ARM
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AMD claims LG and Vizio are violating its graphics patents
AMD is one of the few remaining companies with a big stake in graphics hardware (it's powering the PS4 and Xbox One in addition to PCs), and it's determined to hold on to that stake however it can. In the wake of an earlier filing, the US International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate LG, MediaTek, Sigma Designs and Vizio for allegedly violating AMD's graphics patents. Allegedly, the visual processing in their devices (including phones, mobile CPUs and TVs) treads on AMD's concepts for unified graphics shaders and parallel graphics pipelines. AMD is hoping for a sales ban on any offending products.
Jon Fingas03.19.2017Apple's next custom Mac chip could do a lot more
Intel processors have powered Apple's Mac computers for over a decade now, but Apple has also found success designing its own A-series ARM-based chips for the iPhone and iPad. While the company isn't going to dump Intel chips in the Mac any time soon, a report from Bloomberg indicates that Apple at least intends to put its foot in the water and test out designing its own silicon for the Mac.
Nathan Ingraham02.01.2017ASUS' Raspberry Pi rival can play 4K video
Homebrew-friendly boards like the Raspberry Pi are great for do-it-yourself projects, but they seldom have the oomph needed to handle intensive tasks. That's where ASUS hopes to do better -- it quietly released its own device, the appropriately named Tinker Board. It's almost the same size as the Pi, but its quad-core Rockchip processor has the power to play 4K video and 24-bit audio. This might be your ideal hardware if you're building your own mini media center.
Jon Fingas01.23.2017Raspberry Pi gives its PC-on-a-stick a big speed boost
Raspberry Pi has taken its latest computing board and squished it onto the stick-sized Compute Module 3, giving it about ten times the power of the original Compute Module. Unlike the Raspberry Pi 3 upon which it's based, however, the device is built for industrial applications, prototypers and advanced hobbyists, not students or casual users. It can now play that part a lot better, thanks to a 1.2GHz Broadcom processor, 1GB of RAM (double that of the original) and upgradeable storage.
Steve Dent01.17.2017'Wolfenstein 3D' ported to Game Boy Color on turbocharged cart
Yes, that's a Game Boy Color cartridge sporting the Wolfenstein 3D logo. It's not just cosmetic, because a modder named Anders Granlund has built a playable version of the classic FPS for the ancient handheld console. To give you an idea of the degree of difficulty, Granlund designed and built a custom ARM-powered board to power the graphics, and built it into the cartridge. The final result is playable on any Game Boy Color.
Steve Dent12.19.2016Windows 10 is coming to Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile chips
Microsoft's first attempt at bringing Windows to ARM-powered machines was, shall we say, not a good idea. But perhaps the second time's the charm. Microsoft and Qualcomm just announced that Windows 10 is coming to the next generation of Snapdragon mobile processors. And to be clear, they're referring to the full version of the OS, with support for legacy Win32 software and universal Windows apps. It won't be a stripped-down affair like Windows RT.
Devindra Hardawar12.07.2016Republican congressmen question value of asteroid redirect mission
A pair of Republican congressmen, both of whom sit on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, contacted NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Tuesday, requesting more information from the space administration about a recent report supporting the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). The ARM program aims to intercept a near-Earth asteroid, grab a boulder from its surface using a robotic spacecraft and then coax said boulder into a stable orbit around the moon where it can be studied at leisure by future manned missions.
Andrew Tarantola12.02.2016Intel to manufacture ARM chips in a bid for mobile domination
Intel is flexing its manufacturing muscle in an attempt to get inside your next phone. To do that, it has entered a licensing deal with ARM, according to a report from Bloomberg. Without this license, excess manufacturing space goes to waste. But with it, Intel can make processors for Apple, Qualcomm and Samsung -- the biggest players in smartphones. This gives Intel a much-needed boost in the mobile space that it couldn't achieve on its own.
