Apples iPad owned 95 percent of the tablet market in Q3, but one quarter later its slipped to 75 percent, due to Samsungs Galaxy Tab and other Android tablets. – Apples iPad
is still the world-dominating tablet by far, but during the fourth quarter,
competitors running Googles Android OS led by the Samsung Galaxy Tab took a
sizeable bite out of Apples lead.
While Apple
fully owned the market during the third quarter of 2010, with 95 percent of the
worl…
A design flaw in a chipset that supports Intels new “Sandy Bridge” Core-i chips will cost the company almost $1 billion in lost revenue and repair expenses. – Intel is recalling a support chip for the highly-touted new “Sandy Bridge” processors in a move that should have little technological impact but a significant financial effect on the company.
Intel officials announced Jan. 31 that a design
flaw found on its 6-Series chipset dubbed “Cougar Point” i…
The Dell Vostro 460 tower for small businesses is the first Dell SMB desktop PC to offer Intels new “Sandy Bridge” quad-core processors. Pricing begins at $599. – Dell has introduced the Vostro 460, a desktop tower for
small and midsize business owners that takes design cues from its recently introduced Vostro
V130 laptop. (Dell calls it “the worlds most beautiful small business
laptop. quot; You can decide
for yourself.)
But lets keep our focus on the …
Among Acers newest notebooks are its highest-performing Aspire ever, with an Intel Core i7 processor and a 20 percent performance gain. – Acer, the worlds second-largest PC maker, introduced four
mobile PCs at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), covering a
range of consumer tastes. At the highest end is the Aspire AS8950G-9839
which may better stick in the memory as the highest performing
model in Acers flagship Aspire n…
Intel CEO Paul Otellini rolled out the chipmaker’s new Sandy Bridge processors, which he said would account for one-third of the company’s 2011 revenue. – LAS VEGAS Intel CEO
Paul Otellini introduced the chipmaker’s new second-generation Core processor
set at the Consumer Electronics Show here a line of 20 chips that will shore up
a PC and laptop market challenged by the rise of tablets and other mobile
gadgets.
Code-named Sandy Bridge, the new C…
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Intel and AMD will offer new x86-based processor platforms for the embedded market in the first quarter or 2011. Intel plans configurable Atom chips; AMD will release embedded Fusion APUs. – Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are planning new processor offerings aimed at giving their x86-based products greater traction in the growing embedded devices market.
Intels new portfolio of Atom processors, the E600C series, and AMDs upcoming G-Series of APU (Accelerated Processing Units) both wi…
Semiconductors are becoming more malleable, too
ONE kind of hardware will probably never be virtualised: processors. After all, these are the brains of every digital device. Yet chips, too, are becoming more malleable. Demand is growing for processors that are not just made for a single purpose but can be reconfigured with a special programming tool, a bit like rewritable DVDs. The research arm of Deutsche Bank predicts this segment of the semiconductor market will grow by an annual average of 14% in the next few years.
“Programmable logic devices” (PLDs) help to solve a pressing problem in chipmaking. Developing a custom processor is becoming ever more pricey. Firms may spend up to $40m before the first chip is made. The risk of a design flaw is high, as are the costs of fixing it. PLDs lower both the upfront expense and the cost of getting things wrong. …
Two new models in Gateway’s ZX One Series of all-in-one desktops come with Blu-ray drives, Intel processors and pretty details, making them a fit for dorm rooms and savvy family spaces. – Gateway is updating its ZX One line of all-in-one consumer desktops with the Sept. 29 introduction of the ZX4951 and
ZX6951. Pitching the touch-screen PCs as perfect for living rooms, kitchen
counters and dorm rooms, Gateway has made an effort to update the systems
inside and out.
At 21.5 an…
Toshiba’s line of WiMax-enabled notebooks offer a range of multimedia features and connectivity to the high-speed WiMax wireless network, currently available in 54 cities in the United States. WiMax is a telecommunications protocol that provides fixed and mobile Internet access. These new Toshiba laptops also include the latest Intel chips. In addition, Intel has been a strong proponent of WiMax technology. Prices range from $759.99 for the Toshiba Satellite M645, featuring a 14-inch diagonal HD TruBrite widescreen display, to $1,079.99 for the Satellite E205-S1980, a Best Buy Blue Label laptop available only through the big box retailer. Other models include the Toshiba Satellite A665 notebook, which offers a 16-inch diagonal HD TruBrite widescreen display and optional Nvidia GeForce graphics (Toshiba offers a 3D-capable Satellite A665-3DV6 model) and the Portégé R705-P35, which boasts a 13.3-inch diagonal widescreen display, and a starting weight of just 3 pounds. Toshiba said the notebooks would be available starting Sept. 26 through various retail stores. – …
Intel officials continue to think small when it comes to processors. At IDF, they discussed plans for a 22-nm processor next year and Atom chips at 15 nanometers down the road. – Intel’s upcoming 32-nanometer quot;Sandy
Bridge quot; next-generation Core
architecture got much of the attention at the company’s developer show this
week, but executives also gave attendees a glimpse of even smaller chips coming
down the road.
