processor

The reported acquisition of Anobit should catapult Apple into the ranks of leading flash memory companies and mirrors what it has done with the A series of chips in its iPhone and iPad.

Apple is in the process of buying Anobit, an Israel-based flash memory firm, according to Israel's Calcalist business news site. The purchase price isn't small--in the range of $400 million to $500 million, according to reports.

So, what does a payout in that range bring to Apple? First of all, it's important to understand that Apple is not a flash memory neophyte, according to … Read more

Intel has its sights set on ARM, and now, it's showing off some mobile devices to prove it.

Technology Review reported today that it recently had the chance to try out smartphones and tablets running Intel's Atom-based "Medfield" system-on-a-chip. The devices, known as "reference designs," are made to help the company entice handset makers to develop products running its processor. And in this case, they were also designed to provide some insight into what the company has planned.

There is a lot riding on Intel's Medfield processor. For years now, the company has … Read more

The processor running in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 is being produced in Texas, a new report claims.

According to Reuters, citing sources, Samsung is producing the Apple A5 processor at a new 1.6-million-square-foot factory in Austin. The facility, which went into full production earlier this month, cost Samsung $3.6 billion. Although the facility doesn't only produce Apple's processors, Reuters' sources say, "nearly all of the output" comes from the A5.

Samsung's Apple-branded A5 is a system-on-a-chip (SoC), featuring a processor, graphics, and system memory.

Reuters' finding is rather interesting when one … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions about missing Recovery HD partitions after cloning a Lion installation, upgrading the processor on Mac systems, and the requirements for running permissions repair routines when updating the system. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

NOTE: The "contact us" box on the MacFixIt page is now available for you to use when e-mailing questions. … Read more

Don't run out and buy that new ultrabook or MacBook yet. Not until you look at the deets on Next-gen Intel mobile processors, which were just leaked.

Dubbed Ivy Bridge, these chips are due in the April-May time frame and pack Intel's first 3D transistors built on its world-leading 22-nanometer process technology.

By, let's say, the end of 2012 virtually all new MacBooks and ultrabooks will house Ivy Bridge processors. Not to mention the larger Windows (by then, let's hope that's Windows 8) mainstream and gaming laptop varieties.

A couple of model numbers of interest … Read more

Intel's imminent Ivy Bridge processor lineup has been revealed in all of its model-number glory.

CPU World has posted the specifications and model numbers for all to see (see chart below).

Ivy Bridge, for the uninitiated, is Intel's next-generation processor technology that will feature improved graphics silicon, built-in support for USB 3.0, and Intel's 3D transistor technology, among others goodies.

Here's what CPU World says about the new chips due to be announced in the CES 2012 timeframe: "The third generation Core i7 processors will integrate 4 CPU cores, 8 MB L3 cache and … Read more

Cooking rarely results in the creation of one thing. At the very least, no matter the meal, a drink will be needed to wash it down. For example, a margarita to go with that fresh salsa.

Nobody wants to wrestle with countertop appliances when trying to forge an enjoyable meal, and one way to avoid the hassle is to work with gear that adjusts to your needs. The DeLonghi DFP250 Food Processor And Blender combines two of the most often-used appliances by offering interchangeable work vessels that attach to one common base.

In use, the machine offers a wide range … Read more

The University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) has contracted with Cray to provide the supercomputer for the National Science Foundation's Blue Waters project. That computer will tap AMD's new 16-core processor.

Blue Waters will be composed of more than 235 Cray XE6 cabinets based on the AMD's Opteron 6200 Series processor (formerly code-named "Interlagos") and more than 30 cabinets of a future version of the recently announced Cray XK6 supercomputer with Nvidia Tesla graphics processing units (GPUs), Cray said. All of this will be combined into a single, powerful hybrid supercomputer.

The … Read more

With the iPhone picking up steam as a gaming platform, one of the biggest announcements for gamers was that the iPhone 4S' graphics would be seven times faster than its predecessor's. Even though no developers have released a game optimized for the device so far (Infinity Blade II is set to launch December 1), I decided to put some of the more high-quality current games side by side on the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S to see if we could spot any difference.

The reason for all the extra speed is the iPhone 4S' dual-core A5 processor, which supposedly has enough horsepower to render complex 3D graphics with significantly high frame rates. This bump in processor power should become particularly apparent once we see some of the new games being developed for the device, but I simply didn't want to wait that long.… Read more