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August 11, 2008 9:01 PM PDT

What Intel's Extreme Quad Core means for ThinkPad W700

by Erica Ogg
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Intel talked up its supercharged processor at the Montevina unveiling last month, but now the first notebooks with it are making their way to the public.

Some people have wondered if four processing cores inside a laptop is overkill, but Lenovo clearly doesn't think so.

Intel logo

Lenovo's ThinkPad W700 is the first to market with the Core 2 Extreme Quad Core processor. As you might imagine, this isn't one of those thin-and-light notebooks the industry is so high on. Nope, the W700 is a mobile workstation, but "mobile" isn't really the emphasis here.

"This isn't meant to be a mobile workstation--it's mean to be a workstation," said Wes Williams, Lenovo's chief ThinkPad marketing manager. "When you do need to be on the go, it means you can take it with you-- don't need two systems anymore."

Besides being a 17-inch notebook, it comes with the option of dual hard drives with RAID configurations, and an optional Blu-ray burner/player. Not only does that mean this beast is on the heavier side, you probably don't want all those cores churning away on your lap either.

The W700 is aimed at creative professionals and content producers, and has a built-in digitizer and a color calibrator to go along with its 17-inch screen. It comes with Nvidia's Quadro FX mobile graphics processor, which has 1GB of dedicated video memory.

Falcon Northwest has been using mobile quad-core processors before this, but Lenovo is first with Intel's offering. Keep an eye out for other vendors sure to follow soon.

July 21, 2008 12:10 PM PDT

Sun, Intel to provide server technology for NBC Olympics

by Brooke Crothers
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Sun Microsystems made the Olympic cut. Sun will provide server technology using Intel quad-core processors for NBC's Olympic coverage.

Sun blade server (Credit: Sun Microsystems)

The technology platform will enable live events to be streamed online to NBCOlympics.com during the Beijing Olympics, which take place from August 8-24, Sun and NBC said Monday.

Intel quad-core Xeon processors will power a total of 160 Sun Fire servers that will drive NBC's Web site, according to an Intel statement. Sun Fire X4150 and X4450 servers will be deployed, according to Sun.

The X4150 servers are offered with quad-core Xeon processors such as the Xeon E5440 (2.83GHz, 80 watts) and the Xeon X5450 (3.0GHz, 80W). The X4450 comes with Xeon 7300 series quad-core processsors such as the Xeon L7345 (1.86GHz, 50W) and Xeon E7340 (2.40GHz, 80W).

In addition to live streaming, the platform will provide video archives of completed events, plus blogs, live chat, and athlete profiles based on approximately 2,200 hours of live streaming Olympic broadband video coverage of 25 different sports on the site.

"Sun has worked hard to architect a powerful, energy-efficient platform for NBCOlympics.com that will rapidly scale for hundreds of millions of sports fans," Peter Ryan, Sun's executive vice president of global sales and services, said in a statement.

Originally posted at Nanotech - The Circuits Blog
Brooke Crothers is a former editor at large at CNET News.com, and has been an editor for the Asian weekly version of the Wall Street Journal. He writes for the CNET Blog Network, and is not a current employee of CNET. Contact him at mbcrothers@gmail.com. Disclosure.
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