HP begs AMD PC owners to put XP SP3 on ice

Hewlett-Packard has told customers not to install Windows XP service pack three (SP3) on AMD-based desktops until Microsoft and HP cough fixes to the endless reboot snafu that has wreaked havoc on PCs.

Microsoft confirmed yesterday that it was scurrying to patch the problem after hundreds of angry XP customers first grumbled about the sizeable cock-up last week.

"HP is working diligently with Microsoft on a software update and will be proactively distributing a patch this week through HP Update that will prevent this error from occurring," said the computer giant in a statement. "HP recommends consumers with AMD-based desktops wait until after HP's or Microsoft's updates have been deployed on their systems to install Service Pack 3."

Microsoft’s message board was, within hours of the firm pumping the operating system’s final service pack out to the masses, inundated with complaints about machines being crippled by the endless reboot cock-up.

On Wednesday HP, which is the world’s biggest computer vendor, posted advice on its website about its Pavilion and Compaq Presario desktop PCs:

“After installing the initial release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP an error condition can occur. The Service Pack 3 update copies an Intel power management driver to the computer that was not on the computer before the update.

“During Windows startup, computers with AMD processors may experience a blue screen error,” it said.

That acknowledgement, which somewhat swerves any admission of guilt, follows Microsoft’s statement earlier this week in which it blamed OEMs for “improperly placing a Windows XP image created for an Intel-based computer onto machines with non-Intel chipsets”.

Notably, Microsoft avoided specifics on which computer manufacturers had been guilty of mistakenly loading the wrong Sysprep image on their machines.

Microsoft also confirmed – much to the chagrin of XP customers who have patiently awaited SP3 after its release was spurned by a Vista-centric Redmond several times – that the endless reboot problem first surfaced way back in 2004 when service pack two landed.

The error, it said, was brought on by an orphaned power management Intel-only driver (intelppm.sys) that remains in the Windows Registry when the wrong image has been loaded onto AMD-based machines.

However, customers have also complained that the glitch has occurred following the install of XP SP3 on PCs from Dell, Gateway and Lenovo, while others have suggested Asus chipsets have also been crippled by the reboot problems.

Unsurprisingly, AMD, HP and Microsoft have all claimed that the issues have been fairly limited to some desktop computers. But, as is often the case with this type of FAIL, no tech vendor has been brave enough to step forward to provide a definitive number of how many PCs have actually been affected by the issue.

HP said it hopes to push out a patch named SP37394 to customers within the next week. No word yet on when y’all can expect to see a fix from Microsoft, however.
©THE REGISTER

Intel: future iPhone to be Atom powered

An Intel executive has apparently claimed a future iPhone will be based upon the chip giant's Atom processor.

Speaking in Germany, one Hannes Schwaderer, Intel's MD for Central Europe, made the claim, according to a German-language ZDNet report.

Sachwderer also promised a raft of Atom-based devices in the next 12 months, all of them "a bit bigger than the iPhone".

Of course, what one Intel executive claims and what Apple will actually do are two separate things. More to the point, the current generation of Atom isn't sufficiently power efficient for device as small as the iPhone.

The 'Silverthorne' Atoms, launched last month, are aimed at what Intel calls Mobile Internet Devices. Yes, that's a term that could be applied to the iPhone, but what the chip maker has in mind are larger, more tablet-like devices not gadgets like phones.

For that, we have to wait until 2009-2010 when 'Moorestown', the next generation of Atom, complete with on-board graphics and a power consumption characteristic suitable for phones, is due to ship.

Even then, will Apple shift from the ARM chip the iPhone currently uses? It could. The current iPhone Software Development Kit already includes an iPhone emulator. Since that code runs on Intel's x86 architecture and is, therefore, fully compatible with Atom, running iPhone emulation on a future, Atom-based handset isn't beyond the bounds of possibility.

Emulation would be essential to allow Apple to carry forward all the third-party development work done on iPhone software up to that point.

We shall see...

Alun Taylor contributed to this report

Amd Phenom x3 vs Amd Athlon x2, 3 core slower than 2 core

Performance: Phenom X3 8450 15% Slower

The small Phenom X3 model, the 8750, clocks at a rate of 2.10 GHz. When compared to the Athlon 64 6400+ with 3.20 GHz and 6000+ with 3.00 GHz, it simply can’t keep up for many applications.

