Archived news: April 2012 - June 2012

I added pages for Texas Instruments TMS9995 microprocessors, that were missing on the site.

While Intel have been busy refreshing all desktop market segments in the first half of this year, we haven't seen many new AMD desktop FX and A-Series processors. In fact, AMD introduced only 5 desktop SKUs, including three Athlon II CPUs, in the first two quarters. That doesn't seem much considering that Intel launched 26 new processors at the same time frame, or that AMD introduced 18 desktop chips in Q1 and Q2 2010.   [Full story]

NVidia and Google have announced Google's Nexus 7 Tablet, a $199 tablet powered by NVidia's quad-core Tegra 3 processor, and running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). Featuring a 7 inch IPS screen, the device is built for Google Play, and offers super-fast web browsing, console-quality gaming and seamless multi-tasking, as well as being able to play HD content flawlessly.   [Full story]

"Focus Taiwan" earlier this month reported that Core i3 microprocessors, based on Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, will be available after June 24. This information was confirmed by Intel's Taiwan branch, although it wasn't clear whether this applied to desktop or mobile market segments, or both of them. Intel indeed launched "Ivy Bridge" Core i3 CPUs earlier this week, but only for mobile market. Two new processors are Core i3-3110M for mainstream notebooks, and Ultra-low voltage i3-3217U for light and thin laptops.   [Full story]

Two weeks ago 4 unreleased chips were spotted in Intel's Product Change Notification. The CPUs with 9520, 9540, 9550 and 9560 processor numbers had S-spec and part numbers that we couldn't identify at the time. Based on 9xxx processor numbers, we suspected that they were forthcoming Itanium chips, codenamed "Poulson". Recent update of Intel's Material Declaration Data Sheets (MDDS) database confirmed our suspicion. During update, large number of Poulson S-Spec and QDF numbers were added to the MDDS database, and only four of them are production models.   [Full story]

Today AMD launched new embedded G-T16R Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), with Thermal Design Power of just 4.5 Watt. AMD also made available G-T48E and G-T56E embedded chips. New APUs are designed for embedded systems, that require x86 compatibility and extensive graphics capabilities, combined with ultra-low power consumption. In addition to new SKUs, AMD extended life support for the full G-Series processor lineup through 2017.   [Full story]

I added new page socket 1155 (socket H2) page. Pictures of the socket will be added in the next few days.

Two weeks ago we reported on new Celeron G465 and G555 dual-core microprocessors, that surfaced in Intel's Material Declaration Data Sheets (MDDS) database. Presumably, the Celerons with Gxx5 processor numbers will have CPU features, similar to G460 and G550 products, while offering slightly higher graphics performance. Yesterday Intel published details of yet another Gxx5 processor, this time it's a Pentium G645.   [Full story]

AMD launched the Radeon HD 7970 Ghz Edition today. Basically just a rebrand of the Radeon HD 7970, that was introduced on January 10, the new cards run at 1 GHz core clock with a boost up to 1.05 GHz, and a memory clock of 1.5 GHz (6 GHz effective). AMD say this is the fastest single-GPU card on the market today.   [Full story]

On June 15, Sotheby's in New York sold an Apple I computer for a record $374,500. Selling for more than double the high estimate, this is the highest price known for an Apple computer, which was produced at a time when most personal computers were bought by hobbyists. It was one of the first personal computers available with a fully assembled circuit board, at a time when most models were sold as kits with circuit boards that needed soldering at home, although not many were available.   [Full story]

Last week a "bigpao007" user posted several slides in Chiphell forum, detailing features of upcoming Haswell-EP and Haswell-EN server microprocessors. As can be guessed from the name, new chips will be built on Haswell microarchitecture, and accommodate a number of technologies, specific to server market. According to the slides, future 22nm Xeons will integrate 10 or more CPU cores, and 2.5 MB of last level cache per each core.   [Full story]

Intel yesterday published Product Change Notification (PCN), advising its customer about upcoming discontinuation of several mobile microprocessors from the second-generation Core i7 family. Specifically, the company will retire Core i7-2920XM Extreme Edition, PGA and BGA versions of quad-core i7-2820QM and i7-2720QM CPUs, as well as dual-core i7-2620M.   [Full story]

Last month AMD launched first Accelerated Processing Units (APU), based on new "Trinity" core. Initial lineup consisted of 5 mobile chips, including 2 ultra-low voltage models, and 3 CPUs for mainstream notebooks. It appears that AMD is already shipping another mobile "Trinity" APU, A4-4300M. The processor was spotted in specifications of HP ProBook 4545s and Probook 6475b, and it can be ordered in any one of those notebooks.   [Full story]

ARM has launched the ARM Mali-450 MP Graphics Processing Unit, a replacement for the successful and widely used Mali-400 MP GPU. The Mali-400 MP is used in a large number of products, including smart-TVs, Android based smartphones and tablets. Mali-450 MP extends the capabilities of devices to support up to 8 cores with greater per core performance than Mali-400 MP, and provides double the vertex processing throughput.   [Full story]

