Categories
Featured

Chip firm founded by ex-Intel president plans massive 256-core CPU to surf AI inference wave and give Nvidia B100 a run for its money — Ampere Computing AmpereOne-3 likely to support PCIe 6.0 and DDR5 tech

[ad_1]

Ampere Computing unveiled its AmpereOne Family of processors last year, boasting up to 192 single-threaded Ampere cores, which was the highest in the industry. 

These chips, designed for cloud efficiency and performance, were Ampere’s first product based on its new custom core leveraging internal IP,  signalling a shift in the sector, according to CEO Renée James.

[ad_2]

Source Article Link

Categories
Bisnis Industri

Microsoft founded: Apple frenemy is born

[ad_1]

April 4: Today in Apple history: Microsoft founded April 4, 1975: Microsoft is founded by childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The software company destined to become a tech behemoth — and a major Apple frenemy.

A few years later, Microsoft will break through to the mainstream with Excel and Word, becoming a key developer of Macintosh software. Then comes the Windows operating system, looking suspiciously Apple-like. After Windows arrives, Microsoft and Apple will embark upon a long-running feud.

Apple and Microsoft: Good friends, better rivals

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Microsoft and Apple is just how similar the companies were in several ways. Gates and Steve Jobs, the CEOs who came to represent the two companies, were both born in 1955. Both later dropped out of college.

Gates and Allen created Microsoft when they saw a gap in the market following the launch of the Altair 8800 kit computer. In Silicon Valley, the Altair inspired the creation of the Homebrew Computer Club, where Jobs and Steve Wozniak first showed off the Apple-1 computer. (The Altair also sparked the creation of the Byte Shop, the computer dealership that first stocked Apple’s debut computer.)

Microsoft: A key Mac developer

Microsoft became a major developer for the Mac, which Apple launched in 1984. After Jobs left Apple the following year, Microsoft used its position as the maker of Word and Excel to strong-arm Cupertino. As a result, Apple CEO John Sculley signed a deal granting Microsoft “non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, nontransferable license to use [parts of the Mac technology] in present and future software programs” for its then-fledgling Windows operating system.

The use of Apple-inspired tech helped Windows rise to prominence in the late 1980s and 1990s. (Gates still maintains that both companies simply borrowed from Xerox PARC.)

Windows’ success coincided with Apple’s fall from grace as its margins increasingly got squeezed. Bad business decisions, like licensing “clone Macs,” threatened to sink Apple.

Two decades after Microsoft is founded, Windows fuels fight with Apple

For years, Apple battled Microsoft over the appearance of Windows, which looked suspiciously similar to Mac OS. Initially, Apple sued Microsoft for 189 counts of copyright infringement relating to Windows 2.0.3. Other lawsuits followed.

The long-running Microsoft-Apple legal battles ultimately got resolved in August 1997, when Cupertino agreed to drop all lawsuits against its rival.

Apple also agreed to make Internet Explorer its default web browser (later replaced by Apple’s own Safari). Microsoft, in turn, bought $150 million of non-voting Apple stock, and continued to support the Mac in terms of software.

Microsoft’s cash injection came at a time when Apple was reportedly months away from bankruptcy. Not too long after, Microsoft hit its tech bubble peak and began to decline in the early 2000s. Meanwhile, Apple released the iMac G3, iTunes, iPod, iPhone and other products that fueled its rise to dominance.

In January 2024, Microsoft once again rose to the top of the heap to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company. Microsoft’s focus on artificial intelligence — and its backing of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI — fueled its resurgence. The company’s market cap now sits at $3.1 trillion, while Apple’s has fallen to “just” $2.6 trillion.



[ad_2]

Source Article Link

Categories
Bisnis Industri

Apple founded to sell Apple-1 computer: Today in Apple history

[ad_1]

April 1: Today in Apple history: Apple founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne April 1, 1976: The Apple Computer Company is founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The trio sets out to sell the $666 Apple-1 computer.

Apple will not officially become a corporation until January 3 the following year. By that time, Wayne is no longer a part of the business.

This post contains affiliate links. Cult of Mac may earn a commission when you use our links to buy items.

Apple founded to turn Apple-1 from hobby to ‘real computer’

Apple’s initial ambitions were quite modest. Wozniak started working on the Apple-1 as a hobby, with no goal beyond showing it off to peers at the Homebrew Computer Club in Menlo Park, California.

“I did this computer … to show the people at Homebrew that it was possible to build a very affordable computer — a real computer you could program for the price of the Altair — with just a few chips,” Wozniak recalled in his autobiography, iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It.

Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne found Apple Computer Co.

Jobs convinced Woz that they would find more success building and selling the Apple-1 rather than giving away the designs. This led to Jobs, Woz and the older Wayne — who the Steves met at pioneering video game and computer company Atari — going into business together. And thus Apple was founded on April Fools’ Day in 1976.

Jobs and Wozniak were the main drivers behind Apple. They each received a 45% stake in the new company, while Wayne held the remaining 10%.

Less than two weeks after the company’s founding, Wayne cashed in his Apple shares for $800. He eventually received an additional $1,500 to seal the deal.

The original contract that founded Apple.
The original contract by which Apple was founded.
Photo: Apple

Apple II computer becomes a breakthrough

By early 1977, Apple was ready to release its breakthrough Apple II. And the company lined up venture funding to fuel expansion far beyond its humble origins.

When Apple went public in 1980, both Woz and Jobs became instant multimillionaires. (Despite missing out on that windfall, Wayne remains remarkably upbeat about stepping away from Apple.)

Today, Apple is a company valued at more than $2.6 trillion. That’s quite the success story! Now if only we’d invested in Apple way back when it was founded …



[ad_2]

Source Article Link