June 24 - 11:20am EDT   Intel will ship three processors based on its next-generation Nehalem architecture before the end of the year, say those in the mainboard industry. While Intel has only demonstrated a test version of a 3.2GHz, quad-core processor in the past, the company is now understood to be launching a production version sometime in the last quarter of the year that will appear alongside lower-priced 2.66GHz and 2.93GHz versions. All three will have 8MB of Level 2 cache and support Hyperthreading that could have a four-core chip behave as though it were eight with optimized software. [full story]

June 19 - 9:50am EDT   Intel has developed an updated technology that could virtually solve questions of memory speed, the semiconductor firm has revealed at its recent Research@Intel event. Developers at the company have created dynamic RAM that behaves like typical system memory but needs just two transistors for each memory cell and which needs no capacitors. The invention makes dynamic RAM small enough that it can be embedded in a processor rather than put into a separate module, potentially eliminating several bottlenecks inherent to the static RAM used for cache on current processors. [full story]

May 12 - 2:10pm EDT   Catering to a niche of mobile pros, Eurocom today updated the PHANTOM-X to give the 17-inch desktop replacement its first quad-core workstation chip. The notebook is rebranded as a mobile server a 2.8GHz Xeon in place of its normal Core 2 Quad and Extreme processors to help handle professional-grade loads. The Canadian company also spins its multi-drive hard disk setup as a business option and lets users team up as many as three drives for up to 1.5TB of space in a RAID stripe or mirror. The larger bulk of the notebook also allows up to 8GB of memory. [full story]

April 21 - 10:30am EDT   Intel late yesterday refreshed its processor line with a combination of new chips and price cuts. Among the new lineup, the Celeron E1400 is unique as the semiconductor firm's first budget processor to crack 2GHz while also offering dual cores; the refinement is a significant boost from its 1.6GHz predecessor but occupies the same $53 price point as the earlier design, making it feasible for budget desktops. It should be available today and will see the price of the older chip drop to $43. A single-core, 2.66GHz Celeron 570 ships for $134 and contributes to a price drop on the 1.8GHz Celeron 430 to $34. [full story]

April 14 - 8:15am EDT   HP this morning has marked the launch of NAB with two systems targeted at AV editors or most anyone who depends on very high end performance. A new version of the xw8600 uses Intel's latest 3.2GHz quad-core Xeon to handle very processor-intensive tasks such as media encoding; up to two each can fit in a single system to make it the most individually powerful desktop at HP, the company says. Systems built on the new chip vary in price but lift the price by about $2,460 both through the faster design as well as the requirement of using 4GB of 800MHz memory. [full story]

April 2 - 4:30pm EDT   Intel at its Developer Forum today demonstrated a 3.2GHz example of its upcoming Nehalem processor technology. Already clocked at 3.2GHz, the chip is the first public example of the successor to today's Core architecture and is the fastest x86 chip from Intel capable of handling more than four threads: the addition of Hyperthreading support allows each of the four cores in the example to run as many as two instruction threads at a time, allowing it to handle the work of eight cores in certain circumstances. Dual- and quad-processor systems will handle as many as 16 or 32 threads at once with the design. [full story]

March 25 - 10:25am EDT   Intel today used little fanfare to introduce new Xeon 5000-series quad-core processors that promise lower power without the accompanying drop in performance. The 2.33GHz L5410 and 2.5GHz L5420 are built on the smaller 45 nanometer Penryn architecture that underpins most of Intel's lineup but are tuned to consume much less power than standard Xeons: at their thermal design limits, both of the new Xeons consume no more than 50 watts, Intel says. The advancement allows for smaller, more efficient workstations and servers that can still handle heavy-duty tasks. [full story]

March 18 - 1:35pm EDT   The upcoming Nehalem processor design will not just be an upgrade to existing processors but a complete replacement for the Core architecture, Intel has explained as part of a press briefing. It will be built on the same 45 nanometer manufacturing process as today's Penryn architecture but is designed to be extremely scalable: in addition to scaling from as few as two cores per chip to as many as 8, Nehalem can be optimized to run efficiently in notebooks or at full speed for servers and workstations. [full story]

February 25 - 1:35pm EST   Information has purportedly leaked on two upcoming Intel technologies. Foremost is a new Xeon CPU codenamed "Dunnington," which is said to use three dual-core processors based on 45nm Penryn technology. The CPU should use a shared 16MB L3 cache, but each core pairing is described as having 3MB of L2 memory. The chip is further said to have a 1,066MTs interconnect, and thermal design power rated under 130W. [full story]

February 1 - 4:00pm EST   Intel on Friday said it had already begun dropping its older performance 65-nanometer processors only shortly after the unveiling of its complete 45-nanometer line. The change will start with the company's more affordable workstation processors, including dual-core Xeon 3000-series workstation chipsets ranging from 1.86GHz to 2.66GHz; a better-equipped 2.66GHz chip and a 3GHz equivalent will remain intact as will three quad-core Xeon 3200 processors using the older archtecture. High-end Xeons in the 5000-series also remain untouched for now, Intel says. [full story]

January 31 - 10:35am EST   The MacBook Air's custom-made processor should soon be licensed for use by other PC builders, say claims by PC Advisor. A contact allegedly aware of Intel's plans expects at least two unnamed computer builders to use the special Core 2 Duo in systems to be released "soon." The technical details of the notebooks are not described, though the smaller packaging around the processor die is designed to allow smaller overall systems without sacrificing as much performance as the ultra-low voltage chips typically required for subnotebooks. [full story]

January 8 - 9:30am EST   Apple today introduced its first comprehensive update to the Mac Pro since August 2006. Using the 45-nanometer Penryn architecture that forms the foundation of the Xeon 5400 line, the new workstation clocks at up to 3.2GHz with a faster, 1,600MHz bus and as much as a 12MB Level 2 cache. Using 800MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM memory, the system can hold as much as 32GB of memory across eight slots and has 61 percent more memory bandwidth than the past model, according to Apple. [full story]

December 28 - 4:45pm EST   Intel's upcoming platform for Skulltrail has been partly uncovered ahead of its official debut, HotHardware says in a new preview. Having received a set of photos, the site reaffirms that the mainboard will include dual 771-pin sockets of the same kind that fit 45-nanometer Xeon 5200/5400 chips and four PCI Express X16 slots to support as many as four video cards at full speed. The hardware will not only need two NVIDIA nForce controllers to process graphics in a four-way SLI mode but will need an active fan system just to remain cool, the photos demonstrate. [full story]