The 6400+ is approximately 15% faster than the Phenom X3 8450 in the benchmark course. Compared to the 6000+ it is almost 9% slower. The difference in price between the small Phenom X3 and the Athlon 64 X2 6400+ is 26 euros and it costs approximately the same as the Athlon 64 X2 6000+.

source:http://www.tomshardware.com/

AMD refreshes low-power Quad-Core Opterons lineup

Advanced Micro Devices is shipping B3 versions of its low-power Quad-Core Opteron processors.

AMD first detailed these processors in September 2007, when it unveiled the Quad-Core Opteron processor. However, earlier versions of the chips were affected by a bug discovered in December that reportedly forced AMD to suspend some processor shipments. The B3 version of the chips announced Monday fixed that bug.

The five chips run at clock speeds ranging from 1.7GHz to 1.9GHz. Three of the chips -- the 2344 HE, 2346 HE, and 2347HE -- are designed for servers with two processors, while the other two -- the 8346 HE and 8347 HE -- can be used in servers with four or eight processors. They are priced from US$255 to $873 in 1,000-unit quantities, a standard way of quoting chip prices.

The low-power Quad-Core Opteron chips have an average power consumption of 55 watts, AMD said.

Sumner Lemon is Singapore correspondent for the IDG News Service.

Intel P45 boards said to have CrossFire problems

Now, this is the kind of rumor that may never be confirmed or denied but apparently, current Intel P45 boards don't play very nice with CrossFire setups, the only multi-GPU solution supported by them.

With the drivers now available for both the motherboard and AMD graphics cards the CrossFire setups have noticeable display issues. There's no indication as to where the problem is coming from but new driver version or BIOS revisions may solve the problem before the P45 motherboards make officially introduced, early next month.

AMD Rolls Out Low-power Quad-core Opteron CPUs

Sunnyvale (CA) - AMD's B3 stepping Barcelona processors appear to be finally on track as the company continues to announce new design wins and new models joining the existing line-up. The company is now offering ’HE’ of its dual- as well as 4P and 8P socket versions of its processors, offering an alternative to six competing Intel quad-core CPUs.

The new processors include three 2P versions (2344HE, 1.7 GHz; 2346He, 1.8 GHz and 2347 HE, 1.9 GHz) as well as two 4P and 8P models (8346HE, 1.8 GHz and 8347HE, 1.9 GHz) and expand AMD’s portfolio into a market in which the company needs to regain market share from Intel in order to achieve its profitability goals.

The fact that the TLB bug delayed the launch of these processors by about 8 months has turned out to be a major problem for AMD, as Intel has been the only option for companies that transitioned their servers to faster or energy-efficient quad-core processors. Even if AMD claims that these new HE-series CPUs are the first power-efficient quad-core server processors with an integrated memory controller, there is no denying that Intel shipped millions of quad-core CPUs before and had "power-efficient" quad-core processors available for several months: Intel currently offers the Xeon MP L7345 (65 nm, 1.86 GHz, 50 watt) as well as five 50 watt DP models (1.6 to 2.5 GHz), two of them being 45 nm versions.

AMD rates its new HE Opterons at a power consumption of 55 watts. However, this value is described as "ACP" (Average CPU Power), which is AMD’s way to describe the power consumption of its processors and which is different from the "TDP" (Thermal Design Power) that Intel uses to come up with a value for its processors. Server vendors told TG Daily that there is virtually no way to reliably predict which processor will be more power efficient in different application environments. The only way to reliably measure the power consumption of server systems is to actually put test systems in place and evaluate them in a real-world scenario.

©THE REGISTER

Romanian and Turkish scientists turn circuit boards into oil

Whether through a force of expanding environmental activism or just compliance with government edicts, the IT sector is in a pinch over how to safely recycle defunct computers and equipment.

Unfortunately, IT kit is packed with enough environmental hazards to put the Toxic Avenger's codpiece to shame. And with each generation of electrical merchandise released, dealing with the jettisoned remains of yesterday's gear turns into a bigger problem.

