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Intel's full Atom 'Bay Trail' roadmap leaked: 22nm, Ivy Bridge graphics, quad-core
We saw a leaked hint of what was coming for Intel's Valleyview system-on-a-chip (SoC), but now the full plan appears to have been outed by Chinese blog Expreview. The lineup will feature four models of the 22nm chips, with the D- and M-series looking to replace the Cedar Trail 32nm SoC chips used in current netbook and low-end desktop devices. The I-series is for embedded and industrial use, while the T-series would appear in tablets and other small form-factor devices, according to the leaked slides. That model would supersede the Clover Trail SoCs, which are only just arriving themselves in upcoming Windows 8 slates like the Acer W510 or Asus Tablet 810. The chips should offer a burly horsepower bump over their predecessors, with up to four cores and clock speeds topping out at 2.4Ghz. The icing on the cake will be the integrated Gen 7 graphics engines of Ivy Bridge fame, featuring the same HD 4000 and HD 2500 GPU's as the grownup chips, but with only four "execution units" instead of the 16 you'd find there. That would offload functions like video decoding and 3D rendering from the CPU and allow simultaneous display to a TV or monitor. Bay Trail would also support 8GB of DDR3 RAM, double that of the "last" gen, as well as USB 3.0, SATA 2.0 and a host of other connection options. If the leak is accurate, the processors would arrive sometime next year, we'll just have to wait and see if that's soon enough for Intel to take a run at its formidable competition.
Isis mobile payment system primed for September launch, supported devices revealed
You've known it was coming, but Isis has been so quiet on the mobile payments front in the past few months that you might've forgotten the score. Now, the joint venture backed by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon has announced that it'll debut its system in Austin and Salt Lake City next month. At least part of the delay is attributed to its shift in strategy, when Isis shelved its plans to process payments through the carriers themselves and instead work with MasterCard and Visa. Isis representatives have declined to elaborate on future expansion plans. Coinciding with the recent update that enabled Isis support for T-Mobile's Galaxy S II, MasterCard has come clean with a list of devices that'll receive similar treatment. Specifically, those in the US can expect the Droid Incredible 4G LTE, One X, Amaze 4G, Galaxy S III to gain Isis support. Naturally, the possibility remains open for other devices as well, and if you'd like to see the complete list of candidates, make sure to check out the PDF below.
The Mog Log: The calcification of Final Fantasy XI
Over the last couple of months, I've been trying something different. As I mentioned back in my anniversary column, I spent a year trying out a strictly alternating format for Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV, but it wasn't working out to my satisfaction for a number of reasons. Backing off and focusing on the game with more activity seems to be working quite well (from my perspective, anyway), but it also means that I haven't really been discussing Final Fantasy XI much. This isn't entirely by coincidence, as the game itself hasn't changed much over the past several months. In an earlier column, I had mentioned that the roadmap made it pretty clear that if change was on the horizon, we wouldn't be seeing it until the new roadmap finally came out. And here we are, one new roadmap later. So what do I think? Is this the promised vision of the future, the prophecy to lead us all into a new era of joy and light across the game's continents?
Leaked T-Mobile roadmap outlines Ice Cream Sandwich updates, new myTouch devices
Looks like our friends over at TMoNews have unearthed a roadmap with some tasty morsels of info about what's coming down the pipe from T-Mobile USA in the next few months. Of course, none of this is set in stone or even confirmed, so take it with a grain of salt. Most interesting is a pair of dates for Ice Cream sandwich updates, with Magenta's Galaxy S II slated to receive Android 4.0 on May 14th, followed by the Sensation 4G and Amaze 4G getting ICS (with Sense 3.6, presumably) on June 16th. A bunch of device launches from Samsung and Huawei round up the list of dates, with no sign of HTC's One X, Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S III, or T-Mobile's rumored Galaxy Note variant. Sadness. Check out the entire bounty below. May 9th: Huawei Astor (low-end phone for 7-Eleven) July 11th: Huawei Buddy and Phoenix (myTouch QWERTY and slate, respectively) July 11th: Samsung Gravity TXT (new color) Aug 1st: Samsung T159 Cacao (low-end handset) Aug 15th: Samsung Apex Q (mystery device)
Lenovo roadmap outs Intel Chief River Ivy Bridge-equipped laptops for June 5th
Has the anticipation of finding out when Intel's Chief River Ivy Bridge chipsets might finally become available got you all hot and bothered? Well, here's something to cool you down a bit, for now. A product roadmap from Lenovo explicitly lists June 5th as the official on-sale date for its apparently upcoming, yet still unannounced batch of laptops equipped with the silicon. As is still the case, the flow of information from Intel about its Ivy Bridge offerings has been less than a trickle -- if only the company itself would detail an official rollout date on its own for the stuff. You'll find the full document at the source link below, with the juicy details on listed on page 33. [Thanks, Brett]
