Microsoft pumps up Surface tablets with faster chips, longer battery life

Microsoft launched both of its next-generation Surface 2 tablets Monday, promising significant improvements in performance, graphics and battery life on both the Surface 2 and the Surface Pro 2.

As expected, Microsoft also announced seven peripherals, including a Power Cover and a new docking station, which gives the Surface the power of something close to a workstation PC, according to Panos Panay, the Microsoft vice president in charge of the company’s tablet efforts.

Photo: Caitlin McGarryThe new Surface Pro 2 will come with an Intel Haswell processor and will be able to process 6K raw video data.

“Surface has been one of the best products that Microsoft has ever built,” Panay told attendees at a New York launch event, adding that Microsoft is making its tablets even better. “Reinventing the wheel is not the goal. Making it better is.”

Surface will cost $449, and will be available in 32GB and 64GB configurations. Surface Pro 2 will come in 64GB and 128GB configurations with 4GB of RAM as well as 256GB and 512GB configurations with 8GB of RAM, with prices starting at $899. A new Touch Cover—Touch Cover 2—will cost $120, and a new Type Cover will sell for $130.

Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 2

Microsoft will take preorders on Tuesday, for delivery on Oct. 22.

Microsoft was rightfully proud of the original Surface tablet when it first debuted in June 2012. Although reporters were only granted a few seconds—if that—with the tablet Monday, the obvious quality of the Surface’s VaporMg casing coupled with the intrigue of Windows running on the ARM processor platform instantly made the Surface a desirable piece of hardware.

Microsoft’s two covers— the Touch Cover and the Type Cover—also took an innovation that Apple had pioneered and radically improved it. (Check out our reviews of the original Surface Pro and the Surface RT.)

The new Surface Pro 2 with docking station and Touch Cover.

A round of grumbling about the Surface soon, er, surfaced, however, when users began playing with the Windows RT operating system and started searching vainly for apps to use with it. Fans of the Surface RT aside, most were awaiting the release of the Surface Pro. When the tablet was released in January 2013, PCWorld dubbed the Surface Pro“the Surface the world had been waiting for.” And it was—just not the whole world. In reality, just a very small part of it.

And then the warning bells started to ring: Microsoft wrote down the value of the Surface inventory by $900 million, part of a $150 discount applied to the Surface RT and $100 taken off the price of the Surface Pro that were made permanent. The Surface RT will remain, with a $349 price tag for 32GB and $449 for 64GB, while the Pro costs $799 for 64GB and $899 for 128GB.

In the weeks leading up to Monday’s launch, PCWorld—among others—opined about what Microsoft would need to accomplish with the Surface 2. Reports also mostly pegged what Microsoft had planned—a refresh of the tablet using an Intel “Haswell” microprocessor, more RAM, and some new, intriguing covers.

The first-generation Surface was the fastest product that users ever tried, Panay said, and the fastest in its class. Surface Pro 2 is faster than 95 percent of all laptops on the market today, Microsoft contends.

A Surface Pro 2 with a new Type Cover

Graphics now run 50 percent faster than the prior generation; the performance improved by 20 percent to “lightning-fast speeds,” Panay said. Dolby-qualified speakers were also added to improve the sound quality.

Panay unveiled an improved kickstand, with “better angles.” It's a dual-mode kickstand that will allow users to angle it back farther. “Sometimes subtlety is the most powerful force,” he said.

“This is something that will change the product in ways you cannot expect,” Panay said, referring to the device’s new “lap-ability”.

Microsoft also addressed the tablet's battery life. With the new Surface Power Cover, which has a 30 watt-hour battery embedded inside, the Surface Pro 2 will have 2.5 times the battery life of the first Surface Pro—more than 10 hours in total. “Pound for pound, watt for watt, it is the fastest product you can use today,” Panay said.

Power Cover will have an estimated retail price of $200 and has a projected release date of early 2014.

Photo: Caitlin McGarryThe Surface Docking Station unveiled at a press event Monday adds I/O functionality to Microsoft’s Surface tablet.

As expected, Microsoft also launched a docking station, the Surface Docking Station, with adds I/O functionality to the Surface tablet. The docking station can power two separate monitors for a total display resolution of 3840 x 2160, and it includes three USB 2.0 ports, a USB 3.0 port, a MiniDisplayPort connector that will power two displays, ethernet, and Audio In, Audio Out, plus power. “We now have a workstation PC built in” to the Surface tablet, Panay said.

