ARM takes aim at Intel, sends Cortex A9 to GlobalFoundries
AMD’s fab spinoff, GlobalFoundries, has announced a deal with ARM to make the latter’s Cortex A9 parts available on the former’s 28nm half-node process. This makes GlobalFoundries the first company to work with ARM on a 28nm A9 implementation, and it’s a win for ARM because it makes any GlobalFoundries customers into potential ARM customers.
Microsoft Research demoes five multitouch mice
Microsoft Research and the Applied Sciences Group have developed five input device prototypes that combine a variation of multitouch sensing to the standard capabilities of a typical computer mouse. Microsoft believes these prototypes have the potential to set a new standard for “expressive interaction.” Each device explores a different touch sensing strategy via a different [...]
DeviceVM gets down to business with instant-on Linux
A growing number of hardware vendors are adopting instant-on Linux platforms and bundling them alongside Windows on new computers. The function of these lightweight Linux environments is to make it possible for users to get online quickly and perform a number of common computing tasks without having to boot Windows. Splashtop, which is made by [...]
PSP Go review: Sony is charging you much more for much less
The new, UMD-less PSP Go is an absolute dream for Sony. Since it lacks a way to play games purchased at retail, Sony gets to set the prices for every piece of content bought on the system. Who cares if the store down the street has a game for $10 cheaper? You can only get your [...]
NVIDIA’s Fermi takes direct aim at supercomputing, Intel
NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsuan Huang kicked off his company’s GPU Technology Conference this afternoon with a keynote that unveiled NVIDIA’s next-generation GPU architecture, codenamed Fermi. The fact that this architecture is named after a physicist, and that is shares this naming convention with NVIDIA’s supercomputing-oriented Tesla line, tells you most of what you need to know [...]
PSP Go teardown reveals expensive slider, replaceable battery
What a fun job: grab brand new electronic devices, and then take them apart. iFixit has posted a teardown of the PSP Go, and as usual they have found some interesting details of the hardware. For instance, the battery is user-replaceable, although it sounds like something of a pain to remove. “All that stands between [...]
Holographic storage, phase-change memory coming soon
Last week’s EmTech 09 meeting played host to a panel discussion on the future of data storage. All three of the panelists were from companies that have a poorly known product on the market, and each of them discussed improvements that are in the pipeline, which we’ll cover towards the end of this article. But [...]
Apple inspiration behind Light Peak optical connection
At last week’s Intel Developers Forum, the company showed off a prototype of its Light Peak optical interconnect standard. It turns out that Apple may have been heavily involved in getting Intel to develop the protocol, and the technology could find its way into Apple products as soon as the second half of 2010. Light [...]
Premier Chat 001 Wrapup: transcript plus extra questions answered
This past Wednesday, September 25, we hosted our second Ars Premier Chat. We’d like to thank again all those who participated and submitted questions. We got so many great questions and comments that Jon didn’t have enough time to answer them all in our allotted hour of time. So we asked Jon to tackle the [...]
Apple reframes the green debate, backs it up with new data
Greenpeace has harped on electronics companies—Apple in particular—to “clean up” their act by publishing its annual Guide to Greener Electronics. Apple, however, has made great strides to improve the environmental impact of its products and operations over the last decade. This is despite constantly getting low ratings on “green” issues based mostly on the way [...]
Cloud gaming service OnLive shines at MIT conference
MIT is playing host to Technology Review’s EmTech conference, which focuses on up-and-coming companies and the new technology they’re bringing to market. Steve Perlman, the founder and CEO of the OnLive gaming service, was given the chance to demonstrate his company’s cloud gaming service, and took some time to explain the technology backing it. OnLive [...]
Hook up 24" LED Cinema Display to non-Apple hardware
Since Apple settled on the Mini DisplayPort standard for external displays last October, a number of adapters have come to market that enable hooking up various monitors to the mini-DP ports on MacBook Pros, Mac minis, and Mac Pros. Now one company has released an adapter to use mini-DP equipped monitors—which currently includes just Apple’s [...]