Posted 09/05/08 at 12:06:07 PM by Paul Lilly

It appears AMD will tag upcoming Phenom processors with the FX nomenclature the company has used in the past. You might recall AMD's Athlon FX line sported both higher clockspeeds and an unlocked multiplier while carrying a premium price tag.

Not much is known about the upcoming Phenom FX line, but it's believed the new processors will be basaed on the Deneb FX core with four processing engines, shared L3 cache, and built on a 45nm process. TomsHardware reports the Phenom FX line will make a debut in mid-2009 on AMD's new AM3 socket platform. Whether or not AM2 platform owners will be left out in the cold remains to be seen, but AMD has previously stated that AM3 processors will work in AM2 sockets.

Pricing has yet to be revealed, and traditionally AMD's FX CPUs have held the upper end of the pricing spectrum. But at the same time, even AMD's current 'Black Edition' processors, which also boast an unlocked multiplier, don't break the bank. The company's flagship Phenom 9950 Black Edition commands less than $200 on Newegg.

Predictions for Phenom FX?

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amd, cpu, processor, AM2, Phenom, build a pc, fx, am3

Posted 09/04/08 at 02:38:12 PM by Paul Lilly

AMD, the one company in a position to give Intel a run for its money, has seen just how hard it is to keep up. Ever since Intel woke up from its Netburst slumber, the mostly two-man CPU market has been dominated by Intel and its Core 2 architecture, and that doesn't look to change any time soon. Is there room for another contender?

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Computing Technology are talking about a new microprocessor they hope will make major headway in China by 2010. Backed by government funding, the chip was developed by more than 200 researchers.

"Twenty years ago in China, we didn't support R&D for microprocessors," said Zhiewi Xu, deputy director of ICT. "The decision makers and IT community have come to realize that CPUs are important."

China knows its getting a late start, but this isn't brand new territory for ICT. The group first began designing a single-core chip back in 2001, with Godson-1, China's first general purpose CPU, making a debut one year later. Now in its third iteration, engineers have added 200 additional instructions to Godson-3 to simulate a x86 chip, which will allow it to run more software than either of its predecessors.

It's worth noting that China's goal with the new processor isn't to take down Intel, a Herculean task by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, Tom Halfhill, an analyst at research firm In-Stat and Maximum PC magazine columnist, points out that "China wants to be independent. They don't want to be dependent on outside countries for critical technologies like microprocessors, which are, nowadays, a fundamental commodity."

Should Intel be worried?

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Posted 09/04/08 at 10:54:29 AM by Paul Lilly

On September 15th, Intel is expected to unveil its Xeon 7400 series Dunnington processor. What makes the server chip so special is it will be the first six-core processor, and likely the last Penryn to make a debut before the Nehalem microarchitecture takes over starting with the Core i7.

In another first, Dunnington will be the first Intel chip to sport a monolithic design, meaning all six cores will come on once slice of silicon. By contrast, the Core 2 Quad and four-core Xeon processors to date integrate two dual-core chips in a single package.

In addition to having six cores, the server market hopes to get big performance gains from the large 16MB of shared L3 cache. According to Intel senior vice president Pat Gelsinger, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell will have product announcements related to the Xeon 7400 series in September.

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intel, cpu, processor, Dunnington, build a pc, rumor, six-core, xeon 7400

Posted 09/03/08 at 10:10:54 AM by Paul Lilly

For the AMD faithful not quite ready to step up to quad-core processing, AMD this week will start adding to its triple-core lineup. The new processors are based on AMD's Toliman core.

• Phenom X3 8750 (2.5GHz, 95W)
• Phenom X3 8550 (2.2GHz, 95W)
• Phenom X3 8450e (2.1GHz, 65W)

Note the 'e' designation in the last processor, which will represent AMD's new lower wattage CPUs. The X3 8450e will be the first 65W tri-core out of the gates, followed by the Phenom X3 8250e (1.9GHz, 65W).

