In a surprise announcement Intel CEO Paul Otellini steps down from the company on May 2013, following "an orderly leadership transition over the next six months."

Otellini, 62, is just the 5th Intel CEO (after Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, Andy Grove and Craig Barrett) and has a 40-year history with the 45-year old company. He is the man behind ultrabooks, as well as (admittedly none too successful) Intel attempts to take over part of a mobile processor market dominated by ARM-based designs.

“Af Continue reading...

In a sudden announcement Windows unit president Steven Sinofsky leaves Microsoft-- barely a month after the Windows 8 and Surface launches.

Sinofsky is a Microsoft veteran, having joined the company as a software design engineer in July 1989. He led Windows development since 2006, following a long stint at the Office unit.

Taking over his duties are Windows 7 and 8 head of UX Juli Larson-Green and Windows CFO Tami Reller.

In a farewell letter to employees, Sinofsky writes "I have decided it is time for me to take a step back from my responsibilities at Microsoft. I’ve always advocated using the break between product cycles as an opportunity to reflect and to look ahead, and that applies to me too."

According to Reuters AMD hired the services of the JPMorgan bank to "explore options"-- options such as the sale of patents and IP, if not actually selling the company.

In reply to Reuters AMD says "the strategy the company is currently pursuing to drive long-term growth by leveraging AMD's highly-differentiated technology assets is the right approach to enhance shareholder value. AMD is not actively pursuing a sale of the company or significant assets at this time."

What is certain is AMD has Continue reading...

Nvidia reports "record" results for Q3 2012, with revenues reaching $1.2 billion with 12.9% Y-o-Y (or 15.3% Q-o-Q) growth and $209.1 million profits.

The company attributes such growth to its "new growth strategies"-- namely non-PC offerings such as the Tegra 3 processor. Currently over 30% of Nvidia revenues come from non-PC chips as revenues for the Consumer Products division (includes the Tegra family) grow by 27.6%.

The Tegra 3 powers a number of smartphones and tablets, such as the Microsoft Continue reading...

Bloomberg reports Apple might drop the use of Intel processors inside Mac PCs, replacing them with more powerful versions of the ARM-based iPhone and iPad chips.

Apple has been using Intel chips for Macs since 2005, when it abandoned the PowerPC chips from Motorola and IBM. Sources say it is still "committed" to Intel for the next few years-- or until Apple designs grow further in power and "features of mobile devices and PCs become more similar."

Apparently, according to "three people familiar with the [Apple-Intel] relationship" Apple is also unhappy with Intel's take on low-power processors. The lack of satisfaction crept in at around late 2011, when Apple was working on MacBooks featuring power-hungry high-resolution Retina displays.

Currently Apple offers two varieties of Retina-equipped MacBook Pro (13- and 15-inch), while even the latest iMac desktop has a design just 5mm thick at the edges.

HP will not make a smartphone on 2013, Meg Whitman says at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2012-- instead, the company is "more concerned about the pads."

However HP should take on smartphones from 2014 onward, since Whitman also claims "...we've got to, I believe, have the full array of devices." Whitman gives no further details on the future smartphone plans, meaning the OS of HP choice (webOS? Windows Phone? Android?) remains a mystery.

Whitman already mentioned HP has mobile plans last September in an interview with Fox Business.

Will HP enter the smartphone race too late? Perhaps, but then again one can never really guess which route the crazy smartphone market will take...

UK-based ARM reveals two processor cores for use in the smartphones, tablets and even servers of the near future-- the Cortex-A53 and Cortex A57.

Both carry the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture launched back in October 2011, and are compatible with 32-bit ARM applications.

ARM calls the A53 "the smallest" 64-bit chip yet, as well as the most power-efficient ARM application processor. Meanwhile the A57 is the "most advanced" applications processor from the company.

Like the earlier Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 Continue reading...

Asus bucks the negative trend in Q3 2012 with tablet shipments reaching 2.3 million units and profits growing by 43% Y-o-Y to reach $230m, the highest quarterly profit in 4 years.

Gross revenues total $3.8 billion with 9% Y-o-Y growth.

The company attributes the positive results to the popularity of the Nexus 7 tablet as well as its portfolio of convertible devices (such as the Transformer Prime) and notebooks.

When it comes to the future Asus projects Q4 2012 tablet shipments to reach 2.6m, Continue reading...