Phenom X4 9850 overclock record: 3.1GHz

We’ve had the Phenom X4 9850 for a day now and we’ve clocked all four cores stably to 3.1GHz using a regular Akasa AK-876 air cooler. That’s a modest 24 per cent boost over its native 2.5GHz clock speed.

We used a Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DQ6 motherboard, 2GB Corsair TwinX 1066MHz Ram (downclocked to 800MHz but linked to the bus so it increased to 888MHz), a 0.225V core boost, a 14x CPU multiplier and a 222MHz bus speed to achieve this magic number.

That voltage boost is rather big, but our sample was also happy to sit at 2.8GHz with a simple 0.05V increase. It even booted at 3.2GHz, but couldn’t load Windows properly.

When overclocked, our preliminary results show it is 13 per cent faster than a 2.66GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6700 in PCmark05 and two per cent faster in Cinebench 9.5. It’s still slower than a 3GHz QX6850 and a long way off high end Penryn quad cores.

At its default speed (2.5GHz) the Phenom X4 9850 can’t keep up with Intel’s slowest Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor in PCmark05 CPU test, Cinebench 9.5 or X. It does beat the Q6600 by 160 points in 3Dmark06’s CPU test though.

The Phenom X4 9850’s big hope lies in a decent retail price. Pre-order pricing lies at £170 which, in the UK, is £20 more than a Core 2 Quad Q6600.

A full review will follow, but here are some more scores from our 3.1GHz overclocked sample:

3Dmark06 CPU:  4526

Cinebench 9.5: 478 (single core), 1473 (quad core)

Cinebench X: 2707 (single core), 9959 (quad core)

PCmark05: 9172 (just 7396 at 2.5GHz)

A full review will come soon, but for now these results can be directly compared to PCW's other CPU tests at www.reportlabs.com

Posted by Emil Larsen on March 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Why Moore's Law needs AMD

Intel appears to have walked all over AMD in the past few days, releasing new quad-cores to spoil the much-heralded unveiling of its rival's Barcelona processors and then flourishing 32nm and 45nm wafers to point up the fact that AMD is stuck at 65nm.

There was little new on the processor front at the Intel Developer Forum, but the mood was upbeat. Intel founder Gordon Moore said that his famous law predicting that transistor density (and thus processing power) would double every 18-24 months looked good for up to 15 more years.

Intel's business model rides on this law, using each new generation of processors to finance the research, development and fabs required for the next. A few years back Craig Barrett, then chief executive of Intel, jumped down my throat at a London press conference when I asked if the demand for processing power would keep pace.

His irritation was understandable: it is an old question, but also a sensitive one. Barrett harrumphed that people would always need more processing power.

This is true of server farms, and demanding niche applications. Yet by far the majority of users now take processing power for granted. Entry-level machines have more than enough for what most people use them for most of the time. Machines are bought on looks and price as much as on technology.

Hardware has had more than enough power for contemporary mainstream software for at least five years. Sales have grown because the global market has grown, but people and companies are not changing machines so quickly because they do not need to.

Barrett was right in that the demand for processing power will increase. Extreme gamers will exploit all that they can get; relatively few people are editing high-definition video, but their numbers will rise. Future interfaces exploiting multi-modal input will also push up demand, especially for energy-efficient mobile processors.

The question, which Barrett evaded, is whether this demand will keep step with Intel's business cycle. Or to put that another way: will demand for innovative technology be enough in itself, year after expensive year, to provide a return on the investment required to produce it? The assumption underlying Moore's Law is that it will.

Yet for the past few years, arguably, it has been competition rather than market demand that has prodded Intel into its biggest technology changes.

Maverick chipmaker Transmeta forced it to place a new priority on power consumption, though to be sure this would have become an issue in time. More recently AMD has been setting the pace, offering superior products that forced Intel to up its game.

Meanwhile processors are selling on price and efficiency as much as speed. Some increasingly important uses, such as set-top boxes, media servers and network-attached storage, need only modest computing power. AMD makes good processors and there is a lot of market for it to exploit. And, as it has shown more than once, it can outsmart Intel.

Oddly, whether Moore's law holds good for another 15 years could depend on AMD. Without competition, Intel could get lazy again.

Posted by Clive Akass on September 21, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Enter the second, er... the third, er... the fourth AMD generation

Nobody from PCW Towers could make it to today's launch of AMD's Barcelona chips in Barcelona (where else?) and we could find no-one at the company to elucidate a somewhat confusion announcement. The nine new quad-cores all have names of the form 83xx or 23xx. The first digit, according to AMD, indicates the scalability: eight means that number can be used on a single motherboard.

The last two digits indicate relative performance, and the second digit the generation. So, following this logic, all today's processors are third generation.

But, according to an AMD presentation, all the quad-cores including 45nm versions launching next year, are second generation and the third generation will come in 2009 with the launch of 45nm octal-cores. And yet another AMD paper refers to them as fourth-generation, though this could relate to the manufacturing process used. We trust that the processors themselves won't get their data so mixed up.

Posted by Clive Akass on September 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Barcelona will rule data centres

Barcelona will double the number of cores in rack servers without changing the power budget if server managers choose it rather than Intel's quad core chips, AMD announced at its latest press confidence in London yesterday.

The claims join AMD's change in emphasis from performance advantages, to the power savings Barcelona offers compared to Intel's quad cores.

"We were guilty of talking too much about native quad core designs versus multi-chip. Now we've changed the language a little bit to speak about the benefits of native design" said EMEA channel market development manager Felipe Payet.

