AMD today announced new CPU offerings for the AMD Embedded R-Series high-performance computing platform, along with the introduction of a discrete GPU promotional program to provide embedded designers more choices for meeting demanding performance requirements.

The new options include quad-core and dual-core CPUs scaling from 2.2 GHz to 3.2 GHz with Thermal Design Power (TDP) ranging from 17 to 35 watts for applications that require high performance x86 compute such as network attached storage (NAS). To address high-end visual needs for applications like digital gaming and signage that require high-performance x86 compute coupled with industry-leading discrete graphics, AMD is introducing a new discrete GPU promotional program that provides customers with both a CPU and discrete GPU for savings of up to 20 percent.

Cooler Master, a leading PC technology brand has tested its entire range of high-performance CPU cooling solutions and is proud to announce full support for AMDs upcoming FX9590 and FX9370 high-end processors. "All our high-end coolers are designed and built with headroom to support overclocking. We want our customers to get the most out of their system, and many of our coolers can actually handle even significantly higher thermal loads - so there is still some room to tweak the latest FX processors, especially with our liquid cooling units" said Sascha Krohn- Technical Marketing Manager at Cooler Master .

Cooler Master is a leader in the PC cooling industry selling a wide range of CPU coolers ranging all the way from the incredibly popular Hyper 212 mainstream series, to high-end TPC Tower coolers equipped with vapor chambers and our Eisberg liquid cooling units - the only modular and expandable pre-filled LCS on the market.

Deepcool, the leading manufacturer of desktop CPU cooler, VGA cooler, DC case fan and Notebook cooler, officially released their first fanless CPU cooler-LUCIFER under the sub-brand GAMER STORM, which is named after the hero from the well-known and popular video game DotA (Defense of the Ancients) for Warcraft III. The most important skill of this cooler is to "Devour" the heat massively.

Lucifer CPU cooler is designed to cool the mainstream processors in fanless mode to create a totally silent system; meanwhile, Lucifer is also capable of cooling high-end processors with the help of good airflow inside the case. The bundled 14cm patented rubber fan is able to enhance the cooling capacity of Lucifer up to 300W. And Lucifer also supports push-pull configuration.

While Intel's quad-core Haswell architecture based 4th generation Core processors are already out there dominating benchmark charts (even if only by a small margin) and scoring new accolades in power efficiency, the dual-core Core processors have been left in the dark. At least, in the desktop segment. Not anymore though, as PC Games Hardware managed to score a sample of the energy efficient Core i5-4570T, a dual-core Haswell based processor for the desktop with a very impressive, and low, 35W TDP only.

Lenovo today announced several new touch-enabled Windows laptops, along with Lenovo Miix, a platform-bending multi-mode device that adapts to a user's every need. As a 10.1-inch tablet that converts instantly into a fully-functioning, Windows 8 laptop, the Lenovo Miix combines versatility and power in one touch-enabled device. The IdeaPad S400 Touch, S500 Touch, S210 Touch, U330 Touch and U430 Touch all hail from the company's S Series and U Series, which are notable for their thin and lightweight designs.

The new Lenovo Miix, S Series and U Series devices demonstrate Lenovo's commitment to "touch" as a defining trend in consumer computing. Research analyst firm IDC expects the penetration rate of touch laptops, which now sits at close to 15 percent, to double next year. Leading that trend, Lenovo is innovating across traditional technology segments - such as desktop and laptop PCs - with its new multi-mode, touch-enabled devices.

On Friday, we published and commented on The Tech Report's FX-9000 insight and findings from their interview with an unnamed AMD official, among which was the undecided or improbable retail availability of the new processors. Today, the exact same two processors which made the object of AMD's Friday disclosure are available for pre-order from online retailers such as PCSuperStore, and while speculation on the causes or reasons of the apparent misinformation might be expected and could even be interesting, I will spare you the usual AMD bash and just point out the prices of these two new AMD processors, $ 960 for the FX-9590 and $ 576 for the FX-9370, vexing, to be blunt. Unless we're dealing with circumstantial speculation by a retailer (not unheard of), these prices would put the two new CPUs in direct competition with Intel's Core i7 Extreme processors, very unlikely targets for AMD's Vishera chips. We'll know soon enough, with retail availability imminent, it shouldn't be long before benchmark scores and charts start surfacing.

