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 »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 »Test and keep the Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB SSD!
Do you want to try your hand at reviewing hardware? Today we have a competition that may just get the pulse racing. We are giving away a brand new Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB Solid State Drive – the only term of entry? You have to present us, and the readers …
Read More »Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB Review
It has has been around a year since we last looked at a Sandisk Solid State Drive – the Extreme II … their ultimate performance model at the time. Today we look at their latest flagship drive – the Extreme Pro. This SSD is designed to deliver the fastest speeds …
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 …
Read More »AMD launches ‘Core is back’ campaign, readies mysterious APU launch?
Advanced Micro Devices this week started a mysterious “Core is back” campaign by publishing a video on its Facebook page. The campaign is clearly designed to promote AMD’s Fusion accelerated processing units, heterogeneous chips containing x86 and highly-parallel graphics processing cores. The video shows how applications (depicted as monsters) fight …
Read More »Intel unveils new Pro 2500 SSDs for corporate computers
Intel Corp. on Wednesday rolled-out its new SSD Pro 2500-series solid-state drives designed for corporate personal computers. The new drives offer high performance, very strong security, remote manageability and high power efficiency. The Intel SSD Pro 2500-series drives are based on multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory made using 20nm …
Read More »ARM develops new-generation 64-bit ARMv8 microprocessors
ARM Holdings, the company whose microprocessor architectures power the vast majority of mobile devices, is working on the second-generation of 64-bit central processing units based on the ARMv8 micro-architecture. Not a lot of details are known about the chips now. What ARM has revealed so far is that they are …
Read More »‘Selfies’ push Sony to invest in image sensors
It's a strange day when a trend like “selfies,” can lead to hundreds of millions worth of investment. It looks like Sony just threw 35 billion yen (£202 million) at its imaging sensor factory in order to increase its production by around 13 per cent, all in a push to …
Read More »Asus Maximus VII Ranger & Hero Motherboard Review
Z87 saw cost-effective gaming-calibre motherboards take the limelight. All of the big vendors released at least one product that provided gaming-orientated features in a cost-effective package. Asus SKU of choice was the successful Hero – a board which ticked many of the boxes and did so with an efficient price …
Read More »Nvidia to release GeForce GTX 870, GTX 880 in October or November – report
Nvidia Corp. plans to officially launch its next-generation flagship graphics offering this October or November, according to a media report. If the information is correct, then the firm will have a chance to boost its shipments this holiday season. SweClockers reports that Nvidia’s next-generation high-end graphics cards – the GeForce …
Read More »AMD: We will ship 20nm products in 2015
Although there are rumours that Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia Corp. are not really happy with 20nm process technology of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., they will inevitably have to use it. A vice president of AMD said last week that the company’s 20nm chips would be out next year. “20nm …
Read More »WD release 5TB and 6TB Red Hard Drives
WD (Western Digital) has launched high capacity versions of its Red NAS drives in 6TB £240 and 5TB £199 versions. On the face of it this looks like a slow response to the 6TB Hitachi Helium, 5TB Toshiba MC series and 5TB/6TB Seagate Enterprise drives which were launched a few …
Read More »Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Case Review
The new Enthoo Luxe tower case fills a gaping chasm in the Phanteks range between the £199.99 Primo and the £89.99 Pro (£79.99 without window). Priced at £129.99, the Luxe delivers a set of features that are similar to the Pro, however there are a couple of significant changes to …
Read More »BitFenix Colossus M Micro ATX Chassis Review
One of the mysteries of modern life in Western culture is the size of the portion compared to the size of the bill. While Italian restaurants are happy to heap spaghetti on your plate for next to nothing, haute cuisine in a French restaurant can often look like it has …
Read More »AMD posts higher revenue for the quarter, but still loses money
Advanced Micro Devices this week reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2014. The company did not manage to take advantage of corporate PC replacements, like its rival Intel did, but sales of chips for video game consoles allowed the firm to post rather significant increase in revenue compared …
Read More »Intel may delay next-gen Atom processors made using 14nm tech
