AMD Radeon HD 7970 Much Better than Kepler in OpenCL

AMD’s top single GPU video card, the Radeon HD 7970 reportedly shows considerable better performance in single and double precision floating point computing using OpenCL.

We’ve got this impression the first time we saw AMD's GCN architecture GPU compute benchmarks, but we’ve thought it was some AMD specific estimation or lack of Nvidia necessary optimization. Practically, after all the fuss with Nvidia’s Fermi specifically architected for GPU compute, we were experiencing an architecture from AMD that performed much better without any API optimizations like Nvidia has with its CUDA. Don’t get us wrong, we know the value of CUDA and we greatly appreciate Nvidia’s software and compiling work and we still believe AMD is not into software as they need to be.

The thing is that we were simply surprised with AMD’s level of OpenCL performance when the company doesn't even have a single simple application to show its GPU compute power like Intel has with their Quick Sync. In the end, the experts from vr-zone.com have tested AMD’s and Nvidia’s latest generation of cards in Sandra 2012 SP2 (OpenCL) and practically confirmed our initial impressions. AMD’s CGN really does offer much better GPU compute performance than Nvidia’s Fermi and Kepler architectures when OpenCL is concerned.

In single precision floating point performance, AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 card achieves a performance 42% higher than Nvidia’s Kepler and 155% higher than Fermi. In double precision floating point performance, AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 card achieves a performance 478% higher than Nvidia’s Kepler and 293% higher than Fermi. CUDA optimizations are quite hard to integrate into a high performance server application and that the raw GPU computer power is often preferable.

Therefore we don’t understand why AMD doesn’t have a FireStream card based on the Tahiti GPU to compete with Nvidia’s Tesla.

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Mango-Based ZTE Tania Coming in China with Upgraded 1.4 GHz Processor

Chinese handset manufacturer confirmed plans to conquer the European market with its Windows Phone devices, and the first to go on sale was ZTE Tania.

Initially launched in the UK, the smartphone’s sales were lower than ZTE expected, which is probably the main reason we will see the device get released in China, world’s largest smartphone market. However, ZTE also plans to improve the phone’s hardware performance in order to successfully compete with Nokia and HTC smartphones, which are already available for purchase in China.

In this regard, ZTE Tania’s 1 GHz single-core CPU will be replaced with a superior 1.4 GHz single-core processor. There are no details on the phone’s price tag yet, but ZTE sales director Wei Xiaodong confirmed for CNMO, the smartphone would be launched in China by the end of the month.

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AMD’s Trinity Offers 46% Better Battery Life than Ivy Bridge

Every battery test done on Trinity compared AMD’s reference test systems with retail shipping Ivy Bridge notebooks from different manufacturers.

To stick to the correct principles of benchmarking, when comparing two devices inside a system, the main system should be exactly the same. Only the performance difference between the compared components should be recorded and considered of use.

When comparing two HDDs, two SSDs or two video cards the base test system can surely be the same, but what happens when we try to compare two CPUs? The platforms are different so the chipsets and mainboards are different. Sure, when comparing desktop CPUs only the end result is of interest and power consumption is usually not that important as in the mobile world. Ever since the green/eco conscience has been awaken back in 2006 together with the launch of Intel’s Core 2 Duo CPUs, the power consumption and performance per watt ratios have also been of interest. And still, there’s a considerable difference between a system that consumes more power and a laptop that stops working because the battery is empty.

Therefore battery life is very important in the mobile world and it’s logical to be so. When measuring the battery life of a laptop, the screen size of the display and the brightness setting are a very important factors when power consumption is concerned. As two laptops don’t have the same displays with the same characteristics, benchmark experts from TechReport.com have decided to compare the battery life while setting the brightness to result in the same measured screen luminosity for all three laptops. The test compared AMD’s Trinity presentation laptop with ASUS’ N56VM and N53S laptops.

The experts from TechReport.com have used a colorimeter to set the luminosity at the same 100 cm/m2 for all three displays. This resulted in a 40% brightness setting for the Trinity laptop an even smaller (and advantageous) brightness of 25% for the ASUS N56Vm and a 45% level for the N53S. Practically AMD’s laptop has a smaller battery and was set at a medium brightness. Set up like this, AMD’s Trinity yielded a 46% better battery life than ASUS’s N56VM and almost 70% more battery life than the ASUS N53S.

