Trailing the European Union's record 1.45 Billion Dollar penalty against silicon giant Intel for antitrust malpractice in Europe, American antitrust regulators are on the verge of filing their own set of charges against the company, emanating out of similar findings of investigations carried out by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Sources tell BusinessDay that three out of four commissioners on the FTC were in favor of filing a complaint against Intel. FTC's own inquiry opened in June, last year. It could be a matter of weeks, or even months before a vote formalizing FTC's stand on the issue happens.

"Our business practices are lawful and [work] to the benefit of consumers," said Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy, in response to the BusinessDay report. "We certainly have been working closely with the FTC as they conduct their investigation. We would hope that the speculation is incorrect ," he added. The US antitrust investigation follows similar investigations that have concluded against the favor of Intel, by the European Union, South Korea, and Japan. Japan's trade commission concluded in 2005 that Intel violated the country's anti-monopoly act. In June last year, South Korea fined Intel about $26m, finding it offered rebates to PC makers in return for not buying AMD microprocessors. EU's investigations yielded similar findings, where the company was fined 1.06 Billion EUR for paying computer makers to postpone or cancel products that use microprocessors made by smaller competitor AMD.

Acer America today announced its new Aspire 5738DG - an innovative notebook with 3D viewing technology. Featuring advanced display capabilities, high-definition graphics engine, premium Intel Core 2 Duo processor and Dolby Surround sound, the Aspire 5738DG delivers cinematic images that literally pop from the screen, while maintaining the performance and productivity features of a desktop replacement notebook.

Introduced with the exciting new Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, the new Acer Aspire 5738DG 3D notebook will be available this week at select retailers. "This holiday season, we are seeing 3D content become more prevalent in popular films and games," said Ray Sawall, senior manager of product marketing for Acer America. "The new Acer Aspire 5738DG notebook enables consumers to enjoy exciting new 3D entertainment on a mobile PC that can also replicate a 3D experience from standard 2D content. This product upholds Acer's strong tradition of combining innovation with value by delivering leading-edge technology at an affordable price that makes it accessible to the average consumer."

Intel's socket LGA-1156 quad-core processors are closely trailed by the company's first processors based on the 32 nm manufacturing process: Core i5 and Core i3 "Clarkdale" dual-core processors. Engineering samples of these processors were evaluated as early as Q2 2009, but one of the first attempts to show the processors' overclocking potential using air-cooling was made very recently. Even prior to that, a low-voltage overclocking feat by Coolaler showed how engineering samples didn't particularly struggle reaching clock speeds close to 4.00 GHz with vCore as low as 0.832V. Romanian tech community Lab501. Lab501 community leader "Monstru" tested the overclocking headroom of a Core i5 650 LGA-1156 dual-core processor (engineering sample) with air-cooling.

The test-bed included a Gigabyte P55 motherboard, the Core i5 650 processor was cooled by a Noctua NH-U12P, onto which a Coolink SWIF 2 120P fan was strapped. A clock speed of 4.70 GHz (25 x 188 MHz) was achieved (nearly 50% over the stock clock speed of 3.20 GHz). A core voltage of 1.424V was used. A point here to note however, is that the retail Core i5 650 will come with an upwards-locked bus frequency multiplier of 24 (24 x 133 MHz = 3.20 GHz). The processor at 4.70 GHz, was Prime95-stable for over 30 minutes. With an ambient temperature of 24 °C, the two cores heated up to 77 and 68 °C, not to forget that the processor was being air-cooled. Although with the use of an engineering sample (since the retail launch of this processor is tentatively three months away), the scope for inference of this feat is limited, it gives you a coarse indication that Intel is keeping the trend of ferociously fast dual-core processors alive. High(er) overclocking headroom on air-cooling is the fruition of the 32 nm process. Slated for Q1 2010, the siblings (and cousins) of the Core i5 650 include Core i5 660/661 (3.33 GHz, HTT), Core i5 670 (3.46 GHz, HTT), Core i3 540 (3.06 GHz, no HTT), Core i3 530 (2.93 GHz, no HTT), and Pentium G6950 (2.80 GHz, no HTT). Details of the series can be found here.

In the run up for Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 "Lynnfield" socket LGA-1156 processors, it was known that Intel will be trailing the launch with a few energy-efficient variants, that come with lower rated TDPs. Two of these, namely Core i5 750S, and Core i7 860S have made it to Coolaler's lab for a quick check up. Unlike other energy-efficient variants from Intel, in the past, such as Core 2 Quad Q9550S, these parts feature lower clock-speeds compared to their standard counterparts.

