Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) on Wednesday introduced its two-year product road map for servers and workstations, saying it would release its first six-core chip next year and a 12-core processor on a new platform in the first half of 2010...

AMD is on target to ship its first 45-nm server chip, code-named Shanghai, in the latter part of this year, which would be about a year after Intel shipped its first products using the next-generation manufacturing process that makes it possible to shrink transistor size. Shanghai will be a four-core processor that delivers 25% better performance than the company's current 65-nm quad-core Opteron, formerly known as Barcelona. Shanghai also will ship under the Opteron brand.
Shanghai will use up to 20% less power during idle time than Barcelona and have 6 MB of L3 cache, which is twice the overall cache of its predecessor. In addition, Shanghai's support of DDR2-800 memory translates into a 10% boost in bandwidth.

Microsoft confirmed today that the final version of Windows XP Service Pack 3 has been released to PC manufacturers right on schedule. The update will be available to end users to download next Tuesday, April 29, and pushed to Windows Update in June. A post on Microsoft's TechNet developer site confirmed the release.

Microsoft gave us an early look at the update as a 580MB disk image. What we saw is barely changed from our preview of an early beta of SP3, and seeing Windows XP SP3 for the first time is highly unremarkable.

Far from being a new operating system, Windows XP SP3 is really an accumulation of updates for compatibility, security, and performance. It doesn't contain new features found in Vista, aside from Network Access Protection (NAP), which lets XP systems work with Windows Server 2008's ability to enforce system health requirements before allowing access to network assets. In addition to that feature, the only actually new ones are "Black Hole" Router Detection, more description in the Security Options control panel, kernel-level support for FIPS 140-1 Level 1 compliant cryptography, and a new Product Activation system that allows installation without immediately requiring a product key.

More at the link ...

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 2, 2008 – The Intel® Atom™ processor will be the name for a new family of low-power processors designed specifically for mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and a new class of simple and affordable Internet-centric computers arriving later this year. Together, these new market segments represent a significant new opportunity to grow the overall market for Intel silicon, using the Intel Atom processor as the foundation. The company also announced the Intel® Centrino® Atom™ processor technology brand for MID platforms, consisting of multiple chips that enable the best Internet experience in a pocketable device.

The Intel Atom processor is based on an entirely new microarchitecture designed specifically for small devices and low power, while maintaining the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo instruction set compatibility consumers are accustomed to when using a standard PC and the Internet. The design also includes support for multiple threads for better performance and increased system responsiveness. All of this on a chip that measures less than 25 mm², making it Intel's smallest and lowest power processor yet.1 Up to 11 Intel Atom processor die -- the tiny slivers of silicon packed with 47 million transistors each -- would fit in an area the size of an American penny.

These new chips, previously codenamed Silverthorne and Diamondville, will be manufactured on Intel's industry-leading 45nm process with hi-k metal gate technology. The chips have a thermal design power (TDP) specification in 0.6-2.5 watt range and scale to 1.8GHz speeds depending on customer need. By comparison, today's mainstream mobile Core 2 Duo processors have a TDP in the 35-watt range.

Sixteen Eco-Friendly, Faster and 'Cooler' Chips Incorporate 45nm Hafnium-Based High-k Metal Gate Transistors

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 11, 2007 – Built using an entirely new transistor formula that alleviates the wasteful electricity leaks that threaten the pace of future computer innovation, Intel Corporation today unveiled 16 server and high-end PC processors. In addition to increasing computer performance and saving energy use, these processors also eliminate eco-unfriendly lead and, in 2008, halogen materials.

Called the biggest transistor advancements in 40 years by Intel Co-Founder Gordon Moore, the processors are the first to use Intel's Hafnium-based high-k metal gate (Hi-k) formula for the hundreds of millions of transistors inside these processors. These Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme and Xeon® processors are also the first to be manufactured on the company's 45-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process, further boosting performance and lowering power consumption.

Combining these two advancements with new processor features enables Intel to continue delivering faster and more energy-efficient processors that are better for the environment. The breakthroughs clear the path for Intel to design products that are 25 percent smaller than previous versions and, thus, more cost-effective, as well as the ability next year to pursue new ultra mobile and consumer electronics "system on chip" opportunities.

In its ongoing battle with rival Intel, AMD announced the latest round of desktop CPU price cuts today. According to the list the company shared with us this morning, the price cuts mean that all of the company's dual-core Athlon 64 X2 processors will be priced at less than $200, with the top-end Athlon 64 X2 6000+ now selling for $178. The two low-end models in AMD's dual-core line, the Athlon X2 3600+ and 3800+, have been dropped, making the Athlon X2 4000+ the new entry-level dual-core model at $73.

In the high-end Athlon 64 FX line, strangely both the FX-72 and FX-74 now sell for the same price of $599 a pair. AMD's single-core Athlon 64 chips now range in price from $48 (Athlon 64 3200+) to $78 (Athlon 64 4000+). The budget Sempron line now starts at $31 for the Sempron 3200+ chip and goes up to $53 for the Sempron 3800+. It's hard to see how there's room for single-core processors when prices for nearly half of AMD's dual-core Athlon 64 X2 chips have crept well below the $100 mark.

Prices for AMD's mobile chips remain unchanged.

For its part, Intel is expected to cut prices on July 22 for its quad-core desktop and server chips prior to AMD's Barcelona introduction in August. 'Round and 'round we go.

Ants and beetles have exoskeletons--and chips with 60 and 80 cores are going to need them as well.

Researchers at Intel are working on ways to mask the intricate functionality of massive multicore chips to make it easier for computer makers and software developers to adapt to them, said Jerry Bautista, co-director of Intel's Tera-scale Computing Research Program.

These multicore chips, he added, will also likely contain both x86 processing cores, similar to the brains inside the vast majority of Intel's server and PC chips today, as well as other types of cores. A 64-core chip, for instance, might contain 42 x86 cores, 18 accelerators and four embedded graphics cores...(more at the link)

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