This is quite a significant achievement for AMD’s Trinity as it clearly shows that Trinity’s battery life is 46% better than Ivy Bridge’s and a whooping 70% better than Sandy Bridge. These settings will most likely occur in the real world anyway as, if the screen is brighter, the user will likely turn the brightness down for less eye strain. Turning the brightness down should result in a better battery life so practically the 25% brightness level of the ASUS N56VM laptop is an advantage over AMD’s 40% brightness that consumes more power.

It’s great to see AMD is able to bring some real competition in the mobile field and we wish they’ll do the same for the desktop world.

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New Version of Nintendo Wii U’s Controller Has Analog Sticks

A photo has just appeared on the web that shows off a new controller version for the upcoming Wii U, which now boasts twin analog sticks instead of the analog nubs we saw back at E3 2011.

Nintendo is set to reveal the final version of the Wii U next month, at E3 2012, so plenty of rumors have appeared concerning its final list of features. Now, a fresh photo of the console’s unique tablet controller has appeared, via AGB, showing off a major change in terms of hardware, as it now has two analog sticks.

This is a pretty big change, considering that the initial version of the Wii U controller had two analog nubs, just like the ones used by the Nintendo 3DS. As of yet, Nintendo has not commented on the photo, so it’s safe to say that it’s going to wait until the beginning of June to confirm the final features of the Wii U.

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Nokia 808 PureView Reservations Now Open in the UAE

It looks like the Nokia 808 PureView is one step closer to launch in the UAE. The smartphone is now up for pre-booking, so customers who want to make sure they will get the PureView 808 as soon as it goes official should reserve one now.

Nokia fans who wish to reserve the Belle phone will be required to pay a 500 AED (135 USD/105 EUR) fee and the rest of the phone’s price when it becomes available. In this regard, it appears that both black and white Nokia 808 PureView models will be available for a suggested retail price of 2149 AED (585 USD/460 EUR).

No word on the smartphone’s availability yet, but we expect the Nokia 808 PureView to go live in UAE in late May or early June. via MyNokiaBlog

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Wazapp 0.2.4 for Nokia N9

MeeGo’s version of Whatsapp has just received a new update, which brings several bug fixes and adds support for a few new features.

Dubbed Wazapp, the application is still a work in progress, but developers seem to take great care and deploy fixes and new features pretty fast. The latest update bumps the application to version 0.2.4 and brings the following changes, as well as bug fixes:

• Added support for displaying received Emoji; 
• Fixed interpreting login failure as a connection error, resulting in reconnect loop then segmentation fault;
• Fixed crash during sync because of encoding issue (resulting in "No Contacts" after sync);
• Fixed notifications clicks for people not in contacts;
• Fixed connection crash when push name has non ASCII chars (resulting in "Connecting" forever);
• Added Country picker in Registration instead of entering Country Code manually.

Wazapp 0.2.4 is now available as a free download. It should be fully compatible with Nokia N9 smartphones. via MyNokiaBlog

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Akitio Intros the Cloud Hybrid NAS/DAS

Santa Fe Springs-headquartered, Californian company Akitio is introducing today the Cloud Hybrid NAS/DAS, on its official website. This is an NAS-like external enclosure that is used to back up your data.

The device only has one HDD 3.5” slot and has no other data security and integrity fail-safe measures. So there’s no RAID protection or anything similar. The data transfer is realized through a USB 3.0 connection or an RJ45 connector. The performance is ensured by an unnamed 300 Mhz CPU with 32 MB of DDR memory and just 2 MB of flash.

Although there is no serious data integrity protection, the device has a wide range of standard technologies such as UPnP-AV, DLNA, iTunes music server, FTP, Samba and Xbox 360, PS3, iTunes and Windows 7 MCE compatibility. It can even connect and record video from TOSHIBA’s Regza TVs and has remote access over the internet via a web portal.

The claimed 60 MB/s transfer rate is not quite impressive, but the package is priced at a 99 USD price. That’s around 58 EUR for the European buyers.

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Unlocked GALAXY S III Up for Pre-Order via Amazon for 799.99 USD (625 EUR)

A few days ago the unlocked version of Galaxy S III emerged on Amazon, along with a 779.99 USD (610 EUR) price tag attached to it, but no release date.

Todays, the US-based retailer has the Samsung Galaxy S III listed for 799.99 USD (625 EUR) and says the smartphone will be released on June 1. Those who wish to pre-order the third-generation Galaxy S smartphone via Amazon can choose any of the two colors available, Pebble Blue and Marble White. The phone is said to come with 3G HSDPA support and 16GB of internal memory.

