Agam Shah
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Agam Shah
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Google’s Android Things OS won’t work on new Raspberry Pi board
The new Raspberry Pi Zero W was designed to be a board to make internet-of-things devices, but a key OS from Google won't work on the hardware.Google's Android Things IoT OS will not work with the small developer board, which is partly a wireless board, partly a gadget development tool. The Zero W is priced at US$10.The Zero W has a 1GHz single-core BCM2835 processor, which is based on the ARMv6 architecture.Android Things does not support ARMv6, so the OS will not work on the board. The OS is specially tuned to work with specific chipsets.The BCM2835 chip is the same in the original Raspberry Pi developer boards.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Intel merges AI operations into a new unit
Intel's artificial intelligence efforts have been scattered over many different units but are now being united into a single operating group.The Artificial Intelligence Products Group will focus on the development of chips and software products tied to machine learning, algorithms, and deep learning.The new group could become Intel's single most important group as companies implement machine learning into operations. Intel is tweaking more chips and developing software to take on workloads like analytics, image recognition, and automation.Intel is designing a new Xeon Phi chip code-named Knights Mill that will focus on machine learning. Additionally, it is applying its wide portfolio of FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) to artificial intelligence. Intel also offers many software tools for deep learning, like its Deep Learning SDK.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Intel merges AI operations into a new unit
Intel's artificial intelligence efforts have been scattered over many different units but are now being united into a single operating group.The Artificial Intelligence Products Group will focus on the development of chips and software products tied to machine learning, algorithms, and deep learning.The new group could become Intel's single most important group as companies implement machine learning into operations. Intel is tweaking more chips and developing software to take on workloads like analytics, image recognition, and automation.Intel is designing a new Xeon Phi chip code-named Knights Mill that will focus on machine learning. Additionally, it is applying its wide portfolio of FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) to artificial intelligence. Intel also offers many software tools for deep learning, like its Deep Learning SDK.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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The anatomy of a powerful desktop with an ARM chip
When he was growing up, a dream of Linux pioneer Linus Torvalds was to acquire the Acorn Archimedes, a groundbreaking personal computer with the first ARM RISC chips.But in 1987, Archimedes wasn't available to Torvalds in Finland, so he settled for the Sinclair QL. In the meanwhile, the Archimedes failed and disappeared from the scene, killing any chance for ARM chips to dominate PCs.Since then, multiple attempts to put ARM chips in PCs have failed. Outside of a few Chromebooks, most PCs have x86 chips from Intel or AMD.The domination of x86 is a problem for Linaro, an industry organization that advocates ARM hardware and software. Many of its developers use x86 PCs to compile programs for ARM hardware. That's much like trying to write Windows programs on a Mac.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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ARM steps up chip performance to catch up with Intel, AMD
Can ARM chips compete neck-and-neck with Intel and AMD on benchmarks? That could be happening sooner than you think.Starting next year, ARM processors will get significantly faster thanks to big changes in the company's Cortex-A chip designs. ARM is taking a page from rivals like AMD that have focused on raising the performance threshold in chips.ARM isn't known for superfast chips; it is instead mainly associated with power-efficient chips that give long battery life to devices. That focus has helped the company succeed in mobile devices, an area where Intel's power hungry chips failed.But applications like virtual reality and machine learning need more performance, and ARM is preparing its processors to take on those emerging applications. ARM is adding more cores, instructions, and faster pipelines in smaller spaces to boost performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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ARM steps up chip performance to catch up with Intel, AMD
Can ARM chips compete neck-and-neck with Intel and AMD on benchmarks? That could be happening sooner than you think.Starting next year, ARM processors will get significantly faster thanks to big changes in the company's Cortex-A chip designs. ARM is taking a page from rivals like AMD that have focused on raising the performance threshold in chips.ARM isn't known for superfast chips; it is instead mainly associated with power-efficient chips that give long battery life to devices. That focus has helped the company succeed in mobile devices, an area where Intel's power hungry chips failed.But applications like virtual reality and machine learning need more performance, and ARM is preparing its processors to take on those emerging applications. ARM is adding more cores, instructions, and faster pipelines in smaller spaces to boost performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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‘Candy-bar’ phones will get smartphone features with new Qualcomm chip
