Chips

Intel to Get Inside at Least 10 Tablets This Summer
May 18, 2011

Intel is moving big-time into the tablet business while postponing its smartphone entry until 2012. At least 10 new tablet computers running on Intel chips will be introduced at the computer trade show Computex late this month in Taiwan. Intel will produce a new chip set, Oak Trail, based on its Atom platform, for the tablet devices.

Intel Defines 22nm Innovation with '3D' Tri-Gate Transistors
May 17, 2011

The IT industry loves the concept of "innovation," but many vendors' hearts largely belong to just the most conventional sorts of wisdom. That adoration takes a number of shapes: Stone Age business models; dusty Neolithic technologies and architectures; fossilized go-to-market strategies. In point of fact, such vendors are more similar to staid industries and companies, where dependability trumps progress.

Facebook's Sly-Dog Aspirations
May 14, 2011

One of these days we may see a real public clash between Facebook and Google - a huge bidding war, or maybe the launch of a real Google social network that will have the other one fighting for its life. For now, though, we get a silly little PR disaster that's left Facebook looking like it's lost its Machiavellian mojo.

The Sony Horror Hacker Show
May 07, 2011

Sony's great big data leak could go down in history as the company's messiest mess of all time -- even worse than the CD rootkit disaster. Last week, we learned that hackers had broken into Sony's PlayStation Network and made off with a bunch of user data. Names, passwords and birth dates were definitely leaked, and Sony wasn't able to guarantee people's credit card numbers were safe either.

Will MacBooks Take Up ARMs?
May 06, 2011

Whispers are circulating out in Web Rumor Land that Apple may be planning to switch processors in its MacBook line of laptops from Intel-made silicon to ARM chips. ARM chips dominate the mobile world, having left Intel's Atom processors behind in the dust. Certain recent Cupertino moves may have given rise to this rumor.

Intel Busts Out of the Gate With 3D Transistor
May 04, 2011

Intel has reported a major technological breakthrough in microprocessor development: the world's first 3D transistor. The Tri-Gate transistor will continue the steady delivery of computing products that are ever more powerful, ever cheaper and ever smaller, the company said. What Intel has done is reinvent the transistor structure by using a a thin three-dimensional silicon fin that rises up vertically from the silicon substrate.

AMD Ships 32nm Llano APUs at Long Last
April 06, 2011

AMD has begun shipping production units of its 32nm quad-core "Llano" A-series accelerated processor units (APUs) with discrete-level graphics, it announced Wednesday. That's well behind Intel, which began working on the 32nm process in 2009 and began shipping 32nm processors in 2010. "Once again, AMD's late," said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat.

Tough Execution Ahead for TI, National Merger
April 05, 2011

Texas Instruments announced on Tuesday that it has signed an agreement to acquire its rival, National Semiconductor, in an all-cash transaction totaling US$6.5 billion. This will merge two leading analog semiconductor companies. National's shareholders will receive $25 a share, 78 percent higher than its most recent closing price of $14.07. Both companies will operate independently pending the close of the acquisition.

FUD-Bombing Intel and HP: What's Next From the Crazy Guys at Oracle?
March 28, 2011

Last week, Oracle FUD-bombed the Itanium processor. Like Oracle's own SPARC chip and PowerPC at one time, Itanium was supposed to be the future for most everything -- but all of these chips ended up on the largest and most fault-tolerant systems each company supports. Announcing the death of any one of them puts question marks on the class -- and Oracle's SPARC is the most exposed.

Clash of the Carrier Titans
March 26, 2011

Remember that rumor from a couple weeks ago that Sprint and T-Mobile were getting together? That's not happening. T-Mobile USA actually wants to get in with AT&T, which has agreed to buy the company from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion. Maybe those talks with Sprint really were going on simultaneously, but it looks like they didn't end so well for Sprint.

Oracle's Itanium Slug Leaves Intel Bruised, HP Battered
March 24, 2011

Oracle threw a punch that left HP's knees wobbling with the announcement that it's going to stop developing software to run on Intel's Itanium processor family. Intel's future roadmap focuses on x86 processors, Oracle explained. Intel promptly reiterated its support for the Itanium processor.

Power-Sipping Nanotech Could Give Rise to Methuselah Batteries
March 14, 2011

Researchers at the University of Illinois claim to have made a breakthrough in phase-change materials technology that could lengthen battery life by up to two orders of magnitude, or 100 times. The team, led by Professor Eric Pop, used carbon nanotube electrodes, it stated in a paper published in Science Magazine.

Visions of a Future Chock-Full of Chips
February 18, 2011

Twenty years from now, semiconductor chips will cost a penny apiece and will be in everything -- our clothing, our sunglasses, our contact lenses and even our toilets -- physicist Michio Kaku told an audience Thursday at the RSA 2011 convention. They'll revolutionize warfare, manufacturing and the medical field, said Kaku, one of the co-founders of string field theory.

Fantastic Plastic, Part 3: Polymemories
February 10, 2011

For more than a decade, polymer memory devices have lingered in the queue of novel organic candidates for "next-generation" computer data-storage-and-retrieval chip technology. The time for PMDs might finally be at hand ... even if the first application is the humble radio-frequency identification tags used in retail store product tracking and toll-road electronic collection systems.

Is Apple Drifting to the Wrong Path?
February 07, 2011

History is filled with stories of companies that dominated their segment and then either fell from that high spot or fell off the map. RCA is probably the best example of a firm that went from dominance to obsolescence because, in its case, it played chicken with the U.S. government and lost. A lot of us think the iPad is unstoppable, but just because you believe in a thing doesn't mean that thing is true.

Fantastic Plastic, Part 2: Electric Action
February 03, 2011

Plastics, those ubiquitous malleable synthetic polymers so essential to the needs of virtually the entire spectrum of global business, have become the pulsing heart of the high-tech world. The universal insulator for the electrical and electronics industries, plastic materials can also be semi-insulating, semiconducting, and even fully electrically conducting.

Fantastic Plastic, Part 1: Polymers in Computing
January 27, 2011

Not all polymers are plastics, but all plastics are polymers. And organic polymer plastics, known mostly for being insulators, in some cases make excellent conductors and semiconductors. The term "all-polymer semiconductor" sounds almost like an oxymoron. Plastic is generally considered a poor medium for conducting electricity and an excellent material to resist the flow of electric current and magnetism.

Nvidia Barreling Ahead With Tegra 2 3D
January 24, 2011

Nvidia will reportedly ship a Tegra 2 3D processor, to be used in mobile devices, this year. A leaked slide, said to be part of Nvidia's planned presentation at the Mobile World Congress, to be held in Barcelona, Spain, in February, shows the Tegra 2 3D and mentions the Tegra 3, which is a quad-core processor.

AMD Gives Embedded Systems a Shot of DirectX 11
January 19, 2011

AMD on Wednesday announced what it claims is the world's first accelerated processing unit for embedded systems, the Embedded G-Series. The G-Series is the embedded version of Fusion APUs the company announced earlier this month. It consists of a low-power x86 CPU combined with a DirectX 11 graphics processing unit and a parallel processing engine, all on one piece of silicon.

Broadcom Sees the Linuxy Light at Last
January 13, 2011

Good things come to those who wait, as the saying goes, and recently the Linux community had occasion to observe a vivid illustration close to home. Specifically, after years of ill repute as one of the primary wireless chipmakers that didn't support Linux, Broadcom on Monday showed the community some love.