Obviously, the Galaxy S III will be powered by the latest Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, which will be packed with unique Samsung apps and services, including S-Voice and S-Beam. Check it out here. via UnWiredView

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Microsoft's So.cl Social Network Is Looking for an Identity

Microsoft has just thrown its hat into the social networking ring, for whatever it's worth. It's unclear whether Microsoft even wants to be a social networking player, its partnership with Facebook has been working just fine, but whatever the case, So.cl is here. If you can get an invite, that is.

Microsoft's new social network has even more of an identity crisis than Google+. It presents itself as a social network geared towards discovery and has several social search features built in. The social network is positioned more towards students, or at least that's what Microsoft wants you to believe, and puts a big focus on research and collaboration. But it also comes with purely fun features such as "video parties" that allow users to watch videos together. Google+'s Hangouts also has this feature.

It's hard to say where So.cl is going, if anywhere, but it should be interesting to see how Microsoft fares in social networking.

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Intel’s Summer Ivy Bridge Lineup Detailed

On June 3rd, Intel will reportedly launch four desktop Core i5 processors. These are the Core i5-3570, Core i5-3470, Core i5-3570S, Core i5-3475S quad-core desktop processors.

These well-performing CPUs have no HyperThreading and come with a large 6 MB or level 3 cache and a Turbo option of 3800 MHz. Pricing will range between 184 USD and 205 USD. That would be around 143 EUR to 161 EUR for the European buyers; however, these CPUs are not yet launched. On the mobile side, Intel’s promised mobile Core CPUs using Ivy Bridge architecture are the Core i7-3520M, Core i5-3360M and Core i5-3320M. These are all dual-core mobile processors, and the Core i7-3520M comes with 4 MB of level 3 cache and HyperThreading technology to be able to handle four threads at a time.

The default frequency is 2900 MHz with a Turbo option of only 3600 MHz when just one core is highly charged. The maximum heat dissipation is 35 watts and the HD 4000 iGPU will run at 650 MHz, with a Turbo option of 1250 MHz. It is quite disturbing how Intel’s shameless branding brought the i7 sticker to some mid-performing dual-core parts. We believe that a great number of uninformed buyers will buy these, thinking they’re getting high-end performance.

The Core i5-3360M and Core i5-3320M have mostly the same characteristics, but they lose 25% of the level 3 cache. These CPUs are only equipped with 3 MB or level 3 cache and have maximum Turbo speeds of 3500 MHz and 3300 MHz, respectively. The same HD 4000 graphics iGPU is present with the same default frequency, but with a 50 MHz lower Turbo frequency of “just” 1200 MHz. These mobile CPUs will be priced at 346 USD, 266 USD and 225 USD, respectively. Those translate in 270 EUR, 208 EUR and 176 EUR for the potential European buyers, but know that these are OEM prices. Like we said before, it's hard to understand how these CPU prices could bring down the UltraBook prices.

There are two more processors, the Core i7-3367M and Core i5-3427M UltraBook CPUs slated at 346 USD and 225 USD, but there is no info available on these models yet.

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Helal Linux 3.0

Helal Linux 3.0, an Ubuntu-based operating system with support for Arabic languages that has both GNOME Shell interface, as well as the GNOME Classic one, has been released. 

Helal Linux is an Islamic and Arabic ubuntu-based distribution, a user friendly distribution that is ready for use directly after installing.

It comes with many cool features like Helal Control Center, Flash, codecs, Java, more then 100 program, many fixes for bugs that are in Ubuntu, supporting Arabic and English, speed and flexibility that you won't find in other distributions, and specially designed for Arabs and Islamic users, but any other people can use it because it support more then one language.

The main goal for the distribution is to provide the complete OS where quality Integrate with creativity.

Being powered by Linux kernel 3.2, the most important features of Helal Linux are of course its desktop environments, GNOME 3.4 and GNOME Classic 3.4.

Highlights of Helal Linux 3.0:

• Helal control center, for English and Arabic, has been improved;
• Chmviewkit was added to view chm files;
• Some Ubuntu apps, such as Ubuntu Software Center, Totem, Rhythmbox, and other, have been removed;
• Nvidia-Optimus is now supported in Helal using Bumblebee;
• Wi-Fi drivers have been added;
• LibreOffice 3.5.3.2 was added;
• GIMP 2.8 was added;
• Mozilla Firefox 12.0 was added.

A complete list of changes and updates can be found in the official announcement. 