His colleague Steve Demski, Opteron Product Manager, then went on to hype up power-savings offered by native design. Firstly he said comparing AMD's and Intel's Thermal Design Power (TDP) wasn't an apples to apples comparison, since AMD's TDP takes into account the memory controller, whereas Intel's memory controller resides in the Northbridge.

Demski also made some interesting observations regarding AMD's use of DDR2 memory, since it consumes far less power than Intel's FBDimms.

The difference in power is around 60 Watts for eight Dimms and is AMD's trump card in the server space.

The change in emphasis has also led to AMD only comparing Barcelona performance to Rev F (the latest dual-core) Opterons explicitly. AMD will no longer state that Barcelona will be faster than Intel, instead just stating it will be "competitive".

While this doesn't mean much in the server space (where performance per watt is king), it could be a sign that upcoming consumer quad-core chips won't be significantly faster.

The fastest Barcelona quad-cores will leave AMD at 2GHz, going to manufacturers in August and hitting retail in September. Higher-clocked quad cores will arrive in late 2007. Look out for a review soon.

Posted by Emil Larsen on July 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel to stick the boot in as AMD launches slow-clocking Barcelona

News that AMD is to launch its much-anticipated quad-core Opterons, codenamed Barcelona, in August seem to confound rumours of a major delay in the launch. But the picture is more complicated than that. AMD has been claiming that Barcelona would beat Intel's quad-core Xeons on both performance and power efficiency.

The first Barcelona chips will clock a modest 1.9GHz and 2.0GHz, with faster clock rates coming only later this year. Of course, as AMD has itself demonstrated over the past few years, clock rates are no longer a good measure of performance. AMD's design has an edge over Intel's in that it is true quad core, with the processors able to share cache, rather than being two dual-cores in one module. Still AMD is likely to be relying on faster clock rates to justify its early Barcelona hype.

Meanwhile Intel is not standing still, and has been expected to release a "spoiler" Xeon quad-core when Barcelona comes out. According to The Register, this will be a four-core Clovertown Xeon clocking 2.0GHz, and using at most 50 watts. It will also use a fastest-yet 1.333GHz front side bus.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 2, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Kingston announce DDR3 pricing

Kingston have revealed details about their DDR3 memory modules in both the HyperX and ValueRAM product lines. Available in 512MB and 1GB modules as well as 1 and 2GB kits, the first modules are clocked at DDR3-1375 (1,375MHz) for the HyperX line and DDR3-1066 (1,066MHz) for the ValueRAM. Kingston will also launch 1,333MHz modules in the ValueRAM line for the upcoming X38 chipset from Intel.
The latency’s (CL7-7-7-20 CAS7) of these first DDR3 modules are higher than DDR2 but it’s expected they will drop quickly once DDR3 gets established, and while the latency may be higher than DDR2 the voltages are lower 1.8v and 1.5v for the 1375 and 1066 speeds respectively

Pricing details are listed below
HyperX

KHX11000D3LLK2/2G    2GB 1375MHz DDR3  Kit      £265(+ VAT)   

KHX11000D3LLK2/1G    1GB 1375MHz DDR3  Kit      £144(+ VAT)   

KHX11000D3LL/1G        1GB 1375MHz DDR3 DIMM  £133 (+ VAT)    

KHX11000D3LL/512   512MB 1375MHz DDR3 DIMM    £72 (+ VAT)
ValueRAM

KVR1066D3N7K2/2G      2GB 1066MHz DDR3  Kit      £226(+ VAT)   

KVR1066D3N7K2/1G      1GB 1066MHz DDR3  Kit      £123(+ VAT)   

KVR1066D3N7/1G          1GB 1066MHz DDR3 DIMM  £113 (+ VAT)    

KVR1066D3N7/512     512MB 1066MHz DDR3 DIMM    £61 (+ VAT) 

Posted by Simon Crisp on June 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

First AMD Fusion chips like Geodes?

AMD's first Fusion chip will only contain one CPU and one GPU, if a slip by Giuseppe Amato, technical director of sales and marketing at AMD is true.

The combined CPU/GPU chip should launch in 2009 and Amato said it would only have one CPU and one GPU on a single piece of silicon. When I asked him to confirm this he said a very definitive yes, but later backtracked saying he would rather not talk about the issue and that actually the first Fusion chips might have multiple CPU cores.

From this, I'd suggest a basic birth for the new processor. Getting one CPU and one GPU talking to each other on one piece of silicon is no small feat and this has to be the first step before you start adding multiple CPUs, crossbars and caches.

Additionally, talk of multiple GPUs on one die (internal-crossfire, say) should never become an talking point, since multiple GPUs on the same die are just an amalgamation of pipelines into a bigger stream processor, unlike multicore CPUs.

During a different part of his presentation, Amato spoke about the $100 one laptop per child initiative. Fascinatingly, if you delve into its specs it quickly becomes clear that AMD is already using its Fusion ideas in developing the $100 laptop CPU, the Geode GX-500.

It has an integrated graphics controller and unified memory architecture, so AMD already has some experience in doing CPUGPUs. A small number of these laptops are already knocking about, although they won't officially ship until 2008.

Finally, and we all know it's coming, Amato dropped some hints about ATI chips being made in AMD fabs. ATI, now know internally as AMD north since they're Canadians, will transition its stuff to AMD foundries "where it makes sense to do it". Originally AMD kept schtum on the issue, perhaps because it didn't want to piss off TMSC and UMC, which currently manufacture the graphics chips.

