From PCs to servers, Intel is trying to redesign the way computers operate. We've already seen how PCs are changing, with 2-in-1 hybrids and tiny Compute Sticks, but some of the chip maker's groundbreaking technologies will initially appear in servers.The PC market is in decline, and the chipmaker has cut unprofitable products like smartphone chips. Intel is redirecting more resources to develop server and data-center products, which are already money makers for the company. Intel is also focusing on markets like the Internet of Things, memory, silicon photonics, and FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), all of which have ties to the fast-growing data center business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung's new Galaxy S7 Active is a toughened-up version of the flagship Galaxy S7 that won't fail if dropped on the ground or in water.
The Android smartphone has a 5.1-inch screen with a 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution, and 32GB of storage. It sports a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 5-megapixel front camera.
It also has a fingerprint reader, and support for Samsung Pay.
The smartphone will be available through AT&T on June 10. You can shell out US$794.99 for the handset, or buy it via AT&T Next, which cuts the price of phones down into monthly installments. AT&T Next also provides options to upgrade the handset at certain intervals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel continues to pump more horsepower in its chips, by releasing a 24-core processor for high-performance computers.The Xeon processor E7-8890 v4 chip is part of the Xeon E7-8800 v4 family of chips that Intel announced on Monday. It was announced just a week after Intel made headlines with a new 10-core Core chip for gaming code-named Broadwell-E.The 24-core chip will go, in many cases, into monster performer four- to eight-socket servers. An eight-socket system could have up to 192 cores, with support for up to 24TB of memory.In a data sheet, Intel estimated a 192-core system with 2TB of memory and two hard drives to be priced at about US$165,000. Add 24TB of memory, and the server price could skyrocket.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The upgrade cycle for PCs has slowed down drastically, now extending to nearly six years, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said on Wednesday."[The] replacement cycle for the PC has extended," Krzanich said. "Four years was the average, now it has moved to about five to six years."Intel needs to ramp up its efforts and release the right innovations so people are motivated to upgrade PCs quickly and easily, Krzanich said at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York."Right now, it's easier to move your phone to a new phone than your PC to a new PC," he said. "We've got to go fix some of those things."PC upgrades have slowed because current operating systems can run well on older Intel-based PCs. Five years ago, Intel shipped Core processors code-named Sandy Bridge, and they can capably run Microsoft's Windows 10.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel has doubled down on servers as it looks to shed its reliance on PCs, but the chip maker's ARM competitors are ready to challenge it.New server and appliance chips based on the ARM architecture were announced at Computex in Taipei this week. ARM-based chips dominate smartphone and tablets, but the new chips from Cavium and Marvell show the processors are maturing quickly for use in servers.ARM servers are seen as a power-efficient alternative to Intel's x86-based systems, with companies looking to cut electric bills in data centers. ARM server chips have been around for years but have failed to register an impact because of hardware and software problems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel's upcoming 7th Generation Core processor family, code-named Kaby Lake, is off to a quick start.More than 400 devices with Intel's upcoming chip design will reach the market, said Navin Shenoy, corporate vice president and general manager for Intel's Client Computing Group.One of those devices will be Asus' Surface-like Transformer 3, which will ship in the third quarter starting at US$799. The device has a 12.6-inch screen that displays images at a resolution of 2880 x 1920 pixels. It weighs 695 grams and is 6.9 millimeters thick. The device has a 13-megapixel camera, and it can be configured with a 512GB SSD and up to 8GB RAM.Shenoy, speaking during a keynote at the Computex trade show in Taipei, also showed a 2-in-1 made by Compal during the keynote. It's not clear if the first Kaby Lake chips to reach PCs will be low-power Core M or the faster Core i chips.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel considers virtual reality a key growth vector as it reshapes to survive in a post-PC world, and new Core i7 Extreme Edition chips will play a big role in that transition.The new chips, code-named Broadwell-E, are speed demons with up to 10 cores, a new high for Intel PC chips. Primarily for gaming PCs, the new chips will also go in desktops certified to work with headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.The Core i7-6900 series and 6800 series chips are targeted at enthusiasts looking for the latest and greatest technologies in PCs. These chips can be overclocked and unlocked, which could instantly upgrade PC performance by cranking up CPU frequency.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The wait for Intel's Kaby Lake chip will end in the third quarter this year, as the first PC with the 7th Generation Core chip was announced at Computex.
