News articles by Gennadiy Shvets

Two weeks remain before the launch of Intel Haswell desktop microprocessors at Computex show in Taiwan. At this time we know pretty much everything about unreleased chis. Specifications of 4th generation CPUs were published last December, followed by numerous benchmarks leaks in the past two months. Haswell processors were available for pre-order since March, and earlier in May they started selling on Taobao auction site. In the past week the parts started to pop up on eBay and in US online stores.   [Full story]

A few weeks ago we reported on three business class AMD APUs, spotted in a CPU support list on Biostar's website. The list referred to A4-6300B, A6-6400B and A10-6800B processors, that had exactly the same specifications as A4-6300, A6-6400K and A10-6800K upcoming products. It turns out that AMD also plans A8-Series business class SKU with model number A8-6500B. The APU was sighted in a CPU support list for MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 motherboard.   [Full story]

Several unreleased processors and co-processors were added to Intel's Material Declaration Data Sheets (MDDS) database in the last day or two. Listed Pentium microprocessors are G2030 and G2140, and Xeon Phi cards are 3120A, 3120P, 7120P and 7120X. The listing doesn't reveal much, besides tray and product part numbers of Pentium CPUs and Xeon Phi co-processors, but it can be considered as a confirmation of their impending release.   [Full story]

The official launch of Haswell microarchitecture in June will include desktop, mobile and server products. Mobile Haswell lineup will be comprised of a few mainstream quad-core processors with TDP 47 and 57 Watt, and a handful of ultra-low voltage parts: Core i3-4100U, i3-4010U, i5-4250U, i5-4200U, i7-4650U, i5-4350U, i7-4550U and i7-4500U. Their specifications are pretty much unknown at this point, and the only thing known about them is the type of integrated GPU.   [Full story]

AMD introduced first ultra-low power "Kabini" APUs for embedded market last month, and is set to launch consumer "Kabini" products later this quarter. Future ULV processors will employ "Jaguar" 28nm microarchitecture, and have from 2 to 4 CPU cores, paired with HD 8000 series graphics. Details of specific SKUs were sketchy so far, as we only knew model numbers, the number of cores and the size of L2 cache.   [Full story]

We reported in March that Intel plans to launch new Xeon Phi co-processors in Q2 2013. Current Xeon Phi lineup includes 3 models from 5100 series, aimed at high density servers. These cards integrate up to 61 cores, based on Pentium design, and coupled with up to 30.5 MB of L2 cache. Additionally, the cards have 8 GB on-board GDDR5 memory, operating at 5.5 GT/s. In May, Xeon Phi family will be expanded with 5 new products.   [Full story]

An "admin" user at RedQuasar forum recently posted some benchmarks of Core i5-4570 and Core i7-4770K 4th generation processors, built on Haswell microarchitecture. What makes these benchmarks different from previous authorized and unauthorized Haswell tests is that they involved production versions of CPUs, and not engineering samples. The "admin" user also posted pictures of production i5-4570 and i7-4770K chips with SR14E and SR147 S-spec numbers.   [Full story]

In a month, Intel is going to launch Haswell microarchitecture, that will offer better performance and lower power consumption than current generation of Ivy Bridge CPUs. One of the drawbacks of new architecture is incompatibility with existing socket 1155 motherboards. Fortunately, Intel still have plans to make LGA1155 processors, and a handful of them will be released in June. We reported their specifications in February and March of this year.   [Full story]

First two generations of Accelerating Processing Units were positioned by AMD as inexpensive processors with good enough all-around performance, whether it be CPU calculations, graphics or general purpose computing. AMD also released cheaper versions of APUs with disabled integrated graphics. These parts were marketed as Athlon X2 or Athlon X4, depending on the number of cores. Next generation of desktop APUs, codenamed "Richland", will also have at least one SKU with disabled graphics.   [Full story]

In January AMD announced ultra-low power Temash APUs for tablets and ultra-thin notebooks. The chips will make use of recently launched Jaguar architecture, and they are expected in Q2 2013. Some specifications of future Temash APUs were revealed by AMD in the announcement, and in subsequent roadmap updates. Dual-core microprocessor received A4-1200 model number. This part is clocked at 1 GHz, and has HD 8180 graphics. The second processor is a quad-core A6-1450.   [Full story]

