Hasta La Gadget!

Some of LG’s brightest attractions at the moment are the dual-core Optimus 2X and Optimus 3D smartphones and similarly equipped Optimus Pad tablet. The only problem with them? Those multicore chips are produced by NVIDIA for the 2X and Pad and Texas Instruments for the Optimus 3D, leaving LG a clear step behind its arch-nemesis Samsung who is producing its own dual-core system-on-chip. So what else could LG possibly do but buy its own ARM license — specifically for the Cortex-A9 design that is dominating today and the Cortex-A15 with Mali-T604 graphics that promises to rule the mobile world from 2012 onwards — and start churning out its own processors? The Korean company certainly has the budget, if not the manufacturing facilities, to produce such chips at volume, and we’re all for seeing another competitor enter the ARM arena. This licensing deal also reminds us that the last fresh licensee to ARM’s blueprints was Microsoft — so we can now look forward to two industry giants bringing their technical expertise to this rapidly growing marketplace. See LG’s full press release after the break.

Continue reading LG licenses ARM Cortex-A15 and Mali-T604 graphics, starts scheming up mobile processors of its own

LG licenses ARM Cortex-A15 and Mali-T604 graphics, starts scheming up mobile processors of its own originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s Z68 Express chipset and its SATA 6Gb/s connections, CPU and memory overclocking, and SSD caching capability weren’t supposed to hit store shelves until the eighth of May. But, at least one Taiwanese retailer didn’t get the memo — or maybe it’s just another instance of Intel’s early far-east distribution on the down-low — because pics from across the Pacific show a shiny new Z68 Express motherboard from Gigabyte can already be had for the princely sum of NT $11,900 (about $407 here in the land of greenbacks). That’s quite a stack of cash for a place to put your speedy Sandy Bridge CPU, but perhaps its expeditious performance can be had for a more reasonable price once it lands on western shores… or maybe we should just start saving now.

[Thanks, Daz]

Gigabyte motherboard with Intel Z68 Express chipset on sale in Taiwan ahead of schedule originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 01:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IBM’s latest announcement probably won’t get us any closer to securing our very own in-house version of Watson, but the firm is boasting a new line of Power7 products that includes an upgraded version of the supercomputer’s server. First up are the BladeCenter PS703 and PS704, sporting 16 cores and 32 cores, respectively — the PS704 touts a 60 percent increase in speed over its predecessors. The Power 750, the same system that gave Watson the stuff to slaughter those humans on Jeopardy!, is getting an upgrade that supports as many as 32 cores and can run up to 128 simultaneous threads, while the Power 755 offers up high-performance computing with 32 cores of its own. The cheapest version of the Power 750 Express rings in at about $30,000. So, no, we won’t be battling Watson in a Jeopardy! Home Edition showdown anytime soon, but we’re happy to see that our favorite supercomputer could be even smarter — or at the very least, faster — the next time it shows up on the boob tube. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading IBM touts new Power7 systems, still no mass market Watson

IBM touts new Power7 systems, still no mass market Watson originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It wasn’t that long ago that Intel pulled a Dell, Anand Chandrasekher showing off a fancy new thing then quickly hiding it away out of sight. That was a Medfield-based smartphone, an Atom-powered mobile that the company pledges is built on “the most efficient architecture on the planet.” Whether that’s the case remains to be seen, as we’re still waiting on any sort of details on that mystery phone, but according to Businessweek one question has been answered: the manufacturer. Intel is said to be working to design the handset for ZTE, the 32nm processor expected to provide decent performance and high efficiency for a mid-range smartphone. Now, ZTE has certainly been trying to make waves on the US market of late, but we can’t help thinking Intel’s going to need a somewhat higher profile partner before it really starts hitting ARM where it hurts.

Intel’s first Medfield-based smartphone to be a ZTE? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whoa, Nelly! AMD, a company that has struggled to nail its ship dates in years past, has just pulled the ultimate 180. If you’ll recall, we heard last month that its quad-core Llano APU was on track for a Q3 2011 release, but now, we’ve word straight from the equine’s mouth that the action will be going down far sooner. In fact, AMD’s Singapore plant just celebrated the first shipment of the company’s 32nm Llano A-series APUs, complete with discrete-level graphics and a promise to change the way we think about netbook / nettop / ultraportable performance. Of course, just because these chips are headed out to OEM partners doesn’t mean that they’ll be gracing the pages of your favorite PC maker tomorrow; Chief Financial Officer and Interim CEO Thomas Seifert notes that AMD is looking forward to seeing Llano-based machines during this quarter, but given that Q2 just got going, we may be waiting awhile still. Nothing like a little Zacate to tide you over in the meantime, right?

Continue reading AMD ships 32nm quad-core Llano APU, expects systems ‘later this quarter’

AMD ships 32nm quad-core Llano APU, expects systems ‘later this quarter’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 02:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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