10/31, 12:00pm
Transformer Prime to first ship with Android 3.2
When the ASUS Transformer Prime launches on November 9, it will ship with Android 3.2 onboard rather than Android 4.0, Germany's TabletBlog reported. ASUS Germany itself hinted at this through its Facebook page, stating the device, along with the Eee Pad and Eee Pad Slider, will be upgradeable to Android 4.0. Exactly when such an update will be made available, however, hasn't been revealed.
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10/24, 10:15am
TSMC 28nm chips start up ahead of iPad, AMD, more
TSMC on Monday said it had started full-scale production of 28 nanometer chips. Designs that meet its criteria for Low Power (28LP), High Performance (28HP), and High Performance Low Power (28HPL) are all ready now with a High Performance Mobile Computing (HPM) due for later in the year. Even with the significant shrink down from the old 40nm process, it had gotten to full volume faster than before and with better yields of working chips.
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10/19, 10:15pm
ASUS Transformer Prime official Nov 9 with Tegra 3
ASUS CEO Jonney Shih took the stage at the AsiaD conference to tease the Transformer Prime, its sequel to its relatively hot-selling Eee Pad Transformer tablet. The 10-inch slate should be the first major tablet, if not tablet of any kind, to ship with NVIDIA's Tegra 3. The chip is considered the first real quad-core mobile processor and technically has a fifth core to handle low-level tasks.
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10/19, 6:55am
NIVIDA Tegra 3 trailer leaks, launches soon?
A teaser video (embedded below) for the forthcoming NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor has leaked out. Codenamed Kal-El, the system-on-a-chip runs a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor, which is accompanied by a fifth Cortex A9 core clocked at 500MHz for running tasks such as web browsing and listening to music. The graphics performance delivered by the 12-core graphics engine helps the processor outperform even Intel’s older Core 2 Duo processors.
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10/05, 11:40pm
TSMC and Apple have tech discussions
TSMC is sending an envoy to Cupertino to discuss more details of manufacturing Apple A6 chips, insiders revealed late Wednesday. The talks, which Digitimes claims are to pledge "full support," should talk about 28 nanometer chip manufacturing yields as well as patent terms. Global UniChip, which is working with TSMC and has rights to use ARM's Cortex CPU and Mali graphics, is also believed to be part of the visit.
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09/27, 6:45am
ZTE T98 one of the first tablets with Tegra 3
The ZTE T98 7-inch Android tablet has been unveiled at the PT/Expo Comm China. In addition to running the latest build of Android for tablets, Android 3.2, the device is one of the first production-ready tablets to be announced powered by NVIDIA’s next generation Tegra 3 (Kal-El) processor. The quad-core processor can be clocked at 1.5GHz, but has been slightly under clocked in this application at 1.3GHz.
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09/24, 3:50am
Motorola Xoom 2 seen early
(Update:some specs) A sequel to the Motorola Xoom might prove underwhelming after leaks of the first photos. Looking somewhat like the original, Droid-Life's sighting would have cut-off corners and a redesigned "HD" camera layout. The design, codenamed MZ617, won't have made any progress on weight and would be as heavy as the original and by extension the 1.5 year old original iPad.
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09/20, 1:40pm
NVIDIA releases 2 Kal-El mobile chip whitepapers
NVIDIA has just detailed more information and released a couple of white papers on its upcoming Kal-El mobile chip. The new revelation is that the quad-core chip will actually use five cores, with the so-called "companion" core being another ARM Cortex-A9. It will perform more mundane tasks such as web browsing, listening to music, or running live wallpapers. This core operates at 500MHz for higher per-watt efficiency.
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09/15, 10:35pm
TSMC contract with Apple to last at least a year
More details of TSMC's deal with Apple have emerged that suggest it will at least be a two-generation pact. Insiders reported late Thursday that it would include both the 28 nanometer process chips widely reported as well as a smaller-still 20 nanometer process. The move outlined for Digitimes would not only have TSMC make the A6 but the A7, presumably arriving in early 2013.
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09/13, 5:05pm
NVIDIA dev program supports x86, ARM devices
NVIDIA is represented at the currently ongoing Microsoft Build conference, and it has announced the launch of a developer program for tablets running on Windows 8 and with NVIDIA's Kal-El quad-core, next-generation Tegra processor. The company's GeForce, Quadro and Tesla cards will also be covered under the program. Developers will have the tools to create for x86- and ARM-based tablets and PCs as well.
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08/26, 3:40pm
Analyst thinks iPad 3 may be stalled by A6 chip
Senior analyst Kevin Krewell of The Linley Group asserted in a research note that Apple's A6 processor would be relatively late. Citing a Taiwan Economic News article as part of his support, he believed the A6 wouldn't be in full production until spring at the earliest. To get it into a shipping product would mean the A6 not arriving until "at least" June, Krewell said.
