Intel has a new Extreme series chip, this time intended for notebooks. The X7800 runs at a clock speed of 2.6 GHz, with an 800 MHz FSB. The chip's multiplier is unlocked, and it can therefore be overclocked - Matbe achieved 3 GHz.

The ASUS G2S notebook, which was used by Matbe to test the new CPU, was configured as follows:

• Intel X7800
• Motherboard with Intel's 965PM chipset
• 2GB DDR2 667MHz memory
• GeForce Go 8600M GT 256MB GDDR3
• 200GB Toshiba 4,200rpm SATA HDD

Read more here.

The KDE project, which aims to develop a beautiful open-source window manager for *nix, is now sponsored. Both Intel and Novell are funding KDE. Both companies are supporting KDE as patrons, which means they donate €10,000 a year to support the development and maintenance of KDE. Patrons of the project also get to use the fancy K logo on their respective websites.

Intel plans to announce the phase out date for its Xeon 5000 series (Dempsey) 2-way server processors in July, while its Xeon 7000 (Paxville MP) series 4-way server processors is scheduled to be phased out by August of this year. With the low acceptance of Dempsey and Paxville MP processors in the server market, the phase-out plan will assist Intel in simplifying its product lines and will benefit server vendors and ODMs. Intel is currently pushing its Xeon 7100 series processors (Tulsa) in the 4-way server market, while pushing its Xeon 5100 (Woodcrest) and Xeon 5300 (Clovertown) series processors in the 2-way server market and its Xeon 3000 (Conroe) and Xeon 3200 (Kentsfield) series processors in the 1-way server market.

Intel has released a BIOS patch for Windows machines running Core 2 and Xeon 3000/5000 chips that addresses potential unpredictable system behavior. The Microsoft website describes the patch as:

A microcode reliability update is available that improves the reliability of systems that use Intel processors. This article describes how to download this update.

It is available for all Windows XP, Server 2003 and Vista system, no matter if 32-bit or 64-bit. It does not seem to be critical enough to offer it as a security update and it does require a "Genuine Advantage" check.

In a keynote address this morning to the American Antitrust Institute in Washington, AMD CEO Hector Ruiz gave attendees what he described as "an idea of what it's like to do business day in and day out when you are competing against an abusive monopolist." Although he also invoked the phrase "illegal monopoly," he left a convenient 846-word buffer zone between that phrase and his first invocation of the term "Intel."

Intel, at its Research@Intel Day in Santa Clara, CA, announced that it is working on an anti-cheat system for games. The idea is that Intel and the PC gaming industry would build technology into gaming rigs that could detect when common cheats - such as "aimbots" that handle targeting while the player just holds down the trigger - are used in an online gaming session, said Travis Schluessler, a researcher at Intel.

PCs equipped with this technology would notify a server that someone in the game is using a cheat, and then the game administrator could set a policy of kicking the cheat offline. Intel is still working out the details; don't expect to find this in a high-end gaming PC anytime soon.

In order for Intel to speed up the introduction of 1333MHz front-side bus CPUs and boost Intel 3-series desktop chipset (Bearlake) sales, Intel plans to suspend production of five 1066MHz FSB Core 2 Duo CPUs by late 2007, according to sources at motherboard makers.

Intel will suspend landing orders for five 1066MHz FSB CPUs, including E6600, E6700, E6300, E6320 and E6420, by late 2007. Final delivery schedule is set as the first quarter of 2008, the sources detailed.

Intel Corporation and Google joined with Dell, EDS, the Environmental Protection Agency, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Pacific Gas and Electric, World Wildlife Fund, and more than a dozen additional organizations today announcing their intent to form the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. The goal of the new broad-based environmental effort is to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by setting aggressive new targets for energy-efficient computers and components, and promoting the adoption of energy-efficient computers and power management tools worldwide.

Intel plans to launch two new entry level chipsets in Q3 this year to replace the current 946GZ/PL and 945G chipsets. Intel G31 Express and P31 Express support the current Intel Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors as well as the upcoming 45nm Yorkfield and Wolfdale. Both chipsets support 1066FSB and 1333FSB subsequently in Q1'08 upon validation, DDR2-800 memories up to 4GB and allow one x16 PCIe slot for discrete graphics. However, the new chipsets are paired with the older ICH7 southbridge. The Intel G31 Express also comes with integrated Intel GMA 3100 graphics like G33, Q33 and Q35 chipsets.

