Intel Corporation and Micron Technology Inc. today announced mass production of their jointly developed 34nm, 32 gigabit multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory device. Developed and manufactured by the companies' NAND flash joint venture, IM Flash Technologies (IMFT), the process technology is the most advanced process available on the market and enables the industry's only monolithic 32 Gb NAND chip that fits into a standard 48-lead thin small-outline package (TSOP). The companies are ahead of schedule with 34nm NAND production, expecting their Lehi facility to have transitioned more than 50 percent of its capacity to 34nm by year's end.

Intel Developer Forum, in its 11th year as Intel Corporation's largest technology conferences, returns to China, the United States and Taiwan in 2009. Beijing will host the first IDF on next year's schedule, April 8-9 at the Beijing International Convention Center. Next is San Francisco, Sept. 22-24 at Moscone Center West, followed by Taipei, Taiwan, Nov. 16-17 at the Taipei International Convention Center. Spanning the worlds of mobility, digital home, digital enterprise and technology and research, IDF focuses on Intel's directions for the next year and beyond. The events collectively draw more than 10,000 system developers, engineers, implementers and architects, among other technical audiences annually. More than 1,250 journalists and analysts covered this year's IDFs in Shanghai, San Francisco and Taipei.
Further information is available at developer.intel.com/idf.

The launch of Core i7 processors may have kicked off in great fanfare, given that the industry has been preparing rigorously for its launch since the turn of Q2 2008, but sources at motherboard vendors tell DigiTimes that it might be as long as Q3 2009, by the time sales and shipments really pickup. Intel on its part, has already claimed to have shipped over 100,000 Core i7 units. The odd thing about Core i7's launch is its timing. It comes at a time when Intel's desktop processors are successful in the market, and that Intel didn't stall its related technology development to pave the way for it.

BIOSTAR Microtech Int'l Corp., a professional manufacturer of motherboards has unveiled a top of the line model for next generation Intel platform-TPower X58, a superior extreme performance and best power efficiency desktop product.

BIOSTAR TPower X58 based on Intel X58 chipset, which supports Intel latest core i7 series processor family. Intel core i7 series processor supports Quad-Core and Hyper threading technology. Its performance is better performance than prior product family.

AMD has released an ATI Catalyst driver hotfix, Catalyst 8.11 with Intel X58 i7 Driver, that aims to improve performance on Intel X58 platfoms with ATI graphics accelerator installed. The X58-specific optimizations would also be part of next month's Catalyst 8.12 release. The hotfix applies to all discrete graphics cards, ATI Radeon X1000 series and later. The game-specific improvements are universal (helps everyone). A concise list of improvements this hotfix brings about as listed by AMD is as follows:

• Improves performance in various Direct3D and OpenGL applications on the X58 platform. AMD's next official ATI Catalyst release (ATI Catalyst 8.12) will include these optimizations
• Improves performance for the DirectX 9 version of Far Cry 2 on CrossFire compatible systems
• Improves performance for the DirectX 10 version of Far Cry 2 on both single and CrossFire compatible systems
• Improves performance for the DirectX 10 and DirectX 10.1 version of Stalker Clear Sky on both single and CrossFireX configurations at higher resolutions
• Brothers in Arms - Hells Highway no longer displays corruption on the 'Black Friday' level.

DOWNLOAD: for Windows XP (32/64-bit) | for Windows Vista (32/64-bit). More information can be found here.

Intel Corporation introduced its most advanced desktop processor ever, the Intel Core i7 processor. The Core i7 processor is the first member of a new family of Nehalem processor designs and is the most sophisticated ever built, with new technologies that boost performance on demand and maximize data throughput. The Core i7 processor speeds video editing, immersive games and other popular Internet and computer activities by up to 40 percent without increasing power consumption.
Broadly heralded by the computing industry as a technical marvel, the Intel Core i7 processor holds a new world record of 117 for the SPECint_base_rate2006 benchmark test that measures the performance of a processor. This is the first time ever for any single processor to exceed a score of 100 points.

