Hasta La Gadget!

Looks like we can kiss goodbye to any lingering politeness in the rivalry between these two UK chip houses, because the smaller one has just embarked on a cheeky expansion. Having been known mainly for its PowerVR graphics processors, not least in many Apple products, Imagination Tech could potentially push into the CPU arena too, through its $60 million acquisition of MIPS Technologies. Just Like ARM, MIPS designs low-power RISC processors for consumer electronics, but it has generally focused on smaller chips for devices like routers and TVs rather than smartphones and tablets. In addition to a portfolio of 82 exclusive patents, a squad of 160 MIPS engineers will now be transplanted to Imagination, where they’ll no doubt be debriefed and reassigned to conquering the world. Meanwhile, in some sort of flanking move, ARM has paid a far higher sum of $170 million to gain access to a number of other MIPS patents.

[Thanks, Michael]

Imagination Technologies snaps up CPU designer MIPS in an attempt to wrestle ARM originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Nov 2012 06:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple is reportedly looking into ways to replace its Intel processors in Macs with new chips based on the designs it uses for its iOS-based devices. The company has previously been rumored to be contemplating such a move, but Bloomberg reports today that Apple’s engineers are now more confident in their underlying chip designs and the ability of those designs to power Mac desktops and notebooks.

Bloomberg has reported similar planned changes in the past, in a retrospective reflecting on the year since Steve Jobs’ death. And around a year ago there were rumors that it was looking at alternatives to Intel as well. The hurdles involved include making sure that software works on Macs based on the new processors; when Apple went from PowerPC to Intel, the transition left a lot of legacy software incompatible and led to transition issues around porting software.

Apple would also have to be extremely confident in their new chipmaking powers in order to drop Intel, and this isn’t likely something we’ll see happen overnight, even now that they’ve achieved greater maturity with their mobile efforts. I’d expect Apple to deliver new architecture alongside a significant OS update, maybe an evolution that finally carries us out of the OS X generation.

Apple designs based on ARM designs would enable the company to create hardware that theoretically runs cooler with less significant power demands, and would make it easier to get OS X and iOS closer together (it seems to be wanting to do just that with its recent executive rearrangement) in terms of cross-compatibility of software and code. But unlike Microsoft, Apple is taking the long-view approach to that unification of platforms. So again, it seems like we’ll probably not see this make its way to actual shipping products for a while, but it’ll be a huge shift for all involved (Apple, users, developers and especially Intel) if it does come to pass.

ARM has announced its new Cortex A-50 Series, a line of energy-efficient 64-bit processors. According to the press release, the Cortex A-50 Series is the world’s most energy efficient 64-bit processors “set to drive the next era in mobile and enterprise.” The series is comprised of two processors: the A57 and the A53.

First up is the Cortex-A53 processor, which is “the most efficient ARM application processor ever.” Says the press release, the A53 can run a high-end smartphone using only a quarter of what is used by current offerings. The processor is optimized for throughput processing, and is only 25% the size of “mainstream superphone CPUs,” making it positively tiny.

The Cortex-A57 processor is “optimized for high performance,” offering three times the performance of current offerings. This CPU is ARM’s most advanced and highest single-thread performance processor. According to the press release, the A57 offers “performance comparable to a legacy PC” whilst only sipping power, providing a combination of energy-efficiency and cost effectiveness to meet the needs of both consumer and enterprise users.

According to ARM, this series will provide the market with a means to push the base level of power for mobile devices upwards, with today’s high-end smartphones becoming tomorrow’s entry-level devices. Currently, we can expect to see the Cortex-A50 Series pop up in 2014. Check out the video above for more info.

ARM announces energy-efficient 64-bit Cortex-A50 processors is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

AMD has unveiled its plans to produce 64-bit ARM-based processors for servers, stating that it will be the first company providing x86 and 64-bit ARM solutions. This move aims to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for more energy-efficient 64-bit server processors. The first 64-bit ARM-based processor will be an AMD Opteron, and is slated for production in 2014.

According to the press release, the increase in mobile devices and new business models has put a particular strain on data centers’ server infrastructure. The market, says AMD, is actively seeking ways to increase efficiency while reducing ownership costs. ARM-based processors are ideal for parallelization, making them a better choice over large-core CPUs.

Said ARM CEO Warren East, “The industry needs to continuously innovate across markets to meet customers’ ever-increasing demands, and ARM and our partners are enabling increasingly energy-efficient computing solutions to address these needs. By collaborating with ARM, AMD is able to leverage its extraordinary portfolio of IP, including its AMD Freedom supercompute fabric, with ARM 64-bit processor cores to build solutions that deliver on this demand and transform the industry.” AMD’s president and CEO Rory Read also offered a statement, saying that AMD will lead the industry in widespread adoption of more energy-efficient 64-bit processors.

This comes after AMD’s acquisition of SeaMicro, which was announced back in March. Says the press release, AMD will be integrating the SeaMicro fabric with the upcoming processors to enable more energy-efficient processor clusters. AMD made the announcement earlier today at a hosted event in San Francisco. No details were released on the processors.

[via AMD]

AMD to develop 64-bit ARM processors for servers is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This isn’t the only robot that can kick your butt at ping pong. But unlike other ping pong playing ‘botsot, this one wasn’t programmed with its abilities. It has learned through experience. Robotics experts at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany created this robot arm that learns to adapt its game as it plays.

Much like the Borg, it assimilates knowledge and adapts. But there is no cube ship or sexy Seven of Nine model. This is just an arm. The team attached the robot arm to the ceiling and attached a camera to watch and analyze the game. They taught the arm to play ping pong by feeding it more and more difficult shots. The arm was soon generating its own shots thanks to it’s amassed knowledge.

That’s right. It learned. It wasn’t trained in advance… and it is armed with ping pong balls. We are all so dead. I can already see the little plastic bits sticking out of open wounds in human foreheads.

[via Geekosystem]