We had a quite a few stories dedicated to Atom "Silvermont" architecture and products, that are going to replace current generation of Atom "Salwell" CPUs. Manufactured on the latest 22nm technology, the microarchitecture will bring such features as out-of-order execution, newer instructions, up to 4 cores, and Ivy Bridge graphics to Atom family. Depending on targeted market, there will be a few different variations of "Silvermont" processors.   [Full story]

Next generation of extreme Intel microprocessors is coming later this year. The CPUs will be based on Ivy Bridge-E core, that brings all performance enhancement features of server products to desktop market. Branded as Core i7 Extreme or Core i7, these processors will offer up to 6 Hyper-Threaded CPU cores, up to 15 MB L3 cache, PCI Express 3.0 interface, and quad-channel memory controller, supporting memory with 1866 MHz data rates.   [Full story]

We previously reported that Intel plans to launch a few Ivy Bridge-based Celeron and Pentium mobile processors before the families are transitioned to Haswell microarchitecture. New CPUs, Celeron 1005M, 1017U, and Pentium 2127U, will offer slightly better performance than Celeron 1000M, 1007U and Pentium 2117U products. The details of future microprocessors were confirmed last week by a recently updated specification update for Mobile 3rd Generation Intel Core Family.   [Full story]

Intel this week revealed a launch date of their next microarchitecture, codenamed Haswell. In a blog post, titled "4th Generation Intel Core Processors Coming Soon", they stated that first Haswell CPUs will be released in about 3,337,200,000,000,000 nanoseconds. This huge number is another way to say 3,337,200 seconds, or 38 days and 15 hours.   [Full story]

As we're getting closer to the launch of desktop "Richland" APUs, they started to appear in OEM desktop PCs from major manufacturers. Lenovo recently added new product pages for H535 and H535s computers to their UK website. Both computers list current generation of "Trinity" processors, along with upcoming "Richland" APUs.   [Full story]

Haswell processors are not the only forth-generation desktop products to be launched this year. In the second half 2013, Intel will introduce high-end Core i7-4xxx CPUs for LGA2011 platform. These i7 microprocessors will use Ivy Bridge-E core, while keeping most of the Sandy Brdge-E features unchanged. That includes 4 or 6 CPU cores, up to 15 MB L3 cache, quad-channel memory controller, and support all SIMD instructions up to AVX.   [Full story]

Intel's Haswell microarchitecture, coming in about 6 weeks, is going to bring new performance improvements to desktop Core i5/i7 lineup. Unlike Ivy Bridge CPUs, that achieved this by tweaking the microarchitecture and raising clock speeds, Haswell microprocessors will get up to 10% better CPU performance owing just to architecture redesign. The specs of Haswell microprocessors will be identical to their Ivy Bridge counterparts, and it seems that the pricing will not change much.   [Full story]

In June, AMD is going to launch the third generation of desktop APUs, featuring "Piledriver" microarchitecture and HD 8000 series graphics. Specifications of upcoming A-Series consumer desktop processors were known for a while, but it's not well known that AMD will also release several business class SKUs, based on "Richland" core. Some details of these models appeared in CPU support lists on the Biostar website.   [Full story]

Last week Hewlett Packard launched Moonshot system and the first Moonshot server cartridges, built with Atom S1200 series processors and aimed at web hosting market. A single system with 45 of such cartridges can run up to 180 threads simultaneously. Later this year HP will introduce Avoton-based cartridges, that will double the number of threads, and improve server's performance. The Moonshot system is not going to be limited to Intel CPUs, though.   [Full story]

Last week we reported on two mobile Celeron microprocessors, 1005M and 1017U, currently scheduled to launch in the third quarter. What is interesting is that both processors are currently listed under H2 2012 in the latest Intel's public roadmap. The document is obviously incorrect because both processors are not launched yet. In addition to two Celerons, the roadmap also mentions Pentium 2127U.   [Full story]

