Hi all, Time for my Monday EE-Times reading for PC fanatics...
The industry-wide march towards systems on a chip continues,
with Intel giving out hints of future integration:
Intel eyes low-cost logic process
The new peripheral process could be a sign Intel is
ready to put its considerable manufacturing muscle behind
integrated processors that would compete with the likes
of National Semiconductor Corp.'s "PC-on-a-chip," which
is expected to ship next June. Intel plans to ship a
merged core-logic/graphics chip set, called Whitney,
next year, and analysts have speculated that beyond the
0.18-micron generation, it would make sense for Intel to
integrate its Celeron processors with north-bridge core
logic and graphics.
Also an interesting note regarding one of the disadvantages
of horizontally integrated producers: Too much concentration
in what can suddenly become obsolete factories. Vertically
integrated manufacturers only have one factory go obsolete
at a time, typically:
"The problem with Intel is they have so many factories
they would have to bring up in tandem that [moving to
copper] would be too difficult to do, simply because of
their size," Glaskowsky said. "It will take them longer
to make the transition to copper than it would IBM, which
has fewer fabs."
techweb.com
More progress in the smaller, (and eventually cheaper)
display area:
Mini displays look for larger showing
Only about a dozen or so manufacturers are shipping
at least engineering samples of miniature displays, but
about 30 companies are known to be in active development
and the underground development activity is said to be
immense. And no wonder: The market opportunity for the
mini readouts is also immense.
techweb.com
Funny they didn't mention MVIS, where I used to work...
Currently I'm thinking of applying over at Siemens
Ultrasound, there are some people over there that I
have a lot of respect for, it would be nice to work
with them. Plus, the technical challenges of ultrasound
are hard to beat: High speed computations, but done
cheaply.
Backgammon, anyone? Neural learning theory tested
Madison, Wis. - A computer took on a human grand master
and won 99 of 100 games at the American Association of
Artificial Intelligence meeting held here recently.
techweb.com
My question: Did they let the computer roll the dice?
-- Carl |
