X86

Windows tablets running on Intel processors are not expected to take significant market share from market leader ARM for at least a couple of years, according to market research firm DisplaySearch.

In 2012, Windows tablets running on X86 chips--which are predominately Intel--should garner only about 1.8 percent of the market or about 1.8 million units out of a total market of 100 million units, according to Richard Shim of DisplaySearch, which issued a report today. Most of these tablets will use Intel's Atom processor, Shim said.

This will improve slightly in 2013 with 3.1 million Windows … Read more

With today's Mac and display updates in the can, Apple is just one machine away from having Thunderbolt across the line. That's the new speedy port that brings high-speed input/output to storage devices, displays, and other data hungry peripherals, topping what's available through USB 3.0 or Firewire 800 in theoretical transfer speed (see CNET's FAQ).

So far the number of gadgets that can make use of the nascent technology are few. In fact, it took months after Thunderbolt's introduction in Apple's MacBook Pro line earlier this year for the first purchasable Thunderbolt cable … Read more

Intel has revealed a few more details about Microsoft's plan to offer Windows 8 in multiple versions.

Renee James, an Intel senior vice president who heads the software and services group, reiterated at an investor's meeting yesterday in Santa Clara, Calif., that the Windows 8 operating system will launch in versions designed for both Intel-based x86 computers and ARM-based devices. Microsoft had already announced at CES in January that it would support ARM devices in the next version of Windows.

Microsoft will offer a traditional version of Windows 8 designed to run on PCs powered by Intel's … Read more

Step aside, Google Docs, there's a new JavaScript tour de force in town.

I'm talking about the latest project from programmer Fabrice Bellard, a JavaScript program that emulates an x86 processor fast enough to run Linux in a Web browser.

The JavaScript PC Emulator can do the work of an Intel 486 chip from the 1990s, but doesn't have a built-in floating point unit for numeric processing, Bellard said. Happily, Linux itself can emulate that, and a version of the operating system's core--2.6.20--runs on the foundation.

Bellard published a technical description of the JavaScript PC Emulator … Read more

So, what happens to Intel in the age of a version of Windows running on top of ARM chips from companies like Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Apple, Freescale, and Nvidia?

A report today is fueling speculation that Microsoft will bring a more full featured version of Windows to ARM--arguably the most widely used chip architecture in the world. This comes after Microsoft announced in July that it has gotten an architectural license from ARM.

The most obvious impact is that Windows runs on more devices, many of which do not necessarily use Intel processors. The Zune HD is probably the best … Read more

At CES next month, Microsoft will reportedly unveil a full-featured version of Windows that runs on ARM processors--a big departure from the x86 architecture.

Bloomberg, which broke the news this afternoon, reported that sources familiar with Microsoft's plans said this version of Windows will continue to work on x86 processors, but that it should improve battery performance on devices like tablets and other devices that use ARM processors.

Additional confirmation of Microsoft's plans came from The Wall Street Journal, which added that this new version will not be available for another two years. CNET heard similar reports from … Read more

Will small, powerful, connected-to-everything devices running on non-Intel silicon become the personal computer? The CEO of graphics-chip supplier Nvidia thinks so.

The sentiment, voiced at the company's annual conference this week by chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang, has been expressed before. And like any strong strategy statement from a Silicon Valley CEO, it's self-serving. Nvidia is staking a good chunk of its future--as much as half of its business--on chips based on the ARM design.

But that doesn't mean Huang has got it all wrong, either. Indeed, ARM-based devices such as Apple's iPhone and iPad, Motorola's Droid, Research In Motion's BlackBerry, and countless future smartphones and tablets from Motorola, RIM, Apple, and others will use the ARM chip design. "ARM is the fastest-growing CPU (processor) in the world today. It's the instruction set architecture of choice of mobile computing," Huang said. "It is very clear now that mobile computing will be a completely disruptive force to all of computing."

Huang continued. "This (smartphone) is the first computer that is equipped with all kinds of sensors, cameras, microphones, GPSs, and accelerometers. This is the first computer that's context aware. Situation aware. Who knows, someday it may be self-aware," he said.

Huang raises interesting questions about the future. Will a future PC be a powerful, multi-core-CPU handheld device that wirelessly connects to large displays and a host of other devices--so the PC is carried around in your pocket or small satchel and then connects on the fly to larger devices and/or peripherals?

But the ARM-based vision also presumes that the largest chipmaker in the world, Intel, is standing still. Which it isn't.… Read more

A recovery in global demand boosted second-quarter sales for computer servers by 11 percent to $10.9 billion, says a report released Wednesday by IDC.

Those numbers represent the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year sales growth and the fastest quarterly growth in the server market since 2003, according to the research firm's latest quarterly global server study. Server shipments also rose 23.8 percent from 2009's second quarter, a slight increase from the 23 percent gain seen in the first quarter but the fastest quarterly growth in more than five years.

Lower-end volume servers led the market with … Read more

Turns out the iPhone grip of death is simply a "fact of life" with all wireless phones. If holding your phone makes your iPhone 4 signal drop dramatically, Apple would like you to know you should either hold it a different way or buy a case. From them. That sounds logical, right? Right. No, thanks. Also, introducing Rafe's new side project, oneleggedgoat.xxx. Enjoy.