Athlon II X2 220, Phenom 1035T Shipping In EU

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AMD’s no-thrills Athlon II X2 has started shipping in Europe. It is a Regor-based dual-core processor clocked at 2.8GHz, basically a faster iteration of the 215. The 220 is listed at €44+ and like the 215 it offers quite good value and decent performance for an entry level part. Although AMD won’t introduce many new processors this summer, several interesting parts will eventually appear. The 2.6GHz six-core Phenom II X6 1035T is one of them.

Limited availability

AMD’s no-thrills Athlon II X2 has started shipping in Europe. It is a Regor-based dual-core processor clocked at 2.8GHz, basically a faster iteration of the 215.

The 220 is listed at €44+ and like the 215 it offers quite good value and decent performance for an entry level part.

Although AMD won’t introduce many new processors this summer, several interesting parts will eventually appear. The 2.6GHz six-core Phenom II X6 1035T is one of them. It’s still not available in retail, but some OEMs have started offering it as an option in their systems.

If it hits retail, the 1035T should be the cheapest six-core on the market, costing about four times less than the cheapest Intel six-core. The 2.7GHz 1045T should also appear sometime in this quarter.

Another quite unique AMD processor is the Athlon II X2 260u, a 1.8GHz dual-core with a 25W TDP. It’s still not available, but it will end up quite pricey, around the €150 mark.

Source: fudzilla.com

Dual-Core Ontario With Graphics Needs 18W

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The top performing Ontario 40nm core is a dual-core CPU with integrated on-die graphics and in its fastest iteration, it will consume just 18W. There will be some lower TDP versions of this core with graphics but if you are looking for top performance it will have to come from this 18W part. As we said many times before, Ontario comes powered by Bobcat, AMD's new core that will compete against Atom in single or dual-core versions. However, unlike the Atom, it will pack quite powerful graphics.

High clock

The top performing Ontario 40nm core is a dual-core CPU with integrated on-die graphics and in its fastest iteration, it will consume just 18W.

There will be some lower TDP versions of this core with graphics but if you are looking for top performance it will have to come from this 18W part.

As we said many times before, Ontario comes powered by Bobcat, AMD's new core that will compete against Atom in single or dual-core versions. However, unlike the Atom, it will pack quite powerful graphics.

We are not aware of any clock speeds at this time, but we do know that this is exclusively a TSMC processor as AMD's belowed Globalfoundries doesn't want to play with 40nm and will only develop the 28nm bulk process.

This dual-core Ontario with graphics will also target notebook, embeded and SFF markets and let's not forget that this platform supports DDR3 memory. This version of Ontario is expected in 2011.

Sourc: fudzilla.com

Ontario 5.5W Single-Core Comes In 2011

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Ontario 40nm Fusion might be the CPU to save AMD and to get some investor confidence back. This processor comes in TSMC's 40nm process and it will actually appear in a few iterations and he most power conscious one will consume only 5.5W. It is a single-core Ontario CPU and it comes without a GPU, so it will be able to work with a 5.5W TDP. This matches the magical TDPs of Intel's CULV Core 2 Solo SU3500 clocked at 1.4GHz which was the best TDP for Intel's non-Atom cores.

Next year and no graphics

Ontario 40nm Fusion might be the CPU to save AMD and to get some investor confidence back. This processor comes in TSMC's 40nm process and it will actually appear in a few iterations and he most power conscious one will consume only 5.5W.

It is a single-core Ontario CPU and it comes without a GPU, so it will be able to work with a 5.5W TDP. This matches the magical TDPs of Intel's CULV Core 2 Solo SU3500 clocked at 1.4GHz which was the best TDP for Intel's non-Atom cores. Most CULVs that Intel sells today are 10W, but again Atom N200 series has 2.5W TPD which is drasticaly lower.

The latest generation Atom N4xx has a 5.5W TDP with graphics and memory controller included in the core, which means that AMD's Bobcat-based core won't be as power efficient as the latest Atoms.

Again this will be the most power efficient AMD to date, and its scheduled to come in 2011. This CPU targets the embedded, notebook and small form factor market.

Source: fudzilla.com

Analysts Worried About Fusion Delays

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Analysts are getting a little tetchy over the delays to the release of the first AMD Fusion chip Ontario. AMD CEO Dirk Meyer warned analysts that his company was changing the batting order on Fusion. The first chip would be Ontario, a low-power chip aimed at low-power netbooks and other small computers but it will not be seen by the great unwashed until early in 2011. Llano, a mainstream chip aimed at both desktop and laptop computers, is being delayed "a couple of months". The problem appears to be GlobalFoundries.

Waiting for Ontario is like waiting for Godet

Analysts are getting a little tetchy over the delays to the release of the first AMD Fusion chip Ontario.

