Archived news: October 2011 - December 2011

Earlier this month Donanim Haber published specifications, release dates and prices of unlocked FX-6200, as well as A-Series A6-3670K and A8-3870K microprocessors. A-Series APUs were announced on December 20, and they surfaced in stores a week later. FX-6200 SKU, which was supposed to be released on December 26, is not yet available in stores. However, as was already reported by many hardware news sites, FX-6200 specifications already appeared on AMD website.   [Full story]

There has been much speculation recently about the upcoming Core i5-2550K, and it's specs and price. One of Sandy Bridge's selling points has been the integrated GPU, but it appears this will no longer be the case for the whole range. VR-Zone have now revealed preliminary details of three new i5 processors, including Core i5-2550K, which will not have an active iGPU.   [Full story]

It would appear that Intel are unable to meet the target supplies for the Ultra-Low Power version of it's Ivy Bridge processors, due in April. An article published on December 29 at VR-Zone indicates that as a result the specs for the U-Series processor TDP have been adjusted, in order to increase the available yield.   [Full story]

There has been a lot of talk recently about Intel reducing prices of Sandy Bridge CPUs in the run-up to the launch of Ivy Bridge. Digitimes today (December 28 ) published details including pricing and release dates for various Ivy Bridge processors and chipsets. Initial SKUs will be released on or around April 8 2012, with a few more parts following over the following few weeks.   [Full story]

On December 26, VR-Zone published an article about Intel's newly formed "Mobile and Communications" division and the Medfield SoC. Formed from the merger of four separate divisions (Mobile Communications, Mobile Wireless, Netbook & Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobility), the new division will be producing a 32nm chip called Medfield, Intel's first complete SoC solution. In contrast to some of their older platforms (such as two-chip solutions that actually needed 4-5 chips to work), Medfield is Intel's first true, highly-integrated solution.   [Full story]

I'm leaving for vacation today, therefore there won't be any big updates on the site for about a week. I will have access to the site, and I expect that I will be able to do simple administration work, like approving comments, and possibly posting news stories. I wish all site visitors Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

More than a week ago we published specifications of Ivy Bridge-based Core i7-3610QE, i7-3612QE and i7-3615QE embedded processors. Basic characteristics of those quad-core CPUs are very similar to forthcoming Core i7-361xQM OEM chips. The embedded parts will also incorporate several advanced features, such as ECC support and Vpro technology. In addition to 361xQE quad-cores, Intel will also release Core i7-3517UE and i7-3555LE dual-core embedded models in the second or third quarter of 2012.   [Full story]

Over the next few months, Intel will be releasing several server and workstation class processors based on Sandy Bridge. Entry level workstation offerings include E3-1200 v2 and E5-1600, both reliable alternatives to regular desktop offerings. Dual socket processors include the E5-2400 series and the higher performing E5-2600. Finally, we have the quad socket E5-4600 series. We have now seen some initial performance comparisons between Sandy Bridge-EP and Westmere-EP.   [Full story]

Last Friday Turkish site Donanimhaber published a few slides, one of which revealed release date and official prices of A6-3670K and A8-3870K Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). Two processors will be launched on December 26, priced at $115 for A6 model, and $135 for A8 model. AMD today added specifications of these processors to their product database, thus confirming imminent release of both CPUs.   [Full story]

Ivy Bridge micro-architecture, planned for the second quarter 2012, will bring a number of enhancements to CPU and graphics portions of the chip. The CPU cores will feature up to 15%, sometimes even higher performance due to micro-architecture improvements and 100 MHz - 300 MHz higher Turbo Boost frequencies. HD 4000 and HD 2500 graphics will add support for DirectX 11, and it will be considerably faster than current HD 3000 and HD 2000 on-chip graphics. What's more important, better performing Ivy Bridge CPUs will come with 20% lower Thermal Design Power. It's great that upcoming CPUs will run cooler and faster, but at what price? Based on pricing information, that we've seen, desktop Ivy Bridge SKUs will have prices, in most cases identical to Sandy Bridge predecessors.   [Full story]

One month ago Intel launched socket 2011 enthusiast platform, comprised of X79 chipset, and Core i7-3960X and i7-3930K microprocessors. Both Core i7s are six-core CPUs, that boast better performance than previous generation of Extreme Edition consumer chips, at a premium price. The good news is that much less expensive socket 2011 processor is coming in the first quarter 2012. As was previously reported, Core i7-3820 will be released in February, and it will be priced at $294 in 1K tray quantities. This CPU is now available for pre-order in Provantage online store.   [Full story]

On December 5, we published preliminary details of AMDs Llano A6-3670K, A8-3820 and A8-3870K APUs. Turkish site Donanimhaber have now published the release dates and initial pricing for A8-3870K and A6-3670K, as well as revealing more information about the A8-3820.   [Full story]

On December 14, Global Foundries and ARM revealed details of the latest SoC solutions based around the ARM Cortex-A series processor. Developed using ARM Artisan advanced physical IP and Global Foundries' leading-edge process technologies, the companies have announced a 2.5+ GHz chip built around a dual-core Cortex-A9 processor. They also announced the testing of a 20nm development process for Cortex-A9 based SoCs.   [Full story]

