Intel has cast quite an ambitious vision for the future where their Haswell processors are concerned – so much so that Intel’s new CEO, Brian Krzanich, is peering ahead and saw a very real possibility of many tablet-notebook hybrids which […]
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Intel just posted decidedly mixed results for the second quarter. While it largely matched its outlook from the first quarter with $12.8 billion in revenue and a healthy net profit of $2 billion, it also saw sharp year-over-year drops in revenue from some of its core divisions. The PC Client Group, which makes the brunt of Intel’s processors, saw its revenue decline 7.5 percent; the Other Intel Architecture Group, which primarily handles mobile chips, faced a 15 percent drop. Intel hasn’t explained the dip, although there are a pair of major factors at work. In addition to facing a very rough PC market, the company only launched its Haswell architecture late in the quarter — there hasn’t been much time for customers to buy the new chips. Intel says there’s “strong acceptance” from early Haswell customers, however, and its outlook for the current quarter is slightly rosier as a result — it expects to make the same $13.5 billion in revenue that we saw a year ago.
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Intel
Source: Intel
Yet more exits for Israeli startups, with the latest two developments a throwback to the hardware and engineering muscle that raised the tech profile of the region in the first place, before the Waze’s of the world got us thinking about Israel as a hotbed of consumer internet companies.
Today, reports leaked out, and we have now confirmed, that Intel has acquired Omek Interactive, a company it had already invested in that makes technology for gesture-based interfaces. At the same time, Israel publication the Calcalist is reporting that Apple is circling around PrimeSense, another developer of gesture-based technology that has been used in Microsoft’s Kinect. Together, the moves could be a sign that gesture-based controls such as those in Microsoft’s Kinect may become even more prevalent.
The Apple/PrimeSense talk, however, appears to be too early, if not altogether inaccurate. The Calcalist’s report notes that this is based around some meetings between the two companies, and that the price for the deal would be around $280 million. But a source at the company described the report as “BS.”
This is “journalist delusion based on unverified and twisted hints,” the source added, also questioning the valuation: “280M? Come on! We’re worth 10 times that. ” Up to now, PrimeSense has raised nearly $30 million from investors that include Gemini Israel Funds, Canaan Partners, Genesis Partners and Silver Lake Partners and bills itself as “giving digital devices the gift of sight.”
Meanwhile, we have contacted Omek, where the person we tracked down on the phone giggled (yes) and then referred us to Intel for any questions.
We have yet to hear back from Intel or investing arm Intel Capital. A post on Harretz notes the deal actually concluded last week. Haaretz has also managed to get a confirmation directly from Intel: “The acquisition of Omek Interactive will help increase Intel’s capabilities in the delivery of more immersive perceptual computing experiences,” the statement says.
Update: Intel has confirmed to me that the transaction has closed. In addition to the same statement it gave Haaretz, an Intel spokesperson added it’s not confirming the value of the deal, and “we are also not disclosing the timelines on future products that integrate this technology.”
The reported value of Intel’s deal for Omek is between $30 million and $50 million. Without actually hearing from Intel on the details, for now there appears to be a few lines of thinking behind why Intel is going beyond being simply a strategic investor. (Omek has raised $13.8 million to date, with $7 million of that coming from Intel Capital.)
The first of these — as explained in a story in VentureBeat, which first reported talks between the two in March of this year — is that Omek may have been in the market to raise more money and that it chose the exit route instead of going it alone.
Another is that Intel wants the technology as part of its bigger moves into 3D visualization and “perceptual computing”, Intel’s catch-all term for gesture, touch, voice, and other AI-style sensory technologies. This is also the subject of a $100 million investment fund Intel launched in April.
And a third is more mundane and cynical, and potentially true regardless of Intel’s wider, more airy ambitions. The blog GeekTime suggests that this is a hardware play: Intel wants Omek for technology that it can embed into chips. The more functionality it can add that will drive new purchases of those chips by device makers, the better:
“The search for worthy power eating technologies to justify the need for yearly chip version upgrades is an integral part of the hardware industries market management strategy,” it writes. “Device companies must be convinced of the need to design their products to support the more expensive vanguard models of the processing world, placing the need for innovation above price point, and even quality in some cases.”
Whether or not the PrimeSense news is accurate, 9to5Mac makes a convincing argument for how the startup’s intellectual property could fit in with other IP at Apple already; and with Apple’s bigger ambitions to develop products that take it further into the living room, specifically with Apple TV.
And that, in the end, seems to be the crux of today’s news as well. However you cut it, and whoever ends up controlling it (in the tech sense), gesture is increasingly coming into focus and will let us get machines to do our bidding with the wave of a hand, or finger, soon.
Acer has ditched plans to push Thunderbolt on its Windows PCs, turning instead to USB 3.0 despite being the first PC manufacturer to support Intel’s high-speed connection. According to Acer, which first included Thunderbolt on the Aspire S5 ultrabook in early 2012, it’s a matter of cost, USB 3.0 offering comparable speed among other advantages, and the continuing shortage of peripherals actually using Thunderbolt technology that have soured it on the port.
“We’re really focusing on USB 3.0 – it’s an excellent alternative to Thunderbolt,” Acer spokesperson Ruth Rosene told CNET. “It’s less expensive, offers comparable bandwidth, charging for devices such as mobile phones, and has a large installed base of accessories and peripherals.”
