Posted 08/21/09 at 03:45:23 PM by Andy Salisbury

With the recent introduction of the PS3 Slim, Sony also introduced a new piece of tech within it – a 45nm cell processor.

The newer, slimmer version of Sony’s powerhouse will reportedly lose its Linux support and won’t come with any kind of backwards compatibility with PS2 games. However, it’ll come with a larger 120GB drive onboard, and the improved CPU. According to a video posted by Sony on their US website, the processor is based on IBM’s Power architecture, and was a joint venture between IBM, Sony and Toshiba. No word yet on what the GPU is, but we do know that the folks responsible for making it are Nvidia.

The PS3 Slim will be available on September 1 for $299.

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Posted 06/30/09 at 10:00:00 AM by Paul Lilly

Samsung this week announced the S5P6440, which is the company's latest ARM11 processor and the first to be designed using a 45nm lower power CMOS process technology.

"Today's ultra-competitive consumer electronics market demands rapid performance upgrades and effective cost reduction to continue its expansion," said Dr. Kwang-hyn Kim, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics' System LSI division.

The new chip is based on an ARM1175 CPU core, which runs at either 533MHz or 667MHz. A 64-bit AXI bus running at 166MHz connects the core and all on-chip hardware accelerators and peripheral interfaces. In addition, the S5P6440 boasts 2Dgraphics acceleration hardware compliant with the OpenVG API standard, enabling graphical goodies like alpha blending for transparency effects, anti-aliasing, and vector graphics support.

Samsung says it has begun sampling the new ARM11 processor to key customers and will start volume shipments sometime in Q3 of this year.

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Posted 06/18/09 at 03:55:11 PM by Paul Lilly

Development for 32nm is going well for Intel, so well that the chip maker has decided to axe its 45nm Havendale chips before they reached volume production and will make the move to the 32nm Clarkdale instead, according to DigiTimes. Havendale was originally scheduled to launch by the end of the year, but Intel will instead go forward with 32nm Clarkdale in the first quarter of 2010.

Citing sources at motherboard makers, DigiTimes says Intel also plans to mark several processors as EOL (end of life) in the second half of 2009 and through the first quarter of 2010. Among them will be the Core 2 Extreme QX9775, Core i7 940, and a bunch of Core 2 Quad, Pentium, and Celeron CPUs. The chip maker will also begin discontinuing both the Atom 330 and Atom 220 in April 2010.

Meanwhile, the sources say Intel plans to launch the Core 2 Quad Q9505S, a quad-core CPU designed specifically for all-in-on PCs.

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Posted 05/22/09 at 03:55:47 PM by Paul Lilly

AMD already offers a handful of chips built on a 45nm manufacturing process, but if what motherboard makers are telling news and rumor site DigiTimes turns out to be true, the No. 2 chip maker will fully embrace 45nm for its desktop parts next quarter. These include dual-core Phenom II X2 500 series and Athlon II X2 200 series in June, followed by quad-core Athlon II X4 600 series and triple-core Athlon II X3 400 series in September.

In addition, AMD has a few new CPUs on tap for an end of Q2 / beginning of Q3 release. DigiTimes says we'll see the Phenom X2 550 and 545 both launch by the end of the second quarter, and the quad-core Phenom II X4 945 (95W) and 8xx (95W), triple-core Phenom II X3 7xx (95W), quad-core Athlon II X4 630 and 620, triple-core Athlon II X3 435 and 425, and dual-core Ahtlon II X2 250, 245, and 240 all in the third quarter. This in addition to 10 low-power CPUs.

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Posted 04/09/09 at 09:50:36 AM by Paul Lilly

Call it spring cleaning or just the natural progression of things. Either way, it's out with the old and in with the new, says Intel, who updated its product portfolio this week. To make room for its Nehalem core-based Xeons, the chip maker informed its customers it is phasing out both 65nm Xeon processors built around Conroe, and its newer 45nm chips with a Wolfdale core.

Specifically, the company is taking its axe to the Xeon 3085, 3075, 3065, X3350, and X3320. Final shipments for these chips will take place in January 2010, with final orders being accepted up until October 9, 2009.

