Intel expects to introduce its high-end Core 2 Extreme branding to notebooks in Q3'2007 according to the latest roadmap. The upcoming Core 2 Extreme X7800 uses the same Merom core used by the Core 2 Duo mobile family of processors. Intel's Core 2 Extreme X7800 will arrive clocked at 2.6GHz with 800MHz FSB and 4MB of L2 cache like the rest of the Core 2 Duo family. Intel technologies such as VT, EIST, EM64T and XD/NX bit are also supported, though Intel has removed support for Intel Dynamic Acceleration. The Core 2 Extreme X7800 for mobile will remain at the top of Intel's chain of mobile processors until the upcoming Core 2 Extreme X7900(2.8GHz 4MB L2) dethrones it in Q4'2007. The price of Core 2 Duo Extreme X7800 for notebooks in Q3'2007 is expected to be $795 per-unit in 1,000-unit quantities.

Although the AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ wasn't expected until the 20th of February, the company's last X2 high-end processor before it begins to use its next generation architecture is out now. The processor uses a 90nm process and runs at 3.0GHz, with 1MB of L2 cache. It is essentially the socket AM2 equivalent to the FX-74, although this is slightly more expensive at the moment. Newegg is selling the processor for $599 and it is in stock at present, whilst Buy.com has set a price of $685.99 but it is sold out at the moment.

The Intel Core 2 Duo series is about to embark on a die shrink, from 65nm to 45nm. The new Core 2 Duo's, codenamed "Penryn", will have a slew of new features. The Penryn's will support a new set of SSE instructions, have higher clock speeds while maintaining the same power draw, and have a larger L2 Cache. The dual core Penryn will have 410 million transistors, and the quad core Penryn will have 820 million. All of the Penryn's will be on a 300mm package. Like with the current generation quad core offerings, the quad core Penryn's will have two dual core processors on one package. The Penryn series will have the same power requirements as the Conroe, which translates to 35W laptop chips, 65W dual-core desktop chips, and 80W quad-core desktop chips. Intel has successfully tested the Penryn's on several operating systems for stability, and we should see something commercially available around Q2 2007.

Penryn, the 45nm successor to Conroe on the Intel roadmap, will have several new features the previous lacked. One of these is Intel HyperThreading, which would give a computer four logical cores on a dual-core processor. Intel's Penryn may also have up to 6MB of L2 Cache, and other than the die shrink, will have a lot of minor performance tweaks.

Some new details on AMD's next generation of desktop processing have been released, with three different models to go alongside AMD's Barcelona (the processor for servers). The desktop equivalent of Barcelona, with the codename Agena, will feature four cores and should have clock speeds of 2.4GHz to 2.6GHz, with a 2MB L2 cache and 2MB L3 cache per CPU - it's scheduled for the third quarter of this year. The mainstream processor is called Kuma and should launch with clock speeds of 2.0GHz to 2.9GHz using a dual core architecture, with 1MB L2 cache and 2MB shared L3 cache. Rana, the replacement for the Sempron family, will have clock frequencies of 2.1GHz to 2.3GHz, feature dual core and 1MB of L2 cache, but no L3 cache. The Rana is expected for the forth quarter of this year.

AMD has announced price cuts for its mid- and low-end Athlon 64 X2 processors. According to AMD's website, pricing for high-end Athlons, including the FX series, X2 5600+ and 5400+ remains unchanged, while the X2 5200+ saw a hefty cut from US$403 to US$295. The price of the single-core Athlon 64 3800+ also fell from US$108 to US$101, however, the price of the slower 3500+ remained unchanged. Prices for the lowest speed CPU, the Athlon 3200+ is no longer posted on AMD's website. Pricing for the lowest-end Sempron processors also fell with the 3200+ being reduced from US$67 to US$51, and the 3000+ (both 256KB and 128KB L2 cache versions) falling from US$56 to US$41 all in 1000-unit tray quantities. Click here to see the complete list of price changes.

