What is known is the prices, which units these CPUs are replacing, and the frequency, core number and thread number, and L3 Cache of each. You’ll find your current Core i5250 K, 2400 and 2320 being replaced by 2550K, 2450P, and 2380P respectively. They each remain quad-core, frequency 3.4, 3.2, and 3.1 down the list, and prices sit at $225, $195, and $177 as the power lessens. Prices have been reduced slightly in what we, again, expect is due to the GPU core being modified.

The Celeron models are similar in their changes, with the B710 being replaced with the B720, the 857 replaced by the 867, and prices ranging from $70 all the way up to $134. These units will use their low-voltage ways to sit in lower power machines and will be bringing you up to speed in the sub-superpower notebook category across the board. You can check out the full price list for everything in the Intel world in this pdf file straight from Intel, and it’s VR-Zone that says the point above on P might mean a GPU-less SoC, they too our source for this information.

[via VR-Zone]

Tilera made headlines back in 2009 with its 100-core Tile-GX chip, targeting data indexing, web search, and video search, especially in systems with high concurrent load. As cloud storage and processing has gained popularity – not least because of the rise in data speeds allowing mobile gadgets to rely on remote data crunching and capacity – so the interest in multicore chips of this sort has increased.

According to the company, it’s working with more than 80 customers and has twenty design wins already for the new 16- and 32-core processors. Potential applications include streamed video- and voice-over-IP systems, real-time image and video processing, and more.

Tilera is offering a number of evaluation systems, ranging from an entire computer on a half-sized PCIe card up to a full-featured appliance packing up to 144 cores per 1U box. Unlike ARM-based manycore systems, like HP’s Project Moonshot, Tilera’s system can run all the regular server apps without recoding.

ASUS, Acer and HP are all tipped to be throwing in with AMD and building new ultrathins based on Trinity, though none of the manufacturers are confirming anything at present. Trinity was last shown off in June 2011 at the AMD Developer Fusion Summit 2011, as a preview of what the 32nm chip could do.

AMD gave a surprise preview of Trinity at CES last week, promoting the APUs’ performance and power improvements over existing Llano chips, as in the following demo video filmed by AnandTech.

Power consumption is expected to drop significantly, with AMD claiming a 17W Trinity is equal in capabilities to a current 35W Llano. CPU performance is up 25-percent, it’s suggested, and GPU performance doubled.

[Image via PCInpact]

The folks at Google have of course not commented on the matter as if such a thing were true, they’d drop the good news like an atom bomb upon the industry. Then again it is CES 2012 week, and we’ve not yet truly begun. Google could sneak in here with a bunch of fun in their own time, chip smashing all the way home.

What do you think about this? Could Google be creating a new batch of hardware for use in their own future products? Android works with a majorly large swath of manufacturers, their hardware spanning from the very awesome to the very terrible. Google very well may be once again be taking steps toward solidifying its platform again.

[via Android Guys]

Any information on the exact specifications of the to-be-announced Ivy Bridge models haven’t been released yet, but the Sandy Bridge E5 chips have already known to run the gamut from a 1.8 GHz quad-core processor to 3.1 GHz in eight-core assortments. That’s some serious processor speed right there, no doubt. Competitors beware, here.

If this possibility moves into the realm of reality for Intel, the Xeon lineup could create potential problems for workstations like the upcoming Macbook Pro refreshed updates. It may force Apple and other competing companies into either choosing Sandy Bridge models and going for a slightly aged, but wider range of processors, picking from a limited Ivy Bridge range, or having to go through a divide in the computer lineup between the pair of Intel architectures.

According to the sources, some of the processors will debut on April 8. Previously we had heard May was the launch date. The desktop processors that are fingered for that launch date include the Core i7 3770K, 3770, and 3770T along with the Core i5 3570, 3550, and 3450 parts. Pricing will run from $184 to $332 according to the sources. The Core i5-3470T will sell for $184 and is set to debut in May.

Other parts coming in April include the budget Z77 processor for $48, the H77 at $43, the Z75 at $40, and the B75 for $37. Intel will be launching a very expensive notebook CPU called the Core i7-3920Qm in April at $1096 with the 3820QM and 3720QM at $598 and $378 respectively.

[via DigiTimes]

The wholesale pricing leaked gives a good idea as to which next-gen processor falls in line with the current-gen Sandy Bridge processor. The pricing ranges from the lower-end Core i5 models starting at $184 to $332 for the Core i73770K that sports an unlocked multiplier for overclocking.

Most of the pricing for the new models fall right in line with current-gen models, except for the Core i5-3570K, which is priced at $225 compared to $216. Intel also continues to offer energy efficient “S” and “T” models without a premium on pricing. Most models are expected to be available in April with the dual-core Core i5-3470T expected in May.

[via CPU World]

The integrated graphics on the single APU chip can also be bolstered by a standalone AMD Radeon graphics card, delivering up to 144-percent more performance when the A-Series is paired with an HD 6500 Series GPU. There’s also Internet Explorer 9 integration for Steady Video, offering smoother streaming video playback.

