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Advanced Micro (NASDAQ:AMD) Opens Up PC Graphics Chips Development with Launch Of GPUOpen

By
Andy Parker
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Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) has launched a new website aimed at promoting GPUOpen, an open-sourced graphics processing unit. The launch of the site means that AMD believes coders can give them a hand in boosting their graphics performance. This new site is intended to assist graphics developers with open source codes, documentation kept outside the gaming console, effects, and tools. If the project is successful, we will see games with better graphics running on current hardware.

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Advanced Micro has promised to accommodate more platforms as GPUOpen meets its potential. According to some, though the move might seem purely generous, AMD is actually trying to compete with NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC). NVIDIA rules the dedicated video market while Intel gives it a lead in integrated graphics. In a sense, this move by Advanced Micro is an attempt to make their graphics chip more attractive to developers, giving them a better chance in this competitive market.

GPUOpen is divided into two categories, one for professional compute and another for CGI and games. The CGI and gaming side of the site will include Geometry FX, AO-FX, Tress FX and Shadow FX. These are libraries that are DirectX based open source assets to be used by developers. Liquid VR has also been included in the library.

Professional compute will include HIP (heterogeneous computer interface for probability) which is a new comparatively new tool that converts CUDA code to Common C++. There is also GCN 3 ISA, which has extensive documentation making it easier for developers.

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Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) To Venture Deeper Into Cloud Technology to Rival Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)

By
Andy Parker
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PLUM3G

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is seeking to break the dominance that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has over the cloud computing business.

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Wal-Mart has open sourced its cloud management tool called OneOps to allow the creation and migration of applications across different computing infrastructures such as Azure from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Rackspace and Amazon.

Wal-Mart’s venture with OneOps will therefore not be directly competing against its Amazonian rival but rather enhancing portability across different platforms. Amazon hosts numerous firms on its cloud infrastructure. These companies depend entirely on Amazon’s infrastructure since there is no portability to other platforms. It is also one of the reasons why technology infrastructure has been Amazon’s main sources of revenue.

Wal-Mart’s new venture not only aims to improve the situation for these companies but also to enhance the ease of data use. This is because its software will allow companies to access Amazon’s cloud business while at the same time using their own data centers. In this way they will not be confined to Amazon data services. This is good news for enterprises and developers because it will provide advantages such as scalability, technology, and better pricing.

Developers will be able to program applications that can easily interact with different clouds thanks to OneOps. Additionally, Wal-Mart is launching OneOps as an open source software because it is not a cloud provider but rather a cloud user. Releasing it will allow the cloud industry to create new ways that will enable it to blend in with existing technology.

According to Wal-Mart Labs CTO Jeremy King, the primary drive behind the company purchasing OneOps in 2013 was to overcome the limitations of the current system where firms are locked in Amazon’s cloud service. Wal-Mart believes that the open source OneOps will allow the creation of more tools and functionalities that will be essential for the support of future technologies. This may also attract more companies that depend on cloud technology while at the same time making it easier for them to adopt the technology in the first place.

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Dollar Largely Unchanged Ahead Of Fed Policy Statement

By
Andy Parker
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The euro is trading slightly lower against the U.S. dollar as the market participants are eagerly awaiting the Federal Reserve’s comments later today. The Conference Board released U.S. consumer confidence data yesterday, which saw an small uptick month-over-month.

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Consumer confidence rises

As per the report, the consumer confidence index ticked up to 98.1 in January from 96.3 in December. The readings surpassed analysts’ expectations by a wide margin. The consensus estimate was a reading of 96.5 for January. Meanwhile, investors are looking forward to the Fed policy statement to gauge the direction of future rate hikes amidst global stock market volatility.

In Europe, investors are eyeing employment data in Italy and France alongside monthly inflation numbers to be released in Germany towards the end of the week. EUR/USD was lower by 0.11% to 1.0859 during late Asian hours.

The New Zealand Dollar continues to remain under pressure against its American counterpart. The NZD/USD pair was down by 0.09% to 0.6493 ahead of the policy statement to be published by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. Investors are expecting the bank to keep rates steady for the time being. The pair’s support and resistance levels are at 0.6423 and 0.6554 respectively.

Australia sees inflation picking up

On the other hand, the Australian dollar has touched two-week highs against the greenback on the back of positive inflation data in the region. AUD/USD breached the two-week high of 0.7051 before consolidating to 0.7027, or 0.31% up versus the U.S. dollar.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics posted a 0.4% increase in the consumer price index during the fourth quarter, higher than the forecast of 0.3% uptick. On a yearly basis, consumer prices rose 1.7% in the fourth quarter, above estimates of 1.6%.

The British pound was lower against the Dollar as GBP/USD traded down by 0.24% to 1.4316. The U.S. dollar index traded flat at 99.08 on Wednesday, implying caution among market participants over the Fed policy stance.

