Intel announces EP80579 system on a chip for MIDs and consumer electronics

Intel is looking to simplify things by adding more processors. Yeah, doesn't sound all that sensible to us, ether, but stay put. Okay. Ready for some acronyms? Their just-announced EP80579 Integrated Processor features a system on a chip design that integrate the Pentium M core with a Memory Controller Hub (MCH), I/O hub (ICH) and data path acceleration engines (among other things dependent upon model). They believe these new Integrated Architecture (IA) chips will simplify consumer electronics like set-top boxes and MIDs due to their consolidated design that will reduce incompatibility issues. Intel also says portable devices will benefit from the new processors' energy efficiency. Speeds run from 600MHz on up to 1.2GHz and all sport a 256KB L2 cache. As for when this new tech will end up in your cable box or MID, no news on that just yet. In other words, don't call your provider just yet.
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Development was started on the Intel EP80579 Integrated Processor family to prepare the company for the impending onslaught of smart, Internet-connected devices and appliances predicted to arrive over the next few years. The Intel EP80579 product line puts Intel in a position to target several growth areas across Consumer Electronics (CE), Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and other embedded markets. "We’re now able to deliver more highly integrated products ranging from industrial robotics and in-car infotainment systems to set-top boxes, MIDs and other devices. By designing more complex systems onto smaller chips, Intel will scale the performance, functionality and software compatibility of IA while controlling the overall power, cost and size requirements to better meet respective market needs,” said Gadi Singer.

Dual core Phenoms could be around the corner

This time a few different sources report the chipmaker's given its channel partners the high sign indicating "Kuma" dual-core Phenom-based processors will finally see the light of day. For those too shy to indulge in triple- or even quad-core action, El Reg says Phenom X2 dual core chips will range from 2.3GHz to 1.90 Ghz, sporting 1MB L2 cache and 2MB L3 cache for. Freaky 3-core overclockers can look forward to new, better performing 2.4Ghz Black Edition Phenom 8750s, and more efficient 125-watt Phenom 9950 CPUs, if we can trust leaked German sales charts -- and we always do, don't you?

Here are the specs:

AMD Phenom X2 GE-6600: 2.30GHz, 1MB L2 cache (2x 512 KB), 2MB L3 cache

Phenom X2 GE-6500: 2.1GHz, 1MB L2 cache (2x 512 KB), 2MB L3 cache

Phenom X2 GE-6400: 1.90GHz, 1MB L2 cache (2x 512 KB), 2MB L3 cache

As covered earlier, the chips will be fabbed at 65nm and join the tri-core Phenom X3 and quad-core Phenom X4.

Of course, the details should still be taken with a grain of salt at this point. AMD has previously denied canceling Kuma, and as usual, when we contacted the company, it refused to comment on unannounced silicon.

"We are, of course, planning additional CPU releases later this year, but I can't get into the specific details on those releases ahead of launch," an AMD spokesman said
theregister

CPU-Z 1.47 released

A new version of the system information tool known as CPU-Z has now been released. CPU-Z 1.47 has updated support for:

- Intel Core i7 processor
- Intel Core 2 Duo S Mobile processors
- NVIDIA MCP79/7A chipset
- AMD 790GX / SB750 chipset

downloaded here.

Gigabyte boosts memory support of its P45 and P43 motherboards

Taiwan-based first tier manufacturer Gigabyte has released a heap of new BIOSes that are set to enhance the memory support of its Intel P45 and P43 motherboards. Once the new BIOS version are installed, the P45 boards will feature native support for DDR2 memory at 1333 MHz and above while the P43 products will have support for 1200+ MHz memory. Leaving aside the fact that 1333 MHz DDR2 is seen in shops as often as the Loch Ness Monster has been seen brushing its teeth, we have to note that the motherboards that have received new BIOS versions are:

- GA-EP45-DQ6
- GA-EP45-Extreme
- GA-EP45-DS5
- GA-EP45-DS3R
- GA-EP45-DS4P
- GA-EP45-DS3
- GA-EP45-DS4
- GA-EP45-DS3LR
- GA-EP45-DS3P
- GA-EP45-DS3L
- GA-EP43-DS3L
- GA-EP43-DS3R
- GA-EP43-S3L
- GA-EP43-DS3

To find the appropriate BIOS check out Gigabyte's website.

Recently released USB 3.0 technology will increase the speed tenfold!

