Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has confirmed that it is developing yet another version of its 16nm FinFET fabrication process. The new manufacturing technology will be used to make chips for ultra-low-power as well as high-performance applications. “We are also working on 16nm ULP technology development,” said Mark Liu, co-CEO of …

Asustek Computer on Thursday said that its Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight graphics cards will not be available outside China. Although the graphics adapter is a potential bestseller thanks to its great design and overclocking capabilities, the company will keep it exclusive for the Chinese market. “The Dragon Knight GTX …

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has clarified the timeframe when it intends to start mass production of chips using 16nm FinFET fabrication process. The world’s largest contract maker of semiconductors once again will delay 16nm FF volume production by a month or two to the third quarter of 2015. Back in …

Samsung Electronics on Thursday said that it has begun mass production of 8Gb GDDR5 dynamic random access memory (DRAM) for graphics adapters and game consoles. The new chips will allow makers of graphics cards to build devices with 8GB of memory and will let Sony to simplify design of its PlayStation …

In the recent quarters numerous manufacturers of graphics cards introduced adapters that feature highly-custom cooling system that can turn off their fans when usage of graphics processing unit is low. A media report claims that Nvidia wants to copy this approach and plans to shut the fan(s) down when they …

In a bid to speed up development of new personal computers, promote new technologies and boost sales of its chips, Intel Corp. provides its partners reference designs for systems powered by its microprocessors. Recently the chipmaker introduced a new reference design for low-cost 12.5” hybrid 2-in-1 devices that will be …

Last year Sony Corp. sold off its PC division to an investment company. Besides, the company span off its TV division into a wholly owned subsidiary called Sony Visual Products in a bid to put its costs under control. This year the company is considering options for its TV and …

Two employees of Advanced Micro Devices have revealed in their LinkedIn profiles that they had worked on AMD Radeon R9 380X graphics processing units with vertically-stacked high bandwidth memory (HBM). The engineers at AMD essentially confirmed that the company’s next-generation flagship graphics processor will use HBM memory and will carry …

Apple and Quanta Computer, a leading contract maker of PCs, consumer electronics and servers, have finally resolved all the issues associated with mass production of Apple’s new MacBook Air with 12.5” display. The contract manufacturer recently initiated volume manufacturing of the aforementioned laptop, which makes it possible for Apple to …

The Blu-ray disc association (BDA) has been working on a new BD specification that supports ultra-high-definition (UHD) 4K resolution for about a year now. Apparently, the organization is on-track with formal announcement of Ultra HD Blu-ray disc standard in the second quarter of 2015, according to a media report. The …

A Chinese web-site has published what it claims to be specifications of commercial graphics cards based on Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce GTX 960 graphics processing unit as well as preliminary benchmarks of the graphics adapters. While the speed of the new boards will be significantly behind that of modern high-end graphics …

Elitegroup Computer Systems, one of the largest suppliers of mainboards in the world, has denied information that it plans to exit own-brand motherboard business. While the company faces major challenges on the market of DIY [do it yourself] mainboards, it plans to continue offering motherboards under its own trademark. ECS …

Graphics cards with 8GB of memory will likely become relatively widespread this year as another manufacturer of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) has announced that it had begun sampling of 8Gb GDDR5 chips. “We are seeing good progress of our eight gigabit GDDR5 technology as we are shipping engineering samples …

Asustek Computer has announced results of its operations in Q4 2014. The company remained the world’s No. 1 supplier of PC motherboards and also significantly increased sales of other branded products. But the company will likely face a number of challenges in 2015. Asustek sold 22 million branded mainboards for …

After Nvidia let all of its partners to develop their own designs for graphics cards based on its GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 graphics processing units, the majority of manufacturers designed advanced printed-circuit boards for the latter and low-cost PCBs for the former. Asustek Computer decided to reverse …

The latest mobile application processors from MediaTek already offer performance comparable to that of mobile system-on-chips from companies like Qualcomm. Apparently, the company is working on two new SoCs that promise to offer truly unbeatable performance. Unfortunately, it is completely unclear whether the new APs will be used for mobile …