As for unlocked models, the AMD A8-3870K and A6-3670K APUs can be overclocked by up to 500MHz for the CPU and 200MHz on the GPU.

AMD’s first new A-Series desktop APUs will begin showing up in commercial systems and as standalone components from today, the company tells us. The A8-3870K has an RRP of $135 while the A6-3670K has an RRP of $115.

AMD A-Series Desktop APUs

A8-3870K: Four CPU cores, 3.0 GHz CPU base (unlocked), 100W TDP, 400 Radeon cores, 600 MHz GPU base (unlocked), 4 MB L2 cache
A8-3820: Four CPU cores, 2.5 GHz CPU base (2.8 GHz Turbo Core), 65W TDP, 400 Radeon cores, 4 MB L2 cache
A6-3670K: Four CPU cores, 2.7 GHz CPU base (unlocked), 100W TDP, 320 Radeon cores, 600 MHz GPU base (unlocked), 4 MB L2 cache
A6-3620: Four CPU cores, 2.2 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 65W TDP, 320 Radeon cores, 4 MB L2 cache
A4-3420: Two CPU cores, 2.8 GHz CPU base, 65W TDP, 160 Radeon cores, 1 MB L2 cache

AMD A-Series Notebook APUs

A8-3550MX: Four CPU cores, 2.0 GHz CPU base (2.7 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 400 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
A8-3520M: Four CPU cores, 1.6 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 400 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
A6-3430MX: Four CPU cores, 1.7 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 320 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
A6-3420M: Four CPU cores, 1.5 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 320 Radeon Cores, 4 MB L2 cache
A4-3330MX: Two CPU cores, 2.2 GHz CPU base (2.6 GHz Turbo Core), 45W TDP, 240 Radeon Cores, 2 MB L2 cache
A4-3320M:Two CPU cores, 2.0 GHz CPU base (2.6 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 240 Radeon Cores, 2 MB L2 cache
A4-3305M:Two CPU cores, 1.9 GHz CPU base (2.5 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 160 Radeon Cores, 1 MB L2 cache
E2-3000M: Two CPU cores, 1.8 GHz CPU base (2.4 GHz Turbo Core), 35W TDP, 160 Radeon Cores, 1 MB L2 Cache

“Tegra 3 isn’t concerning us” he said, referring to the NVIDIA chipset found inside the ASUS Transformer Prime and other incoming Android slates. “There are lots of smart people in the world but what we’re going to focus on is product roadmaps that help our manufacturing partners not just single use products … I could go away and make something brilliant with Tegra 3, but you’re going to see hundreds of [Snapdragon] S4 devices in the marketplace.”

The ambitious approach isn’t new from Qualcomm, though the company still remains behind when it comes to pure core count. Qualcomm’s quadcore S4 chipsets, like the 28nm MSM8960, will initially drop in dualcore form, with quadcores on the roadmap later.

Qualcomm has previously argued its design strategy by pointing out that – unlike NVIDIA or Texas Instruments, for instance – the company designs its own ARM-based cores. That allows it to choose its own balance between performance and energy efficiency; as Chandhok said, “we have a design point for mobility that we think is different from what others focus upon.” Whether it can convince customers to look beyond pure core-count and dig deep into actual abilities remains to be seen.

Noyce had been employed at Shockley Semiconductor, but left as part of the “traitorous eight” after reportedly growing disillusioned with the company’s approach to research. Noyce and Moore, two of the eight, decided to set up their own company, Intel, with a more holistic approach to management, with scientific endeavor as the primary goal. It was at Intel, supervising Ted Hoff, where Noyce oversaw the creation of the microprocessor.

One of Noyce’s final wishes was to “make sure we are preparing our next generation to flourish in a high-tech age.” The Noyce Foundation, intended to promote K-12 level physics and mathematics education, was established by Noyce’s family in 1991.

Many of the reviews noted that the performance of the new flagship parts was barely on par with the CPUs AMD already had. The Bulldozer processors were significantly behind their Intel counterparts in performance. AMD has now come back and said that it was in error when it described the Bulldozer as having 2 billion transistors.

AMD then said that Bulldozer actually had 1.2 billion transistors. What happened to the other 800,000 transistors? The die size is the same reports ExtgremeTech. The issue could be an automated AMD design process with some significant overhead according to ExtremeTech. The plot thickens though when ET asked AMD what was going on when it realized the number of transistors we should see didn’t match up with the 1.2 billion AMD was stating. AMD wasn’t chatty on the subject and it could well be that the number of transistors that AMD is quoting now at 1.2 billion is the functional ones on the chip.

[via ExtremeTech]

First of all, the standard-voltage lineup brings with it an ample speed boost to notebook users, with options reaching from a 2.6 GHz dual-core i5, all the way to an Extreme Edition 2.9GHz quad-core i7. For the chips possibly ending up in next year’s plethora of ULV-powered ultrabooks, Intel will be gearing up to launch two different models, a 1.8GHz dual-core i5, with the potential of up to 2.8GHz single-core turbo speeds, and a 2GHz dual-core i7, which maxes out at 3.2 GHz single-core turbo speeds.