Last year Intel announced plans to accelerate its Atom roadmap and produce its low-power/low-cost products at the same nodes as its leading-edge chips for desktops and notebooks. Apparently, the widely-discussed issues with the 14nm general-purpose process technology seem to also affect Intel’s 14nm process for low-power system-on-chips. According to a …
Read More »Fujitsu and UMC to form chip production joint venture
Fujitsu Limited and United Microelectronics Corp. plan to form a joint venture that will operate Fujitsu’s semiconductor manufacturing complex in Mie prefecture in Japan. While initially Fujitsu will hold the control stake of the new company, it is going to gradually reduce it. The Japanese conglomerate has been winding down …
Read More »Seagate ships 8TB ‘customer development’ hard drives
Seagate Technology on Thursday said that it had shipped the first samples of hard disk drives (HDDs) with 8TB capacity to its customers. The company did not reveal any peculiarities regarding the product or the name of its clients. “We have also delivered 8TB customer development units to major customers …
Read More »AMD ‘Carrizo’ specifications, block-diagram get published
The first specifications as well as a block-diagram of AMD’s next-generation code-named “Carrizo” accelerated processing unit (APU) have been published by a web-site. Despite expectations, the “Carrizo” will not support high-bandwidth memory (HBM) technologies, at least, in its mainstream implementation. Nonetheless, the new chip will carry a fair amount of …
Read More »TSMC begins to ship 20nm wafers to customers, expects very rapid ramp
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said this week that it had begun to ship the first wafers processed using its 20nm fabrication technology to customers. The company began mass production of chips using 20nm manufacturing process in early January, the first commercial wafers were shipped to undisclosed customers in June. The …
Read More »Intel: We will integrate 3G/4G modems into all our platforms
Intel Corp. said this week that its future PC platforms will be equipped with its own 3G/4G modems so to enable wireless Internet connectivity everywhere and on every device. The move will clearly make notebooks and slates with integrated baseband capabilities more affordable eventually, whereas Intel’s chips will get more …
Read More »512GB Crucial SSD drops below £145
It seems like only yesterday that we were all happy with a 1TB spinning hard drive. Then the technologies around solid state drives dropped to the point where ‘working 100% on memory' became viable – at least for the rich and famous. So how much should you spend on the …
Read More »Intel: no change in 10nm schedule
Although Intel Corp. is behind the schedule with its 14nm manufacturing process, the company claims it has not made any changes to its 10nm schedule. Unfortunately, Intel has not officially revealed exact plans regarding production of chips using 10nm process technology. “We have done no changes or shift to our …
Read More »Intel sold highest amount of processors ever this past quarter
Thanks to strong sales of central processing units for personal computers, servers, tablets and other types of devices, Intel Corp. sold the record number of microprocessors in one quarter ever in the second quarter of its fiscal 2014. The company said that multiple factors affected demand for chips during the …
Read More »Intel: replacement of Windows XP-based PCs will help us in 2014
Chief executive officer of Intel Corp. said that replacement of Windows XP-based personal computers by businesses and enterprises will help the company to sell more microprocessors this fiscal year. While the company does not want to make predictions regarding next year, it does not exclude the possibility that the replacements …
Read More »AMD preps two new GPUs made using 28nm HPM process technology
Although Advanced Micro Devices said earlier this year that it would use 20nm process technology from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. for its future chips, it looks like the company readies two new graphics processing units (GPUs) that will be made using TSMC’s 28nm HPM [high-performance mobile] process technology. Synapse Design, …
Read More »Intel reports strong results as sales of PCs improve
Intel Corp. on Tuesday disclosed its financial results for the second quarter of the year. The company reported revenue of $13.8 billion, net income of $2.8 billion and gross margin of 64.5 per cent. As expected, Intel’s results improved because of better sales of personal computers and continued strong sales …
Read More »Raspberry Pi model B+ launched
The original Raspberry Pi miniature system birthed a bunch of exciting projects around the world, from teaching children the basics of programming and integration, to building quadcopters, MAME machines, time-lapse cameras and a host of others. Now though a new version has been launched, with the creators keen to point …
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