But a team of scientists from Romania and Turkey say they've found a simple and effective method to turn printed circuit boards from discarded IT kit into material suitable as fuel or for industrial use.

The researchers note that the plastic portion of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is particularly tricky to recycle because it contains additives, heavy metals, and extremely toxic flame retardants. (You don't want too much polybrominated diphenyl ethers in your diet if you cherish your liver and brain.)

In their paper "Feedstock Recycling from the Printed Circuit Boards of Used Computers," the scientists describe using a process of heat and chemical decomposition to destroy or remove almost all of the hazardous toxic compounds. A copy of the paper can be found here. (PDF warning.)

The process isn't exactly light reading — but when it's done, what's left of the printed circuit board is pyrolysis oil (or bio-oil), which can be refined in a similar fashion as crude petroleum for fuel or can be used by industries to make other useful chemicals.

Indeed now more than ever, is there anything adding more RAM can't do?
©THE REGISTER

AMD rejiggers management; Forms central engineering group

AMD on Monday named a new head of its computing solutions group and created a central engineering unit to improve execution at the chipmaker.

Among the moving parts:

• Randy Allen was promoted to lead the computing solutions group at AMD, which focuses on the company’s consumer and commercial processors. Allen had been responsible for AMD’s server and workstation business and had been in charge of microprocessor engineering. He replaces Mario Rivas, who was responsible for the Barcelona launch (see Tom Krazit’s take).
• Chekib Akrout joins AMD from Freescale to help lead a new central engineering unit. Akrout was in charge of design technology at Freescale and had developed chips for IBM. Jeff VerHeul, corporate vice president of design engineering, will be co-leader of the group along with Akrout.
• Allen Sockwell becomes chief talent officer replacing Michel Cadieux.

According to AMD chief operating officer Dirk Meyer, the moves are designed to “enhance our execution” and focus the company.

Intel said to feed Google solid state disks

Intel is working its close ties to Google for solid state storage drive sales, according to a report.

Sources have told Digitimes that Google plans to test out SSD storage in an effort to lower power consumption at its vast data centers. The ad broker-cum-search engine will turn to Intel for the SSD gear. And, if true, that's great news for Intel, which hopes to make a run at turning SSDs into a big business.
As the report tells it, Intel will supply flash memory, while Marvell will provide the controllers.

For what it's worth, our sources tell us that Digitimes report is flat out wrong.

Still, it's interesting to speculate about Google paying for the more expensive SSDs on the data center scale. Like many service providers, Google is finding that lowering energy costs is its top priority.

Of course, there are performance implications as well.

Given the secretive nature of Google, it's rather hard for outsiders to tell what the company is up to. It's also damn hard to tell if the company's supposed data center magic really lives up to its billing or if the company just blows tons of cash and time designing its own systems.

Anyway, the report goes on to cite memory makers grumbling about a potential shortage of NAND flash chips due to increased server-side interest in SSDs.
Google and Intel enjoy a very tight relationship with Intel making custom motherboards for its chum. Intel's server chip customers have taken notice of this arrangement
©THE REGISTER

AMD to hire TSMC to fab 'Fusion' CPUs?

AMD is said to be planning to add chip foundry TSMC's name to its (short) list of processor production partners later this year. TSMC's alleged role: to fab AMD's upcoming 'Fusion' CPU.

So say unnamed industry sources cited by DigiTimes, and the notion isn't without merit or precedent.

AMD already uses Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor to produce processors. Chartered was signed up in November 2004, but it was almost two years - July 2006 - before AMD said the deal was yielding it revenues. The deal centred on 90nm chips, and in October 2006 it was claimed Charted had already been certified to punch out 65nm Athlons and Opterons.

The moles suggest TSMC will come on stream in the second half of the year. It's not clear whether that's the point at which the partnership will be announced, or that the foundry will begin production. We'd suggest the former, given the sources' claim that TSMC has begun testing an silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process - a key element of AMD CPU construction, incidentally.

Testing the process, fine-tuning it and winning AMD approval is likely to take some time, so if TSMC is gearing up to fab AMD64 parts, it won't be doing so in volume until 2009 at the earliest.