Majority of modern gadgets connect to the computer via USB cable. For nearly 13 years this port has been standard for all external devices. When USB was introduced in 1995, it became clear that this port would replace all those big and bulky connectors that were used in the past. Data exchange speed was growing with every generation: from 12 Mbps in USB 1.1 to 480 Mbps in USB 2.0. Nevertheless, as time goes by, bigger and bigger speeds are needed. Therefore, after 8 years of reigning, USB 2.0 must be replaced with something more modern and powerful, and this new successor will be USB 3.0, which is already developed and soon will be widely supported by hardware developers. What advantages it brings? Let us see.

USB 2.0 was named Hi-Speed, and it surely is quite fast. USB 3.0, however, truly deserves its title Superspeed, because it strongly overlaps the speed of its predecessor! New USB 3.0 devices will exchange data with speed up to 4.8 Gbps, which is ten times bigger than USB 2.0. Another big advantage of new USB port is its ability to receive and send data simultaneously, which is a no-go for previous USB generations. New USB 3.0 will keep the downward compatibility with all previous USB versions, so do not worry if your device will not support USB 3.0 - it will work with it anyways, at supported speed.

New generation of USB connectors opens a wide field of possible adaptation. Speed up to 4.8 Gbps will be enough for HD video and audio signal broadcast, with such speed there will be no more "bottleneck" effect, when USB 2.0 speed is limiting the performance of external devices, such as portable HDDs or external optical drives. The cable will be a bit thicker though, but this cannot be really considered as disadvantage. In any case, small increase in thickness is reasonable for such big increase of speed. There are images of new USB 3.0 connectors, including redesigned miniUSB and USB 3.0 type B. (click to enlarge)

USB 3.0 technology

USB 3.0 technology

AMD to introduce four more CPUs

Advanced Micro Devices still doesn't have any 45nm parts to throw our way but it will be updating its offer next month by introducing three 'new' 65nm processors. The top dog(g) of the next release wave is a Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition that got a shrink in TDP and instead of 140W, it has a 125W rating. Other than that, the quad-core has the same specs of the 140W model - 2.6 GHz clock, 2MB of L3 cache and 4000 MHz HyperTransport, and will cost $186 (price is for 1000-unit tray quantities).

Next up, AMD will offer a Black Edition Phenom X3 8730 with a 2.4 GHz clock, a 95W TDP and an unlocked multiplier for $139, the $105-priced Athlon X2 6500 Black Edition and the energy efficient Athlon X2 5050e ($90). Excitement definitely eludes us this time.

AMD munches on Intel's server CPU share in Q2

Intel still on top

As concluded by IDC researchers, the second quarter of this year was one of contrasts for the microprocessor market as, despite an unexpected sequential increase in shipment (of 3.1%), the overall revenue declined by 4.5% and settled at $7.7 billion, mostly due to vendor price competition. In this black and white quarter Intel continued to gain market share and went up 0.9% to reach 79.7% while AMD went down 1.2% and topped 19.7%.

The biggest plus for Intel in Q2 came from the mobile CPU segment where it increased its market share to 86.5% while AMD's 'big win' came from the server/workstation market, where it actually managed to take away 0.8% from its larger rival and reach a share of 13.8%. In all, the CPU battle is heating up although we'll probably have to wait until Q4 2008 or Q1 2009 before we see some extreme "friendly competition."

AMD, developers promote DirectX 10.1 gaming some more

Remembering that is has the DirectX 10.1 'ace' up its sleeve, AMD enrolled Electronic Arts Phenomic Studio, SEGA and NHN Games so as to promote Microsoft's latest API and the "improved features and performance" it delivers. Supported by the Radeon HD 3000 and 4000 series cards (but not by any Nvidia card), DirectX 10.1 will be utilized by Phenomic Studio for the fantasy online real-time strategy game named Battleforge, by SEGA for the futuristic military real-time strategy game Stormrise and by NHN Games for the Cloud 9 3D role-playing game.

"With Battleforge, EA is pushing the boundaries of the real-time strategy genre introducing social and community technologies to deliver a whole new online experience. It only makes sense that we leverage the latest technology such as DirectX 10.1 supported by the new ATI Radeon HD 4800 series of graphics cards from AMD to deliver an amazing experience for gamers," said Dirk Ringe, vice president, EA Phenomic. "We're working hard to deliver a new fantasy RTS experience never seen before. Using DirectX 10.1 and AMD's graphics technology will enable Battleforge to look its absolute best."

