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."

Axiomtek announced PICO822, which is extreme-compact Pico-ITX motherboard designed to support the newest ultra low power Intel Atom processor E620T 600 MHz and E680T 1.6 GHz with the Intel Platform Controller Hub EG20T. The PICO822's compact size and ultra low power consumption make it a perfect fit for space-limited and power saving environments. Moreover, its onboard 1 GB DDR2-800 provides more reliability of vibration. The SATA connector with 3Gb/s and optional SATA SSD meet storage requirements with ease. Considering to the various demands and networking requests, the tiny embedded board comes with expansion interface. It allows connecting with SDVO, PCIe, UART, SMBus, and USB. Intel GMA 600 graphics core provides VGA and 18/24-bit single channel LVDS in dual view support. Furthermore, the pico-ITX mainboard has one Gigabit Ethernet, HD audio, four USB 2.0, one client USB 2.0, and two of RS-232 COM ports which provide excellent connectivity.

Intel Corporation today launched its latest family of low-power systems-on-a-chip (SoC), codenamed "Bay Trail," that will fuel a wave of highly powerful and energy efficient tablets, 2 in 1s and other mobile devices to market for consumers and business users in the fourth quarter of this year from leading OEMs including AAVA, Acer, ASUS, Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba.

The "Bay Trail" family of processors is based on Intel's low-power, high-performance microarchitecture "Silvermont," announced in May 2013. The Intel Atom Z3000 Processor Series ("Bay Trail-T") is the company's first mobile multi-core SoC and its most powerful offering to date for tablets and other sleek mobile designs. It delivers a fast and fluid experience and a powerful balance of performance, battery life, graphics and rich features.

Micron Technology, Inc., (Nasdaq:MU) today announced the availability of a replay-protected monotonic counter (RPMC) feature for their SPI NOR Flash memory devices, which are validated for future Intel Ultrabook platforms. The cost-effective 64Mb density is the sweet-spot solution currently available for immediate platform-enablement activities.

The RPMC feature in Micron's SPI NOR device is the first in a family of cryptographic primitives that will significantly enhance preboot security in cost-sensitive embedded, mobile, and personal computing architectures. The RPMC-enabled device facilitates critical nonvolatile data storage, while making systems resistant to rollback and replay attacks. It enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to further strengthen code/data storage in the boot memory and deliver more secure systems to customers.
Micron's 64Mb RPMC-enabled SPI NOR device supports nonvolatile storage and authentication needs that are critical to the chipset security implementation for future Intel Ultrabook platforms and is compliant with Intel's Serial Flash Hardening Product External Architecture Specification. The device, which is available in SO8W and W-DFN 0.8mm packages, also includes improved erase performance to increase throughput and lower the initial cost of manufacturing programming.

Intel Corporation today introduced the Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 v2 product family (code named "Ivy Bridge-EP"), an industry-leading set of versatile processors that promises to redefine the server, storage and networking infrastructure found in datacenters. With greater efficiency and flexibility, these processors will enable the rapid delivery of services for high performance computing, cloud and enterprise segments, and offer compelling new opportunities for telecommunications vendors.

The new Xeon product family is based on Intel's leading 22-nanometer process technology, contributing to dramatic energy efficiency improvements of up to 45 percent when compared to the previous generation. The processor family also features up to 12 cores and delivers up to 50 percent more performance across variety of compute intensive workloads.

EUROCOM Super Computer Sheds Weight, Gains Mobility, Becomes Server on the Go

Intel has published a case study on the EUROCOM Panther 5SE Mobile Server as part of winning the "Form Factor Solution Innovation Award", titled "Super Computer Sheds Weight, gains mobility, Becomes "Server-on-the-Go". As an Intel Platinum Reseller, Eurocom works very closely with Intel to offer innovative and cutting edge technology to professionals who demand powerful computing solutions wherever they may be. At the 2013 Intel Solution Summit, Eurocom was awarded the Form Factor Solution Innovation Award for delivering the most innovative mobile solution based on Intel Technology to meet our customers' demands for mobility.

More specifically the EUROCOM Panther 5SE was awarded this distinction by conquering the challenge of creating a portable server for application developers, emergrency responders, on site trainers and other who need powerful server capability on the go. As Intel Explains "Eurocom corporation successfully conquered this challenge by outfitting a desktop replacement chassis with the highest quality components, including the Intel Xeon processor E5 series and Intel S3700 solid state drives - chosen for their ability to support both workstation and server-class operations."