Intel’s chip roadmap has the new mobile chips tentatively scheduled for May, so, much later than the January launch of Sandy Bridge this year. Additionally, all models across the lineup will feature Intel HD 4000 graphics (no surprise here, eh?) and DDR3 RAM clocked at 1600MHz. Expect finalized, official details from Intel after the company’s keynote this January at the Consumer Electronics Show. We’ll keep you updated when CES rolls around next month.

[via VR-Zone]

There is no word on why March was taken off the table for launching the chips. The roadmap shows several of the Ivy Bridge i 3000 family parts coming in Q2 including the i7-3770K and 3770 in the performance segment. In Q2, the mainstream performance segments will be the i5-3570K, 3550, and 3450 parts along with the 3570 and 3470 in Q3.

A full chart showing the specs for the Ivy Bridge parts was also shown. The fastest part on the chart is the i7-3770K clocking in at 3.5GHz and 3.9GHz on boost with four cores. The slowest part is the i5-3330S with 2.7GHz base and 3.2GHz on boost. There are bunches of quad and dual core parts in between. These chips are said to inherit a modified Sandy Bridge micro-architecture with a bunch of improvements.

[via Xbitlabs]

When consumers predominantly look at a tick-list of specs, generally with the mindset that “more = better”, how do you get past the immediate assumption that four cores in one phone or tablet are automatically better than two cores in another phone or tablet? It’s a question we’ve asked chipset manufacturers like Texas Instruments – another firm that has shifted to A15 rather than increase the number of A9s in its chips – before, and they generally dodge it, arguing that’s something the brands using the chips in devices are are skilled at.

Samsung, though, makes both the chips and much of the hardware that those chips end up in: it can’t avoid the marketing challenge. The company’s press release this morning did make a vague effort to put the spec improvements into context, hitting on the 2560 x 1600 resolution and stereoscopic 3D support though not with any great gusto. That’s perhaps to be expected from the semiconductor department, but unfortunately most product manufacturers aren’t doing much better either. This reluctance, laziness or inability to tell would-be users why they should care is increasingly going to bite those pushing tablets and smartphones.

The chipset world is split in how it sees next-gen mobile processors taking shape. NVIDIA has thrown itself into the more-core approach, doubling up but keeping the same A9 architecture as it shifts from Tegra 2 to Tegra 3. Texas Instruments has taken the opposite approach, sticking with a pair of cores but shifting to ARM Cortex A15 architecture for a complimentary boost in power. Qualcomm, meanwhile, is hovering in-between: it designs its own chips, licensing the core tech from ARM but tweaking as it sees fit. The custom Krait cores in the Snapdragon S4 series, therefore, will have roughly the performance of an A15 but use significantly less power than either it or indeed an A9, or so Qualcomm tells us.

A good rule of thumb is to look at what Apple is doing, though of course the Cupertino crowd has followed a vastly different strategy with its phones and tablets. An oft-highlighted difference is the fact that Apple hardly ever talks about raw specifications, focusing instead on the experience. The iPad 2 has a dual-core chip, Apple points out, but that’s so that “multitasking is smooth, apps load quickly, and anything you touch responds instantly”; similarly, the graphic chip is faster not just because that looks better on the spec sheet, but so that games and menus are “even more fluid and realistic.”

However, Apple in effect has its tablet and smartphone markets to itself: nobody else makes an iOS-based “iPad” or “iPhone”, whereas Samsung, ASUS, Acer, Motorola and the rest all make Android tablets and phones. In their rush to compete, they’ve all set the benchmark for “success” at being faster/more powerful/more-packed-with-cores. Android Tablet A is 0.23% faster than Android Tablet B, so it is A Better Device.

General consumers don’t understand why that might be the case, however, so they’re forced to translate the specs as best they can. Until now, the tablet market outside of the iPad has predominantly revolved around NVIDIA’s Tegra 2, but that’s increasingly going to diverge as the next-gen chipsets arrive. Context is something that will play a huge role as each manufacturer justifies their choice of processor.

Their challenge is arguably the consumers’ gain: instead of being picked on price, or which has the skinniest chassis (but probably the same specs inside as everything else), or a color option that matches your suit, brands will be forced to explain why buyers should care rather than simply throw a long list of specifications at them. It could even result in a net benefit for manufacturers, too, a refinement in positioning opening up new niches for iPad rivals and allowing them greater space to flourish.

Samsung, Qualcomm, NVIDIA and Texas Instruments have convinced us that there’ll be no shortage of power in the next-gen phones and tablets. Now the industry needs to raise its game in how it dresses that power with something even more important to end-users: context. Without that, every mobile device not wearing an Apple logo is likely to struggle to find its feet in an increasingly impatient marketplace.

It’s also capable of driving higher-resolution screens, the sort of pixel-dense panels we can expect to see on next-generation tablets. In fact, up to WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution is supported, impressive stuff considering most Android tablets currently run at a mere 1280 x 800. Samsung’s chip could double up that resolution for clearer text, crisper graphics and – with the improved 3D grunt – faster gaming.

