Intel to Continue Work on MeeGo

If Intel has its way, MeeGo won’t be fading away as quickly as Nokia wants it to. The open sourced operating system, which has yet to make a retail presence, is still part of Intel’s strategy, with or without Nokia. The company remarks:

While we are disappointed with Nokia’s decision, Intel is not blinking on MeeGo. We remain committed and welcome Nokia’s continued contribution to MeeGo open source.

Our strategy has always been to provide choice when it comes to operating systems, a strategy that includes Windows, Android, and MeeGo. This is not changing.

MeeGo is not just a phone OS, it supports multiple devices. And we’re seeing momentum across multiple segments – automotive systems, netbooks, tablets, set-top boxes and our Intel silicon will be in a phone that ships this year.

It’s hard to imagine Intel drumming up a new hardware partner at this point, given that most OEMs have already chosen their side of the smartphone wars. Though it’s unlikely, Intel could make its own hardware with MeeGo as a hedge against its other investments. Or, it can continue to work with non-phone partners to integrate MeeGo into other devices, like netbooks, tablets, etc.

Article: RSS via Pocketnow

Tags: Intel, MeeGo, Mobile OS, Nokia

Posted in MeeGo, Nokia | No Comments »

Intel’s biggest ever buy is going ahead

EC approves $7.7bn deal, but with conditions

The European Commission has approved Intel’s buyout of McAfee – as long as the chip giant allows other companies access to its technology.

One of the Commission’s concerns was that Intel, by embedding security on its chips, would effectively exclude competitors’ products from the market.

Intel has promised to make interoperability information available to rival firms. It has also pledged to ensure that McAfee’s products work just as well on other chips, such as those from AMD.

The Commission said it was worried Intel would either make it difficult for other security products to work on Intel chips or technically tie McAfee products with sales of its own chips.

Intel has promised to make all chip information available so security vendors can make their products work with the processors in exactly the same way as Intel chips work with McAfee software. The Commission will appoint a trustee to monitor the takeover.

Pat Clawson, CEO of security firm Lumension, said: “Intel’s pledge to the EU Competition Commissioner that it will provide rival security firms with access to the necessary information to allow their products to use Intel’s chips is reflective of one market reservation over this acquisition. Another and probably more pressing concern is whether it is socially acceptable for Intel to impose security on the device. Whilst it might make sense in the consumer mobility space, governments and enterprises will surely want to make their own security decisions, not have it forced on them at the chip level.

“To date, Intel’s intent and vision behind the deal has been muddy at best. Justin Rattner’s indication that Intel is developing functionality that will prevent zero-day threats on the device is interesting. But the feasibility needs to be explored…”

Rattner said yesterday that Intel is working on hardware-based security to beat “zero-day attacks” – the Holy Grail of the security industry. Most malware products today only act when they see a recognised attack – but if it is software they have not seen before, they do not work.

The Commission said it had worked closely with the US Federal Trade Commission on the investigation.

Article: RSS via The Register

Tags: Computing, Intel, McAfee, Security

Posted in Computing, Other News | No Comments »

Intel hopes new chipset will change PC industry

The world’s biggest chip maker, Intel, has unveiled the chipset it is banking its immediate future on and one it hopes will shake up the market.

The product, code-named Sandy Bridge, is Intel’s first architecture to merge a microprocessor and graphics processor onto a single silicon chip.

It is designed to cut the time it takes to produce images.

The company is betting the new technology will win over both PC vendors and consumers.

It recently cut sales forecasts because of weaker than expected PC demand.

“Sandy Bridge will revolutionise PCs again,” Paul Otellini, Intel’s chief executive told its annual developer forum being held in San Francisco.

“On one single chip, we’ve put in place all the critical capabilities for computing. This is a very important chip for Intel,” he added.

The chip will target low-end desktop computers and laptops and is expected to be ready to go to customers early next year.

Putting the two processors together will cut the time it takes to produce images as it removes bottlenecks between the graphics processor and memory.

It will also improve battery life and power consumption.

“This is a big deal and we are all interested to see how the chip performs when it gets out into the real world next year,” Martin Reynolds, managing vice president of research firm Gartner told BBC News.

“I don’t however think it will revolutionise the industry but it does force that continued change that is part of the history of the PC industry. Intel has to keep new technologies coming to the market that keeps its growing so it is a big bet for the next couple of years.”

‘Killer’

Sandy Bridge is expected to cause headaches for Intel rival Nvidia, the maker of stand-alone graphics chips.

