Intel to use Centrino 2 to promote solid-state drives

Intel will offer to bundle its promised solid-state drives with its upcoming Centrino 2 platform, it has been claimed. The plan is being portrayed as a bid to push SSDs into the mainstream.

Today, SSDs generally command a significant premium over the price of equivalent notebooks fitted with a hard drive. Quite how far Intel will use the bundle approach to drive down the cost of implementing SSDs remains to be seen.

Centrino 2 - codenamed 'Montevina' - is due to debut late June, according to industry moles. Back in March, Intel executive Troy Winslow said the chip giant would ship 80GB and 160GB 2.5in- and 1.8in-format SSDs in Q2, so the timing of both product types could easily coincide.

According to insiders cited by Digitimes, the Flash drives will be branded Intel High Performance SSD, with the model codes X25-M and X18-M for 2.5in and 1.8in sizes, respectively. The first SSDs will be 80GB. They'll use a SATA interface.

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That makes the 1.8in model a logical update for Apple's MacBook Air - reviewed here - allowing the company to deliver a second-gen machine that connects to storage over a SATA bus rather than the slower, parallel ATA bus the current version uses. The report claims the 160GB version won't arrive until late Q4, with 250GB SSDs following next year.

AMD to launch 'Puma' laptop platform next month

Intel may be gearing up to release Centrino 2, but let's not forget its arch-rival, AMD, is to release a notebook platform of its own, codenamed 'Puma'. The cat will be let out of the bag at Computex, in Taipei on 3 June.

So what's AMD going to announce? Puma comprises a new (ish) processor, 'Griffin', and AMD's 780M chipset. Griffin is a dual-core part based around a couple of old Turion 'K8'A-class cores. Unlike existing Turion chips, Griffin was design specifically for laptops and so features extra, mobile-friendly circuitry for better power management.

Indeed, power rather than performance is Griffin's watchword, though we expect it will still push past AMD's current mobile CPUs when the speeds and feeds are announced in June.

Griffin is expected to contain at least 2MB of L2 cache, with each core having 1MB all to itself. The two cores will be able to run at different clock speeds, allowing either or both to slow down - as far as 300MHz - when their workload lightens.

Griffin's northbridge circuitry combines the usual HyperTransport 3 controller and a DDR 2 memory manager capable of handling 667MHz and 800MHz memory, AMD has said in the past. These elements and the CPU cores all operate on separate voltage planes, to allow unneeded components to power down.

So if the 780M's DirectX 10 integrated graphics is churning through HD content, the CPUs can slow right down or go to sleep without affecting the memory controller's ability to keep the GPU fed with video data.

Likewise the bandwidth made available by the HyperTransport controller can be squeezed according to need, reducing the power required to support in-bound data, out-bound data or both.

The 780M's graphics core will work with a discrete graphics chip, if one's present, to render all the basic stuff and leave the main GPU to power right down until its needed for 3D rendering. Again, that should boost the battery life of Puma-based systems.

The 780M - or, possibly, the M780 - will also incorporate AMD's SB700 chipset, which can link in up to 14 USB ports, six SATA ports and parallel ATA devices, and provide HD audio.

A once touted Puma component was HyperFlash, AMD's answer to Intel's TurboMemory: a Flash-fitted module that provides a small chunk of solid-state storage for Windows Vista's ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive technologies to make use of.

Turbo Memory is available in a fair few top-end notebooks, but it's largely failed to grab attention as a performance booster that Intel may have hoped it would. Partly that's because of corporate indifference to Vista - though this may change now Service Pack 1 is here, and AMD is likely to want to tap into that with HyperFlash.

Support for HyperFlash is integrated into the SB700.
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Intel plans Q3 Core 2 Quad, Duo line-up shuffle

What does Intel have on its near-term desktop processor roadmap? More of the same, it seems, in the period leading up to Q4's introduction of its next-gen CPU design, 'Nehalem'.

The latest leaks coming out of Asia point to Q3 introductions of faster Core 2 Quads and Duos. The quarter will apparently see the debut of the 3GHz Q9650, the 2.66GHz Q9400, the 3.33GHz E8600 and the 2.66GHz E7300.

They'll be priced at $530, $266, $266 and $133, respectively.

All three introductions will see existing processors come down in price to make room for the new parts. Some CPUs will get pushed off the list as a result: the 65nm Q6700, and the 45nm Q9450 and Q9300 will be dropped from the four-core range, while the E8300 will be excised from the two-core list too.
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Intel nudges Centrino 2 debut back

Intel's next major Centrino revamp - dubbed 'Centrino 2' - isn't coming until the end of June, and not this month, as the company's executives have stated in the past.

According to whispers coming out of Taiwan's notebook manufacturers, the chip giant will release the X9100, T9600, T9400, P9500, P8600 and P8400 'Montevina'-oriented processors in that post-Computex timeframe.

