Posts by ivorb

Cost of Gelsinger's ambition proves too much for Intel

From the article: "His appointment was heralded as a turning point for Intel with many lauding the decision to put a proper engineer rather than a bean counter at the helm.". Sadly, that approach has been reversed with two bean-counters (Both Mr Zinsner and Ms Holthaus have degrees in finance, etc).

As others have stated, technology (especially at this end) requires long-term vision to deliver rather than the 'fast buck to make the quarter') mentality that the stock-market gauges a company by.

AMD was in the doldrums for over a decade (Athlon was released in 1999 and Zen in 2017) after and it took Dr Su and her team some 3 years to bring the change - with a lot of outsourced technology (GloFlo and then TSMC fab processes, assembly of the 'chiplets' the permitted Zen to scale from low-core-count Ryzen to mega core Threadripper and Epyc design with just a handful of unique die). Intel has started down a similar road and also implemented the mix of P-cores and E-cores to balance performance and efficiency.

Not saying they have the right approach but it is probably good for the world not to be totally at the mercy of TSMC and international politics especially with Taiwan's big neighbour. Yes there are other fab companies (Jazz, GloFlo, TI, Tower, ADI, Denso, Canon, Samsung etc) but they are non-CPU (controllers, memory, power, etc etc). The UK is a history lesson of what happens when the the only 'economy' is dictated by the banks and the stock market - a pure service economy. Remember Ferranti, Marconi, GEC etc etc?

Yes I'm glad that AMD is doing well for now, and they have given Intel some healthy competition; however it's not good if the pendulum swings too far.

GlobalWafers scores $400M to help build US's first 300mm wafer plants in Texas and Missouri

Strange claims

Not sure what all the "first wafer plant" - basically any chip fab is a wafer fab.

"the country's first facility for manufacturing 300mm wafers" - which country? One assumes that since it's discussing Texas and Missouri (a.k.a. "misery"), that the "country" is the USA. In which case there are other 300mm fabs around - e.g. TI's R fab in Richardson, TX.

What are GW doing that's so revolutionary?

Let there be light ... based wireless networks: LiFi spec OK'd as Wi-Fi complement

Anyone remember IRDA ?

And Morse code (with signalling lights between ships), etc

Funny how history repeats itself repeats itself

ISTR recent attempts to use lasers for networking communications between satellites. I have a feeling that this might be a more appropriate use case.

Microsoft embraces Apple Mac loyalists – as long as they're using its software

Re: Outlook is actually a reasonably good email client.

You obviously haven't had Lotus Notes enforced on you. It's over 10 years since I left that employer but I still have bad memories of Lotus Notes and it's appalling UI.

Still frustrated that I have an Office365 subscription (via my employment) on my mac. I only really want it for occasional Word/Excel/OneNote usage but have to suffer the bi-weekly reminders that Lookout has to be updated - a product that is taking up disk space, never actively used (OSX mail runs ok with exchange and failing that there's always webmail), and I don't trust it even when "idle" not to be phoning home/wasting disk/cpu/network bandwidth

Born in the USA! Broadcom will produce American-made RF modules for Apple

Re: All of Apple's products depend on technology .... built here in the United States

And of course, a lot depends on what qualifies as "made" in the USA.

Most of the RF filter and amplifier modules (FEMs) are not CMOS ASICs that can be farmed off to the regular wafer bakers (TSMC, Global Foundries, etc) but GaAs, GaN, etc that give better power:performance ratio especially at these RF frequencies (e.g. 5GHz). The regular vendors of such (Skyworks, Broadcom (formerly Avago), Qorvo) have fabs in the USA but often perform the wafer-probe, module assembly and test in Asia either in-house or contracted out.

Within the module, there may be passive components that again are sourced from outside the USA - Murata, Panasonic, etc.

So, just because one of the die in the module was fabbed in the USA doesn't mean that the bulk of the manufacturing was performed there.

Asus' latest single-board computer packs a 12-core, 4.5Ghz Intel i7

Speed Hurts?

