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microprocessor posts

Intel applies "stars" ratings to processors, processors lose self-esteem

by Donald Melanson, posted Apr 10th 2009 at 3:14PM

It looks like those confused by the multitude of Intel processors out there needn't linger in indecision any longer, as Intel itself has now come up with a new scheme that it hopes will help simplify the buying process significantly. As you can see above, that consists of a new rating system that gives processors between one and five stars, which Intel says indicates "relative performance, not a price-performance type of thing." As you might expect, the five-star rating is reserved for the like of the Core i7 and Core i7 Extreme, with the one-star ranks apparently occupied solely by various Celeron processors -- the Atom, it seems, is in a class all its own. Somewhat less notably, Intel has also taken the opportunity to roll out some spruced processor logos, which should already be showing themselves in stores along with displays featuring the new star rating system.

[Thanks, Simon B]

Intel Core 2 Quad S-Series shaves power consumption to 65W

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 29th 2009 at 10:44AM

In a relatively hush-hush manner, Intel recently slipped out energy saving versions of its Core 2 Quad Q8200, Q9400 and Q9550 CPUs, all of which are suffixed with a simple "s." Put simply, these S-Series chips are built using the same 45 nanometer process technology as used on the regular models, and aside from TDP, all the specifications are exactly alike. The difference comes in power consumption, as the S crew sucks down just 65 watts compared to 95 watts in the standard issue models. Tom's Hardware had a chance to handle, benchmark and report on these new power sippers, and lucky for you, they found performance to be equal to that of the higher power chips. Granted, you'll have to pony up a few extra bucks in order to treat Mother Earth (and your energy bill) better, but at least we're working down the power ladder instead of the other way around.

[Via Tom's Hardware, thanks Jonathan]

AMD nets final approval to create The Foundry Company

by Darren Murph, posted Feb 19th 2009 at 10:34AM

After having to delay the final vote earlier this month due to a lack of participation (d'oh!), AMD has dotted the final 'i' in its attempt to spin off semiconductor manufacturing. Said company, along with the Advanced Technology Investment Company, have now secured the final approval necessary to create The Foundry Company. Stockholder approval was the only remaining hurdle to be jumped, and the joint venture transaction is expected to fully close by March 2nd of this year. By the numbers, AMD stockholders approved a proposal to issue 58 million shares of its common stock along with warrants to purchase 35 million shares of its common stock and 35 million shares of the company's common stock upon exercise of those warrants to an affiliate of the Mubadala Development Company PJSC (perplexing, we know). Now, let's see if AMD can keep up with Intel's own $7 billion investment.

Integrated circuit turns 50, now isn't that nifty?

by Darren Murph, posted Sep 13th 2008 at 10:17AM

Hard to believe that Jack Kilby's unsightly concoction (pictured above) turned 50 yesterday, but it's true. Half a century ago, Mr. Kilby crafted the integrated circuit, which ended up having a monumental impact on taking computers from warehouse-sized to, well, not-warehouse-sized. As the story goes, the very first microchip was demonstrated on the 12th of September in 1958, and it passed its first test: "producing a sine wave on an oscilloscope screen." Safe to say we all know how things progressed from there. Here's to you, IC -- and here's to 50 more.

[Via MAKE]

Texas Instruments gets excited about energy scavenging

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 25th 2008 at 8:01AM

Texas Instruments has a lot to do with the original microchip, if for no other reason than being the employer of inventor Jack Kilby. Now, however, TI is looking to produce chips and other related gizmos that require an infinitesimally small amount of energy to operate. The overriding theme guiding the engineers is "energy scavenging," which alludes to grasping power from even the most unlikely of places -- vibrations from a bridge as cars pass over, capturing wasted exhaust from a car or bottling up all that frustration your sibling shows when you own him / her again in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The possibilities are just about endless, with networked battery-free smoke alarms, solar-powered mobiles and gaming laptops that feed off of extraordinarily focused brain waves in the mix. Okay, so that last one is still eons from reality, but at least we're headed in that direction.

Intel's dual-core Atom 330 processor to ship in Q4 2008

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 24th 2008 at 6:14PM

Bad news, Atom fans. That dual-core nugget of netbook-powering goodness that you were so looking forward to seeing in Q3 won't begin shipping until Q4. According to some data picked up by Fudzilla, the Atom 330 will only be debuting in Q3 (September 21st, to be precise), but it isn't scheduled to get a shipping label until a few months later. Also of note, we're told that the chip will sell (at some place in the supply chain) for $43, but don't count on those savings being completely passed onto you.

[Thanks, sinai]

Microchip breakthrough could keep Moore's law intact (again)

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 11th 2008 at 11:52AM

We're pretty certain we'll be hearing this same story each year, every year for the rest of eternity, but hey, not like we're kvetching over that or anything. Once again, we're hearing that mad scientists have developed a breakthrough that makes Mr. Moore look remarkably bright, as a new approach to chip making could carve features in silicon chips "that are many times smaller than the wavelength of the light used to make them." Reportedly, the new method "produces grids of parallel lines just 25-nanometers wide using light with a wavelength of 351-nanometers," although the grids aren't functional circuits just yet. If you're interested in more technobabble on the matter, head on down to the read link, but we'd recommend against if you're easily frightened by terms like "photolithographic" and "nanotechnology."

Atom processor to cost Intel just $6 to $8?

