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.

While every hardcore AMD fan awaits the Barcelona and Phenom series of CPUs, AMD is busy making the best out of what it has already. In a Japanese presentation, AMD showed off the Athlon 64 6400+ "Black Edition". This CPU should hit retail markets on August 20th, and should cost anywhere between $220 and $240 USD. The CPU runs on a 90nm process, and is clocked at 3.2GHz.

At the same presentation, AMD demoed a Phenom X4 system at 3GHz in an AMD RD790 motherboard. AMD somehow managed to present this without anyone getting good performance numbers.

With the passable launch date of September 10 there seems two be a couple of problems with the chip and compatibility. It seems that the Dual Dynamic Power Management will not work without a BIOS update, and with a supported motherboard. This is something to be expected from knowing that some features will not be supported on former socket types.

"It seems the CPU itself is capable of engaging in CoolCore operations, but not Dual Dynamic Power Management (formerly "Split Plane," which allowed each core to operate independently with different voltages and clock speeds). It won't be able to handle these power saving and performance enhancing aspects of operations from the core alone. The motherboard must be brought into the mix in an active way to help reduce power consumption and save energy when the many cores are not in high use."

The other issue while not truly being an issue is the 128-bit floating point. There simply isn't any software on the market to take advantage of it. Hearing something like this isn't new to the PC market at all. The 64Bit CPUs are just now starting to see the light after a few years of their release, and Dual core CPUs are also just now starting to be implemented into applications. It's safe to say that the 128-bit floating point technology may take some time before developers start using it.

According to AMD's most recent roadmap, 2 Phenom FX series will see the light of day: Phenom FX-80 and Phenom FX-90. The FX-80 will be designed as single-core CPU's while the FX-90 will be designed as 4x4 dual CPU's.

The plan is to launch the Phenom FX-90 CPU's by Q1 2008 and the FX-80's a little earlier during the November-December interval.

AMD has recently denied the rumor that Phenom would be delayed. AMD says that they will have Phenom released during Q4 2007, despite motherboard manufacturers saying otherwise.

However, any Phenom launch before Q1 2008, according to AMD, will be a mere paper launch, not unlike the HD 2x00 series. Motherboard manufacturers claim that this delay is give AMD enough time to make enough Phenom processors for a heavy AMD fanbase. This is also a move designed to make Phenom more competitive with Penryn.

Intel (or "Chipzilla", as The Inquirer lovingly refers to them), according to Intel spokesperson Danny Cheung, has sold one million quad-core Xeon 5300 processors. "Clovertown" was unleashed just last November, and thanks to great performance and competitive pricing, is solely responsible for re-claiming the Server market for Intel. The entire Clovertown line is priced between $455 and $1,172 USD, according to Intel's price list.

AMD announced today that Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, code-named "Barcelona," are planned for shipment in both standard and low power versions at launch later this summer. This would be the first time AMD has made both standard and low power parts immediately available as part of a new processor launch.

During this first launch, processor speeds are expected to be available up to 2.0 GHz.

Based on the K8 core, AMD's next generation mobile processor will be released mid-2008. The 65nm core socket S will receive Barcelona's Hyper transport 3 and will boast better power efficiency and management than its predecessor with its ability to limit the power consumption of the memory interface. The RS780/780G chipsets will combine with Griffin to include Hyperflash and Puma, which competes directly with Intel's Turbo Memory.

Sun Microsystems, Inc., today announced it has successfully booted the Solaris 10 operating system (OS) on its high-end "ROCK" SPARC processor for the first time. This important milestone comes ahead of schedule and within six weeks of Sun receiving its first shipment of prototype ROCK processors. "Booting Solaris for the first time is a critical accomplishment in the development of our high-end, chip multithreading (CMT) technology," said David Yen, executive vice president for Sun Microelectronics.

Over the next two weeks AMD will slowly begin to introduce its new brand name for the next generation high end desktop K10 architecture. The brand, Phenom, will succeed Athlon on all K10 offerings. Dual-core Agena processors will be labeled as Phenom X2 while quad-core Agena CPUs will receive the name Phenom X4 or Phenom FX. Phenom is pronounced as an abbreviated version of the word "phenomenal." The company will still retain its Athlon and Sempron brand names - Athlon on its mid-range products and Sempron on up the low-end.

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.