The Nokia 3310 phone, a replica of its iconic namesake, took Mobile World Congress by storm last month. It was a surprising show of enthusiasm for so-called candy-bar phones, which remain popular in developing countries because of their rock-bottom prices.Qualcomm believes there's an untapped opportunity in such feature phones and believes it can bring smartphone-like capabilities to these handsets. So it made the 205 Mobile chip, which will bring LTE capabilities, better graphics, and more responsiveness to candy-bar phones.There is a big need for a chip like the 205, especially when you look at the limited features of the new Nokia 3310. The Nokia 3310 offers only 2G connectivity capabilities for texting and calling, while newer candy-bar phones with the 205 chip will be LTE capable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Intel claims storage speed record with first large-capacity Optane SSD
Intel's first Optane storage modules came out in early January, but were only 32GB. Larger Optane drives with up to 1.5TB of storage capacity are on their way, and we now have a better understanding of how they're going to perform.The first large-capacity Optane SSD drive is the DC P4800X, which has 375GB of storage and started shipping on Sunday. The $1,520 SSD is targeted at servers. (Intel didn't provide regional availability information.)Intel says an enterprise Optane SSD with 750GB will ship in the second quarter, and that a 1.5TB SSD will ship in the second half of this year.These SSDs will fit as add-in cards in the PCI-Express/NVMe and U.2 slots. That means they could work in some workstations and servers based on AMD's 32-core Naples processors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Open-source BeagleBone Blue board aims for robots, drones
Before Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone was the go-to low-cost developer board for enthusiasts. It's still used by many, and a new BeagleBone board is now being targeted at robots.The US $79.95 BeagleBone Blue from BeagleBoard.org is a credit-card sized board with all the components needed to operate a robot or even a drone. It is open source, as its schematics have been published, and developers can replicate the board.Robots have unique requirements, and some computer boards specialize in specific features. For example, Nvidia's Jetson TX2 and Intel's Joule excel at computer vision and can give robots digital eyes to steer past obstacles. These boards also have powerful graphics processors and 64-bit CPUs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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With quantum computers here, developers seek uses
After decades of research, the first quantum computers are now up and running. The question now is: What do we do with them?IBM and D-Wave are trying to cash in on their expensive quantum computers by commercializing services. Both agree that quantum computers are different than PCs and can't be used to run every application.Instead, quantum systems will do things not possible on today's computers, like discovering new drugs and building molecular structures. Today's computers are good at finding answers by analyzing information within existing data sets, but quantum computers can get a wider range of answers by calculating and assuming new data sets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Intel’s PC chief talks about 5G, changes in chip design
Intel surprised many observers when the company hired outsider Venkata Renduchintala to lead the company's PC, Internet of Things, and Systems Architecture groups.With more than a year under his belt, he's spearheading a cultural change inside the company, getting employees to think beyond PCs and talk about technologies like 5G and IoT.There's been a lot of chatter about changes in the company's chip development strategy, with the recent announcement of the 8th Generation Core processors, an unprecedented fourth chip architecture on the 14-nanometer process. The chip industry veteran sat down with the IDG News Service at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to talk about what spurred the move and also his thoughts on 5G.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Intel’s PC chief talks about 5G, changes in chip design
Intel surprised many observers when the company hired outsider Venkata Renduchintala to lead the company's PC, Internet of Things, and Systems Architecture groups.With more than a year under his belt, he's spearheading a cultural change inside the company, getting employees to think beyond PCs and talk about technologies like 5G and IoT.There's been a lot of chatter about changes in the company's chip development strategy, with the recent announcement of the 8th Generation Core processors, an unprecedented fourth chip architecture on the 14-nanometer process. The chip industry veteran sat down with the IDG News Service at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to talk about what spurred the move and also his thoughts on 5G.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft’s .NET Core slowly marches onto Raspberry Pi 3
Microsoft's .NET Core is now making its way to Raspberry Pi developer boards, and an official .NET 2.0 Core is coming from the software company later this year.The .NET Core for Raspberry Pi and instructions to install it are available on the Github site.The .NET platform can be used to develop mobile, PC, and server applications and services. The Raspberry Pi 3 board can serve as an entry-level PC or be used to develop smart gadgets, robots, or internet-of-things devices.Microsoft recently opened up the programming framework for .NET Core, and separate from the Raspberry Pi move, Samsung is adopting it for the Tizen OS platform. Tizen is a Linux-based OS being developed by Samsung used in smartwatches and other devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Facebook, Microsoft target faster services with new AI server designs
