Following price-cuts for some of the desktop offerings (covered here) , Intel has cut the prices of some models of the enterprise-segment Xeon processor, reports industry observer DigiTimes.

The Xeon X3220, X3210 and E3110 get a roughly 12% cut with the X3220 and X3210 both dropping from an original price of US $224 to US $198 with the E3110 price dropping from US $188 to US $167, according to the company.

Here's something new: A CPU cooler that comprises of a circulatory mechanism of liquid-metal, the liquid-metal has higher thermal conductivity than other liquid media, flowing liquid metal across an array of metal fins to disperse heat, and the cycle continues. What's more, the liquid is inextinguishable. That's 'cool'. Danamics innovated such a cooler for today's CPUs called the LM10.

The cooler also has no moving parts. The pump that circulates liquid-metal across tubes doesn't have them either. The pump functions on the principles of electromagnetic flow, the ferromagnetic liquid is subjected to flow caused due to changes in polarity of electromagnets. With no moving parts, the MTBF is substantially increased. Of course, you can use a retention module of some sort to hook up a fan or two on each side of the heatsink. This product will be available soon. For more information, please visit this page.

One of the newest toys at Tom's Hardware is a Nehalem derivative Intel Bloomfield processor clocked at 2.93 GHz. This processor brings with it, a host of changes. To begin with, say goodbye to FSB. The processor communicates with the system using a technology called QuickPath interconnect. This is a high-speed, low-latency point to point link. It's comparable to the HyperTransport technology, which AMD has been using for close to five years now. Initially, Bloomfield will use a 20-bit wide 25.6 GB/sec. QuickPath link. The CPU incorporates the memory controller, which implies that your choice of memory will depend on the processor. As already noted in regard to the AMD processors, this approach of integrating a memory controller greatly reduces system-level latency. The CPU supports 3-channel DDR3 1333 MHz memory. That's 32 GB/s of bandwidth, with support for up to 24 GB of system memory. Of the six DDR3 slots, the first slot is required to be populated.

Unfortunately, Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) don't allow them to disclose performance evaluations at this point though - ironically - their Taiwanese team ran preliminary tests on a Radeon HD4850 and a Foxconn X58 motherboard we covered here.Read the whole article here.

As of today, AMD is close to over a year and a half behind Intel with the implementation of the DDR3 system memory standard, and it doesn't look like we are going to see a DDR3 AMD platform only until late this year or early next year. Chilian website CHW.net published slides of the roadmaps for AMD chipsets in the months to come, also published are slides refering to the details of the next generation southbridge by AMD, even though the latest entry, the SB700 is only teething and only the latest motherboards with 7-Series chipsets feature this.

NVIDIA today unveiled its first CPU. The APX 2500 is a system-on-a-chip (SoC) product that is aiming for Windows Mobile handhelds. Despite the fact that it is not scheduled to hit the market until late this year, the chip is bound to raise more than just one eyebrow. Basically, the APX 2500 is a cocktail consisting of an ARM11 processor core and lots of technologies borrowed from the GeForce pool. Interestingly, the manufacturer opted not to tout the GoForce brand in this instance, but to put "Ultra-Low Power GeForce" (ULP GeForce) into the spotlight. The GeForce part comes with a programmable pixel shader integrating a programmable vertex & lighting engine. Anti-Aliasing is supported via a CSAA filter for 2D and 3D modes. The chip clocks have not been disclosed, sans the fact that the ARM11 is running at 750 MHz. API-wise, we're talking about OpenGL ES 2.0 and D3D Mobile support. NVIDIA decided to use the shortcut HD AVP (High Definition Audio Video Processor) to describe the video processing capabilities of the SoC. We have to admit that we are a bit surprised that the company did not use a phrase like PureVideo Mobile or simply continues on the PureVideo HD path. On the technology side, HD AVP includes HD video encode and decode (albeit "only" 720p) and NVIDIA claims that the video playback will not eat up CPU cycles, apparently resulting in overall lower power consumption.