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Intel demos iPhone-like MID of the future
Intel just keeps banging out the hits from IDF. After the handful of McCaslin "next-quarter" and "coming-soon" UMPCs we saw from the chipmaker (and associates), Intel started busting out prototypes from its forthcoming Menlow chipset, using smaller, 45nm Silverthorne CPUs, and the 2009/2010 offering Moorestown... which is the bad-boy you're looking at in these photos is based on. In a rather obvious homage to the iPhone, the chip-kingpin presented this do-anything, go-anywhere MID (provided you can cram this French-bread-sized device into a pocket). The device will feature a 45nm CPU as well, plus all kinds of goodies like integrated WiFi and WiMAX, and apparently 24 hours of battery life on a single charge. Obviously, this product will probably never see the light of day (at least not in this form factor), but then again -- you never really know. Check a few more photos after the break.Read -- Intel shows concept iPhone running on Moorestown platformRead -- Intel's iPhone clone, we're not jokingRead -- Intel Details Next Generation "Menlow" MID, UMPC Platform
Intel looking to delve into HDTV, mobile market
As the news continues to flow from Intel's Developer Forum, we're now hearing that the chip maker could make "surprise moves into consumer electronics chips." More specifically, it seems that the outfit is looking to "roll out a system-on-a-chip code-named Canmore aimed at HDTVs and other products," as well as Silverthorne, which would apparently be reserved for handheld devices. 'Course, Intel has dabbled in these areas without notable success in the past, but analysts are suggesting that gaining traction this time around "could be big" for the firm. Ah Intel, why the tease?
Intel announces "Santa Rosa Refresh," other future laptop plans
Intel looks to be keeping all of its bases covered at its Developer Forum in San Francisco this week, with the company announcing a slew of future plans for desktops, handhelds and, now, laptops. The biggest news on that front is Intel's announcement of its forthcoming "Santa Rosa Refresh," which will be based on the company's upcoming 45nm Penryn mobile processor and is set to hit in January of next year. As with current Santa Rosa laptops, the updated platform will be based on Intel's 965 Express chipset, and will include all the usual networking and other options associated with it. Further on down the road, Intel is touting its Montevina platform, which will also be based on the 45nm Penryn processor, with added support for DDR3 memory, integrated HD-DVD/Blu-ray support, and integrated WiMAX in addition to the standard WiFi. What's more, Intel says the Montevina components will be about 40% smaller, opening up the possibility for a range of different laptop form factors. According to Intel, a number of companies including Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Panasonic and Toshiba have already "expressed intent" to embed WiMAX in future laptops of theirs, which could become a reality sometime in 2008, although it doesn't look like there's any firm word on that front just yet.
Intel teraflopping into high-end graphics with "Larrabee"
Intel's Paul Otellini IDF keynote shed some new light on the company's Larrabee processor, which is now set for a 2010 release and will compete against AMD and NVIDIA in the realm of high-end graphics. Paul says the chips will scale up to teraflops in speed, and be targeted at science and analytics in addition to graphics -- though he dodged questions about Larrabee potentially being a discrete graphics competitor for AMD and NVIDIA, and only reiterating that "Graphics will also be an area for the chip." Intel has so far stayed squarely in the realm of integrated graphics, but a move to discrete graphics would be quite a welcome shakeup to the current market, and teraflops would certainly make it all the more interesting.
Intel shows of MIDs / UMPCs aplenty at IDF
We already caught sight of one Mobile Internet Device that made its way to Intel's currently-happening Developer Forum, but it looks like that was just the tip of the MID iceberg, with at least five other devices also making an appearance in prototype forum. In addition to that BenQ unit, the prototypes include devices from Asus, Compal, Elektrobit, Inventec and Quanta, each of which are based on Intel's Menlow platform, and at least some of which are apparently on track for a release in the first half of 2008. Unfortunately, there's not much in the way of specs for any of them just yet, although we're sure we'll be hearing more about them soon enough. In related news, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth was also on hand to demo a pre-alpha version of Ubuntu for MIDs, as was Adobe's Al Ramadan, who showed off the company's Adobe AIR application, which will supposedly "extend the reach of rich internet applications" and "bring compelling new experiences to the user."[Via Phoronix, thanks Steve]
BenQ's Mobile Internet Device peeked on video
It's been a tick since we've heard anything notable on the Mobile Internet Device front, but it looks like BenQ could have something on the horizon. Judging by a brief clip showing a consumer marketing manager from Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, BenQ has developed a Linux-based handheld MID that touts a vivid black / blue color scheme and a 4.8-inch touchscreen. Sadly, that's about all the details that could be shared in 27 oh-so-quick seconds, but click on through to check the video out for yourself.[Via jkOnTheRun]