As you may know, next year Intel is going to release next generation of Itanium microprocessors, codenamed "Poulson". Details of these processors were disclosed earlier this year on Hot Chips conference. The Poulson processors will have 3.1 billion transistors, and will be manufactured on 32nm process. They will integrate 54 MB of memory, and pack 8 cores, that is twice as many cores as current "Tukwilla"-based Itanium 9300 CPUs. Forthcoming processors will be compatible with Itanium 9300, and they will be coupled with 7500 chipset.   [Full story]

On November 29 we published details of Ivy Bridge performance expectations. We can now reveal benchmarks results of an i7-3770K sample that was tested by a user on the chiphell forums. Each test was executed at stock settings, so the results are easily compared to those of an i7-2700K at stock settings.   [Full story]

While the Mobile Intel 7 Series chipsets have much in common with the desktop chipsets that we reported on earlier today, there are a number of important differences in which features are implemented. There are 6 different mobile chipsets, all of which are expected to be available in Q2 2012.   [Full story]

Last week VR-Zone leaked several slides with specifications of Intel Ivy Bridge mobile processors, and the slides revealed that Ivy Bridge lineup will include three quad-core chips, Core i7-3720QM, i7-3820QM and i7-3920XM.More recent VR-Zone story stated that there will be three additional quad-core models for OEM market: Core i7-3610QM, i7-3612QM and i7-3615QM. These processors will have 6 MB L3 cache, and they are going to be clocked lower, than i7-37xx and i7-38xx. VR-Zone article suggested that these three models will have 35 Watt Thermal Design Power.   [Full story]

Much has been written about Ivy Bridge, Intel's next generation processors. As is usual for any new processor, there are many new features that are provided by the accompanying chipset, in this case Panther Point. For the desktop computer user that initially consists of 6 chipsets in Q2 2012, with USB 3.0 as standard, Intel Rapid Start technology and a host of other features.   [Full story]

Two new Celeron processors were released this week. Today Intel updated official price list, and added Celeron G460 microprocessor. Earlier in the week, specifications of embedded Celeron 807UE were added to the ARK product database with the status "launched". Both Celerons are quite interesting, as each of them has at least one unique feature, which is Hyper-Threading on model G460, and ultra-low power on 807UE.   [Full story]

The latest Intel desktop roadmap, leaked two weeks ago, stated that current Core i5 Sandy Bridge processors will be replaced with Ivy Bridge models in the second quarter 2012, and there are no Sandy Bridge Core i5s planned. It comes as a surprise that the company indeed has one new SB model in the works, Core i5-2550K with unlocked clock multiplier. S-spec and box part numbers of this processor were revealed in today's update of Material Declaration Data Sheets database.   [Full story]

In the wake of the launch of desktop Ivy Bridge microprocessors, coming in the second quarter 2012, Intel prepares to discontinue large number of desktop models due to low demand. In the past two days, the company published several Product Change Notification (PCN) documents, that notify customers of upcoming discontinuation of 19 socket 1366, socket 1156, and socket 1155 chips. Full list of retired SKUs includes.   [Full story]

On December 5, MIPS Technologies, Inc. and Ingenic Semiconductor announced the world's first tablet with "Ice Cream Sandwich" version of Android, or, more officially, Android 4.0. The new Novo7 tablet utilizes MIPS-compatible JZ4770 system-on-a-chip (Soc), developed and produced by Ingenic Semiconductor. The 7" tablet boasts 300 hours standby time on one battery charge, and can last up to 6 hours when playing games, and up to 8 hours when playing video. The Novo7 device has capacitive multi-touch screen, dual front-and rear cameras, 2D and 3D graphics support, 1080p decoding, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n support, USB 2,0, HDMI 1.3 and a few other interfaces, and it retails for less than $100.   [Full story]

Current AMD mobile "Sabine" platform was launched in June of this year, and, as we reported in October, was due for refresh this quarter. Today AMD quietly added details on seven new SKUs to Sabine platform specifications, and to notebook APU product information pages. That usually means that processors are either officially released, or will be released within days. Newly introduced A-Series microprocessors are a mix of dual-core and quad-core models, targeting either higher performance on "MX" chips, or power consumption on "M" parts.   [Full story]

On November 14 we reported on the upcoming Celeron G460. On November 18, Fudzilla published some further information, which was mostly confirmed by recently leaked Intel Desktop Roadmap.   [Full story]

The launch of Ivy Bridge micro-architecture is still a quarter away, but we already have plenty of information on upcoming desktop microprocessors, thanks to a series of leaks of Intel roadmap slides. Not only desktop roadmap has been leaked. VR-Zone published yesterday a few slides, containing release schedule and specifications of Ivy Bridge mobile microprocessors. According to published slides, Intel will launch 3 quad-core CPUs in April, followed by 3 dual-core mainstream models and two ULV processors in May.   [Full story]

This year AMD released a handful of A- and E-Series "Llano" 32nm processors with integrated graphics unit. According to X-bit labs, a few additional Llano models will be launched in January 2012, including A4-3420, A6-3620 and A8-3820, which are slightly faster versions of A4-3400, A6-3600 and A8-3800. There will be also two products with unlocked clock multiplier, A6-3670K and A8-3870K. Last two CPUs are now available for pre-order in US.   [Full story]