Yesterday Intel announced brand name for the first generation of company's coprocessors for High Performance Computing (HPC) market. New products, branded "Xeon Phi", will integrate more than 50 cores, and will offer more than 1 TFlop (trillion of floating-point operations per second) of performance in highly parallel applications. The co-processors will be available in the second half 2012.   [Full story]

The latest, 39th edition of TOP500 list of the world's top supercomputers, was released today. As usually, the list is dominated by computers with microprocessors from AMD, IBM and Intel. According to top500.org press release, Intel processors power 372 systems out of 500, and AMD and IBM processors are used in 63 and 58 systems respectively. All three companies published today press releases touting High Performance Computing (HPC) solutions, based on their own technology.   [Full story]

AMD's latest beta graphics drivers reveal a few new device IDs, including four Kaveri and five Kabini graphics solutions for the next generation APUs. There are also a number of IDs for what looks like the next generation Sea Islands GPUs, code-named Mars (9 models), Oland (3 models) and Venus (4 models).   [Full story]

We previously reported on Intel's plans to refresh budget mobile Celeron and Pentium lineups in the Q3 2012. Particularly, the company will release Celeron B730 and B820 CPUs for mainstream notebooks, and Celeron 807 and 877 for thin and light laptops. New Pentium B980 microprocessor will also be available, presumably in the third quarter. On top of that, Intel will introduce ultra-low voltage Pentium 987 in the same quarter.   [Full story]

NVidia and Fujitsu have announced availability of Fujitsu's PRIMERGY CX400 S1 servers, which make high performance GPU accelerated computing available to Fujitsu's large Japanese and European customer base. The server unit can house four 1U hot plugable CX250 S1 server nodes, with two CPUs per node, or two 2U hot plugable CX270 S1 nodes, each with two CPUs and one NVidia TESLA GPU.   [Full story]

AMD this week launched the FirePro W600 professional graphics card, the first professional graphics card using the 28nm GCN architecture. Designed to be used in high-resolution, content rich multi-screen display wall environments, the card supports up to 6 high resolution screens via six mini-DisplayPort connectors, giving a maximum resolution of 4096 x 2304, 30 bits per pixel at 60Hz, and using only 75W in it's maximum configuration.   [Full story]

Last December we reported that the next generation of Intel Itanium processors, codenamed "Poulson", will be available this quarter. We don't have any new information on the launch schedule, however we spotted a few unknown Itanium CPUs, possibly Poulson parts, in Intel's Product Change Notification (PCN). The document, that was published yesterday, notifies customers about CPU tray design modification, and provides a list of affected processors, including Xeon E7, Itanium 9300 series, and previously unheard of Itanium 9500 series.   [Full story]

In May AMD unveiled first Accelerated Processing Units (APU), based on "Trinity" core. The launch event didn't include any desktop Trinity chips, and currently we don't have any reliable information on desktop processor timeline. Last month's reports placed the desktop "Trinity" launch in August, and more recent rumors suggest that the APUs may be pushed back to September or October. Unlike the launch date, specifications of forthcoming desktop processors were well-known since February, and earlier last week they were published by AMD.   [Full story]

Just a week ago Intel refreshed desktop budget lineup, releasing slightly faster versions of mainstream and low-power Celeron and Pentium processors. The CPUs are yet to appear in computer stores, and Intel already prepares new budget Celeron products. Two Celeron branded CPUS, G465 and G555, surfaced yesterday in Intel's Material Declaration Data Sheets (MDDS) database.   [Full story]

We recently published two articles, that contain additional information about several AMD and Intel families. These types of articles are located in the information section of the website. While the articles usually link to related families, there is no easy way to find out all relevant articles directly on the CPU family page. Yesterday I completed a change, that automatically adds a link and brief article description on each related CPU family page. Please see how it is looks on the AMD A10-Series for Notebooks page (please switch to "Information" tab).

Debbie Wiles wrote a Sandy Bridge overclocking example, based on overclocking of Core i7-2700K microprocessor. The article goes through basic BIOS settings, and provides a number of benchmark results, that compare i7-2700K CPU at stock and overclock frequencies.

AMD yesterday announced Brazos 2.0 platform, along with E1-1200 and E2-1800 Accelerated Processing Units (APU). Details of just released processors were spotted on AMD website last weekend, therefore the announcement was not totally unexpected. Brazos 2.0 offer marginally higher level of performance, than Brazos platform, all the while improving battery life and adding support for the latest versions of USB and SATA interfaces.   [Full story]

Intel today announced discontinuation of large number of Atom and Xeon microprocessors. By the end of this year, the company is going to retire 45nm Atom CPUs with "Pineview" core. Furthermore, Intel will discontinue Xeon 3400-series chips for single-socket workstations, and Xeon MPs from 6500 and 7500 series. Most of End-of-Lifed microprocessors were introduced in the second half of 2009 and the first half of 2010.   [Full story]

