At Hot Chips 22 today, AMD will be discussing new details of its Bobcat and Bulldozer processors—but don't be surprised if some of the new information sounds familiar. With the exception of a few tidbits on Bobcat's architecture and a new Bulldozer block diagram, much of what the company discussed with us recently...Read more...
It's something that we have been clamoring for, and it's something that netbook users at large have been wanting for some time now, even if they didn't know it. We're talking about faster Atom processors. Intel's Atom platform has been lagging somewhat in our eyes over the past couple of years, but it has been hard to really knock the series...Read more...
When AMD released its second quarter financial results last month it didn't say much about server volumes or market share, save to note that its performance "met expectations." The major news of the call turned out to be the company's decision to pull Bobcat's launch into 2010 and push Llano into 2011, which defrayed...Read more...
When Apple launched the iPad last April, Qualcomm's Snapdragon QSD8250 was a popular point of comparison. The results, if you were a Qualcomm fan, were a bit disappointing. Clock-for-clock, the 1GHz A4 generally whomped all over the 1GHz Snapdragon. To be fair, this could also be the result of unoptimized software or...Read more...
Much of the discussion on the iPad's purported disruptive effect on the computer industry has focused on devices like Amazon's Kindle. A recent announcement from Asus, however, indicates the iPad has hit the netbook industry hard. This news tops off a rather wretched Q2 for the company—total sales revenue was $2.29 billion, down 6.6...Read more...
Intel may be the world's largest chipmaker, but when it comes to processors found in consumer electronics devices, the company has struggled to compete against ARM. In an effort to expand the use of its Atom microprocessors in consumer electronics devices, Intel has purchased Texas Instruments' cable modem chip division. Intel to Acquire Texas...Read more...
Intel is expanding its line of energy-efficient Intel Atom processors with the introduction of two new Atom processors. The new 1.8GHz Intel Atom processor D425 single-core and D525 dual-core will support the new memory technology known as DDR3 SODIMM (double-data-rate three small outline dual in-line memory modules). In addition the processors...Read more...
It didn't take very long for Intel to establish its dominance in the netbook market, with nearly every netbook release coming equipped with an Atom processor inside. Now the Santa Clara chip maker is turning its head towards the tablet space, and understandably so. While netbook sales are showing little signs of slowing down. tablets appear...Read more...
At the time of this writing, the FTC's investigation into Intel's alleged monopolistic abuses is on hold as the government attempts to negotiate a settlement with the CPU and chipset manufacturer. If these negotiations don't result in a deal by July 22, the case returns to court, with arguments currently scheduled to begin on September 15....Read more...
Up to today, Microsoft had managed to keep the Kin's failure and early termination largely separate from the discussion over Windows Phone 7. According to Redmond, the Kin was neither fish nor fowl; it wasn't Windows Phone 7, but it wasn't Windows Mobile 6.5 either. After Microsoft's WP7 demos at Mobile Beat this...Read more...
Intel released its quarterly earnings last night, revealing yet another record-breaking quarter. This is the third time in four quarters that the company has managed to break one record or another; the results imply that the IT industry continues to recover slowly. All of Intel's financial indicators were up; the company earned $10.8 billion...Read more...
Rumors around the Internet suggest that Intel may be planning to cancel the Celeron brand in 8-12 months, due to significant overlap with Atom prices. At present, the Celeron P4500 (1.86GHz, dual-core) is $86 as is the T3100 (1.9GHz, 1MB L2). The upcoming Atom N550, due to launch in the third quarter, is a dual-core chip running at 1500MHz,...Read more...
Another week, another MSI netbook. Not that we're complaining, but it's certainly becoming more and more difficult to find one netbook that fits your needs completely without having another nearby tempting you with one or two different features. In the race to saturate the market further, MSI has just issued the Wind U160DX, a thin and light...Read more...
When NVIDIA switched from ION to ION-NG, it swapped from including an entire chipset over to a GPU. At the time, NV noted that some third-party manufacturers might opt to offer stand-alone products based on the second-generation ION GPU, and at least one company is doing so. Zotac, already known as a company with a wide line of ION-based products,...Read more...
Version 2.2 of Google's Android (codenamed Froyo) has generated a great deal of discussion over the past few weeks, both for its anticipated new features and the fact that it, unlike the iPhone's iOS 4, offers full support for both HTML5 and Flash. It seems consumers and developers aren't the only people interested in Google's new Android...Read more...
As process geometries shrink, the cost and complexity of manufacturing products that use them continues to rise. This fact has had a significant impact on the semiconductor industry as various foundries have either struggled to ramp production on a new process (TSMC's 40nm) or have delayed beginning their own...Read more...
Intel's desktop/nettop Atom processors have never enjoyed the prestige or sales figures of their netbook brethren, but two new Atom introductions this week prove Intel hasn't written the platform off altogether. Two new Atom CPUs, the D425 (single-core) and D525 (dual-core) are now available. Both chips run at 1.8GHz, feature 512K of L2 cache...Read more...
When you think of Intel Atom processors, what do you generally think of? Netbooks? MIDs? UMPCs? Future smartphones? Yeah, sure. What about supercomputers and servers? Not exactly. But SeaMicro has accomplished something that could very well change the way you see Atom CPUs, from underpowered, low-power-drain chips...Read more...
NVIDIA has Tegra, ARM has the Cortex line, and Qualcomm has the Snapdragon family. These are the major players in the smartphone CPU war right now, and there seems to be plenty of options to go around. But of course, as a microprocessor company, Intel isn't going to just sit around on the sidelines while everyone else...Read more...
VIA makes tons of processors that you probably never really think about. Embedded stuff, stuff that ends up in factories, point-of-sale machines and small, integrated computers. Not often do VIA chips make their way out into the land of the average tech consumer, but a few of them have managed to power low-drain handheld devices, nettops,...Read more...
Remember MeeGo? That's the operating system that was formed when Intel and Nokia decided it best to merge their respective Moblin and Maemo efforts into one system designed for mobile devices, MIDs, UMPCs, slates, and even netbooks. Not much has been said about the software since it was initially launched, but now consumers are getting the...Read more...
Today we're going to be looking at a product that incorporates not only Intel's new generation of dual-core Atom D510 processor but also NVIDIA's latest Ion graphics core into what could very well be a capable machine for a myriad of small form-factor computing requirements, including possibly taking residence in your living room entertainment...Read more...