Agam Shah

Author Archives: Agam Shah

Asus mini-PCs pack Skylake chips, 4K video capabilities

There is a lot to look forward to in Skylake PCs, if mini-PCs from Asus showed on the Computex show floor are an indicator.Lying in one corner of the Asus booth were two mini-desktops based on Intel’s upcoming sixth-generation Core processor. With the powerful processors, a host of port options and support for 4K video, the tiny computing powerhouses could be full-fledged desktop replacements.Skylake has been described by Intel as its most significant chip release in a decade. It will succeed a family of chips code-named Broadwell, which is in PCs now. Tablets, laptops and desktops based on the new chip architecture are expected in the second half of this year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AMD to launch next-generation Fiji GPUs on June 16

Gamers, buckle up—AMD will launch its highly-anticipated graphics processing unit, code-named Fiji, on June 16 at the E3 conference.Many were expecting Fiji to launch at a press event at Computex on Wednesday, but that didn’t happen. Instead, AMD did show off key technology, which will first appear in Fiji and could give significant speed and power saving gains to future graphics chips.On stage, AMD CEO Lisa Su showed a chip for technology called HBM (high-bandwidth memory), which could make graphics chips faster and more power-efficient.HBM offers 3.5 times the bandwidth per watt of GDDR5, which is currently used in memory chips. Instead of being placed next to each other, HBM stacks memory chips, which are connected through a high-speed thread. HBM is also faster due a wider bus and its closer location to graphics processors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AMD skips Chromebooks, bets on Windows 10 with new Carrizo chips

Chromebooks may be hot-ticket items, but with its sixth-generation A-series chips for mainstream laptops, AMD is placing its bets on Microsoft’s Windows 10.The new chips, code-named Carrizo, will appear in laptops priced between US$400 and $800 from Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba. The first wave of laptops will become available starting in July, initially with Windows 8, and later in the year with Windows 10.The new chips include quad-core A8 and A10 processors, which have up to six GPU cores, and the faster FX chips, which have up to eight GPU cores. Some new laptops based on the chips were shown at the Computex trade show in Taipei this week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Faster Wi-Fi is coming soon to a device near you

Wi-Fi in your home or office could get a big speed boost by the end of this year with Qualcomm's newest chip, which reaches new highs in data transfer speeds.The peak wireless data transfer speeds of the QCA9994 and QCA9984 Wi-Fi chips will reach 1.7G bps (bits per second). That speed can be achieved through single or multiple data streams from devices on an 802.11ac Wi-Fi network.MORE: Full speed ahead for 802.11ac WiFiThe speed tops Qualcomm's previous high of around 1Gbps, which it achieved in products released last year. To put the wireless speed in perspective, the data transfer speeds of a wired USB 3.0 connection peaks at 5Gbps, which in most cases is considered adequate for external hard drives.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dell warms to AMD chips in new laptops, desktops

Dell’s PCs largely use Intel chips, but the company is once again warming to AMD processors for its new Inspiron laptops and desktops.The Inspiron 5000 laptops with 14-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch screens contain AMD’s new A-series chips, code-named Carrizo. The laptops are now shipping worldwide even though the chips aren’t due to be announced until Wednesday.The desktop-replacement laptops start at US$449.99 for the 15-inch model, $599.99 for the 14-inch model, and $699.99 inch for the 17-inch model.Dell once used AMD chips in a range of laptops, but slowly dropped them from product lines as the chip-maker dealt with quality and production problems. Hewlett-Packard has stayed loyal to AMD, but many other PC makers have dropped AMD’s chips over the years for not standing up to Intel’s chips in performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel cranks up speed of Thunderbolt 3, builds in support for USB

Intel is giving Apple and other laptop makers a reason to put its Thunderbolt high-speed data ports back in their next ultrathin laptops: Thunderbolt 3.0 ports will use the same Type C connector as USB 3.1—but when connected to other Thunderbolt devices, will run up to four times as fast.Thunderbolt 3 can transfer data at a whopping 40G bps (bits per second), twice as fast as Thunderbolt 2, which was introduced in 2014.Found in Macs and some Windows PCs, Thunderbolt technology connects computers to peripherals such as external storage devices and even graphics cards. Laptops with Thunderbolt 3 ports will be released by the end of the year, said Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC Client Group, during a keynote at Computex in Taipei.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel shows first Skylake tablet

