The new AIpowered 20m series of smartphones is set to hit the market next month. This is an exciting development for the smartphone market in general, and particularly for fans of the Apple iPhone. As you might have read in our last article, the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR were based on the AIE technology (Advanced Intelligent Engine). It’s a new way of delivering high-performance computing that leverages the AI and NVIDIA GPU. You’ll be able to use it to perform a variety of tasks, including photo editing, playing games, and even watching movies.
Powered by Graphene
Paragraf, a startup that claims to be the first to deliver graphene technology to market, has closed its Series A funding round. The company says that its first product, an electronic sensor, has already demonstrated order-of-magnitude operational improvements over its existing competitors. According to the company, it should be ready to deliver the first commercial graphene-based product by the end of this year. Several angel investors joined the round, including Parkwalk Ventures, IQ Capital Partners, and Cambridge Enterprise. All of the funding will be used to transition the startup into the commercial phase.
However, the startup still faces the hard graft of proving its claims. The company aims to produce graphene layers with electrical properties that are optimized for commercial scale manufacturing. This should be possible by using the patented polarized fluids to make transistors. In turn, the company aims to use this technology to create a new type of contact layer for common technologies. Ultimately, Paragraf will aim to make large-scale graphene-based production technology available to the electronics industry in about a year. It will enable next-generation electronics, low-power, flexible, and highly efficient renewable energy generation, and improved medical diagnostics.
Powered by NVIDIA GPU
The new RTX 20m GPU is a powerhouse. In addition to being the most powerful graphics card in the world, it features a number of innovations that make it the best GPU for your money. One such innovation is its tensor cores. These tensor cores are designed to speed up AI-powered operations, such as machine learning and AI-adjacent graphics. As such, the new RTX graphics card can perform the tasks of an intrepid AI researcher in no time.
Another important innovation is the new RTX architecture. This is a technological marvel, and includes the tensor cores mentioned above, as well as streaming multiprocessors, and a variety of other innovations. Basically, the RTX 20m is the brainchild of NVIDIA’s research and development team.
Powered by ARM
The Powered by ARM 20m series is the latest entrant in the sexy laptop category. A sleek aluminum design backed by a high-powered silicon chipset promises less than 5W of TDP, making it a competitive alternative to the likes of the Intel i5 and Nvidia GTX970. However, despite the headline grabbing performance specs, this nifty device is not yet ubiquitous. In fact, you will have to wait until at least the second half of this year to find one. This is a shame, as the PC industry is undergoing a downturn of sorts. But if you are still a Windows fanatic, there’s hope on the horizon.
While the aforementioned chip may have a hard time matching the performance of its Intel and Nvidia competition, it does offer a number of features, including improved battery life and better power management.
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Today, Intel announced its investments in 16 startups. These new deals range from cloud services to mobile. One of these companies, Lilt, has built a platform that helps businesses translate languages to reach international markets. A second company, MemVerge, develops in-memory computing technology. Lastly, the company’s portfolio includes Astera Labs, a Silicon Valley startup that specializes in next-generation automotive Ethernet network connectivity solutions.
In the past, Intel has been more focused on data-centric technologies, but these new investments demonstrate a wider focus on the broader business. These startups are not only building technologies, but are also addressing the underlying challenges of merging legacy systems with advanced applications. Specifically, the investment into Astera Labs focuses on removing performance bottlenecks in compute-intensive workloads.