Intel introduces 32nm Westmere Processors

Intel's 32nm Westmere Processor

Chipzilla says it’s close to ramping 32nm process technology to manufacture the 32nm Westmere version of Nehalem. The company demonstrated a working 32nm Westmere processor for the first time today, smugly noting the firm was well on track with its ‘Tick-Tock’ model.

Usually when Intel shrinks their processors they don’t add any new features to the processor themselves, but this time not only did we get a die shrink but there are new microcode instructions for encryption and decryption slapped on for good measure.

With this move to 32nm Intel is continuing to shrink its transistor size by 50% every two years. Westmere-based processors will push the current Nehalem processors into the mainstream allowing even more affordable high performance processors for everyone.

Intel introduces 32nm – The Inquirer.

Intel’s Core 2 Extreme X7900 In The Wild

Intel and AMD both seem to be evolving pretty well, with faster processors coming out every few months. The latest high end laptop processor from Intel was spotted by Techware Labs, they were able to throw it in a computer and do some bookmarks on it.

This isn’t that interesting, we all know what to expect, slight improvements over the last high end model and not much else to say. I will say that I would love to see one of these in a Mac laptop, that is something I would love to get my hands on, it is just a dream but heck, I can dream can’t I?

Techware Labs

Intel’s Penryn to Reach 4GHz

Intel’s Penryn offering will be quite enticing to those in the know about technology. According to a Softpedia article, Intel said that the Penryn class may reach beyond 4GHz. Amazing.

Intel is really destroying AMD and the Penryn processors are no joke, they are 45nm parts and are very good at power management and speed. AMD’s only hope at this point is for their Quad-Core Barcelona chips to bring what AMD is promising.

We will see next month how AMD does and shortly after we should see how Intel does with their Penryn CPU’s.

AMD Starts Website Against Intel

“AMD Break Free” is a new site that AMD just opened. When you go to this site you get a splash screen that says “European Commission Reveals the Truth About Intel.” This seems to be a campaign against Intel regarding a “monopoly.”Now I don’t know enough about the hard numbers to say whether or not Intel is a monopoly or not, but I can say that they are much more dominant then AMD is.I suggest you head there and read some of the stuff so you can draw your own conclusions but I’ll throw some quotes out for you that they have posted.

“Intel extracted monopoly profits from the sale of microprocessors of approximately $60 billion in the period 1996 – 2006.” — Dr. Michael Williams, former U.S. Department of Justice economist (Aug. 2, 2007)“It may rub some people the wrong way to give a single vendor credit for anything, but without AMD there would be no price pressure on Intel, dual-core processors would still be a year away and the low-cost powerful desktops and servers from Sun, IBM and HP that are on the market today would still be on Intel’s 2007 product road map.” — eWeek “10 Thankful Things in IT for 2006” (Nov. 22, 2006)“[Intel] has spent billions of dollars on ill-fated forays in both computing and communications…Its predicament is so serious that it is cutting $1 billion in costs and may sell unprofitable parts of its business.” — The San Jose Mercury News (June 11, 2006)

AMD Break Free

2.33GHz Intel Wolfdale Gets Benchmarked

This upcoming Intel processor won’t be out for another few months but HKEPC got a hold of one and benchmarked it.

The Wolfdale chip itself features a 2.33GHz clock speed with 6MB L2 cache and a 1333MHz FSB. Specs sound pretty amazing and the performance isn’t exactly a revolution in most tests however isn’t any slouch.

Many benchmarks were run but the most dramatic increase in speed is in the Divx 6.6 Alpha w/SSE4 1080p Mpeg2 to Mpeg4 test where it saw a 115.63% increase in performance over the Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 (2.33GHz/4MB L2/1333MHz FSB). In all of the other tests the new chip was getting about a 10% increase in performance over the E6550.

The temperatures and power consumption is gosh darn amazing as well consuming 59W of power at 37C under load compared to the E6550’s 83W at 49C.

You can see all of the benchmarks of the processor over at HKEPC. The website isn’t in English but you can still read the tables.

Pentium 4 at 8.18GHz

OC Team Italy has successfully overclocked a Pentium 4 631 to 8.18GHz. OH MY! Since the multipliers are locked on this processor they had to bump the FSB all the way up to 545MHz. A 173% overclock.

This is pretty amazing, I just wonder what they used to cool it. I am always fascinated by overclockers, I was into overclocking for a little bit when I first got into computers but then I killed a processor, that ended all the overclocking for me.

NordicHardware

Intel Readies QX6850 for 3Q ’07

The new chip will have a 3GHz clock with 1333MHz front side bus. Will built on a 65nm process and will have 8MB of L2 Cache.

No doubt an extremely fast processor, Penryn will be much faster, but this is fast.

Every time I hear about new Intel advancements I have to wonder what the heck AMD is doing with Barcelona. If Barcelona doesn’t deliver it will be very tough for AMD to catch up, right now Intel seems so far ahead it is a wonder if AMD will ever be able to catch up. I think they can but it will be quite some time before you see AMD’s highest end beating Intels highest end.

DigiTimes
DailyTech

Penryn and Nehalem Coverage on the Net

TG Daily – Intel develops integrated memory controller for Nehalem processors

Slashdot – Intel next-gen CPU has integrated memory controller and GPU

AppleInsider – Intel details upcoming processor generations

bit-tech – Intel Penryn, Nehalem and the Future

engadget – More dirt on Intel’s Penryn / Nehalem architechture

theInquirer – Intel Penryn set to despoil pretty streets of AMD Barcelona

ExtremeTech – Intel Reveals More Penryn, Nehalem Details

theInquirer – Intel says Penryn will deal 45 percent speed boost

theInquirer – Intel talks specifically about Penryn

MacRumors – IntelDetails Chip Roadmap 2007-0: Penryn and Nehalem

Daily Tech – 3/28/2007 Daily Hardware Reviews — Intel “Penryn” and “Nehalem” Edition

TheRegister – Intel 45nm CPUs to clock above 3GHz

Anandtech – Intel: More Details on Penryn and Nehalem

Daily Tech – Intel Life After “Penryn”