Newsletter Archives

• M3 powers new MacBook Pros and iMac

  Posted on November 6, 2023 at 02:43 CST by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  APPLE NEWS

  

  By Will Fastie

  Apple is infamous for making nebulous comparisons, but this time it has gone too far.

  Apple’s dark (Halloween) event a week ago was mildly disappointing. The company finally got around to announcing its previously expected M3 family of silicon and refreshed the MacBook Pro series as a result.

  The problem is that it wasn’t all that exciting. With a few exceptions, these were moves the company had to make, even though they will not generate the same sort of excitement as previous M1 and M2 announcements.

  The centerpiece of the event was silicon, a set of chips Apple calls “the most advanced chips ever built for a personal computer.”

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.45.0, 2023-11-06).

  Apple Apple M3, Apple News, Apple Silicon, iMac, MacBook, Newsletters, Qualcomm

• 14th Gen processors, and (of course) AI

  Posted on October 30, 2023 at 02:45 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.44 • 2023-10-30

  INTEL NEWS

  

  By Will Fastie

  Intel made some impressive announcements, but Qualcomm may get all the good press.

  You know we’ve been following developments in silicon carefully over the past couple of years. Our focus has been largely on Apple because of its bold initiatives with its M-series of chips.

  That coverage has not been to tout Apple, although it’s abundantly clear that the company’s products, especially Macintosh, have shown market share improvements. Our purpose has been to underscore what we perceived as a lag in Intel’s ongoing development. Windows users don’t gain anything from Apple’s proprietary silicon, but they lose something if Intel can’t keep up.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.44.0, 2023-10-30).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Intel News Financial Performance, Intel, Intel News, Intel Processors, Newsletters, Qualcomm

• Windows coming to Qualcomm “mobile” ARM chips

  Posted on December 8, 2016 at 02:52 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  As momentous news goes, this one’s a biggie.

  Qualcomm and Microsoft just announced a joint effort (“Project Evo”) to put Windows 10 on the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Terry Myerson has a similar take.

  Chris Williams at the Register puts it succinctly:

  What the hell is happening? Look out, WinTel, here comes Win, er, WinDragon?

  There’s an excellent overview of the history and placement of the product from Matt Humrick and Brett Howse on AnandTech.

  Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet summarizes:

  Microsoft will bring a natively compiled version of Windows 10 to Qualcomm’s ARM processors next year, plus an x86 emulation layer, designed to run on a new class of Windows 10 mobile PCs.

  Note that there’s no mention of 64-bit programs. Looks like 32-bit (x86) programs will run in an emulation layer, which is always tricky and usually slow. My guess is that only UWP apps will run native. That’s a moving target, given how much UWP is changing from version to version.

  Peter Bright at Ars Technica has some additional details:

  Microsoft also plans to bring the kind of always-on connectivity that’s more familiar to smartphones and desktop PCs. The devices will offer cellular connectivity using a virtual/embedded SIM, with data plans sold directly within the Windows Store. Offering this kind of near-permanent connectivity even in a highly portable device will further blur the lines between a PC and a smartphone, simultaneously offering the portability and power efficiency of a phone, with the application compatibility, peripheral support, and enterprise manageability of a PC.

  Will the effort amount to more than a flash in the pan – or a rehashing of Windows RT? Hard to tell. But it’s certainly going to be interesting. Nobody knows how well it’ll work, how quickly it’ll run (in spite of the demo), and whether Qualcomm can put together enough drivers to make it feasible.

  Look for a barrage of “analysis” this morning, much of which will be regurgitation of the press release.

  UPDATE: The WinHEC keynote speech is up, if you want to see the original introduction.

  Windows News Qualcomm