We know you've probably grown numb to these "world's best" claims uttered by processor manufacturers, but shortly after introducing the Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Black Edition, AMD is now unveiling what it calls "the world's most advanced x86 CPU." The quad-core Opteron touts a slew of enhancements including a "50-percent increase in integer and floating-point performance" and a boost in "virtualization performance." Interestingly, AMD goes on to brag about the chip's power saving abilities, as it utilizes Dual Dynamic Power Management, CoolCore, and Independent Dynamic Core Technology in order to provide a more energy-efficient device. Systems relying on the newfangled CPU have reportedly begun shipping "from global OEM and system-builder partners," so newfound greatness should be just an order away.

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Those eager to lay down for the "industry's first" native x86 quad-core processor have but a few months left to wait, as AMD just announced that its quad-core Opteron's would begin shipping in August. Codenamed Barcelona, these CPUs will be launching in both "standard and low power versions," hit frequencies of up to 2GHz, and should provide performance increases of up to "70-percent" over existing Opterons in select applications. Additionally, those who can hold off a bit can look forward to even speedier chips in Q4 of this year, and an elusive "Special Edition" version should also be just around the bend. Per usual, no hints on what kind of premium you'll pay for this wee piece of silicon come August, but AMD did note that the processors wouldn't hit mainstream systems until September.

Making good on its promise to deliver an uber-small mainboard for tight-space and media-centric applications, Via has announced its first product in the 10- x 7.2-centimeter Pico-ITX lineup. Checking in over 75-percent smaller than Mini-ITX boards of the past, this x86-based reference design seeks to embrace a "new world of ultra compact embedded PC systems and appliances." The board was purportedly designed to be powered by one of Via's own C7 or Eden CPUs, and should be available shortly to board vendors and hardware designers interested in concocting even smaller PCs for their customers. The design also relies on the firm's VX700 chipset and provides Ethernet, eight-channel HD audio, four USB 2.0 ports, a SATA connector, and a multi-format card reader. Reportedly, the VT6047 will be priced anywhere from "$300 to $500," but we guess that's just the premium you pay for a palm-sized PC.

[Via LinuxDevices]

Intel may have sold its mobile chip unit to Marvell, but it seems that the company hasn't entirely given up on the mobile biz, with the company recently detailing plans for an x86-based system-on-a-chip. According to HKEPC Hardware, the so-called 'Tolapai' unit will be based on Pentium M architecture, and pack 256KB of L2 cache and support for DDR 2 memory, along with a full compliment of integrated connectivity options, including PCI Express, USB, SATA, Gigabit Ethernet, RS-232 and a cellular link, among other goodies. The initial lineup will apparently come in 600, 1,066 and 1,200MHz varieties to start with, boasting a power consumption of 13-22W, and support for Linux, FreeBSD, and Windows XP Embedded on the OS front. While Intel will first be aiming the system-on-a-chip at embedded applications, as Reg Hardware speculates, it would seem to be just as applicable to handhelds and other mobile devices in need of a little more power. What's not so clear, unfortunately, is when we might actually see a device running on the thing, although the system-on-a-chip itself will supposedly be ready by the end of the year.

[Via Reg Hardware]

Intel doesn't seem to be content with its recent performance and market share wins over AMD, it's really going for the kill here. The chip giant just snapped up another partner in x86 crime: Sun Microsystems. Sun and Intel are announcing a "broad strategic alliance" today to promote Intel Xeon workstations and servers running the Solaris OS. Sun and AMD have been buddy buddy for a little while now, with AMD64 chips being heavily promoted with Solaris as of late, but it looks like those Intel roadmaps and market share promises were just too good to pass up. On Sun's end, Solaris will be optimised up for upcoming single, dual and quad processor Xeon systems that can run Solaris, Windows and Linux, which are due for 2007. Sun will also be working with Intel on "4-way systems," but doesn't seem to be doing away with its current SPARC and X64 offerings just yet. For Intel's part, the chip maker "is embracing Solaris as a mainstream OS," and is joining in a Solaris OEM agreement to allow Intel the option to distribute and support the Solaris OS. Intel will also lend a hand optimizing Solaris and Java for Xeon, and is putting its stamp of approval on OpenSolaris, open Java and NetBeans as well. The two companies "anticipate rapid growth of Solaris on Xeon platforms," but with a mere 4200 apps on "800+ platforms," there sure seems to be a lot of room to grow for Sun.

With Intel giving its shareholders some awfully great news to savor over the holidays, AMD had to hit back with some news of its own, but you'll definitely get a different vibe from reading ExtremeTech's take on the firm's recently showcased Barcelona than from the horse's own mouth. While AMD parades its 65nm chip as "the world's first native quad-core x86 server processor," and boasts about its "significant advancements in performance per watt capabilities," we've reason to wonder if things aren't a bit sugarcoated. While the wafer was demonstrated as utilizing "all 16 cores" and being a seamless upgrade from "dual-core to quad-core", hard facts (read: the much anticipated benchmarks) were curiously absent. Aside from injecting onlookers with more of the same technical minutiae we've seen over the past few months, AMD didn't exactly flesh out a lot of new details to chew on, but ExtremeTech's reference system "was the loudest they'd ever had in their office," and sucked down nearly 600 watts of power with just two HDDs and a single graphics card. So while we're firmly withholding judgment until its officially released, we'd say AMD still has a bit of tweaking to do before the competition rolls in.

UPDATE: Looks like we mistook the quad-core Opteron and the Quad FX (announced on the same day, nonetheless) chips as one in the same, when (thankfully) they're not, but those eying the recently-released FX-based desktops may want to think about how much noise they're willing to put up with before throwing down on a new machine.

Read - AMD Press Release
Read - ExtremeTech's Hands-on Testing

Steve Jobs' announcement -- almost a year ago, now -- that Apple was transitioning to x86 processors was one of the most shocking bits of news that the industry had ever heard, and yet there were a group of employees at a startup chip manufacturer called PA Semi who were even more shocked than most, according to reports, because right up until that keynote, they were sure that their company, and not Intel, would be chosen to supply the brains for what's now known as the MacBook family of laptops. The Register is reporting that PA Semi had a close relationship with Apple in the months prior to the switch, and that the two companies were working together to gauge the feasibility of running native PowerPC-coded software on 2GHz dual-core chips that PA Semi claims run at only a third of the 21 to 25 watts consumed by Intel's Core Duo models. Sources who spoke to El Reg say that executives were virtually positive that they'd win the contract, and that CEO Dan Dobberpuhl was understandably "furious" when he found out PA Semi had been passed over. The company still has a bright future developing chips for the embedded market and storage devices, but they'll probably never again have the opportunity to become an instantly-recognized name like Intel, AMD, or IBM.