Kaby Lake, the successor to Intel's Skylake Core processor chips, will be in the Asus Transformer 3 tablet. The device is much like Microsoft's Surface Pro 4, and will ship in the third quarter starting at US$799, according to a blog entry on Microsoft's website.
The Transformer 3 was among a gaggle of PC and phone products announced by Asus at Computex. No other Kaby Lake PC has been announced yet, but expect Lenovo, HP, Dell and others to follow suit.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Windows 10 PC prices have been slowly creeping up, but some new back-to-school Switch tablet/laptop hybrid devices from Acer may be attractive to those on a shoestring budget.
The US$199 Switch One 10 is one of a few touchscreen hybrids priced under $200. Acer also announced the Switch V 10, which starts at $249 with additional features including a USB-Type C port, a fingerprint reader, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and a Gorilla Glass screen.
The hybrids, also known as 2-in-1 devices, are 10-inch tablets that can be latched on to a keyboard dock to become a laptop.
The new Switch devices are inexpensive Windows alternatives to Chromebooks, which are laptops with Google's Chrome OS. Acer sells Chromebooks starting at $179.99.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel had some wild product ideas that were duds, like the OnCue TV streaming service, WiMax, and smartphone chips. Now, more products are likely to be axed as the company looks to a post-PC world.The chipmaker promised last month to review and cut some products as part of a restructuring plan that included laying off 12,000 employees. The Atom smartphone chips were the first to go while Intel redirects resources to profitable products in areas like servers, 5G connectivity, gaming PCs, and hybrid devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel's decision to pass on making chips for Apple's iPhone back in 2007 now looks like a huge mistake.
Former CEO Paul Otellini admitted as much in a 2013 interview with The Atlantic. Intel has now bailed out of the smartphone chip market while Apple is flying high with its iPhones, based on its own A-series chips.
Intel has cancelled its upcoming Atom chip lines for smartphones, including Broxton and the Sofia 3GX, Sofia LTE and Sofia LTE2 commercial platforms. That decision ends close to a decade of futility with Intel trying to outmaneuver rivals like Qualcomm, Apple, and Samsung, which make mobile chips based technology licensed from ARM.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
AMD is jumping back into the solid-state drive (SSD) market with Radeon drives for laptops and desktops.The SSD offerings are four Radeon R3 drives with storage capacities of 120GB, 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB. AMD launched Radeon R7 drives in 2014.The new drives are affordable, with the entry-level 120GB SSD priced at US $40.99. The drives will plug into a computer's 2.5-inch drive slot and are compatible with the SATA III 6GB interface. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A quantum computer for the people isn't just a theoretical dream; IBM is trying to make it a reality.IBM has built a quantum processor with five qubits, or quantum bits. Even better, IBM isn't hiding the quantum processor in its labs -- it will be accessible through the cloud for the public to run experiments and test applications.The goal is to unwrap decades-old mysteries around quantum computers and let people play with the hardware, said Jay Gambetta, manager of quantum computing theory and information at IBM.IBM's qubit processor is significant because it'll be the first quantum hardware accessible to the public, even if only through the cloud. Users will be able to work with qubits, study tutorials, and run simulations, Gambetta said. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel's Atom processor architecture will live on despite the recent cancellation of next-generation smartphone chips.The chip maker will continue the development and use of the processor architecture, which stresses power efficiency, though the chips may not necessarily carry the Atom label. Last week Intel canceled upcoming Atom smartphone chips code-named Broxton and Sofia.The next-generation Atom architecture, code-named Goldmont, will first appear in future Pentium and Celeron processors, code-named Apollo Lake, an Intel spokeswoman said. Current top-line Atom chips are based on an architecture named Airmont.