CPU

GlobalFoundries, the world’s second largest contract maker of semiconductors, plans to start volume production of chips using 14nm fabrication process in the first half of 2015, a little later than Samsung Electronics, but, possibly, earlier than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The company does not reveal who will be the first …

One of the hottest topics of debate among KitGuru readers is the correct approach to installing a CPU cooler We took a test system consisting of a 3.9GHz Core i7-4770K CPU (stock clock speed), an ASRock Z87 Extreme4 motherboard, Sapphire R9 290 Trix graphics card, Samsung 840 EVO SSD and …

Advanced Micro Devices on Monday promoted Mario Silveira to lead worldwide consumer sales within the company’s computing and graphics business unit. Mario Silveira, who is 40 years old, joined AMD in 2010 and most recently served as head of consumer go-to-market sales for the EMEA region. Mr. Silveira will report …

Samsung Electronics has begun volume production of semiconductors using 14nm FinFET fabrication process in accordance with its plans outlined earlier this year. The company does not disclose which chips it produces using its 14LPE (low-power early) manufacturing technology and for which companies. Kim Ki-nam, president of Samsung’s semiconductor business and …

Advanced Micro Devices may not have a clear product roadmap for 2015, when it essentially will continue selling current-generation products and will not increase performance of its chips significantly. Nonetheless, the company pins many hopes on its 2016 lineup when it will have a number of new products that are …

Although Advanced Micro Devices has not revealed any details about its 2015 roadmap this year, the company continues to unveil pieces of the puzzle. Last week the firm implied that it will use 20nm fabrication process for select products, but on Tuesday AMD hinted that products made using 14nm and 16nm …

Semi-custom system-on-chips for video-game consoles account for a significant portion of AMD’s sales. Many market observers have been concerned that while SoCs for Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 bring in huge revenue, profit margin of such business may be negligible. While the margins of the SoCs are below …

Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday implied that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 20nm fabrication process would only be used for select products, whereas the main focus of the chip designer is on more advanced fabrication processes with FinFET transistors. Unfortunately, AMD did not reveal any actual plans. “From an overall standpoint, today …

GlobalFoundries, the world’s second largest contract maker of semiconductors, has leading edge process technologies and advanced fabs. However, in the recent years the company had to significantly alter its plans, which affected its performance and relations with customers. Fortunately, according to AMD, a key client of GF, the problems seem …

Samsung Electronics has world-class semiconductor manufacturing facilities and leading-edge process technologies. While the company designs its own system-on-chips for mobile devices, Samsung continues to use application processors from Qualcomm for its high-end smartphones and extensively uses intellectual property from ARM Holdings and Imagination Technologies. Apparently, Samsung wants to change that …

Although AMD’s next-generation accelerated processing unit (APU) code-named “Carrizo” employs the company’s upcoming high-performance “Excavator” x86 cores, they may never make it to high-performance desktop computers as AMD tailored its forthcoming APUs specifically for mobile devices. In order to cut-down power consumption of “Carrizo” chips compared to current-generation “Kaveri” APUs, …

Advanced Micro Devices recently set a goal to improve energy efficiency of its accelerated processing units by 25 times by 2020. To achieve this goal, AMD will have to outpace historical energy efficiency trend by over 70 per cent, but the company claims it knows what to do and even …

Apple has been trying to cut its orders to Samsung Electronics for many years now, but when it comes to making ultra-low-power system-on-chips using a leading-edge process technology, in high volume and with high yield, Samsung is one of a few companies who can do the job. As a result, …

As reported, Overclockers UK has decided to follow its colleagues from the U.S. with special discounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Unlike “traditional” price slashes many of which look rather symbolic, deals on the special days usually result in rather dramatic savings. For example, OcUK will offer a bundle …

We do not know exactly when companies like Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. make their first chips using 7nm, 5nm, 3nm or 2nm process technologies. But we do know what should happen before leading semiconductor producers manufacture their new chips using ultra-thin process technologies: ASML should sell …

