All Articles Tagged intel

A few days ago we mentioned issues users were reporting about iPhone Sync being busted on Windows 7 with Intel P55 express chipset. Microsoft said they were looking into it, but now Intel has issued a statement. CNet has the quote and the background:

“Our leading theory is a BIOS or system configuration issue, but we are still investigating,” Intel said Monday. The BIOS, or basic input/output system, is the initial code that runs when a PC is powered on. The BIOS identifies and initializes system devices such as the chipset, graphics card, and hard disk drive. Makers of PC circuit boards, aka motherboards, typically offer their own BIOS.

Again, we’re guessing users are less interested in what’s to blame, and more interested in getting things working again. So, while everyone investigates, check out the link at the top for some potential work-arounds, and let us know if you get up and running or are still having problems.

[CNet via iLounge]

According to an Engadget exclusive, Apple brought a new specification for optical port connection to Intel who, after some heated back and forth, has produced Light Peak:

Based on what we’ve learned, Apple will introduce the new standard for its systems around Fall 2010 in a line of Macs destined for back-to-school shoppers — a follow-up to the “Spotlight turns to notebooks” event, perhaps. Following the initial launch, there are plans to roll out a low-power variation in 2011, which could lead to more widespread adoption in handhelds and cellphones. The plans from October 2007 show a roadmap that includes Light Peak being introduced to the iPhone / iPod platform to serve as a gateway for multimedia and networking outputs. While the timing doesn’t line up, a low-powered Light Peak sounds like the kind of technology that would be perfect for a device with a need for broad connectivity but limited real estate for ports… like a tablet.

Can one port rule — and replace — them all? Do we want to kiss our USB/FireWire, VGA/DVI/DisplayPort, Ethernet, and all other connectors goodbye and replace them with a single, standardized optical cable? Check out Engadget’s full post for more, then let us know what you think.

Some Intel Execs must be still quite jealous that Apple went with the ARM architecture for the iPhone and left Intel waiting at the altar. At a Intel Developer Forum in Taipei, Taiwan, two Intel Execs claimed that the iPhone struggles with “any sort of application that requires any horse power” and that Apple fell short in delivering a full internet browsing experience.

Huh. Color us confused. We’ve been using the iPhone as our daily driver since it came out and we thought that this was the most–or at least one of the more– powerful phones on the market. We’ve been using apps and playing games that show off the pure power of the iPhone that no other phone can run. And that Internet we browse on Mobile Safari? I guess that’s not best-in-class either. Though we still can’t seem to find a comparable experience, well, anywhere.

The ARM architecture may have its faults but to say the iPhone is slow, underpowered, and fails to deliver the Internet? Did these guys even use the thing? I think good ‘ol Intel should give the TiPb headquarters a visit and we’ll show them how the iPhone, of this world, works.

What do you guys think? Does the iPhone really suck that much? Or has Intel gone crazy?

Photo Credit: Suzanne Tindal/ZDNet

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What’s going to power the next generation iPhone 3G? Infineon again? Insider Intel? A curveball from PA Semi? And more importantly — when are we getting our hands on one?! What do YOU think?

To give you some help, here’s a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone 3G chipset and ship date rumors. Epic-style. Because let’s face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: “Nice! What’s the next gen going to be like?”

Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It’s become almost impossible to keep track of them all. But we’re going to try!

One week from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be rounding up a different set of next generation rumors, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we’ll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Balland a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.

So come on, let’s get in on!

[Digg it!]

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Confession: Yes, when one of these crazy AT&T or Intel rumors come up, I draft a rumor-smasher just as soon as I finish the post. Chalk it up to experience.

Case in point: yesterday we (and everyone else in the blogsphere) reported that Intel Germany Geschäftsführer Hannes Schwaderer done let slip word of an Atom-powered iTablet. Or done did he?

“No Intel exec has said anything about any future Apple product, Atom processor or otherwise,” an Intel spokesperson told AppleInsider. “I think that’s important to note as everyone speculates on future products from Apple.”

And more awkwardly:

“Intel knows nothing over future products of other manufacturers and can therefore over it also nothing say,” press spokesman Mike Cato told ZDNet

Of course, just like AT&T leaking and un-leaking the iPhone Black, this could just be Intel desperately spinning damage control following a “phone call” from Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

So, basically, either the interwebs have gone slappy-happy bonkers with pent-up pre-WWDC mania, or a large-screen, Atom-powered, iChat’ing iPhone Tablet 3G Black is coming our way very, very shortly?

