CPU

Intel Corp. predicts that Moore’s law will last for at least another decade and the number of transistors per chip will keep doubling every two years. While there are challenges ahead, Intel’s engineers are going to solve them. Later this month Moore’s law will hit 50 years, an unprecedented date for the …

GlobalFoundries on Tuesday clarified claims about its ramp up of 14nm chip production at fab 8 manufacturing  facility in Malta, New York. The world's second largest contract maker of semiconductors has taped out multiple 14nm designs and is tweaking its equipment using a lead product at the moment. The company is …

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. this week confirmed that it has a team of engineers working on a manufacturing process that will succeed 10nm fabrication technology towards the end of the decade. While the company did not reveal details about its sub-10nm process, it said that it considers various options for …

Based on the recent market rumours, Samsung Foundry and GlobalFoundries have landed orders to produce Apple’s A9 system-on-chip that will power the company’s next-generation iPhone and iPad devices. It is unknown whether Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will also produce the A9 SoC at any point. At present Apple’s A8 application …

Where is Intel Broadwell? Hardware Editors Leo Waldock and Luke Hill discuss Broadwell which is due to be replaced by Skylake in a few months' time. The snag is that Intel hasn't yet released the laptop and desktop versions of Broadwell so the clock is ticking. Or is it tocking? …

Unveiled early this year, Tegra X1 system-on-chip from Nvidia Corp. was positioned mainly for automotive applications. However, given rather serious processing horsepower it has, it can be used for many other devices. In fact, according to recent leaks and listings, Nvidia and its partners plan to use the Tegra X1 …

For many years Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has been gaining market share by grabbing orders from smaller rivals. However, in the recent quarters companies like United Microelectronics Corp. managed to increase their yields and started to snatch orders from TSMC. While the latter will retain its positions, the situation seems …

Intel Corp. this week plans to announce a new family of inexpensive Celeron and Pentium central processing units made using 14nm fabrication process. Previously known as code-named “Braswell” microprocessors, the new chips significantly increase performance in multimedia applications compared to previous-generation “Bay Trail” system-on-chips. The new SoCs will be used …

Qualcomm’s next flagship smartphone chip, the Snapdragon 815, is on the way according to new leaks. The Snapdragon 815 will reportedly be an eight core chip with four Cortex-A72 processor cores and four Cortex-A53 processor cores. This information all comes from GizmoChina, which has had a string of leaks recently. …

Intel Corp. is negotiating with Altera Corp., a developer of system-on-chips, field programmable gate arrays and other specialty devices, over a possible takeover. The acquisition could strengthen Intel’s positions across many markets. The transaction could top $10 billion, which will be Intel’s biggest purchase ever. Altera develops and sells field …

Advanced Micro Devices faces hard times these days as sales of its central processing units and graphics processing units have been hitting new lows for many quarters. As a result, rumours about possible acquisitions of AMD resurrect. Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of semiconductors, is considering to acquire Advanced …

Shmuel “Mooly” Eden, senior vice president and president of Intel Israel, will leave the company to “seek new challenges.” The legendary veteran, who has been with Intel for 33 years, has held various technical and management positions at Intel throughout his tenure with the giant chipmaker. “I have had the …

Late last year Advanced Micro Devices said that it would use 20nm fabrication technology offered by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., but only for for select products. According to AMD’s recent filing with the Security and Exchange Commission, the company has not yet started to use the 20nm manufacturing process. AMD …

Intel Corp.’s code-named “Broadwell” microprocessors are not going to have a long lifespan on any markets since their successors – code-named “Skylake” chips – are ready to hit the market. Moreover, if a new media report is correct, the world’s largest chipmaker plans to limit availability of “Broadwell” CPUs on the …

A high-ranking executive of TSMC said this week that in the coming years various ultra-mobile, small electronics and smart accessories will become so pervasive that such devices will not only become a major driver for the semiconductor industry, but will turn out to be a huge part of this industry. …

Nvidia Corp. and Samsung Electronics have quietly signed an agreement under which the latter will produce computer chips for the former. At present, it is unknown whether Samsung will manufacture graphics processors or application processors for the chip designer, but it is obvious that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is no …