Intel announces Penryn for November 12th, shows off Nehalem and 32nm SRAM
It's Fall IDF time in San Francisco, and Intel really came out swinging in the chips department. The company is releasing 15 of its new 45nm Penryn this year, with the first chips hitting on November 12th, and another 20 hitting in Q1 2008. That could get some of those chips into desktops before AMD's 65nm Phenom hits, and is earlier than was expected from the chip giant. The Penryn chips are promised to bring a 20 percent performance increase while improving energy efficiency. Intel also took the opportunity to show off Nehalem, Penryn's followup. Nehalem sports a new micro-architecture to further reduce power drain, and it can adjust itself dynamically to best suit the task at hand while saving power in the process. And just to tease, Intel talked up its 32nm SRAM tech, the world's first 32nm chip, which will apparently be ready in 2009, but we'll settle for faster chips and longer battery life from the likes of Intel and AMD in the interim.[Via TG Daily]
Intel CEO compares Silverthorne criticality with original Pentium
Intel's been throwing so many mobile processor codenames around in the past 12 months or so that we've resorted to hiring droids to constantly update pivot tables as chips are named and nixed from its ever-evolving roadmap. But being the weekend and all, it looks like we're stuck telling you about yet another presumably vital processor that's likely destined to hit cellphones, UMPCs, and other handheld computing platforms sometime in the not too distant future. According to an interview by Germany's FAZ, Intel's CEO compared the chip "to the original Pentium" in terms of importance to the company, and while Mr. Otellini didn't go into too much detail beyond that (can't blame him for keeping us curious), he did note that the firm hopes the 45nm CPU can infiltrate "10 to 20-percent of the mobile phone market."[Via TGDaily]
Xilinx, Altera showing off FPGA coprocessors at IDF
While Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) haven't benefited from a good deal of buzz just yet, things could be taking a turn, as both Xilinx and Altera caught a few eyes at IDF. We've already seen the unique, albeit highly specific chips in a supercomputer, but the dedicated coprocessor / accelerator modules could be landing beside your Intel Xeon CPU. Essentially, the devices plug "directly into the processor socket of dual- or quad-socket servers" in order to provide "high performance application acceleration ranging from 10x to 100x compared to processors alone, while simultaneously reducing overall system power consumption." The modules act as targeted CPUs, effectively computing very specific tasks in a much more efficient fashion than a general microprocessor can alone, which could boost the speed of scientific, financial, and life science applications that rely on very particular calculations. Of course, mainstream adoption still has quite a ways to go, but the quicker we get dedicated physics and AI coprocessors to go along with these snazzy new GPUs, the happier (and poorer) we'll be.[Via RobotSkirts]Read - Altera demonstrates FPGA at IDFRead - Xilinx demonstrates FPGA at IDF
Forget Santa Rosa, how about a quad-core Penryn?
Honestly, we don't exactly know how to take the news that Intel's already looking beyond next month's Santa Rosa release to a reported quad-core Penryn mobile processor. On one hand, our eyes relish the opportunity to play the latest titles at the highest resolutions whilst bragging aimlessly to our online pals, but then again, we don't look forward to the presumed third-degree burns that could likely develop from tossing these in such tight quarters. Nevertheless, Intel managed to drop a few more details in regard to its mobile CPU plans, and noted that Santa Rosa's successor would likely be based on the 45-nanometer Penryn design and offer high-end gaming notebooks a ridiculous amount of power. Additionally, an Intel exec showcased the future chip's ability to be user-overclocked, suggesting that it would be "your responsibility to take care of cooling." Of course, if Intel could buddy up with IBM's miracle-working cooling solutions, the forthcoming chip could manage to breathe a bit easier, but we've got until "the first half of 2008" to see about all that.
More dirt on Intel's Penryn / Nehalem architecture
While you've been off dreaming of long-range WiFi, Intel's not forgotten about its Penryn / Nehalem architectures, and thanks to an uber-boring slideshow presentation, we now know more than ever about the forthcoming duo. As expected, there isn't much new on the oft detailed Penryn front, but the fresher Nehalem most certainly piqued our interest; while built on the same 45-nanometer technology as its predecessor, Nehalem is being hailed as "the most dramatic architecture shift since the introduction of the front-side bus in the Pentium Pro in 1996." Attempting to back up such bold claims came news that HyperThreading would be native to Nehalem, and it would "share data at the L1 and potentially, the L3 cache levels," allow eight-core CPUs to clock down to two / four, and boast scalability options to satisfy a wider market. Most intriguing, however, was the "optional high performance integrated graphics" that could reportedly be included on the same processor die, which could certainly prove interesting if crammed into, say, a UMPC. So if you're still not satisfied with the highlights, and don't get enough mundane PowerPoint action from your corporate employment, be sure to hit the read link when your friends aren't looking.
