Creativity is alive and well at Samsung, which is developing several cool devices in its labs, including a home companion robot called Otto.The multi-talented robot can answer questions and double as a part-time security system when needed. It is expected to be demonstrated at the Samsung Developer Conference this week in San Francisco.Functionally, Otto is similar in some ways to Amazon Echo, featuring an interactive speaker that can answer questions, order products and play music. But the robot also includes a "head" that hosts a high-definition camera and a display.You can ask questions like "What is Hillary Clinton's age?" or seek out news or weather information, and Otto will bark out the answers. The robot is a prototype, and Samsung has no plans to sell the device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung and Microsoft have crossed paths in the smartphone and tablet markets, and will now do battle in the cloud. Samsung on Wednesday announced the Artik Cloud service for businesses, which the company hopes will give it a strong position in the emerging Internet of Things market. In IoT, it will take on cloud services like Microsoft's Azure and IBM's Bluemix.Simply put, the Artik Cloud provides the tools needed for companies to securely collect, store and analyze telemetry data collected from a wide range of sensors.The cloud service also provides software tools and connectors to link IoT data to other cloud services or silos of data that companies may have in server installations or outside sources.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The biggest claim to fame for startup Helium, an Internet of Things company that started in 2013, has been perhaps co-founder Shawn Fanning.Fanning, of course, is the serial entrepreneur who developed Napster and started other companies. But Helium is making a name for itself by expanding from its software beginnings to usher companies into IoT with sensors, software and cloud services. Its goal is to improve company productivity by putting the streams of data collected from sensors to action.Helium is releasing new sensors, applications and development tools as it builds out a comprehensive product line. The company's latest product is a new sensor called Helium Green, which can monitor temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, motion, and light.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The rivalry between AMD and Intel peaked during the first decade of the 2000s, when the companies consistently challenged each other with a stream of chip innovations.Since then, AMD lost its way, and today it barely registers as a threat to Intel. But the competitive landscape could start changing as early as next year.Intel's x86 chips are installed in most PCs and servers, and AMD has been losing market share for years. AMD's chip technology has fallen behind Intel's after some ill-advised architectural changes, acquisitions, and manufacturing problems.Intel's x86 processor market share was 87.7 percent the fourth quarter of 2015, growing from 86.3 percent a year earlier. AMD held just a 12.1 percent share, falling from 13.6 percent, according to Mercury Research.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Things just a lot more interesting in the x86 server market.AMD has announced a plan to license the design of its top-of-the-line server processor to a newly formed Chinese company, creating a brand-new rival for Intel.AMD is licensing its x86 processor and system-on-chip technology to a company called THATIC (Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co. Ltd.), a joint venture between AMD and a consortium of public and private Chinese companies.AMD is providing all the technology needed for THATIC to make a server chip, including the CPUs, interconnects and controllers. THATIC will be able to make variants of the x86 chips for different types of servers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
One wouldn't typically imagine liquid cooling in a tablet, but Acer has pulled it off with its latest Switch Alpha 12.The liquid-cooling feature is especially noteworthy, considering fans are disappearing from tablets and hybrids. But tablet has Intel's Skylake-based Core I processors, and it needed a cooling mechanism, and Acer didn't want fans in it.While announcing the tablet Thursday, Acer said it is the first fanless tablet with a Skylake Core I processor. The device doesn't use Intel's power-efficient Core M processors, which is offered in many Windows thin-and-lights and the new MacBook.The Acer device has a "closed-loop liquid system," which dissipates the heat as liquid floats through the system. The liquid cooling system takes up little space.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The PC market has been in trouble for ages, but last year took the biscuit. Shipments dropped below 300 million for the first time since 2008, and IDC declared it the worst year in history. That explains a lot about what happened at Intel this week.The chip maker has been reducing its dependency on PCs for some time, preferring to focus on its more successful data center business. But the announcement that it would lay off 12,000 people is a sign that Intel is finally turning a corner.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel's rise and fall in tablets are starting to resemble the company's misadventures in netbooks less than a decade ago.The company is quickly distancing itself from basic tablets, a market it prized as little as two years ago, to go after detachable devices, hybrids, and high-end tablets that can double as PCs.Intel could also ax some Atom tablet chip lines that brought the company success two years ago. Intel this week laid off 12,000 people as part of a restructuring plan that could also include cuts in some product lines.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel is cutting 12,000 jobs worldwide as the company restructures operations to diversify from PCs into growth areas of IoT and servers.The layoffs account for about 11 percent of employees worldwide. Intel is also consolidating work locations worldwide in a move the company hopes will save it US $750 million this year.Data center equipment will be Intel's growth area growing forward, generating a large part of Intel's profits and potentially making up for the declines in the PC market.Growth drivers will include memory and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, which the company added from its recent $16.7 billion acquisition of Altera, CEO Brian Krzanich said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Fixstars' Olive is like the Raspberry Pi of servers, but with a twist -- it packs 13TB of solid-state drive storage in a system that can be held in one hand.Olive could be viewed as a full-fledged computer crammed into a 2.5-inch SSD drive. The 13TB drive makes it one-of-a-kind in a market where compact computers are hungry for storage.Some unique features make the server better suited for businesses than homes. It is customizable, with an FPGA (field-programmable gate array), which can be reprogrammed for specific tasks. It can also be used as a portable server to dish out movies, or to collect, store and distribute data related to databases or the Internet of Things.