AMD CEO Dirk Meyer warned analysts that his company was changing the batting order on Fusion. The first chip would be Ontario, a low-power chip aimed at low-power netbooks and other small computers but it will not be seen by the great unwashed until early in 2011. Llano, a mainstream chip aimed at both desktop and laptop computers, is being delayed "a couple of months".

The problem appears to be GlobalFoundries. AMD's manufacturing partner is having all sorts of troubles with its next-generation manufacturing process technology.According to the Statesman analysts are muttering that AMD could be shooting itself in the foot. It quotes Craig Berger, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets who thinks Ontario is not the high-impact chip that analysts hoped AMD would introduce first.While Intel is putting out phenomenal products right now AMD is not in
the ballpark on manufacturing process technology.

While it is doing that it ended up spending about $40 million more running its business in the latest quarter than it originally estimated. Roger Kay with Endpoint Technologies Associates said that AMD needs Fusion in the shop to give it a leg up against Intel. They will have better graphics than Intel and better computer processing than Nvidia. Jon Peddie, a graphics technology market analyst, still thinks that Fusion will be worth AMD's four-year wait, but Berger is less happy
about it.

He said that with Fusion AMD has a shot at becoming good again, but it is going to require them to pull finger.

Source: fudzilla.com

Intel Or AMD? It Depends On If You Want Performance Or Value

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The GCN Lab has been using the Passmark Performance Benchmarks for about three years now. It’s a wonderful benchmark that lets reviewers “see” inside a computer being evaluated. It looks not only at the processor performance, but at memory, disk access, 2-D and 3-D graphical power, and throughput within a system. Recently the Lab upgraded to Version 7 of the software, having used 6.1 for years before that. Version 7 works perfectly with Vista and Windows 7, so the changeover was inevitable.

Benchmarks reveal Intel’s power and AMD’s bang for the buck

The GCN Lab has been using the Passmark Performance Benchmarks for about three years now. It’s a wonderful benchmark that lets reviewers “see” inside a computer being evaluated. It looks not only at the processor performance, but at memory, disk access, 2-D and 3-D graphical power, and throughput within a system. Recently the Lab upgraded to Version 7 of the software, having used 6.1 for years before that. Version 7 works perfectly with Vista and Windows 7, so the changeover was inevitable.

One of the new features with Version 7, and the subject of this Impressions piece, has to do with the reporting capabilities of the benchmark. We’ve always been able to upload scores to a Passmark database, so that we can see how a system or system configuration compares with thousands of others that have also been tested. But now, Passmark has added a value score and a performance score. The performance score is based solely on the processor, whereas the value number is that score divided by the cost of the CPU.

When creating a new database, it’s always interesting to see what happens. In this case, the results were fairly surprising. First off, Intel has a lock on performance. The Intel Core i7 X 980 processor is the fastest chip anyone has ever tested, with an astounding score of 10,194, which is almost a third higher than anything we’ve experienced in the lab so far. But beyond just that one victory, Intel also has the top 13 slots for performance before AMD finally charts with its Phenom II X6 1090T chip. A score of 6,510 for the AMD is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s pretty far away from the five-digit i7 score.

But what about value? Here’s where AMD really gets to shine. This list is almost the complete opposite, with the top 15 slots held by AMD chips, sweeping the rankings until Intel finally gets on there with its cheaper Celeron E3300 @ 2.5 GHz processor. Remember, that this is performance divided by price, so the AMDs not only had to be inexpensive, but also fairly powerful. In fact, the Phenom II X6 1090T, which fought with Intel on performance, charted very near the bottom on value due to its $295 price tag.

The No. 1 performing Intel i7 chip cost $999, which is a good price if you need that performance. This is especially true given that the second highest performing Intel, the Xeon X5670, cost $1,459.

So which is better, Intel or AMD? That debate will live on for a long time. But according to these new charts, if you can get by with good (but not stellar) performance, AMD might be the way to go. And if you need true bleeding-edge processor performance, Intel chips win hands-down. You’ll just pay for the privilege of having them.

Source: gcn.com

How AMD Failed To Materialize Its ATI Dream

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AMD acquired ATI back in the summer of 2006 and one of the first announcements was that AMD got ATI for Fusion, chipsets, graphics and platforms, but in early 2007 we had a chance to meet with executive Vice President, Computing Products Group at AMD Mr Mario Rivas who told us the three key goals. Lets me remind you that Mario departed from AMD shortly after this article, here. He mentioned three goals and it is interesting to take a look at the goals today, three and a half years on, as AMD failed in two out of three so far.

Two out of three goals in four years

AMD acquired ATI back in the summer of 2006 and one of the first announcements was that AMD got ATI for Fusion, chipsets, graphics and platforms, but in early 2007 we had a chance to meet with executive Vice President, Computing Products Group at AMD Mr Mario Rivas who told us the three key goals. Lets me remind you that Mario departed from AMD shortly after this article, here.