The Core i5 750S comes with a clock speed of 2.40 GHz (19.0 x 133 MHz) with a Turbo Boost speed of 3.20 GHz, and the Core i7 860S runs at 2.53 GHz, with 3.46 GHz of Turbo Boost speed. Both processors as a result, have lower TDPs of 82W, compared to 95W on the Core i5 and Core i7 "Lynnfield" processors currently in the market. They are slated for Q1 2010. Coolaler used the Turbo Boost mode to overclock these chips. The Core i7 860S with its Turbo Boost multiplier of 26.0, reached 4.536 GHz (26 x 174.47 MHz, vCore at 1.32V), while the Core i5 750S reached 3.441 GHz (24 x 143.4 MHz, vCore at 1.32V). Both were seated on an ASUS P7P55D Deluxe motherboard, with one 2 GB DDR3 memory module.

Bringing affordability to the ultraportable notebook platform, Acer America today announced the new Acer Aspire AS1410 Series. These new notebooks integrate enough power for enjoying digital entertainment in a very sleek, stylish design for just $US399.

"With the rising popularity of social networking, consumers are more connected than ever to the online world," said Ray Sawall, senior manager of product marketing for Acer America. "When it comes to selecting a notebook, they're increasingly concerned with size, weight and style. The AS1410 Series is small enough to be carried in a backpack or even a large purse but with enough power for spreadsheets and presentations. Aggressively priced, the AS1410 is an affordable mobile solution for checking Twitter updates, viewing YouTube videos and handling productivity applications on a plane, at school or a coffee house. Those in the market for a netbook should consider this notebook as an option, due to the step up in processing power."

Intel silently made its newest addition to the Core i7 desktop processor family official: the Core i7 960. This socket LGA-1366 processor is designed to work on motherboards with the Intel X58 Express chipset. After Intel's gradual replacement of the Core i7 965 Extreme Edition with the Core i7 975 Extreme Edition, there remained a scope for a non-XE Core i7 model with the same clock-speed as the i7 965 XE, albeit with an upwards locked bus frequency multiplier.

The Core i7 960 comes clocked at 3.20 GHz (24.0 x 133 MHz), with a maximum Turbo Boost speed of 3.43 GHz. It has four processing cores, and with the HyperThreading Technology, provides the operating system with eight logical CPUs. It comes with a QuickPath Interconnect speed of 4.8 GT/s, and supports up to 24 GB of memory with its triple-channel (192-bit wide) DDR3 memory interface. Each processing core has a dedicated L2 cache of 256 KB, while an 8 MB L3 cache is shared between all four cores. It is built on the 45 nm HKMG process, with a TDP of 130W.

The Core i7 960 is touted to displace the Core i7 950 from its existing price-point of around US $562 (in 1000 unit tray quantities). As evidence of that, popular American retailer Newegg.com has listed the OEM part (chip-only) at $589.99, a mere $10 higher than the retail box of the Core i7 950 listed on the same store.

Thecus Technology is always pushing the boundaries of what NAS devices are capable of. Today, Thecus is proud to introduce the N7700PRO, the follow up to the award winning N7700. While the original N7700 made its mark by being the world's first seven-bay NAS device, the N7700PRO raises the stakes with breathtaking performance, unmatched reliability, and maximum flexibility.

With the N7700PRO, blistering performance is the name of the game. At its core is an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and a whopping 4GB of high-speed DDR2 800 memory, making it the most powerful NAS unit available. In fact, with its PCI-e slot, the N7700PRO can reach data transfer speeds of over 300 MB/s by adding a PCI Express 10 Gbps Ethernet adapter. All of this raw power easily manipulates large amounts of data - perfect for the N7700PRO's seven 3.5" SATA drive bays that can accommodate up to 14TB of storage. Need even more storage at your disposal? With its stackable feature, you can connect up to five N7700PROs together and easily manage them all via a master unit. The N7700PRO is even compatible with iSCSI initiators and supports iSCSI thin provisioning for added performance and flexibility.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced a line of 4GB dual channel DDR3 kits for Intel P55 based Core i5 and Core i7 systems in speeds ranging from DDR3-1600 to DDR3-2200.

These nine new kits were designed to deliver excellent performance in the new breed of P55 based motherboards, supporting clock speeds up to 2200MHz in the fastest Core i7 systems. Each kit is hand tested in Super Talent's factory at tuned latencies that further enhance performance.

Acer, the third largest vendor in the worldwide PC market, today announced the Acer Aspire Z5610-U9072, a truly elegant, no-compromise all-in-one desktop PC featuring intuitive multi-touch technology and Windows 7 Home Premium. A powerful entertainment hub for the home, the Z5610 packs first-class performance and feature-rich functionality in a striking design. It will be available this holiday season at online retailers for an attractive price of $899.99.

