Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA): Nvidia’s Shield console has been met with largely positive reviews. Aside from some exterior quirks that are mostly cosmetic, The Verge notes that it’s ”a seriously impressive piece of hardware” in a long, in-depth review of the Android-based gaming device. Venturebeat calls it “the geek’s ultimate gadget,” noting that it goes a long way toward bringing better quality and wider variety games to both handhelds and living room TVs.
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD): AMD has revealed a new, low-power APU in the AMD G-Series system-on-chip family with the GX-210JA, which sees further reduced x86 power requirements for embedded designs. The new GX-210JA uses one third less energy than the previous low-power Embedded G-Series SOC product, while providing industry-leading graphics capabilities.
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC): Intel has released its first “open-source PC,” a stripped-down solution aimed at software developers building x86 applications, and hobbyists looking to construct their own computer units. For $199, the unit is the first open-source PC to be offered with an Intel x86 processor. Named the MinnowBoard, Intel’s unit is more expensive than ARM or Arduino boards, and might be less attractive since it uses older hardware. That hardware includes a 1GHz Intel Atom E640 processor, and a 32-bit chip that was released in 2010 — though still cheaper than most PCs. The unit could appeal to developers looking to write and test commercial applications before they’re deployed in servers, embedded devices, and other computers, PC World reports.
