Intel is continuing on its mission to establish Thunderbolt as the next universal device interconnect standard, despite steep competition from the 5 Gb/s USB 3.0, the upcoming 10 Gb/s USB 3.1, and stringent validation and licensing barriers on its own end. To that effect, the company outlined its mainstream Thunderbolt controller, which it plans to launch some time in 2014. The company is planning two major introductions to the standard, to help it compete against USB - power delivery, and ad-hoc (peer-to-peer) networking.

The controller, Broadwell Thunderbolt-LP, isn't designed too differently from what's available in the market. It handles a 20 Gb/s Thunderbolt link by aggregating two 10 Gb/s channels, relays DisplayPort 1.2 from the system's graphics device, and connects to the rest of the system over PCIe 2.0 x2. The chip is built in the 8 x 8 mm package, and features operational and idle TDP ratings of 1.5W and 1mW, respectively. The changes Intel is making to the standard will enable power delivery of up to 53W over a standard tethered cable. That's enough power to run a drive dock with up to six 3.5-inch hard drives, or a small (<24-inch) flat-screen monitor. The other big feature is ad-hoc networking, which enables people to set up peer-to-peer 20 Gb/s connections between two PCs much in the same way they did with USB and RS232, back in the day. While it's no Ethernet replacement, it could prove useful in certain environments, such as content-creation. Intel is expected to make some Thunderbolt-related announcements at CES, next January.

Organizations with a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) can now get a significant performance boost with the Intel SSD Cache Controller RCS25ZB040. Powered by LSI Nytro Technology, the Intel RCS25ZB040 is designed to expedite data across a VDI while decreasing the cost per desktop.

The Intel RCS25ZB040 accelerates VDI performance with intelligent caching technology, which monitors frequently accessed data and retains it on its enterprise-grade flash for faster access. Plus, it moves data faster across a VDI and reduces the cost per desktop within the infrastructure.

Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics chip shipments and suppliers' market shares for 2013 3Q. Q3'13 was the second quarter in a row to show a gain in shipments, up 1.6% quarter-to-quarter, but down 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year.

AMD's overall unit shipments decreased 4.2% quarter-to-quarter, Intel's total shipments increased 3.5% from last quarter, and Nvidia's increased 2.3%. The attach rate of GPUs to PCs for the quarter was 137%, which means only 73% of the PCs with embedded graphics are using them.

CMTL, Computer Memory Test Labs, the industry's leading independent memory compatibility and functionality testing lab announced today that G.Skill's 4 GB and 8 GB 1866MHz DDR3L (low voltage, 1.35v) SO-DIMMs have received Advanced Tested certification on the Intel NUC D53427RKE platform with i5 Ivy Bridge processor.

CMTL's President, John Deters stated, "Having high speed G.Skill SO-DIMMs Advanced Tested on the D53427RKE platform is great news for the Intel NUC customer base. The Intel NUC form factor platform is really catching on in the industry based on the number of test requests we are receiving. The NUC D53427RKE with G.Skill's 1866 MHz speed SO-DIMM provides a high performance system solution in a small compact form factor."

Intel Corporation unveiled innovations in HPC and announced new software tools that will help propel businesses and researchers to generate greater insights from their data and solve their most vital business and scientific challenges.

"In the last decade, the high-performance computing community has created a vision of a parallel universe where the most vexing problems of society, industry, government and research are solved through modernized applications," said Raj Hazra, Intel vice president and general manager of the Technical Computing Group. "Intel technology has helped HPC evolve from a technology reserved for an elite few to an essential and broadly available tool for discovery. The solutions we enable for ecosystem partners for the second half of this decade will drive the next level of insight from HPC. Innovations will include scale through standards, performance through application modernization, efficiency through integration and innovation through customized solutions."

The past year has seen a flurry of Thunderbolt related activity. Already present on every current Apple Mac, Thunderbolt has continued to grow within PC circles. And the Thunderbolt ecosystem responded, with over 100 Thunderbolt devices now shipping and available, most certified for both Mac and PC. Thunderbolt makes new experiences possible and developers are seeking to take advantage of Thunderbolt's key benefits, including simultaneous data and display transfer, with speeds of up to 10 Gbps, and daisy-chain connectivity of up to six devices. Building upon that foundation, the first Thunderbolt 2 systems were introduced in October this year, with speeds up to 20 Gbps, and support for the DisplayPort 1.2 protocol. Thunderbolt is clearly the fastest, most versatile connection to your PC.

