Solid-state hybrid drives (SSHD) – hybrid storage solutions featuring NAND flash and rotating media – promise to offer the best of two worlds: performance of solid-state drives and capacities of hard disk drives. Unfortunately, in many cases SSHDs just compromise both performance and storage capacities. As a consequence, they are …
Read More »Intel demos its cooling solution for Core i7-5000 ‘Haswell-E’ chips
Intel Corp. this week demonstrated its new cooling system designed for the forthcoming high-end desktop (HEDT) processors code-named “Haswell-E”. The new cooler, which will be supplied with the Core i7-5800/5900-series microprocessors, will be bigger than the current one and will thus be able to dissipate more heat without creating too …
Read More »Tablets are ‘crashing’, PC business is ‘reviving’ – chief exec of Best Buy
In the recent years it became common for high-technology industry leaders to complain about slow PC sales and praise booming sales of tablets and smartphones. Apparently, the situation changed drastically in the recent months. After Microsoft ceased to support its Windows XP operating system, not only enterprises, but also consumers started …
Read More »AMD begins to sell ARMv8 Opteron ‘Seattle’ kits to software developers
Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday began to sell server software development kits based on its multi-core AMD Opteron A1100-series code-named “Seattle” server microprocessors that employ the ARM Cortex-A57 cores. At present AMD is the only provider of 64-bit ARM server hardware with complete ARMv8 instruction set support to foster the …
Read More »Samsung introduces bendable UHD TV: it curves at a click of a button
Samsung Electronics has announced the world’s first bendable TV that can curve at a click of a button. The TV-set features OLED panel and ultra-high-definition resolution along with innovative bendable materials. It will become commercially available shortly. One of the things that Samsung does not talk about is the price …
Read More »Intel sells quad-core Atom for tablets for $5 per chip – report
It looks like the price war on the market of mobile system-on-chips is in full swing. Just a day after Allwinner announced a quad-core application processor that will be sold for $4, it transpired that Intel Corp. already sells its quad-core Atom products for $5. Without making any announcements, Intel has …
Read More »Production version of Pentium G3258 overclocked to 6.7GHz
Intel Corp.’s Pentium G3258 “anniversary edition” central processing unit promises to become a hit among overclockers in budget. Unfortunately, so far only engineering samples of such chips have demonstrated extreme clock-rates. Nonetheless, a South Korean enthusiast has managed to prove that production versions of the chip are also capable of …
Read More »First mobile devices with LPDDR4 memory to emerge in 2015
Although Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have been sampling LPDDR4 memory for mobile devices for well over half of a year now, actual devices featuring the new type of low-power dynamic random access memory will not hit the market until the second half of next year. According to market analysts, …
Read More »Microsoft commands 94.5% of Windows Phone 8 smartphones market
It is not a secret that Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone platform is far from being truly popular. Even though formally it is supported by a dozen of vendors, many have not released anything based on the operating system. As a result, it is not surprising that the most popular Windows …
Read More »Nvidia: Mantle does not bring any tangible benefits
Although many game developers have decided to support AMD’s proprietary Mantle application programming interface (API), whereas Intel Corp. even expressed interest in exploring the API, Nvidia Corp. has been relatively quiet about one of its arch-rival’s key technologies. This does not mean that the company does not have any opinion …
Read More »Allwinner introduces quad-core processor for $4
Allwinner, a Chinese maker of application processors for mobile devices, said this week that its A33 system-on-chip is now in mass production. The A33 is the world’s first quad-core application processor that costs only $4 and thus can enable very affordable smartphones or tablets. Moreover, the developer claims that the …
Read More »BlackBerry to encrypt voice calls thanks to acquisition of Secusmart
Less than two weeks after Apple and IBM agreed to offer enterprise-tailored services with sophisticated security, BlackBerry, whose main customers are enterprises, governments and other organizations requiring advanced security, announced a plan to acquire Secusmart GmbH. The take-over enriches BlackBerry’s extensive security technologies with high-security voice and data encryption and …
Read More »Amazon: lower prices of e-books benefit authors and publishers
Although electronic books are easier to make and sell than printed books, they sometimes cost similar or even the same amount of money as printed books. Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, which is one of the top U.S. publishers, disagrees that e-books should be more affordable and wants to continue charging up …
Read More »Electronic Arts unveils $4.99/month subscription offering for Xbox One
Electronic Arts on Tuesday unveiled a new offering for Xbox One gamers. For $4.99 (£2.94, €3.72) a month, or for $29.99 (£17.68, €22.36) a year, subscribers in the U.S. will get access to a collection of EA’s most popular games. Initially the offering only works in the U.S., but eventually …
Read More »Intel wants its ‘SoFIA’ chips to power $50 smartphones
It is not a secret that Intel Corp. pins a lot of hopes on its code-named SoFIA system-on-chips for affordable smartphones and tablets. The company needs to drive its x86 architecture to these markets so to ensure that it can sell chips for mobile devices going forward. While SoFIA promises …
