Advanced Micro Devices late on Thursday said that it would cut-down its workforce by another five per cent in a bid to reduce its costs. The company said that it would considerably restructure its internal IT operations; consolidate real-estate facilities; re-organize its enterprise, embedded & semi-custom (EESC) business unit and appoint …
Read More »Samsung: NAND flash industry will triple output to 253EB by 2020
Samsung Electronics predicts that the NAND flash industry will triple output of non-volatile memory over the next five years and will produce whopping 253 exabytes of NAND in 2020. Although the increase is impressive, total output of flash memory will account for less than 10 per cent of storage capacity …
Read More »Intel ‘Cannonlake-E/EP’ for desktops and servers to sport up to 8 cores
Even though Intel Corp. has been gradually increasing the number of general-purpose processing engines inside its microprocessors for servers, the company’s high-end chips for client PCs feature no more than eight x86 cores, whereas mainstream central processing units sport up to four cores. Apparently, Intel has no plans to change …
Read More »Chinese company acquires 15% stake in Western Digital
Unisplendour Corporation Limited (Unis), a government-controlled high-tech company from China, on Wednesday said that it will acquire around 15 per cent stake in Western Digital Corp., the world’s largest maker of hard disk drives. In total, Unis will invest $3.775 billion, which will be used to strengthen Western Digital’s balance …
Read More »Plextor M6V 256GB SSD Review
Today we take a look at the recently released Plextor M6V SSD, specifically the 256GB model. These drives incorporate Toshiba NAND flash memory and are released to target a wide enthusiast audience due to the competitive pricing. Right now this 256GB model is available for around £70 from Scan in …
Read More »Intel Pentium ‘Skylake’ processors make it to retail
The most affordable microprocessors based on the “Skylake” micro-architecture have finally managed to reach the market. The new Intel Pentium G4500T is now sold in select stores in Tokyo, Japan, and is expected to become available in other parts of the world, making low-cost PCs featuring the latest micro-architecture from Intel …
Read More »AMD’s future ‘Bristol Ridge’ and ‘Stoney Ridge’ APUs listed in BIOS
An undisclosed maker of motherboards has already added mentions of AMD’s upcoming accelerated processing units in the binary of its BIOS. It is highly likely that AMD’s latest reference BIOS versions already include support of the company’s future microprocessors. As a result, mentions of the chips migrate to commercial products. …
Read More »AMD unveils embedded ‘Tonga XT’ GPU with 2048 stream processors, 256-bit memory bus
Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday introduced its new lineup of embedded graphics processing units designed for various special-purpose and professional applications. Among the new embedded graphics solutions that AMD introduced, there is AMD Embedded Radeon E8950 MXM module, which is based on the highly-anticipated “Tonga XT” silicon with all stream …
Read More »AMD’s talks with private equity firm Silver Lake stalled – report
The discussions between Advanced Micro Devices and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners have stalled because the two companies have failed to agree on the price and the future of AMD. The chip designer is reportedly considering other options. Silver Lake was interested to acquire a 25 per cent stake …
Read More »Corsair RM1000x Review
Corsair launch a new range of power supplies today, available in 550w, 650w, 750w, 850w and 1000w capacities. The new RMx series is fully modular, 80 Plus Gold certified and has been designed using all high grade Japanese 105c capacitors. Corsair claim tight voltage control and low noise levels thanks …
Read More »Corsair RM750x review
Corsair launch a new range of power supplies today, available in 550w, 650w, 750w, 850w and 1000w capacities. The new RMx series is fully modular, 80 Plus Gold certified and has been designed using all high grade Japanese 105c capacitors. Corsair claim tight voltage control and low noise levels thanks …
Read More »Gigabyte GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming 2GB Review
Nvidia have experienced great success with their Maxwell architecture – cards such as the GTX750ti impressed my colleague Allan when he first analysed them back in February 2014. At prices around £100 the GTX 750ti firmly targeted the budget gamer working with a restrictive budget. If you have a bit …
Read More »Apple double-sources its A9 chips from Samsung and TSMC
In a bid to ensure steady supply of its latest system-on-chips for its new iPhone smartphones, Apple decided to source the SoCs from two contract makers of semiconductors: Samsung Foundry and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Apple’s new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus smartphones use A9 processors made by Samsung …
Read More »Intel: Usage of DDR3 at default voltages can damage “Skylake”
Intel Corp.’s latest “Skylake” processors officially support only DDR3L and DDR4 memory, but there are motherboards for the new chips that can also use DDR3. While the chips can work with previous-gen memory, prolonged usage of such dynamic random access memory (DRAM) can damage microprocessors, according to Intel. DDR4 memory …
Read More »Nvidia readies new dual-chip GeForce GTX flagship graphics card
Nvidia Corp. is working on a new flagship graphics card that will use two code-named GM200 graphics processing units. The new adapter will offer extreme levels of performance and will compete against AMD’s upcoming Radeon R9 Fury X2 with two “Fiji” graphics processors. Not a lot is known about the …
Read More »Asrock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX: Tiny mobo with 8-phase CPU VRM
