intel

Haswell Notebooks to Hit Retail by End of the Month

Paul Lilly — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:57:50 +0000

A new generation of notebooks is right around the corner.

Generally speaking, there's always something newer, faster, and shinier in the pipeline, and if you keep waiting for the next best thing, you'll never upgrade. That said, when the stars align just right, every once in awhile it's worth waiting for something that's just around the corner, and this happens to be one of those times. Haswell is about to launch, and you may even see laptops based on Intel's next generation architecture by the end of May, which is when you'll want to start shopping if you can hold off until then.

If you're in the market for a new laptop and can survive with what you've got for few more weeks, you might as well hang tight and see what Haswell brings to the table. According to Digitimes, Haswell-based products have mostly shipped and should show up in retail in the coming weeks, though new models are likely to carry higher price tags that what's currently available. Whether or not the pricing premium will be worth the additional performance is something that will become clearer once Haswell actually ships, but even if you decide Haswell isn't for you, Haswell's launch could lead to price drops on current hardware and notebook models as vendors look to clear out inventory.

Despite Haswell making a debut, notebook ODMs aren't expecting a huge increase in shipments, at least not right away. Vendors are also looking at the situation conservatively and are refraining from ordering scores of units until they see how the market reacts.

One of the things we're looking forward to is seeing how well Haswell's integrated graphics perform. Intel says select SKUs of its Haswell line will sport Iris graphics, which promises up to twice the performance of today's fastest mobile Intel HD Graphics solutions.

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Intel Haswell Chip Cranked to 5GHz at Just 0.9V

Paul Lilly — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:40:07 +0000

How high can Intel's Core i7 4770K go?

When's the last time you saw a tablet or smartphone overclocked to 5GHz and beyond? The answer is "never" and it probably won't happen for a long, long time yet. On the desktop, well, that's an entirely different story. Not only are high overclocks common, but early looks at overclocking results on Intel's Haswell parts would indicate that the fun is just beginning, and you don't even need exotic cooling to participate.

An overclocker on Ocaholic.ch's forum posted screenshots that show his Intel Core i7 4770K processor running at 5005.83MHz (5GHz) on an ASRock Z87 Extreme4 motherboard. Ready for the best part? It only required 0.904V to achieve 5GHz!

It looks like he had to disable Hyper Threading to reach 5GHz, and it's not clear if it's a stable overclock or one that lasted just long enough to get a screen grab. Either way, it's pretty remarkable that he was able to get his Haswell chip to run at such a high speed with so little voltage.

Haswell is currently scheduled to launch on June 3rd at Computex.

Image Credit: ocaholic.ch (Validator)

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Zotac Slings an Intel Core i5 Processor Into Pint Sized Zbox

Paul Lilly — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:22:46 +0000

Small form factor (SFF) computing meets up with Ivy Bridge.

When you stop and think about it, the amount of power in some of today's mini PC systems is pretty amazing. Enter Zotac, a company that lives and breathes small form factor (SFF) systems under its Zbox line, which today it infused with an Intel Core i5 3470T processor. It's a respectable desktop part built around Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture with two processing cores clocked at 2.9GHz (3.6GHz via Turbo), 3MB of cache, and a rated max TDP of 35W -- plenty powerful enough for general purpose computing.

The Zbox ID89 with the above mentioned processor and ID88 with a Core i3 3220T chip are both the result of user feedback, Zotac claims.

"Users demanded the same performance as larger desktop PCs from our Zbox but the small size made it virtually impossible to deliver the same performance as desktop PCs. After many months of engineering and fine tuning, we came up with a solution that enables us to install desktop LGA1155 socket Intel Core i5 and i3 processors without sacrificing size, noise or power consumption that will make our end users very happy," says Carsten Berger, senior director, Zotac International.

The choice of processor and price are all that separate the ID89 and ID88, both of which support up to 16GB of DDR3-1600 memory via two SO-DIMM slots. Other features include a single 2.5-inch drive bay, 4-in-1 memory card reader, two GbE LAN ports, built-in WirelessN and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, eSATA, HDMI output, and a DVI port.

Both systems are also available in "Plus" SKUs, which come with 4GB of DDR3 memory and a 500GB HDD (5400 RPM) pre-installed. No word yet on how much these or the standard models cost.

