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Nehalem posts

NVIDIA halting chipset development after all

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Oct 8th 2009 at 1:46PM

It's been about two months since NVIDIA called rumors that it was leaving the chipset business "groundless," so perhaps it's no big shock that PC Magazine is now reporting that the company is putting its nForce chipset line "on hiatus." On hiatus, that is, until the company gets a few sticky legal questions out of the way, including whether or not its four-year deal with Intel covers Core i7 processors. Thus we have the delicate line that NVIDIA walks with Intel: for the time being, the two companies need each other, but they don't have to like each other, and as the latter continues to pursue graphics integration with the CPU, manufacturers are going to be increasingly pushed towards all-Intel solutions. All this leads us to wonder if NVIDIA might decide chipsets in general are more trouble than they're worth, especially considering Intel's general attitude about them -- and whether ION might be the next on the block.

Update: We've just received an email from NVIDIA's Ken Brown that sheds a little light on the matter. It reads, in part: "[B]ecause of Intel's improper claims to customers and the market that we aren't licensed to the new DMI bus and its unfair business tactics, it is effectively impossible for us to market chipsets for future CPUs. So, until we resolve this matter in court next year, we'll postpone further chipset investments for Intel DMI CPUs." Fair enough. Peep it for yourself after the break.

Continue reading NVIDIA halting chipset development after all

Intel announces quad-core Core i7 Extreme and Core i7 for laptops (update: now with reviews!)

by Nilay Patel posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 12:20PM

As expected, Intel just announced its Clarksfield laptop chips, bringing Core i7 to the laptop form factor. There'll be three chips, two regular quad-cores and a Core i7 Extreme that can run as fast as 3.2GHz in Turbo mode, which selectively shuts off cores and uses the extra power to speed up the remaining cores while preserving battery life. The parts were demoed working in shipping-ready form on stage, but pricing and availability weren't mentioned -- we'll let you know what we can dig up.

Read - Intel's Core i7 Mobile press release
Read - HotHardware's Core i7 Mobile review
Read - LegitReviews' Core i7 Mobile review
Read - Laptop Mag's Core i7 Mobile laptop review

Continue reading Intel announces quad-core Core i7 Extreme and Core i7 for laptops (update: now with reviews!)

Intel Core i5 750 reportedly arriving September 6, bringing Core i7 friends

by Vladislav Savov posted Jul 21st 2009 at 6:32PM

Presumably, Intel has been holding back its Core i5 CPUs in an effort not to cannibalize the prodigious success of its Core 2 line, but the chips had to come out of the oven at some point. If Chinese sources are to be believed, that time could be early this September. As detailed above, the i5 mainstream offerings will start at 2.66GHz (Core i5-750), alongside two additions to the Core i7 family, the 860 (2.8GHz) and 870 (2.93GHz). The new parts are highlighted by 8MB of cache and Turbo Boost -- Intel's auto-overclocking system that speeds things up when your cooling allows it. Click through for another slide detailing Clarkdale plans for 2010, which seem to agree with earlier rumors on the subject. Mmm, fresh silicon.

[Via Slashgear]

Continue reading Intel Core i5 750 reportedly arriving September 6, bringing Core i7 friends

Intel's Core i7 'Clarksfield' CPUs for laptops launching late September?

by Thomas Ricker posted Jul 13th 2009 at 6:53AM

Taiwanese rumor-rag, DigiTimes, has a knack for sniffing out insider information from within Taiwan's MoBo manufacturing cartel. So it's worth paying attention when it claims to have the latest launch schedule for Intel CPUs. Up first is a trio of laptop-based Clarksfield CPUs -- 2GHz Core 2 Extreme XE, 1.73GHz Core 2 Quad P2, and a 1.6GHz Core 2 Quad P1 –- ready to make their debut sometime around the end of September or October. These processors should carry the Core i7 brand to keep things as ~~confusing~~ simple as possible and would be a suitable match for a Q4 refresh of the MacBook Pro or Dell XPS laptop, for example. At the low end of the rumored schedule are a pair of Celeron SU2300 and Celeron 743 CPUs for ultra-thin laptops with an expected announcement coming at the end of September. Intel's also pegged with plans for desktop-based Lynnfield CPUs and P55 chipsets to be announced between September 8-11. The first announcement is set for early August -- if Intel starts making a fuss about its new Xeon procs for servers at that time then we'll have a pretty good idea as to the validity of DigiTimes' claims.

Six-core Intel Nehalem processors in the works?

by Nilay Patel posted Jun 11th 2009 at 3:39PM

It's a bit of a whisper on the wind, but bit-tech says Intel's got six-core Nehalem processors in the works for later this year. The chips are said to be compatible with existing Nehalem mobos, so you crazy builders out there will be able to just drop it in and go. If you've got the scratch, of course -- pricing hasn't been revealed, but we'd expect the new part to be more expensive than the quad-core Core i7 975, which runs about a grand.