Sources from multiple graphics card vendors have confirmed that Intel has approached them to lay down plans to enter the discrete graphics card market for desktop PCs. The new products from Intel would be positioned as direct competitors to AMD's ATI Radeon and NVIDIA's GeForce series of cards. The processor giant will aim for the mid-range market in the initial stages with pricing targeted around US$300. In order to be competitive, the cards will need to match the features of products from AMD and NVIDIA such as support for DirectX 10 and equivalent memory densities. Whether or not Intel will implement a technology to support multi-card configurations similar to SLI and Crossfire is unknown at this stage but it is a possibility as most of Intel's mid-range and high-end chipsets support multiple PCI Express slots already. Intel is scheduled to deliver a more complete roadmap and specifications in the fourth quarter of this year, with expected launch of the new products around the second quarter of 2008.

According to the Inquirer, which isn't the most reliable source, Intel got an SLI license in return for the CSI and dual socket licenses. This rumor is based on some ad of which the vendor said it was not some mistake. Then again if you look at the pictures they speak of "PCI-X x16", seems our questionable source has a questionable source as well.
However, if this is actually true and applies to older chipsets as well this could mean current systems can get quite a boost and NV can actually sell quite some older cards to people looking for a cheap upgrade.
Time will tell if the Inq is right or not.

Taiwanese hardware maker ASUSTeK Computer is working with Intel on a line of notebook PCs priced as low as $199. The new line of notebooks is intended for users in emerging markets and education, said Sean Maloney, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's sales and marketing group. He announced the initiative with ASUSTeK Chairman Jonney Shih during a speech at the Computex exhibition. The new notebooks are similar to Intel's existing Classmate PC notebooks, a line of low-cost machines aimed at schools in developing markets. The notebooks will have an Intel processor and either a 7-inch or 10-inch screen. They will come with Wi-Fi, a solid-state hard disk, and run either Linux or Windows XP.

In his opening keynote at the Computex computer trade show, Intel Corporation Executive Vice President Sean Maloney unveiled the new Intel 3 Series Chipset family along with several other technology plans that surround the company's popular Intel Core 2 Duo and Quad processors for home and business PC users.

In response to AMD's Barcelona benchmarks Intel demoed its V8 platform. Two quad core Xeons at 3GHz with 16GB RAM score an impressive 4933 pixels per second in POV-Ray. In comparison AMD's quad quad core Barcelona (16 cores total) score just over 4000 pixels per second. Even though AMD did not mention the clockspeed and said the final version will run faster AMD still uses 16 cores while Intel uses 8. Of course Barcelona is not yet a final product, Intel is not impressed though.
Besides that Intel also demoed a Penryn which outperformed the current top of the line quad cores by 40%, quite impressive.

STMicroelectronics, Intel and Francisco Partners today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement to create a new independent semiconductor company from the key assets of businesses which last year generated approximately $3.6 billion in combined annual revenue. The new company's strategic focus will be on supplying flash memory solutions for a variety of consumer and industrial devices, including cellular phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, computers and other high-tech equipment.

After AMD bought ATI Intel stopped producing motherboards with ATI chipsets. It seems Intel has found a new partner in SiS. Using the SiS662 Intel plans to take on the VIA Epia series by introducing a similar mini ITX platform. Powered by a Yonah based Celeron 1.33 and a SiS Mirage 1 graphics chip to hardware decode DVD the D201GLY "Little valley" will feature everything required to be used in a media cente; 10/100 LAN, six USB 2.0 ports, a DDR2 slot and a PCI slot which can hold a TV tuner for example.
Pricing is unknown as of now, though Little valley should be available early June at the latest.

Intel plans to slash all Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad CPU prices again just 3 months after the previous drop on April 22. With a remarkable price cut of 50%, AMD is facing another harsh battle with Intel.