Before the launch of Ivy Bridge mobile microprocessors in April 2012, Intel is going to launch several new budget and mid-class models based on almost year-old Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. Mobile Celeron family will be updated with 2 new mainstream and 2 ultra-low-voltage CPUs. It was previously reported that they will be available in the 1st quarter 2012. We recently learned that the Celerons will be released on December 11 . Also in the near future, Intel will offer new Core i3-2370M and i5-2450M SKUs. According to Technical specifications of HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook (PDF file), these two parts may also be launched on December 11. The HP document also revealed new Pentium processor B970.   [Full story]

Production of AMD's much anticipated A-series Trinity APUs is set to commence in March 2012, according to an article at X-bit labs. Low power chips, with a TDP of 65W, will commence production in March 2012, and higher performance parts with TDP of 100W will be in production from May.   [Full story]

IBM and Micron Technologies, Inc, announced on December 1 that Micron will be producing a new memory product, Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC), using IBM's Through Silicon Vias (TSV) chip making technology. This new process will enable Micron to produce memory that is 15 times faster than current offerings, using 70% less power and taking 10% of the space.   [Full story]

On November 30, Samsung announced new dual-core 2 GHz Exynos 5250 processors, based on ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore. Built using 32nm high-k metal gate low power technology, they are capable of executing 14 billion instructions per second (Dhrystone MIPS), almost double the performance of leading Cortex-A9 processors.   [Full story]

Intel's latest Atom platform, codenamed Cedar Trail, was scheduled for release in September. The platform consisted of 4 SKUs, D2500 and N2700 for ultra-low power desktops, and N2600 and N2800 for netbooks and mobile devices. Although desktop "CedarView-D" Atoms from this platform were launched as planned, mobile "CedarView-M" CPUs has been delayed twice, for a second time until December. The reason of delay was attributed to graphics driver certification problems. According to recent DigiTimes report, the CedarView-M processors will be launched in December after all.   [Full story]

In Q2 2012, Intel will be introducing the Carlow workstation platform, with the C210 (Panther Point) series chipset and the E3-1200 v2 processors. E3-1200 v2 processors will have an Ivy Bridge core, and all the benefits of that platform, including improved integrated graphics and lower power usage. Carlow will be the first workstation platform to be released using the features of Intel's much anticipated Ivy Bridge processor core.   [Full story]

In September Intel introduced Cedar Trail platform, along with Atom D2500 and D2700 "CedarView-D" microprocessors for nettops and ultra-low power desktops. Compared to previous Atoms, new processors were manufactured on more modern 32nm process, which allowed higher frequencies and lower power consumption. Also, the CPUs featured improved graphics, that was supposed to be DX10.1 compatible, although this never realized. According to recently leaked Intel roadmap, the company plans another Atom processor, dubbed as D2550.   [Full story]

Intel's 510 series of Solid State Drives are due to be replaced with a new range, known as "Cherryville", in Q1 2012. The new range will be produced using a smaller die technology than current offerrings, and will have a wider range of storage capacities. These are expected to be replaced in Q3 2012 by "King Crest", another range whose details are as yet unknown.   [Full story]

On November 27th, we published the first of 2 articles revealing the Ivy Bridge desktop CPU line-up, with details of Sandy Bridge CPUs that are being directly replaced and their Ivy Bridge counterparts. A user in HWBOT forums leaked latest roadmap slides with very detailed benchmarks, comparing equivalent processors from both generations, and showing how different parts of the new architecture will affect performance.   [Full story]

Current lineup of budget Intel microprocessors for embedded market consists of 4 Celeron models with 17 Watt and 35 Watt power envelopes. 35 Watt models are B810 and B810E, both dual-cores, and two Ultra-low voltage (ULV) processors with 17 Watt TDP are single-core 827E and dual-core 847E. In the 4th quarter of this year Intel will introduce new budget embedded microprocessor, Celeron 807UE. The new chip will feature significantly lower power consumption, than ULV Celeron 827E and 847E.   [Full story]

A user on the forums at coolaler has published results of some testing carried out using an early Ivy Bridge sample. Running with a stock speed of 2.0GHz and a Turbo Boost speed of 2.4GHz, this chip was shown running at 2.4GHz with 4 GB of memory at ram timings of 6-9-6-24. Although this chip is running at relatively low core speeds, it is early silicon and does not represent expected clock speeds.   [Full story]

Today we published details of upcoming Ivy Bridge microprocessors, that were leaked by Zol.com.cn news site. As soon as we published the story, we discovered that more detailed list of Ivy Bridge models was leaked by corescn website.   [Full story]

In the second quart 2012, Intel is going to introduce 22nm shrink of Sandy Bridge micro-architecture, codenamed Ivy Bridge. As we previously reported, initial launch will include Core i5 and Core i7 desktop microprocessors, along with Core i7 mobile models. Processor numbers and some details of desktop Core i5s and Core i7s were revealed this week by Zol.com.cn.   [Full story]

Last week we discovered a number of new model numbers of what seemed like upcoming AMD and Intel microprocessors in OEM hardware specifications for "Windows Get Genuine for Academic" program. The list of model numbers included not yet released Atom N2600 and N2800 processors, and previously unheard of Atom N2100. The latter model was recently spotted in Samsung N102S notebook.   [Full story]

On November 17, fledgling Norwegian company FXI Technologies showed prototypes of their first product, "Cotton Candy", a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 based computer in a USB stick. This device can be plugged into any display device, from a smartphone or tablet up to a PC or TV with USB or HDMI input. It is being marketed as a secure device that allows users to access the Cloud and other apps using their favorite operating system and settings from wherever they are.   [Full story]