Posted by Emil Larsen on February 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How Intel shrank processors to 45nm without taking a leak

Pictured left is a die shot of one of Intel's new 45nm Penryn processors, which the company claims represent the biggest breakthough since the sixties. Its development forced Intel to address one of the biggest problems of miniaturisation: leakage current.

A standard transistor of the type used in processors consists of source and drain electrodes sitting in a silicon substrate with a tiny gap between them. Above this gap is a thin layer of insulator, or dielectric; and sitting on that is the gate electrode (click image at right for pop-up diagram). Toggling the voltage at the gate toggles the charge distribution across the gap, and thus its ability to pass current.

This solid-state switch is never quite perfect because there are tiny current flows even in the off state. Most important is the "leakage" across the insulating layer under the gate. This layer is made of silicon dioxide (SiO2) in current designs and when it becomes only a few atoms thick, as it does as processor transistors get smaller, leakage becomes prohibitively high.

So why not have thicker insulation? The problem is that the thinner the layer, the higher is the capacitance of the structure - the amount of charge it can hold. The higher the capacitance, the better the current flow in the on state, and the faster the switching. In other words if you thicken the insulation to reduce leakage, you slow the transistor down.

What Intel has done is to replace the SiO2 with a 'high K dielectric', based on the element Hafnium, which allows a thicker (and thus less leaky) layer of insulation without reducing the capacitance.

Intel has also replaced the usual silicon gate with what it vaguely refers to as a mix of metals. Kaizad Mistry, product manager for Intel's 45nm logic technology development, said Intel was keeping this secret as the precise proportions of these and hafnium are critical.

The overall effect is to boost current flow in the on state, providing fast switching, and cutting leakage in the off state.

Intel claims that relative to 65nm technology the Penryn chips will pack twice as many transistors in a given area, with a 30 percent reduction in switching power, 20 percent faster switching, and a tenfold reduction in leakage across the gate dielectric.

It also claims a fivefold reduction in current leaking between the source and drain.

Posted by Clive Akass on January 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Media-processor goes dual core

This is a block diagram of 3DLabs Semiconductor's new media processor, launched today,  which has two ARM9265EJ cores and an array of 24 media-processing elements which unusually can do both floating point and integer operations.

Technical director Nick Murphy said a single ARM11 core would have been as powerful for processing but less power efficient that the two that were used. They have the added benefit that one core can deal with random events interupts while the other maintains processing without disruption.

Projected applications include portable media players, set-top boxes, video cameras, video-conference terminals and smart surveillance cameras.

3DLabs Semiconductors is offering a software development kit for rapid development and porting of applications, and an array development kit for buys who want to program the array directly. There is also a hardware development platform.

Other performance figures: high-definition H.264 720p decode at 25 frames per sec; H.264 D1 encode at 30 fps; 4.8 GFLOPS; 200M pixels/sec;8M vertices/sec; 1.6 GBytes/sec memory bandwidth; integer, IEEE 32-bit and 16-bit floating-point processing

Posted by Clive Akass on November 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Video review: Intel QX6700 quad core processor

Intel has brought out its Kentsfield quad core processor - the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 CPU.

It's the fastest processor through our lab to date, and here we demonstrate just how much quicker it is compared to the previous generation, the dual core Core 2 Extreme X6800.

You can also read a full review online, and compare its test results to other CPUs.

Click To Play

Posted by Rob Jones on November 9, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Overclocking quad cores

When the QX6700 arrived, I didn't think it be a very good overclocker because the more cores you add the more likely you are to get a duff one included.

In the olden days Intel or AMD would make a load of processors and test them afterwards. Cores with good characteristics were set to a higher frequency and cores that didn't quite cut the mustard ended up as lower clocked processors. When you have four cores that all run at the same frequency, this selection is a lot tighter and maximum speeds are limited by the best core out of four.

At first overclocking was a nightmare with the D975XDX2 'Bad Axe 2' motherboard. Although we hit 3GHz with it, scores actually got a tad worse. It was only after we found a Bios update that we really got somewhere. The new Bios actually limited some of the FSB settings but we started to see bigger scores with higher clocks.

When we got too ambitious the system became unstable and the Bad Axe 2 was really difficult to reset back to stock clocks. The competition does Bios resetting and fine-tuning settings much better but that doesn't matter to Intel since they focus on the business market in the likes of Dell and HP.

We found that without increasing the voltage to the CPU (thus inflicting minor blows to it) we could push the frequency to 3.2GHz reliably. It booted at 3.33GHz once but we forgot to run benchmarks… (the benchmarks probably wouldn't have run stably anyway, ahem). At 3.2GHz the quad core was 90 per cent quicker than an X6800 in 3DMark05 CPU tests.

In the coming weeks we believe we can push the processor to 3.66GHz, representing a 1GHz overclock, with just a few minor voltage tweaks so keep your eyes peeled.

Posted by Emil Larsen on November 2, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel delivers quads

Intel's Quad Core CPU, formally known as Kentsfield  is amongst us at last, the first offering is the latest edition to the Core 2 Extreme family, the QX6700.

Built on a 65nm process, the QX6700 comes with a 2.66GHz clock speed, 1066MHz FSB and 8MB (2 x 4MB) of  L2 cache.

