AMD to intro 45nm quad-core Phenom this quarter

AMD appears to be staggering its 45nm quad-core desktop processor release schedule. It's preparing to release one this quarter, but the next two won't ship until toward the end of the year - before January 2009, is what the chip maker's said to be telling mobo makers.

First up, there's the successor to the current Phenom X4 9750, a 125W beast that will be superseded later this quarter by a 45nm version of the chip. The new 9750 will only consume 95W. So say said industry sources, cited by a variety of Chinese-language websites.

The current 9750 is clocked at 2.4GHz, and contains 2MB of L2 cache and and 2MB of L3 cache. Its successor is said to contain 6MB of L3 and be clocked in the 2.4-2.7GHz range, which suggests to us it'll have a model number somewhat higher than 9750.

Later in the year, we'll see a 45nm, 95W successor to the 125W 9850, again with three times the L3 cache of the current version. To the new 9850, we can also add a 45nm version of the as-yet-unlaunched 9950, the moles maintain.

AMD's desktop roadmap also calls for the Q3 launch of the tri-core 2.2GHz Phenom X3 8550, filling the empty space between the current 8450 and 8650. Expect to see the arrival of the low-power 8450e, 9150e and 9350e in Q3 too.

These are 65nm parts - 45nm low-power quad-cores, codenamed 'Propus', will apparently debut some time in H1 2009...

Second-gen AMD 790FX motherboard pictured

One major downside of current motherboards based on AMD's 790FX chispet is the SB600 south bridge, which is getting long in the tooth and suffers from lackluster PCI and SATA performance. We've been expecting 790FX motherboard based on a new south bridge since the 790FX launch, and the folks at Fudzilla have nabbed a picture and some specifications for a 790FX mobo with an "SB750" south bridge.

This "Hawkfish" motherboard is a reference AMD design, Fudzilla says, and it features four PCI Express x16 slots, one PCIe x4 slot, only a single PCI slot, six 300MB/s Serial ATA ports, one IDE port, and a "4+1" pulse width modulation design. The six SATA ports can handle RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 10, as well. On the cooling front, the north bridge chip is actively cooled with a small fan, although retail offerings may end up different—after all, original reference 790FX designs had the same cooler.

In an older report, the same site claims the SB750 south bridge will have an "OverDrive 3.0" feature that will somehow aid overclocking in Phenom CPUs. The report explains, "AMD demoed a board with the SB750, which struggled to overlock the CPU to 3GHz, but once the overclocking feature was enabled the same CPU had no problem reaching 3.2GHz."

Rumor: Next AMD mobile chips to be slow, power-hungry

AMD may have a tough time nabbing design wins when it introduces its Puma notebook platform later this year. TG Daily quotes several sources, including Taiwanese moles and AMD insiders, as saying Puma will fail to match the power efficiency and CPU performance of rival Intel platforms.

According to TG Daily's report, the Puma platform's Griffin processor "will not be able to touch" Intel's Core 2 Duo in terms of performance. Power efficiency may leave something to be desired, as well. "It seems that AMD is in trouble and created a processor that actually consumes more power than its predecessor," the report states bluntly.

Luckily for AMD, the alleged strength of Puma's 780-series integrated chipset could be an asset. AMD reportedly harnessed TSMC's latest production line in order to make the mobile 780 as power-efficient as possible, and the chipset's graphics core is expected to significantly outperform Intel's next mobile IGP. TG Daily claims AMD will advertise Puma as a "balanced" platform, with lower CPU performance but better graphics performance than Centrino 2.

AMD stated back in March at the CeBIT trade show that Puma-based notebooks will launch in June. News stories from the same time frame suggest those systems may be priced as low as $699.

AMD launches ‘business class’ Phenom, Athlon chips

AMD on Monday announced “business class” versions of its Phenom and Athlon processors for the commercial markets. The big pitch: PC manufacturers will maintain AMD’s business class systems for 24 months to ensure that systems aren’t phased out before they are deployed.

The chipmaker (all AMD resources) is angling to differentiate itself from Intel in the commercial markets and says that stability of platform is important to public sector purchases as well as enterprises.

Hal Speed, AMD’s marketing architect, said that ensuring longevity of supply is critical for desktop deployments because sometimes the life of the PC cycle can undercut the time to deploy them. Speed also noted that AMD upped its warranty from one year to three years for its business class systems. “We were looking to remove complexity,” said Speed. “IT departments don’t like change.”

AMD is looking to assure corporate buyers that its systems will have some longevity to accommodate longer PC buying cycles. Since these systems have up to a 24 month lifecycle companies won’t have to change disk images of their desktops.

Among other components of AMD’s business class effort:

• Phenom X3 triple-core and X4 quad-core processors are featured as well as X2 dual-core processors.
• OEMs can choose AMD 780V chipsets, ATI Radeon HD 3000 graphics or non-AMD graphics and chipsets.
• AMD is introducing five new motherboards for system builders that will have at least 18 months longevity.
• Business class commercial notebooks will be available in the second half.

As for OEM support, HP will have its HP Compaq dc5850 Business PC available Monday. Dell will use AMD’s business class chips in its Optiplex 740 systems and Lenovo and Fujitsu are also on board.

It’s unclear whether this business class effort will make a difference. For instance, if you were initiating a PC upgrade cycle today AMD’s 24 months of stability would be a selling point. However, there are diminishing returns after a year.

source:http://blogs.zdnet.com/

Sun buys out x86 processor start-up Montalvo

A decent amount of ink has been spilled over Montalvo Systems, a Silicon Valley startup that aimed to take on Intel with an original, x86-compatible mobile microprocessor design. We recently reported that the start-up was running out of money and in a desperate search for investors. In an interesting twist, eWeek now says Sun Microsystems has gone and acquired the company.

eWeek goes on to quote a Sun spokeswoman who said the acquisition was completed on April 21 on undisclosed terms. Sun aims to integrate Montalvo into its Microelectronics business unit, and the spokeswoman explained, "We believe acquiring these assets will enhance the current and future products we are developing and expect them to contribute to future generations of Sun's microprocessor technology, which will in turn drive additional differentiation for Sun's Systems products."

Judging by information that leaked out three months ago, Montalvo was working on a power-efficient mobile CPU based on the same x86 instruction set architecture as Intel's products. Unlike Intel chips, though, the Montalvo processor is purportedly based on a mix of high- and low-performance cores, which the chip can turn on and off depending on processing load in order to save power.

Coupled with the terse public statement, Sun's decision to pocket Montalvo hints that the company could seek to start competing with Intel in the consumer space. Sun is no stranger to the microprocessor market, but its line of SPARC processors are aimed at high-performance servers and aren't Intel-compatible.

Larrabee Team Is Focused On Rasterization

"Tom Forsyth, a well respected developer inside Intel's Larrabee project, has spoken to dispel rumors that the Larrabee architecture is ignoring rasterization, and in fact claims that the new GPU will perform very well with current DirectX and OpenGL titles. The recent debate between rasterization and ray tracing in the world of PC games has really been culminating around the pending arrival of Intel's discrete Larrabee GPU technology. Game industry luminaries like John Carmack, Tim Sweeney and Cevat Yerli have chimed in on the discussion saying that ray tracing being accepted as the primary rendering method for games is unlikely in the next five years."

AMD announces new 45W Athlon X2 processors

All eyes are set on AMD's triple- and quad-core processors these days, but the company is still squeezing some life out of its dual-core offerings. As a matter of fact, AMD has added two new Athlon X2 processors to its lineup of desktop chips with 45W thermal envelopes, the Athlon X2 4450e and the Athlon X2 4050e. The former is clocked at 2.3GHz and the latter at 2.1GHz. Both feature 1MB of L2 cache, and the chips are based on AMD's 65nm process technology.

Unusually for newly announced processors, the two chips are already available for sale. Newegg currently sells the 4450e for $79.99 and the 4050e for $10 less. Both offerings are in stock right now.

Deal of the week: Two hard drives and a processor

We have three very enticing deals for you this week. Unsurprisingly, in light of the current state of storage prices, the first two are hard drives. Newegg is offering Western Digital's 640GB Caviar SE16 for only $109.99 with free shipping, and it has the 750GB Caviar SE16 model available for $134.99, also with free shipping. The former should be a little faster than the latter thanks to its higher platter density, but it's hard to argue with sub-20-cent-per-gigabyte pricing in either case (17 cents/GB for the 640GB and 18 cents/GB for the 750GB, to be exact).