AMD today introduced new server microprocessors from Opteron 4200 and 6200 series. The processors feature slightly improved performance over existing Opteron 4200 and 6200 products, while keeping maximum power dissipation on the same level with older chips. Overall, there are 5 new models: 6278 and 6284 SE from 6200 series, along with 4230 HE, 4240 and 4276 HE from 4200 series. The CPUs are priced from $316 to $1265, and they will be available in two newly released HP ProLiant Gen8 servers: DL385p 2U rack server and BL465c server blade.   [Full story]

With the release of Ivy Bridge quad-core processors in April, and announcement of dual-core Ivy Bridge Core i5 and i7 products earlier this week, Intel does not forget about their budget Celeron and Pentium lineups. Because it will be at least several months before both families are transitioned to the new microarchitecture, Intel keeps them up to date by releasing faster versions of Sandy Bridge CPUs. Just today, the company released six new Celeron and Pentium microprocessors, including three SKUs with standard 65 Watt TDP and three low-power "T" SKUs with 35 Watt TDP.   [Full story]

First generation of AMD "Bobcat" ultra-low voltage microprocessors from Brazos platform was launched in January 2011. The processors, promoted as Accelerated Processing Units (APU), targeted low-power desktops, netbooks, and mobile devices. The Brazos platform was refreshed once in August of last year. Since then there were multiple reports of second generation APUs, coming in the second quarter 2012. Today AMD added specifications of Brazos 2.0 processors to their products database, and also updated APU product specifications pages.   [Full story]

In January we published details on upcoming Crystal Forest-Gladden platform for blade and dense servers. The platform, which was expected to launch in the second quarter, is comprised of Cave Creek chipset, and several low- and ultra-low power microprocessors, built around Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. Based on the fact that a datasheet and specifications of Sandy Bridge Gladden processors were added to Intel website, we presume that the CPUs are now officially launched.   [Full story]

Following their successful launch of Kepler with the GK104 GPU, and the relaunch of entry level Fermi chips in the form of entry level 600 series cards, various news sites have reported on rumors that NVidia will be launching the GK107 GPU in the form of the GT 640 series at Computex 2012, on June 5. Many of the specs that have been reported on indicate that at least 2 of the 3 variants will have the same or similar specs to the GT640 OEM cards.   [Full story]

I added new page, that lists all recommended cards for dual graphics (discrete card + APU) configurations. At this time the page has data on desktop and mobile "Llano" processors, and mobile "Trinity" APUs. Data was compiled from a few sources, namely AMD website, public APU documents, and a leaked preliminary"Llano" document.

Yesterday VIA Technologies announced ultra-compact PC kit, dubbed ARTiGO A1200. The new kit has fanless design, and it is suited for a number of home and small office applications, such as home server, media server and security. With a size of 243mm x 124mm x 30mm (9.6" x 4.9" x 1.2"), and weight 1.2 Kg (2.64lb without HDD), the A1200 is small and light enough to be installed directly on the back of a monitor.   [Full story]

In less than a week Intel will release new mobile processors for mid-class notebooks. At this time we know about 8 different Core i5 and i7 models, and they will cost in the range from $200 to $350. Less expensive SKUs from Celeron and Core i3 families will be available in the third quarter. We suspect that also in the Q3 Intel may launch budget Pentium microprocessors. One of these chips, Pentium B980, surfaced in specifications of Clevo W258ELQ (cached copy of the page), Hewlett Packard ProBook 4540s and Lenovo G480 laptops. Specifications of Clevo notebook also includes details on two unreleased Celeron B730 and B820 processors.   [Full story]

AMD's add-in board manufacturers will be producing a Radeon HD 7970 X2 graphics cards, with 2 full Tahiti XT cores, according to an article at DonanimHaber.com. We have already known about an HD 7990 which is expected soon (rumors are that it will be launched at Computex, in a few days), which we first reported on in March, and at first sight the specs seem pretty much the same.   [Full story]

The first wave of Ivy Bridge mobile processors, introduced last month, included only quad-core chips from Core i7 family. Out of 6 consumer i7 models, three were released as retail and OEM products, whereas the rest were OEM-only. It appears that Intel plans two additional retail SKUs, Core i7-3740QM and i7-3840QM. Box part numbers and S-Spec numbers of these chips surfaced in Material Declaration Data Sheets (MDDS) database in the last two days.   [Full story]

Xeon E5-2400 microprocessors for socket 1356 were launched last week, along with Xeon E3-1200 v2 family for socket 1155, and Xeon E5-4600 for socket 2011. Initial E5-2400 lineup included 9 server processors, and, as we learned by the end of last week, Intel also released three embedded SKUs. It turns out that there was an additional chip from the E5-2400 series, and three other server models for socket 1356, launched at about the same time frame. New CPUs are Xeon E5-2449L, E5-1410, and Pentium 1403 and 1407. The processors were not on Intel roadmap, and we suspect that they are produced for specific clients.   [Full story]

