VR-Zone unveiled today prices of the mobile 45nm Penryn CPUs part of the Santa Rosa platform. The new mobile X9000, T9500, T9300, T8300 and T8100 CPUs are set to hit the market in January 2008.

The title says it all - Intel 45nm Yorkfield and Wolfdale CPU pricing.

While NVIDIA may be quite successful in the upper graphics market, and AMD is doing well in the necessary middle niche, Intel is the king of graphics. The reason is simple: most people are fine with the integrated graphics that come with their OEM-built computer, which are almost always made by Intel. NVIDIA is hoping to take some of this budget market share from Intel, and do a good job at it, as well. They had sure better, after boldly proclaiming that 37% of video games will not work on an Intel graphics chipset, and 27% of games that do work will have problems on said Intel graphics chipsets. If NVIDIA does take the market share of budget graphics solutions from Intel, we may see a lot of low-cost computers that can play computer games.

According to a report on Computerworld, Intel is considering laying off about 10% of its IT staff. Intel has 5,000 IT staff, out of a total 90,000 people on Intel's payroll. The lay-offs would be to make Intel "agile and efficient". A fair chunk of the staff would likely be re-deployed, rather than fired.

Intel Corporation today announced the launch of an open source community project designed to meet the growing demands for increased energy efficiency across the computing spectrum spanning servers in data centers to personal mobile devices. Unveiled at the Intel Developer Forum by Renee James, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel's Software and Solutions Group, the LessWatts.org initiative brings together the community of Linux developers, OSVs and end users to facilitate technology development, deployment and tuning and sharing of information around Linux power management.

PC Watch has posted more detailed pictures of the dual processor Intel Skulltrail based system running two NVIDIA video cards in SLI.

Intel along with XtremeSystems ran a phase-change cooling demo of a ridiculously overclocked 45nm B1 stepping Yorkfield (quad-core Penryn) running at around 5.5GHz. FUGGER and Paul Otellini are on the pictures below. Keep an eye on this thread at XS, for updates.

During his keynote today at IDF, Intel's Pat Gelsinger showed off a machine based on the company's Skulltrail enthusiast gaming platform. Skulltrail is a dual-socket platform based on the X38 chipset that supports Intel's upcoming 45nm Quad-Core processors, FB-DIMM memory and offers PCI Express 2.0 support and true dual-x16 PEG slots (or four x8 PCI Express x16 slots). What was interesting about the machine on display was that it used a pair of GeForce graphics cards running in SLI mode, but on an Intel chipset. According to Intel, this is a special version of Intel X38 paired with NVIDIA's nForce MCP to enable SLI support. There's no word on official SLI support with future Intel chipsets, though.Ed. by W1zzard: You can't pair X38 with any NVIDIA MCP because both are the same: a Northbridge with memory controller. It would be possible to put an NVIDIA southbridge on the board but this wouldn't enable SLI because that many PCI-E lanes are not routed through the SB. Since technically SLI works on ANY chipset, NVIDIA could enable SLI on X38 only if an NVIDIA SB is present.

Intel has announced the formation of the USB 3.0 promoters group, a consortium that aims to create a "super speed personal USB interconnect."

The first members of the promoter group (HP, Intel, Microsoft, NEC Corporation, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments) said that USB 3.0 will deliver more than ten times the data transfer bandwidth of USB 2.0, which tops out at 480 Mb/s. The new interface will be designed to be used in consumer electronics and mobile applications and able to deal with digital media file sizes that are likely to exceed 25 GB.

Intel stated that USB 3.0 will be based on current USB technology and ports and cabling will be backwards compatible; however version 3.0 will offer enhancements for better protocol efficiency and lower power consumption. The development group will also integrate an upgrade path to optical capabilities for USB. A completed USB 3.0 specification is expected to be released in the first half of 2008.

Intel's Paul Otellini today confirmed the launch for Penryn-based Xeon processors is set for November 12, during the Intel Developer Forum, or IDF. Penryn will be Intel's first 45nm architecture, designed for mobile, desktop, server and workstation use. Intel confirmed Penryn has a 410 million transistor die. Kentsfield has 582 million transistors while Conroe has 291 million transistors.

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.