Transfer a 700MB movie in a minute
By Stewart Meagher Wednesday, 11 February 2009
RUMOUR HAS IT that Samsung will be announcing a new ultra-fast wireless USB chipset at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week. The 8mm square System on Chip (SoC) operates within normal domestic wireless frequencies but offers 120Mb per second transfer rates compared with the 50Mb per second currently available. With a built-in ARM core, the chipset will purportedly be capable of downloading an average full length 700MB Divx movie in about a minute, whilst only sucking around 300mW of juice from the host device. Offering interfaces for SD and MMC cards, as well as NAND memory and USB 2.0 without additional circuitry, the chipset will initially target digital cameras and mobile phones, but is expected to eventually find its way into printers, projectors and a whole host of other wireless gadgets.
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Nvidia in trouble: 60% lower revenue, will reduce chip starts
by Scott M. Fulton, III February 11, 2009
In one of the most dramatic representations yet of the downturn in the global economy, GPU maker Nvidia's entire fiscal 2009 dove deep into the red ink, turning a banner year into a red flag in just one quarter. If it hadn't have been for the economy, Nvidia's year would actually have turned out okay. But a $147.6 million loss for just the quarter ending last January -- its fiscal Q4 2009 -- dipped the entire year into the red to the tune of $30. "Our sell-in was less than the channels sell-out," reported Nvidia CFO Marvin Burkett yesterday (our thanks to Seeking Alpha for the transcript). "We believe current channel inventory is only slightly more than one month, down from almost three months last quarter. ASPs [average selling prices] across the board were relatively unchanged from the prior quarter, so the decline in revenue was primarily a reflection of the decline in unit volume." In other words, builders aren't buying, in a very big way, and it's builders who constitute the bulk of Nvidia's customers. As a result, fiscal 2009's total year profit is down 37% over fiscal 2008, due in major part to the last quarter reaping 60% less revenue over the previous year's Q4, and gross profit (before expenses) that's down annually almost three-fourths. The cause: Somehow, you knew Nvidia would find a way to blame Intel. This time, it's the rise of the netbook -- a PC form factor that doesn't need, or have room for, discrete graphics chips.
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In one of the most dramatic representations yet of the downturn in the global economy, GPU maker Nvidia's entire fiscal 2009 dove deep into the red ink, turning a banner year into a red flag in just one quarter. If it hadn't have been for the economy, Nvidia's year would actually have turned out okay. But a $147.6 million loss for just the quarter ending last January -- its fiscal Q4 2009 -- dipped the entire year into the red to the tune of $30. "Our sell-in was less than the channels sell-out," reported Nvidia CFO Marvin Burkett yesterday (our thanks to Seeking Alpha for the transcript). "We believe current channel inventory is only slightly more than one month, down from almost three months last quarter. ASPs [average selling prices] across the board were relatively unchanged from the prior quarter, so the decline in revenue was primarily a reflection of the decline in unit volume." In other words, builders aren't buying, in a very big way, and it's builders who constitute the bulk of Nvidia's customers. As a result, fiscal 2009's total year profit is down 37% over fiscal 2008, due in major part to the last quarter reaping 60% less revenue over the previous year's Q4, and gross profit (before expenses) that's down annually almost three-fourths. The cause: Somehow, you knew Nvidia would find a way to blame Intel. This time, it's the rise of the netbook -- a PC form factor that doesn't need, or have room for, discrete graphics chips.
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Netflix and Wal-Mart sued for 'injuring' consumers with DVD prices
by Jacqueline Emigh February 11, 2009
Hot on the heels of similar lawsuits against Netflix and Wal-Mart in other states, a new court action in West Virginia charges that the two companies colluded over dinner to drive DVD prices "artificially higher." A newly filed suit by a West Virginia law firm alleges that Netflix and Wal-Mart have broken antitrust laws and caused "damage" to past and current Netflix customers in the US by divvying up various segments of the online and retail DVD market between themselves. Similar legal actions are reportedly also under way against Netflix and Wal-Mart in at least eight other states, including California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Arkansas. The suit in West Virginia contends that, during a dinner meeting in 2005, Netflix agreed to stay out of DVD sales if Wal-Mart in turn would refrain from online DVD rentals.
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Hot on the heels of similar lawsuits against Netflix and Wal-Mart in other states, a new court action in West Virginia charges that the two companies colluded over dinner to drive DVD prices "artificially higher." A newly filed suit by a West Virginia law firm alleges that Netflix and Wal-Mart have broken antitrust laws and caused "damage" to past and current Netflix customers in the US by divvying up various segments of the online and retail DVD market between themselves. Similar legal actions are reportedly also under way against Netflix and Wal-Mart in at least eight other states, including California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Arkansas. The suit in West Virginia contends that, during a dinner meeting in 2005, Netflix agreed to stay out of DVD sales if Wal-Mart in turn would refrain from online DVD rentals.
Read more here -->Link
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