Update: As Semiaccurate.com's Charlie Demerjian himself informs us, it was actually he who first wrote about Nvidia halting chipset development, albeit in more dire terms, back in August for his old haunt the Inquirer. Link here. Fair enough. We'll still credit Ryan Shrout at PC Perspective for obtaining what we understand to be the first on the record acknowledgment from Nvidia.
Credit PC Perspective for digging out the news that Nvidia has put its NForce chipset development on hiatus. Nvidia will continue to supply the market with current-generation NForce chipsets as necessary, but due to Nvidia's licensing battle with Intel, Nvidia has halted development of new NForce chipsets for both Intel and AMD CPUs.
The dispute over the terms of Nvidia's license to make chipsets for Intel processors began last year prior to the launch of Intel's first batch of Core i7 processors. Each company has filed suit against the other, although the most recent reports on the conflict had Nvidia moving forward with a Core i7-compatible chipset.
Having only announced its new Fermi graphics chip architecture, Nvidia lags behind AMD in introducing a next-generation graphics product. AMD has already launched its Windows 7-ready Radeon HD 5800-series graphics cards, based on an updated version of its RV770 chip design. Combine AMD beating Nvidia to market with Intel's impending Larrabee discrete graphics product due out next year, as well as combined CPU/GPU designs in the works from both Intel and AMD, and it's easy to suggest that Nvidia now finds itself in a difficult competitive position.
Arguing against that assessment is the fact that Nvidia has worked actively the past few years to expand its business beyond its traditional desktop products. It has spent a lot of time and effort emphasizing its graphics chips for both high-level computing via its CUDA technology, as well as refocusing its GeForce 9300 and 9400 mobile chips with the Ion moniker to help them stand out in the ever-expanding Netbook market. Nvidia also has invested heavily in developing and marketing its Tegra graphics chip family for handheld and mobile devices. None of those strategies guarantees success for Nvidia, but it's also clear that Nvidia has taken steps to expand its interests beyond the desktop products with which we're most familiar.
Intel says its business remains unaffected by the economic headwinds set loose by the subprime crisis.
Speaking with analysts following the release of its second-quarter earnings statement, Intel's brass remained upbeat about demand for Intel products--especially for notebook processors.
"We are very aware of the global economic issues which dominate the world these days," said Intel CEO Paul Otellini. But he quickly added that order patterns played out as expected in Q2 and that the company sees "continued healthy demand" in the third quarter.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini
(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News)That news may provide some relief to worried Wall Streeters, fretting about the impact of the banking crisis on IT demand.
Notebook sales now comprise more than half of the market but they also carry lower average selling prices. Intel said that as notebook prices continue to decline in price, Intel expects to see increased demand.
"What we're seeing is a fundamental shift to notebooks," said Otellini, adding that the crossover transition was taking place six months sooner than expected.
In particular, the company expects to ship more Atom-based notebooks in the second half of the year. The design of the Atom processor is particularly suited for the emerging market of low-cost subnotebooks. However, Intel does not see the Atom cannibalizing its other notebook product lines.
"You're dealing with something that most of us wouldn't use," said Otellini, adding that Atom was designed primarily for Net access. "You would not want to run YouTube videos on these things...just like there's a market for lower performing cars and higher performing cars."
After the close of the market, Intel announced second quarter net income of $1.6 billion, or 28 cents a share, compared with $1.28 billion, or 22 cents a share, a year earlier. The company is forecasting Q3 revenue between $10 billion and $10.6 billion. Intel forecast gross profit margins of 58 percent, plus or minus two points, a trend the company expects to continue into the end of the year.
Intel also sold a record number of chipsets in the second quarter. That may signal good times on the horizon because chipsets usually are a harbinger of chip sales.
"Everything we see so far in demand for chipsets is equally strong to what you saw in Q2," Otellini said.
Intel has upstaged Advanced Micro Devices at DreamWorks Animation. The movie studio has decided to drop AMD and go with processors from Intel, citing better performance and a more promising roadmap.
DreamWorks specifically mentioned Intel's upcoming Nehalem processor and Larrabee graphics chip as reasons for the switch.
Intel and DreamWorks announced Tuesday that they had formed a strategic alliance for 3D filmmaking technology. DreamWorks plans to produce all its feature films in stereoscopic 3D--which requires the viewer to wear special glasses for enhanced 3D--beginning next year. Intel will provide DreamWorks with "the latest high-performance processing technologies, including future chips with multiple processing cores," the companies said.
This is a setback for AMD. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker rolled out its quad-core Barcelona last year at George Lucas' Lucasfilm campus in San Francisco to make a point: Barcelona would be big player in the movie industry. But a series of delays related to a processor bug put a damper on the high expectations for Barcelona.
