3.5GHz Core 2 Duo E8700 on sale

Intel will soon launch its fastest dual-core to date, the Core 2 Duo E8700 clocked at 3.5GHz. €259 in Belgium

Many of these 45nm parts will end up overclocked, and we're sure gamers will appreciate them. The price however, is another issue. At €259 the E8700 is no bargain, and you can get a pretty good quad core for less. It's still the highest clocked Intel desktop CPU out there, and this fact alone means it's worth mentioning. Like the E8600, the 3.5GHz E8700 has a 1333MHz FSB, 6MB L2-cache and has a rather good 65W TDP.

You can find the listing here.

Intel's Core i7 975 EE benchmarked

Intel will release Extreme Edition Core i7 processor within the near future, as well known overclocker Fugger has posted some early benchmarks and overcklocking results for the Core i7 Extreme Edition 975 which comes clocked at a default speed of 3.33GHz.

Although this is hardly a huge step up from the current 965XE part which is clocked at 3.2GHz, the new 975XE seems to overclock much better. Using a Gigabyte EX58-Extreme motherboard, Fugger managed to push the new CPU to 5.26GHz without any problems and with the help of a pair of Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics cards, him and his partner Mikeguava managed to break 47,000 in 3DMark 05 which is a new world record. Its likely that Fugger will achieve even higher scores with this CPU given time and it looks like all the overclockers out there will have a new toy to play with in due time. As there are other chips in circulation already, wed expect more benchmark results to pop up over the next few weeks.

Intel i7 975 ES D0 stepping
Gigabyte EX58-EXTREME
Gigabyte 4870X2 Quadfire (pure stock)
Corsair 1866C8 with Pelt cooling
K|ngp|n F1 EE Pot
750W Silencer PSU

source

Intel's 3.33GHz Core i7 975 Extreme Edition

Intel's 3.33GHz Core i7 975 Extreme Edition

Intel appears to be set to give it another nudge forward with the launch of the Core i7 975 Extreme Edition processor.

Details are in short supply, but overclockers Mikeguava and Fugger appear to have their hands on Intel's range-topping part and have done what they do best - overclock the hell out of it. Using GIGABYTE's EX58 Extreme mainboard, Corsair's peltier-cooled memory and a pair of Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics cards, they managed to score a staggering 47,026 3DMarks.

What's interesting is that the CPU features D0 stepping, and such a change usually denotes a refined silicon package that could result in lower power consumption and should provide greater overclocking headroom.

There's no news on release details at this early stage, but this is a chip that's likely to be priced close to the mind-boggling £1,000 mark. We'd hate to be one of those who've recently splashed out over £800 on the soon-to-be-dethroned Core i7 965 Extreme Edition.

Phenom II X4 B93 top business CPU

2.8GHz for businessmen

AMD is still on track to launch its new Phenom II generation for business people and these CPUs should find their place to the corporate hearts. Business class Phenoms based on the Deneb 45nm quad-core will launch in early Q3 2009.

The best is called Phenom II X4 B93 and this CPU works at 2.8GHz and is in fact nothing more than a regular Deneb based Phenom renamed to sound more like a business thing. This CPU has 8MB of total cache 4x512L2 and 6MB L3 and it fits the 95W TDP envelope.

The runner up Phenom X4 B91 has the same specs but it will end up cheaper and works at 2.6GHz. These CPUs will dethrone the Phenom X4 9850B and the rest of the Agena 65nm based generation, but as always this won’t happen overnight.

Intel LGA 1155, 1156, 1576 sockets

Core i7's LGA 1366 socket is old so Intel is looking to introduce a few new sockets, and processors. Not like in the LGA 775 Intel is preparing to introduce two mainstream Nehalem sockets, both of which are pictured below - Socket H1 (LGA 1156) and H2 (LGA 1155). These will house the Core i5 CPU models which, compared to the Core i7s, lack QPI and the triple-channel memory controller but integrate a dual channel DDR3 memory and PCI-Express controllers.

