i am really looking forward to replacing my SB notebook (17 inch) with a broadwell 15.6 UHD or similar display. any idea when broadwell mobiles are going to be out? i hope before year end.

by the way, don't forget that altera got some test-chips back on intel 14nm. i wonder what was on those chips. if they were full fpga test vehicles, i think they wouldn't be called test chips, eh?

the fad is dying, no one wants a tablet:

Digitimes Research: Global tablet shipments to rise in 2Q14

There will be 61.42 million tablets shipped globally in the second quarter of 2014, increasing 4.9% on quarter and 30.9% on year, according to Digitimes Research.


http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20140429PD214.html

Digitimes Research: Taiwan to see decreased 2Q14 notebook ODM shipments

Taiwan-based ODMs will ship a total of 33.476 million notebooks in the second quarter of 2014, accounting for 83.91% of global total. The volume will represent a sequential decrease of 0.7% and an on-year decline of 8.4%, according to Digitimes Research.


http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20140422PD204.html?mod=2

Let me know when your phone can hold a petabyte.

i hold my phone but my phone can't hold anything alas ...

just trying to return the humor you guys are supplying. you are the modern day luddites.

the important question what percentage of x86 users do any "real" computing. yes, a very small percentage of people do rtl simulations, pcb design, fpga synthesis, use solidworks, etc. but vast majority of current notebooks, and desktops are not used for "real" computing; email, web, presentation generation, and simple spreadsheets are all that's done. for these tasks, the most one can argue is needed is a keyboard (to increase convenience, not to make it possible) in addition to a phone or tablet.

i bet if intc had a large share in phone/tablet processor market, this group would be singing praises to the productivity enhancement of such devices.

as i said you guys are funny ...

it seems it's only real computing if it's done on an x86 (maybe intel x86?). i am sure mainframe guys and mini guys after them said the same thing.

Tesla seeing short production capacity, say Taiwan makers

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20140425PD209.html?mod=2

Wistron, Inventec to start ODM production of ARM-architecture servers for HP in 2H14
...
Wistron and Inventec will begin ODM production of ARM-architecture servers for Hewlett-Packard (HP) in the second half of 2014, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.

Some component makers will start shipping products for HP's ARM-based servers in May.
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20140423PD205.html

Beyond enabling a stronger competitive position for Samsung in mobile devices, we continue to view TSMC disruption as a positive for MU, SNDK, and INTC.

how is another 14nm foundry positive for intc? just because it suppresses tsmc revenues and future expansion?

interesting google job:

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/11290937?trk=job_view_browse_map

so this is why xilinx is bypassing 20nm for next gen zynq and going directly to 16nm. i wonder when we'll see a 14nm part from altera.

Anyway, Intel really needs to take care of its high end if they want to continue to charge a premium there. They need to advance their cores much faster than they did in the past (e.g. +10% Haswell). Maybe they should consider having a beefed up high end core which doesn't care about power consumption, e.g. for hardcore gamers, workstations etc. The Haswell successor could then be used for the tablet, Ultrabook, notebook and all-in-one segment.

there is no competition in x86 anymore so performance increase there is almost gone. haswell successor is mostly a known quantity (broadwell) which will be released in 4q14/1q15 and it is most probably no more than 5% faster in cpu. i haven't upgraded from my sandy bridge notebook but finally broadwell will bring enough cumulative reasons to upgrade. i don't think i am unrepresentative.

no update on when altera 14nm parts will be available though. xilinx is already selling 20nm tsmc parts and getting ready for 16nm parts next year.

Taiwan market: Retailers placing rush orders for 2-in-1 devices for 2Q14

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20140324PD205.html?mod=2

High-end 2-in-1 devices are also seeing their prices drop rapidly with 13.3-inch model average prices approaching US$600 and 10-inch models US$349-399, the sources noted.

However, the sources said that 2-in-1 devices are unlikely to help the overall PC market grow as sales are replacing those for traditional notebooks.

dipped my toes in intc & amcc this morning. 28nm xgene which is coming out soon might be interesting.

there you go:

https://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/ipad.jsp

it got this rating:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415658,00.asp

there are 32 reviews on the apple appstore so some people have already used it. apple doesn't show download numbers so it's difficult to know how many actually downloaded it.

Here's my very conservative definition of 'real work': filing your own US tax return.

by your definition 61% of people don't do real work because they use a tax preparer: http://www.efile.com/efile-tax-return-direct-deposit-statistics/

msft is up almost 4% on talk of office for ipad. does this mean tablets are no longer toys but can be used for real work to produce content? if ms office runs on arm cpus as successfully, why does one need an x86. is msft throwing in the towel for wintel? does one need a notebook for anything anymore?

Porsche to Replace 911 GT3 Engines Following Motor Fires

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-18/porsche-to-replace-911-gt3-engines-following-motor-fires.html

i guess it's difficult to design a powerful car.

