Intel has reportedly delayed its launch schedule for Cedar Trail-M chips, which were initially expected to arrive as early as September. Unnamed sources associated with notebook makers have told DigiTimes the platform is now scheduled to arrive in November due to graphics driver issues that needed resolved before passing Windows 7 certification.
Intel is reportedly planning an aggressive pricing strategy for its Cedar Trail CPU lineup. Unnamed sources from netbook makers have told DigiTimes the chips will sell for as low as $42 to $47, which would effectively undercut the current entry price for Atom processors by 30 to 50 percent. Companies are said to be paying between $64 and $86 for the N400- and N500-series offerings.
Intel continues to reign as the dominant player in the general microprocessor market, accounting for 80 percent of global revenue for the silicon chips that drive early every electronic gadget today -- but is unable to steal significant market share from rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Likewise, AMD cannot break out and "steal" any market share from Intel, figures from an iSuppli study show.
AMD on Tuesday introduced its 2010 lineup of components for mainstream desktop PCs, including a 3.0GHz Athlon II X4 offering. The X4 640 is said to be the company's first quad-core desktop CPU in the Athlon II family to run at 3.0GHz, a modest increase over the current X4 635 model that offers 2.9GHz performance.
AMD has confirmed that it is readying a six-core processor, codenamed Thuban, that is geared for consumer desktops. The component is based on the company's six-core Opteron series that was recently announced for server configurations.
Today at DealNN there is a variety of discounted products from iPods to GPS units. First off is the Mac Mini from MacMall. It is regularly priced at $499.99, but until 3/31/09 save $25 with a mail in rebate offer that drops the price down to $474.99. The Mac Mini has a 1.83GHz processor 1GB of memory and a 80GB hard drive.
Korean OEM manufacturer Ripple has introduced an updated version of its Mac Mini clone using a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor in the Mini-ITX form factor. The Ripple Mini Chocolate uses the 45nm i945GC-Northbridge and ICH7Ssouthbridge chipsets, and supports up to 2GB of RAM. Intel specs show the low-cost motherboard with 2 USB ports, a pair of 3.0GBs SATA conntectors and single IDE socket.
Intel will go back to the old days of pricing its flagship chips at $999 apiece when ordered in bulk, thousand-piece quantities, says a Friday report that cites mainboard manufacturers as its sources. The move is believed to have been made in order to speed up the adoption of quad-core CPUs, and pertains specifically to the chipmaker's upcoming 3.2GHz Extreme-series desktop Nehalem processors nicknamed Bloomfield.
Yesterday's entry on Intel's Research@Intel blog by the company's Microprocessor Technology Lab Principal Engineer, Anwar Ghuloum, suggests the chipmaker will eventually offer chips with cores that count in the thousands, and tens and hundreds before that. In the blog, Ghuloum writes about working with external developers to take advantage of multi-core and terascale chips his company is developing.
RedleX has released Mellel 2.5, a significant update to the leading word processor for Mac OS X. The new release adds robust cross referencing capabilities, allowing users to refer from one point in the text to another (e.g., "see page 15"). Mellel's reference entry dialogue allows, accordingly, to create reference formats, composed of different elements such as reference to the page number, position in the text (above, next page, below, etc.), page range, and so on. Users can also save and re-use such formats again and again, making the necessary modifications as they go along.
Mobile processor manufacturer VIA on Thursday announced it would commence shipments of 45nm processor fabrications in 2009, as well as the company's first dual-core chips. DigiTimes writes that insiders have brought to light some of the specs, with the Isaiah-based dual-core processor allegedly featuring a 2GHz core frequency. The chip will sit on an 800 to 1333MHz bus, and will feature two pairs of 64KB L1 cache, and 1MB L2 cache.
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.
Apple's recent acquisition of PA Semiconductor appears to revolve around the latter company's intellectual properties and expertise, not its current products as was initially believed. AppleInsider reveals that Apple is more concerned with PA's technologies and engineers, since the semiconductor manufacturer has in the past created a dual-core 64-bit chip which only uses 15 watts of power to operate. This could allow for integration of low-consumption processors like the Intel Atom.
The next iteration of the iPhone is likely to use the Infineon S-Gold3H processor in its 3G incarnation, an examination of the latest SDK beta suggests. According to ZiPhone.org, code in the SDK beta implies that the next generation iPhone will see "3.5G" HSDPA functionality, with a connection speed of 7.2 Megabits per second, as well as several other advanced features. No official word has been given on the status of a "3.5G" iPhone.