Israeli military D&D 'Do Ask, Don't Tell'
We preface this piece by saying it is very old (2005), but still a good topic for discussion. If somebody is reading this in Israel -- because we know many of you are -- and has an update, we'll be sure to note. GamePolitics found this article from YNet confirming that Israeli citizens entering the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) who admit to playing Dungeons & Dragons are "automatically given low security clearance." Israel has a policy of mandatory service in the military.Unlike the US policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" towards gays in the military, the Israeli army actively asks if incoming members take part in a role-playing lifestyle. A security official says, "One of the tests we do, either by asking soldiers directly or through information provided us, is to ask whether they take part in the game ... If a soldier answers in the affirmative, he is sent to a professional for an evaluation, usually a psychologist."The IDF defends the policy by saying that D&D players are "detached from reality and susceptible to influence." Of course, D&D players interviewed for the piece are aware of the IDF policy and keep their gaming quiet out of fear they may lose status or clearance. We'd like to know if this policy applies to online RPGs as well, considering this article was written before the rise of World of Warcraft. It's such a strange basis to discriminate on, and taking into account American military discrimination in just the last 75 years we have no right to judge, but it is interesting to see what different armed forces get uppity about.
Intel's Santa Rosa platform officially dubbed Centrino Pro
While the Mac faithful are still twiddling their thumbs waiting for Apple to finally bump those sexy MacBook Pros to Merom status, Intel's not wasting any time officially dubbing its next generation notebook platform. The company unveiled the Santa Rosa chipset, complete with integrated HSDPA, at this year's Intel Developer's Forum, but we've now learned that it will not only be built "around the 64-bit dual-core Merom" processor, but it'll carry a "Centrino Pro" nametag to boot. Although specific speeds weren't announced, the chip giant did say that next year's Core 2 Duo lineup would include "T7300, T7500 and T7700 models," which boast an "800MHz front side bus and 4MB L2 cache," while the low-end T7100 gets it on-die cache halved. Simultaneously, Intel's "GM965/PM965 chipsets and 82566MM Gigabit Network/Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN network chips" will be unveiled to complete the Centrino Pro trifecta. Intel's planning on having these expeditious goodies ready by "Q2 2007," and the $300 million its throwing down for "promotion purposes" should keep us all very informed on its progress.[Via Laptoping]
Intel shows off StreetDeck UMPC integration at IDF
The StreetDeck in-car computer has been one of the better ways to navigate an escape from Morten Harket and his a-ha buddies ever since it was unveiled at CES this January, but now they're packing in some nifty UMPC integration (including internet connection leeching), Yahoo! Music, location-based internet search and iPod support. If you haven't managed to spot this thing before now, peep the screenshots after the break, or hit up one of those read links for a full breakdown of what Intel was showing off during their keynote yesterday.[Thanks, Kun]Read - StreetDeck Demonstrated at Intel Developer ForumRead - VW, Intel and your wireless future (video)
DirecTV, Intel to connect DVRs with Viiv PCs
In case 80 cores doesn't get you going, perhaps this will: in other news to come out of the Intel Developers Forum, DirecTV and Intel are joining forces to produce the DirecTV Plus HD DVR -- which we first heard about all the way back at CES -- allowing viewers to check out content via the interweb when connected to a Viiv PC. In addition, there will be a new software update for DirecTV subscribers by the end of the year that turns subscribers' set-top-boxes into digital media adapters, the companies said in a press release earlier today. The new DVR, to be released later this fall, will capture 200 hours of standard definition programming or 50 hours of HD, or whatever combination of the two your little heart desires.[Via CNET]
Intel Developers Forum roundup: four cores now, 80 cores later
While we've been busy covering lots of other news today, Intel has also been clamoring for the spotlight -- Otellini and Co. had a number of announcements about the future of processors at today's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. Firstly, the quad-core Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Quad chips have been officially unveiled and slated for production, with the former running in servers this fall, and the latter appearing in desktops by 2007. Of course, these chips are the same ones we've been hearing about for the last seven months, and it appears that DigiTimes' previous prediction that these procs would debut in November was correct. Secondly, Intel's CEO (pictured at right) told the audience that the chipmaker has already built a prototype with 80 processing cores on a single chip that can perform a trillion floating-point operations per second -- that's a teraflop to the layman -- and is aiming to ready commercial versions within five years. Otellini also teased everyone with announcements of the new 45nm-based architecture, code-named "Nehalem", which will ship in 2008, and the new "Gesher" 32nm chips by 2010, which would allow for a 310 percent increase in Intel processors' performance-per-Watt by that time -- hey, better late than never. Finally, in a move that will surely be met with angry glares from Cupertino, Intel is putting up a $1 million bounty for a Viiv-based Mac mini killer, something that will turn a traditional living room PC into something that is "sexy, stylish and small" (you mean the mini's not?) as determined by a panel that includes judges from PC Magazine, GQ and of course, Otellini himself. Be sure to check the couple extra pics on the next page.Read - Quad-core chips coming in NovemberRead - First quad-core servers, desktops comingRead - 80-core chips coming by 2011Read - Higher performance-per-watt Read - $1 million bounty[Photos: Ricardo]
