March 08, 2018

Intel® Optane™ SSD 800P Powers Most Responsive Desktop Platform

March 08, 2018/ Allyn Malventano

There are many ways to measure the performance of a PC and many ways to measure the performance of any single sub-system of that computer. Storage performance is no different, and with the movement towards evaluating the performance of computing hardware based on end-user experiences, the expectations of how storage should behave has evolved. As processor performance, graphics capability, and workloads evolve for the consumer, the demand for higher performing storage solutions has increased.

March 08, 2018

Intel® Optane™ SSD 800P Offers New Levels of Performance for Mobile Platforms

March 08, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

Intel continues to expand its product line of Optane™ storage drives, targeting consumers and OEMs in the mobile space with the new Intel® Optane™ SSD 800P. As the relative performance of notebooks and mobile platforms increases when compared to desktops, there has been a resurgence of interest and focus on the secondary components and systems in these machines. As modern processors increase core and thread count, along with frequency, cache, and more, the impact of other hardware level features becomes more critical to the overall experience for consumers. While the value of faster processing is critical, the impact of storage performance also plays an important role.

February 28, 2018

Samsung aims to steal market share from Apple in enterprise smartphones

February 28, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

With the reveal of its next flagship phone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, Samsung continues to be a driving force in the smart phone market with innovation and features unmatched in the Android space and as the primary competitor to Apple in the high-end of the market. The new Galaxy S9 and S9+ offer improvements to the camera system, a faster processor developed by Qualcomm, and a new set of color options.

February 27, 2018

Qualcomm movement into Broadcom markets is behind acquisition battle

February 27, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

In the ongoing feud between Broadcom and Qualcomm and the former’s attempt to use a hostile takeover to acquire the latter, we have seen commentary, press releases, letters from the board, and countless TV interviews from leadership on both sides. But recent announcements and product reveals from the San Diego-based mobile chip giant continue to paint a picture that differs greatly from the one being presented by Broadcom and CEO Hock Tan.

February 27, 2018

Bitcoin mining could impact global chip availability in 2018

February 27, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

Last week analyst research firm Bernstein published a report on the profitability of Bitmain, a somewhat secretive Chinese company with a huge impact on the bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets. With estimated profit for 2017 ranging from $3B to $4B, the size and scope of Bitmain is undeniable, with annual net income higher than some major tech players including NVIDIA and AMD. Bitmain has expanded its reach into multiple bitcoin-based markets but the vast majority of its income stems from the development and sale of dedicated cryptocurrency mining hardware.

February 21, 2018

AMD goes after $15B embedded space with two new chips

February 21, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

Continuing its expansion of bringing modern processor and graphics designs to as many of its targeted market segments as possible, AMD announced today two new families that address the embedded processor space. The company has already seen double-digital YoY sequential growth in revenue from embedded markets, but the release of the Epyc Embedded 3000 and Ryzen Embedded V1000 family create significant additional opportunity for the company.

February 21, 2018

Qualcomm signs major carriers and retailers for Always Connected PC launch

February 21, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

With availability scheduled to begin next month, Qualcomm is prepping for its final push to prepare the market for what it believes is a revolutionary product category for the PC market. Just before the mobile media and analysts focus attention on Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, Qualcomm hopes it has completed the final step in the launch of its “Windows 10 on Snapdragon” line. Partners like Amazon, the Microsoft Stores, Verizon, and AT&T will provide the cellular LTE connections to maintain an always-connected state and the retail and online locations to purchase them.

February 14, 2018

Qualcomm pushes LTE forward again, up to 2 Gbps with Snapdragon X24 modem

February 14, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

Hot on the heels of the 5G momentum that saw Qualcomm announce working with 18 different device OEMs and 18 different network providers to bring 5G hardware and carriers online for wide adoption in 2019, the mobile giant is launching another 4G LTE modem. The new Snapdragon X24 LTE modem will provide connectivity speeds as high as 2.0 Gbps (Cat 20) and happens to be the first chip officially announced to be built on a 7nm process technology. It will be shipping in products by the end of 2018.

February 14, 2018

Broadcom’s meddling with Qualcomm could disrupt critical 5G transition

February 14, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

Whether agreed to and approved through regulatory bodies or not, the current situation surrounding Broadcom attempting to purchase Qualcomm is creating instability in the market’s move to 5G cellular technology. This disruption will be substantially increased if a deal is agreed to or if the board of directors at Qualcomm is replaced, as the current Broadcom takeover plan calls for. During a sensitive time of transition like the one the mobile market finds itself, uncertainty and confusion about the leader in 5G technology could have a waterfall effect on the market.

