Business Tech

iPhone 5S' A7 chip is first 64-bit processor for smartphones

Apple's ad copy above appears to be right. Apple is the first to squeeze a 64-bit processor into a consumer smartphone from a top-tier vendor.

It "is the world's first consumer ARM based [system-on-a-chip] with 64-bit support," wrote Anand Shimpi of chip site Anandtech.

Apple's previous A series processors and ARM chips from other suppliers, like Qualcomm, have all been 32-bit.

This could be significant if data-intensive games and apps take advantage of the wider data path. Apple said iOS 7 has "a native 64-bit kernel" and "all built-in apps have been … Read more

Bitcoin ultimately can replace Wall Street, investor says

Bitcoin's battle for legitimacy rolls on.

Investors and entrepreneurs who champion the digital currency have been on a mission to evangelize since the press became enamored of Bitcoin earlier this year.

At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference today in San Francisco, Calif., the crypto-currency's most bullish supporters ticked off ways Bitcoin could change the economic landscape of the future -- supporters like twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, known for their early involvement in Facebook's story and who have since become poster boys for Bitcoin investment.--

"What Wall Street does can be done in Bitcoin," … Read more

Intel's 'Quark' lineup targets wearables

Intel announced a line of tiny chips for new markets, including wearable devices, at the company's annual conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Called Quark, it is Intel's bid to stay relevant in the era of wearable computing.

The new lower-power products will address wearable gadgets, as well as industrial "Internet-of-Things" devices, new Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said during his keynote speech.

It's approximately one-fifth the size of the company's already-small Atom chip and draws one-tenth the power.

Intel will sample circuit board designs based on the first product in this family during the … Read more

Cisco to buy solid-state memory company for $415M

Cisco Systems will acquire solid-state memory company Whiptail for $415 million.

Cisco, a networking equipment maker, said Tuesday it plans to integrate Whiptail's solid-state memory technology into its unified computing system (UCS) products.

Under the terms of the deal, Cisco will $415 million in cash and retention-based incentives for Whippany, N.J.-based Whiptail. The deal is expected to close in Cisco's fiscal first quarter, which ends in late October. Cisco's planned acquisition highlights the run on solid-state memory companies. On Monday, Western Digital scooped up Virident for $685 million.

According to Cisco, privately held Whiptail will … Read more

Microsoft investors want turnaround expert as next CEO

Some of Microsoft's top investors are looking for a turnaround expert to take over the CEO role from Steve Ballmer, according to Reuters.

Citing "several sources familiar with the matter," Reuters reported Tuesday that at least three of the company's top 20 investors are already pushing the board to consider Ford Motor co-CEO Alan Mulally and Computer Sciences CEO Mike Lawrie for the position.

Why these two men?

Both are credited for their ability to resuscitate companies in trouble. Mulally has earned kudos for a restructuring plan that helped return Ford to profitability. Lawrie as former … Read more

Dropbox is like Microsoft in the '90s, says startup's CEO

Dropbox has continued to grow at a steady, and rapid, pace because of its hold on both consumer and enterprise products, CEO Drew Houston said Monday at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco.

He said Dropbox has reached 200 million users, that's up from 175 million in July and 100 million in November.

When asked which company Dropbox emulated, Houston likened his company to the Microsoft of yesteryear. The cloud-storage company has been pushing for growth on its enterprise side, while also courting developers to grow its number of apps and integrations.

"We have that consumer and enterprise kind … Read more

Carl Icahn waves white flag in Dell battle

Carl Icahn is throwing in the towel in his effort to wrest control of Dell.

In an open letter to Dell stockholders published by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, Icahn said he determined that it would be "almost impossible" to win against the offer by Michael Dell and Silver Lake to purchase the company and take it private.

"We have therefore come to the conclusion that we will not pursue additional efforts to defeat the Michael Dell/Silver Lake proposal, although we still oppose it and will move to seek appraisal rights," he said.… Read more

Windows 8.1 tablets pin hopes on Intel's 'Bay Trail' processor

Future Windows 8.1 tablets will be powered by the marquee attraction at Intel's annual forum that starts Tuesday -- the Bay Trail Atom chip.

What is Bay Trail exactly? At the high end, it is a series of Atom processors built primarily for tablets. (Lower-end Celeron and Pentium variants should appear in low-cost laptops.)

Maybe most importantly, it's a completely redesigned Atom that is trying to break from the past of pokey Windows 7 Netbook Atoms.

Bay Trail uses so-called "out-of-order execution," analogous to what Intel uses in its higher-performance mainstream Haswell processors. It also … Read more

What's coming to Apple and Android? ARM offers a roadmap

On the eve of Intel's annual conference, executives from rival ARM described a more PC-like future for mobile devices in an interview with CNET.

ARM chip designs dominate smartphones and tablets worldwide. Its processors are the brains inside the iPhone, the iPad, Samsung Galaxy products, Google's Nexus line, HTC devices -- and the list goes on and on.

Samsung, Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and MediaTek -- all licensees to varying degrees of ARM technology -- dominate.

That's a problem for Intel as ARM-based devices running Android, for instance, take on more PC-like attributes.

ARM's upcoming Cortex-A53 and … Read more