GlobalFoundries on Friday confirmed that the first products to be made using the company’s advanced 14nm LPP [low-power plus] manufacturing technology had been taped out. The contract maker of chips did not reveal any details, but indicated that prototype chips had demonstrated “excellent” performance and yields. One of the customers, …
Read More »Monthly Archives: September 2015
Makers of tablets eager to get cheap Atom ‘Bay Trail’ while discounts last
Manufacturers of inexpensive tablets recently increased orders for Intel Corp.’s previous-generation Atom “Bay Trail” system-on-chips before the company cancels discounts and starts to gradually phase-out production of such microprocessors. Going forward Intel will cease to offer heavy price cuts on mobile SoCs. At present, the average price of an Intel …
Read More »Asustek Computer is leading producer of gaming laptops – report
Asustek Computer is already the world’s largest maker of high-end mainboards, one of the leading producers of graphic cards and the No. 1 supplier of gaming displays. According to a new media report, this year the company became the globe’s top manufacturer of notebooks used by gamers. Asustek shipped 40 per cent …
Read More »GlobalFoundries: 14nm yields are exceeding our plans
GlobalFoundries, which started to manufacture chips using 14nm low-power early (14LPE) manufacturing technology several months ago, said on Friday that its yields exceed its original expectations. One of the world’s largest contract makers of semiconductors does not reveal its actual 14nm volumes, but since the chips are made for customers, …
Read More »EGX 2015’s most eye-catching booths
Since we spent much less of our time at EGX 2015 queuing than we have at previous years, that meant we didn't have as much time to look around aimlessly as we might do. That said, there were still some booths which really caught our attention for their statues, giant …
Read More »Twitch will soon allow direct video uploads, just like YouTube
A few weeks back, YouTube attempted to break in to Twitch's market with YouTube Gaming, its own revamped live-streaming service. Now, Twitch is throwing a punch back with its own VOD service, allowing Twitch users to upload fully edited videos to Twitch. Up until now, Twitch has focussed on being live, …
Read More »EGX 2015 fixes up previous years’ queue issues
One of the biggest issues with attending a lot of the biggest game shows in the UK and elsewhere around the world, is that they involve a lot of queuing. We saw it at this year's big Multiplay Insomnia series festival and we saw it was last year's EGX in …
Read More »Bioshock for iOS will be coming back after all
Yesterday it came to light that Bioshock for iOS had been de-listed from the Apple App Store and those who paid for it could not actually download it again. The game had remained unsupported since iOS 8.4, despite 2K saying that it would update the game. It looked like Bioshock …
Read More »The Oculus Touch controllers won’t be ready in time for launch
The Oculus Rift is on the way and should release around Spring next year. However, the Rift headset isn't the only bit of hardware that Oculus is set to release next year, it also has a brand new controller known as ‘Oculus Touch'. It's two motion sensing controllers that will …
Read More »The Xbox 360 and PS3 won’t be getting the Black Ops 3 campaign
Most people play Call of Duty for the multiplayer these days, but there are some people out there that still enjoy the campaigns, particularly in the Black Ops series. Unfortunately, if you are still playing on a last generation console, you won't be getting that campaign if you buy Call …
Read More »The US is investigating Google for anti-competitive behaviour
Google is going to be fighting anti-trust legal battles on both sides of the Atlantic, as the FTC and US Justice Department have launched an official investigation in to Google's business practises with Android, similar to the one European Commission conducted over the last year. US regulators have apparently decided …
Read More »Intel DC P3608 SSD: Up to 4TB capacity, up to 5GB/s bandwidth
Intel Corp. has quietly introduced its new family of solid-state drives designed for datacentres. The new Intel DC P3608 SSDs feature up to 4TB capacity as well as up to 5GB/s sequential read speed, they are among the highest-performing solid-state drives in the industry right now. The drives are designed …
Read More »Android 6.0 Marshmallow to launch very soon
Google has been tinkering and wrapping things up with Android 6.0 Marshmallow for a few months now. Throughout the year, developers have had access to preview test builds but the official roll out has yet to begin. Right now, Google is expected to announce the new LG Nexus 5 and …
Read More »China to start charging companies for pollution from 2017
China has revealed new plans designed to push back against pollution, by setting limits on the greenhouse gas emissions of companies and then charging them for going over that limit. The hope is that by discouraging companies from excessively polluting the environment, overall carbon emission levels will halve by 2030. …
Read More »MSI Z170A XPower Gaming Titanium Edition Review
MSI has made a bold move by giving the company's Z170 XPower motherboard a Titanium theme. What exactly does that mean? Well firstly the motherboard features a unique metallic styling which is sure to turn heads. And then there's the application of a sixteen phase power delivery system that makes …
