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Nvidia unveils 'Denver,' its first CPU for PCs
Nvidia is developing new CPU cores based on the Arm architecture for PCs and servers that will be able to run Microsoft's upcoming Windows OS, the company said on Wednesday.

The series of CPU cores, which is code-named Denver, will be based on a future Arm architecture and give Nvidia a presence in new markets, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said during a press conference at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The announcement of new CPU cores came on the same day that Microsoft announced it is developing a future version of its Windows OS for the Arm architecture. The new Denver chips will support the upcoming Arm-based Windows OS, said Ken Brown, an Nvidia spokesman.

Microsoft's Windows OS, which is used on most of the world's PCs, currently works only on x86 chipsets from companies such as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. An Arm version of Windows could provide users an option to buy Arm-based systems as an alternative to x86 products.


Intel says Light Peak interconnect technology is readyMicrosoft's slow, steady tablet strategy a big gambleCES 2011 daily video update: Panasonic TV tablet, Verizon 4G phones, Ford carsFord debuts all-electric carAn iPhone for Sprint? Unlikely, but maybe a WebOS device from HPQuickPoll: What's the highest-impact news from CES 2011?Intel to integrate DirectX 11 in Ivy Bridge chipsCES: Lady Gaga unveils Polaroid sunglasses camera, printerOLPC cuts XO 1.75 laptop to $165, power use by halfSprint plans WiMax RIM PlayBook Complete coverage: CES 2011 For many years, users had no choice on operating systems and chip architectures, said Bill Dally, Nvidia's chief scientist, in an e-mail message.

"Microsoft's announcement that it is bringing Windows to ultra-low power processors like Arm-based CPUs provides the final ingredient needed to enable Arm-based PCs based on Denver," Dally wrote.

"Denver frees PCs, workstations and servers from the hegemony and inefficiency of the x86 architecture," Dally said.

The downside is that software written for x86 chips will need to be tweaked before it can run on Arm systems.

Nvidia, primarily known as a graphics card company, has hinted in the past that it was developing a CPU for PCs, but it currently offers only the Tegra 2 chip for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

The Denver CPUs will be based on future Arm processor designs, and Nvidia has licensed the Cortex-A15 processor and its successor design from Arm, Brown said. He didn't specific dates for when the CPUs will be in PCs, but he said they most likely would initially go into servers.

The chips will probably combine Nvidia's graphics processor cores with Arm's CPU cores, much like the Tegra chips. The integration of CPU and GPU technology in a single, power-efficient chip will help the company better serve the PC gamer market, Brown said. Another target market for these chips is cloud computing, Nvidia officials said.

During his speech, Huang was critical of the x86 architecture, which has dominated the PC market for decades. The growth of tablets and smartphones has created a "new PC industry," Huang said, which has led to an increased focus on Arm.

Arm is poised to become the new standard microprocessor architecture, and in a few years there will be more Arm processors than the number of x86 processors that "ever shipped," Huang said.

He provided the example of Apple, which introduced the iPad and iPhone and has revolutionized the way PC makers build and distribute devices, Huang said. Like Apple, a lot more companies are focusing on tablets and other mobile devices.

"The world has changed," Huang said. "The companies in the past that were leaders are readjusting their strategies."

A lot of software developers are also moving to the Arm architecture as they program for mobile devices, Huang said. With Denver, Huang hopes to attract mobile developers to write for PCs and servers.
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 1/8/2011 1:08:39 PM



Pentium name makes a comeback
Intel has dusted off the name Pentium as its mainstream performance brand for mobile computers.

PC Magazine says that Pentiums will appear inside machines in the higher-performance "ultrathin notebook" market segment, which is just above netbooks. Those systems require something with a little more bit-crunching oomph than an Atom processor but less power than a normal CPU chip.

Pentium has been an Intel brand since 1993 and has had good innings in terms of marketing. Apparently the label will be stuck on the 1.3-GHz ULV chip that Intel will call the Pentium SU2700. This beastie runs at a thermal design power of 10 watts
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 6/3/2009 10:48:14 AM



Intel's new Logos
Intel has redesigned its logo stickers in an effort to "simplify" the buying experience. At the linked page they break them down and decode their meanings.