What's New in This Release:

• Gnome 3.4 , gnome shell 3.4 gnome classic 3.4
• Helal control center with many features like some fixes here and there, it is now available in both English and Arabic, new Options like Customizing 'Cinnamon',cleaning some things that were not working before.
• Helal Software Center which is based on LSC,it has splash image, and it is Translated to Arabic (there is many languages).
• gnome shell is fully Customized with a brand new great look.
• flash,codecs java,arabic fonts,gnome-tweak tool, ubuntu tweak, boot repair, grub Customizer and many tools to Customize the system easily.
• Chmviewkit to view Chm files.
• the start page for the distro have been fully redesigned ,adding support for both Arabic and English (it will change automatically as your system language)
• many ubuntu apps have been removed;ubuntu software center,totem,docs,rhythmbox,and others.
• the system is configured to use tor ,all what you have to do is to change system proxy from Network settings to manual then enter in: 'Socks5: 127.0.0.1 , port: 9050' and apps like firefox,chrome will use tor.
• many fixes for many bugs in ubuntu, Nvidia-Optimus is now supported in Helal using Bumblebee( it is not installed by default,but it is available in the repos in just one click.
• many wifi drivers have been added, you can install Nvidia-ATi Vga drivers offline using Helal Control Center.
• Compiz is Enabled on gnome-classic by default, and CCSM is installed.
• many apps have been added in this release; like Gdebi,Synaptic package manager,ubuntu tweak,gnome tweak tool, os-uninstaller,boot repair , and much more.
• Everything in the system is available in Arabic and English.
• my English is bad, so there is a lot of things that i didn't mention, you just need to try it :)
• there is a lot of apps in Helal linux 3.0 , you can see them all from here.

Here is the most important apps:
 · Linux kernel 3.2
 · Gnome 3.4
 · Libre Office 3.5.3.2
 · filezilla 3.5.3
 · Firefox 12.0
 · Thunderbird 12.0
 · Gimp 2.8
 · Helal Control Center
 · Helal Software Center
 · About Helal
 · aptoncd
 · aptitude
 · compiz
 · eog
 · Subtitle Editor
 · Recordmydesktop
 · wallch
 · Chmviewkit
 · goldendict
 · Gdebi
 · Gparted
 · Bleachbit
 · Wine 1.4
 · Monajat applet
 · Hijra applet
 · Thwab
 · Othman-quran
 · arabeyes-fonts
 · remastersys
 · boot up manager
 · system jobs
 · virtualbox
 · gnome-shell extensions
 · gnome-tweak-tool
 · Grub Customizer
 · nautilus-open-terminal
 · nautilus-dropbox
 · nautilus-sendto
 · os-uninstaller
 · p7zip
 · pidgin
 · flash,java,codecs
 · pinta 1.1-1
 · boot-repair
 · Skype
 · qemu
 · Synaptic
 · teeworlds
 · Ubuntu Tweak
 · Uget
 · docky
 · UNetbootin
 · bluefish
 · Curlow
 · tor
 · VirtualGL
 · Vidalia
 · Virtaal
 · Wicd
 · WiFi Radar
 · Zukini theme pack
 · zukitwo-dark-gtk-theme
 · zukitwo-gtk-theme

Download Helal linux 3.0 via Sourceforge.

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China Approves Google's Motorola Acquisition as Long as Android Stays Open Source

Google is finally free to acquire Motorola and will probably do it this week after China has given its go-ahead on the deal. Both the EU and the US had agreed to the deal.

China was the last hurdle. Google announced that it would be acquiring Motorola in August last year, but the huge deal had to go through regulatory approval process in several regions. The US and the EU agreed that the deal would not pose monopoly concerns and approved it. However, regulators have noted that they will be keeping an eye on what Google does after the deal is closed, particularly whether it will restrict access to Android for other manufacturers or whether it will use the 17,000 patents it got along with Motorola for purely defensive reasons. China took longer than either the US and the EU. Motorola has a large business in the country, especially in manufacturing as it has several factories there.

China gave its approval over the weekend on the condition that Google keeps Android open source for at least another five years. Several local manufacturers have leveraged Android without a license from Google, which they could only have had with access to the open source version. Google agreed to pay $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility, which handles the mobile phone and the set top box businesses. Phones are what matters to Google, but it remains to be seen what the company plans to do with Motorola. The phone maker has been struggling in recent years and has only had mild success in the smartphone market that was dominated by HTC and later by Samsung, the Android smartphone market obviously.

What's more, Google has no experience in the hardware business, though it is making small inroads. There does seem to be an interest at the company in devices, not just phones, but also home media centers and, of course, the HUD glasses.