Socket H1 (left) and Socket H2 (right)

Before Socket H1 and H2 come into play, another new socket (seen below) will make its debut. Socket Socket LS aka LGA 1567 is aimed at the server market and will be paired up with Nehalem-based Xeon processors.

Intel LGA 1155, 1156, 1576 sockets

source

Intels 65W Core 2 Quad cpu up for pre-order

Intels lower-power Core 2 Quad processors are now propping up at various retailers. Two of the three new 65W parts - the Core 2 Quad Q8200s and Core 2 Quad Q9550s - are available to pre-order from Scan.co.uk, but at a notable premium. Here is how pricing compares for 65W equivalents of existing 95W

Processor	Core 2 Quad Q9550s	Core 2 Quad Q9550	Core 2 Quad Q8200s	Core 2 Quad Q8200
CPU speed	2.83GHz	2.83GHz	2.33GHz	2.33GHz
FSB	1,333MHz	1,333MHz	1,333MHz	1,333MHz
L2 cache	12MB	12MB	4MB	4MB
Manufacturing process	45nm	45nm	45nm	45nm
TDP	65W	95W	65W	95W
Price	£339.04	£231.12	£220.79	£146.61

Were sure there are users to whom each degree in temperature makes all the difference, but a price hike of £108 and £74, respectively, currently make both the Q9550s and Q8200s seem far too pricey.

They might be out of reach for the everyday consumer, but 65W quad-core chips are a welcome addition to Intels line-up and wed expect them to appear in numerous systems in the coming weeks - and perhaps in a refreshed iMac, too.

First preview of Phenom X3 720 BE

Tested and overclocked to 3.7GHz

The guys at Donanimhaber.com managed to get their hands on AMD's Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition CPU and test it on both AM2+ DDR2 and AM3 DDR3 motherboard. They even tried to overclock it and the score are very impressive, as they managed to get it all the way from 2.8GHz to 3.7GHz.

The most interesting part is the DDR2 versus DDR3 tests, as the DDR3 memory doesn't bring any significant performance gains, especially if you compare DDR2 and DDR3 prices. The Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition should be launched on February 9th and as a part of the Black Edition series it has unlocked multipliers. Other specifications include a base clock of 2.8GHz, 1.5MB of L2 and 6MB of L3 cache and a TDP of 95 Watt's. According to what we see from these results, AMD might give Intel a run for its money, at least with this Phenom II X3 720 BE which can be found listed at around €140 in Europe.

You can find more here

Intel ready with its first 8-Core xeon processors

Santa Clara, California-based Intel is expected to detail one of its highest-anticipated server processors at the upcoming International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco between February 8 and 12, 2009. The chip maker is expected to provide an early look at its first eight-core chip, which will be part of the company's Xeon family of processors. These chips are to provide a new level of performance for server systems based on a dual-socket motherboard.

Unfortunately, at this time, there aren't any details regarding the Xeon processors to be discussed at the February 9 presentation. According to the ISSCC programme, executives of the global leading chip maker will be discussing an 8-core, 16-thread Xeon processor, which will be manufactured using a 45nm process technology. According to additional info, said processor will also be featuring 2.38 transistors and support operation of up to 6.4GT/s.

As expected, Intel is yet to officially comment on the respective Xeon processor, which it will likely do during the ISSCC event. “We are presenting 16 papers at ISSCC, but don't haveanything further to share at this point,” said Nick Jacobs, a company spokesman in Singapore.
According to the available details, Intel's presentation might just be related to the company's highly-anticipated Xeon processor that will be based on the Nehalem EP architecture. This server CPU is known to have been designed specifically for dual-socket servers and workstations. According to previous details, this processor line is due to be released sometime in early 2009.

The upcoming chips will sport some of the features currently available for Intel's other Nehalem-based chips, including the use of Intel's Quick Path Interconnect (QPI), which basically replaces the front side bus, featured on Intel's previous generation of Xeon processors. This feature boosts the computer's overall performance.

Propus Athlon X4 delayed to Q3

AMD plans to bring more Deneb and Heka based Quad and Three core CPUs in Q2, but the Propus non energy efficient will be pushed to early Q3. This looks like a business decision as the company already plans a 45W Propus in early Q2.

