Hasta La Gadget!

So small, and yet potentially so disruptive. AMD’s 1.6GHz Zacate chip, bearing a pair of Bobcat modules, has been taken off the leash today, resulting in a torrent of benchmarks pouring down onto the internet. While perusing the sources below, you might think to yourself that it’s not exactly a world beater, sitting somewhere in the middle of the pack on most tests, but compare it to Intel’s dual-core Atom D510 — its most immediate competition in the target sub-$500 laptop price range — and you’ll find a thoroughgoing whooping in progress. The highlight of these new Fusion APUs is that they integrate graphics processing within the CPU chip, and Zacate didn’t disappoint on that front either, with marked improvements over anything else available in its class. The resulting chips might still not have quite enough grunt to earn a place in your daily workhorse mobile computer, but their power efficiency and netbook-level pricing goals sure do look delightful. Or dangerous, if you’re Intel.

Read – AnandTech
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AMD’s Bobcat APU benchmarked: the age of the Atom is at an end originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Modern microprocessors are tiny, delicate things. As you might imagine, quantum computers, which shrink the components to atomic or subatomic levels, can be even more so. Researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Brisbane have proposed a novel solution to the problem: don’t fix the uncertainty, just make it work.

In retrospect, it almost seems intuitive. Prior attempts to design a quantum computer tried to make them work with absolutely determinable, Newtonian precision, just at a much smaller size. Instead, this team created a model where a quantum computer could tolerate a comparatively huge range of error — losing up to a quarter of the total “qubits,” or tangled-atoms that are the quantum-computing equivalent of bits of information — but then reinterpret the data using a probabilistic error-correction mechanism. The model worked surprisingly well.

“Just as you can often tell what a word says when there are a few missing letters, or you can get the gist of a conversation on a badly-connected phone line, we used this idea in our design for a quantum computer,” said lead author Sean Barrett. “It’s surprising, because you wouldn’t expect that if you lost a quarter of the beads from an abacus that it would still be useful,” he added.

Consequently, quantum computers can be much easier to build, with much higher tolerances of data loss, than previously thought — and still achieve remarkably fast, reliable results. That’s the team’s next step: developing a prototype that puts their mathematical model into action.

Barrett mentions language and the telephone, but his error-correcting computer reminds me of other examples of analog media. A thin crack on a vinyl disc or poor reception on a radio antenna might introduce static into the stream, but it doesn’t ruin it altogether like similar damage to a DVD or HDTV signal. You don’t need a perfect transmission to get the signal through: accounting for noise or interference is built into the technology and our expectations for it.

It also reminds me of another unlikely analog analogue: the AK-47 assault rifle. Famously, the American M-16 was a work of military-industrial art, built with astonishing precision — and consequently prone to failure when it got wet or dirty. The AK-47’s parts all fit together loosely, almost like a bag of groceries: you could submerge it in swamp water, pull it out, and would keep firing.

Maybe quantum computing will help push us into a post-digital paradigm, closer to the analog world of our past than the digital one we know now. Sometimes, we need tech that works like that too.

See Also:

• How to See Quantum Entanglement
• Ultra-Precise Quantum-Logic Clock Trumps Old Atomic Clock
• Quantum Computer Simulates Hydrogen Molecule Just Right
• Quantum Computing Thrives on Chaos
• Quantum Physics Used to Control Mechanical System
• Probabilistic Chip Promises Better Flash Memory, Spam Filtering …

We’re taking our time with the new MacBook Airs, trying to find out if you can really count on these wonder wedges to serve as your main machine. But some early benchmarks are already out, and here’s how they look: More »

Looks like Intel’s having its best quarter ever all over again: this time, the company’s reporting $3.0 billion in profit on a record $11.1 billion in revenue. Chipzilla attributes the surplus to three percent increases in laptop and server chips sales respectively, but none to Atom-based netbooks — sales of Atom chips actually decreased by four percent. That may be more than you needed or wanted to know about the booming processor business, but humanitarians will be pleased to know it’s not all about the silicon; Intel also hired 1,300 new flesh-and-blood employees last quarter to keep the machines running.

Intel reports record $11.1 billion earnings, brings home $3 billion in bacon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like that quad-core Armada processor won’t be having apps for breakfast after all — confronting Marvell’s Jack Kang at Mobilize 2010, he told us the chips proved too power-hungry for devices without a dedicated cord. That doesn’t mean we won’t see them soon, however, as the man let slip that it’s actually the quad-core chip that will appear in a new game system, though we can probably rule out the Nintendo 3DS for the same reason as the phones.

Marvell’s still hoping to get in the mobile market in a big way, though, and that’s what the tri-core Armada 628 is all about, which uses low power profiles to save battery life. According to Kang, however, the system’s actually a little more exciting than that — its two up-to-1.5GHz cores kick in when the system’s under a multimedia strain, but actually shut off completely for day-to-day use, relying instead on the third 624MHz processor which slowly sips your battery juice. All we know is, we’d better find out which devices will sport these chips, and soon — our curiosity is beginning to gnaw.

Marvell’s quad-core Armada processor won’t see tablets or phones, destined for a mystery game platform originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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