What If Microprocessors Had Never Existed? Microprocessors are so deeply integrated into our lives, we’ve pretty much completely stopped noticing them. But they’re always there, affecting our lives in some surprising ways. Sure, they’re in your smartphone and computer — but also your toaster, your stove, your TV, your car and just about everywhere else. That’s because, as processor technology has advanced, making processors that ten years ago would have cost a fortune and be possessed of mind-blowing power are now so cheap and disposable that people shove them into just about anything that needs a “brain” without a second thought. But what if microprocessors somehow pulled a George Bailey and just…stopped existing? We decided to break out the consequences to the world without the microprocessor, and it’s a lot more than just having to actually attend meetings instead of just getting the email update when you pretend to have something else to do.
I want more like this! Intel: Happy Cinco de Mayo from #... Ultrabook™: Desperado. Intel runs Android on Atom chips. Chip giant Intel has revealed that it can run Google's Android operating system on its Atom chips. The low-powered chips are designed specifically for portable devices such as smartphones and netbooks. The move is significant because before now Android has most often been found on mobile phones based around chips designed by UK firm Arm. The move is likely to help Google push into handheld gadgets including tablets such as Apple's iPad. The information was revealed by Renee James, general manager of Intel's software and services group, during a session at the chip firm's developer conference in Beijing.
"Intel is enabling all OSes for Atom phones," Ms James is quoted as saying by PC World. If widely taken up it could help Google expand the number of devices that can run the operating system beyond the smartphones where it is most widely used. The news comes as Google boss Eric Schmidt hinted to the New York Times that the firm is readying its own tablet PC similar to Apple's iPad. Sony laptop among first to combine Intel and Nvidia graphics | N. Intel or Nvida? You decide. An upcoming Sony notebook will be one of the first to have the capability to switch between Intel Centrino 2 and Nvidia graphics. Intel's new Centrino 2 technology features what the chipmaker calls "switchable graphics" to save power. When the laptop is plugged in, it uses the higher-performance--and more power-hungry--Nvidia or AMD-ATI graphics. On battery, the system runs on Intel's 4500 series integrated graphics, which uses less power. Sony lists the graphics system as "Hybrid Graphics" with a "Dedicated Hybrid GPU Switch" based on the Nvidia 9300M GS graphics chip and Intel 4500MHD integrated graphics silicon.
The 13-inch Sony Vaio Z570, due later this summer in retail, will use an Intel P9500 (2.53GHz) processor that has a power envelope of only 25 watts compared with the 35 watts for mainstream Intel mobile processors on the market today. The Z570 weighs 3.3 pounds--putting it into ultra-light notebook territory--and is between 1.0 and 1.3 inches thick.