processors

A sturdy food processor on a kitchen counter makes for an impressive sight.

The large base has a weighty appeal and gives off a sense of efficiency. If the size doesn't impress you, the blades-in-waiting and protruding feeding tube will. And yet, even though these standard kitchen appliances look like they can handle any task, sometimes they are just too big and bulky.

Offering a nimbler approach to the prep work, the Cuisinart CSB-80 Smart Stick PowerTrio High-Torque Hand Blender packs a lot of versatility into one effective unit. The 400-watt stick motor attaches to a variety of accessories, … Read more

The popularity of Apple's iPad and iPhone is driving the shift of chip spending to wireless from computers, according to IHS-iSuppli.

Global spending by the world's top device makers on chips for wireless products amounted to $58.6 billion in 2011, up 14.5 percent from $51.2 billion in 2010, according to IHS iSuppli. As a result, spending for computers was topped by wireless, which became the world's largest semiconductor spending segment for device makers--aka, OEMs or original equipment manufacturers--in 2011.

Though this is not the first time wireless spending has exceeded that of computer-related spending (… Read more

ARM can thank the booming smartphone and tablet market for its solid fourth-quarter performance.

With its chips popping up in the iPhone and an array of other mobile devices, the U.K.-based company saw its pretax profit surge 45 percent to 69 million pounds ($108 million), while its sales rose 21 percent to $217 million.

But it's actually the royalties that provided the biggest boost. The company takes home a royalty for every ARM-based product sold along with a license to use its technology, notes the Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

As a result, fourth-quarter royalty sales grew … Read more

On Wednesday, President Obama is due to visit an Intel plant in Arizona. Here's why.

Obama aims to highlight manufacturing in America--one of the State of the Union's themes--and it's hard to find a better example of that than the world's leading chipmaker. Intel is now one of America's foremost manufacturers, boasting some of the most sophisticated manufacturing facilities in the world, many of them sprinkled throughout the U.S. 

Its development fabs (fabrication plants) in Oregon are the most cutting-edge of its leading-edge factories and have already received one presidential visit, in February … Read more

Owners of upcoming iPhone and iPads could enjoy a boost in graphics power 20 times greater than that offered by current models, according to enthusiast site AppleInsider.

Such a leap in power would come courtesy of new graphics processing units developed by U.K.-based Imagination Technologies, which builds the GPUs for Apple's mobile products.

Announced at CES on Tuesday, Imagination's new PowerVR Series6 GPU core chip family is touted as providing 20 times or more of the performance of the current generation.

As a result, "it enables Imagination's partners to deliver amazing user experiences in … Read more

LAS VEGAS--CEO Jen-Hsun Huang took the CES stage today and talked about three things: tablets, a surprise feature of Tegra 3... and cars.

Yes, cars. He explained that each car serves a different need. Just like each mobile device. "Different strokes for different folks," he said. Whatever you want, Android will make it possible.

Huang continued by showing off tablet apps enhanced by Nvidia graphics technology and highlighted Tegra 3 games found in the Nvidia Tegra Zone. He showed how a Tegra tablet can remotely connect to your PC via Spashtop, treats it like a server "and … Read more

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