[Via TrustedReviews]

Intel's new Nehalem-EX CPUs rock servers with eight cores, 16 threads, infinite sex appeal

by Tim Stevens posted May 27th 2009 at 8:06AM

What's that, you have an array of six-core CPUs in your rack? That is so last year. You're going to feel pretty foolish when all the cool admins start popping eight-core chips up in their closets this fall. That's the number on offer in Intel's latest, the Nehalem-EX. It's an evolution of the architecture that some of you may be spinning in your Core i7 machines, but boosted to support up to 16 threads and 24MB of cache. 2.3 billion transistors make the magic happen here, and Intel is pledging a nine-times improvement in memory bandwidth over the Xeon 7400. Chips are set to start hitting sockets sometime later this year, and while nobody's talking prices, staying hip in the enterprise server CPU crowd doesn't come cheap.

How would you change Apple's Nehalem-based Mac Pro?

by Darren Murph posted May 9th 2009 at 12:41AM

Apple's freshest Mac Pro, which was the first machine of any kind to ship with Intel's newest Nehalem-based Xeon processors, has been on the block for a few months now. By our estimation, that's plenty of time for the pros (and "prosumers," if you will) to get a good feel of their new workstation. Design wise, not a lot has changed in the machine, but we're anxious to know how you feel about the more subtle changes as well as the internal overhauling. Apple's charging a small fortune for this bad boy, so we fully expect you to be critical here. What's it missing? What should've been included? Are you still bitter that WiFi is a $50 option on a multi-thousand dollar machine? Sound off below!

Intel's Xeon 3500, 5500 series officially unveiled for servers and workstations

by Ross Miller posted Mar 30th 2009 at 8:44PM

Intel's announced this week its latest batch of Nehalem-based Xeon processors, the single-socket 3500 and dual-socket 5500 series for servers and workstations. Both models boast speeds up to 3.2 GHz and feature Intel's turbo boost, hyper-threading, and virtualization technologies, as well as integrated power gates. If you've got the newest Mac Pro, however, then you're already using the new quad-core CPUs,, but for everyone else, they're now being sold en masse to manufacturers at a price ranging from $188 to $1,600 for the Xeon 5500 and $284 to $999 for the 3500. We've already heard about 5500 / 3500-equipped Lenovo and Dell workstations, but if that doesn't suit you, Intel promises over 230 systems are in the pipeline from companies such as Cisco, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, among others.

Gallery: Intel's Xeon 3500, 5500 series officially unveiled for servers and workstations

NVIDIA sues Intel right back over Nehalem chipset licensing

by Nilay Patel posted Mar 27th 2009 at 11:29AM

Looks like the NVIDIA and Intel's lawsuit over Nehalem chipset licensing is heating up -- NVIDIA's filed a countersuit seeking to terminate Intel's licenses to its patents. This little bit of nyah-nyah is just the latest in the recent feud between these two: we've got a month-long argument about Atom chips and NVIDIA's Ion netbook platform going on, and don't even get anyone started on whether GPUs or CPUs are the wave of the future, it's freaking endless. Of course, this will all likely end in a settlement agreement and the these two realizing that they're actually in love, but until then we're just going have to put up with it. Video after the break.

Continue reading NVIDIA sues Intel right back over Nehalem chipset licensing

Dell unveils Nehalem-based Precision T3500, T5500, and T7500 workstations, EqualLogic PS6000S solid state storage arrays

by Ross Miller posted Mar 24th 2009 at 11:36PM

Well, what do we have here? An industry source has sent along information and images for a trio of new Dell Precision workstations using Intel's Nehalem architecture. The T3500 (starts at $999) sports up to 24GB DDR3 ECC memory. Just above that, we've got the T5500 (starts at $1,620) with up to 72GB of memory and dual socket Intel Xeon. Meanwhile, granddaddy T7500 (pictured; starts at $1,800) boasts 192GB of three-channel DDR3 ECC memory up to 1066 or 1333MHz, dual native Gen 2 PCIe graphics slots and supports NVIDIA SLI technology. All models feature an E-SATA port, up to 1.5TB SATA HDD, dual / quad monitor support, DisplayPort connectors, and for those trying to keep some assemblance of eco friendliness, these are all Energy Star 5.0 compliant. We also caught wind of new EqualLogic PS6000 and SSD-equipped PS6000S storage arrays, which start at around $17,000 and $25,000, respectively. Interests piqued? Hit up the gallery below for some pics.

Update: Dell releases the official presser for the PS6000S.