Sony looks like it will be first to release a computer based on Intel's new Core 2 Quad processor, with the Vaio R Master. The CPU itself runs at 2.4GHz (it's a Core 2 Quad Q6600) and the PC also features up to 3GB DDR2 memory, 3TB worth of SATA drives, a Blu-ray drive and NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 graphics. Quite a fast machine all-in-all, but with a price tag of over $8,200 when it hits markets on February 10th, this might not be within everyone's price range. Dell and Gateway have already begun building systems based on the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processors which also feature four cores, but the Core 2 Quad is the mainstream equivalent.

Taipei, Taiwan (PRWeb) January 10, 2007 -- IAdea Corporation, the Taiwan-based licensee of BitTorrent technology, and Star Semiconductor Corporation, an affiliate of the semiconductor giant UMC Group, jointly announces the availability of STR9810/20, the world's first BitTorrent-optimized microprocessor chip.

With AMD's Quad FX processors recently launched with the ability to run a pair of dual-core CPUs, Intel has unveiled its next step to strengthen its hold on the market. At CES 2007, the silicon giant announced a proof-of-concept PC designed to counter AMD's 4x4 systems, named the V8. The system contains a pair of quad-core processors running at 2.4GHz using a 1066MHz system bus - when paired with an NVIDIA 8800GTX it manages to score 6089 on the 3Dmark06 CPU benchmark. However, it isn't all good news for Intel fans. The V8 system requires FB-DIMMs and only works with a single GPU at present, whilst Quad FX systems can use standard unbuffered memory along with multiple GPUs. If Intel doesn't manage to solve the problem with multi GPU support soon this may give AMD time to release 8x8 systems, which wouldn't be part of Intel's plan.

Intel started shipping the three new quad-core processors, we told you about here. One new mainstream Core 2 Quad Q6600 and two single processor workstation and server Xeon X3220 and X3210 processors are now available. Official pricing for the Q6600 per unit in 1,000 unit quantities is $851 with a price drop to $530 expected in Q2'2007. Online retailer ZipZoomFly currently has the Core 2 Quad Q6600 in stock for $989.99. Pricing for the Xeon X3220 is identical to the Core 2 Quad Q6600 at $851 per unit in 1,000 unit quantities with an expected price drop to $530 in Q2'2007. The lower clocked Xeon X3210 is priced at $690 per unit per 1,000 unit quantities with an expected price drop to $425 in Q2'2007.

Both Newegg and ZipZoomFly are now selling AMD's latest offering in the CPU market: the AMD Quad FX. At the moment you need to buy the ASUS L1N64-SLI WS if you want to use of one these processors because they will require Socket-F, but this won't be cheap. The Quad FX itself will set you back a minimum of about $129 and the motherboard will cost at least $379.99 at current prices. Whilst Newegg is selling all of the Quad FX speeds, ZipZoomFly only has the FX-70 at present.

AMD will soon be ready to ship another series of single-core 65nm Athlon 64 processors, according to HKEPC. The new models help in lowering the cost as well as the power consumption from 62W to 45W (27.4%). The two desktop processors to be launched in Mid-Jan, codenamed Lime, include Athlon 64 3500+ and Athlon 64 3800+. Basically, the 65nm models are the same as the 90nm edition. They are clocked at 2.2GHz and 2.4GHz respectively, and have 512KB of L2 cache. In addition 10 more 65nm models will be released in Q2 2007. The upcoming models include three new dual-core Athlon 64 X2 35W TDP processors codenamed Brisbane and one single core Athlon 64 4000+(2.6GHz 45W TDP). For the entry level AMD also plans to release four 65nm Sempron models with 35W TDP, codenamed Sparta. Please click here to learn more.

According to industry sources, plans to produce CPUs for the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console on 65nm at Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing will be pushed back until the middle of 2007. In April 2006, Chartered announced that it had signed an agreement with Microsoft to manufacture CPUs for the Xbox 360 console on 65nm Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology starting in the first quarter of 2007. Chartered is already a major foundry partner for producing Microsoft's Xbox 360 CPUs on 90nm technology. Both companies declined to comment on the news.