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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 4/30/2009 3:40:36 PM



Core i7 975XE tested
SOME EARLY benchmarks of the soon-to-be-released Core i7 975XE processor have shown up at Xbit Labs. This CPU is the performance king, replacing the i7 965, and breaks in a new – D0 – stepping. With it, Intel lowered power consumption and improved the OC’ing potential, it seems. Check it out at the link ...
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 4/24/2009 2:21:48 PM



AMD 'Shanghai' chip debuts at resellers
Advanced Micro Devices' first 45-nanometer chip, the Shanghai quad-core Opteron, has made its debut at resellers.

The officially unannounced Opteron 837X and 838X series processors are not cheap. Online reseller PC Connection lists the Opteron QC (quad-core) 8384 at $2,509. Another reseller, Buy.com lists the same processor at $2,240.

The 8384 is expected to run at 2.7GHz and draw 75 watts, relatively low power consumption for a quad-core server processor.

The 8385--same clock speed with a faster system bus--is offered for $2,509 at PC Connection.

Other processors listed include the 8382 (2.6GHz), 8380 (2.5GHz), and 8378 (2.4GHz), priced at $2,177, $1,768, and $1,360 respectively at PC Connection. Note that these prices will differ from official pricing from AMD.

The Shanghai Opteron 230X series includes the 2382 (2.6GHz) and 2380 (2.5GHz). These are priced at $1,019 and $814 respectively at PC Connnection.

Rollout of the chip is expected officially on November 13, according to industry sources.

AMD is hoping to make a much better impression with Shanghai. Its first quad-core chip, Barcelona, was rolled out in September 2007 to great fanfare only to be delayed a whopping eight months (or more, depending how the delay is calculated) due to production glitches and bugs. This gave Intel an opportunity to regain ground it had lost to AMD in the server chip market.

Shanghai is in full production right now, Pat Patla, general manager of AMD's server and workstation chip business said last month. The was confirmed during AMD's earnings conference call earlier this month.

Server vendors are expected to be shipping systems as early as this quarter. A Sun Microsystems spokesperson said Tuesday that it plans to offer Shanghai processors on its current x64 platforms running Barcelona. Systems using the new processors are targeted for the first quarter of 2009, the spokesperson said.

At the same clock frequency (speed), Shanghai will outperform Barcelona by about 20 percent, Patla said last month.

AMD is also boosting the size of the cache memory, which typically speeds performance, from 2 megabytes to 6 megabytes. Another speed improvement will come from increasing "instructions per clock."

Patla also said last month that AMD is "turning on HT3 (HyperTransport 3)"--a communication path between chips--and that partners will start to validate systems in the first quarter of next year with this technology.
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 10/30/2008 10:44:41 AM



Core i7 to Be Up to 52% Faster Compared to Core 2 Quad.
Intel Corp. expects its forthcoming Intel Core i7 processors to be much more powerful compared to existing central processing units, according to documents reportedly seen by the media. If the information turns to be precise enough, then Intel has all chances to keep processor performance crown even after smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices launches its new chips...
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 10/7/2008 1:28:23 PM



AMD: We're well on our way to Shanghai, 45nm CPUs
With the fourth quarter now upon us, the market's gaze has begun to turn full force on AMD and the imminent launch of the company's Shanghai processor. Shanghai, for those of you who haven't been following AMD, is a 45nm die-shrink of the company's Barcelona architecture with a 6MB L3 cache (up from 2MB on Barcelona), improved performance and power characteristics, and an additional set of as-yet-unspecified performance tweaks. On Monday, a reporter had a chance to sit down with Patrick Patla, head of AMD's workstation and server division, who offered insight into Shanghai's development process, as well as a few tantalizing details on what we can expect when the new processor ships...
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 10/3/2008 9:30:06 AM



Intel makes on-CPU system RAM breakthrough
Intel has developed an updated technology that could virtually solve questions of memory speed, the semiconductor firm has revealed at its recent Research@Intel event. Developers at the company have created dynamic RAM that behaves like typical system memory but needs just two transistors for each memory cell and which needs no capacitors. The invention makes dynamic RAM small enough that it can be embedded in a processor rather than put into a separate module, potentially eliminating several bottlenecks inherent to the static RAM used for cache on current processors.
A processor that complements or replaces existing cache would have much more on-chip bandwidth than any current processor and would be tied to clock speed, according to Intel. Where a 45-nanometer, quad-core Xeon currently has some of the fastest bandwidth available at between 18 to 20 gigabytes per second, a basic 2GHz processor made on an older 65-nanometer process could shuttle data at 128 gigabytes per second. Dynamic RAM also promises more storage in the same space and a lower price that could translate to the processors themselves.