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Intel Details Atom "Silvermont" Architecture

Paul Lilly — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:30:17 +0000

Silvermont is significantly different from Atom architectures that have preceded it.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Silvermont, the codename for the next generation of Intel's Atom line and the first in a family of yearly refreshes. Oh, and forget any preconceived notions you have about Atom, Silvermont is far different from the architecture found in your first or second generation notebook. It's a brand new design using Intel's 22nm 3D Tri-Gate SoC (System-on-Chip), which Intel claims will deliver "significant increases in performance and energy efficiency."

How significant? According to Intel, Silvermont can deliver 3x more peak performance or the same performance at 1/5th the power over current generation Atom parts. As a result of these improvements, Intel foresees Silvermont being used in a wide range of applications, including smartphones, tablets, microservers, network infrastructure, storage, entry level laptops, in-vehicle infotainment, and more.

"Silvermont is a leap forward and an entirely new technology foundation for the future that will address a broad range of products and market segments," said Dadi Perlmutter, Intel executive vice president and chief product officer. "Early sampling of our 22nm SoCs, including 'Bay Trail' and 'Avoton' is already garnering positive feedback from our customers. Going forward, we will accelerate future generations of this low-power microarchitecture on a yearly cadence."

This is the first time Intel has used its 22nm 3D Tri-Gate technology to build an SoC. Some highlights of Silvermont include a new out-of-order execution engine to improve single-threaded performance, a multi-core and system fabric architecture that's scalable up to eight cores, new IA instructions and technologies built on top of existing support for 64-bit, and enhanced power management capabilities, including a new intelligent burst technology and low power C states.

Intel provided release dates for a handful of Silvermont CPUs. They include:

Bay Trail: Quad-core processor for tablets, shipping holiday 2013.
Merrifield: Smartphone processor, shipping by the end of 2013.
Avoton: Microserver chip, shipping in the second half of this year.
Rangeley: Routers and other networking gear, shipping second half of this year.

Silvermont is Intel's first real attempt at competing in mobile markets. It will be interesting to see if Silvermont can live up to the hype.

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Enermax Posts List of PSUs Compatible with Haswell Processors

Paul Lilly — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:42:39 +0000

Not all power supplies will support Haswell's zero load design, Enermax says.

Intel's Haswell refresh is coming, and when it does, it will deliver better performance, much improved integrated graphics, and superior power efficiency that, according to Enermax, only a handful of power supplies are able to take advantage of. Enermax is referring to the new C6 and C7 states that are able to reduce CPU power consumption to a mere 0.05A. Some Ivy Bridge chips draw up to ten times more in a minimum power state.

According to Enermax, only power supplies that support ultra low loads will do that feature any good.

"The positive progress of the CPU technology is subject to certain restrictions, because only few power supplies will be able to deliver stable voltages at such low loads," Enermax says. "End users are therefore groping in the dark with no clues if their own power supply will be compatible with the new energy functions of Intel Haswell CPUs. PSU manufacturers usually do not state the possible minimum load of their products."

Let's be clear, this doesn't mean your current power supply won't work with a Haswell processor, Enermax is just saying that certain models may or may not be able to utilize the so-called zero load design. If a PSU isn't able to supply 0.05A on the +12V rail, then entering a C6 or C7 state could trigger Under Voltage Protection (UVP), in which case you'd probably need to jump in the BIOS and disable the C6/C7 function.

Enermax claims you won't have to worry about that on all of its PSUs dating back to the Revolution85+ Series released in 2008, which "deliver rock-stable voltages even at 0W load," and are therefore able to fully take advantage of Haswell. For a list of specific models, both old and new, just take a peek on Enermax's website.

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Intel's Iris Technology Will Get You Excited About Integrated Graphics

Paul Lilly — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:50:09 +0000

Select Haswell parts will feature Intel's supercharged Iris graphics.

Nobody brags about integrated graphics, and that's because there's not much there worthy of boast. That's fine, but if manufactures insist on pushing thin and light platforms on the masses and shrinking the desktop, then is it too much to ask for an integrated graphics solution that either (A) doesn't suck, or (B) is better than just serviceable? Intel doesn't think so, and its Iris graphics might be just what the market needs.