He mentioned three goals and it is interesting to take a look at the goals today, three and a half years on, as AMD failed in two out of three so far.

The first point was to get graphics, as AMD cared about graphics and they did a decent job so far, at least in games market. The GPGPU market is almost nonexistent for AMD, but at least they have a desire to try to make some money there. AMD's has also managed to churn out quite impressive IGPs over the past three years, and it's still going from strenght to strenght.

The second point was to profit from DTV, handheld market that was supposed to grow to a 2 billion a year. Well, AMD sold that business to Qualcomm for a lousy $65 million as it could not grow it past $400 million so argument two went down the toilet. Spending $5.6 billion and selling its second most important business units for a $65 millions doesn’t sounds like a good deal, unless someone has made you an offer you cannot refuse. Qualcomm got a lot of multimedia and graphics patents from ATI and can continue to compete.

The third and probably most important reason is called Fusion. It was scheduled for late 2008 or some point of 2009, it got canceled a few times and we expect its first iteration to at least launch in limited numbers with the Ontario 40nm part, which was supposed to take on Intel's Atom.

The real Fusion, Llano is scheduled for 2011, probably the latter half of the year, but we are not sure about the schedule as it tends to shift. So, as you can see $5.6 billion spent to buy ATI was not something that helped AMD improve its performance in the short term, but from 2011 on, it will all make much more sense.

AMD also sold a big chunk of its fabs, all except a 28 percent stake, to Abu Dabi-based investment fund ATIC, the company managed to survive the first four years and become profitable. If only AMD hadn't made such a big mess with K10 and the overblown TLB bug and if only they could beat Intel the in mobile segment, or at least get more competitive, it would truly become a great company.

AMD is getting better, there is no doubt about that, but the company failed to fulfill most of the long term goals of its $5.6 billion acquisition. The costly ATI acquisition was followed by K10 issues and by the time AMD got back on track the economy took a nosedive, at the worst possible time. However, AMD has managed to recover some ground in the desktop market over the past several quarters, thanks to its affordable Phenom II and Athlon II parts. In recent weeks, AMD also scored several significant design wins in the mobile market and it's currently dominating the graphics market with a massive lead over Nvidia.

Source: fudzilla.com

Nvidia: Intel Has No Particular Advantages In Heterogeneous Multi-Core Technologies

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David Kirk, an Nvidia Corp. fellow and the former chief scientist of the graphics company, admitted that heterogeneous computing architecture is the most efficient since it allows to process all types of data in the best way. But Mr. Kirk is not sure that Intel Corp., which is developing its multi-core code-named Knights Corner accelerator for high-performance computing will succeed in creating a viable heterogeneous multi-core platform.

Nvidia's David Kirk Shares His Views on Heterogeneous Computing, Graphics Chips

David Kirk, an Nvidia Corp. fellow and the former chief scientist of the graphics company, admitted that heterogeneous computing architecture is the most efficient since it allows to process all types of data in the best way. But Mr. Kirk is not sure that Intel Corp., which is developing its multi-core code-named Knights Corner accelerator for high-performance computing will succeed in creating a viable heterogeneous multi-core platform.

At present many companies working in the fields of oil and gas exploration, seismic processing financial services and other are employing graphics processing units (GPUs) and/or special compute accelerators or their base (such as AMD FireStream and Nvidia Tesla) for high-performance computing (HPC) instead of traditional central processing units (CPUs). Intel Corp., the world's largest maker of microprocessors, failed to deliver its own graphics chip code-named Larrabee and is currently working on the code-named Knights Corner chip that will combine many-core architecture with x86 compatibility. Still, in order to run modern operating systems traditional CPUs will be required and Mr. Kirk does not expect them to disappear.

"We find that most problems, if not all, are a mix of serial control tasks and parallel data and computation tasks. This is why we believe in heterogeneous parallel computing - both [parallel and serial] are needed. CPUs are commodity technology and there are multiple CPU vendors that we work with. In my opinion, Intel has no particular advantage in developing a hybrid system - in fact, they have had little success historically in designing either parallel machines or programming environments," said David Kirk on Thursday during a public interview.

Intel's HPC platforms featuring Knights Corner will consist of separate CPUs and many-core HPC accelerators that will be plugged into PCI Express sockets. Many HPC specialists believe that PCIe bus is a bottleneck for such accelerators because of low bandwidth and one of the things that could solve the problem is creating a chip that combines x86 cores with massively-parallel graphics cores; something that Advanced Micro Devices is doing with its Fusion project. But Mr. Kirk claims that PCI Express' bandwidth is not necessarily a bottleneck.