Engineered to eliminate clutter and maximize workspace, this practical all-in-one streamlines the home or office with a flash of style and offers a unique blend of features and architecture. Boasting a stunning 23-inch HD display, ATI Mobility Radeon graphics and Intel Pentium Dual Core processing, the Aspire Z5610 offers world-class digital prowess.

Intel Corporation today reported third-quarter revenue of $9.4 billion. The company reported operating income of $2.6 billion, net income of $1.9 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of 33 cents.

"Intel's strong third-quarter results underscore that computing is essential to people's lives, proving the importance of technology innovation in leading an economic recovery," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "This momentum in the current economic climate, plus our product leadership, gives us confidence about our business prospects going forward. As we look ahead, Intel's game-changing 32nm process technology will usher in another wave of innovation from new, powerful Intel Xeon server platforms to high-performance Intel Core processors to low-power Intel Atom processors."

Highlights include:

• Third-Quarter Revenue $9.4 Billion, Strongest Second-to-Third-Quarter Growth in over 30 years
• Gross Margin 58 Percent, Up 7 Points Sequentially
• Operating Income $2.6 Billion
• Net Income $1.9 Billion
• EPS 33 Cents

To read the complete earnings release, visit this page.

Apart from being the industry's leading 3D graphics benchmark application, 3DMark has had a long history of 3D graphics hardware manufacturers cheating with their hardware using application-specific optimisations against Futuremark's guidelines to boost 3DMark scores. Often, this is done by drivers detecting the 3DMark executable, and downgrading image quality, so the graphics processor has to handle lesser amount of processing load from the application, and end up with a higher performance score. Time and again, similar application-specific optimisations have tarnished 3DMark's credibility as an industry-wide benchmark.

This time around, it's neither of the two graphics giants in the news for the wrong reasons, it's Intel. Although the company has a wide consumer base of integrated graphics, perhaps the discerning media user / very-casual gamer finds it best to opt for integrated graphics (IGP) solutions from NVIDIA or AMD. Such choices rely upon reviews evaluating the IGPs performance at accelerating video (where it's common knowledge that Intel's IGPs rely heavily on the CPU for smooth video playback, while competing IGPs fare better at hardware-acceleration), synthetic and real-world 3D benchmarks, among other application-specific tests.

There was a time when for the Intel platform, you could choose between motherboards based on chipsets from four or more vendors. With the weakening and discontinuation of chipset development for the Intel platform from the likes of VIA, and SiS, and NVIDIA facing a technical and legal blockade with further development of Intel chipsets with the latest Intel processors having integrated memory controllers and the Quickpath Interconnect system interface, consumer choice is reduced to platform core logic coming only from Intel, while motherboard vendors are able to use additives such as the NVIDIA nForce 200 PCI-Express bridge chip, or even the latest LucidLogix Hydra controller, among additional SATA, SAS and Ethernet controllers, to enhance the motherboards' feature-set beyond what the chipset can provide.

Following NVIDIA making the right noises about the future of its chipset division and development of chipsets that drive Socket LGA-1156 processors, it is becoming increasingly clear that its development has hit a possible legal or technical hurdle. Until those issues are ironed out completely, NVIDIA will not invest in further development of that chipset. In a statement, NVIDIA expressed its official position of its chipset division, and where things stand specific to the products it makes. Speaking of which, NVIDIA's chipset division currently sells chipsets for Intel's FSB-driven processors, AMD's latest processors, and the ION platform, which forms the foundation of a more capable ULPC platform based on the Intel Atom processor.

Intel Labs Europe (ILE), unveiled the latest Innovation Open Lab located at the Intel Ireland campus in Leixlip Co. Kildare. This is Intel's second European Innovation Open Lab, which will foster cooperation between Intel, industry and academia through joint research and innovation programs. The Lab's mission is to facilitate and enhance open research and innovation opportunities in Europe that can be converted into various broadly based and value-driven technology solutions. The Ireland Innovation Open Lab is part of the ILE initiative which was announced in January 2009.

The official opening was attended by special guests including Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister for Science, Technology & Innovation; Brian Crowley, MEP; Rick Echevarria, Vice President, Digital Enterprise Group and General Manager, Digital Office Platform Division, Intel; Dr. Martin Curley, Global Director, Intel IT Innovation and Director, Intel Labs Europe; and Jim OHara, General Manager, Intel Ireland and Vice President, Technology Manufacturing Group, Intel.