Intel is drumming up excitement for its upcoming chips code-named Skylake, showing the first tablet based on the architecture during a keynote at the Computex show in Taipei.The tablet had a 4K display that could display images at a resolution of 3840 by 2160 pixels, and was 7.8 millimeters thick.Tablets based on Skylake will be computing powerhouses that will manage high-resolution displays, said Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president and general manager for the PC Client Group at Intel.Skylake will go into tablets, laptops and desktops, including some that are on track to reach the market in the second half this year.Devices based on Skylake could incorporate a number of interesting features, including wireless charging and, in some mobile devices, Thunderbolt 3.0 ports. These will be able transfer data at 40Gbps (bits per second), close to twice the transfer speed of Thunderbolt 2.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Qualcomm turns to China’s Allwinner to grow in low-cost tablet market

Qualcomm hopes to put its chips in more low-cost Android tablets through a partnership with Chinese chip maker Allwinner.As part of the agreement, Allwinner will push Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 and 210 chips with integrated LTE into low-cost Android tablets distributed worldwide. Allwinner mainly distributes Wi-Fi-only chips for tablets under US$200, and its LTE lineup will be filled up by Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.The deal offers an opportunity for Qualcomm to grow in the Chinese market, where the company was hit with problems in recent years. Qualcomm in February paid US$975 million to settle a fine imposed by the Chinese government for monopolistic business practices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

PC makers disclose plans to bring Windows 10 to PCs

With Microsoft ready to ship Windows 10 on July 29, PC makers are disclosing their plans to make the OS available to customers in new laptops and desktops or as a free OS upgrade from Windows 7 and 8.1.Dell will ship its first PCs pre-loaded with Windows 10 on July 29, said Raymond Wah, vice president of consumer product marketing at the company, during an interview at Computex on Tuesday.The company wants to roll out laptops and desktops as quickly as possible so back-to-school buyers can get hold of the new OS, Wah said. Microsoft is providing a free upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 for one year, which Dell plans to make a snap through customer support and tutorial videos.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chromebooks with MediaTek chips to appear ‘very soon’

Chip maker Mediatek is preparing to enter the laptop business, with the first Chromebooks based on its processors due to appear soon.So said Mediatek senior vice president Jeffrey Ju at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The company also showed a non-working Chromebook with its 64-bit MT8173 quad-core processor and a USB Type-C port.Ju didn’t say exactly when PC makers will release Chromebooks with MediaTek’s chips, but another MediaTek representative said the laptops could appear in the second half of this year or early next year.Chromebooks, which run Google’s Chrome OS, are catching on as a low-cost alternative to Windows PCs for users who do most of their computing on the Internet. The usage model is much like tablets and smartphones, with most applications requiring an Internet connection, though Google is making more offline applications available.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ARM hopes to extend battery life of IOT devices with new chip design

ARM is trying to resolve the thorny problem of battery life in Internet of Things devices with a new chip design that will significantly reduce the power consumed by processors, sensors and wireless chips.The company has overhauled the way it designs low-power Cortex-M chips that go into IoT devices such as health monitors, smart home devices and sensors. The restructured design could almost double battery life, ARM executives said at Computex in Taipei on Monday.For example, the battery life of a connected hearing aid could more than double with chips based on the new design, said Jeff Chu, director of marketing at ARM.Chu provided another example of a smart lightbulb lasting a lot longer on a battery charge with new chips based on the design. The smart bulb could have solar cells to refresh the battery, and the chip’s lower power consumption could help the battery last for years.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cloud gaming at 4K still years away, Nvidia CEO says

Don’t expect online games to stream to your TV or PC at 4K resolution anytime soon.While it is possible to stream 4K movies from online services like Netflix to PCs, TVs and set-top boxes, streaming games from the cloud requires many infrastructure changes, said Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia, during a media briefing at Computex.Nvidia can currently stream 1080p games at 60 frames per second from its Grid online gaming service, but the technology needs to be developed for 4K streaming and a lot of fine-tuning is needed at the server level, Huang said.“It’s going to be a while,” Huang said.Many 4K TVs and monitors are already available, and display images at the 3840 x 2160-pixel resolution. Games typically require two-way communications, and servers process bits related to games differently than video streams.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nvidia seeks to sharpen gaming on laptops with G-Sync

Nvidia is bringing its G-Sync desktop display technology to laptops, which should lead to dramatic improvements in gaming for portable PCs.Nvidia’s G-Sync technology synchronizes monitors and display panels to the refresh rate of games, which reduces stutter and lag time. With G-Sync, GPUs are connected directly to displays, so images of a game appear almost instantly on a monitor as they are drawn up on a computer.As a result, games can run at more frames per second, improving the overall experience. The instantaneous refresh of screens also resolves the age-old problem of conventional monitors and displays being a bottleneck in the gaming experience.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Acer rolls out new laptop, desktops with Windows, Chrome