"Contrary to popular belief, the PCIe bandwidth is not often the bottleneck in most applications. The PCIE bandwidth is faster than many other data paths in the system, including the disk, the network, and in many systems, the system memory bus or front-side bus. That being said, there are certainly technical improvements we can make going forward [to solve PCIe bandwidth potential problems]. You'll have to wait and see," said David Kirk.

Just like other specialists in the field of HPC and parallel computing, the Nvidia fellow does not believe in the future of Cell processor designed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba. Mr. Kirk, who currently focuses on CUDA and GPU computing education and research, claims that Cell has played some role in defining the current realities of the market, but which does not represent a threat to modern GPUs in appropriate spaces.

"The Cell processor was a great innovation for its time. Many of the ideas in Cell, including heterogeneous processing and local memory, are part of a modern GPU compute architecture. Cell was a 'point product' though, which means that it did not continue to evolve. We continue to evolve and improve our GPU architectures every 6 months or so. This makes Cell no longer competitive," said the fellow of Nvidia.

Source: xbitlabs.com

Llano CPU Power Inferior To Sandy Bridge

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Llano is the first real Fusion product, something that we have been waiting for almost five years. When we say real, then we mean that it has the high performance x86 core inside, something that goes neck to neck with current Core i generation as well s Phenom II’s and Athlon II’s. AMD should show Ontario, a 40nm Atom competitor powered with Bobcat core, in late 2010 with volume shipmets in early 2011. This one does not compete with Arrandale and Clarkdale or Sandy Bridge, Intel's all integrated CPU scheduled for early 2011.

But the graphics win

Llano is the first real Fusion product, something that we have been waiting for almost five years. When we say real, then we mean that it has the high performance x86 core inside, something that goes neck to neck with current Core i generation as well s Phenom II’s and Athlon II’s.

AMD should show Ontario, a 40nm Atom competitor powered with Bobcat core, in late 2010 with volume shipmets in early 2011. This one does not compete with Arrandale and Clarkdale or Sandy Bridge, Intel's all integrated CPU scheduled for early 2011.

Since Llano is 32nm, it has a new core that is unfortunately based on K10 concepts. The K10 got shrunk from 65nm to 45nm and it looks like that Llano will get this same core, optimized and shrunk once again.

The Llano CPU is in design and performance should get quite close to current dual and quad-core Athlon and Phenom II parts, but obviously there will be some room for improvement, since the transistors will get significantly smaller and the TDP at the same clock should go down.

Sandy Bridge is going to win the CPU performance battle, this is at least what our sources are telling us, but since it has Redwood inside, Llano should win the graphics performance battle. AMD will have a hard time to find enough OEMs to carry its products and enough customers to go the AMD green way, but well informed consumers might go for Llano powered PC simply for its better graphics.

We believe that the performance difference between two CPU cores won’t be mind blowing and that each of these two monolithic CPU and GPU on one core chips will be a good choice. The sad part for AMD is that Intel gets there first as its already showed a prototype of CPU – GPU Sandy Bridge back in September 2009 almost nine months before AMD, and AMD is the one who announced back in 2006 that its Fusion chips are coming.

After Llano, AMD plans to use Bulldozer core in its next generation Fusion, that is probably comming in 2012 if not later.

Source: fudzilla.co

AMD Tapes Out First "Bulldozer" Microprocessors

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Advanced Micro Devices, the world's second largest supplier of microprocessors, said that it had taped out the first central processing units (CPUs) based on the code-named Bulldozer core. The company hopes to begin sampling of the chips with customers shortly and initiate mass production sometimes in 2011. "In the second quarter of this year we also taped out the first 32nm product based on our new high-performance Bulldozer CPU core.

AMD to Sample Bulldozer in 2H 2010

Advanced Micro Devices, the world's second largest supplier of microprocessors, said that it had taped out the first central processing units (CPUs) based on the code-named Bulldozer core. The company hopes to begin sampling of the chips with customers shortly and initiate mass production sometimes in 2011.

"In the second quarter of this year we also taped out the first 32nm product based on our new high-performance Bulldozer CPU core. We plan to begin sampling our Bulldozer based server and desktop processors in the second half of this year and remain on track for 2011 launches. These new processors will deliver significant performance improvements to the AMD platform," said Dirk Meyer, chief executive officer of AMD, during the quarterly conference call with financial community.

The "tape out" means that the artwork for the photomask of a circuit is sent to manufacturing. It is unclear at this point whether AMD has already received samples of the Bulldozer processors back from manufacturing and assembling or at least manufactured wafers from Globalfoundries. Moreover, it is uncertain when exactly AMD submit the design of the chip to its foundry partner: back in April, or back in June? At present it takes weeks to manufacture a complex multi-layer chip, so, the timing of the tape out is really important for analysis.

