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NXP's silicon fingerprinting promises to annoy the heck out of ID hackers
It's 2013 and white hat hackers like Adam Laurie are still breaking into ID chips that are supposed to be secure. How come? Partly it's the way of the world, because no man-made NFC or RFID security barrier can ever be truly impervious. But in practical terms, a chip's vulnerability often stems from the fact that it can be taken apart and probed at a hacker's leisure. The secure element doesn't necessarily need to have power running through it or to be in the midst of near-field communication in order to yield up its cryptographic key to a clever intruder who has sufficient time and sufficient desire to breach the security of a smartphone, bank card or national border. Which brings us to the latest device in NXP's SmartMX2 range -- a piece of technology that is claimed to work very differently and that is expected to hit the market next year. Instead of a traditional key stored in the secure element's memory, every single copy of this chip carries a unique fingerprint within the physical structure of its transistors. This fingerprint (aka Physically Unclonable Function, or PUF) is a byproduct of tiny errors in the fabrication process -- something chip makers usually try to minimize. But NXP has found a way to amplify these flaws in a controlled way and use them for identification, and it'd take a mightily well-equipped criminal (or fare dodger, or Scrabble cheater) to reverse engineer that.
MediaTek plans a tablet-focused processor for Q3
MediaTek may have only just reached quad-core smartphones in earnest, but its aims are expanding -- in a more literal sense. The company's Xie Qingjiang says that plans are underway to build a tablet-specific processor that would ship in the third quarter of the year. While other details are scarce, it's safe to say the chip will take advantage of all the extra breathing room for more performance. The real questions surround just who will use the new creation: there's no guarantee that Acer will find a fit for the design inside of its future 8- and 10-inch budget slates, for example. When MediaTek is seemingly making generational leaps in a matter of months, though, we suspect that there won't be a shortage of customers.
University of Cambridge chip moves data in 3D through magnetic spin
Chips that have 3D elements to them are very much real. Moving data in 3D hasn't been truly viable until now, however, which makes an experimental chip from the University of Cambridge that much more special. By sandwiching a layer of ruthenium atoms between cobalt and platinum, researchers found that they can move data up and down an otherwise silicon-based design through spintronics; the magnetic field manipulation sends information across the ruthenium to its destination. The layering is precise enough to create a "staircase" that moves data one step at a time. There's no word on if and when the technique might be applied to real-world circuitry, but the advantages in density are almost self-evident: the university suggests higher-capacity storage, while processors could also be stacked vertically instead of consuming an ever larger 2D footprint. As long as the 3D chip technology escapes the lab, computing power could take a big step forward. Or rather, upward.
Intel gets go-ahead for $4 billion chip plant in Ireland, will produce its next-gen 14nm processors
Intel has been planning to make its Ireland base one of three global manufacturing sites for its 14nm chips since May last year, and its now been given the okay by Ireland's lead planning agency. The new $4 billion plant will create around 4,300 jobs for the region in Co. Kildare, where Intel already has around 4,000 on staff. The two-year plan involves redeveloping its existing operation, expanding and shifting to make its smaller, more efficient 14nm process. Intel's plans don't stop there, however. It still plans to roll out 10nm products sometime in 2015.
Gartner report finds Samsung topped Apple as biggest chip buyer in 2012
They were neck and neck in 2011, spending 18.6 and 18.8 billion on semiconductors worldwide, but a new Gartner report out today finds that Samsung has pulled ahead of Apple as the world's biggest chip buyer by a decent margin. According to the research group, Samsung's chip purchases shot up nearly 29 percent to $23.9 billion in 2012, or 8 percent of the worldwide market, while Apple's purchases rose 13.6 percent to $21.4 billion, or a share of 7.2 percent. Doing that math, that means the two companies account for over 15 percent of worldwide semiconductor purchases (or more than $45 billion), with each well ahead of runners-up HP, Dell and Sony, who stood at shares of 4.7, 2.9 and 2.7 percent for the year. Despite the significant growth of those two leaders, though, overall semiconductor purchases actually dropped three percent in 2012 to a total of $297.6 billion. The biggest decline among the top ten companies? That would be Nokia, which fell from fifth to tenth place with chip purchases dropping a whopping 42.6 percent to five billion, compared to 8.6 billion in 2011.