VIA Technologies, Inc this week unveiled a $49 Android PC system, the APC 8750. Using a VIA WonderMedia ARM 11 SoC, the APC 8750 integrates memory, storage, and a full set of consumer I/O features in a small footprint Neo-ITX motherboard that can be connected to a TV or monitor. It also has a custom build of Android 2.3 OS, optimized for keyboard and mouse input, and a browser and some basic apps.   [Full story]

On Monday AMD announced R-Series of Accelerated Processing Units (APU), aimed at graphics-intensive embedded applications. New CPUs combine the latest AMD microarchitecture, Radeon HD 7000 series Graphics Processing unit (GPU), and HD Media Accelerator. CPU part of the R-Series chips employs 2 or 4 cores, backed up by L2 cache and dual-channel DDR3 memory controller. Thanks to "Piledriver" cores, the processors support the most current extensions to x86 instruction set, including Advanced Encryption Standard and Advanced Vector Extensions.   [Full story]

Intel Ivy Bridge micro-architecture has a number of improvements, one of which is substantially faster integrated Graphics Processing unit (GPU). HD 4000 graphics, supported by all mobile Core-branded processors with Ivy Bridge core, performs up to 50% better than the HD 3000 graphics in previous generation of Intel CPUs. Perhaps in light of increased competition in graphics area with recently launched AMD "Trinity" processors, Intel decided to give another boost to GPUs on their mobile chips.   [Full story]

In May AMD released second generation Accelerated Processing units (APU), based on enhanced Bulldozer core. New APUs were aimed at mobile systems, and they came in mainstream (35 Watt) and low voltage variations with 17 and 25 Watt TDP. Next month AMD will release second generation Brazos 2.0 APUs, that will offer even lower power consumption. One of these processors, E1-1200, is already sold in Asia in HP Pavilion dm1-4210au laptop.   [Full story]

NVidia last week published details of the ultra-high-end Kepler GK110 GPU and it's applications. The full GK110 core will have 15 SMX units, each having 192 CUDA cores, to give a maximum of 2880 CUDA cores. A 384-bit memory interface is provided by 6 x 64-bit memory controllers. NVidia say there will be different configurations for different cards, with some only using 13 or 14 of the 15 SMX, a move designed to maximize the number of functional die.   [Full story]

The latest reports suggest that NVidia are preparing their flagship mobile graphics cards, GeForce GTX680M, for launch during Computex 2012, in June. This card will not be using a full GK104 chip, and will only have either 744 or 768 (depending which listings are accurate) CUDA cores.   [Full story]

First desktop Intel Core i7 and i5 processors with Ivy Bridge (IVB) core were rolled out less than a month ago, and more of these parts will be coming in two weeks. Specifications of forthcoming models were known for quite some time, but the prices were revealed only last Friday. DigiTimes reported that upcoming Core i5 microprocessors will be priced from $184 to $205. DigiTimes also provided $177 - $138 price range for IVB-based Core i3 chips, coming in the third quarter. We were able to confirm this information, and we can also provide slightly more details about prices of Ivy Bridge CPUs.   [Full story]

Last November we reported on three embedded Xeon E5-2400 models. The CPUs with processor numbers E5-2418L, E5-2428L and E5-2448L were supposed to be introduced this quarter. With this week's announcement of new Xeon E3 and E5 families, including E5-2400 server processors, we suspected that Intel would also launch embedded parts from the E5-2400 series. Indeed, Xeon E5-2418L, E5-2428L and E5-2448L embedded parts were added the other day to Intel's ARK database, which shows their status as 'Launched'.   [Full story]

Earlier this week, NVidia launched three new 600-series entry level GPUs, GeForce GT610, GT620 and GT630. GT610 has 48 CUDA cores, and the same specs as GT510 (OEM). GT620 and GT630 each have 96 cores, and appear to have the same core as GT530 (OEM), so all three GPUs are recycled from previous products.   [Full story]

In June Intel plans to launch a number of third generation Core i7 processors, all featuring 2 CPU cores with Hyper-Threading. One of these models is i7-3520M, which seems to be the least expensive from upcoming Core i7-branded mobile chips. As was revealed by Fudzilla yesterday, the i7-3520M SKU is going to get a sibling later this year. Core i7-3525M, coming in the third quarter, will have slightly faster GPU, while retaining all main features of the 3520M model.   [Full story]

AMD yesterday launched Comal mobile platform, accompanied by several mobile Accelerated Processing Units (APU). New processors use "Trinity" design, that combines 1 or 2 Piledriver modules (2 or 4 CPU cores), HD 7000M series graphics unit and HD Media Accelerator on a single die. "Trinity" chips feature many enhancements over previous generations of Bulldozer processors and Llano APUs. According to AMD, improved micro-architecture and higher operating frequencies result in up to 29% better CPU performance than previous generation of APUs. Furthermore, new HD 7000M series GPU provides up to 56% better performance in graphics applications.   [Full story]

