Today’s topics include the beginning of AT&T’s 5G wireless field trials this year, AMD reportedly readying the 32-core ‘Zen’ server chip, the U.S. intelligence chief’s presentation to the Senate stating that the Internet of things could be used by spies, and the news that Netflix is now running its movies exclusively on Amazon Web Services.
AT&T will begin field trials of its 5G wireless technologies later this summer after conducting extensive lab development and testing with several partners in the second quarter of 2016.
The company unveiled its 5G roadmap and testing plans in a Feb. 11 announcement as it continues to work on the creation of its next-generation wireless network across the nation.
Advanced Micro Devices is betting on its upcoming “Zen” core architecture to put it back in play in the data center and in PCs against larger rival Intel.
Company officials introduced Zen in May 2015, outlining an architecture that will support simultaneous multi-threading—a technology similar to Intel’s Hyper-Threading—and DDR4 memory.
It will feature a FinFET transistor design for the 14-nanometer chips and will provide a 40 percent improvement in instructions-per-clock over current AMD processors.
As the Internet of things has grown, so has the debate about data security around it. Earlier this week, James Clapper, U.S. director of national intelligence, added another element to the issue of security and the Internet of things.
In a Feb. 9 presentation to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Clapper stated that the security issues around these various devices—from electric grids to connected and autonomous cars to household appliances—pose a threat to data privacy, data integrity and continuity of services.
Netflix, the Los Gatos, Calif.-based provider of subscription entertainment services, has closed its last data center and is now using only Amazon Web Services to deploy its movies and short-form programs, Fortune reported Feb. 12.
In a microcosm of where the IT world is headed, Netflix closed the data center in late January in a process that was started eight years ago. The company, which announced this move last summer, uses Google services for its storage archives.
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