Intel Iris graphics will be available on select SKUs of the chip maker's 4th Generation Core processor line (Haswell) and will offer up to 2X the 3D performance of today's fastest mobile Intel HD Graphics solutions, the company claims.

If you frequently visit Maximum PC, you may have caught a glimpse of Iris before. It's the official name for GT3/GT3e, which we previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this year, and when we asked readers to guess which of the two side-by-side systems was running Iris and which was running a GeForce GT 650M, the responses were fairly split.

Performance aside, Iris supports three-screen collage display, enhanced 4K x 2K resolution, OpenCL 1.2, and a few other goodies. It also delivers faster video and photo editing, and offers support for Intel's Quick Sync Video technology.

Let's not kid though, it IS the performance we're most interested in, and according to Intel, Iris will have advanced integrated 3D performance in 3DMark06 by 75X since 2006. Pretty incredible. Furthermore, Intel says if consumers were to upgrade a four-year old notebook with a Core 2 Duo processor to a new Ultrabook with Iris inside (Core i5 4200U), they would experience a 25X faster graphics performance in games and 17X faster video conversions.

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Google Testing Haswell-powered Chromebook

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 01 May 2013 02:49:33 +0000

References to Haswell-powered Chromebook board found in Chromium OS code

Ultrabook vendors are not the only ones eagerly looking forward to Intel’s 22nm Haswell chip, scheduled to launch at Computex 2013 in June, as Chromebooks powered by Intel’s next-generation chip are also in the cards.

Chromestroy.com’s Dinsan Francis claims to have unearthed many references to a Chromebook board codenamed “Slippy” while sifting through Chromium OS code. When he delved deeper in search of more clues, Francis says, he discovered that Slippy is based on Intel’s next-generation Haswell chip.

Until very recently, Chromebooks mostly used low-power Atoms and Celerons — even a 1.7 GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos 5 SoC in one case — but the Google Chromebook Pixel bucked that trend when it debuted with a dual-core Core i5 3427U processor earlier this year. Combine this shift to more powerful processors with the fact that Haswell promises to help extend the battery life of notebooks significantly, the existence of Slippy is not surprising in the least.

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Column: Take the Socket Pledge With Me

Gordon Mah Ung — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:25:13 +0000

Looking at the future of CPU sockets

The Mainstream tech media declared the PC dead—yet again—and enthusiasts had a full-on freak-out when rumors surfaced that Intel intended to dump socketed processors within two years. You can read the details of the story here, but let it be known far and wide, Intel will support socketed processors for the “foreseeable future.” AMD, likewise, had already taken the pledge, saying it would be offering socketed CPUs, too.

To the casual observer, this may seem like a tempest in a land grid array. It’s not, of course—it’s really about our freedom to build the systems we want with as much price and performance granularity as we can get. Quite simply: We like our ability to choose what we want rather than having it dictated to us. Want to run a $60 motherboard with a $330 CPU? Go ahead. Planning to start your $350 board with a $100 CPU and eventually move up to a $330 part? That’s your decision to make on the PC today.

Intel's NUC features a CPU soldered on to its motherboard

That won’t be the case if the PC transitions to motherboards with fixed processors, as was rumored. Instead, motherboard companies would greatly pare down their inventories and offer just a handful of boards with integrated CPUs rather than dozens of CPU and motherboard choices. Let’s not even mention that if you ever had a problem with the motherboard, you’d have to toss the CPU with it. And who eats that cost? The mobo maker or the CPU maker?

Such a world would indeed signify that PC end times were nigh, so you can see why the nerd rage was flying.

So, what may really be happening? My guess: Intel is signaling an armistice in the performance arms race between the two x86 powers, as both companies concentrate on the real threat right now: tablets and mobile devices.

Rather than the end of interchangeable CPUs, it’s more likely an end to the brutal “tick-tock” strategy for desktops and laptops. Instead, the upgrade cycles could be stretched out from two years to three. Hardly the end of socketed CPUs.

Hell, for all I know, Intel may need to move to a new type of cartridge design à la the Pentium II’s SEC, so it can embed DRAM into the core or use some technique to increase memory bandwidth for the onboard GPU. I’ll also point out that soldered chips have been in use by AMD and Intel on desktops already—in extremely small form factor boxes.