As you may already know, dual-core Ivy Bridge microprocessors will be released in less than three weeks. Last week we reported about 5 different mobile models, that will be available on June 3. Computerbase.de spotted another Ivy Bridge mobile SKU in specifications of several upcoming Acer, MCI and Samsung laptops. Newly discovered chip has processor number i5-3210M, and it may also launch in June.   [Full story]

As we expected, Intel announced today Xeon E3-1200 v2 microprocessors for single-socket servers and workstations. This family is going to supersede E3-1200 series, that was in production since April of last year. The company also launched Xeon E5-2400 CPUs for dual-socket systems, and E5-4600 for quad-socket servers. Xeon E3-1200 v2 products are built on the latest Intel's microarchitecture, codenamed Ivy Bridge, while Xeon E5 series employs one generation older Sandy Bridge core.   [Full story]

This and next quarter AMD plans to release new generation of Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). Soon to be available microprocessors will use enhanced microarchitecture, and feature significantly improved on-chip graphics, codenamed Graphics Core Next. There were a couple of reports in the past month, placing the launch of first mobile APUs in the middle of May. Release date for mobile APUs was confirmed last week by DigiTimes. They also revealed launch dates of desktop APUs, and ultra low voltage processors from Brazos 2.0 platform.   [Full story]

AMD FX-400 quad-core series currently includes two CPUs: FX-4100 and FX-4170. At least two other models from the same series, FX-4130 and FX-4150, were discovered in leaked AMD roadmaps, although they are not launched yet. It is possible that another quad-core FX processor may be released before the 4130 and 4150. AMD FX-4200 was spotted in Gigabyte and MSI CPU support lists in March and April, and recently appeared in Bottom Line Telecommunications online store.   [Full story]

NVidia has silently launched a new entry level mobile GPU, GeForce 405M. With 16 CUDA cores and a shader processor clocked at 1212 MHz, this is currently the slowest GPU in the company's mobile line-up, and is presumably therefore also the product with the lowest power consumption.   [Full story]

NVidia today launched the third card in the Kepler line-up, GeForce GTX 670. The card uses a GK104 core, with 7 of it's 8 SMX enabled, giving it 1344 CUDA cores. The reference clock speed is 915 MHz, with a boosted clock speed of 994 MHz. The 2 GB memory runs at 1502 MHz (6008 MHz effective), with a bus width of 256-bits.   [Full story]

Less than a week left before the launch of the next generation of AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) with "Trinity" core. At first, AMD will introduce mainstream mobile processors, and later this and next quarters we will see new desktop and low-voltage mobile APUs. AMD also readies several embedded SKUs, based on "Trinity" core. The processors will be branded as "R-Series", and in many aspects they will be similar to mobile "Trinity" parts. Some characteristics of these products, such as model number, TDP and performance in graphics applications, relative to Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs, surfaced on AMD website.   [Full story]

Today Dell announced PowerEdge C5220 micro-servers based on upcoming Ivy Bridge processors from Xeon E3-1200 v2 family. According to Dell, the new microservers will deliver up to 95% higher performance within the same rack, and up to 50% increased density in comparison with previous generation of PowerEdge C5220 systems. The micro-servers will be available on May 22, 2012, which implies that the launch of Ivy Bridge Xeon CPUs is just around the corner. Indeed, based on information that we have at hand, E3-1200 v2 series of processors will be announced on May 14. Even more, Xeon E5-2400 and E5-4600 series will be also announced on the same day.   [Full story]

It seems that AMD are not happy to take second place (out of two) in the discrete PC graphics card performance charts. According to a report at atomicpc, AMD will be increasing the reference clock speed of Radeon HD 7970 cards to 1 GHz, and rebranding it as "GHz Edition", following in the steps of the 7870 and 7770 cards.   [Full story]

On April 23 Intel announced first "Ivy Bridge" based mobile processors, all of which had 4 CPU cores and could handle as many as 8 processing threads at once. These chips were not cheap, and even the least expensive Core i7-3720QM model had price tag close to $400. On June 3 Intel plans to launch more affordable dual-core CPUs, also based on Ivy Bridge micro-architecture. Prices of these microprocessors will range from $225 to $346.   [Full story]

In January Intel launched "Medfield" platform, aimed at tablets and smartphone devices. "Medfield" systems on a chip (SoC) are built on 32nm technology, and integrate Atom CPU along with SGX 540 graphics, memory controller, video and audio units, and peripheral controllers. Current lineup of SoCs includes Z2460 SKU. Intel also announced plans to release Z2580, twice as powerful as the Z2460, as well as Z2000 budget model. Fudzilla and VR-Zone reported about another Medfield product with processor number Z2610, that should perform on the same level as the Z2460. According to Fudzilla the Z2610 SoC will be available in the second quarter. The launch in the second quarter was confirmed by recently released Intel's public roadmap.   [Full story]

