Intel's 'Sandy Bridge' CPUs Are Here

Although the news has been spreading around the web for the past several day today marks the official release of Intel's new Sandy Bridge processor architecture or what the company calls its "second-generation Core processors."

Today at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show. Intel highlighted several new features, services and partnerships that combine to deliver an entirely new visual experience with processor graphics built in. Intel claims that more than 500 desktop and laptop PCs are expected from all major OEMs worldwide throughout the next year.

With their announcement Intel has officially released the product sku's of more than 20 processors as well as , wireless adapters and chipsets, including new Intel Core i7, i5 and i3 processors, Intel 6 Series Chipsets, and Intel Centrino WiFi and WiMAX adapters.

Sandy Bridge represents the latest in Intel's development strategy. The new chips are based on the 32nm "Westmere" die shrink of about a year ago, but introduces new technologies, features and capabilities that neither Westmere nor the previous "Nehalem," could claim.

"The new 2nd Generation Intel Core processors represent the biggest advance in computing performance and capabilities over any other previous generation," said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager, PC Client Group, Intel. "The built-in visual capabilities enabled by these new processors are stunning. This, combined with improved adaptive performance, will revolutionize the PC experience in a way that is obvious for every user to see and appreciate – visibly smarter performance."

With Sandy Bridge, Intel claims that mainstream PCs will be able to perform a wider variety of actions, all while consuming less power. Intel has put particular focus on the CPUs' media prowess, from its built-in DirectX 10.1 capabilities to new programming that Intel has promised will considerably improve video transcoding, photo editing, and other similar tasks (such as watching Blu-ray 3D content).

Additional changes in Sandy Bridge also include a major revamping of Turbo Boost, which can improve performance even more for short periods of time, and new Advanced Vector Extensions driving floating point–intensive application performance.

Sandy Bridge What You Need To Know

For starters the company hasn't dropped its "Core" designation for its CPU lineup: You'll still see some of the older Core i3, i5, and i7 branded chips on the market. These older chips are still going to be based on the LGA-1156 and older LGA-1366 sockets. The new '2nd generation' chips will share the 'Core' branding and similar designation however they will not be based on the older sockets. They will require an entirely new motherboard with a new socket LGA-1155 cpu socket. These new motherboards will now feature the Intel 6 Series Chipsets. Mainly the performance-focused P67, the integrated graphics-focused H67 and the entry-level H61.

To keep the confusion over the two generation chips to a minimum Intel has added a few naming features. The number immediately following the "i" modifier will be followed by a "2" to indicate that said CPU is a part of the Sandy Bridge family, as it's a second-generation CPU. The following three numbers will indicate the specific processor SKU, so you will now see designations like Core i7-2600K, Core i5-2500K, Core i5-2400, And Core i3-2100. The letters appended to the end- "K", "S", or "T" will detail whether the CPU is unlocked for overclocking, optimized for "lifestyle" computing, or optimized for power-savings.

For the new Sandy Bridge chips Intel has optimized Intel Turbo Boost Technology to provide even more performance when needed. Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 automatically allows processor cores to run faster than the base operating frequency if it's operating below power, current, and temperature specification limits.

For the layman out there what this means is the chips will effectively 'turbo up' when more power is needed. Overclocking the chips as much as 10-15% when more power is needed and throttle the chips back down when its not.

Newer better graphics right from your cpu. That's right with Sandy Bridge Intel has design the chips to have better video support featuring DirectX 10.1. The new chips sports completely redesigned video and media subsystems that Intel claims will greatly increase performance in everyday computing as well as more specialized tasks like video editing and transcoding. There's built-in support for a wide variety of popular video codecs, as well as accelerators for commonly used filters like scaling and removing noise.

This new 'on-chip' GPU design won't be a powerhouse and shouldn't be expected to replace a discreet GPU (and probably won't be good for gaming) however Intel boasts that the new execution units present in its Sandy Bridge GPU not only come at more than twenty times the power of Intel's Generation-5 graphics, but that the cards themselves should rival integrated (and even entry-level discrete) graphics from Nvidia and ATI.