TSMC to triple 28nm chip shipment this year, asserts confidence in 20nm demand
At yesterday's investor meeting in Taipei, TSMC's chairman and CEO Morris Chang shared the good news that his company's 28nm chip shipment this year will triple that of last year, which should boost its annual increase in revenue to above the industry's average rate of seven percent. China Times reports that orders for TSMC's 28nm silicon are lined up to as far out as late Q3, courtesy of demand for ARM processors, baseband chips, graphics processors and x86 processors. This is no surprise considering the likes of Qualcomm (Snapdragon 600 and 800), Huawei (HiSilicon K3V2 Pro and K3V3), NVIDIA (Tegra 4), AMD (Temash and Kabini) and possibly Apple will be ordering more 28nm-based chipsets from the foundry throughout the year. TSMC did struggle with its 28nm supply for Qualcomm early last year, but it eventually caught up later on, and Chang stated that TSMC now owns nearly 100 percent of the 28nm process market. Looking further ahead, Chang said his company's already seen enough clients and demand for the upcoming 20nm manufacturing process, which should have a more significant financial contribution in 2014. The exec also predicted that at TSMC, its 20nm production will see a bigger growth rate between 2014 and 2015 than its 28nm counterpart did between 2012 and 2013 -- the former should eventually nab close to 90 percent of the market, said Chang. [Image credit: TSMC]
Intel announces new Lexington platform: up to 1.2 GHz, supports 1080p video and HSPA+ data speeds
During Intel's press conference at CES 2013, the company outed a brand new platform for mobile devices known as Lexington (Z2420), intended mainly for smartphones headed to emerging markets. The Atom processor is optimized for Android apps and runs at up to 1.2 GHz with the company's hyper-threading technology. It supports dual 5- and 1.3-megapixel shooters with burst picture-taking at 7 fps, and it'll also decode and encode 1080p video at 30 fps; PowerVR's SGX 540 GPU will take care of graphics. The chip can deal with HSPA+ data speeds, microSD cards, dual SIMs (with dual standby), FM radio and WiDi streaming. It's already destined for handsets made by Acer, Safaricom and Lava. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
NVIDIA officially unveils Tegra 4: offers quad-core Cortex A15, 72 GPU cores, LTE support
One new SoC per year? That's what NVIDIA pledged back in the fall of 2010 and today at its CES 2013 presser, it delivered with the Tegra 4's official unveiling. The chip, which retains the same 4-plus-1 arrangement of its predecessor, arrives with a whopping 72 GeForce GPU cores -- effectively offering six times the Tegra 3's visual output and is based on the 28nm process. It also is the first quad-core processor with Cortex A15 cores on-board, and offers compatibility with LTE networks through an optional chip. NVIDIA claims this piece of silicon is the world's fastest mobile processor, and showed a demonstration in which a Tegra 4 went head-to-head against a Nexus 10 in loading websites (you can guess which one won). The Tegra 4 also introduces new computational photography architecture, which adds a new engine to drive the image processing and significantly improve the amount of time it takes to calculate the necessary mathematics 10 times faster than current platforms. To show off its power, NVIDIA demonstrated HDR rendering on live video. The chip is also capable of implementing HDR in burst shots and with LED flash. The idea, NVIDIA says, is to eventually make our mobile cameras more powerful than DSLRs, and this is certainly a step in the right direction.
Samsung's first 14nm FinFET chip promises substantial power savings
After confirming plans to expand its chip-making plant in Austin, Texas, Samsung's also taped out its first 14nm FinFET test chip. The new design (which is being compared with Intel's 'Tri-Gate' found on its Ivy Bridge hardware) promises to offer substantial power and performance improvements compared to existing designs, with low-leakage often mentioned in the same breath as the new silicon. Samsung's new test chip also involved ARM and Synopsis, and is a good sign that we'll be seeing its next-gen chips sooner rather than later.
Street Fighter X Mega Man's chiptune soundtrack now on Bandcamp
Street Fighter X Mega Man's superb chiptune soundtrack is now available on Bandcamp, complimenting yesterday's release of the game. Composed by San Francisco-based electronic music producer A_Rival, the 22-track album fuses Mega Man's sonic sensibilities with classic pieces of orchestration from Street Fighter's past.The soundtrack, which includes character themes and scores from the game's various menus, is being sold through Bandcamp's name-your-own-price model with a minimum price of $0.00. So, hypothetically, this could either be the cheapest or most expensive piece of music you've ever purchased. Regardless of which end of that spectrum you feel is most appropriate, at least do yourself the favor of downloading these sweet, chippy jams.
NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor details leaked: 4-plus-1 cores, 28nm, six times the power of Tegra 3
NVIDIA's next superhero-themed mobile chipset has possibly made an early appearance in a leaked side in China, and it looks like it wants to go toe-to-toe with the latest processors from Samsung and Qualcomm. The Tegra 4 (codenamed Wayne) will apparently offer the same power-efficient 28nm process found on its Snapdragon rival and according to the slide from Chip Hell, there's a dizzying 72-core graphics setup. That's six times as many GPU cores as Tegra 3 -- the processor found in the Nexus 7, for example -- and the increase is claimed to result in six times the overall visual performance. Those graphics cores will be able to feed displays of up to 2,560 x 1600, with 1080p output at 120Hz, while the leak also mentions 4K -- if only in passing. There's no increase in CPU cores this time, with the same 4-plus-1 setup , but we are seeing its move to ARM's latest design, the Cortex-A15. Tegra 4 will apparently also catch up with USB 3.0, being NVIDIA's first mobile chip to do so, alongside dual-channel DDR3L memory. We've reached out to chipmaker and we'll let you know when we hear more, but it's highly likely we'll be welcoming this next-generation processor early next year -- say, at a certain mobile trade show.