We really don’t know what will happen in three to four years and, frankly, Intel probably doesn’t either. I do know that any path Intel and AMD take for the PC must include end-user upgradability of the CPU or both will suffer the wrath of their strongest supporters.

Intel Confirms Haswell Will Launch on June 3rd at Computex

Justin Kerr — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:08:00 +0000

A countdown begins for geeks, by geeks.

We all knew it was coming this summer, but now we also know it will only be 3,337,200,000,000,000 more nanoseconds until Haswell officially launches. Our back-of-the-envelope calculations align this countdown with Computex 2013, a show we fully expect to be dominated by Intel powered machines showing off the new architecture.

Numerous leaks have confirmed most of the parts Maximum PC readers will want to keep an eye on, but here it is again for reference:

Intel Core i5 4430: $197.86
Intel Core i5 4570: $213.69
Intel Core i5 4570S: $205.78
Intel Core i5 4670: $236.30
Intel core i5 4670K: $256.65
Intel Core i7 4770: $328.67
Intel Core i7 4770K: $368.07
Intel Core i7 4770S: $320.80

Haswells focus on battery life and GPU performance might make this tough upgrade to justify for desktop users who’ve already made the leap to Ivy Bridge, but that’s just the way the industry is moving these days. If you’re on the hunt for a new laptop however, or if you are still a few core generations behind, you might want to mark June 3rd on your calendar.

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Intel Atom-based Android Notebooks to Cost $200

Paul Lilly — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:21:11 +0000

Android will attack the low cost notebook market.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini recently said that touchscreen PCs could start selling for as little as $200 sometime in the next few months, though it's tough to imagine a Windows 8-based machine carrying such a low price tag. That's because they probably won't. Instead of Windows 8, most of these affordable PCs will be laptop machines built around Google's open source Android platform.

That information comes straight from Dadi Perlmutter, Intel executive vice president and chief product officer, who told CNET that the $200 Android laptops will run mobile Atom hardware inside. The question is, will Microsoft try to compete with Android in the $200 space?

"We have a good technology that enables a very cost-effective price point," Perlmutter told CNET, adding that whether or not Windows 8 PCs will go that low ultimately "depends on how Microsoft prices Windows 8." Perlmutter's hunch is that they'll be slightly higher.

As to the Android notebooks, details are nearly non-existent at this point, though it's likely they'll take advantage of the convertible form factor so they can be used as either a laptop or tablet, as user needs dictate.

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Intel Wants to Tweak the All-in-One Form Factor for Portability

Paul Lilly — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:48:30 +0000

Even all-in-one systems are getting a new look.

Windows 8 is giving birth to all kinds of new designs, especially in mobile, where notebooks and tablets are blending into hybrid devices that can function as either one. But it's not only laptops and slates that are starting to look different. Intel is reportedly pushing PC makers to build adaptive all-in-one systems with internal batteries so that users can tote them from place to place.

News of Intel's desire for a new kind of AIO comes from Digitimes, which itself is hearing about this from sources within the upstream supply chain. By tweaking the design for semi-portability, Intel hopes it can boost AIO PC sales in 2013 to triple the number sold in 2008.

The new adaptive AIO PCs will feature high-end components and large-size panels anywhere from 18.4 inches to 27 inches. It's hard to imagine someone carrying around a 27-inch AIO, though it's not necessarily about taking these things on a train or bus across town, it's also about being able to lay flat to take advantage of table top computing. We suppose the idea is that when you're done with work, you can plop the AIO on the living room table and play games with the kids, or something like that.

Some of these designs already exist, such as Sony's Vaio Tap 20, Dell's XPS 18, and Lenovo's Horizon Tablet PC, Digitimes says.

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Intel Plans to Push Atom Prices Down Further to Compete With Arm

Justin Kerr — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 02:46:08 +0000

Intel refuses to surrender the lower-end of the market.

Years ago AMD was putting pressure on Intel to continue innovating on the high end, but fast forwarded to 2013 and Intel is the last man standing. The new war is in ultra-low powered chips, and the company is years behind. Intel’s response to ARM was the ATOM series of processors, but they were stuck trying to power a heavy and bloated Microsoft OS, while ARM had custom designed operating systems that extended battery life, and created an entirely new market. This year the two companies are destined to meet in the middle, and it will be a pivotal moment in the history of computing. Intel has announced its plans to compete with the current crop of dirt cheap ARM based devices, and to the winner goes the spoils.