The Docking Station for Surface Pro will have an estimated retail price of $200 and has a projected release date of early 2014.

Microsoft showed off video being produced by the RED camera, manipulating raw 6K footage. Moviemakers can take the tablet to the set itself, Panay said.

Microsoft also launched Type Cover 2, available in four colors—cyan (blue), magenta (pink), purple, and black. “It’s clear that input makes you productive,” Panay said.

The latest Type Cover is one millimeter thinner the overall model, but with a better key switch that makes Type Cover 2 almost as thin as the original Touch Cover.  And it’s silent, he said. Even better, it features a backlit keyboard that automatically dims after about six seconds—then relights when the user uses it again.

Photo: Caitlin McGarryThe second generation of Type Covers ditches the all-black stylings of their predecessors with new cyan, magenta, and purple color options.

Panay also launched Touch Cover 2, a 2.5 mm-thick cover that is a millimeter thinner than previous generations, and is also backlit. The number of sensors inside the Touch Cover has been beefed up from 80 sensors to 1092, to improve the feel of the device.

“What does that mean? It means you can’t miss a key,” Panay said. Users can even do gestures on top of the new Touch Cover.

The Surface Remix Project cover

Finally, there’s the Surface Remix Project, a cover specifically designed for DJs. The cover is also pressure-sensitive and lets you use your tablet like a drum kit.

But what about the Windows RT-powered Surface 2? Microsoft also redesigned it. “It’s not the changes that everyone wanted, but it has the change that people need,” Panay said.

Microsoft’s Surface 2

“It’s the fastest product that I’ve used relative to a personal tablet,” Panay said. The CPU speed has increased “dramatically,” and Microsoft doubled the speed of the Wi-Fi as well as the speed of the memory. Microsoft even added a Surface logo to the back of it.

The Surface Pro 2 and the Surface 2 share the same screen. Battery life has increased to 12 hours, 25 percent better than the original Surface, Panay said. But Microsoft also made the Surface 2 lighter and thinner. An HDMI output allows users to throw games on the large display. “I’ll tell you how it’s even sexier, because it is,” he said.

Photo: Caitlin McGarryYou’’ll find more apps in the Windows Store for the Surface tablets this time around, Microsoft says—more than 100,000 in fact.

Part of the sexiness, Panay said, derives from Windows 8.1, the new version of the Windows OS. Panay said that the number of apps have increased in the Windows Store, to more than 100,000. And the most powerful app is Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Users will receive free international calling with Skype and access to Skype hotspots free for a year. Additionally, Microsoft put a third sensor in the front of the tablet to improve the look of Skype callers. The sensor will filter additional light through the product to “light” the maker of the Skype call.

Panay also highlighted the power of Microsoft’s services, including SkyDrive, which Microsoft will beef up: Surface buyers will receive a free, additional 200GB of SkyDrive for two years.

Will the Surface 2 be the saving grace of Microsoft’s hardware aspirations? Panay hopes so. “Go get it,” he said of the new Surface 2 devices. “It’s a beast.”

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AMD to ship 64-bit ARM chips to server makers next year

AMD will start shipping its first ARM server chips to manufacturers for testing in the first quarter of 2014, a company executive said on Tuesday.

"When our ARM chips start sampling, [the servers] will be [among] the first few 64-bit machines out there," said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Global Business Units at AMD.

[ Keep up on the day's tech news headlines with InfoWorld's Today's Headlines: Wrap Up newsletter. ]

AMD announced in June its first 64-bit ARM chips, code-named Seattle, which will have up to 16 CPU cores. The chips are expected to be available in servers during the second half of next year.

ARM processors are used in most smartphones and tablets, and they are being tested in servers as an alternative to the widely used x86 chips. Some believe that servers with ARM processors will be more power-efficient at processing Web applications, which would help cut electric bills. AMD says its 64-bit ARM server chips will be up to four times faster and more power-efficient than its latest quad-core x86 Opteron X-series chips, which draw up to 11 watts of power.

AMD will sell the 64-bit ARM processors alongside x86 server processors, but the company expects ARM to outsell x86 in the long run. In 2011, ARM announced the first 64-bit ARMv8 CPU architecture, and AMD will be one of the first to ship server chips based on that technology. Most of the current ARM chips are just 32-bit, while x86 server chips from Intel and AMD have a head start with 64-bit support.