As you may already know, next generation of Intel processors will be built on Ivy Bridge 22nm microarchitecture, and will be launched in 2012. Ivy Bridge was originally planned for the 1st quarter 2012, however it was delayed until March or April 2012 due to weak PC demand. It was also rumored that the delay could be due to production problems. We recently received new information on Ivy Bridge release dates.   [Full story]

According to information posted by Semiaccurate on November 18, AMD's next generation Deccan platform, due to replace the Brazos mobile platform in 2012, has been shelved. Using Wichita and Krishna APUs, built on Global Foundries 28nm Super High performance (SHP) process, Deccan was due to be released in Q3 2012, having been pushed back from Q2 2012.   [Full story]

We previously reported that AMD's new platform, Trinity, due in Q1 2012, is expected to show a 30% performance increase over Llano. Turkish site DonanimHaber has now revealed some slides that give more details of this performance boost. These slides show estimated performance in visual and general performance, and parallel computing performance, as well as details of expected crossfire performance improvements.   [Full story]

A few new mobile Intel microprocessors will be available in the upcoming months. Mobile Celeron family will be refreshed with 4 models, and new i5-2450M member will be added Core i5 Mobile family. We also discovered that Intel prepares Core i3-2370M microprocessor. Specifications of this CPU were found in Maintenance and Service Guide for HP ProBook 4530s and 4730s notebooks, and in a PDF file on Intel website.   [Full story]

A slide leaked on the forums at Chinese site xfastest indicates that Ivy Bridge Extreme processors will be socket and chipset compatible with Sandy Bridge-E. It shows that IB-E processors will work in current X79 Express motherboards. This is good news for a lot of potential purchasers, as it means a system bought now will not cost as much to upgrade in 12 months.   [Full story]

In March 2011 Intel announced plans to release a few low- and ultra-low power microprocessors for micro-servers. One of these processors was scheduled for the second half of this year. It was an ULV CPU with 15 Watt Thermal Design Power, based on Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. More details about this chip emerged at Intel Development forum in San Francisco. According to published slides, the microprocessor was branded as Pentium 350, and had launch date of October 2011.   [Full story]

On November 15, LSI announced it's collaboration with Fujitsu in the design of the new multi-core Sparc64 IXfx processor. Fujitsu have long been known for developing high-performance computing products, having built Japan's first supercomputer in 1977. LSI are better known for creating custom silicon, and have been experts in that field for many years. Together they developed the Sparc64 IXfx, ideally suited for HPC applications.   [Full story]

I added benchmark pages for Socket 1156 and Socket M. I also created pages for desktop CPUs and mobile CPUs. Last two pages should prove useful because our processor benchmark database does not have an option to show all desktop or mobile CPUs.

This week AMD introduced first 4200- and 6200-series server microprocessors, based on Bulldozer microarchitecture. All in all, the company released 18 models for dual- and quad-CPU system configurations. AMD also announced plans to launch Opteron 3000 series platform in the first half of 2012. In addition to that, this and next quarter there will be three new Opterons for embedded market, 42DX EE, 42MX HE, and 6230 HE.   [Full story]

On November 15, Intel unveiled it new Knights Corner co-processors, the first commercial co-processor capable of performing over 1 TFLOPS of double precision floating performance. Based on Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) technology, this represent a step forward in Intel's goal of developing exascale level performance by 2018. It is also billed as Intel's first commercial MIC architecture product.   [Full story]

I added new static benchmark pages, that show single- and multi-threaded benchmarks for sockets 1155, FM1, G1, G2 and S1g4. Although this information is already available in our CPU benchmark database, having separate benchmark pages for individual sockets has a few benefits: it doesn't require a few clicks to see test results, and it's easier to navigate to CPU pages from the benchmarks page. In the near future I will add more static benchmarks pages, and I will also create several big pages with benchmarks of all desktop and mobile CPUs.

On November 15, the Intel 4004 processor celebrated it's 40th birthday. Fledgling company Intel, which had just moved into it's first fully owned premises, launched the 4004 CPU with an ad in the November 15 edition of Electronic News. It was the world's first single chip microprocessor, and to many represents the birth of the modern microprocessor.   [Full story]

Currently, there are several different versions of Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, and the least expensive from them is Windows 7 Starter. This version comes pre-installed on netbooks, and it lacks many features, such as 64-bit support, desktop Window Manager, Windows Aero, and others. Not only that, this version of Window 7 can be only distributed on systems with budget, and budget-to-middle class x86 processors.   [Full story]

Barcelona Supercomputer Center announced on Nov 14 that they are planning to build the world's first ARM based supercomputer. Built around the Tegra 3 processor announced last week by NVidia, this represents a huge step forward in large scale supercomputing. The system design is being unveiled at the SC11 Conference, held in Washington from November 12-18 this year.   [Full story]

On November 8, NVidia launched the Tegra 3 quad-core mobile processor. The processor uses a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU core and operates at up to 1.3GHz in quad-core mode and 1.4GHz in a special low power single-core mode. It also includes an ultra-low power (ULP) NVidia GeForce GPU, and offers a range of on-chip media processing features.   [Full story]