They'll be priced at $851, $530, $348, $316, $241 and $209, respectively, we understand. They're all dual-core, and they'll all be fabbed at 45nm.

The 'P' chips have a maximum power draw of 25W, the 'T's 35W. The 2.4GHz P8600 has 3MB of L2, as does the 2.26GHz P8400. The P9500, like the T9600 and T9400, has 6MB of L2. Those three are clocked at 2.53GHz, 2.80GHz and 2.53GHz, respectively. All five CPUs sit on a 1066MHz frontside bus (FSB).

The X9100's FSB is 1066MHz too, but it'll draw 45W, be clocked to 3.06GHz and pack in 6MB of L2.

Centrino 2's late-June arrival gets it just into the H1 2008 launch window announced by Intel in the past. In September 2007, CEO Paul Otellini let slip that Centrino 2 would arrive in May 2008.

Once Centrino 2's out of the way, Intel can focus on its key Q3 launch: the first mobile quad-core chip. The $1038 QX9300 contains 12MB of L2 - 6MB per core pair - and sit on a 1066MHz FSB. Its clock speed has been said in the past to be 2.53GHz.

Q4 will see the debut of the four-core Q9100, but its speeds and feeds remain unknown
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DIY Intel Atom Computer

While we're pleased to see Intel Atom processors making their way into mobile PCs, we're just as excited to see the upcoming Atom-based creations of the PC-building community. Now Trainquil PC is selling ready-to-run motherboards with a bundled 1.6GHz Atom processor and supporting up to 2GB of memory. They promise benchmarks of 3-4x those of similar VIA systems and the capability to power Vista Home Media Center "with ease." Maybe that's a slight hyperbole, but hey, it's a heck of a quote. The board is $103 this June. Here are the full specs:

[Tranquil PC via BBGadgets]

AMD announces the GAME initiative

The AMD Game logos will appear on AMD-based desktops and notebooks that meet the system requirements to run nearly all of the latest games.

AMD has begun pitching its processors, graphics engines and chipsets as the ideal foundation for gaming PCs.

The AMD Game! initiative takes in two specs: the regular Game! PC and the Game! Ultra PC. The latter requires a four-core Phenom X4 9500 processor and ATI Radeon HD graphics in CrossFire configuration, all sitting on a motherboard based on AMD's 770 chipset.

The more basic Game! set-up also centres on the 770, but this time with an Athlon X2 5600+ CPU and a single Radeon HD 3650 GPU. In between, are various versions with Phenom X3 CPUs, Phenom X4s but no CrossFire, and so on.

All configurations come with suitable case stickers on the off-chance the hapless punter forgets what's inside his or her computer.

AMD's Game! stickers: for! your! box!

The Game! approach might sound like a take on Intel's notebook-centric Centrino brand, this time for gaming desktops, but it's actually closer to Nvidia's SLI Marketplace initiative - a way of highlighting systems based on each vendor's various components and suitably certified that all the bits work together.

The initiative takes in not only CPUs, GPUs and chipsets, but also rates mice, controllers, keyboards, cases, cooling systems and memory for compatibility with each trio of AMD silicon products. All this will make for "console-like simplicity". Apparently.

Like SLI Marketplace, AMD's Game! initiative will steer the build-your-own PC brigade along the path of righteousness - as AMD sees it - and also help novices see red with by nudging them toward system builders who've put together pre-assembled AMD-based rigs.

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Firefox 3 RC1 ready for download

Go kick the tires and light the fires of Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1, which is now available for download at the Mozilla Firefox site. The update delivers a few aesthetic changes, as well as what Mozilla is calling major security enhancements. Users should also expect increased performance and stability for applications like Google Mail. There's an exhaustive list of known bugs to squash too, but that's par for the course with any software. [
Firefox 3 RC1]

Intel Cuts Power Consumption Rating Of "Skulltrail Xeon"

Santa Clara (CA) - Intel is transitioning all of its 45 nm Xeon DP processors from the C-O to the E-0 stepping. There are no changes in the feature set of the Harpertown quad-core CPUs and Wolfdale dual-core processors, with the exception of the flagship model, which is the sister model of the company’s Skulltrail processor Core 2 Extreme QX9775. The thermal design power (TDP) rating of the Xeon X5482 drops by 20%.

According to a product change notification sent to Intel customers yesterday, all 18 current 45 nm Xeon processors are transitioned to the new stepping with first samples expected to become available on July 3. The updated processors are scheduled to begin shipping on October 6 and Intel asks its customers to be prepared to receive these CPUs by October 20 of this year.

Since there are no new features and (almost) no specification changes, Intel says that only "minimal re-qualification" will be required on the system builder side. However, the new chips will require a BIOS update.