Acer was one of a trio of PC manufacturers said to be shifting interconnect attention to Thunderbolt back in 2012, including ASUS and Lenovo. Since then, Dell, HP, and Gigabyte have all released laptops or desktops with the port, which offers 10 Gbps in each direction simultaneously.
Apple is the company most associated with Thunderbolt, however, including the port on all of its current MacBook notebooks, and most of its Mac desktops. The new Mac Pro 2013 will even debut Intel’s second-gen version, Thunderbolt 2, with even greater bandwidth.
Whereas the current Mac Pro is a sizable tower, the new version is a far smaller cylinder. Instead of offering multiple internal bays for expansion, Apple expects Thunderbolt 2 to be used, with six ports in total, each offering daisy-chaining support for up to six devices, for a total of 36.
Exactly what devices will be hooked up is perhaps Acer’s lingering concern. The market for Thunderbolt peripherals remains small, with high-speed external storage often using SSDs the most common application. They’re expensive, however, and target a niche audience; even the new Mac Pro includes USB 3.0 ports, recognizing the connectivity standard’s ubiquity.
Acer abandons Thunderbolt in favor of cheaper USB 3.0 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Intel has been open with its plans to introduce an internet-based TV service, but many of the details remain up in the air — not the least of which is the name. However, GigaOM has done sleuthing that suggests the offering could be called OnCue. A reported shell company for Intel, Sest, has registered trademarks that include the OnCue title, a logo and a “TV has come to its senses” slogan. Simultaneously, an employee at the marketing agency OMD claims to have worked on the OnCue launch. Intel isn’t commenting on the apparent discoveries, but we wouldn’t count on the trademarks arriving in tandem with a product. When the company is taking a very cautious approach to entering the internet TV field, there’s a chance that the names will be all we ever see.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Intel
Via: GigaOM
Source: LegalForce
Earlier this month, the AnTuTu benchmarking tool raised a bit of a firestorm when it showed Intel‘s Atom Z2580 out performing offerings from Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and Samsung. This led to BDTI, a consulting firm, showing that not all instructions were being executed by the Intel processor, causing a false boost in results. As such, AnTuTu has issued a revised version of the benchmarking tool, and Intel has fallen 20-percent as a result.
Reportedly, this entire issue was the result of the ICC compiler, which was introduced in version 2.9.4 and utilized for Intel processors, while other processors utilized a GCC compiler. The issue caused the RAM test to be incomplete, causing the artificially high results. The revised version is 3.2.2 and was released this past Wednesday.
The ICC compiler is still used for Intel processors in the new version, but the new benchmarks scores are vastly different, with the Atom Z2580 taking a hit of about 20-percent and the RAM score in particular falling by half. Other scores are said to have been marginally affected, but the big changes center in these two areas.
Meanwhile, the results for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 and the Samsung S4 Oct were relatively unchanged, with the Exynos 5 Octa now ranking higher in performance the Intel Atom Z2580. Next month AnTuTu plans to issue new testing standards, at which point we’ll get a chance to see what kind of result changes might surface with the next big release.
AnTuTu did not reveal what changes it made to the newly released version to correct these issues, and some are questioning whether they’re now accurate. Looking at other benchmarks for the processors, however, the new AnTuTu results fall more in line with what we’ve seen elsewhere.
SOURCE: EE Times
Intel Atom Z2580 AnTuTu benchmark falls 20% following revision is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
When we first caught a glimpse of the ZTE Geek in Beijing, it was merely an awkwardly named prototype. Now, it looks like the smartphone with “Intel Inside” will soon be ready for primetime — in China, anyway. It boasts the same Clover Trail+ processor as the Lenovo K900, but with pared-down features that help it achieve a lower price point. The phone’s outfitted with Android (Jelly Bean), a 5-inch 1,080 x 720 pixel display, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1-megapixel front cam, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage space. Clearly, it’s not the most tricked-out phone there is, but its price might entice people to try it out. The ZTE Geek will make an exclusive arrival at Jingdong Mall on July 25th, where it’ll retail for ¥1,888 ($307). If you despise cables and your wallet can take a hit, you can also get one bundled with a wireless charging kit for ¥2,288 ($372).
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: Engadget Chinese (translated)
Source: ZTE (Sina Weibo)
This afternoon the first slimline gaming notebook with a 13.3-inch display and Haswell – that’s Intel’s 4th generation Core technology, mind you – is being unleashed on the public. This machine sports a slick customized system mark of excellence on its back with Digital Storm’s hot red cut down its back, bringing with it a system that also sports the highest-end NVIDIA GeForce GTX 700-series graphics cards under the hood.
This machine works with a body that’s just 1.26-inches thick and brings on an Intel Core i7 4800MQ processor to team up with an NVIDIA GTX 765M graphics card. That’s the full force of NVIDIA’s vision – as we were informed earlier this year – for gaming notebooks that aren’t as massive and bulky as previous generations would have us believe they had to be.
This machine works with full HD, 1920 x 1080 pixels, that is, across its 13.3-inch display. That means you’re going to be rolling out with a display that’s more densely packed than any solution from this company in the past. Below said display is a “cold silver and grey” interior with a keyboard that’s fully back-lit.
Under the hood you’ve also got two storage drives (mSATA & 2.5”) with RAID capability as well as a dedicated internal network port. Also around the edges you’ll find HDMI 1.4, VGA video out, three SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports, and ethernet. The whole package then rings in at $1,535 USD, all of this coming in on July 17th – just a week away!
Digital Storm VELOCE brings first 13.3-inch gaming notebook with Haswell to market is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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