To see perfomance results from the QX6700 click here

Posted by Simon Crisp on November 2, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Via’s carbon-free claims ridiculed

Journalists got extremely emotional at Via's press conference yesterday to unveil its ‘carbon-free’ PCs and processors. We didn't resort to name calling, but everyone was unhappy by its new ‘carbon free’ logos.

In our news story we revealed how it certifies CPUs and systems as 'carbon free' if complimentary trees have been planted. Via only offsets the carbon-dioxide produced to power a CPU or system for three years. The manufacture of computer equipment requires four times more electricity than powering a system for its average lifetime, so the program is fundamentally flawed - CPUs and systems are extremely carbon-un-neutral from the word go.

Via claims it can't calculate how much energy is used in making devices because it only designs things, but if the United Nations University (who calculated the 4x statistic) has an idea of what it takes to manufacture silicon, then Via could certainly make an educated guess.

I applaud Via for making low powered CPUs that require a quarter of the electricity of an Intel Pentium D, however the 'carbon free' claim is not true and every journalist knew it and felt they were seriously misleading the public.

Via expects the platform to be a success in the UK due to our green conscience, however the case is different in the US; a spokesman told me that during an American press conference the concern was over consumers thinking 'carbon free' means there is no carbon at all in the PC…

Posted by Emil Larsen on October 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I hate AMD

Not me, you understand. Intel.

During a security presentation talking about Intel’s vPro platform, senior VP Pat Gelsinger was asked to type in his name and password for his ‘bank account’. And in it he typed ‘I hate amd’.

So, anyone needing a boost to their funds now knows where to look.

In an earlier presentation this week, CTO Justin Rattner commented: “Wait a minute. It looks like there’s an Opteron in there”, as he looked into his Dustbin of Obsolete Technology.

So AMD bashing has been alive and well this week. Still, on the plus side for Intel, he didn’t stand up and say: “Our products are crap”.

 

Posted by Rob Jones on September 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Quad core but not for laptops

With Intel announcing quad core desktop and server processors at its Developer Forum in San Francisco, the obvious question is what about a quad core for notebooks? When will we see that kind of processing power?

The short answer is you're not in everyday laptops anytime soon. Quad core will attract niche markets such as gaming or mobile workstations, but not the average user. For them the hit such performance will have on battery life will be too much. But it also doesn't think most people will get much benefit from four cores in a mobile device.

The move from single core to dual core systems made a huge impact in laptop performance, but the step change when moving from two to four cores will be less so for most people. The thought of four cores diligently working away while you surf the net, or update a spreadsheet may seem attractive, but right now it's a waste of whoever's money bought the machine.

Gamers is the obvious exception, and although Intel gave no further details or timelines, we can safely assume that quad core mobile processors will appear and go into high end laptops, perhaps even in the second half of 2007. But there is also the argument that as high definition video grows, those that need to edit them will also be attracted to quad core notebooks, and may even accept the shorter battery life if they can work easier.

Ultimately though, you can be sure that Intel will be shouting about its 'energy efficient' quad core laptop as soon as it has cracked problems around power, heat and battery life, and can produce them at an attractive price point. And at that time it will be explaining in detail why the average user very much needs that kind of processing power.

Posted by Rob Jones on September 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel developing 'physical holograms'

The video below shows Intel's vision of dynamic physical rendering, easiest exlained as a touchable hologram.

It's not a hologram, but instead made using silicon that can create any shape you wish. The link takes you to the full story with more details, and the video, although computer graphics, illustrates what Intel hopes to achieve.

Click to Play

Posted by Rob Jones on September 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

AMD lift the lid on Quad Core

We got a glimpse of the future, when AMD held a briefing concerning their Quad Core Opteron CPU’s, due for launch in 2007. Built on a 65mn process, the native quad cores (coded K8L) are going to be direct pin replacements for Socket F Opteron’s with the same power and thermal envelopes as Socket F dual core CPU's.
They will use a Silicon-on-Insulator process which allows fast transistors with low power leakage to be used which helps reduce wasted power and heat, and to further improve energy savings each core can be run at different speeds or turned off completely by using the new Enhanced Power Now feature. An enhanced Crossbar Switch will enable different parts of the cores to be accessed at the same time.

The integrated memory controller (DDR2) and the new Direct Connect Architecture 2.0 will allow for faster HyperTransport speeds and is already able to support 8 core processors.

At present each core will come with 64KB/64KB L1 cache, 512KB of L2 cache and the new shared L3 cache (2Mb+) can be expanded.
Although the server based Socket F based CPU’s will be the first to arrive, AM2 desktop and mobile versions are in the pipeline.

Posted by Simon Crisp on September 21, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel launch Core2 mobile

Yesterday, Intel officially announced the latest batch of processors using Core 2 Duo technology. The mobile versions of the Core 2 Duo, previously known under their codename Merom, are now part of Intel’s Centrino Duo line-up.
As with their desktop siblings, there are 4MB (T7000) and 2MB (T5000) L2 cached versions, all are built on a 65mn process and feature a 667MHz FSB. The current line-up contains five CPUs, three with 4MB of L2 cache and two with 2MB, but expect to see Low Voltage and Ultra Low Voltage versions soon.

In theory the Core 2 Duo CPU’s should drop into any Core Duo notebook with a i945GM/PM chipset, and with a BIOS upgrade should work, but as always check with the notebook manufacturer before taking your notebook apart.