Now we have a new announcement for you - an exciting new program to quickly expand the footprint of Thunderbolt for desktop and workstation users. This new initiative is called &quot;Thunderbolt ready&quot;, and it enables PC manufacturers to offer Thunderbolt upgradeable motherboards within desktop and workstation computers. By using a Thunderbolt card, Thunderbolt's blazing fast speed and uncompressed video capabilities can now be added to any motherboard that includes a GPIO header (general purpose input/output header), so even if your system doesn't have Thunderbolt it is now possible to &quot;upgrade&quot; to it. Users that are interested in adding Thunderbolt 2 technology to an existing Thunderbolt ready system can combine a Thunderbolt card with a growing number of enabled motherboards, all identified by the use of the &quot;Thunderbolt ready&quot; moniker. The Thunderbolt ready program makes it simple to identify which components work together to upgrade your PC with Thunderbolt 2 capability.

Intel has created a new organization to accelerate and broaden its reach into market segments and applications commonly referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT). Called the IoT Solutions Group, this new organization will combine the Intelligent Systems Group and Wind River organizations, bringing together the intelligent systems hardware, software, services and platform elements together into one organization.

This is the next step in the company's ongoing activities supporting the proliferation of IoT implementations across the industry. Intel will deliver solutions for companies that are investing in technologies to both drive operating efficiencies and create new services by connecting devices to each other and the cloud to transform their businesses. The new organization will be led by Vice President and General Manager, Doug Davis, a long-time Intel leader and embedded industry veteran and will report directly to the executive office (President and CEO).

Intel has yesterday updated its processor offer, adding no less than six new models, all Celerons and all targeting mobile devices. This fresh batch is of ultra-low voltage variety and it includes two chips based on the Haswell architecture, the Celeron 2981U and 2957U, and four on the Silvermont architecture (and part of the Bay Trail-M line-up), the Celeron N2920, N2820, N2815 and N2806.

Frequency-wise, the processors go from 1.40 GHz to 2.13 GHz, but they don't really vary in terms of pricing as five of them cost $132, while only the Celeron 2981U goes for $137. More details in the table below.

The TechPowerUp HWBOT team, in partnership with Intel, is announcing the TechPowerUp HWBOT Competition 2013. Spread across three tests which anyone can participate in - 3DMark 2001, 3DMark 03, and SuperPi 32M, the competition gives you the chance to win some cool new gear, including a Core i7-4770K quad-core processor, an AMD CPU and motherboard combo, and a PayPal cash prize. The contest is open from November 1, 2013 to December 15, 2013.

For more information, visit this page.

Here is the first picture of Akasa Tesla, the company's latest fan-less chassis for Intel's NUC (next unit of computing) system boards. When launched, it will be compatible with both generations of the NUC platform. It stays fan-less with its anodized aluminium body doubling up as a heatsink for the CPU, PCH, and other hot components. It's bigger than the average fan-less NUC case, and features room for two 9 mm-thick 2.5-inch drives, which can be anything between a fast SSD, or a spacious HDD. Not much else is known about the case, and one could expect a formal launch pretty soon.

Tranquil PC is refreshing its compact fan-less case lineup with one that supports the second-generation NUC (next unit of computing) platform, based on Intel's Core "Haswell" processors. Pictured below, the all-aluminium cases are fanless, and rely on the body of the case to dissipate heat from the CPU and PCH, all while measuring 110 x 164 x 47 mm. The case supports Intel's D54250WYB NUC system board, featuring Core i5-4250U dual-core processor, and cutouts for its various connectors, including WLAN jack, DC power-input, mini-DisplayPort, dual PCIe mini-card connectors, mini-HDMI 1.4a, gigabit Ethernet, CIR, four USB ports, and audio jacks. Tranquil PC promises 12 to 25 percent lower temperatures than Intel's air-cooled case. Available now, the case is priced at £99.

Impactics unveiled the first fanless case for Intel's second-generation NUC (next unit of computing) desktop, which is based on the company's Core "Haswell" family. The still unnamed cases pictured below, are ready for Intel's D54250WYK motherboard, which feature Intel Core i5-4250U processors (dual-core, up to 2.60 GHz, 3 MB L3 cache). The cases are built from solid blocks of aluminium, and its body panels double up as heatsinks for the processor and chipset. Given that the reference chassis for D54250WYK from Intel comes with a lateral-blower fan that can get noisy on loads, cases such as these from Impactics could go a long way for the platform.

Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment and M&A organization, is announcing investments in 16 new technology companies totaling $65 million. Spanning nine countries, the investments will help drive innovations in the cloud, datacenter, mobile technologies and consumer-related services. Announced at the 14th annual Intel Capital Global Summit held in San Diego, the new investments are part of Intel Capital's mission of cultivating global innovation by providing entrepreneurs with the resources necessary to scale from startup to global corporation level.

