Feb 10, 2011

Broadcom announces new SoC with baseband chip and HSPA+ modem

Dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor and much much more

OUT OF ALL OF ARM’s partners, Broadcom is the one that so far has been the least competitive in the smartphone market space in terms of its own SoC solutions, but this looks set to change with the introduction of the BCM28150 which is a dual core ARM Cortex A9 SoC with an integrated baseband chip as well as a HSPA+ modem. Another advantage of Broadcom’s solution is that the company has an entire reference platform based around its own components which means that partners can source almost an entire device from Broadcom.
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Feb 9, 2011

Acer launches Nvidia HDMI 3D compatible monitor

Has built in IR transmitter

TO DATE MOST, if not all 3D computer displays have relied on  dual-link DVI connectivity to display the 3D image, but Acer has announced a new model in its line-up called the GN245HQ which will offer 3D Vision support over HDMI, a first for a computer monitor. Acer has also cleverly embedded the IR emitter into the screen bezel which means that the problem of position the USB IR emitter that Nvidia supplies with its 3D glasses is no longer an issue.
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Feb 7, 2011

Texas Instruments unveils the OMAP 5 platform

The ultimate smartphone SoC?

WE’RE STILL WAITING for the first retail devices to arrive powered by TI’s OMAP 4 series of SoC’s but that hasn’t stopped TI from unveiling details about its next generation OMAP 5 family of SoC’s which are set to be manufactured using a 28nm fabrication process and feature not only multi-core processors, but also multi-core graphics. The OMAP 5 series of SoC’s are based on ARMs Cortex A15 MPCore and the PowerVR SGX544-MPx graphics which should offer some very impressive overall performance in the mobile market space.
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Feb 4, 2011

AMD drops Phenom II CPU prices

To make space for recently launched models

AMD’S MAIN WEAPON in its fight against Intel has been pricing and it seems like AMD has decided to further lower its prices, at least for its Phenom II processors which all have been given a price cut recently. Some of it appears to have been done to slot in three recently launched models, while some of the price drops appear to indicate that some models might be phased out sooner rather than later.
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Feb 3, 2011

Intel’s Romley platform will be available for LGA-1356 and LGA-2011

Main difference will be memory support and PCI Express lane count

INTEL’S ROMLEY PLATFORM is set to launch sometime in the second half of this year and it will bring with it a world of confusion in the Xeon market space as Intel will be offering both LGA-1356 and LGA-2011 solutions to its partners. The main difference is that the LGA-1356 platform will support triple channel memory while the LGA-2011 platform will support quad channel memory, but it doesn’t stop there.
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Jan 25, 2011

Intel is finally getting ready to add native USB 3.0 support

Won’t happen until 2012 though

IT’S HARD TO be spot on when it comes to rumours about new technology coming from the various companies in the business, but nearly a year ago we wrote about Intel working on a USB 3.0 solution of its own, well, it seems like it didn’t quite work out the way we were told by our source back then, but Intel is finally getting ready to add native USB 3.0 support. That said, it won’t arrive until early 2012 alongside Intel’s next generation platform (didn’t that just launch?)
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Jan 25, 2011
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Thermaltake opens its new offices

It’s red, red, red

EARLIER TODAY WE were invited to the grand opening of Thermaltake’s new offices in Taipei, Taiwan and to say that they’re something out of the ordinary in Taiwan would be to put it mildly. It’s much more open space than we’re used to seeing in Taiwan and the offices have plenty of unusual features, most of which you wouldn’t find in any office anywhere in the world.
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