ASUS, the leader in innovative motherboard solutions, today unveiled the first motherboard in its newly-developed "TUF" (The Ultimate Force) Series, the SABERTOOTH 55i. The TUF Series is specially developed to meet the heavy computing demands of power users and perform well even under extreme conditions. Such computer enthusiasts often demand high-quality motherboard components and the most stable computing platforms. To achieve uncompromising stability, TUF Series motherboards have undergone a more stringent testing program than what most motherboard producers currently undertake. Solidly constructed and equipped with resilient components that have passed demanding military-style testing, the TUF Series triumphs over the harshest operating conditions to deliver robust performance. The debut SABERTOOTH 55i model, designed around a "Marine Cool" concept, incorporates the Intel P55 chipset and "tough" features to give users a supremely solid and stable computing platform.

At the IDF 2009 event, Intel showed of the fruition of the platform component rearrangement socket LGA-1156 strives for, by relocating the northbridge to the processor package. On display was the company's newest mini-ITX socket LGA-1156 motherboard that is full-featured, complete with Intel Flexible Display Interface support. Based on the Intel H57 chipset, the motherboard supports Intel Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 processors based on the socket. Its two DDR3 DIMM slots provide dual-channel memory interface.

The sole expansion slot is a PCI-Express 2.0 x16, which can be used for any PCI-Express addon card. Located at the north of the board, the H57 chipset provides four SATA 3 Gbps ports, and requires a small heatsink to stay comfortable. The rear panel sums up the rest of the feature-set, it includes display output via DVI and HDMI, Ethernet, six USB ports, eSATA, and 8-channel audio with optical SPDIF. In the second picture below, it's placed to the left of a mini-ITX G45 motherboard by Intel.

Intel Corporation introduced its revolutionary Intel Core i7 Mobile Processor and Intel Core i7 Mobile Processor Extreme Edition today, bringing Intel's award-winning and super-fast Nehalem microarchitecture to the mobile market.

These processors in addition to the new Intel PM55 Express Chipset, provide the best laptop experience for intense gaming, digital media, photos, music, business applications and other multi-threaded software that hungers for faster processing speed. The chips also boost overall performance when using several of these applications simultaneously.

The European Commission has today published a non-confidential version of its Intel Decision, adopted on 13 May 2009 ( IP/09/745 and MEMO/09/235 ), together with a summary of the key elements of the Decision. That Decision found that Intel broke EC Treaty antitrust rules (Article 82) by engaging in two types of illegal practice to exclude competitors from the market for computer chips called x86 central processing units (CPUs). These practices harmed consumers throughout the EEA. By undermining its competitors' ability to compete on the merits of their products, Intel's actions undermined competition, reduced consumer choice and hindered innovation. On the basis of a significant amount of contemporaneous evidence and company statements, the Decision demonstrates how Intel broke the law.

Intel abused its dominant position in the x86 CPU market by implementing a series of conditional rebates to computer manufacturers and to a European retailer and by taking other measures aimed at preventing or delaying the launch of computers based on competing products (so-called 'naked restrictions'). The Commission's Decision outlines specific cases of these conditional rebates and naked restrictions, as well as how Intel sought to conceal its practices and how computer manufacturers and Intel itself recognised the growing threat represented by the products of Intel's main competitor, AMD.

The term 'Hybrid' these days probably relates most to hybrid cars. DFI has taken the concept of two machines - a high-power one, and an energy-efficient one, to a whole new level with its Hybrid P45-ION-T2A2 socket LGA 775 motherboard. This motherboard literally packs two motherboards sharing a PCB: one P45+ICH10R based socket LGA-775 system, and another portion holding an Intel Atom processor powered by NVIDIA ION chipset. Each has its own memory and storage subsystems, and share the machine's IO (input devices and display) in a somewhat KVM-style. So even as the major system is busy playing games, transcoding media, or running other power-hungry tasks, the minor system is quietly running the downloads, playing music, etc. When the major system is not needed, the minor system provides enough juice for media consumption and internet browsing, and general productivity at a really low energy footprint. A pretty neat concept. DFI's engineers describe it further in this YouTube video.

Rambus Inc., one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed memory architectures, and Kingston Technology, the independent world leader in memory products, today announced a collaborative development of a threaded module prototype using DDR3 DRAM technology. Initial silicon results show an improvement in data throughput of up to 50 percent, while reducing power consumption by 20 percent compared to conventional modules.

As demand grows for throughput-intensive computing in notebooks, desktops and servers, the performance requirements on DRAM memory subsystems rises dramatically. As a result, multi-core computing requires more bandwidth and higher rates of random access from DRAM memory.