According to an unofficial source familiar with AMD’s server plans, the chipmaker intended to commence mass production of certain versions of its Bulldozer-based code-named Interlagos microprocessors with 12 or 16 cores already in the first half of 2011. Other versions of the chips, e.g. with reduced power consumption or increased performance, were planned to be produced in the second half of the year.

While generally AMD formally unveils microprocessors when it begins mass production or revenue shipments of its chips, it is not set on stone that initiation of mass production means formal announcement. From the current point of view the information means that AMD has equal chances of launching its sixteen-core or twelve-core AMD Opteron “Interlagos” processors either in the first half of the year or in the second half of the year.

AMD Opteron 6000 “Interlagos” will be compatible with AMD’s Maranello server platform with G34 (1944-pin) sockets. It is expected that Interlagos features two code-named 32nm SOI Valencia chips with six or eight cores on the same piece of substrate.

Based on the information provided by AMD during its annual Analyst Day in November '09, the first Bulldozer chip code-named Zambezi (which belongs to Orochi family of desktop chips, according to the firm) will feature eight x86 processing engines with multithreading technology, two 128-bit FMAC floating point units, shared L2 cache, shared L3 cache as well as integrated memory controller. AMD also states that the new CPU will feature “extensive new power management innovations”. Based on the diagram that AMD demonstrated, the company intends to dramatically improve multithreading performance of its CPUs: two INT schedulers, an FP scheduler and separate data caches for each of four cores should do the job very well.

Source here: xbitlabs.com

AMD Delays Roll-Out Of "Llano" Processor Due To Process Tech Issues

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Due to issues with 32nm silicon-on-insulator process technology, Advanced Micro Devices had to delay the launch of the highly-anticipated code-named Llano processor that combines high-performance x86 central processing unit with graphics processing unit on the same die. The company said that the postponement may be two months long. "Llano - our Fusion APU offering aimed at the higher end of the client market - is generating positive customer response.

AMD Postpones Launch of Microprocessor with Integrated Graphics

Due to issues with 32nm silicon-on-insulator process technology, Advanced Micro Devices had to delay the launch of the highly-anticipated code-named Llano processor that combines high-performance x86 central processing unit with graphics processing unit on the same die. The company said that the postponement may be two months long.

"Llano - our Fusion APU offering aimed at the higher end of the client market - is generating positive customer response. However, in reaction to Ontario’s market opportunities and a slower than anticipated progress of 32 nm yield curve, we are switching the timing of the Ontario and Llano production ramps. Llano production shipments are still expected to occur in the first half of next year," said Dirk Meyer, chief executive officer of AMD, during a conversation with financial analysts.

Earlier it was expected that AMD will start to ship its Llano accelerated processing units (APUs) for revenue already in Q4 2010 with official product launch taking place sometime very early in 2011. It is not clear whether AMD has problems wedding the Llano design to the 32nm SOI fabrication process, there are issues with the process itself or the design of the Llano has certain flaws. In any case, the start of commercial shipments slipped by two months, according to AMD.

"We have seen the rate of yield leaning below our plans on 32nm. [...] We take a bit more time to work on the 32nm yields up the curve. So, the effective change [...] to our internal plans on Llano amounts to a couple of months," said Mr. Meyer.

As reported earlier, AMD Llano accelerated processing unit (APU) will have four x86 cores based on the current micro-architecture each of which will have 9.69mm² die size (without L2 cache), a little more than 35 million transistors (without L2 cache), 2.5W – 25W power consumption, 0.8V – 1.3V voltage and target clock-speeds at over 3.0GHz clock-speed. The cores will dynamically scale their clock-speeds and voltages within the designated thermal design power in order to boost performance when a program does not require all four processing engines or trim power consumption when there is no demand for resources. According to sources familiar with the matter, different versions of Llano processor will have thermal design power varying from 20W to 59W: high-end dual-core, triple-core and quad-core chips will have TDP between 35W and 59W; mainstream chips with two of four x86 cores will fit into 30W thermal envelope and low-power dual-core Llano chips will have 20W TDP. Llano will be made using 32nm SOI process technology.

AMD Sabine platform will also include code-named Hudson input/output controllers that will support PCI Express graphics port, 16 USB ports, USB 3.0 support (Hudson M3 only), 6 Serial ATA ports with RAID support, 1Gb Ethernet, integrated video DAC, integrated clock-generator and so on. Besides, Sabine may also feature optional Vancouver-series graphics processing units.

AMD's arch-rival Intel Corp. plans to start revenue shipments of its Sandy Bridge processors with built-in next-gen graphics core in Q4 2010.