Our third deal is Intel's Core 2 Duo E8400, which Newegg offers for an also-tantalizing $199.99 $189.99 with free shipping. We couldn't find better pricing anywhere on our price search engine for either this CPU or the aforementioned hard drive deals. Considering this processor was recently marked up to $250 and more because of tight availability, $200 shipped is a steal—especially when you take into account its 45nm core, 3GHz default clock speed, and overclocking potential. Check out our latest CPU review to see how the E8400 fares next to the latest chips out there.

Update: The E8400 is now listed at Newegg for $189.99 with free shipping.

AMD introduces bug-fix three-core Phenoms

AMD has rolled out a trio of tri-core processors, all revised versions of the Phenom X3 CPUs it introduced last month.

The new line-up comprises the 2.4GHz 8750, the 2.3GHz 8650 and the 2.1GHz 8450. They're priced at $195, $165 and $145, respectively.

All three contain 'B3' cores, an improved version of the 'B2' X3s released to PC makers less than a month ago. At the time, AMD provided benchmark numbers that indicated a small but significant performance boost over the B2 models.

For example, the 8650 yielded numbers up nine per cent on those produced by the 8600, despite identical specs beyond the core stepping.

AMD insisted the older core was "perfectly fine". But not so fine that the 8400, 8600 and 8700 haven't been kept on the chip maker's official price list. All three have been dropped to make room for the new versions.

AMD also introduced two low-power, 45W Athlon X2 chips, the 4450e and the 4050e, clocked at 2.3GHz and 2.1GHz, respectively.

Intel slashes desktop, server processor prices

Barely two weeks after the release of AMD's first B3 Phenom processors, Intel has reacted by applying rather substantial price cuts to a cross-section of its desktop and server processors. The cuts apply to both 45nm and 65nm offerings, and they cover 18 CPUs from the Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium, Celeron, and Xeon lineups.

Here's the list of affected processors with their specifications, their previous prices, and their new prices as of today:

Processor	Cores	Speed	Cache	FSB	Old price	New price
Core 2 Quad Q6700	4	2.66GHz	8MB	1066MHz	$530	$266
Core 2 Quad Q6600	4	2.4GHz	8MB	1066MHz	$266	$224
Core 2 Duo E8300	2	2.83GHz	6MB	1333MHz	-	$163
Core 2 Duo E7200	2	2.53GHz	3MB	1066MHz	-	$133
Core 2 Duo E6850	2	3GHz	4MB	1333MHz	$266	$183
Core 2 Duo E4600	2	2.4GHz	2MB	800MHz	$133	$113
Pentium E2200	2	2.2GHz	1MB	800MHz	$84	$74
Pentium E2180	2	2GHz	1MB	800MHz	$74	$64
Celeron E1400	2	2GHz	512KB	800MHz	-	$53
Celeron E1200	2	1.6GHz	512KB	800MHz	$53	$43
Celeron 440	1	2GHz	512KB	800MHz	$53	$44
Celeron 430	1	1.8GHz	512KB	800MHz	$44	$34
Celeron 570	1	2.66GHz	1MB	533MHz	-	$134
Celeron 560	1	2.13GHz	1MB	533MHz	$134	$107
Celeron 550	1	2GHz	1MB	533MHz	$107	$86
Xeon X3230	4	2.66GHz	8MB	1066MHz	$530	$266
Xeon X3220	4	2.4GHz	8MB	1066MHz	$266	$224
Xeon 3085	2	3GHz	4MB	1333MHz	$266	$188

The price drops should put renewed pressure on AMD both at the low end, where dual-core Pentiums gnaw at the heels of Athlon 64 X2s, and in the mid-range, where the Core 2 Quad Q6600 looks like a dangerous competitor to the $235 Phenom 9850 Black Edition. The cheaper Core 2 Duos also ought to spoil things for upcoming triple-core Phenoms to some extent, although it's a little too early to see how these chips will match up just yet—stay tuned for a review.

45nm Phenoms to hit 3.2GHz and more?

Despite having displayed a 3GHz Phenom system at its Technology Analyst Day last summer, AMD hasn't yet commercialized a Phenom processor clocked higher than 2.5GHz. What's more, we had trouble pushing AMD's 2.5GHz chip over the 2.9GHz mark in our overclocking tests. However, a report by Fudzilla hints that Phenom's 45nm descendants may finally unbridle the architecture's potential.

Citing internal AMD data, Fudzilla reports that AMD's 45nm Deneb core (the forthcoming desktop variant of Shanghai) will be able to achieve clock speeds of 3.2GHz—and perhaps even more. AMD itself has stayed mute on 45nm launch clock speeds, although it disclosed last week that its 45nm chips are due to become available in large quantities in the fourth quarter of this year.

As Fudzilla points out, the fourth-quarter time frame matches Intel's launch schedule for its next-generation Nehalem chips. Current signs point to Nehalem chips being significantly faster clock-for-clock than existing Core 2 Quads and also having the ability to run at 3.2GHz, so Nehalem should turn out to be a formidable opponent to both Deneb and Shanghai.

AMD gained some ground against Intel in late 2007

Despite delays to its quad-core chips, the TLB erratum fiasco, and Intel's continued performance edge, AMD managed to grow its market share in the fourth quarter of last year, according to numbers from market research firm iSuppli.

In a report posted earlier today, iSuppli says AMD's share of the overall microprocessor market climbed from 13.9% in the third quarter of 2007 to 14.2% in the fourth quarter. Interestingly, AMD appears to have taken those share points from lesser players in the industry. Intel's piece of the CPU pie grew from 78.8% to 78.9% over the same time period, while the aggregate market share of smaller microprocessor makers slumped from 7.3% to 6.9%.

Of course, even with the 0.3-point rise, AMD's Q4 '07 market share was significantly lower than in the fourth quarter of 2006. According to iSuppli, AMD held 15.7% of the overall CPU market in Q4 '07, while Intel had 75.8%, and other players had an aggregate 8.4%.

CPUs GPUs Mobos and chipsets Multimedia Cases and power Storage Systems Miscellany Forums Overclocking Intel's Xeon X3320 processor

We PC enthusiasts have been co-opting enterprise-class hardware for our own personal systems for years now. We got our first taste of the creamy smoothness of SMP on dual-socket workstation boards long before you could get two cores conveniently packaged on the same chip. Tempted by lightning-fast access times and 10K-RPM spindle speeds, we adopted Western Digital's Raptor hard drive. And who can forget AMD's Toledo-based dual-core Opterons—overclocking marvels compatible with the same 939-pin socket as Athlon 64 X2 desktop chips. I've had what was a relatively inexpensive Opteron 165 designed to run at 1.8GHz happily chugging away at 2.4GHz on a standard desktop motherboard for a couple of years now.

Although they share the same architecture and performance characteristics as their desktop counterparts, server and workstation processors like the Opteron typically undergo additional validation testing and run at lower operating voltages. In a sense, chips that make the grade for the enterprise world are the best of the breed. That doesn't guarantee overclocking success, but it at least hints at untapped potential. When that potential plugs into a standard desktop motherboard loaded with overclocking options, we just can't resist.

It's no wonder, then, that Intel's Xeon X3320 caught my eye recently. This LGA775 chip features a 45nm Yorkfield core running at 2.5GHz with 6MB of L2 cache, making it the Xeon equivalent of the Core 2 Quad Q9300. What's more, while the Q9300 has been in short supply of late, the X3320 has been more consistently available at roughly the same price.

Few things make us happier than forcing normally conservative enterprise-class hardware to jump through flaming enthusiast hoops, so we scored an off-the-shelf Xeon X3320 retail box from the folks at NCIX to see what kind of overclocking headroom we could find. Read on for the surprising results.