In addition to the new LGA 775 processors, Intel is preparing price cuts for its solid state drives. Intel's super fast 2.5-inch 80GB multi-level cell (MLC) X25-M SSDs - and its 80GB 1.8-inch X18-M counterpart - will drop from $600 to $525 on November 30th. On the very same day Intel will also introduce its new single-level cell (SLC) high-performance 32GB X25-E SSD for $700. A month later on December 28th, the price of this drive will already be dropped to $575. In the first half of 2009, Intel will be migrating to higher density, releasing 160GB variants of the X25-M/X18-M MLC SSDs priced at $990, and 64GB versions of the high-performance X25-E SLC SSDs priced again at $990.

Believe it or not, although the Core i7 processors have just became available, Intel won't be giving up on its LGA 775 product line-up. According to the trustworthy reporters at DailyTech, on January 18, Intel will launch three new Core 2 Quad processors with a TDP of just 65W. These will be the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200s (2.33GHz, 4MB L2 cache, FSB 1333MHz), Q9400s (2.66GHz, 6MB L2 cache, FSB 1333MHz), and Q9550s (2.83GHz, 12MB L2 cache, FSB 1333MHz) models, priced at $245, $320 and $369 respectively. All three models differ from their brothers from the s-letter in their nomenclature. Intel will also launch a new 2.6GHz Pentium Dual Core E5300 processor in November of this year and one more, the 2.7GHz Pentium Dual Core E5400 on January 18th next year. The second CPU will be priced at $84 when available. Lastly, Intel's power efficient 35W processor lineup will also see some changes at the end of the year. The new T9800 (2.70GHz, 6MB L2 cache, FSB 1066MHz, $530), Q9000 (2.00GHz, 6MB L2 cache, FSB 1066MHz, $348), P9600 (2.66GHz, 6MB L2 cache, FSB 1066MHz, $348), T9550 (2.66GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 1066MHz, $316), and P9600 (2.53GHz, 3MB L2 cache, FSB 1066MHz, $241) will be released then.

Intel's eagerly anticipated Core i7 series of processors have hit retail channels today, with top online and ground stores in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe listing the processors. This, a day in advance, with the company slating the launch for November 17 originally. The Core i7 is the poster-boy for Intel's Nehalem microprocessor architecture. It is a quad-core 8-threaded processor featuring 256 KB L2 caches per core, with shared 8 MB L3 cache. Some of the listings for the processors are as follows:

Overclockers UK (₤276 ~ ₤904) | Scan UK (₤259.87 ~ ₤892.02) | Newegg US (US $319.99 ~ $1069) | Micro Center US ($299.99 ~ $999.99) | HOH Deutschland (€283,90 ~ €989,90) | NCIX Canada (CA $388.99 ~ $1443.99) | TechBuy Australia (AU $676.35 ~ $2364.20)

For the motherboards:

Newegg US ($220.99 ~ $398.99) | Overclockers UK (₤223.24 ~ ₤340.74) | HOH Deutschland (€244,90 ~ €339,90) | NCIX Canada (CA $366.18 ~ $374.99) | TechBuy Australia (AU $503.90 ~ $635.70)

Now that Intel's Atom is on top of the netbook processor market, while VIA and AMD are trying to compete somehow, it appears that a fourth chip maker is going to enter the netbook business and try to give Intel's Atom architecture a run for its money. ARM and Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, are co-operating to make Ubuntu Desktop operating system that will run well with ARM's ARMv7 processor architecture. This will enable new Linux netbooks and hybrid computers to enter the market.
"The release of a full Ubuntu desktop distribution supporting latest ARM technology will enable rapid growth, with internet everywhere, connected ultra portable devices," said Ian Drew, vice president of Marketing, ARM. "The always-on experience available with mobile devices is rapidly expanding to new device categories such as netbooks, laptops and other internet connected products. Working with Canonical will pave the way for the development of new features and innovations to all connected platforms."
This version of the Ubuntu Desktop operating system will handle the ARM Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processor-based systems. The final Ubuntu ARM distribution will debut in April 2009. Now we only need volunteers to choose ARM and Linux for their netbooks.

