Shanghai Tianshu Zhaoxin Semiconductor Co. has been credited with releasing China’s first 7-nanometer chip based on a proprietary GPU architecture and is code-named “Big Island” GPGPU. Zhaoxin Semiconductor, formed in 2013 as a joint venture between Taiwan’s VIA Technologies and Shanghai’s municipal government, owns part of VIA’s x86 processor IP assets. The processors are created mainly for the Chinese market: … Read more
AMD has been an underdog since the introduction of the ill-fated Bulldozer processor which resulted in the career change of several CEOs, CMOs, and CFO at the company. And then, along came Lisa Su. Saddled with a company no one wanted to work at, no one wanted to buy, and no one thought had any future, she saw something others … Read more
Besides changing its CEO and sending automated automobiles cruising in Munich, Intel also had a lot of processor news for CES. Intel’s Executive VP Gregory Bryant kicked off the presentation of the company’s 11th gen CPUs saying, “Only Intel has the breadth of products spanning multiple architectures; the large, open ecosystem; sheer scale of manufacturing footprint; and deep technical expertise … Read more
Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 released in 2016 for $249 is currently the most popular graphics card on Steam (11.4%, Dec). Now, however, it’s starting to show its age as the production values of the latest games continue to improve, demanding more and more from an AIB. Nvidia cites gamers playing Watch Dogs 2 with high settings realizing 60 fps with … Read more
Dell has been a leader in displays for 15 years or more. The first to offer an 8k display, the first to offer a 49-inch curved display, and the first to offer a 2K mini-LED display with backlit zones. For 2021, Dell launched a 40-inch ultrawide curved monitor they say is designed for productivity and content creation chores. The 5k … Read more
Founded in early 1993, Nvidia set out to revolutionize the PC and console gaming market with 3D. They succeeded beyond even their wildest dreams, but not without a few bumps and bruises to make them smarter and stronger. The company was founded on the plan to develop single-chip media accelerators for interactive multimedia on PCs.¹ “We intend to focus our … Read more
Yamaha was a developer of video display controllers or processors (VDP) in the late 1980s. The company made IBM compatible CGA display controllers such as the YGY603. The company also made the video display processor (VDP) for the Sega Genesis video game console, and the VDP for TI’s popular TI-99 calculator. Yamaha was, of course, best known for its audio … Read more
Qualcomm Technologies just announced its Snapdragon 678 Mobile Platform, a follow-on to the Snapdragon 675 introduced in 2018. The new chip, says Qualcomm, will deliver overall performance upgrades, high-speed connections for sophisticated photo and video capture, and immersive entertainment experiences. Snapdragon 678, says Qualcomm, offers the following performance enhancements over Snapdragon 675: Qualcomm Kryo 460 CPU core clock speed up … Read more
A start-up in Silicon-Valley has an idea for a new type of super high-performance GPU, targeted at the data-center. The group at Bolt has completed their first round of funding and is looking for savvy VC who share their view about the data explosion and the need for data accelerators. Bolt’s HPC GPU. (Source: Bolt) Bolt Graphics is building … Read more
When AMD and Nvidia introduced their new AIBs in Q4 2020, they sold out immediately. No one anticipated the demand and attributed it to bots. Gamers complained that once again, they got left out. The suspicion was crypto-miners were the cause of the shortage. We think there is some truth, and proof in that suspicion. The waves of Cryptocurrency mining … Read more
We’ve been tracking GPU and before that graphics controller shipments for decades, and we think we have a sense of their trends and seasonal behavior. Most recently, our Market Watch report for Q3 2020 reveals unusual buying patterns for graphics boards and we naturally wondered, what’s up? Look at the following chart that shows shipments for the past 15 … Read more
At Qualcomm’s 2020 Snapdragon Tech Summit, the company introduced its flagship Snapdragon 888 5G SoC. The company hopes it will set the benchmark for flagship smartphones in 2021. The new SoC integrates 5G along with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth audio. Qualcomm claims the 880’s new Adreno 660 GPU will deliver a 35% increase in graphics rendering (measured presumably in fps). … Read more