Other new features include Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX), Intel InTru 3-D, and Intel Clear Video Technology HD. Intel InTru 3-D enables immersive stereoscopic 3-D to 3-D-capable HDTVs or monitors via HDMI 1.4.

Intel Sandy Bridge Reviews:

• Tom's Hardware Intel’s Second-Gen Core CPUs: The Sandy Bridge Review
• AnandTech The Sandy Bridge Review: Intel Core i7-2600K, i5-2500K and Core i3-2100 Tested |  Intel’s Sandy Bridge: Upheaval in the Mobile Landscape
• TweakTown - Intel Core i7-2600K and Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge) CPUs
• TechSpot -  Core i5 2500K and Core i7 2600K CPUs Reviewed
• Legion Hardware -  Intel Core i5-2500k And Core i7-2600k Review
• PC Perspective - Intel Core i7-2600K Review, Intel Core i7-2820QM Mobile Review
• Benchmark Reviews - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge CPU Review, | Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge CPU Review
• Legit Reviews - Intel Unveils Sandy Bridge: Core i7 2600K, i5 2500K, i5 2400, i3 2100 CPUs
• Hot Hardware - Intel Core i7-2600K and i5-2500K Processors Debut | Intel Core i7-2820QM Mobile Sandy Bridge Processor

Source: Intel Press Release

AMD's New Six Core Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition CPU

AMD delighted consumers with the addition of three new processors to the compnay's lineup today, the top dog being the new six-core Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition. Along side the new high end Phenom II X6 AMD released two mainstream processors the Athlon II X3 455, and the Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition.

The new flagship of AMD's processor lineup, the Phenom II X6 1100T, is based on the AM3 socket, supporting DDR3 and DDR2 memory on older AM2+ motherboards. It carries a clock speed of 3.30 GHz, features 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 6 MB of L3 between all six cores. It features the TurboCore technology, which bumps clock speed by a few hundred MHz when it senses high load. As a Black Edition chip, it features an unlocked bus multiplier perfect for all you overclocking enthusiasts out there. Despite its increased clock speed, the 1100T still only has a TDP of 125W.

The AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition will be released with a $265 price tag which forces AMD to bump the price of the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition down to $235.00.

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition (HDE00ZFBK6DGR) Specifications:

• Model Number & Core Frequency: X6 1100T / 3.7GHz (Turbo) / 3.3GHz (Base)
• OPN: HDE00ZFBK6DGR
• L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (768KB total L1 per processor)
• L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (3MB total L2 per processor)
• L3 Cache Size: 6MB (shared)
• Total Cache (L2+L3): 9MB
• Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller
• Memory Controller Speed: Up to 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management
• Types of Memory Supported: Unregistered DIMMs up to PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066MHz) -AND- PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333MHz)
• HyperTransport 3.0 Specification: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2)
• Total Processor-to-System Bandwidth: Up to 37.3GB/s total bandwidth [Up to 21.3 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR3-1333) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)] Up to 33.1GB/s total bandwidth [Up to 17.1 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR2-1066) + 16.0GB/s (HT3)]
• Packaging: Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)
• Process Technology: 45-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
• Approximate Transistor count: ~904 million
• Max TDP: 125 Watts

Phenom II X6 1100T Benchmarks and Reviews

• Legit Reviews AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition 3.3GHz CPU Review
• OCC AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Review
• HotHardware AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition CPU Review
• PureOverclock AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition
• Benchmark Reviews AMD Phenom-II X6-1100T CPU HDE00ZFBK6DGR
• Tweaktown AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition CPU

As mentioned AMD did release two new chips meant for the mainstream. First up is the Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition. Clocked at 3.40 GHz, featuring 512 KB of cache per core, and 6 MB shared L3 cache. This one has a TDP of 80W, and is priced at $115. Next is the new Athlon II X3 455, a triple-core chip based on the "Rana" silicon (which is Propus with one core locked), it lacks an L3 cache, but features 512 KB L2 per core. With a TDP of 95W, this one goes for $87.