I know the reg has its own system of units, but using hz as a substitute for Hz (Hertz) is a poor choice.

4.5GHz max cpu frequency.

Amazon freezes corporate hiring amid worsening economic outlook

Some of this is self-inflicted

Until last year, Amazon was my typically my first port of call when shopping. With Prime, it was so easy and reliable. It got harder though to find the correct item with all the third-party (typically overseas) vendors flogging poor quality knock-offs but masking it with all the fake reviews. That made the selection process harder. Then there were occasional delivery goofs (items that vanished between warehouses) and occasions where their delivery drivers in their rush to keep moving would drive over a flowerbed while turning round (upset wife being the bigger issue). The final insult was this year when the cost of prime went up $20 which prompted much debate as to the bang:buck ratio. Further, half the time a 'prime delivery' item would still take a week to arrive (normally not a big deal but it did raise eyebrows).

Prime Video and Prime music were nice, but I wasn't using them much and there's other offerings out there.

Amazon have probably lost more than this $20 in lost orders since I now look around. Ebay may be the wild west but not much worse than Amazon (and frequently ends up being cheaper), many other local stores now offer delivery (or click & collect style outdoor pickup) so it's a bit more inconvenience shopping around but overall it's cheaper.

Discussions with friends and co-workers shows I'm not the only one. Amazon's gamble in bumping up the price and failure to police their third-party sellers has lost them many customers. Back when they started, they seemed to excel in customer satisfaction, but now they seem to have lost the plot

FCC takes on robotexts. Good news if your dad thinks IRS gives SMS rebates

What about all those "give us money to save america" texts ?

When it comes to unwanted scam texts (rather than robocalls), the bulk of them seem to be promising to "save America" by donating to various PACs or various candidate's campaign fund.

Most of these candidates who the texts desire to exalt are out of state and mostly (but not all) for allied with the Orange Muppet. The "reply STOP to end" seems to make no difference.

Can we please criminalize all unsolicited texts ? The possibility of a fair portion of our politicians languishing in jail (even better, bring back the stocks) and paying us for the wasted time, pain and suffering from their actions would be a huge improvement.

VMware drops hints that ESXi on Arm is about to become a proper product

Re: Ptarmigan

often seen in Scotland on the high hills. Just don't tell any vulture

Namesco email 'scripting error' has last bastion of Demon Internet holdouts scratching their heads

How long before it gets bought by a spammer?

I'm assuming the only reason they're killing the domain rather than at least offering a forwarding option is so they can save the GBP10 /yr or thereabouts.

Once it gets released, how long will it take before some scummy spam slinger sucks up the domain and uses it for spam or phishing?

My guess is in the order of seconds

US laptops-on-planes ban may extend to flights from ALL nations

Where will this end?

You beat me to the point. Further, US security theatre tends to be just that - a theatre. On at least three occasions my wife has told me to stop nagging, sailed through US 'security' and had penknives, liquids, etc picked up at the European connecting airport (LHR, AMS, VIE-means nothing to me).

Perhaps the current USA forgets that the original motivation for this charade was Sept 11, 2001 - when all the hijacked planes were US flagged carriers flying domestic routes.

Oh and if you want to avoid half the screening, just buy a business class ticket. I doubt if the extra cost is going to deter a person with nasty intentions.

And yes, on occasions when an upgrade has been available on the cheap ($100-$150), I've travelled business class and used the laptop for coding, report writing, and similar work. If travelling on my dime, it's saves having to take time off (vacation / holiday) and has been worth the money.

And if you start banning laptops, where do you draw the line? A big tablet (e.g. iPad "pro" is of comparable size to a small laptop and could pack a fair punch if the battery was replaced with an explosive.

I'll stop before I get tagged for 'questioning'.

US tech college ITT is not pining for the fjords. It is no more. It has gone and met its maker

Ripoff rates for dubious qualifications

So when are they going to re-investigate Trump 'University' and refund all the suckers who were ripped off?