In January, AMD revealed plans to release three new processor cores, called "Kabini", "Richland", and "Temash". Mobile "Richland" CPUs were introduced in March. Desktop "Richland" processors, together with "Kabini" and "Temash" APUs, will be available in the second quarter. "Temash" and "Kabini" will be aimed at tablet and mobile markets, but there will be also embedded "Kabini" parts. We found some details on three embedded SKUs in specifications of upcoming Mini-ITX motherboard.   [Full story]

The launch of Intel Haswell microarchitecture is less than two months away, and it's not surprising that we hear more and more news, related to this event. Last week CNet reported that Intel Haswell processors are already shipping to PC manufacturers and will be launched as scheduled, and that is despite the fact that the accompanying Lynx Point chipset has a defect in USB controller.   [Full story]

In the past few years, desktop and mobile Celeron processors were usually the last to transition to newer Intel microarchitectures. The same will be true for future Haswell Celerons. Currently Intel plans to launch Haswell-based desktop Celerons in Q1 2014, two quarters after the launch of Core i3 and Pentium CPUs. Mobile "Haswell" Celerons will be available earlier, in Q4 2013, but before that the company will refresh the mobile lineup with two new Ivy Bridge processors.   [Full story]

Last week, AMD posted Youtube video, demonstrating Turbo Dock feature and game performance of upcoming "Temash" and "Kabini" microprocessors. The demonstration involved two separate reference tablet designs, Compal and Wistron, that can be converted to full-fledged notebooks using a detachable keyboard.   [Full story]

Intel prepares to launch its next CPU microarchitecture in two months, with the first products being offered for desktop, mobile, server and embedded markets. Desktop CPUs will be available in LGA1150 package, compatible with socket 1150. In addition to LGA1150 desktop microprocessors, Intel will eventually release BGA processors, aimed at All-in-One systems, that will boast lower power consumption and have beefed up graphics.   [Full story]

Recent leak of Intel server roadmap revealed full lineup of E3-1200 v3 microprocessors. While the roadmap didn't have information on Xeon E5 v2 and E7 v2 SKUs, it listed some of their general features. Many of these features were rumored or reported before, nevertheless it is always useful to have confirmed information, coming directly from Intel.   [Full story]

On Friday, Chinese edition of VR-Zone news site published a slide from Intel document, depicting a roadmap for upcoming "Ivy Bridge-E" extreme edition microprocessors. Currently, extreme edition lineup consists of Core i7-3820, i7-3930K and i7-3970X models, having from 4 to 6 cores, and operating at frequencies up to 3.6 GHz. Sometime around third quarter Intel will release their successors, based on "Ivy Bridge-E" microarchitecture.   [Full story]

In February, new Celeron G470, Core i3-3245 and i3-3250 processors were spotted on Intel's website. Although the website listed box and s-spec numbers of unreleased CPUs, their clock speeds and other features remained unknown. Based on model numbers, we assumed that the only difference between new processors and existing products will be in slightly increased clock speed.   [Full story]

Another day, another Intel roadmap leak. Last week Intel leaked full product launch schedule, and last weekend Computerbase discovered PDF file, containing recent server roadmap with specifications of Xeon E3-1200 v3 microprocessors. The PDF file since then was taken offline.   [Full story]

One of the most exciting features of Haswell microarchitecture is significantly improved GT3 graphics, that comes with twice as many execution units, and with a separate on-chip cache in some configurations. Intel projected that Haswell GT3 GPU will be up to 2 times faster than Ivy Bridge GT2. Unfortunately, we will not see GT3 units on desktop CPUs, or on mobile processors in PGA package.   [Full story]

As we already reported today, Intel Launch Update document was leaked last Sunday, revealing company's products launches for the next 5 quarters. We already covered roadmap for desktop and mobile consumer processors in our previous story. Intel also has a few interesting products coming for server and embedded markets.   [Full story]

It is not uncommon to see details of unreleased CPU products leaked by AMD's or Intel's partners. It is less common when CPU manufacturers themselves leak model numbers or product specifications, and it is especially rare when the manufacturers leak complete roadmaps or launch schedules. And this is exactly what happened last week, possibly last weekend, when Intel accidentally left open access to complete product launch schedule for desktop, mobile, server and embedded markets.   [Full story]