February 08, 2018

Qualcomm 5G devices coming in 2019, leaving Apple behind

February 08, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

With significant pressure to show the value and growth opportunities for the company with a looming hostile takeover bid from Broadcom, mobile chip design house Qualcomm is hoping that its position in the market of next-generation cellular radio technology will be a foundation of its future. The company revealed today partnerships with 18 global OEMs that will be launching 5G-ready devices in 2019 and 18 worldwide cellular carriers will be completing tests of Qualcomm 5G radios in 2018.

February 06, 2018

Qualcomm agreement with Samsung weakens Apple in legal dispute

February 06, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

Lost in the shuffle of earnings releases last week was an announcement between Samsung and Qualcomm that the San Diego chip vendor hopes could have significant impact on its current battle with Apple and other vendors regarding licensing disputes. In a subtle, but potentially impactful agreement extension between it and Samsung, Qualcomm believes that it will be able to lay to rest the combative legal dispute with the Cupertino iPhone maker and bring along with it a boost in revenue through back-pay and future royalties.

January 25, 2018

Cryptocurrency-based Graphics Shortage is Opportunity for HP, Dell, Lenovo

January 25, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

There is a severe shortage of graphics cards and memory in the market thanks to the continued rise in demand for the chips to handle cryptocurrency mining. This leaves a large market of do-it-yourself consumers and PC gamers without the ability to build or upgrade computers without overpaying for these components. OEM PC builders have an advantage of priced-locked component costs that is redirecting consumers previously uninterested into the market for these pre-built machines. Vendors like HP, Dell, Lenovo, and others have an opportunity to capitalize on the product shortages with increased revenue and new customers for both notebooks and desktop PCs.

January 23, 2018

AMD Hires Two Graphics Execs to Help Tackle NVIDIA

January 23, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

AMD announced today that it has hired two new executives to run its graphics division after the departure of Radeon Technologies Group’s previous lead. Raja Koduri left AMD in November to join Intel and launch its new Core and Visual Computing group, creating a hole in the leadership of this critical division at AMD. CEO Lisa Su filled in during Koduri’s sabbatical and subsequent exit, but the company had been searching for the right replacements since late last year.

January 18, 2018

Security vulnerability creates Spectre over Intel, AMD, Apple, and others

January 18, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

2018 started off with a bang for chip vendors like Intel and AMD, as a new and potentially industry-shifting security vulnerability at the silicon level was announced. Along with it came concerns about consumer privacy, financial security, and even potential performance impacts on computers and servers that were patched to alleviate the vulnerability.

January 18, 2018

NVIDIA technology lead in autonomous driving gives it 2-year lead over competition

January 18, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

At its press conference preceding the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stood on stage and declared the company’s dominance in the exciting and growing autonomous driving market. With a flurry of new partner announcements with key players like Volkswagen and Uber, along with new details on upcoming hardware and platform changes that enable customers to integrate these solutions, NVIDIA has the appearance of an organization firing on all cylinders.

January 08, 2018

New Intel Processor Uses AMD Graphics to Target NVIDIA

January 08, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

Verbosely called the 8th Generation Core Processor with Radeon Vega M Graphics, the new G-series of parts targets a middle ground of the notebook space that wants graphics performance for gaming but without the bulk and size usually associated with traditional gaming systems.

January 03, 2018

Meltdown and Spectre Security Vulnerability Impacts Intel most, but AMD, Arm as well

January 03, 2018/ Ryan Shrout

Just before the closing bell on Wednesday, Intel released a statement responding to the security issues brought up in this story. While acknowledging that these new security concerns do exist, the company went out of its way to insinuate that AMD, Arm Holdings, and others were at risk. Intel also states that performance impact on patched machines “should not be significant and will be mitigated over time.”

December 26, 2017

Apple slows iPhones over time as batteries degrade

December 26, 2017/ Ryan Shrout

For years consumers have complained and theorized that Apple would purposely degrade the performance of older models of iPhones as newer models were released, pushing and encouraging consumers to accelerate their upgrade cycle for devices. Concerns were mostly based on a phone “feeling slower” and there was little evidence that Apple was or would be willing to decrease the performance of older devices intentionally. Knowledgeable media and analysts typically chocked it up to new versions of iOS (the operating system software for iPhones) targeting newer hardware and processors with less time for optimization by Apple engineers for older model phones.

December 12, 2017

NVIDIA keeps foot on gas of machine learning with lower cost development hardware

December 12, 2017/ Ryan Shrout

This week at the annual Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) conference in Long Beach, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang surprised attendees and media with the announcement of a new graphics card targeted at artificial intelligence and machine learning developers. The “NVIDIA TITAN V” might look like a traditional graphics card used for gaming, but under the hood this new product offers a different level and type of performance.

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