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MediaTek and Sunplus to offer Blu-ray Disc chipsets next year
While the average consumer won't care an awful lot about what goes into a Blu-ray Disc chipset, here's something anyone working hard for every dollar they earn can appreciate: more competition. Word on the street has it that both MediaTek and Sunplus Technology, two Taiwan-based consumer IC design houses, are fixing to certify their own Blu-ray Disc chipsets and to ship 'em as early as Q2 2009. The two outfits are expected to compete with Samsung and Broadcom, though there's no word yet on potential customers for their wares.
Analog Devices HDMI transmitter integrates CEC controller
This may not seem like much, but from an industry prospective, it has the potential to be huge. Analog Devices has just whipped up the industry's first Deep Color HDMI transmitter "to integrate a CEC (consumer electronic control) controller and buffer for high-definition audio / video devices." The Advantiv ADV7510 keeps all of the essentials on a single chip, removing the need for a separate CEC controller. The end result? A certification process that's much shorter, enabling manufacturers to get Blu-ray players, DVD players, receivers, etc. out to market faster. The best part is that said chip is available as we speak in production quantities, so we fully expect deck makers to hop on this and erase one more excuse from their delay board.
New Broadcom chip for phones does 802.11n, lots of other stuff
Phones have lagged -- understandably, we suppose -- behind desktops and laptops in bringing 802.11n to market, but it was bound to happen eventually; to that end, Broadcom has announced its BCM4329, one of the first mobile 802.11n solutions on the block. On top of delivering up to 50Mbps of real-world WiFi throughput on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, the darned thing throws in Bluetooth, an FM receiver, and an FM transmitter, too -- in other words, everything but the kitchen sink, where the "kitchen sink" is the cellular radio itself. Sadly, the 4329 sticks with single-stream transmission to conserve battery life -- no MIMO here, folks -- but considering the 802.11g alternative, we'll take what we can get. The chip's already being sampled (and hopefully being integrated into future products) by Broadcom's customers with mass production following on sometime in 2009.
DivX HD Certification given to Broadcom chips
As of now, it's still rare to find an HDTV with media streaming / playback capabilities built right in, but in preparation for the possible explosion of media-friendly sets, Broadcom has went and got a trio of its digital television (DTV) system-on-a-chip solutions certified for DivX. Yep, the BCM3548, BCM3549 and BCM3556 are all stamped with a DivX seal of approval, giving whatever HDTVs they land in the ability to natively play back streamed or local DivX / DivX HD files. Now, if only we knew which sets these chips were headed to (and when)...
Flying plasmonic lens system could lead to denser chips / disks
Last we heard, IBM was busy extending optical lithography down to 30-nanometers in order to keep Moore's Law intact, and some two years later, the process is still being honed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley. Reportedly, gurus there with IQs far greater than ours have developed a new patterning technique (plasmonic nanolithography) that could make "current microprocessors more than 10 times smaller, but far more powerful." Additionally, professor Xiang Zhang asserts that this same technology could eventually "lead to ultra-high density disks that could hold 10 to 100 times more data than disks today." The secret to the madness is a flying plasmonic head, which is compared to the arm and stylus of an LP turntable; the setup enables researchers to "create line patterns only 80-nanometers wide at speeds up to 12-meters per second, with the potential for higher resolution detail in the near future." In layman's terms? That CPU you purchased last month will, in fact, be old hat in due time.[Via Slashdot]
Broadcom packs Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and FM transceiver on 65nm combo chip
You can just tell from the wording in Broadcom's latest press release that it's still beaming from the late September court ruling involving it and Qualcomm, as we've never seen any one company so excited about a piece of silicon. The BCM2049 combo chip is built on 65-nanometer technology and combines Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and an FM transceiver in one convenient place. Obviously, the chip is being aimed at up and coming music phones, and it also features SmartAudio voice processing, Bluetooth audio streaming and an FM transmit function that will surely be next to worthless in mid- to large-size cities. Whoever made it onto Broadcom's early access list can get samples now, but you'll have to bypass the bouncer in order to get pricing.
Integrated circuit turns 50, now isn't that nifty?
Hard to believe that Jack Kilby's unsightly concoction (pictured above) turned 50 yesterday, but it's true. Half a century ago, Mr. Kilby crafted the integrated circuit, which ended up having a monumental impact on taking computers from warehouse-sized to, well, not-warehouse-sized. As the story goes, the very first microchip was demonstrated on the 12th of September in 1958, and it passed its first test: "producing a sine wave on an oscilloscope screen." Safe to say we all know how things progressed from there. Here's to you, IC -- and here's to 50 more.[Via MAKE]
Texas Instruments gets excited about energy scavenging
Texas Instruments has a lot to do with the original microchip, if for no other reason than being the employer of inventor Jack Kilby. Now, however, TI is looking to produce chips and other related gizmos that require an infinitesimally small amount of energy to operate. The overriding theme guiding the engineers is "energy scavenging," which alludes to grasping power from even the most unlikely of places -- vibrations from a bridge as cars pass over, capturing wasted exhaust from a car or bottling up all that frustration your sibling shows when you own him / her again in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The possibilities are just about endless, with networked battery-free smoke alarms, solar-powered mobiles and gaming laptops that feed off of extraordinarily focused brain waves in the mix. Okay, so that last one is still eons from reality, but at least we're headed in that direction.