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 30th 2008 at 5:46AM

Ever since Intel compared the criticality of its (still) forthcoming Silverthorne (which now goes by Atom, if you couldn't guess) processor to the original Pentium last June, we've all wondered just how fantasmical our worlds would become when this thing finally dropped. Now, however, Tom's Hardware has discovered that the release may actually do more for Intel than we geeks. After consulting a source it believes to be quite credible, it found that the CPU -- which will likely sell for upwards of $30 at the low-end -- will cost Intel just "$6 to $8, including production, packaging and shipping." Without busting out the abacus, it's still fairly easy to see how profitable said chips could be if Intel can move these at even a snail's pace, but of course, we'd take the dollars and cents estimates with a grain of salt until they actually hit the market.

[Via Digg]

IBM's light pulse love affair continues with tiniest nanophotonic switch

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 17th 2008 at 8:59AM

Merely months after IBM first inserted silicon nanophotonics into our memory bank, and just weeks after we drooled all over ourselves reading about its green optical link, the mega-corp has chosen St. Patrick's Day to trumpet the development of the "world's tiniest nanophotonic switch." The device, which boasts a footprint "about 100 times smaller than the cross section of a human hair," is said to be a vital part of creating an on-chip optical network. More specifically, it's bringing the gurus behind it one step closer to conjuring up multi-core CPUs that transmit data with light pulses rather than relying on electrical signals on copper wires. This particular switch would essentially divert traffic within the network, ensuring that "optical messages from one processor core could efficiently get to any of the other cores on the chip." Keep on livin' the dream IBM -- just ping us when this stuff is anywhere near ready for the commercial market.

AMD ships triple-core Phenom processors

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 13th 2008 at 8:38AM

While there have certainly been questions surrounding AMD's ability to deliver its Phenom 9700 / 9900 chips on time, it looks as if the chip maker is right on target with the launch of its triple-core lineup. Just as we expected it to, AMD has indeed began shipping its Phenom 8400 (2.1GHz) and 8600 (2.3GHz) to Dell -- for use in its OptiPlex 740 -- and HP (respectively), which has it mounted in the AL195AW desktop. Reportedly, the CPUs are only shipping in volume to PC manufacturers at the moment, and unfortunately, it failed to spill the beans on when they'd be available on a wider scale. Nevertheless, those parked across the pond can get their fix of tri-core sweetness by picking up one of two Mesh Computer rigs that are being made available as we speak.

[Via PC World]
Read - Dell OptiPlex 740 [PDF]
Read - HP AL195AW
Read - Mesh Computer Matrix xXx Plus
Read - Mesh Computer Matrix xXx Pro

AMD demonstrates 45nm quad-core processors at CeBIT

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 4th 2008 at 11:29AM

In a woefully unstimulating press release, AMD has meekly trumpeted the fact that it's demonstrating its "first 45nm quad-core chips running multiple operating systems and a range of processing intensive applications" at CeBIT. Unfortunately, little is known beyond that -- aside from the fact that the processors showcased ("Shanghai" for servers, "Deneb" for desktops) were produced in Germany at the firm's Fab 36 300mm manufacturing facility, that is. Still, AMD managed to reiterate that "this milestone" would be "the first of many" as it moves toward the release of 45-nanometer products later this year. Huzzah?

AMD's triple-core Phenoms to launch in March?

by Darren Murph, posted Dec 26th 2007 at 6:42AM

Earlier this year, we heard that AMD would be unleashing a few triple-core Phenoms in Q1 of next year, and now DigiTimes has a few more details surrounding the forthcoming launch. Reportedly, the B2 stepping Phenom 8400 (2.1GHz) and 8600 (2.3GHz) will be hitting shelves in March, while the B3 stepping 8700 (2.4GHz), 8650 (2.3GHz) and 8450 (2.1GHz) will be loosed sometime in Q2 2008. Beyond that, it looks as if we'll have to wait for more details to emerge, but at least you've got a few more hard numbers to pencil in for next year, right?

Intel's Nehalem roadmap gets outed

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 26th 2007 at 3:51PM

Just a day after hearing that Intel was firing up its new Arizona-based facility in order to crank out heaps of 45-nanometer Penryn chips, along comes more news on the next best thing. Granted, Intel already gave Nehalem a share of the limelight earlier this year, but new documents are giving us a more detailed look at what types of quad-core processors we can expect in late 2008. Among the new names are Gainstown and Bloomfield, both of which are expected to land in high-end rigs and boast "Extreme" monikers. There's not a whole of lot of surprises here, as the charts still point to an estimated Q4 release date and show speeds topping out around the 3.2GHz mark. For those with nothing better to do than overlook the present and long for the future, be sure and hit the read link below -- preferably after you've rounded up a Japanese translator.

[Via RegHardware]

Intel fires up Penryn production at new Arizona facility

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 25th 2007 at 5:48PM

We don't proclaim to be experts in chip making or anything, but it seems like everything at Intel's new Fab 32 production facility in Chandler, Arizona better function mighty smoothly in order to meet that November 12th street date the firm is still holding to. Yep, today marks the day that Intel starts production on its highly-anticipated Penryn at a $3 billion factory, which is being hailed as the company's "first plant dedicated to churning out 45-nanometer microprocessors." 'Course, Intel's only got six days left if it plans on being the first company to crank out the goods before ole Panasonic steals the thunder, and you can bet we'll be waiting in tense anticipation.

[Via Reuters / Yahoo]

AMD keeps it dark with Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition

by Darren Murph, posted Sep 26th 2007 at 12:06PM

Barely a month after showing off its Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Black Edition, AMD is apparently hoping to rope in a few more followers with a lower-priced CPU in the same family. This processor reportedly hums along at 2.6GHz, is built around 65-nanometer technology, boasts 1MB of L2 cache and will play nice with the firm's "580x or upcoming 700-series chipsets." 'Course, enthusiasts will love the "customizable clock multiplier for tunable performance," and word on the street has these new chips "available to channel partners" for just $136 apiece in groups of 1,000.

[Via InformationWeek]