The only CPU that does see specification change is the Xeon DP X5482: According to Intel, the 3.2 GHz chips carries a 120 watt TDP rating in the E-O stepping, compared to a 150 watt rating in the C-O version. The current Skulltrail processor Core 2 Extreme QX9775 is also clocked at 3.2 GHz and rated at a 150 watt TDP.

We don’t know whether the power consumption of the processor in fact drops, or if the new TDP rating is simply a bit closer to reality. According to a review posted by Tom’s Hardware, a Core 2 Extreme QX9775 consumes a maximum of 114 watts at 3.2 GHz. The power consumption climbs to about 138 watts when overclocked to 3.6 GHz and 176 watts at 4 GHz.

But enthusiasts who are interested in building a Skulltrail PC should have a closer look at Harpertwon processors - and not just because of the upcoming stepping update: Even the pricey X5482, which currently lists for a tray-price of $1279 per piece and sells for about $1400 in retail, is substantially cheaper than the QX9775, which has a tray-price of $1499 and sells for closer to $1700 per CPU in retail. Even if you are sinking more than $10,000 into a Skulltrail PC, a few hundred dollars of savings aren’t bad.

Intel’s first Nehalem mobo is X58

As we known, Intel’s next gen processor will be Nehalem, and desktop Nehalem will be Bloomfield. It is a 45nm process technology 4 core CPU, integrated with memory controller, SMT (Simultaneous Multi-threading) up to 8 processing threads, and w/ 8M cache. It has been revealed in IDF 08, but at that time no the supporting mobo is still being kept in secret.

Click to read more.

Today we find out that the first Bloomfield supporting mobo will be Intel X58(with ICH10/R) coming out Q4 this year. Because Bloomfield have already got memory controller integrated, so north bridge will be simplified. The biggest point of the board will be the odd lay out, dual channel, Triple channel DD3 supporting and Dual PCIe 2.0 X16 or Quad PCIe 2.0 X8.

The north bridge have couples of new features, but Intel keeps ICH10/R as its south bridge, so there is nothing more to say about it.

Also here is a pic we believe it is a X58,which leaked to the web earlier.

source:http://en.expreview.com/

Fight card: AMD Radeon 4800 vs. Nvidia GTX 200

The high-end graphics card market isn’t the straightforward, mano-a-mano battle it used to be. Graphics cards with dual GPUs, systems with multiple cards in CrossFire or SLI implementations, and most recently hybrid graphics have all muddied the picture.

Meanwhile, Intel has improved its integrated graphics and has long-term plans in Larrabee to challenge AMD and Nvidia in discrete graphics.

But next month we should get a good, old-fashioned GPU showdown when AMD and Nvidia release entirely new, high-end GPUs. Details of these GPUs, AMD’s RV770 and Nvidia’s G200, and the graphics cards based on them, are trickling out.

The RV770, or ATI Radeon 4800 series, will launch on June 16, according to several sites. Graphics cards based on the first GPU in the series, the Radeon 4850 with 512MB GDDR3 memory, will be available immediately for $230. This GPU is the follow-up to the current Radeon 3850. Higher-end cards based on the Radeon 4870 with 512MB GDDR5 and the dual-GPU Radeon 4870 X2 with 1,024MB GDDR5–a first–will be announced on June 23. The Radeon 4870 cards won’t ship immediately because of the lack of availability of GDDR5 memory, but when they do show up prices should be around $350. The Radeon 4870 X2 cards won’t show up until early 4Q and will cost about $550.

One of the more intriguing specs of the Radeon 4800, according to the site TGDaily which has many details on the 4800 series, is “physics processing capabilities.” Physics is used to define how objects in a game move and interact. It can deliver a more realistic, compelling experience, but few games are designed to take advantage of physics.

There are really only two players here: Havok, which makes software for game developers and movie editors, and Ageia, a competitor best known for pioneering the PhysX Accelerator boards for gamers. Intel purchased Havok in September 2007, and Nvidia completed the acquisition of Ageia in February and plans to integrate the PhysX Accelerator into its GPUs. ATI previously worked with Havok on physics (and AMD reportedly considered buying Ageia late last year), but it is unclear where AMD is getting the physics technology now. (There have been some reports that AMD borrowed a programming language developed at Stanford University for the GPUs that power the Folding@home research project and extended it to support game physics.)

Nvidia’s G200 will reportedly launch on June 18 (some sites put it in early July). This GPU family was previously known at the GeForce 9900 series, but several sites are now reporting that Nvidia will switch to a new naming scheme: the GTX 200 series. Initially this should consist of two products, the GTX 280 and GTX 260, but otherwise there are few details aside from the fact that G200s supposedly contain more than 1 billion transistors (not including memory), use GDDR3 memory with a 512-bit interface, have an updated Unified Shader architecture, and will be in cards that cost $450 or more.

With the massive Computex tradeshow in Taipei coming the first week of June, I suspect we will know a lot more about these new GPUs before the rumored announce dates.

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