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Cortana Update By Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) To Make Emails, Calendars Proactive

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Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is working on making PC usage more personalized and smarter, with the latest update to its Cortana feature. According to company officials, the update will make emails, reminders and calendars more proactive. The new updates are expected to be available with Windows 10 in the U.S. and U.K. initially and help users manage their time more effectively.

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For emails, Cortana will review and advise setting reminders in accordance with users’ email sending habits. The new technique will enable the feature to suggest the setting of reminders for tasks that require action. For instance if a user sets a task to be done at 5 pm, the feature will store the information and as the time for the task grows nearer, it will send a reminder.

Cortana aims to Enhance Productivity

According to Product Manager at Cortana Group Marcus Ash, the feature will be similar to the existing one that enables user to get alerts after clicking on the Cortana tab.

Ash stated that the update will help in increasing productivity by saving users from additional notifications. It can be accessed as easily as the windows search bar. The feature is a replacement for Microsoft Office’s Clippy feature that irritated users with excessive notifications.

Easy to Control

Cortana’s time management function can also be turned off by the user. According to Ash, the feature is meant to be an extension to what users already do, and is simply a better and more organized method of reading emails and viewing the calendar on the PC.

Once the feature meets the approval of the initial sphere of users, it is likely to be available to others but the company has not commented on an exact timeframe.

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Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) to Launch Learning Courses on Udacity

By
Andy Parker
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Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google has decided to launch massive open online courses (MOOCs) on Udacity. Lately, there has been a rapid increase among college age adults who utilize this form of online education in the tech industry, and this is expected to spur new innovations in the field.

By expanding its arm into the learning arena, Alphabet is trying to contribute to the development of young minds with the promise of new advances in the IT industry.

Udacity is already serving as a host to different free online courses. It’s tie-up with the Silicon Valley company will provide a three-month learning program for those who can spare six hours per week.

Deep Learning Gaining Popularity

Vincent Vanhoucke, principal research scientist on Google’s Research Blog, has written that deep learning is one of the hottest subjects in machine learning. Deep learning involves using many different data sources such as pictures to train artificial neural networks. Alphabet is already using deep learning in almost all of its applications such as Inbox by Gmail, Google Voice Search, Google Translate, and Google Photos.

The growing popularity of deep learning is the reason Google released TensorFlow, a deep learning platform that serves as an open-source project and makes deep learning capabilities available to everyone.

Within a span of a few weeks, 4,000 participants have enrolled for the deep learning program on GitHub and more than 16,000 have visited it.

More help from Udacity

People familiar with deep learning or machine learning could find this approach ideal and may be able to keep up with the learning sessions of this type of artificial intelligence. However, for those who are not exposed to these concepts, the new technology might be difficult to understand. This is where Udacity will be of great help as the learning platform is a part of the company’s machine learning engineer Nanodegree program.

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Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Echo Alexa Can Now Tell You Movie TImes And NFL Scores

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Amazon.com, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Echo Alexa has received a new firmware upgrade, which enables users to ask about movies and football games. This latest update gives users the chance to get information concerning which movies are playing at a nearby theater and the time they will be playing. Users can also get more specific by naming a given movie genre or even about a particular film. Users have a chance of following live scores in the NFL alongside the possibility of Alexa predicting the score of a certain game.

The upgrade has also factored in the concept of asking Alexa questions directly. Alexa can also elaborate about a given movie and provide a summary, or even predict who will win the Super Bowl.

Alexa has gained considerable functionality and knowledge since its launch. With this latest upgrade, it seems that Amazon is taking this part of its business seriously. Earlier this month, an update enabled Alexa to narrate Kindle books. The service was a hit for people who prefer listening to books that are as of yet unavailable in audio form.

The main problem with Amazon’s Echo remains its size. That problem may be solved according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. According to WSJ, a smaller battery-powered version of Echo may be launched in the coming weeks. This new version is codenamed Fox and will introduce new improvements to Echo.

The movie times and NFL scores features began rolling out last week, meaning users can already download them.

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Advanced Micro (NASDAQ:AMD) Extends Patent License Agreement With Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS)

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Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) has agreed to extend its patent licence with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) for an additional five years. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will continue working together, with AMD continuing to be licensed for its circuit board products and integrated circuits. Additional terms of the agreement are confidential.

Luc Seraphin, senior Vice President and the general manager of Memory and Interface Division at Rambus, reported that both sides were pleased to have come to the agreement for the five year extension. The extension marked the two sides’ third consecutive extension and demonstrated the continued value Rambus IP provides to the industry.

Rambus engages in the development of enhanced, custom memory, industry-compliant chipset and serial link technologies and services, which are aimed at addressing performance, power and capacity challenges for the connected device, mobile and Big Data cloud computing market. Rambus is also involved in driving innovation in computational sensor technologies and silicon-to-cloud security making digital products be better and safer.