More than a dozen of Core i5 and Core i7 Haswell microprocessors are expected to launch at the beginning of June. The flagship Haswell model, Core i7-4770K with unlocked multiplier, was already spotted this week in some stores in Europe. Hardware.info reported that the CPU is currently available for pre-order in Dutch online shops MaxICT and TakeItNow, priced at 330 Euro and 350 Euro respectively, that is 4% and 11% higher than the average selling price of the i7-3770K in Holland.   [Full story]

AMD Richland APUs are scheduled to launch at the beginning of June, at about the same time as Intel Haswell desktop CPUs. According to DigiTimes, prior to the launch AMD is going to reduce prices of FX microprocessors and A-Series APUs. The prices will be dropped by 8% - 15% on the following SKUs: FX-4300, FX-6300, FX-8320 and A-Series A6-5600K. It is possible that we may see lower prices for other APUs as well.   [Full story]

Intel Xeon family is currently comprised of E3, E5 and E7 subfamilies, that target uni-processor, dual/quad- and multi-processor systems respectively. Current generation of Xeon E3 and E5 microprocessors was released in the course of three months, from March to May 2012. Future Xeon E3s and E5s will be introduced more gradually, with the E3 processors available in May or June 2013, while some E5 series chips will be pushed back as far as Q1 2014.   [Full story]

NVIDIA revealed CPU and GPU roadmaps at GPU Technology Conference earlier this week. The roadmaps shed some light on the next generation of graphics units and Tegra processors, and disclosed names and some features of after-the-next-generation products.   [Full story]

Earlier this week Tom's Hardware posted preliminary benchmarks of Intel Core i7-4770K microprocessor, comparing it with the top Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge models. As you may know, most Haswell SKUs have the same specifications as their Ivy Bridge predecessors, and the i7-4770K is not an exception. The microprocessor has the same number of cores, size of caches, CPU and GPU base frequencies, and memory support as the 3770K.   [Full story]

Intel plans to update desktop Pentium family with several slightly faster Ivy Bridge-based processors in Q2 2013. The refresh will come one quarter after January's refresh of budget desktop families, and one quarter before the launch of Haswell-based Pentium microprocessors. The new chips are Pentium G2030, G2030T, G2120T and G2140.   [Full story]

AMD FX-Series "Piledriver" processors have been launched last October, and included FX-4300 and FX-6300 95 Watt CPUs, together with FX-8320 and FX-8350 125 Watt parts. It was rumored that AMD will launch several more SKUs at the end of Q4 2012, but those rumors were not realized, and we're still waiting for FX-4320, FX-4350, FX-6350 and FX-8300. The good news is that two out of four FX processors, namely FX-4350 and FX-6350, are now available for pre-order in US.   [Full story]

Next quarter AMD is going to introduce low-power microarchitecture, codenamed "Jaguar", that will be used by "Temash" and "Kabini" products. Temash APUs will target tablet and hybrids market, and Kabini processors will be aimed at netbooks, ultra-thin notebooks and AIO computers. Prior reports indicated that Kabini products will be branded as X2- and X4-Series, based on the number of cores. There will be also E1-Series SKUs, E1-3310 and E1-2210.   [Full story]

AMD currently ships second-generation desktop and mobile APUs with "Trinity" core, that combines "Piledriver" microarchitecture and Radeon HD 7000 series graphics. Next generation of accelerated units will utilize Richland core with integrated graphics, upgraded to HD 8000. Richland processors were planned to launch in the first half of this year, although their announcement may come as early as the next week.   [Full story]

Intel today announced discontinuation of all Xeon 3500- and 3600- series processors for one-way workstations. Xeon 3500 series was built on Nehalem microarchitecture, had up to 4 cores, and supported Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost technologies. Xeon 36xx microprocessors used Westmere (enhanced Nehalem) architecture, and they added 2 CPU cores, larger L3 cache and support for AES instructions.   [Full story]

In January AMD made public a 2013 roadmap, that provided some details on upcoming generations of AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). The roadmap revealed several model numbers of unreleased chips, including A6-1450 "Temash" APU, A6-5200 "Kabini" part and "Richland"-based A8-5545M and A10-5750M. Although all of them are quad-core processors, AMD will also introduce dual-core SKUs.   [Full story]

