ie8 fix

quad-core

AMD triple core is for business, Puma whispers

Roadmaps are made to be changed. And in the case of AMD quad-core processor timelines, quite often. That said, they provide a clear blueprint to work from. The most recent AMD roadmap (dated late January) indicates that triple-core processors are coming fairly soon (March at the latest) and that they are initially targeted at commercial users.

On the chart, "triple-core" is clumped with the "Hardcastle" and "Perseus" business platforms, meaning that triple-core is initially a commercial offering--and AMD confirms this.

The chart also shows quad-core Opteron, a.k.a. "Barcelona," production beginning … Read more

HP readying AMD quad-core 'Barcelona' servers

Hewlett-Packard has committed to Advanced Micro Devices' quad-core Opteron "Barcelona" processors in its Proliant DL585 servers, according to company documents.

This comes as AMD is preparing to send samples of its "B3" quad-core Opteron processor to customers. The B3 stepping (or version) fixes, in silicon, a rarely occurring glitch in the Barcelona chip, referred to as the TLB bug. The bug has delayed shipment of quad-core chips to top-tier U.S. server vendors, giving Intel a leg-up in the high-end server market.

Currently, Proliant DL585 G2 servers use dual-core Opteron processors. But HP documentation updated last … Read more

Phenom-based PCs signal AMD-Intel quad-core rivalry

Let the quad-core competition begin. The arrival of consumer systems based on AMD's quad-core Phenom processor at retail stores will finally bring much-needed four-core rivalry to the high-end PC segment, where, until January, there was only one choice: Intel. Gateway Computer's Phenom-based models had a widely publicized debut at Best Buy this week, making the Irvine, CA-based company the second major U.S. PC vendor after Hewlett-Packard (HP) to adopt the Phenom processor. Earlier in January, Wal-Mart began selling the HP Phenom-based Pavilion M8330F desktop (which, according to Wal-Mart's Web site, is now out of stock).

Gateway'… Read more

Poll: What's the best bang for my photo PC buck?

I'm going to buy a new desktop computer to feed my digital photography appetites, and it's time to let the wisdom of the crowds steer me in the right direction.

There are innumerable options, but there's one particular choice I'm wrestling with: is my money better spent on a PC with a dual-core processor or a quad-core chip with a lower clock frequency?

For the benefit of anybody else in my situation, I thought I'd seek expert guidance from Adobe Systems, Microsoft, Advanced Micro Devices, and Intel and publish the results, but I got conflicting … Read more

CES 2008: New Intel quad-core CPUs take the high-end, but the midrange is still up for grabs.

Here's what we find most interesting about Intel's new additions to its Core 2 Quad line later this quarter. Of the three new quad-core desktop chips it announced this morning, only the 2.5GHz Core 2 Quad Q9300 has a low enough price at $266 to compete with AMD's Phenom 9500 ($251) and 9600 ($283). True, Intel's previous generation Q6600 ($266) will likely drop in price, and it's faster than either current Phenom, but it wasn't quite the crushing blow to AMD's 2008 hopes we thought we might see.

Intel has dominated AMD … Read more

Intel blows through financial projections

Update: I added a bit more detail, news of the CFO switcheroo, and a self-congratulatory but illuminating quotation from Intel's CEO.

Intel on Tuesday stomped all over estimates of its quarterly financial performance--not only Wall Street's but its own.

Three months ago, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker in September predicted revenue of $9 billion to $9.6 billion for the third quarter of 2007. Then, in September, it raised it to a range of $9.4 billion to $9.8 billion.

The real number: $10.1 billion, a 15 percent increase from the year-earlier quarter. And net … Read more

New computers may eliminate need for nuclear tests

The government will spend $26 million on high-end computers to cut costs and standardize systems among the three U.S. labs charged with ensuring the safety and reliability of the nation's aging nuclear stockpile.

The Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) awarded the multimillion-dollar contract to Milpitas, Calif.-based Appro to supply Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories with 438 teraflop high-performance computing clusters based on the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor. To date, each of these labs had used its own combination of computer systems, which were not always compatible with the others.

"This … Read more

New PCs from Gateway fire shots across HP's bow

On the heels of its new Gateway One all-in-one, today we got word of Gateway's retail holiday desktop lineup. Prices for the fixed-config retail models will start at $599 and scale upward of $1,000. Based on the price and specs of at least one model, it seems as though Gateway beats Hewlett-Packard's new Pavilion Elite m9040n. Here's how the two stack up:

Both also have multiformat media card readers and a bay for a removable upsell hard drive. Although the HP might have faster RAM and the nod for its TV tuner's overall features, the … Read more

Report: November launch for AMD Phenom chips

Since AMD released its Barcelona server chips last month, PC users have been wondering when that native quad-core goodness might arrive in the form of AMD Phenom desktop CPUs. According to a report on VR-Zone, we'll see the first two quad-core Phenom chips next month. The site reports that the 2.2GHz Phenom X4 9500 and the 2.4GHz Phenom X4 9600 will launch sometime in November. These Phenom 9000-series parts will feature 512KB of L2 cache per core, 2MB of shared L3 cache, a 3.6GHz HyperTransport 3.0 bus, and an 89W power rating. A third chip … Read more

Four cores and seven years ago...

Six weeks ago, we told you about the Xtreme Notebooks 917V, one of the very first laptops purporting to offer quad-core computing, featuring the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and Q6700 CPUs. While this was an xtremely interesting development, as our colleague Matt Elliott sagely pondered: "It all adds up to an unquestionably powerful laptop, but I'd like to know what the Xtreme 917V Accelerator sounds like when it's cooling a desktop CPU, two video cards, and three hard drives." Other vendors agreed, and even wrote in to let us know that these quad-core chips were … Read more