AMD is being patient with ARM. Adoption of the new architecture will take time as it will require a change in the way servers are built and software is written, Su said.

"Our thought process is it's a multiyear effort for the market to grow. But it's important to get the software development on it," Su said. "We definitely view it as a long-term investment."

There is a lot of interest in ARM chips, especially for dense servers, Su said. AMD last year bought SeaMicro, which offers dense servers packed with low-power x86 chips that can scale up performance depending on the workload.

AMD is also looking to expand into new markets with its custom-chip business, which builds device-specific hardware for customers. AMD has said the custom-chip business could deliver as much as 20 percent of the company's revenue by the fourth quarter, which closes in December, and more than half the revenue in the coming years.

The custom-chip business is already showing results, with Sony and Microsoft using AMD's CPU and GPU technology for their upcoming gaming consoles. The company is also targeting the living room through set-top boxes and other devices that process high-definition video and deliver content from the cloud.

"As we look forward, there are a number of areas where the same model can work. They are in the area of specialty tablets, living room as we look through how the living room evolves, and specialty server applications," Su said.

But AMD isn't losing sight of the PC market, which continues to be its main revenue driver. The PC market has collapsed as tablet and smartphone adoption grows, but the lines are blurring between hybrids, tablets and laptops, Su said.

The company's latest Temash chips and Kabini chips are making their way to Windows tablets and laptops starting at US$399.

"We continue to believe Windows is very important. It's very capable. Windows 8 is something we are committed to, but we also believe Android is important as well," Su said.

AMD has virtually no market share in tablets, and Su acknowledged that the tablet chip is a work in progress. She also pointed out there's potential to grow in the server and custom-chip markets. After years of losses, the return to profitability in the second quarter was a key step ahead, and the company now has a sustainable business model.

"It's very important for us to continue to execute," Su said.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

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AMD to ship 64-bit ARM chips to server makers in 2014

IDG News Service - Advanced Micro Devices will start shipping its first ARM server chips to manufacturers for testing in the first quarter of 2014, a company executive said on Tuesday.

"When our ARM chips start sampling, [the servers] will be [among] the first few 64-bit machines out there," said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Global Business Units at AMD.

AMD announced in June its first 64-bit ARM chips, code-named Seattle, which will have up to 16 CPU cores. The chips are expected to be available in servers during the second half of next year.

ARM processors are used in most smartphones and tablets, and are being tested in servers as an alternative to the widely used x86 chips. Some believe that servers with ARM processors will be more power-efficient at processing Web applications, which would help cut electric bills. AMD says its 64-bit ARM server chips will be up to four times faster and more power-efficient than its latest quad-core x86 Opteron X-series chips, which draw up to 11 watts of power.

AMD will sell the 64-bit ARM processors alongside x86 server processors, but the company expects ARM to outsell x86 in the long run. In 2011, ARM announced the first 64-bit ARMv8 CPU architecture, and AMD will be one of the first to ship server chips based on that technology. Most of the current ARM chips are just 32-bit, while x86 server chips from Intel and AMD have a head start with 64-bit support.

AMD is being patient with ARM. Adoption of the new architecture will take time as it will require a change in the way servers are built and software is written, Su said.

"Our thought process is it's a multiyear effort for the market to grow. But it's important to get the software development on it," Su said. "We definitely view it as a long-term investment."

There is a lot of interest in ARM chips, especially for dense servers, Su said. AMD last year bought SeaMicro, which offers dense servers packed with low-power x86 chips that can scale up performance depending on the workload.

AMD is also looking to expand into new markets with its custom-chip business, which builds device-specific hardware for customers. AMD has said the custom-chip business could deliver as much as 20 percent of the company's revenue by the fourth quarter, which closes in December, and more than half the revenue in the coming years.

The custom-chip business is already showing results, with Sony and Microsoft using AMD's CPU and GPU technology for their upcoming gaming consoles. The company is also targeting the living room through set-top boxes and other devices that process high-definition video and deliver content from the cloud.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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AMD to ship 64-bit ARM chips to server makers next year

Advanced Micro Devices will start shipping its first ARM server chips to manufacturers for testing in the first quarter of 2014, a company executive said on Tuesday.