Penryn dons a suit
The key to overclocking server and workstation processors is finding ones compatible with standard desktop motherboards. AMD and Intel both employ different socket designs for some of their enterprise-class chips, and the server and workstation motherboards they slip into tend to be completely devoid of overclocking options. Fortunately, Intel's Xeon 3000 series uses the same LGA775 package as desktop Core 2 chips, so you should be able to plug them into any motherboard that's compatible with their desktop equivalents.

read full article at techreport

AMD's Phenom X3 processors Review

Good things often come in powers of two, especially in computers. Two, four, eight, or sixteen copies of a common resource—rendering pipelines, megabytes of memory, processors, what have you—are instantly recognizable quantities that will most assuredly lead to additional goodness.

But three? Not so much.

Oh, sure, you have the odd exceptions, like a three-disk RAID 5 array or three-way SLI, but these are exceptions, and they are quite literally odd. Even less common is the case of three CPUs. I've been racking my brains for a few days trying to come up with past examples of three-way multiprocessor configurations in PC history, and I've been coming up blank. Now that I've said that, some old-timer will post in the comments about the Univac EP-3333, to which he fed punch cards back in the day. Bully for you, Methuselah, but my point remains: triple-processor configurations are exceptionally rare in the PC world.

They are, however, about to get a whole heckuva lot more common thanks to AMD's new triple-core Phenom X3 processors. These are essentially just quad-core chips with one core disabled, sacrificed for the cause of product segmentation. Can't you just hear millions of tiny transistors screaming out in pain and then going silent? The core-botomy has happy side-effects, though, not least of which is extending the Phenom lineup to under 150 bucks.

The advent of these triple-core specimens raises some intriguing questions. Can AMD gain ground on Intel's very potent dual-core CPUs by disabling a core and slashing its prices? Will the Phenom's relatively low per-core performance be offset by the presence of a third core? What's the right tradeoff here? We've taken these questions as an excuse to run way too many benchmarks on the new Phenom X3 chips. Then we made up some answers. Keep reading to see what we found.

read full article:techreport

Intel takes chopper to chip prices

Intel has tweaked its processor price list, knocking up to 50 per cent off what it charges for desktop CPUs.

The headline reduction came to the 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q6700, which now costs $266, down from $530. The 2.4GHz Q6600 is also cheaper now: down 16 per cent to $224.

The other big reduction was applied to the 3GHz Core 2 Duo E6850, which had 31 per cent taken off its price, bringing it from $266 to $183.

Intel introduced the E7200 above the E6850 - an odd number since the E7200 has, on paper, a lower spec than the E6850. The latter sits on a 1333MHz frontside bus (FSB) and contains 4MB of L2 cache. The 7200, according to Intel's price list, has 3MB of cache, sits on a 1066MHz FSB and is only clocked to 2.53GHz. It's cheaper too: $133.

So much for model number consistency...

Also new this week is the 2.83GHz E8300, a 6MB L2, 1333MHz FSB part that debuted at $163.

Intel cut the price of the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo E4600 - 2MB L2, 800MHz FSB - to $113, a fall of 15 per cent.

Two members of the Pentium Dual-Core line-up had their prices cut: the 2.2GHz E2200 fell 12 per cent to $74, to create a price gap between it and the $84, 2.4GHz E2220. The price of the 2GHz E2180 was reduced 14 per cent to $64, bringing it in line with the remainder of the series.

The Celeron Dual-Core family gained a member: the 2GHz E1400, priced at $53. The introduction pushed down the price of its predecessor, the 1.6GHz E1200, down 19 per cent to $43.

The 2.66GHz single Celeron 570 joins the list with a price of $134. The 2.13GHz 560 and the 2GHz 550 both saw their prices cut by 20 per cent as a result, falling to $107 and $86, respectively.

The older 2GHz Celeron 440 and 1.8GHz Celeron 430 are now, respectively, 17 per cent and 23 per cent cheaper than before. The 440 now costs $44 and the 430 $34.

The 5xx Celerons have 1MB of L2 cache, while the 4xx versions, like the dual-cores, have 512KB of cache per core.
© The Register.

AMD X3 Tri-Core Processor Reviewed (Verdict: Get a Quad-Core Chip)

Maximum PC has reviewed AMD's tri-core 2.4GHz Phenom X3 8750 CPU. It performs like you'd expect—in between quad and dual cores. Fine, but it's $195. You can pick up AMD's top quad core, the X4 9850 for only $235, or Intel's Q6600 (which mercilessly beat down the X4 9850 in benchmarks) for $224 now, or hell, $200 in a few weeks. So just get a quad core. Maximum PC also hints that a Core 2 Duo might keep pace with the tri-cores, but they're keeping that under wraps for now, bastards. [Maximum PC]

AMD Quad-Core Phenom X4 9850 Reviewed (Verdict: Owned by Intel Quad Cores)

The Phenom X4 9850 is at the top of AMD's latest heap of quad-core Phenoms. It's free of the performance-sapping bug that plagued the first batch of Phenoms, and AMD hopes it'll claw back some ground from Intel. Maximum PC stacked it up against two quad-cores from Intel—the mid-rangeish Penryn Core 2 Quad Q9300, as well as an older Core 2 Q6600. Ouchies for AMD, the Intel pair blew past it.

The Penryn-based Q9300 "owned the night," with the Q6600 trailing, and Phenom in back of both. It wasn't "so far behind as to be dead in the water" but "it doesn't quite go head-to-head with the Penryn lite." (They call the Q9300 Penryn-lite because it has half the cache of the higher-end Penryn quad-cores.)

The 9850 X4 is the fastest AM2 chip around, however, so if you're sticking with that board "it's a pretty good upgrade." The bigger problem is that AMD still has nothing to touch Intel's top quad cores, and won't for months, at least. [Maximum PC]

AMD can’t get to 45nm fast enough. A 12-core package?

If there was a bright spot in AMD’s first quarter, it was the new PC and graphics products that have either recently shipped or are in the pipeline for 2008. Barcelona, the company’s quad-core design manufactured using a 65nm process, bombed last year. Meanwhile, Intel is minting millions of 45nm chips. So it’s no surprise that AMD is shifting to 45nm processors as quickly as possible.

During the earnings call last week, AMD executives said the 45nm processor, code-named Shanghai, was on track and would be shipping in volume in the fourth quarter. By all accounts, Shanghai is largely a “shrink” of the recently-released B3 version of Barcelona, which corrected a flaw in the original design. But Daily Tech reports that AMD has more ambitious plans for the 45nm design.

Citing AMD engineers, the site says AMD will produce a six-core version, code-named Istanbul, and then, in a reversal of its “native-quad-core” strategy of putting all cores on a single piece of silicon, offer a two-die package with a total of 12 cores. The two processors will be connected using AMD’s HyperTransport 3.0 bus.

To be clear, this platform is designed for the server and workstation market. Based on recent presentations, AMD will also release a 45nm enthusiast desktop platform, code-named Leo, later this year that will consist of triple-core and quad-core chips. Mainstream and budget desktops, as well as business systems, will continue to use platforms based on 65nm processors until sometime in 2009.

Intel cuts price of quad-core Q6700 by 50%

In move that will likely hit AMD’s bottom line, Intel has cut the prices of fourteen processors. The most dramatic cut - the Q6700, the price of which has been slashed by 50%.

The quad-core 2.66GHz Xeon X3230 also has its price slashed by 50% (was $530, now $266).

The 2.66GHz quad-core Q6700 now sells for $266, down from $530. This price point was previously occupied by the entry-level 2.4GHz Q6600. The Q6700 now represents the best bang-for-the-buck quad-core processor available.

Other notable price tweaks:

• Q6600, 2.4GHz quad-core - Now: $244 (was $266)
• E6850, 3.0GHz, dual-core - Now: $183 (was $266)
• E4600, 2.4GHz, dual-core - Now: $113 (was $133)

No changes at the ”Extreme” end of the hardware scale.

Complete list of changes available here (PDF).

AMD's Hybrid Graphics Unveiled, Tested

The combination of AMD's ATI graphics division and AMD's CPU division means that AMD often fights a two-front war, directly competing against Intel in the CPU business as well as Nvidia in graphics. AMD's Hybrid Graphics technology allows them to fight against both companies at the same time, offering customers their 780G chipset that allows integrated graphics to work more efficiently with the CPU. In addition, inserting an additional card works the same as CrossFire, which, like Nvidia's SLI, was only capable by having two discrete graphics cards installed on a motherboard. ExtremeTech has put the 780G chipset through a series of gaming and synthetic benchmarks to see just how beneficial this technology is.

