Thread: Anandtech News

During its Q2 2011 earnings conference, AMD’s interim-CEO Thomas Seifert revealed that AMD already has working samples of GPUs using a 28nm fabrication process. AMD claims it is on track to introduce a revamped lineup of GPUs codenamed “Southen Islands” using the new process later this year. AMD expects to lead the graphic processor industry’s transition to the 28nm process.
AMD has tapped both Globalfoundries and TSMC to manufacture the new GPUs on their 28nm process. But since both the processes are vastly different, AMD would need independent GPU designs for each foundry. In spite of the risks, the cost savings from moving to the 28nm process should be significant, assuming good yields. Considering AMD’s GPU business lost $7 million this quarter, this is definitely good news.
It’s always a gamble to design complex GPUs on a cutting-edge process; Nvidia learnt it the hard way with the Geforce FX Series (NV30) back in the day when it was manufactured on the 130nm process. Let’s hope AMD has a better luck.
Source: AMD Q2 2011 Earnings Conference via Xbit Labs


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Corsair pretty much stormed out of the gate when they entered the enclosure market, starting at the top with the Obsidian 800D and gradually working their way down, and each case has been well-received. Their first "budget" offering was still fairly pricey, but the Graphite 600T reviewed well and took home the bronze. Corsair recently added a similarly priced offering to their premium Obsidian line with the 650D. But is it another winner or are we left with a feeling of deja vu?

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Some of Google’s product launches distinctly remind me of this one South Park episode where Eric Cartman boosted visitor numbers at his theme park by artificially barring people from entering. While that's not entirely the case here, an invite-only system decidedly helps pique user interest by inducing a feeling of exclusivity and it seems to have worked quite well for Google in the past with services like Gmail.
Google+ launched on June 29^th as private invite-only beta with much fanfare as Google tried to take yet another stab at social networking. Users were impressed with the clean, intuitive UI and features like Circles and Hangouts. Some have even gone as far as to abandon Facebook completely and migrate over.
However all is not rosy as, Experian Hitwise reports total visits to the website fell to about 1.79 million in the week ending July 23^rd, a 3% drop from the 1.86 million in the previous week. Average time spent on the website also dropped from 5 minutes, 50 seconds to about 5 minutes, 15 seconds. However, the stats don't account for people using the Google+ app, so take these numbers with a pinch of salt.
I’ve personally been using Google+ since launch day, and have found myself spending less time on the website of late. What about you guys? Let us know in the comments!
Source: Mashable


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Given the rise in prevalence of USB 3.0-enabled computer systems and maturation of the USB 3.0 flash drive market, we provide here benchmarks and real-world performance tests of USB 3.0 portable storage devices. How much faster are USB 3.0 flash drives compared to their USB 2.0 predecessors? Are they worth the cost premium? Does using a USB 3.0 flash drive in a USB 2.0 port yield better results than native use of a USB 2.0 flash drive? Do USB 2.0 flash drives benefit from being plugged into USB 3.0 ports? To find out the answers to these questions, read on!

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Last year we ran a little series called Ask the Experts where you all wrote in your virtualization related questions and we got them answered by experts at Intel, VMWare as well as our own expert on all things Enterprise & Cloud Computing - Johan de Gelas.

Read on for the final installment of Johan's answers to your questions!


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It's the Summer of Honeycomb and we now have two lucky readers who have won Eee Pad Transformers thanks to our friends at NVIDIA. Congrats to AnandTech reader unbellum for winning our second Eee Pad Transformer. Be sure to respond to my email to claim your prize! If you didn't win this time, don't worry - there are still two more chances to win.

With our Eee Pad stock depleted, we're switching over to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 as our giveaway this weekend. Read on for entry details!


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There has been considerable talk and rumor in the last week about AT&T considering throttling the heaviest users on its 3G networks. Turns out those rumors were true, as AT&T has just announced that it will begin throttling offending users starting October 1.

Starting October 1, smartphone customers with unlimited data plans may experience reduced speeds once their usage in a billing cycle reaches the level that puts them among the top 5 percent of heaviest data users. These customers can still use unlimited data and their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle. Before you are affected, we will provide multiple notices, including a grace period.

We've suspected that such a move would be inevitable, and largely marks the start of AT&T's push to begin selling services on speed tiers in addition to data buckets with its forthcoming LTE network rollout. AT&T interestingly notes in its throttling announcement that only a successful merger with T-Mobile will address its spectrum challenges in the short term.
Nothing short of completing the T-Mobile merger will provide additional spectrum capacity to address these near term challenges.
Source: AT&T


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A report in the (Japanese-language) Semiconductor Industry News today revealed that the quad-core Cortex A9ARM processor for Sony's upcoming Playstation Vita handheld would be manufactured by Samsung on a 45nm process. Samsung also supplies 45nm ARM processors for Apple (the A4 and A5) and other smartphone manufacturers.
The move to a relatively off-the-shelf ARM processor is a move away from the expensive proprietary chips that powered Sony's PS2, PSP, and PS3, and it allows Sony to make the Vita more cheaply (it also allows developers to port code more easily from other ARM devices, like smartphones). This is an important move, since it allows Sony to compete more effectively with Apple and Nintendo - the latter, perhaps feeling the pressure from the Vita's impending launch, announced a substantial price cut to its 3DS handheld yesterday.
The Playstation Vita succeeds the PlayStation Portable and is due out at some point this holiday season in Japan and North America. Its announced price is $249.99, $30 more than Apple's low-end iPod Touch and $80 more than Nintendo's 3DS.


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If ever a product has summed up the progression of the Android ecosystem, it’s the Motorola Droid. The first Droid catapulted Android into the mainstream with its first 2.x release, and since then the Droid itself has seen a yearly update cadence that honestly has shown no sign of stopping. The updates thus far track the trends that we’ve seen affect the Android ecosystem as a whole - newer and better versions of Android alongside ever increasing SoC performance, display improvements, camera improvements, and refined hardware design.

I think that pretty much sums up what kind of update the Motorola Droid 3 (henceforth just Droid 3) is. It’s an iterative product launch, for sure, but that belies just how good the improvements all around really are. I noted a few of them already - the Droid 3 includes a dual core OMAP 4430 SoC, larger 4” qHD display, more internal storage, better camera, front facing camera, and most notably a much improved 5 row QWERTY keyboard. Read on for the full review.


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Last week we published our review of the new 2011 MacBook Air. Both the 11 and 13-inch models ship with ultra low-voltage (ULV) dual-core Sandy Bridge CPUs, a first for the lineup. Also another first for the lineup is the fact that you can now get equally specced CPUs in both models. In theory you'd be able to have the same performance regardless of chassis size.
The 1.8GHz Core i7 is offered as an upgrade to both the 11 and 13-inch MacBook Air. With much higher max turbo speeds and another megabyte of L3 cache, it's clear this is going to be a big upgrade over the standard 11-inch Air.

Last week we got our hands on one of these upgraded 11-inch models to find out just how much faster it is. We also wanted to find out what sort of an impact the faster CPU would have on the 11's thermals and battery life. It just so happens that our upgraded 11 gave us more than just that to investigate.


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