There’s also native support for stereoscopic 3D. In comparison to 1.5GHz dual-core Cortex A9 chips, the new Exynos 5250 is roughly twice as fast: capable of simultaneously processing at 14,000 DMIPS versus the last-gen’s 7,500 DMIPS. For the technically minded, Samsung says the 32nm 5250 takes advantage of low-power HKMG (high-k metal gate, High-K Metal Gate) manufacturing processes.

Everyone else can simply sit back and look forward to faster phones and tablets next year. Samsung says it will begin production of the Exynos 5250 in Q2 2012, with samples available to manufacturers now.

Facial Recognition and Pattern Unlock

As you may remember from our first encounter with the Galaxy Nexus back in Hong Kong, the Android authorities showed off their newest method for unlocking a device, namely Facial Recognition. What we’ve found thus far is that not only is this recognizing of the face (once you’ve got it set up for the first time) extremely quick, it no longer seems to have the ability to be broken into with a mere photo of the person trying to do the unlock. We heard a story or two about early Ice Cream Sandwich builds being able to be unlocked by a 3rd party if they had a photo of the person who originally set up the lock, but this seems to be fixed.

Recognition seems to be both quick and accurate, and furthermore doesn’t seem to rely on a full face to work. As you’ll see Vince attempt in the video, putting your hand over your face up to your nose seems to unlock the screen just as readily as having your entire face revealed. As for the other unlock sequences, the pin code unlock remains largely the same while the pattern unlock now has much more classy sized set of dots so that your unlock screen wallpaper can be seen while you make a combination of swipes to get into your device (image at the head of this post.)

Notifications Pulldown Menu

When you pull down from the top of your display with your finger, for those of you not familiar with Android, your notifications screen comes down. Here your notifications screen is black with cyan accents by default, and each notification from any number of apps can be dismissed by sliding that notification off of the screen. Each notification is represented by a thumbnail image on the left, a title to the right in bold lettering, and a lighter font below the title as an extra descriptor.

Battery Life

Your battery can be tracked, just as it could in Gingerbread and Honeycomb, from your settings with a chart that shows in a slightly general chart of what’s been active and using up your battery at what times during the space between when your phone was last off and now or when your device was last turned all the way off. As Vince will show in the video, he’s had the device on a LOT while he’s been testing it, and if you’re the type of person to use your device all day long, you’re looking at something like seven to eight full hours from what we’re seeing so far.

Camera

The Galaxy Nexus has a 5 megapixel camera that Google is promoting as having zero shutter lag – this essentially means that we should be able to take photos as fast as we can tap the display – on this device we only have the choice of tapping the display, mind you, since there is no physical camera button. In the video you’ll see that as Vince taps the display, there isn’t a shutter noise, there’s a *tink* noise that lets you know you’ve fired off a shot. You’ll hear Vince firing off shots indeed just as fast as he taps. You’ll see the shots he’s taken in the gallery below – judge for yourself how nice they look, and note that Vince is in basically an ideal lighting situation with several photo-quality lamps shining down on his collection of Android toys on a white background.

Image stabilization does not seem to be up to par here, not with the iPhone 4S as Vince notes, and believe it or not, not with Samsung’s other hero device Galaxy S II’s camera either.

GPU Rendering

Starting in Ice Cream Sandiwch, Android will be working with any hardware its on to utilize the GPU cores inside the hardware’s processor. While before now games and other graphics-intensive apps have been able to access GPU power via APIs, now any application developed against the Android 4.0 SDK (API Level 14) will automatically get a very real performance boost. Visual elements in apps developed for Ice Cream Sandwich will be routed through the GPU by default, this both freeing up the CPU cores in the device to do tasks better suited to CPUs, the visual bits will run much more efficiently because they’re routed through the GPU.

You can turn this option off, effectively, by heading to your Settings, then to your Developers options, then scrolling down and tapping the “Force GPU Rendering” option. Though why you’d want to do that, I do not know, because with this option ON, all of your apps will run more efficiently.

Recent Apps

Similar to what we saw in the tablet-based version of Android version 3.0 Honeycomb, we have the option of accessing a list of Recent Apps. These apps appear with an icon representation, the title of the App, and a thumbnail sort of screenshot of the last time the app was open. What Vince will show you in the video is how simple it can be with one of the options to remove any app from the list. Another option you have is to push or pull each app from the list the same way you can with a notification in your pull-down notifications menu.

Fun stuff! Stay tuned to SlashGear for the rest of our hands-on series as well as a set of full reviews, one for Android 4.0 ICS, another for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

The latest chip from Intel is a 1-teraflop beast that has over 50-cores. Intel is testing the processor inside a computer at the SC11 supercomputer conference in Seattle. The little chip that is pushing out so much performance is the size of a matchbook and called Knights Ferry. The architecture of the chip is called many integrated core or MIC.

To put a bit of perspective on the teraflop number, that means that the chip is capable of a trillion floating-point operations per second. The photo above is of a slide from the presentation that sums things up nicely. The Knights Bridge chip needs a single PCIe slot to hit 1TF. Back in 1997 to hit 1TF performance took 9,298 Pentium II Xeon processors and 72 cabinets. How’s that for progress?

