Intel to revamp its CPU lineup, new 6-core part due mid-July

Intel is preparing to revamp its range of Core i processors with the launch of four new models over the next few weeks. According to DigiTimes, the chip giant will kick off its new introductions in mid-July with the hexa-core Core i7 970, priced at $885 in thousand-unit quantities, or about $115 less than the range-topping Core i7 980X. The new six core part will reportedly run at 3.2GHz and sport a total 12MB of L2 cache.

A Core i5 760 with two cores clocked at 2.9GHz will also be released, priced at $205, alongside a lower powered Core i5 870s with a selling price of $351. Finally, rounding off the revamp, Intel will deliver the Core i3 560 in August priced at $138 in thousand-unit quantities. Further models to be introduced in August include two Pentium and a Celeron processor, while the company will also be dropping its prices across several models.

Among the highlights for the cuts are the Core i3 540 and Core i3 530, which will drop to $117 in mid-July and mid-October, respectively, and the Core i7 950 which is rumored to be falling dramatically from $562 to $294 in August. That model runs at 3.06GHz and is part of Intel's high end LGA 1366 platform.

Intel: GeForce GTX 280 is only 14x faster than Core i7-960

In a peculiar attempt to dismiss claims made by Nvidia, Intel yesterday argued that its CPU technology is only 14 times slower than the graphics company's GPUs. The unusual admission comes as the Santa Clara-based chipmaker looks to downplay Nvidia's claims that its GPUs outperform the conventional Intel processor by a factor of 100.

In a paper titled "Debunking the 100x GPU vs CPU Myth," Intel suggests that application kernels run up to 14 times faster in certain circumstances on an Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 than an Intel Core i7-960. On average, Intel says that number is more along the lines of 2.5 times faster. Naturally, Nvidia quickly published a rebuttal of its own.

In a blog post, spokesman Andy Keane pointed out that Intel used Nvidia's last-generation GPU, as opposed to Fermi. Keane also notes that Intel presumably ran unoptimized codes on the GTX 280, and it's not even clear how they were compared between the GPU and CPU.

The Nvidia staffer went on to acknowledge that not all applications run 100 times quicker on GPUs, but he cited many developers who have achieved that kind of performance, and more. At least seven organizations cite speed-ups of over 100x, and one claims 300x.

Manufacturers push for USB 3.0 adoption, Intel holds it back

With Computex 2010 underway, several manufacturers have taken the occasion to launch new USB 3.0 peripherals in hopes of increasing sales as the new interface slowly gains traction. Among them is Iomega, which today revamped its eGo line of portable and desktop hard drives with a total of five new drive models, including a pair equipped with SuperSpeed USB 3.0. Kingston showed off an upcoming external SSD that hooks up to the next-gen interface, while SuperTalent continued to expand its USB 3.0 flash drive lineup with the new Express RAM Cache model.

But while each of them is doing their part in helping bring this technology to mainstream ground, it seems Intel is not very interested in giving them a hand. Initially expected to hold back adoption until 2011, unconfirmed reports now claim Intel will not be packaging USB 3.0 support into its chipsets until 2012. The SuperSpeed specification was introduced in November of last year and already there are plenty of vendors shipping USB 3.0 motherboards based on NEC's controller. AMD plans to integrate this chip in its reference designs and other cheaper alternatives are on the way too.

Given that vendors like Asus, Gigabyte and ASRock are already building USB 3.0 into their products, it's hard to see why Intel would have any problems supporting the standard. Perhaps it's not so much a technical matter but rather the chipmaker pursuing its own agenda -- that is, trying to make the market more receptive to Light Peak. The optical cable interface does have its advantages over USB 3.0 so we're interested to see how things play out.

Intel intros new Atom processors, Oak Trail platform, more

Intel has made a few Atom-related announcements today at Computex, including a new dual-core netbook Atom, and four other Atom processors. The company said it would ship dual-core Atom processors for netbooks sooner than expected, and they're already in production. New devices with the dual-core netbook chips should be available by this holiday season.

Although the company previously contested that single-core Atoms were sufficient for netbooks, it now believes that the featherweight mobile PCs can benefit from having dual-core processors. "As the web content and the browser content becomes richer, the dual-core will bring a better experience when enjoying rich content or multiple windows," Intel said.

The company also announced four new Atom processors that support DDR3 memory including the single-core N455 and N475 for netbooks, along with the single-core D425 and dual-core D525 for compact desktops. The N-series processors begin shipping today, while the D-series chips will be available starting June 21.

Meanwhile, Intel showed a reference design for a 14mm-thick netbook using a new thermal "technology concept" called Canoe Lake, as well as a Moorestown variant of the Atom dubbed Oak Trail. The platform uses less power and requires only half the physical footprint of existing Atoms, while supporting 1080p playback and operating systems including Windows 7, MeeGo, Android, and Chrome OS.