“When our ARM chips start sampling, [the servers] will be [among] the first few 64-bit machines out there,” said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Global Business Units at AMD.

AMD announced in June its first 64-bit ARM chips, code-named Seattle, which will have up to 16 CPU cores. The chips are expected to be available in servers during the second half of next year.

ARM processors are used in most smartphones and tablets, and are being tested in servers as an alternative to the widely used x86 chips. Some believe that servers with ARM processors will be more power-efficient at processing Web applications, which would help cut electric bills. AMD says its 64-bit ARM server chips will be up to four times faster and more power-efficient than its latest quad-core x86 Opteron X-series chips, which draw up to 11 watts of power.

AMD will sell the 64-bit ARM processors alongside x86 server processors, but the company expects ARM to outsell x86 in the long run. In 2011, ARM announced the first 64-bit ARMv8 CPU architecture, and AMD will be one of the first to ship server chips based on that technology. Most of the current ARM chips are just 32-bit, while x86 server chips from Intel and AMD have a head start with 64-bit support.

AMD is being patient with ARM. Adoption of the new architecture will take time as it will require a change in the way servers are built and software is written, Su said.

“Our thought process is it’s a multiyear effort for the market to grow. But it’s important to get the software development on it,” Su said. “We definitely view it as a long-term investment.”

There is a lot of interest in ARM chips, especially for dense servers, Su said. AMD last year bought SeaMicro, which offers dense servers packed with low-power x86 chips that can scale up performance depending on the workload.

AMD is also looking to expand into new markets with its custom-chip business, which builds device-specific hardware for customers. AMD has said the custom-chip business could deliver as much as 20 percent of the company’s revenue by the fourth quarter, which closes in December, and more than half the revenue in the coming years.

The custom-chip business is already showing results, with Sony and Microsoft using AMD’s CPU and GPU technology for their upcoming gaming consoles. The company is also targeting the living room through set-top boxes and other devices that process high-definition video and deliver content from the cloud.

“As we look forward, there are a number of areas where the same model can work. They are in the area of specialty tablets, living room as we look through how the living room evolves, and specialty server applications,” Su said.

But AMD isn’t losing sight of the PC market, which continues to be its main revenue driver. The PC market has collapsed as tablet and smartphone adoption grows, but the lines are blurring between hybrids, tablets and laptops, Su said.

The company’s latest Temash chips and Kabini chips are making their way to Windows tablets and laptops starting at $399.

“We continue to believe Windows is very important. It’s very capable. Windows 8 is something we are committed to, but we also believe Android is important as well,” Su said.

AMD has virtually no market share in tablets, and Su acknowledged that the tablet chip is a work in progress. She also pointed out there’s potential to grow in the server and custom-chip markets. After years of losses, the return to profitability in the second quarter was a key step ahead, and the company now has a sustainable business model.

“It’s very important for us to continue to execute,” Su said.

Agam Shah is a reporter for the IDG News Service in New York. He covers hardware including PCs, servers, tablets, chips, semiconductors, consumer electronics and peripherals.
More by Agam Shah, IDG News Service

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Imagination to battle ARM with MIPS server chips

Imagination Technologies, the UK company that designs the graphics chips for the iPhone and iPad, will release a new CPU design next year for low-power servers, the company's CEO said this week.

It's part of a broad push by Imagination to expand the use of MIPS chips in all kinds of products, including servers, tablets, smartphones and wearable computers. Imagination inherited the architecture when it bought financially struggling MIPS Technologies last year.

[ Keep up on the day's tech news headlines with InfoWorld's Today's Headlines: Wrap Up newsletter. ]

"The intent with MIPS is to cover all the markets where a CPU is relevant," said Hossein Yassaie, Imagination's CEO, at a press event in Silicon Valley on Wednesday.

It's a new and bold effort by Imagination, which is best known for the PowerVR graphics chips used in many top-tier mobile devices, including Google Glass. It hopes to expand the MIPS business in areas where the architecture is already strong, such as networking and home media systems, and also to plow new ground.

That will mean increased competition with Imagination's UK rival ARM Holdings. ARM is the dominant designer of CPUs for smartphones and tablets, and it's also targeting the server market, so the moves by Imagination could set up a grand battle between the two companies over the next few years. ARM, meanwhile, is also going for a bigger slice of Imagination's graphics business.

