Asustek Computer and Lenovo Group are about to offer Chromebooks – notebooks powered by Google’s Chrome OS operating system – with incredibly low price-tag of just $149, according to a media report. The new price-point for notebooks may cause further erosion of notebook ASPs [average selling prices], a bad news …
Read More »Chief executive of Intel: Rockchip and Spreadtrum will drop ARM, stick to x86
Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., is completely convinced that the company’s deals with Rockchip Semiconductor and Tsinghua Unigroup (the owner of Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics) will finally help the chipmaker to popularize its x86 technology on the market of mobile devices. Earlier this year Intel signed …
Read More »Nvidia earns record revenues thanks to booming sales of… everything
Nvidia Corp. on Thursday reported its financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal 2015, which ended on the 26th of October, 2014. The company earned record revenue in a single quarter thanks to increased sales of all of its products, including all types of graphics processing units as …
Read More »Microsoft testing Windows Server OS for ARM system-on-chips
Servers based on system-on-chips featuring ARM architecture have not really become popular yet and many software developers have doubts about their viability. Microsoft seems to have certain amount of confidence in ARM-based servers and is already testing its Windows Server operating system that is compatible with appropriate chips. Microsoft has …
Read More »AMD hires former exec from Dell to head enterprise, embedded, semi-custom businesses
Advanced Micro Devices on Monday announced that Forrest Norrod, a former vice president and general manager of Dell’s server business, has joined the company as senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s enterprise, embedded and semi-custom (EESC) business group. “Forrest is an industry veteran whose strong track record of …
Read More »ARM licenses next-gen ‘Maya’ cores to three more partners
ARM Holdings has announced that it had licensed its next-generation 64-bit code-named “Maya” general-purpose processing cores to three more companies. This means that the first system-on-chips based on ARM’s second-generation 64-bit architecture could hit the market sometimes in 2016 or even earlier. “We have signed three licenses for Maya, our …
Read More »AMD vows not to cut R&D expenses, plans to streamline operations
Although AMD has just announced a plan to reduce its workforce by 7 per cent and align its real estate footprint with its reduced headcount, the company has no plans to reduce spending on research and development (R&D). All the cuts will be made in different segments. While it is …
Read More »AMD to cut headcount by another 7% by year end
Advanced Micro Devices late on Thursday said that it will cut its staff by 7 per cent by the end of the year. The decision was made by Lisa Su, chief executive officer of AMD, who was appointed on the position just about a week ago. The company hopes that …
Read More »Samsung rolls-out eight-core Exynos 7 Octa application processor
Samsung Electronics on Thursday unveiled its all-new Exynos 7 application processor for mobile and consumer electronics devices. The features eight processing cores, high-end graphics engine, 4K ultra-high-definition video output and a number of other innovations. The chip is made using Samsung’s latest process technology and will power numerous future devices …
Read More »ARM: 20nm process tech will not be used by mainstream applications
Due to multiple reasons the majority of developers of various system-on-chip devices will skip 20nm process technology of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and will use 14nm and 16nm FinFET fabrication processors of TSMC, GlobalFoundries and Samsung Electronics. Traditionally TSMC and other foundries develop multiple different process technologies for different kinds …
Read More »Microsoft to dump ARM-based Surface media tablets – report
While Microsoft Corp. will continue to offer its Surface Pro line of tablets designed for creative professionals and corporate users, the company is currently reconsidering the future of its Surface media tablets, at least, in their current form. According to a report, Microsoft may dump ARM-based Surface tablets and offer only …
Read More »Microsoft reaffirms commitment to Surface Pro, preps next-gen models
Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday reiterated its commitment to its Surface Pro business tablets and said that its next-generation solutions of the kind, which are in development today, will be compatible with existing peripherals. The claim was made in order to persuade IT managers and CIO to consider Surface Pro as …
Read More »AMD readies ARM-, x86-based system-on-chips for tablets
Advanced Micro Devices will introduce the first chips that belong to the Skybridge family of accelerated processing units (APUs) and system-on-chips (SoCs) in the third quarter of next year, according to unofficial information. Initially the project Skybridge offerings will target ultra-low-power applications, such as tablets. AMD’s Skybridge family of APUs …
Read More »ARM and TSMC expect first 10nm tape-outs in late 2015
ARM Holdings and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on Thursday outlined some details regarding transition of chip production to 10nm FinFET manufacturing technology. The company’s reaffirmed that risk production of chips made using 10nm FF fabrication process will start in late 2015. The two companies agreed to work together on 10nm FinFET …
Read More »ARM and TSMC unveil 16nm FinFET heterogeneous multi-core CPU
ARM Holdings and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on Tuesday unveiled the world’s first heterogeneous multi-core microprocessor made using 16nm FinFET (16FF) process technology. The chip, which integrates the ARM Cortex-A57 and the ARM Cortex-A53 cores, is designed to showcase that ARM’s designs and TSMC’s 16nm FinFET process technology are compatible …
