Intel Corporation President and CEO Paul Otellini today outlined new products, chip designs and manufacturing technologies that will enable the company to continue its quickened pace of product and technology leadership.

Speaking to industry leaders, developers and industry watchers at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), Otellini showed the industry's first working chips built using 32 nanometer (nm) technology, with transistors so small that more than 4 million of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence. Intel's 32nm process technology is on track to begin production in 2009.

Intel plans to release eight new 45nm desktop CPUs and counter attack AMD's triple-core CPUs, to be launched in January, 2008. First to arrive will be the QX9650, an Extreme Edition part featuring four cores clocked at 3Ghz, 12MB of L2 cache (6MB per die) and a 130W TDP. This one will be launched in November and will hit the stores soon after. With 2007 gone, Intel will have seven more CPUs, four dual-cores and three quad-cores ready.

Intel Corporation today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Havok Inc., the leading provider of interactive software and services used by digital media creators in the game and movie industries. Havok will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel. The acquisition will enable developers in the digital animation and game communities to take advantage of Intel's innovation and technology leadership in the creation of digital media.

Intel will officially start delivering its X38 chipsets in mid-September, enabling motherboard makers to begin volume production of X38-based motherboards by the end of this month. The official launch of the X38 chipsets will also come in time to compete with AMD's forthcoming RD790 chipsets scheduled in November. In addition to supporting 1333MHz FSB, DDR3-1333 memory, PCI Express 2.0 and dual PCIe x16 graphics slots, the X38 will also be the first core logic chipset using ISH (integrated heat spreader). While barely beginning shipments of the X38, however, Intel also plans to launch an upgrade version of the chipset, the X48, by the end of the year with motherboard makers to begin delivering X48 motherboards to shelves in the first quarter of 2008, according to Intel's roadmap. The X48 eventually will come with the same chip design as the X38, but will support 1600MHz FSB and DDR3-1600 memory. Board makers will not be required to change any design work of X38-based motherboards since the X38 and X48 chipsets will use the same PCB.

After a few tough months for AMD following the release of Intel's new Core 2 Duo processors, sales are finally starting to pick up again for the company. During the second quarter of 2007 AMD is estimated to have gained 2.5% in the CPU market, giving it an overall share of 13.4%of total CPU revenues. Meanwhile, Intel has seen its market share fall by 2%, leaving it with a 78.8% share of revenues, still comfortably ahead of AMD. However, AMD has still lost a 3.1% share of the market compared to this point in 2006, with Intel up by 5.4% year-on-year. The recent improvements for AMD are due to increased shipments of notebook, desktop and server processors following a fall in the average CPU selling price.

Intel today broke ground on its first 300mm wafer fabrication facility in Asia. The new factory, named Fab 68, will extend Intel's manufacturing leadership, while helping cultivate engineering talent, accelerate the growth of China's information technology (IT) ecosystem, and bring Intel's culture of environmental leadership to China. The $2.5 billion project is set to begin construction immediately and be operational in 2010. Fab 68 will cover 163,000 square meters of factory space and host a 15,000 square meter clean room.

Intel issued marching orders today that several Core Solo, Core Duo, Celeron and one Core 2 Quad chip will be discontinued shortly. As Intel prepares the upcoming 45nm, these older processors will no longer be available for order after the dates shown below. The first quad-core processor to hit the ground on January 4, 2008 is the 2.66GHz QX6700 Extreme model. Intel also expects to phase out the following processors on December 31, 2007.

• Core Solo: U1300 ULV, U1300 Box, U1400 Box
• Core Duo: L2500 LV, T2300, T2300E, T2400, T2600, T2700
• Celeron M: 420, 430, 440, 450 ULV and T2700

Intel plans to unleash quad-core Penryn-based processors on its upcoming Montevina mobile platform. The new mobile quad-core CPUs will use Socket P and will be similar to its desktop equivalent. Expect 12MB of L2 cache on mobile quad-core Penryn's with a front-side bus speed of 1066MHz. Intel plans to keep thermals around 45-Watts, with idle power consumption around 3-4-Watts. Mobile quad-core Penryn's will also support all HALT states, including C4. Intel targets the mobile quad-core Penryn for 2H'08 with the arrival of Montevina.

