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Xbox One swings into full production for November release, gets a CPU boost
No amount of news about the Xbox One can compete with holding the console in your hands -- thankfully, production is now in full swing for the planned November release. This was announced by Xbox Chief Marketing Officer Yusef Mehdi at the Citi Global Technology Conference, where he also revealed that the final product will have a slightly faster CPU than expected. Instead of the 1.6GHz processor we thought the console would have, it will be equipped with a 1.75GHz CPU. We can add that to the list of things we've found out about the console these past two months, including its GPU clock speed boost, lack of external storage support at launch and ability to recognize up to eight controllers at once. While Sony already has a specific target date for the PS4 launch, Microsoft has yet to conjure up one for its newest console, although that could change at the Tokyo Game Show.
Sony PS4 dev kit FCC filing shows off extra ports, 2.75GHz max clock frequency
Sony proudly showed off its PlayStation 4 hardware for the first time at E3, and now we're getting a peek at what developers are working with this generation thanks to the FCC. The DUH-D1000AA prototype Development Kit for PS4 is listed in these documents, tested for its Bluetooth and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi radios. As one would expect, the diagrams show it eschews the sleek design of the consumer model for extra cooling, a shape made for rack mounts plus extra indicator lights and ports. Also of note is a "max clock frequency" listing of 2.75GHz, and although we don't know how fast the game system will run by default, it's interesting to hear what all that silicon may be capable of (as a commenter points out below, that may relate to the system's 8GB of GDDR5 RAM) while maintaining a temperature between 5 and 35 degrees celsius. Hit the link below to check out the documents for yourself, after seeing this and the system's controller become a part of the FCC's database all we're left waiting for is Mark Cerny's baby.
AMD Radeon HD 7970 could get 'GHz Edition', put the hurtz on NVIDIA
AMD's Radeon HD 7770 and 7870 reference cards already sport 1GHz clock speeds, but so far the high-end flagship 7970 has been stuck at 925MHz. That'd be no big deal, perhaps, were it not for rival NVIDIA's benchmark-stealing GeForce GTX 680, which autonomously adjusts its clock speed on the fly and easily hits 1.2GHz under the right conditions. But while NVIDIA has yet to roll out its full stack of 28nm cards, AMD is finding plenty of time to play catch-up. According to Australian site Atomic MPC, the company has revealed that the manufacturing process of its next-gen GPUs has improved to the point where the same average voltages can yield much higher clock speeds. Recent chips can reach 1.25GHz without struggling, which means a conservative "GHz Edition" of the 7970 can now safely be rolled out, of course with scope for much higher overclocking on third-party boards with more robust coolers. By the time the battle between Red and Green reaches full-swing, it might not be so easy to call a winner.
TSMC ramps 28nm ARM Cortex-A9 chip to 3.1GHz, gives your desktop jitters
We know TSMC's energy-miser 28-nanometer manufacturing process has a lot of headroom, but the company just ratcheted expectations up by a few notches. Lab workers at Taiwan's semiconductor giant have successfully run a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor at 3.1GHz under normal conditions. That's a 55 percent higher clock speed than the 2GHz maximum that TSMC normally offers, folks, and about twice as fast as a 40nm chip under the same workload. Don't expect that kind of clock speed from your next smartphone or tablet, though: expect processors of this caliber to find "high-performance uses," which takes us that much closer to NVIDIA's Project Denver as well as other ARM-based desktops, notebooks and servers that should give x86 chips a run for their money.
New iPad gets benchmarked: 1GB RAM confirmed, no boost in CPU speed
Not only did some lucky gents in Vietnam get their hands on the new iPad while most people are still refreshing their delivery status page, they were also kind enough to run some benchmark tests. The results confirm that the RAM has been upped to 1GB, with the Geekbench score settling at 756. The processor remains at 1GHz, again, which is what we expected, but puts the kibosh on any speculation that there might have been a slight bump in clock speeds. If you want to see the full breakdown, hit the source for the goods.