On Monday we reported on upcoming Core i3-3250 microprocessor, that has surfaced on Intel's website. At present, we know only its microarchitecture, package type and box part number, and the rest of the specifications we deduced based on the model. Launch date of this CPU is not known, however we presume that this will happen before introduction of Core i3 processors with "Haswell" core. The i3-3250 will not be the only Core i3 desktop CPU, coming in the next quarter or two.   [Full story]

In January Intel launched first Y-series ultra low voltage microprocessors for ultrabooks and thin-and-light notebooks. These parts offer reduced power consumption in comparison with Intel's "U" series of ULV products, albeit at the expense of lower performance. At this time, the "Y" processors are branded as Mobile Pentium, Core i3, i5 and i7, depending on their features. Mobile Celeron line didn't have its own "Y" chip, although this will change soon.   [Full story]

Intel Core i3 line of Ivy Bridge processors was released in September 2012, and so far it has been been expanded with the i3-3210 SKU, that has narrowed the gap between Core i3 and Pentium desktop families. Another Core i3 model, which is likely to be the fastest from all Core i3 processors, will be released later this year. Information about this part appeared in Intel's Material Declaration Data Sheets (MDDS) database over the weekend.   [Full story]

NVidia today announced a Tegra 4i System-on-a-chip (SoC) and a "Phoenix" reference platform for inexpensive smart phones and tablets. The Tegra 4i chip uses different ARM core, and has fewer NVIDIA graphics cores than Tegra 4 processor, that was launched earlier this year. On the other hand, the Tegra 4i integrates NVidia i500 LTE modem, and it comes in smaller 12mm x 12mm package, while offering 65% - 78% of Tegra 4 performance.   [Full story]

In January we reported on three AMD "Kabini" APUs that are expected to be released in the second quarter 2013. Major new feature in these processors are up to 4 CPU cores, that employ improved "Jaguar" core, and HD 8000 series graphics, compatible with DirectX 11.1. The APUs will be offered with Thermal Design Power ranging from 15 Watt to 25 Watt. So far we published partial specification of three SKUs, X4 5110, E1 3310 and E1 2210.   [Full story]

Based on recently leaked information, Intel 4th generation Haswell processors will be released at Computex show in Taiwan. Exactly like during the last two Intel microarchitecture launches, the first announced mobile CPUs will be quad-core models. We already published details of three of these SKUs. Core i7-4930MX Extreme, Core i7-4900MQ and i7-4800MQ will have the same specifications as Core i7-3940XM Extreme Edition, i7-3840QM and i7-3740QM microprocessors.   [Full story]

Itanium "Poulson" processors, the latest Intel CPUs for mission-critical systems, have been launched last November. At the time, Intel released 4 different models with 4 and 8 cores, and also announced some details on "Poulson" successor, dubbed "Kittson". According to the announcement, future Itaniums with "Kittson" core and future "Haswell" Xeon CPUs are going to share not only common external components, such as chipsets and memory, but they will also re-use common silicon design elements...   [Full story]

Future Intel Atom systems on a chip (SoC), codenamed "ValleyView", are expected to bring several big performance enhancements. According to numerous leaks, the processors will utilize "Silvermont" microarchitecture with out of order execution, which will significantly improve CPU performance. Graphics Processing Unit, integrated on these parts, will be replaced with 7th generation (Ivy Bridge) GPU, that should also improve graphics performance.   [Full story]

Intel this week announced plans to retire 28 Sandy Bridge desktop CPUs from Celeron, Pentium, Core i3 and Core i5 families. After successful transition of budget desktop microprocessors from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, it's not surprising to see all phased out parts to be end of lifed.   [Full story]

Last month's introduction of more than 20 desktop and mobile CPUs might be the last big release of Ivy Bridge processors. We don't have any information about new Ivy Bridge parts, coming this or next quarter, therefore it is quite possible that the next big launch event will take place in four months, when Intel releases Haswell microarchitecture. We already reported that initial Haswell desktop lineup will consists of 13 quad-core and 1 dual-core processor.   [Full story]

