Displaying items by tag: nVidia

It seems that Apple and Qualcomm wanted to try and lock out competition when it comes to the use of TSMC (The Taiwanese Semi-Conductor Manufacturing Corporation). The pair attempted to buy themselves a nice exclusive deal with TSMC with a large bundle of cash (over $1 billion). However, TSMC decided that there was more money to be had in keeping things open.  The original deal from Qualcomm and Apple was to make sure the pair had access to production facilities. TSMC replied by saying that they could always expand if there was a need, but that they would internally fund it.

By the end of 2012 HTC will try to place new device on the tablet market in cooperation with Chinese manufacturer Pegatron Technology. After they failed to make significant sales with their 7“ Flyer and 10.1“ Jetstream tablets there is a lot of suspicion about the potential success of this idea. Also HTC tablets were not included in the first wave of production partners for Microsoft's Windows RT tablets, making it even more risky. The main reason for bad sales was probably a price that was too much compared to performance.

Although the news has been more about the massive global war between Apple and anyone that makes an Android phone there is more going on in the world of tech than just those few items. Today we have heard that AMD will be launching a new CPU and it has already popped up for pre-order on at least one site. The news is noteworthy in that the CPU was originally expected to hit earlier this year with a number of other SKUs. We are not sure if today’s announcement is an indication that we will be seeing the other six missing products in the coming months, but for AMD fans this is potentially very good news.

With all of the news around Windows 8 and Microsoft’s Surface tablet many might have missed out on a small report that went around. In this report it was revealed that manufacturers like Qualcomm Texas Instrument, Samsung and more were having issues getting drivers working for Windows RT. We covered it and found that in more than a few cases the information was pretty spot on. We know that Acer decided to focus on x86 based products instead of opting for ARM due to technical difficulties. The issue which has slowed some OEM’s Windows RT progress was also used in the many reports that Microsoft was showing OEMs how it’s done.

AMD is one of those companies that really need to take a long hard look at its past to get a good handle on where it is going. My first experiences with AMD go pretty far back to when they were making 2x86 CPUs on license from Intel. At the time AMD was also a pretty big player in the DSP market and could be found in many of the early two-way radios and later in Cell phones (it was cool to show that to people that were skeptical of buying AMD for the first time. Still AMD was always considered the low cost alternative to Intel, but one that came with a performance hit (it was not completely true, but that was what the market thought).

When Microsoft announced their Windows RT and Windows 8 based Surface tablets the world was shocked; Microsoft making a tablet for the consumer market? The media went nuts talking about the slim design, the new materials and well everything. We saw multiple “reviews” of the Surface all of which were based on the same Press Demo model and all of which did not really cover what the product could do (how much can you tell in 10 minutes?). Underneath the excitement by the press there was a less enthusiastic response by the people that have actually made Microsoft what they are; the OEM partners. We contacted quite a few right after the launch and while most would not comment publicly on the launch the tone was obvious.

Microsoft just cannot get out of their own way in making some very bad decisions over the past few months. First they have pushed an OS on the public and OEMs that does not make all that much sense based on real consumer feedback. Next they dove headlong into the market with their own unsustainable product in the form of the Surface tablet. Finally they stabbed their partners in the back by offering an update to Windows 8 Professional for $40 including installs of XP, Vista, Windows 7 and even the Release Preview of Windows 8. Microsoft has been pushing the claim that Windows 8 will be compatible with existing hardware as well in an attempt to bring even more people to the new OS. All of this is going to seriously impact partner sales and has caused more than one company to rethink their Windows 8 plans.

We have two additional hacks to report this morning. The first was a little shocking as it has been learned that nVidia’s Developer Zone form was under attack. Although details of this attack are small it does appear that nVidia recognized that there was an attack on the forum and shut it down to prevent additional attack. However nVidia warns that the hashed passwords for the forum may have been accessed. Right now the forum is still down with only a canned message in its place warning users about the attack and advising them to change their passwords especially any passwords that might be identical across multiple sites.

Microsoft’s Windows 8 (both Windows RT and Windows 8 for x86-64) is due to hit the market around November of this year and it has already caused a ton of controversy. But there is one that did not get a ton of press when it was announced that highlights a few issues with Windows that many are not anticipating. Around the first of July it was announced that HP would not be making an ARM based tablet for the next OS and we also know that Acer will probably not as well.

Although it was rumored (and possibly shown off at CES 2012) the long awaited Nexus 7 (I wonder is the Tyrell corporation was involved) 7-inch tablet from Google is coming today to be officially launched during the Google I/O conference. The new tablet will feature 1GB of RAM and a quad (quint?) core Tegra 3 under the screen. For capacity you will get either 8 or 16GB and all of the usual trimmings (no 3G though). The pricing and size would indicate it is intended to rival both the iPad and the Kindle Fire.

*** Update It is live, real and you can buy this new tablet from Google and Asus!***