Timothy J. Seppala08.16.2016Softbank buys mobile chip designer ARM for $32 billion
Japan's Softbank, which owns US carrier Sprint and many other firms, is set to buy mobile chip company ARM in a blockbuster £24.3 billion ($32 billion) deal. The UK company designs the processors used in virtually every mobile device, including most models from Apple, Samsung and HTC. While it doesn't build them itself, it licenses the tech to Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung and others. If the deal goes through, it would be one of the largest acquisitions of a European tech firm ever, and a vote of confidence by Softbank in ARM's business in post-Brexit UK.
Steve Dent07.18.2016Segway creator's advanced prosthetic arm arrives in late 2016
Segway creator Dean Kamen's Luke prosthetic arm has been a long time in coming -- the FDA approved it two years ago. At last, however, it's nearly here. Mobius Bionics has revealed that it will offer the Luke arm sometime in late 2016. It's not clear what it will take to get one (you can register your interest today), but the features remain the same. The bionic wearable is all about offering the life-like dexterity that hasn't really been an option until now: you can hold a glass over your head without spilling it, for example, and the hand's mix of four motors and grip sensors can help you grab both very delicate and very heavy items. The odds are that getting one won't be trivial, but it might well be justified if it grants some extra freedom.
Jon Fingas07.11.2016Amazon robot challenge winner counts on deep learning AI
Amazon's robot Picking Challenge is back for a second year, and it's clear that the competition has learned a lot in that time... in more ways than one. The Netherlands' TU Delft won both parts of the challenge (stowing and picking warehouse items) with a robot that relied on the combination of deep learning artificial intelligence and depth-sensing cameras to get the job done. The machine studied 3D scans of the stockroom items to help it decide how to manipulate items with its gripper and suction cup. That adaptive AI made a big difference, to put it mildly. The arm got a near-flawless score in the stowing half of the event, and was over three times faster at picking objects than last year's champion (100 per hour versus 30).
Jon Fingas07.05.2016Tattoo artist's prosthetic inking arm is better than a real hand
If you wanted to be a tattoo artist but lost your drawing arm, what would you do? JC Sheitan Tenet has an answer: get a prosthetic arm that's better than flesh and bone. He teamed up with artist Gonzal on a steampunk-inspired limb that integrates an inking needle, a pressure gauge and piping. It's a makeshift combo of a regular prosthetic, a sewing machine and a turntable, but it's reasonably light and easy to use -- so much so that you might prefer JC's mechanically-assisted output over that of a good conventional artist.
Jon Fingas06.12.2016ARM prepares for VR in 2017's phones with new chips
Come next year, ARM has one major theme in mind for its next batch of mobile processors: virtual reality. Its new Cortex-A73 chip and Mali-G71 GPU are, naturally, faster than its current lineup. But more so than the past few years, where incremental improvements were enough, ARM sees VR as the ideal goalpost for its chips. The new Mali chip, for example, will be able to push up 4K screens with refresh rates of up to 120Hz (90Hz is the bare minimum for decent VR). And both new processors will also be easier on battery life, which means you'll be able to stay jacked into virtual worlds for much longer.
Devindra Hardawar05.29.2016NASA wants your ideas for its cube robot's arm
Think you could build a better robot arm than NASA? You now have a chance to prove it. The agency is teaming up with Freelancer to crowdsource ideas for the arm on Astrobee, a cute cube robot that will float around the International Space Station monitoring conditions and supplies. The first phase will have NASA pick the top 30 entries that meet some basic criteria. If you pass muster, you'll be asked to break down the architecture options for your design. Do that and NASA will run another crowdsourcing effort to solicit ideas for the subcomponents from those 30 submissions. Phew.