"AMD maintained a long and fruitful relationship with DreamWorks Animation, beginning in early 2005. Earlier this year, AMD and DreamWorks decided not to extend our marketing and technology relationship. However, DreamWorks Animation is still an important and respected AMD customer and we look forward to having the opportunity to work with them again in the future," AMD said in a statement.
Essentially, DreamWorks looked down the road and liked what it saw coming from Intel better. "When we look at the Intel roadmap, it is more closely aligned with our needs," John Batter, president of production at DreamWorks Animations, said during a conversation with Nanotech: The Circuits blog. "The rendering times have been going up because of the complexity and richness of the images. Then you layer on top of that 3D. Something that's already growing--and doubling it."
Intel had the best technology, Batter said. "You need a lot more horsepower. On Intel's upcoming generation, the number of cores is going to help us satiate the big spike in our needs."
DreamWorks had been in a three-year partnership with AMD, Batter said.
He explained that Intel is also helping DreamWorks to redesign its animation tools. "Our animation tools are all proprietary here. Intel is rearchitecting our software tools...to take advantage of multicore and make our renderer highly scalable as well as making our character animation tools highly scalable."
DreamWorks uses rendering farms with as many as 5,000 cores to create animation and its tools need to be adapted to the increasing number of processor cores, Batter said. The Nehalem chip, for example, is expected to integrate as many as eight cores. Currently, Intel offers no more than four cores per chip. Larrabee is expected by many to offer as many as 32 cores.
Intel Nehalem architecture
(Credit: Intel)Batter specifically mentioned both Nehalem and Larrabee as a reason for the switch to Intel. He said that Larrabee would be "complementary" to Intel's general-purpose CPUs.
Nehalem is due in the fourth quarter of this year and Larrabee is expected in the 2009-2010 time frame.
The first Intel-Dreamworks release will be Monsters vs. Aliens, which is slated to hit movie theaters in March 2009.
Intel and DreamWorks Animation on Tuesday announced a strategic alliance designed to power up the movie studio's 3D authoring tools.
Faced with increasing demand for 3D animated feature films, DreamWorks will receive access to Intel's latest and future high-performance chips, including those with multiple processing cores. Intel's software engineers will also work with DreamWorks to tweak the studio's applications to run on an Intel-based computing infrastructure.
"Technology plays a significant role in enabling our artists to tell great stories. By utilizing Intel's industry-leading computing products, we will create a new and innovative way for moviegoers to experience our films in 3D," Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks' chief executive, said in a statement.
One of the first projects from the alliance will be DreamWorks' upcoming Monsters vs. Aliens film, which is scheduled for release March 27.
That film is part of DreamWorks' effort to produce only stereoscopic 3D feature films beginning next year.
The Apple MacBook Air has been a ground-breaking first-generation product (in my opinion). So, what will Apple do to top it when an update comes later this year? There are some telling indicators already. This is what I expect--and hope for--as a user.
(Credit:
Apple)
First, a disclaimer. I am not an Apple fanatic. The MacBook Air is the first Apple product I have ever used for more than a few days. For well over a decade, I have been wedded to Wintel (Windows-Intel) laptops.
Before I dive into upcoming features, I should also mention that I have been extremely pleased with the Air and have used it almost daily for the last four months. But I would be remiss if I didn't say it is overpriced, as all subnotebooks are.
• Overpriced but still an amazing design Apple made a very studied decision to exclude certain features. This makes the Air an Air. Apple could have included more ports and a little more of this and pinch of that--but then it would have been just another subnotebook.
So, I expect Apple to maintain the uniqueness of the Air for the next refresh.
But improvements are always welcome. And here are a few things that potential buyers can expect to see when a new Air is rolled out.
Apple has begun to give us hints of things to come. A $500 price cut for the solid state drive (SSD) model is one of the biggest indicators so far.
• A bigger, better solid state drive The next Air will offer drives that range in size to more than 100GB. A likely offering would be 128GB from vendors like STEC. (Samsung supplies the current SSD.) Intel and Micron Technology can't be ruled out. Their drives will come in 80GB and 160GB capacities.
These SSDs will also likely use multiple-level cell (MLC) technology, in contrast with current drives that use single-level-cell (SLC). MLC allows higher-capacities but presents power and data reliability challenges, which suppliers claim to have overcome.
• Processors Invariably, all notebooks get upgraded with better processors and graphics. I think the Air's current performance is superb for a subnotebook. I have owned many subnotebooks over the years and anemic performance can render them practically unusable as an everyday machine. But I haven't had this problem with the Air (see note at bottom).
Intel's upcoming 45-nanometer "Montevina" (Centrino 2) low-power offerings should make this experience even better. Though an initial Montevina refresh is slated for July 14, low-power versions won't appear until this fall. Intel refers to these as SFF (small form factor) processors. They will come in high-performance, low-voltage, and ultra-low-voltage variants.