The first Ivy Bridge mobile microprocessors, introduced last Sunday, were high-performance quad-core models. These processors are not cheap, and ultimately they will take only a small part of mobile market. Things will get more interesting when we get closer to the launch of mid-class chips from Core i5 and Core i3 families. Core i5-branded dual-core CPUs will be released on June 3. In the third quarter, there will be two Core i3 mobile parts available. Specifications of one of these products, ultra-low voltage i3-3217U, were made public by VR-Zone two months ago. The second processor is a Core i3-3110M.   [Full story]

There has been much talk about how hot Ivy Bridge chips gets when overclocked, and just as much speculation about why. Initially, most reviewers were assuming the extra heat at higher frequencies was down to an increased power density, while others said there were problems with the process. A few days ago, we reported that part of the problem may be the use of TIM between the die and the heatspreader. The Inquirer have reported that Intel have admitted the chips are hotter than Sandy Bridge when overclocked.   [Full story]

According to the latest rumors, NVidia will imminently be releasing two more GK104 based cards, which will probably be known as GTX 670 and GTX 660 (Ti?). This means they will be using sub-standard high-end products before they release mid-range and low-end SKUs. With the GTX 680 launched last month, and the GTX 690 due this week, there will be a lot of sub-standard chips the company will want to make use of.   [Full story]

We already reported about AMD's plans to refresh existing Opteron 4200 and 6200 series with several new SKUs, which will be done before transitioning to the next generation of server processors, based on Piledriver core. Last month new Opterons surfaced in a few US online stores, and today AMD added these CPUs to official pricelist. We consider this as an indication that the SKUs have been launched. The company also added prices for Opteron 3200 series chips, that were released in March.   [Full story]

This quarter Intel will launch two Xeon E5 subfamilies. Xeon E5-4600 series will offer support for quad-CPU servers, and it will utilize socket R (LGA2011). Xeon E5-2400 processors will use less expensive socket B2 (LGA1356) platform, although they are going to be limited to single- and dual-processing. In addition to E5-2400 series, later this year Intel plans to release two off-roadmap Pentium chips for socket 1356. These chips will have processor numbers 1403 and 1407.   [Full story]

Last Monday Intel announced Ivy Bridge microprocessors, and disclosed initial lineup for desktop and mobile markets. The same day the announcement was followed by numerous reviews and benchmarks, published by hardware news site. Today is another big day: the processors are now officially released, and they are hitting retail. Also today, Intel added new SKUs to official pricelist.   [Full story]

At this weekend's GeForce LAN/NVidia Game Festival 2012, on April 28 in Shanghai, NVidia announced their upcoming dual-GPU flagship card, GeForce GTX 690. With two GK104 cores, the new cards will have a total of 3072 CUDA cores, running almost as fast as the GTX 680. The announcement came during the opening addresses at the festival, attended by over 6000 gamers from across China.   [Full story]

Most readers will have already seen numerous articles, along with our own summary of Ivy Bridge. Most reviewers that we have read have written about how Ivy Bridge gets so hot when overclocked, with temperatures 20-30C higher than a comparable Sandy Bridge chip. It seems that the problem may be nothing like what most of us assumed, but could be an issue with the use of TIM (thermal interface material) between the die and the IHS.   [Full story]

With the paper launch of Ivy Bridge earlier this week, and products shipping from the end of the week, we have taken a look at a number of reviews to give you an idea of what to expect if you buy an Ivy Bridge system, along with an overview of what to expect if you overclock it. Indications so far are that at the same clock speeds, Ivy Bridge will outperform Sandy Bridge by a few percent, but if you overclock it will get much hotter much quicker.   [Full story]

A few days after announcement of Intel's Ivy Bridge micro-architecture, many news sites reported that some European retailers slashed prices of FX-8150 processors by 15% - 20%, and suggested that AMD may have dropped the prices of other processors as well. Today AMD published new pricelist, confirming price drop for the FX-8150 model. The company also cut prices of six- and quad-core FX-Series chips, and for all microprocessors from A-Series.   [Full story]

Earlier this week, AMD added three new SKUs to it's mobile graphics line-up. The Radeon HD 7900M series, currently comprising solely of the HD 7970M, is based on Pitcairn, the HD 7800 Series desktop SKU. Cape Verde has been reused to create both the Radeon HD 7800M and the Radeon HD 7700M series, making their new GCN architecture available to mobile devices.   [Full story]

Earlier this month NVidia quietly launched GT 605 and GT 620 OEM graphics cards. Both cards were based on one generation older technology, and they were re-brands of GT 530 and GT 520 Fermi cards. Continuing the trend of quiet launches and card re-branding, NVidia yesterday released details of GT 640 with three memory options, GT 630 and GT 645 GPUs, some of which are re-packaged GeForce GT 5xx products.   [Full story]

