Finance

Consumer organisation Which? is calling on the Government to cut the cost of the smart meter roll-out. According to the schedule, starting in 2015, every home should have a smart meter by 2020. “Without immediate action the cost of the smart meter rollout is in danger of spiralling out of control, while consumers foot the bill,” said Which? director, Richard ...

A Stoke-on-Trent company has taken a head-up display for motorcyclists from prototype to production in six months. All design and development was done in the UK, and it is manufactured by EC Electronics in Basingstoke. The firm is Bike System, set up specifically to take the initial invention to market. “I am really quite proud that we are one of ...

Tesco has revealed its second generation hudl tablet, and has switching from 1.5GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 to 1.83GHz quad-core Intel Atom – running Android 4.2.2 and 4.4.2 respectively. Relative performance has yet to be assessed independently. The biggest physical change is a move from 7-inch to 8.3-inch display, and parental control has been enhanced. hudl2  hudl Display 8.3inch 1920×1200 7inch ...

The final barrier preventing energy suppliers making the switch from AC power grids to DC systems could now be removed, thanks to research carried out at the University of Birmingham.

AppliedMicro is sampling a processor using up to eight ARM 64-bit v8 cores to knock PowerPC and MIPS out of the embedded market. Other embedded processors are to follow next year.

Technology start-ups will be pitching against each other in the finals of the Discovering Start-Ups 2014 Competition on 22nd of October. The 18 finalists have been shortlisted from over 80 UK entrants from the South West to the North of England. The judging panel includes specialists from Google, BT, Broadcom, IBM, Orange Labs, Samsung, London Business Angels and Cambridge Angels. The Discovering Start-ups competition ...

SiC and GaN power semiconductors are a $150 million – small compared to the $14 billion silicon power semiconductor but widely expected to be the next generation power devices, says The Information Network.

Intel has bought a 20% share in the China state-owned company, Tsinghua Unigroup, which owns mobile chip developers Spreadtrum and RDA. The two chip companies will now make x86-based mobile ICs.

TSMC has 84% of the total ≤28nm pure-play foundry market this year with $10.3bn in ≤28nm sales, says IC Insights.

Qualcomm’s baseband processor market share is at a record 68% with MediaTek No. 2 on 15%and Spreadtrum on 5% at No. 3, says Strategy Analytics.