Haswell

Heads up DIYers, supply of Intel circuit boards may dry up

Intel desktop circuit boards may begin to get scarce.

The chipmaker cut back on motherboard orders by 80 percent to only 100,000 units, claims an Asia-based Digitimes report, citing sources in the "supply chain."

A person familiar with Intel's motherboard business contacted by CNET could not confirm whether the 80 percent figure was accurate but said the general thrust of the report was correct, as Intel announced in January that it was winding down the desktop motherboard business.

"We disclosed internally...that Intel's desktop motherboard business will begin slowly ramping down over the course … Read more

Intel touts multiscreen flexibility with 'display as a service'

HANOVER, Germany--Intel today debuted a technology called display as a service (DAAS) that it hopes will transform how people use their gadgets.

The technology breaks the hard link between a video source and a screen the way virtualization software breaks the hard link between an operating system and a processor. With DAAS, people can view what's on their tablet on a big-screen TV, mirror the same imagery on multiple displays, or link up multiple displays to create a single, bigger display.

Another possibility, which Intel Labs' Divya Kolar described on blog post, is to combine multiple devices' video onto … Read more

Laptop using future Intel 'Haswell' chip surfaces

Intel's new "Haswell" chip design is just around the corner. But we're already getting a peek at finished products, courtesy of a German PC vendor.

High-end laptops with Intel's upcoming fourth-generation Core series of chips appeared on DevilTech's site, according to Heise online.

Unannounced Intel silicon in those rigs includes quad-core Core i7s, such as the 4800MQ and 4900MQ.

And speaking of leaks, Haswell chips are actually up for pre-order on some online retailers.

For those who follow Intel chip rollouts closely, the chipmaker usually debuts quad-core mobile chips first and then follows up … Read more

Windows 8 ultrabooks, hybrids to see uptick this year

Laptop suppliers will continue to see weak demand in the first half, but things should pick up later in the year, IHS iSuppli said today.

After a "bleak" first quarter and a "slow" first half overall, Windows 8-based ultrathin laptops will "help revive the market" later in the year, the market researcher said.

Notebook PC shipments from the Top 5 laptop manufacturers, referred to as ODMs or Original Design Manufacturers, are forecast to amount to 35.2 million units during the first quarter, down 15 percent from 41.4 million in the fourth quarter … Read more

Windows 8 to mainstream solid-state drives, says analyst

This could be the year of the solid-state drive.

Newfangled uber-thin Windows 8 devices and falling flash memory prices could double the size of the solid-state drive market, according to a research note today from IHS iSuppli.

"The newest wave of ultrabooks loaded with Windows 8 has started to generate enthusiasm," wrote Ryan Chien, analyst for memory and storage at IHS, adding that a growing appetite for laptops, hybrids, and tablets could conspire with falling flash memory prices to drive demand.

Worldwide SSD shipments are expected to rise to 83 million units this year, up from 39 million … Read more

Intel to wind down desktop circuit board business

Intel will get out of the traditional desktop motherboard business, as it focuses its resources on mobile products.

"We disclosed internally today that Intel's Desktop Motherboard Business will begin slowly ramping down over the course of the next three years," Intel said in a note to journalists today.

What does that mean exactly? Think of the PC tower systems that used to populate the Best Buys of the world. That's what Intel is winding down as it devotes more resources to ultrabooks, tablets, and phones.

"The internal talent and experience of twenty years in the … Read more

Intel CEO: The PC is shape-shifting into a tablet

In the wake of reporting weak profits today, Intel CEO Paul Otellini couldn't repeat enough that "radical" new PC designs will subsume the tablet experience.

Here are some of Otellini's comments that suggest that Intel and its PC partners are aggressively going after the tablet market with newfangled Windows 8 devices. Most of these comments came in response to analysts' questions.

Radical transformation:

We are in the midst of a radical transformation of the computing experience with the blurring of form factors and adoption of new user interfaces. It's no longer necessary to choose between … Read more

Intel gets serious about power-sipping silicon

LAS VEGAS--Feeling the heat from tablet and smartphone rivals, Intel demonstrated today at CES today that it is more concerned about low power than high performance.

Kirk Skaugen, GM of the Intel PC Client Group, made a surprising disclosure when he said the current third-generation "Ivy Bridge" processor will now run at a rated 7 watts and will appear soon in super-skinny tablet-laptop hybrids from Acer and Lenovo.

Power efficiency like that wasn't supposed to happen until the upcoming fourth-generation "Haswell" processor based on a new micro-architecture.

To put that into perspective, mainstream Intel mobile … Read more

PCs of the near future: Intel lays out next-gen plans

LAS VEGAS--PCs on your coffee table, playing Monopoly. Super-thin ultrabooks. Voice and gestural computing. Intel showed these and more at their CES 2013 press conference. But does it add up to a firm control on the future of computing?

Fourth-gen Intel Core processors aren't on their way immediately, but at this year's CES Intel was ready to demonstrate how its "Haswell" code-named chips will make Windows 8 devices of tomorrow even thinner and smaller than now ... if you're in need of that. Fourth-gen Intel processors will require touch and have mandatory Intel Wireless Display, a … Read more