Intel is transitioning its Core 2 Extreme QX6800 processor from the B-3 to the G-0 stepping. All new stepping CPUs have increased by 9.7 points case temperature from 54.8° Celsius to 64.5° Celsius. Intel said that the G-0 stepping requires BIOS update in order to recognize the new CPUs properly. First G-0 samples of the 2.93 GHz processor shipped on May 11. Volume availability is scheduled for July 16.

Nvidia got a license from Intel to produce 1600MHz FSB products. This is quite logical, since Intel themselves never really made the gaming community happy. With Nvidia making the chipsets Intel makes sure this market stays satisfied. Secondly, just like Intel used ATI chipsets on their boards some time ago Intel will now use Nvidia chipsets in their products.
More surprisingly Nvidia also got a license to use CSI and produce Xeon chipsets. This is quite a major thing since the Xeon chipset market never has been really big. The current platform has some downsides like the memory subsystem and no official SLI/Crossfire support. If the memory issues get fixed by NV (ie dropping FB-DIMMs) is just wishful thinking at the time being, SLI support sounds very obvious though.

Codenamed 'Santa Rosa', the Centrino comes in two flavors. The Duo boasts twice the power of its M CPUs, improved battery life, the latest Wireless N technology, faster boot time with 'Turbo Memory' and improved integrated graphics processing. The 'Pro' boasts greater security and new advances in remote maintenance for business systems as well improved battery life and increased processing power. For a full rundown on the new platform with graphs and such visit Intel's site.

The new Intel P35 chipset will make its debut soon. Hardspell has tested the performance of the chipset against Intel's own P965 and NVIDIA's 680i. Their findings show that the P35 chipset exhibits a similar level of performance to the P965 chipset. However, when it is paired up with DDR2-1066 modules, the performance is boosted and exceeds the NV-680i in games.

Intel has sent a notification to system vendors that it has begun removing the Celeron D 331 and 336 models from its product portfolio. The two Celeron D processors are based on the 90nm Prescott core and Intel's Netburst architecture. The 331 (2.66GHz 256KB L2 Cache) and 336 (2.8GHz 256KB L2 Cache) are currently offered as the two cheapest processors in the firm's desktop processor portfolio. Both CPUs are selling for a tray price of $34 and $37 respectively. According to Intel's product change notification, the Celeron D 331 and 336 will be available for order until September 7 of this year, while the last shipment is scheduled for May 9, 2008.

The Znote 6625WD, as one of the most advanced notebooks in the market, will be the first in the market to be driven by Intel's new super processor Santa Rosa. The Zepto Znote 6625WD is equipped with Nvidia's Geforce 8600, which is 'state of the art' in the graphics card market. The Znote 6625WD is ideal for heavy graphical assignments and for multimedia functionality.

Zepto Computers has again succeeded in being the first in the market to offer the latest technology of Intel. Santa Rosa, the name of Intel's new platform, will set new standards in the use of notebook PC's.

Intel is rolling out a pair of ultra-low power chips for compact notebooks and small PCs.

The two new Core 2 Duo chips only consume a maximum of 10 watts of power when running full speed, which makes them ideal for ultraportable notebooks or other devices where size or battery life is at a premium. As a comparison, Intel's Core 2 Duo processors for regular notebooks consume about 34 watts of power at maximum performance.

Intel will offer the chips in two speeds, the U7600 runs at 1.2GHz and the U7500 runs at 1.06GHz.

Intel Q6600, Xeon X3220 and X3210 to Receive New Stepping

Intel has informed its customers that the Core 2 Quad Q6600 desktop quad-core processor as well as the Xeon X3220 and X3210 server quad-core CPUs have been transitioned to a new stepping. According to a product change notification released on Friday, the three processors were transitioned from the B-3 to the G-0 processor stepping. All new stepping CPUs have 10W lower TDP - 95W instead of the original 105W. The new CPUs, which can be identified by the CPUID "06FB" (B-3 processors were labeled "06F7"), also increase the Tcase, a value that describes the maximum temperature a CPU can sustain, by 11 degrees Celsius. All three G-0 CPUs require BIOS updates. Samples of the processors are expected to be available on May 11. General availability of the units is scheduled for July 16.