In servers, both companies are targeting low-power "hyperscale" servers, used by companies such as Facebook and Google to run massive online workloads. They will both have to compete with incumbent Intel, which has stepped up its own efforts to build low-power chips.

ARM and Imagination both develop chip designs that they license to other companies to manufacture. They each offer architectural licenses, which let companies design their own chips from scratch, and licenses for complete core designs, which can be turned into finished products more quickly.

Companies such as Broadcom and Cavium already build MIPS chips for specialized network equipment using an architectural license. But to promote MIPS more broadly, Imagination will offer complete core designs for servers as well.

Asked to give a timeframe, Yassaie said Imagination's upcoming Series5 "Warrior" CPUs will cover every segment of the market -- including servers -- by the end of 2014. It will take a further two to three years for chip makers to create finished server products and get them to market, Yassaie said.

"So for us to be a significant player in [servers] it will take several years. But in terms of technology, come the end of next year I would expect to have a solution for all the markets that are important for a CPU to be in," he said.

Imagination had already made clear that it would use the MIPS acquisition to build CPUs for the tablet and smartphone markets. Yassaie's comments Wednesday show the company is serious about servers as well.

View the original article here

Imagination to battle ARM with MIPS server chips

IDG News Service - Imagination Technologies, the UK company that designs the graphics chips for the iPhone and iPad, will release a new CPU design next year for low-power servers, the company's CEO said this week.

It's part of a broad push by Imagination to expand the use of MIPS chips in all kinds of products, including servers, tablets, smartphones and wearable computers. Imagination inherited the architecture when it bought financially struggling MIPS Technologies last year.

"The intent with MIPS is to cover all the markets where a CPU is relevant," said Hossein Yassaie, Imagination's CEO, at a press event in Silicon Valley on Wednesday.

It's a new and bold effort by Imagination, which is best known for the PowerVR graphics chips used in many top-tier mobile devices, including Google Glass. It hopes to expand the MIPS business in areas where the architecture is already strong, such as networking and home media systems, and also to plow new ground.

That will mean increased competition with Imagination's UK rival ARM Holdings. ARM is the dominant designer of CPUs for smartphones and tablets, and it's also targeting the server market, so the moves by Imagination could set up a grand battle between the two companies over the next few years. ARM, meanwhile, is also going for a bigger slice of Imagination's graphics business.

In servers, both companies are targeting low-power "hyperscale" servers, used by companies such as Facebook and Google to run massive online workloads. They will both have to compete with incumbent Intel, which has stepped up its own efforts to build low-power chips.

ARM and Imagination both develop chip designs that they license to other companies to manufacture. They each offer architectural licenses, which let companies design their own chips from scratch, and licenses for complete core designs, which can be turned into finished products more quickly.

Companies such as Broadcom and Cavium already build MIPS chips for specialized network equipment using an architectural license. But to promote MIPS more broadly, Imagination will offer complete core designs for servers as well.

Asked to give a timeframe, Yassaie said Imagination's upcoming Series5 "Warrior" CPUs will cover every segment of the market -- including servers -- by the end of 2014. It will take a further two to three years for chip makers to create finished server products and get them to market, Yassaie said.

"So for us to be a significant player in [servers] it will take several years. But in terms of technology, come the end of next year I would expect to have a solution for all the markets that are important for a CPU to be in," he said.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

View the original article here

Imagination to battle ARM with MIPS server chips

Imagination Technologies, the U.K. company that designs the graphics chips for the iPhone and iPad, will release a new CPU design next year for low-power servers, the company’s CEO said this week.

It’s part of a broad push by Imagination to expand the use of MIPS chips in all kinds of products, including servers, tablets, smartphones. and wearable computers. Imagination inherited the architecture when it bought financially struggling MIPS Technologies last year.

“The intent with MIPS is to cover all the markets where a CPU is relevant,” said Hossein Yassaie, Imagination’s CEO (shown above), at a press event in Silicon Valley on Wednesday.

It’s a new and bold effort by Imagination, which is best known for the PowerVR graphics chips used in many top-tier mobile devices, including Google Glass. It hopes to expand the MIPS business in areas where the architecture is already strong, such as networking and home media systems, and also to plow new ground.

That will mean increased competition with Imagination’s UK rival ARM Holdings. ARM is the dominant designer of CPUs for smartphones and tablets, and it’s also targeting the server market, so the moves by Imagination could set up a grand battle between the two companies over the next few years. ARM, meanwhile, is also going for a bigger slice of Imagination’s graphics business.