4MB versions: T7600 2.33GHz, T7200 2.16GHz, T7200 2.0GHz
2MB versions: T5600 1.83GHz, T5500 1.66GHz

Posted by Simon Crisp on August 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel tries to steal AMD's ThunDDR

Intel hopes to have a new chipset capable of supporting DDR3 RAM and quad core processors out by the end of 2007, sister-site the Inquirer says.

This info comes out hot on the heels of AMD's announcement of the upgrade path to quad core which will only support DDR2. A bit of one-upmanship at play, we suspect!

DDR3 has a prefetch buffer width of 8-bit compared to the 4-bit of DDR2. This will allow RAM modules to store more data in temporary cache just before it's required for use. DDR3 will also be far less power hungry and run at a higher clockrate.

Posted by Marc Delehanty on August 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Chillblast takes top spot with fastest Core 2 Duo PC yet

On Friday, we wrote about the fastest PC we'd seen in our labs -  the Hi-Grade Ultis Tachyon PC, based around Intel's Core 2 Extreme desktop processor.

Well, a weekend's a long time in computing, and today, we've posted our review of the Chillblast Fusion Hardcore Crossfire, which has now taken top spot in our PC performance league. It uses what on paper looks like the slow E6700 Core 2 Duo CPU, but has overclocked it, giving the computer enough grunt to surpass the normal clocked X6800 Core 2 Extreme.

The PC uses ATI's Crossfire graphics, rather than SLI - there's no retail motherboard at the time of writing that supports the Nforce 590 chipset and the new Intel processors. But Chillblast told us they'd have an SLI version as soon as the boards are out.

Intel's two new processors are the subject of our Product of the Week podcast, plus we've arranged  with Intel a competition to give away an E6700 Core 2 Duo CPU as a prize. This is its top of the range mainstream processor, and you'll find the answer to the question in the podcast.

Posted by Rob Jones on July 17, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel take back fastest CPU crown

Formally known as Conroe, Intel latest family of processors now called Core 2 Duo have taken back the fastest desktop CPU title from AMD.
The Core 2 Duo lineup ranges from the E6300 (1.86GHz) up to the mighty X6800 Core 2 Extreme clocked at 2.93GHz, all have a 1066MHz FSB and L2 cache’s range from 2 to 4MB in the higher end chips.
To see perfomance results from the E6700 (2.6GHz) and the X6800 click here

Posted by Simon Crisp on July 14, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Eastern promise as Intel gives up chancing its ARM

News that Intel is offloading its XScale division means that in the space of a few days both major PC chipmakers have got out of the business of low-drain processors designed for mobile and embedded applications. Just two weeks ago AMD offloaded its Alchemy division which targets a similar market. Both concerns have been sold to specialist design houses.

Alchemy processors are based on the MIPS architecture, and XScale uses rival cores designed by Britain's ARM. Intel designed a number of modules around XScale, optimised for use in different devices such as phones, smart phones and PDAs; but the business has reportedly not been a success.

This is not necessarily bad news for ARM, whose architecture is reckoned to be used in more devices that the classic x86 PC chip. Ominously for the US, it could reflect the growing power of  Eastern manufacturers like Samsung who are making much of the running in mobile devices. Some have chip designs of their own but many also use ARM architecture which like x86 has become a de facto standard.

Coincidentally I had an interview booked with ARM for this morning about the future of the architecture as x86 designs become more frugal. It was postponed at the last minute. No connection with the XScale news, according to the ARM spokesperson. Hmm..

Posted by Clive Akass on June 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

AMD's latest offering may fall short

AMD launched its AM2 CPU socket yesterday and while it's a welcome improvement there's nothing earth-shattering about it.

Granted, when the Athlon 64 FX-62 or Athlon 64 X2 5000+ is combined with the AM2 in a Nforce chipset AMD provides a powerful setup.

However, given that Intel's Core 2 Duo performed so well in testing we believe that when it ships in July, AMD's marketing department will have a tough time on their hands.

Posted by Marc Delehanty on May 24, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Intel's quad-core chip: Kentsfield

While we were taking a look at the new Core 2 Duo processor (Conroe) today in Munich, Intel were good enough to show us a system running the quad-core Kentsfield processor.

It's due for shipping in 2007 and although it was in a rough pre-production state it did run cool (no noisy fan). We can't comment on the performance since Intel are keeping it under wraps as far as benchmarking is concerned.

We are, however, happy to report that it's stable and powerful enough to handle even the most taxing of Powerpoint presentations ... but then that's a FarCry from the stress that gamers are going to put it under.

Posted by Marc Delehanty on May 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Intel Insight

Microsoft isn't the only one with a big launch on the cards as Intel is gearing up for a July shipping date for its Core 2 Duo processors. We're over in Munich today benchmarking the desktop version (codenamed Conroe).

Intel was even so kind as to provide some (well-tuned) AMD machines for comparison. However the comments directed towards its competitors latest offering (AM2 socket) weren't so kind ...

Now while Intel won't let us publish specific details of the benchmarking we can say that we were quite impressed. Watch this space.

Posted by Marc Delehanty on May 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel Developer Forum podcast

It was a hectic set of announcements at the Intel Developer Forum last week in San Francisco.

The company outlined upcoming major new projects and initiatives, its plans for future chip sets, its latest CPUs due later this year - and how the technology will change over the coming decade - and of course the ultra mobile PC, which uses Microsoft's origami software.

If you'd like to get a flavour of the event, listen to our podcast wrap up.

Download testbed_idf.mp3

Posted by Rob Jones on March 13, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

IDF: Intel shows off smaller dies for future CPUs

Fans of Moore's Law will be pleased to hear that Intel says it will be alive and well for at least the next 10 to 15 years.