"SEGA welcomes the chance to deliver one of next year's most technologically advanced titles, Stormrise. AMD's enthusiastic commitment to new standards such as DirectX 10.1 in the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series is helping us develop a game which looks better and runs faster than was possible on previous platforms," said Chris Southall, CTO Europe, SEGA. "SEGA is delighted to team up with AMD on one of our forthcoming games. AMD's firm commitment to cutting-edge technology makes them a natural partner for us on Stormrise."

AMD's Phenom X4 9850

The latest re-spin of AMD's multicore die fixes the bug known from Erratum 298 and opens up a bit of overclocking headroom. Gone is also the requirement for a BIOS fix causing the known performance hit. To make things even more appealing, running in native performance mode actually unleashes better performance in memory-intensive applications than what AMD Overdrive ever brought back after the patch. All in all, AMD seems to be on the right track with the latest -50 series.


B3-Revision Silicon

Sometimes good things still happen, even in the computer industry. Last week's good thing was AMD’s release of the -50 series of Phenom processor to finally catch up with reality. The new -50 series is based exclusively on the B3 silicon which does not appear to be prone anymore to wrong TLB entries in situations where virtualization is used or else other memory intensive applications are vying for the same picosecond to update the buffer with the appropriate virtual memory address to generate the correct physical address on demand. So, what is fixed here is essentially the timing, the new TLBs may be faster or else the resolution granularity has increased. Whatever was done seems to work, officially the bug is gone. For the time being at least – granted that it ever even existed to the point where it was really a problem.

At first glance this seems to be a conundrum but at second thought, it actually does make sense. The BIOS fix prevents mis-entries into the TLBs by treating all memory pages as if the data were accessed and modified, regardless of whether any of this ever happened as, for example in a simple read (e.g. instruction or streaming data) operation, the instruction or source will not be modified. However, because of corporate paranoia every bit of data will have to be written back from the cache to the memory page as if they had been changed and that is where bus contention (in streaming applications), and increased load on the memory controller and memory will add the known increase in latency. If that wasn’t enough, running an application in a mode it was never intended to be run in will cause some problems. The bottom line here is that what we have witnessed is an indoctrination of safety measures that turn an error occurring in 1 in 50 million cases into something that can crash a system every single time more than one multithreaded application is launched. Congratulations, we hand another Darwin Award to AMD.

AMD OverDrive: The Deus Ex Machina

Fortunately in real life, the situation is not that bad since AMD OverDrive or AOD disables the BIOS fix on the level of the OS. Or does it? In a way yes … but … A persistently surfacing rumor has been that AOD is essentially a band aid for the wrist slash and this hypothesis is not overly surprising since there is the Basic Input Output System, and there is the Operating System. And between the two, there is some sort of hierarchy, with the BIOS being the more dominating force. Needless to say that there are also constant re-iterations of AOD to improve performance and fix bugs – in other words, a lot points to the view that AOD is a good band aid but by the end of the day a band aid is still a band aid. This is going to be important later when we are looking at performance comparisons between the B1 and the B3 revision, with the first one “patched” and then “dispatched” and the latter running just as Mother Nature would have intended it had she ever talked to the design team in Austin.

Intel Core Duo vs. Core 2 Duo: What's the Difference?

Intel's really to blame here for a horrific naming convention. Any half-conscious marketing executive would commit suicide before putting both a numeral 2 and the word "duo" in the name of a product, particularly when there's also a product with "solo" in the name. But let's put that aside and look at the specs of each.

Core Duo is Intel's first dual-core CPU. It's a whole new architecture for Microsoft, using two cores on a single die, which, put simply, gives you two chips in one package. Running at lower speeds than the old Pentium line, the Core Duo conserves substantial power vs. ratcheting up clock speed while offering what was, at the time, record-breaking performance.

Now there's Core 2 Duo. In many ways Core 2 is the same as Core: The chips are built using the same production process and fit in the same sockets as Core Duo chips. Putting aside Core 2 Extreme (a fancy version of the Core 2 Duo), you won't see many spec changes: Both chips have the same frontside bus speed of 667MHz, but Core 2 Duo is now available at somewhat faster clock speeds (as I write this, 2.67GHz chips are available). The frontside bus communicates between the CPU and RAM (and other components), and it's a notorious performance bottleneck for computers. The Core 2 also has the same L2 cache that the Core has. However, there are architecture changes to the silicon that give the Core 2 more sophisticated processing abilities. Both chips exist in desktop and laptop versions.