[via Seattle Times]

The slightly more specific goal of the Blue Waters project is to deploy a supercomputer that’s capable of working on a “diverse range of real-world science and engineering applications” at a sustained performance of one petaflop. Scientists and engineers across the USA will benefit from the eventual products of this initiative, and the whole project is supported by the National Science Foundation at the University of Illinois. NVIDIA chief technology officer of Tesla GPUs Steve Scott had the following to say on the situation:

NCSA has seized this opportunity to make Blue Waters into an even more amazing scientific computing instrument than originally planned. The performance and wide access of Blue Waters will enable the scientific community to accelerate the race for better science.” – Scott

Cray system’s general purpose CPUs will work side by side with NVIDIA’s Tesla-brand GPUs and will accelerate compute-intensive applications across the board. This newest Blue Waters system will be an ultra-powerful hybrid supercomputer consisting of more than 235 Cray XE6 cabinets. In addition, there will be more than 30 cabinets of a future version of what’s recently been announced as the Crazy XK6 supercomputer, these containing the next-generation Tesla GPUs again based on the “Kepler” architecture. Can’t wait to grab a setup for my underground beat laboratory!

This project is known as the EU Mont-Blanc Project and will otherwise take part in developing a portfolio of exascale applications that work well on the technology now being developed with NVIDIA. Sound familiar? The leader of this Mont-Blanc project mister Alex Remirez, notes that while current systems need to give the “lion’s share” of energy to the CPUs, 40 percent or more, that is, “the Mont-Blanc architecture will rely on energy-efficient compute accelerators and ARM processors used in embedded and mobile devices to achieve a four- to 10-times increase in energy-efficiency by 2014.” Exciting!

NVIDIA expanded upon what it’d do to work with developers by noting that they’d be releasing a new hardware and software development kit for its ARM-based initiatives around the globe. This kit will of course contain a brand new quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 ARM CPU complete with a “discrete” NVIDIA GPU, all of this available inside the first half of 2012. This kit’s hardware is being developed by SECO and will be supported by the NVIDIA CUDA parallel programming toolkit. Get in on the action!

Up to four memory channels – with support for up to 1600MHz memory – are on offer, with up to 12 DIMMs per CPU available for a somewhat ridiculous potential total of 384GB memory per processor catered for. AMD is also pretty keen to point out that the new Opterons are the only x86 chips to support ultra-low voltage 1.25v memory, adding to the platform’s energy frugality.

“The AMD Opteron 3000 series offering is designed for hosting customers who require dedicated servers for their customers. These cloud and web hosting customers appreciate the cost savings associated with a lower cost infrastructure, yet still want to deploy a server-class product with reliability and security features and server OS certification” AMD

As for what’s in the pipeline, first to market will be the Bulldozer-based “Zurich” using an AM3+ socket. Zurich will herald AMD’s Opteron 3000 Series, targeting those looking for a compact server with cheap consumer-like sockets and will, the company believes, open up a new market of customers pairing cloud computing with the traditional benefits of a local server.

Zurich will arrive in the first half of 2012, while the new AMD Opteron chips are on sale now.

At the time, the CPU was tipped for tablets as well. Apparently, Intel is getting away from that Medfield part in tablets a bit with word surfacing from sources that Intel is instead developing a new line of chips that will be exclusively for tablets. It’s not clear if the new line of chips will target CPUs with the Medfield being just for handsets or if the new line will just be a tablet exclusive while the Medfield still serves handset and tablet markets.

DigiTimes also reports that Intel is working in power consumption for its smartphone and tablet PC chips. The goal at Intel is to lower the consumption to 10W in the next two years with chips getting upgrade yearly instead of the two-year update plan. The sources also revealed in the next three years there are more chipsets coming. The chipsets include 32nm Saltwell, 22nm Silvermont, and 14nm Airmont chipsets.

[via DigiTimes]

There’s also a change in strategy around Intel’s ultra-low voltage versions of the Haswell chips, which will apparently be harmonized into a single line. They will be paired with more power-efficient idle states and configurable TDPs. A minimum of three mobile SKUs are indicated, ranging from the ULT low-voltage version (with a 15W TDP), a mid-tier dual/quad version with up to GT2 graphics support, and a high-end version with four cores and GT3 graphics.

For the desktop, either two or four cores, TDPs spanning 35W, 45W, 65W and 95W, and DDR3/DDR3L memory will all be on the cards. A new chipset, codenamed Lynx Point, is also on the cards, though less is known about that at present. However, it’s believed that it could include native Thunderbolt support among other things.

[via VR-Zone - thanks Paul!]

Meanwhile, Qualcomm’s next Snapdragon S4 chips will also be built using 28nm processes, on silicon produced by TSMC’s factories. In face, the company says it has more than 80 customer tape-outs at present, over twice as many as for TSMC’s 40nm production. As for the chips themselves, TSMC reckons there’s up to a 45-percent speed improvement over the 40nm versions.