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel could be on the verge of exiting the market for smartphones and standalone tablets, wasting billions of dollars it spent trying to expand in those markets.The company is immediately canceling Atom chips, code-named Sofia and Broxton, for mobile devices, an Intel spokeswoman confirmed.These are the first products on the chopping block as part of Intel's plan to reshape operations after announcing plans this month to cut 12,000 jobs.The news of the chip cuts was first reported by analyst Patrick Moorhead in an article on Forbes' website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Many alternative mobile operating systems like Firefox have fallen by the wayside while Android and iOS continue to dominate, but Samsung's Tizen has survived.After years of inactivity, Tizen is now back on the map with a major OS upgrade. A new version of the OS -- Tizen 3.0 -- was announced this week at the Samsung Developers Conference in San Francisco.Tizen 3.0 is a big technological upgrade that should make it compatible with some of the latest smartphones and tablets. Other improvements prime the OS for installation in smart appliances, wearables, in-car entertainment systems, drones, TVs, and virtual reality headsets.Tizen 3.0 will be a 64-bit capable OS, like iOS and Android. It will work on devices with some of the latest 64-bit ARM and x86 processors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A new USB stick computer uses Google's machine-learning software to give drones and robots the equivalent of a human eye, and add new smarts to cameras.Movidius’ Fathom Neural Compute Stick isn't your conventional PC. It is instead designed to analyze pixels and provide the right context for images.Fathom provides the much-needed horsepower for devices like drones, robots and cameras to run computer vision applications like image recognition. These devices alone typically don't have the ability to run computer vision applications.Fathom uses an embedded version of Google's TensorFlow machine learning software for vision processing. The device can be plugged into the USB port of a device or a developer board like Raspberry Pi, which in turn can power a drone or robot. It needs a 64-bit Linux OS and 50MB of hard drive space.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
HP's new Chromebook 13 offers some of the latest technologies that the company is also putting in its top-line Windows PCs.The new laptop is just 12.9-millimeters thick and has a 13.3-inch display that shows images at a 3200 x 1800 pixel resolution. That is the highest-resolution screen ever in Chromebooks, an improvement from the 2560 x 1700 pixel display on Google's Chromebook Pixel.The Chromebook 13 weighs 2.86 kilograms, and is the first with Intel's Skylake-based Core M processor, which focuses more on battery life than performance. HP claims the Chromebook 13 delivers 11.5 hours of battery life.It has a metallic finish, giving it a premium look.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel is making it easier to create smarter and more functional gadgets, robots, drones, and wearables using its Edison developer board.The company has made a series of improvements to its latest IoT Developer Kit 3.0, which is used to program functionality into devices.The developer kit adds support for a wider range of sensors and adds connectivity to IBM's Bluemix cloud service. The kit also has improved programming tools and integration with Google's Brillo and Android.Edison has been used as a developer board to prototype and test devices. The new features provide a springboard to make Edison a viable platform for end products. The board could be used in products such as smart helmets, but it is too big for small electronics and some wearables.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung will start shipping its eight-core Artik 10 board computer next month, a challenger to the Raspberry Pi 3.The Artik 10 was first announced last year and could be a PC replacement if you don't mind building out your own system. It could also spawn the development of smart appliances, drones, robots and other gadgets. Like the Raspberry Pi, its components are crammed onto a small circuit board.The Artik 10 will be available from online retailer Digi-Key starting in May, Samsung officials said.Pricing wasn't immediately available, but the Artik 10 could end up being more expensive than the US$35 Raspberry Pi 3, and even the $99.99 Artik 5, a smaller Samsung board for wearables and small gadgets that started shipping in February.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Agam Shah