Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Saturday, October 16, 2010

AMD sees a tablet chip in its future, and an end to the core-count wars

AMD told us that it wasn't terribly interested in the iPad market, and would wait and see if touchscreen slates took off, but CEO Dirk Meyer changed the company's tone on tablets slightly after reporting a $118 million net loss (on $1.62 billion in revenue) in a Q3 2010 earnings call this afternoon. First revealing his belief that tablets will indeed cannibalize the notebook and netbook markets, he later told investors that he actually expects AMD's netbook parts to start appearing in OEM slates in the next couple of years, and that AMD itself would "show up with a differentiated offering with great graphics and video technology" when the market becomes large enough to justify an R&D investment.

Elsewhere, AMD CTO of servers Donald Newell prognosticated that the number of individual CPUs on a chip won't go up forever: "There will come an end to the core-count wars," he told IDG News. Just as the megahertz race was eventually defeated by thermal restrictions, so too will the number of cores on a chip cease to increase. " I won't put an exact date on it, but I don't myself expect to see 128 cores on a full-sized server die by the end of this decade," he said. So much for our Crysis-squashing terascale superchip dreams, we suppose.

AMD sees a tablet chip in its future, and an end to the core-count wars originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 23:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Q3 2010 AMD Earnings Call, PC World | Email this | Comments

AMD launching next generation of Radeon graphics cards next week, shipping by end of the year

The attentive newshounds over at AnandTech have picked out a golden nugget of disclosure from AMD's earnings call last night, citing CEO Dirk Meyer as saying "we will be launching our second-generation DX11 graphics offerings next week." What he's talking about, of course, is the highly anticipated refresh of the Radeon HD 5000 series, which some recent spec leaks suggested would bring a healthy bump in performance. After announcing the new product line next week, AMD promises to flood the market with "hundreds of thousands of units," which will be shipping before the end of this quarter -- meaning you'll have a Radeon HD 6xxx in time for the holiday gaming craze if you really want it. Can't ask anymore than that, now can we?

AMD launching next generation of Radeon graphics cards next week, shipping by end of the year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 02:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canon's 60D impresses reviewers, but a challenger approaches (video)

Canon's prosumer line just got a little better, with the 18 megapixel, 1080p recording 60D hitting stores and, now, getting recommended reviews. Photo Blog and Camera Labs have weighed in so far, and both have positive conclusions, most notably regarding that movie mode. The camera will kindly record in 1080p24 in addition to 1080p30, but the autofocus while filming is panned, called "fairly useless" thanks to only happening when you half-press the shutter button, and then taking a few seconds to figure things out -- but that's just like the EOS 7D and T2i. Overall the 60D scores highly and easily bests the 50D it replaces, but the real competition is Nikon's D7000, which interestingly is busting out at retail already, offering a similar price point, similar capabilities, and a magnesium alloy chassis, versus the plastic one on the Canon. How will they compare? We'll just have to wait for the next round of reviews to find out.

Continue reading Canon's 60D impresses reviewers, but a challenger approaches (video)

Canon's 60D impresses reviewers, but a challenger approaches (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 09:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Garmin's $23 Chirp wireless beacon brings geocaching thrills to Oregon, Dakota GPS units

Looking for an avenue to join millions of others in geocaching, eh? We know, there's hardly a better way to spend a weekend than by playing a sophisticated game of hide-and-seek, and Garmin's right there with us. If you, like it, are stuck in Kansas with nary a Jayhawk game in sight, this here pebble is the answer to all of your boredom woes. The Chirp is a wireless beacon that's designed to work with any compatible wireless-enabled Garmin handheld (the Oregon, Dakota and the recently announced GPSMAP handhelds are mentioned by name), and once you've set it up to cooperate with your device, it'll automatically transmit program coordinates so other cachers can find each stage of your multicache -- it's touch-and-go in its simplest form. The whole thing measures just 1.3- x 0.9-inches, weighs under an ounce and can be had for just $22.99. So yeah, good luck sticking to Segway polo with an offer like that.

Update: Video after the break!

Continue reading Garmin's $23 Chirp wireless beacon brings geocaching thrills to Oregon, Dakota GPS units

Garmin's $23 Chirp wireless beacon brings geocaching thrills to Oregon, Dakota GPS units originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Iomega serves up adorable 1.8-inch External USB 3.0 SSD pocket drives

Some might say that you have somewhat of a problem when calling a solid state drive "cute," but what do they know, anyway? Iomega's newest batch of external SSDs are easily the most adorable we've seen, as these 1.8-inchers can just about slip into any oversized Fifth Pocket that you may have. Available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB sizes, the diminutive drives support USB 3.0 and are built to be lugged around and occasionally dropped, stepped on or used as a stress-relief tool. Specifically, the metal enclosure is engineered to handle drops from up to ten feet, and the 256-bit hardware encryption ensures that only you and your cronies will see what's inside. The company's also tossing in its Protection Suite (loaded with anti-virus, cloning and backup applications), and it'll be hawking these in early November for $229, $399 and $749 from least capacious to most. Oh, and that noise you hear? A hundred million USB 3.0 flash drives getting all sorts of perturbed.

Gallery: Iomega External USB 3.0 SSD drive