Designed to create growth opportunities for Intel Capital portfolio companies through structured networking, the Intel Capital Global Summit includes a full agenda of keynote presentations, expert panels and more than 2,000 targeted meetings between portfolio company CEOs and key business executives. Portfolio companies attending past Global Summits have gone on to sign business deals with leading corporations across a wide range of industries.

Intel delayed its Core "Broadwell" SoCs for desktops and notebooks to the first quarter of 2014, owing to production delays facing the 14 nanometer silicon fabrication node that the chips are based on. These issues, according to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, could limit the company's ability to ship enough quantities of functioning chips, and so the company is ironing out its fab problems first. The delay, however, shouldn't have a cascading effect on "Skylake," the successor to "Broadwell," which is based on the same fab process. Skylake's position on the long-term company roadmaps is unaffected. "Broadwell" is a particularly important micro-architecture for Intel, which is struggling to get itself on to mainstream "post-PC" devices such as tablets.

Intel Corporation today reported third-quarter revenue of $13.5 billion, operating income of $3.5 billion, net income of $3.0 billion and EPS of $0.58. The company generated approximately $5.7 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $1.1 billion, and used $536 million to repurchase 24 million shares of stock.

"The third quarter came in as expected, with modest growth in a tough environment," said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. "We're executing on our strategy to offer an increasingly broad and diverse product portfolio that spans key growth segments, operating systems and form factors. Since August we have introduced more than 40 new products for market segments from the Internet-of-Things to datacenters, with an increasing focus on ultra-mobile devices and 2 in 1 systems."

BIOSTAR has released their newest micro-ATX motherboard based on the Intel H81 chipset, the "Hi-Fi H81S3". The board supports the Intel 4th generation Core i7 and Core i5 processors. It features Intel single chip architecture with HD 4600Graphics, along with a new integrated memory controller that will run at speeds up to 1600MHz. The H81 chipset has two SATA 6Gb/s ports (plus four SATA 3Gb/s ports), and two USB 3.0 headers. The "Hi-Fi H81S3" supports one DIMM per memory channel for a maximum of two sticks of RAM for up to 16Gigs. The "Hi-Fi H81S3" is a great option for small form factor systems where you rarely have more than one discrete card and two SATA drives. Being Intel based boards, they will also feature Intel Rapid Start Technology and Intel Smart Connect Technology.

Intel Corporation today announced plans to accelerate the development and deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT) by enabling intelligent devices, end-to-end analytics and connecting legacy devices to the cloud to drive business transformation.

In support of this effort, the company unveiled several products including the Intel Atom processor E3800 product family (formerly codenamed "Bay Trail-I"), a new family of Intel-based intelligent gateway solutions featuring integrated software from McAfee and Wind River, and new features for the Intel Quark SoC X1000.

For gamers who don't plan on overclocking their CPUs, GIGABYTE announced a new gaming desktop motherboard, branded within its G1.Killer series no less. The G1.Sniper B5 combines the key ingredients of a G1.Killer motherboard, with the mid-range Intel B85 Express platform, supporting Core "Haswell" processors in the LGA1150 package. It's built in the standard ATX form-factor. Since the chipset doesn't support CPU overclocking, GIGABYTE went easy on the CPU VRM, with a 4+1 phase design, which is guaranteed to run any socket LGA1150 CPU at its stock speeds. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors.

Expansion slots include two long PCI-Express slots, but only one of them is wired to the CPU, and supports PCI-Express 3.0 x16 speeds. The other slot is electrical gen 2.0 x4, and wired to the B85 PCH. Two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI, make up the remaining expansion slots. Storage connectivity includes four SATA 6 Gb/s, and two SATA 3 Gb/s ports. The audio solution is based on a Realtek ALC898 CODEC (110 dBA SNR), ground-layer isolation, Nichicon audiophile-grade electrolytic capacitors on the AMP stage, and a removable OPAMP chip. There's no Bigfoot Killer NIC, but a decent Intel-made GbE LAN chip. The board features AMI UEFI BIOS with GIGABYTE's latest G1.Killer series setup program (minus the CPU overclocking options, of course), backed by dual-BIOS.

Intel Corporation CEO Brian Krzanich today announced a collaboration agreement with Arduino LLC, the leading open-source hardware platform in the maker and education community. Krzanich also unveiled the Intel Galileo board, the first product in a new family of Arduino-compatible development boards featuring Intel architecture.

Arduino development kits and software programming interface make it easier for artists, designers and other do-it-yourself enthusiasts - who often don't have technical backgrounds - to create interactive objects or environments.

Today Intel Corporation announced She Will Connect, a new program that commits to expanding digital literacy skills to young women in developing countries. Intel will begin the initiative in Africa, where the gender gap is the greatest, by aiming to reach 5 million women and reduce the gender gap by 50 percent. To achieve this, Intel will work with a diverse set of partners including global and local NGOs and governments.