SFF Montevina processors will range from 25-watt (2.4GHz) to 17-watt (1.86GHz) to 10-watt (1.2GHz). The current Intel processor used in the Air is rated at 20 watts at 1.8GHz.
Whether Apple chooses one of these or opts for something not currently on the Intel roadmap of course remains to be seen.
• Graphics Graphics will get upgraded. Montevina will come with Intel's GMA X4500 graphics, which Intel has said repeatedly will be three times faster than current X3100 integrated graphics.
• Battery Insufficient battery life is a problem that plagues all subnotebooks. It has often been suggested that Apple include a removable battery (for easy replacement), but that could compromise the ultraslim design. Having said that, I have been pleased with the battery life compared with other notebooks I have owned.
Hazarding a guess at other features such as upgraded hard disk drives, better screens, and external extras like a docking station is too speculative (and the latter would also compromise the design), so I'll refrain from making any predictions.
But the Air shouldn't change too much. With a simple performance upgrade, it would be an even more remarkable computer.
(Note: No, the Air is not as fast as a 14-inch Hewlett-Packard 6910P, for example, but no PC maker can squeeze that kind of performance into a Air-like form factor.)
Update at 1:30 p.m. PDT July 3, with additional comments from Micron Technology (at bottom).
Has the image of solid state drives as power misers been shattered? A recent review would seem to dispel the notion that these devices are more power efficient than the hard disk drives used in laptops.
In an article at Tom's Hardware titled "The SSD Power Consumption Hoax", the authors state: "We have discovered that the power savings aren't there: in fact, battery runtimes actually decrease if you use a flash (solid state drive)."
(Note: Tom's Hardware has posted a correction to its original report here.)
One of the key selling points of solid state drives has been that they use less power than hard disk drives. The claim has seemed plausible because solid state drives have no moving parts, while hard disk drives have a number of moving components.
The Tom's Hardware review, however, says: "While conventional hard drives may operate at relatively low power when little movement is required...flash based drives do not. They will draw their maximum power level constantly when in use, and as a consequence, simply spend more total time drawing maximum power than conventional drives."
The review goes on to test four solid state drives (SSDs) from Crucial (Micron Technology), Memoright, Sandisk, and Mtron. For example, in evaluating the Crucial CT32GBFAB0 32GB drive, the review states, "Users who purchase this drive because of Crucial's statements such as 'low power consumption' and the product being ideal for 'users who want longer battery life' will most likely be disappointed."
Though Intel's drives were not tested in the review, the chipmaker stated Wednesday that SSDs "can be architected to improve battery life." Intel is expected to bring out drives ranging in capacity from 80GB to 160GB later this year.
... Read moreThe Gateway notebook roll-out is official. Sony's is not. Gateway Computer announced three lines of notebook PCs on Monday with 64-bit Windows, while Circuit City prematurely posted images of upcoming Sony notebooks.
Gateway 14-inch T6836
(Credit: Gateway )Gateway rolled out three notebooks targeted at students. The P series desktop replacement comes with a 17-inch widescreen, the M series with a 15.4-inch screen, and the T series uses a 14.1-inch screen.
All systems come with 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium and pack 4GB of memory--the minimum for acceptable performance in 64-bit Windows.
(See Gateway goes all 64-bit in back-to-school desktops.)
The 15-inch "Garnet Red" Gateway M-6848 is spec'd with an Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 processor, 4GB of memory, a 250GB hard disk drive, 802.11a/b/g,a wireless, DVD-R/RW drive, and Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1. It retails for $799.99.
The 14-inch "Pacific Blue" Gateway T-6836 notebook has virtually the same specifications. It also retails for $799.99.
Other features include a multimedia panel integrated into the keyboard, DVD burner with LabelFlash technology, and an integrated Webcam.
Upcoming Sony retail notebook
Meanwhile, details about upcoming Sony notebooks continue to seep out.
Circuit City prematurely posted photos of the upcoming Sony portables. (Though Circuit City has pulled the links, cached images are still accessible.)
Last week, less colorful user-manual images appeared at Notebookreview.com as well as tidbits about various models. Apparently, models will use Intel's next-generation Centrino 2 "Montevina" processor, graphics chips from Advance Micro Devices' ATI unit, and sport 13- and 16-inch screens.
Qualcomm has Snapdragon. Intel has Atom and Moorestown. Which of these chips is (will be) a more viable, compelling chip for the fit-in-your-pocket device and ultralight computer market? I'll let the reader decide.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon is a highly integrated chip that is shipping now. Products are due in Q1 2009.
(Credit: Qualcomm)All of these chips are targeted at mobile Internet devices, like the Apple iPhone, and ultralight (less than 3 pounds) notebooks, like the Asus Eee PC. Two (Snapdragon and Moorestown) are aimed at high-end smartphones.
