Archive for: processor
The question is quick and to the point: Would you buy an Intel-powered smartphone manufactured by ZTE? Current rumors say that is such a pairing would be Intel’s first foray into the world of smartphones using the company’s popular Atom netbook processor. According to the same rumor, the resulting love child would be a Chinese-only device, so if you live elsewhere, don’t get too excited — yet.
There’s always the possibility such a device could make it’s way stateside. Thus far however, only a select few ZTE devices have managed to make the trek across the pond. Though if a ZTE/Intel phone featured the needed parts to knock our socks off, the brand and processor wouldn’t really matter. What would matter is a device that can power through 1′s and 0′s faster while also sipping battery juice better than Samsung, ARM or TI’s current crop of silicon.
Can it be done? Will it be done?
PC enthusiasts finally have some legitimate information to chew on this morning concerning their X58 upgrades as a new Intel roadmap has leaked. The roadmap highlights the upcoming 2011-pin X79 chipset and it’s assortment of features that go above and well beyond the current mainstream P67 platform. Namely, X79 will feature quad-channel memory, dual PCI-Express 2.0 x4 links totalling 8 GB/s of bandwidth, a 10-pot SATA 6 Gb/s RAID controller integrated directly onto the PCH, and of course plenty of overclocking potential. 2011 is also supposed to be the first platform in which we see new 8-core processors hit the “mainstream” market, taking the place of the current X58′s hex-core Core i7 980x and 990x.
The rollout of X79 hardware is slated to begin this fall, though any specific dates or hardware remains unknown at this time. Further breakdown of X79 after the jump…
The iPad 2 was long rumored to have a dual-core ARM processor humming along at 1GHz. But alas, the truth has come out and it’s not quite so true. The iPad 2′s dual-core ARM processor is actually clocked at 900MHz per core, this according to Anandtech. Is 100MHz going to make a huge difference? Hardly. Apple likely had battery life in mind when it reigned in speeds slightly. How are all the new iPad 2 owners enjoying their new tablet beauty tonight?
- February 21, 2011 6:24 pm
If it were possible to melt the world with a single, rouge computer running out of control, it would be powered by this Intel 990x six-core behemoth. Overclocked to 7.1 GHz and cooled with liquid nitrogen means the end of the world is near should things get out of hand. At the very least, this kid got a very good chip. Now it’s time for you to hop in and watch the rather undramatic video in all its splendor…
- February 14, 2011 7:30 am
If you’re rockin’ a first-gen Snapdragon processor that “crawls” along at 1GHz, be prepared to feel mighty outdated. Today at MWC, Qualcomm took the wraps off of their new high-end processor, the AP8064. This quad-core — yes, quad core mobile beast runs through the gates at a blistering 2.5GHz. Tag teaming your mobile experience will be an Adreno 320 quad-core gpu. Obviously, things like HD gaming and 3D capture/playback (and pretty much everything else short of world domination) will be chump change for this chip.
But not everyone needs mobile quad core chips. Catering to other areas of the market is done with a dual-core (MSM8960) and single-core (MSM8930) processors. All of these chips revealed today are built upon Qualcomm’s 28nm “Krait” architecture. Look for the dual-core (MSM8960) engineering samples to start making their way out in Q2 while the single core (MSM8930) and quad-core (APQ8064) won’t see the light of day until early 2012.
A show of hands please for everyone who wants the quad-core Qualcomm chip…now.
- February 12, 2011 3:11 pm
Athlon. Phenom. Sempron. All of these are previous naming schemes for AMD processors. But these names and future, unique names could be a thing of the past if a reported document by Xbit Labs turns out to be correct. Replacing the traditional AMD names we’ve come to know will be more basic titles based off the companies Vision trademark — Vision FX, Vision A Series, and Vision E Series.
- Vision FX: Zembezi processors in 2, 4, or 8 core configurations. “AMD Vision Black” and “AMD Vision Ultimate”
- Vision E Series: “Llano” APUs in 2 and 4 core configurations + AMD 6000 series graphics core. “AMD Vision Ultimate” and “AMD Vision Premium”
- Vision E Series: 1-2 cores + AMD 6000 series graphics core. Low end. “AMD Vision”
Brand naming isn’t nearly as important as some may claim it to be. With that said, the restructuring is certainly surprising though not entirely unexpected. What do you think of the reported new naming structure for AMD platforms and processors? It seems easy enough on paper. After countless years of complete nonsense from Intel’s naming structure, we’re ready to welcome AMD’s new offerings with open arms.
- February 7, 2011 12:55 pm
Today’s refreshed Snapdragon and Tegra 2 processors may be the latest to capture our attentions with their dual-core, 1+GHz design, but they’re mere mid-range fodder compared to Texas Instruments upcoming OMAP 5 platform. Based on a 28-nm design process, the OMAP 5430 and 5432 processors will be capable of running at up to 2GHZ while offering 3x the raw performance of the previous generation OMAP 4430. Furthermore, the 5430 and 5432 OMAP 5 chips will support Kinect-style gesture recognition and boast a solid 5x improvement in graphics performance all while driving up to four displays simultaneously. If you want to bump up to QSXGA (2560 x 2048) resolution, you’ll still be able to push three monitors at once.
Other note worthy features of the OMAP 5 platform include support for up to four simultaneous camera streams in parallel, recording, and 1080p S3D playback, real-time 2D –> S3D 1080p conversion, and when combined with a TI DSP pico-projector and camera allows the ability to “touch and drag” projected images. Finally, USB 3.0, SATA 2.0, SDXC, support for 8GB of memory, and facial recognition round out the loaded package.
In short: The OMAP 5 platform is awesome!
Look for devices using the TI OMAP 5 5430 or 5432 to start shipping in the second half of 2012. Video after the break…
Intel may be going some rough times with a massive Sandy Bridge reacall, but that doesn’t mean the platform is weak. Not by a long shot. Since the hardware’s release back in early January, people have been hitting some pretty crazy overclocks from the 2500K and 2600K chips. On a more personal note, I’ve been able to push my 2600K up to 4.7GHz with very little time spent on actual tweaking settings in the bios. But my chip isn’t “the golden chip” that so few lucky souls receive. One such lucky soul however, took his 2600K to a blistering 5.794GHz on air, and managed an even more impressive 5.804GHz on water. The image above is all that was provided for the higher oc. The slightly lower, air-cooled overclock comes with a CPU-Z validation. Still think Sandy Bridge is a wash?
Usually, such high overclocks are only seeing when exotic cooling (read: liquid nitrogen) is used. To be able to hit the speeds listed above on air and water cooling is a rather impressive feat.
Apple is poised to literally take over Samsung’s application processor (APU) manufacturing facilities with the latest processor powering the iPhone 5 according to the Korea Times. Citing Samsung suppliers, an industry source revealed to the Korea Times that “Samsung has agreed with Apple to quadruple monthly shipments of its mobile AP chips to 20,000 sheets throughout this year from 5,000 last year”. What it means is that a full 50% of Samsung’s output capacity will be dedicated solely to Apple and their latest processor which will see action in this summer’s iPhone 5. Somewhat ironically, this figure will put Apple ahead of even Samsung’s own, in-house devices such as the Galaxy S phones and Galaxy Tab — all of which are powered by (of course) the same basic style of processor…
