Intel on their latest Microcode Revision Guidance Guide has apparently stopped development of mitigations for some of its processor families that still haven't been updated to combat the threat of Spectre. The odyssey for the return to form of security on Intel products has been a steep, and a slow one, as the company has struggled to deploy mitigations for speculative code execution on its processor families that run it. Updates for some families of products, however - such as Penryn, Wolfdale, Bloomfield and Yorkfield, among others - are apparently not going to get an update at all.

Intel's newest quad-core socket LGA-775 processor, the Core 2 Quad Q9505 (s-spec: SLGYY) adds to the series of upper-mainstream Core 2 Quad processors based on the Yorkfield cores. With a clock speed of 2.83 GHz and a bus speed of 1333 MHz, it matches Core 2 Quad Q9550. The difference here is the L2 cache amount. Q9505 features 2x 3 MB of L2 cache. It supports every other feature in the series, including Intel VT support. Started selling in Japan, the Core 2 Quad Q9505 is priced at JPY 22,770 there, while it's expected to be priced at around US $210.

In the run-up for a new generation of processors, Intel is looking to boost sales of its existing Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors by introducing a round of price-cuts. According to the source, this round covers most mainstream-thru-value processors, rather than those chips based on Yorkfield-12M and Wolfdale-6M cores. It includes Core 2 Quad Q9x00 (Yorkfield-6M), Core 2 Quad Q8000 (Yorkfield-4M), Core 2 Duo E7000 (Wolfdale-3M), Pentium Dual-Core E6000, E5000 (Wolfdale-2M) and Celeron E1500 (Conroe). The cuts range between 10 and 20 percent. Notable changes include Core 2 Quad Q9400 pushed down to US $183 (on par with Q9300), from its price of $213, and Core 2 Duo E7500 down to $113 from $133 (influenced by its successor E7600). The existing prices were implemented in April, when Intel introduced a similar round of price-cuts for the market segments. The new prices will be implemented within this month. All prices in USD.

Last week, Intel sketched out its strategy in dealing with its client processor brand Core, and placing its different kinds of processors in series of markers (such as "i3", "i5", and "i7"), on the merit of performance and features they offer, and not necessarily a segregation based on core type and socket type. This raised a big debate in our forums, on who is really going to benefit from this kind of branding.

Chinese website INPAI.com.cn sourced information which explains what factors go into determining which brand marker a processor gets. The table elaborates on how different kinds of Intel processors (determined by core and socket types) cross different lines, with a few features toggled or enhanced. It is sure to throw up some surprises.

Intel made additions of three new chips to its mainstream thru value lineup of desktop processors. They include Core 2 Quad Q8300, Pentium Dual Core E5300 and Celeron Dual Core E1500.

The Core 2 Quad is based on the 45nm Yorkfield-4M core. It has an operating frequency of 2.50 GHz and a FSB configuration of (7.5 * 333 MHz) with an effective FSB of 1333 MHz. It has a total L2 cache of 4 MB. This chip will be priced at US $224 (1000 unit tray). Pentium Dual Core E5300, based on Wolfdale-2M sports 2 MB of L2 cache and a clock speed of 2.60 GHz (13.0 * 200 MHz) with an FSB of 800 MHz. It will be priced at $86, displacing the E5200. The Celeron series is now lead by E1500, clocked at 2.20 GHz and an L2 cache of 512 KB. This chip is based on the older 65nm Allendale core, and is priced at $53.

Intel has ported the Core 2 Quad Q9400 to the embedded platform, where it would be used in industrial PCs. The Q9400 is a 64-bit x86 quad-core processor based on the 45nm Yorkfield core. On the embedded platform, the Q9400 would be supported by the Intel Q45 and 3210 core-logic (chipset).

According to Doug Davis, vice president of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group and general manager of the Embedded and Communications Group, the company assures seven years of support and product lifetime for the new processor. The provision of four advanced execution units would step up parallelism and responsiveness in multi-threaded and multi-tasking environments.

Intel will release four mid-thru-high range desktop processors tomorrow. These CPUs will be based on the 45nm Yorkfield and Wolfdale cores. Two new Core 2 Quad models, the performance segment Q9650 and the mainstream segment Q9400 are dressed up. The Q9650 has identical parameters to the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 barring the locked FSB multiplier of 9x. The Q9400 is an improvement over the current Q9300. It has a 2.66 GHz core clock speed with a total of 6 MB L2 cache and an FSB multiplier of 8x.

With the Core 2 Duo, there is a top of the line dual core chip, the E8600 which comes with 3.33 GHz core speed, 6 MB of L2 cache and an FSB multiplier of 10x. There's also a mid-range offering, the E7300 that comes with 2.66 GHz core speed, 1066 MHz FSB and an FSB multiplier of 10x. It has 3 MB of L2 cache.