Industry observer DigiTimes reports today that chip maker Intel is planning on launching new server Nehalem-EP and Nehalem-WS processors within the first quarter of 2009.

Intel is planning to launch Xeon 5500 (Nehalem-EP) and Xeon 3500 series (Nehalem-WS) server CPUs in the first quarter of 2009, according to sources at server makers. Intel will launch ten CPUs for the Xeon 5500 series: quad-core W5580 (3.2GHz), X5570 (2.93GHz), X5560 (2.8GHz), X5550 (2.66GHz), E5540 (2.53GHz), E5530 (2.4GHz), E5520 (2.26GHz), E5506 (2.13GHz), E5504 (2GHz) and dual-core E5502 with prices at US$1,600, US$1,386, US$1,172, US$958, US$744, US$530, US$373, US$266, US$224 and US$188 in thousand-unit tray quantities. For the Xeon 3500 series, Intel will launch three CPUs: quad-core W3570, W3540 and W3520 priced at US$999, US$562 and US$284.
In additional news, Intel is planning to phase out seven notebook CPUs including the Core 2 Extreme X7900 and X7800, and Core 2 Duo T7800 and L7700 in January next year.

The Intel Atom processor saw the company create a new niche, that of netbooks (sub-notebooks) and nettops. It has become the de-facto choice of OEM builders who are themselves teething in this new market. Intel Atom finds direct competition in VIA Nano, which offers the same x86 embedded options, at nearly the same thermal footprints, although AMD has some catching up to do in this segment.

Industry observer, DigiTimes, notes that Acer could be eying non-Atom options for its upcoming nettop SKUs. These products could feature VIA Nano, or AMD Athlon low-power processors. The company is basing it on the issue, that it plans to sell around 12~13 million nettop units, and given the situation, sourcing all the processors from Intel doesn't seem feasible. The silicon giant is already dealing with massive back-orders, backlog and stock shortages for the amount of demand the Atom has created. Acer also has three OEM sources in mind to make the nettop: Quanta Computer, Wistron and Micro-Star International (MSI). The company is expected to reach a decision in December.

Intel will be releasing its newest processor: the Core i7, in the days to come. The first releases of the i7 are based on the Bloomfield core, which happens to be the poster-boy for the Intel Nehalem CPU architecture. The processor uses Intel's new LGA-1366 socket, it is a quad-core processor with HyperThreading enabled.

Expreview pictured the Core i7 (non Extreme) package, which reveals a largely standard pack that's seen on Intel's processors these days. Also pictured is Intel's stock cooler for the non-Extreme i7 processors, which largely resembles the stock-coolers of most Intel processors. It consists of a central block made of copper, which makes contact with the CPU. The thermal interface material is pre-applied to it. Aluminum fins project radially from the block, which fork into thinner fins, to increase surface-area. Also included in the package is the related documentation, warranty declaration and bezel sticker. The CPU pictured by Expreview is the i7 920, clocked at 2.66 GHz, with 8 MB L3 cache. The processor has a QuickPath Interconnect speed of 4800 MT/s.

SiS today announced the SiSM671/968/307DV chipset supporting the latest Intel Atom 230 and series CPU has been adopted by Dell to develop the Thin-Client PC OptiPlex FX160 project. With low power consumption and without fan characteristic of SiS chipsets, the new launched Dell OptiPlex FX160 is designed for business users to experience the noiseless environment and to make a contribute to energy saving and carbon reduction.

As the photo shown below, the DELL OptiPlex FX160 has the quite exquisite outlook. The space-saving design is only one eighth of the regular ATX chassis with SiSM671-based chipset of Mini-iTX motherboard inside. On account of superiority of meshed aluminum material case, the DELL OptiPlex FX160 not only integrates all the modern PC functions thoroughly but also features small-sized, light-weighted, high radiation; easy-fixing and power-saving. We can foresee the cost-efficient and full functional DELL OptiPlex FX160 paired with Intel Atom series processors and DDR2 memory definitely becomes the tendency in the IT world.