In respond to AMD's Quad FX, Intel announced in January at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, new platform dubbed "V8". The guys at HotHardware.com have managed to take a good look at it and run some benchmarks. The "V8" consists of Intel workstation-class S5000XVN dual-socket motherboard, coupled to a pair of Xeon X5365 processors, 4GB of Samsung DDR2-667 FBDIMMs, and a GeForce 8800 GTX. The motherboard is based on Intel's 5000X chipset and the processors are clocked at 3.0GHz a piece(1333MHz FSB). Click here, to see some preliminary testing on this rig.

Laptops based on Intel's new Centrino platform Santa Rosa are starting to leak out, this time they're from Lenovo (a few Fujitsu models got out last week). The new ThinkPads T61 and R61 are both based on Intel's Core 2 Duo processors and use Intel's Gm/PM965 chipset. Other specs include both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista and Windows XP Pro, Intel's new Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 IGP (for systems using integrated graphics), NVIDIA graphics (for other systems), 14.1" screens, Intel Turbo Card, smartcard support and full hard disk encryption. These laptops should be available from May this year, with a Blu-Ray version coming in July. Lenovo will also finally be removing the IBM branding from palm rests after acquiring Big Blue's laptop division in 2005.

IBM Moves Moore's Law into the Third-Dimension

Armonk, NY - 12 Apr 2007: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a breakthrough chip-stacking technology in a manufacturing environment that paves the way for three-dimensional chips that will extend Moore's Law beyond its expected limits. The technology - called "through-silicon vias" -- allows different chip components to be packaged much closer together for faster, smaller, and lower-power systems.

The IBM breakthrough enables the move from horizontal 2-D chip layouts to 3-D chip stacking, which takes chips and memory devices that traditionally sit side by side on a silicon wafer and stacks them together on top of one another. The result is a compact sandwich of components that dramatically reduces the size of the overall chip package and boosts the speed at which data flows among the functions on the chip.

The soon to be released next CPU architecture named K10 was x-rayed a while ago. We know that the K10 won't hit the 3GHz mark, it will come in all flavors from 2.1GHz all the way up to 2.9GHz. What we missed there, and what AMD didn't let out of their labs yet, was a corresponding heat dissipation figure. Now as Fudzilla.com acts like their silent megaphone they tell the public that 95W will be the maximum TDP for Barcelona and Agena FX. That is quite low for a real quad-core CPU, and sounds very promising in terms of overclocking achievements.

Intel has added two ultra low voltage Core 2 Duo processors to its product portfolio. The new 1.06GHz U7500 and the 1.2GHz U7600 models, are based on the Merom core with 533MHz FSB and 2MB L2 cache. Both CPUs will be targeting mini notebooks, tablet PCs and ultra-portable notebooks. The U7500 and U7600 are introduced as part of the currently shipping "Napa refresh" platform, but will also be available for the upcoming Santa Rosa platform with a slight change in pinout. The new Merom ULV CPUs will be replacing the Core Duo U2500 processor over the coming months. One of the first manufacturers offering the U7500/U7600 will be Gateway who said that its E-100M notebook will be available with the two processors beginning on May 3 of this year.

AMD plans to release two more dual-core Opterons in order to compete with Intel's latest Xeon processors. Server makers and channel sellers will gain access to the 3GHz(120W) Model 2222 SE and Model 8222 SE chips, which will slot in just above the already shipping 2.8GHz Model 2220 SE and 8220 SE processors. The 2000 Series products cater to servers with two-sockets, while the 8000 Series feed systems with four or more sockets. A similar 95W version of the new 3.0GHz chip for the 1000 Series line should also arrive in a few weeks. AMD has yet to release pricing for the 2222 SE and 8222 SE 3.0GHz models, as it does not plan to formally announce the product for two more weeks. These may be the last Opterons before the four-core Barcelona arrives.

Under a new brand called Intel Centrino Pro processor technology, Intel Corporation today announced it will extend its innovative and popular features designed for desktop business PCs called Intel vPro processor technology into its forthcoming high-performance laptop offering. IT departments will be able to reliably manage both desktops and notebooks and deal with what plagues them most - security threats, cost of ownership, resource allocation, and asset management -- and do so wirelessly.

Four cores running at 2.93GHz on a 1066FSB will be the base for Intel's upcoming Core 2 Extreme QX6800. Advanced cooling will be required in order to get rid of the 150W this beast will most likely dissipate. This CPU was thought to be released later this month but TheInq doesn't say so. Instead this new Intel flagship will be shown world wide on this Easter Monday - at least the NDA will go up by then. Furthermore don't expect them at your local dealers so soon, even big First Tier OEMs won't get it in substantial quantities the sources say. This all sounds like a paper launch without a real threat for Intel to continue their push-strategy. Or is the upcoming K10 architecture so much better performance wise?

