chips

AMD to launch its first ARM chip

Advanced Micro Devices is dipping into the ARM world.

The chipmaker announced Tuesday that it plans to develop its first ARM chip starting next year. Codenamed "Seattle," the chip is being touted by AMD as the industry's first 64-bit ARM processor from a major chipmaker.

AMD said that the chip will offer two to four times the performance of its Opteron X-Series processor with improved compute per watt. Based on the ARM Cortex-A57 processor, Seattle is expected to run at speeds of 2 gigahertz or higher and will support up to 128GB of DRAM.

Aimed at the … Read more

New Intel chips to boost battery life

CNET Update is fully charged:

In this episode of Update:

- Wait to buy your next laptop to get the latest batch of Intel processors, which are said to help extend battery life.

- Secure your folders with a fingerprint in the upcoming Windows 8.1.

- Brace for battle with a new Halo game for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.

- Find Dora and other Viacom shows on Amazon Prime Instant Video.

- Give the WikiPad game tablet another chance when it launches next week at a lower price.

CNET Update delivers the tech news you need in … Read more

Broadcom unveils new 5G Wi-Fi chips for PCs, tablets, phones

Broadcom is ramping up more chips designed to support 5G Wi-Fi, aka 802.11ac.

The chipmaker today announced its first 5G Wi-Fi combo chips designed specifically for entry-level consumer devices, meaning PCs, notebooks, tablets, and smartphones. Combo chips offer Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FM radio all in one package. This second generation of 5G Wi-Fi chips includes the same features as Broadcom's current lineup but integrates more components to keep costs down.

"This 1x1 design lowers cost while still delivering dramatic speed, power and performance, empowering a broad new user base to effortlessly stream HD video, and significantly increase … Read more

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