Tag archive: ARM

The battle over which data cable standard will dominate in the years ahead is beginning to heat up. With USB 3.0 beginning to take off, the fate of Intel's high-speed Thunderbolt port has been under scrutiny as of late. Everything runs on USB and though Apple has been a huge proponent of the new Thunderbolt port, including it as one of the only ports on its entire line of MacBook computers, support from the world's most popular tech… Read More

As Windows 8 gets closer to reality, more details of Microsoft's make-it-or-break-it effort to translate its desktop computing success to ARM-driven tablets are emerging. First, Microsoft revealed that ARM-based Windows 8 devices won”t be able to run legacy Windows software—it'll be the Metro way, or the highway. Now, Microsoft's Windows 8 hardware certification requirements reveal another restriction: Microsoft… Read More

CES is finally over. While I didn’t see any iPod-, iPhone-, or iPad-level products in terms of excitement this year, there were some interesting products that I could see spending money on. Here are some of the announcements that got my attention during the show. Nokia Lumia 900 Nokia was once the most powerful cell phone manufacturer in the world, but that was last decade, and the company entered this decade at risk. Still, it arguably had the… Read More

The next generation of Google TV devices will be powered by ARM-based processors, according to an announcement from chip manufacturer Marvell. The company's ARMADA 1500 HD “Foresight” system-on-a-chip (SoC) is said to provide better performance, and consume less energy, than Intel's x86-based C4100 Atom processor, which powered the Logitech's original Google TV devices. The ARMADA 1500 SoC packs a dual-core CPU… Read More

Over the past month or so, Intel has made its intentions towards the smartphone processor market clear — they want a slice of the pie that ARM currently has almost entirely to themselves. The formation of a unit dedicated to tackling the mobile sector was the first step, then came details on the Medfield chip and a look at the company's test device. The Medfield is Intel's latest, power-efficient system-on-a-chip, expressly… Read More

Hot on the heels of the formation of their new Mobile and Communications Group, Intel's first prototype hardware has begun to circulate, giving the mobile market a glimpse of an Intel-powered future. The so-called “reference design” phones and tablets hide Intel's Medfield chip, designed to take on the might of industry leader ARM. Based on the Atom processor, the new Medfield chip takes a different approach to… Read More

We haven't yet seen a beta version of Windows 8, but analysts are already claiming it is doomed. Analysts from IDC, Gartner, and Forrester are predicting that the new OS will face an uphill battle in the PC and tablet markets for a number of reasons, but none of those reasons seem particularly relevant to the OS itself or the experience of using it. Microsoft has released an extremely limited Developer Preview of Windows 8, but the OS is… Read More

Microsoft's decision to mix and mash the classic Windows 7 desktop with the brand new Windows Phone-like Metro-style UI of Windows 8 has been controversial since we first saw it. In our tests, we found that while the OS worked well enough, the styles and design of the new and old desktops clashed. We assume Microsoft is working to smooth this over for Intel machines, but if Windows expert Paul Thurrott is correct, Windows 8 will not have… Read More

British processor designer ARM has taken the wraps off its new Mali-T658 graphics processor, which packs eight graphics processing cores where the company currently offers only four—and each of those eight cores runs twice as fast as its predecessors. According to ARM, the Mali-T658 will be an important step in delivering PS3-quality graphics on smartphones and tablets—and it could start appearing in mobile devices by 2013. The chip will likely… Read More

In the chipmaking world, Intel has long dominated traditional desktop and notebook computers, but has so far failed to tap into the mobile revolution. Meanwhile, in the mobile world, ARM-based processors from a number of chipmakers have been winning the day, thanks to their low power requirements and decent performance. However, the two camps are heading for a show-down. The industry is shifting to a “post-PC” mode focusing on… Read More

Chipmaking giant Intel posted financial results for its second fiscal quarter of 2011, showing double-digit growth across all its business segments and revenue of some $13 billion dollars. The company pulled in some $3.9 billion in operating profit, and while that's a slight increase over the same quarter a year ago, the company also saw its gross margins contract by 6.6 percent. Intel's revenue success was largely based on broad… Read More

According to reports in Reuters and elsewhere, Apple is testing manufacture of future iPhone and iPad processors with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a move that could make the Cupertino company less dependent on South Korea's Samsung Electronics. Samsung has been the exclusive supplier of the Apple-designed, ARM-based A4 and A5 chips used in iPhone and iPad devices to date. According to Reuters, Apple is looking to… Read More

In an effort to avoid customer confusion caused by hardware disparities and fragmentation, Microsoft is is apparently asking chipmakers and hardware developers for forthcoming Windows 8 tablets to form one-on-one relationships, wherein chipmakers will supply one and only one tablet maker. Although Microsoft isn't making these relationships mandatory—that would set off antitrust flags around the world—the company is offering… Read More

You may have read yesterday about some comments made by an Intel exec about how the four planned ARM versions of Windows 8 won't support “legacy” apps, which is to say they won't be backwards compatible with applications from earlier Windows operating systems. Microsoft has now responded with an official statement calling the Intel comments “factually inaccurate and unfortunately misleading,” no surprise given… Read More

Speaking at a presentation in Santa Clara, California, Renee James, the head of Intel's software business said Microsoft is gearing up to offer multiple versions of Windows 8, including four that target ARM processors. However, while versions of Windows 8 for Intel's x86 architecture will be backward-compatible with most existing Windows software, the ARM versions won't offer backward compatibility. Windows 8 for ARM will… Read More