Earlier this week XBiT laboratories published two slides, showing updated AMD desktop lineup. On the lower end of that lineup AMD had FX-4130 microprocessor, and the mid- and high-performance products were Piledriver-based FX-4300, FX-6300, FX-8320 and FX-8350 CPUs with "Vishera" core. The most intriguing was that the FX-4130 had box part number FD4130WMHKBOX, which was different from previously launched FX-4130 CPU with FD4130FRGUBOX box SKU.   [Full story]

Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture is not dead yet. While all new consumer mobile processors are based on Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, the company prepares at least one Sandy Bridge mobile CPU for small and medium business market. In the past two quarters Intel already released several Sandy Bridge parts for that market, Core i3-23x8M for mainstream notebooks, and i3-23x5M for ultra-thin and light notebooks. The future processor, dubbed as Core i3-2375M, will be 100 MHz faster than Core i3-2365M.   [Full story]

One of the new features of yet unreleased Haswell microarchitecture is a significantly improved integrated graphics. Intel Haswell processors will incorporate one of the three different GPU variations, GT1 for budget segment, GT2 for mainstream processors, and GT3 for high-performance mobile and Ultra Light and Thin (ULT) CPUs. The GT2 graphics, dubbed as HD 4600, will be available in the first Haswell desktop and mobile products, coming in Q2.   [Full story]

Quite a few new details on upcoming AMD "Richland" Accelerated Processing Units have surfaced this week. First, Fudzilla posted partial specifications of A4-6300 and A6-6400K dual-core parts. It was followed by a rumor on additional A8- and A10-Series Richland APUs, that revealed their TDP and the type of integrated graphics. Finally, VR-Zone Chinese published complete Richland lineup specifications, including CPU and GPU clock speeds.   [Full story]

In the next quarter, AMD plans to replace "Trinity" Accelerated Processing Units with products, based on "Richland" core. The new core combines Piledriver microarchitecture with HD 8000-series graphics, and it is expected to be compatible with existing socket FM2 motherboards. So far we only knew about a successor to A10-5800K APU, that will be dubbed as A10-6800K. Two other Richland chips, A4-6300 and A6-6400K, were revealed by Fudzilla this week.   [Full story]

Last month Chinese edition of VR-Zone news site published a slide from Intel document, that detailed launch schedule of the next generation microprocessors with Haswell core. According to the slide, Haswell CPUs will be available on June 2nd, and they will be officially introduced from May 27 to June 7, that is at least one month later than previously anticipated. The launch delay was confirmed yesterday by DigiTimes.   [Full story]

In the past months we reported on upcoming ValleyView and Avoton processors, based on the next generation Atom microarchitecture, codenamed "Silvermont". ValleyView is a line of ULV microprocessors for tablet, desktop, mobile and embedded markets, and Avoton chips are aimed at the micro-server market. In addition to these two platforms, Intel plans Rangeley processors for the networking and communications market.   [Full story]

Intel plans to discontinue a handful of Sandy Bridge microprocessors, including Core i5, i7 and Celeron ultra low voltage models, and quad-core Core i7 microprocessors. The processors will be end-of-lifed in the middle of this year, after the company completes transition to ivy Bridge microarchitecture and releases first Haswell mobile CPUs. Model numbers of affected processors were published today in two Product Change Notifications (PCNs).   [Full story]

This is not going to be a long and boring article explaining different features of AMD FX microprocessors. Instead, we will have some fun actually looking under the lid. As you may know, top of the line FX-series processors are shipped in tin cans, which creates an illusion of more expensive, and consequently better quality products. The top lid of the can has an insert, that keeps the lid in place when it's closed.   [Full story]

AMD yesterday detailed their roadmap of mobile Accelerated Processing Units for this year. The company plans three separate families of processors: "Temash" ultra-low power chips for tablets, "Kabini" APUs for netbooks and ultra-thin notebooks, and "Richland" products for ultra-thin and mainstream notebooks. AMD also revealed some of the upcoming APU models, as well as their performance in graphics and office applications.   [Full story]

