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All posts tagged "intel"


Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Intel Ivy Bridge To Enable 4096 Resolution

Posted by Michael Knutson in "Apple Talk" @ 08:00 AM

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...etina_macs.html

"Intel quietly revealed last week that its next-generation Ivy Bridge processors will support the 4K display resolution, with up to 4096 x 4096 pixels per monitor, potentially paving the way for Apple to introduce high-resolution "Retina Display" Macs."

When HD just isn't enough, soon we'll have even higher resolution and clarity. 4096 x 4096? Holy headache, here comes the 60-inch iMac!? Intel also announced a Multi Format Codec (MFX) engine that is capable of playing multiple 4K videos concurrently. This codec will also support 4KQuadHD video, a new YouTube video format. It is anticipated that Ivy Bridge enhancements give it roughly a 60 percent performance boost over the current Sandy Bridge processor family. Ivy Bridge will also support the Apple OpenCL standard for future products in 2012 and beyond.


Friday, July 29, 2011

How Hot is Your Lion?

Posted by Jeff Campbell in "Apple Laptops" @ 12:30 PM

http://gigaom.com/apple/is-your-mac...(GigaOM:+Apple)

"After upgrading to Lion on my early 2008 15″ MacBook Pro, I started to notice that the computer was hot to the touch. Really hot. So I started measuring the internal temperature of my Macs to see if there was anything to be truly alarmed about."

If you are having some problems with heat, caused by the Thermtrip feature that is in the Mac Intel chips, this article has several options for you in order to be proactive about it. The key is proper ventilation, which seems like a no-brainer but sometimes the simplest solutions are the ones that we miss. Have you had any problems with temperature issues since upgrading?


Sunday, June 5, 2011

Apple Value Greater Than Microsoft and Intel Combined

Posted by Jeff Campbell in "The Competition" @ 03:00 PM

http://macdailynews.com/2011/06/03/...intel-combined/

"At market close today, Microsoft (MSFT) had a market value of $201.59 billion. The market value of Intel (INTC) stands at $115.21 billion."

This was on Friday, and while it is quite a large value for either one, Apple did a bit better. At close of business Friday Apple's value was, wait for it, $317.60 billion, greater than the sum of Microsoft and Intel combined. Going into WWDC tomorrow that is quite a tasty bit of news that I'm sure will be mentioned. But before Apple gets too full of themselves, they best take heed to this Bill Gates quote about Steve Jobs from about 13 years ago: 'What I can't figure out is why he is even trying to be the CEO of Apple? He knows he can't win.'

Indeed.


Friday, May 6, 2011

Is Apple Dropping Intel for ARM?

Posted by Joe Johaneman in "Apple Talk" @ 09:00 AM

http://semiaccurate.com/2011/05/05/...m-laptop-lines/

"The short story is that Apple is moving the laptop line, and presumably desktops too, to ARM based chips as soon as possible. With A15/Eagle allowing more than 32-bit memory access, things look up, but it seems silly to do so before the full 64 bit cores come in the following generation. Nvidia is directly telling certain favored analysts that they will have Denver out in Q4 of 2012, maybe Q1/2013, and that uses the full on 64-bit ARM instruction set. It won't be out by then, but that gives you a good estimation of when that ISA will break cover from one vendor or other. Think mid-2013."

Macbook Air

We generally don't report on rumors here, especially when all of those rumors point to the same article as a source. However, this one was a little too interesting to resist. For one thing, it makes sense for Apple to have all of their devices running on the same architecture. ARM processors are lower power than Intel processors, which would make for longer battery life, especially on laptops with SSD's, and Apple certainly loves to tout their battery life figures. This would be a real pain for developers though, as they would need both Intel machines and ARM machines to target and deploy their apps, though at least they'd be using the same code; they'd just need to compile twice. It would probably also bring the return of Universal Binaries, which have been pretty much eliminated now that PPC processors haven't been used in Apple computers for years. I don't believe that desktops would be affected. ARM processors, at least at this point in time, don't have the power necessary to replace Intel chips in the iMac and Mac Pro lines. And I'd like to state again that this is all conjecture at this point. Until Apple makes an announcement, and they probably won't until it actually happens, we can only guess, and 2013 is still a long way off. What do you think? Does this make sense for Apple?


Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Intel's "Ivy Bridge" Gives Moore's Law a Lifeline

Posted by Michael Knutson in "Laptop Thoughts News" @ 11:00 PM

http://newsroom.intel.com/community...58152-c1-266892

"SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 4, 2011 - Intel Corporation today announced a significant breakthrough in the evolution of the transistor, the microscopic building block of modern electronics. For the first time since the invention of silicon transistors over 50 years ago, transistors using a three-dimensional structure will be put into high-volume manufacturing. Intel will introduce a revolutionary 3-D transistor design called Tri-Gate, first disclosed by Intel in 2002, into high-volume manufacturing at the 22-nanometer (nm) node in an Intel chip codenamed "Ivy Bridge." A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter."

"Moore's Law is a forecast for the pace of silicon technology development that states that roughly every 2 years transistor density will double, while increasing functionality and performance and decreasing costs. It has become the basic business model for the semiconductor industry for more than 40 years." So, how does Intel ensure that Moore's Law continues to be valid? Move into a third dimension. 22-nanometers, or 22 billionths of a meter - an amazing technical accomplishment. So, just to give us an idea of how small these technologies have become, Intel states that "more than 6 million 22nm Tri-Gate transistors could fit in the period at the end of this sentence." Production availability is scheduled for the end of 2011. Do we live in interesting times, or what?


Friday, February 25, 2011

Evertyhing You Wanted to Know About Thunderbolt

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 01:00 PM

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/24/...-a-closer-look/

Simply put, Thunderbolt's a familiar-looking port, a brand-new chip, and a cord, which allows devices to pipe two data streams simultaneously -- in both directions -- over a single cable at up to 10 gigabits per second to start, primarily using PCI Express x4 for data and DisplayPort for video.

The announcement of Thunderbolt instantly reminded me about the old Firewire vs. USB battle. If you have read the comments or even the press release about Thunderbolt, you have probably seen how people are comparing Thunderbolt to Firewire, and the battle is now between USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt. There are certainly a lot of parallels but I do not know if there is a clear winner, or even if there will be one that dominates the other.

Thunderbolt definitely has more impressive specifications but will that be enough? USB has a far larger install base and is likely to remain much cheaper to implement for various peripherals. Does my mouse really need a 10Gbps lane? Will a Thunderbolt based keyboard cost more than a USB one? I personally suspect that the two will live together, with USB remaining the dominant connection type, with Thunderbolt serving the more demanding uses like external video cards, displays and hard drives. What do you think? Is Thunderbolt the future? Or do we all live in a USB world?


Thursday, February 24, 2011

Intel's Lightpeak Technology is now Dubbed Thunderbolt

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home News" @ 02:10 PM

http://newsroom.intel.com/community...pc-just-arrived

"Intel Corporation today announced the availability of ThunderboltTM technology, a new high-speed PC connection technology that brings together high-speed data transfer and high-definition (HD) display on to a single cable. Running at 10Gbps, Thunderbolt technology can transfer a full-length HD movie in less than 30 seconds. This Intel-developed technology is coming to market through a technical collaboration with Apple, and is available first on Apple's new line of MacBook Pro laptop computers."

One of the key technologies revealed today in Apple's line of refreshed Macbook Pros is Thunderbolt. I knew it was based on Lightpeak, but when I saw Apple calling it Thunderbolt I was concerned it was going to be an Apple-only term, and we were about to enter into an era where every laptop OEM would have their own term for the technology: "No, no, this isn't Thunderbolt, it's ULTRABOLT!" Turns out that's not the case: Thunderbolt is the new name for Lightpeak, and it will be used by all the OEMs. That's good news. What do you think about the name? It's an unusual name for a technology when compared to the likes of USB 3.0 and SATA; it's more in line with Firewire. Regardless, Thunderbolt is here to stay and offers some compelling features (more on that later).


Monday, August 17, 2009

Adobe Goes Intel Only

Posted by Jeff Campbell in "Apple Software (OS X)" @ 12:00 PM

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...ative-suite.ars

"Adobe is going Intel-only for the next version of its Creative Suite design and media software. If you're still using (a perfectly good) PowerMac G5, it might be time to start considering an upgrade."

The pro video apps are already intel only so this is a logical step taking the rest of them to intel-only. If you are using a PPC Apple now, you probably aren't in too big of a hurry to upgrade so I doubt you will update your software right when it comes out anyway. But if you are looking for an excuse to upgrade to Intel, then this is as good a reason as any. I didn't upgrade my PPC G5 until I got tired of how long it took me to convert video with Handbrake, so I guess everyone has their tipping point.


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