Read More »Intel pays $1.5 billion to make SoC developer choose x86 over ARM
Intel Corp. and Tsinghua Unigroup, a China state-owned limited liability corporation, confirmed that they have signed an agreement under which Intel will acquire 20 per cent stake in the Chinese holding company, which controls two developers of mobile system-on-chips (SoCs), for $1.5 billion. It is believed that that the SoC …
Read More »TSMC builds world’s first 32-core networking chip using 16nm FinFET process technology
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on Thursday said that it has built the world’s first many-core networking processor for next-generation wireless communications and routers using 16nm FinFET fabrication technology. The ultra-thin manufacturing process will allow the many-core chip to deliver high performance and rich feature-set while consuming low amounts of power. …
Read More »Intel acquires 20% stake in Chinese mobile SoC developer
Intel Corp. has quietly acquired a 20 per cent stake in a Chinese holding company that controls developers of system-on-chips for smartphones and other mobile devices, according to two media reports. It is expected that the chip designers will develop application processors for mobiles powered by Intel’s x86 cores, which will …
Read More »ARM unveils Cortex-M7 for smart devices, industrial equipment
ARM Holdings this week introduced its new Cortex-M7 processor that promises to double the compute and digital signal processing (DSP) capability for high-end embedded applications used in next generation vehicles, connected devices (including the so-called Internet-of-things devices), and smart homes and factories. The ARM Cortex-M7 core is based on the …
Read More »ARM: Mali graphics tech does not infringe Nvidia’s patents
Chief executive officer of ARM Holdings on Monday defended the company’s Mali graphics technology in connection to a patent suit by Nvidia Corp against Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm. The executive of the technology developer said his company will assist Samsung in its legal fight with Nvidia. Samsung uses ARM’s Mali …
Read More »AMD: ‘Bulldozer’ was not a game-changer, but next-gen ‘Zen’ will be
Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday confirmed that it is developing an all-new high-performance x86 micro-architecture code-named “Zen”. Rory Read, chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices, admitted that the current-generation “Bulldozer” micro-architectures could not improve AMD’s positions on the market of central processing units, so, at present AMD pins hopes on …
Read More »Samsung Electronics set to fight Nvidia in court
Samsung Electronics has announced that it would fight Nvidia Corp. in court and will not give up. The consumer electronics giant did not outline any special plans, but it looks like the company is ready for a long legal battle against Nvidia. Samsung said it would take “all measures necessary” against …
Read More »Nvidia: Adreno, Mali and PowerVR SoCs infringe our patents
Nvidia Corp. on Thursday filed patent infringement complaints against Samsung and Qualcomm with both the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. District Court, in Delaware. The chip designer claims that virtually all modern graphics architectures used in mobile devices infringe its patents. As a result, Nvidia wants to …
Read More »ARM signs 50th 64-bit ARMv8-A licensing agreement
ARM Holding this week said it has signed its 50th licensing agreement for its ARMv8-A technology, which includes support for 64-bit computing. The milestone indicates growing popularity of ARM’s 64-bit technology among developers of various system-on-chips. It is likely that going forward the adoption of the ARMv8-A will accelerate. ARM …
Read More »Unity adds native support for Intel’s x86 chips to its engine for Android
Unity Technologies this week said it will add native support for Intel Corp.’s x86 microprocessors and system on chips to its Unity game engine for the Android operating system, which is used by loads of video games. The move will improve performance of games on devices based on Intel’s x86 …
Read More »Intel could buy an ARM SoC vendor, MediaTek is a target – analyst
In a bid to finally become successful on the market of mobile devices, Intel Corp. needs to buy an existing developer of ARM-based system-on-chips (SoCs) for smartphones and tablets, a market analyst said. It is believed that MediaTek is a potential target for acquisition. It is not a secret that application …
Read More »Analysts: Media tablets for $35 are incoming
As more manufacturers enter the market of media tablets, prices of slates fall rather dramatically. This week analysts from the Linley Group said that thanks to emergence of ultra-low-cost system-on-chips (SoCs), such as Allwinner A33 and some Intel Corp.’s SoCs, prices of white-box tablets could drop to $35 (£21, €26 …
Read More »Intel acquires LSI’s Axxia networking processor unit from Avago
Avago Technologies continues to resell assets it got from LSI last year. On Thursday Avago and Intel said that the latter will acquire the Axxia networking business from the former. The acquisition of Axxia essentially makes Intel a supplier of network processors based on ARM Cortex and IBM Power processing …
Read More »AMD ready to build custom 64-bit ARM processors for servers
Advanced Micro Devices yet has to commercially ship its first ARMv8-based system-on-chip for servers code-named Seattle. Nonetheless, the company already says that it is ready to develop semi-custom server-class SoCs for servers based on the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture. The company already offers customized Opteron chips powered by its x86 cores. …
Read More »Acer introduces Chromebook with Nvidia Tegra K1 inside
Acer Group has announced the world’s first Chromebook – a notebook running Google’s Chrome OS – powered by Nvidia Corp.’s Tegra K1 system-on-chip. The laptop offers everything that the Chrome OS has to offer in addition to a high-performance application processor from Nvidia and up to 13 hours of battery …
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