Google was among the first hyperscalers build custom silicon for its services, starting first with tensor processing units (TPUs) for its AI initiatives, and then video transcoding units (VCUs) for the YouTube service. But unlike its industry peers, the company has been slower to adopt custom CPU designs, prefering to stick to off-the-shelf chips from the major CPUs. This is finally changing at Google, with the announcement that the company has developed its own in-house datacenter CPU, the Axion. Google's Axion processor is based on the Arm Neoverse V2 (Arm v9) platform, which is Arm's current-generation design for high-performance server CPUs, and is already employed in other chips such as NVIDIA's Grace and Amazon's Graviton4. Within Google, Axion is aimed at a wide variety of...
MWC 2017: Oppo Demonstrates 5X Optical Zoom for Smartphones
This year at MWC, Oppo showed off a smartphone prototype that used a new implementation of dual cameras to offer a 5X optical zoom. The company did not reveal...
23 by Anton Shilov on 3/13/2017
ZTE Announces Blade V8 Pro with Snapdragon 625, Hawkeye Phone
The competition for the mid-range smartphone market is fairly intense here at CES 2017. Right after the launch of Huawei's Honor 6X yesterday, ZTE is launching their direct competitor...
3 by Joshua Ho on 1/4/2017
Samsung Announces Updated Notebook 9, Odyssey, and Chromebook Plus/Pro
Today at Samsung’s CES 2017 press conference there were a number of announcements for their mobile PCs. At a high level, this includes the Notebook 9 refresh, a new...
19 by Joshua Ho on 1/4/2017
The Google Pixel XL Review: Life After Nexus
Google’s latest phones, the Pixel and Pixel XL, still provide that pure Android experience along with at least two years of timely software and security updates. There’s also Google...
251 by Matt Humrick & Brandon Chester on 11/8/2016
Xiaomi Mi Box Now Available in U.S.: Android TV 6.0 with 4Kp60 Output for $69
Xiaomi has officially started to sell its Google Android TV 6.0-based set-top-boxes in the U.S. The Xiaomi Mi Box STB boasts with a rather powerful SoC, an HDMI 2.0a...
74 by Anton Shilov on 10/7/2016
Hands On With the New Google Pixel Phones
After Google’s launch event today in San Francisco, I had an opportunity to get my hands on its new Pixel and Pixel XL phones. My initial impression is that...
73 by Matt Humrick on 10/5/2016
Google Announces Chromecast Ultra: 4K & HDR for Chromecast
Though the big Google news for today is of course the new lineup of Pixel phones, phones were only a small part of what Google had in store. Alongside...
19 by Ryan Smith on 10/4/2016
Google Announces Pixel and Pixel XL Phones: Snapdragon 821, 5" & 5.5" Screens, $649, Preorders Start Today
At an event today in San Francisco, Google unveiled its latest vision for Android smartphones—the Google Pixel and Pixel XL. For this generation, Google nixes the familiar Nexus name...
103 by Ryan Smith & Matt Humrick on 10/4/2016
Live Blog: Made By Google October Phone Event
We're live from Google's October phone event in San Francisco
86 by Matt Humrick on 10/4/2016
HTC Announces Desire 10 Pro and Desire 10 Lifestyle
As the holidays approach, OEMs often refresh their device portfolio to make sure that they put their best foot forward as a significant proportion of sales occur towards the...
24 by Joshua Ho on 9/20/2016
The HTC 10 Review
It probably goes without saying right now that HTC has been a troubled company for some time now. With the One M8 we finally saw that they were making...
183 by Joshua Ho on 9/19/2016
Hands On With the LG V20
The LG V20 at this point has been leaked to death, but it’s finally here. LG has been pushing through a fairly tough year, so this phone really could...
47 by Joshua Ho on 9/8/2016
Update: Samsung Recalls Galaxy Note7 Due to Battery Fires, Initiates Exchange Program
Update 09/02, 8:20pm ET: Moving quickly, Samsung has esbtablished a product exchange program for Note7 owners in the US. Samsung is giving owners the option of either replacing the...
46 by Brandon Chester on 9/2/2016
Google Cans Project Ara: No Modular Smartphones Incoming
Word comes this week that Google has given up its plans to build modular smartphones with interchangeable parts, having cancelled all ongoing Project Ara efforts. According to reports by...
51 by Anton Shilov on 9/2/2016
Sony Announces Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact
Today at IFA 2016 Sony announced two new phones to flesh out the Xperia X lineup, namely the Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact. Starting with the Xperia XZ, it...
25 by Joshua Ho on 9/1/2016
HTC Announces One A9s: Helio P10, 5" 720p Display
Today at IFA 2016 HTC is announcing an updated variant of the One A9 called the One A9s. In this case, the update is designed to put the One...
9 by Joshua Ho on 9/1/2016
Qualcomm Details Snapdragon 821: Clocks, Efficiency, and IP
While Qualcomm already announced the Snapdragon 821, with the announcement details were rather sparse. Fortunately, today Qualcomm followed up with more details. Those that followed the announcement might recall...
32 by Joshua Ho on 8/31/2016
Xiaomi Launches Redmi Note 4 in China
While we normally don’t cover China-only smartphone releases, Xiaomi is a fairly major player as far as volume as they were one of the first companies in the industry...
34 by Joshua Ho on 8/25/2016
The Samsung Galaxy Note7 (S820) Review
This year has been difficult for smartphones, which is a bit of a paradox when you consider just how much better things have gotten compared to last year. With...
203 by Joshua Ho on 8/16/2016
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
