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.

In response to a statement of objections (SO) served by the European Commission yesterday regarding anti-competitive practices, Intel senior vice president and general counsel Bruce Sewell issued the following statement:

We are confident that the microprocessor market segment is functioning normally and that Intel's conduct has been lawful, pro-competitive, and beneficial to consumers...

The case is based on complaints from a direct competitor rather than customers or consumers. The Commission has an obligation to investigate those complaints. However, a Statement of Objections contains only preliminary allegations and does not itself amount to a finding that there has been a violation of European Union law...

EU regulators said Friday they have charged Intel Corp. with monopoly abuse for blocking rival computer chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s access to customers. The European Commission claimed that Intel gave "substantial rebates" to computer makers for buying most of their x86 computer processing units, or CPUs, from Intel; that it made payments to manufacturers to get them to delay or cancel product lines using AMD chips; and that it sold its own chips below cost on average to strategic server customers on bids against AMD products to try to muscle into that business. Intel has a chance to defend itself before the EU's executive arm takes a final decision that could order the company to stop abusive behavior or charge the company with millions of dollars fine.

Using light instead of electrons, scientists at Intel say they can transfer data at a rate of 40 G bps using a silicon optical modulator. The modulator uses a laser to convert electronic data into light allowing for the high speed, and the possibility of combining many modulators onto one chip to reach into the tera bits per second. Intel has been researching optical photonics for years and believes it will take many more years to reach the consumer.

Intel Threading Building Blocks (TBB), a popular software C++ template library that simplifies the development of software applications running in parallel (key to any multicore computer), is now available as an open source project under the GNU General Public License version two (GPLv2) with the runtime exception. Intel TBB, as both an open source and fully supported commercial offering, makes parallelism more accessible for programmers and enables increased application performance on multi-core processors.

Intel Corporation today announced two new Ethernet controllers that facilitate high traffic flow and optimize I/O performance in such enterprise server environments as multicore Intel Xeon processor-based systems and virtualized datacenters. The Intel 82598 and Intel 82575 Ethernet controllers distribute workloads across all available processing cores to reduce utilization and achieve optimal system performance.

This time Intel released information on its next generation Xeon Platforms, the Tylersburg. Tylersburg is Intel's latest platform for the Nehalem processors and comes in three variants the EP for efficient performance servers, EN for entry servers and WS for workstations. Intel has yet to reveal much information about the Tylersburg but according to sources plans are to have different variants of a single chipset for each platform. Currently the names for Intel's latest chipsets are the Tylersburg-36D, Tylersburg-36S and Tylersburg-24D. Tylersburg-36D is designed for dual-socket Tylersburg EP and WS platforms while the Tylersburg-24D will be the entry-level server chipset which will join Bensley VS and Cranberry Lake platforms. Finally the Tylersburg-36S will be used with the single processor Tylersburg WS platforms.
Intel plans to release the Tylersburg platforms and Nehalem in the second half of 2008.

With the desktop PC market heading toward SFF (small form factor), Intel makes plans to shrink its newest Penryn processors.
Penryn will have two versions for its BGA packaging, LV and ULV, which will see die sizes shrink from the 35mm squared of previous Merom processors to 22mm squared. This will assist SFF products in becoming even smaller. Penryn will launch first as a 35mm square SV version in the second quarter of 2008 while the LV and ULV are scheduled for the second half.

Intel's latest roadmap reveals pricing for its upcoming Penryn-based Xeon DP processors. The costs for Penryn-based Xeon DP processors start at $177 and top out at $1,172.
Intel has two Penryn-based quad-core Xeon DP processors under $300. The quad-core Xeon DP E5405 starts out at $209. The $209 price tag yields a quad-core Xeon DP processor clocked in the 2.0 GHz range, but below 2.33 GHz, with 12MB of L2 cache. Putting forth an extra $47 gets you the quad-core Xeon DP E5410 with its 2.33 GHz clock speed.

The new batch of 45nm Xeons is actually based on the Penryn processor and also feature the 1333 MHz front-side bus found on the new Core 2 Duo stepping. Each die features 6MB of L2 cache resulting in a total of 12MB of L2 cache.
The latest 45nm Xeon ( Codename HarperTown ) Quad Core line is as follows

Intel has revealed some information on their Nehalem processor in the latest roadmap updates. The 45nm Hi-K Nehalem-EP is based on 4-issue Intel Core micro-architecture technology, supports Simultaneous multi-threading and Multi-level shared cache architecture (L2 and L3). Nehalem-EP processor will arrive earlier than expected, in H2 2008, and will pair up with Tylerburg chipsets. EP stands for Efficient Performance, one of the new naming schemes for server platforms. It should mean good energy efficency on 1-2 processor sockets. There are also Mission Critical (MC) markings, for best RAS from 2-512 processor sockets, Expandable (EX) is for RAS from 2-32 processor sockets as well as Entry (EN) on 1-2 processor sockets to better align with future IT usage.

Intel deals yet another blow to AMD with their new QX6850 CPU. It is the highest-end offer of the new revamped 1333 MHz FSB Core 2 series.

The QX6850 is the CPU that will hold Intel the performance flag until quad-core Penryn CPUs arrive. It consists of four cores (dual die) clocked at 3.0 GHz, a FSB set to 1333 MHz and 8 MB of L2 cache (4 MB shared per die). The QX6850 will be released by the end of the month (around July 22) and, according to the previews posted today, it will be a natural choice of the PC enthusiast, although it doesn't bring any innovative features to the table. The QX6850 is high-end, it will be expensive and awaiting competition.

We have a quick round-up of the QX6850 articles just below.

Extreme Tech|X-bit labs|Hot Hardware|PC Perspective|Hardware secrets|Techgage|Anandtech

Intel plans to shut down AMD's party even before it starts - the 4x4 platform from AMD is no where to be seen at this moment, yet Intel's V8 can already be had. The V8 is basically a server platform - a server E-ATX dual socket motherboard equipped with two of Intel's quad-core CPUs. Hardspell has some pictures of such a setup:The system above has 4GB of FB-DIMM memory and uses two 3.0 GHz quad-core CPUs. Only the motherboard costs $658, and is based on Intel's 5000X chipset.

Intel today announced the Core 2 Extreme X7800, its first laptop CPU under the Extreme Edition brand. In addition to bringing its "Extreme" high-end CPU brand to laptops, Intel also announced a handful of new desktop dual and quad chips today.
The X7800 dual-core mobile processor runs at 2.6 GHz and features 4MB of L2 cache and an 800MHz front-side bus thus making it the fastest CPU in Intel's mobile lineup. The good news for gamers is that the overspeed protection has been removed so the overclocking potential of the cpu should be enormous.

Intel and One Laptop per Child (OLPC) today announced they have agreed to work together to bring the benefits of technology to the developing world through synergy of their respective programs. Under the agreement, Intel and OLPC will explore collaborations involving technology and educational content. Intel will also join the board of OLPC.

OLPC is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to bring learning opportunities to the most remote and poorest children of the world by providing connected, low-cost and rugged laptops to each and every child in their daily lives.

SIS To Launch New Intel and AMD Chipsets

Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) is planning to launch a new Intel and AMD Based Chipset line in Q1 2008.
SiS intends to release the SiS 757 chipset targeted at the PC-Enthusiast and the SiS 772 IGP chipset for the mainstream user. The SiS 969 southbridge is also scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2008.