On April 23 Intel revealed their latest micro-architecture, codenamed Ivy Bridge, and disclosed details of quad-core desktop and mobile microprocessors. Despite the fact that we now know the specs and prices of new CPUs, they are merely announced, and they will be officially launched only on April 29. Also on April 29, Intel will release three embedded chips, Core i7-3610QE, i7-3612QE and i7-3615QE. These CPUs were not referenced in Intel's press release and in the 3rd generation Intel Core processor multimedia press kit, however the microprocessors did appear yesterday in Intel's product database.   [Full story]

Today Intel announced Ivy Bridge (IVB) microarchitecture, as well as 15 quad-core microprocessors, and 5 wireless chipset options. Initial IVB line-up includes six mobile processors, four desktop Core i7 CPUs with Hyper-Threading, and five Core 5 desktop models without Hyper-Threading. All processors will be available in OEM systems and in retail later this month. Some processor benchmark results are already available on Intel website, and earlier today many hardware news sites posted their own reviews with detailed benchmarks.   [Full story]

Later this quarter Intel will release six Sandy Bridge microprocessors, refreshing their lineup of Celeron and Pentium desktop CPUs. The CPUs are expected to launch on June 3rd. We already reported on their specifications, and last week we published their official prices. S-Spec and box part numbers of some of these SKUs recently surfaced on Intel website in Material Declaration Data Sheets (MDDS) database.   [Full story]

AMD have recently announced their HD7000M mobile GPU line-up, to be launched on April 24. Mobile line-up uses the same GPU architecture as the desktop one, but renamed for the mobile market. The top-end SKU will be the HD 7970M, part of the HD 7900 line-up, codenamed Thames and using the Pitcairn GPU (HD 7800 series).   [Full story]

Intel and Lava International Ltd today announced availability of the world's first Intel powered smartphone, the XOLO X900. The partnership was first announced at Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, in Feb 2012. The XOLO X900 is the first smartphone to be powered by an Intel Atom processor. It will be released first in India.   [Full story]

This week Intel published three Product change Notifications, advising its customer of forthcoming discontinuation of several mobile processors. All retired processors are from Westemere group of families, built on 32nm technology. 6 OEM microprocessors, including P4600, P6100, P6200, P6300, Core i3-370M and i3-390M will be end-of-lifed on October 16, 2012, and their last shipment date is April 16, 2013. In addition to OEM chips, Intel is planning to retire boxed Core i5-520M, i5-540M, i5-560M and i5-580M CPUs. Their last order (EOL) date is October 19, 2012, and they will be shipped until January 18.   [Full story]

Intel budget processor families, currently represented by Pentium and Celeron brands, will be the last to switch to soon to be released Ivy Bridge micro-architecture. Before transitioning budget CPUs to the new microarchitecture, Intel will refresh existing lineup of Pentium and Celeron desktop chips. On June 3rd, together with the second wave of Ivy Bridge products, Intel will release new G540T, G550, G640T, G640, G860T and G870 Sandy Bridge models. We published their specifications in the past, and now we have details on their pricing.   [Full story]

On April 17, ARM announced availability of a quad-core, power-efficient and high-performance hard macro implementation of their flagship ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore processor, an industry leading licensable processor design. Designed to run at 2 GHz, the Cortex-A15 MP4 hard macro offers more than 20K DMIPS performance, with the power efficiency seen in a Cortex-A9 processor.   [Full story]

We previously reported about Intel plans to launch several embedded microprocessors along with consumer Ivy Bridge mobile parts, all based on not yet released Ivy Bridge (IVB) microarchitecture. This quarter Intel will introduce Core i7-3610QE, i7-3612QE, i7-3615QE quad-cores, as well as Core i7-3517UE and i7-3555LE dual-core models. Later this year we will see two embedded chips from Core i3 family, i3-3120ME and i3-3217UE. Additionally, we learned that this quarter the company will offer new embedded Core i5-3610ME model.   [Full story]

A report from Hardware Canucks says that AMD has officially announced a price reduction for three of their recently released Radeon HD 7000 Series graphics cards. Following the release of NVidia's GTX 680, AMD's price/performance ratio on their high end cards was no longer favorable for many purchasers, so the prices are being lowered from today.   [Full story]

We already reported that Intel Celeron line of Sandy Bridge processors is going to be refreshed in the second and third quarters of the year. New desktop G540T and G550 CPUs are coming in the Q2, and, as was revealed by Fudzilla in March, two ultra-low voltage mobile Celerons will be available in the Q3 2012. Earlier this week Fudzilla published details of another two Celeron-branded mobile B820 and B730 SKUs, that also will be launched in the third quarter. These chips will replace Celeron B815 and B720.   [Full story]

AMD Opteron 4200 and 6200 server microprocessors were revealed in November of last year, and there are all indications that both families will be refreshed soon. Last week we released details on two new Opteron 4200 models, 4240 and 4276 HE. This week we spotted these SKUs, as well as 4 other upcoming chips from 4200 and 6200 series in several US online stores, including Provantage and Buy.com. Pre-order prices in Provantage store range from $344 to $490 (listings are on the bottom of the page) for 4200-series Opterons, and from $693 to $1364 for 6200-series CPUs.   [Full story]