Findings from the groundbreaking "Women and the Web" report released by Intel in January revealed concrete data on the enormous Internet gender gap in the developing world and the social and economic benefits of securing Internet access for women. The report issued a call to action for stakeholders to double the number of women and girls online in developing countries in three years. She Will Connect demonstrates Intel's commitment to this action by not only providing digital literacy skills to girls and women, but also by pushing the concept of digital literacy forward through new, innovative and scalable models.

Intel Corporation's board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of 22.5 cents per share (90 cents per share on an annual basis) on the company's common stock. The dividend will be payable on Dec. 1, 2013, to stockholders of record on Nov. 7, 2013. Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world's computing devices.

Intel rolled out its first NUC (next unit of computing) kit based on its newest 4th generation Core processor family. Named NUC D54250WYK, it's a combination of D54250 motherboard, and a compatible chassis, with a compatible cooling solution. Its motherboard integrates a BGA Core i5-4250U processor (dual-core, HTT, 1.30-2.60 GHz, 3 MB L3 cache, HD 5000 graphics with Ultra-HD support), Intel QS77 chipset, room for two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots (16 GB max., DDR3-1600 supported).

Connectivity on the D54250WYK includes four USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports, two USB 2.0/1.1 ports (internal header), gigabit Ethernet, a SATA 6 Gb/s port (internal), one full-height mPCIe gen 2.0, which doubles up as mSATA 6 Gb/s, and one half-height mPCIe gen 2.0, letting you add your own wireless communications card. The unit draws power from an external 65W power-brick (included). It can latch onto your display over standard VESA wall-mounts.

Intel Corp. has recently revealed the discontinuance schedule for the 3.2 GHz Core i3-3210 and 3.3 GHz i3-3225 desktop CPUs and the 2.6 GHz Core i7-3720QM, 2.7 GHz i7-3820QM and 2.9 GHz i7-3920XM mobile chips. These are all Ivy Bridge-based models and have been introduced between Q2 2012 and Q1 2013. As usual, the reason for discontinuing the chips is market demand, which is shifting towards newer products.

According to Intel's plans, the boxed and tray versions of the processors will continue to be available for order up until March 28th, 2014, and will ship until September 5th, 2014.

Acer announces the support for the latest Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 series processor across its line of high performance Altos servers and Veriton Workstations starting September 2013. With up to 50% more cores per processor, lower thermal design power (TDP), and improved clock speeds, the new line of Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors offers extraordinary performance for companies and researchers alike. "Our professional line up of Altos servers is a cornerstone of our renewed focus on the commercial marketplace," stated Evis Lin, AVP of Commercial Products and Solutions Management at Acer. "Now with complete support of Intel's high-performance Xeon E5-2600 v2 CPUs, the Altos line is positioned perfectly to capitalize on channel and data center markets."

Acer's Altos line of professional server products offers robust functionality, best-in-class time to market, and scalable performance to meet a wide range of customer demands. Not only performance minded, the Altos servers can be configured based on customer demands with form factors that emphasize density and power savings, as well as other form factors to meet data-intense demands. Acer also offers its own management software, Acer Smart Server Manager, free of charge, enabling customers to simultaneously manage and rollout updates across multiple systems.

At the OC Main Event in San Francisco, co-hosted by ASUS, Corsair and Intel, the ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) Rampage IV Black Edition motherboard was used to break five overclocking world records. Combining the Rampage IV Black Edition motherboard with ASUS GeForce GTX Titan graphics cards, the latest 4th generation Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition processors and Corsair Vengeance Extreme and Dominator Platinum DDR3 memory, world-renowned members of the international overclocking community worked with ROG engineers to claim new top scores with the 3DMark 11Entry, 3DMark 11 Performance, 3DMark Fire Strike, Cinebench, and quad-channel memory frequency.

"We are proud that previous ASUS X79 motherboards have dominated overclocking rankings by breaking 26 world records since the chipset launch," said Jackie Hsu, ASUS Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Worldwide Sales, Open Platform Business Group. "The accomplishments we demonstrated here at the OC Main Event San Francisco are a testament to what is achievable by combining world-class R&D with incredible talents from the enthusiast community." Xavier Laurent, Director of Product Marketing for Corsair adds "As a company that creates products by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, collaborating with like-minded partners ASUS and Intel to break world benchmarking records using Corsair Dominator Platinum and Vengeance Pro memory was a natural fit. The success of the OC Main Event San Francisco demonstrates the continued strength of the enthusiast community and validates our commitment to this portion of the ecosystem."