Intel announces 50-core Knights Corner HPC processor

Although Intel drove another nail into the coffin of its Larrabee discrete GPU project last week, the architecture itself is very much alive. A variant of the architecture is being used for High Performance Computing applications and it's said to leverage both Larrabee and Intel's many cores research projects. Called the Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture, it will first appear in a 22nm product codenamed Knights Corner that scales to more than 50 processing cores.

MIC-based products will be aimed at segments such as exploration, scientific research and financial or climate simulation, and although a majority of applications will still run best on the company Xeon server processors, MIC chips will "help accelerate select highly parallel applications," Intel said in a press release today.

The chipmaker hasn't provided a release date, but it's currently shipping development kits codenamed "Knights Ferry" to select industry players. In the second half of this year, the company will deliver an "extensive range of developer tools" for its MIC architecture.

Intel unveils Core i7 875K, i5 655K unlocked processors

Intel is announcing two new mainstream processor offerings today as part of their Core i-series lineup, and is targeting them squarely at overclocking enthusiasts. The new Core i5 655K and Core i7 875K are identical to the 3.2GHz Core i5 650 and 2.93GHz Core i7 870 in terms of basic specifications. However, the 'K' suffix denotes an unlocked CPU multiplier, giving users finer control over their processor frequencies without tweaking other components.

The quad-core i7 875K is based on Intel's 45nm Lynnfield core. It works at 2.93GHz, can process eight simultaneous threads with Hyper-Threading, features 8MB of L3 cache and has a 95W TDP. Meanwhile, the Core i5 655K is based on Intel's 32nm Clarkdale core with integrated graphics. The dual-core processor can handle four simultaneous threads using Hyper-Threading, it has 4MB of Level 3 cache and a TDP of 73W. As well as the unlocked multiplier, both chips still feature Intel's Turbo Boost technology, which automatically adjusts core frequency based on the CPU's workload.

In terms of pricing, the unlocked Core i5 655K will command a $40 price premium over the locked i5 650, while the Core i7 875K, at $349, is actually almost $240 cheaper than the locked Core i7 870. The new K-series models will officially launch at Computex next week, but there's a bunch of coverage floating around already.

For the last three years or so Intel had been working on an x86-derived graphics chip, dubbed Larrabee, that would supposedly shake up the discrete GPU market. After holding several demos, which unfortunately were far from being competitive, plans to market a consumer version of Larrabee were indefinitely put on hold last December, opting instead to release it as a software development platform for both graphic and high performance computing.

Stories posted since then have hinted at a comeback, but in a posting on the company's Technology@Intel blog yesterday, director of global communications Bill Kircos confirmed that Larrabee as a discrete graphics product for consumers is indeed dead -- "at least in the short-term." (Yes, he couldn't resist adding a bit of ambiguity). Intel said it plans to derive a business from Larrabee, however, using its multi-core GPU technology in the high performance computing market to process parallel code more efficiently -- much like Nvidia does with its CUDA programming model.

As far as consumer graphics are concerned, the company will continue pushing its integrated solutions for desktops, laptops and low-power handheld devices such as smartphones. Intel believes HD video and mobile computing are the most important areas to focus on moving forward when it comes to its graphics business.

Intel unveils new Ultra Low Voltage processor range

Intel is expanding its processor family today with a new range of ULV (Ultra-Low Voltage) chips featuring the same 32nm design as their normal voltage siblings. The new parts are targeted at 10-13" thin-and-light notebooks, and according to Intel, they bring a 15% reduction in power consumption while still offering features like Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost.

Despite its smaller size and lower power consumption, the new chips promise up to 32% better performance than the current generation of ultra-low voltage processors. At the bottom of the line, there will be a 1GHz Celeron U3400 and 1.2GHz Pentium U5400. Both have a total power draw of only 17 watts, and that's including the Intel GMA HD graphics chip which is built onto the same package as the CPU. Intel is also expected to launch new ULV Core i-series chips, including the 1.2GHz Core i3 330UM, i5 430UM and i5 540UM, as well as the 1.33GHz i7 660UM.

The company says that more than 40 designs are expected from computer makers such as Acer, Asus, Lenovo and MSI, and will be offered at a variety of price points beginning in June.

Intel ships 25nm NAND flash memory chips

Intel announced today that it has begun shipping its 25nm NAND flash memory to manufacturers. The new chips were sampled earlier this year and will supplant Intel's less efficient 34nm parts, which can be found in products such as the second-generation X25-M solid-state drives. Intel's 25nm chips can hold up to 8GB of data or about 7,000 photos, 2,000 songs, or eight hours of video.

