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Intel promises smartphones in 'first part of next year,' we put fingers in our ears
After Intel's early smartphone ambitions failed to bear fruit, experiencing delay after delay, the company seemingly decided it'd be a bad idea to give reporters so much as a ballpark release date. Well, the company's confidence must have returned, because CEO Paul Otellini just told investors that those 32nm Medfield smartphones are indeed on the way. "You'll see the first Intel-based phones in the first part of next year," he said at the company's annual investor meeting today, adding later that there will be "phones shipping in the market from major players" at that time. Here's hoping. Why all the delays? Intel blamed its partnership with Nokia, calling it a mistake. "In hindsight, Nokia was the wrong partner to have picked," said Otellini, but told attendees that the time both companies spent working together won't be wasted entirely: Intel is currently shopping around their co-developed handset as a reference design.
Intel's Cedar Trail gets some specs, combines CPU and GPU on a single chip
That new processor smell has barely started to fade from Oak Trail and we're already getting some tantalizing details about the next generation of Atom chips -- Cedar Trail. As expected, Intel has moved to 32nm, which allows it to cram the GPU and the CPU onto the same sliver of silicon. The first two models, the D2500 and D2700, will be dual-core, sport 1MB of L2 cache, and have a miserly TDP of 10w -- 3w lower than current dual-core Atoms. The former will be clocked at 1.86GHz with Hyper-Threading turned off, while the D2700 flips the switch on those two extra threads and kicks it up a notch to 2.13GHz. The new integrated graphics will boast better HD decoding and support for Blu-ray playback which, when combined with the taunts of fanless designs and WiDi, make Cedar Trail a natural fit for the living room.
Intel rolls out 10-core, 20-threaded Xeon E7s, shows everyone who's boss
Someone deep down in Intel's development dungeons must be laughing a haughty laugh of disdain at us mere mortals getting excited about dual-cores in smartphones. The old Chipzilla has just turned out its 10-core Xeon E7 processor family, which can work on 20 simultaneous computational threads courtesy of the company's Hyper-Threading knowhow. Needless to say, there aren't that many casual workloads that will ever properly harness such extremely parallelized prowess, but then Intel isn't really gunning for the Facebook crowd here anyhow. The new E7s are for those dealing with truly data-intensive tasks, meaning that Facebook itself would be a good candidate to buy up a few, provided it's tempted by such things as 40 percent performance improvements over the Xeon 7500 tied to dynamic power adjustment for increased energy efficiency. Pricing for the Xeon E7s starts at $774 and climbs up to $4,616 per 32nm chip, with the usual proviso that Intel won't sell them in batches of less than 1,000. More details follow in the press release and video after the break. [Thanks, Khan]
AMD ships 32nm quad-core Llano APU, expects systems 'later this quarter'
Whoa, Nelly! AMD, a company that has struggled to nail its ship dates in years past, has just pulled the ultimate 180. If you'll recall, we heard last month that its quad-core Llano APU was on track for a Q3 2011 release, but now, we've word straight from the equine's mouth that the action will be going down far sooner. In fact, AMD's Singapore plant just celebrated the first shipment of the company's 32nm Llano A-series APUs, complete with discrete-level graphics and a promise to change the way we think about netbook / nettop / ultraportable performance. Of course, just because these chips are headed out to OEM partners doesn't mean that they'll be gracing the pages of your favorite PC maker tomorrow; Chief Financial Officer and Interim CEO Thomas Seifert notes that AMD is looking forward to seeing Llano-based machines during this quarter, but given that Q2 just got going, we may be waiting awhile still. Nothing like a little Zacate to tide you over in the meantime, right?
AMD's quad-core Llano APUs pegged for Q3 2011 release, Computex unveiling
X-bit labs has a (pretty massive) scoop of AMD info to share with us this week, as it has put together the above chart detailing what it expects the company's APU roadmap will look like for the remainder of the year. Published a couple of days ago, this data has now been partially corroborated by the snoops over at DigiTimes, who confirm a couple of the model names and agree that AMD is planning an initial Q3 rollout of five Llano chips, to be followed by even more processors coming in Q4 of 2011. Llano represents AMD's play for the performance crown, coming as it does with dual- or quad-core processing units, DirectX 11-capable Radeon HD 6000-series graphics, and a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, all bundled up inside the same warm and toasty package. More E-series APUs for power-conscious users are also said to be on the cards, and AMD itself should be making these plans official at Computex in Taipei come early June. It's a bit of a wait, but we've got a feeling it'll be worth it.
