In addition to launching new 35-watt Tiger Lake processors for gaming laptops and new 6-10 watt chips for low-cost, low-power notebooks for the education market, Intel had some other big announcements today.
The company launched a new line of 11th-gen Tiger Lake chips with vPro technology for business-class security, management, and performance features.
Intel also announced that it’s begun mass production of new 10nm Xeon server chips based on Ice Lake architecture, and the company provided a teaser for its next-gen Alder Lake processors which combine high-performance and high-efficiency CPU cores. They’re coming to laptop and desktop computers in the second half of 2021.
Meanwhile, research firms Gartner, IDC, and Canalys all released reports today that confirm that PCs are still a thing. After slumping shipments in early 2020 due to the global pandemic’s impact on manufacturing, shipments were up for much of the rest of the year (thanks in part to the global pandemic’s impact on the number of people working and schooling from home).
During the final quarter of the year all three firms agree that shipments were up significantly compared to the same period in 2020… although the precise figures vary since the companies each have different ways of deciding what counts as a PC.
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
- Global PC market ends 2020 on a high with 25% growth in Q4 [Calanys]
According to Canalys, global PC shipments (including desktops and laptops but not tablets) were up 25-percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 when compared with the same period in 2020. All the gains came from laptops, with desktop shipments falling during the period. Canalys counts Chromebook as PCs, but excludes tablets whether they’re slates or detachables. - PC Sales Remain on Fire as Fourth Quarter Shipments Grow 26.1% Over the Previous Year [IDC]
Like Canalys, Gartner counts Chromebooks, but not tablets even if they’re 2-in-1 devices with detachable keyboards. - Gartner Says Worldwide PC Shipments Grew 10.7% in Fourth Quarter of 2020 [Gartner]
Chromebooks aren’t included in this report, but if they were, it’d have a big impact – Gartner says they were up by 200-percent year-over-year. Gartner *does* include “ultramobile premiums” that includes tablets like Microsoft’s Surface products. - Intel Alder Lake chips are coming later this year [@liliputingnews]
Intel teases Alder Lake, its next-gen desktop and laptop processor architecture coming in the second half of 2021. They feature “enhanced 10nm SuperFin” technology and a mix of high-performance and high-efficiency cores. - 11th-gen Intel Core vPro [Intel]
Intel says 60 laptops with Intel Tiger Lake chips featuring vPro technology are on the way from companies including Dell, HP, and Lenovo. - Intel Ice Lake Xeon [@liliputingnews]
Intel has begun mass production of 10nm Xeon server chips based on Ice Lake architecture. Expect higher core counts, improved performance, and new security enhancements. - Can a Linux phone replace my iPhone or Android device? [Linux Smartphones]
Recent events in the United States seem to have some folks looking for alternatives to Apple and Google, which has resulted in a lot of people emailing me to ask how to switch to Linux. So I wrote this article to provide something of a blanket answer as of January, 2021. The short answer is that most people probably shouldn’t… at least not yet. Linux phones aren’t user-friendly enough and don’t support enough basic features or run enough mobile-optimized apps yet. But they’re getting better all the time and they’re great fun to tinker with for developers and early adopters… as a secondary device. - Qualcomm’s new in-screen fingerprint reader is bigger and faster [Ars Technica]
Qualcomm’s 2nd-gen in-screen sonic fingerprint sensor is 77-percent larger and 50 percent faster than the 1st-gen. That should make it easier/quicker to unlock phones with the sensor thanks to a larger touch target area. - OnePlus Band activity tracker [OnePlus India]
The first wearable from OnePlus is the OnePlus Band, a $34 activity tracker with a blood oxygen sensor, sleep monitor, IP68 water resistance and up to 14 days of battery life. - GPD Win 3 – Is It Comfortable To Play On? Yes! [The Phawx]
How to hold the GPD Win 3 handheld gaming PC comfortably for FPS games or platformers. (Shift your grip depending on whether you’re using the analog sticks or D-Pad).
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