Following delays due to issues with the processor system bus on Intel's Yorkfield processors, it looks like the 45nm quad-core chips may finally go on sale sometime during the next few days. Industry sources are claiming that the processors have now gone into mass production, meaning the 45nm Core 2 Quad Q9300, Q9450 and Q9550 should be available from next week. The Q9550 and Q9450 will run at 2.83GHz and 2.66GHz respectively, with a 1333MHz bus and 12MB of L2 cache. The Q9300 will run at 2.5GHz with an L2 cache of 6MB. Intel's official prices for the Q9550, Q9450 and Q9300 are $530, $316 and $266 respectively. The 45nm manufacturing process should allow the chips to run cooler and potentially allow more headroom for overclocking.

Taipei, Taiwan, February 26, 2008 -Catering to users who need a powerful motherboard with high speeds and great expansion slot interface support, ASUS, worldwide leader in motherboard design and production, has today released the Z7S WS workstation motherboard. This innovative motherboard is equipped with dual socket 771 and utilizes the latest Intel 5400 chipset for vigorous performance. It also supports fully buffered DDR2 800MHz dual-channel memory, dual PCI Express 2.0 x16 lanes; and comes in the compact CEB form factor. With this innovative motherboard, users will enjoy convenient slot expansion and enjoy fast and efficient work efficiency.

Intel is set to release its first dual-core desktop Celeron CPUs, known as the E1000 series, on January 20th next year. First to be released will be the 1.6GHz E1200, which will have a 512KB L2 cache and a price tag of $53 US when bought in bulk quantities of 1,000 units. Intel is also expected to release four new dual-core CPUs based on the Wolfdale core that day, and three new quad-core Yorkfields were planned, although those may now have been delayed due to a FSB issue. Full product details and pricing for the new processors is below, remember that those prices are not retail.

AMD hasn't seen the launch of its Phenom processors go as smoothly as it had hoped after the early batches of processors were found to feature an erratum that lead to problems such as system instability and data loss, but now it's Intel turn to solve a few problems. The chip-giant looks set to delay the launch of its upcoming 45nm Yorkfield CPUs because the integrity of the FSB frequency is not satisfactory and may even cause crashes. This shouldn't be a major setback as it has only occurred when forced in a lab rather than in normal everyday computing, but it is likely to add at least a few weeks delay before the Yorkfields become available. The Wolfdale cores are unaffected by this and still on-target for a January release.

NVIDIA nForce 680i Motherboards Do Not Support Quad Core Yorkfield

You may've heard the rumors too, but I waited on purpose before posting this one. It's now confirmed by NVIDIA what's up with 680i motherboards supporting the new quad core Yorkfield processors:

The (680i) MCP fully supports both dual core Wolfdale and quad core Yorkfield, but at the board level, a motherboard circuit change is required for quad core YF.

All NVIDIA nForce 680i motherboard owners should have in mind that their current mainboard won't support Yorkfield, probably not even if a new BIOS is released. Hardware modification is needed, which most likely means you have to buy a new motherboard.

Some air cooling action with the new Intel 45nm Yorkfield QX9650 Core 2 Extreme processors, provided by XS legend hipro5. Check out the full thread here. Tuniq Tower with a DELTA fan was used for this overclocking session.

The OC guru, Shamino has broken the 6GHz (12x500MHz) clock barrier using Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 cooled with LN2 on a modded Foxconn Quantum Force board. Check out his achievement here.

X-bit labs has prepared a nice chart illustrating all the information available for future Intel chips including pricing of the Intel 45nm Yorkfield CPUs and info on Intel's goliath - Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770. The story also indicates that after the introduction of the new 45nm CPUs in January, 2008, Intel will not cut prices of its existing Intel Core 2 Quad processors below $266.

The guys over at Nordichardware got their hands on the latest Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 12MB L2 Yorkfield CPU, trying to overclock it using both air and LN cooling. The result is 460MHz FSB and 4140MHz stable clock frequency achieved with ASUS P5E3 Deluxe motherboard, all air cooling. Using liquid nitrogen, the same QX9650 CPU goes up to 5600MHz, breaking all SuperPI and 3DMark 05/06 world records. The new world records are now 37,095 points in 3DMark 05, 27,542 points in 3DMark 06 and 8.110s in SuperPI. The benchmark system consists of ASUS Maximus Formula R.O.G X38 motherboard, paired with Mushkin's fastest Redline DDR2 running at 4-4-4-5 timings with a 4:5 divider and two ASUS Radeon HD 2900 XT video cards (1120/980MHz).

Intel along with XtremeSystems ran a phase-change cooling demo of a ridiculously overclocked 45nm B1 stepping Yorkfield (quad-core Penryn) running at around 5.5GHz. FUGGER and Paul Otellini are on the pictures below. Keep an eye on this thread at XS, for updates.