Source: xbitlabs.com

Intel Unveils Plans To Update Celeron Line With 32nm Chips

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Without getting substantial updates for years, Intel Corp.’s Celeron lineup continues to provide better performance compared to Intel Atom central processing units thanks to Core 2-based micro-architecture. But sometimes later in 2010 or even early in 2010 its manufacturer does have plans to breathe a new micro-architecture into Celeron chips. “We will not take [32nm process technology and appropriate micro-architecture] down into the Pentium and Celeron until either late this year or early next year,” said Paul Otellini, chief executive officer of Intel, during a recent conversation with financial analysts.

Intel to Breathe New Life into Celeron Processors

Without getting substantial updates for years, Intel Corp.’s Celeron lineup continues to provide better performance compared to Intel Atom central processing units thanks to Core 2-based micro-architecture. But sometimes later in 2010 or even early in 2010 its manufacturer does have plans to breathe a new micro-architecture into Celeron chips.

“We will not take [32nm process technology and appropriate micro-architecture] down into the Pentium and Celeron until either late this year or early next year,” said Paul Otellini, chief executive officer of Intel, during a recent conversation with financial analysts.

At present there vast majority of Intel’s 32nm processors belong to Core i family of chips, there is one Pentium chip and recently Intel also started to list several Celeron models based on the Arrandale/Clarkdale chips that are made using the latest fabrication process. Unfortunately, the company itself does not advertize those chips substantially and usually they can only be found in select machines by select manufacturers.

At present Celeron-branded microprocessors account for 5% - 6% volume of desktop chips by the Intel, the remaining volume is commanded by various Core i, Core 2, Pentium and even Atom microprocessors, which clearly shows that Celeron family is hardly popular.

Considering the fact that demand towards advanced chips produced at 32nm node is high at the moment, it is unlikely that Intel will truly initiate the process of upgrading the Celeron cores since the same production capacities can be utilized to produce more advanced and expensive products.

Source: xbitlabs.com

Intel Posts Record Earnings

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Intel has reported the best quarter in its history, exceeding even the most optimistic forecasts. Gross margins jumped to 67 percent and revenue topped $10.7 billion in the second quarter. The company reported profits of 2.89 billion, or 51 cents per share. Basically Intel managed to outperform all forecasts by a significant margin. Of course, the good news did not go unnoticed by Wall Street and shares jumped 8 percent in after-hours trading.

A quarter to remember

Intel has reported the best quarter in its history, exceeding even the most optimistic forecasts.

Gross margins jumped to 67 percent and revenue topped $10.7 billion in the second quarter. The company reported profits of 2.89 billion, or 51 cents per share. Basically Intel managed to outperform all forecasts by a significant margin.

Of course, the good news did not go unnoticed by Wall Street and shares jumped 8 percent in after-hours trading. In fact, the entire tech sector was up on the news, including rivals AMD and Nvidia, which jumped 5.5 percent and 3.5 percent respectively.

Intel is projecting further increases in gross margin figures and revenues towards the end of the year.

Source: fudzilla.com

Intel Slowdowns Full Transition To 32nm In Order To Boost Sales

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In a bid to meet unprecedented demand towards its products, Intel Corp. had to quickly ramp up production using both 32nm and 45nm process technologies. While this allows the company to meet the demand towards the new products, this will slow down completion of transition to 32nm process technology. “We are building more 32nm [chips] in the second half than we had planned six months ago; we are also building more 45nm in the second half than we planned six months ago...

Unexpected Demand Forces Intel to Slowdown Overall Transition to 32nm

In a bid to meet unprecedented demand towards its products, Intel Corp. had to quickly ramp up production using both 32nm and 45nm process technologies. While this allows the company to meet the demand towards the new products, this will slow down completion of transition to 32nm process technology.

“We are building more 32nm [chips] in the second half than we had planned six months ago; we are also building more 45nm in the second half than we planned six months ago. The result is that we will have more 45nm [products] longer than we first thought, even though 32nm [share] is growing faster and bigger than we first thought. The basic – the answer here is that the market is bigger than we had first done planning on for the year,” said Paul Otellini, chief executive officer of Intel, during the most recent quarterly conference call with financial community.

The ramp up of 32nm process technology in general is faster than Intel planned. However, the demand forces the company to build more chips produced using 45nm fabrication process, for example, quad-core Intel Core i7 microprocessors based on Bloomfield and Lynnfield cores in LGA1366 and LGA1156 form-factors.

Although it will take more time for Intel to fully transit to 32nm process technology, the ramp up of 32nm fabs will help the company to quickly boost production of its next-generation Sandy Bridge microprocessors. As reported earlier, Intel has aggressive plans to ramp up of the next-gen chips on the desktops market. Mr. Otellini confirmed the plan and expressed very high expectations for the forthcoming products.

