Advanced Micro Devices seems to be planning extremely rapid transition of its desktop microprocessors to 32nm silicon-on-insulator fabrication process, a person with knowledge of the matter said. By the second quarter of 2012 virtually all AMD processors will be made using 32nm SOI technology and be based on new designs.
At present the absolute majority of desktop microprocessors shipped by Advanced Micro Devices are AMD Athlon II and AMD Phenom II chips in AM3 form-factor. But already in a little bit more than a year from now all the desktop chips that AMD will sell will be made using 32nm SOI process technology and will rely on code-named Bulldozer, Brazos and Llano designs, the source indicated.
Approximately 20% of AMD's desktop microprocessors in Q2 2012 will be in AM3+ form-factor and will belong to the FX family of chips, which is based on Bulldozer micro-architecture. About 10% of desktop chips will come in FT1 ball-grid-array form-factor and will therefore be based on Brazos design. The remaining 70% will be Llano accelerated processing units with two or four x86 cores as well as a Radeon HD 6000-class graphics engine in FM1 form-factor.
It is remarkable that after a number of delays AMD seems to have rather ambitious plans for the 32nm ramp. By contrast, it usually takes years for Intel Corp., the much larger rival of AMD, to transit to one micro-architecture to another or from one technology process for another.
AMD did not comment on the news-story.
www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20110211103809_AMD_Plans_Extremely_Rapid_Transition_to_New_Micro_Architectures_Process_Technology.html
Sunday 13 February 2011
Sony Lawyers Going To The Limits: Threaten To Sue Anyone Who Posts PS3 Jailbreak Code
As of Friday, Sony is threatening to sue anybody posting or “distributing” the first full-fledged jailbreak code for the 4-year-old PlayStation 3 gaming console.
What’s more of an extreme measure, the company is demanding that a federal judge order Google to surrender the IP addresses and other identifying information of those who have viewed or commented about the jailbreak video posted on the YouTube page. Sony is also demanding Twitter to provide the identities of a host of hackers who first unveiled a limited version of the hack in December (Referring to the fail0verflow team here)
Sony’s aggressive pretrial discovery demands come in its lawsuit against Geohot (George Hotz). The 21-year-old New Jersey hacker, who is well known in the jailbreaking community for making jailbreak programs for Apple’s iPhones, published the finished PlayStation 3 code and a how-to YouTube video last month. The code enables the Playstation 3 to play pirated and homebrewed games.
Tuesday 1 February 2011
AMD (finally) sees the light in the tablet market?
Tablet PCs are often viewed as devices to access certain content while travelling, but in a lot of cases they are used as electronic book readers or portable Internet devices at home. As they become more powerful and universal, they may become a gateway into the living room for x86 microprocessors, according to a vice president of Advanced Micro Devices.
"Tablets present a wonderful opportunity for AMD. I have been in the PC industry for over twenty years; we really have struggled to get into the living room and it is clear that tablets are finding their way into the living room, a real consumer experience," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of products group at AMD, during a conference with analysts.
Continue Reading...
www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com
Nvidia to release their GeForce GTX 590 dual-GPU in February
GeForce GTX 590 is the confirmed name of NVIDIA's coming graphics card flagship. With dual GF110 GPUs the beafy graphics card will offer 1024 CUDA cores and 3GB memory. Perhaps the most exciting is that the launch is set for February, in the same timeframe as AMD Radeon HD 6990 is expected to arrive.
NVIDIA's Fermi architecture have gone from being a laugh in 2009 to being the father of a very respectable graphics card family that boasts the fastest single-GPU graphics card around - GeForce GTX 580.
The company is on a roll now and is expected to follow up the launch of GeForce GTX 560 Ti with a new flagship. The new graphics card comes with dual graphics circuits and according to reliable sources the name is set to GeForce GTX 590.
Continue Reading...
www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com
Nvidia are developing their own AA technology
NVIDIA is developing its own antialiasing (AA) technology to rival morphological antialiasing (MLAA). The subpixel reconstruction antialiasing (SRAA) NVIDIA is currently conducting research on aims to provide better image quality with minimal performance penalty. It "combines single-pixel (1x) shading with subpixel visibility to create antialiased images without increasing the shading cost," as NVIDIA puts it in its research abstract. SRAA is suited for rendering engines that don't use multisample antialiasing (MSAA) since they use deferred shading. For such renderers, SRAA works as a post-processing layer, just like MLAA.
Continue Reading...
www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com
A review of MSIs Sandy Bridge laptop, the GT680
When MSI unveiled the new GT680R gaming laptop at CES this year, the company touted it as one of the "fastest, most powerful gaming notebooks in the world." As one of the first laptops to take advantage of Intel's Sandy Bridge processor, this laptop definitely packs plenty of power. Under the hood, you'll find NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M graphics with 1.5GB of video memory, 8GB of DDR3 system memory, and two 500GB 7,200rpm hard drives.
The GT680R isn't MSI's only new notebook to offer a Sandy Bridge processor. Like MSI's other products based on the second generation Core processors, the GT680R offers USB 3.0 connectivity as well as the MSI Turbo Drive Engine for easy, one-touch overclocking. This 15.6-inch laptop supports full HD (1980x1080) with its LED-backlit display. There's also a HDMI port for outputting content from the notebook onto larger displays. The GT680R also comes with Dynaudio speakers and THX TruStudio Pro for a more true-to-life sound quality experience.