The company outlined a pretty agressive roadmap for the next decade or so in terms of shrinking dies sizes and outlined alternatives technologies it is investigating to eventually replace the transistor.

Following are a few excerpts from a speach given by Paolo Gargini, director technical strategy at Intel.

Moore's Law as it has evolved over the years.

This slide shows that the new dual core 65nm processor is smaller than the current generation Pentium Edition CPU.

This is an actual 45nm wafer. CPUs to this size are due next year and will be quad core.

One idea Intel is exploring is stacking. This is where the wafer is sliced in half, turned upside down and put on top of the other side.

Posted by Rob Jones on March 10, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel proves Starbucks coffee is noise pollution in the living room

Intel tried to 'debunk the myth' today that Viiv PCs are too noisy for the living room, and posted charts showing the amount of heat and noise generated by a range of devices, including Starbucks coffee.

As you can see from the chart, Starbucks coffee is the hotest thing in the living room, followed closely by DVD players. The Golden Gate PC, said Intel, was cooler than most. But cooling usually needs fans, which can be noisy.

But, as Intel proves, Starbucks coffee is every bit as noisy as the average living room device (how many people put a night light in the living room?). The Golden Gate PC doesn't fare that well in our opinion, but we have to ask, what was Intel measuring, the coffee being slurped?

Posted by Rob Jones on March 8, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

IDF: Intel announces Santa Rosa chipset

Intel has announced its next generation chipset Santa Rosa at its Developer Forum, along with a number of wireless technologies.

Along with Santa Rosa, Intel fleshed out plans for its Napa update later this year, particularly the new processors Conroe (desktop), Merom (mobile) and Woodcrest (server). The company also showed off its Robson Nand flash technology which enables faster boot times and demoed Wimax in the US for the very first time.

Much of the technology it pushed ties in with its home entertainment platform Viiv, which it also pushed heavily today.

That demo came close to disaster at one point when a bullish technology claim refused to work. Intel said it had produced the first buttonless remote control, which works by voice command.

But in trying to get it to work with a Viiv Media Center PC, it doggedly ignored his pleading commands of 'what time is Family Guy' three times before working for a relieved Don Macdonald, who is charge of the Viiv push.

What it did prove though, is that an otherwise sane man looks a bit of a fool talking into remote control, however advanced the technology, so we can't see it catching on any time soon.

We've gone into far more detail about the latest Santa Rosa announcements today in our news coverage, plus produced an image gallery of the key slides and moments from the presentations. 

Posted by Rob Jones on March 8, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

IDF: Core Microarchitecture heralds energy efficient CPUs claims Intel

If Intel's chief technology officer Justin Rattner wwas Tony Blair, his message today at the Intel Developer Forum would have been 'energy efficiency, energy efficiency, energy efficiency'.

That is now the main focus for the chip giant, as it pushed Core Microarchitecture, and said in future all its CPUs would take up the Pentium M baton of good performance and low power. That means energy efficient core duo CPUs will in future go into laptops, desktops and servers.

It will move all processors to its 65nm design, and 45nm from summer next year. Other key improvements are that the L2 cache is bigger and shared and they can handle four instructions in a single clock cycle.

Rattner stressed that Intel has not partioned the cache, so it can now be shared acorss cores if one is idle. With more cache, instruction will be completed quicker. This is also the case in the instruction pipeline. With it handling four instructions per clock cycle, it uses less energy and completes tasks quicker.

Posted by Rob Jones on March 7, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

IDF: Skype's Intel bias hacked for AMD machines

Intel has reiterated that Skype was optimised to run on its dual core CPUs - to the detriment of AMD based machines claims the smaller chip company.

AMD dragged Skype into its legal row with Intel last week, claiming that while Intel dual core PCs could handle conference calls with up to 10 people, on an AMD dual core machine the voice over IP software allowed only five people to join the call.

Intel has never denied that it has a close partnership with Skype and announced some weeks back that the software was optimised for Intel's dual core CPUs.

A spokesman at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco today said that the chip giant had collaborated with Skype to optimise the software for its dual core CPUs. Code was included in Skype  so that it could detect what processor was running in a PC, and if an Intel dual core CPU was detected, then up to 10 user conference sessions was enabled.

The code has now been hacked so that AMD machines can run 10 user conference calls, however it is unlikely many Skype users are going to launch 10 user conference calls.

But while the row appears on the surface like a fuss over nothing, AMD claims that it is indicative of Intel's anti-competitive regime, and an effort to put the smaller company at a disadvantage.

 

Posted by Rob Jones on March 7, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

IDF: Key projects explained at Intel's Tech-a-Palooza

Intel held a Tech-a-Palooza this afternoon in its pre-show briefing for the Intel Develop Forum, giving us three minute bite size chunks of information on a range of initiatives and projects.

Details were basic, but much of it Intel will expand upon over the coming days. So, we've filtered the three minutes even further, giving you the headline facts to each:

Simon Ellis, Intel UDI program manager
UDI (unified display interface)

• Goal to replace the VGA connector in a PC, which is now 18years old.
• Intel believes going digital and integrating into the silicon makes sense.
• Step beyond HDMI.
• Formed industry group to develop specification, understand interoperability and how to roll this out. Hope specification 1.0 is ready by end of Q2.
• Initially, cables will be UDI to HDMI.
• What are the benefits and why move from HDMI? This is HDMI but for the PC. The PC has different set of requirements. The protocols are the same, so it's HDMI for the PC. UDI doesn't carry audio, so if want this then need HDMI in PC. UDI has some extra modes. UDI also has an optimised interface for notebooks.

