Intel Corp. this week plans to announce a new family of inexpensive Celeron and Pentium central processing units made using 14nm fabrication process. Previously known as code-named “Braswell” microprocessors, the new chips significantly increase performance in multimedia applications compared to previous-generation “Bay Trail” system-on-chips. The new SoCs will be used …

Intel Corp. is negotiating with Altera Corp., a developer of system-on-chips, field programmable gate arrays and other specialty devices, over a possible takeover. The acquisition could strengthen Intel’s positions across many markets. The transaction could top $10 billion, which will be Intel’s biggest purchase ever. Altera develops and sells field …

In a bid to address emerging and educational markets with inexpensive laptops, Microsoft Corp. is reportedly working with two companies on ultra-cheap personal computers due this summer. The systems are projected to hit record-low $149 price-point per unit, which is on-par with low-end media tablets from renowned brands. The two …

In a bid to increase sales of its mobile system-on-chip devices as well as to continue offering unique solutions to the market, Intel Corp. reportedly plans to team up with Google for hybrid 2-in-1 mobile computers running Chrome OS. Intel already has multiple reference designs of 2-in-1 hybrid PCs with …

Triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash memory is dramatically less durable than traditional multi-level cell (MLC) or single-level cell (SLC) NAND. However, it has one distinctive advantage over competing technologies: it is more affordable to manufacture. This single advantage drives its popularity among makers of various devices and by the end …

Advanced Micro Devices faces hard times these days as sales of its central processing units and graphics processing units have been hitting new lows for many quarters. As a result, rumours about possible acquisitions of AMD resurrect. Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of semiconductors, is considering to acquire Advanced …

Shmuel “Mooly” Eden, senior vice president and president of Intel Israel, will leave the company to “seek new challenges.” The legendary veteran, who has been with Intel for 33 years, has held various technical and management positions at Intel throughout his tenure with the giant chipmaker. “I have had the …

After using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. to make all of its chips almost exclusively for nearly a decade, Nvidia Corp. this year signed an agreement to produce a portion of its products at Samsung Foundry. But that could only be a part of Nvidia’s new strategy, according to a financial …

Intel Corp.’s code-named “Broadwell” microprocessors are not going to have a long lifespan on any markets since their successors – code-named “Skylake” chips – are ready to hit the market. Moreover, if a new media report is correct, the world’s largest chipmaker plans to limit availability of “Broadwell” CPUs on the …

With 14nm fabrication process finally mature enough for production of high-end microprocessors, Intel Corp. feels itself pretty comfortable. With no or little competitive pressure from Advanced Micro Devices, the world’s largest chipmaker can release new products when it makes the most business sense for it. The company takes advantage of …

Although Apple’s new MacBook looks extremely promising thanks to its ultra-thin design and high quality display, its sales will not be high, according to a media report. The demand for PCs remains rather low and there are slowdowns in mass production of retina-class display for the laptop. Apple will not …

Asrock, one of the world’s largest makers of mainboards, this week announced an ultimate mini-ITX mainboard that can not only enable small form-factor desktops with performance on par with full-size workstations, but also leading-edge functionality not found on many high-end PCs nowadays. The Asrock X99E-ITX/ac is the industry’s first mainboard …

Intel Corp. on Thursday said that its revenue in the first quarter of its fiscal year will be lower than anticipated. The company reduced revenue outlook by about $1 billion. The world’s largest chipmaker blamed slower than expected replacements of Windows XP-based PCs by businesses as well as challenging macroeconomic …

Intel Corp.’s code-named “Broadwell” processors are still two or three months away, but mainboard makers are already preparing for their arrival. Asustek Computer, the world’s largest producer of motherboards, this week released new BIOS versions for its contemporary mainboards that add support for the new central processing units. As expected, …

Intel Corp.’s code-named “Skylake” processors may be significantly faster than existing chips at the same clock-rate thanks to architectural improvements, according to performance benchmarks of alleged engineering sample of the forthcoming CPU. If Intel manages to maintain current clock-rates with commercial “Skylake” chips, the latter could be significantly faster than …