AMD Rolls Out The New Athlon X2 7000 Series

AMD has introduced a new set of "Kuma" based 65nm dual-core Athlon CPU's, the Athlon X2 7000 series. These new chips are basically 65nm Phenom (K10) processors with two of the four cores disabled.

The two CPUs in this budget series are the 2.7GHz Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition which will sell for about $79 and come with an unlocked multiplier and the 2.5GHz Athlon X2 7550, which will be OEM only. Both of the processors include a 256 Kbyte Level 1 data cache per processor, with a 512 Kbytes of L2 cache per core (for a total of 1 MB) and a shared L3 cache of 2 MB. The chips will also feature a new memory controller providing support for PC2-8500 (DDR2 1066 MHz). The chips will also sport a HyperTransport 3.0 3600 MT/s system interface.

Early reviews of the chips have shown a 10-15% overall gain over the previous generation Brisbane chip running at the same frequency. They've shown a little overclocking potential reaching as high as 3.3 ghz in a few cases. Overall the chips exhibit a fairly good price to performance ration making them a nice choice for the budget minded builder.

Early Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition Reviews

• Bit-Tech.net: AMD's Athlon X2 7700 Series CPUs
• HEXUS.net: AMD Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition: dual-core Phenom at the ready
• OverClockers Club: AMD Athlon X2 7750 Review
• TweakTown: AMD Athlon X2 7750 BE 2.7GHz CPU – Phenom goes Dual-Core
• X-Bit Labs: AMD Launches “Phenom X2”: AMD Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition Review

Possible AMD 45nm CPU Schedule

More details have emerged on the possible release schedule of AMD's new 45nm CPUs. Both DigiTimes and HKepc.com have reported tentative launch dates for the new Phenom II CPUs.

AMD is expected to launch the 45nm AM2+ Phenom II X4 900 series on January 8, '09. That launch will be followed by the launch of six 45nm AM3 CPUs in February: the quad-core Phenom II X4 925 and 910 with 6MB L3 Cache, the quad-core Phenom II X4 810 and 805 with 4MB L3 Cache, and the triple-core Phenom II X3 720 and 710 with 6MB L3 Cache.




In April it is expected that AMD will launch what looks to be a new budget line of 45nm CPUs under its Athlon brand, which does not include the L3 Cache feature. These will be the Athlon X4 600 family and triple-core Athlon X3 400 family. We'll see another "budget" offering by way of the 45nm dual-core Athlon X2 200 family in June of '09.

Intel Phasing Out Popular Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU In '09

According to reports at DigiTimes Intel will be phasing out their widely popular Q6600 quad core CPU in 2009.

Intel is planning to start phasing out the 65nm Core 2 Quad Q6600 in the first quarter of 2009, prompting several PC and channel vendors to start planning to cut Q6600-product prices to clear their inventory before the end of this year, according to sources at PC vendors.

Intel will issue a product discontinuance notice for the Q6600 in the first quarter next year, and call end-of-lifecycle in the second quarter.

The Q6600 is a very popular CPU among gamers and enthusiasts. The CPU is a strong overclocker and at its current street price of @$190 the quad core CPU is among the best in price to performance ratings.

Current pricing:

Newegg:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor $189.99


Buy.com:
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz Processor - 2.4GHz - 1066MHz FSB $202.99


Amazon.com:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad-Core Processor, 2.40 GHz, 8M L2 Cache, LGA 775 $179.99

TigerDirect:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor FREE Game Bundle $189.99

Intel Core i7 Nehalem Reviews

We've been waiting not so patiently for the last several months for Intel's newest CPU to hit the market. Well now Intel's Core i7 Nehalem has arrived and so have the early reviews. Listed below are reviews featuring the first three offering the Intel Core i7 940, 920 and 965 Extreme Edition. Pricing for the processors is not set yet but the estimates look fairly steep.

The 965 is an Extreme Edition processor which is said to cost an estimated $1410, while the 940 is roughly half as expensive at $720, and the 920 costs just $370.