The specifications seem to be locked and Athlon X4 615 will work at 2.7GHz, come with 2MB L2 cache and will sit under the 95W umbrella.

The runner up is Athlon X4 605 that runs at 2.5GHz. Funny enough, the Athlon X4 605e works at 2.3GHz but has only a 45W TDP while the non e version has a massive 95W TDP.

At least you can expect these CPUs in back to school period.

AMD six-core 'Istanbul' Opteron Tests

AMD has given a glimpse at what its upcoming six-core Opteron processors (amd Istanbul). As reported by The Tech Report, the server CPUs were shown off in three systems - two quad-socket and one dual-socket, running everything from Windows Server 2008 to Server 2008 plus three virtual machines with Windows Server 2003, Red Hat Linux and SLES 11 x64 installed.


The dual socket server with 12 cores

Manufactured using the 45nm process technology, the six-core CPUs are compatible with current Socket F motherboards making the upgrade simple and easy, have dual-channel DDR2 memory controllers, HyperTransport 3.0 and 6MB of L3 cache. The Istanbul Opterons are expected to make their debut in the second half of this year and will be followed in 2010 by the DDR3-supporting Sao Paolo models.


Four sockets = 24 cores ready for battlesource The Tech Report.

AMD Sempron X2 2300 in Store in Japan

AMD’s dual-core Sempron X2 2300 has been available in Japan at JPY2480 (about $27), according to the guys at AKIBA. This is the second model of Sempron dual-core CPU after Sempron X2 2100 announced in last March.

With 512KB L2 cache, 65nm Socket AM2 and TDP of 65W, Sempron X2 2300 is almost the same as Sempr

on X2 2100. But it features frequency of 2.2GHz, up from 1.8GHz on Sempron X2 2100.

AMD Sempron X2 2300 in Store in Japan

AMD Phenom II X4 hits 4.4GHz

AMDs Phenom II processors are truly mean overclockers under extreme cold, but with more conventional cooling the processors are yet to really impress. They are still much better than the last series of Phenoms, but compared to Intels Core architecture they are still several MHz short. AMD overclockers have started looking for The Golden One among Phenom II processors and we now hear about a Phenom II X4 processor that does 4.4GHz with air cooling and "only" 1.55V.

The overclock was with all four cores, but and the air was a bit colder than normal (processor temperature was about 25°C) and the memories downclocked to reach 4.4GHz. The system was just stable enough for a CPU-Z screendump but it still shows that the Phenom II architecture can reach respectable frequencies with regular air cooling.

soruce

Nehalem based Xeons on last day of March

Official launch on March 30th

Intel will officially launch the Nehalem generation of Xeons on the very last day of March. While it will show itself in Intel’s pricelist on March 28th, the official launch and availability is planned for the last day in Q1.

The new Xeon will also get a new logo, which is slightly different then the existing one, with a different colour scheme. We are not sure that many customers will be ready to swap their Penryn based servers for Nehalem based ones, mainly due to cost related issues, but we are quite sure that Nehalem based Xeons should end up much faster than Penryn 45nm based Xeons.

Demand for three-core Phenoms II on the rise

Following fourth core unlock reports

Demand for AMD three-core Phenom II chips is on the rise, following reports that the fourth core on many units can be activated after fiddling with some bios settings.

Of course, the hack doesn't work on all CPUs, but only certain batches, so consumers can't really expect a 100 percent success rate, but nevertheless, the prospect of a free fourth core seems quite appealing to some.

Of course, AMD refuses to officially comment the three-core to quad-core five-finger discount hack.

Several readers have already contacted us to confirm they managed to succesfully enable the fourth core, and in case you have a three-core Phenom II, and you've tried enabling the disabled core, we would like to hear from you.

More here.

Intel changes all logos

Intel just got into business of changing logos, and we just found out how the rest of the line up looks like.

The new logo is much wider than the previous one and on the top right corner you can see something that looks like chip. Core i7 and Core 2 Extreme logos are black, while Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 vPro are blue and very similar.

