Folks who skipped out on the first version of the iPad mini will be happy to hear that they may not have to wait a whole 12 months for the second generation of the tablet to appear. According to a new report today, component-makers for the next-gen mini are preparing for an earlier-than-expected launch… Read More
Earlier this year, Texas Instruments announced a major shift in its business strategy: it’s going to be moving its focus away from smartphone and tablet processors, and towards embedded applications like in-car computer systems.
As a result of this new strategy, the company said that it would be laying off a staggering 1,700 employees — one of the biggest RIFs of the year. But don’t feel too bad, the word is that some of them have found new homes at Apple… Read More
Online retailer Amazon is considering an acquisition of Texas Instruments, a maker of mobile processors used in a variety of tablets and smartphones. The rumor arrives just as Texas Instruments confirmed it’s been struggling to upend its main rivals Nvidia and Qualcomm for orders.
According to Reuters, citing a report by Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist (which last December broke news of Apple’s acquisition of Anobit), Amazon is “in advanced talks” to buy Texas Instruments for an undisclosed sum… Read More
The A6 chip which debuted on the iPhone 5 earlier this month can do some pretty clever tricks, stemming from a heavily customized ARMv7 design. Benchmark data suggests that the A6 can dynamically overclock itself to up to 1.3GHz and downclock to just 500MHz, depending on workload.
This is nothing new in chip design, of course (just ask Nvidia or Qualcomm). But given that Apple designs its chips in-house based on ARM and Imagination Technologies blueprints, it shows just how far along Cupertino is versus companies that use off-the-shelf chips which are not as power or performance-efficient as the A6… Read More