Intel's dual-core Atom 330 processor to ship in Q4 2008
Bad news, Atom fans. That dual-core nugget of netbook-powering goodness that you were so looking forward to seeing in Q3 won't begin shipping until Q4. According to some data picked up by Fudzilla, the Atom 330 will only be debuting in Q3 (September 21st, to be precise), but it isn't scheduled to get a shipping label until a few months later. Also of note, we're told that the chip will sell (at some place in the supply chain) for $43, but don't count on those savings being completely passed onto you.[Thanks, sinai]
Microchip breakthrough could keep Moore's law intact (again)
We're pretty certain we'll be hearing this same story each year, every year for the rest of eternity, but hey, not like we're kvetching over that or anything. Once again, we're hearing that mad scientists have developed a breakthrough that makes Mr. Moore look remarkably bright, as a new approach to chip making could carve features in silicon chips "that are many times smaller than the wavelength of the light used to make them." Reportedly, the new method "produces grids of parallel lines just 25-nanometers wide using light with a wavelength of 351-nanometers," although the grids aren't functional circuits just yet. If you're interested in more technobabble on the matter, head on down to the read link, but we'd recommend against if you're easily frightened by terms like "photolithographic" and "nanotechnology."
CoAir: world's first UWB chipset with wireless, coax and gigabit Ethernet
Sigma Designs has been dabbling in wireless HD technologies for eons, so we aren't going to get too excited until we see this here system-on-chip (SoC) actually hit some products that we care about. Still, the CoAir is a fairly sweet concept, wrapping integrated wireless, coax and gigabit Ethernet capabilities into one single chip aimed at whole home networking. Put simply (or as simply as possible), this chip is the world's first to "simultaneously deliver multiple independent streams of video and data over coax cable, Ethernet cable and wirelessly without compromising quality of service and throughput." Based on the WiMedia standard, it can reach speeds of up to 480Mbps with UWB (ultra-wideband) wireless streaming, and room-to-room linkage via UWB-over-coax can peg those same rates. What we have here is a great basis for building a whole home server on, but until said device emerges and performs flawlessly, we'll just smile and carry on.
Intel Nehalem system demonstrated at Computex
It doesn't look as if much has changed with Nehalem since Intel showed the thing off at IDF, but rather than staring at still images and imagining just how fast said processor can churn through data, TweakTown hosted up a video to really get the point across. According to them, the demo setup was wicked fast at everything it did, and while representatives wouldn't divulge the clock speed, whispers have it right around 3.2GHz. Check out the vid just after the cut, and be sure to peep the full writeup in the read link below.[Thanks, Lin Mei]
Rumor: Xbox 540 (360 slim) in 2009?
In a follow up to the news that the 360's internal hardware will be changed to the "Jasper" setup, there is now the news that the "Valhalla" update mentioned in that story is more than just a CPU and GPU on the same chip. TG Daily thinks that the Valhalla chip will be the heart of a complete hardware revision in Fall 2009, ala the slimline PS2. While that would seem the logical course of action, all that we know for sure is that the Valhalla chip will indeed be used in the "mid-cycle refresh" of the hardware, and that it is in fact an "all-in-one" chip. Whether or not Microsoft will actually change the outer shell or not is unknown, and the Valhalla hardware update could come and go without changing the outer look of the console at all.