The GT680R isn't MSI's only new notebook to offer a Sandy Bridge processor. Like MSI's other products based on the second generation Core processors, the GT680R offers USB 3.0 connectivity as well as the MSI Turbo Drive Engine for easy, one-touch overclocking. This 15.6-inch laptop supports full HD (1980x1080) with its LED-backlit display. There's also a HDMI port for outputting content from the notebook onto larger displays. The GT680R also comes with Dynaudio speakers and THX TruStudio Pro for a more true-to-life sound quality experience.
Read the full review here.
www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com
PSA: Intel recalls its 6-Series Sandy Bridge Chipset due to serious flaw.
Intel has today announced that its 6-series chipset, for use with the Sandy Bridge processors released earlier this year, has a serious flaw and that the company is recalling and replacing the affected parts. The chipsets, which provide PCI Express, USB, and other connectivity to the processor, have a problem in their SATA controllers causing performance to degrade over time.
In its statement, the company states that customers who have taken delivery of systems with the P67 and H67 "Cougar Point" chipsets can continue to use their systems "with confidence," suggesting that the flaw is restricted to a performance issue and cannot cause data loss. Nonetheless, such users should contact their computer manufacturers to obtain a fixed system.
The flawed chipsets are no longer shipping from Intel, and the company has already started manufacturing corrected versions. These will reach customers by the end of February. Full production volume won't be achieved until April. Intel estimates that the full financial cost of the error will be around $700 million, with $300 million of that incurred during the first quarter due to the production interruption. The company has adjusted its investor guidance accordingly.
In its statement, the company states that customers who have taken delivery of systems with the P67 and H67 "Cougar Point" chipsets can continue to use their systems "with confidence," suggesting that the flaw is restricted to a performance issue and cannot cause data loss. Nonetheless, such users should contact their computer manufacturers to obtain a fixed system.
The flawed chipsets are no longer shipping from Intel, and the company has already started manufacturing corrected versions. These will reach customers by the end of February. Full production volume won't be achieved until April. Intel estimates that the full financial cost of the error will be around $700 million, with $300 million of that incurred during the first quarter due to the production interruption. The company has adjusted its investor guidance accordingly.
via ArsTechnica
www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com
An analysis of gaming performance on Windows 7 SP1
So you're a Windows 7 user and you thank Microsoft every day for creating something that has gotten you off Windows Vista. Almost 18 months on and loads of little updates later, we finally find ourselves greeted with the first Service Pack for the operating system.
So it's got a list of fixes etc. - But we only really care about one thing when it comes to the new service pack. Is our gaming experience going to be any better? - It's not uncommon for a major release like this to offer us some free performance, and that's exactly what we intend to find out today; if we're able to get some.
Read the full review here.
AMD readies 5W Fusion Ontario APU for tablets
The limited edition AMD C-350 (1GHz) dual-core accelerated processing unit with 5W thermal design power (TDP) is a typical Ontario chip with some tweaks, e.g., different operation of input/output functionality, reduced amount of supported memory modules and some other, according to claims made by AMD in an interview with PC Watch web-site. At present the chip is used inside Acer 5745G hybrid tablet/netbook, which is projected to become available later this quarter.
Continue Reading...
www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com
Intel briefly shows off an Atom SoC powered smartphone
Intel Corp. at its sales conference last week reportedly demonstrated a prototype of a smartphone featuring one of its Atom-based system-on-chip (SoC). The demonstration likely involved an early prototype of a handset running code-named Medfield SoC, which is due to be released later this year.
Anand Chandrasekher, vice president and co-general manager of the Intel architecture group showed off a Medfield-based phone at an Intel sales conference, according to a MeeGo developer who attended the event. The demonstrated smartphone was neither big or small; it was also not clear, which operating system the phone utilized.
Continue Reading... www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com
ARM launches their new Cortex-R Series of processors
The chips are designed to extend the architecture's footprint in mobile baseband environments (3G and 4G), mass storage applications as well as industrial and automotive markets - or the same market that Intel is targeting with its extended Atom processor strategy. According to ARM both the R5 and the R7 can be manufactured in single- and dual-core flavors.
The R5 is a successor to the previous R4 model with greater performance, while the R7 is pitched as a new model that "greatly extends the performance levels of the R-series beyond existing capabilities." ARM said that the new R-series is designed for low-power 28 nm semiconductor processes.
Intels top-of-the-line Core i7 "Gulftown" 990X now shipping
A bunch of Polish retailers have apparently jumped the gun and started shipping Intel's flagship Core i7-990X Expensive Edition at prices starting about €900. However, we are still not sure when to expect availability in all markets.
The new processor has already been listed by several OEMs in their high-end rigs, but it was not available to the great unwashed in retail. The Gulfton-based six-core is clocked at 3.46GHz and it clocks to 3.6GHz with Turbo Boost. The TDP stands at 130W and it packs 6x256kB of L2 and 12MB of L3 cache.
This is the end of the line for Gulftown. Intel will replace the current generation with new Sandy Bridge E parts by the end of Q3 2011. Hopefully it won't sell them with broken chipsets.
via Fudzilla
The new processor has already been listed by several OEMs in their high-end rigs, but it was not available to the great unwashed in retail. The Gulfton-based six-core is clocked at 3.46GHz and it clocks to 3.6GHz with Turbo Boost. The TDP stands at 130W and it packs 6x256kB of L2 and 12MB of L3 cache.
This is the end of the line for Gulftown. Intel will replace the current generation with new Sandy Bridge E parts by the end of Q3 2011. Hopefully it won't sell them with broken chipsets.
via Fudzilla
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