Leaked Microsoft roadmap reveals Office 15, IE 10 and Windows Phone details
If it's accurate, then this leaked Microsoft roadmap has revealed the company's plans for many of its forthcoming products. Here's the basics: Internet Explorer 10 is due part-way through the year, at the same time that we hope to see Windows 8 appearing. Office 15 will enter beta-testing partway through 2012 and become "available" next year, but that's no sure sign of a release date. On the Windows Phone front, there's a launch expected in the summer that's labelled as "future investments," which we can only hope is a euphemism for Apollo. Oh, and any Silverlight fans better pour one out for their beloved flash-killer: nothing was marked on its timeline after the December 2011 release of Version 5. After the break we've got another shot of the internal document that Windows fans will spend the next few days analyzing with Zapruder-esque fervor. [Images courtesy of Maarten Visser]
Reported Tegra 4 roadmap hints at LTE, Q1 2013 release
Time to put on our "skepticles" as we pore over some reportedly leaked Tegra 4 details. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang went on record saying that we could expect a new Tegra "every single year", so if anything, the fourth iteration of the series is slightly overdue. Chinese site VR-Zone, however, thinks it's got the inside skinny on how the next deployment might look. If its alleged roadmap leaks are to be believed, there will be four variants, three with a quad-core ARM Cortex A15 configuration, with clock speeds from 1.2 to 2.0GHz. What caught our eye a little more, though, was the "SP3X" flavor. Not because it favors the A9, but because it appears to bring LTE to the table right off the bat. That said, given that it's not that long since NVIDIA announced the same for Tegra 3, we can't help but wonder if something just got lost in translation.[Thanks Rizwan]
Intel leaks: ValleyView chip could bring 4x graphics boost to netbooks in 2013
One of many reasons to still be excited about Ivy Bridge is the integrated HD4000 graphics, which are zippy enough to handle Skyrim at modest settings. Desktoppers may not be so enthused if they stick to discrete GPUs anyway, but the potential for better graphics in cheaper, low-power mobile PCs is huge. That's why we're hyped to hear talk of a forthcoming 22nm "ValleyView" processor, described by Intel insider Jesse Barnes as a "CedarView-like chip but with an Ivy Bridge graphics core". That implies HD4000 may not only be destined for desktops, laptops and Project Fionas, but for future netbooks too. Meanwhile, leaked slides (shown above and after the break) from an outfit called Advantech spill more beans. Listed under a chipset codenamed "Balboa Pier", the Cedar Trail successor is described as fanless, packing "4x Gfx performance" compared to current PowerVR-equipped Atoms, and scheduled to arrive early next year. Will it be enough to bring netbooks back into vogue? It can't hurt.
Malata's 2012 / 2013 roadmap reveals a very tablet-friendly future
Chinese manufacturer Malata is relatively unknown in the tablet universe, as it hasn't been in the spotlight since showing off its SMB-A1011 back in 2010. Now, the outfit's quietly unveiled a roadmap that's got more than a handful of noteworthy slabs in sight. The company plans on launching a variety of Tegra 3-packing slates dubbed SMB-B1023, including a 7, 9.7 and 10.1-inch version, all of which are said to be sporting ICS. Furthermore, Malata plans to rollout port-heavy variants of the aforementioned that'll be rocking USB, mini-USB and card reader ports, though these won't be tasting any Ice Cream Sandwich. While tabs are obviously the main focus, the company's also planning to bring along a 5-inch handset blessed with Gingerbread to compete with the likes of the Galaxy Note or that shiny new LG Optimus Vu. Let's hope Malata makes a MWC appearance so we can give some of these our full hands-on treatment.
Flash roadmap reveals new features, improved GPU support, lack of retirement plans
Flash for mobile may just be a spectator at its own wake at this point, but the desktop browser plug-in is still alive and (reasonably) well. In fact, Adobe has a host of plans for its flagship multimedia platform, as outlined in its 2012 roadmap. It all starts with 11.2, which should be landing sooner, rather than later, with support for right and left mouse clicks, multithreaded video decoding and improved GPU acceleration support. That will be followed by Cyril and Dolores, which will also expand the list of hardware-accelerated video cards, as well as improve overall performance and add a few welcome tweaks, like supporting keyboard input in full screen mode. Finally, in 2013, we'll see the debut of Flash Next -- a completely overhauled platform with major updates to the runtime core and ActionScript language that are designed to "meet the needs of developers over the next five to 10 years." Check out the source for full details but, be warned -- it's PDF only.