Rambus also announced that it had acquired Smart Card Software Ltd. The acquisition was made for £64.7M in cash. With this purchase, Bell ID’s advanced mobile platform and Ecebs’ smart ticketing will be incorporated into the Rambus Cryptography Research Division.

Dr. Martin Scott, Senior Vice President and general manager at Rambus Cryptography Research, stated that secure mobile payments and smart ticketing provides them with excellent growth opportunities. These services would also be used to leverage a foundational security technology, which would be used to offer value-added security solutions to clients. He also welcomed the teams from Bell ID and Ecebs to their research division.

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Sony (NYSE:SNE) Agrees To Acquire Altair Semiconductor For $212 Million

By
Carol Harper
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Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE)

Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) announced that it struck a deal with Altair Semiconductor and other big shareholders to buy the firm for $212 million. The Japanese firm expects to complete the acquisition of the Israeli LTE modem chip innovator early next month. The company indicated that the deal would not have any material impact on its consolidated financial numbers for the fiscal year ending in March.

Expansion Of Existing Business

Sony has also made its objective clear, which is to expand the current business of Altair Semiconductor. The Japanese firm however does not want to prevent the Israeli firm from focusing on R&D in new sensing technologies as well. The combined company stands to gain from developing a fresh line of cellular-connected, sensing component devices.

That would be possible by integrating Sony’s sensing technologies like the Global Navigation Satellite System or GNSS, and image sensors with Altair’s modem chip technology. The objective is to take advantage of the wearable internet devices market that is witnessing continued expansion. Sony also indicated that it would focus on delivering component devices featuring sensing and communication capabilities.

Sony’s acquisition could end up helping Altair more than Sony in the end as Altair’s product would gain wider acceptance and its R&D would also get a big boost.

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Stocks Drop Over 6% in China as US and Europe Follow Oil

By
Carol Harper
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Stocks buying right now

US stocks may be struggling due to oil concerns, but Chinese stocks are being pummelled due to internal macroeconomic issues. The Shanghai SSE index dropped another 6.4% today, and it did not seem to be triggered by anything having to do with oil.

Europe also volatile

US indexes were in the red overnight but recovered strongly today, and it was the same with European stocks as well, which opened lower but finished the day strong. The United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 index, as well as the Euro Stoxx 50 index fell about 1.8% in morning trade but the FTSE ended up 0.6% higher by the end of trading. The moves both in the US and Europe seemed to mimic oil, as prices slipped briefly back below $30 early in the day but recovered strongly to $31.70.

Asian markets however are moving down regardless. China’s Shanghai Index was lower for most of the day but plunged in late trading to shed over 6.4%, a 13-month low. Its peers in Japan and Hong Kong also followed suit by witnessing 2.4% and 2.5% drop respectively. Asian investors were mostly following the overnight pattern of the sell-off in America from yesterday.

China admits economy not yet mature

Last week, Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao admitted at the World Economic Forum that the market in China was yet to mature. He stressed the importance of government regulation in curbing an excessively volatile market. Volatility, however, has refused to die down in Chinese stocks despite, and perhaps even because of repeated assurances from the government about curbing it.

2015 saw the weakest pace of economic growth in two and half decades for China. This was not particularly surprising since economists have been talking about a slowdown as the nation is becoming more burdened with growing corporate debt. There were also doubts whether policymakers would be able to take concrete measures to bring the economy out of its funk.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) Settles Lehman Brothers Estate Dispute

By
Carol Harper
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has preferred to settle most of the pending disputes in respect of the defunct Lehman Brothers Holdings. The bank was the biggest creditor and was destroyed after the failure of the century-year-old financial institution’s collapse in 2008. In October, most of the claims were discarded by a judge. Financial Times quoted file documents of the court indicating that it was ready to pay $1.42 billion to settle the claims.

Clearing-Related Claims

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)’s latest settlement was in respect of clearing-connected claims of $6.3 billion apart from $2.3 billion claims related to derivatives. The court filings indicate that the settlement resolved two of the three big litigation’s that were pending against the bank. In March 2012, Lehman emerged from bankruptcy, and the financial institution would pay $1.49 billion more. That would take the total disbursements to creditors to $106.5 billion.

Lehman estate’s attorneys demanded compensation from the bank as it was the clearing bank. Also, prior to the collapse, the JPMorgan was charged with seeking billions of collateral in respect of those claims. Lehman representatives indicated that the settlement could not be termed as global resolutions of every issue between the two parties. However, it resolved a significant amount of the disagreements.

Fair and equitable

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)’s agreement with the representatives of Lehman, as well as, its creditors were termed as fair and equitable. Until recently, there was a general belief that most of the charges related to the financial crisis were taken into consideration by all the major banks. Therefore, no one was expecting a major settlement. In any case, the settlement would remove any ambiguity of the pending cases potential losses.

So far JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has not responded to the reports of the settlement. The reports suggested that the settlement would not likely to have any material impact on its future earnings.

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