In servers, both companies are targeting low-power “hyperscale” servers, used by companies such as Facebook and Google to run massive online workloads. They will both have to compete with incumbent Intel, which has stepped up its own efforts to build low-power chips.

ARM and Imagination both develop chip designs that they license to other companies to manufacture. They each offer architectural licenses, which let companies design their own chips from scratch, and licenses for complete core designs, which can be turned into finished products more quickly.

Companies such as Broadcom and Cavium already build MIPS chips for specialized network equipment using an architectural license. But to promote MIPS more broadly, Imagination will offer complete core designs for servers as well.

Asked to give a timeframe, Yassaie said Imagination’s upcoming Series5 “Warrior” CPUs will cover every segment of the market—including servers—by the end of 2014. It will take a further two to three years for chip makers to create finished server products and get them to market, Yassaie said.

“So for us to be a significant player in [servers] it will take several years. But in terms of technology, come the end of next year I would expect to have a solution for all the markets that are important for a CPU to be in,” he said.

Imagination had already made clear that it would use the MIPS acquisition to build CPUs for the tablet and smartphone markets. Yassaie’s comments Wednesday show the company is serious about servers as well.

There’s nothing about ARM that makes it intrinsically more suitable for servers than MIPS, said Paul Teich, senior analyst with Moor Insights and Strategy. Both are based on RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architectures that lend themselves to low-power designs.

The “magic” in ARM server chips from the likes of Calxeda doesn’t come from the core itself but from the surrounding technologies, Teich said. Nor should software be a hurdle for MIPS, he said, since there are already MIPS versions of Linux, and it would be relatively easy to port other programs to the architecture.

Gartner analyst Mark Hung agreed that “from a technical standpoint,” MIPS can be competitive with ARM in servers.

But ARM has a head start. Calxeda and Applied Micro have already developed ARM server chips that customers are testing.

If the new MIPS cores don’t appear until the end of next year, Imagination will be “on the tail end of being late,” Teich said.

Yassaie acknowledged there’s work to be done in both servers and smartphones. Initially, he expects to grow the MIPS business in markets where it’s already prevalent, such as networking and home media equipment. Mobile may be the hardest market for Imagination to crack, he said, presumably because of ARM’s dominance.

But the industry is ready for another CPU design company, according to Yassaie. Vendors don’t want to be beholden to a single supplier, and he’s quick to label ARM a “monopoly” for its dominance in mobile devices.

Several years ago, the PC was “the only ecosystem that existed,” he said. “But now there are several ecosystems, with some pretty big players behind them, and it’s completely untenable to expect those people to put up with such control.”

There’s also renewed confidence in MIPS now that it’s owned by a stable company, according to Yassaie. “People were worried about MIPS’s future, there was a cloud over its head, and now that’s gone away.”

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Toshiba takes step toward 3D flash memory chips

Toshiba kicked off a project Friday that is the first step toward a new type of memory chip that could provide vastly greater capacity at a lower cost for digital gadgets such as cameras, smartphones and tablets.

The company held a groundbreaking ceremony to begin expansion of its number-five chip fabrication building (fab 5) in Yokkaichi, a state-of-the-art chip production facility in central Japan operated by Toshiba and SanDisk under a joint venture.

[ Keep up on the day's tech news headlines with InfoWorld's Today's Headlines: Wrap Up newsletter. ]

The construction, which is scheduled to last a year, will see the production line expanded to accommodate additional chip fabrication capacity for NAND flash memory, including more advanced conventional manufacturing processes and early generation 3D production techniques.

3D chips are tipped to be the next big thing in the memory market and provide greater data storage capacity by stacking memory cells in layers. Using this method, greatly higher storage capacity can be realized while keeping the chips small enough to fit inside flash memory cards and the cramped insides of modern gadgets.

The project also indicates Toshiba's intention to remain a leader in the competitive flash memory market and also the company's belief that the market will continue to expand.

"After giving careful consideration to the balance of product supply and demand, and noting a recovery driven by growing demand for smartphones, tablets, SSD for enterprise servers, Toshiba now anticipates further medium- to long-term market expansion," the company said in a statement.

