microprocessor

iHS iSuppli predicts that Microsoft’s ARM-enabled Windows 8 operating system will bring a new series of low-cost laptops stealing possible a significant share from Intel.

At the moment ARM enabled laptops are almost nonexistent. However, the market analyst believes that in 4 years ARM based laptops will account for 22.9% of global laptop shipments from 3% forecast for next year.

The laptops will be priced well under $700 - many in the sub-$500 segment, according to CNET and iHS-iSuppli analyst Matthew Wilkins.
 

Intel announced its plans to launch mass production of the world’s first 3-D microprocessor transistor.

“This transition to 3-D devices will help us continue Moore’s Law,” said Intel senior fellow Mark Bohr at the news conference Wednesday. “Clearly you can pack more things into a small space if you go vertical with 3-D.”

According to the forecast made by market research firm HIS iSuppli, half of the notebooks and a growing number of PCs shipped in 2011 will feature graphics-enabled microprocessors as designers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) increase competition for the units that raise multimedia speeds without additional hardware.

HIS says that the processors with built-in graphics capabilities will be installed this year on 115 million notebooks, half of total shipments, and 63 million desktop PCs, or 45 percent of the total.

A new microcomputer has been created by researchers at the University of Michigan. The millimeter-scale computing system can store up to a week volume of data and can reside on something as small as a human eye. The computer, called the Phoenix chip, is just over one cubic millimeter in size and was designed to monitor eye pressure in glaucoma patients.

"This is the first true millimeter-scale complete computing system," Dennis Sylvester, a professor at the school and one of the researchers on the project, said in a statement.

A $5 billion high-end microchip factory will be built by Intel Corp in Arizona by the year of 2013 as the world’s largest chip maker wants to boost up the US manufacturing capacity.

Intel said in a statement that the construction should start this year and when completed the plant will make next-generation 14-nanometer line-width transistors and microchip wafers of 300 millimeters.

Earlier last year Intel said that it plans to spend $6 billion to $8 billion on high-tech manufacturing facilities in Arizona and Oregon, creating as many as 8,000 construction jobs.

According to a report from a Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily the next generation of the iPhone will be built around ARM architecture based A8 System-on-Chip. Apple is reportedly working on the iPhone 5 processor.

January 6 will be a starting point for the new smartphone trends in 2011. That day at the Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas as well as in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona people will see the latest developments in the mobile industry. However, even today we have a number key suggestions on what will lead the market next year.

Bit Tech user 'Saigon' has modified its motorbike into a fully working computer. It took him 12 days to complete the task. The project made use of a retired pocket bike, an Intel Core i7 920 processor, two hard drives totalling 1.5TB of storage, 6GB of DDR3 OCZ RAM, and lots of LED lighting.

A group of chip makers with the participation of Samsung and GlobalFoundries announced this week the launch of a new development platform that is expected to streamline and make faster the production of the next generation low-power chips for mobile devices.

Contract chip manufacturers will start producing a line of chips with transistors and other components as small as 28nm around the middle of this year for Xilinx and other companies that have announced plans to make such advanced chips, including Altera and STMicroelectronics.

There is a wide range of benefits coming with 28nm size chips. Xilinx estimates its 28nm chips will reduce total power use by 50% as compared with the previous models. Besides, a number of other enhancements can bring power consumption and lower system costs by 33%.

According to the study by IDC the share of Advanced Micro Devices in the processors market increased at the expense of Intel during the fourth quarter of 2009.

IDC reports that Advanced Micro Devices across the globe "achieved all time record levels for a single quarter.” Microprocessor shipments climbed by 31.3% in Q$ 2009 as compared with the same period in 2008.