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Graphics accelerators have surged to the center of the multimedia universe, but they've also raised a rash of technology issues as designers seek to integrate them into multimedia systems. For […]

With clock speeds at 3 GHz-plus and processors containing four or more cores, compute cycles are ubiquitous--we don't even think about them While server processing power is essentially free, it's [...]

We're beginning to see a march in this direction by chip makers that supply handhelds and related devices. Already, companies such as NEC, ARM, and ARC Cores are shifting their […]

This month, I'd like to turn away from my typical focus on the behemoth microprocessors that power the modern server, and look instead at the smaller, but no less-exciting world […]

What better way to start the year than a possibly premature prognostication from Microsoft chairman Bill Gates? His prediction, at the Consumer Electronics Show, that Microsoft's X Box game machine [...]

Even Intel is not sitting back and letting Pentium do all the talking. When Intel purchased the StrongArm processor line from Digital Semiconductor, many in the industry weren't sure whether [...]

My friends at Intel Corp. have, over the last year or so, been awarded some 20 new patents related to their flagship IA-64 architecture, which includes the Merced (now sampling) […]

Now comes the hard part. To get the most out of that wide word, which is nothing more than a bunch of instructions to be executed simultaneously, Intel's software must […]

This year alone, Intel has received some 20 new patents related to its flagship IA-64 architecture, which includes the Merced (now sampling) and McKinley (due next year) processors. From where […]

To prove my point, just look at the names of two of the latest among Intel's crop of recent patents. There's No. 6,115,777, titled "LOADRS instruction and asynchronous context switch," […]

All of the above is not to chide Intel for being overly secretive about IA-64. Indeed, I give it kudos for apparently having left that strategy in the dust (at […]

The year's most important conference for engineers who are plugged into pacesetting trends in microprocessor design will take place next month in Monterey, Calif. Officially known as the thirty-third annual […]

New York - A flurry of more than 20 new patents suggests Intel Corp. is expanding its time-tested legal strategy to prevent cloning of its new, flagship IA-64 architecture. Some […]

The heart of BIOS Update is a block of data that's precisely 2,048 bytes in length. Of that block, 2000 bytes are the actual update; the remainder are header and […]

The MSRs provide a window into a vast array of hidden microprocessor features. They include a set of performance-monitoring registers that tally data on 40 aspects of chip operation, including […]

This month, we're going to get back to writing about (surprise, surprise) Intel, which was the original raison d'etre for this column. Since Halloween is fast approaching, we're going to […]

A little-known British startup called Vulcan ASIC is expected to make a splash at the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, Calif., next month when it unveils a Java hardware core […]

So much for the so-so history of Java chips to date. Fast-forward to the present, however, and there's some fascinating activity in the pipeline. (For the record, I should state […]

That's why I believe the biggest question is not whether Java chips will catch on; they will, though it will take several more years before products moving into the design […]

On the cusp of the Embedded Systems Conference/Fall, to be held next month in San Jose, Calif., the most interesting item swirling around the embedded market has been the refusal […]

How do you make small quantities of complex chips, and yet keep things cheap enough so that you don't go out of business? That's the latest question facing the brave […]

PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. - Can Intel Corp. drop its competitors with a one-two punch on the client and server fronts? That was the central technology and business question that hung […]

In the electronics business, as in life itself, sometimes timing is everything. That certainly has been the case throughout the five-year-long startup phase of Transmeta Corp., which finally launched its […]

SARATOGA, CALIF. - Transmeta Corp.'s launch of its long-secret Crusoe chip line here last week garnered an unusually high level of media coverage and almost universal plaudits for a technology […]

Special from Electronic Engineering Times - In a renewed bid to build a market for Java-based chips, Sun Microsystems Inc. is poised to launch a powerful family of devices-called Microprocessor […]

A few weeks back, Intel Corp. said it had at long last taped out its 64-bit Merced processor. I was curious as to just what exactly "taped out" meant these […]

PALO ALTO, CALIF. - In a renewed bid to build a market for Java-based chips, Sun Microsystems Inc. is poised to launch a powerful family of devices-called MAJC (for Microprocessor […]

Despite appearances to the contrary, Compaq's 64-bit Alpha microprocessor isn't dead yet. Call it the chip with nine lives. Developed at Digital Equipment prior to Digital's acquisition by Compaq last […]

SANTA CLARA, CALIF. - Separate efforts are under way to forge core-logic chip sets that will enable Intel Corp.'s upcoming 64-bit Merced microprocessor and its successor, code-named McKinley, to power […]

Seoul, South Korea - After effectively being declared dead last fall, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s fading three-year-old bid to drum up interest in microprocessors that execute Java in hardware is showing […]

Intel didn't get much mileage out of its bid to capture media attention last week. The semiconductor behemoth held a press conference to disclose more details of its IA-64 architecture […]

Santa Clara, Calif. - Intel Corp. still won't say whether it has taped out its 64-bit Merced microprocessor, which is due to sample later this year. But last week, the […]

Santa Clara, Calif. - Intel Corp. is telling systems OEMs to expect first samples of its 64-bit Merced microprocessor in the second half of this year, EE Times has learned. […]

San Jose, Calif. -- With Microsoft's Windows CE operating system as its centerpiece, a two-pronged technology assault aimed at enabling a new category of high-end embedded applications in the consumer-electronics […]

Engineers are poised on the threshold of a new millennium in computer architectures, ready to break the links that have chained them to conventional designs. After almost two decades spent […]

San Jose, Calif. -- Forging a new direction for VLIW technology, Intel Corp. tomorrow will lift the lid off its IA-64 instruction-set architecture in a presentation at the Microprocessor Forum, […]

Cedar Rapids, Iowa -- Following months of speculation over the whereabouts of three long-awaited Java-specific CPUs from Sun Microsystems Inc., the first microprocessor to directly execute the Java instruction set […]

Santa Clara, Calif. -- In a pair of stealth multimedia maneuvers, Intel Corp. is enhancing its MMX technology. The company is readying a host of new MMX instructions that will […]

Santa Clara, Calif. - Intel Corp.'s "BIOS Update" technology to quickly fix bugs that crop up in its microprocessors without having to recall the chips may contain a Trojan horse-a […]

Santa Clara, Calif. - Intel Corp. plans to make a high-profile public announcement next month that it has developed technology to quickly fix bugs that crop up in its microprocessors […]

New York - Proponents of Apple Computer Inc.'s flagging Macintosh platform are preparing their own answer to Intel's ballyhooed "Merced" CPU, in the form of a 64-bit PowerPC microprocessor now […]

Yorktown Heights, N.Y. - Envisioning vast potential performance gains for cost-sensitive network computers and set-top-boxes, engineers at IBM Corp.'s T.J. Watson Research Center here plan to build a prototype very-long-instruction-word […]