Stealing money has always been the easy way to earn some quick pocket change, but what about $1 Billion stolen not from anybody but from Intel itself. At the age of 33, Biswamohan Pani, now a former Intel employee, was charged today for stealing trade secrets from Intel that worth more than $1 billion. Pani was allegedly stealing trade secrets from Intel Corp.'s facility in Hudson, Mass., and downloading confidential documents from the company's offices in California. According to the indictment, Pani gave notice to leave Intel and told his superiors he was using up about a week of vacation while looking for a job at a hedge fund. In reality, he had taken a job at Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices, and while using up vacation time at Intel, was downloading valuable trade secrets. When Pani's house was searched by the FBI, they've found eight documents described by Intel as "confidential," "secret" or "top secret." Now Biswamohan Pani is facing a major sentence in prison, so he can reconsider his theft estimated for $1 billion in research and development costs. On the other side, AMD said it was not aware for any of Pani's stolen information.

Intel recently issued a list of the processors it will be phasing out in favour of the new and faster Core i7 CPUs. The list includes several 65nm, 45nm and some laptop processors:

• Q9450 (2.66 GHz 1333 MT/s, quad-core, 95 watt, LGA775, Yorkfield 45nm)
• E8200 (2.66 GHz 1333 MT/s, dual-core, 65 watt, LGA775, Wolfdale 45nm)
• E8190 (2.66 GHz 1333 MT/s, dual-core, 65 watt, LGA775, Wolfdale 45nm)
• E6850 (3.00 GHz 1333 MT/s, dual-core, 65 watt, LGA775, Conroe 65nm)
• E6750 (2.66 GHz 1333 MT/s, dual-core, 65 watt, LGA775, Conroe 65nm)
• E6550 (2.33 GHz 1333 MT/s, dual-core, 65 watt, LGA775, Conroe 65nm)
• E6540 (2.33 GHz 1333 MT/s, dual-core, 65 watt, LGA775, Conroe 65nm)
• E4600 (2.40 GHz 800 MT/s, dual-core, 65 watt, LGA775, Allendale 65nm)
• T7400 (2.16 GHz 667 MT/s, mobile dual-core, 34 watt, Socket-M, Merom 65nm)
• Celeron-M 530 (1.73 GHz mobile, 533 MT/s, single-core, 30 watt, Socket-M, Merom-1024 65nm)

You will still be able to get these items until 2010, but Intel is already taking measures to slowly phase them out from the market.

Previews, reviews and all kind of write-ups about the new Intel Core i7/X58 platform flooded the network this morning. I'll use this post to add all the links I can find, you can also post your comments here until the official press release statement.

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Intel has set concrete plans for the rest of 2008 and 2009, with its lineup of mobile processors, as in notebook, netbook, portable PC, and MID processors. Roadmaps available with TechARP also reveal Intel's plans for supportive chipsets. The roadmap, for now, shows that the laptop won't be running a Nehalem processor until Q3, 2009. The company still has several SKUs to pull off its hat till there's a need to bring in Nehalem architecture based processors.

Whichever way the global economy is headed, 3Q, 2008 hasn't been a bad period for computer hardware industry. The GPU market saw its bumper sale in six years, with both NVIDIA and AMD reaping inflows. Similar trends were also reported with other sections of the industry. The CPU for one, is commodity closely linked to the growth of the industry. 3Q 2008 saw record earnings for Intel as well, as the silicon giant continued its market-share gains into rival AMD, as recorded by market observer iSuppli.

According to iSuppli figures held by Information Week, Intel now holds a massive 80.4% of the CPU market share, which is up 1.7% from Q3 2007. AMD's share on the other hand fell 1.8 percentage points to 12.1% from 13.9% a year ago. Compared to Q2 2008, AMD's market share grew by 0.1%, and Intel's grew by 0.3%. There is a clear influence of smaller CPU vendors that has affected AMD's share. These smaller vendors are finding it increasingly difficult to compete on a global scale amidst the economic crisis.