Intel today announced the Xeon 7300/7200 series of processors, the final products to be based on the company's Core microarchitecture. Manufactured using a 65nm process, the new Xeon MP chips (codenamed Tigerton) are part of the Caneland platform, which has been designed largely for virtualisation applications. This means that the processors should provide up to 2.5x the virtualisation performance and up to 3x the performance-per-watt compared to the preceding Xeon 7100 platform based on the Netburst architecture. There are eight new processors in total, six quad-core models with clock speeds ranging from 1.6GHz through to 2.93GHz, with respective prices ranging from $851 to $2301, and two dual-core models running at 2.4GHz and 2.93GHz being priced at $856 and $1177 respectively. Interestingly, the dual-core models can support twice as much memory as the quad-core, which could allow for cheaper servers where memory is more important than being able to run multiple threads quickly. This announcement comes just five days before AMD launches its new Barcelona processors.

Intel plans to lower power consumption of standard chips for laptops and introduce quad-core microprocessors for mobile computers next year. Along with the new mobile platform codenamed Montevina, Intel will also introduce a dual-core Penryn processor with a 25W and 35W TDP, which will add performance to thin-and-light notebooks without increasing their complexity or pricing. The new chips will be made using 45nm process technology and will emerge in Q2 2008.

Rumors have started circulating about Intel's new X48 chipset. The new chipset is said to be faster and offer better overclocking than the previous X38, which should be coming this week. The X48 plans to appear only a few short weeks after the X38 is launched.

Intel's latest roadmap reveals three new Penryn based Xeon models with a higher front-side bus speed - 1600MHz. The three new processors are available in dual-core and quad-core models. Quad-core Xeon E5472 and E5462 are the first quad-core models to receive the 1600MHz FSB treatment. The Xeon E5472 features a 3.0GHz clock speed while the E5462 is clocked at 2.8GHz. Both CPUs feature 80-watt TDP. Intel plans to release these 1600 MHz front-side bus processors in Q4 2007 with the rest of the Penryn family. Pricing for the quad Xeons starts at $797 for the E5462 and $958 for the E5472, per processor, in 1,000 unit quantities. The third and only dual-core 1600MHz FSB processor is E5272. The Xeon E5272 features a 3.4GHz clock speed and is priced at $1,172. Intel has also pulled in the launch of E5272 to Q4 2007, with the quad-core processors.

Intel Corporation today further reinforced desktop PC security by unveiling the newest generation of Intel vPro processor technology for businesses and IT with new innovations that add better protection against hacking, viruses and other threats.

After hearing nothing about the 1600MHz FSB Xeons for several months VR-Zone tells us they will appear in Q4 this year. There will be 2 quad core Harpertown models at 2.8 and 3 GHz and a single dual core Wolfdale at 3.4 GHz. Additionally the cache is increased by 50% to 3MB per core. The faster FSB and increased cache will raise the bar even higher for Barcelona, however since both CPU's aren't available it is yet to be seen if this will be enough.

To support these new processors Intel will release the Seaburg chipset, it is not mentioned if the current chipsets will officially support the faster bus.
For a full list of new Wolfdales and Harpertowns visit VR-Zone.

Intel officially introduced a new Core 2 Extreme model for notebooks, the X7900 high-end mobile processor. Built on 65nm, the X7900 features 44W TDP, 800MHz FSB, 4MB of L2 cache and is clocked at 2.8GHz. The tray price of the chip is $851. The first laptops powered by the X7900 mobile CPU are expected to hit the stores in the next four weeks.

Although the initial plan was to introduce the new high-end X38 chipset at the end of September, Intel's new silicon chip is up to the task even earlier, and a new release date has actually been announced. AMD will launch Barcelona on September 10 and Intel is simply going to get the upper hand and launch the X38 on September 9. Motherboards powered by the X38 are expected to hit the stores early next month.

While the P35 chipset has spawned a lot of high-end board, Intel's X38 part was actually meant to be used in the ultra high-end. MSI is one of the first to jump the gun, with a detailed picture of the upcoming flagship Intel based product. The interesting aspect are the four PCIe slots for Quad Crossfire.

Intel's next big thing is 45 nanometer architecture, which it has applied to their new Penryn micro-architecture. On November 11, Intel will release seven Xeon processors containing the new micro architecture. Among the seven processors are the 2.00GHz E5405, the 2.33GHz E5410, the 2.50GHz E5420, the 2.66GHz E5430, the 2.83GHz E5440, the 3.00GHz E5450 and the 3.16GHz X5460. All seven chips operate on a 1333MHz frontside bus. No official prices are available at this time, and we will see more Penryn processors in Q1 2008.