Fujitsu roadmap hints at Windows 8 arrival in Q4, reveals Ultrabooks and slates too
This slide was reportedly displayed at a press conference yesterday, but perhaps it gives away a little bit more than Fujitsu -- or at least Microsoft -- would have intended. The box on the far right appears to show a tablet with a Metro-style UI and it clearly says "Win8 Launch" and "Q4 2012," even though there is still no official launch schedule for the operating system. Of course, the slide might specifically be referring to the introduction of a Fujitsu tablet running Windows 8, in which case the OS itself may be planned to launch earlier -- and indeed previous leaks and rumors have suggested the new Windows will be a summertime baby.In other news, the slide also notably shows two Ultrabooks planned for May, perhaps taking the little and large approach we've seen from Samsung, as well as a hybrid slate and possible Transformer Prime rival, due in September. Will it be enough to reverse the manufacturer's fortunes?
NVIDIA's 2012 Kepler lineup revealed (possibly)
As usual, it seems like whenever a big chip company wants to keep those key details under wraps, someone leaves a spreadsheet lying in a bar. Of course, the following information could be the product of a vengeful former employee mashing at a keyboard, so let's agree that these are rumored details until further notice. NVIDIA's whole range of Kepler-powered graphics cards will be PCI-E 3.0 compliant, with the GTX690 topping the group at $999 when it arrives in Q3 of this year, while the modestly-priced GTX640 will retail for $139 when it arrives in May. If you'd like to drill down into the specifics of all eight cards purportedly on offer for 2012, we've got all the details in a handy chart nestled just after the interval.
AMD reveals its 2012-2013 roadmap, promises 28nm chips across the board by 2013
Ready for a bevy of more exotic-sounding codenames from AMD? Well, have a seat, as the maker of everyone's favorite APUs just revealed its roadmap extending through 2013. And folks, it's quite the doozy. But before we delve into its technical intricacies (which you'll find tucked after the break), we'll begin with some general takeaways. Per CEO Rory Read, 2012 and 2013 are "all about execution," with the company girding itself for the next "inflection point" where it'll excel. The key to this strategy, as he describes it, is to continue marching towards a full-SoC design that will cover a host of devices running the gamut from mainstream laptops to tablets and so-called Ultrathins, the company's forthcoming answer to Intel's Ultrabook onslaught. During its announcement, timed to coincide with AMD's annual financial analyst day, the company also stressed its unique position wedged between Chipzilla and makers of ARM chips. Ask Read and he'll tell you that's a key advantage for AMD, that its CPU and GPU IP will bring more value through a better overall experience in the market. That's a strategy less obsessed with raw specs and sheer speed and more focused on a holistic package. Senior VP Lisa Su said AMD will aggressively enter the tablet arena this year in a big way, reiterating that AMD-based Windows 8 slates are indeed en route, though she stopped short of giving an ETA. Finally, the company's renewing its focus in the server market, as it seeks to cut a larger slice of the cloud computing pie. That's AMD's 2012 / 2013 plans in a nutshell, but if you're the kind of person who likes a few technical specifics (and who doesn't, really?) meet us after the break for a peek at what's in store.
MasterCard reveals roadmap for our electronic payment future: EMV in, magnetic strips out
It's been over fifteen years since MasterCard, Visa and Europay developed EMV technology to make your credit cards more secure, but it has yet to really catch on here in the US. However, MasterCard has created a master plan to help usher in the EMV era and sound the death knell for the magnetic strip. Why? The EMV infrastructure is far more fraud-resistant because each transaction is authenticated dynamically using cryptographic algorithms and a user-specific PIN. That's why MasterCard plans to help build out the EMV POS infrastructure by April of next year and have its secure e-payment system functioning at ATMs, online and with its myriad mobile payment options as well. For now, the nuts and bolts of how the credit card firm plans to bring its plan to fruition are few, but more details will be forthcoming, and there's a bit more info at the source and PR below.
Leaked Sony image: Is this the ST25i Kumquat?