Why does all of this matter? Performance, pure and simple. In my tests, Core 2 Duo computers outperform Core Duo computers on tasks across the board, from rendering graphics and video to spell-checking documents. The speed improvement varies widely, but on average it's about 30 percent. That's significant in an industry that thrives on tiny, incremental improvement. Better yet, there's not an appreciable difference in battery life on notebooks, as power consumption for both chips (at the same clock speed) is about the same.

Now let's consider pricing. Initially, Core 2 chips were more expensive than Core, but that has changed, as Core is practically gone from the desktop market now. Surprisingly, you can now get a 2.13GHz Core 2 CPU for less than the price of a 1.66GHz Core CPU.

Still, expect to see some systems still on the market that use the Core CPU, especially in laptops. Performance is still very good with Core, so don't feel like you're getting second-class goods if you buy a Core Duo notebook, but remember you are buying a chip that Intel is no longer actively selling, and prices for Core 2 systems aren't really any different than they were for Cores. If it was my money, I'd hold out for a Core 2 system unless you got a great deal on a Core... which will be all but vanished from the market in a matter of months. source

Q6600 to remain Intel's cheapest quad-core after Q8200 launch

The aging Core 2 Quad Q6600 can continue to feel good about itself because, as it turns out, the upcoming 45nm-built Q8200 won't be the super affordable quad-core CPU we expected it to be. Set to arrive in about a week, the Q8200 will be priced reasonably higher than the Q6600 which is now sold by Intel for $193.

Priced at $224, the Q8200 may have a higher FSB than the Q6600 - 1333 MHz compared to 1066 MHz, but it features a lower frequency (2.33 GHz) and half the amount of L2 cache - 'just' 4 MB. With these specs, the Q8200 can't really expect to beat the Q6600 but Intel will continue to keep its price tag higher. As of now, the Q8200 can be pre-ordered in Europe for 173 Euro while the Q6600 can be bought for under 130 Euro. What's Intel thinking, we don't know, especially since most of AMD's Phenom X4s, with all their flaws, are priced under $200.

Intel demos high airflow notebook fan at IDF

Intel definitely likes silicon (in chips at least) but that's not all it wants to play with so at IDF it has also demonstrated a new, prototype fan for ultra-thin notebooks. Pictured below, the fan features a design that enables it to have double the air flow of current products while consuming the same amount of power and having a similar sound output.The high-performance fan is expected to be offered to notebook makers for use within Intel-powered machines but for now, there's no time line as to when that will happen.

New Chip Design to Challenge AMD from INTEL

Intel Corp. cracked the lid Tuesday on a new chip design that is at once a big challenge to smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and an admission that AMD nailed a key design feature before it slipped into a severe financial slump.

Intel, the world's largest computer chip maker, showed off the new blueprint, known as a microarchitecture, for its chips at a developers conference in San Francisco.Though some of the details were already known, the design's formal unveiling represented another demonstration of Intel's advantage over AMD in cranking out new chip designs once every two years, a factor that helped send AMD's stock price down 5 percent in an overall down day for technology shares.

AMD has racked up nearly $5 billion in losses during the past 18 months and last month replaced Hector Ruiz, who had been running AMD for six years, with a new chief executive, Dirk Meyer.

The details of Intel's microprocessor architecture are always highly technical. But they're also closely watched because of the ubiquity of Intel's chips in personal computers and corporate servers.

One of the most significant changes was already known. Intel now plans to build a part called an integrated memory controller - which moves information between the microprocessor and the computer's memory - directly into the processor itself.

That's a key change because processors are asked to do more and more, and any lag in communication can seriously hurt performance. AMD has already been incorporating integrated memory controllers into its processors.

Because of that and other tweaks, Intel said its new design, which is code-named Nehalem, will triple the speed at which data can be written to memory or read back, compared to previous generations. Intel says Nehalem also will have nearly double the 3-D animation capabilities as past chips, and better utilize the multiple "cores," or processing engines, on each chip.

Chip makers are adding multiple cores to their chips, essentially jamming many separate processors onto the same slice of silicon, to make sure they're able to continue ramping up performance without running into overheating problems.

Intel said four-core Nehalem chips, which are due to be in production by the end of 2008 and will first target servers and desktop computers and later laptops, have the ability to turn individual cores on and off and can be programmed to boost the speed of active cores when the workload ramps up.