Just several months ago Asustek Computer started to use a special LGA2011-3 socket on its mainboards based on the Intel X99 core-logic in a bid to enhance overclocking potential of Intel Core i7 “Haswell-E” processors. Earlier this year Gigabyte Technology also started to equip its X99 “Champion” mainboards with custom sockets. …

Zotac, a leading maker of advanced graphics cards and small form-factor personal computers, this week announced its first Steam Machine. The personal computer, which is due to be launched sometimes in November, will be very small and rather stylish. However, this does not mean that Zotac’s SN970 will offer mediocre …

While Intel Corp. is going to release its code-named “Skylake” processors a little later than expected, the company keeps the plan to introduce its new micro-architecture for virtually all segments of the market continuum this year. Intel will roll-out “Skylake” central processing units for tablets, 2-in-1s, personal computers and servers …

Khronos Group on Tuesday introduced what was originally known as the next-generation OpenGL initiative, a brand-new application programming interface called Vulkan. The new API is designed to replace OpenGL in the long-term future and will address loads of markets and platform. The Vulkan is a new low-overhead/high-throughput API that provides …

Micron Technology on Monday began the expansion of its Singapore NAND flash memory fabrication facility. The company started to build a new fab that will cost $4 billion and will start production in fiscal 2017. The new fab is expected to produce innovative 3D NAND flash (co-developed with Intel) as …

Intel Corp.’s forthcoming central processing units code-named “Skylake” for personal computers will not support any AVX-512 instructions, according to a media report. Only Xeon processors for servers and, possibly, workstations will support 512-bit instructions. Support of 512-bit SIMD instructions – known as AVX3 – was expected to be a key …

Intel Corp. not only plans to unveil its new Atom processors code-named “Braswell” later this year, but also to introduce a new classification for its chips aimed at ultra-portable devices. The new naming scheme will help the world’s largest chipmaker to better position its Atom processors and will likely help …

At the Embedded World 2015 trade-show this week Asrock demonstrated its first mainboard for LGA1151 central processing units code-named Skylake. DFI, a well-known maker of mainboards that no longer produces products for consumers, is also showcasing its embedded/industrial LGA1151 roadmap at the show. Although makers of desktop mainboards are not …

Origin PC, a leading maker of high-performance personal computers for gamers, has announced its new line of its high-end systems. The new Omega home theater PC systems are designed for the living rooms and are projected to wed extreme performance with compact sizes and AV equipment design. Origin Omega personal …

The semiconductor industry has realized the benefits of Moore’s Law for 50 years, making chips that have grown from tens to billions of transistors and performing an increased range of functions from memory to logic to signal processing. Next year or in 2017, the world’s largest maker of microprocessors will …

Although microprocessors based on AMD’s next-generation high-performance micro-architecture code-named “Zen” are more than a year away, some details regarding the forthcoming chips and “Zen” in general are beginning to surface. The most recent rumours about the new architecture add some technical details and point to release schedule of the new …

Corsair, a major maker of enthusiast-class memory modules, has introduced its new limited edition 16GB DDR4 memory kit designed for high-end desktop (HEDT) systems featuring Intel Core i7 “Haswell-E” processors and Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion mainboards. The memory will run at maximum DDR4 clock-rate possible today, 3.40GHz, and will provide further …

At present there are about half of a dozen different general-purpose processing cores for various low-power system-on-chip solutions. There are high-performance, low-power, big and small cores. But when all of these metrics are taken into account, ARM and Intel have the edge over their rivals. Massive popularization of mobile and …

Lenovo Group, the world’s largest maker of personal computers and one of the fastest growing high-tech companies, plans to spend about two billion of U.S. dollars on research and development of smartphones and servers in the next three years. The money will help the company to enter new markets with …

Intel Corp. has set a very broad product introduction window for its code-named “Skylake-S” microprocessors that it allows the chipmaker to release its new microprocessors as late as in October, which means rather limited availability of such desktop chips this calendar year. An excerpt presumably from an Intel’s document for …