A LOT OF readers didn't like the quality of the last Llano wafer shot, so we got some better ones. Not much more to say, just much prettier pictures than last time. Enjoy. S|A
GLOBAL FOUNDRIES KICKED off their Global Technology Conference, aka GTC, with a bit about the company itself. While there were no big bangs, there were a lot of little things in the slides worth talking about.
Back in the good old days paint chips contained healthy quantities of lead, cars ran on leaded gasoline, and a lead foot directly pulled open the throttle of your hot-pink '59 Cadillac without any pesky computers interfering. It also meant that 'hackers' were limited to methods such as bricks and slim jims to steal your music. Well, the times, they are changing.
VIEWSONIC IS YET again branching out into unknown territory with its first Android tablet. It's not ViewSonic's first foray into the handheld market, but it's the first time the company has done so with a non-Microsoft OS. The new ViewPad 7 doesn't look that different from every other tablet we've seen so far, but it does have a few tricks up its sleeve.
THOSE OF YOU that have been waiting for more details on Intel's mobile Sandy Bridge processor are in luck, as thanks to Anandtech we now have quite a few additional details of what will be on offer. One of the main missing pieces of the puzzle was the clock speeds of the integrated graphics, but it turns out that there's another surprise on store for us that had yet to be revealed.
AMD APPEARS TO have slipped in the codenames for its entire Northern Island range of GPUs in its latest Catalyst 10.8 driver release. Confused? Well, it turns out that AMD had some internal naming issues as the 32nm Northern Island parts never happened thanks to TMSC pulling the plug on 32nm, but now the code names have been applied to AMD’s upcoming 40nm Evergreen refresh that is set to launch later this year.
INTEL HAS FINALLY unveiled its dual core mobile Atom N550 processor and the netbook manufacturers are jumping at the chance of getting something new into the market. However, don't expect to see a raft of new designs, as instead it'll be pretty much the same old chassis with slightly different bits inside.
THERE HAVE LONG been rumors of a major player moving their data centers from x86 based PCs to the ARM architecture. It looks like the first big player to jump in to the market is going to be none other than Facebook.
INTEL'S PURCHASE OF McAfee is quite synergistic and makes a lot of sense to anyone following the company. Contrary to most opinions out there however, it has nothing to do with security.
Still wants you to pick up the bill at dinner though
HP is an interesting company. They have been cranking out quarterly profits in the $1-3 billion range every quarter like clockwork (recession or no recession, dot-com bubble or dot-com bust) for over a decade, yet it's all seems very boring to the casual observer. They are that grey blob that permeates the server room of many businesses. They slap their logo on grey business notebooks, desktops, and consumer products that while functional and effective are simply unremarkable. Well the blob has done it again. Yesterday Hewlett-Packard held its quarterly financial analyst conference call in which it announced a solid third quarter overall operating profit of $2.3 billion.
IT LOOKS LIKE some people are finally starting to catch on to what we have been saying for almost four years now, Nvidia is building an x86 chip. The story is long, complex, and it is SemiAccurate's opinion that the CPU will never make it to market for technical and legal reasons.
Editors Note:From time to time, SemiAccurate will be republishing some older articles by its authors, some with additional commentary, updates and information. We are mainly reprinting some of the oft referenced articles that originally appeared on the Inquirer. Some will have added content, but all will be re-edited from the originals as per contractual obligations. You may see some slight differences between the two versions.
This article has had some of the original links removed, and was published onWednesday, March 4, 2009 at 7:58 AM.
Editors Note:From time to time, SemiAccurate will be republishing some older articles by its authors, some with additional commentary, updates and information. We are mainly reprinting some of the oft referenced articles that originally appeared on the Inquirer. Some will have added content, but all will be re-edited from the originals as per contractual obligations. You may see some slight differences between the two versions.
This article has had some of the original links removed, and was published onFriday, February 06, 2009 at 6:21 PM.
LAST FRIDAY, ASUS held an investors conference at its headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan and the CEO Jerry Shen shared some details of what Asus is working on. It's clear that Asus considers Apple to be one of its major competitors, especially with regards to the iPad, a device that has caused no end of headaches for Asus, especially as it's stealing netbook sales from Asus.
MOLES IN SANTA CLARA tell SemiAccurate that Nvidia's latest wonderchip, Tegra 3, has taped out. Expect the PR announcement storm to kick up soon, but don't look for product this year.
Three year battery warranty thanks to Boston-Power
ASUS HAS TEAMED up with Boston-Power to deliver a new range of business notebooks that comes with Boston-Power's Sonata Lithium-ion batteries standard. Unlike most laptop batteries, the Sonata power cells come with a three year manufacturer's warranty. The new B-series of notebooks doesn't just have extended life batteries though, as there are a few other features that should make them appealing to business users.
AFTER ESCAPING THE FTC lawsuit with just a small dent in its cash position, Intel is back to the acquisition market and their next target is the wireless division of the German company Infineon. This division is responsible for the design of 3G modems and RF transmitters.