Technology blog VentureBeat has called Sandy Bridge an “Nvidia killer”.

Nvidia said it is not worried about Intel’s move and in a statement underlined that sentiment.

“Intel’s been proclaiming the death of discrete graphics for years, but real GPUs (graphics processing units) just keep getting more important.”

Advanced Micro Devices is also expected to feel the heat from Sandy Bridge. It has been working on its own hybrid chip for a while, but many analysts feel it has lost ground by not staying ahead of Intel

Notebooks and desktops with AMD’s accelerated processing unit are expected in early 2011.

“It’s hard to tell what will shake down because we haven’t seen the performance benchmarks or specs from Sandy Bridge or from AMD’s Fusion,” said Jim McGregor of research firm In-Stat.

“If that migrates all the way up to mainstream computing, it just leaves that high end which is a very small percentage of the market, then you have to say this is a huge concern for Nvidia.”

Security

The company failed to provide substantial details on the technical thinking behind its $7.68bn acquisition of McAfee as it awaits approval.

The deal, the biggest in the company’s 42-year history, surprised many in the industry when it was announced.

At the time the company said that the acquisition reflected that security was now a fundamental component of online computing.

That view was echoed in Mr Otellini’s keynote speech as he told thousands of developers it marked an opportunity to “offer secure capabilities across all Intel connected products”.

Intel added that its security approach did not fully address the billions of new internet-ready devices, including mobile and wireless devices, TVs, cars, medical devices and cash machines.

“The amount we trust our devices to protect us is going up all the time and the bad guy threats are going up at the same time. Security is becoming a more complex topic with the proliferation of devices. We are trying to change how platforms are secured,” said Mr Otellini.

Both companies have been collaborating for the last 18-24 months on products and the first chips incorporating new security software are expected to appear next year.

Article: RSS via: BBC News

Tags: Computing, Intel, Intel Chips, Sandy Bridge

Posted in Computing | No Comments »

Intel gobbles up Infineon’s mobile unit in $1.4 billion deal, looks to ‘accelerate 4G LTE’

Infineon, the company behind the baseband chips inside your super-duper new phone, is about to cash out from the wireless industry courtesy of Intel’s insatiable appetite. The Wireless Solutions Business (WLS), which accounted for nearly a third of Infineon’s €3 billion ($3.83b) revenue last year, is being sold to the American chipmaker for a cool $1.4 billion. For its part, Intel is quick to reassure the world (and its antitrust authorities) that WLS will continue to operate as a standalone business and continue to support ARM-based devices. Chipzilla’s perfectly innocent ploy is to harness Infineon’s knowhow in future smartphone, tablet and laptop products, providing both the processing and wireless capabilities. Specifically mentioned in the news release is Intel’s ambition to “accelerate 4G LTE” through this deal, while also not neglecting its ongoing efforts with WiMAX, with the overarching strategy being described as “a combined path.” We should know more about where this path will take us when the acquisition is completed in the first quarter of next year.

Article: RSS via: Engadget

Tags: 4G, Baseband Chips, Infineon, Intel, LTE, Wireless Business Solutions

Posted in 4G | No Comments »

Next gen Intel Atom netbooks to hit shops

Dual core chips heading for your man-bag

Intel has announced that the latest generation of its netbook friendly CPU, the Atom N550, which is a dual core system, is about to hit the shops inside a number of netbooks.

The N550 has DDR3 memory support but you should still reap the benefits of extended battery life as with the single-core Intel Atom processors like the N450.

Intel states that Acer, ASUS, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba are all on board with the new chip and that the system will “enable new levels of support for applications like games, as well as Adobe Flash technology”.

“We are pleased to select dual-core Intel Atom processors for Acer netbooks, helping to empower netbook users achieve even more – both at work and at leisure”, said David Lee, associate vice president of Acer’s mobile computing business unit.

“In their short history, the netbook category has experienced impressive growth”, said Erik Reid, director of marketing for mobile platforms at Intel.

“Having shipped about 70 million Intel Atom chips for netbooks since our launch of the category in 2008, there is obviously a great market for these devices around the world”.

The new netbooks are expected to hit stores in the US immediately.

Article: RSS via: Pocket-lint

Tags: Computing, Dual-Core, Intel, Intel Atom, Netbooks

Posted in Computing | No Comments »

Virus-Busting Chips! Why Intel Paid Billions for McAfee.

