP of $169-189, down to $150 on NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT models.In response to this, AMD is set to cut prices yet again on its...
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The battle between Microsoft and Apple may have caused Microsoft to lose some of its luster in the global brand rankings. The Redmond giant has slipped from number 11 to number 59 over the past three years."The effect of Apple's 'Hi, I'm a Mac' advertising campaign may have taken its toll on Microsoft," CoreBrand CEO James Gregory said...
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Avian Securities recently reported that a major systems player was experiencing an extremely high return rate of computer products shipped with solid state drives (SSDs). Shortly after the story broke it was widely rumored that the company in question was none other than Dell. Of course not all reports circulating the internet...
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We recently reported on the existence of the ECS G10IL, a mini-notebook/UMPC to compete with the Eee PC 900, but at the time ECS was very hush-hush on the details. All that ended today when they posted the specs on their web site.The G10IL will be powered by a Diamondville CPU riding on a 945GSE chipset and featuring a single memory...
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While it's just a rumor at this point, it seems that NVIDIA is planning on breaking into the CPU business. This isn't exactly surprising as the not-to-distant future looks like a place where CPUs have a dedicated GPU onboard and the future of add-in cards is unclear.“NVIDIA and VIA discussed three possible scenarios, including a strategic...
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Intel's announcement about their forthcoming CPU architectures hasn't fazed AMD. In fact AMD claims that the integrated memory controller and QPI sound a lot like features AMD CPUs have had for several years now. What's even better is that AMD more or less tipped their hand regarding AMD's future CPUs:On Dunnington (AMD's Randy)...
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Conventional wisdom says that solid state drives (SSDs) should have lower failure rates than their mechanical counterparts simply because SSDs lack moving parts. Sadly, it seems that theory and reality have clashed once again:“A large computer manufacturer is getting around 20 percent to 30 percent of the flash-based notebooks it is...
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As with all rumors, please take the following news item with a grain of salt until we can receive official confirmation or denial from Microsoft.“Vista SP1 shipped to duplication and OEMs Feb. 4, but since then it has only been available to previous beta testers, volume licensing customers and subscribers to IT subscription services. In fact,...
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As with all rumors, please take the following news item with a grain of salt until we can receive official confirmation or denial from AMD.As we've previously reported, AMD is rumored to be shipping their B3 stepping Phenoms, and it seems that we might see 2.5GHz models before April Fool's Day:“AMD is planning to launch B3 stepping quad-core...
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They say that beggars can't be choosers, but apparently consumers can be. The choice that consumers are likely to be faced with in the near future is not whether to go down the SSD route, but which type of SSD do they want.“Faster drives and a falling cost-per-gigabyte should help bring drive costs down from the stratosphere and into...
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