JVC's 8K4K D-ILA chip enables one display to produce Super Hi-Vision images
Well, excuse us very much. JVC just came storming through like a model on a runway with its all new D-ILA chip, and you can bet it's worthy of paying attention to. Just under a year after the firm unveiled its 4K2K D-ILA chip, it's now trumpeting the almighty 1.75-inch 8K4K, which touts the "world's highest 35-megapixel pixel count," which is roughly equal to 17x full HD resolution. Not impressive enough for you? It also gives whatever projector it's in the ability to display Super Hi-Vision imagery all by its lonesome. Sadly, JVC left us hanging when it came to finding out when this gem would be available in consumer wares, but there's still a few trade shows left to go this year for it to make an appearance.[Via AkihabaraNews]
Start-up debuts crazy new noise reduction tech for mobiles
A small company coming out of stealth mode at MWC this week is making some pretty wild promises about its new silicon -- and phone manufacturers must be buying the hype, because several have apparently have signed their names on the dotted line. The California start-up, Audience, is showing a 2.7 x 3.5mm chip that it claims uses some pretty wild algorithms to go beyond existing technologies like Motorola's CrystalTalk to reduce outgoing and incoming noise on calls by up to 25 decibels, enough to significantly reduce or entirely eliminate the sound of trains and yappy morons at Metro stops, car traffic, and loud music. The firm didn't disclose who its manufacturer partners were, only saying that there'd be further announcements later in the year. What's tha-- huh? No! We said, THERE'D BE FURTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS LATER IN THE YEAR.[Via New York Times]
Intel develops integrated WiFi / WiMAX / DVB-H chip
Intel, clearly not wanting to be left in the dust by the slew of new wireless technologies that are starting to converge, nasty-like, inside our shiny new devices, has begun testing on a chip which can effortlessly swap between WiFi, WiMAX, and DVB-H. The idea is that the chip's radio would talk to your WiFi at home, hand over the data to WiMAX if you hit the road, and also allow you to pull down digital television while staying mobile -- without having to use an array of separate radios or silicon. This should open up a whole new vista of possibilities for time-wasting activities, so whenever manufacturers want to get this into our phones / laptops, just say the word. We're ready.[Via Slashdot]
AMD delays Barcelona (again), turns attention to Brisbane
Oh AMD, you just can't keep it together, can you? Advanced Micro Devices, a company known for its share of "issues," has once again delayed its much-hyped, energy efficient Barcelona CPU. Apparently, a technical irregularity has caused the company to push back the release date for widespread availability of the chip until sometime early next year. The glitch, which causes the chip to fail, is just another line of setbacks on the product's path to release (originally set for mid-2007). John Taylor, a company spokesman, says, "We're continuing to ship it but only to specific customers." The company is offering a workaround for the chips until the problems are solved, though users will see an impact on performance. In other heart-wrenching (though seemingly unrelated) AMD news, the chipmaker has decided to re-up its older K8 architecture, refocusing on "Brisbane"-based chips, and even adding a few new models to the line. Over the next two quarters, the company will release 11 new 65nm chips based on the older format, while just three new entries will be made in the "Phenom" -- or K10 -- line. Look, Hector, everyone is pulling for you (except maybe Intel) -- just get it together, man![Thanks, Gary J]Read - A.M.D. Delays Energy-Efficient Chip AgainRead - AMD Resurrects K8 Architecture for 2008 Roadmap
Qualcomm intros new chipsets that handle Bluetooth, FM and GPS
Hot on the heels of its dual-3G Gobi chip comes a new trio of units from Qualcomm that cram a modem, multi-band RF transceiver, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, FM radio and GPS capabilities into a 12- x 12-millimeter package. The units support UMTS, HSPA and EV-DO (depending on which you select), and there's also an ARM11 CPU that hums along at up to 600MHz for processing applications. Furthermore, each chip can handle a 5-megapixel camera, VGA display and TV output, and in case you hadn't guessed, they're all fabricated using 45-nanometer technology. No word on where exactly we'll see these used, but samples are scheduled to ship out in Q4 of next year.[Via PhoneScoop]
IBM develops greener method for recycling silicon
IBM is looking to save around $1.5 million per year and be a kinder citizen to the environment by instituting a greener method for recycling silicon. Previously, IBM would sandblast defunct wafers to make sure no trade secrets left the premises when they were sold off to solar-panel outfits or used as "monitors." The new process, however, involves defacing the circuitry with an abrasive pad and water, which saves a few bills and leaves the silicon in much better shape for reuse. Reportedly, Big Blue has already implemented the new approach in its Essex Junction, Vermont facility, and the East Fishkill, New York plant is all set to follow suit shortly.
NTT DoCoMo cooks up low-power chip for Super 3G
In technology, speed is almost universally the enemy of power, and that rule certainly holds true in the world of cellular data standards. You heard it from His Steveness himself -- one of the main reasons we don't have a 3G iPhone on store shelves is because he isn't happy with battery life on HSDPA chipsets yet (consumers' opinions be damned, apparently), and in general, runtimes on 3G handsets large and small flag their 2G cousins, sometimes by a significant margin. Happily, the wiz kids at NTT DoCoMo are on the case, crafting Super 3G / LTE chipsets on 65nm dies capable of burning through 200Mbps at "sufficiently low power consumption" for mobile use. There's still no word on when NTT DoCoMo (or anyone else, for that matter) will be launching a commercial network at LTE speeds, but the company's hailing this latest batch of chips as a "milestone" on that journey -- and let's be honest, odds are good that Japan's gonna be rocking this stuff years before the rest of us anyhow.[Via PhoneMag]