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com

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Toshiba takes step toward 3D flash memory chips

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Toshiba takes step toward 3D flash memory chips

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Intel previews multimode LTE chips, with eyes on U.S. handset market

Intel will ship multimode LTE capabilities by the end of the month, Intel executives said Monday. It’s a technology the company is throwing its weight behind—and needs, if it’s to compete in the U.S. market.

Why? Because LTE is a pitch right in Intel’s wheelhouse—high-speed mobile data makes the company’s CPUs and GPUs even more valuable, while the relatively high power consumption those chips require can be mitigated with Intel’s process technology. And LTE has been the gating factor in placing Intel’s mobile chips into U.S. handsets.

Mark HachmanHermann Eul, the general manager of the Intel Mobile and Communications Group, shows off the XMM 7160 at a press event Monday.

Intel began shipping a single-mode LTE solution in the fourth quarter of 2012, and it plans to ship a multimode chip, the XMM 7160, by the end of the month, Aicha Evans, the vice president of Intel’s Mobile and Communications Group, said in a press conference on Monday.

At Intel, combining communications with mobile computing is inseparable: “Everything that computes must connect,” Evans said.

As the name implies, single-mode LTE simply provides LTE connectivity—great where LTE connectivity is relatively available, but with no provision to jump to other bands if the user roams between networks. With multimode LTE technology, the chips can support a number of LTE networks around the world, providing range. (If a LTE network is not present, the XMM 7160 can “back down” to older, 3G technologies.)

Specifically, the XMM 7160 will support 15 LTE bands, with 20 to 30 percent lower power consumption than competitive solutions. The XMM 7160 will also be about 12 percent physically smaller than competing chips, Evans said. Both Qualcomm and Intel are shipping or nearly shipping multimode LTE; MediaTek, Broadcom, Marvell, and Nvidia have announced multimode LTE plans.

The problem that Intel faces—and that the chipmaker is hurriedly working to overcome—is the reputation as a “fast follower” in the wireless space. Intel bought Infineon’s wireless business in 2010, for $1.4 billion. But at the time of that purchase, Infineon’s technology was only at the 2G/3G stage. Since then, the company has worked to catch up, running design teams in parallel “to step up to a leadership position,” said Hermann Eul, the general manager of the Intel Mobile and Communications Group.

Intel isn’t there yet. In June, for example, rival Qualcomm announced the integration of multimode 3G/4G LTE into its Qualcomm 400 processors. That’s a step beyond Intel; Intel’s XMM 7160 is a discrete chip, and the company has not announced plans to integrate the XMM 7160 functionality into its application processors, Eul said. “We will do it when the time is right,” he added.

Intel’s announcement, as well as its upcoming integration plans, represent a key strategic element for Intel’s continued push into the wireless business. Intel has expended a great deal of effort to push its mobile processors—the “Clover Trail+” Atom chip, and the upcoming “Bay Trail”—into mobile handsets. But its only design win of note is the Lenovo K900 handset, restricted to the Chinese market.

Intel's new XMM 7160 LTE chip.

Why aren’t Intel’s mobile chips in handsets selling within the U.S.? “Absence of LTE is the reason,” Tom Kilroy, Intel’s vice president of sales, said, according to Engadget. “We can’t get ranged by U.S. carriers without LTE, so once we have multimode LTE coming to market later this year, we have an opportunity to compete in that business.”

According to Will Strauss, a digital signal processor analyst with Forward Concepts, Intel’s XMM 7160 chip has been qualified with AT&T and Verizon. Evans declined to comment, but acknowledged that the lack of LTE has held the company back.

Finally, there's the computing element. Intel executives said that download speeds would be up to 100 Mbit/s, a theoretical limit that's dependent on the carrier and available spectrum. But without that additional data, it's difficult to justify a premium Intel CPU versus a cheaper model.

Now, Intel simply has to convince handset makers that it's a player. In 2014 and 2015, Intel is striving for “credibility,” Evans said, while its technical roadmap includes such capabilities as voice over LTE and LTE Advanced technology. A 7260 chip may include those capabilities.

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Intel to customize chips for big data applications

Intel, increasingly customizing server chips for customers, is now tuning chips for workloads in big data.

Software is becoming an important building block in chip design, and customization will help applications gather, manage and analyze data a lot quicker, said Ron Kasabian, general manager of big data solutions at Intel.