Intel's first 6-core CPU to arrive next month

Intel has been talking about Dunnington, its Penryn-based 6-core server CPU since early this year and next month, the talk will (finally) be over and the walk will kick in. The first Dunnington processors, the Xeon X7460 will be available in servers from September and, according to its maker, it has already proven its worth by breaking a few world records with a 8-socket IBM 3950 M2 server becoming the first platform to pass the 1 million tpmC milestone on the TPC-C benchmark.

The 1.9 billion transistor-boasting Xeon X7460 will probably have a frequency of 2.53 GHz and will feature 3 MB of L2 cache per two cores and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. Pricing remains unknown.

Intel unveils dual-core Atom-ready nettop motherboard at IDF

While notebook dominance already achieved, Intel is shifting some of its focus on the nettop segment and especially for that it has prepared the dual-core Intel Atoms and the new D945GCLF2 motherboard. Coming in a mini-ITX form factor, the D945GCLF2 features an integrated dual-core Atom CPU (likely starting off at 1.6 GHz), the 945GC chipset with integrated graphics (GMA 950) and one memory slot which can house DDR2-533/667 DIMMs of up to 2GB.

In addition to those above, the nettop-prone board has a PCI slot, an IDE connector and two SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, plus integrated 5.1 channel audio and Gigabit Ethernet. The D945GCLF2's comes with four USB 2.0 ports and an S-Video connector. According to Intel ,the D945GCLF2 will be ready, willing and shipping next month.

Intel unleashes the first quad-core mobile CPUs

Before showering us with Core i7 CPUs (which we'll have to pay for of course) Intel has finally decided to release its first quad-core mobile processors which are part of the Centrino 2 offer. Dubbed QX9300 and Q9100, the new quads are 45nm parts that feature a 1066 MHz FSB (front side bus) and no less than 12 MB of L2 cache.

The Q9100, which has a core clock of 2.26 GHz, features the same price tag as the X9100 and X9000 - $851 (1000-unit tray quantity price), while the 2.53 GHz QX9300 costs a massive $1038.

Sale of Atom exceeds all expectations

Forget any talk of shortages or competitive pressure from VIA, Intel's Atom processors are thriving amid the recent Netbook and Mobile Internet Device (MID) movement. "Atom is off to a very, very rapid start, far exceeding our expectations when we started the year," CFO Stacy Smith said in an interview Tuesday. "It's the perfect recession product to have in the marketplace."The success of its Atom processor has helped Intel achieve a 25 percent rise in quarterly profit despite a weak global economy, with Smith maintaining an overall revenue forecast in the third quarter between $10.0 and $10.6 billion.

Yields are good too. According to Smith, Intel gets about 2,500 Atom processors per silicon wafer, and while that's not quite as good as on a Core or Xeon chip, it's enough to ensure strong profitability on Atom CPUs. Still, Intel remains cautiously optimistic.

"We'll know kind of in six months how much of this demand (for Atom) is real and how much is customers thinking they're going to win in the market place and double-ordering," Smith said. "It seems to be growing the market rather than cannibalizing existing PC sales."

Will Intel's Atom chips continue to exceed expectations now that Centrino 2 platforms are starting to trickle out?

AMD introducing new bussines class Phenom and Athlon CPUs

AMD announced four new "business class" Phenom processors, which essentially means that these processors are made available for a platform that won’t change for at least two years and include a 3-year warranty.

AMD Phenom business class cpuThe four new Phenom processors extend AMD’s B-series platform, which also includes a motherboard carrying either AMD’s 780V or Nvidia’s MCP78 chipset, to a total of 11 processors. The new models include the Phenom X4 9750B (2.4 GHz/95 watt), the Phenom X3 8750B (2.4 GHz/95watt), the Athlon X2 5600B (2.9 GHz/65 watt) and Athlon X2 4850B (2.5 GHz/45 watt) processors.

Pricing was announced, but we expect AMD to continue its business class pricing strategy, which means that these processors will be offered with a premium of close to 20% on the high-end and about 10% on the lower end when compared to non-B-series processors of the same main product family and comparable clock speeds.

In contrast, the sequence numbers of the preceding B2-series, which included the TLB bug, ended on full hundreds. The first B-series Phenoms were the 9600B and 8600B, which indicated that these are processors with the B2-series core. However, the 9600B and 8600B processors are actually B3-series CPUs. As if the sequence numbering system isn’t already confusing enough, AMD has now some inconsistencies of B2/B3 markers within the same product family, which does not necessarily make a purchase decision much easier, especially, if you are trying to figure out which processors have the TLB bug and which do not.