Gallery: Dell Nehalem-based Precision T3500, T5500, and T7500 workstations, EqualLogic PS6000S solid state storage arrays

Apple Nehalem-based Mac Pro in-depth impressions

by Darren Murph posted Mar 18th 2009 at 1:30PM

When Apple's ever-so-slightly refreshed Nehalem-based Mac Pro showed up on our doorstep, we were understandably taken aback by the enclosure. Sure, it looks exactly like the previous Mac Pro externally, and only slightly more beautiful internally, but it's hard to deny the gorgeousness of this metallic wonder. That said, the so-called cheese grater design is one that's mighty familiar to Mac fans by now, so we'll spare you the details there. What you're probably wondering is whether or not this rig is really worth the steep asking price. At $2,499 for a single quad-core 2.66GHz rig and $3,299 for a twin quad-core 2.26GHz machine (which is our test system, by the way), neither option is particularly "affordable." And outside of the refreshed Intel Xeon processor, there aren't too many new hardware components to really convince you that an upgrade is a dire necessity. Follow us past the break to get a real-world perspective on the value proposition, and moreover, to get a better understanding of who exactly benefits most from a workstation of this magnitude.

Continue reading Apple Nehalem-based Mac Pro in-depth impressions

Video: Apple Nehalem-based Mac Pro unboxing and hands-on

by Darren Murph posted Mar 14th 2009 at 12:58PM

Here she is, fresh off the Saturday Express. Apple's latest Mac Pro is said to be significantly more nimble and entirely easier to upgrade than its Penryn-based predecessor, and while it'll take us a few days yet to check out the former claim, we can already assure you that the second one is valid. Upon unboxing this beast (to be fair, it's not all that monstrous), we immediately dug within the cover to see what was up with Apple's new tray system. Rather than forcing users to squeeze their hands into unfathomably tight places just to pop in a new DIMM or add in a fresh 2TB hard drive, the engineers at Cupertino found a way to place all eight RAM slots on a removable tray, meaning that you can actually take that piece elsewhere and operate under better lighting. The tray was dead simple to remove and replace, and while it's a small inclusion, it's definitely an appreciated one. We'll be stressing this thing out and writing up a more thorough review soon, but for now, enjoy the snapshots / video below and after the break, respectively.

Gallery: Apple Nehalem-based Mac Pro unboxing and hands-on

Continue reading Video: Apple Nehalem-based Mac Pro unboxing and hands-on

Apple announces Nehalem-based Mac Pro

by Joshua Topolsky posted Mar 3rd 2009 at 8:38AM

News is just breaking across the wires as we speak, but Apple has announced a new Nehalem based Mac Pro with a starting price of $2,499. The new systems feature either a single core 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 3500, or a dual 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5500, start with 3GB of memory, a 640GB hard drive, and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB of RAM. The PR claims the new systems will be available next week online and in stores, so warm up the credit cards. Full configurations after the break.

Gallery: Apple announces Nehalem based Mac Pro

Continue reading Apple announces Nehalem-based Mac Pro

Intel takes NVIDIA to court over chipset licensing

by Darren Murph posted Feb 18th 2009 at 2:09PM

Oh, brother. Another Intel / NVIDIA paper fight? As fate would so fittingly have it, these two giants are meeting up yet again, this time in the courtroom. After talks "of over a year" failed to amount to anything, Intel has filed suit against NVIDIA that -- according to Intel -- "seeks to have the court declare that NVIDIA is not licensed to produce chipsets that are compatible with any Intel processor that has integrated memory controller functionality, such as Intel's Nehalem [Core i7] microprocessors and that NVIDIA has breached the agreement with Intel by falsely claiming that it is licensed." Of course, NVIDIA's official stance is that Intel is simply trying "stifle innovation to protect a decaying CPU business." We have all ideas that the whole truth (and nothing but the truth) lies somewhere in between, but we guess that's why we have people called "lawyers" heading to work each day. If you're daring enough to dig deeper, all the links you need are neatly positioned below.

[Via HotHardware]

Read - Intel's take
Read - NVIDIA's official response
Read - Further Intel comments

Intel said to be prepping eight-core Xeon for launch next month

by Donald Melanson posted Jan 29th 2009 at 5:07PM

Nothing's official just yet, but Macworld is reporting that Intel will be rolling out an eight-core Xeon processor at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco next month, marking the company's first foray into octa-core processors, and paving the way for 16-core systems using two of the chips. Unfortunately, there aren't many more details than that, with the only other word being that it'll be a 16-thread processor, and be manufactured using a 45-nanometer process. As Macworld notes, however, it does seem likely that the processor in question is the Nehalem-EP seen on the roadmap above, which is based on the Tylersburg platform -- the first product of Intel's throw-a-dart-at-a-map naming scheme.

[Via 9 to 5 Mac]