What's this? If this is true, it looks like one of the jilted partners in the Sony Ericsson split is doing all it can to ruin the nice surprises planned for next month's MWC. An image has appeared at Xperia Blog that purports to be of the ST25i Kumquat, which, if you've been paying attention is the cheapest of the three phones due in April listed on the leaked roadmap from a few days ago. The design language matches the Nozomi and the Xperia S we played with at CES, but the on-screen icons are clearly bigger: pointing us in the direction of this having a cheaper display (with a worse resolution) than its brothers. Don't let that Sony Ericsson logo fool you either, the company's producing versions that bear both branding, at least for this set of releases. We're off to grab a microscope and see if we can't glean any more facts from the snap.[Thanks, Joseph]
Leaked Sony 2012 smartphone roadmap reveals potentially birdy, minty flagships
Grab a bowl of salt and start pinching, folks. A sales report for Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications India is floating around the internet that's purportedly packing a list of 2012's planned handsets along with suggested pricing. The 11-strong list is in Rupees, and whilst we've reproduced it in full above, it's worth bearing in mind that cellphones in the "developing world" (no offense intended) are often more expensive than the equivalent handset in the US (the 16GB iPhone 4S, for example costs $650 in the US but $882 in India). The "Pepper" codename seems to tie in with what we've been expecting, but the Nypon blurrycam images we've seen don't follow the company's 2012 design language -- so we doubt they're real. That said, it's clear that a pair of flagships will arrive in the second half of the year: the code-names don't shed too much light, since Hayabusa means "Peregrine Falcon" and Mint -- well, we can hardly expect Sony to produce a phone with a built-in breath freshener, can we?
ASUS says the Transformer Prime won't do 3G, time travel and lasers still on the table
ASUS gave you the Transformer Prime TF700T and a frosty injection of Ice Cream Sandwich -- what more could you possibly want? 3G on your convertible tablet? Listen, ASUS has needs, too. The company has rebuked reports that such a device would be heading our way in the first quarter of 2012 -- or at any point in the foreseeable future -- have been greatly exaggerated. According to a statement by the company, "no such product exists on its current roadmap" -- and keep in mind, that roadmap navigating comes after a GPS upgrade.
Intel springs another leak, mobile Ivy Bridge CPUs abound
Just yesterday, we caught a glimpse of what Intel has in store for Ivy Bridge, and it seems those details were but a prelude to a bevy of details that leaked out today. It seems the folks over at VR Zone got their hands on some of Chipzilla's internal documents showing a host of changes for its post-Sandy Bridge mobile CPUs. Apparently, we can expect quite a few new full-power models, including a 2.9GHz Core i7-3920XM -- clocked at 200MHz faster than the Core i7-2960XM that's Intel's presiding mobile chipset champion -- along with two other quad-core Core i7s and a couple of Core i5 chips as well. For those who cherish battery life above all else, there's a dual-core Core i7-3667U clocked at 2.0 GHz and a 1.8GHz Core i5-3427U coming down the pipe. All the speedy new silicon comes with upgraded Intel HD graphics 4000, and is slated for release in April and May of next year. If you can't wait until then for your next-gen CPU fix, head on over to the source for a heaping helping of Ivy Bridge charts and specs.
Verizon pushes for quick Windows Phone / LTE integration, tugs at Microsoft's pant leg
There's no question that Verizon's making a big push for LTE, but it appears that Microsoft has yet to take notice -- after all, Android continues to dominate Big Red's 4G network, with nary a Windows Phone in sight. VZW hopes that'll change, however, with CMO Marni Walden revealing that the company has "communicated to Microsoft that LTE is critical to us," suggesting that the ball is in Windows Phone's court. Meanwhile, Microsoft smartphone chief Andy Lees had previously confirmed that LTE functionality was on the Windows Phone roadmap, saying back in October that the company and its partners were looking at how 4G LTE support could be integrated. To date, Lees has declined to give any indication as to the actual timing for the first LTE models. In other news, Verizon has offered Microsoft a custom-made promise ring just to make sure its intentions were understood.
Leaked Intel roadmap hints at Ivy Bridge's future
Considering how frequently Intel roadmaps leak out, you have to wonder which super-spy is smuggling all those diplomatic bags out of Santa Clara. The latest seems to contain detailed plans for 2012's Ivy Bridge desktop chips (and the sad news that the release has been pushed back to Q2). There are no big surprises in the documents, since the company just shrunk some Sandy Bridge CPUs in the wash. Going down from a 32nm to 22nm microarchitecture has managed to wring 19 percent better power usage, which enabled Chipzilla to concentrate on beefing up the range's integrated graphics performance, making it (reportedly) 60 percent faster than its bigger brother. The chipset will sit neatly atop your current Sandy Bridge motherboards, (You'll just need to flash your BIOS), which is good because we're stuck with the asthmatic, geriatric processor for at least another few months.
