Category: Uncategorised

The third phase after tock finally has a name.

It looks like the Kaby Lake processor isn't a one-off. Intel's latest 10-K filing (spotted at Motley Fool) discloses that the two-phase "tick-tock" development model that the company has been using since 2007 is being replaced with a three-phase model: Process, Architecture, Optimization.

Under tick-tock, development was split into "ticks," where an existing processor design would be migrated to a new manufacturing process, and "tocks," where a new processor design would be released onto an existing process. The process has been used since Intel first introduced its "Core" branded processors, and the model has created a familiar pattern. Each tock introduces new features and improved architectural performance, and each tick has improved power consumption and/or clock speeds.

However, the process has come under increasing pressure. It took Intel a long time to ramp up production on the 14nm manufacturing process used by the Broadwell (tick) and Skylake (tock) processors, with Broadwell in particular suffering from an extremely long and drawn-out roll out and availability. Broadwell was delayed, with its initial late 2013 release pushed back to September 2014. The Broadwell line-up was incomplete—Intel didn't create a full range of desktop processors—and even with the delays, nine months passed between when the first mobile parts were released and the limited selection of desktop processors came out. A couple of months later, Skylake hit the market.

Screenshot from Cellebrite home page. (credit: Cellebrite)

The mobile forensics firm Cellebrite of Israel is reportedly assisting the Federal Bureau of Investigation in unlocking a seized iPhone that has become the center of a legal dispute between the bureau and Apple, the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Wednesday.

The revelation comes two days after the US government tentatively withdrew its demands that Apple write code and assist the authorities to unlock a seized iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino County shooters. The FBI told a federal judge Monday that an "outside party demonstrated to the FBI a possible method for unlocking (Syed) Farook's iPhone." A federal magistrate then tentatively stayed her order demanding that Apple assist the authorities in unlocking the phone.

That same day, according to public records, the FBI committed to a $15,278 "action obligation" with Cellebrite. An "action obligation" is the lowest amount the government has agreed to pay. No other details of the contract were available, and the Justice Department declined comment. Cellebrite, however, has reportedly assisted US authorities in accessing an iPhone.

(credit: Newegg)

An Indiana archery company that sued a prominent live action role-play (LARP) website will drop its claims that the website's owner infringed two patents on foam arrows.

John Jackson, founder of Global Archery, told Ars that he decided to drop his patent case against Larping.org owner Jordan Gwyther after analyzing a patent on the German-made iDV arrows that Gwyther sells.

The lawsuit isn't over, however—Jackson also sued Gwyther for allegedly infringing his trademark, for buying Google ads keyed to it, and for false advertising.

If you missed out on the lowest-yet official price for the Xbox One during last year's Black Friday and holiday sales, Microsoft has an even better deal going on now as part of its Spring Sale.

All Xbox One bundles have been reduced by $50 at major retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Gamestop. But if you buy through the Microsoft Store before March 31, you'll be also get a free copy of Assassin's Creed Unity, Watch Dogs, or The Crew in addition to any other bundled games.

While this price drop is officially a "limited time, while supplies last" type of deal, it could presage a more permanent reduction for Microsoft's console, which is selling slowly relative to its main competition. Back in 2014, many retailers temporarily lowered the price of the Xbox One by $50 well before Microsoft officially lowered the price by pulling Kinect out of the bundle.

An "approximately" true color image of Ceres taken by the Dawn spacecraft as it approached the dwarf planet in May, 2015. (credit: NASA)

THE WOODLANDS, Texas—Ceres is a cold, dead world today. But it wasn't always so, and as researchers delve deeper into images and data collected by the Dawn spacecraft, they continue to find intriguing hints about a world that likely had a large, subsurface ocean during the early days of the solar system. They also have found a number of features on the surface of Ceres they cannot yet explain, deepening the mystery of the dwarf planet’s evolution.

The largest object in the asteroid belt, measuring some 950km across, Ceres is roughly the size of Texas. So perhaps it's fitting that scientists gave their most detailed briefing yet about the planet in a darkened conference room in The Woodlands, just north of Houston, at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference on Tuesday. Here the mysterious bright spots of Occator crater and other parts of the small world shone brightly.

These parts also intrigued. As the Dawn spacecraft approached Ceres in 2015, it revealed a large bright spot in Occator crater, but as the spacecraft has flown down to within 400km of the world’s surface and produced a global map at a resolution of 35 meters per pixel, scientists have found many bright spots in the crater likely due to salt deposits. Still, the brightest one at the center remains most interesting.