Processors

Year in, year out, Intel executive Mike Mayberry hears the same doomsday prediction: Moore's Law is going to run out of steam. Sometimes he even hears it from his own co-workers.

But Moore's Law, named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, who 47 years ago predicted a steady, two-year cadence of chip improvements, keeps defying the pessimists because a brigade of materials scientists like Mayberry continue to find ways of stretching today's silicon transistor technology even as they dig into alternatives. (Such as, for instance, super-thin sheets of carbon graphene.)

Oh, and don't forget the money that'… Read more

Samsung's multibillion dollar component supplier partnership with Apple is beginning to unravel, according to a South Korea-based report, which quotes a Samsung official.

Though Samsung makes Apple's newest A6 chip used in the iPhone 5, the relationship between the two companies has changed substantially, according to a report in Korea Times.

"Apple...has made it clear it will no longer use its rival's technology, according to a senior Samsung official," the report said.

The report continues, quoting an anonymous Samsung official speaking about the A6 chip. "Apple did all the design and we are … Read more

Apple has begun the process of lessening its dependency on Samsung for chipmaking, an analyst told CNET.

"Apple is working with TSMC at 20 nanometers," said Gus Richard, a chip analyst at Piper Jaffray, referring to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's most advanced 20-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process.

Another chip industry source contacted by CNET confirmed this. "The Apple-Samsung relationship has deteriorated to such a poor point that they're just looking to fill contractual obligations, then make a change," said the source, who corroborated the move to TSMC at 20 nanometers.

An Asia-based news report said … Read more

Advanced Micro Devices has announced its answer to Intel's tablet chip, just as Windows 8 devices are about to flood the market.

AMD's Z-60 chip is being marketed as a chip for the "performance tablet" segment.

Translation: it's packing high-performance graphics silicon, which boasts 80 Radeon graphics cores, with the graphics processing unit (GPU) rated at a speed of 275MHz (see chart below).

Its two central processing unit (CPU) cores are rated at 1GHz.

The chip can be squeezed into designs as thin as 10mm, AMD said in a statement.

The first tablets based on … Read more

Calxeda, the startup that's building data centers with chips normally found in cell phones, has raised an additional $55 million, signaling that its low-power server technology may be gaining traction.

The company, which was founded four years ago by former Intel and Marvell engineer Barry Evans, is an early proponent of using ARM architecture in servers rather than traditional x86 designs popularized by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

"This significant infusion of capital will accelerate the exciting trajectory we've been on for the past four years," Evans said in a statement. "Businesses require a more … Read more

Lest we forget, Intel is also trying to take on Apple and the iPad.

To date, we've heard a lot about the variety of Windows 8 that runs on power-sipping chips from suppliers like Nvidia. That's Windows RT.

For example, the first Microsoft Surface tablets, due by October 26, will run RT.

But RT does not run all of that old Windows software that businesses rely on. Intel's tablet platform, announced today, does.

"It brings over what you already have...millions of desktop applications," Chris Walker, general manager of Intel's application processors for the … Read more

Intel and its hardware partners will launch a broad attack on the tablet market today.

Standing alongside Intel at an event in San Francisco are executives from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and ZTE. Those companies are showcasing new Windows 8 tablets and convertible devices.

Many, if not most, of the devices have already been unveiled, such as HP's Envy x2, Dell's Latitude 10, and Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2.

All of the devices feature Intel's dual-core Z2760 "Clover Trail" (PDF) Atom Processor, a power-efficient system-on-a-chip that allows partners to build tablets as thin as … Read more

Ultrabooks aren't expensive. That's Intel's mantra these days. So, is the chipmaker right?

"Ultrabook Prices Hit Sub-$750 As Holidays Loom", Intel said in a post today. And, when queried, the chipmaker produced a fairly extensive list of sub-$700 laptops.

Select sub-$700 ultrabooks, as cited by Intel:

So, what pushes these models into sub-$700 territory?

Many … Read more

Comments about Wi-Fi issues with the iPhone 5 are beginning to pile up on user forums.

While the cause of the issue is not clear at this stage, a thread on Apple's Support Communities page makes repeated references to Wi-Fi router security settings.

"I deactivate... the WPA2 Personal Wifi Security [on the router] and the iphone started to browse the web normally," wrote one poster identified as C4RLOCO, on the Support Communities forum.

And Apple enthusiast site MacRumors, has its own thread on the topic titled "Painfully slow WiFi on new iPhone 5."

This issue … Read more