Leaked chart appears to spill beans on Intel's Haswell desktop CPU range
The folks over at VR-Zone have snagged a chart which purports to represent Intel's plans for the Haswell architecture in 2013. If genuine, then we can expect at least 14 new desktop CPUs to arrive next year, including a range-topping 3.5GHz Core i7 with 400MHz of headroom in boost mode and a TDP of just 84W -- i.e. midway between Sandy and Ivy Bridge in terms of power consumption, but not bad when you consider this'll be a higher performance architecture with no transistor shrinkage. Integrated graphics have also apparently been tweaked, with a reference to HD 4600. Since we can't expect Intel to confirm the leak, we'll just have to file this one in the "plausible" cabinet. (What, you didn't know we had filing cabinets?)
STMicroelectronics carves new strategic plan, exiting ST-Ericsson venture
STMicroelectronics may not be a household name, but it's a name that's stamped on quite a few gizmos that you and yours have probably handled. Going forward, however, the company is announcing a new "strategic plan" that'll key in on five growth drivers while waving goodbye to a jointly held venture with ST-Ericsson. Carlo Bozotti, President and CEO of ST, stated the following: "Today we are announcing the new ST, aligned with the new market environment. Based on that, we have made the decision to exit ST-Ericsson after a transition period. We will continue to support ST-Ericsson as their supply-chain partner, advanced process-technology partner and application-processor IP provider." From now on, the outfit will focus on MEMS and sensors, smart power, automotive products, microcontrollers, and application processors including digital consumer -- clearly, five areas where the tie-up with ST-Ericsson won't be necessary. Most analysts suggest that the two simply couldn't find a way to be competitive in the mobile chip business, with larger Asian and US-based rivals eating an increasing share of that pie. Moreover, the venture has been lagging ever since Nokia's smartphone downfall; as luck would (or wouldn't, depending on perspective) have it, Nokia was one of ST-Ericsson's bigger clients. It remains to be seen how many jobs will be lost due to this decision, and which of the remaining chip makers will be swooping in to buy up what's left.
Caltech wizards develop terahertz-radiating chips, eye homeland security and 'touchless gaming' applications
A duo of electrical engineers (or mad scientists, if you prefer) at the California Institute of Technology have developed chips that could very well end up in the next James Bond movie. Or, you know, real life. The newfangled chips are capable of generating and radiating "high-frequency electromagnetic waves, called terahertz (THz) waves, that fall into a largely untapped region of the electromagnetic spectrum." They can penetrate a host of materials without the ionizing damage of X-rays, and apparently, can be integrated into small, handheld devices. The university is already dreaming of potential applications -- everything from homeland security to wireless communications to health care, and even touchless gaming. In theory, this kind of work would eventually lead to noninvasive cancer diagnosis as well. The technobabble can be seen in full at the source link.
Broadcom outs Jelly Bean-optimized budget SoC with dual-core ARM processor, HSPA+
Broadcom's just added a new 3G SoC to its resume that promises a solid punch in performance without breaking the bank -- while being optimized for Jelly Bean, to boot. Dubbed BCM21664T, the chip packs a 1.2GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor accompanied by VideoCore graphics to give it the oomph to run Android 4.2 and support 720p recording and 1080p playback. As for connectivity, the silicon comes loaded with WiFi, Bluetooth and HSPA+, which garners downstream speeds of 21.1Mbps and 5.8Mbps upstream. Support for GPS and even NFC have also been rolled into the SoC. Broadcom claims the hardware is the first of its kind aimed at entry-level smartphones, and if things go the firm's way, the chip will make appearances in budget Android phones when it goes into volume production next year.