Reviews:

• Legion Hardware - Core i7 940, 920 and 965 Extreme Edition
• Tweak Town - Intel Core i7 – Nehalem Arrives and FSB Departs
• BenchmarkReviews.com - Intel Core i7 CPU & DX58SO X58 Platform
• PC Perspective - Nehalem Revolution: Intel's Core i7 Processor Complete Review
• TechSpot - Intel Core i7 920, 940 and 965 Extreme Edition review
• Guru 3d - Intel Core i7 920 and 965 review | Core i7 SupaDupa Multi-GPU Game performance review
• OverClockersBlub - Intel Core i7 Review

The Core i7 940 and 920 chips are clocked at 2.93GHz and 2.66GHz respectively, while they both boast a 256KB L2 cache along with an 8MB shared L3 cache. The on-die memory controller for these two chips supports triple-channel DDR3-800/1066 memory, while the QuickPath Interconnect supports a throughput of 4.8 GT/s.

The much more expensive Core i7 965 Extreme Edition processor features the same amount of L2/L3 cache, along with the same memory support. The key difference is in its clock frequency of 3.20GHz, while the QuickPath Interconnect throughput has been boosted to 6.4 GT/s.

Legion hardware's final thoughts probably sum it up best;

Wow … this is really all I could say when testing the new Core i7 processors, what an amazing piece of hardware. Despite having known the exact specifications for quite some time now, and already having had high hopes for the Core i7 series, it is fair to say they exceeded all of our expectations. After all, when you consider just how impressive the existing Core 2 processors are, who really thought that a little more than 2 years later we would see their demise to a greatly superior processor.

Intel Announces New Price Cuts

As previously reported here on Geek-News.Net Intel has announced the latest round of prices drops, slashing the price of seven processors by up to 31%.

The largest of the cuts was on the 3.16-GHz Core 2 Duo E8500 which was reduced 31% in price from $266 to $183 as of July 20. The price of the Core 2 Duo 2.53-GHz E2700 chip was cut by 15% to $113, and the 3-GHz E8400 by 11% to $163. In addition, the price tag for the company's Core 2 Q6600 2.4-GHz quad processor was reduced from $224 to $193, a 14% drop.

There was also three different price cuts in the Xeon server processor family, with prices of both the X3220 and the X3210 reduced by 12%. The price of the E3110 dropped by 11%.


Source: Intel CPU Price List

Phoenix Processor Sets New Lower Power Processing Record

Engineers at the University of Michigan have developed a new microchip that uses 30 picowatts in sleep mode, which roughly computes to 30,000 times less power in sleep mode and ten times less power when working than other comparable chips on the market.

The processor, called The Phoenix Processor could theoretically run on a standard watch battery for up to 200 years.

The processor isn’t physically any smaller than other chips on the market, what makes the Phoenix revolutionary is that its thin-film battery is the same size as the Phoenix chip. Typically batteries used with processors are much larger than the processor itself making the overall size of the device much larger. Engineers also used a little old school ingenuity, using much smaller power gates that let smaller amounts of electricity leak past the power gates when in sleep mode.

The draw back to smaller power gates is that they place sever limits on the processing power of the chip. To remedy this performance loss the researchers run the Phoenix at a higher operating voltage of about 20% greater than needed when the chip is awake. Despite the higher power sent to the chip when awake it still consumes only 0.5 volts. By comparison the Intel Atom processor needs 1.1V to operate.

U-M researchers built the chip with the major application coming for use in sensors. Thus the push for lower power consumption during sleep mode. "Sleep mode power dominates in sensors, so we designed this device from the ground up with an efficient sleep mode as the No. 1 goal. That's not been done before," said Dennis Sylvester, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

The system defaults to sleep. A low-power timer acts as an alarm clock on perpetual snooze, waking Phoenix every ten minutes for 1/10th of a second to run a set of 2,000 instructions. The list includes checking the sensor for new data, processing it, compressing it into a sort of short-hand, and storing it before going back to sleep.

The timer "isn't an atomic clock," Hanson said. "We keep time to 10 minutes plus or minus a few tenths of a second. For the applications this is designed for, that's okay. You don't need absolute accuracy in a sensor. We've traded that for enormous power savings."