IBM forms new partnership with ARM in hopes of developing ludicrously small chip processing technology
We've seen IBM and ARM team up before, but this week both companies announced a new joint initiative to develop 14nm chip processing technology. That's significantly smaller than the 20nm SoC technology ARM hopes to create in partnership with TSMC, and makes the company's previous work with IBM on 32nm semiconductors look like a cake walk. The potential benefits, though, are faster processors that require less power, and feature lower per unit manufacturing costs Who knows if or when we'll see tangible results from the tag team, but if IBM's Watson can beat Jeopardy champions, further reducing the average size of a feature that can be created on a chip should be elementary, right? To read over the full announcement check out the press release after the break.
Intel's 2nd Generation Core processor family announced, includes 29 new CPUs and enhanced graphics
They're here! That is, Intel's Sandy Bridge mobile and desktop processors herein known as the 2nd Generation Core processor family or more simply as Intel Core 2011 processors to us. After months of teasing and on-stage demos, Chipzilla is finally unleashing the details of its new Core i3, i5, and i7 processors, and considering there are 29 new CPUs in total as well as new integrated graphics options (now known as processor graphics) there's quite a bit to digest. Hit the break for our rundown of the new platform and a look at some of Intel's newest performance and graphics-focused features. %Gallery-112306%
Intel prices fresh Core i5 and i7 mobile parts
We'd say Intel is delivering its new chips like clockwork, but then our favorite timepieces don't usually leak anywhere near as often as Chipzilla's roadmaps. The now well known 2.66GHz Core i5-580M has finally been made official, costing $266, alongside an identically clocked family mate in the Core i5-560M, which will set bulk buyers back $225 a piece. From what we know of those two, the major difference is that the 580M can Turbo Boost its way to 3.33GHz whereas the 560M maxes out at a humbler 3.2GHz. Both are overshadowed, however, by the new i7-640M colossus, which runs at 2.8GHz by default and will reach 3.4GHz when called upon -- yours for only $346. Of course, should the 35W TDPs of those chips seem too gaudy for you, Intel's wisely dropping a pair of 18W parts as well: the Core i5-560UM slinks along at 1.33GHz and asks for $250, while the Core i7-680UM raises those numbers to 1.46GHz and $317, respectively. Finally, for the perfect balance of power and efficiency, the i7-660LM couples 2.26GHz (or 3.06GHz in Turbo mode) to a 25W thermal envelope. It matches the 640M with a $346 unit price. All these CPUs sport a pair of 32nm cores alongside a 45nm integrated graphics unit and there are absolutely no Performance Upgrade Card anywhere in sight!
Intel: Sandy Bridge CPUs will ship in early 2011 (update)
(function() { var s = document.createElement('SCRIPT'), s1 = document.getElementsByTagName('SCRIPT')[0]; s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.async = true; s.src = 'http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js'; s1.parentNode.insertBefore(s, s1); })(); Digg We're live from the 2010 Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, where we've got an interesting tidbit of news -- those long-awaited and often leaked Sandy Bridge processors will "begin shipping in very high volume" early next year in both laptop and desktop PCs. Now called the "2nd Generation Intel Core processors," the new chips will feature Intel's new 32nm architecture for everything, including the integrated graphics processor and memory controller, which will hopefully reduce their power consumption even as the new hardware's not terribly friendly to overclockers. PR after the break. Update: Intel's on stage explaining a bit more about how Sandy Bridge works -- apparently the Turbo modes introduced in earlier Core chips (which dynamically clock individual processor cores based on how much thermal headroom they have) now works dynamically with the silicon's integrated graphics as well. Intel says it can actually exceed the TDP thermal envelope of a chip now to further overclock multiple cores at once, or switch off between overclocking graphics or CPU cores for differing workloads. See a few example images in the gallery below.%Gallery-102042%
AMD's Bobcat and Bulldozer, 2011 flagship CPU cores, detailed today
One of these days AMD is gonna have to stop talking about its Atom-killing Bobcat and Xeon-ending Bulldozer cores and finally release them. But, until that happy moment arrives in 2011 (fingers crossed), we'll have to content ourselves with more presentation slides. First up, the Bobcat core is AMD's long overdue play for the netbook/ultrathin market. Pitched as having 90 percent of the performance of current-gen, K8-based mainstream chips, AMD's new mobility core will require "less than half the area and a fraction of the power" of its predecessors. That sounds like just the recipe to make the company relevant in laptop purchasing decisions again, while a touted ability for the core to run on less than one watt of power (by lowering operating frequencies and voltages, and therefore performance) could see it appear in even smaller form factors, such as MIDs. The Bobcat's now all set to become the centerpiece of the Ontario APU -- AMD's first Fusion chip, ahead of Llano -- which will be ramping up production late this year, in time for an early 2011 arrival. The Bulldozer also has a future in the Fusion line, but it's earliest role will be as a standalone CPU product for servers and high-end consumer markets. The crafty thing about its architecture is that every one Bulldozer module will be counted as two cores. This is because AMD has split its internal processing pipelines into two (while sharing as many internal components as possible), resulting in a sort of multicore-within-the-core arrangement. The way the company puts it, it's multithreading done right. Interlagos is the codename of the first Opteron chips to sport this new core, showing up at some point next year in a 16-core arrangement (that's 8 Bulldozers, if you're keeping score at home) and promising 50 percent better performance than the current Magny-Cours flagship. Big words, AMD. Now let's see you stick to a schedule for once.%Gallery-100088%
Toshiba introduces 32nm DDR NAND with 133Mbps speeds, or MT/s if you prefer
It doesn't quite have the efficiency and capacity of this 25nm process, and it's not half as speedy as that planned 400Mbps, but Toshiba is moving up in the world with today's reveal of 32nm, 133Mbps toggle-mode DDR NAND. The new flash memory chips will go head to head with the similar 30nm toggle-mode NAND used in Samsung's 512GB SSD and the 166Mbps ONFi 2.1 chips that power Crucial's RealSSD C300 drive; each of the tiny black chips can store up to 32 gigabytes. Shame there's no word on when we'll see these speeding our PCs and iPods, nor any mention of price. PR after the break.
Intel's 3.2GHz hexacore i7-970 now shipping
Just this once, DigiTimes has turned out to be spot on with its prognostication. The six-core Core i7-970 rumor we heard earlier this month has now transmogrified into a retail product, and just as promised, it brings most of the goodies of the sublime i7-980X at a moderately more affordable $899 price point. Based on the same 32nm Gulftown architecture as its costlier brother, the 970 will run at 3.2GHz by default, though presumably it too will be able to crank up speeds using Intel's Turbo Boost. Aside from that, you get a healthy 12MB of on-chip cache and the standard triple-channel DDR3 memory controller. UK speed freaks can order one up as well now, clearly a tiny bit ahead of Intel itself making things official, so we'd advise checking with your nearest super-CPU purveyors in case they too have received some early units of this multithreaded code cruncher. [Thanks, Polytonic]
Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs to arrive ahead of schedule, could be with us this year
Right now, Intel has every right to lay contentedly atop the laurels of its biggest quarterly profit ever, but that's not what the company is doing at all. Instead of protracting the life of its current-gen processors unduly, Intel is planning to accelerate the roadmap for its next generation of multicore parts, codenamed Sandy Bridge. The difference between the Nehalem-based stuff we have today and the upcoming chip is that the Sandy Bridge architecture takes everything down to 32nm -- including the graphics processor and memory controller which are built at 45nm at present -- while keeping it all within the same enclosure. Enthusiastic feedback from customers who were given tasters of the Sandy stuff has been to blame for this haste on Intel's part, and we're told that with additional investment in 32nm infrastructure, the chip giant plans to make deliveries late this year. That in turn could potentially result in some eager vendor pushing a Sandy Bridge laptop or desktop out before 2010 is through -- which would be all kinds of nice.
Toshiba cooks up 128GB NAND flash for next-gen phones and PMPs
Leave it to Toshiba to make even the latest smartphones feel somewhat undernourished. Quadrupling the current high-end standard of 32GB of embedded memory, the Japanese company has announced an all-new 128GB slab of storage, built on a 32nm production process. It's somehow managed to fit sixteen 8GB NAND chips, plus their controller, inside a 1.4mm tall structure, and samples are about to exit the factory doors this September. A 64GB variant will also be making an appearance, with both scheduled to enter mass production sometime during the fourth quarter. Should go pretty nicely with that 2GHz beastphone Moto is planning, don't you think?
Intel Core i5-580M speeding toward a fall release at 2.66GHz?
The Core i5-540M is still quite rare on the ground, but we're hearing word that Intel is already prepping the assembly line for its successor. A new Core i5-580M has been dug up by the sleuths at Notebook Italia, who say it'll run at a default 2.66GHz and ramp up to 3.33GHz via Turbo Boost when needed. Those numbers compare favorably to the 2.53GHz and 3.06GHz of the 540M, and if Intel and company get their timing right,the 580M should be stealing some of that Core i7 thunder just in time for the back to school shopping rush. Won't hear any complaining from us if that turns out to be the case.