Intel’s decision to take on the low end market isn’t without precedent, but it’s also a moving target. The price point for computing has been falling faster than industry costs, and now the company finds itself scrapping with the competition for a low margin market they aren’t even sure they want. Outgoing CEO Paul Otellini understands the value of winning against ARM, but it remains to be seen if his successor shares his passion.

Microsoft announced last Thursday that small inexpensive form factor PC’s are part of its strategy, so it's likely Intel is just embracing the ever shifting winds of technological change. "We are...working closely with [PC makers] on a new suite of small touch devices powered by Windows. These devices will have competitive price points, partly enabled by our latest OEM offerings designed specifically for these smaller devices, and will be available in the coming months," Microsoft's chief financial officer, Peter Klein, said during the company's earnings call.

Either way it sounds like $200 Android powered Intel tablets are a strong possibility this year, with $250/$300 Windows 8 based versions not far behind. Will they be a fad like Netbooks? Or are these the devices everyone has been waiting for?

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Raspberry Pi vs. Intel NUC

Gordon Mah Ung — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:50:37 +0000

Raspberry Pi vs. Intel NUC

The unique $35 Raspberry Pi computer set the PC world on its ear last year. Part computer science project and part incredibly cheap PC, the DIY single-board computer is such a hot item, some retailers are charging double what the unit originally cost. Of course, where there’s money, there’s Intel. The chip giant has formally introduced its $320 “Next Unit of Computing,” or NUC, PC concept—basically a bare-bones, hobbyist kit PC. While this is admittedly an apple–to-orange comparison in many respects, we felt that hobbyists deserve to see an accounting of the pros and cons of each in a head-on fight.

Round 1: Size

Intel’s NUC is built around an amazingly small 4x4x2-inch chassis that Intel is hoping to make the standard for subminiature-but-powerful PCs. The NUC isn’t the first we’ve seen this small, though. The Zotac Nano XS is slightly thinner than the NUC, by about half an inch, and VIA has its Pico-ITX boards. Of course, the Raspberry Pi has them all beat. It comes as a single-board computer at just over 2x3 inches for the whole package.

Winner: Raspberry Pi

Other single-board computers have been available, so the Raspberry Pi’s real breakthrough is its $35 price, making it exceedingly accessible for experimentation.

Round 2: Pricing

Intel’s Ivy Bridge chips have been amazingly lean on power consumption for the high-performance x86 chips they are. The NUC ships with a 65-watt power brick, and the dual-core Hyper-Threaded Core i3 is rated at 17 watts. Pretty impressive for an x86. However, when you consider that the Raspberry Pi can run off your cell phone charger (provided it puts out 700mA), Ivy Bridge and even the next-gen Haswell are unlikely to ever compete with the Pi in the power- consumption game.

Winner: Raspberry Pi

Round 3: Applications

We don’t mean applications as in specific apps, but the possible uses for these wee PCs. The NUC can be used as an HTPC, a mini Big Picture Steam Box, or slung behind a monitor to create an almost-all-in-one. The Raspberry Pi, on the other hand, is the perfect hobbyist machine for students and tinkerers young and old. It’s being used to run everything from MAME cabinets to controlling quad-copter drones. As a device intended to introduce folks on super-tight budgets to computing concepts and programming, the Raspberry Pi is a win no matter how you cut it. However, Intel’s NUC is also quite superb at what it’s meant for. With its included VESA-mount adapter, it can be used in signage applications and is basically an incredibly powerful small machine.

Winner: Tie

Round 4: Specsmanship

At $35, the Raspberry Pi is pretty low-powered. As a desktop UI, for example, it’s not exactly something you want to push regularly, with its 700MHz Broadcom ARM 11 CPU, 256MB of RAM, HDMI, and LAN and USB support. The NUC, on the other hand, is like everything Intel does: a tour de force of specs and hardware. The NUC we have here packs a 1.8GHz dual-core, Hyper-Threaded Core i3 chip and has Mini PCI Express slots to run an mSATA SSD and wireless card. With its HD4000 graphics, the box is capable of reasonable gaming with older titles, too. Hell, our version even packs that new-fangled ultra-fast Thunderbolt port. This round is an easy win for the NUC.

