03/28, 11:10pm
Said to have won 'guarantee' on IP rights
Apple CEO Tim Cook continued his visit to China on Tuesday, winning a "guarantee" regarding intellectual property rights from the second-in-command of China's government during a meeting with Vice Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing. Cook has been meeting with Chinese officials and has visited at least one of the five official mainland Apple retail stores in China during his visit. By coincidence, Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg was spotted in Shanghai yesterday as well.
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11/21, 3:05pm
Nehalem Xeon Benchmarks
Early tests conducted with Intel's upcoming Nehalem-based Xeons by TechRadar today show the processor running approximately twice as fast as its current equivalent. Based on the same basic design as Core i7 mainstream chips, a pair of 2.8GHz quad-core Xeon X5560 chips received a SPEC score of 160 in floating-point math tests versus 90 for two 3.4GHz Xeons from the current generation.
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11/21, 9:35am
AMD Phenom II at 4GHz
AMD's mainstream Phenom II processors should rekindle the competition with Intel for clock speed, according to a collection of reports of an AMD demonstration session. Based on the recently unveiled Shanghai architecture being used for new Opterons, the quad-core desktop chips should make a modest leap to 3GHz in official clock speeds but will have room for overclocking previously only available with Intel's Core 2 chips. An example tested by AMD is capable of running reliably at 4GHz with fan-based cooling and shows the company could upgrade the clock speed to match or beat Intel if necessary.
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11/13, 12:40am
AMD releases Shanghai'
AMD has taken the wraps off it's 45nm quad-core 'Shanghai' Opteron processor line", promising improved performance and energy savings. The company says "Shanghai" will be widely available -- unlike its predecessor "Barcelona" which was delayed for months due to production glitches. Designed for the server and workstation market, Shanghai reportedly delivers up to 35 percent better performance while using 35 percent less power at idle -- all at a lower price than competing products from Intel. As it continues to duke it out with Intel, AMD appears to be aiming at the bottom line, hoping to lure recession-weary customers looking for value.
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05/07, 6:40pm
AMD 6 and 12 core Opterons
AMD on Wednesday unveiled definitive plans for 6- and 12-core Opteron processors, made with a 45nm fabrication process, which will be available most likely during 2009. TG Daily writes that the company will continue to support the Socket F (1207) platform through to its 6-core, single-die Istanbul, but will make a departure from the standard in 2010, when AMD unveils its Maranello platform. Production samples of the 45nm chips have already been made available to vendors.
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04/30, 2:00am
AMD's 100 Puma laptops
Hoping to garner a greater mobile marketshare, AMD says that around 100 laptop designs will be based around the Puma laptop chip platform, which is scheduled to launch in June. A company spokesman told PC World that the launch will feature twice as many designs as the launch of its last mobile platform. With plans to launch Puma during the Computex trade show, the platform will offer greater power efficiency, improved graphics, and AMD's upcoming Turion X2 Ultra "Griffin" processor. The report notes that Puma also includes a chipset with integrated graphics (an ATI Radeon HD3400) and integrated wireless connectivity (via a third-party chipset) supporting 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n Wi-Fi networking.
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04/19, 7:10pm
AMD reveals 45nm Shanghai
AMD engineers this week said that the company plans on introducing new 12-core processors later this year. The first processors based on 45nm Shanghai platform are due later this year and will be nearly identical to the B3 variant of the Socket 1207 Opteron (Barcelona) shipping today, according to DailyTech. The processors will reportedly use the faster HyperTransport 3.0 for inter-CPU communication and will debut later this year as a "native six-core" Shanghai derivative, currently code-named Istanbul. That processor, the report claims, is "clearly targeted at Intel's recently announced six-core, 45nm Dunnington processor." A few months later, Shanghai and its derivatives will also get twin-die per package treatment, allowing for up to 12-cores per package, the report says.
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03/04, 10:45am
AMD 45nm Demo
AMD today stepped closer towards equality with Intel today by revealing the first working examples of its own 45 nanometer processors. Co-developed with IBM, the chips combine AMD's own existing quad-core technology with the smaller, more efficient chip design to improve the amount of performance without increasing power and heat as a result. The company is still hesitant to reveal full details but explains that there will be both desktop-oriented processors, codenamed "Deneb," as well as server-grade "Shanghai" chips available; these are expected to translate to both single- and dual-socket upgrades to the Phenom desktop line as well as more efficient Opteron processors later in the year.
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