Later this year Intel Corp. plans to introduce its new code-named “Skylake” microprocessors that will target mass market segments and will support DDR4 memory. As a result, the latter will gain market share. Nonetheless, DDR4 will remain more expensive than DDR3 in the coming quarters, according to Micron Technology. At …

Gigabyte Technology has introduced a new Intel X99-based mainboard that is specifically designed for overclockers. The motherboard is not the most feature-rich X99 platform available, but when it comes to overclocking potential, the X99 SOC Champion could offer numerous breakthroughs thanks to redesigned LGA2011 socket with additional pins as well …

Asustek Computer has announced a new ultra-high-definition (UHD) display for gamers that features a high-quality in-plane switching (IPS) panel along with Nvidia Corp.’s G-Sync technology. The PG27AQ monitor promises to be among the best premium displays for gamers this year. The Asus ROG Swift PG27AQ features a 27” IPS panel with …

Lisa Su, chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices, said at the Consumer Electronics Show that the company has a number of “great” graphics products in the pipeline that will help it to fight back market share from Nvidia Corp. The year 2014 was a mixed a bag for Advanced …

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. has announced that it will bring games for its PlayStation and PlayStation 2 platforms to its PlayStation Now streaming service in the longer-term future. While a nice thing is that it will be possible to enjoy good-old titles on PlayStation Now-supporting hardware eventually, it is completely unclear …

Press images of Nvidia GeForce GTX 960-based graphics card from MicroStar International (MSI) have been published by a web-site. As expected, the add-in-board (AIB) manufacturer uses its own design and cooling system to provide its customers performance improvements. MSI readies at least three graphics cards powered by the Nvidia GeForce …

Advanced Micro Devices has demonstrated three laptops based on the code-named “Carrizo” accelerated processing units (APUs) at the Consumer Electronics Show 2015. The demonstrations prove that AMD already has working “Carrizo” silicon at hands; however, it is still unclear when exactly the company plans to initiate commercial shipments of the new …

The vast majority of large gaming monitors with extreme refresh rates of 120Hz or 144Hz are based on TN+film panels that may be fast, but which cannot boast with truly accurate colour reproduction or superior viewing angles. However, it looks like the things are going to change. Asustek Computer introduced …

MediaTek, a leading designer of inexpensive application processors for smartphones, has introduced its first platform for wearable computing devices based on Google Android Wear software. This is the first highly-integrated solution for wearable devices from a maker of affordable mobile chips. MediaTek MT2601 is powered by two ARM Cortex-A7 1.2 GHz …

Back in the days, Nokia Corp. sold loads of premium 8-series feature phones with hefty price tags that featured unique design and materials. In the late nineties Nokia even established a special company – Vertu – which produced ultra-expensive and distinctive phones. The 8-series smartphones lost popularity rather quickly after …

Samsung Electronics announced this week that it has begun mass production of its SM951 solid-state drive. The new SSD uses M.2 form-factor and PCI Express 3.0 interface to deliver massive performance improvement over the vast majority of consumer-grade solid-state drives available today. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether Samsung’s SM951 will …

The first rumours about 8GB versions of GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980 graphics cards emerged sometime in October, 2014. However, none of such graphics adapters showed up last year. Apparently, add-in-boards with 8GB of GDDR5 memory are still in plans, however, their availability will depend on supply of high-performance …

Without any doubts, gaming notebooks are getting more and more popular these days because of many industry trends. As a result, they are gradually gaining technologies we typically find on desktop computers. In the recent years laptops gained unlocked microprocessors, overclocking memory and multi-GPU technologies. This year Nvidia Corp. will …

Toshiba Corp. has introduced the industry’s first single-package solid-state drive with the PCI Express 3.0 interface. The tiny chip will enable considerably higher storage performance on embedded devices or a massive reduction of size and weight of PC storage. To take advantage of the new product, mobile application processors will …