$14.8 billion in sales, $3.0 billion profit, sales and profits down from last quarter Intel reported its Q1 2017 revenue of $14.8 billion, down sequentially 9.8%, and up 8% annually, and in line with the company’s forecast. Operating income was $3.6 billion, down 20% from last quarter, and up 38% from a year ago, net income was $3.0 billion and … Read more
Crossing boundaries: we are the next frontier for computing As we learn more about the human body and our brains, we’ve learned that we’re more like machines than we’d like to think. Even our precious brains, which seem so unique, so much us, are turning out to be driven by chemicals and neurons and mechanics – it’s just all squishy. … Read more
Consumers just aren’t buying it In the first quarter of 2017, the U.S. economy grew at its slowest pace in three years as consumer spending slowed. However, a surge in business investment and wage growth suggests activity will regain momentum as the year progresses, or so the belief system goes. The U.S. gross domestic product (GNP) increased at a 0.7 … Read more
New opportunities for smartphones In late March, the U.S. and U.K imposed a ban on bringing electronic devices larger than a smartphone in to the cabin on flights from certain countries in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Turkey. And in late April, the Trump administration said it is considering barring passengers flying to the U.S. from … Read more
The difference between selling and promising The seemingly unbridled enthusiasm for gaming in VR continues even in the face of the disappointing sales results, unresolved technical and physiological problems (that may never be solved), and turmoil in the biggest, most visible company in VR. In the face of all that, new conferences pop up like cheap trendy clothing in a … Read more
The Apple of my eye turns black and blue Imagination Technologies started working with Apple before the iPhone was introduced in June 2007. Samsung was the fab Apple chose to build their first SoC and Samsung already had a license with Imagination, so it was easy to get into production. Later, Apple got its own GPU license in November 2008, … Read more
Imagination Technologies has owned the high-end non-Qualcomm-based smartphone GPU segment since the beginning, but until now hadn’t paid much attention to the low-end, leaving that segment to ARM—till now. Imagination just announced a new family of GPUs that it claims will provide the ideal balance of performance and fill-rate needed to enable gaming and compute applications on cost-sensitive devices. Designated … Read more
I’m seeing more than I want to, or maybe not enough Our eyes are just too damn good. Too good for the VR and AR displays we can afford and are able to build today. VR as you probably know has a taxonomy that can be reduced to a quadrant: Consumer mobile Commercial mobile Consumer tethered Commercial tethered Samsung’s gear … Read more
AMD has been doling out news with a big ladle these days. The company is riding on its new line of CPUs, Ryzen and its upcoming Vega graphics processor, which is no longer code named Vega, it’s officially named Radeon Rx Vega. So, yeah, that was one bombshell that was a bit anticlimactic. However, in other news AMD also talked … Read more
Great scores in all categories AMD provided us with a flashy new PC from Cyberpower PC built around the new Ryzen CPU. As everyone knows, AMD is betting big on this latest processor line, which has been designed from the ground up for performance an efficiency. The company says it has achieved a 52% gain in performance over its previous … Read more
And that time seems to be now for 3D Sometimes it seems that what happens in the game community stays within the game community. And sometimes that’s a very very good thing. But for generations it has seemed as if all the amazing technical achievement that has taken place to power lush real time, and immersive imagery didn’t have much … Read more
Naples arrives to serve AMD’s new CPU is finally here and getting “complicated” reviews. It’s not blowing Intel out of the water, but the company is delivering a very capable, low cost CPU that will enable a wide range of competitively priced computers with little compromise on performance. Does that sound weasely? It’s not meant to because, the computer industry … Read more
