It is curtains for as many as 20 Intel processor models in H2 2011, according to a slide detailing the product lifecycle of Intel processors in the market. The 20 models will reach EOL (end of life) stage of their market-life. When a product is marked EOL, Intel stops taking orders for it from OEMs and channel vendors, clears outstanding orders, and stops its production. Intel will honor warranties on those products in accordance with its warranty policies.

Up for EOL are the socket LGA1366 Core i7-970, socket LGA1156 Core i7-880, Core i7-875K, Core i7-870S, Core i5-760, Core i5-750S, Core i5-655K, Core i3-530; and most socket LGA775 processor currently in the market. LGA775 models include Core 2 Quad Q9650, Q9550/Q9550S, Q9500, Q8400/Q8400S, Q8300; Core 2 Duo models E8600, E8500, and Pentium E5400. Several other products are marked PDN (product discontinuation notification), a stage that precedes EOL, which formally notifies OEMs and channel-vendors that they should place their last orders (and so they should choose quantities wisely).

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it will ship its second generation SSDNow V Series solid-state drive (SSD) on February 15. Targeted for mainstream consumers and small and medium businesses, the new Kingston SSDNow V Series offers higher performance than its predecessor and supports Windows 7 TRIM functionality while maintaining pricing. Capacities are 30GB, 64GB and 128GB and the drive comes as a standalone unit or with a bundled solution for desktop or notebook systems.

"Kingston has really increased the performance on the new second generation SSDNow V Series drive without raising the price. A first-generation SSDNow V Series 64GB bundle upgrade kit can be found for about $150 (U.S.) at retailers and e-tailers so maintaining pricing will be huge for our customers," said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager, Kingston. "By bundling together all of the software, hardware and step-by-step instructions with the drive, we make it easy for everyday users to upgrade with an SSD. The addition of TRIM support is a key benefit because it enables the SSD to maintain optimal performance throughout its lifespan."

As we head towards the launch of AMD's newest GPU, the ATI Radeon HD 4770, things certainly seem to be looking good from what we have seen of the sub-$100 accelerator so far. After the recent exposé of the HIS HD 4770, it's time now for the one from another AIB.

The card features an identical overall design to the one from HIS, indicating that the cooler is a standard reference design, not what we had seen from the company presentation of HD 4770, showing a rather visually-appealing cooler. The card features 512 MB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit interface, 640 stream processors, and DirectX 10.1 compliance. Taiwanese website CoolPC put the card through a round of 3DMark06, 3DMark Vantage, and FurMark. The testbed consisted of an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 processor and 4 GB of DDR2-800 memory. The card secured 12,042 points at 3DMark06, and P7408 at 3DMark Vantage. After 350 seconds of FurMark stability test, the GPU temperatures were tipping 72 degrees Celsius, with the fan running at 42% speed. Here's one card to look out for.

We continue our Monday news list with another Intel story that brings to our attention information concerning the company and more specificly its 2.83GHz Core 2 Quad Q9550 chips that will move from the current C-1 to the newer E-0 stepping. The updated chips will start selling on August 22nd, featuring the following changes:

• New SSpec and MM numbers for the converting products
• CPUID will change from 0x10677 to 0x1067A
• Package change to Halide free package

Apart from that, the new stepping CPUs will not include any other changes. Of course, like most new stepping parts a BIOS update will be needed.


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