Advanced Micro Devices has been talking about development of its next-generation high-performance “Zen” architecture for months now, but so far it has not revealed any details about the chips officially. Nonetheless, thanks to a recent patch for Linux we have learnt one significant detail about “Zen”: it will not support many …

Advanced Micro Devices has begun to add support of its upcoming microprocessors powered by “Zen” micro-architecture to Linux operating systems. The enablement of future chips in Linux confirms AMD’s plans to release such central processing units and even reveals some facts about their functionality. Unfortunately, addition of support does not …

Advanced Micro Devices plans to release its code-named “Godavari” accelerated processing units (also known as “Kaveri Refresh”) sometimes in June, but manufacturers of mainboards already add their support to their platforms. Asrock recently enabled operation of AMD “Godavari” hybrid microprocessors on its FM2A78M-HD+ R2.0 mainboard with a new BIOS release. …

Advanced Micro Devices is working on a server-class system-on-chip (SoC) for Facebook. While not a lot of details are known about the microprocessor today, if Facebook adopts the chip for its datacentres, it will be a major revenue opportunity for AMD. As Facebook’s infrastructure has scaled, the company ran into …

With 14nm fabrication process finally mature enough for production of high-end microprocessors, Intel Corp. feels itself pretty comfortable. With no or little competitive pressure from Advanced Micro Devices, the world’s largest chipmaker can release new products when it makes the most business sense for it. The company takes advantage of …

Intel Corp. on Thursday said that its revenue in the first quarter of its fiscal year will be lower than anticipated. The company reduced revenue outlook by about $1 billion. The world’s largest chipmaker blamed slower than expected replacements of Windows XP-based PCs by businesses as well as challenging macroeconomic …

Intel Corp.’s code-named “Broadwell” processors are still two or three months away, but mainboard makers are already preparing for their arrival. Asustek Computer, the world’s largest producer of motherboards, this week released new BIOS versions for its contemporary mainboards that add support for the new central processing units. As expected, …

Intel Corp.’s code-named “Skylake” processors may be significantly faster than existing chips at the same clock-rate thanks to architectural improvements, according to performance benchmarks of alleged engineering sample of the forthcoming CPU. If Intel manages to maintain current clock-rates with commercial “Skylake” chips, the latter could be significantly faster than …

Samsung Electronics reportedly plans to start using application processors from MediaTek in its smartphones. The move will clearly lower Samsung’s dependence on system-on-chips from Qualcomm, but will hardly have any positive effect on the company’s handsets. A rumour from Taiwan has it that Samsung and MediaTek are negotiating about a potential …

While Intel Corp. is going to release its code-named “Skylake” processors a little later than expected, the company keeps the plan to introduce its new micro-architecture for virtually all segments of the market continuum this year. Intel will roll-out “Skylake” central processing units for tablets, 2-in-1s, personal computers and servers …

Advanced Micro Devices now commands only about 2 or 3 per cent of the server market because of various reasons and the company is not going to regain its positions with the current Opteron offerings. Nonetheless, the chip designer seems to pin a lot of hopes on its “Zen” micro-architecture …

Intel Corp.’s forthcoming central processing units code-named “Skylake” for personal computers will not support any AVX-512 instructions, according to a media report. Only Xeon processors for servers and, possibly, workstations will support 512-bit instructions. Support of 512-bit SIMD instructions – known as AVX3 – was expected to be a key …

Intel Corp. not only plans to unveil its new Atom processors code-named “Braswell” later this year, but also to introduce a new classification for its chips aimed at ultra-portable devices. The new naming scheme will help the world’s largest chipmaker to better position its Atom processors and will likely help …

At the Embedded World 2015 trade-show this week Asrock demonstrated its first mainboard for LGA1151 central processing units code-named Skylake. DFI, a well-known maker of mainboards that no longer produces products for consumers, is also showcasing its embedded/industrial LGA1151 roadmap at the show. Although makers of desktop mainboards are not …