New Intel motherboards to have wake-on-PC call functionality

In addition to cooking up a heap of processors to bash rival AMD with, Intel is said to be preparing the introduction of a new remote PC access technology. Dubbed Remote Wake, the function will enable Intel-powered PCs to wake up when an internet phone call is received. The first Intel motherboards supporting Remote Wake will be targeting the desktop segment and will apparently begin shipping next month.

The wake-on-call feature will work when the PC call comes via a 'classic' Ethernet connection but not through WiFi. Those worrying about having their PC 'disturbed' by any call can breathe easy as the software used by Remote Wake will let the user choose which callers will trigger the remote function. More info coming soon.

Intel Centrino Atom brand, uses just 'Atom'

It seems like only yesterday but it's been move than five months since Intel introduced the world to its low-power 45nm processors which it nicknamed Atom and Centrino Atom. Interestingly-enough it also took only five months for Intel to rethink its naming strategy and the result of that is the dropping of the Centrino Atom brand.

Upon release, the Centrino Atom brand was set to be used to name processors that are part of the Menlow platform and aimed at MID (Mobile Internet Devices) but since Intel has decided to simplify things a bit, they will now bear the Atom name. We can dig it.

AMD cutting prices of three Phenom CPUs

Now that Intel tweaked its CPU offer AMD is ready to respond by cutting the prices of one tri- and two quad-core processors. First up, the 2.1 GHz Phenom X3 8450 is going down from $125 to $104 (prices for 1000-unit tray quantities) while the 2.2 GHz X4 9550 and the 2.6 GHz X4 9850 Black Edition are sliding from $175 and $205 to $154 and $194 respectively.

With this round of cuts AMD has brought the Phenom X4 9850 pretty much in line with Intel's popular Core 2 Quad Q6600 and the X4 9550 between two dual-cores - the E8500 and E8400. And the price was wages on.

Intel provides first specs of its USB 3.0 host controller

Aiming to prove it doesn't actually want USB 3.0 all for itself Intel has now made available the 0.9 draft specs of the Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) which is set to be used for the upcoming SuperSpeed USB architecture. This specification describes the registers and data structures used to interface between system software and the USB 3.0-compatible hardware currently in the works and is a vital thing for the quickly deployment of the USB 3.0 standard which is set to offer maximum transfer speed of 4.7 Gb/s.

"The future of computing and consumer devices is increasingly visual and bandwidth intensive," said Phil Eisler, AMD corporate vice president and general manager of the Chipset Business Unit. "Lifestyles filled with HD media and digital audio demand quick and universal data transfer. USB 3.0 is an answer to the future bandwidth need of the PC platform. AMD believes strongly in open industry standards, and therefore is supporting a common xHCI specification."

As previously promised, the xHCI specs are offered for free but only to members of the USB 3.0 Promoter Group and contributor companies that sign an xHCI contributor agreement. A revised xHCI 0.95 specification is also in the works and will be released in Q4.

Intel intros four more CPUs, slashes Q9550 price by 40%

Core i7 builder Intel Corporation has officially made some quite long-awaited changes to its Core 2 line-up. Intel's first move was to cut the price tag of its Core 2 Quad Q9550 (2.83 GHz) by a massive 40% from $530 to $316 (in 1000-unit tray quantities) followed by the introduction of four more processors.

Starting off small, the dual-core E7300, which has a core clock of 2.66 GHz and 3MB of L2 cache, has taken the $133 price point while the fastest dual-core around, the 3.33 GHz E8600 (1333 MHz FSB, 6MB L2 cache) entered the CPU battlefield carrying a $266 price tag. Also pirced ay $266 is the Q9400, a (45nm) quad-core CPU with a frequency of 2.66 GHz which features a 1333 MHz FSB and 6MB of L2 cache. Last but not least, the Q9650, which has a core clock of 3.0 GHz and 12MB of L2 cache, is sold by Intel for $316.

Later this month Intel should also release the 2.33 GHz Q8200 CPU.

