Hasta La Gadget!

The decline in desktop PC sales is beginning to ripple throughout the industry, as Intel has revealed plans to wind down its desktop motherboard division over the next three years. According to AnandTech, the company will release boards that are based on the Haswell architecture before completely suspending development. Moving forward, Intel will instead focus its efforts on creating form factor reference designs for the Ultrabook, tablet and desktop markets. Curiously, one product that’s currently immune from the announcement is the Next Unit of Computing (NUC), a miniature barebones system that will see continual development from Intel. While custom PC builders will likely take a moment to reflect upon the news, it’s said that the transition is unlikely to affect the company’s workforce. Instead, current employees will be absorbed into other divisions within Intel. After all, there’s no point in showing talented engineers to the door, even in an age of market shifts.

[Image credit: huangjiahui, Flickr]

Filed under: Desktops, Intel

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Source: AnandTech

Just after wrapping up its CES 2013 press conference, Intel showed off two Ultrabooks: one that’s just a concept, and one that you can actually buy. What you see in that photo up there is the NEC LaVie X, the follow-up to last year’s NEC LaVie Z. It’s a 15-inch Ultrabook that measures just 12.8mm thick. We realize you might be desensitized to such specs at this point, so here’s a little context: that’s almost two millimeters thinner than the 15-inch Samsung Series 9, which already seemed impossibly skinny at 14.7mm. Other specs include a 1080p display and Haswell processor, though the machine we saw wasn’t powered on, so we could only play with the keyboard and see what it felt like to hold the laptop in one hand. Unless you’re reading this in Japan, you probably won’t ever have the chance to purchase it, but hopefully this isn’t the last time we see a 14-millimeter-thick laptop on this side of the Pacific.

Filed under: Laptops, Intel

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We’re here live at Intel’s CES press conference, where Kirk Skaugen has announced that companies who want to use the Ultrabook name and Haswell internals, it’ll have to include touch as standard. The other new condition that Santa Clara is imposing is that the device must carry Wireless Display as standard. On the upside, at least you’ll be able to see the images on your TV when your Ultrabook screen gets too greasy from your fingers.

Filed under: Laptops, Intel

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Intel’s next-generation laptop chipset (Codename: Haswell) isn’t set to come out until next year, but when it does, AnandTech says the 3D-transistor-based hardware will offer twice the GPU performance as Ivy Bridge, and when idle, will consume 20x less power than Sandy Bridge. Excited yet? [AnandTech] More »