Vigor Gaming introduced today their gaming PC, equipped with AMD's latest Quad FX platform. Vigor Gaming calls its system Quadfather and the cheapest one with two AMD FX70 CPUs at two times 2.6GHz costs $2999 including a free shipping and has 4x512MB Corsair memory, two 250GB drives in RAID 0, Geforce 8800 GTX and 1100 W Tagan PSU. The company even offers a free Vista business upgrade. You can choose the parts of your system and order one from Vigor Gaming here.

ATI has teamed up with laptop-maker Asus to introduce a series of 'Ready for Vista' notebook graphics processors. There are three processors in the Mobility Radeon X1K family: the X1700, X1450 and X1350. Each of the processors has been designed to play high-definition(HD) video formats such as HD-DVD/H.264 and Blu-ray and support Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. ATI's deal with Asus follows a similar deal with NVIDIA in recent weeks to use the GeForce Go 7700 chips in its ultra-portable AJ8 notebook series. Asus will use the ATI chips in its forthcoming Mobile TV, Mobility, Multimedia and Entertainment laptops. Longer battery life is a key component of the new processors, despite running faster than previous graphics processors. They will use the Powerplay 6.0 power management technology, which allows the chips to automatically adjust the balance between performance and power consumption based on the workload.

Intel is initiating a B-2 to L-2 stepping conversion for Intel Core 2 Duo processors E6300 & E6400 (Conroe) and Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors 3040 & 3050 (UP Xeon processors based on Conroe) where they will undergo the following changes:

• New S-Spec and MM numbers for the converting products
• CPUID will change from 6F6 to 6F2
• Extended HALT power specification will reduce from 22 Watts to 12 Watts
• Die size optimized for manufacturability
• Minor visible difference between the B-2 and L-2 packages; see below for a visual comparison
• L-2 package is pin compatible with B-2 package

This year, Intel boasted at IDF about being the only company shipping 65nm chips. This is about to change.

The Inquirer reports that system integrators already have their hands on AMD's 65nm X2 CPUs. They have been shipping for 2 weeks already. The CPUs will be available to the public early 2007, yet they will be nothing more than a re-designed 90nm part.

If you're lucky, you could find one of these in an assembled HP or Dell AMD machine this year.

Below is a picture of AMD's 65nm X2 CPU:

Intel has announced the end of the Celeron D 326, 346, 351 and 355 processors. Orders for the products become unchangeable on 2 February 2007, and no further orders will be accepted after 6 April 2007, Intel documents reveal. Intel is clearing all its Pentium and Celeron CPUs to make way for the increasing mainstream-oriented Core 2 Duo family and for future Core-based Pentium processors.

AMD has quietly updated its proccesor line up by adding the Athlon 64 X2 5600+ and a 5400+ CPUs. Both models work at 2.8GHz but the Athlon 64 X2 5400+ has 2x512KB L2 cache, while the Athlon 64 X2 5600+ has 1MB per core for a total of 2MB L2 cache. The 5400+ is priced at $485 per 1,000 units, and the 5600+ is priced at $505 per 1,000 units.

Thermaltake Technology today announced the world's first AMD Quad FX platform ready chassis series, Armor Extreme Edition and Kandalf Extreme Edition series. These two chassis series are co-developed by AMD and Thermaltake to support AMD's latest and technologically advanced AMD Quad FX platform. Thermaltake has worked with AMD during the development phase of this high-performance gaming chassis, which is reengineered specifically to support AMD Quad FX platform. All cases come with two 120mm and two 90mm ultra-quiet fans for maximum cooling. Complete details of Thermaltake's Kandalf series cases can be found here.

AMD today demonstrated the industry's first native quad-core x86 server processor, achieving four x86 processing cores on a single die of silicon. At the annual AMD Industry Analyst Forum, a server powered by four upcoming Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors (codenamed Barcelona), manufactured on 65nm silicon-on-insulator process technology, was shown utilizing all 16 cores. By delivering a consistent thermal envelope while adding two more processing cores, along with micro-architectural enhancements, AMD expects to significantly advance the performance-per-watt capabilities of AMD Opteron processors.