Celeron dual-core family was the last Intel family, migrated to Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. Despite the fact, that the microarchitecture was introduced in January, the first Sandy Bridge Celerons were released only in September. Initial launch included single-core G440, and dual-core G530, G30T and G540 SKUs. Yesterday's update of Intel Material Declaration Data Sheets (MDDS) database revealed new member of Celeron family with processor number G460.   [Full story]

Yesterday AMD launched server Opteron processors, based on Bulldozer micro-architecture. This event was widely covered by all hardware news sites. It is less known that yesterday AMD also changed prices of several Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), as well as the price of FX-6100 model. In addition to that, AMD introduced new Athlon II X4 651 microprocessor.   [Full story]

Today marks the launch of Intel's much anticipated Sandy Bridge-E processors for the desktop platform, the Core i7-3930K and Core i7-3960X. Core i7-3930K is priced at $583, while the Core i7-3960X is priced at $999 in 1000+ tray quantities. The third processor in the line-up, Core i7-2820, has been delayed. The CPUs are already available in many stores. For example, MWave sells Core i7-3930K CPU for $599.99, and the Core i7-3960X costs $1079.99. Other online stores, like NewEgg and TigerDirect, have comparable prices.   [Full story]

Earlier last week AMD announced "Ready Solutions for servers" initiative, which aims to provide large selection of compatible motherboards at the launch of Opteron 6200 series microprocessors with Interlagos core. Also last week, specifications of several HP Proliant servers were updated to include new Opterons, and Japanese Dell website started offering Opteron 6200 chips, along with 6100 processors, in PowerEdge servers.   [Full story]

On November 9, VIA launched it's new VIA EPIA-P900 Pico-ITX board, with a dual-core processor. Pico-ITX is the industry's smallest commercially available form factor, making this the smallest ever commercially available board with multi-processing capabilities.   [Full story]

With the launch of 32nm desktop AMD budget and high-performance microprocessors in July and September of this year, older 45 nm chips are getting end-of-lifed. Majority of consumer-class Athlon II, Phenom II and Sempron CPUs are already retired, or will be retired next month. The only exception to this are Bxx business-class processors, many of which can be ordered until the middle of the next year.   [Full story]

Some preliminary information about about Intel's "Shark Bay" platform and "Haswell" processor core, the next generation after Ivy Bridge, surfaced on the net. Where Ivy Bridge will have 2 platforms, Chief River for the mobile platform and Maho Bay for the desktop platform, Haswell has Shark Bay for both. As you might expect, it also offers a performance boost, although it uses the same 22nm trigate technology.   [Full story]

ARM announced today Mali-T658 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) for the next generation of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices with desktop-class graphics. Mali-T658 is built on Midgard architecture, which uses three different pipelines within shader cores: arithmetic, load/store and texturing. This allows the GPU to handle graphics, along with arithmetic tasks.   [Full story]

Next year, Intel plans to launch new Xeon E5 group of families for socket 2011 and socket 1356 Romley platforms. There will be three different subfamilies, aimed at single-, dual- and quad-processor servers, based on socket 2011 platform. Only one subfamily, E5-2400, will be compatible with socket B2 (socket 1356). Microprocessors from Xeon E5-2400 series will be built on Sandy Bridge-EN core, and have from 4 to 8 cores, and from 10 MB to 20 MB of L3 cache. They will support three memory channels, incorporate one QPI link, and work in two-way systems.   [Full story]

In August we reported on two mobile Intel processors, Core i5-2435M and Core i7-2675QM. These microprocessors, along with then upcoming Core i5-2430M and Core i7-2670QM models, were referenced in footnotes on almost every page in Intel ARK database. At the time, we speculated that 2xx5 chips should have similar CPU features, and slightly higher clocked graphics unit than 2xx0 mobile CPUs. They should also be manufactured in BGA package. Core i5-2435M and Core i7-2675QM processors were added to Intel ARK database last week, and we can finally confirm their specifications.   [Full story]

On October 25, we reported on several leaked AMD roadmap slides, that detailed Trinity and other upcoming mobile cores, as well as new AMD mobile Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), that are due for release later this quarter. On November 4, user "bigpao007" in the chiphell forums leaked a few more slides about the upcoming Virgo platform and Trinity core. Virgo (previously known as Comal) is the platform that will support the new Trinity processors. According to AMD projections (based on a digital media workload), they should provide a 30% increase in performance over the Llano APUs.   [Full story]

Last month Fudzilla news site revealed details and prices of 4 Celeron processors, planned for the first quarter 2011. Forthcoming microprocessors are single-core 797 and B720, and dual-core 867 and B815. Celeron B720 and B815 are mainstream parts, and 797 and 867 are ultra-low voltage chips for thin and light notebooks. Although we're still a quarter away from the launch of these models, one of them, Celeron B815, already appeared in specifications of Dell Vostro 1550 notebook on Japanese Dell website.   [Full story]

AMD announced on November 3 that it will be "Reducing it's cost structure" by making 10% of it's worldwide staff redundant and "terminating" existing contractual agreements. They expect to make savings of approx $10 million this quarter, and $118 million throughout 2012, mainly through the aforementioned redundancies and contract terminations. Redundancies are expected to be completed by the end of Q4 2011.   [Full story]

