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Intel may be planning to sue Microsoft for its plans to include x86 emulation in Windows 10 for ARM machines:
In celebrating the x86 architecture's 39th birthday yesterday—the 8086 processor first came to market on June 8, 1978—Intel took the rather uncelebratory step of threatening any company working on x86 emulator technology.
[...] The post doesn't name any names, but it's not too hard to figure out who it's likely to be aimed at: Microsoft, perhaps with a hint of Qualcomm. Later in the year, companies including Asus, HP, and Lenovo will be releasing Windows laptops using Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 processor. This is not the first time that Windows has been released on ARM processors—Microsoft's first attempt to bring Windows to ARM was the ill-fated Windows 8-era Windows RT in 2012—but this time around there's a key difference. Windows RT systems could not run any x86 applications. Windows 10 for ARM machines, however, will include a software-based x86 emulator that will provide compatibility with most or all 32-bit x86 applications.
This compatibility makes these ARM-based machines a threat to Intel in a way that Windows RT never was; if WinARM can run Wintel software but still offer lower prices, better battery life, lower weight, or similar, Intel's dominance of the laptop space is no longer assured. The implication of Intel's post is that the chip giant isn't just going to be relying on technology to secure its position in this space, but the legal system, too.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 10 2017, @06:17PM (3 children)
As an employee of Boston Dynamics who was working there throughout the selloff to SoftBank, I can state that there was a good reason why Google sold off Boston Dynamics -- because nobody in their right mind would buy any of Boston Dynamics' inefficient rube-Goldberg contraptions and all the worth is in the IP.
We are understandably demoralized, as the new management SoftBank put in love to torment us. For example, since a few employees suffered repetitive-motion injuries, group stretches are now mandatory twice a day and I've already been reprimanded for saying, "This is bullshit," and walking out of a group stretch session.
Then during our all-hands meetings, the new management started enforcing "team-building exercises" -- and again, we are forced to perform such humiliating acts as playing pin the tail on the Donkey under threat of reprimand and poor performance reviews, although I managed to weasel out of that idiocy by showing up a few minutes late and eating my dish of catered food really slow.
I'm usually the kind of guy who likes to wait around until I get laid off, so I can collect, but Boston Dynamics has become so terrible that I've already lined up some extra work and am bailing. Had some good times there, though, like that time I caught Sergei Brin and Eric Schmidt stealing our inventories of expensive gold-plated pins and trying to melt them into ingots using one of our blowtorches. They might be smart guys, but they need a crash-course in metallurgy and inventory management.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday June 10 2017, @07:13PM
Didn't hear about the sale so I'm submitting it now. I'm expecting big things on that one.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday June 10 2017, @11:00PM (1 child)
The military has no use for those robotic burros? Nor Fukushima Daiichi as a tool to get into contaminated areas?
Seems Sergei Brin and Eric Schmidt forgot the ask-first-do-later thing. Especially in hi-tech where health dangers and economic loss lies present in unexpected ways. Doing such things in a nuclear lab can end quickly.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday June 11 2017, @12:54AM
The military found them to be too noisy [soylentnews.org].
They found Fukushima nuclear robots to clean up after that mess, but it's been messy:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/17/14652274/fukushima-nuclear-robot-power-plant-radiation-decomission-tepco [theverge.com]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/robots-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-dying-probe-clean-up-tepco-toshiba-reactor-nuclear-radiation-a7612396.html [independent.co.uk]
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/09/fukushima-nuclear-cleanup-falters-six-years-after-tsunami [theguardian.com]
https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/25/japanese-authorities-decry-ongoing-robot-failures-at-fukushima/ [techcrunch.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]