instruments

At one time in the not-too-distant past, cell phone chips were an unknown quantity or, at best, given short shrift by cell phone providers and manufacturers. Not anymore.

The Apple iPhone and HTC Evo 4G from Sprint are two of the hottest phones on the market. And both companies advertise the processor prominently. Is this a coincidence? Intel, the largest chipmaker in the world, doesn't think so.

"As late as a year ago, consumers didn't care about the processing power in their smartphones. Today almost every store is advertising the CPU speed that's inside the smartphone,&… Read more

So, who makes the processor humming under the new BlackBerry PlayBook's hood? That important question was not answered yesterday when RIM announced the 7-inch tablet.

Yesterday, when Research In Motion co-CEO Michael Lazaridis unveiled the BlackBerry PlayBook during the opening keynote event at the DevCon developer conference, the dual-core processor was touted by Lazaridis as a marquee feature. But little else was revealed about what is probably the single most important piece of internal hardware.

Here's what we know about the tablet, due early next year in the U.S.: The PlayBook uses "1 gigahertz dual-core processors that take advantage of built-in symmetric multiprocessing," according to Lazaridis during the keynote speech. In symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), the operating system handles all allocation of threads, or tasks, to the processors. Most current high-level operating systems have built-in support for this mode of operation, according to a description of SMP on ARM's Web site.

That open-ended statement by Lazaridis presents a few possibilities that could fit the bill. Nvidia is shipping a dual-core Tegra processor and Texas Instruments has a dual-core OMAP processor due soon. Both chips--technically referred to as application processors--are based on the ARM Cortex A9 design and support symmetric multiprocessing. And Qualcomm will offer a chipset with a dual-core processor running at up to 1.5GHz next year.

Linely Gwennap, principal analyst, the Linley Group, said the only dual-core 1GHz ARM processor that is in production today is Nvidia's Tegra 2. He also cited TI's OMAP 4, which is due to enter production in Q4 this year as a candidate.

But RIM is a longtime user of application processors from Santa Clara, Calif.-based Marvell Semiconductor.… Read more

Intel said Monday it agreed to acquire Texas Instruments' cable modem unit as it tries to expand markets for its Atom processor line.

The acquisition is a good fit with Intel's CE line of system-on-a-chip (SOC) Atom processors, the company said. "The purchase enhances Intel's focus on the cable industry...where the company's expertise in building advanced system-on-chip products, based on Intel Atom processors, will be applied," Intel said in a statement.

Intel plans to combine TI's Puma product lines with Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS)-based technology (for defining compatibility between … Read more

Silicon start-up Smooth-Stone has received $48 million from a syndicate of investors including ARM, Texas Instruments, and Highland Capital Ventures.

Smooth-Stone's goal is to bring the virtues of low-power cell phone technology to servers and, as a result, bring down the staggering power consumption at large data centers. Mega data centers can house tens of thousands of servers and the largest can use between 5 and 20 megawatts of power. One megawatt, equal to 1 million watts, can power about 1,000 homes.

Smooth-Stone joins other start-ups such as U.S. Department of Energy-backed SeaMicro, which is using Intel'… Read more

Motorola's Droid X Wi-Fi hot spot feature is a remarkable new level of integration in a smartphone. But packing more and more high-function stuff into a small device has its trade-offs.

The Droid X appears to be a hit, with reports that it was sold out at many Verizon stores (indeed, my local Verizon store in suburban Los Angeles was sold out on the first day of sales). To recap quickly, Motorola's new high-end smartphone allows a user to create a hot spot, similar to the access point that patrons connect to when in a Starbucks. Except, of … Read more

The iPhone 4 is racking up the superlatives and sales numbers, but the Motorola Droid X is coming, packing one killer feature the iPhone lacks.

Let me begin with a caveat: The Droid X is still untested in the field, so we won't know until after July 15 whether it harbors any serious user issues. That said, it already has me drooling over its impressive feature set and design.

Though the 4.3-inch display (in the case of already-small smartphone displays, bigger is better), the Flash 10.1 support, DLNA streaming, and the Texas Instruments 1GHz ARM processor are … Read more

Thanks to a Green Day Rock Band tease, this was one of the least-kept secrets leading up to E3, but nevertheless, here's the visual proof: Rock Band 3 is getting itself a keytar. We felt certain enough to make it one of our "lock" predictions at this year's E3. Well, check that off the list.

EA/MTV/Harmonix's franchise already has 2,000-plus songs, a variety of discs, and a band full of instruments including guitars, bass, three-part microphone harmony, and drums. The newest game will have 83 songs from 83 bands and support for … Read more

IBM, Texas Instruments, Samsung, ARM, and others have formed a company to streamline development of products, such as tablets, on ARM processors.

Typically, companies wanting to develop for ARM processors--one of the most prolific chip designs in the world--need to wade through a morass of different operating systems and versions of those operating systems. Those include Google's Android and Chrome OSes, Ubuntu Linux, Palm's WebOS, and MeeGo from Intel and Nokia.

The new company, Linaro, is a non-profit software engineering outfit that intends to simplify the development process and is backed to the tune of "tens of … Read more

Recession got you down? Feel like destroying something? How about rocking out with a few power chords, and then destroying something? Well, the Smash guitar is for you.

The Smash is a real electric guitar designed to break apart into bits and pieces so you can impress audiences with your wanton destructiveness. Maker K's Japan says Smash has a "Special Empty Body" so it's light and easy to hurl and creates "a beautiful smashing sound" on impact. Hear the beauty right here.

Styled somewhat like a Telecaster, the Smash has a maple neck, a … Read more