MEA tablet market sees explosive growth on back of strong consumer and corporate demand, says IDC

The Android operating system maintained its lead in the region, with 2.8 million units shipped during the quarter, up 16% from the third quarter of 2013. Apple's proprietary operating system, iOS, on the other hand experienced a decline over the same period, as the new iPad mini with retina display and the iPad Air did not take off as well as expected. Windows OS lost considerable share in the fourth quarter of 2013, experiencing a strong double-digit quarterly decline as vendors placed more focus on Android-based tablets.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20140310PR200.html?mod=2

actually msft doesn't need goog to support android apps on windows. they can add a linux vm player with android installed. whether it will have access to google app store is another question though.

time to buy some intel ?

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20140307PD203.html?mod=2

the christianpost link they have actually says this: " The Nexus 8 is rumored to sport a 64-bit Snapdragon 805 processor to compete with these existing devices."

Now go find software to run on your "almost as good as x86" ARM box.

the vast majority of the cores google, facebook, yahoo, apple, twitter have are running software which these companies themselves compiled from source they have written. if there is any advantage to the arm boxes, you can bet a lot of cookies these software will be ported to them very fast if they haven't been already.

The world's leading contract microchip maker started producing the A8 -- Apple's latest of the line of processors tipped to power the expected iPhone 6 -- last month, the Taipei-based Commercial Times reported, citing supply chain sources..

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/technology/taiwan-s-tsmc-reportedly/1021440.html

was this reported here:

http://www.uforadio.com.tw/modules/newbb/print.php?form=2&forum=116&topic_id=164925&post_id=940635

do you really think that that 48mhz limitation has anything to do with the capability of the process or design?

A lot of folks claiming Intel will be booted out of the Macs thanks to an upcoming A8...:-P

my take on this issue is this: will apple make a 13" device with a8 in it or will it make a 10" device with an x86 in it.

if ipad pro gets an a8 with an updated ios having more multitasking support and other features to make it closer to a productivity os, what does that say about future direction?

do people find it interesting that nasdaq is up 1.75% but INTC is up only .2% ?

with a 1920x1080 display and 8.5 hours of battery life ?

one can set all kinds of artificial limits to their own life. it doesn't mean those limitations exist in reality.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2014/03/samsung-chromebook-2/

The post that I referred to had the phone plugged in on the bottom of a laptop.

so your problem is that you can't hold the phone to your ear? there are $2 things called earphones you know. or a slightly more expensive bluetooth wireless earphones. i suggest you try either option. this is what i do when i am in a public place. when i am at home, i am on speakerphone with either my cellphone or skype on my notebook.

Not if you use Verizon.
You can not do voice and data at same time on Verizon.

This points out a real strong case for PC's.

no, it points outs a case for a non-verizon carrier

If you are not in cell coverage or WIFI, your phone is useless,

how is that different from pcs? again on my phone, i can create emails and edit them, keep them in draft/outbox and send them when connectivity returns.

One of the problems with this dual-usage scenario is if you want to take a phone call while it's in use as your laptop.

what kind of problems do you anticipate?
i can already take calls while i browsing the net on my cell phone or when i am on a call, change to my browser and do a search on the net for an address etc still on the call interacting with both the caller and the onscreen keyboard etc. a cell phone is basically linux running apps on top of a specific class libraries. the phone app is just one of these and it cooperates with the rest of the os nicely. same with ios.

Seems like a test chip, not a production product

of course it's a test chip and not a production part. can you imagine how embarrassing it would've been for intel if arm/tsmc had taped out a 16nm finfet production soc now? they could've started selling it before intel 14nm socs. the fact that such a test chip exists is the news. 4q04 or 1q05 production?

as reported here google is building their own cars: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/24/google-to-build-its-own-driverless-cars/

there is not going to be any google/tesla deal.

Nobody is gleeing

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/glee?s=t.

i can't tell if anyone is actually gleeing but it is certain that some people is showing glee


Good. It's nice to see the ever-arrogant Samsung get its comeuppance

they did ok for a long time with just samsung. they are just transitioning to tsmc and samsung have its yield issues. i don't think this is just a coincidence.
maybe apple is more aware at what samsung and tmsc are capable than most realize. we'll see if samsung can deliver anything at 14nm next year. or tmsc at 16nm.

i think most of the posters, in their glee for samsung yield problems, are overlooking the fact that it seems tsmc can make enough a8 in their 20nm process in 2014 and a9 with 16nm in 2015.

maybe the thinking is is samsung is having yield issues, tmsc must be too and apple won't be able to find anyone to make their chips?

i am assuming that you realize all 4 die images are identical in content except the size, ie they are just scaled versions of each other; which is probably why you think they represent actual size scaling, yes?

Intel Brushes Aside Rumor of 14nm 'Broadwell' Delay

what they said is not a denial of the delay. digi claims they delayed from q3 to q4. they keep saying "we'll ship later this year". q4 is later this year, so is q3.

also if i remember correctly there was a mention of q1 production not being inventoried because they weren't fully qualified or some such language. i wouldn't know what that means of course.