First sighted in January, ASUS' P9X79-E WS socket LGA2011 motherboard is ready to take on the new breed of Core "Ivy Bridge-E" and Xeon "Ivy Bridge-EP" lines of processors, even if initial versions of its BIOS don't advertise that support. Based on Intel X79 Express chipset, the board is built in the 305 x 267 mm SSI-CEB form-factor. The LGA2011 socket is powered by a 10-phase VRM, with 2+2 phase memory VRM. The CPU socket is wired to eight DDR3 DIMM slots, four on its either sides, supporting up to 64 GB of quad-channel DDR3-2133 MHz memory. The board features a total of seven PCI-Express x16 slots. 4-way NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX are supported.

Storage connectivity on the P9X79-E WS includes two SATA 6 Gb/s ports from the X79 PCH, four SATA 6 Gb/s from a Marvell-made 4-port SATA 6 Gb/s AHCI/RAID controller, four SATA 3 Gb/s from the PCH, and an additional two eSATA 6 Gb/s from an ASMedia-made controller. There are just four USB 3.0 ports on offer, all ASMedia-made controllers. Other connectivity includes two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, both driven by Intel-made controllers, 8-channel HD audio, legacy connectivity such as PS/2 and RS232 COM (header), and a pinch of overclocker-friendly features in the BIOS and on-board. The P9X79-E WS from ASUS is priced at US $499.99.

It appears that the recently announced FX-9590 and FX-9370 processors will be available through system integrators only, with no plans for retail at this time. In a discussion with the folks at The Tech Report, an unnamed AMD source was quoted saying the two new processors will be "available from system integrators globally beginning this summer," while adding that "AMD is considering all options" when asked about retail. During the same discussion the rumored "~220W" TDP was confirmed, which could hint to the reason why these chips might not see retail, requiring advanced cooling solutions, expensive and difficult to integrate into a typical retail package. The discussion also revealed the base clocks of both chips, in the FX-9370's case it being 4.4 Ghz while the FX-9590 boasting a base clock of 4.7 Ghz, in both cases Turbo Boost upping the clocks by 300 Mhz, to 4.7 Ghz and 5 Ghz, respectively.

According to CPU World staff, who, by appealing to an unnamed secondary source, managed to confirm the validity of an earlier leak, we are now looking at Intel's desktop roadmap for the following twelve months. The slides reveal the Q3 launch of Intel's Ivy Bridge-E chips, the Core i7-4820K, i7-4930K and i7-4960X comprising the lineup. The new Extreme chips will make use of the existing X79 platform. Also in Q3 the Premium line will receive a new product, the Core i7-4771, which we do not know in what way differs from the currently available Core i7-4770, but a judicious appeal to wild speculation could point out an upgraded IGP.

The mid segments will get a platform upgrade in the form of a new H81 chipset, and six new processors, the Core i3-4130, i3-4330, i3-4340, as well as three new Ivy Bridge based Pentium chips, the G3220, G3420 and G3430. Celeron processors are in the pipelines for Q1 2014, while Q2 will follow with the Haswell refresh and the accompanying new platform based on the Z97 and H97 chipsets.

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced its completely redesigned Qosmio X75 enthusiast-class laptop and PX35t All-In-One Touchscreen Desktop Computer, two powerful entertainment hubs equipped with 4th generation Intel Core processors.

"These entertainment-driven PCs are designed to help consumers do more and be more productive with Windows 8," said Carl Pinto , vice president of marketing, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "Both systems enable users to do everything from creating, managing and enjoying HD content, multitasking and playing graphics-intensive games with an amazingly responsive experience."

ASUS today announced E8 servers and P9D serverboards for new Intel Xeon processors based on the Intel Denlow platform. E8 and P9D models are engineered for High Ambient Temperature operation at up to 40°C, and deliver over 90% voltage regulation efficiency, representing a major improvement over previous models. Both series also feature PCI Express 3.0, USB 3.0, and ASUS PIKE storage upgrade support.

With ASUS-exclusive air cooling designs, the E8 and P9D Series perform well in HTA (High Ambient Temperature) environments, and maintain stability even at sustained temperatures above 40°C. Their high energy efficiency reduces power consumption, a key aspect of data center applications. Exclusive ASUS Beat Thermal Chokes decrease operating temperatures by 3-5°C and achieve up to 90% voltage regulation efficiency. E8 servers use 80 PLUS power supplies that help reduce operating costs through lower electricity bills.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today launched its latest 8 series range of motherboards supporting Intel 4th generation Core processors. Equipped with a range of new features and technologies including industry-leading digital power delivery, advanced network and device charging, gold plated hardware, new designed UEFI DualBIOS, GIGABYTE App Center and killer good looks, GIGABYTE 8 series motherboards are the most compelling choice for your next rig.

"With these new 8 series motherboards we're adding more high-end features and technologies than ever before, blurring the traditional definitions of mainstream and high-end segments to offer our customers the ultimate platform," commented Henry Kao, Vice President of GIGABYTE Motherboard Business Unit. "With great aesthetics, solid performance and more advanced features than ever before, GIGABYTE 8 series motherboards are setting the standard for excellence."

ORIGIN PC announces the availability of new Intel Core 4th generation processors to their line of award-winning GENESIS, MILLENNIUM, and CHRONOS desktops and EON laptops. Now gamers, artists, professionals and enthusiasts will have the power to game, create, work and inspire like never before with Intel's latest Core processors. The new Intel Core 4th generation processors raise the bar in multi-core processing technology with a 15% CPU performance increase over last generation, low power consumption to enhance battery life, and built in security features to help keep your data safe and secure. ORIGIN PC will also be including a free digital copy of the upcoming PC title, GRID 2 with the purchase of any ORIGIN PC gaming system with Intel Core 4thgeneration processors.

"ORIGIN PC is thrilled to be an official launch partner of Intel and we're really excited to include their latest 4th generation processors inside our award-winning systems" says Kevin Wasielewski, CEO/Co-Founder of ORIGIN PC. "The incredible speed, increase in performance and stunning Ultra HD 4K video playback on Intel's 4thgeneration Haswell processors really shows a whole new level of processing power inside all of our ORIGIN desktops and laptops."

G.SKILL International Co. Ltd., the worldwide leading high performance memory designer and manufacturer, is pleased to announce the fastest, new DDR3 Memory Kit, "DDR3 3000MHz 32GB(4x8GB)"; it is the latest addition to the TridentX Series designed for the latest 4th Gen Intel Core Processors and Z87 system.

G.SKILL presents the ultimate speed of DDR3 3000 MHz C12 with up to 32GB (4x8GB) ultra high capacity. The following screen shows the kit passing Memtest pro with the low voltage of 1.65v, this was achieved using an Intel 4770K processor and the ASUS Maximus VI Extreme.

After bagging chip supply deals for all three new-generation consoles -- Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U, things are looking up for AMD. While Wii U uses older-generation hardware technologies, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 use the very latest AMD has to offer -- "Jaguar" 64-bit x86 CPU micro-architecture, and Graphics CoreNext GPU architecture. Chips that run the two consoles have a lot in common, but also a few less-than-subtle differences.

PlayStation 4 chip, which came to light this February, is truly an engineer's fantasy. It combines eight "Jaguar" 64-bit x86 cores clocked at 1.60 GHz, with a fairly well spec'd Radeon GPU, which features 1,156 stream processors, 32 ROPs; and a 256-bit wide unified GDDR5 memory interface, clocked at 5.50 GHz. At these speeds, the system gets a memory bandwidth of 176 GB/s. Memory isn't handled like UMA (unified memory architecture), there's no partition between system- and graphics-memory. The two are treated as items on the same 8 GB of memory, and either can use up a majority of it.

AMD today launched three new additions to its 2013 A-Series and E-Series Mobile Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) lineup -- delivering solutions ideally positioned to address today's evolving PC market with dramatically increased performance and power efficiency, as well as a portfolio of unique user experiences, and superior gaming and graphics:

• The 2013 AMD Elite Mobility APU (formerly codenamed "Temash") -- the world's first 28nm, quad-core x86 system-on-a-chip (SoC) APU designed for touch small form-factor notebooks, tablets, and hybrids 13-inches and below;
• The 2013 AMD Mainstream APU (formerly codenamed "Kabini") -- the first and only quad-core x86 SoC solution for entry-level and small-form factor touch notebooks;
• New, low power versions of the 2013 AMD Elite Performance APU (formerly codenamed "Richland") -- offer the best graphics and compute in a performance APU for premium ultrathin notebooks.

HP today announced the HP ENVY Rove20 mobile All-in-One PC, the company's first mobile All-in-One PC, which frees the desktop PC from the desk and allows families and friends to enjoy a shared entertainment experience with a built-in battery, unique design and advanced touch technology. HP also announced new consumer notebooks, all-in-one PCs and printers that give people more flexibility in how they access and share information. With affordable touch technology and new form factors, HP's new additions provide seamless integration of technology into customers' busy lives.

"Customers are looking for mobility and flexibility in their computing devices to give families new ways to bring generations together," said Ron Coughlin, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer PCs and Consumer Solutions, HP. "HP is evolving to meet our customers' needs by designing next-generation form factors, like the Rove mobile All-in-One PC, which will enable people to connect, share and create in ways they never imagined."

AMD today announced availability of servers based on its AMD Open 3.0 specification, defined as part of the Open Compute Project, delivering workload versatility and performance equal to competing proprietary OEM servers at significantly lower cost. In comparison to benchmarks running virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), the AMD Open 3.0-based system supported just as many virtual desktops and reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) by 57 percent: $4,589 versus $10,669 for just a single server. This cost effectiveness translates into a dramatic reduction in cost per virtual desktop, from $91.19 to only $38.24 per desktop. More details on the findings are available online and will be discussed at a roundtable event tomorrow in New York City and other select cities. The servers will be available through distributor partners.

"Global IT organizations have the difficult task of choosing between price and performance when investing in servers," said Bob Ogrey, cloud evangelist and fellow, AMD. "We don't believe organizations have to compromise one for the other. Using systems based on the AMD Open 3.0 specification -- the first open source, modular platform for the masses -- enables high performance and energy efficiency at a reasonable price, making it the best choice for organizations.

Intel Corporation today took the wraps off its brand new, low-power, high-performance microarchitecture named Silvermont. The technology is aimed squarely at low-power requirements in market segments from smartphones to the data center. Silvermont will be the foundation for a range of innovative products beginning to come to market later this year, and will also be manufactured using the company's leading-edge, 22nm Tri-Gate SoC manufacturing process, which brings significant performance increases and improved energy efficiency.

"Silvermont is a leap forward and an entirely new technology foundation for the future that will address a broad range of products and market segments," said Dadi Perlmutter, Intel executive vice president and chief product officer. "Early sampling of our 22nm SoCs, including "Bay Trail" and "Avoton" is already garnering positive feedback from our customers. Going forward, we will accelerate future generations of this low-power microarchitecture on a yearly cadence."

During her keynote at the Intel Developer Forum today in Beijing, Diane Bryant, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Datacenter and Connected Systems Group, discussed how her company is helping users harness powerful new capabilities that will improve the lives of people by building smarter cities, healthier communities and thriving businesses.

Bryant unveiled details of upcoming technologies and products that show how Intel aims to transform the server, networking and storage capabilities of the datacenter. By addressing the full spectrum of workload demands and providing new levels of application optimized solutions for enterprise IT, technical computing and cloud service providers, unprecedented experiences can be delivered.

It's not retirement time for AMD's 45 nm "Regor" silicon just yet, with the company announcing the Athlon II X2 280 value dual-core processor. Built in the socket AM3 package (compatible with AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+ motherboards), and based on the company's K10.5 micro-architecture, the chip features two x86-64 cores clocked at 3.60 GHz, 1 MB of L2 cache per core (2 MB total), an instruction set that includes SSE3 and SSE4A, and a dual-channel integrated memory controller that supports both DDR2 and DDR3 memory types. The chip can take advantage of HyperTransport 3.0 interface, with a maximum data-rate of 4.0 GT/s. It features a rated TDP of 65W, and is designed for entry-level desktops. It is priced at US $49.99.

Russian tech publication OCLab.ru, which claims access to Intel's next-generation Core "Haswell" processor engineering-sample (and an LGA1150 8-series motherboard!), wasted no time in running a quick clock-for-clock performance comparison with the current Core "Ivy Bridge" processor. In its comparison, it set both chips to run at a fixed 2.80 GHz clock speed (by disabling Turbo Boost, C1E, and EIST), indicating that the ES OCLab is in possession of doesn't go beyond that frequency.

The two chips were put through SuperPi 1M, PiFast, and wPrime 32M. The Core "Haswell" chip is only marginally faster than Ivy Bridge, in fact slower in one test. In its next battery of tests, the reviewer stepped up iterations (load), putting the chips through single-threaded SuperPi 32M, and multi-threaded wPrime 1024M. While wPrime performance is nearly identical between the two chips, Haswell crunched SuperPi 32M about 3 percent quicker than Ivy Bridge. It's still to early to take a call on CPU performance percentage difference between the two architectures. Intel's Core "Haswell" processors launch in the first week of June.

AMD today announced that the newly launched Gizmo board, a low-cost board geared toward x86-based embedded system development available from GizmoSphere, is powered by an AMD Embedded G-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). Gizmo is a 4-inch by 4-inch x86 development board that can run a variety of operating systems including Android, Linux, RTOSes and Windows. AMD is a founding member of GizmoSphere, a not-for-profit organization whose collective goal is to drive and enable technology projects of interest to independent developers, with a focus on stimulating and encouraging innovation around multicore heterogeneous computing using APUs.

The Gizmo board includes the G-T40E dual-core processor running at 1.0 GHz, combined on a single die with AMD Radeon HD 6250 discrete-class graphics. The board provides a performance capacity of 52 gigaFLOPS (GFLOPS) at less than 10 watts. Custom high- and low-speed edge connectors enable a full range of functions. This unprecedented level of integration between serial and parallel processing offers a power-efficient foundation for high-performance multimedia content delivery across a broad range of embedded designs such as digital signage, x86 set-top box (xSTB), IP-TV, thin client, information kiosk, point-of-sale, casino gaming, media servers and industrial control systems.

Worldwide revenues for microprocessors designed for mobile PCs, desktop PCs, and PC servers will grow 1.6% to $40.7 billion in 2013 according to a new forecast report from International Data Corporation (IDC). The IDC report, Worldwide PC Microprocessor 2012-2016 Forecast, also forecasts that worldwide unit shipments for PC microprocessors will grow 3.2% to nearly 384 million units in 2013.

"Economic and technological inhibitors that took the PC microprocessor revenue down about 2.4% in 2012 will continue through the first half of 2013," said Shane Rau, vice president for PC and server semiconductor and enabling technologies research at IDC. "Macroeconomic uncertainty has forced OEM and IT customers to reduce orders and focus on execution, and reduce expectations after the launch of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system in late October. Delays in PC purchases caused by Windows 8 and the encroachment of media tablets on low-end PCs have further cut into PC microprocessor demand growth."