Intel launches 8-core Itanium 9500, teases Xeon E7-linked Kittson
Intel's Itanium processor launches are few and far between given that only so many need its specialized grunt, but that just makes any refresh so much larger -- and its new Itanium 9500 certainly exemplifies that kind of jump. The chip centers around much more up-to-date, 32-nanometer Poulson architecture that doubles the cores to eight, hikes the interconnect speeds and supports as much as 2TB of RAM for very (very, very) large tasks. With the help of an error-resistant buffer, Intel sees the 9500 being as much as 2.4 times faster as the Tukwila-era design it's replacing. The new Itanium also ramps the clock speeds to a relatively brisk 1.73GHz to 2.53GHz, although there will be definite costs for server builders wanting to move up: the shipping roster starts at $1,350 per chip in bulk and climbs to an eye-watering $4,650 for the fastest example. Anyone worried that Poulson might be the end of the road for Intel's EPIC-based platform will also be glad to get a brief reminder that Itanium will soldier on. The next iteration, nicknamed Kittson, will be framed around a modular design that shares traces of silicon and the processor socket with the more familiar Xeon E7. Intel casts it as a pragmatic step that narrows its server-oriented processors down to a common motherboard and should be cheaper to make. It's likely that we'll have to be very patient for more details on Kittson knowing the long intervals between Itanium revamps, but fence-sitting IT pros may just be glad that they won't have to consider jumping ship for awhile yet.
Mansfield may lead Apple away from Intel chips in Macs
Bloomberg is reporting that Apple's Technologies group, headed by senior vice president Bob Mansfield, is exploring advanced versions of the chipsets used in the iPhone and iPad lines for use in the company's future desktops and MacBooks. The outlet cites three people familiar with Apple's research initiative as confirming the plans. According to Bloomberg, the switch isn't likely to happen for at least a few years, but its sources insist that Intel getting the boot is "inevitable" as Apple eventually wants to put its desktops, MacBooks and mobile devices on equal footing in terms of capabilities and compatibility. This shouldn't come as a surprise to most Mac fans who've witnessed the steady increase in iOS features making their way into OS X in recent years. Abandoning Intel for its own internally developed silicon makes sense in terms of Apple's financial and patent interests. However, such a drastic move would have far-reaching implications for developers and legacy software, so it's not likely something the company is taking lightly.
Samsung launches $250 Exynos 5-based Arndale community board for app developers
If you're looking to create that perfect multi-threaded, NFC, GPS-based OpenCL app (and who isn't?), but found your development board options too limited, Samsung has good news. It's just launched the Arndale community development board around its Exynos 5 Dual SoC, with the ARM Cortex-A15 dual-core CPU and ARM Mali T604 GPU. Those specs give the board "an order of magnitude lift in performance" from the last model and full profile OpenCL capability, according to Samsung, on top of NFC, GPS and camera sensor features. That'll let developers go to town on new games, security and multimedia apps next month for $250 -- if that's you, check the PR after the break or coverage below.
TSMC's 28-nanometer process pays off as it rakes in $1.68 billion profit in Q3
Everything is relative, so when a chip foundry like TSMC (which produces gear for the likes of NVIDIA) has a bad quarter, that means it only made a $1 billion in profit. Today's numbers reveal that the company has managed to rescue its halting fortunes after turning over $4.8 billion and making a tidy $1.68 billion in profit. The cause of this upswing was that orders for its coveted 28-nanometer process doubled in the period -- repaying some of the $8.5 billion spent developing it and keeping profits just a little over that of its close pal, Qualcomm.
AMD FX-8350 review roundup: enthusiasts still won't be totally enthused
Now that AMD's fresh new FX processors based on the Piledriver architecture are out in the wild, the specialist hardware sites have seen fit to benchmark the top-lining FX-8350. Overall, the group feels that AMD has at least closed the gap a bit on Intel's Core juggernaut with a much better FX offering this time around, but overall the desktop CPU landscape remains unchanged -- with Intel still firmly at the top of the heap. Compared to its last-gen Bulldozer chips, "in every way, today's FX-8350 is better," according to Tom's Hardware: cheaper, up to 15 percent faster and more energy efficient. Still, while the new CPUs represent AMD's desktop high-end, they only stack up against Intel's mid-range Core i5 family, and even against that line-up they only edge ahead in heavily threaded testing. But if you "look beyond those specific (multithreaded) applications, Intel can pull away with a significant lead" due to its superior design, says Anantech. As for power consumption, unfortunately "the FX-8350 isn't even the same class of product as the Ivy Bridge Core i5 processors on this front," claims The Tech Report. Despite all that, Hot Hardware still sees several niches that AMD could fill with the new chips, as they'll provide "an easy upgrade path for existing AMD owners and more flexibility for overclocking, due to its unlocked multipliers." That means if you already have a Socket-AM3+ motherboard, you'll be able to do a cheap upgrade by swapping in the new CPU, and punching up the clock cycles might close the performance gap enjoyed by the Core i5. Finally, AMD also saw fit to bring the new chip in at a "very attractive" $195 by Hexus' reckoning, a much lower price than an earlier leak suggested. Despite that, however, the site says that AMD's flagship FX processor still "cannot tick as many desirable checkboxes as the competing Intel Core i5 chips." Feel free to scope all the sources below to make your own conclusions. Read - Tom's Hardware Read - Hot Hardware Read - AnandTech Read - Hexus Read - The Tech Report