Asrock has introduced its new Fatal1ty-branded mini-ITX high-end motherboard for gaming PCs. The new system board is designed for Intel “Skylake” processors and sports numerous advanced features that modern PC platforms can offer. Among the highlights are unique voltage regulator module, extreme overclocking capabilities, HDMI 2.0 connector that supports 4K …
Read More »Toshiba’s 2.5” hard disk drive with 3TB capacity finally hits retail
Toshiba Corp. has finally started to sell its 2.5” hard disk drive with extreme 3TB capacity in retail. The drive is not compatible with the vast majority of mobile personal computers, but can be installed into servers and network area storage (NAS) systems. The Toshiba MQ03ABB300 hard disk drive with …
Read More »GlobalFoundries: We started to tape-out chips using second-gen 14nm process technology
GlobalFoundries on Friday confirmed that the first products to be made using the company’s advanced 14nm LPP [low-power plus] manufacturing technology had been taped out. The contract maker of chips did not reveal any details, but indicated that prototype chips had demonstrated “excellent” performance and yields. One of the customers, …
Read More »Makers of tablets eager to get cheap Atom ‘Bay Trail’ while discounts last
Manufacturers of inexpensive tablets recently increased orders for Intel Corp.’s previous-generation Atom “Bay Trail” system-on-chips before the company cancels discounts and starts to gradually phase-out production of such microprocessors. Going forward Intel will cease to offer heavy price cuts on mobile SoCs. At present, the average price of an Intel …
Read More »GlobalFoundries: 14nm yields are exceeding our plans
GlobalFoundries, which started to manufacture chips using 14nm low-power early (14LPE) manufacturing technology several months ago, said on Friday that its yields exceed its original expectations. One of the world’s largest contract makers of semiconductors does not reveal its actual 14nm volumes, but since the chips are made for customers, …
Read More »Intel DC P3608 SSD: Up to 4TB capacity, up to 5GB/s bandwidth
Intel Corp. has quietly introduced its new family of solid-state drives designed for datacentres. The new Intel DC P3608 SSDs feature up to 4TB capacity as well as up to 5GB/s sequential read speed, they are among the highest-performing solid-state drives in the industry right now. The drives are designed …
Read More »MSI Z170A XPower Gaming Titanium Edition Review
MSI has made a bold move by giving the company's Z170 XPower motherboard a Titanium theme. What exactly does that mean? Well firstly the motherboard features a unique metallic styling which is sure to turn heads. And then there's the application of a sixteen phase power delivery system that makes …
Read More »SAS-24Gb/s is on-track for launch in 2018 or 2019 – SCSI association
Serial Attached SCSI continues to be the interface of choice for mission-critical storage sub-systems. At a recent conference, the SCSI trade association, the organization that oversees development of the technology, said that the next-generation of SAS – the SAS-24Gb/s – remains on-track for commercial launch in 2018 or 2019. The …
Read More »Gigabyte Z170X-SOC Force LN2 for extreme overclockers is closing in
Earlier this year it transpired that Gigabyte Technology was working on a new ‘Super Overclock’ motherboard designed for extreme overclocking and setting records in benchmarks. As it appears, the release of the platform is getting closer. The Gigabyte Z170X-SOC Force LN2-CF platform was designed from the ground up to offer …
Read More »MSI bundles Assassin’s Creed Chronicles with select AMD Radeon cards
MicroStar International has announced that for a limited time it will bundle Assassin’s Creed Chronicles with select AMD Radeon R9 and R7-based graphics adapters. Since the AC Chronicles use 2.5D graphics, they should run perfectly on systems powered by such graphics boards. MSI will bundle the Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China and …
Read More »G.Skill readies Trident Z DDR4 modules with 4.40GHz clock-rate
G.Skill is working on new Trident Z memory modules, which will hit unbelievable 4.40GHz frequency. The modules are designed for extreme enthusiasts and will be compatible with select Intel Z170-based platforms for overclockers. G.Skill’s Trident Z DDR4-4400 (PC4-35200) memory modules will feature 4GB capacity and will be based on hand-selected …
Read More »Asustek unveils ultimate mini-ITX mainboard for ‘Skylake’ CPUs
Asustek Computer this week introduced its Z170I Pro Gaming mainboard, which is desinged for Intel Corp.’s latest microprocessors code-named “Skylake” and provides ultimate feature-set. The platform not only uses high-quality/high-performance components and has rich expansion capabilities, but even features advanced overclocking functionality. The Asus Z170I Pro Gaming is based on the Intel …
Read More »Nvidia’s next-gen ‘Pascal’ graphics cards will get 16GB of HBM2 memory
At the GPU Technology Conference in Japan, Nvidia Corp. once again revealed key features of its next-generation graphics processing architecture code-named “Pascal”. As a it appears, the company has slightly changed its plans concerning memory capacity supported by its upcoming GPUs. As expected, Nvidia’s high-end graphics processor that belongs to …
Read More »Valve: DirectX 12 does not make a lot of sense, Vulkan does
Microsoft Corp.’s DirectX 12 application programming interface promises to significantly improve performance of video games in Windows 10 operating system thanks to efficient usage of modern hardware. However, Valve Software believes that it makes no sense to use DX12, but to utilize cross-platform Vulkan API instead. Modern application programming interfaces – …
Read More »XFX is working on liquid-cooled Radeon R9 Fury graphics card
XFX is gearing up to release a Radeon R9 Fury-based graphics adapter featuring a liquid cooling system. The card will feature overclocking potential on par with AMD’s Radeon R9 Fury X, which will help to at least partially close performance gap between the “Fury” and the “Fury X” products. The …
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