On November 1, Caldexa unveiled it's ARM based, extreme low energy, "EnergyCore" Server-on-a-Chip (SoC). EnergyCore draws as little as 1.5W,and can be used to build a server that comsumes as little as 5W, including 4GB ECC memory and a large capacity SSD drive. This means that datacenter performance can be provided at half the price and using 10% of the power. HP will be using this new processor in it's first generation of extreme low power server development platforms.   [Full story]

First AMD desktop processors with Llano core launched in July of this year. They were quad-core chips from A6- and A8-Series, that integrated graphics unit, and were marketed as Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). The quad-cores were followed by triple-core A6-3500, and dual-core A4-3300 and A4-3400. These products had the same core stepping (B0), identified by part number suffix "GX", and they were based on the same die as earlier released quad-core APUs.   [Full story]

It was widely reported before that this quarter Intel will launch three processors for new enthusiast platform, based on socket 2011. Core i7-3930K and i7-3960X microprocessors with unlocked clock multiplier will be released this month (November), priced at $583 and $999 respectively. It was rumored that the third processor, Core i7-3820 with locked multiplier, was delayed.   [Full story]

On November 2, Penguin Computing announced that they successfully deployed the first high performance computing (HPC) cluster, that uses AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). The cluster consists of 104 new Altus 2A00 servers, interconnected with QDR Infiniband switched link. According to Penguin Computing, the cluster has peak performance 59.6 TFLOPs, or 59.6 * 1,000,000,000,000 floating point operations per second.   [Full story]

On October 27, ARM disclosed technical details of a 64-bit ARMv8 architecture. ARMv8 expands on the 32-bit ARMv7 architecture, used as the base of some market leading cores such as Cortex-A9 and Cortex-A15, by adding a 64-bit instruction set. The ARM 32-bit architecture is used in a wide range of electronic devices, from tiny sensors to large scale equipment, making it unique. Building on this existing architecture, ARMv8 will widen the range of applications for ARM, making it suitable for many consumer and enterprise applications, with 64-bit data processing and virtual addressing adding increased functionality.   [Full story]

AMD Bulldozer micro-architecture, and first FX microprocessors, based on it, were introduced on October 12. The first CPUs were quad-core FX-4100, six-core FX-6100 and eight-core FX-8120 with 125W TDP, and FX-8150. Besides them, three or four additional chips will be available later this quarter. One of the upcoming processors is FX-8100, and it can now be ordered in HP Pavilion HPE h8z and h8m desktop PC series.   [Full story]

You may have wondered what happens to all the old CPUs and other components in old computers and other equipment that are no longer useful to most people, or to the remaining stocks of obsolete components. With gold prices as high as they are currently, many of these components get scrapped, and some people make a good living out of that, or supplement their main incomes. Other components have a much more interesting future. The forums on CPU-World are full of people who collect them.   [Full story]

On November 23, Christie's of London will be selling a unique piece of computing and film history in their Pop Culture: Film & Entertainment Memorabilia sale. The IMSAI 8080, that was used in the film Wargames, is up for sale, along with all it's associated props and provenance. The computer and associated hardware have remained in the possession of the original makers and owners Fischer-Freitas (whose site still says tentatively that the sale is on Nov 24).   [Full story]

Earlier this fall Intel refreshed all of their mobile microprocessor families. In September, Intel introduced a few high-performance Core i7 products, featuring 2 and 4 CPU cores. Several new models were also released in October, including Pentium B960, Core i3-2350M and Core i5-2430M. It's been three weeks since the last launch, and faster version of the 2430M CPU has already emerged in specifications of Dell notebooks, marketed in Taiwan.   [Full story]

I added two price comparison pages. One page compares prices of AMD and Intel desktop CPUs, and the second page compares prices of server processors. There is no similar page for mobile chips because AMD does not publish prices for them. Intel pricing data is a bit outdated. That will be fixed in the next few days.

It was widely reported before that in the 4th quarter of this year Intel will launch three processors for new enthusiast platform, based on socket 2011. Core i7-2930K and i7-3960X microprocessors with unlocked clock multiplier will be released in November, priced at $583 and $999 respectively. It was rumored that the third processor, Core i7-2820 with locked multiplier, was delayed.   [Full story]

In the first half of 2012 Intel will introduce Xeon E5 server chips for single-, dual-core and quad-processor servers. The first two E5 families, coming in Q1 2012, are E5-1600 and E5-2600 series for socket 2011 platform. We already published CPU line-ups for both E5 subfamilies, and we reported on Xeon E5-1600 launch prices. We also recently learned about Xeon E5-2600 prices.   [Full story]

Recently leaked mobile AMD roadmap indicated that in the first quarter 2012 the company may introduce new Bobcat processors for "Brazos 2.0" platform, that targets "HD internet", "Value" and "Essential" market segments. Based on the same roadmap, in the second quarter 2012 AMD will launch "Brazos-T" power-optimized platform. Yesterday, ComputerBase.de revealed three APUs for both platforms.   [Full story]

One month ago user "Konrad" in 3DCenter forum posted several slides from AMD mobile roadmap. The slides included details of AMD mobile platforms until the end of 2012. Also, the slides revealed AMD plans to refresh current Sabine platform later this year with seven new "Llano" Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). New processors are A4-3305M, A4-3320M, A4-3330MX, A6-3420M, A6-3430MX, A8-3520M, and A8-3550MX. All these models appeared in recently revised PDF file on HP website.   [Full story]

I've made a few changes to breadcrumb navigation on CPU pages. The navigation, which looks like "CPU » <Manufacturer> » <Family> » <Subfamily> » <Model>", makes it easier to go back to CPU subfamily or family page, or to a list of all CPUs. It was previously enhanced to display pull-down menus with a list of all families for a manufacturer, and all microprocessors for a family. After the latest update, it displays a list of all chips types: CPU, FPU, MCU and so on. Pages for Xeon, Celeron D, Pentium D and a few other families now also display a list of subfamilies. When showing all processors for a subfamily, the list no longer includes unrelated CPUs from other submilies, as it was the case on Xeon pages. For example, "Xeon family" menu on the Xeon E3-1280 page now shows a list of all Xeon sub-families, and "Xeon E3-1200" menu includes only models from E3-1200 series.

