Twenty-eleven is almost over and as we conclude our end-of-year articles it"s time to look back at some of the most relevant stories of 2011. We"ll do a brief recount of tech happenings in six categories: Desktop CPUs and Graphics, Hardware Industry, Devices and Components, Software, Gaming, Mobile Computing and The Web.
It"s been quite an eventful year that"s for sure. We hope you enjoyed TechSpot"s daily dispatch of PC technology news and analysis as much as we’ve enjoyed bringing it to you.
Intel remains unchallenged in almost every segment of the microprocessor market. Their 2nd generation Core processor lineup was recently expanded with the arrival of three new Sandy Bridge-E parts for the enthusiast market, priced from $555 to a bone chilling $990. They provide up to six cores with a dozen threads, but from a price / value perspective, they"re not necessarily a better buy than the already awesome Core i7-2600K.
Meanwhile, AMD"s much ballyhooed FX brand relaunch was pretty disappointing, with Bulldozer struggling to compete well enough with the Core i5-2xxx series. Like previous years, the company has been left with no option but to respond with more affordable products. What"s more interesting is that ARM and its partners continue to gain terrain in the microprocessor market as smartphones and tablets continue to rise in popularity -- not to mention upcoming support for the architecture in Windows 8.
Read: The Year in Tech: 2011 Most Relevant Stories
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