From data centers to ultra-mobile devices such as tablets, phones and wearables, computing segments are undergoing exciting and even game-changing transitions, said new Intel CEO Brian Krzanich during today's opening session of the Intel Developer Forum. Krzanich laid out Intel's vision and described how Intel is addressing each dynamic market segment - such as accelerating Intel's progress in ultra-mobile devices - with new products over the next year and beyond, including a new, lower-power product family.

Krzanich said Intel plans to leave no segment untapped. "Innovation and industry transformation are happening more rapidly than ever before, which play to Intel's strengths. We have the manufacturing technology leadership and architectural tools in place to push further into lower power regimes. We plan to shape and lead in all areas of computing."Image courtesy of Engadget

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash storage application products, announced today that the company's new generation DDR4 SDRAM modules will be on display at the Intel Developer Forum 2013 (IDF13), held this year in San Francisco. Targeting server and render farm applications, the new DDR4 modules show that ADATA is once again at the front of the pack in providing new high-performance solutions to the enterprise market.

DDR4 SDRAM stands for double data rate fourth generation synchronous dynamic random-access memory, and its most notable features are faster clock frequencies and data transfer rates as compared to DDR3, as well as low power consumption. Running at just 1.2 volts, these new modules are expected to achieve transfer rates of 3.2Gbps, at frequencies as high as 2133MHz, far outstripping the capabilities of previous generations of DRAM. In large scale server applications, the advantages of DDR4 will lead to lower costs and greatly improved overall system performance. The new DDR4 SDRAM modules will be showcased along with the company's other premium memory solutions at booth number 554 at IDF13.

OCZ Technology Group, a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, will showcase its latest solid state drive storage products at the 2013 Intel Developer Forum (IDF), September 10th through September 12th at Moscone Center, San Francisco. This event is an excellent opportunity for OCZ to connect with customers and partners using the latest Intel technology by demonstrating its complete portfolio of SSD solutions tailored for big data, cloud computing, and other enterprise applications.

Offering solutions for applications including virtualization, database, and cloud management, OCZ will display a comprehensive lineup of innovative products designed to solve performance, availability, and reliability roadblocks in IT infrastructures. OCZ will unveil the upcoming smaller form factor Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSD, featuring the same exceptional performance but with the ability to be deployed in a much greater range of platforms, including support for the Open Compute Project (OCP). The OCP Foundation is a growing community of engineers around the world whose mission is to design and enable the delivery of the most efficient server, storage, and data center hardware designs for scalable computing, and provides a structure in which individuals and organizations can share their intellectual property.

Intel Corporation today announced the Intel Solid-State Drive (SSD) Professional Family, including the Intel Solid-State Drive Pro 1500 Series. The new business-class SSDs are engineered specifically for easy IT deployment and secure manageability, and offer a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) with enhanced performance.

Migrating to SSD-based PCs can improve employee productivity by as much as 13 percent, according to research by J. Gold Associates. The Intel SSD Pro 1500 Series allows IT departments to increase employee uptime and reduce cost with its advanced manageability and security features. The Intel Stable Image Platform Program ensures that key drivers are in place and makes transitioning to the Intel SSD Pro 1500 Series simple and predictable. The ability to remotely manage assets and diagnose issues at the drive level means fewer deskside visits, so PC maintenance and repairs require less time.Image courtesy of HotHardware

The industry's leading brand, MSI, has officially released a new BIOS that allows its X79 chipset motherboards to support Intel's newest 22 nm LGA2011 processors (codename: Ivy Bridge-E) today. Users can experience the powerful performance from the newest 22 nm LGA2011 processors immediately by simply updating the BIOS from MSI's official website.

Reviews of Intel's Core i7-4960X may be all over the web, but each one we came across only pictures the chip itself, and not its retail packaging. It turns out that the i7-4960X will be the first "Extreme" tier Intel processor (well, since the decade-old Pentium 4 Extreme Edition anyway), to ship in a blue box, and not the premium black-colored one that's easy to spot at a store, or on a lengthy list online, should you decide to spend a grand on your next CPU. A Japanese store released these pictures of the Core i7-4960X retail box to Hermitage Akihabara.

The Core i7-4960X is a HEDT (high-end desktop) processor by Intel, in the socket LGA2011 package, and based on the 22 nm "Ivy Bridge-E" silicon. It features six cores, twelve logical CPUs enabled by HyperThreading, 15 MB of L3 cache, a quad-channel DDR3 integrated memory controller, and a 48-lane PCI-Express gen 3.0 certified root complex. It features a clock speed of 3.60 GHz, with 4.00 GHz Turbo Boost frequency. The chip should be supported on any socket LGA2011 motherboard based on the X79 Express and C608 chipsets, with a BIOS update in place; unless one supports it out of the box.