Matthew Theall, president, Homeplug Alliance
Homeplug Alliance

• Rejoined Homeplug Alliance last year. Trying to work on single open standard for the technology that uses electricity cables to create a network.
• Alliance had 43 members last autumn. Another 22 have now joined.
• There are now about 4.5m units in market. So beginning to see an explosion in products. By the end of the year expect between seven and eight million Homeplug products in use.
• Latest standard: Homeplug AV – high bandwidth. 200Mbits/s up from 14Mbits/s.
• First AV products are appearing now, such as Ethernet adaptors from Devolo and now Aztech, which was announced today.

Are 2 other standards being definined:

• Homeplug Broadband over Powerline – ratified by Q4
• Homeplug Command and Control. For home automation and control technologies. The technology will be based on Yitran's technology. Should have a specification by the end of the year.
• Says Homeplug fits in with Intel's wireless and Viiv plans.
• Accepts that the products are currently expensive, but believes that pricing will get more competitive as more appear on the market.

Jeff Ravencraft, Intel technology strategist
Certified Wireless USB and Ultra Wideband

• For certified wireless USB, as opposed to wireless USB products that are on the market, but outside the certification.
• Provides mechanism from device to host. One host can support up to 127 devices.
• It will deliver ease of use and plug and play that consumers get with USB.
• Security and interoperability administered through compliance program. If products pass they can use certified wireless USB logo on their product.
• Certified Wireless USB Association 1.0 specification now completed.

Ultra Wideband (UWB)

• Radio technology for very high data rates over short range.
• Specification adopted in December 05 and expect final approval in Q3.
• Regulations – Europe and Japan have now issued proposals for their versions of UWB

Matthew Eszenyi, Intel technology strategist
802.21 (mixed networks)

• For Martini access (any time, any place, anywhere). EG:To move from one hetrogeneous network to another, such as we now move from one cellphone provider to another in the mobile sector. Trying to do this with handhelds and laptops.
• Latest draft just being released to IEEE. Hopes standards work will be finished in 2007

Knut Grimsrud, Intel fellow
CE ATA initiative

• For small form factor disk drives in handheld devices. Specification was published within 6 months of the initiative starting.
• Expect announcements at IDF this week and demos showing CE ATA products

Joshua Smith, senior researcher
Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (Wisp)

• Evolution of an idea that allows you to get rid of the battery in some instances.
• Makes embedded sensing measurements with no battery.
• Evolution of RFID, so a tag could be read at close range without a battery.

Eve Schooler, senior researcher
Distributed Detection and Inference project

• For intrusion detection and trying to stop false positives or new worms that propagate at such slow rates that they blend in with the background traffic on a network.
• By looking at the signal it can find an attack for instance. This information is shared among corroborating nodes.
• Impact: Want to show that a fully distributed architecture is viable in the network but also show that there is improved accuracy meaning networks have less false positives when combine distributed collaboration messaging with machine learning algorithms.
• Also aim to show that slower worms can be detected even though the worm looks like background traffic.
• Want to have more nodes used, which will equal greater corroboration. This can then be applied to different network issues.

Sumeet Sandhu, senior researcher
Distributed Communication

• Project concentrating on a lower layer than Distributed Detection and Inference project above.
• Challenge: As more devices are added to a wifi network we start to notice a performance degradation, because there are too many people using it.
• Frequency spectrum limited, but want to show that you can add more devices and still get good performance.
• Want to scale as Moores Law, so viewing network density as a good thing that should be used as a resource.
• One co-operative technology is multi hop relaying. So if device A can see the wireless network and device B can't, then A relays Bs packets.
• If you can convince users to use virtual arrays then they get back some of the gains you get with Mimo.
• So if you have a mobile phone that's running out of battery or can't get a signal, but there's a laptop nearby then use the laptop to get the mobile's packets through.

Posted by Rob Jones on March 6, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

AMD drags Skype into its legal battle with Intel

On the eve of the Intel Developer Forum in the US, Skype has found itself dragged into the legal row between the chip giant and AMD.

AMD is claiming that Skype has been optimised to work better on Intel processors, where a PC running its dual core CPUs can cope with 10 people on a conference call, compared to only five when using an AMD machine.

The company has demanded legal documents to see if any anti competitive behaviour has been ongoing between the two to the detriment of AMD. 

This is part of AMD's anti-trust action against Intel, which it launched last summer.

We're flying out to San Francisco tomorrow for IDF, which kicks off for press and analysts on Monday, and we'll carry daily reports here and in our news section.

Posted by Rob Jones on March 4, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel explains how dual core works

We all know that the future of CPUs is dual core, but if you're not sure exactly what this means or how it's going to help you, Intel has put together a short(ish) film explaining the technology's finer points.

Biased? Well of course. Not a mention of AMD dual core anywhere, but then again, would AMD talk up Intel dual core?

It stars Dominick Diamond - just to give it that techie yet cool feel, and although not as funny as Hitachi's explanation of perpendicular drives, it will fill in a few gaps in your knowlegde.

You'll find the video clip here, plus you can see how these  processors compare to AMD's in our performance tests.

Posted by Rob Jones on February 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

250Mbyte microstorage

Transcend has launched a high-speed 250MByte microSD card designed for the next generation of mobile phones.