Read More »Minecraft is coming to the Oculus Rift after all
Back when Facebook originally acquired Oculus, quite a few people took issue with it, one person being Markus Persson, the man behind Minecraft. At the time, Persson cancelled his version of Minecraft for the Oculus Rift but things have changed since then, Mojang has since been sold to Microsoft, Persson …
Read More »SAS-24Gb/s is on-track for launch in 2018 or 2019 – SCSI association
Serial Attached SCSI continues to be the interface of choice for mission-critical storage sub-systems. At a recent conference, the SCSI trade association, the organization that oversees development of the technology, said that the next-generation of SAS – the SAS-24Gb/s – remains on-track for commercial launch in 2018 or 2019. The …
Read More »Gigabyte Z170X-SOC Force LN2 for extreme overclockers is closing in
Earlier this year it transpired that Gigabyte Technology was working on a new ‘Super Overclock’ motherboard designed for extreme overclocking and setting records in benchmarks. As it appears, the release of the platform is getting closer. The Gigabyte Z170X-SOC Force LN2-CF platform was designed from the ground up to offer …
Read More »MSI bundles Assassin’s Creed Chronicles with select AMD Radeon cards
MicroStar International has announced that for a limited time it will bundle Assassin’s Creed Chronicles with select AMD Radeon R9 and R7-based graphics adapters. Since the AC Chronicles use 2.5D graphics, they should run perfectly on systems powered by such graphics boards. MSI will bundle the Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China and …
Read More »Oculus VR initiates ‘Oculus Ready’ PC program
It is not a secret that far not all personal computers are able to run video games with virtual reality headsets. At the Oculus Connect 2015 conference, Oculus VR introduced its “Oculus Ready” PC program, which is designed to help those, who want to get a new PC, which can …
Read More »Samsung is launching a new, cheaper GearVR this November
Samsung is betting bigger on virtual reality this year, as it plans to release another version of its GearVR headset. This year's latest model will launch in November with a slight re-design and a much lower price. Oculus is once again in charge of developing the headset, which will rely …
Read More »The Star Wars Battlefront Open Beta has a launch date
DICE recently announced the Star Wars Battlefront beta for October, though at the time some of the finer details were left out. Now, we know quite a bit more about the beta, for starters, we now have an exact launch date. We also know that it will be open to …
Read More »Bioshock for iOS is no longer available, even if you bought it
It seems that 2K Games has de-listed Bioshock for iOS from the App Store. The iPhone and iPad port of the game launched last year, it featured lesser graphics but the full game was playable from start to finish- it even ran pretty well. However, if you bought the game …
Read More »The Rainbow Six: Siege beta kicks off today, here are the details
Ubisoft's closed beta for the Rainbow Six: Siege beta kicks off today on the PC, Xbox One and PS4. There are plenty of beta key opportunities floating around the web at the moment so it's not too late for you to get in. To mark the occasion, Ubisoft has outlined …
Read More »Acer Liquid Jade Z smartphone review
The third installment in Acer's Liquid Jade series of smartphones, the Liquid Jade Z is more aggressively priced than its immediate predecessor, the Jade S. Back at around the £150 mark, the Jade Z enters a very saturated market. Can it make its mark above phones including the great Vodafone …
Read More »LG teases a dual-display smartphone for next month
It looks like LG is preparing to launch a new smartphone next month. The company just released a teaser video for its upcoming reveal event on the 1st of October. The video shows us a brief look at what could be LG's rumoured dual-display smartphone. The dual-display system works with …
Read More »G.Skill readies Trident Z DDR4 modules with 4.40GHz clock-rate
G.Skill is working on new Trident Z memory modules, which will hit unbelievable 4.40GHz frequency. The modules are designed for extreme enthusiasts and will be compatible with select Intel Z170-based platforms for overclockers. G.Skill’s Trident Z DDR4-4400 (PC4-35200) memory modules will feature 4GB capacity and will be based on hand-selected …
Read More »Win an MSI mini-ITX GTX 760 and be a reviewer for a day!
Have you ever wanted to try your hand at reviewing hardware? Well we would like to give you that chance. This week, we are running a giveaway for an MSI Mini-ITX GTX 760 graphics card, all we ask in return is that you submit a review for us to share …
Read More »Windows update disables SafeDisc DRM in Windows Vista/7/8
Earlier this year, it was discovered that Windows 10 doesn't support SafeDisc or SecuROM DRM software, which also means that games or software using those forms of DRM won't run without some tinkering. Microsoft did this for security purposes as these forms of DRM aren't entirely secure. Now, a similar …
Read More »Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee is free on Steam for a limited time
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, the 1997 classic adventure game is currently available to download for free on Steam. Once you hit install game, it will be added to your account and be yours forever, though you only have a limited time window to do this in. The offer ends at 6PM …
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