Intel and AMD know a thing or three about processors, and between the two, there's barely any room left over in the desktop market for competing players. In the mobile handset and tablet sectors, however, both chip giants play second fiddle to ARM, which rules the mobile roost with low power processors. The reason for this is simple: ARM processors are cheaper.
With all the focus on mobile chips and as-yet-unreleased Ivy Bridge and Trinity processors, sometimes it's easy to lose sight of the fact that, you know, there are already a ton of processors out there for you to choose from. That number recently increased by two, as AMD quietly rolled out a pair of new Athlon II X4 CPUs, otherwise known as "Llano chips without integrated graphics."
Some interesting revelations are coming out of the court battle between Hewlett-Packard and Oracle. At issue is Oracle's decision to stop supporting Intel's Itanium platform based on claims the processors are nearing end-of-life (EOL) status, the timing of which is suspect. Oracle made the decision to ditch Itanium after hiring former HP CEO Mark Hurd, which itself prompted a legal battle and subsequent settlement. Not long after, Oracle said it was ditching Itanium, HP cried foul, and a big legal mess ensued. Some of it was resolved last night.
Intel updated its processor price list on Sunday. While nothing seems to have changed where the prices of existing chips are concerned, a careful look at the updated list reveals that it contains as many as seven new Sandy Bridge processors. Hit the jump for more.
Boutique system builder CyberPowerPC claims it's the first U.S. computer manufacturer to offer Intel's 
Most 'welcome back' parties entail a gathering of friends, loud music, some streamers, and a few drinks. Cake is optional, though encouraged. Tilera Corporation had something else in mind when it welcomed back company co-founder Davesh Garg, who rejoins the outfit as its chief executive officer. Tilera celebrated by timing the announcement of two of its low-power, high-performance 64-bit processors, the 36-core TILE-Gx36 and the 16-core TILE-Gx16, to coincide with his return.
Nvidia may give Ultrabooks a major shot in the arm. The GPU maker is reportedly working on a version of Kepler designed specifically for Intel's new form factor for notebooks, which is great news if integrated graphics tend to make you sad. Details are fairly scarce, but the idea of a discrete next-generation GPU nestled inside a slim Ultrabook is certainly an intriguing proposition.
Those of you holding out to build a low cost system around Intel's Ivy Bridge platform will have to sit through an intial wave of quad-core processors before the dual-core variants are released. Intel is reportedly kicking off Ivy Bridge on or around April 8, 2012, with the launch of the core i7 3920XM, 3829M, and 3720QM, along with the HM77, UM77, HM76, and HM75 chipsets.Connect with MaximumPC
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