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Optical discs like Blu-ray are losing favor, but Sony and Panasonic don't seem to care. The companies have cranked up the storage capacity on optical media to a stunning 3.3TB.That's a big advance in Sony's optical storage, which is based on technology used in Blu-ray. The 3.3TB disc is targeted at studios, filmmakers, and broadcasters that store large volumes of video, and at large companies that store infrequently modified data.For example, video streaming companies could hold a large library of films in storage arrays with many optical drives. Instead of using PCs, servers in data centers could then pull out movies from the drives and serve them to users via the cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Optical discs like Blu-ray are losing favor, but Sony and Panasonic don't seem to care. The companies have cranked up the storage capacity on optical media to a stunning 3.3TB.That's a big advance in Sony's optical storage, which is based on technology used in Blu-ray. The 3.3TB disc is targeted at studios, filmmakers, and broadcasters that store large volumes of video, and at large companies that store infrequently modified data.For example, video streaming companies could hold a large library of films in storage arrays with many optical drives. Instead of using PCs, servers in data centers could then pull out movies from the drives and serve them to users via the cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The wave of rogue USB-C products that poses risks to PCs and mobile devices hasn't gone unnoticed, and the USB Implementers Forum has taken steps to eradicate the issue once and for all.A new specification announced by the USB 3.0 Promoters Group, which is part of USB-IF, aims to eliminate rogue cables, ports and chargers. The USB Type-C Authentication protocol will verify and ensure a USB-C connection won't fry a port or damage a device.A host device like a smartphone or PC will first verify the authenticity of the cable, charger or power source before any data is transferred. If everything checks out, a connection will be established.So if a smartphone or PC won't charge from a USB port in a public place, it's perhaps because there's a non-compliant component.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Colfax's new Ninja desktops are anything but invisible; these workstations can roar with the unprecedented computing power of Intel's latest 72-core supercomputing chips.The workstations have the upcoming Xeon Phi chip code-named Knights Landing, which Intel has claimed is its most powerful chip to date. Intel last year said a limited number of workstations with the chip would become available in 2016. Knights Landing wasn't designed with desktops in mind, but for some of the fastest supercomputers in the world. The 72-core chip can be used as a primary CPU, or as a coprocessor to rev up intense computing tasks, much like GPUs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel is in transition right now: An executive shakeup this month laid the path for new boss Venkata Renduchintala to put his imprint on the company's PC, Internet of Things and software operations.So no wonder the vibe at this week's Intel Developer Forum in Shenzhen was mellow. Intel kept the show a low-key affair, choosing not to bring it to the attention of a worldwide audience, unlike previous years.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The burden of Microsoft's efforts to secure Windows 10 is now falling on PC, tablet, and smartphone makers.Microsoft is making a hardware-based security feature called TPM (Trusted Platform Module) 2.0 a minimum requirement on most Windows 10 devices. Starting July 28, the company will require device manufacturers shipping PCs, tablets and smartphones to include TPM 2.0.TPM has been available for years, mostly on business PCs. TPM 2.0 provides a hardware layer to safeguard user data by managing and storing cryptographic keys in a trusted container.The TPM requirement "will be enforced through our Windows Hardware Certification program," Microsoft said in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The burden of Microsoft's efforts to secure Windows 10 is now falling on PC, tablet, and smartphone makers.
Microsoft is making a hardware-based security feature called TPM (Trusted Platform Module) 2.0 a minimum requirement on most Windows 10 devices. Starting July 28, the company will require device manufacturers shipping PCs, tablets and smartphones to include TPM 2.0.
TPM has been available for years, mostly on business PCs. TPM 2.0 provides a hardware layer to safeguard user data by managing and storing cryptographic keys in a trusted container.
The TPM requirement "will be enforced through our Windows Hardware Certification program," Microsoft said in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With rivals Nvidia and AMD both offering graphics processors, Intel is now deploying screaming co-processors of its own in the form of FPGAs.FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) are extremely fast chips that can be reprogrammed to do specific tasks. Intel last year acquired Altera for $16.7 billion as it started thinking beyond CPUs and stressing co-processors for demanding computing tasks.Intel recently started shipping server chips paired with FPGAs as part of a pilot program. The company is packing Altera Arria 10 FPGAs along with its Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors, code-named Broadwell-EP, in a multichip module. The Xeon E5 chips were introduced last month.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you've been waiting patiently for Intel's new Compute Sticks with Skylake chips, there's good news: Those thumb-sized PCs will start shipping on April 29.The three Compute Sticks, which have Intel's Core M3 and M5 chips, can turn a TV or display with an HDMI port into a PC. All you need to do is plug the Compute Stick into the HDMI port.These new Compute sticks were announced in January at CES. Starting at US $299, the Skylake-based Compute Sticks aren't priced as low as older models but pack the processing power of lightweight laptops.The benefits of Compute Sticks are still debated. These computers rate high in portability but have memory, storage, and port limitations. Users also need to lug around a wireless keyboard and mouse.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
At US$15, the Quark Microcontroller Developer Kit D2000 is perhaps the least expensive computer Intel has ever shipped.The single-board computer has all the components mashed onto a tiny circuit board. It can be used to develop gadgets, wearables, home automation products, industrial equipment and other Internet of Things products.Developers could also use the computer to hook up sensors for temperature, light, sound, weather and distance to devices.The developer board is now available from Mouser Electronics. It will also be available from Avnet, according to Intel.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Agam Shah