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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 …

Asustek Computer has unveiled its new small form-factor graphics card that fits into mini-ITX computer cases. The new Asus GeForce GTX 970 DC Mini sports advanced DirectCU cooling solution and is factory-overclocked. It is probable that the new graphics adapter is the world’s most powerful SFF graphics card. The Asus GeForce …

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, …

Today we take a look at the new modified, custom card created in a partnership with Overclockers UK called the GALAX GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent ‘Infinity Black Edition'. Gibbo at Overclockers has created another custom card built with a nickel plated heatsink and the I/O plate is also nickel …

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 …

Although solid-state drives are considerably more affordable these days than they were several years ago, high-capacity 1TB SSDs remain pretty expensive and with price-points like £349/$550 out of budget of the vast majority of PC enthusiasts. However, the situation is changing. Mushkin Enhanced, a leading maker of advanced PC components, …

In a bid to maintain market shares and unit shipments this year leading manufacturers of mainboards had to cut prices and initiate various campaigns to boost sales. Such tactics lead to price-cuts as well as erosion of gross-margins, something that threats the future of the companies. However, next year motherboard …

Thanks to the fact that the new-generation graphics cards from Nvidia Corp. arrived to the market and next flagship graphics solutions from both AMD and Nvidia emerged on horizon, current top-of-the-range graphics solutions began to rapidly drop their price. The Radeon R9 295X2 graphics cards are now available at price-points …

Everybody loves speed, and there's no easier way to enhance the snappiness of general usage tasks than by using a solid state drive. But the primary storage interface – SATA 6Gbps – saw its speed limit reached by fast SSD's more than two years ago. If you wanted higher performance, …

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 …

A Chinese web-site that leaks unofficial information about future central processing units and graphics processing units has published what it claims to be the first benchmark results of AMD’s next-generation Radeon R9 300-series graphics card code-named “Fiji XT”. If the benchmark results are correct, then the graphics adapters will offer …

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 …

Multiplay's legendary Insomnia events are a great place to get hands-on with a ton of kit that you don't normally find in the shops. On hand for Thermaltake was Martin Pajenkamp to explain the cool features of his Core V51 chassis. Have to say that we do like an intelligently …

At the recent Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM) conference Advanced Storage Technology Consortium (ASTC), which unites numerous makers of hard disk drives as well as developers of storage solutions, demonstrated a new HDD roadmap. Apparently, rapid increases in areal density of hard drive media will allow HDD makers to create …

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 …

At some point or another, we've all been tempted to paint a chassis. Whether you botched it with a roller or made your best effort using a primed surface and layers of spray paint, it's unlikely that you will have managed better than this system from Utopia Computers on the …

Small Form Factor fever seemed to spread through the halls at Multiplay's Insomnia i53. We all remember the ‘time of the Shuttles' – around 10 years ago – but the problem was that the specifications were very weak. Now that does not have to be the case. Also, prices have …

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 …

Advanced Micro Devices said that architectural peculiarities of the graphics core next (GCN) architecture make it very efficient for rendering virtual reality games. Apparently, asynchronous compute engines (ACEs) of AMD Radeon graphics processing units provide unique capabilities for low-latency VR rendering. “It has been something of a well-kept secret that …

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 …

We have been impressed with the wide cross section of GTX970's and GTX980's we have reviewed since Nvidia's official launch. It was interesting to note on launch day that Nvidia didn't sample a reference GTX970, instead relying on partners to supply custom cooled overclocked solutions. Nvidia's distinctive reference cooler has …

Fractal Design has given the Refine R4 a makeover and the result is the Refine R5. If you judge a book by its cover the R5 may not impress you as it looks pretty much identical to the R4 but once you get inside the case you'll find it is …

One of the major problems when buying a gaming laptop is that you are stuck forever with the graphics inside. Within 18 months they are very often struggling to keep up with the latest game engines. MSI is looking to resolve this problem with their upcoming MSI GS30 Shadow Super …

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 …

SK Hynix, a major maker of high-performance memory, has added high bandwidth memory (HBM) devices compliant with the JESD235 specification into its product catalogue for the fourth quarter of 2014. The addition of chips into the databook means that they are in production and can be obtained from the company. …

SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest makers of dynamic random access memory, has initiated mass production of GDDR5 memory that can operate at 8Gb/s data-rate. The new memory chips are already available for graphics cards manufacturers and will be installed on new graphics adapters. The new GDDR5 memory chips from …

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 …