The Intel Developer Forum is coming to an end, meaning its execs get to go wild and show some of the oddball concepts under way at the tech giant. These include a processor so efficient it can pull all the energy it needs to run from a glass of red wine.
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Apple has just laid claim to a world first: 64-bit processing inside a real, ready-for-sale smartphone. The new A7 processor will power the iPhone 5s with a “desktop-class architecture” consisting of over 1 billion transistors. That’s twice as many transistors as were squeezed into the A6 and, for the sake of context, it’s not a million miles away from the 1.4 billion transistors found in a current Intel Ivy Bridge desktop-class PC chip. In other words, while ARM’s own 64-bit mobile chip design, the Cortex-A57, is still being developed by chip- and phone-makers, Apple’s in-house team has pipped them all to the post.
Largely as a result of the extra transistors and 64-bit architecture, the A7 is claimed to be twice as fast as its predecessor, both in terms of CPU and graphics performance. Speaking of graphics, Apple also promises that its newly added support for the OpenGL ES 3.0 standard will enable “breakthroughs in performance” for visually intensive games such as Infinity Blade III. And it won’t just be games that benefit — iOS 7 will be 64-bit too, naturally, and Apple’s own built-in apps will be “re-engineered” to exploit this next-gen processing capability. (The A7 and iPhone 5s will also be backwards compatible with existing 32-bit apps.)
Finally, it’s interesting note that the iPhone 5s has a secondary processor, the Apple M7, which is tailored for processing motion and other sensory inputs and is presumably designed for unburdening the main chip and allowing the iPhone 5s to work as a fitness tracker and accomplish other sensory-based tasks without excessive battery drain.
Check out all the coverage at our iPhone ‘Special Event‘ 2013 event hub!
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple
It might not just be your ears that are stuffed with wax for long—because researchers from the University of Michigan want to pack your phone full of the stuff, too.
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Just because Qualcomm’s gone to plaid (aka. reached ludicrous speed) with its Snapdragon 800 flagship doesn’t mean the company’s been standing still at the other end of the market. The Snapdragon 200 family just received a major boost with the introduction of six new chips geared at China and other emerging markets. Available with dual- and quad-core CPUs, the processors are manufactured using a 28nm process and incorporate HSPA+ (21Mbps) and TD-SCDMA radios. The new SoCs are optimized to provide good multimedia performance and long battery life, with support for dual cameras (up to 8MP rear and 5MP front), multiple SIMs (dual standby, dual active and tri standby), iZat location tech and Quick Charge 1.0. Qualcomm’s Adreno 302 GPU rounds up the spec list, making these chips well suited for devices running Android, Windows Phone and Firefox OS. The company’s expected to begin shipping these new processors (8×10 and 8×12) in late 2013. Full PR after the break.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile
Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft is planning to give its Surface RT tablet an overhaul using chips from Qualcomm.
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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AMD is taking a leap into unknown waters, as it readies its first ever ARM chip.
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It was only last fall that AMD said it didn’t see a need to make its new “Hondo” chip for tablets to work with Android in addition to Windows and Linux, but it seems that the company now sees things a bit differently. Speaking with PC World at Computex, AMD Senior VP Lisa Su said that while AMD is “very committed to Windows 8,” the company also sees “a market for Android and Chrome developing as well.” Details remain light beyond that for the time being, with Su offering no indication as to when those chips might actually land in some devices. It does appear that the company is now working with developers on Android applications for AMD chips, though.
Filed under: AMD
Source: PC World
At last, Intel finally has its very own LTE modem chip! Intel’s Computex 2013 press conference is going on right now, and a company press release states we’ll see a 4G LTE multimode solution paired with its 22nm quad-core Atom SoC for tablets. The XMM 7160 will bring Bay Trail tablets (demonstrated on stage running graphically intense games and streaming 4K video over the integrated LTE) with global roaming capability “towards the end of the back to school season.” While it’s not clear when consumers can get their hands on this technology, hopefully we’ll see something pop up on our end before the end of the year. The talk is still ongoing and we should have more details shortly, check out the press release after the break for now.
Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Intel
Source: Intel
In what is now the second acidic gas leak in just three short months, reports are saying that three workers were injured when poisonous hydrofluoric acid leaked into one of Samsung‘s semiconductor plant in Hwaseong, Korea. It’s not known how badly the three workers are injured, but the gas leak back in January killed one worker and injured others.
Only three months have passed since the last time a similar accident occurred at the plant, which merely got Samsung a slap on the wrist and a measly $1,000 fine. However, that didn’t lead to any major safety improvements in the plant, causing such a leak to strike again, injuring three more workers.
It’s not said how much gas leaked from the pipes, but January’s leak was said to have unleashed up to 10 liters of diluted hydrofluoric acid, which is a colorless poisonous gas that can damage the lungs and bones, as well as affect the nervous system if inhaled — pretty bad stuff that you definitely want to be careful around.
The leak is currently undergoing investigation, so it’s not yet known what Samsung’s punishment will be this time around, but we’re guessing it’ll be a bit more strict than just a $1,000 fine and a slap on the wrist. Officials could fine Samsung big time, knowing that this is the second leak in just three months.
[via Yonhap News]
Acid leak at Samsung chip plant injures 3 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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We’re no strangers to AMD’s embedded processors, designed for specialist applications such as casino gaming and dashboard infotainment systems. But this latest announcement of an updated G-Series processor reveals something totally unexpected. It’s not just that the chip contains four Jaguar cores of PlayStation 4 fame, or that it also includes a Radeon 8000 GPU and I/O module on a single piece of silicon — although that’s all interesting enough. The key thing is actually the “X” in the lower right corner of the logo, which signifies that this is an x86 chip of the type we’d normally expect from AMD. The question is this: Why bother even mentioning the “X” when everyone knows AMD is an x86 stalwart already? Read on and we’ll explain its true significance.
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