View: Full Review @ Extreme Tech

Intel E8500 Core2 Duo CPU Review

The E8500 is the fastest Core 2 Duo solution on the market with the clock speed set at 3.16GHz, fully 266MHz higher than the next fastest E series CPU. For a MSRP on the Intel CPU price list of $266 this makes an affordable solution for those not wanting to spend $999 on an Intel CPU like the QX9770 that’s upcoming. Dual Core CPUs like the E8500 are excellent choices for the everyday user.

The E8500 also overclocks like a beast reaching 4.389 GHz, a nearly 40% overclock on normal air-cooling. Other people have reached over 4.5GHz on theirs. Dual Core processors still have a market as only the Q6600 Core 2 Quad CPU reaches this level of price but performance on the E8500 beats that CPU in many cases.

View: Full Review @ motherboards.org
View: Review @ Toms Hardware

Video Game Sales Up 57%

U.S. sales of video game hardware and software rose 57%in March from a year earlier, industry data showed on Thursday, evidence that the industry has so far been immune to wider economic woes. Sales of gaming hardware, software and accessories hit $1.7 billion in March, led by Nintendo's Wii console, which posted its biggest non-holiday month ever, according to market research firm NPD. "You'd never know that the U.S. economy was under distress by looking at the video games industry sales figures," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement. U.S. consumers snapped up 720,000 Wiis, driven in part by the release of Nintendo's critically acclaimed "Super Smash Bros. Brawl", which was the top-selling game with 2.7 million copies sold.

Additionally, Microsoft's Xbox 360 regained its lead over Sony's PlayStation 3 after two months of sluggish sales the company blamed on supply constraints. Consumers bought 262,000 Xbox 360s and 257,000 PlayStation 3s. "We said as our supply issue lifted that we'd be back in the game," said Microsoft spokesman David Dennis. For its part, PS3 sales have doubled from a year earlier, and Sony said new and upcoming games such as its "Gran Turismo 5 Prologue" racing game and Konami's "Metal Gear Solid 4" stealth action title would drive sales in the coming months.
View: Full Story at Reuters

nForce 750a AMD motherboards are on their way

Despite refreshing its Intel chipsets relatively often, Nvidia seems to have left out the AMD market these past few months. The graphics company's latest mid-range nForce chipset for AMD chips is the nForce 570 SLI, which came out in 2006 and doesn't support some of the features of new quad-core Phenom processors, such as HyperTransport 3.0.

However, judging by a report by OC Workbench, that's all about to change. The site has gotten hold of pictures and specifications for an ASRock motherboard based on a yet-unannounced nForce 750a SLI chipset. As its name suggests, the chipset looks to be the AMD version of the nForce 750i SLI, and OC Workbench says it has full support for Socket AM2+ processors with HyperTransport 3.0. Naturally, the chipset also supports SLI dual-GPU configurations with one PCI Express x16 slot sporting a full 16 lanes of connectivity and the other featuring only eight lanes.

Looking at the ASRock motherboard, which bears a K10N750SLI-WiFi model name, we can spot seven 300MB/s Serial ATA ports (including one external port), three PCI slots, one PCIe x1 slot, a pair of physical x16 slots, and both FireWire and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. True to its model name, the mobo also has integrated Wi-Fi support with an external antenna.

Intel's Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor

We have two of these chips on the bench today, and they're just now becoming widely available. The Core 2 Quad Q9300 is Intel's most affordable quad-core processor, and it promises to supplant a long-time favorite of ours, the Core 2 Quad Q6600, by offering additional goodness at the exact same price. The Core 2 Duo E7200, meanwhile, is Intel's cheapest 45nm dual-core CPU and a potential goldmine of overclocking potential. As is our dubious custom, we've tested these two processors against a whole slew of would-be competitors and wholly inappropriate alternative options.

The Core 2 Quad Q9300: Affordable four-banger
The Q9300 is built from the same basic ingredient as Intel's other 45nm processors: the dual-core chip code-named Penryn. To create a quad-core processor, Intel groups two Penryn chips together into one package. The two chips operate more or less independently, communicating only by means of the front-side bus. In that sense, the Q9300 is really not much different from the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 introduced last October.

What makes the Q9300 distinctive is its level-two cache. Each Penryn chip has 6MB of L2 cache onboard, dynamically partitioned and shared between the chip's two cores. That gives most Penryn-based quad cores a total of 12MB of L2 cache. (Math is hard.) In the Q9300, however, each chip has half of its L2 cache disabled, so the processor has a two-by-3MB cache config, for a total of 6MB of L2.

Yep, it's neutered. But Intel's willing to sell it cheaper that way. The Q9300 runs at a default 2.5GHz on a 1333MHz bus and lists at $266. Factor in Penryn's higher per-clock performance, and the Q9300 beats out its predecessor on multiple fronts. The Core 2 Quad Q6600 offered a 2.4GHz core clock, 1066MHz bus, and an older version of the Core microarchitecture for the same price.

How much will the Q9300's smaller cache size affect its performance? Well, like so many things, it depends. If a program's working data set is too large to fit into a 3MB cache but will fit comfortably into a 4MB or 6MB cache, then the difference may be pronounced. If not, then the difference may be zip, nada, nothing. The thing is, these days, caches are becoming large enough that we're getting well into the realm of diminishing returns for larger caches, especially in common desktop applications. You'll see what I mean when you see the Q9300's performance results.

Oh, and the Q9300's TDP (thermal design power) rating is 95W, down from 105W in the Q6600, thanks to the magic of Intel's high-k 45nm fab process.

The Q9300's closest competition from AMD is the Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition. Intriguingly, that processor is also clocked at 2.5GHz and features a single-chip, native quad-core design with 2MB of L3 cache shared between all four cores. The Phenom 9850 Black Edition lists for about 30 bucks less than the Q9300, though, and has an unlocked multiplier to make overclocking easier. We'll have to see whether the Q9300 can back up its price premium.

If the competition from AMD isn't trouble enough, the Q9300 also has to contend with a stable mate, the Core 2 Duo E8500, which also lists at $266. This is a full-on Penryn dual-core with 6MB of L2 cache and a clock speed of 3.16GHz. The Q9300 will have to make its case against the E8500 on the strength of its two additional cores.

Oh, and since we're on the subject of 45nm Core 2 Quads, I've also thrown in some results on the following pages for the Core 2 Quad Q9450. This puppy has a full 6MB of L2 cache per chip and runs at 2.66GHz on a 1333MHz bus. Like the Q9300, its TDP is 95W. At $316, it too may be a fairly compelling value.

The Core 2 Duo E7200: Cheap for the peeps
If you took a Core 2 Quad Q9300 and sawed it in half... Well, it wouldn't work, and you'd totally be out a processor. Bad idea. Conceptually, however, the Core 2 Duo E7200 is basically a Q9300 sawed in two: a Penryn-based dual-core with 3MB of L2 cache. The E7200's clock frequency is slightly different, at 2.53GHz, made so by the chip's 1066MHz front-side bus speed. The E7200 has a TDP rating of 65W.

The price may be roughly half that of the Q9300, as well. Intel hasn't officially introduced the E7200 yet, so we don't have exact pricing, but rumors on the Intarweb peg its price at $137 and its launch date as April 20th. If the rumors are correct, the E7200's closest competition will probably be the Athlon 64 X2 5600+, which likes to hang out in that same price range.

Not a bad deal, but we'll sweeten the pot by pointing out that the E7200's default multiplier of 9.5 could work quite nicely in combination with a 1333MHz front-side bus, where it would yield a core clock speed of 3.16GHz—with pretty much the rest of the system running at stock, stable, non-weird clock frequencies. That's the sort of overclock I could live with every day, assuming the chip could take it. I suspect many of them will, since....

more at: techreport

AMD execs discuss strategy, 45nm chips, return to profitability

Shortly after AMD's first-quarter financial results became public yesterday afternoon, AMD executives held a conference call to talk a little bit about their plans for a return to profitability. While they're understandably disappointed with the results, they see a silver lining in the fact that customer response to new products like B3 Opterons, triple-core Phenoms, and Radeon HD 3000-series graphics cards has been positive. According to AMD CFO Robert J. Rivet, AMD's refreshed product portfolio should "pay solid dividends as the year progresses."