AMD isn't the only one making new CPUs: Intel plans to announce a new Core 2 Duo CPU and make some hefty price cuts on September 2nd. The Core 2 Duo T7800 is a laptop chip, will be clocked at 2.6GHz, run on a 800MHz bus, and have 4MB of L2 cache. Intel will also launch the Core 2 Duo T7250, which is clocked at 2GHz, with a bus speed of 800MHz and 2MB of L2 cache. For budget customers, Intel has the new 2.0GHz Celeron M 550. There is no word on how much these new processors will cost, but the current Core 2 Duo prices will definitely get cut on September 2nd.

Intel Corporation launched two quad-core Intel Xeon processors. The new Intel Xeon X5365 and L5335 processors boast unprecedented combinations of performance and energy efficiency, along with a pricing strategy to move the enterprise industry to multi-core systems. Designed for companies running performance-critical server and workstation applications, the Intel Xeon Processor X5365 is the industry's first 3.0GHz quad-core processor to fit inside a standard 120 watt power envelope. The X5365 also features front-side bus speed of 1333MHz. The Intel Xeon Processor L5335 includes a 2.0 GHz clock speed and 1333MHz FSB within a 50 watt power envelope - or just 12.5 watts per processing core. The Intel Xeon X5365 and L5335 CPUs also contain new Intel Virtualization Technology processor extensions for improved interrupt handling in virtualization of 32-bit Microsoft Windows OS. Price in 1,000 unit quantities (as of Aug. 9, 2007) is $1172 for the X5365 3.0GHz Xeon version, while the L5335 CPU will be available for $380.

The Pentium 4 and Pentium D series had a great run, but in the end, Conroe completely overtook it. And so, Intel put a date on when we will not see any more Pentium 4s or Pentium Ds on the market. On October 7th, anyone who orders a Pentium 4 or Pentium D processor will not be allowed to cancel their order. On December 7th, Intel will not be taking any orders at all for them. This will allow Intel to make room for cheaper Core 2 Duo processors.

With Intel's Penryn set to launch next quarter, Intel has decided to shed some light on improvements it has made to the architecture, and prove that Penryn is not just a shrunk Conroe.

Intel has decided to improve existing Wide Dynamic Execution, Advanced Smart Cache, Advanced Digital Media Boost and Intelligent Power Capability, technologies that previously made their debut with Conroe and Merom.

Below is Intel's Tick-Tock long term roadmap, as well as "Penryn" plans (source: HKEPC)

While a lot of people would say that Intel's Core 2 Duo series advertises itself, Intel thinks that a little help from PR doesn't hurt. Unfortunately, Intel's latest advertisement seems to be a little racist. As The Inquirer puts it, the advertisement...

shows a white IT manager looking pretty pleased with himself, having successful managed to "multiply computing performance" and "maximise the power" of his employees. For some bizarre reason, the employees are all depicted as black athletes, crouched as if starting a sprint race - but also appearing to all bow down before the smug white dude.

Public response to this advertisement ranges from "stupid ad but not racism" to "This one is a s*** storm waiting to happen". On a side note, the people over at Gizmodo, who caught the possible racism, feel that the advertisement "might be racist, but boy does it make me want a Core 2 Duo."

NVIDIA Widens Gap with AMD in Graphics Market

According to numbers released by Jon Peddie Research NVIDIA has captured 32.6% of the overall graphics market, beating AMD who captured 19.5%. This is a big change from last year when AMD held 26.7% at this time over NVIDIA's 19.7%. Market analysts mostly blame last year's merger between AMD and ATI. Intel is still the overall leader with 37.6% of the market thanks in part to its mobile graphics processor sales. In the desktop market NVIDIA is currently the clear leader claiming 43% ahead of Intel's 38.5% and AMD's 23%.

With its Core line-up firmly securing every segment, from mobile to desktop and servers, Intel has decided on phasing-out two of its three remaining 32-bit LV (low voltage) processors code named Sossaman. Based on the Yonah 65nm core, the 1.66GHz and 2GHz Xeon LV CPUs will be available for orders until December 28, 2007 with last shipment being set to May 2, 2008. Both processors have 2MB of L2 cache, 667MHz FSB and have a TDP rating of just 31 watts. The only Sossaman CPU to survive is the 1.66GHz model with a TDP of 15 watts.