Through hardware and software improvements, the company is trying to figure out how its chips can perform better in areas like predictive analytics, cloud data collection and specific task processing. The company has already released its own distribution of Hadoop, a scalable computing environment that deals with large data sets, and now chip improvements are on tap.

Kasabian said Intel is starting with the software. “It takes a while to get silicon to market,” he said. “We understand where we can optimize for silicon, and there are certain things to [improve] for performance and optimization.”

The company is taking lessons from software implementations and then looking to enhance the silicon to fill any software gap, Kasabian said, adding that the chip-design process takes about two years.

Server makers have been customizing servers specifically to carry out big data workloads, and improvements at the chip and instruction-set level could speed up task execution.

The plan includes developing accelerators or cores for big-data type workloads. For example, Intel is working with Chinese company Bocom to implement the Smart City project, which tries to solve counterfeit license plate problems in China by recognizing plates, car makes and models. The project involves sending images through server gateways, and Intel is looking to fill software gaps by enhancing the silicon. One improvement could be implementing accelerators to decode video, Kasabian said.

Intel has a big software organization, and the appointment of Renee James—formerly head of the software unit—earlier this year as the company’s president was a sign of the chip maker’s intent to dig deeper into software. The company does not want to become a packaged software distributor, but wants to enable software to work better on Intel architecture hardware. For a long time, Intel has backed open-source software and has hundreds of coders contributing to the development of Linux.

Different industries have different implementations of big data, Kasabian said. For example, a big data problem in genomics could differ from one in telecommunications.

Intel is also entering the space of the Internet of things, an emerging field in which networked devices with embedded processors and sensors are used as data-gathering instruments. The company has assets such as McAfee’s software and hardware platform and Wind River’s real-time operating system for its embedded chips to quickly process and securely collect data.

Outside of the silicon, Intel is focusing on providing the right software tools for data centers. Hadoop was the starting point, and now Intel is looking closely at analytics, Kasabian said.

Attaching Intel’s name to Hadoop will “kind of ease the mind of folks in enterprises,” Kasabian said, adding that implementation of the platform in data centers will be easier.

A lot of research is also taking place at Intel labs on stream processing and graph analytics as the company designs chips and tweaks software.

“We’re looking at all the big industry categories,” Kasabian said.

Agam Shah is a reporter for the IDG News Service in New York. He covers hardware including PCs, servers, tablets, chips, semiconductors, consumer electronics and peripherals.
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Eyeing faster chips, scientists measure super-fast electrical switching

Researchers in Silicon Valley have managed to observe electrical switching that is thousands of times faster than transistors used in today’s computer chips. Their work could lead to a better understanding of how transistors work at the atomic level and, in turn, help to enable more powerful computers.

Transistors are semiconductor devices that act as simple on-off electrical switches. The number of transistors in a computer chip has a direct effect on its speed and power, so researchers are continually trying to make their transistors smaller and faster.

In work at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, researchers using an X-ray laser to discovered it takes just one trillionth of a second to switch between on and off states in a sample of magnetite, a type of mineral.

They hit each sample with a pulse of visible light from a laser, which caused the electronic structure of the material to rearrange itself. Immediately afterwards, they hit it with a burst from an ultrabright, ultrashort X-ray laser which revealed that the rearrangement had begun hundredths of quadrillionths of seconds after the initial pulse hit the sample.

The precise time for the switching from a non-conducting (off) state to a conducting (on) state was determined by varying the interval of the X-ray laser pulses.

“This breakthrough research reveals for the first time the ‘speed limit’ for electrical switching in this material,” Roopali Kukreja, a materials science researcher at SLAC and Stanford University who is a lead author of the study, said in a statement.

Despite the research, chips made from magnetite aren’t expected anytime soon. The research required the material to be cooled to minus 190 degrees Celcius, which makes it impractical for widespread commercial use.

Greg Stewart / SLACAn optical laser pulse (red streak from upper right) shatters the ordered electronic structure (blue) in an insulating sample of magnetite, switching the material to electrically conducting (red) in one trillionth of a second.

But, using the research as a base, the team will go on to study more complex materials and applications at room temperature, a SLAC spokesman said. The hope is that increased knowledge of electrical switching in materials like magnetite will help scientists understand the switching inside materials such as silicon, which is used in current chips, or new hybrid materials that might offer improvements on silicon.

The research was published July 28 in Nature Materials. It was carried out with scientists in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and other facilities in the U.S.

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service.
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