AMD Piledriver cores will clock over 4GHz, employ 'resonant clock mesh'
AMD's Trinity APU can do some remarkable things, but we still don't know exactly what magic ingredients make its Piledriver cores superior to the tepidly received Bulldozer. Now though, a firm called Cyclos claims it's supplying 'resonant clock mesh' power-saving technology for use in the new module. In speaking to the media, it's revealed that this will help to enable a "4+ GHz" factory clock speed, which sounds high if it definitely refers to an integrated chip with low-power credentials. As for the resonant clock mesh itself, it's a bit like KERS for processors: it recycles clock power instead of letting it dissipate and thereby enables higher clock speeds in "next generation SoCs that also require ultra-low power consumption." We also know that the technology is financially backed by ARM and Siemens and has seen precious little implementation prior to AMD -- which is fine, so long as all that resonance doesn't make our rig hum even louder.
Acer Liquid handled, evaluated, 'not too shabby'
Looks like quite a few folks have got their hands on the Acer Liquid as of late, and lucky for us they've been rather loose-lipped with their thoughts on the subject. As suspected, the handset is running a 1GHz Snapdragon that's been under-clocked to 768MHz. And it looks like Acer didn't go crazy with the User Experience either, pretty much staying true to its Google Android 1.6 roots, albeit with a number of additions, including: social networking integration (Facebook and Flickr contacts and photo sharing), nemoPlayer for multimedia files, DataViz for Microsoft Exchange support, and the Spinlets music streaming service. In addition, Acer has redesigned some of the widgets, including the clock and the task manager, which now includes a preview of open apps. All-in-all, it seems to be a pretty solid Android handset with a few useful additions -- but as always, the verdict is out until we get our hands on one. In the meantime, hit up the read links below for a generous helping of screenshots, hands-on pics, and impressions. [Via JK On The Run] Read - PREVIEW: Acer Liquid Android 1.6 WVGA Touchscreen Smartphone Read - Acer A1, Screenshot and Interface
Acer Liquid's Snapdragon processor to be clocked at just 768MHz?
Ugh. Just weeks after we figured that Acer's first Android-based handset would indeed ship with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a new slide over at an international Liquid presentation is suggesting otherwise. As you can clearly see above, it looks as if the Qualcomm-sourced CPU will be underclocked to just 768MHz, which makes little to no sense on the surface. Granted, most average consumers couldn't care less about the CPU in their next smartphone, but it seems reasonable to think that the Liquid will lag behind its 1GHz contemporaries when used side-by-side. Who knows though -- maybe this is just the thing necessary to squeeze a full week of battery life out of this thing. Or not. [Via MobileTechWorld, thanks Gully and Jose]
PSPgo packs a 480MHz processor, probably not crossing 333MHz mark
Officially, Sony's PSPgo is only clocking in at 333MHz like the rest of its brothers and sisters, but as the gang at Sony Insider found out in the FCC filing, the internal processor actually maxes out at 480MHz. What that means for gamers is probably nothing in the near future, since the firmware'll underclock it to standard speeds and we've seen absolutely no sign Sony's interested in releasing software exclusively for the UMD-less iteration at this point. Of course, the opportunity to capitalize on the upped hardware is gonna be there, and we still remember a noticeable difference in the technical quality of games released after Sony bumped its original PSP's clockspeed from 266MHz to its max 333MHz, but for now, it's just something to keep in the back of your mind. [Via Sony Insider]
PSP firmware 3.50 enables full 333MHz clockspeed
It may not be the long-rumored PSP redesign, but if you've got a PSP, it underwent a secret upgrade last month when you installed firmware 3.50. Sure, Remote Play is nice, but what you'd really like is a PSP that's instantly 25% faster. We're not talking about fancy new UMD drives, or faster processors; it's the same old PSP but Sony's uncapped the existing processor from 266MHz to 333MHz.Sony has confirmed to Shacknews that developers working on games currently in development (your existing games aren't going to run faster) now have access to the full CPU speed of the post-3.50 PSP. The clock speed was believed to have been limited previously to conserve battery power, leading to obvious speculation that this change would be made possible by a newly redesigned PSP, replete with increased battery life. If that's the case, what about these new 333MHz games running on our old battery-addicted PSPs?[Via PSP Fanboy]