ZOTAC International, a leading manufacturer of NVIDIA-based graphics cards and motherboards, today unleashes its latest mini-ITX form factor motherboard -- the ZOTAC nForce 630i-ITX WiFi - a new high-performance platform that occupies minimal space. The new ZOTAC nForce 630i-ITX WiFi combines the power of NVIDIA GeForce 7 series graphics processing with Intel Core 2 processors and wireless network connectivity into a single 170mm2 package. New integrated 802.11b/g WiFi enables the ZOTAC nForce 630i-ITX WiFi to connect to wireless networks for wireless Internet connectivity. Integrated WiFi allows users to enjoy network connectivity without wires or the hassles of large and bulky external wireless cards.

Consumers become product designers at WePC.com, a Web site launched today by Intel Corporation and ASUS. WePC.com is where consumers can collaborate with each other and with Intel and ASUS to design innovative new products. The plan is for the two companies to deliver to market what could be the world's first community-designed PCs. WePC.com will enable a global conversation about the ideal elements of PCs. Visitors to the site can share ideas, vote on submitted concepts and engage in discussions with other community members about the qualities of the "dream" PC.

At an award ceremony hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last evening, Intel Corporation received a 2008 Green Power Leadership Award and was also named a Green Power Partner of the Year. The EPA recognized the company's voluntary efforts to address climate change through green power purchases and its impact in advancing the renewable energy market.

"This is but one milestone in our long-term strategy to help make renewable energy more economically feasible and a realistic choice for individuals and corporations," said William Swope, vice president of Intel's Corporate Affairs Group. "Renewable energy investment is imperative to spur the growth of the nation's energy market and we'll continue this ramp along with our industry efforts."

During IDF Taipei earlier last week Intel demonstrated its DCC (Desktop Control Center) overclock software for the forthcoming Intel Core i7 processors. The DCC is a easy to work with software that will allow overclocking in Windows environment and help novice overclockers and experts. The Desktop Control Center can adjust CPU multiplier, voltage, memory timings and clock speed as well as various system voltage options such as the QPI voltage. The DCC also gives you the option to switch on and off Turbo Boost in Windows, and monitor system temperature readings.

World economy may be at risk, but industry experts report that the graphics chip market is literally on fire. According to Jon Peddie Research (JPR), AMD's newly released credible video cards in both its desktop and laptop segments, led to the biggest increase in third-quarter shipments in six years. In the third quarter of 2008, more than 111 million GPUs were shipped, the market researcher said. During the same quarter last year, 91 million GPUs shipped, and 94 million units shipped in the previous quarter. That's an annual increase of 22.5 percent and a quarter-to-quarter increase of almost 18 percent, according to JPR. In the overall market AMD saw a good year-to-year growth of 22.8%, while NVIDIA lost 6.4% year-to-year. For desktop GPUs, AMD/ATI is also on the bright side claiming to 20.3%, while NVIDIA slipped to 32.6%, the other 43.9% of the portion are for Intel. On the laptop front, Intel GPU shipments dropped one point to 56.2 percent, while NVIDIA GPU shipments declined to 21.8 percent, and AMD jumped to 20.9 percent, JPR reported. It was about time and AMD desperately needed this good results, congratulations. ATI's graphics cards are temperately rising their share in the fight with rival NVIDIA.

According to industry observer DigiTimes, Intel would be giving its Montevina mobile computing platform an update, with the introduction of new processors and core logic (chipsets). The update, for the most part, revolves around the mid/high range products. Intel would be introducing Core 2 Duo models T9900 and P8800. The T9900 would be Intel's flagship mobile dual-core chip, with the P8800 leading the performance mainstream range.

Intel also plans new chipsets. The Intel GM47 Express would be the company's next high-end mobile chipset, and is slated for Q1, 2009. Intel will also launch GM43 and GS43 Express chipsets for entry-level notebook and small form-factor (SFF) PCs. In other news, it is also expected that the company gets ready to launch the GM55 (Mobile Ibex-Peak) chipset between July and August, 2009. GM55 would be Intel's Nehalem processor supportive chipset for the Auburndale dual-core and Clarksfield quad-core processors, with the platform itself being codenamed Calpella.