Chips

IBM has achieved a major milestone in making the dream of silicon photonics, in which computer chips send signals of light rather than electricity, into reality.

At the semiconductor industry conference Semicon in Tokyo today, IBM photonics leader Yurii Vlasov is detailing how IBM has created a chip that integrates many of the necessary elements of optical communication between a processor and other devices. Significantly, the design uses conventional rather than exotic chip manufacturing technology, involves very small components, and essentially permits a fiber-optic communication line to be attached directly to a processor.

And more significantly, it's headed for … Read more

The partially transparent mirror in Sony's SLT (single-lens translucent) cameras offers some interesting features, but what hasn't been clear is the toll it takes on image quality.

Until now.

DxO Labs released today sensor test results for Sony's SLT-A33 and A55 and found that the mirror soaks up about one-third of an F-stop's worth of light.

This means a shot that otherwise could be taken at a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second would have be slowed down to 1/160th to get the same amount of light on an SLT camera, for example--or, holding other factors unchanged, that ISO sensitivity in dim conditions would have to be increased from 1,600 to 2,000, with the commensurate increase in noise.

The DxOMark sensor tests also found that A55's new 16-megapixel sensor is very competitive, tying the Nikon D90's score of 73 on the test. The A33 scores 70.

DxO Labs made the measurements by comparing the results from the A33 with the compact NEX-5, which uses the same sensor but lacks the partially translucent mirror arrangement.

That type of mirror, also called a pellicle mirror, lets the SLT camera line perform some neat tricks--autofocus can be continuously engaged, which allows the A33 to shoot 7 frames per second and the A55 to shoot 10 frames per second. With a pellicle mirror, autofocus works when shooting video, too.

Sony is preparing a new higher-end SLT model that's set to debut within a year. … Read more

A week after announcing an image sensor with a whopping 120 megapixels, Canon revealed Monday it's created another boundary-pushing prototype: a chip with a light-gathering area measuring a vast 202x205mm.

The huge sensor is 40 times larger than even Canon's largest commercial image sensors, the full-frame chips measuring 36x24mm used in high-end SLRs. Indeed, it's a lot larger: big enough to swallow most of the surface area of the 300mm-diameter silicon crystal out of which it's made using a CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) process.

Notably, it employs new circuitry Canon had to develop to pump data off the processor fast enough to keep up with video.

One reason to build larger sensors is to increase their light-gathering area, and Canon delivers the goods here. It can record 60-frame-per-second video with light levels of 0.3 lux--about what a full moon overhead produces by some measurements. … Read more

Apple is set to become the world's second largest semiconductor buyer in 2011, another sign of the shift in the balance of power in the chip world.

Driven by the success of the iPad and iPhone, Apple is expected to pass Samsung as the world's No. 2 chip buyer in 2011, second only to Hewlett-Packard, according to market researcher iSuppli.

The firm is projecting that Apple's semiconductor spending in 2011 will hit $16.2 billion, surpassing Samsung Electronics, which is forecast to be at about $13.9 billion. HP will stay in the No. 1 position with $… Read more

Apple has standardized on low-end but reasonably snappy Intel-Nvidia technology for the redesigned Mac Mini released Tuesday and recently rolled-out 13-inch MacBook Pro.

In short, both the 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac Mini offer Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or 2.66GHz processors and an Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics chip. Moreover, this standard silicon is only a stone's throw from the white MacBook, which comes with the same graphics but does not offer the higher-end 2.66GHz Intel processor.

As spelled out by CNET's Rich Brown in his review of the new Mac Mini, performance is good … Read more

An analyst research note Tuesday shed more light on what makes Apple's iPhone 4 tick, noting that the recently released Samsung Wave S8500 smartphone uses the same central processing unit, or CPU, as the iPhone 4.

The Apple A4 chip used in both the iPad and iPhone 4 is manufactured by Samsung, which has a longstanding "foundry" (chip manufacturing) relationship with Apple.

On Tuesday, UBM TechInsights added some color to the dynamics of the Apple-Samsung collaboration by claiming that the Samsung Wave S8500 smartphone uses the same 1GHz core as the iPad and, by extension, the iPhone … Read more

A month after the rumors first started flying, Apple finally confirmed that it has indeed purchased Intrinsity, a Texas-based chipmaker.

Apple confirmed the acquisition on Tuesday to The New York Times, though it did not disclose the purchase price or what Apple's plans for Intrinsity are. One guess has the value at $121 million.

It's the second chipmaker purchased by Apple in two years starting with P.A. Semi, which it bought for $278 million. It's also the fourth acquisition Apple has made since last fall; it bought map API maker PlaceBase in October, social music site LaLa … Read more

Two related projects from Mozilla and Google, each with the similar goal of bringing hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the Web, appear to be joining forces after a change in Google tactics.

The two projects emerged at nearly the same time in 2009: the O3D browser plug-in from Google and the proposed WebGL standard from Mozilla and the Khronos Group, which standardizes the OpenGL graphics interface on which WebGL is based. O3D is a higher-level technology, whereas WebGL is more concerned with the nuts and bolts of 3D graphics.

In recent months, though, O3D has become dormant. But it's not … Read more

As usual with product releases from Apple, numerous online sources compete to show detailed teardowns of the devices when they are available. Not only do people test the physical durability (even going so far as to blend the original iPhone), but they also benchmark the devices to see if they live up to the advertised specifications. With the iPad, however, some folks have gone one step further to bring a full teardown of the custom A4 chip.… Read more