The advancement could effectively overhaul Intel's approach to its chip designs as well that of programmers. Very fast memory access is considered critical to future many-core processors and may be necessary for the production equivalent of Intel's 80-core Teraflops Research Chip; developers writing for this and related processors may also depend on always having guaranteed access to cache, which would be virtually guaranteed with the cache becoming faster along with processors.

Intel hasn't said when or if it first expects to implement its two-transistor dynamic RAM into future chips, though mainstream processors with eight to 16 cores are due within the next few years.
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 6/20/2008 1:12:45 PM



AMD Plans 12-Core Server Chip In 2010
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) on Wednesday introduced its two-year product road map for servers and workstations, saying it would release its first six-core chip next year and a 12-core processor on a new platform in the first half of 2010...

AMD is on target to ship its first 45-nm server chip, code-named Shanghai, in the latter part of this year, which would be about a year after Intel shipped its first products using the next-generation manufacturing process that makes it possible to shrink transistor size. Shanghai will be a four-core processor that delivers 25% better performance than the company's current 65-nm quad-core Opteron, formerly known as Barcelona. Shanghai also will ship under the Opteron brand.
Shanghai will use up to 20% less power during idle time than Barcelona and have 6 MB of L3 cache, which is twice the overall cache of its predecessor. In addition, Shanghai's support of DDR2-800 memory translates into a 10% boost in bandwidth.

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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 5/8/2008 10:18:24 PM



Windows XP SP3: Hands-On Preview
Microsoft confirmed today that the final version of Windows XP Service Pack 3 has been released to PC manufacturers right on schedule. The update will be available to end users to download next Tuesday, April 29, and pushed to Windows Update in June. A post on Microsoft's TechNet developer site confirmed the release.

Microsoft gave us an early look at the update as a 580MB disk image. What we saw is barely changed from our preview of an early beta of SP3, and seeing Windows XP SP3 for the first time is highly unremarkable.

Far from being a new operating system, Windows XP SP3 is really an accumulation of updates for compatibility, security, and performance. It doesn't contain new features found in Vista, aside from Network Access Protection (NAP), which lets XP systems work with Windows Server 2008's ability to enforce system health requirements before allowing access to network assets. In addition to that feature, the only actually new ones are "Black Hole" Router Detection, more description in the Security Options control panel, kernel-level support for FIPS 140-1 Level 1 compliant cryptography, and a new Product Activation system that allows installation without immediately requiring a product key.

More at the link ...
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 4/21/2008 10:53:41 PM



Intel Announces Intel® Atom™ Brand for New Family of Low-Power Processors
SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 2, 2008 – The Intel® Atom™ processor will be the name for a new family of low-power processors designed specifically for mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and a new class of simple and affordable Internet-centric computers arriving later this year. Together, these new market segments represent a significant new opportunity to grow the overall market for Intel silicon, using the Intel Atom processor as the foundation. The company also announced the Intel® Centrino® Atom™ processor technology brand for MID platforms, consisting of multiple chips that enable the best Internet experience in a pocketable device.

The Intel Atom processor is based on an entirely new microarchitecture designed specifically for small devices and low power, while maintaining the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo instruction set compatibility consumers are accustomed to when using a standard PC and the Internet. The design also includes support for multiple threads for better performance and increased system responsiveness. All of this on a chip that measures less than 25 mm², making it Intel's smallest and lowest power processor yet.1 Up to 11 Intel Atom processor die -- the tiny slivers of silicon packed with 47 million transistors each -- would fit in an area the size of an American penny.