Here's a very quick overview of the silicon. You decide which seem more compelling.
Atom is here now. For Intel, it is a very-low-power chip (but not considered low-power in the cell phone world), boasting a thermal envelope of about two watts, compared to 35 watts for a typical Intel Core 2 chip for laptops.
Atom, however, is not highly integrated. Graphics, audio, memory controller, and communications silicon are all on a separate chipset.
Importantly, Atom runs the same software and Web applications as any other x86 architecture Intel chip in a typical PC. This is a big selling point for Atom (or any Intel chip for that matter), according to Intel.
But Atom isn't fast. High-end Atom processors (1.6GHz) benchmark more or less on par with a low-end Celeron processor. (Celeron is Intel's low-end line of processors.) And Intel is on the record saying that Atom is similar in performance to circa 2003-2004 Pentium mobile chips.
Less is known about Intel's Moorestown (see graphic below), due in 2009 or 2010. This much is known: it will integrate additional logic, bringing it more in line with silicon designs in the smartphone market--at which Moorestown is targeted. For example, the SOC (system-on-a-chip) will integrate components like the memory controller and graphics, boosting communication speeds between these crucial devices. And, like Atom, it will run all the popular software on PCs today.
Enter Qualcomm and Snapdragon (aka Qualcomm QSD8250 and QSD8650), which is targeted at high-end smartphones and mobile Internet devices.
The key difference between Snapdragon and Atom (Intel's only well-documented processor for ultrasmall devices) is power and integration. Qualcomm--because of its background in the cell phone market where integration and low-power are the name of the game--has packed a lot of features onto one piece of silicon that is short on power consumption and long on battery life. By comparison, delivering integration and long battery life in a tiny device are not things Intel has focused on in the past.
(Qualcomm has been involved in the market for cell phone silicon since the early 1990s. Intel isn't even a player yet.)
Another salient point: Qualcomm isn't licensing the technology from ARM in the traditional sense. The company has licensed the instruction set only and then built its own processor, allowing it to boost the clock speed to 1GHz and beyond while keeping the power low. Snapdragon, however, is not a speed demon. It will offer relatively good performance within the targeted power envelope.
Key features: Snapdragon operates below 0.5 watts, is based on the newest ARM v7 instruction set, runs as fast as 1GHz, and integrates almost everything including the processor, GPS, an ATI graphics core, multimedia (digital signal processor), and 3G modem, all on one 15mm X 15mm piece of silicon (see graphic).
Qualcomm is claiming cell phone-like battery life.
The San Diego-based company is shipping Snapdragon to customers who will ship products in the first quarter of 2009. HTC and Samsung have announced that they will bring out products based on Snapdragon.
Moorestown silicon due in 2009-2010 is the closest thing Intel has to Qualcomm's Snapdragon
(Credit: Intel)Germany-based Cizmo is offering an Intel Centrino 2-based gaming laptop that shows what's in store for mobile gamers this summer.
Intel's newest crop of Centrino 2 Montevina mobile processors are slated for a July 14 rollout and will include the Extreme X9100 processor: the first Penryn-class mobile processor to break the 3.0GHz barrier.
Cizmo CX1730M packs an Extreme X9100 mobile processor
(Credit: Cizmo)The Cizmo 17-inch CX1730M can be configured with an Intel X9100 Extreme processor running at 3.06GHz. A key feature of Intel X-class mobile processors is that they are designed to be overclocked.
The CX1730M can also take an Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX graphics chip.
Memory based on the new DDR3 standard is also offered. DDR3 SDRAM can be hooked up to Intel's faster 1066MHz front-side bus. Currently, Intel's front-side bus--which carries data between the processor and other silicon--runs at 800MHz.
Other specifications for the CX1730M include Intel's newest PM45 chipset. Intel stated last month that initially only the PM chipset--for discrete (standalone) graphics chips--would be available. The GM version with Intel integrated graphics will arrive in August.
... Read moreFinally, I can call myself an inventor.
I've been inventing things for almost 20 years now, but Montalvo Systems was the first company I worked for that took intellectual property seriously. (That was no coincidence; it was also the first company I worked for where I helped develop the intellectual-property strategy.)
During my years at Montalvo, I came up with quite a few ideas and participated in brainstorming sessions that yielded more ideas. Most of these sessions were limited to Montalvo's own people, but there was one person I brought in to help us as a consultant--Don Alpert, who was the principal architect of Intel's Pentium processor and, possibly less significantly, a member of the editorial board at Microprocessor Report.
Working with three of us from Montalvo--myself and chief architects Greg Favor and Peter Song--Don took the lead in preparing a set of related patent applications describing a new way to design microprocessors.
The first patent from this set was ... Read more
