chips

Nvidia and Asus take on Kindle, Nook with $249 tablet

While no huge announcements came out of Nvidia's CES conference this afternoon, the company did manage to fuel the tablet price wars by teasing a yet-to-be named 7-inch, Tegra 3-based tablet that Asus plans to sell for just $249.

A company spokesman confirmed that there's no launch date for the tablet, which would be similar to the powerful Asus Transformer Prime and would ship with the newest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. Strictly from a hardware perspective, though, it's sure to provide some fierce competition for Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet.

Along with that announcement, Nvidia … Read more

Nvidia talks tablets and Tegra 3 (live blog)

LAS VEGAS--CEO Jen-Hsun Huang took the CES stage today and talked about three things: tablets, a surprise feature of Tegra 3... and cars.

Yes, cars. He explained that each car serves a different need. Just like each mobile device. "Different strokes for different folks," he said. Whatever you want, Android will make it possible.

Huang continued by showing off tablet apps enhanced by Nvidia graphics technology and highlighted Tegra 3 games found in the Nvidia Tegra Zone. He showed how a Tegra tablet can remotely connect to your PC via Spashtop, treats it like a server "and … Read more

The new politics of Silicon Valley: Revenge of the nerds

commentary It was a dangerous year for innovation. Governments around the world became increasingly aware that digital technology could disrupt the political and economic status quo.

Lawmakers and lobbyists were calling for new laws to curb innovations that challenged traditional law enforcement and old ways of doing business. But the laws would have stifled innovation far beyond their intended goals. Technology industry leaders sounded the alarm, but their voices went largely unheard in the corridors of power.

But one proposal gave birth to an organized resistance. Top government officials tried to force industry to re-engineer key technologies to dramatically expand … Read more

New Google TV taps Marvell system-on-a-chip

Google is tapping Santa Clara, Calif.-based Marvell to power its new TV, which will debut next week at CES.

Marvell's ARMADA 1500 HD Media System-on-a-Chip (SoC) has been designed into the next generation of Google TVs debuting at CES 2012, the chip supplier said Thursday. That chip is based on a design from U.K.-based ARM.

"Marvell and Google have teamed up to...[transform] the TV into the command center for our connected lifestyle," Marvell co-founder Weili Dai said in a statement.

The two companies have collaborated on software and chip technologies to grow the … Read more

Android Atlas Weekly 79: The beginning of the end for locked bootloaders (Podcast)

We say goodbye to HTC's locked bootloaders and hello to Mr. Android and his cadre of Japanese schoolgirls on this week's episode.

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EPISODE 79

NEWS:

-Verizon ready to discontinue Droid 3, 4G hot spots, and more

-Asus Transformer Prime ICS upgrade, bugfixes announced

-HTC makes locked bootloaders a thing of the past

-Google Moves To Ensure UI Integrity On All Android 4.0 Devices

-Clockwork Mod tether: USB tethering, no root required

-Meet Mr. Android

-Android gets manga treatment

CES … Read more

Gadget, heal thyself

The Geek Squad might not like this development, but we're excited about it. Engineers at the University of Illinois have developed a self-healing system for electronics that they say can restore conductivity to failed circuitry in "mere microseconds."

Today's ever-denser chips face more reliability problems due to the increasingly sophisticated demands on electronic devices. When one circuit within an integrated chip fails, the whole chip, and even the whole device (and your pressing deadline, of course) can go down with it.

"In a multilayer integrated circuit, there's no opening it up," Nancy Sottos, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in a statement. "Normally you just replace the whole chip. It's true for a battery too. You can't pull a battery apart and try to find the source of the failure."

To get around the need for external intervention and diagnostics (which may not be readily available for spacecraft or defense-based aircraft, for example), the researchers adapted a previous technique they'd developed for self-healing polymer materials.

They placed tiny microcapsules (as small as 10 microns in diameter) filled with liquid metal on top of a gold line functioning as a circuit. When the circuit cracks, the microcapsules break open, releasing the liquid gallium-indium alloy into the gap and restoring electrical flow--up to 99 percent in most cases. The liquid does its bidding in less time than it takes to blink. … Read more

Lam Research to buy Novellus Systems for $3.3B

Semiconductor equipment maker Lam Research has agreed to acquire rival Novellus Systems in an all-stock deal worth $3.3 billion, the companies announced today.

The combined venture is expected to benefit from the individual companies' complementary product capabilities, with Novellus' thin-film application technology aligning with Lam's business of etching the film to create features that define a chip's final use and function.

Under the agreement's terms Novellus stockholders will get 1.125 shares of Lam common stock for each Novellus share, a premium of about 28 percent higher than Novellus' $34.70 closing price Wednesday. When the … Read more

Apple has big lead over Intel in mobile chips, analyst says

A chip analyst has written a sobering assessment of Intel's chip prowess vis-a-vis Apple in the mobile device race, an odd underdog position for the largest chipmaker.

In the brave new world of tablets and smartphones, chip competition isn't so much about Moore's Law but rather how the "blocks" of circuits are put together and the nexus with the software that runs on those circuits, Gus Richard, a senior research analyst at securities firm Piper Jaffray, wrote in a research note this week.

More specifically, tablets and smartphones use silicon called system-on-a-chip, or SoC, that … Read more

Synopsys to buy rival Magma for $507 million

Chip design software maker Synopsys announced today it has agreed to acquire rival Magma Design Innovations for $507 million in cash.

Synopsys will pay $7.35 a share for San Jose, Calif-based Magma, a 28 percent premium over its closing price Wednesday of $5.72.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Synopsys was founded in 1986 and competes with Cadence Design Systems and Mentor Graphics in the sector of making software to help designers create and verify complex integrated circuits.

"The dramatic rise in complexity of today's semiconductor designs for all process nodes requires an equally dramatic increase in designer … Read more