On April 3, we reported that NVidia have launched two entry level 600-series GPUs for the OEM market. Fudzilla have now reported that there will also be 3 entry level cards for the retail market which are also rebrands of older products. The rebranded products will ship as GT 610, GT 620 and GT 630.   [Full story]

Intel recently launched the Z77 chipset, with motherboards debuting in various countries over the last couple of weeks. On April 9, they launched the remaining 7-series chipsets, revealing the entire 7-series line-up. We published leaked details of both the mobile and desktop chipsets on December 12, and can now confirm the features of all the chipsets.   [Full story]

Earlier this week we presented some basic benchmark information for the upcoming i7-3610QM. Our source for that article had used a selection of laptops and Sandy Bridge processors to make the comparison, making it an unreliable indicator of the performance of Ivy Bridge. Today we present benchmark results for a Core i7-3820QM, compared to an i7-2960XM in the same laptop, carried out by Computerbase.   [Full story]

In March Donanimhaber published a slide with details of two FX-Series microprocessors, coming in the second quarter. According to the slide, AMD FX-4130 and FX-6130 are not going to be the fastest CPUs on the block, as such we hope that they will be less expensive than current FX-4170 and FX-6200 products. Specifications of FX-4130 and FX-6130 CPUs were recently confirmed, when MSI added their specs to CPU support list of MSI 890FXA-GD70 motherboard.   [Full story]

In November 2011, NVidia launched the Tegra 3 ARM based processor, using an architecture that was known at the time as variable symmetric multiprocessing, or vSMP. They have since renamed that technology as 4-PLUS-1 (now a registered trademark), and the same architecture is to be used in the next generation Tegra 4 processors, currently expected in 2013.   [Full story]

One month ago Intel introduced Romley platform and Xeon E5 microprocessors. The new platform and CPUs replaced 2+ year old Tylersburg platform and Xeon 5500/5600-series chips, targeted at mid-range dual-processor servers. Not only that, but the platform already offers single socket chips from E5-1600 series, and will add quad-socket E5-4600 processors in the second quarter. We published specifications of Xeon E5-4600 lineup at the end of March, and now we have their pricing details.   [Full story]

With the first Ivy Bridge processors for both desktop and mobile markets expected toward the end of this month, Bulgarian website laptop.bg have published what they claim to be benchmark results of an i7-3610QM, for both the processor and the integrated graphics. The results have been compared to a range of Sandy Bridge processors, in a range of laptops (which will affect the accuracy of any comparison).   [Full story]

Last few weeks I spent working on interface for buying / selling chips in the forum. When it will be ready, the interface will make easier for buyers in the forum to track their purchases, and for sellers to track their sales. At this time I almost completed the first phase of the project: tracking group buys. Before going to the second phase of this project, I decided to spend some time on site improvements. The first improvement, that was done yesterday, was addition of CPU pictures to CPU comparison pages. The pages will now display one processor image, if available, right above specifications, as can be seen on the Intel Core i5-2500 vs Intel Core i7-2600 page.

3DCenter.org have published what they say are the expected specs for the next member of the Kepler family of GPUs, GeForce GTX 670Ti, based on the GK104 core. The purchasing manager at Overclockers UK has previously posted regarding what cards are to be released in the Kepler line-up, along with approximations as to when they will be available. Due late this month or early in May, we will see a GTX 670 Ti and a GTX 670, both using the GK104 core.   [Full story]

Current generation of AMD server microprocessors was launched last November, when AMD introduced 6200-series chips for quad-socket servers, and 4200-series CPUs for dual-socket systems. In February we reported on impending refresh of 6200-series family, although we suspect that published list of upcoming processors is no longer accurate. In addition to 6200-series CPU, AMD plans to launch a few 4200-series chips, including Opteron 4240 and 4276 HE.   [Full story]

NVidia have quietly launched two new entry level GPUs for the OEM market. The new cards, GeForce GT 620 and GeForce 605, appear to differ from the earlier GeForce GT 520 and GeForce 510 only in their clock speeds, with both models sporting 48 CUDA cores. It looks like NVidia have taken a leaf out of AMD's book, and are recycling some older Fermi cores.   [Full story]

Next two months are going to be very exciting for computer enthusiasts as both AMD and Intel will be launching several new desktop and mobile platforms. Intel will announce new Ivy Bridge microarchitecture at the end of April, and AMD will introduce "Trinity" microprocessors with "Piledriver" core. Announcement dates for these platforms were revealed in the past few days by Chinese VR-Zone and SWEClockers news sites.   [Full story]

Last week we reported on three budget microprocessors spotted in socket 1155 CPU support list on ASRock website. Newly discovered Celeron G540T, G550 and Pentium G640 had slightly higher clock speeds compared to existing Celeron and Pentium models. We recently learned about two other budget Pentium G640T and G860T chips, that will be coming out in the second quarter 2012. One of these processors, G640T, also appeared on ASRock CPU support list.   [Full story]