During his keynote
address at the Intel Develop…
Intel and AMD are both preparing for the release of new chips that will combine CPUs and graphics technologies onto the same piece of silicon. At its Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco the week of Sept. 13, Intel executives showed off the 32-nanometer "Sandy Bridge" processor, the next generation of the Core architecture. The product, which will begin showing up in systems in early 2011, not only offers CPU-GPU capabilities on the same die, but also such features as enhanced Turbo Boost and improved security. The chip will contain about 1 billion transistors, and it will have five times the performance of current processors and 25 times faster graphics than Intel offered in 2007, according to Intel executives. In a hotel suite not far from the IDF show, AMD officials were demonstrating their upcoming "Zacate" Fusion APU (Accelerated Processing Unit), an 18-watt chip designed for desktops and notebooks. Like Sandy Bridge, Zacate and "Ontario," another APU that is aimed at netbooks and other small form factors, will start appearing in systems in early 2011. In demos, AMD officials said a system powered by Zacate outperformed one running on an Intel Core i5 chip. A key differentiator, AMD officials said, is that while Intel’s Sandy Bridge will initially be put into high-end systems, then eventually cascade down, AMD is placing its APU processors right into the mainstream market, in systems in the $500 range. – …
The dual-core Intel Atom N550 processor has begun shipping in more than a dozen netbooks. With its newest low-power Atom chip, Intel hopes to keep the netbook market strong and tablet sales at bay. – Intels newest Atom processors are arriving in stores, powering a dozen netbooks from manufacturers that include Acer, Asus, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Samsung, MSI and Toshiba.
The dual-core Atom N550 processors, announced Aug. 23, reportedly employ the same compact form factor as the singl…
AMD is unveiling details of its "Bobcat" and "Bulldozer" processors during the Hot Chips Conference at Stanford University, which starts Aug. 24. – Advanced
Micro Devices is unveiling the technical details of two new microprocessors,
quot;Bulldozer quot; and quot;Bobcat, quot; during the Hot Chips conference at Stanford
University. Its the first time in nearly seven years that AMD has updated the
microarchitecture of processing cores.
A…
Intel reports record financial numbers in the second quarter, driven by growing corporate demand for its new desktop, notebook and server processors. – Demand in both the corporate and consumer sectors helped Intel post a record
fiscal quarter July 13, netting $2.9 billion on $10.8 billion in revenue in the
second quarter.
Intel’s success had much to do with demand for servers and PCs
powered by the company’s latest processors, in particular th…
On Wednesday, Advanced Micro Devices introduced its latest family of microprocessors that is designed for cloud computing servers. Actually, the chips are part of the Opteron 4100 family and enabled with four-core variants. Originally, they had a codename, such as Lisbon. As a matter of fact, the chips use less power compared to their predecessors. [...]
Acer’s updated Aspire One netbooks, the AO521 and the AO721, highlight how far netbooks have come in the last few years. They feature AMD Athlon II Neo processors, ATI Radeon graphics and versions of Windows 7, and can reportedly juggle high-definition games, Websites and e-mail. – Acer has updated
two netbooks in its Aspire One line, offering evidence, should anyone still
need it, that gone are the days of netbooks as low-powered couch surfers.
The Aspire One AO521 and AO721 each feature AMD
Athlon II Neo processors and ATI Radeon HD
4225 graphics with 384MB of dedi…
The redesigned Apple Mac mini desktop begins shipping June 15. Inside its 7.7- by 1.4-inch aluminum body, Apple has tucked an Nvidia GeForce 320 graphics processor, an optional 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and the need for 25 percent less energy. – Apple introduced a redesigned Mac mini June 15 that it’s calling the world’s
most energy-efficient desktop.
The discrete, monitor-free mini measures 7.7 inches square by 1.4 inches thick
and features an integrated power supply, eliminating the need for an external
power adapter. All that’s …
Wolfson Microelectronics has said that it has made a contract with Samsung under which a Wolfson audio chop will be included in Samsung’s Wave and Galaxy S smartphones.
Wolfson makes microchips for computer but it has suffered losses last year to larger extent. The new deal will revive its business, as its chip demand [...]