MicroSD, half the size of a standard SIM card, is the smallest flash form factor available.

Posted by Clive Akass on January 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel's new CPUs and pricing

As well as announcing the new Centrino Solo/Duo (Napa) laptop platform using Yonah CPUs, Intel has also introduced lots of other new processor varieties. Our list below shows the new products and pricing (in US$, 1000-unit quantities).

Note: Core Solo = Yonah single-core; Core Duo = Yonah dual-core

Pentium Extreme Edition 955 (2x2M L2 cache 3.46 GHz 1066 MHz FSB 65nm) $999

Pentium D 950 (2x2M L2 cache 3.40 GHz 800 MHz FSB 65nm) $637
Pentium D 940 (2x2M L2 cache 3.20 GHz 800 MHz FSB 65nm) $423
Pentium D 930 (2x2M L2 cache 3 GHz 800 MHz FSB 65nm) $316
Pentium D 920 (2x2M L2 cache 2.80 GHz 800 MHz FSB 65nm) $241

Pentium 4 661 (2M L2 cache 3.60 GHz 800 MHz FSB 65nm) $401
Pentium 4 651 (2M L2 cache 3.40 GHz 800 MHz FSB 65nm) $273
Pentium 4 641 (2M L2 cache 3.20 GHz 800 MHz FSB 65nm) $218
Pentium 4 631 (2M L2 cache 3 GHz 800 MHz FSB 65nm) $178

Celeron D 355 (256k L2 cache 3.33 GHz 533 MHz FSB 90nm) $127

Core Duo T2600 (2M L2 cache 2.16 GHz 667 MHz FSB 65nm) $637
Core Duo T2500 (2M L2 cache 2 GHz 667 MHz FSB 65nm) $423
Core Duo T2400 (2M L2 cache 1.83 GHz 667 MHz FSB 65nm) $294
Core Duo T2300 (2M L2 cache 1.66 GHz 667 MHz FSB 65nm) $241

Core Solo T1300 (2M L2 cache 1.66 GHz 667 MHz FSB 65nm) $209

Low Voltage Core Duo L2400 (2M L2 cache 1.66 GHz 667 MHz FSB 65nm) $316
Low Voltage Core Duo L2300 (2M L2 cache 1.50 GHz 667 MHz FSB 65nm) $284

Pentium M 773 (2M L2 cache 1.30 GHz ULV 400 MHz FSB 90nm) $273

Xeon 2.80 GHz w/ 2x2M cache 800 MHz FSB (90nm) $1,043
Xeon 3.80 GHz w/ 2M cache 800 MHz FSB (90nm) $851
Xeon 2.80E GHz w/ 2M cache 800 MHz FSB (90nm) $193
Xeon 3.20 GHz w/ 2M cache 800 MHz FSB (90nm) Mid Voltage $487
Xeon 3 GHz w/ 2M cache 800 MHz FSB (90nm) Low Voltage $519

Posted by on January 6, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 results

Performance results for Intel’s latest CPU, the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 are now available.
Results link

The dual core Pentium E.E 955 (codename Presler) uses Intel’s 65nm manufacturing process and has a FSB speed of 266MHz (1,066MHz effective) and a clock speed of 3.46GHz. Each core has 2MB of L2 cache giving a staggering total of 4MB which will is the reason for the whopping 376m transistor count.
The 955 also features Intel’s Virtualisation Technology. By using this combined with Intel’s Virtual Machine Monitor, you can run multiple operating systems in independent partitions on a single platform at the same time.

Posted by Simon Crisp on January 4, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Intel leaps ahead with new logo

In a major rebranding exercise, Intel's familiar 'dropped-e' logo from 1991 has today joined the dinosaurs, to be replaced by a new swooshy corporate logo (left) and 'Leap ahead' tagline. According to the press release, the new brand identity represents Intel's 'evolution to a market-driving platform solutions company'.

You can see the full range of corporate and product logos here. The new logo will appear on all its processors, together with the 'Inside' tag. The new 'Centrino Duo' brand is illustrated - this is the name for the upcoming 'Napa' dual-core mobile platform. Also in the PDF above are the logos for the Core Solo (single core) and Core Duo (dual core) mobile processors that power the Napa platform - these CPUs were previously codenamed 'Yonah'.

Intel's Paul Otellini is expected to give further details about the new brands and products at CES on Thursday, including the Intel ViiV home entertainment platform.

Posted by on January 3, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

IM Flash, says Intel

Intel and Micron have just announced a new joint company set up to produce flash memory, mostly, it appears, destined for Apple.

IM Flash Technologies (surely the most unintentionally hilarious company name to appear for some time) has been set up at a cost of $2.4bn split evenly between Micron and Intel, with  a further $2.8bn promised over the next 3 years. Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO, said:

“The creation of this new company supports Intel’s intent to maintain its industry-leading position in nonvolatile memory and enables us to rapidly enter a fast-growing portion of the flash market segment,”

According to the press release, long term supply contracts with Apple have been agreed, with prepayments from Apple of $250m to each company.

Posted by on November 21, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Transcend launches 4GB SD card

Just when we were getting over the shock of 2GB SD cards, along comes Transcend and announces a 4GB model. Costing €399, it boasts a 22.5MB/sec transfer rate, meaning you could fill it up in about 3 minutes. Perfect for downloading maps onto for your PDA's Sat Nav application or boosting your MP3 player's capacity - but make sure your device supports FAT32 SD cards.

Posted