ASUS today announced Transformer Book Trio, a new breed of ultraportable device with a two-part dockable design that can be used by one person as a laptop, or by two people as a separate tablet and desktop PC. With the ability to switch between Windows 8 and Android at the press of a button, Transformer Book Trio offers unmatched three-in-one flexibility for users who want the best of all mobile worlds.

Dual processors and dual operating systems
ASUS Transformer Book Trio features a sleek and durable metallic design, and is powered by a 4th generation Intel Core processor for seamless multi-tasking performance and outstanding energy efficiency in Windows 8 laptop mode. When it's time for entertainment to take over from productivity, the 11.6-inch display detaches from the 'PC Station' keyboard dock for use as a multi-touch Android tablet with its own Intel Atom dual-core processor and up to 64 GB of solid-state storage.

Intel Corporation today introduced a portfolio of datacenter products and technologies for cloud service providers looking to drive greater efficiency and flexibility into their infrastructure to support a growing demand for new services and future innovation.

Server, network and storage infrastructure is evolving to better suit an increasingly diverse set of lightweight workloads, creating the emergence of microserver, cold storage and entry networking segments. By optimizing technologies for specific workloads, Intel will help cloud providers significantly increase utilization, drive down costs and provide compelling and consistent experiences to consumers and businesses.

Intel's pocket-sized prodigy, NUC (next unit of computing), made waves since 2012, when it launched as a full-fledged desktop system, based on Core "Ivy Bridge" platform. The industry has since been looking forward to second-generation NUC, which runs the company's latest Core "Haswell" processors. One such fun-size powerhouse was spotted at PAX Prime. Labelled Intel D54250WYK, the kit runs a Core i5-4250U dual-core processor (1.30 GHz clocks, 2.60 GHz Turbo Boost, 3 MB L3 cache, HD Graphics 5000, 15W TDP). The reference-design enclosure is smaller in size than its predecessor, measuring 116.6 mm x 112 mm x 34.5 mm, compared to the original's 116.5 mm x 112 mm x 39.3 mm. Connectivity on the device include a single 3.5 mm headset jack, four USB 3.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, and mini-DisplayPort (both of which give out 7.1-channel digital audio). Wireless connectivity options could include anything from 802.11 b/g/n (or even 802.11 ac), Bluetooth 4.0. Intel could detail, or perhaps even launch, its next-generation NUC at IDF San Francisco.

In addition to releasing 17 desktop chips, Intel also made available a dozen new (Haswell) mobile CPUs - one quad-core and eleven dual-cores. This fresh batch includes four Core i7 models, five Core i5s, and three Celerons. More details can be seen in the table below.

x86 heavyweight Intel Corp. has just updated its desktop processor offer with a bunch of new Haswell and Ivy Bridge models. Detailed below, this latest release wave includes the 3.5 GHz Core i7-4771, four Core i5 chips priced at $182 (two Haswell and two Ivy Bridge CPUs), Core i3s going from 2.9 GHz to 3.6 GHz, five Pentiums, plus a couple of Ivy Bridge-based Celerons. The processors cover a price range that starts at $42 (for the low-power Celeron G1620T) and tops $314 (for the Core i7-4771).

MSI, the global renowned embedded computing provider, proudly releases the MS-98C7 Mini-ITX embedded board for high-density processing and graphic application markets. The MS-98C7 boosts processing power with the Intel 4th Generation 8 series chipset platform, which CPU performance is rated to be 5 to 15% higher and graphic performance 30% higher than the 3rd generation platform.

Armed with the great processing and graphic power, the MS-98C7 also supports sufficient memory capacity up to 16 GB to ensure smooth outputs with efficiency, even when tough tasks are required. Plus its 3 or 2 independent displays with output interfaces of VGA, LVDS, and DP, the MS-98C7 delivers an excellent solution for industrial scenes with intensive display requirements, such as digital signage, onboard MOD, gaming, and more.

It could soon become possible to overclock the controller and NAND flash of your SSD, if Intel has its way. The company is set to demonstrate how to overclock Intel-branded SSDs using its Xtreme Tuning Utility (XTU), at IDF 2013, which goes underway this September. The item on Intel's IDF itinerary marked "AIOS001" deals with seminars on overclocking Intel's next-generation HEDT (high-end desktop) platforms. X-bit Labs believes Intel could talk about SSD overclocking during that session.