How does AMD plan to climb out of the ditch, though? To be clear, AMD CEO Hector Ruiz reiterated that current plans are still for AMD to return to profitability in the third quarter of this year. The recently announced 10% workforce reduction, as well as ensuing restructuring moves, should help make those plans a reality, and Ruiz also mentioned that AMD could close down unprofitable businesses in areas outside of its core operations:

We need to intensely scrutinize all of our businesses in order to ensure that our core x86 and graphics products are on a healthy path to leadership and profitability. We also need to intensely scrutinize our non-core businesses and revisit their strategic fit into our plans and their path to growth and profitability. Absent these, we will exit those businesses.

One thing Ruiz still wasn't willing to get into was AMD's future "asset-smart" strategy. However, he provided some hints of what AMD has planned. First, he announced that the company has made "significant progress" in elaborating strategy and added, "I'm very hopeful that we will be able to communicate details of this rather complex effort in the near future. At that time, we believe we will also have an opportunity to further restructure the company for increased focus and added flexibility." When asked in the Q&A session whether AMD needed to own its fabs in order to succeed, Ruiz went on to say:

First of all, I don't think the ownership of the capacity is necessarily a reflection of the leadership in technology needed there. Our partnership with IBM has demonstrated that we're able to hang in there relative to technology without having to own the R&D, for example, totally—we're sharing it. So, I'm a strong believer that—especially for us, we've demonstrated in the past, we'll demonstrate that going forward—that partnering with people is very important to our future, and particularly in the area of technology.

While not as clear as they could be, those statements seem to corroborate recent speculation that AMD might end up spinning off its chip fabrication business into another company.

Aside from broad strategic moves, AMD executives also shared a few details about upcoming products. Robert Rivet said AMD is on track to kick off 45nm production "at mature yields" in the summer, and AMD COO Dirk Meyer added that volume 45nm product shipments are scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. There was also mention of Bulldozer, AMD's next-generation architecture, which is now scheduled to sample in 2009 using a 45nm process.

Looking ahead to the current quarter, Rivet expects "another challenging quarter," with Q2 revenue to decrease "in line with seasonality." He added that AMD is taking major steps to cut costs and restructure itself as quickly as possible, though, so Q2 net losses might not be as spectacular as they've been for the past six quarters.

source: techreport

AMD loss $358M in the first quarter

AMD CFO Robert J. Rivet attributes this poor performance to "a seasonally weak first quarter . . . amplified by a challenging economic environment for consumers and lower than expected revenues of previous generation products." AMD's sales were lower than expected in all of its business segments, Rivet adds. To make things worse, AMD's gross margin slumped from 44% in Q4 '07 to 42% in Q1 '08, although it's still higher than the paltry 28% the company recorded in Q1 '07.

Indeed, AMD has posted a net loss of $358 million and an operating loss of $264 million for the first quarter. That second figure represents a clear step back from the fourth quarter of 2007, when AMD's operating loss was only $9 million. At first glance, the net income figure appears more tame than the $1.772 billion net loss AMD posted in Q4 '07. However, considering $1.608 billion of that $1.772 billion corresponded to a write-off of non-material assets, AMD seems to have registered a greater material loss in Q1 '08.

Chip-maker AMD revealed some first quarter financial numbers today, and the results aren't exactly stellar. Total revenue for the company was $1.505 billion, but it had sustained a net loss of $358 million, or $0.59 per share, and an operating loss of $264 million. These results include an impact of $50 million, or $0.08 per share, from ATI acquisition-related charges. However, although first quarter revenue decreased 15% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007, it actually increased 22% compared to the first quarter of 2007.

“A seasonally weak first quarter was amplified by a challenging economic environment for consumers and lower than expected revenues of previous generation products, resulting in lower than expected revenues in all business segments.” said Robert J. Rivet, AMD’s Chief Financial officer. “We remain committed to achieve operating profitability in the second half of the year, driven by our portfolio of new products and platforms and aggressive restructuring programs.”

AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition review

Although the release of the AMD Phenom processor series took place back in November of last year, roughly four months ago now, the highly touted quad-core processor has received limited action so far in the computer world and a lot of negative press coverage for reasons we have documented well enough during all this time.

In our hands-on experience with the first wave of Phenoms, we didn't think the situation was as dire as many made it out to be. But regardless, it was a combination of a poor product launch with corporate financial trouble that raised the company to the spotlight.

In terms of performance, AMD has stated that the new B3 processors will be no faster than the original Phenom X4 CPUs without the TLB erratum fix enabled on a clock-for-clock basis. Therefore the Phenom X4 9600 and the new Phenom X4 9650, for example, should be no different in terms of performance. Just as well that should mean that today’s flagship Phenom, the X4 9850, should sit somewhere between the Phenom 9700 and 9900 processors that we reviewed earlier this year.

It will be interesting to see how the 9850 stacks up against the rest of the Phenom family and of course, Intel's Q6600.

View: AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition review @ TechSpot

AMD Lights a Fire Under GPU Computing

This month AMD is preparing to make its FireStream stream computing boards and software development kit (SDK) generally available to customers. AMD is in a competition with NVIDIA, and eventually Intel, to deliver GPU computing -- what AMD calls stream computing -- to the emerging GPGPU market.

GPGPU, which stands for general-purpose computing on graphics processing units, is increasingly being used to accelerate scientific and stream computing applications of all kinds. Codes that perform seismic modeling, protein folding simulations, weather research, medical imaging, and CFD can be sped up by one or two orders of magnitude by replacing CPUs with the latest programmable GPU technology.

AMD actually previewed the FireStream product at SC07 in November. Since then the company has been busy getting feedback from early adopters and refining the SDK. With the FireStream about to go into commercial production, I got an opportunity to speak with Patricia Harrell, director of the Stream Computing group at AMD, about the nature of the new offering. Harrell jumped into her role last year, at a time when the GPGPU buzz was beginning to get a lot of attention from HPC users, especially in the research community. "In that length of time, I've seen this market evolve from people casually interested in it, and wanting to kick the tires, to real bids for big HPC servers," she said.

After initially falling behind NVIDIA, which introduced its Tesla/CUDA GPU computing products in 2007, AMD is now making up for lost time with FireStream. Like the NVIDIA offering, FireStream represents AMD's first product that addresses the HPC market. Also like NVIDIA, AMD is providing an integrated hardware/software platform to give customers an easy path into GPU computing.

According to Harrell, the early stream/GPU computing adopters are government labs and universities deploying stream technology for scientific research. The earliest commercial users are from the oil & gas and financial services sectors, where there's big money at stake around application performance. Harrell says they already have a number of trial engagements in both markets. OEM/system integrators, including HP, Mercury Computing Systems and Quantum3D, are also interested in the AMD technology.

The initial hardware platform is the FireStream 9170 board, which includes 2 GB of onboard GDDR3 memory and a single ATI Radeon 3870 GPU. According to AMD, it's the first GPU in the marketplace to support double precision floating point. The chip achieves 500 peak gigaflops of single precision or 102 peak gigaflops of double precision performance. By incorporating 320 stream processors (shaders, if you're talking graphics processing), the chip is able to process a lot of data operations in parallel. Since the GPU is implemented on a 55nm process technology, the whole board consumes less than 100 watts, which yields an impressive 5 gigaflops/watt of single precision performance (1 gigaflop/watt for double precision). AMD is pricing the board at $1,999.

At least on the face of it, this is a more impressive piece of hardware than the corresponding NVIDIA single-GPU board that's currently available. The Tesla C870, which delivers 500 single precision gigaflops and contains 1.5 GB of GDDR3, draws 170 watts. When NVIDIA moves from the 90nm node on their Tesla products to 65nm, energy efficiencies should even up with the AMD offering. Speaking of which: Tesla is overdue for a technology refresh. NVIDIA originally scheduled an upgrade for early this year, when it intended to incorporate double precision floating point with its next-generation GPU ASIC. No word now on when the company plans to do the upgrade.