AMD ultra-low power APUs with "Jaguar" core are a few month away, but before they launch, the company is planning to release two Accelerated Processing Units, based on older Bobcat architecture. AMD E1-1500 and E2-2000 products are going to replace E1-1200 and E2-1800 parts, and they will offer slightly higher performance in graphics and numerical applications. Specifications of E1-1500 and E2-2000 APUs recently appeared on German version of AMD's website.   [Full story]

In November Mobile Geeks hardware news site published leaked Intel slides, detailing future Atom "ValleyView-T" System-on-a-chip (SoC) for tablets. Perhaps, the most interesting tidbit in those slides was the fact that ValleyView-T processors will launch in 2014, rather than at the end of 2013. As it turns out, not only tablet chips, but also desktop and mobile Atom products from Bay Trail platform were pushed back to the first half of 2014.   [Full story]

Entry-level Accelerated Processing Units from AMD currently use Bobcat core, released two years ago. We haven't seen significant performance advances in the Bobcat lineup since the launch of E-350, but hopefully this will change soon. New "Kabini" APUs, expected in June, will introduce more efficient Jaguar core, while improving many features of the CPU and GPU portions of the chips. According to Fudzilla, there will be X-Series and E-Series of Kabini desktop processors.   [Full story]

Intel's ultra low power lineup is going to be refreshed later this quarter. The company will replace i3-3217U, i5-3317U, i5-3427U and i7-3667U CPUs with Core i3-3227U, i5-3337U, i5-3437U and i7-3687U, essentially boosting their clock frequencies by 100 MHz. Furthermore, there will be another Core i5 model, i7-3537U. That CPU has surfaced in specifications of HP (PDF file), ASUS and Dell notebooks.   [Full story]

Last month, Chinese VR-Zone was the first to report detailed specifications of Haswell desktop quad-core CPUs, coming in Q2 2013. The initial lineup will include 14 SKUs, comprised of 5 Core i7 and 9 Core i5 models, with TDPs ranging from 35 Watt to 84 Watt. After the first wave of Haswell desktop processors, Intel will presumably release dual-core Core i3s and Pentiums in the second half 2013. Model numbers of these processors were recently spotted by EXPReview in heatsink compatibility sections on the Arctic website.   [Full story]

Current generation of A-Series Accelerated Processing units (APUs) is going to be replaced with "Richland" processors in the middle of 2013. The future Accelerated units will utilize Piledriver core, produced on 28nm process, while staying compatible with socket FM2 platform. The processors will also receive integrated GPU with Radeon HD 8000 graphics. Fudzilla recently revealed some details of Richland lineup, as well as A10-6800K model number of the flagship "Richland" APU.   [Full story]

Intel Haswell microarchitecture, originally planned to launch as early as April 2013, has been delayed until the end of May or the beginning of June of next year. This week Chinese VR-Zone published what looks like a slide from an Intel Launch Update document, that details launch schedule and activities in regard to desktop and mobile Haswell parts. According to the slide, quad-core 4th Generation CPUs and new boards, based on the Lynx Point chipset, will be introduced from May 27 to June 7.   [Full story]

Some details on upcoming Tegra 4 "Wayne" System-on-a-chip (SoC) were revealed this week by a user in a forum on ChipHell's website. According to posted slide, the Tegra 4 will be fabricated on 28nm HPL process, and will use 4-PLUS-1 central processing unit. The 4-PLUS-1 CPU will contain 4 "Eagle" high-performance cores, and a single battery saver core, that will take over under light load.   [Full story]

New mobile Celeron 1000M, 1020M, 1007U and 1037U CPUs are coming in the first quarter 2013. Model numbers of these processors were revealed by DigiTimes earlier this month, but so far their details remained sketchy. It was known that the Celerons will utilize Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, and they will replace ULV and mainstream budget chips from 800 and B800 series. Other features of 1000M, 1007U, 1020M and 1037U CPUs were unknown, but now we have their full specifications.   [Full story]

Last Friday VR-Zone published details of future "Haswell" desktop microprocessors, coming in the Q2 2013. One interesting observation about them is that individual models in Haswell and Ivy Bridge lineups have identical features, such as clock speed, sizes of caches and support for advanced technologies, and differ only by the type of integrated graphics, and by higher TDP on some Haswell SKUs. VR-Zone now posted details of mobile "Haswell" quad-core microprocessors.   [Full story]