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has ordered two additional extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanners from ASML Holding. The equipment will be delivered in 2015 and will complement initial two EUV scanners TSMC has today, which will be upgraded. Four scanners will let TSMC make chips using 10nm process technology and EUV lithography …

Advanced Micro Devices traditionally holds its Financial Day for investors and financial analysts in November, just like Intel Corp. However, it will not host the event this year as it is reshaping its roadmap and reconsiders its goals going forward. A spokesperson for AMD has confirmed KitGuru that the company …

Advanced Micro Devices and Asmedia have reportedly signed a pact under which the latter will develop core-logic sets for the former. The move will help AMD to reduce its expenses and use internal engineering resources to develop leading-edge microprocessors and graphics processing units. Earlier this year AMD licensed SATA Express-related …

Although Advanced Micro Devices has developed several generations of chips for tablet PCs, it has not shipped a lot of them because makers of tablets were not too interested in making slates based on x86 processors and Microsoft Windows operating system. As a result, AMD now believes that chips for tablets are …

Via Technologies controls about 1 per cent of the world’s x86 microprocessor market and does not have a lot of chances to significantly boost sales of its central processing units. Despite of not very bright perspectives and financial losses, the company does not plan to leave the CPU market. Timothy …

Samsung Electronics on Friday filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission asking to stop sales of Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce graphics processing units as well as Tegra system-on-chips since they infringe its patents. The move is a yet another step in the legal battle between Nvidia and Samsung, which …

Qualcomm, the world’s largest supplier of application processors for mobile devices, this week confirmed unofficial information that it is working on high-performance system-on-chips for the emerging market of micro-servers based on ARM-architecture processors. “We are engaged with customers,” said Steve Mollenkopf, chief executive officer of Qualcomm, during a meeting with …

Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday formally announced its code-named “Carrizo” and “Carrizo-L” accelerated processing units (APUs) that integrate the company’s next-generation general-purpose and graphics processing units. The new chips will arrive in the first half of next year and will target similar-class devices, including notebooks, 2-in-1s, all-in-one desktops and some …

Advanced Micro Devices plans to lower prices of its A-series “Kaveri” accelerated processing units, according to a media report. The company wants to fight back some market share from Intel Corp. before the end of the year and will lower prices of popular APUs so that to make them more …

Gigabyte Technology has unveiled the world’s first mATX mainboard based on the Intel X99 core-logic that is designed for Intel Core i7-5800/5900-series “Haswell-E” high-end desktop central processing units. The mainboard features premium capabilities and can enable compact form-factor systems with extreme levels of performance. The Gigabyte X99M-Gaming 5 motherboard is …

Advanced Micro Devices will reveal all technical details about its next-generation code-named “Carrizo” accelerated processing unit in late February, 2015, at the 2015 IEEE international Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). Although many things about the chip are already known, AMD managed to create an intrigue by squeezing in 28 per cent …

Intel Corp. will reveal technical details about its next-generation multi-core microprocessor for mission-critical servers next February at the 2015 IEEE international Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). The chip will be the most complex central processing unit ever made by Intel. Intel Xeon E7 v3 “Haswell-EX” microprocessor for servers with up to …

MicroStar International and Intel Corp. on Monday announced a new cashback promotion that will help owners of certain Intel and MSI products to get some cash back. The promotion will work in multiple European countries, including the U.K. From the 16th of November until the 27th of December, 2014, MSI …

Intel Corp.’s Quark system-on-chips for extreme-ultra-low-power devices provide basic compute capabilities for smart appliances, simple robots and even wearable gadgets, but there are a number of reasons that prevent them from becoming popular. Among the key points of Intel’s concerns about the Quark family is low-performance, limited amount of I/O …

Samsung Electronics this week responded to Nvidia Corp.’s allegations with its own lawsuit, where it accuses Nvidia and its partner Velocity Micro of infringing its patents. While the main reason why Samsung sued Velocity Micro, a well-known privately-held PC maker, is tactical, it should be noted that the charges which …