Posted on November 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under , AMD, Hardware, hp, IBM, Intel, Semiconductor Industry Association, SIA, TSMC |
The tech industry has weathered the economic storms of 2008 to date with remarkable aplomb, but signs indicate that the market turmoil of the past three quarters is finally
about to take its toll. Yesterday, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) issued a statement projecting a drop in semiconductor sales for 2009. The association hasn't
predicted a year-on-year decline since 2000, when it forecast a drop in 2001 sales due to the implosion of the dot-com bubble. In this case, the drop is far more modest
(sources indicate that semiconductor revenue fell from $220 billion in 2000 to $150 billion in 2001). The SIA believes worldwide semiconductor sales will fall from an
estimated $261.2 billion in 2008 to $246.7 billion in 2009, or some 5.6 percent.
The decline, if the SIA is correct, will hit both the PC computer and cell phone markets, with PC sales falling five percent and cell phone sales down 6.4 percent. At this
point the industry group is projecting just a single-year downturn, and believes the market will grow by 7.4 percent in 2010 and 7.5 percent in 2011. The SIA expects the
short-term fall-off to follow a fundamentally different recovery curve than the 2000-2001 plunge. "The collapse of semiconductor sales in 2001 was driven primarily by the
implosion of ‘dot.com’ industries which resulted in an enormous inventory overhang," said SIA president George Scalise. "Excess inventory is not an issue today, and the
industry is well positioned to resume growth quickly once the current worldwide economic uncertainty subsides."
To say the market is currently giving mixed signals is an understatement. Just over a month ago, Intel was cautiously bullish on Q4, projecting 10.1-$10.9 billion in revenue.
Last week, however, the company sharply reversed on those projections, and now expects Q4 revenue of just $9 billion, plus or minus $300 million. That decline, according to
Intel, is due to "significantly weaker than expected demand in all geographies and market segments. In addition, the PC supply chain is aggressively reducing component
inventories." Gross margins have also been affected; Santa Clara predicts a 55 percent margin now, instead of the 59 percent it had initially targeted. (Both of these values
are given with the standard disclaimer "plus or minus a couple of points.")
TSMC also reported CPU shipments down 20 percent at the end of October, but, on the other hand, we've got HP offering a "preview" of its relatively strong fourth-quarter
results. The SIA is currently projecting a 5.9 percent drop in Q4 sales as compared to Q3, despite seasonal trends that would normally boost Q4. If the mid-quarter
projections rolling in thus far are accurate, the tech industry's days of fiddling while Wall Street burned are over.
Posted on November 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under , Smartphones |
We've seen a good run on hot smartphones being released since the iPhone 3G. The T-Mobile G1 was introduced recently as the first Android-based smartphone and RIM has been releasing Blackberry models every few days, at least that's what it seems like. One of the most anxiously awaited smartphones is the Blackberry Storm as it [...]
Posted on November 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under , DICE, EA, mirror's edge, NVIDIA, physx |
Mirror's Edge may not be wall-running onto PCs until January, but at least it's sticking the landing. Today, DICE announced that — if your machine has the cojones to run it — Mirror's Edge will support PhysX's Newtonian prowess, giving Faith's PC adventure console-eclipXing effects.
"With the NVIDIA PhysX physics engine, the [...]
Posted on November 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under , CPU / Processors, PermaLink |
Shanghai is here! AMD's 45nm Opteron processors are out earlier than expected, which will only mean good new
for the company and its customers. To shed more light on this, we were there at AMD's South Asian media briefing and here's what we gathered.
There is a lot of free Microsoft software to be had, [...]
Posted on November 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under , collection, digital imaging, Google, Life, photography, photojournalism, Time-Life, website |
LIFE Magazine, which published classic photojournalism from Maragaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstaedt, David Douglas Duncan and many others during its various incarnations as a weekly (1936-72), special issue (1972-78), monthly (1978-2000), and Sunday supplement (2004-2007), lives again, thanks to the new LIFE photo archive hosted by Google.
Ultimately, about 10 million photos (only about 3 [...]
Posted on November 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under , mobile tech |
I don't know if the timing was coincidental with this not-so-secret new BlackBerry, but the Google Mobile team just updated the Google Sync application. The software now supports two-way contact synchronization with BlackBerry handsets and it already supported Google Calendar, so you're covered there as well. There appear to be a few bugs reported by [...]
Posted on November 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under , Compact, Konica Minolta, Pico, Projector |
So you’re looking to get your hands on a tiny projector, but that Pico just isn’t small enough? Well, it looks like the folks at Konica Minolta have heeded your call, and are currently in the process of making a projector that’s no bigger than the average thumb dive.
The new projector is [...]
Posted on November 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under , cool stuff, iPhone |
Here's a free iPhone application that's sure to get some use from me this holiday season. It's called SnapTell Explorer because you snap a product's picture and it tells you what the product costs at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Using the mediocre camera on my iPhone, I snapped a picture of "The Audacity of [...]
Posted on November 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under , law, P2P, RIAA, Tennesee, university |
Just last week the RIAA commemorated the signing of an absurd new law in Tennessee that states:
"Each public and private institution of higher education in the state that has student residential computer networks shall:
[...]
[R]easonably attempt to prevent the infringement of copyrighted works over the institution's computer and network resources, if [...]
Posted on November 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under , Drivers, PermaLink |
“The OpenGL 3.0 and GLSL 1.30 specification were released back
in August during SIGGRAPH 2008. Just days later NVIDIA had delivered a
beta driver for Windows that added OpenGL 3.0 functionality, but Linux,
FreeBSD, and Solaris users were left in the dark. Two months later
though NVIDIA has now published a beta Linux driver that implements most
of the [...]