That's when Fusion is scheduled to debut. Fusion is AMD's modular architecture for multi-core processors, where CPU cores can be swapped out at the design stage for specialist processing units like GPUs and TCP/IP packet handlers. This, it believes, will allow it to build mix'n'match CPUs, allowing it to target different applications with the same core technology, more efficiently and thus more cheaply.

Of late, AMD has refused to discuss its manufacturing strategy, CEO Hector Ruiz saying only that the company's plans are "bold".
©THE REGISTER

AMD announces low-power quad-core chips

Advanced Micro Devices announced the availability of low-power quad-core Opteron processors this morning for servers.

The new HE (high-efficiency) processors have a thermal envelope of 55 watts, compared to higher thermal envelopes of 105 watts or 75 watts for other AMD quad-core server processors.

The low-power Opterons are available in both the 2300 and 8300 series. Prices are as follows: $873 for the 1.9GHz 8347 HE and $377 for the 1.9 GHz 2347 HE. (Keeping in mind that 2300 series processors are designed for servers that use two processors, while 8300 series processors are for systems that use four or eight processors.)

“Our new Quad-Core AMD Opteron HE processors were designed to help data center managers who see power consumption and virtualization as the keys to solving their overall performance equation,” Randy Allen, general manager at AMD’s Server and Workstation Division, said in a statement in the press release.

If AMD doesn’t suit you, don’t forget that Intel announced energy-efficient quad-core Xeon processors with a thermal envelope of 50 watts at core frequencies as high as 2.50GHz in March. (Thanks to Brooke at the Crave blog)

65 Nm GPUs For Xbox 360 In Production, Xbox '540' Coming In 2009

Taipei (Taiwan) - News about refreshed Xbox 360 consoles are trickling, which is about time given the fact that the console will celebrate its third birthday later this year. The Taiwan Economic News is reporting that first wafers with 65 nm GPUs are leaving the production lines, joining the 65 nm Xenon CPU. Rumors about a Blu-ray Xbox 360 remain alive and we are hearing first information about a possible mid-cycle refresh for the console, which will include the ’Valhalla’ SoC.

It has been almost a year since Chartered has begun taking the Xbox 360 Xenon CPU from 90 nm to 65 nm and it really was just a matter of time until other hardware would follow. According to the Taiwan Economic News, TSMC has initiated first wafer starts of the 65 nm Xenos GPU and Northbridge. Microsoft apparently has ordered 10,000 300 mm wafers from TSMC at this time.

As it is the case with any die-shrink, Microsoft should see substantial economic advantages from this move, supporting the company’s ongoing strategy to reduce the production cost of the console (the reduction of the Xbox 360 production cost has been one of the key reasons why Microsoft’s entertainment division has been able to notably increase its profits over the past seven quarters). If the 65 nm Xenos "v2" scales down linearly from 90 nm, the new die size should be around 125 mm2, while the eDRAM chip will remain at 70 mm2. The new production process should yield about 35% more GPUs per wafer than before.

TSMC will continue to be in charge of the wafers, while Nanya will be delivering the flip-chip packaging substrates. ASE combines the silicon and substrate and is responsible for QA.

Quite honestly, we were a bit surprised to hear that Microsoft did not decide to die-shrink both the CPU and GPU at the same time, especially because two different foundries are manufacturing the chips. However, our sources at TSMC explained that Microsoft has the same production philosophy as Nvidia: Wait for a manufacturing process to mature and then run the initial wafer order. Apparently, the transition was simulated in detail by ATI and the tapeout happened without problems, at least according to our sources close to ATI. Keep in mind that ATI is only a contracted partner for Microsoft: Both the CPU and GPU are officially Microsoft parts, and the Ballmer-Gates company is the only one in the console segment following through with such a strategy.

The Xbox 360 is scheduled to ship in an "all 65 nm" package (Jasper platform) this August. Consumers won’t notice the refresh, unless Microsoft decides to put a Blu-ray drive into the Xbox 360. We were not able to receive a confirmation either way, and we keep digging to find out if the Asustek subsidiary Pegatron will manufacture regular Xbox 360’s or units with an integrated Blu-ray drive. In any case, Celestica, Pegatron and Wistron will have a busy summer cranking out millions of refreshed Xbox 360 consoles.

