Hasta La Gadget!

Guess who showed up at Computex with an all-new dual-core processor? Nah, we’re not referring to AMD or Intel (though they certainly did) — we’re talking about VIA. The company quietly (re)introduced a dual-core desktop chip here in Taipei, with the codename Nano DC being used to describe it for the time being. The device utilized a VN1000 Digital Media Chipset and fully supported dual-channel DDR3 memory. A Chrome 520 GPU was helping to push out a 720p movie trailer on the demo system, and the innate compatibility with HDMI and DisplayPort should keep home cinema owners happy. The 65nm chip was clocked at 1.6GHz, and we were told that it wouldn’t be venturing into mobile machines in its current form. ‘Course, this device has been a bit of unicorn for the past couple of years, but company representatives seemed certain that it would finally be ready to ship (using a different process technology, mind you) in around six months. We shall see. Live action video is just past the break.

Continue reading VIA reveals 1.6GHz Nano DC processor at Computex, shows it handling 720p (video)

VIA reveals 1.6GHz Nano DC processor at Computex, shows it handling 720p (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ah, leaked company presentation slides, they have a clarity only Mr. Blurrycam would despise. EETimes got a batch of them from Samsung dated November 2009 making the rounds, but more important than revealing its equal love for both Roman and Greek mythology, we get a glimpse at its then-planned ARM chip roadmap (yeah, another one) through 2013. In a nutshell, for the Cortex A9 crowd we’ve got the 800MHz dual core “Orion” due for mass production in Q1 2011, a 1GHz single core “Pegasus” for Q4 2011, a 1GHz dual core “Hercules” for Q1 2012, and for sometime in 2012 / 2013, a 1.2GHz dual core “Draco” and quad core “Aquila.” Fear not, Cortex A5 fanatics, you’ve got gifts as well, in the form of 600MHz single core “Mercury” and dual core “Venus” chips, slated for 2010 / 2011 and 2012 / 2013, respectively. We don’t expect the nomenclature to extend beyond internal usage, but frankly, who cares — it’s the devices that count, and unfortunately all we can do is doodle our future gadget hopes and dreams onto scraps of paper while we wait.

Samsung’s ARM roadmap lays coordinates through 2013: Aquila, Venus, and Draco (oh my) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can’t get enough of hearing about implementations of ARM’s Cortex-A9 MPCore processors? Good. ST-Ericsson’s powerhouse U8500 system-on-chip has come a major step closer to appearing in mainstream devices with today’s newly announced support for the Android operating system. Having optimized the OS to take advantage of Symmetric Multi Processing — a method for extending battery life by sharing the load between the two processing cores and underclocking when necessary — the partner company is now ready to start dropping these 1.2GHz dual-core beasts inside the next generation of smartphones. The claim is that you’ll get all that additional power while sacrificing nothing, as devices based on the U8500 would maintain “the cost and power consumption characteristics of a traditional feature phone.” We’re promised built-in HDMI-out support, 1080p video recording, and 120 hours of audio playback or 12 hours of Full HD video off a 1,000mAh battery — pledges we’d very much like to see fulfilled.

ST-Ericsson’s U8500 brings dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 to the Android world originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD spoiled MSI’s surprise a bit by snagging an X-Slim X430 early for its VISION gala back in September, but now that Windows 7 is out and about, MSI has decided to officialize its latest thin-and-light. Unlike most of its rivals, this one shuns Intel’s CULV lineup and instead relies on a dual-core AMD Athlon Neo X2 CPU, and with Win7 Home Premium at the helm, performance shouldn’t be too much of an issue when it comes to handling basic tasks. There’s also a 14-inch display (1,366 x 768), 2GB of RAM, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, HDMI / VGA sockets, an SD card slot, a 320GB or 500GB HDD and even an optional Blu-ray drive (albeit an external one). 4 and 8-cell batteries will also be available, and at 3.3 pounds, we’re guessing you won’t need to bulk up before slapping this in your knapsack.

MSI X-Slim X430 gets an Athlon Neo CPU, Windows 7 and Blu-ray originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD’s never been much for keeping to the roadmap, and it looks like the curious launch of its Congo platform is evidence of that very fact. If you’ll recall, we actually saw a Congo-based netbook launch way back in June, and it was expected that a flood of other ultrathin machines would follow shortly thereafter. According to DigiTimes, the demand in the market just wasn’t there (thanks, recession!), so everything was pushed back until November. Lo and behold, our Gregorian calendar has that very month on deck for next, and according to mythical sources at laptop makers, the platform should make its super-duper official debut within a matter of weeks. The dual-core Turion Neo X2 L625, Athlon Neo X2 L335/L325 and / or single-core Athlon Neo MV-40 should be front and center, and AMD is apt to announce progress on its Nile and Brazos platforms — both of which should help carry the chip maker through the next two years. Look out Atom, you’ve got some delayed competition coming your way.

Update: Seems as if this may all just be a “second wave” of sorts when many PC makers choose to launch machines based on this platform alongside Windows 7’s debut. AMD informed us that the November delay notion was also false, and we get the feeling that Congo’s just been waiting for Win7 to really get itself out there.

Filed under: Laptops

AMD’s Congo platform getting really official next month? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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