MacRumors, source of the original hubbub, is standing firm on the latter, and offers up further corroboration-by-way-of-translation:

“PCGH-Editor Daniel Waadt was there as well an can attest, that Schwaderer referred to the iPhone as an example for the use of the atom-processor from Intel. The Intel CEO mentioned furthermore, that the display on iPhone 2 would be bigger than on iPhone 1 (although it is already quite big). iPhone 2 is also thinner than iPhone 1.”

My bet? iPhone 3G sans-Intel takes stage at WWDC, ships sometime soonish thereafter, and while an iTablet certainly exists, and certainly furthers Apple’s mobile WiFi platform and App Store program, we won’t hear about it until sometime between Thanksgiving 2008 and Macworld 2009. Only way it makes sense anytime soon is if Steve Jobs smells blood in the water and is willing to sacrifice short-term roadmaps for the ultra-mobile kill.

What do you think?

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True story: before the iPhone, Apple’s multi-touch screen mobile efforts were focused on a tablet-like device known internally as Safari Pad. But when El Jobso unleashed his awesome powers of prediction, he saw cell phones coming on so strongly, he shifted Apple’s gears — and mobile OS X Touch development efforts — to what became the iPhone.

Since then — heck, since way before then, probably back since Jobs first axed the original Apple ultra-mobile, the Newton — rumors have persisted that Apple was still working on the iTablet/Safari Pad/Mac Touch. And since the iPhone back in January 2007, every time a Jobsnote is scheduled, the interwebs explode with rumor that this time, at last, the dream machine will finally be released.

Well, this time we may have more than just rumor and hope to go on, as Intel Germany Geschäftsführer Hannes Schwaderer let slip that:

There is an iPhone with Intel’s new Atom chip. The device is slightly larger than the current version, Schwaderer said. That is not, however, because of the Intel chip, but because of the larger display used in the new iPhone.

Okay, so possible Non-Disclosure violations aside, does “slightly larger” mean tablet sized to anyone the Apple rumorati? And how does this factor in to previous rumors of the next-gen iPhone being Infineon powered, never mind Apple’s recent purchase of PA Semi and its mobile PowerPC architecture?

More and more questions, with less and less time remaining before WWDC…

What do you think? Could this be this year’s One More Thing…?

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The Inquirer is rumormongering that the fabled iPhone 3G (in this case, iPhone version 3, rocking 3G HSDPA data speeds) will, like big brother Mac before it, be undergoing a brain transplant. And Intel once again has the technology.

Crutching itself on a CeBIT slide showing Intel’s MID (mobile internet device) roadmap, they point to a very conspicuous iPhone image in the bottom right corner. Wassup indeed?

The lucky chip is prognosticated to be a second-gen Atom, code-named Moorestown, Intel’s 45nm integrated memory, video/graphics engine, with optional Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and — you guessed it! — 3G all possible right there on the little super-chip.

So if all of this is still way off in 2009, with iPhone v3, where does that leave us (hopefully later this very year!) with iPhone v2? Maybe those previous Infineon rumors have some legs?

And with Apple hyping their mobile internet platform as the “next big thing” and rumors of a larger form-factor Safari Pad (iTablet), could it make sense for Apple to unify around a single chipset supplier? Or, like TUAW, will you believe it only when you see it (and pigs) fly?

(via Apple Insider)

figure 1: a mockup of a device on Intel’s Moorestown chip

The Apple iPhone is currently based off the ARM processor platform, but they are reportedly considering a switch to Intel in 2009. Some sites are expanding that news as justification for no 3rd party development, but I don’t buy it. And why not? Because a web widget — the simplest form of native 3rd party development — can be written in processor-agnostic fashion. Indeed, most of them would.

The chip that they’re reportedly considering, the Moorestown MID, would give the iPhone an unprecedented amount of computing power for a mobile device in its size class as the chip is designed for use in ultramobile PCs. Moorestown can also pair with chips for 3G, wi-fi, and wimax. Speaking to Jobs’ earlier quote about horrible battery life, Moorestown can idle with 10% of the power than its predecessor chip Menlow, meaning drastically longer standby times. Of course, it could just indicate that Apple is coming out with a UMPC of their own, who can say? [picture credit]