Four straight months of record sales and straight on til morning
HTC, the "quietly brilliant" company from Taoyuan City Taiwan has briefly cast aside its purported persona to let the world know just how awesome it is. Between pointed bursts of Tarzan noises and chest thumping we were informed of HTC's four-month hot streak of successive sales records, as well as gross-profits-after-tax amounting to a cool NT$ 8.64B (approx. $273M USD) for their most recent quarter.
Part 3: Disclosures, burdens of proof, and compilers
THE LAST PART of SemiAccurate's look at the Intel/FTC settlement examines some of the worst accusations against Intel. Compiler tricks, technical openness, and a watchdog. Intel could be seriously hamstrung by some of these remedies, and worse yet, they could be the ones hamstringing themselves.
ALTHOUGH ACER SHOWED off what was expected to be the first netbook running Android as early as last year's Computex, it's taken until now for the company to actually get product to the market. Acer launched its new Aspire One earlier today at a consumer retail show in Taipei, Taiwan which goes under the name of D255.
IS NVIDIA UP to it's old renaming games, or is it about to launch the second hottest GPU in the world? In any case, the Nvidia GT 425M GPU is turning up all over the place.
A LOT OF readers didn't like the quality of the last Llano wafer shot, so we got some better ones. Not much more to say, just much prettier pictures than last time. Enjoy. S|A
AMD SHOWED OFF a Llano wafer today at GTC. Not much more to say, just the pretty pictures below.
Back in the good old days paint chips contained healthy quantities of lead, cars ran on leaded gasoline, and a lead foot directly pulled open the throttle of your hot-pink '59 Cadillac without any pesky computers interfering. It also meant that 'hackers' were limited to methods such as bricks and slim jims to steal your music. Well, the times, they are changing.
VIEWSONIC IS YET again branching out into unknown territory with its first Android tablet. It's not ViewSonic's first foray into the handheld market, but it's the first time the company has done so with a non-Microsoft OS. The new ViewPad 7 doesn't look that different from every other tablet we've seen so far, but it does have a few tricks up its sleeve.
THOSE OF YOU that have been waiting for more details on Intel's mobile Sandy Bridge processor are in luck, as thanks to Anandtech we now have quite a few additional details of what will be on offer. One of the main missing pieces of the puzzle was the clock speeds of the integrated graphics, but it turns out that there's another surprise on store for us that had yet to be revealed.
AMD APPEARS TO have slipped in the codenames for its entire Northern Island range of GPUs in its latest Catalyst 10.8 driver release. Confused? Well, it turns out that AMD had some internal naming issues as the 32nm Northern Island parts never happened thanks to TMSC pulling the plug on 32nm, but now the code names have been applied to AMD’s upcoming 40nm Evergreen refresh that is set to launch later this year.
INTEL HAS FINALLY unveiled its dual core mobile Atom N550 processor and the netbook manufacturers are jumping at the chance of getting something new into the market. However, don't expect to see a raft of new designs, as instead it'll be pretty much the same old chassis with slightly different bits inside.
THERE HAVE LONG been rumors of a major player moving their data centers from x86 based PCs to the ARM architecture. It looks like the first big player to jump in to the market is going to be none other than Facebook.
HP is an interesting company. They have been cranking out quarterly profits in the $1-3 billion range every quarter like clockwork (recession or no recession, dot-com bubble or dot-com bust) for over a decade, yet it's all seems very boring to the casual observer. They are that grey blob that permeates the server room of many businesses. They slap their logo on grey business notebooks, desktops, and consumer products that while functional and effective are simply unremarkable. Well the blob has done it again. Yesterday Hewlett-Packard held its quarterly financial analyst conference call in which it announced a solid third quarter overall operating profit of $2.3 billion.
IT LOOKS LIKE some people are finally starting to catch on to what we have been saying for almost four years now, Nvidia is building an x86 chip. The story is long, complex, and it is SemiAccurate's opinion that the CPU will never make it to market for technical and legal reasons.
LAST FRIDAY, ASUS held an investors conference at its headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan and the CEO Jerry Shen shared some details of what Asus is working on. It's clear that Asus considers Apple to be one of its major competitors, especially with regards to the iPad, a device that has caused no end of headaches for Asus, especially as it's stealing netbook sales from Asus.
AFTER ESCAPING THE FTC lawsuit with just a small dent in its cash position, Intel is back to the acquisition market and their next target is the wireless division of the German company Infineon. This division is responsible for the design of 3G modems and RF transmitters.
HTC, the "quietly brilliant" company from Taoyuan City Taiwan has briefly cast aside its purported persona to let the world know just how awesome it is. Between pointed bursts of Tarzan noises and chest thumping we were informed of HTC's four-month hot streak of successive sales records, as well as gross-profits-after-tax amounting to a cool NT$ 8.64B (approx. $273M USD) for their most recent quarter.
ALTHOUGH ACER SHOWED off what was expected to be the first netbook running Android as early as last year's Computex, it's taken until now for the company to actually get product to the market. Acer launched its new Aspire One earlier today at a consumer retail show in Taipei, Taiwan which goes under the name of D255.