chip

Mike Bell to lead Intel's 'new devices' unit

Former Apple and Palm executive Mike Bell has been picked by Intel to steer the company's newly-formed new devices division.

AllThingsD is reporting that Bell, previously the co-leader of Intel's mobile chip group, will be focusing on "ultra-mobile" products.

The move comes as part of a bigger internal Intel organizational juggling by the company's new CEO Brian Krzanich. Hermann Eul, Bell's co-leader of the mobile chip unit, will now be running the unit solo.

Despite its 2011 purchase of Infineon to get into the mobile chip market, and the inclusion of Intel's Atom … Read more

Intel employee sues over alleged 'Kick Me' sign

I am not sure how much intelligence it takes to pin a "Kick Me" sign on someone's back, but one imagines it doesn't befit Intel.

Perhaps that's why an employee of the company's New Mexico plant is suing in federal court, after someone allegedly pinned such a sign to his back and then more than one person actually kicked him.

The Associated Press reports that Harvey Palacio went to a senior member of staff named Randy Lehman to ask whether there was a sign on his back.

He claims in a lawsuit that Lehman … Read more

Intel's new mobile chip to boast up to 8 processor cores

Intel needs to make waves in mobile computing. That's exactly what the first overhaul of the Atom chip design intends to do.

The new Silvermont Atom micro-architecture -- the first major architectural change since Atom debuted in 2008 -- delivers a "significant reduction in power [consumption] and a significant increase in performance," Dadi Perlmutter, an Intel executive vice president, said in a conference call Monday.

Perlmutter was quick to point out that the two -- performance and power efficiency -- are not incompatible. A slide (below) showed Silvermont Atom performing at twice the level of the previous … Read more

Budweiser's intimate, dangerous way to make Facebook friends

So you've had a couple of beers.

You meet a nice person of your target sex. Well, they seem nice, given that you've had a couple of beers.

At some point, one of you raises your beer cup to clink cups with the other.

The minute the cups clink, you are indelibly linked. At least you are if you're using Budweiser's special Facebook-friending cups.… Read more

GS4 quad-core or 8-core? Samsung chief says it doesn't matter

U.S. customers won't be getting their hands on a Galaxy S4 powered by an eight-core processor, but the head of Samsung Electronics says it shouldn't matter to buyers.

Some models of Samsung's flagship smartphone, available globally in the coming weeks, will feature a quad-core processor from Qualcomm while others will feature Samsung's Exynos 5 chip with eight cores. The U.S. version will use the 1.9GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 series chip.

Some in the tech press have criticized the lack of an eight-core chip in the U.S., but J.K. Shin, co-CEO of … Read more

AMD nabs Apple graphics chip designer

Advanced Micro Devices will soon announce it has hired a former Apple graphics chip designer to bolster its engineering leadership bench as it turns itself around, CNET has learned.

Raja Koduri, who most recently served as director of graphics architecture for Apple, will be rejoining AMD four years after leaving that company, people familiar with the hire told CNET. He will be taking on a role in AMD's graphics business, though it wasn't immediately clear to CNET what his title would be. AMD is expected to make the announcement next week.

The move is the latest in a … Read more

Apple blocks Samsung access to next iPhone chip, says report

Apple is cutting Samsung out of anything related to the chip slated for future iPhones and iPads, a South Korea-based newspaper reported.

Apple "has excluded its Korean rival from a project to develop A7...processors," wrote The Korea Times.

That chip will be the successor to the A6 and A6X -- which Samsung makes for Apple -- now powering the iPhone and iPad, respectively.

'"Apple is sharing confidential data for its next A7 system-on-chip (SoC) with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). TSMC has begun ordering its contractors to supply equipment to produce Apple's next processors,'' … Read more

Chiplets: The future of circuitry?

Xerox has a different view on the future than most.

The company recently gave The New York Times the opportunity to see a new technology it's working on at its Palo Alto, Calif., research center. Referred to as Xerographic microassembly, the technology is based on the idea of laser printing and could one day become the most efficient way to bring circuitry to electronics products, Xerox claims.

According to the Times, Xerographic microassembly breaks traditional silicon wafers into thousands of "chiplets" and then bottles them up as a physical "ink." Once that ink is produced … Read more

Apple, Intel in talks for chip deal -- report

Intel might be trying to line up Apple's chip production, according to a new report.

The companies over the past year have been in talks for Apple to move its mobile chip production from Samsung to Intel, Reuters is reporting today, citing people who have knowledge of their discussions. So far, however, Intel and Apple have been unable to reach an accord.

CNET previously reported that Apple and Intel have been talking about a foundry relationship.

That Apple and Intel have talked boosts a claim made last week to Reuters by Intel custom foundry vice president and general manager … Read more