Marking the next step in Intel's "tick-tock" product strategy and cadence to deliver a new process technology with an enhanced microarchitecture or entirely new microarchitecture every year, Intel Corporation will begin producing its next-generation Penryn family of processors in the second half of this year. These new processors benefit from enhancements to the Intel Core microarchitecture and also Intel's industry-leading 45nm Hi-k process technology with its hafnium-based high-K + metal gate transistor design, which results in higher performance and more energy-efficient processors.

Penryn is Intels next generation of the Core 2 Duo with 'Conroe'-core. Based on a 45nm process and an improved High-k dielectric together with metal gates the Penryn features the SSE4 instruction set (aka Nehalem New Instructions, NNI), and a 6MB/12MB L2-cache (Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Quad). Power consumption will roughly be the same, 65W TDP for the Duo and 105W for the Quad. The working frequencies will be higher than 3GHz for the top models resulting in around 20% more performance when playing games. Video-trancoding that utilizes the new SSE4 instructions will be around 40% faster Intel says.
The mobile Penryn features an additional 'deep power down'-state where both caches will be deactivated, the core-frequency and -voltage are lowered by a significant amount. Furthermore the chip is able to change both core's frequencies and voltages indepentently from one another. Let's say you are using a single threaded application for a while the second core won't have much to do it will power itself down whereas the other core could power it up to improve the performance.
In late 2008 Intel plans to release the Nehalem architecture which comes with an integrated memory controller. By then the front side bus days will be over, a serial Hypertransport-like interface called 'CSI' (Common System Interface) will replace it.

Update: AnandTech covers the story as well with a whole article dedicated to the Penryn and Nehalem.

Sun Microsystems, today introduced the Netra X4200 M2 server, Sun's first Network Equipment Building Standard (NEBS) Level 3 Certified Rack Server powered by the AMD Opteron processor and offering the industry's broadest operating system (OS) support, including the Solaris 10 OS, Red Hat and SUSE Linux, and Windows. Based on the Sun Fire X4200 M2 server announced in October 2006, the Netra X4200 M2 server is Sun's first Netra rackmount server developed with industry-standard x64 (x86, 64-bit) architecture. The device can be equipped with up to four 146 GB SAS hard drives, up to two Opteron 2214 HE (2.2 GHz, 68W) processors and up to eight DDR2-667 memory modules for a total capacity of 32 GB. The 2-socket version of the Netra X4200 M2 server is available now, with entry-level pricing starting at $9,845. The 1-socket version is scheduled to be available in May with entry-level pricing starting at $6,145. For more information on the Netra X4200 M2, please visit this page.

On March 22 1993, Intel shipped the very first Pentium processor, the 60MHz model imaginatively dubbed the 'P60'.

Pentium was the successor to the 486 processor. Intel had originally wanted to call the chip the 586, but couldn't get a trademark on the number. Rather than let AMD use the 586 name too, the company decided to switch to a word. Pentium is obviously based on the Greek pent, which is the word for five (hence pentathalon, pentagram etc).

The brand went through a number of iterations - Pentium II, III and IV, amazingly - before being killed off in favor of the Core brand that came into play in January 2006, after years of mediocre Pentium IV performance.

Way back in October, we posted possible specifications of the new Intel "Bearlake" chipset. Well, Intel has finally confirmed this Bearlake chipset. There will be five variants. These are the X38, the P35, the G35, the G33, and finally the G31.

• The X38 is designed to work with Core 2 Extreme processors, works with Intel's 45nm Penryn, will use PCI Express 2.0 technology, and "performance auto-tuning", which dynamically overclocks...everything. The X38 will run at an FSB of 1333 MHz, and can handle DDR3 RAM clocked similarly.
• The P35 will handle all current generation Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors, but there is no word as to what else this thing can do.
• The G35 is just like the P35, except with integrated DX10 graphics. The integrated graphics have a built in HDCP decoder and HDMI output, so that users can plug in an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray drive without worry.
• The G33 is a slightly cut down version of the G35, but still has the impressive DX10 integrated graphics.
• The G31 still has the integrated graphics, but is designed for the budget minded customer.

The P35 and G33 will arrive Q2 of this year, and every other Bearlake chipset will be released in Q3.