Astute readers might also notice that the Phenom X3 8750 is incorrectly clocked at 2.5GHz instead of 2.4GHz. That's not a typo, and according to TomsHardware, AMD plans to bump up the clockspeed by 100MHz. Not only that, but THW says the flagship tri-core CPU will sport an unlocked multiplier. Oddly enough, the site also reports AMD will release a Phenom X3 8850 clocked at 2.5GHz this October, with an unlocked version to follow in December. Go figure.

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Posted 09/02/08 at 10:32:30 AM by Paul Lilly

Has the time come to say goodbye to Abit? According to Hexus.net, the Taiwanese technology company and one-time enthusiast favorite will exit the motherboard market at the end of 2008.

"HEXUS.channel has confirmed this as fact from sources close to South East Asian distributors," the news and review site writes. "all of which will be notified by their Abit sales contacts from today onwards."

This isn't the first time Abit has been rumored to shut down or leave motherboards behind. Faced with bankruptcy, Abit was acquired by Taiwanese manufacturer  Universal Scientific International (USI) back in May of 2006, and rumors this past year of Abit's demise swirled so strongly that the company issued a public denial.

Old school enthusiasts might recall Abit as one of the premier motherboard makers geared towards overclockers, a reputation which arguably took a hit when the company inked a deal to sell Fatal1ty branded products just months before the acquisition. For fans both old and new, Hexus reports Abill will honor RMAs and warranties for three years subsequently.

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Posted 09/02/08 at 10:10:29 AM by Paul Lilly

With Nehalem Core i7 nearing release, that means you can expect to find good deals on what's soon to be last generation hardware. But if you're looking to jump onto the Core 2 bandwagon on the cheap, you needn't wait for Core i7. Intel has updated its processor pricing list and added a new Celeron D model.

Taking its place as the second least expensive quad-core processor in Intel's lineup is the 45nm Q8200 priced at $224 (only the Q6600 costs less). Two and a quarter C-notes buys you four 2.33GHz cores running on a 1333MHz frontside-bus, but only 4MB of L2 cache.

For those content with two cores, the 45nm E5200 priced at $84 is now the least expensive Core 2 Duo processor in Intel's lineup. The E5200 comes clocked at 2.5GHz on an 800MHz frontside-bus with 2MB L2 cache.

And finally, making its debut is the Celeron D 450. Priced at a low $53, the 65nm 450 runs at 2.2GHz on an 800MHz frontside-bus with 512K of L2 cache.

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Posted 09/01/08 at 12:23:24 PM by Paul Lilly

The past few months we've watched SSDs gain momentum and attract the focus of both manufacturers and consumers. From larger capacities to faster performance, traditional hard drives suddenly find themselves on the verge of obsolesence. Or do they?

One of the biggest concerns surrounding SSDs continues to be long-term reliability, but there might even be a bigger stumbling block. Because many SSDs use industry-standard NAND flash chips designed for handheld gadgets, physical security becomes a potential issue. Jim Handy, director of semiconductor research and consulting firm Objective Analysis, points out there's nothing to prevent a hacker from unsoldering NAND chips from an SSD and extracting the data using a flash chip programmer. "There's really nothing sophisticated about this process," Handy said.

But that's not the only method. A hacker could use an ultraviolet laser to wipe out lock bits (encryption locks) from fuses on chip that secure SSDs. The data can then be read without any special software.

Is Jim Handy right to be concerned? Hit the jump to post your thoughts.

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Security, consumer electronics, ssd, solid state drive, build a pc

Posted 08/29/08 at 11:44:31 AM by Paul Lilly

Intel fans be polite and stifle those snickers, but at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, members of AwardFabrik.de managed to breach 4GHz on an AMD Phenom 9950 processor using liquid nitrogen cooling. Not without controversy, the feat failed to pass CPU-Z's validation.

Running at precisely 3952MHz, the team recorded a 19.954 second SuperPi 1M time, setting a new record for AMD processors. Other hardware used in the endeavor included a Foxconn A79-S motherboard and an OCZ 1KW power supply.

On a related side note, SuperPi may find itself being replaced as processor technology moves forward. While the world record for AMD CPUs now sits at just under 20 seconds, the record for an Intel processor is 7.14 seconds using an E8600 overclocked to 6376MHz, leaving little headroom for future record breaking attempts.

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amd, cpu, processor, overclock, build a pc, 4GHz