Intel has yet another high-value dual-core processor in the making, this one probably specific to the Chinese market again (following Pentium E6500K). While the new Pentium Dual Core E6700 does not come with an unlocked bus multiplier, it does come with its bus multiplier two notches higher, at 13.0x. With its bus speed of 266 MHz, it manages a stock clock speed of 3.46 GHz. Based on the 45 nm Wolfdale-2M core, the chip has an L2 cache of 2 MB and FSB of 1066 MHz. Coolaler used an engineering sample achieve an overclocking feat of 5.93 GHz (456.4 MHz x 13 @ 2.016 V) on a fairly mainstream Gigabyte GA-EP45 UD3L motherboard with 4.00 GB DDR2 memory (validation here). There is no information on its availability or pricing. Details on the various tests performed on the chip can be viewed at the Coolaler thread linked below.

Corsair, a worldwide leader in high-performance computer memory, power supplies and flash memory products, including solid-state drives, today announced that both 4GB and 8GB Dominator memory solutions have passed Intel's XMP-Ready certification for the newly-introduced Core i7-870 and Core i7-860 CPUs.

The 8GB Dominator GT 1600 MHz CAS 8 (CMD8GX3M4A1600C8) is part of Corsair's award-winning Dominator memory solutions. It is qualified and guaranteed to run at a frequency of 1600MHz with tight timings of 8-8-8-24 at a voltage of 1.65V. The 8GB solution features American Racing Blue fins and highlights to complement its unique combination of performance and density. The 4GB Dominator GT 1600 MHz CAS 8 (CMD4GX3M2A1600C8) is also qualified and guaranteed to run at a frequency of 1600MHz with timings of 8-8-8-24 at a voltage of 1.65V. The 4GB memory kit is shipped with Dominator Black trim.

Intel Corporation today disclosed new information about next-generation Intel Xeon processors - codenamed "Jasper Forest" - for communications and storage applications, due in early 2010. With Jasper Forest, Intel engineers have, for the first time, integrated PCI Express (PCIe) in a dual-processing Xeon processor, which greatly facilitates dense storage and communications solutions such as IPTV, VoIP, NAS, SAN and wireless radio network controllers.

Jasper Forest maintains the outstanding performance of Intel architecture (Nehalem), while lowering system power consumption by 27 watts when compared to the Intel Xeon 5500 series processors. The dual-processing solution integrates two Jasper Forest processors with 16 PCIe Generation 2.0 lanes each and is paired with the Intel 3420 chipset platform controller hub. This integration of the I/O hub via PCIe enables significant power and space savings, resulting in one of the highest performance-per-watt Intel Xeon chips ever.

Intel's foundries have commenced mass production of the company's first processors based on the 32 nm second generation high-K metal gate (HKMG) technologies. With these the company's next-generation Westmere architecture becomes retail-grade. The first products will include dual-core processors compatible with the recently introduced socket LGA-1156 platforms, and will carry the brand identifiers (and model number schemes) Core i5 600 series, Core i3 500 series, and Pentium dual-core series.

The desktop-grade parts are based on the "Clarkdale" core, and notebook-grade ones "Arrandale". The latter will be introduced first among the two, with the first Arrandale chips slated for Q4 2009, while the desktop chips arrive a little later in Q1 2010. Intel will focus on this transition to the Westmere architecture in the upcoming Intel Developer Forum event.

Novatech Ltd, UK's leading PC and laptop manufacturer announced today the latest addition to their Elite range of PCs. Featuring the new Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz processor and two NVIDIA graphics cards, the Novatech Elite Pro boasts incredible performance and a truly immersive gaming experience from just £999.

"The i5 offers superb performance for the price, with plenty of head room for overclocking" explained Kriss Pomroy, Commercial Director, Novatech Ltd, "however it's the Elite Pro's perfect balance of components and peripherals that makes this system so special."

Coinciding with Intel's launch of socket LGA-1156 Core i5/Core i7 processors, Lexar Media announced four Crucial DDR3 memory kits certified to work with the new platform. The four are dressed in Crucial's vanilla design that makes use of green PCBs sans heatspreaders, which may not be required considering the low voltage these modules operate on.

Coming as 2 GB (2x 1 GB) and 4 GB (2x 2 GB) capacities, the new kits in ECC and non-ECC variants. All four operate at 1333 MHz, with CAS latency of 9T, and DRAM voltage of 1.5 V. Backed by lifetime warranties, the 2 GB kits sell for 37 EUR, while the 4 GB ones for 95 EUR.