A more dramatic and perhaps visible change will happen next year: TSMC plans to begin producing the Valhalla chip, which will be the foundation of the mid-cycle refresh of the Xbox 360, thus called ’Xbox 2.5’ or simply ’Xbox 540’ (360+180), in fall of 2009. We learned that this new chip is apparently much more than a die-shrink and end up as a system-on-a-chip design. This change is likely to enable to redesign the Xbox 360 casing and go towards a slim-design, much like what Sony did with the Gen1 and Gen2 PS2. We believe that TSMC will use a 45 nm process for this Multi-Chip-Module package (CPU+GPU+eDRAM).

There are also some interesting pieces of information that Microsoft is shopping for a more efficient cooling solution - efficient in more ways than just one: Several people close to the cooling industry told us that Microsoft approached them and asked for better and cheaper cooling than what is used in the Xbox 360 right now. Some may claim that the current Xbox 360 cooler design is already as cheap as it gets, but we have no doubts that Microsoft will find a way to drop the cost once again.

AMD six-core CPU prepared for second half of 2009

Intel has announced its first six-core processor, codenamed Dunnington which is set for a Q3 release but it's only just now that AMD has revealed its plans to release a similar product.
Build on 45nm and bearing the 'Istanbul' codename, AMD's six-core part will be introduced in the second half of 2009, will feature HyperTransport 3.0 and will be compatible with Socket (F) 1207 boards.

Trying to catch up with Intel, AMD is planning to release yet another 6-core CPU in the first half of 2010, this time for a new Socket - G34. Dubbed Sao Paolo, the CPU will have DDR3 support and battle Intel's 32nm hexa-core processor which should be released around the same time.

Intel X58 to be the first Nehalem desktop chipset

Whether AMD likes it or not, Intel sill be introducing the first 45nm-built Nehalem processors in Q4 and with them, a whole new range of silicon chips will arrive. One of them, the Tylersburg chipset, has now been exposed to bearing the X58 marketing name. Set to be paired up with the ICH10 southbridges, the X58 will be used on Socket 1366 motherboards and act as the assistant of the quad-core Bloomfield processors.

The platform based on the X58 and Bloomfield couple will provide triple-channel DDR3-1333 support, two or four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots and will act as Intel's top desktop offer. Just about the same time the X58 rolls out AMD should start delivering its first quad-core 45nm Phenom CPUs so expect this year to end with quite a clash of titans. Well, it'll be more David and Goliath.

AMD to stockholders: Everything will be all right

During its annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas this morning, AMD CEO Hector Ruiz attempted to reassure shareholders that his company is on the right track. Ruiz opened by stressing how disappointed he is with last year's financial results, but he quickly went on to paint a more optimistic picture of AMD's future:

In looking back, 2007 was a difficult year of transition for AMD. And I speak for every AMD employee when I say that I could not be more disappointed with our financial results. The Barcelona processor delay really hurt. But that is behind us. As a matter of fact, we've learned some lessons very important to us. In our materially cyclical industry, we have learned to anticipate and prepare for the inevitable downturn. And that's exactly what we did. We have a healthy cash balance sheet approaching $2 billion, and we have some financial cushioning in place if the macro-economic environment continues to disappoint, particularly in North America.

Ruiz reiterated that AMD is on track to become operationally profitable again in the second half of the year, and he called 2008 "a year of opportunity." He also explained that the company is taking steps to avoid a repeat of the past few quarters:

While our short-term goal is to achieve operational profitability in the second half of this year, our long-term goal is to achieve consistent profitability in good times and bad times. To that end, we are re-architecting the business so that our financial success is not invariably dependent on continuous component performance and leadership.

In order to keep AMD's head above the water, Ruiz said, "[we will be] reducing our break-even point by several hundred million dollars so that we will be profitable on our current revenue stream." In other words, if the previously announced job cuts and restructuring work out, AMD may not need to double its market share to be profitable again.

Speaking of restructuring, Ruiz also had a little more to say about AMD's long-awaited "asset smart" strategy. As part of the strategy, Ruiz said, AMD will "deploy [its] manufacturing assets to most cost-effectively stay at the leading edge and deliver customer value." While vague, the statement further hints that AMD might spin off its manufacturing business as a separate entity.

