processors

The long-awaited new iPhone has reportedly popped up in Apple's inventory with signs indicating that it will be a major upgrade over the current iPhone 4.

As described by 9to5Mac and SlashGear, the phone uncovered in the inventory list is code-named N94, the same name hidden in code for Apple's iOS earlier this year. That code name was found to point to a device with a dual-core A5 processor, the same chip that's been expected to appear in the iPhone 5.

Citing information from its anonymous but apparently reliable Mr. X source, who is known for leaking … Read more

Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison made his fortune with software, but he'll take the stage today to show off the first servers powered by the company's new Sparc T4 processor.

The product, called the Sparc SuperCluster T4-4, is "the first engineered system from a new generation of high-performance Oracle Sparc servers," according to an Oracle invitation to the event . Ellison will share the stage with John Fowler, the systems executive vice president who also led Sun's server group, at Oracle's Redwood Shores, Calif., headquarters.

Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems last year for its server products, … Read more

You might not need a whole 1.21 gigawatts to travel through time, after all.

Computer engineers at the University of California at Berkeley have found a way to reduce the minimum voltage required to store a charge in a capacitor--an electron-storing device that works somewhat like a battery--paving the way for ultra-low-power computing. This is a result of a project started in 2008 and led by Asif Khan, a UC Berkeley electrical engineering graduate student, and Sayeef Salahuddin, a UC Berkeley assistant professor of electrical engineering.

The engineers took advantage of ferroelectrics, a class of materials that can hold both positive and negative electric charges, even when there's no voltage applied. On top of that, the electrical polarization in ferroelectrics can be reversed with an external electric field.

The team was able to demonstrate that when a capacitor made of ferroelectric-based materials was paired with an electric insulator, the charge accumulated for a given voltage could be amplified in a phenomenon called "negative capacitance." This means you can create a charge that would normally require a higher voltage. And this, when applied to transistors--the on-off switch components that generate the zeros and ones that are the core of binary computing used in all personal computers--would translate into lower minimum voltage required to operate a computer processor. … Read more

Another blockbuster acquisition has hit the tech industry.

Semiconductor company Broadcom announced today that it has agreed to acquire NetLogic Microsystems for $50 per share, or about $3.7 billion. The $50 per share represents a nearly 57 percent premium on NetLogic's closing stock price on Friday of $31.91.

NetLogic seems to be a reasonable acquisition for Broadcom, which focuses on chips for networking gear. Both companies compete in the semiconductor market, but NetLogic offers components in areas that Broadcom needs to bolster its own lineup, including knowledge-based processors and multicore embedded processors, the companies said in a … Read more

Windows 8 will include Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization tool in an effort to attract developers, IT pros, and other users who need to run, test, or support virtual environments.

Describing the move in the latest edition of the "Building Windows 8" blog, Mathew John, a program manager on Microsoft's Hyper-V team, noted that Hyper-V has previously been available only in recent server-based editions of Windows, making Windows 8 the first client OS to include the feature.

Virtualization tools such as Hyper-V allow users to run multiple operating systems and environments on the same machine. That's helpful … Read more

Recent rumors about the iPhone 5 have claimed that Apple would bump up the screen size to at least 4 inches, but a story from DigiTimes offers a contrary take.

Citing sources from "upstream panel suppliers," DigiTimes rebuts the claims that the iPhone would sport a 4.2-inch screen size, which it says sprang from a leak from Apple's Web site in Switzerland early this month. Alleged design specs for iPhone 5 cases even prompted MacRumors to create some mockups of the new phone showing off a 4-inch screen.

But DigiTimes' sources say the iPhone 5 won'… Read more

Apple's latest chip technology won't appear in the next-generation iPad until June 2012 at the earliest, according to a firm that tracks the mobile processor industry.

Getting new processor technology out the door (remember, Apple is also in the chip design business) is a Herculean task for even seasoned chip manufacturers like Intel. It will certainly be no different for Apple, whose next chip, dubbed the "A6," may not make an appearance in the iPad 3 until later in 2012, said The Linley Group, a chip consulting firm.

If Apple keeps to its schedule and launches … Read more

AMD has appointed a new president and CEO, the company announced today.

Rory Read, the former president and chief operating officer of the Lenovo Group, will head up the processor company, as well as join AMD's board of directors.

Read comes to AMD with an impressive resume. At Lenovo, according to AMD, he was responsible for "double-digit revenue growth and market share gains." He also spent 23 years at IBM, holding a host of management positions.

Former AMD CEO Dirk Meyer stepped down from his post in January. An employee of AMD since 1995, Meyer succeeded CEO … Read more

When discovering the benefits of having a food processor, one of the first realizations is the simple fact that it should have been purchased a long time ago. That is because food processors are incredible time-savers. As the RPMs ratchet up, the blades spin and whatever needs slicing or chopping is reduced to the desired consistency in seconds. It all happens so fast there almost isn't enough time to consider how much time cumulatively would have been saved if the purchase had been made a long time ago. Almost.

One of the first things that new food processor owners … Read more