Tuesday, June 18, 2013

AMD details first ARM-based server chip: up to 16 helpings of Cortex-A57 clocked at 2GHz

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/18/amd-seattle-arm-server-chip/

AMD plans lowpower server chips based on ARM CortexA57, new Steamroller design

It's hardly a secret that AMD has stepped out of its x86 comfort zone to develop an ARM-based server chip, but now we know a little more about it. Going by the name of "Seattle" and scheduled for launch in the second half of next year, it'll be built around ARM's 64-bit Cortex-A57 in either 8- or 16-core configurations, which will likely be clocked at a minimum of 2GHz. In an apparent acknowledgement of ARM's superiority at low wattages, we're told that this design has the potential to deliver 4x the performance of AMD's current Opteron X processors, with improved compute-per-watt. There's a clear limit to AMD's reliance on ARM, however, as it'll use Seattle to up against Intel's little Atoms, but will continue to sell its own x86 designs for higher-power applications. Meanwhile, we're still waiting on something more interesting from this union, which might be an ARM CPU paired with a Radeon HD graphics processor in some sort of mobile-class SoC. Guess we'll just have to be patient.

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Next3D's plan to bring recorded video to the Oculus Rift

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/18/next3d-recorded-video-plans-oculus-rift-virtual-reality/

Next3D's plan to bring recorded video to the Oculus Rift

The dream of wearing a lightweight headset, like the Oculus Rift, in order to simulate physical presence isn't limited to the imaginary worlds of video games. One man's vision is that of immersive TV shows, movies and live sports. In fact, David Cole, co-founder of Next3D and an industry veteran who helps content creators and providers produce and deliver 3D, has been using his Rift dev kit to bring TV and film to life since the kits started shipping in March. The company is combining its video processing and compression technology with its experience in content production and stereoscopic delivery to offer what it's called Full-Court.

Next3D hopes to leverage its existing relationships with creators and providers to assist them in jumping into the world of live-action VR content. This includes both pre-recorded and live broadcasts. We wanted to see this firsthand, so we jumped at the opportunity to witness the creation of content and experience the results. This trial run of Next3D's stereoscopic, 180-degree field-of-view camera rig, and the post-processing to adapt it to VR, was part of the production of the paranormal investigation show, Anomaly, at Castle Warden in St. Augustine, Fla. Being nearby, we braved the perils of the haunted surroundings to tell you about what we hope is only the beginning of virtual reality content.

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Report: AMD Is Making Its First Ever ARM Chip

Source: http://gizmodo.com/report-amd-is-making-its-first-ever-arm-chip-513977438

Report: AMD Is Making Its First Ever ARM Chip

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AMD is taking a leap into unknown waters, as it readies its first ever ARM chip.

The new chip—codenamed 'Seattle' and previously hinted at—is apparently based on the architecture designed by ARM which is now prolific in smartphones and tablets. Interestingly though, according to the Wall Street Journal, the chips will be aimed at server systems—where the same power savings required by mobile applications are becoming increasingly attractive.

It won't be the first time a company has offered up an ARM chip for use in servers—Applied Micro Circuits has done something similar before with the X-Gene server-on-a-chip—but AMD does carry enough weight to make the scheme potentially successful. That's a fairly big "potentially": there are enough question marks here—does the world want ARM in servers, can AMD offer a decent ARM products, blah, blah, blah—that success is far from guaranteed.

The Journal claims the processors will come in several versions, first with eight processor cores and later with the option of 16, all ticking by at 2GHz or higher. The Journal expects AMD to officially announce the chip later today, though also suggests it won't be available until the first half of 2014. [WSJ]

Image by Eye of Wolf under Creative Commons license

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GEAK unveils Eye and Mars smartphones with 13MP cameras, budget prices

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/geak-unveils-eye-and-mars/

GEAK Eye and Mars smartphones

GEAK may be focusing its attention on wearable tech like the Ring and Watch, but it still has a pair of new offerings for those who like old-fashioned smartphones: meet the 5-inch Eye and 5.8-inch Mars. Both are tailored to photo junkies with 13MP, backside-illuminated rear cameras as well as strong front cameras that shoot at 8MP (Eye) and 2MP (Mars). Differences between the handsets revolve mostly around performance and screen size. The Eye keeps things modest with a 720p IPS display, a quad-core MediaTek MT6589, HSPA+ data, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Spring for the extra-large Mars and you'll upgrade to a 1080p IPS LCD, a Snapdragon 600 and 2GB of RAM. Either way, you won't be paying a lot for the imaging prowess -- when pre-orders start on June 25th, GEAK will ask ¥1,999 ($326) off-contract for the Eye and ¥2,999 ($490) for the Mars. Just don't expect either to leave China when there's no word of international plans.

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Via: Engadget Chinese (translated)

Source: GEAK (1), (2)

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Raspbmc's June build brings a slew of tweaks: cloud backups and more coming in July

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/18/raspbmcs-june-build-brings-a-slew-of-tweaks-cloud-backups-and/

The Raspberry Pi-focused XBMC port Raspbmc's June changelog is a lengthy one. Among the changes are new settings, new skins, support for the Stealth Nighthawk F117A device and changes to make booting up faster, among many other things. Getting this month's update should only require rebooting one's Raspberry Pi, and a few new mirrors that have joined the network should make downloading the updated software even faster. That's not all however, because the July update is promising Linux kernel updates, Raspbmc "Cloud" features with automatic settings backup / restore across multiple devices and an unspecified "special announcement."

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Source: Raspbmc

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