Options to tweak SSDs were discovered when poking around the code of an unreleased XTU version. XTU is a unified software utility by Intel, which lets you tweak CPU, memory, and system cooling on systems running Intel Desktop Boards. Among the things end-users should be able to tweak, apart from the controller clock-speed, are the NAND flash bus-speed. Taking away interface overheads and other round-offs, 560 MB/s appears to be the practical maximum bandwidth SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs have been able to achieve. It could always be handy getting your SSD a few dozen more MB/s sequential speeds at the expense of stability.

Intel's 9-series chipset, which is built for the company's next-generation Core "Broadwell" processor family, and slated for the second half of 2014, may face backwards-compatibility issues with current-generation Core "Haswell" processors, and the ability of current 8-series platforms to support "Broadwell," even though the two processor families share a common LGA1150 CPU socket, according to a VR-Zone report.

The report notes that a number of electrical connections between the CPU socket and chipset are different, and the chip follows a different power supply (as in power distribution within the chip/motherboard) than "Haswell." Such differences could pose backwards-compatibility issues. Although a generation ahead of Haswell, Broadwell isn't its immediate successor. Intel plans to roll out a refreshed Core "Haswell" processor family in a few quarters from now, which in addition to fully-integrated clocking mode, could introduce a few other platform changes. The report notes that 9-series chipset motherboards could be more compatible with Haswell (refresh), than the current Haswell platform. Intel 9-series chipset could introduce support for SATA-Express, the next big consumer internal storage interface that succeeds SATA 6 Gb/s.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced its latest range of 8 series motherboards based on the new Intel H81 Chipset (PCH) supporting the latest 4th generation Intel Core processors. GIGABYTE Intel H81 series motherboards include ATX and Micro-ATX models, bringing together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer the absolute best in terms of quality, durability and overall lifespan.

GIGABYTE H81 series motherboards stand out from the competition with signature features that guarantee the utmost in both performance and reliability. High quality components for key areas of the motherboard are joined by an updated and improved UEFI DualBIOS which offers a customizable, full HD BIOS environment, plus the new GIGABYTE App Center, which combines key GIGABYTE applications in a simple, unified interface. GIGABYTE H81 series motherboards also provide additional USB 3.0 ports and support the latest 4K resolution displays on both HDMI and DisplayPort.

The business end of Intel's 4th generation Core desktop processor family, Core i3 and Pentium Dual-Core, are dressing up for work. Intel reportedly gave final touches to retail pricing of at least three new Core i3 parts, a mid-range Core i5 part, a high-end Core i7 part, and three Pentium ones. Intel's Core i3 "Haswell" desktop processor lineup begins with the Core i3-4130 dual-core processor, featuring 3.40 GHz clock speed, no Turbo Boost, HyperThreading, and 3 MB of shared L3 cache, priced at US $136.85. It is followed by the Core i3-4330, which ups clock speed to 3.50 GHz, shared L3 cache to 4 MB; and a $154.75 price-tag. The Core i3 "Haswell" family is led by the Core i3-4340, with its 3.60 GHz clock speed, and 4 MB of L3 cache.

Intel also plans a mid-range quad-core Core i5 part, the i5-4440, which features 3.10 GHz clocks, 3.40 GHz Turbo Boost, no HyperThreading, and 6 MB of shared L3 cache. It is priced at $197.26. Intel also rectified its high-end Core i7 lineup with the new Core i7-4771, which features 3.50 GHz clocks, 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost, HyperThreading, and 8 MB of shared L3 cache. This part, as reported earlier, is designed to displace the Core i7-4770 (non-K), and is priced at $333.77 a piece.

Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics chip shipments and suppliers' market share for 2013 2Q. While the news was disappointing year-to-year, the news was encouraging quarter-to-quarter. AMD overall unit shipments increased 10.9%, quarter-to-quarter, Intel increased 6.2%, and Nvidia decreased by 8%. The overall PC market declined 2.5% quarter-to-quarter while the graphics market increased 4.6%. Overall this net 7.1% increase reflects an interest on the part of consumers for double-attach-the adding of a discrete GPU to a system with integrated processor graphics, and to a lesser extent dual AIBs in performance desktop machines.

On a year-to-year basis we found that total graphics shipments during Q2'13 dropped 6.8% while PC shipments which declined by at a faster rate of 11.2% overall. GPUs are traditionally a leading indicator of the market, since a GPU goes into every system before it is shipped and most of the PC vendors are guiding down to flat for Q3'13. The popularity of tablets and the persistent economic slowness are the most often mentioned reasons for the decline in the PC market and the CAGR for PC graphics from 2012 to 2016 is -1.4%; we expect the total shipments of graphics chips in 2016 to be 319 million units.