The next Intel microarchitecture, codenamed Haswell, is expected to launch in the second quarter 2013. There were multiple reports on the architecture features in the past months, but the exact lineup was not known up until this week. On Tuesday VR-Zone published specifications of desktop Haswell processors, that revealed Intel's plans to release 14 quad-core models, branded as Core i5-4xxx and i7-4xxx.   [Full story]

Based on earlier reports, Intel is going to release 14 mobile dual-core processors in the next quarter. The forthcoming lineup will be built on Ivy Bridge architecture, and it will span all segments of mobile market, from mainstream and ULV Celeron chips and up to Core i7. In addition to 14 models, we also reported on several Core i3 and i5 mobile microprocessors, that might launch at about the same time. Furthermore, we spotted another two unreleased processors, Pentium 2030M and Core i3-3130M.   [Full story]

AMD announced new server microprocessors for mid- and entry-level servers and workstations. Newly launched products include Opteron 4300 series for dual-socket systems, which allows up to 16 cores per server. AMD also introduced Opteron 3300 series for 1P workstations and micro-servers. All released processors are based on "Piledriver" core, that improves performance by up to 15% in comparison with previous generation of Opterons.   [Full story]

Looking at the power requirements of the three last generations of Intel desktop microprocessors, it's easy to notice that their dissipated power steadily goes down with each new microarchitecture. While dual- and quad-core Nehalem CPUs had 73W and 95W/130W TDP, Sandy Bridge architecture had it lowered to 65W and 95W, which was again reduced to 55W and 77W for Ivy Bridge. This trend was less noticeable in mobile microprocessors.   [Full story]

A study on performance of modern microprocessors in HPC applications, published in September, revealed new custom server processor from AMD. Opteron 6275 shares most of the features, like operating frequency and the size of caches, with model 6276, but has its FPU throughput limited to 2 double precision floating-point operations per each module per cycle.   [Full story]

AMD recently participated in two WorldHostingDays events, presenting their cloud server strategy. Two large parts of the presentations were Seamicro technology, announced back in October, and Opteron roadmap for 2013 and 2014 years. The roadmap didn't reveal the names or capabilities of future Opteron microprocessors, but it had a few interesting tidbits.   [Full story]

Next microarchitecture from Intel, codenamed Haswell, will be launched in the second quarter 2013, but before then the company will refresh existing desktop and mobile lineups, releasing more than a dozen of new models. We previously reported on new Celeron and Pentium desktop CPUs, as well as mobile Core i5 and i7 processors, coming next quarter. According to Digitimes, Intel will also launch a few mobile Celeron microprocessors from 1000-series.   [Full story]

AMD Brazos 2.0 platform, along with E1-1200 and E2-1800 Accelerated Processing Units, was introduced in June of this year. Shortly after the launch it was reported that slightly faster APU, called E2-2000, will be coming in the 4th quarter. Unfortunately, according to Fudzilla, AMD changed the plans, and the E2-2000 will not be available this year. The processor still stays on AMD roadmap, and the company also plans a successor to E1-1200, that will be dubbed as E1-1500.   [Full story]

Since the launch of socket FM2 APU platform in October 2012, sales of the socket FM1 APUs, based on Llano core, have been in decline. In the second quarter of this year AMD sold 3.3 million socket FM1 processors. That number dropped to 0.6 million in Q3, and it is expected to be even lower this quarter. The fourth quarter will also be the last one, when AMD offers socket FM1 processors.   [Full story]

We recently reported that Intel plans to introduce five mobile Core i5 and i7 microprocessors in Q1 2013. It is likely that Intel will launch more than just several SKUs, and we will also see a few Core ULV parts, Ivy Bridge-based Celeron mobile processor or processors, and even one Sandy Bridge CPU. The latter one is a Core i3-2348M, and it was spotted in specifications of Fujitsu LIFEBOOK AH532, N532, NH532 and LH532 notebooks along with unreleased Core i5-3230M.   [Full story]