Lenovo adds touch to IdeaCentre A700 and B305 all-in-ones, vies for your desktop dollars with H320
While keeping the overdesigned aesthetic of their IdeaCentre brandmates, the new A700 and B305 (above) all-in-ones from Lenovo are moving things forward with optional touchscreens and freshened up spec sheets. The A700 offers the full range of Intel's Core 2010 laptop CPUs, but tops things off with the slightly older 45nm Core i7-820QM, which gives you four cores operating at a somewhat pedestrian 1.73GHz default speed that can be cranked up to 3.06GHz when circumstances demand it. Other specs include a 1080p 23-inch display, built-in 802.11a/b/g/n wireless, and a side-mounted Blu-ray drive. If you're feeling extravagant, you can even cram in 8GB of DDR3 RAM, but don't expect to be paying the $999 entry price for that package when these become available at the end of June. The B305 gives AMD fans something to admire, with Athlon II X4 processors, Radeon HD 5450 graphics -- great for multimedia, but forget about 3D gaming -- up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and up to a 21.5-inch display stretching to 1,920 x 1,080. Built-in wireless and a DVD-RW drive are again present, along with up to a terabyte of storage (2TB on the A700, that showoff) should you opt to tread beyond the $699 entry price. The B305 will be purchasable next month, as will be the H320 old schooler. Starting out at $549, this small form factor pc offers Intel's 32nm desktop parts, with the finest of the bunch being the 2.8GHz Core i7-860. Radeon HD 5570, up to 8GB of memory, a terabyte of storage, Blu-ray, and wireless options fill out its vital statistics, though you'll have to buy your own monitor. Full PR after the break. %Gallery-92697%
Intel plans to stuff more than 8 cores, extra speed into 2011 server chips
Yeah yeah, "more cores and faster speeds," you've heard it all before right? That'd be our reaction too if we weren't talking about the successor to the Nehalem-Ex, Intel's most gruesomely overpowered chip to date. Launched under the Xeon 7500 branding in March, it represents Intel's single biggest generational leap so far, and with its eight cores, sixteen threads, and 24MB of shared onboard cache, you could probably see why. Time waits for no CPU though, and Intel's planned 32nm Westmere-Ex successor will move things forward with an unspecified increase in both core count (speculated to be jumping up to 12) and operating frequencies, while keeping within the same power envelope. Given the current 2.26GHz default speed and 2.66GHz Turbo Boost option of the 7500, that means we're probably looking at a 2.4GHz to 2.5GHz 12-core, hyper-threaded processor, scheduled to land at some point next year. Time to make some apps that can use all that parallel processing power, nay?
Intel's 2011 CPUs require new motherboards, start saving those pennies now?
Hoping Intel's 32nm Sandy Bridge CPUs will unify your computing world next year? Bit-tech reports they may also drain your pocketbook. Anonymous sources told the site that Intel's spiffy new CPU / GPU / memory controller integrations will use two new sockets, LGA-1155 and LGA-2011; if true, you'll need to buy a new motherboard to match. Aside from packaging the aforementioned GPU and memory controller on the same die, LGA-1155 rumors don't hold any surprises thus far, but the enthusiast-grade LGA-2011 chips will supposedly sport a quad-channel DDR3 memory controller (like Nehalem EX) and the long-awaited PCI Express 3.0 for 32 lanes of graphics-gobbling bandwidth. We also hear new southbridges will have native SATA 6G. Honestly, these rumors are so tame as to be entirely credible. Let's dream up something ridiculous, like Intel actually supporting USB 3.0.
Intel's 'Huron River' 32nm laptop platform to pack WiMAX in 2011
It's not easy to be a buyer of computers with all these technology roadmaps flying about, but in case you're brave enough to peer into the future, Fudzilla has word on Intel's upcoming laptop chips. The "Huron River" platform will replace Calpella (the current crop of mobile chipsets), and continue Intel's fine work with WiMAX and WiFi integration, in addition to new Intel Bluetooth connectivity and that crowd-favored Intel Wireless Display. The platform will be powered by the new Sandy Bridge 32nm processor, a followup to Nehalem's Core i Series of chips. We should be seeing this in Q1 2011, which will probably be minutes after Apple finally decides to upgrade to Core i7.
AMD Fusion sampling soon, arriving in 2011 with Llano APU
To say that we've been waiting for AMD's Fusion CPU / GPU combo for a long time would be an understatement. In fact, while AMD was busy talking about it, Intel swept in with its own Arrandale and Clarkdale chips that pack graphical and computing processing into the same chip. Lest we were discouraged, then, AMD is making a return to form with news that its first Fusion APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) is about to start sampling to manufacturers, with a now definite 2011 launch window. Codenamed Llano, this will be a quad-core beastie with intended operating speeds of more than 3Ghz and graphics parts borrowed from ATI's successful line of Evergreen GPUs. That means DirectX 11, a feature Intel is unlikely to match, whereas AMD will have everything Intel currently does and more, with a 32nm production process, on-die integration (rather than just the same chip packaging), and power gating allowing for dynamic per-core overclocking a la Turbo Boost. It's been lonely without you AMD, now just fulfill this promise and all that absenteeism will be forgiven.