The ability to offer double precision floating point and constrain power consumption are big deals in the GPU computing space. Double precision, even at relatively low peak performance, gives the GPU a more complete story in the technical computing space. Engineering simulation codes, in particular, are heavy users of 64-bit FP. The power drawn by these big GPUs has always been a challenge and anything that gets these devices in the same power envelope as a high-end x86 CPU, which apparently AMD has accomplished with the FireStream, is a good thing. This is especially true for oversubscribed datacenters that are already at or above their power and cooling limits. Adding to that load with accelerator boards can be problematic.

Unlike NVIDIA, which has different products for different hardware platforms, AMD is aiming its single product across servers, workstations and desktop PCs -- anything with PCIe 2.0 x16 slots in it. High-end server applications (1-4 FireStream boards) include scientific research, oil and gas, financial analytics, computational chemistry, weather research, search, signal processing, engineering, security and encryption. For the workstation platform (1-2 boards), users may take advantage of both the graphics and computing capabilities of FireStream and use it for high-end digital content creation, broadcast, medical imaging, engineering and remote visualization. For desktop use (1 board), the same hardware can do video editing, video game physics and video conferencing.

To bring GPU computing to developers, AMD has provided its own FireStream SDK. Probably the biggest piece of the kit is the Brook+ development language, an AMD-enhanced version of the Brook programming language from Stanford University. Like its NVIDIA CUDA counterpart (which also got its start from Brook), Brook+ provides a C language environment with added functionality for data-parallel operations on a GPU. In order to encourage community adoption, AMD has open-sourced the Brook+ compiler front-end.

The second component of the SDK is an implementation AMD Core Math Library (ACML) that is targeted to GPUs. It includes math functions for things such as the Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines (BLAS) and Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs). The first version that will be delivered with the Stream SDK 1.0 later this month will be only partially implemented, and then upgraded over time.

The third component of the SDK is the Compute Abstraction Layer (CAL). CAL represents a lower level interface to the GPU and represents an evolution of AMD's Close to the Metal (CTM) technology, which the company introduced in 2006 along with their new stream computing strategy. As it turned out, CTM was a little too close to the metal and could not migrate easily to future generations of hardware. CAL is an intermediate abstraction of the GPU that enables forward compatibility as GPU architectures evolve. It's mainly aimed at third-party tool developers or application programmers who need to do low level code tuning to optimize performance. For those needing the ultimate in hardware control, AMD is also making the processor ISA available.

The general approach with the SDK is to open it up as much as possible so that customers, partners, and other interested users can contribute to the FireStream ecosystem. "The intent is to provide open interfaces in this stack from top to bottom," said Harrell. "We want to drive as many people as possible into developing on this technology."

For users who don't want to bother with the SDK at all, there's always the RapidMind option -- an application development platform that transparently supports ATI GPUs, NVIDIA GPUs, the IBM Cell BE processor, and x86 CPUs. Although AMD is not a reseller, the two companies have worked together to make sure the FireStream target is supported in the RapidMind platform.

Although AMD is playing catch-up with NVIDIA right now, getting the FireStream boards and SDK in the hands of real live customers should go a long way in closing the gap. The initial FireStream hardware is impressive. If the SDK matches up well with CUDA, we should see a beneficial rivalry develop in the GPGPU market.

by Michael Feldman

HPCwire Editor

source:

AMD versus Intel on Vista (on tape)

AMD created video showing side by side the capabilities on Vista. Looks much like the issues on the 150 page documents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VcJojNMtmE

AMD beats Intel in Vista adoption

Speaking at the Bank of America Technology conference in San Francisco, Intel's Paul Otellini was asked about his take on Vista and whether it could drive demand.

For corporations, Otellini said Vista upgrades will be slow. "I know of no organization doing an upgrade before SP1," said Otellini. "Intel isn't upgrading either (until SP1)."

AMD on the contrary seems to be in the middle of a company wide upgrade to Windows Vista.

I wonder how a big technology company like Intel can keep up while they are taking a slow ride in adopting new technology.

Source: www.windows-now.com

Wanted: AMD Athlon upgrade advice

My old Althlon XP 3200+ and GeForce 680 GT are beginning to struggle a bit - understandable, they're dinosaurs by today's standards. I want to build a new machine, mainly for gaming. But - big but - here's a list of rules: NO SLI/Crossfire and NO serious overclocking. I was thinking an E8400, 2GB DDR 2 - or DDR 3, if there's a reason - 8800GT/GTS 512, Win XP.

I'd like some help choosing the right motherboard/chipset - I have a quiet Nexus case with a quiet 600W 80+ PSU already - memory and anything else I've missed. I have HDDs and optical drives already.

I was going to ask a forum or two, but I figured I'd get drawn into an argument over what overclocks best and why I should choose this brand over that brand, which I don't want

Answers

All sounds fine to me.

Simon • Wednesday 26th March 2008 15:57 GMT

This is very similar to the spec I run (apart from my CPU is an AMD 4200+ X2 and my RAM is standard DDR).

I'd definitly suggest the 8800GT over the GTS (much better bang for your buck).

As to the motherboard - Most good quality boards which are any good for gaming come with SLI or Crossfire anyway (you don't have to use it after all), but I would always recommend ASUS. I've had a couple (amongst many others) and they are excellent performers and very reliable. I'd suggest one of the nvidia nForce based chipset boards, such as the P5N32-E SLI which is basically the intel CPU version the motherboard I have.

My spec is as follows and runs Crysis fine in 1280x1024 all on ultra high quality (used a small hack to enable the so called 'DX10 only' graphical features).

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4200+

RAM: 2GB DDR 3200 (in 512MB pairs)

HDD: 2 x 250GB 7200rpm Maxtor

MoBo: ASUS A8N32 SLI

PSU: OCZ 600W StealthExtreme

(And a bunch of other gubbins)

The only thing I'd suggest is that you make sure that you PSU is upto the job - 600W is easily enough (if that is what it actually provides!), but its all about the stability and oomph of the 12V rail(s) when dealing with powerful gfx cards. I'd always suggest a PSU with more than 1 12V rail (ideally 3 or 4) with at least 15+ Amps per rail.

Hope that helped.

Cheers

Phenom 780G motherboard

Doug Lynn • Wednesday 26th March 2008 17:15 GMT

Hi, great gaming system cheap!

Phenom 9500 quad core, ECG A780GMA motherboard with HD3200 graphics, spider enabled, with HD3450 video in hybrid crossfire mode. Great cheap gaming system with 2G of DDR2 1066MHz memory! Can be had for under $400!

Upgrade

Matthew Hepburn • Thursday 27th March 2008 16:02 GMT

8800GT is a cracking card, superb for games and I can see it lasting a good long while for you.

I agree with Simon to a point - my rig is overclocked X2 4200 @ 2.75Ghz, 2Gb DDR 400, 2 hard disks and an 8800GT - running on a 350 watt PSU with 17 amps on a single 12V rail - rock solid stable. The PSU you have should be totally fine.

Cant see a reason for DDR3 in your main rig at the moment due to cost, get 2Gb or 4Gb of good quality DDR 2 for a lot less cash.

As for the Intel 8400, for a lot less money you can get a 8200, which gives 90% the performance and wont hold your GFx back, and costs around £80 less.

As for boards, I cant really advise - other than stick with a main brand name from a supplier you know has a decent RMA process, just incase anything does pack up on you. Have fun upgrading!

My rig

Ash • Sunday 30th March 2008 19:26 GMT

No clocking, air cooled:

MoBo: Gigabyte N650SLI-DS4

Chip: Intel Core2Quad E6600

RAM: 4 x Geil 1GB DDR2

GFX: XFX GeForce 8800GTX 768MB

PSU: Tagan TG-800 (800W)

Only the graphics card was top of the line when I bought it; the rest was pretty much bargain basement stuff. Will run Crysis on 24" widescreen monitor 1920x1200 (16:10 native aspect) without any slowdown on highest settings (DX9, but getting "DX10" fix to see what it's like).

BFG do lifetime warranty on graphics cards, GEIL and Kingston on memory, and I think you get extended warranty on Intel retail chips, but OEM come cheaper (and without an HSF).

8800GT

Les Matthew • Friday 4th April 2008 21:20 GMT

Nice card but be aware that these cards are long, about 9 inches and they have a power connector to go on the end too. So I should make sure you have enough space for card and power connection to fit.

© The Register.

Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 mobile 'Penryn' processor

Product: Rock Xtreme X770 T9500

Verdict Rock updates its X700 laptop with the top-end mobile 'Penryn' Core 2 Duo and delivers an impressive battery-life boost.

Rating: 75%

Review We started the year with a review of a Rock X770 gaming laptop. We used the machine to look at the Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX graphics chip, but it's time to look at the processor, now upgraded to Intel's 45nm mobile Core 2 Duo T9500.

Rock's Xtreme X770: now with Penryn

The X770 we looked at before came with a 2.6GHz, 65nm Core 2 Duo T7800, which contained 4MB of L2 cache and sat on an 800MHz frontside bus (FSB). The T9500 runs at the same clock speed as the T7800 and the same FSB frequency, but it packs in an extra 2MB of L2.

Looking deeper into the specifications of the two processors, the TDP remains unchanged between the generations - both consume up to 35W. However, the core voltage drops from 1.363V on the T7800 to 1.063V with the T9500. The other change is in the instruction set, as the old 65nm 'Merom' core supports SSE 3, while the 45nm 'Penryn' core supports SSE 4.1. But that’s not currently of much use unless you are running the latest version of DivX.

Rock sent us the X700 laptop with both T7800 and T9500 CPUs. The machine also had GeForce 7950 Go GTX graphics installed, as had one of the two X770s we looked before, so the new model is directly comparable with the version that we saw in our previous review.

Remove the battery and behold: the beast's innards

Swapping the processors was incredibly simple. Remove the battery, unscrew the bottom plastic cover and then undo the three screws that hold the heatsink against the processor. Swap processors, replace the heatsink, cover and battery, and you’re done. The Bios handles the changes without any input from the user.

In a straight head-to-head in PCMark05 there was nothing to choose between the two processors, which is much as you'd expect. The Penryn processor has only a tiny advantage in this benchmark as it is a couple of years old and doesn’t use SSE 4. It was a similar story in 3DMark06 which is, of course, a graphics test. The overall score was the same for both processors, although the CPU element was very slightly better for the Penryn.

PCMark05 Results

Longer bars are better

3DMark06 Results

Longer bars are better

The POV-Ray graphics rendering test showed Penryn in a better light as the new core is more efficient than Merom, but it’s unlikely that many people will use their Rock laptop to render pro graphics.

POV-Ray 3.7 Beta 25 Results

Time in Seconds
Shorter bars are better

These three tests show the highest increase in performance you're going to get in games, which are typically limited more by the GPU than the CPU. So, yes, you'll get a higher framerate with the T9500 than the T7800, but not a significantly higher one.

For our battery test we ran continuous loops of PCMark05 and expected that Penryn would have a small advantage so it came as a real surprise to see battery life increase from 56 minutes with the T7800 to one hour seven minutes with the T9500. That’s about 20 per cent which is simply startling for nothing more than a processor change.

Battery Life Results

Battery run-time in Minutes
Longer bars are better

As a rule of thumb you should double those battery life figures to get an estimated real-world figure as we hammered the battery without mercy during the run-down.

It was noticeable that the CPU cooling fan would operate in fits and starts even when the laptop was under a light load, running just the Windows desktop. It seemed that the fan ran less often with the T9500 than with the T7800, and while that’s a personal judgement the noise of the Rock was less annoying with the Penryn installed.

Better battery life with Penryn than with Merom

Best of all we cannot see a downside to mobile Penryn. It’s all good news.

Verdict

Mobile Penryn may seem like a minor update to Merom and, indeed, the increase in performance the new 45nm part offers is small. However, Penryn delivers a very welcome boost to battery life.
By Leo Waldock [More by this author]

© The Register.

AMD launches Dell's four-core Opteron boxes

Dell's Opteron experience hasn't been all that fantastic. After resisting the Opteron push for so long, Dell embraced AMD's flashy chip just as Intel started to catch up on performance and performance per watt metrics with Xeon. Then, Dell watched as AMD shot itself in the chest with the four-core Barcelona roll out. Dell was left with a bunch of designs that needed the MIA four-core Opteron and surely plenty of questions about why it bothered with AMD at all.

But despite such displeasure, Dell has invested in AMD and remains committed to Opteron for the foreseeable future. So, it upgraded five server boxes with Barcelona – now that the chip is finally shipping without flaws.

Customers can find four-core Opterons in the PowerEdge SC1435, 2970 and 6950 servers and the M605 blade box. There's also the PowerEdge T605 tower unit. All of those are two-socket boxes except for the four-socket 6950.

We're still waiting on Dell's Veso virtualization appliance that was, er, meant to ship in November with a pair of four-core Opteron chips. The box packs in a ton of memory and an embedded hypervisor. Dell had wagged the kit in front of customers to show how ahead of the compeittion it was in the virtualization game. AMD messed up the program just a bit by shipping Barcelona about nine months late. Oh well.

And we'll leave you with a funny thing about Dell's latest Opteron box roll out. AMD was the company that issued the press release about the fresh hardware - not Dell. ®

© The Register.

AMD and Windows Vista™

Visit us at the following shopping precinct locations where live AMD and Windows Vista™ demonstrations will take place each day!

Learn more about AMD and Windows Vista™ in Music, Gaming, Entertainment and Digital Memories!

Plus, enter the prize draw to win an ASUS laptop based on AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology and Windows Vista™ Home Premium and the opportunity to win 2 tickets to the UK film premiere of Transformers!

Digital Imaging

See more in your home movies and photos.
With AMD performance, you can take full advantage of the brilliant clarity of Windows Vista™. See the butterfly on the tree behind you in your holiday photos. Catch your child’s every facial expression in your home movies. AMD and Windows Vista also give you full support for multiple monitors, to make the experience of making and editing home movies much richer.

View and share photos on the big screen or online.
Use advanced features of AMD LIVE!™ PCs to consolidate all of your photos and videos in one place, made easier by the glass-like windows and advanced search capabilities of Windows Vista. Then share and access photos and home movies through your set-top box, game console, MP3 player and mobile phone — to enjoy your digital images anytime, anywhere.

TV & Movies

Watch your favourite shows and movies in their full, panoramic glory.
Nothing you’ve seen on a PC can compare with the visual resonance of Windows Vista™ powered by AMD processors and graphics. Experience stunning, even-better-than-the-cinema resolution and sound quality that make the comedy funnier, the horror scarier and the action more exciting.

Take TV and movies beyond the media room.
With an AMD LIVE!™ PC and Windows Vista Premium, you can record TV shows and movies in their full visual richness to hard drive or DVD — then transfer them to your notebook or PDA to take them with you on the go. Want to share your new favourite show while visiting family? How about choosing your own movie on the aeroplane? The possibilities could completely change the way you experience digital entertainment.

Gaming

You’ve never played games like this.
With the AMD Quad FX platform with Dual Socket Direct Connect architecture, you can take full advantage of the latest enhancements delivered by Windows Vista™ Ultimate. Like leading-edge performance in life-like games and multi-tasking. Plus, everything is built for the rich, visual sophistication of Windows Vista, so you have the ultimate gaming experience.

Win the World Cup in even more lifelike surroundings.
With AMD processors and ATI Radeon™ graphics powering the incredible visual capabilities of Windows Vista, gaming characters have a full range of life-like 3D motion, so you can kick, chop, swing and fly through the action with no hesitation. You can also choose higher display resolution with a sharper image that lets you play the way you were meant to. From rolling thunderstorms to individual droplets of rain to swaying blades of grass, you get totally immersed in your gaming experience, pixel by pixel.

Music

Rock out or chill out — the choice is yours.
Your music library continues to grow, and what you want to listen to at any given time depends on your mood. So get an AMD LIVE!™ PC with Windows Vista™ to organise and integrate all your music on your PC. Access and choose from the options on your computer monitor or TV screen. Then stream music to your entertainment centre and mobile devices to enjoy the music wherever you are, no matter your mood.

Listen to your music, not your PC.
Want your next media centre PC to be quiet, whether it’s in your home office or your living room? Get an AMD LIVE! PC with Windows Vista — it’s got AMD Cool’n’Quiet™ technology, so you can enjoy your favourite playlist, with a quieter PC.

