Intel has been dividing its mainstream processors into two different pricing/performance tiers for years. There are mainstream and high-performance laptop, tablet, and desktop chips that are part of the company’s Core series (with the inclusion of some Celeron and Pentium Gold models at the cheaper end), and there are low-cost, low-power Celeron and Pentium Silver […]
chips
AMD’s acquisition of Xilinx set to close within days
NVIDIA’s high-profile acquisition of chip designer ARM might have fallen apart this week. But consolidation continues to be a trend in the semiconductor space: AMD has just announced that it’s acquisition of Xilinx is set to close “on or about February 14, 2022.” Update: As expected, the deal closed on Monday, February 14. AMD had announced […]
NVIDIA removes Arm from its shopping cart, Arm will go public instead
NVIDIA’s plan to acquire chip designer Arm Holdings is dead. The companies announced the deal a year and a half ago, but since then it’s come under heavy scrutiny from antitrust regulators around the globe, and now NVIDIA and Arm’s parent company Softbank say they’ve terminated the agreement. At the same time, Softbank is unveiling […]
Intel invests $1 billion in third-party chip development, joins RISC-V International
Intel is probably best known as a company that designs and produces its own chips. But the company has also been investing heavily in its Intel Foundry Services (IFS) recently in hopes of taking on rivals like TSMC and Samsung by manufacturing chips for other companies. Now Intel has announced a new $1 billion fund […]
MediaTek launches Kompanio 1380 processor for premium Chromebooks
Chromebook makers have been tapping low-cost MediaTek processors for budget models for years. But now MediaTek is making a play for the premium Chrome OS laptop market with the introduction of the MediaTek Kompanio 1380 processor. The recently announced Acer Chromebook Spin 513 will be one of the first models to feature the new processor when Acer’s […]
Gaming laptops with 12th-gen Intel Alder Lake-H are up for pre-order (and early reviews look good)
Intel’s 12th-gen Core processor lineup introduces a brand new (for Intel) hybrid architecture that combines high-performance (P) CPU cores with energy-efficient (E) cores in an effort to balance performance and power consumption while offering more total CPU cores and threads than Intel has ever used for consumer-class chips. After launching the first 12th-gen chips for […]
Samsung Introduces Exynos 2200 Processor With AMD RDNA 2 “Xclipse” graphics
Samsung has begun mass production of its first mobile processor with AMD RDNA 2 graphics close to three years after the company first announced it was licensing GPU technology from AMD. The Samsung Exynos 2200 processor is a 4nm chip with eight ARMv9 CPU cores, a neural processing unit for AI, and an Xclipse GPU […]
Lilbits: Android 12L Beta 2, Windows 11 Preview 22533, and Rockchip RK3588S
Windows PC shipments were up nearly 15% year-over-year in 2021 according to the latest report from research firm IDC. Google has released a second beta of Android 12L, the upcoming version of its mobile operating system optimized for tablets & foldables. Microsoft has released a new preview build of Windows 11 to Insiders. And Rockchip […]
Samsung postpones its Exynos 2200 chip launch
Samsung’s Exynos 2200 processor is expected to be the company’s first chip with integrated AMD RDNA 2 graphics and support for ray-tracing. And Samsung had announced plans to officially introduce the chip on January 11, 2022 about a month ahead of the launch of the company’s Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone, which is expected to be […]
Lenovo Tab M10 (3rd-gen) will be a budget tablet with an FHD display and unexpected processor
The Lenovo Tab M10 is a budget Android tablet with a 10.1 inch display. The 2nd-gen model currently sells for $150 and up and features an HD display and a MediaTek Helio P22T processor. But it looks like Lenovo may have a 3rd-gen model on the way which will bring a higher-resolution display and an […]