An 8GB 25nm NAND flash chips measure just 167mm², making it possible to squeeze even more memory into components all across the board – from USB drives and SD cards to smartphones and SSDs. For instance, a 256GB SSD can now be produced with only 32 of Intel's 25nm chips, compared to 64 previously. We'd expect that to lower prices a bit, but Intel hasn't released any figures.

With mass production underway, electronics with the new memory should hit store shelves before the year is up, if not shortly thereafter.

Intel pushes Atom into mobile arena with "Moorestown"

Intel made official today the release of the new Atom-based platform code-named “Moorestown”, crafted specifically for power conscious smartphone and tablet devices. Moorestown aims to offer substantially superior performance over current generation mobile devices without compromising power consumption.

The mobile platform Intel announced is known as a “system on a chip”, or SoC. This means Moorestown is actually not just a processor, but rather a bundle of technologies which include an Atom Z6xx CPU (Lincroft, the 45nm successor to Menlow), a MP20 controller hub (Langwell) and Briertown (Mixed signal IC). The new platform is expected to scale to 1.9GHz and decode 1080p video on-the-fly with built-in hardware graphics acceleration while still achieving roughly five hours of video playback or 10 days of standby time powered by a typical 1500mAh smartphone battery.

In contrast to Intel’s claims, one analyst questioned the viability of Intel’s new platform in the smartphone arena. An analyst at Rodman & Renshaw reminded us that Intel publicly announced only the next iteration of the Atom would offer power consumption low enough for smartphones; Unfortunately, Moorestown is not it. For this, we'll have to wait for the 32nm Cedarview which probably won't debut until 2011.

Despite Intel’s encouraging announcement, devices slated to show off Moorestown are not expected to hit production until the second-half of 2010. One such device will be the recently delayed LG GW990, a smartphone that features the “MeeGo” operating system. Also the foundation for Moblin, MeeGo is a heavily optimized Linux variant built specifically to take advantage of the Atom platform.

The mobile chipset market is a crowded one with huge industry players the likes of which include Texas Instruments, ARM, Qualcomm and Nvidia. Intel's revamped Atom is set to be a high performance offering, but can top-end performance and a customized Linux distro be enough for Intel carve out a sizeable share of the mobile market?

Intel Arrandale shortages leading to premium prices, potential product delays

Now this might explain Apple's curious choice to not upgrade the 13-inch MacBook Pro to a Core 2010 CPU. Yahoo! News is reporting shortages of the more budget-minded Core i3 and i5 laptop processors launched by Intel this January, which has led to chip buyers outbidding each other to the point of paying 20 percent premiums on contract prices. That's according to US chip distributor Converge, while research firm CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets estimates that product rollouts could be delayed by up to three months as a result.

"We don't comment on speculation, what I can say is that we are pleased with the strong product demand for our laptop platforms."

Well sure, you get paid more on a per-CPU basis, why wouldn't you be pleased? On a more serious note, during Intel's latest earnings call both Paul Otellini and CFO Stacy Smith expressed their surprise at the vast demand for their 32nm products, with Smith noting that their production of 32nm chips is the fastest ramping process in the company's history. So there's not really any villainy afoot here, just good old demand catching supply napping.

Intel demos Light Peak equipped laptop at IDF

Last September, Intel announced a high-speed optical cable interface for PCs called Light Peak that promised a 10Gb/s transfer rate -- or twice the speed of USB 3.0 -- with the potential ability to scale to 100Gb/s in the next ten years. The technology is being developed as a way to reduce the proliferation of ports on modern computers, and could eventually replace the plethora of interfaces currently used, from USB itself to HDMI, DisplayPort, LAN, and so on.

During a recent speech at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, the company shared some of its views on the upcoming Light Peak technology and insisted that there's no conflict between it and USB 3.0 -- at least not immediately. According to Intel executive Kevin Kahn, both can exist together in the market and perhaps on the same platform at the same time, as Light Peak will enable USB and other protocols to run together on a single, longer cable and at higher speeds.


A laptop with Light Peak built-in was shown off during Kahn's speech, where a single cable was used to simultaneously transmit Blu-ray video, a feed from a high-definition camera and a duplication of the laptop's display onto another screen. What's more, the Light Peak cable was plugged into the laptop through a tweaked USB 3.0 port with components added to receive the optical signal while still being able to accept normal USB 3.0 devices.

Intel argues that existing electrical cable technology is approaching limits that optical technology can surpass, so eventually they do see Light Peak replacing USB and other interface's cables/connectors altogether. The technology will reportedly become available later this year, with partners expected to start shipping compatible devices next year and an industry group is being formed to make Light Peak a standard and speed up its adoption.