“Last quarter I mentioned that we were broadly sampling [Sandy Bridge] product to our customers. I am more excited about Sandy Bridge than I have been on any product that the company has launched in a number of years. Due to the very strong reception of Sandy Bridge, we have accelerated our 32nm factory ramp, and have raised our CapEx guidance to enable us to meet the anticipated demand. […] At our September IDF conference in San Francisco, we will share more details about this new architecture,” said Mr. Otellini.

According to unofficial information, already in Q1 2011, Intel plans to rather substantially increase the share of its Sandy Bridge chips among desktop processors to around 12% - 13% (~6% - Core i7, ~5% - Core i5, ~2% - Core i3). In Q2 2011 the share of Sandy-Bridge-based processors will be even greater since Intel intends to release Pentium processors powered by the new micro-architecture for entry-level markets and they usually require high volumes.

The key feature of Sandy Bridge Intel AVX (Advanced Vector Extensions) which, when used by software programmers, will increase performance in floating point, media, and processor intensive software, according to the Intel. Key features of Intel AVX include wider vectors, increasing from 128 bit to 256 bit wide, resulting in up to 2x peak FLOPs output; enhanced data rearrangement, resulting in allowing data to be pulled more efficiently, and three operand, non-destructive syntax for a range of benefits. Intel AVX can also increase energy efficiency beyond the increases brought by the micro-architectural innovations, and is backwards compatible to existing Intel processors.

Source: xbitlabs.com

AMD CPUs Used In "Predators" Special Effects

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AMD said Friday that Troublemaker Studios, the film production company behind the just-released "Predators" movie, used its technology to generate the special effects and animations. More specifically, the studio used six-core AMD Opteron processors and ATI FirePro GPUs to get the job done. Troublemaker was founded (and owned) by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and producer Elizabeth Avellan in 1991. It's special effects division--Troublemaker Digital--generally uses AMD products for a good deal of its projects.

AMD CPUs and GPU were used to create the special effects and animations in "Predator".

AMD said Friday that Troublemaker Studios, the film production company behind the just-released "Predators" movie, used its technology to generate the special effects and animations. More specifically, the studio used six-core AMD Opteron processors and ATI FirePro GPUs to get the job done.

Troublemaker was founded (and owned) by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and producer Elizabeth Avellan in 1991. It's special effects division--Troublemaker Digital--generally uses AMD products for a good deal of its projects.

"With a long history in the movie making industry, Troublemaker Studios is using AMD technology to push the envelope of digital moving making and special effects in several blockbuster films," AMD said in a press release. "In addition to 'Predators', Rodriguez has looked to AMD technology to create six of his movies, including 'Shorts', 'Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams', 'Spy Kids 3D: Game Over', 'Planet Terror', and 'Sin City'."

AMD said that Rodriguez plans to "deploy" AMD technology as the digital hardware backbone for his next movie currently in production, "Machete." The movie is expected to hit theaters on September 3, 2010.

Unfortunately, hardware specifics--such as the actual setup of the rigs used at Troublemaker--wasn't provided. Still, it's interesting to know what's powering the visual candy we see at the movies.

Predators is slated to hit theaters Friday, July 9 (today), and is said to be to "Predator" what "Aliens" is to "Alien". We'll see.

Source: tomshardware.com

Intel To Launch New CPUs In 3Q10

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Intel plans to launch several new desktop processors in the third quarter of 2010 to replace some previous models, and will also reduce some CPU prices to boost demand, according to sources from motherboard makers. In mid-July, will launch three processors including the six-core Core i7-970, priced at US$885; quad-core Core i5-760 with core frequencies of 2.8GHz and priced at US$205; and quad-core Core i5-870S for small form factor PCs and priced at US$351.

Intel plans to launch several new desktop processors in the third quarter of 2010 to replace some previous models, and will also reduce some CPU prices to boost demand, according to sources from motherboard makers.

In mid-July, will launch three processors including the six-core Core i7-970, priced at US$885; quad-core Core i5-760 with core frequencies of 2.8GHz and priced at US$205; and quad-core Core i5-870S for small form factor PCs and priced at US$351. All prices are in thousand-unit tray quantities.

Intel will launch the Pentium E5700 for US$75 in early August and Core i3-560, Pentium E6800 and Celeron E3500 at the end of the month with prices of US$138, US$86 and US$53, respectively.

At the end of August, Intel will also reduce its quad-core Core i7-950's price from US$562 to US$294.

For mid-July, Intel will reduce its Core i3-540, Pentium E6600 and Pentium E5500 CPU prices from US$133, US$84 and US$75 to US$117, US$75 and US$64, respectively.

In mid-October, Intel will cut the Core i3-550, Pentium E6700 and Pentium E5700 from US$138, US$86 and US$75 to US$117, US$75 and US$64, respectively, while the entry-level Celeron E3400 will also see its price drop from US$53 to US$42 at the same time.