These new chips, previously codenamed Silverthorne and Diamondville, will be manufactured on Intel's industry-leading 45nm process with hi-k metal gate technology. The chips have a thermal design power (TDP) specification in 0.6-2.5 watt range and scale to 1.8GHz speeds depending on customer need. By comparison, today's mainstream mobile Core 2 Duo processors have a TDP in the 35-watt range.
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 3/3/2008 1:04:05 PM



Intel's Fundamental Advance in Transistor Design Extends Moore's Law
Sixteen Eco-Friendly, Faster and 'Cooler' Chips Incorporate 45nm Hafnium-Based High-k Metal Gate Transistors

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 11, 2007 – Built using an entirely new transistor formula that alleviates the wasteful electricity leaks that threaten the pace of future computer innovation, Intel Corporation today unveiled 16 server and high-end PC processors. In addition to increasing computer performance and saving energy use, these processors also eliminate eco-unfriendly lead and, in 2008, halogen materials.

Called the biggest transistor advancements in 40 years by Intel Co-Founder Gordon Moore, the processors are the first to use Intel's Hafnium-based high-k metal gate (Hi-k) formula for the hundreds of millions of transistors inside these processors. These Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme and Xeon® processors are also the first to be manufactured on the company's 45-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process, further boosting performance and lowering power consumption.

Combining these two advancements with new processor features enables Intel to continue delivering faster and more energy-efficient processors that are better for the environment. The breakthroughs clear the path for Intel to design products that are 25 percent smaller than previous versions and, thus, more cost-effective, as well as the ability next year to pursue new ultra mobile and consumer electronics "system on chip" opportunities.

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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 11/12/2007 10:19:05 AM



AMD cuts prices on its desktop CPUs
In its ongoing battle with rival Intel, AMD announced the latest round of desktop CPU price cuts today. According to the list the company shared with us this morning, the price cuts mean that all of the company's dual-core Athlon 64 X2 processors will be priced at less than $200, with the top-end Athlon 64 X2 6000+ now selling for $178. The two low-end models in AMD's dual-core line, the Athlon X2 3600+ and 3800+, have been dropped, making the Athlon X2 4000+ the new entry-level dual-core model at $73.

In the high-end Athlon 64 FX line, strangely both the FX-72 and FX-74 now sell for the same price of $599 a pair. AMD's single-core Athlon 64 chips now range in price from $48 (Athlon 64 3200+) to $78 (Athlon 64 4000+). The budget Sempron line now starts at $31 for the Sempron 3200+ chip and goes up to $53 for the Sempron 3800+. It's hard to see how there's room for single-core processors when prices for nearly half of AMD's dual-core Athlon 64 X2 chips have crept well below the $100 mark.

Prices for AMD's mobile chips remain unchanged.

For its part, Intel is expected to cut prices on July 22 for its quad-core desktop and server chips prior to AMD's Barcelona introduction in August. 'Round and 'round we go.
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 7/9/2007 9:53:16 AM



Intel readies massive multicore processors
Ants and beetles have exoskeletons--and chips with 60 and 80 cores are going to need them as well.

Researchers at Intel are working on ways to mask the intricate functionality of massive multicore chips to make it easier for computer makers and software developers to adapt to them, said Jerry Bautista, co-director of Intel's Tera-scale Computing Research Program.

These multicore chips, he added, will also likely contain both x86 processing cores, similar to the brains inside the vast majority of Intel's server and PC chips today, as well as other types of cores. A 64-core chip, for instance, might contain 42 x86 cores, 18 accelerators and four embedded graphics cores...(more at the link)
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 6/14/2007 9:47:09 AM



IBM introduces Power6 chip
IBM on Monday introduced its Power6 microprocessors and a new generation of Unix-based servers to run on the chip.

Power6 is designed to run at 4.7GHz, twice the processing speed of IBM's predecessor Power5+ chip. IBM not only aims to double the processing speed over the Power5 chip, but also consume the same level of electricity to run and cool it.

Big Blue, as previously reported, said it will begin selling IBM p570 Unix servers with as many as eight of the new dual-core chips. The systems will go on sale June 8 for a starting cost of $60,000, an IBM representative said.

The company plans to introduce the Power6 chip throughout two server lines--the System p machines that run Unix and the System i machines that run the i5/OS operating system. Both systems also can run Linux.

A shipping schedule and pricing for the System i with the Power6 chip are not yet available.