Communication

Go wireless and go for it all.
Want faster wireless web downloads? You got it. Need a better online experience when you’re on the go? No problem. With industry-leading WLAN solutions from AMD partners, you can get higher throughput, better range and outstanding power efficiency, so you can go further, download faster and do it longer. With leading WLAN solutions and an AMD dual-core technology-based system, you can download emails and digital photos faster — from anywhere in your house or while hanging out by the pool. So go for it, no matter where you are.

Productivity

Do more, faster — and discover the ultimate visual experience that blends high performance and high productivity.
Enriched with cinematic gaming, brilliant photos, smooth video and TV, the PC comes alive as a high-quality entertainment portal. AMD processors, graphics, video and display technologies deliver the power for maximum enjoyment of the Windows Aero™ 3D desktop, HD video playback, and supports next-generation technologies, devices, high-resolution displays, and multi-monitor setups. With unmatched functionality and reliable operation, ATI Radeon™ graphics technologies powering Windows Vista™ introduce a new era of personal PC productivity.

Find, share and use information more efficiently.
With Windows Vista’s cutting-edge search technology and AMD’s high-performance dual-core processing and graphics technologies, you can quickly find what you need across your desktop, hard drive and the Internet, and share it with the people who need it. Windows Vista’s glass-like, translucent windows and 3D Flip make it easier to switch back and forth between email, IM and other applications. And to ensure that all this multi-tasking won’t slow you down, AMD’s dual-core processors give you all the power you need, even for the most demanding applications.

AMD + ATI RADEON™ GRAPHICS = The Ultimate Windows Vista™ Experience

AMD and ATI have joined forces. The new AMD combines AMD’s technology leadership in microprocessors with ATI’s strengths in graphics, chipsets and consumer electronics.
Windows Vista, powered by the new AMD, presents a new visual dimension for business and personal computing, powered by the world’s most advanced graphics processors.

source: amd

Intel Atom Processor

Intel's smallest chip. Built with the world's smallest transistors¹.

"This is our smallest processor built with the world's smallest transistors. The Intel® Atom™ processor is based on an entirely new design, built for low power and designed specifically for a new wave of Mobile Internet Devices and simple, low-cost PC's. This small wonder is a fundamental new shift in design, small yet powerful enough to enable a big Internet experience on these new devices. We believe it will unleash new innovation across the industry."

– Intel Executive Vice President Sean Maloney

As Intel's smallest and lowest power processor², the Intel Atom processor enables the latest Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), affordable Internet-focused notebooks (netbooks), and desktops (nettops). It's also the foundation for the all new Intel® Centrino® Atom™ processor technology, a collection of chips enabling amazing Internet experiences in pocketable devices.

Newly designed from the ground up, 45nm Intel Atom processors pack an astounding 47 million transistors on a single chip measuring less than 25mm², making them Intel's smallest and lowest power processors.¹ All this while delivering the power and performance you need for full Internet capabilities.+

• Get a new range of performance-packed, power-efficient devices with excellent performance enabled by all new hafnium-infused 45nm high-k silicon technology
• Increase energy efficiency in smaller more compact designs with a thermal design power specification ranging from subwatt to 2.5 watts for mobile devices
• Extend battery life in select devices with an incredibly low idle power as low as 30 mW allowing the device to stay powered on while also conserving energy

Based on an entirely new microarchitecture, the Intel Atom processor was developed specifically for performance and low power while maintaining full Intel® Core™ microarchitecture instruction set compatibility. Some future Intel Atom processors will also feature multiple threads for better performance and increased system responsiveness.

Devices powered by Intel Atom processors allow you to stay in touch on-the-go, connect to business and enjoy entertainment, remain connected affordably with a new series of netbooks and nettops, and so much more...

source:http://www.intel.com/technology/atom/index.htm

Firefox 3 Beta 5 Now Available For Download

All platforms: Mozilla's just made the latest release of the Firefox 3 beta available for download. Mozilla says Beta 5 "includes more than 750 changes from the previous beta, improving stability and web compatibility." Testers and those willing to live on the edge with Beta 5 will get speedier Javascript handling in webappps like Gmail and Zoho Office, better Windows/Mac/Linux integration, and an improved Places (bookmarks) organizer. After the jump, see the list of Beta 5 improvements pulled from the release notes. Update: The final release of Firefox 3 is slated for June.

• Integration with Windows: Firefox now has improved Windows icons, and uses native user interface widgets in the browser and in web forms.
• Integration with the Mac: the new Firefox theme makes toolbars, icons, and other user interface elements look like a native OS X application. Firefox also uses OS X widgets and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates. A combined back and forward control make it even easier to move between web pages.
• Integration with Linux: Firefox's default icons, buttons, and menu styles now use the native GTK theme.
• Places Organizer: view, organize and search through all of your bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches. Create and restore full backups whenever you want.
• Speed: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in continued improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3 Beta 5, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.

DOWNLOAD Firefox 3 beta 5

Intel's Atom processor unveiled

We dive into Silverthorne and the Menlow platform
by Scott Wasson — 12:05 AM on April 2, 2008

The trend toward ever smaller and cheaper PC components is, of course, nothing new. Chips have shrunk and prices have fallen for over 30 years now. Yet that trend has accelerated dramatically in recent years, spurred onward by the rise of mobile computing and signified by the success of low-cost laptops like the Asus Eee PC and high-zoot mobile computers like the iPhone. Sensing this trend, the world's largest chipmaker kicked off an effort four years ago to develop a CPU that could fit inside the power, heat, and size requirements of such devices while maintaining compatibility with its existing lineup of PC processors. Internally at Intel, this processor became known as Silverthorne, and the core logic associated with it was code-named Poulsbo. Together, they make up the so-called Menlow platform, whose development we've been tracking for some time now...

Full article: http://techreport.com/articles.x/14458

Only Intel Marketing Can Sell At 1500% Margins

How many businesses can sell chips at 1500% margins?? I bet you won't believe to buy processors at that price even if you were in Zimbabwe's inflation... But that doesn't stop Intel to sell its upcoming Atom processors at those margins, if you were to believe TGDaily. TGDaily noted earlier that Intel produces these small processors at $8 including packaging and shipping. And according to the latest pricelist, Intel hopes to sell these at $135!!

Atom is the upcoming generation of low-power processors meant for MID (Mobile Internet Devices) that come in really small packages. I noted earlier about how much noise Atom has been generating even though its not the best performing part out there. But according to Anand, it seems Atom is some special change in architecture that's gonna change the future of computing. May be Anand's seen that 'Crystal Ball' of the future, but it still got me wondering about the hype and the pricelist just added up to the hype.

The price list is as seen below:

- Atom Z500, 800 MHz clock speed, 512 KB L2 cache, FSB400, 0.65 watt TDP, $45 (including chipset)
- Atom Z510, 1.1 GHz, 512 KB, FSB400, 2 watt, $45 (including chipset)
- Atom Z520, 1.33 GHz, 512 KB, FSB533, Hyper-threading, 2 watt, $65 (including chipset)
- Atom Z530, 1.60 GHz, 512 KB, FSB533, Hyper-threading, 2 watt, $95 (including chipset)
- Atom Z540, 1.86 GHz, 512 KB, FSB533, Hyper-threading, 2.4 watt, $160 (including chipset)

Hyper-threading is back and just like James Reinders had told me to expect it in every upcoming Intel chip, it isn't really a surprise. Technologically, there are quite a few new things in Atom, but claiming all of them to be path-breaking doesn't make good sense. Its more like bringing the original Pentium back to a new fabrication and adding some lessons learnt from Pentium M. I think any ARM design without much dramatic changes would easily be able to beat Atom today. And if we had Intel giving x86 licenses away, then we would really have an 'apple vs apple' comparison (pun intended!!)... But I'll talk about the architecture some other day...

Is Intel Playing Bully Again ??

You must be thinking Intel has gone crazy with the pricing on this one, but there is some logic behind it. And the logic is called Intel marketing... Intel has been known to sell processors that are not the best performing in the market at higher street price during 'NetBurst' era. AMD alleges that Intel sold its processors at lower prices to PC vendors on the condition that they would sell Intel-only machines. It had major market share then, and I don't think it will be any different now!! If you go by the same logic, probably that margin is only for the lame buyer and not for Intel buddies.

source:http://sunnytalkstech.blogspot.com/