“TSMC’s 28nm process offering includes 28nm High Performance (28HP), 28nm High Performance Low Power (28HPL), 28nm Low Power (28LP), and 28nm High Performance Mobile Computing (28HPM). Among these technology offerings, 28HP, 28HPL and 28LP are all in volume production and 28HPM will be ready for production by the end of this year. The production-version design collateral of 28HPM has been distributed to most mobile computing customers for their product-design use” TSMC

What’s still unclear is how involved with Apple TSMC is. The Cupertino company was tipped to be in negotiations with the silicon specialists over potentially replacing some or all of its dependence on Samsung for future Apple Ax processors, tensions between Apple and Samsung escalating amid the ongoing legal battles over patents and design. However, most recently Apple is believed to have decided to hedge its bets more conservatively, sticking with Samsung for the majority of its A6 and A7 chip needs, and placing a minority order with TSMC. In fact, Samsung’s parts cooperation with Apple is tipped to extend beyond 2012.

The key bit of detail that has surfaced in the roadmap is that in 2012 AMD will launch the Deccan platform and in 2013 the Kerala platform will launch. The Deccan platform is expected to hit next June and will include the Krishna and Wichita APUs. These parts will then upgrade in 2013 to Kerala and Kabini APUs. These parts are supposed to have upgrades to them make a significant improvement in power consumption so that AMD can compete with the low power Intel offerings in Ultrabooks today.

The roadmap also shows that AMD has a new part coming for the notebook market in 2012 AMD will be launching the Comal platform with Trinity-based APUs and then in 2013 the Kaveri-based APUs will launch. In Q2 2012, the Brazos T platform for tablets will launch. The Brazos T platform will include the Hondo APU and then in 2013 the Samara platform for tablets will bow in.

[via DigiTimes]

Intel is said to be starting with dual and quad core processors. The new quad-core CPUs are said to have TDP ratings of 45W, 65W, and 77W. The dual core models will have TDP ratings of 35W and 55W according to the mainboard sources.

These same sources are also pointing to the launch of new chipsets to go with the processors. The chipsets are reportedly called the Intel Z77 and Z75. They will replace the existing Z8 and P67 chipsets. Intel has several outer chipsets coming to market as well. Ultrabooks like those from Asus will be one of the first places the Sandy Bridge parts are used.

[via DigiTimes]

Both ARM and TSMC have completed the implementation from RTL to tape out on the new processor in six months. The process was able to be completed so quickly thanks to the TSMC Open Innovation Platform 20nm design ecosystem, claims TSMC. The Cortex-A15 has low power consumption and high performance with an advanced feature set.

The Cortex-A15 processor will be used in all sorts of products including smartphones, tablets, mobile computing, digital home products, and other devices. The test chip was implemented with a commercially available 20nm tool chain and TSMC is hailing the collaboration resulting in the new chip as a confirmation that its Open Innovation Platform promoting innovation for the semiconductor design community works.

“This is a business decision where we’re taking those resources and applying them to corporate priorities” Intel spokesperson Claudine Mangano explained of the shift in focus. The company is yet to detail exactly what will be lost as the Digital Home Group folds, but no job losses are expected, only staff being shifted between divisions.

Intel’s CE4100 SoC had found a place in the Boxee Box, while the company had already revealed its CE4200 successor. The SoC was also found in Logitech’s Google TV implementation, as well as in smart TVs from Sony. However, Google TV OEMs were apparently pushing for cheaper, lower-power ARM chipsets of the sort that have proliferated in smartphones in the next-gen version of the platform.

As you may or may not know, all AMD FX CPUs come with completely unlocked processor clock multipliers for you overclocking enthusiasts out there. Don’t burn down the house with all that power though, you’ll want to use your Guinness World Record holder CPU to keep on giving you what you need at least through the rest of this description. All of these processors also use AMD Turbo Core Technology that “dynamically optimizes performance” across the whole set of CPU cores, this offering you the full benefit of the cores you so gratefully payed for in the first place.

Starting TODAY, AMD FX CPUs will be available around the globe. In this first launch, there are four options from the line, with many more on the way soon. Have a look at this list and see what you might be wanting to get:

• FX-8150: Eight cores, 3.6 GHz CPU base (3.9 GHz Turbo Core, 4.2 GHz Max Turbo)
$245 suggested retail price (U.S.)

• FX-8120: Eight cores, 3.1 GHz CPU base (3.4 GHz Turbo Core, 4.0 GHz Max Turbo)
$205 suggested retail price (U.S.)

• FX-6100: Six cores, 3.3 GHz CPU base (3.6 GHz Turbo Core, 3.9 GHz Max Turbo)
$165 suggested retail price (U.S.)

• FX-4100: Four cores, 3.6 GHz CPU base (3.7 GHz Turbo Core, 3.8 GHz Max Turbo)
$115 suggested retail price (U.S.)

Of course the fine folks at AMD also want you to know about how you can combine these new CPUs with a brand new shiny AMD 9-series chipset motherboard and AMD Radeon HD 6000 series graphics card as well, these two combining to create what AMD calls the “AMD Scorpius platform” for an “astounding gaming and HD entertainment experience.” Of course this combo does offer more than simply an optimized experience as they hold hands together so well. With the Scorpius platform you get support for AMD CrossFireX technology, this allowing the combination of multiple graphics cards in a single PC, and AMD Eyefinity technology that’ll support super resolution on up to SIX monitors!