Features and benefits

The high end just got higher. Introducing the latest additions to the Core 2 Quad family built using Intel's 45nm technology and hafnium-infused circuitry. These new processors deliver amazing performance and power efficiency. Whether it's encoding, rendering, editing, or streaming, make the most of your professional-grade multimedia applications with a PC powered by the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor. With four processing cores and up to 12MB of shared L2 cache¹ and up to 1333 MHz Front Side Bus, more intensive entertainment and more multitasking can bring a multimedia powerhouse to your house.
Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution, enabling delivery of more instructions per clock cycle to improve execution time and energy efficiency

Intel® Intelligent Power Capability, designed to deliver more energy-efficient performance

Intel® Smart Memory Access, improving system performance by optimizing the use of the available data bandwidth

Intel® Advanced Smart Cache, providing a higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystem. Optimized for multi-core and dual-core processors

Intel® Advanced Digital Media Boost, accelerating a broad range of applications, including video, speech and image, photo processing, encryption, financial, engineering and scientific applications. Now improved even further on 45nm versions with Intel® HD Boost utilizing new SSE4 instructions for even better multimedia performance

Make highly threaded applications happy. Get in on the increasing number of highly threaded programs with quad-core technology from Intel. With four processing cores, an Intel Core 2 Quad processor-based PC will fuel more intensive entertainment and more media multitasking than ever.
source:intel.com

Intel to start delivering E-0 stepping Q9550 CPUs next week

As the Core i7 quad-core processors are closing in Intel is set to move its Core 2 Quad Q9550 parts from the current C-1 to the E-0 stepping. The first E-1 Q9950 CPUs will start shipping on August 22nd and they will feature Halide free packages, new SSpec and MM numbers and a fresh CPUID - 0x1067A (the C-1 ID is 0x10677).

Apart from those above, the new stepping will not include any other changes but a BIOS update is required to ensure full support for the E-0 CPUs.

AMD unveils the ATI FirePro V5700 and V3700 cards

AMD has now introduced a new family of professional graphics cards, the ATI FirePro and to give it a proper debut it has also released the first two cards to bear its name. Targeting CAD and DCC professionals, the FirePro V5700 and V3700 are powered by 55nm GPUs, have DirectX 10.1 support, PCI-Express 2.0 interfaces and feature 30-bit display engines which can produce more than one billion colors at any given time.

"Following the ATI acquisition, AMD increased its investment in the professional graphics business and now delivers professional graphics accelerators that perform better than the competition at every price point. The new ATI FirePro brand communicates this focus on performance and features that matter to engineers and designers," said Janet Matsuda, senior director, AMD Professional Graphics. "ATI has been known for delivering value-priced solutions for CAD and DCC professionals. The product reviews over the past year have validated the fact that ATI offers outstanding application performance as well."

Equipped with 256MB of GDDR3 memory, the lower-end V3700 has 40 Stream Processors and dual-DVI connectivity while the V5700 can brag with double the amount of on-board memory, 320 Stream Processors and with one DVI and two DisplayPort connectors. Priced at $99, the FirePro V3700 is already shipping with the $599 V5700 being expected to arrive next month.

ATI FirePro V3700

ATI FirePro V5700

Intel's Nehalem said to bear the 'Core i7' marketing name

AMD may not like it but Intel's Nehalem processors are closing in fast and the first models will arrive in Q4 with the latest info pointing out to an early Q4 (October) retail release. The three desktop CPUs prepped by Intel, clocked between 2.66 and 3.2 GHz, are known as Bloomfield but as you might have guessed that won't be their box-worthy name. What will that be you ask? Well, according to the guys @ Expreview the marketing name of all Nehalem-generation CPUs will be (drum roll) - Core i7.

As reported, the Core i7 name will be unveiled on Monday, August 11 when the Core i7 Extreme processors will also be officially announced. The Core i7 Extremes are LGA 1366 quad-core CPUs with eight threads that boast 8 MB of shared L3 cache and have integrated triple-channel DDR3 memory controllers. These will be paired up with Intel X58 motherboards. source:tcmagazine

AMD 40nm RV870 Lil Dragon

It's now clear that AMD will go directly to 40nm and aim for a performance per watt ratio twice that of RV770. RV870 has been code-named "Lil Dragon", which does indicate that this will be something small, yet something very powerful .
The overall performance has been suggested to be somewhere around 20% better than RV770 with a significant drop in power consumption. This points to 960 shaders (192x5), 48 texture units, 24 ROPs and so forth. If this is the case, TDP of the RV870 should be around 150W at most with today's frequencies. This is just an estimate on our part as technical specifications are still hard to come by.