A team of researchers has already been putting the Phoenix into biomedical sensors. They plan on building a sensor to monitor eye pressure in glaucoma patients. Engineers envision that chips like this could also be sprinkled around to make a nearly invisible sensor network to monitor air or water or detect movement. They could be mixed into concrete to sense the structural integrity of new buildings and bridges. And they could power a robust pacemaker that could take more detailed readings of a patient's health, researchers say.

$29 Intel Atom 230 CPUs

DigiTimes has reported that Intel is planning on pricing its entry-level desktop Atom 230 processor down to a price around $29 in thousand-unit tray quantities.

In an attempt to prevent AMD from grabbing a strong hold in the low-cost desktop Laptop and PC market share Intel intends to ship out its new line of low-end desktop and laptop CPUs at incredibly low prices.

The Atom 230 is based on the 45nm Silverthorne platform, featuring a single-core 1.6GHz CPU with 512KB L2 cache and a 533fsb. Similarly Intel plans to price the Atom N270, a Diamondville based laptop CPU, at $44. The 45nm processor will come in various speeds up to 1.8 GHz with a 533fsb and 512KB L2 cache.

Asus has already confirmed that they will adopt the Atom 230 chip in its forthcoming Eee PC-branded E-DT desktop. The E-DT is scheduled to launch at $199 in the May-June time frame. Asus intends to put Atom processors in forthcoming 8.9" Eee PC notebooks due in May, as well.

CPU's for 2008 and Beyond

CNet.com and PCMag.com feature two great articles "CPU Road Map: 2007 and beyond" and "CPU Road Map 2008: Maxing Out Moore's Law" mapping the future that Intel and AMD have in store for us.

AMD's Phenoms have hit the market with less than a bang. However it appears as though AMD might have a few CPU's on the horizon to keep an eye on. AMD is expected to move from the 65-nm process to the 45-nm as well, with the Leo platform in dual- and quad-core flavors. We will see Eight-core CPU's coming from AMD sometime in2009, still in 45 nm, with the Python platform. Python is also expected to be on the market when AMD moves from DDR2 to DDR3 memory.

Intel and their new "Core 3" Nehalem processors, which are scheduled for release in late 2008, should be the next big thing on the market. Nehalem will have integrated memory controllers, thus eliminating the FSB entirely (something AMD has done for years). This means that the CPU will talk to the system memory natively at DDR3 speeds. Nehalem will be offered in one- to eight-core versions for the desktop and likely for laptops.

As little as a few years ago the biggest question on the market was which single core cpu was best, which manufacturer could reach the highest Ghz rating and where will they amaze us next. Now the question on everyones mind is dual core or quad core. In a couple years it will be quad core or octo-core!

For me this raises the question of how much computing power does the average user really need? I've always head fast to the idea that "most" users don't need dual core machines. And can in fact get by with single core PCs. However now the view is that most users can benefit from a mid-range dual core setup but don't need quad core. In a couple years we'll have to change that view.

If you are curious how your CPU stacks up against the latest greatest offering from Intel and AMD checkout Tom's Hardware Cpu Charts and the PassMark CPU Benchmark Charts.

AMD lowers desktop-chip prices

Monday April 9th AMD announced further price reductions on some of its best desktop processors, a sign there is still no end in sight to its price war with rival Intel Corp. With Intel slated to lower prices at the end of April this ss great news for users. We have been treated to improved microprocessor technology and better deals over the past year as the two giants slug it out.

AMD slashed prices on its top-of-the-line desktop PC microprocessors to US$799 per pair for the 3GHz version and US$599 for a pair for the 2.8GHz version, from US$999 and US$799, respectively, in its previous price list issued on Jan. 22. The company also reduced the price of some of its best dual-core processors, the Athlon 64 X2 5600+, which runs at 2.8GHz, to $241 each, from $505, and the Athlon 64 X2 5200+, to $188 from $295.

In addition, AMD lowered three of its dual-core offerings for the desktop to below $100 each. The new price list shows AMD isn't about to back down in this price war despite the obvious impact on its finances.

With Intel slated to make a 20-40% cut in prices of the popular core 2 duo core 2 extreme and core 2 quad processors as well as the recent fall in Memory prices May looks to be a great month for upgrading your current rig to something top notch.