Did Ruiz's promises successfully convince stockholders? That's hard to say: the only question after his monologue came from an elderly Austin resident, who talked for several minutes in a slow, baritone drawl about golf tournaments.

©THE REGISTER

Interesting little video about Intel’s 45nm chip manufacturing process.

12-Core Chips from AMD in 2010

AMD has released its product roadmap for the next two years and the company appears to have gone core crazy. Plans for several multi-core chip releases over the next two years will culminate in a 12-core CPU to be released in the first half of 2010.

The first new product from AMD will be code-named "Shanghai," and is expected to see the light of day in the second half of this year. This will be AMD's first 45nm sever processor, and will support HyperTransport 3.0 as well as sporting a whopping 6MB of Level-3 cache. Shanghai will have four cores.

Next at bat will be "Istanbul," due out in the second half of 2009. Istanbul will sport six cores and will be designed for use in multi-processor systems (two processors and up). In early 2010, AMD expects to release its new Socket G34 platform with DDR3 memory support.

The pièce de résistance, however, will be AMD's 12-core, Socket G34-based, "Magny Cours" processor. A six-core version will also be available, code-named "Sao Paolo."

Increasing the number of cores on CPUs is a logical direction, and one that Intel is heading in as well. It has become increasingly difficult to squeeze higher speeds out of processors, so the solution to increasing CPU performance has been to integrate more cores into the chips themselves. While AMD's recently-announced roadmap focuses on server processors, this doesn't mean that desktop and laptop processors are getting the short shrift. Like Mary and her little lamb, wherever server processors go, desktop and laptop processors are sure to follow. Processor designs for AMD's mainstream systems will reap the benefits of the technological advances going into the server processors. The sockets will be different, there will be less on-board cache, fewer HyperTransport links, and no multi-processor support, but the desktop and laptop processors will share the same number of cores and have the same raw CPU power.

Intel To Launch 4-series Chipsets At Computex 2008

Intel will officially launch its 4-series chipsets at Computex 2008, while motherboard makers will start shipping products in the third week of June, according to sources at motherboard makers. Initial 4-series chipset shipments will consist of the P45 and P43, for which the previously reported PCI Express compatibility bug has been fixed already.

More here at Digitimes

Intel: Skulltrail Supports Crossfire & SLI

Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, Feb. 19, 2008. Intel today officially announced its Skulltrail Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform, based on a dual socketed D5400XS desktop motherboard that supports two Intel quad core processors, the most current of which is the Core 2 Extreme QX9775 Compare Prices on Core 2 Extreme Processors. The D5400XS supports either ATI Crossfire or Nvidia SLI multi-card graphics solutions.
"For the team creating world-class games here at id, time is one of our most valuable assets," said Robert A. Duffy, Programming Director, id Software. "Having eight powerful Intel cores in a single machine helps our team create and test our latest titles at record speed. We have seen one of our most time-consuming asset generation processes cut from over 4 hours to under 20 minutes by utilizing all eight cores and threading the generation code. Long term this translates to better games on the market faster than previously possible."

The Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX9775 is available now at an MSRP of $1,499 each. Estimated street pricing for the Intel Desktop Board D5400XS is $649. Platform components are sold separately. Several enthusiast PC manufacturers plan to offer systems based on this new platform starting today and over the next 30 days, including Armari, Boxx Tech, Digital Storm, Falcon Northwest, Maingear, Puget Systems, Scan, Velocity Micro, Vigor Gaming, Voodoo, @Xi Computers and others.

AMD: Promises, promises

Here we go again. AMD’s latest server roadmap promises six and then 12 core delights. Sorry, but given AMD’s current track record of over-promising and under-delivering, color me doubtful.

This is a perfect example of what I was saying yesterday about AMD. While the marketing machine is hyperventilating over technologies that are more than an arm’s reach away, when it comes to actually delivering these goods in a timely manner (and the timeliness window for processors is shrinking daily - a 3 to 6 month delay can be disastrous) AMD is notorious for its failure to deliver.

Also, this jump from six to 12 cores that AMD is promising, maybe it’s me but that sounds gimmicky. AMD is good at packaging arguments for triple-core processors and jumps from six to 12 cores as being “what out customers want.” I’m certain that AMD is trying to carve out a market with such statements.