Intel Corp, the world’s largest chipmaker, yesterday debuted a high-end desktop processor, hoping the latest chip would fuel growth of the desktop segment.
Its new Intel Core i7-980x Extreme Edition is a six-core central processing unit that it said promised a whole new level of performance.
Ken Lau (劉景慈), a director of Intel Microelectronics Asia Ltd Taiwan Branch, said the new chipset offers 34 percent better video effects and 49 percent better game physics compared with its predecessor, which is best suited for high-end gamers or professional multimedia users.
The desktop market has been stagnant in the past few years, as more users opt for notebooks, he said.
Industry tracker International Data Corp (IDC) said earlier this week that portable PCs would remain the key driver of growth in both the consumer and business markets, grabbing a 70 percent share of all PCs shipped by 2012, while desktop shipments will continue to fall everywhere except in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan).
“It is not easy to push desktops now. But small-form-factor PCs such as All-in-One [AIO] computers will take off,” said Lau, adding that AIO’s higher prices would still put some off.
Small and medium-sized businesses would also adopt small-form-factor PCs, as they save office space thanks to their compact size, Lau said.
“AIO could be the short-term engine to fuel desktop growth. But so far, we haven’t seen many upside factors that would help boost desktop penetration,” Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所) researcher Ryan Lee (李易聰) said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure