AMD today announced that Charles Matar and Wayne Meretsky have joined the company to assume critical new engineering leadership roles driving hardware and software intellectual property (IP) development for AMD's system-on-chip (SoC) solutions. Matar will draw upon his expertise in SoC and processor design to lead AMD's SoC methodology and client SoC execution. Meretsky will lead the company's software development, ensuring tools will be in place that will enable developers to take advantage of the compute power in AMD's SoC designs.

"Charles and Wayne will serve as key members of our engineering brain trust, bringing with them years of expertise in SoC design and developing 64-bit software ecosystems, respectively," said Mark Papermaster, AMD Chief Technology Officer. "The fact that these computing experts have returned to the company underscores AMD's unique position and opportunity, based on differentiated IP, to take a leadership position in low-power clients and dense cloud servers."

NVIDIA closed its Sunday launch extravaganza by posting a new version of its GeForce software suite, a combination of drivers and software for its GeForce graphics processors. The new GeForce 310.90 introduces a much-needed security update for its driver service manager that patches a recently-discovered vulnerability. In addition, it brings improved stability and performance for the dual-GPU GeForce GTX 690, in 3D production applications. SLI profiles are added or updated for several games.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 310.90 WHQL for Windows 8/7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 8/7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

The change-log specific to this release follows.

Intel's next-generation Atom processor platform, codenamed "Bay Trail" doesn't arrive before 2014, but that's not enough to stop the company from talking at great lengths about it. A new presentation intended for Intel's pals in the PC industry was leaked on German tech-forum 3DCenter.org, and reveals quite a bit more about the platform than the Bay Trail-T we already know about.

The first two slides (below) detail key scoring points of the platform over its predecessor, the "Cedar Trail." These include a true single-chip SoC (with complete integration of the chipset into the processor die), being built on the 22 nm Tri-gate transistor fab process, up to four x86-64 cores with out-of-order execution capabilities, 7th generation Intel graphics that features DirectX 11 and supports resolutions as high as 2560 x 1600 pixels, a native USB 3.0 controller, and support for DDR3L memory, that allows device makers to do away with DIMM/SO-DIMM modules to conserve board foot-print, using smaller, space-optimized DRAM chips on the main PCB.

NVIDIA released the GeForce 310.70 WHQL software suite, which isn't much more than a WHQL-signed version of the GeForce 310.70 beta drivers posted a couple of weeks ago. Available for 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP, the drivers, much like the 310.70 beta, are a cumulative of several R310 beta releases from over the past two months. They add significant performance increases over the previous 306.97 WHQL drivers.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 310.70 WHQL for Windows 8/7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 8/7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows XP 32-bit

Following last week's announcement of the ARM Cortex-A50 series, SoC designers formed a bee-line to license the ARMv8 IP. Among them is NVIDIA, and not just for its Tegra line of high-performance mobile chips, but also for Tesla, its GPU compute accelerator line. In an interview with InfoWorld, NVIDIA CTO for Tesla, Steve Scott, was quoted saying, "Tegra is going to become GPU computing capable in the not-so-distant future. Sometime this decade we are also going to start bringing integrated CPUs and GPUs together in the Tesla line". NVIDIA perhaps is looking at building Tesla GPU compute servers with the x86 CPU completely replaced with efficient ARMv8 64-bit processors.

ARM announced the new ARM Cortex-A50 processor series based upon the ARMv8 architecture, extending ARM's leadership in performance and low power. The series initially includes the Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 processors and introduces a new, energy-efficient 64-bit processing technology, as well as extending existing 32-bit processing. The scalability of the processor series enables ARM partners to create system-on-chips (SoCs) that address diverse markets, from smartphones through to high-performance servers.

The processors launched today will continue the evolution of the mobile computing experience by delivering up to three times the performance of today's superphones and extending today's superphone experience to entry-level smartphones. With a comprehensive set of ARM and ARM partner development tools and simulation models already available to enable faster and easier software development, both processors are fully compatible with the extensive ARM 32-bit ecosystem and integral to the rapidly evolving ARM 64-bit ecosystem.

In a bold strategic move, AMD announced that it will design 64-bit ARM technology-based processors in addition to its x86 processors for multiple markets, starting with cloud and data center servers. AMD's first ARM technology-based processor will be a highly-integrated, 64-bit multicore System-on-a-Chip (SoC) optimized for the dense, energy-efficient servers that now dominate the largest data centers and power the modern computing experience. The first ARM technology-based AMD Opteron processor is targeted for production in 2014 and will integrate the AMD SeaMicro Freedom supercompute fabric, the industry's premier high-performance fabric.

AMD's new design initiative addresses the growing demand to deliver better performance-per-watt for dense cloud computing solutions. Just as AMD introduced the industry's first mainstream 64-bit x86 server solution with the AMD Opteron processor in 2003, AMD will be the only processor provider bridging the x86 and 64-bit ARM ecosystems to enable new levels of flexibility and drive optimal performance and power-efficiency for a range of enterprise workloads.

ARM, Red Hat, Inc. and Applied Micro Circuits Corporation today announced a collaboration that aims to develop a disruptive 64-bit server design platform to dramatically lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) of cloud computing, data centers and enterprises.

Fully compliant with the ARMv8 architecture, the AppliedMicro X-Gene Server on a Chip has been purpose-built for cloud and enterprise server deployment to deliver unprecedented low power, high performance and integration, with the goal of changing the way servers are designed for cloud, data center and enterprise applications.

Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions, is actively engaged in developing support within the Fedora community for the new 64-bit ARMv8 architecture, also known as AArch64.

Intel has made available the new HD Graphics driver version 15.28.7.2867, which includes support for Microsoft Windows 8, OpenGL 4.0 and Ultra HD video playback & display (4K resolution). Additionally, this driver improves the gaming fun delivered on dozens of recent PC game titles including Runic Games' Torchlight 2, Arkane Studios' Dishonored, and EA's Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes. With support for Ultra HD resolution, 3rd generation Intel Core based PCs can support playback of content at resolutions beyond 1080p up to 4096x2048 on Ultra HD displays. This driver supports both Windows* 7 and Windows* 8 and be downloaded from these links:

DOWNLOAD: Intel HD Graphics Driver for Windows 8 32-bit and 64-bit

AMD announced the 2012 FX "Vishera" line of eight-core, six-core, and quad-core desktop processors. Based on the new "Piledriver" CPU micro-architecture, the new processors feature increased performance and an updated instruction set, over the previous generation. To begin with, the processors are based around the "Vishera" silicon, built on the 32 nm HKMG process at Global Foundries. With a transistor count of 1.2 billion and a die area of 315 mm², Vishera packs four Piledriver modules, with two cores each, 2 MB L2 cache per module (8 MB total), and 8 MB of L3 cache. Eight-, six-, and four-core models are carved out by toggling the number of modules between four, three, and two.

The Vishera silicon also features an updated CPU instruction set, which includes SSE/2/3/S3/4.1/4.2/4A, AVX, AES-NI, FMA/FMA2/FMA3, XOP, and F16C. An x86 processor by design, Vishera features the AMD64 x86-64 instruction set. Its updated integrated memory controller supports up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory, with a standard speed of DDR3-1866 MHz, and more possible with overclocking. The memory interface is single, monolithic 128-bit, unlike the dual 64-bit IMC approach of the "Stars" micro-architecture. Built in the same socket AM3+ package as the previous generation FX, the new chips are compatible with existing AM3+ motherboards with a BIOS update. The 2012 FX processor lineup includes a total of four models, the FX-8350 flagship eight-core, FX-8320 performance eight-core, FX-6300 mainstream six-core, and FX-4300 value quad-core. All models feature unlocked base-clock multipliers, making each of them fit for overclocking. Their specifications and target SEP pricing are tabled below. Market prices could be about 5~10% above the SEP prices.

Microsoft's biggest launch of the year, Windows 8, may be under two weeks away, but there are still a couple of things Redmond managed to keep secret despite consumers getting a fair look-and-feel of the new operating system with pre-launch Consumer Previews. A large volume of Windows licenses are sold through hardware vendors, where the operating system is sold pre-installed on PCs and notebooks. The rest is sold as packaged software, through conventional retail channels.

As packaged software, the two variants of Windows 8 (Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro) will be available as upgrade and full-version. The upgrade package lets you move from an existing installation of Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, to the new OS. The Windows 8 Pro Upgrade is listed at an introductory price of US $69.99. For the same price, you get Windows 8 Pro Pack, which is a card with a software key to Windows 8 Pro (any architecture), no installation media. The OEM (builder) packages of Windows 8 (standard), which includes a key and installation media is sold in 64-bit and 32-bit variants, each priced at $99.99. Lastly, there are similar 64-bit and 32-bit packages for Windows 8 Pro, each priced at $139.99. Newegg.com is accepting pre-orders.

In wake of GeForce GTX 650 Ti launch, NVIDIA posted the latest WHQL-signed version of its GeForce software suite, version 306.97 WHQL. Recommended for Windows 8, the driver adds support for the newly-launched GPU, and is said to go well with Borderlands 2, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. New performance and stability improvements are said to cover a variety of games. 3D Vision profiles were added or improved for a large number of games.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 306.97 WHQL (International) for Windows 8/7/Vista 64-bit | Windows 8/7/Vista 32-bit

To address the significant increase in data over the next 10-15 years, and the demand for more energy-efficient network infrastructure and servers, ARM has announced the ARM CoreLink CCN-504 cache coherent network. This advanced system intellectual property (IP) can deliver up to one terabit of usable system bandwidth per second. It will enable SoC designers to provide high-performance, cache coherent interconnect for 'many-core' enterprise solutions built using the ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore processor and next-generation 64-bit processors.

LSI, a leading designer of intelligent semiconductors that accelerate storage, mobile networking and client computing, and Calxeda, an innovative supplier of disruptive SoC technology for the server market, are lead licensees for the CoreLink CCN-504 launch.

MSI announced the WindTop AP1612 series compact all-in-one (AIO) PC. Built for basic personal computing such as internet access and office applications, the WindTop AP1612 is a 15.6-inch AIO PC driven by Intel Celeron B830 processor ("Sandy Bridge" architecture, dual-core, 1.80 GHz, 2 MB L3 cache). The processor is backed by Intel HM65 Express chipset, 2 GB of DDR3-1333 MHz memory (expandable to 4 GB), and Intel HD graphics. The 15.6-inch LED-backlit LCD screen features 1366 x 768 pixels resolution. It features a resistive touchscreen layer. A 250 GB SATA 3 Gb/s HDD is the only storage device.

The WindTop AP1612 has plenty of network and legacy connectivity. It features two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, an 802.11 b/g/n WLAN interface, 4 in 1 Card Reader (SD+MS+MMC+XD), and a smartcard reader. Legacy connectivity includes a pair of serial COM and parallel LPT interfaces. Its body embeds a 320p web-camera, and 3W stereo speakers. Wired keyboard and mouse come included. Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit comes pre-installed. The company did not give out pricing information.

Over the weekend, Activision released the minimum system requirements (MSR) list of its upcoming AAA title, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, for the PC platform. The publisher maintains that with the new engine being designed for DirectX 11, the game will no longer support Windows XP, yet it can make do with DirectX 10 hardware running on newer operating systems (Windows Vista and above). All you need to run Black Ops 2 is:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.66 GHz) or AMD Phenom X3 8750 (2.40 GHz), processor
• 2 GB for 32-bit, 4 GB for 64-bit environments, memory
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512 MB or ATI Radeon HD 3870 512 MB, video card
• Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 or above, operating system

FinalWire announced the latest version of AIDA64, the popular system diagnostic and benchmarking suite. Version 2.60, which is released almost three months after the previous version, comes with support for most of the hardware and APIs that were released in the period. To begin with, AIDA64 adds support for VIA VX11 platform, Nano X2 and QuadCore CPUs. Details for GeForce GTX 660 and 650 series are added. The software even supports Windows 8 RTM and Windows 2012 RTM. Lastly, the 64-bit benchmarks are optimized for AMD "Trinity" APUs.DOWNLOAD: AIDA64 v2.60 Installer (EXE), Archive (ZIP)

AMD released the first WHQL-signed Catalyst drivers since June. Catalyst 12.8 WHQL is the first unified Catalyst driver certified for Windows 8, its release follows the RTM version of the operating system being available to enterprise and industry customers, ahead of the October 26 consumer retail launch. The driver introduces target-independent rasterization (TIR), an efficient new Direct3D rendering path. The driver also works to improve GPU power consumption. A suite of Windows 8-exclusive features, including native stereo 3D support and unified video API are included. Catalyst 12.8 WHQL also introduces performance-improvements specific to games, including up to 25% performance increase in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, 10% in Dirt 3, 6% in Batman: Arkham City, and 3% in Battlefield 3. Several game-specific bugs were patched.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 12.8 WHQL for Windows Vista, 7 and 8 (64-bit), Windows Vista, 7 and 8 (32-bit), Windows XP (32-bit), Windows XP (64-bit)

The change-log follows.

The new Thecus N4510U powered by Intel Atom with 2GB DDR3 RAM is a versatile 1U unit that offers enhanced performance, 4-bays for multiple RAID function, and link aggregation for easy expansion. It's perfect for the user who seeks a smaller NAS unit but requires the ability to integrate into a rack system.

The embedded Intel Atom CPU provides over-the-top performance to power on hungry NAS demands. In fact, utilizing a 64-bit driver allows the N4510U NAS to perform at its best. With HDMI output, USB 3.0 and hot-swap ability, the N4510U NAS packs powerful and dynamic features despite its 1U size. Attaching a TV tuner to the N4510U allows the ability to watch TV via your Thecus NAS. The flexibility of Thecus NAS elevates the user experience. In fact, not only watch TV but also record what you are watching directly to you NAS for instant media playback.

Intel releases their new 64-bit driver for multimedia support, thus advances Thecus new module that allows direct connection from Thecus NAS to HDTV - the highly anticipated Local Display module. The module allows for users to eliminate a computer or laptop to display visuals on a TV, display multimedia via third party modules and utilize internet browser features. In addition, local display allows users to enter the NAS UI and conduct managements easily. Lastly, a terminal icon appears on the local display homepage for developer use. Local display module is now supported.

With local display, displaying your Thecus NAS to a HDTV is hassle free. Often, a computer is required to manage display on a TV or projector. Local display module is the ultimate tool for those who seek a clean infrastructure set up. Eliminating a computer or laptop creates a sense that the NAS itself functions as a small computer.

While content-creation and media transcoding applications have transitioned to native x86-64 applications that can take advantage of large amounts of system and video memory, a similar transition by game developers has been rather slow. Very few PC games ship with 64-bit executables, as most games are ported from game consoles anyway, which have slim system requirements.

EA-DICE has been behind developing games that take advantage of the latest PC technologies (such as DirectX 11), and according to a lead developer and rendering architect with the studio, Johan Andersson, games that are driven by Frostbite engine, which are slated for 2013, will require 64-bit operating systems, these games will not run on 32-bit Windows, or in 32-bit mode, on 64-bit Windows, but with full-fledged 64-bit executables. The 64-bit address-space would allow games to take advantage of system memory over 4 GB, and more importantly, high amounts of video memory, as 2 GB and 3 GB become standard with performance-segment graphics cards.

HP today expanded its industry-leading computing portfolio with more than 30 new products engineered to address the design, reliability, security and performance demands of end users and IT departments across businesses of all sizes.

HP today expanded its award-winning notebook portfolio with thin and light Ultrabook systems and Sleekbooks packed with the latest technologies for both consumer and business demands. "Building on the success of the HP Folio13 and HP ENVY14 Spectre, we are now offering the most comprehensive Ultrabook portfolio in the industry," said James Mouton, senior vice president and general manager, Personal Computer Global Business Unit, HP. "Our expanded portfolio of HP Ultrabook systems and HP Sleekbooks for both consumers and businesses delivers uncompromised performance, quality and entertainment experiences within distinctive designs."

Dell today announced that customers such as Morphlabs and Vibrant Media are using Dell microserver technologies based on Intel Xeon processors to power business-critical web 2.0, cloud, and content delivery networks (CDN), as well as high-performance computing (HPC) applications. Driven by the emergence of a growing hardware and application ecosystem, x86-based microservers are rapidly evolving from a niche solution to one with widespread awareness and value.

"We're constantly inspired by the unique ways our customers are leveraging Dell microserver platforms to drive specialized web 2.0, HPC and cloud computing applications," said Forrest Norrod, vice president and general manager, Dell Server Solutions. "As the microserver market and ecosystem have matured, customers like Vibrant Media have validated that microservers are a cost-effective, scalable platform in web 2.0 environments."

Intel released its first HD Graphics drivers for Windows 8 Consumer Preview. The drivers are Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 1.2 compliant, supports HD 4000 graphics, found in 3rd Generation Core processors, HD 3000 and HD 2000 graphics of 2nd Generation Core processors; complete with stereoscopic 3D, DirectX 11 (on compatible models), and flicker-free display rotation.DOWNLOAD: Intel HD Graphics Driver for Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit, 32-bit

What is a bit and what exactly does it stand for? A bit stands for "binary digit," the set of numbers used by computing devices to process commands. A 32-bit system demonstrates great performance but if one is in need for improvement; 64-bit is the solution to solve bottlenecks. In short, 64-bit allows the system to calculate and process more data compared to the lesser 32-bit. Ultimately, Thecus upgrades the new 7-bay N77000PRO and 8-bay N8800PRO v2 models to 64-bit. Some key benefits of switching from 32-bit to 64-bit: improved performance, capability to process more data at a time, and better overall structure.