IBM also said it will release a feature called Power6 Live Partition Mobility later this year that will let customers move a running instance of Unix from one physical machine to another. The feature, which aids flexibility and protection against hardware failure, is currently in beta testing.
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 5/21/2007 8:49:07 PM



AMD Finally Answers the Challenge with Phenom: Four Cores on One Die
After about ten months of watching somebody else marching ahead as the all-around leader in both price and performance, AMD this morning stopped making purely defensive plays, and at last launched its counter-offensive. It will be introducing a new CPU architecture for the second half of this year, aimed at performance-hungry customers perhaps willing to pay a premium.

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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 5/15/2007 12:21:52 PM



The Pentium 4 remixed: taking processors into the third dimension
If you're a CPU buff, you'll definitely want to check this out, because the future of microprocessors is clearly three-dimensional.
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 5/10/2007 11:49:45 PM



AMD Claims Quad-core Desktop CPUs Ready for Christmas
AMD details it's desktop plans for the next year, though be it a quarter later than originally planned

AMD this week took the covers off its quad-core desktop CPU codenamed Agena FX in Sunnyvale, California. The processor was featured in single and dual-socket configurations -- the dual-socket configurations mark AMD's first demonstration of an 8-core desktop.

Next week Monday, AMD will reveal the brand name for this Agena FX-based brand, Phenom FX. The official launch date for Agena is still undetermined.

"Quad-core, codenamed Barcelona will launch later this summer, in the July, August kind of time frame -- followed by [Agena FX] on the desktop," stated Robert Rivet, AMD executive vice president and CFO.

AMD demonstrated the power of this Phenom FX system by encoding a 1080p movie trailer into H.264 in near-realtime. The company would not reveal the clock frequencies to DailyTech, though previous company guidance indicated Agena FX will debut at 2.6 GHz clock frequencies.

Agena FX is just the halo product for the desktop AMD K10 lineup. Agena (non-FX) will constitute the bulk of AMD's Phenom offerings. Agena is essentially identical to Agena FX, though the non-FX processor does not support symmetric multiprocessing -- Agena FX can support up to two sockets at this time. AMD will also announce its dual-core Agena bins, codenamed Kuma, shortly after Agena.

Intel is slated to launch its 45nm Penryn processor family in late 2007. "Penryn will be shipping in 2007," stated Intel representative Nick Knupffer. "We are launching server versions of Penryn in the second half of 2007," he added.

Intel's desktop variants of Penryn, dubbed dual-core Wolfdale and quad-core Yorkfield, surfaced last month. The server counterparts to these chips, dubbed dual-core Hapertown and quad-core Yorkfield will suceed the existing Clovertown and Woodcrest Xeon components.

AMD's Rivet makes one promise, we'll see quad-core desktop components in 2007. "That'll launch a little after the server part, it'll be called Agena. You'll see that in the Christmas line-up," Rivet claimed.
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 5/10/2007 11:46:36 PM



AMD reinvents the x86
AMD’s next-generation processor line, code-named Torrenza, has gone from a block diagram to living, breathing silicon. The first incarnation of AMD’s redesigned x86 CPU is Barcelona, that which your non-co-readers will call quad-core Opteron. Barcelona is genius, a genuinely new CPU that frees itself entirely from the millstone of its Pentium legacy. It’ll do the same for you.

Each of Barcelona’s four cores incorporates a new vector maths unit referred to as SSE128 (128-bit streaming single-instruction-multiple-data extensions). I am aware that you only do quantum physics at the weekend, but the potential for hardcore IT tasks such as encryption, compression, real-time analysis of high volumes of streaming business transactions, and wire-speed packet analysis is also the stuff of science fiction.
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 2/8/2007 8:21:49 AM



Hackers hit key Internet traffic computers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hackers briefly overwhelmed at least three of the 13 computers that help manage global computer traffic Tuesday in one of the most significant attacks against the Internet since 2002.

Experts said the unusually powerful attacks lasted for hours but passed largely unnoticed by most computer users, a testament to the resiliency of the Internet.

Behind the scenes, computer scientists worldwide raced to cope with enormous volumes of data that threatened to saturate some of the Internet's most vital pipelines.

Experts said the hackers appeared to disguise their origin, but vast amounts of rogue data in the attacks were traced to South Korea.
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             Posted by: admin     Date Posted: 2/7/2007 1:10:56 PM











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