Power for the power hungry and gaming elite! Grab it all now at your local retailer or at shop.AMD.com, what are you waiting for!?

What’s that, you want to see the Guinness World Records video for this system? Have a look right here:

The iPhone 4S sports a new dual-core A5 processor clocked at 800MHz, which is slightly slower than the 1GHz clock speed of the A5 processor in the iPad 2. However, the decrease doesn’t impact the performance as much as it increases the battery life.

In overall results, the Geekbench metrics show that the iPhone 4S scored a 623, which is a bit behind the iPad 2′s score of 751, but way ahead of the iPhone 4′s score of 360. In graphics processing, the iPhone 4S scored 122.7, while the iPhone 4 scored only 15.3.

The results also reveal that the iPhone 4S beats several major Android competitors, including the Samsung Galaxy S II, the LG Optimus 3D, and the Motorola Droid Bionic, which all feature higher clock speeds.

[via AppleInsider]

The TSMC delegation apparently includes representatives from Global UniChip, the company’s IC design service partners, who – so the tipsters say – would be responsible for the printed circuit board designs for the new Apple processors. Previous leaks indicated that TSMC had begun test production, so as to convince Apple that it could deliver on the Cupertino company’s exacting yield demands.

Apple currently relies on Samsung for the processors inside its iOS range of devices, including the Apple A5 chip in this week’s iPhone 4S. Details of the A6′s specifications are unclear, though the chipset is believed to be constructed using a 3D layering system that should boost speed while reducing bulk and weight.

The expectation is that the A6 will debut in the iPad 3 sometime in Q2 2012, though TSMC has declined to comment on the reports and Apple, unsurprisingly, is similarly reticent.

[via HardMac]

The H70 is ready to install right out of the box with the thermal compound already applied to the CPU heatsink. The tubing is made to be kink free and has a radiator that is double thick for more performance. The radiator is made from aluminum and is a single 120mm unit.

The tubing used is pre-connected and is low-permeability so the user never has to refill the system. The device does need a pair of 120mm fans. The H70 is also made to allow the use with multiple CPU sockets including common AMD and Intel sockets.

The N2600 runs at 1.8GHz to 1.6GHz and has a TDP of under 3.5W making it slurp very little power. The N2800 processor is a 2.13GHz to 1.86GHz part and has a TDP of 6.5W. Moving to the desktop parts the D2500 can operate at 2.13GHz to 1.86GHz and has a TDP of 10W max. The D2700 on the other hand is a 2.4GHz to 2.13GHz part with the same 10W max TDP.

The N2600 is reported to need only 1.1W of power to operate on average. There is no word on when we will see these new processors inside a netbook or desktop system at this time. I would bet with the processors on the Intel site there are already machines in the works with computer makers that will be coming soon.

[via Mobility Magazine]

The news came rushing in with another update, this time to the VAIO SB line with a new color option – red, added to the black, white, blue, and pink options already available. All three lines, SA, SB, and SE, feature 2nd generation Intel® processors ranging from Intel Core i3 to Core i7. Sound nice to you? The software updates to the other parts of the VAIO line will get you jumping for joy as well.

In this newest refresh, both the VAIO F and L CPUs ship with 2nd generation Intel Core processors as well as a slew of pre-installed software. Inside you’ll find the Sony Imagination Studio Multimedia Edition, this including Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum, ACID Music Studio, and Sound Forge Audio Studio. That’s more than $200 USD worth of software in the machine right off the bat.

And you didn’t think they’d update every other letter and leave the VAIO C and E to sit, did you? Now you’ll be able to get the VAIO E with a Core i5 processor and the VAIO C with a Core i7 if you wish, and Y – there’s a Y, too, will be coming out in black in addition to its already available pink and silver. AND, yes there’s more, starting on 10/6/2011, VAIO customers get a free Music Unlimited plan for 180 days – if they’re a new subscriber, that is.

It’s a VAIO holiday for all!

To give you a bit of a prep for what we’re going to be seeing tomorrow and the next day, have yourself a trip on over to http://www.hp.com/go/BeElite or just head to one of our many posts on the line via our [HP Elite portal]. From there you’ll see how this line of computers has been running strong for some time now. And what better way to promote their continued dedication to Elitebooks, ELite Tablet PCs, Elite Mobile Workstations, Elite Desktops, Elite Displays, and straight up stuck to the spot hardcore Elite Workstations than to bring us straight to the source!

What we’ve got thus far are some above-average well designed presentation materials made by someone who must have gone to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design because shoot, that’s some nice lookin stuff. The two most impressive items are, of course, the USB stick made out of what I think must be adamantium because it’s tough as heck. Then there’s the pen inside the package under some, again, well designed one-sheets, whose back end pops off to reveal a USB connection.

Inside we’ve got essentially the same information we’ve got in the links you can access in this post, but hey! Now we’ve got it in a pen!