The news of Intel’s very expensive McAfee purchase raises one obvious question: why is security software worth over $7 billion to a chip maker? Intel has been short on specifics, but it’s becoming clear that virus-killing silicon is coming.

Computer security with hardware roots isn’t new for Intel, but it’s stuck in last-gen tech that can’t stop your system from getting smoked. Feature sets that can help filter out malicious network traffic or let CPUs screen for certain worms have been safeguarding computers you’ve already thrown away by now. But they’re limited. Right now, most of the anti-malware grunt work is being handled by software. Letting applications do the heavy lifting is a resource-heavy affair, which makes chipmakers like Intel nervous when they look forward and see the future of computing floating in the cloud.

The problem with security in the cloud is twofold. To begin with, netbooks and tablets usually just don’t have the muscle to balance intensive malware efforts. Do you think your anemic netbook can root out marauding trojans, scanning hundreds of thousands of files, as well as your desktop? But what about just putting the security software in the cloud too? This leads to a second objection: do we really want our sensitive stuff floating out of our devices? Will people feel comfortable having their secrets scanned remotely? Intel doesn’t think so—and says it has a solution.

When we interviewed Intel’s head tech honcho, CTO Justin Rattner in June, he had much to say about the intersection of cloud computing and secure computing. And the future of beating viruses, according to Intel, lies in the chips that drive our devices, not some program running in the background. “As silicon developers,” Rattner explained, “we have a requirement to provide truly secure capability when it’s needed.” This means malware-fighting hardware is a new mandate. Rattner asserts that their hardware ambitions are to “protect those systems from the various forms of malware and then, in addition, giving them the ability to keep their secrets no matter what happens.” Which sounds a little abstract, right? But put it in context: Rattner’s plan sounds pretty real as of right now.

While discussing the news of their acquisition today, Intel minced no words about where their pricey new subsidiary will take them. McAfee technology will be put on Intel silicon. Virus scanning, trojan hunting, buffer overflow-blocking—all beat back before it has a chance to touch your software. McAfee’s line of applications will continue to sell as is, but Intel simply doesn’t believe that the future of computer security can be done with software alone. Malware keeps getting meaner. To block viruses, you need to hit them as soon as possible, which means as deep into the hardware as possible. Think of it as the difference between swatting flies in your kitchen and just keeping your windows closed in the first place.

Intel’s processors won’t change for now, but when we asked them about the deal’s implications for architecture changes down the line, they confirmed that the era of an antivirus-on-a-chip lies ahead—with a mysterious new hardware product slated for 2011. Thanks to Moore’s Law, Intel will have more real estate to fill with security mechanisms—courtesy of McAfee’s R&D labs. Whether secure silicon takes the form of hardware acceleration for virus-sniffing heuristics, or something else entirely, remains to be seen. But if Intel makes good on its promises (and on the nearly $8 billion it forked over), that folder of photos you regret will stay safe without having to climb to the cloud.

Article: RSS via: Gizmodo

Tags: Anti-Virus, Intel, Malware, McAfee, Virus

Posted in Internet, Other News | No Comments »

ASUS ET2400 Line-Up of All-in-One-PCs Announced, Seven New Models in All

As far as product announcements go, there’s no better way for a company to make an imapact than to announce a whole bunch of new things, all at once. That’s the mind state for ASUS today, anyway, as the company has just announced that seven brand new all-in-one-PCs will be hitting the market some time in the near future. While they announce plenty about the PCs themselves, there’s still a couple of very important things missing from the announcement.

All of the new PCs feature the same internals, for the most part. They can be switched around based on your preferences, of course. But you get the idea. At the top of the list, though, is the ET2400XVT, which features a 1.73GHz quad core Intel Core i7 CPU. It also has a 120Hz 3D panel. The processors are where the main differences lie, though. They range from dual-core Pentium and AMD Athlon II X2 systems, all the way up to Intel Core i3 and i5 CPUs. Storage capacities come in 7,200RPM 320GB, 500GB, or 1TB models, while all models share 2GB of RAM.

Each model also has support for Bluetooth 3.0, USB 3.0, and have dual-layer DVD drives. We’re sure plenty of folks out there would have preferred Blu-ray, especially in the ET2400XVT, so you should be happy in knowing that you can add it, as an extra option. You can also choose TV Tuners, HDMI outputs, and on the ET2400XVT you can even get NVIDIA’s 3D Vision. Unfortunately, those couple of things we said were missing? Yeah, price and release date. We wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the majority of these systems went pretty cheap, but that XVT will probably cost a couple of dollars with all of the extra thrown in.

