IBM Research has developed new chipmaking technology it says will advance processors to the next level of circuitry miniaturization, performance improvement and power efficiency. But to make this real, it’ll have to find manufacturing partners to bring the tech to market. The new manufacturing technology, featuring components called nanosheets, increases chip performance 45% or reduces …

Sony has phased out its DSLR camera models, marking the end of an era and pushing the photography industry further from its film-based roots. If you don’t track the internal mechanics of cameras, here’s what Sony did and why the move is important. The Japanese company was a key player ushering in the era of “mirrorless” cameras. Those cameras, while …

Intel on Monday announced a $3.5 billion upgrade to a chip manufacturing plant in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, that will boost a processor stacking technology called Foveros. That spending, combined with $20 billion to build two new facilities in Arizona, is part of a major effort by Intel to rejuvenate its manufacturing. The chipmaker on Sunday confirmed the upgrade plan, …

When I saw the clever magnetic connector on Apple’s new 24-inch M1-powered iMac, I cringed. “Just what the world needs — another expensive, proprietary power cable,” I thought. But upon deeper inspection, Apple’s approach is justified. Power cables are basic computer parts that don’t need to be proprietary, performing just as well but costing less. That’s why I’m a fan …

To keep YouTube humming, Google has developed a custom chip to keep YouTube called Argos that’s designed to deliver the best video quality and keep you from blowing through your broadband or mobile monthly data caps. Thousands of the chips are running in Google data centers right now, Google revealed to CNET in an exclusive interview. If you upload a …

Apple’s new top-end iPad Pro tablets come with a Thunderbolt port, an improvement in speed and peripheral capability from the USB-C port on previous models. The new port quadruples data transfer speed so customers can connect to external storage devices and big monitors, Apple said. Thunderbolt is important for Apple’s iPad Pro vision, which is to offer a device with …

Starting Thursday, Microsoft’s Edge browser comes with Kids Mode, a protected zone with only approved websites that parents can quickly enable when handing a laptop to their children. You can engage Kids Mode by selecting it from the profile icon in the upper right corner of the browser window. Once it’s on, kids will get a choice of more colorful …

Nvidia has a new chip in the works for boosting artificial intelligence and other high-performance computing work: Grace, a design slated to arrive in mammoth supercomputers in 2023. Instead of accelerating conventional Intel-powered servers, though, the design includes its own built-in Arm processors. Nvidia’s current brainiest chip, the A100, is typically yoked to Intel Xeon processors. Nvidia chips do the …

Broadband use surged 30% to 40% during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, and even reached 60% in some areas, an industry group has concluded. Although the internet shouldered the load without much problem, you might consider upgrading your own network equipment to avoid issues. The broadband use increase began as people started working from home in March 2020, when …

Without a crucial software development tool called the compiler, we’d have to descend into the incomprehensible world of machine-code mutterings before we could control computers. Which is why two researchers who helped develop the compiler, Alfred Aho and Jeffrey Ullman, just won the prestigious 2020 A.M. Turing Award. The collaboration between Ullman and Aho that pioneered compiler technology began in …