Jon Fingas01.19.2016ARM's latest design brings 64-bit processors to smartwatches
It's no longer hard to find 64-bit processors in smartphones. In smartwatches, though, they're still a rarity -- and ARM wants to change that with its new Cortex-A35 processor design. The architecture promises the most energy-efficient 64-bit mobile chips yet, sipping 32 percent less power than the mid-range A53 even as it outruns the Cortex-A7 it's meant to replace (6 to 40 percent faster). It's extremely scalable, too. You can build full-fledged quad-core chips for entry-level smartphones, but you can also strip things back to make tiny chips for watches and activity trackers.
Jon Fingas11.10.2015Eye-tracking robot arm lets you paint while you eat
One day, you might not have to even touch a canvas to make a masterpiece. Scientists from Imperial College London have developed a system that lets you paint hands-free through a combination of eye tracking and a robotic arm. All you do is adjust your gaze and blink at the right times -- you can even munch on breakfast while you're in mid-oeuvre. The technology is crude at the moment, but it should eventually become intuitive enough that you can focus on perfecting your style, rather than mastering the basics.
Jon Fingas10.25.2015ARM's latest graphics core will speed up your smartwatch
Let's be blunt: the graphics in most smartwatches suck. They're frequently limited to basic effects, and you'll sometimes see the kind of stuttering that has long-since disappeared on your smartphone. ARM aims to fix that, however. It's launching the Mali-470, a mobile graphics core that's virtually tailor-made for smartwatches, the internet of things and anything else where battery life is the top priority. The GPU supports the flashy per-pixel visual effects you see on modern phones (OpenGL ES 2.0, to be exact), but it uses half as much power as the long-serving Mali-400 even as it runs faster-- you could see lively 3D animations that don't kill your watch within a few hours.
Jon Fingas10.20.2015Meet the Micro:bit, the BBC's tiny programmable computer for kids
The Raspberry Pi has been a huge success story for Britain, giving millions of people an affordable way to tinker and learn with pocket-sized hardware. Now, the BBC is hoping to make a similar impact with the "Micro:bit." Like the Raspberry Pi, this tiny computer has been created to help youngsters learn the fundamentals of programming and computer construction. Today in London, the broadcaster unveiled the Micro:bit's final design -- a rectangular, credit card-style board measuring 4cm by 5cm -- and some of the all-important hardware features. These include 25 red LEDs, which can show messages and facilitate games, two programmable buttons, an on-board accelerometer and magnetometer. The device also offers Bluetooth LE connectivity, a microUSB slot and five input and output (I/O) rings that can be hooked up with crocodile clips and 4mm banana plugs. It's been a while since the original BBC Micro was considered cutting edge, but even so -- this new device is roughly 18 times faster and 67 times lighter than its spiritual predecessor.
Nick Summers07.07.2015ARM makes another stab at boosting the Internet of Things
ARM's been championing the Internet of Things for several years now, and for good reason: it's poised to win big as more devices tap its low-power chips. Last year it unveiled an Internet of Things platform, now at Computex it's targeting device makers and its chip building partners by announcing an IoT subsystem for its Cortex-M processors. Basically, that means it'll be easier for semiconductor companies to take ARM's designs and build chips that are ideal for connected devices, while also integrating ARM's mbed IoT platform. The company also announced its new "Cordio" low-power radio, which runs below 1 volt and packs in Bluetooth 4.2. Dipesh Patel, ARM's EVP of technical operations, noted that Cordio will be ideal for extremely low-power connected devices like beacons. All of this may seem a tad dull, but if ARM wants the whole Internet of Things ecosystem to take off, it's essential for ARM to make it as easy as possible to build for it.
Devindra Hardawar05.31.2015Smartphone chips are about to get better at gaming, Twitter and Netflix
There's been a lot of talk about how phones from certain manufacturers can sense when you're running benchmarking software and will artificially inflate their performance accordingly. It's been a problem for some time now, but the industry appears to be finding its own ways of dealing with the issue. ARM, the outfit that designs the bulk of the smartphone industry's chips, has teamed up with British startup GameBench to make benchmarks not only more honest, but also a lot more understandable.
Daniel Cooper02.26.2015