Winner: NUC

Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC) is meant to spur interesting and unique uses for Intel hardware.

Round 5: Performance

Again, there’s no debating this. The NUC’s size isn’t really exciting, but its performance is. Most mini PCs have been based on VIA’s CPUs, which aren’t exactly speed kings, or AMD’s Brazos chips, which don’t light any fires themselves. The NUC is really fast for its class. The Raspberry Pi, while incredibly cool for $35, isn’t something we’d be happy pushing all day. Yes, it can run a desktop OS, and yes, it can stream some media, but would you really want it to? The answer is no.

And the Winner Is…

The fact is, both are winners. OK, now quit your bitching; we honestly wouldn’t feel right if we called this for one or the other. We think the Intel NUC is a freaking-cool little box and we can imagine it at the heart of several projects around the house and car. At the same time, the Raspberry Pi has so much charm and the price is so damned good (that’s the Raspberry Pi’s real breakthrough, you know) that there’s no reason not to buy one or two of these bare-bones kits to experiment with. So maybe those of you who thought these two devices couldn’t be compared were right.

Puget Systems Silences Genesis II Dual Xeon Workstation

Paul Lilly — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:49:26 +0000

Cool, quiet, and fully loaded.

Boutique builder Puget Systems put its penchant for building whisper quiet PCs to the test by attempting to silence its Genesis II workstation featuring a pair of Intel Xeon E5 processors. No small task considering the system's waving around some high-end hardware, though Puget claims it was successful in piecing together what it considers the "most powerful quiet PC" it's ever built.

Pricing starts at a little under $2,500 for a system that includes two Xeon E5-2603 processors, 16GB of DDR3-1600 ECC RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT 610 graphics card, 500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue hard drive, 24X DVD burner, and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. It's cooled by quiet versions of Geild's Tranquillo coolers. Higher end components are available, if your budget allows.

Puget also upgraded the cooling scheme on their standard Genesis II from a closed loop liquid cooler with a 120mm radiator per CPU to now using a pair of 140mm radiators per CPU. To give an idea of well it cools, Puget says temps maxed out at just 45C when testing a configuration consisting of two 135W Xeon CPUs, 128GB memory, multiple hard drives, and a GeForce GTX 680 graphics card.

"The all new Genesis II Quiet Edition is the result of iterative testing of dozens of component combinations and configurations, making heavy use of thermal imaging to ensure the workstation is extremely well cooled, and quiet," Puget says.

The Genesis II Quiet Edition is available to configure and order now.

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Intel Reports a $2 Billion Profit During Paul Otellini's Last Full Quarter as CEO

Paul Lilly — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 22:00:35 +0000

The sky didn't fall far for Intel, which met its revenue target for Q1.

Analysts can crow all they want about how the PC market is disintegrating, the world's largest semiconductor player still made a killing. We're of course referring to Intel, which today posted first quarter revenue of $12.6 billion, operating income of $2.5 billion, and net income of $2 billion. All of those are down to some extent, but how many businesses would jump at the chance to switch places with Intel?

"Amidst market softness, Intel performed well in the first quarter and I'm excited about what lies ahead for the company," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "We shipped our next generation PC microprocessors, introduced a new family of products for micro-servers and will ship our new tablet and smartphone microprocessors this quarter. We are working with our customers to introduce innovative new products across multiple operating systems. The transition to 14nm technology this year will significantly increase the value provided by Intel architecture and process technology for our customers and in the marketplace."

Intel's financial report comes just days after market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) said global PC shipments suffered the worst year-on-year decline since it began tracking the PC market in 1994. And yes, a slowdown in system sales did affect Intel, but not as much some might have thought.

The Santa Clara chip maker's PC Client Group revenue totaled $8 billion for the quarter, down 6.6 percent sequentially and down 6 percent year-over year. Meanwhile, Intel's Data Center Group added another $2.6 billion, which is down 6.9 percent sequentially but up 7.5 percent year over year.

Intel could have done better, but still, it's not a bad way to go out for Otellini, who plans to retire as chief next month. Intel's Board of Directors hasn't found a replacement yet, but whoever it ends up being, he or she will have the immediate task of navigating Intel back in a positive direction in a market place that's now heavily dominated by mobile devices.

So long, Otellni, and thanks for the chips.

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