Jan 5, 2011

Qualcomm goes on a spending spree, buys Atheros

Adds another missing link to its range of products

QUALCOMM APPEARS TO have blown its entire budget for this year already, as the company has announced that it has procured network chip specialist Atheros for the not so insignificant sum of $3.1 billion. Considering Atheros broad portfolio of networking products, this might very well be a fair sum paid, but we can’t help to wonder if Qualcomm couldn’t have gotten a better deal elsewhere.
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Jan 4, 2011
1

HP and Lenovo announce AMD Fusion notebooks

Lands somewhere between a netbook and an ultra-portable

AMD’S FUSION HAS finally landed and despite some suggestions that AMD wouldn’t score any design wins with the big boys, it turns out that both HP and Lenovo are the first ones to announce products based on the new platform. We’re expecting many others to follow suit this week, least not Acer and Toshiba, as Brazos based products have already leaked from both companies.
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Jan 2, 2011
1

An introduction to Sandy Bridge

Model names, chipsets and so on

DUE TO A LAST minute change by Intel, the expiration of the Sandy Bridge NDA has now, well, expired and as such we’re going to start off our coverage with a quick introduction of the various processors, chipsets and what not before we start digging into the tech and benchmarks. Much of what will be covered here contains information that leaked out ahead of the launch, but Intel still managed to hold on to plenty of details available now for your reading pleasure.
Editor’s note: Additional Sandy Bridge coverage on it’s way. Benchmarks, Disappointment, Linux
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Jan 2, 2011
20

Sandy Bridge is the biggest disappointment of the year

A rant

SANDY BRIDGE WAS shaping up to be the killer CPU of the year, a huge step forward in the ‘uncore’, decent graphics and big gains in the core as well. Instead, we got broken graphics, non-working feature sets, and a showstopper bug. What a shattering disappointment.
Editor’s note: Additional Sandy Bridge coverage on it’s way.  Overview, Benchmarks, Linux
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Dec 30, 2010
1

Company Spotlight: Micron Technology, Inc.

S|A goes on tour at the Micron fab in Manassas, VA

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN OPENING presents and the post-Christmas eggnog hangover, we had the opportunity to tour the Micron DRAM and Flash memory fabrication facility in Manassas, Virginia.  While a fab is a fab and the net result, like anywhere else, is a groovy 300mm platter of chips that you cannot eat, we’ll walk you through Micron’s production process, profile the company, and give you a bit of insight into the challenges it faces and its opportunities in the near future and years to come.
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Dec 23, 2010

AMD Brazos powered Acer Aspires leaks

In green and black

IT’S NO BIG surprise that Acer is one of AMD’s Brazos partners, but at least one of its products have made an appearance on the web ahead of the January launch. It’s not going to blow anyone’s mind when it comes to performance, especially as Acer has gone for a dual core Ontario CPU, but the upside should be decent battery life.
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