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Intel to Use Low-Performance Sandy Bridge CPUs to Make UltraBooks More Affordable

Intel’s UltraBook plan is not rolling out like the company initially wanted. The price for the new UltraBook type of laptops is currently too high to achieve the sales targets that the company desires.

Therefore, Intel will launch affordable Ultra-Low-Voltage processors in autumn this year, to help making UltraBooks more affordable. The plan is to include the new and yet unreleased Celeron 877 and 807 into devices sold as UltraBooks. Intel has reportedly denied the news and said : “the report suggesting Celeron powered UltraBooks would come to market is false. In order to deliver UltraBook devices that wake quickly, and offer a minimum of five hours of battery life, Intel requires all UltraBooks be powered by an Intel Core processor.” We’ve already presented the Celeron 877 and 807 here so we’re going to talk about the Core processors that Intel promises it would launch this summer, just a little bit later.

It’s hard to understand how a 350 USD Core mobile CPU will make an UltraBook reach the desired price levels of 599 USD or 699 USD. An 80 USD Celeron might do the job, but the performance disadvantage will likely destroy any good impresion Intel would like to leave on the consumer by using UltraBooks. On the other hand, what’s clear is the fact that if Intel tries to match AMD’s UltraThins carrying the new Trinity, they will be in for a tough surprise when sales most certainly won’t reach the desired targets.

Intel’s HD3000 is more than 80% slower than AMD’s Radeon HD iGPU inside Trinity, and the Diablo III episode will be multiplied tenfold. The thing is that, ultimately, Intel has heaps of marketing money and they can spin almost any low quality piece of natural fertilizer into “Intel Inside is great.” The company managed to bribe and strong-arm almost everybody to ensure they’ve kept 80% of the market during the 7 years when the Pentium 4 was net inferior to AMD’s K8.

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AMD’s Embedded Trinity Processor Officially Launched

Texas-based processor designer Advanced Micro Devices is launching today the Embedded R-Series Platform, on its official website. These are basically Trinity CPUs that are destined for embedded applications.

In the performance computing world, energy efficiency is mostly a new concept. The embedded market, on the other hand, is more about capability and how much performance can you get while maintaining a certain level of power consumption. While during last week’s Trinity launch, battery life was a very important topic, this week we’ll concentrate less on performance or battery life and more on the low power and low heat dissipation. AMD’s new embedded CPUs are much more powerful than previous solutions and have already been adopted in several new designs by lots of companies like the following: 

Advantech--Innocore -- System solution for high-performance casino gaming applications

Axiomtek -- High-performance MiniITX motherboard

Congatec -- High-performance COM Express module

DFI -- High-performance COM Express module

iBase -- System solution for high-performance digital signage applications

J&W IPC -- Custom form factor embedded motherboard with support for up to 10 DisplayPort displays

Quixant -- System solution for high-performance casino gaming applications

SHENZHEN XINZHIXIN -- High-performance MiniITX motherboard

In graphic-intensive applications, AMD’s new solutions will likely trounce Intel’s embedded offerings just like AMD showed in the benchmarks above. Although the 30 watts A10-4600M is the most impressive, the 17 watts model will likely get the most design wins.

Doing lots of graphics work in embedded applications is not usually a likely situation, but as graphic representations in kiosks or any other graphical user interface (GUI) get more suggestive and 3D, AMD’s APUs will surely have a new field to show their abilities.

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Tizen-Powered Devices Out in 2012 Q3/Q4 from Samsung and HTC

Tizen, the free and open source platform based on the Linux operating system has yet to make its entrance on the smartphone market. 

In fact, Tizen has more potential than other mobile platforms, as the operating system is expected to power netbooks, smart TVs, in-vehicle infotainment systems and other devices. The first Tizen-based smartphone, Samsung GT-I9500 leaked about ten days ago, but no details on the phone’s availability were unveiled at that time. While we already know that multiple handset manufacturers plan to launch Tizen-based smartphones, we don’t have any official confirmation on whether these will come this year or the next. However, it appears that Digitimes claims, citing sources “from PC player,” that Tizen OS will be officially launched in late June, while the first devices powered by this mobile operating system will arrive in the second half of the year.

