Intel responds to cooked power efficiency claims

LAS VEGAS--Intel came clean today about the power efficiency for the new Ivy Bridge chips announced at CES on Monday.

At its CES event, Intel claimed that new power-frugal Y series Ivy Bridge processors were rated at 7 watts -- a remarkable feat on its face, as that's 10 watts less than standard low-power Ivy Bridge chips rated at 17 watts.

It turns out, Intel did some fancy marketing footwork in order to claim the 7-watt rating, as Ars Technica pointed out.

Below is Intel's statement provided to CNET. The operative phrase is: "The TDP of the … Read more

Metrics for Intel's power-frugal Ivy Bridge chips questioned

The yardstick used for Intel's new power-frugal chips is being questioned in article posted by Ars Technica.

The article, titled "Power saving through marketing: Intel's '7 watt' Ivy Bridge CPUs," asserts that Intel may have been over-aggressive with its power-efficiency claims.

More specifically, the 7-watt Ivy Bridge processors Intel announced on Monday at CES are actually specified by Intel on its site as 13 watts, the article says.

"The 7-watt number advertised during Intel's keynote yesterday is actually from a new metric, 'scenario design power' (SDP), which purports to measure how much power the … Read more

Lenovo K900 taps Intel's first dual-core phone chip

LAS VEGAS--Lenovo's big-screen K900 smartphone is one of the first to integrate Intel's first dual-core Atom chip for phones. And includes an impressive camera too.

By smartphone standards, the K900 has a massive 5.5-inch screen 1080p IPS display. So, no better time to tap Intel's new chip to manhandle all the pixels in that giant display.

The Atom Z2580 roughly doubles the central processing unit (CPU) performance of Intel's single-core Medfield processor used in Lenovo's K800 phone. The new Atom silicon also boasts an improved graphics chip.

A few more deets on Intel's … Read more

Nvidia's CEO talks Shield with CNET: Yes, there will be future models

LAS VEGAS--Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang seems almost like a kid in a candy shop when showing off his new gaming device, codenamed Project Shield.

He couldn't contain his excitement during an interview with CNET today over the product's future -- including subsequent versions of the device -- and he was downright giddy when describing the features.

"I've been dreaming about this toy for a long time, and it's a toy that only a gamer could love," Huang said in the interview with CNET here at the Consumer Electronics Show. "It's not … Read more

Voice recognition will make touch obsolete, Intel exec says

LAS VEGAS -- Watch out, touch screens. You may be hot now, but one Intel executive predicts voice recognition will eventually make you obsolete.

Mooly Eden, the Intel senior vice president who oversees the company's "perceptual computing" operations, told CNET today that voice recognition will do to touch what touch has done to physical keyboards -- making many things unnecessary.

"Voice is the best means of communication between humans," Eden said. "We finally have enough compute power to do what we want from science fiction."

Intel is working with partners on complete systems … Read more

At CES, tablets go full-bore Core, get 'real' Intel processors

LAS VEGAS--With Intel now pushing its mainstream processors into tablets and convertibles, some PC vendors are opting for high-performance designs that offer no-holds-barred performance.

Lenovo is delivering probably the best example. The PC maker announced the ThinkPad Helix at CES (see video below) which is built around Intel's low-power "Ivy Bridge" Core i5 and Core i7 chips.

Surprisingly, Lenovo's Helix doesn't skimp on battery life, offering a total of 10 hours when used in conjunction with its keyboard base.

So, why would Lenovo stick an ultrabook chip in a tablet? Intel's most power efficient … Read more

Samsung's Stephen Woo at 2013 CES: Join us Wednesday, 9 a.m. PT (live blog)

Join CNET for live coverage of Samsung Electronics' CES 2013 talk by company President Stephen Woo, which starts at 9 a.m. PT Wednesday. Our live blog will bring you news updates, photos, and running commentary.

Samsung says Woo's talk will bring a number of announcements related to its memory, display, and chip operations.

Woo will be joined by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is also slated to speak. Samsung gave Clinton its Hope for Children Ambassador Award in 2011.

You can tune into the blog here:

CNET's live coverage of Samsung's 2013 CES press conference … Read more

Touch will be 'mandatory' for next-gen Intel ultrabooks

LAS VEGAS--Your next laptop may be touch whether you like it or not.

"To be an ultrabook with 4th generation core [processors], it will be required to have touch," said Kirk Skaugen, vice president of Intel's PC client group at the keynote today, referring to laptops based on Intel's upcoming "Haswell" chip.

That means all ultrabooks coming later this year -- likely in the summer timeframe -- will have touch, not as a feature, but as standard.

This will be a way for suppliers of Windows 8 ultrabooks to demonstrate that they have something … Read more

Qualcomm debuts chips with 75 percent better performance

LAS VEGAS--Qualcomm, the company that supplies processors for the majority of the world's cell phones, on Monday unveiled two new families of mobile chips with performance up to 75 percent better than their predecessors.

The Snapdragon 600 and 800 series processors are geared at premium mobile and computing devices. Importantly, the highest-end chips, the 800 series, include Qualcomm's newest 4G LTE technology that offers speeds up to 150 Mbps. That's a sharp increase from the prior-generation's data rate of up to 35 Mbps.

Both new processor lines also include the newest generation of mobile Wi-Fi connectivity, … Read more