Intel desktop CPU schedule, 2H10
CPU model	Old price	New price
July
Core i7-970	N/A	885
Core i5-760	N/A	205
Core i5-870S	N/A	351
Core i3-540	133	117
Pentium E6600	84	75
Pentium E5500	75	64
August
Pentium E5700	N/A	75
Core i3-560	N/A	138
Pentium E6800	N/A	86
Celeron E3500	N/A	53
Core i7-950	562	294
October
Core i3-550	138	117
Pentium E6700	86	75
Pentium E5700	75	64
Celeron E3400	53	42

Source: digitimes.com

AMD Plans Faster Athlon II X2 For Q3

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If you didn’t think that 3.2GHz speed was ok for a dual core, Regor based Athlon II X2, then you'll probably be happy to hear that a 3.3GHz dual core is just around the corner. Both of these CPUs have a TDP of 65W, which is quite nice considering the clocks. The currently fastest Athlon II X2 260 works at 3.2GHZ and has 2MB total cache, 2x512KB L2 and 1MB L3 cache. The new faster Athlon II X2 265 has the same specs, same 65W TDP but 3.3GHZ core clock.

Athlon II X2 265 is the name

If you didn’t think that 3.2GHz speed was ok for a dual core, Regor based Athlon II X2, then you'll probably be happy to hear that a 3.3GHz dual core is just around the corner.

Both of these CPUs have a TDP of 65W, which is quite nice considering the clocks. The currently fastest Athlon II X2 260 works at 3.2GHZ and has 2MB total cache, 2x512KB L2 and 1MB L3 cache. The new faster Athlon II X2 265 has the same specs, same 65W TDP but 3.3GHZ core clock.

The plan is to launch this CPU in Q3 2010; it looks like it might launch closer to August time, when back to school shopping spree starts but these dates are always plans and never a final thing. A keen observer's eye can spot that all of AMD´s 2010 offer is based on K10.5 45nm derived K10 core and that all the next generation Bulldozer based cores are placed in 2011.

These dual cores are quite a nice option for anyone who's looking for a new dual core as Athlon II X2 260, currently the fastest of them all, sells for €72.90 here.

Source: fudzilla.com

Athlon II X4 645 Coming In Q3 2010

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AMD's Propus is about to get another, faster iteration. In reality, Propus is a CPU derived from Deneb with no L3 cache, 2MB total L2 cache, or 512 for each core. The CPU is a quad core, supports DDR3 1333 and comes in AM3 package. The currently fastest Propus is Athlon II X4 640 clocked at 3.0GHZ and Q3 should see it get topped by a 3.1GHz clocked part. The name of the new CPU is Athlon II X4 645, this CPU is clocked at 3.1GHZ and like its predecessor - it has a 95W TDP.

3.1GHz at 95W TDP

AMD's Propus is about to get another, faster iteration. In reality, Propus is a CPU derived from Deneb with no L3 cache, 2MB total L2 cache, or 512 for each core.

The CPU is a quad core, supports DDR3 1333 and comes in AM3 package. The currently fastest Propus is Athlon II X4 640 clocked at 3.0GHZ and Q3 should see it get topped by a 3.1GHz clocked part. The name of the new CPU is Athlon II X4 645, this CPU is clocked at 3.1GHZ and like its predecessor - it has a 95W TDP.

Let us remind you that this AM3 CPU should also work in many AM2+ based motherboards. The launch date of Athlon II X4 645 is Q3 2010 and we're talking about the quarter that started at the beginning of this month.

Source: fudzilla.com

3.3GHz Calisto Phenom II Comes In Q3 2010

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You remember Calisto core, which is actually a Deneb quad core with two cores disabled. Since AMD didn’t really have many different cores it had to improvise and with 7MB of total cache Calisto definitely looked like a good dual core CPU. The currently fastest Calisto based dual core is Phenom II X2 555 running at 3.2GHz with 80W TDP and Q3 2010 should see the arrival of the new Calisto clocked 100MHz faster at 3.3GHz.

Made of Deneb

You remember Calisto core, which is actually a Deneb quad core with two cores disabled. Since AMD didn’t really have many different cores it had to improvise and with 7MB of total cache Calisto definitely looked like a good dual core CPU.

The currently fastest Calisto based dual core is Phenom II X2 555 running at 3.2GHz with 80W TDP and Q3 2010 should see the arrival of the new Calisto clocked 100MHz faster at 3.3GHz. The name is also quite predictable, AMD will brand this new CPU Phenom II X2 560 and it will retain the 80W TDP.

The CPU has 1MB of L2 cache, 2x512KB per each core and a total of 6MB L3, the same amount as Deneb quad core. Calisto is quite fast and it should ship under €100 when available.

Source: fudzilla.com