Posted 07/03/09 at 09:04:37 AM by Paul Lilly

AMD has its head in the cloud, and that may not be such a bad thing. The chip maker this week released another Opteron 1000 Series processor, codenamed Suzuka, with performance per watt and compatibility taking center stage.

"The flexibility of four cores and a low-cost infrastructure gives customers an edge when designing for a cost-effective or power-efficient platform," John Freuhe, director of business development for server and workstation products at AMD, wrote in a blog post.

Suzuka, which was designed for cloud computing, Web servers, small business servers, and other applications where lower power consumption is the primary focus, runs at 2.9GHz with 6MB of cache. And because Suzuka is based on the same core as Shanghai, existing AM2 platforms should only need a BIOS update to run the chip.

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amd, server, cpu, processor, hardware, Opteron, quad-core, build a pc, cloud computing, power management, suzuka

Posted 06/30/09 at 05:29:53 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Jonathan Heiliger, vp of technical operations at Facebook, came down heavily on chip manufacturers Intel, AMD for making tall claims about server chips that eventually don’t live up to the hype. He was speaking at the Structure 09 conference in San Francisco.

 "The performance gains they are touting in the press, we are not seeing in our applications. We are literally in real-time trying to figure out why that is and if there are optimizations that we can do. Otherwise, we are kind of left with current-generation technology and current-generation scale," he said during a Q&A session involving GigaOM’s founder Om Malik.

He said companies like Facebook and Amazon require their servers to be both power-efficient and affordable. Heiliger also commended Google for its server-designing prowess.

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amd, intel, server, cpu, Google, facebook, performance

Posted 06/29/09 at 10:30:04 AM by Paul Lilly

Intel appears to have hit a groove with its 32nm Clarkdale processors. Earlier this month, motherboard makers with the inside scoop reported that Intel had decided to axe its 45nm Havendale chips in favor of pushing 32nm Clarkdale chips in the first quarter of 2010. Those same sources are now saying Intel will begin mass-producing its 32nm chips in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Getting off to a big start, the company's 32nm Clarkdale processors are expected to account for 10 percent of Intel's total OEM desktop CPU shipments in Q4. By 2010, Intel expects that number to double to 20 percent.

Meanwhile, AMD is still looking to ramp up production in the middle of 2010 with mass production not expected until Q4 of next year, potentially putting Intel a year ahead of the No.2 chip maker.

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intel, cpu, processor, hardware, build a pc, 32nm, clarkdale

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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intel, cpu, processor, 45nm, manufacturing process, havendale, 32nm, clarksdale

Posted 06/18/09 at 10:00:37 AM by Paul Lilly

By Intel's own admission, the chip maker's Core brand has a "mind boggling array of derivatives," a problem the company plans to solve by rebranding chips and simplifying its Core lineup. Going forward, the Core family will fall into one of three tiers: Core i3 (entry-level), Core i5 (mid-level), and Core i7 (high-level).

"It is important to note that these are not brands but modifiers to the Intel Core brand that signal different features and benefits," spokesman Bill Cader wrote in a post on Intel's website.

Cader went on to say that Intel's upcoming Lynnfield processors will be labeled as either Core i5 or Core i7 depending upon the feature-set and capability. Meanwhile, Clarksfield (mobile) will have the Intel Core i7 name, Cader wrote.

"In the back half of this year you'll begin to see Core i5 and more Core i7s coming to market," said Deborah Conrad, vice president and director of corporate marketing at Intel. "Then by the first part of next year you'll begin to see Core i3, and i5, i7. Then the old names will get retired as those products get phased out."

Intel's upcoming 32nm Arrandale (mobile) will initially fall under Core i3, but will later spread to both Core i5 and i7. Celeron will still exist as a brand for entry-level computing at affordable price points, Pentium for basic computing, and Intel's Atom nomenclature isn't going anywhere. However, the Centrino moniker will be phased out as a PC brand and instead be used as a name for WiFi and WiMAX products.

That's not mind boggling at all, now is it?

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Posted 06/16/09 at 04:00:10 PM by Paul Lilly

Intel co-founder Gordon Moore once predicted that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every 18 to 24 months, a prediction which has been famously dubbed Moore's Law. But according to market research firm iSuppli, the move to 18nm will signal the end of Moore's Law.

"The usable limit for semiconductor process technology will be reached when chip process geometries shrink to be smaller than 20nm, to 18nm nodes," said Len Jelinek, director and chief analyst, semiconductor manufacturing, for iSuppli. "At those nodes, the industry will start getting to the point where semiconductor manufacturing tools are too expensive to depreciate with volume production, i.e., their costs will be so high, that the value of their lifetime productivity can never justify it."

So when exactly will it happen? According to iSupply, in the year 2014. In 2007, Gordon Moore said his prediction could be upheld for at least another decade. Five years from now, one of them is going to be wrong.

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Posted 06/16/09 at 10:30:06 AM by Paul Lilly

Intel might officially scoff at the thought of OEMs shoving Core i7 processors and X58 chipets into full fledged desktop replacement notebooks, but that hasn't stopped a handful of system builders from doing so anyway. The latest to enter the 'mobile' Core i7 fray is CyberPower, which today introduced its Xtreme S1 notebook.

Available in a variety of configurations, the base model includes an Intel Core i7 920 (2.66GHz) processor, Intel's X58 chipset, 6GB of DDR3-1066 memory, Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M graphics with a 1GB frame buffer, 320GB hard drive sputtering along at 5400RPM (7200RPM and SSD options available), and 8X DVD burner all wrapped in a 17-inch package with a 1920x1200 resolution LCD display.

The Xtreme S1 is available now starting at $2,335 (Protip: Enter coupon code 'INSTANT' for 5 percent off).

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Posted 06/15/09 at 07:56:58 AM by Paul Lilly

Citing un-named sources at motherboard makers, news site DigiTimes says Intel plans on releasing a bevy of new processors before the year is up, including another Core i7 chip. Specifically, Intel will launch the Core i7 960, a 3.2GHz part, in the fourth quarter. If true, this would fly in the face of lingering rumors that Intel plans on riding into the Core i7 sunset with only the 975 Extreme and upcoming 6-core Nehalem, while discontinuing everything else.

In addition to the Core i7 960 part, Intel will also launch a bunch of Celeron chips, including a new 45nm Celeron E3000 series aimed at the entry-level market. Intended to replace the existing Celeron E1000 series, the 3000 series will initially consist of the E3200 (2.4GHz) and E3300 (2.5GHz), with each one sporting 1MB of L2 cache, an 800MHz frontside bus, and a 65W TDP.

And finally, a pair of new Atom chips is expected for early 2010. These will include the single-core Atom D410 and dual-core Atom D510.

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intel, cpu, processor, hardware, build a pc, core i7