Acer CEO Jason Chen wants his company to be the “last PC maker standing,” he said last month, and on Friday the company continued to rain blows on its competitors with a flurry of new laptops and desktops running Windows and Chrome.It will show the new PCs at Computex next week—little more than a month after it held a big event in New York City’s World Trade Center to unveil dozens of other new laptops, desktops and gaming products.Perhaps the most interesting of the latest batch is the Aspire Switch 11 V laptop-tablet hybrid. The 11-inch full HD screen can detach from a keyboard base to become a tablet. The device has a Core M processor and offers up to eight hours of battery life. It has a Gorilla Glass screen, which gives it a higher level of protection in case of a fall. Acer hasn’t said when it will ship, or at what price, but its premium features could make it more costly than other Switch products, which start around US$200 for a 10-inch screen.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Windows takes early lead over Android in Cherry Trail tablet battle

More Windows devices with Intel’s Atom chips code-named Cherry Trail were announced this week, giving the Microsoft OS an early lead over Android, which is not yet in any tablet based on the new chips.Acer said Friday it would launch a new Switch tablet-laptop hybrid with a 10-inch detachable screen later this year. Earlier this week, Lenovo announced the new ThinkPad 10 with Cherry Trail chips.Intel officially announced Cherry Trail earlier this year, and the chips are designed to work with Windows and Android tablets. Microsoft’s Surface 3, which started shipping earlier this month, is the only tablet available with Cherry Trail. More Cherry Trail tablets are expected to be shown by little-known tablet makers at the Computex trade show next week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Researchers claim to boost cell-phone battery life with radio signals

Cell phones are constantly transmitting radio signals, whose energy can also be used to boost the battery life of mobile devices.Researchers at Ohio State University have developed circuitry that converts radio signals from a handset into energy, which is then fed back to the device’s battery. The researchers say the technology can increase the battery life of mobile devices by up to 30 percent.The OSU researchers are working with startup Nikola Labs to commercialize the technology, which they say can be easily implemented in cell-phone cases, and in June will launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund its continued development.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP sells majority stake of China server, storage business to Tsinghua Holdings

Hewlett-Packard has sold a majority stake in its China server and storage business to Tsinghua Holdings as they launch a joint venture they expect will boost sales of HP enterprise hardware products in the country.Tsinghua will buy 51 percent of the joint venture, called H3C, for US$2.3 billion. H3C will include HP’s China-based server, storage and technology services assets, as well H3C Technologies, an HP networking equipment subsidiary in China.The transaction comes ahead of HP’s plan to split its enterprise and PC and printing business into separate companies, which is expected to happen by the end of the year. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will sell software and enterprise hardware, while HP Inc. will sell printers, PCs, mobile devices, monitors and accessories.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fierce smartphone rivalry driving faster chip development, ARM CEO says

Heated competition in the smartphone and tablet markets has required chip makers to speed up the pace at which they release new processors, the CEO of ARM said in an interview this week.Following in the footsteps of Apple, rivals like Samsung and HTC are upgrading their flagship devices on a near yearly basis, adding better displays, faster chips and more memory to entice customers into buying their products.ARM designs the microprocessors used in most of those devices, and the increased competition means it’s having to push out faster, more power-efficient chips at a quicker pace, CEO Simon Segars said Tuesday.“We’re always going to be looking to deliver more performance, make the best use of manufacturing technology ... and deliver better system-wide efficiency,” he added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Asus packs 64GB of storage in $299 ZenFone 2

Asus isn’t a household name in the U.S. when it comes to smartphones, but it is trying to make a strong statement with the Zenfone 2, which packs more storage than similarly-priced competitors.The Zenfone 2, which has a 5.5-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, starts at $199. It will begin shipping on Tuesday with Google’s Android 5.0 OS.A model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage goes for $299, while the $199 model has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The smartphone is shipping as an unlocked device, meaning it will work with multiple carriers.It has an Intel 64-bit Atom Z3580 processor code-named Moorefield and a PowerVR G6430 graphics processor, which is capable of handling 1080p video rendering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ARM seen making rapid progress on next high-end chip

ARM’s next major CPU design could be here sooner than you think.The company is in the advanced stages of development with its next high-end processor, which will succeed the Cortex-A72 and could reach smartphone and tablet makers by the end of next year, chip analyst Linley Gwennap said in a research note this week.ARM’s chip designs are used in most of the world’s smartphones and tablets, and its speedy development work reflects the intense pressure gadget makers are under to get new products to market quickly. It also reflects heightened competition from Intel.ARM hasn’t discussed the new chip publically and even its name it not yet known. But the company seems to be accelerating the pace at which it gets new processor designs to market.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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