In August we reported about upcoming price drops of Intel microprocessors in September and October 2011. In accordance with the story, Intel reduced prices of energy-efficient Core i5 and i7 CPUs in September. The second round of price cuts happened today. The latest Intel pricelist shows 13% - 15% lower prices for Pentium G630, G850, and Core i3-2120 models. The pricelist also includes new Core i7-2700K microprocessor.   [Full story]

Philips 68070 and Sun Microsystems UltraSparc CPU families were added to the site. Philips 68070 family integrates Motorola 68000 core with several additional components, such as Memory Management Unit, DMA controller, and UART and I2C bus interfaces. UltraSparc families are designed for high-performance multi-processor servers. The site already had UltraSparc II, IIi and III families, and I added another 4: UltraSparc I, UltraSparc IIe, UltraSparc IIIi, and UltraSparc IV. I haven't added descriptions for new families yet.

Initial line-up of budget AMD microprocessors with Llano core consisted of seven A- and E2-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). A-Series models were introduced in the third quarter 2011, although A6-3600 and A8-3800 processors are still not in stock anywhere. Another APU, dual-core E2-Series E2-3200, was planned for the 4th quarter, and at this time it's nowhere to be found.   [Full story]

ARM today announced Cortex-A7 MPCore processor, that features better performance, considerably lower power consumption and smaller size than existing Cortex-A8 designs. The new processor can be paired with Cortex-A15 MPCore for so called "big.LITTLE processing". Combining two processors into one system on a chip allows operating system to switch between Cortex-A15 for maximum performance, and Cortex-A7 for low-power operation. ARM estimates that using companion Cortex-A7 CPU to run less intensive computing tasks may extend battery life up to 70%.   [Full story]

Current generation of Intel "Sandy Bridge" desktop processors is going be replaced with "Ivy Bridge" in March - April 2012. The new microprocessors will be built on 22nm process, and will incorporate a number of enhancements over the Sandy Bridge, which includes better clock per clock performance, improved graphics, and random number generator. While these improvements were reported long time ago, much less was known about specifics of new CPUs, such as TDP and feature availability on different Ivy Bridge families.   [Full story]

Last week AMD introduced AMD FX processors, built on Bulldozer microarchitecture. FX-series are consumer-class CPUs, that feature from 4 to 8 cores, large level 3 cache, and improved Turbo Core technology. AMD also has plans to release large number of server-class "Bulldozer" processors, and the most powerful from them are Opteron 6200 with "Interlagos" core.   [Full story]

This quarter AMD will launch Opteron 4200 microprocessors for dual-processor servers and workstations. New Opteron products will be based on "Valencia" core, that packs 3 or 4 Bulldozer modules (6 or 8 cores) on a chip. At introduction, these CPUs will compete with dual-, quad- and six-core Xeon 5600 processors, built on enhanced Nehalem microarchitecture. In the first quarter 2012 Intel is going to replace 5600 family with E5-2600 Sandy Bridge chips. At this time we know 17 server and two embedded models from that family.   [Full story]

Earlier this month I upgraded scripts, that are used to display comments. As part of this upgrade, I enabled replying to existing comments on News story pages. This is how replies look on Pre-order prices of AMD Opteron 3200, 4200 and 6200 processors story page. To reply to existing comment, move mouse cursor over it, and you should see "Reply" button in upper right corner of the comment. Click on the button to proceed to a page, where you can type in your response. Comment replies will not be enabled on other site pages, but I may eventually create supplemental "discussion" pages.

Some CPU pages now include "Related CPUs" section right under CPU specifications. The section shows limited number of related processors:

• from the same family, having the same socket and micro-architecture
• from the same family, having different socket and the same micro-architecture
• from other families, having the same socket and micro-architecture.

In addition to related CPU models, the section also displays some of their features, and highlights them based on whether they are better or worse than features of current processors. The list of related CPUs is sorted by their estimated performance. Please see how it looks on Athlon II P360 page.