Article: RSS via: SlashGear

Tags: All-in-one Computer, Asus, ASUS ET2400, Bluetooth 3.0, Computing, Intel, USB 3.0

Posted in ASUS, Computing | No Comments »

Intel Link Concept Phone Fits Into Your Notebook

The Intel Link Concept Phone looks like something every techie out there would love to have. It’s a dual-screen device, offering a display on the front and back, and can be hooked up to interact with your computer, utilizing the notebook’s processing power for heavier tasks. To further bond the two devices together, the phone can be inserted into the notebook, becoming part of the notebook’s trackpad, and also functioning as a secondary display on the trackpad. Check out a video of this concept in action after the jump, and remember to wipe the drool off your chin.

Article: RSS via: Ubergizmo

Tags: Concept, Intel, Intel Link, Intel Link Concept Phone, Notebook, Trackpad

Posted in Gadget News, Notebooks | No Comments »

Asus Eee PC 1015PD product page appears

The Asus Eee PC 1015PD has finally received its product page on the Internet to confirm a report late last month that pointed towards the existence of such a model. This new 10″ netbook will feature either a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N455 or 1.83GHz Intel Atom N475 processor, not to mention DDR3 memory that ranges from 1GB to 2GB, depending on your configuration. Apart from that, you can choose from a 160GB, 250GB or 320GB hard drive to keep the 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity options company. Depending on your choice of batteries, it should be able to last anytime from 4.5 to 13 hours. Other specifications are pretty much cookie cutter netbook fare, with a 0.3-megpaixel webcam, a 1024 x 600 pixel display, VGA output, a couple of USB 3.0 ports (nice to see Asus keep up with the times), an SDHC memory card slot and relevant mic and headphone jacks, with Windows 7 Starter Edition being the operating system of choice. There is still no word on pricing though.

Article: RSS via: Ubergizmo

Tags: Asus, Asus Eee PC 1015PD, Computing, Intel, Netbook, Windows 7

Posted in ASUS, Computing, Netbooks, Windows 7 | No Comments »

Intel breakthrough means “speed of light” computing

Light beams to replace the use of electrons to carry data in and around computers

Intel has announced a new breakthrough in technology that it claims could revolutionize computer design, while at the same time dramatically increase performance, and save the planet all within five years.

What could this new fangled technology be? Light beams to replace the use of electrons to carry data in and around computers.

The company has developed a research prototype representing the world’s first silicon-based optical data connection with integrated lasers which can move data over longer distances and many times faster than today’s copper technology; up to 50 gigabits of data per second in fact.

This say Intel is the equivalent of an entire HD movie being transmitted each second.

Today computer components are connected to each other using copper cables or traces on circuit boards.

Intel claims that the new data rates could allow manufacturers to create a wall-sized 3D display for home entertainment and videoconferencing with a resolution so high that the actors or family members appear to be in the room with you.

But it’s not just about gadgets, Intel says it would be perfect for search engines like Google and Bing. “Tomorrow’s datacenter or supercomputer may see components spread throughout a building or even an entire campus, communicating with each other at high speed, as opposed to being confined by heavy copper cables with limited capacity and reach.”

“This will allow datacenter users, such as a search engine company, cloud computing provider or financial datacenter, to increase performance, capabilities and save significant costs in space and energy, or help scientists build more powerful supercomputers to solve the worlds biggest problems.”

“This achievement of the world’s first 50Gbps silicon photonics link with integrated hybrid silicon lasers marks a significant achievement in our long term vision of ‘siliconizing’ photonics and bringing high bandwidth, low cost optical communications in and around future PCs, servers, and consumer devices” Rattner said.

Now for the super techy part:

The transmitter chip is composed of four such lasers, whose light beams each travel into an optical modulator that encodes data onto them at 12.5Gbps. The four beams are then combined and output to a single optical fiber for a total data rate of 50Gbps. At the other end of the link, the receiver chip separates the four optical beams and directs them into photo detectors, which convert data back into electrical signals.

Both chips are assembled using low-cost Intel manufacturing techniques familiar to the semiconductor industry. Intel researchers are already working to increase the data rate by scaling the modulator speed as well as increase the number of lasers per chip, providing a path to future terabit/s optical links – rates fast enough to transfer a copy of the entire contents of a typical laptop in one second.

Article: RSS via: Pocket-lint

Tags: Computing, Intel, Silicon Photonics Link

Posted in Computing, Internet | No Comments »