Looks like nice stuff, eh? Continue to hit our [HP Elite portal] throughout the week for updates!

The last delay had to do with issues regarding the graphics driver on the Cedar Trail processor. The architecture is built on a 32nm process and has the GPU residing on the same die as the CPU. At the time, the platform failed to attain Windows 7 certification, likely due to media encoding problems.

Now that issue should be fixed, but the platform has also added some new features. Cedar Trail will now support Intel Smart Connect Technology and Fast Boot & Standby, which uses Intel’s Rapid Start technology.

The Intel Smart Connect feature lets your computer periodically check on web apps such as Facebook and Twitter while in sleep mode. This way, your computer is always connected and updating even while you’re away.

Rapid Start lets devices resume from hibernation in less than 7 seconds. These boot times should become standard on all Ultrabooks and will be exclusive to Ultrabooks until Cedar Trail netbooks launch.

[via NetbookNews]

AMD notes that the record was set by Team AMD FX comprised of overclocking geeks and AMD tech folks. The official PR doesn’t say a lot about how they achieved that frequency. As you can see in the video below the deed required some exotic cooling with liquid nitrogen. However, AMD does note that it was able to overclock the processor well over 5 GHz using only air-cooling or water cooling systems that cost under $100.

It sounds like the 8-core beast will be a very nice processor for the gamer and enthusiast. I wonder if this CPU will bring AMD back to the realm of competition with Intel’s high-end parts. For years now AMD has held onto the low price crowns and let Intel have the performance crowns in the consumer market.

It’s nice for the average computer maker to have that heatsink though. Apparently, Intel is no longer shipping some of its high-end processors with a heatsink in the box. Reports indicate that the Sandy Bridge E range of processors will not ship with a heatsink in the box. The E range includes the Core i7 3820, 3930K, and 3960K processors. All three are expected before the end of the year. The cache size for the processors is up to 15MB with the 3820 a quad-core unit and the other two sporting six-cores.

The trio of processor are expected to slurp down the power with TDPs said to be in the 130W range and as high as 180W. That is a lot of heat to dissipate with air, before you even start overclocking. ExtremeTech thinks that either Intel is trying to save money knowing that the enthusiast isn’t likely to use the stock cooler or they simply lack the cooling tech at Intel to keep the high-end parts cool. It’s worth noting that Intel does offer a heatsink for the processors as an optional accessory to be purchased.

[via ExtremeTech]

The Intel components inside the Ultrabooks are thought to be about one third of the cost of the entire Ultrabook. Yesterday we mentioned notebook companies asked Intel for a price cut on the Ultrabook CPUs reportedly of 50%. Intel refused the request and is instead willing to provide a 20% price cut according to DigiTimes sources from the notebook firms.

Intel is providing the marketing subsidies for Ultrabooks and the 20% discount on the CPUs would bring the Core i7-2677 to US$317, Core i7-2637 to US$289 and the Core i5-2557 to US$250, it’s easy to see that with machines supposed to sell for under $1,000 a CPU alone in the $250 to $317 range is a big expense.

[via DigiTimes]

It’s not the first time we’ve heard that TSMC is involved in production trials with Apple. Back in July, the company was said to be testing its 28nm processes on the A6, with Apple basing its eventual order decisions on what yield the manufacturer could achieve. Acting is motivation for Apple is a reported – and understandable – desire to shift reliance away from Samsung, whose semiconductor arm currently is primarily responsible for the A4 and A5 chips inside the iPhone 4 and iPad 2.

According to these latest leaks, TSMC has seen its production lines freed up as orders from NVIDIA and Qualcomm are effected by an industry-wide depression, with stockpiled chips meaning production demands have shrunk. TSMC has declined to comment on the Apple speculation, though has said that it expects its order book to look healthier in Q4 as customer inventory dwindles.

Exact specifications of the Apple A6 are unclear, though 28nm chips from the manufacturer are being billed as providing 30-percent more power while cutting power consumption by around 50-percent. They’re also expected to be cooler in operation.

Welch did not say when, exactly, Apple had made the threat, but back in May Intel did outline its low-power Core processor intentions as part of the new ultrabook segment. Chips likely to find their way into ultrabooks demand just 15W, less than half the 35-40W of previous examples. The end result is longer runtime on on smaller batteries, something Intel is hoping PC manufacturers will take advantage of with a new breed of MacBook Air-rivaling ultraportables.

“To date if you wanted that sleek design you had to buy a Mac,” Welch pointed out. “There are people who want a PC in that form factor.” The exec admits that the ultrabook concept is inspired significantly by the success of the Air, though not whether the “wake-up call” was solely around power consumption or the realization that it should look outside of Apple for markets for high-end ultraportables.

Intel has previously admitted that Apple has a strong hand in shaping its roadmap, with senior VP Tom Kilroy saying that the Cupertino company’s demands “push us hard.” The comments came on the heels of rumors that Apple might look to ARM-based chips for future notebooks, building on the success of the Apple A4 and A5 found in the iPhone and iPad. Earlier this month, analysts predicted that Apple would launch an ARM MacBook Air by 2013, while its iOS and OS X software would eventually merge.