Read More »HGST unveils new-generation enterprise-grade SAS-12Gb/s SSDs
HGST, a subsidiary of Western Digital Corp., on Monday unveiled its new enterprise-class solid-state drives with Serial Attached SCSI-12Gb/s interface. The new drives boast with up to 1.6TB capacity and up to 1.1GB/s read throughput, which puts them among the fastest and most reliable SSDs on the market today. The new family …
Read More »Samsung delays launch of Tizen smartphone due to lack of programs
Samsung Electronics has once again decided to delay commercial launch of its Galaxy Z smartphone based on the Tizen operating system. The new postponement was conditioned by the lack of programs for the smartphone. “To further enhance the Tizen ecosystem, Samsung plans to postpone the launch of Samsung Z in …
Read More »LG readies Windows Phone 8.1-based smartphone
Although Microsoft Corp. and LG Electronics announced intention to bring Windows Phone-based smartphones to the market earlier this year, LG has not yet introduced any actual products. According to unofficial information, the South Korean maker of smartphones is working on a mid-range Windows Phone-based handset, which is projected to emerge …
Read More »John Romero: I cannot see how VR is going to be popular
Many game developers, including John Carmack, believe that virtual reality is the next big thing for gaming since it will radically change the way people play. But John Romero, who co-developed multiple legendary titles, does not believe that VR gaming will become popular. Mr. Romero thinks that controlling VR games …
Read More »Intel Core i7-5960X ‘Haswell-E’ de-lidded: interesting discoveries made
Intel Corp.’s next-generation high-end desktop microprocessors called “Haswell-E” are still a couple of months away from their launch, but select enthusiasts have already managed to obtain them. While unfortunately we do not have a lot of ideas about performance of the upcoming chips, the first discoveries about the Core i7-5960X …
Read More »Nvidia to release three GeForce GTX 800 graphics cards this October
While it was expected that Nvidia Corp. plans to launch two high-end graphics cards this October, the company apparently intends to release three new products aiming different market segments that month. The launch of three new products will help Nvidia to maximize its sales later this year. Hermitage Akihabara web-site …
Read More »Microsoft may cease using Lumia brand – report
Although Microsoft Corp. can use Nokia’s trademark and brand-name for ten years, it looks like the company plans to cease using the Nokia name rather shortly from now. Moreover, the company even plans to phase out the Lumia brand as well. DigiTimes reports that Microsoft wants to completely get rid …
Read More »Bose accuses Beats Electronics of patent infringements
Bose Corp., a maker of high-end audio equipment, on Friday filed a lawsuit against Beats Electronics, which is about to become a part of Apple. Bose accused Beats of infringing multiple patents. Separately, Bose demanded the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban sales of infringing products in the U.S. Bose …
Read More »AMD to keep FM2+ socket till 2016, no DDR4 for AMD’s chips next year
Advanced Micro Devices has reportedly chosen to take a rather conservative approach to development of its desktop platforms. Instead of adding support of the DDR4 memory to its next-generation code-named “Carrizo” accelerated processing unit, the company decided to stick to the DDR3 and therefore the FM2+ socket. While this is …
Read More »Facebook: We will invest heavily in VR, AR technologies
When the founder of Oculus VR explained why he agreed to sell the company to Facebook, he said that the latter would be able to invest sufficient amount of money in the development of virtual reality technologies in general. Apparently, Mark Zuckerberg is ready to invest heavily in the VR …
Read More »IBM rejects GlobalFoundries’ proposal for semiconductor assets
International Business Machines Corp. and GlobalFoundries have ended negotiations regarding acquisition of IBM’s semiconductor manufacturing assets by the contract maker of chips. The two companies failed to agree on the price, according to a media report. Earlier this year it was reported that IBM wanted $2 billion for its money-losing …
Read More »Sony PlayStation 4 to get Blu-ray 3D support ‘soon’
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe said that the PlayStation 4 video game console will “soon” be able to playback Blu-ray 3D movies. The move will automatically make the console one of the most popular BD-3D players, but will it help the standard to become more popular? “Coming soon: PS4 system software …
Read More »China Telecom to sell Xbox One starting from September
China Telecom will exclusively sell Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox One game console in China starting from September. The Xbox One will be the first gaming system to be released in mainland China since the government banned game console sales in 2000. The move may help Microsoft to greatly boost sales of …
Read More »Kingston unveils ‘value’ SSD with 960GB capacity
Kingston’s V-series solid-state drives have always been among the most affordable in the industry, yet, they feature Kingston’s quality, reliability and warranty. However, up to recently affordability also meant rather low capacity and performance. The new Kingston V310 SSD changes that: it offers 960GB capacity and promises to be affordable …
Read More »First non-IBM Power8 servers set to emerge early in 2015
Last year IBM established the OpenPower consortium and opened up Power8 processor specifications and architecture to its partners. The goal of the organization is to create an eco-system of Power8-based servers designed for future data centers and cloud computing. The first fruits of the collaboration may become available already early …
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