Many Centrino logos are all in white, and the top one is Centrino 2 inside, runner up is Centrino 2 vPro followed by Centrino inside and Centrino vPro inside.

Itanium, Xeon, and Core 2 Viiv sort of didnt change their format, while Xeon will come in new blue colour, probably for Nehalem based Xeons. New logos will be effective as of April 1st, the first day of Q2 2009.

Dual-CPU Nehalem systems pump up the bandwidth

Intel will officially introduce the dual processor Nehalem-EP, aka Gainestown.

Essentially, it keeps the same format and LGA1366 socket as the uni-processor Core i7, just dual CPU support and two QPI links per chip this time - one to talk to the Tylersburg chipset, another for high speed whispering to its twin Nehalem brother.

Even the workstation flavour of the Tylersburg is identical to the desktop one (X58) plus of course an extra QPI link to talk to that second CPU - or the second Tylersburg in dual North Bridge configuration for, say, quad PCIe x16 monster boards. Just count the PCIe lanes on this diagram.

Intel intros specialized Atom for cars and other devices, outsources some Atom manufacturing

Intel intros specialized Atom for cars and other devices, outsources some Atom manufacturing

Relying on the same 45nm manufacturing process, the new Atom Z5xx series processors expectedly aren't too radically different from the average Atom, with them clocking in between 1.1GHz and 1.6GHz, and boasting a TDP rating of 2.0 or 2.2 watts, although they do have some "embedded lifecycle support" thrown in for good measure. In related news, Intel has also announced that it'll be outsourcing "some" Atom manufacturing to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (or TSMC), which apparently marks the first time that Intel has licensed its CPU core to a foundry.

Intel prepping 2.0 GHz Atom Z550 processor

With the Atom dominance expected to continue, even with the competition from ARM, VIA and others, Intel is reported to be planning the introduction of a 2.0 GHz version of its low-power 45nm CPU. Named Z550, the MID-targeting processor would start selling next month and have 512kB of L2 cache, a FSB of 533 MHz and a TDP of 2.4W, just like its brothers, the 1.86 GHz Z540, and the rather popular 1.6 GHz Z530 which is used in a few netbook models on sale today.

The price of the Atom Z550 is yet unknown but Intel could simply ask $135 and thus lower the price of the Z540, and, consequently, the Z530. Were all for cheaper and more powerful.

source

AMD Phenom II X4 955 CPU Coming on April 20th

AMD was planning to launch 3.1GHz Phenom II X4 950 in Q2 according to our previous source, but Phenom II X4 955 is said to replace it as the fastest AMD CPU.

Phenom II X4 955 has employed 45nm processing and Socket AM3. Clocked at 3.2GHz (16*200MHz), it’s coming with 2MB (4*512KB) L2 Cache and 6MB L3 Cache. With 125W TDP, Phenom II X4 955 is said to be launched on April 20th.

Intel launches 2GHz Atom Z550

Intel will announce a couple of new Z-series chips for MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). Already rumored, the 45nm Atom Z550 and Z515 are clocked at 2 and 1.2 GHz respectively, and feature a 533 MHz FSB and 512kB of cache. The Z515 also have the Burst Performance Technology which enables it to automatically adjusts its working frequency depending on computing needs.

Intel has marked the Atom's first anniversary with the launch of two new parts, the Z550 and Z515.

The Z515 runs at up to 1.2GHz and supports Burst Performance Technology, which allows it to adjust the frequency automatically depending on performance demands. It supports US15W and UL11L chipsets and it will primarily be used in MIDs.

The Z550 runs at 2.0GHz, but still stays withing the 3W power envelope. We are not sure if the Z550 will find its place in new products any time soon. When it comes to Atoms, there is usually a hefty price premium to pay for a slightly higher clock, and for example, a 1.8GHz model costs twice as much as the 1.6GHz we see all over the place.

Both chips have a 2.4W TDP, they idle at 0.22W, have 512KB of L2 cache and run on a 533MHz FSB.