One week ago we reported on Intel plans to launch two new mainstream Celeron processors, dual-core B815 with improved graphics and single-core B720. According to Fudzilla, in the first quarter 2012 Intel will also introduce two ultra-low voltage Celeron models with processor numbers 867 and 797. The new chips will succeed Celeron 857 and 787 microprocessors, that were released in July of this year.   [Full story]

Today AMD launched Bulldozer micro-architecture, and first four FX desktop microprocessors. Bulldozer microarchitecture takes radically different approach than previous generation of K10 chips, and, instead of separate cores, integrates from 2 to 4 modules. Each module contains two CPU cores, that share some circuitry, such as instruction level 1 cache, Floating-Point Unit and level 2 cache.   [Full story]

Less than two days left before the official launch of AMD FX-Series CPUs. While specifications and prices of new processors are well known, the same cannot be said about its performance. The FX-Series is based on Bulldozer micro-architecture, which packs from 2 to 4 modules on a single die. Each module incorporates two cores, that share certain resources, such as fetch and decode circuits, floating-point unit and L2 cache. Resource sharing allows Bulldozer chips to lower power consumption and reduce die size, but it also reduces core performance.   [Full story]

Last week Intel published Product Change Notification, informing its customer about upcoming discontinuation of mobile microprocessors from Calpella platform. The change affects 9 Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, including Core i5-560M, i5-560UM, i5-580M, Core i7-640M, i7-660LM, i7-680UM, i7-740QM, i7-840QM, and i7-940XM. The processors can be ordered until April 5, 2012, and they will be shipped until October 2012.   [Full story]

Last week there were plenty of news stories regarding soon to be released AMD server microprocessors, built on "Bulldozer" micro-architecture. As you may know, Intel also planned to introduce new server processors, branded as Xeon E5, in the fourth quarter. In September, during Intel Developer Forum event in San Francisco, new information came to light implying that Xeon E5 launch is postponed until the first quarter 2012.   [Full story]

AMD FX-Series of microprocessors, based on not yet released Bulldozer core, will be launched in a few days. One of upcoming models, AMD FX-4100, emerged in several US online stores at the end of September. Tray version of this CPU was listed for $180 - $190, and at the time we estimated that its official price could be close to AMD FX-6100 model. Since then, the price was lowered, and the CPU is now listed for $120.68 on Provantage.com, and for $130.20 on Bottom Line Telecommunications website.   [Full story]

You can now filter CPUs on family pages by their power level: high power, standard, mid-, low- and ultra-low power. See, for example, how it looks on Xeon 5600 family page. Power levels were added only to pages for modern families, i.e. K8 / Core 2 and newer. The way, how processors are assigned to each power level, is different for different families, therefore I decided not to add power levels to filters on pages, that show groups of families. For instance, standard power for mobile processor lies in 30W - 40W range, whereas standard power for desktop parts is in the 80W - 110W range.

Earlier this week we published two stories with model numbers and partial specifications of Opteron 3200 and 4200 server processors. Today our reader John Wuorenmaa alerted us that these processors, as well as full Opteron 6200 line-up, are now available for pre-order at Bottom Line Telecommunications. What's more, Opteron 6200 line-up references two new processors, Opteron 6204 and 6262 HE.   [Full story]

Earlier this week, Intel introduced new microprocessors for mainstream and ultra-low power notebooks. They were launched without announcement, and without update of the official pricelist. In cases like this, we usually wait until Intel ARK product database is updated with specifications of new models before reporting on them. In this case first four CPUs were added to Intel website on Monday and Tuesday. These were Pentium 967 and B960, Core i5-2430M and i7-2670QM. Since then two new microprocessors appeared in the ARK database, Core i3-2350M and i3-2367M.   [Full story]

Yesterday Intel published several Product Change Notifications, that notify Intel customers about upcoming product discontinuations. Specifically, this quarter Intel will retire boxed and tray versions of Celeron E3400, E3500 and Pentium E5700. In related news, Fuzilla reported that AMD is going to retire two first two Brazos chips.   [Full story]

Intel mobile Celeron family is currently comprised of several mainstream microprocessors. The first Sandy Bridge Celeron with processor number B810 was launched in March 2011, and it was followed by B800 and single-core B710 products in June. The last model, B840, was introduced last month. According to Fudzilla, Intel plans to replace two of these chips, B710 and B810, with B720 and B815 Celerons in the first quarter 2012.   [Full story]

Original AMD Opteron family, launched 8 years ago, was aimed at three different parts of the server market. Opteron 1xx series was destined for uniprocessor workstations, 2xx series was designed for dual-processor systems, and 8xx series for multi-processor servers. Second and Third-generation Opterons followed Opteron's footsteps, and also targeted low-, mid- and high-ends of the market segments.   [Full story]

Prior to last refresh of Intel Core i7 Mobile family, which happened one month ago, we published a story with an estimated launch date for Core i3-2430M and Core i7-2670QM microprocessors. Based on information, that the processors will be available before October 4, we assumed that they will be released in September along with Core i7-2640M and three new quad-core Core i7 models. As we already know, our assumption was wrong. However, our information was right, and the chips were introduced this week, i.e. before or on October 4.   [Full story]

In September AMD began shipments of next generation server processors with Interlagos core, based on Bulldozer micro-architecture. The CPUs, branded as Opteron 6200, will feature up to 16 cores, support quad-CPU configurations, and will be launched this quarter. Also in the 4th quarter, AMD is going to introduce Opteron 4200 "Valencia" chips, which are less expensive server parts for dual-processor systems.   [Full story]

Earlier this year Intel launched three upgradeable microprocessors with Sandy Bridge core. Mobile Core i3-2312M, desktop Core i3-2102 and Pentium G622 CPUs had exactly the same features as Core i3-2310M, i3-2100 and Pentium G620 respectively. However, their performance could be boosted for a price via electronic "Upgrade" procedure. The procedure, that doesn't require any physical contact with the chip, enables higher processor frequencies, and, in some cases, larger L3 cache size.   [Full story]