According to the latest hearsay, Samsung and HTC will be among the first to release Tizen-based smartphones, while Acer and Asus will also launch Tizen-powered netbooks “before the end of the third quarter.” Still, these netbook will only be introduced in emerging markets and meant to check the platform’s popularity before the actual rollout. Tizen OS is strongly supported by many handset manufacturers and carriers, including Vodafone, Sprint, NTT Docomo, Orange, SK Telecom and Telefonica. The upcoming operating system is the result of the collaboration between Intel and Samsung, as both companies decided to merge their MeeGo and LiMo departments. Both companies are currently working closely with Linux Foundation. It is also worth mentioning that the Tizen project has won more supporters than originally expected, including big companies such as Panasonic, HTC and NEC. 

Keep in mind that while the development is said to be open, “membership in most project teams is invite-only,” and development of alpha build 1 was not a public effort, Linux Foundation claims. Stay tuned for more updates on the matter.

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20 nm Technology Will Arrive Next Year for AMD, Qualcomm and Nvidia

Last week, at the company's GTC 2012 conference, Nvidia discussed their current low yields and wafer availability problems. The manufacturer reportedly claims that the yields are high, but the wafer availability is low.

This is in direct contradiction with TSMC’s promise to make Nvidia a priority partner when it comes to 28 nm manufacturing. Nevertheless, at the same time with Nvidia’s GPU conference, a semiconductor conference took place at the Double Tree Hotel in San Jose, California, called Semico Impact Forum. One of the popular topics of discussion at the Semico forum was the industry’s next year shift towards 20 nm manufacturing. The move will most likely start during the second half of next year and it will probably be quite expensive, as it is estimated that the costs of the shrink will only be amortized after building and selling at least 100 million 20 nm chips.

AMD, Qualcomm and TI will likely be ok with such a high number, but other, smaller companies will probably enjoy the available 28 nm capacity. This next step will be rather focused on bulk manufacturing rather than SOI, but 28 nm SOI products are likely to compete with 20 nm ones. It is mostly a question of who will actually go for SOI at 28 nm or 20 nm. IBM is a likely candidate. AMD has no SOI plans at 28 nm, but it is probable that they’d look into it again at 20nm or 16nm and 14 nm

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The Fastest Mobile GPU Shows Its Muscles

Right now, AMD is enjoying being the company making the most powerful mobile GPU. The Radeon HD 7970M is currently shipping in Eurocom’s Racer 2.0 gaming notebooks.

This is the highest performing mobile GPU from AMD, and it will likely enjoy high sales until Nvidia’s own mobile flagship leaves the certification phase and starts shipping. The AMD Radeon HD 7970M is actually based on a “Pitcairn” GPU that, on the desktop, is called Radeon HD 7870, but it’s a rather powerful chip.

Eurocom’s configuration used an Intel Core i7-3720QM processor with 2x 4GB DDR3-1866 memory, a 1x 120GB SSD Intel 520 and Microsoft’s Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. Using this configuration, Eurocom’s Racer 2.0 notebook managed to achieve a P22111 score in 3D Mark Vantage edition and P5848 in 3D Mark 11.

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Lumia Leaves DROID Behind in Google Search

Nokia’s Lumia devices have won another battle in their war against handsets running under Google’s Android operating system. 

As of late, they are enjoying more hits on Google Search than Verizon’s DROID handsets, which shows increased interest in them. Google Trends shows that people all around the world are searching more for Lumia phones than they do for DROID handsets, WMPoweruser notes. This could spell only good news for Nokia.

Of course, DROID handsets are available for purchase only in the United States and only through Verizon, which could explain the fewer searches they register when compared to Nokia’s phones, which are available globally. Not to mention that Verizon’s series made its debut back in 2009, and that it appears outdated to some, although new, appealing devices are constantly released. The latest of them are the Motorola DROID RAZR and Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX, high-end devices that were also included in a series of promotions to attract more users on their side.

One way or the other, Nokia certainly has a reason to rejoice, since its Lumia phones are becoming increasingly popular around the world. The data provided by Google Trends is based on the average worldwide traffic of the term Lumia in the last 12 months. Nokia unveiled the first Lumia smartphones back in October, and it put them on shelves starting with November. Lumia 800 was the first such phone. This year, Nokia launched its first LTE-enabled Windows Phone, the Lumia 900, which is available in the US via AT&T.

The series runs under Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 operating system and promises a range of exclusive applications coming from Nokia themselves, such as Maps with navigation, Reader, Music, and more. For the past six months or so, both Nokia and Microsoft have been focused on the marketing of these devices, which are currently up for acquisition in various countries around the world. In late 2012, the Finnish handset vendor is expected to release its first Windows Phone 8-based Lumia phones, yet official details on this are still pending.

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