By getting rid of the its Core 2-based Xeons, Intel is making room for Nehalem-based Xeon chips, the first of which was introduced last week, 17 new chips in all.

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Posted 12/01/08 at 10:15:08 AM by Paul Lilly

Forget about chocolate, flowers, or diamonds, because the real buying decision come Valentine's Day will be what processor to indulge in. It's no stretch to say the entire tech world will remain infatuated with Intel's Core i7 platform by the time February rolls around, but Intel won't be the only one trying to woo consumers. According to DigiTimes, motherboard manufacturers are busy preparing for a sextuplet of 45nm quad-core AM3-based CPUs from AMD in February.

• Phenom II X4 710 (2.6GHz, 6MB L3 cache)
• Phenom II X4 720 (2.8GHz, 6MB L3 cache)
• Phenom II X4 805 (2.5GHz, 4MB L3 cache)
• Phenom II X4 810 (2.6GHz, 4MB L3 cache)
• Phenom II X4 910 (2.6GHz, 6MB L3 cache)
• Phenom II X4 925 (2.8GHz, 6MB L3 cache)

The same sources that have been whispering sweet-somethings to DigiTimes also say that AMD will follow up it's busy February release schedule with more 45nm CPUs in April, but they won't be Phenom parts. Instead, look for Athlon-branded chips without the shared L3 cache. Additionally, the chip maker plans to release the quad-core Athlon X4 600 family and tri-core Athlon X3 family at the same time. And if you can wait until June, sources say AMD will introduce it's 45nm dual-core Athlon X2 200 series.

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Posted 11/14/08 at 09:45:38 AM by Paul Lilly

AMD has released its new Shanghai platform, signaling a move to 45nm. The first chips out the door are quad-core Opteron parts, which AMD claims will deliver up to 35 percent more performance and up to a 35 percent decrease in power consumption when idle.

"This enhanced AMD Opteron processor represents the most dramatic performance and performance-per-watt increases for AMD products since the introduction of the world's first x86 dual-core processors nearly four years ago," Randy Allen, AMD senior VP for Computing Solutions Group, said in a statement. "Simply put, the quad-core AMD Opteron is the right technology at the right time."

Shanghai, which is essentially a refresh of Barcelona and not an entirely new architecture, supports DDR2-800 memory and comes with a tweaked Direct Connect Architecture. The current batch of 75-watt Shanghai chips will be followed up by a launch of 55-watt Opteron and an SE 105-watt part in Q1 2009. And according to CNet, a desktop platform (codenamed Dragon) consisting of 45nm Shanghai desktop CPUs along with AMD 700 series chipsets and ATI Radeon HD 4000 graphics will also see the light of day in the same time frame and attempt to compete with Intel's Core i7 platform.

Will Shanghai get AMD back on track? Hit the jump and give us your take.

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Posted 11/13/08 at 12:30:04 PM by Gordon Mah Ung

AMD will dub the 45nm die shrink of its consumer enthusiast CPU as Phenom II X4 and laid out plans for its first CPUs with integrated graphics core.

The Phenom II X4 is on tap for late this year and will follow the company’s smaller, faster 45nm Opteron chips. The new chip will feature 8MB of cache and support both DDR2 and DDR3 in the AM3 and AM2+ sockets. Phenom II X4 will be part of AMD’s “Dragon” platform that combines the new chip with DX10.1 graphics, the company’s new Stream GPU processing, OverDrive and Fusion for gaming utility.

AMD also announced plans for a 32nm family of chips as early as 2011. On the top end, a quad-core Orochi with 8MB of cache and DDR3 will hopefully keep enthusiasts happy. Orochi is part of AMD’s Bulldozer family that mysteriously disappeared from the company’s roadmap earlier this year. Until Orochi is available, the 45nm Phenom II X4, previously codenamed Deneb  will hopefully fight off Intel’s Core i7 chips.

The move to 32nm will also see the Llano chip. The CPU will feature four cores, 4MB of cache, DDR3 and an integrated graphics core. AMD, meanwhile, confirmed it would be taking on Intel’s Atom chip with its Conesus CPU next year. Conesus will be dual-core, feature 1MB of cache and DDR2. In 2010, Conesus will give way to Geneva which doubles the cache to 2MB.

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