Facebook on Wednesday rolled out some staggering statistics related to its social networks. Each day, users watch 100 million hours of video, 400 million people use Messenger, and more than 95 million photos and videos are posted on Instagram.That puts a heavy load on Facebook's servers in data centers, which help orchestrate all these services to ensure timely responses. In addition, Facebook's servers use machine learning technologies to improve services, with one visible example being image recognition.The story is similar for Microsoft, which is continually looking to balance the load on its servers. For example, Microsoft's data centers apply machine learning for natural language services like Cortana.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Like in PCs, Microsoft and ARM look to topple Intel in servers
Intel's TV marketing campaign says the company is driving 98 percent of the cloud. That statistic will come under attack with some chip and OS announcements on Wednesday.The most significant announcement: Microsoft's Windows Server OS now running on ARM chips. The OS was exclusive to x86 chips, but now customers can consider ARM chips to run Windows Server.Microsoft did not announce an official date for an ARM version of Windows Server, though the software company is using such systems internally. The announcement was made on the opening day of Open Compute Project's U.S. Summit in Santa Clara, California.At the summit, Qualcomm showed a new 48-core 1U server running its Centriq 2400 ARM chip. The server is based on Microsoft's Project Olympus server design and was shown running Windows Server. It was designed for the Azure cloud at Microsoft. The Centriq 2400 chip isn't available commercially but is still in testing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft’s Windows Server OS runs on ARM, with help from Qualcomm
Microsoft has warmed up to Qualcomm to make a Windows 10 PC based on its ARM chip, and now the companies are bringing Windows Server OS to ARM. For the first time ever, Microsoft is expected to show the Windows Server OS running on an ARM server. The server runs on Qualcomm's Centriq 2400, an ARM-based chip designed for cloud servers. The server is being shown at the Open Project Compute Summit being held in Santa Clara, California, on Wednesday and Thursday.The ARM-based Windows Server hardware is for Microsoft's internal use. No information was shared on when Windows Server would be available for ARM servers. The ARM-based Windows Server hardware is for Microsoft's internal use. The company didn't share information about when Windows Server would be available for ARM servers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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HPE to pay $1 billion for Nimble Storage after cutting EMC ties
Hewlett Packard Enterprise plans to acquire Nimble Storage, a vendor of all-flash and hybrid flash storage products, for US$1 billion in an effort to pump up its offerings in those areas.Nimble Storage offers converged flash arrays with predictive software for provisioning to speed up storage performance. The offerings will work alongside technology that HPE acquired from 3Par, which also is centered around provisioning.THOUGHTS ON THE DEAL? Please comment on Network World's Facebook pageHPE needs to bulk up its storage offerings after cutting ties with EMC, which is now a part of Dell Technologies and dominates enterprise storage. Nimble Storage could be a step toward retaining existing storage customers and enticing new customers to switch over from EMC.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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AMD hopes to break Intel server dominance with new 32-core Naples chip
The outspoken Forrest Norrod has never shied away from challenges. Previously, as a server chief at Dell, he helped the company's data-center hardware business flourish, and he loved experimenting with new types of servers.He has a new challenge as AMD's server chief: to bring back the glory days of chipmaker's server business, which is now in tatters. A mega-chip called Naples, which has 32 cores and is based on the Zen architecture, will be the first test of AMD's return to the server market.The Naples chip will ship to server makers in the second quarter of this year. The benchmarks of Naples are competitive with Intel's chips in head-to-head comparisons, said Norrod, senior vice president and general manager of AMD's Enterprise, Embedded, and Semi-Custom Business Group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IBM’s new Q program to include a 50-qubit quantum computer
Characters named Q in film and TV have been portrayed as being exceptional. Q in the James Bond movies served up futuristic gadgets, and Q in Star Trek was omnipotent.A new quantum computing program called Q at IBM will be remarkable in its own right. In a few years, IBM plans to create a quantum computer with more than 50 qubits, which should push conventional computers one step closer to the trash heap.IBM Q will deliver paid quantum computing consulting and services to users. It's much like IBM's Watson, which uses conventional computers, but Q uses quantum computers.The 50-qubit quantum computer will be 10 times larger than a 5-qubit system already housed by IBM. And the new system will be able to do things that conventional computers can't do. It will accelerate drug discovery and make scientific discoveries, IBM said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IoT and 5G are driving computing to the edge
By 2020, an average internet user will use 1.5GB of traffic a day, and daily video traffic will reach 1PB, Intel predicts. A huge amount of data will be generated by autonomous vehicles, mobile devices, and internet-of-things devices.Every day, more information is being collected and sent to faster servers in mega data centers, which analyze and make sense of it. That analysis has helped improved image and speech recognition and is making autonomous cars a reality.Emerging superfast data networks like 5G -- a melting pot of wireless technologies -- will dispatch even more gathered information, which could stress data centers. Servers are already being redesigned to handle more data, and throughput technologies like Gen-Z and fiber optics will reduce latency.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here