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08/25, 4:00pm
Microsoft gives clue to Windows 8 tablet design
Microsoft continued its surprises at its Tech Ed New Zealand conference with a demonstration of an unnamed tablet. The relatively slim design, according to Alan Burchill, was billed only as a "quad-core Windows slate" and would be given out at an "upcoming Microsoft event." It's presumed this is an allusion to the Build conference in September, where developers will get more information about writing Windows 8 apps.
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07/13, 9:05am
Motorola may have Retina Display tablet with ICS
A new rumor has maintained that Motorola will take a more iPad-like approach for its next tablet. The company would drop the widescreen ratio of the Xoom in favor of a 4:3 ratio. Prototypes supposedly out in the field seen by Fudzilla's source would even have the 2048x1536 Retina Display-like resolution that Apple has been preparing for.
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06/01, 11:35pm
Windows 8 at Computex gets performance specs
Microsoft has used its presentation at Computex in Taiwan to show off Windows 8 and detail newly toughened requirements. The OS' flexibility was such that it was shown on anything from a basic tablet up to performance notebooks, such as a Dell XPS or a future HP dv6 running AMD Llano that will ship later in the spring. ARM-based prototypes were on view at the same time and even included a quad-core NVIDIA Kal-El notebooks and tablets that could use hardware-accelerated HTML5 rendering, much like an x86 system.
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05/29, 11:30pm
NVIDIA Kal-El gets early video demo
NVIDIA in another phase of its Computex show rollouts gave the first real demo of its quad-core Kal-El chip (below). A graphics and physics demo, Glowball, showed the future Tegra as the first smartphone-class chip of doing true dynamic lighting while still keeping a smooth frame rate, even with advanced physics for cloth and obstacles. Kal-El is the first mobile chip that can do this at a reasonable speed, NVIDIA said, and dropping to just two cores showed a dramatic slowdown.
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05/23, 12:05pm
Amazon tablets get prices, history in leak
Further insight may have surfaced for Amazon's Coyote and Hollywood tablets with Taiwanese sources claiming Monday to know more about pricing and Amazon's original goals. The seven-inch Coyote is now targeted to cost $349 and could be one of the least expensive dual-core Tegra 2 tablets. The quad-core Tegra 3-based, 10-inch Hollywood would cost $449, PCMag said, hinting that the move to quad-core wouldn't carry any price premium.
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05/05, 8:35am
IDC sees ARM becoming large part of PC market
Computers using ARM processors could quickly become a large part of the computing industry in four years, IDC said in a new estimate. It expected ARM to make up 13 percent of the category by 2015. The rapid rise would put it just within the reach of AMD, whose market share in early 2011 was 18.9 percent.
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05/04, 1:25pm
ASUS working on quad-core Tegra 3 tablets
Industry sources speaking with Digitimes maintained on Wednesday that Taiwanese PC maker ASUS was readying the launch of tablets powered by a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 CPU. The four-core T30 chip, according to a roadmap from NVIDIA early this year, isn't expected to reach products until 2012. The chip is believed to have a 1.5GHz clock speed.
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04/22, 2:05pm
Motorola Bullet and Jet may use Tegra 3
Motorola may claim the title of the first with quad-core smartphones with two launches early next year. A solitary source claimed Friday that two phones, the Bullet and the Jet, would both use NVIDIA's Kal-El processor, often expected to get the Tegra 3 label. Either phone mentioned to Droid-Life would have at least 1GB of RAM, possibly up to 1.5GB, and would share NFC wireless as well as a new 12-megapixel camera.
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02/19, 12:30pm
Analyst says iPad 3 due for Retina Display
The third-generation iPad will be the one to get the rumored 2048x1536 display, Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed on Saturday. The often historically accurate researcher understood from checks that the doubled resolution, fringed-field switching display was both too expensive and not yielding enough to be viable for the current model. He instead told AppleInsider that he understood Apple would use a thinner display with the current resolution but a less reflective surface that renders it better for outdoor reading.
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02/18, 2:05pm
NVIDIA CEO sees MacBook Air design as future
NVIDIA chief Jen-Hsun Huang in an interview this week saw the new MacBook Air as the long-term future of the notebook. Since future notebooks would need less and less active cooling and would run longer on battery, they would all ultimately be as thin and wedge-like. The approach was described to CNET as virtually inevitable.
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02/15, 7:50pm
NVIDIA Kal-El chip does 1440p, Retina Display tech
NVIDIA tonight unveiled Kal-El, a chip it claims is the first quad-core mobile processor. Likely to be called the Tegra 3, its two extra processor cores plus a 12-core graphics engine help it get into greater-than-HD resolutions in mobile. The system on a chip with the Superman-inspired name can smoothly play 1440p (2560x1440) video and has enough power to drive a Retina Display-like 300DPI image on a 10-inch tablet.
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