Intel’s new releases 6 cores: Intel in March, AMD in May? Samsung dominating the DRAM market 30nm DDR3 from Samsung 25 nm MLC Flash NAND from Intel and Micron

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Intel’s new releases   Posted on 01/02/2010 at 17:09 by Benoit - source: Ocworkbench

	Earlier we mentioned the Core i7 980X, aka Gulftown. Planned for March, news is that it will be out on the 16th. A certain number of other processors are also reported to be coming out over the coming months. February should see the release of a Core i7-930, based on the Bloomfield (LGA1366). Clocked at 2.8 GHz, with a turbo mode at 3.06 Ghz. Release planned for 28th February. It will be followed by the 980X on the 16th March. This chip is reported to be clocked at 3.33 GHz with a turbo at 3.6 GHz, priced as an “extreme edition” at $999. In the course of the second quarter, four other new processors are also set to come out: - A Core i5-680 (Clarkdale, dual core), clocked at 3.6 GHz (turbo mode 3.8GHz) - A Core i7-880 (Lynnfield, quad core), clocked at 3.06 Ghz (turbo mode 3.73 GHz). - A Core i3-550 (Clarkdale, dual core without turbo mode), clocked at 3.2 GHz - A Pentium E6700 (socket 775, Penryn) clocked at 3.43 GHz. Note that Intel isn’t completely abandoning socket 775 yet, with a new Penryn reference to be released. The platform wouldn’t seem to be dead yet for Intel. It looks as if a Core i7-970 Gulftown (6 cores) at 3.20 GHz is planned for the third quarter, no doubt to react to the AMD Phenom II X6s. If this news is confirmed, the Intel calendar will be relatively full, even if, other than the i7-970, none of the processors mentioned will represent a revolution on the market.

6 cores: Intel in March, AMD in May?   Posted on 01/02/2010 at 12:37 by Benoit

	The existence of the Core i7-980X and Phenom II X6 is no secret to anyone. While we also know that these processors are supposed to be based on current architectures, few other technical details have filtered through up until now. We’ll have to wait for the release of these new processors to find out. The Intel release is planned for the end of the first quarter and AMD’s in the course of the second. This information should of course be taken with a pinch of salt but it looks as if the Core i7-980X will come out in March and the Phenom II X6 in May. AMD, then, will be in second place in terms of timing but with a more aggressive pricing policy. This won’t be too difficult given that the Gulftown will be in the “Extreme Edition” category that are traditionally sold at $999 each. The current rumours are that a more affordable version of the Gulftown, a Core i7-970, will be brought out to respond to AMD’s positioning.

Samsung dominating the DRAM market   Posted on 01/02/2010 at 12:04 by Benoit - source: DigiTimes

	Now that the new year has started, information on annual financial results is starting to filter through, giving us an overall idea of the importance of various companies in their market of choice. DigiTimes has been compiling this information to give us a breakdown of Dram manufacturers. The least we can say is that the results speak for themselves… In the last quarter of 2009, Samsung and Hynix alone claimed over 50% of the market, controlling 31.7% and 21.6% respectively. Elpida and Micron follow with 19.4 and 12.2% of the market. This means that the 4 biggest players control 85% of the Dram market, leaving just a few crumbs (big ones!) for the rest. These figures help explain the sudden variatons in this volatile market: an increase or decrease in production of just one of these four firms has an immediate and major impact on the market overall.

30nm DDR3 from Samsung   Posted on 01/02/2010 at 11:19 by Marc

	After having announced 40nm DDR3 production in July, Samsung says that it has finished conception of a 256 MB 30nm DDR3 chip. These chips run at 1.5 or 1.35V and their the reduced engraving means a 60% improvement in productivity on 40nm. Mass production has been announced for the second half of 2010.

25 nm MLC Flash NAND from Intel and Micron   Posted on 01/02/2010 at 09:16 by Marc

	Intel and Micron have just announced the first 25nm MLC Flash NAND chip. Made in the framework of the joint venture IMFT, it has a capacity of 8 GB and is currently at sample stage with mass production to begin in the course of the second quarter. IMFT is thus confirming its headstart on the competition 34nm chips. The new chip only measures 167mm², while a 4 GB 34nm chip from IMFT is 172mm². In time and if production can keep pace with demand, it could double SSD capacities for the same cost. In terms of endurance, this 25nm MLC chip is on a level with the 34nm IMFT, namely 5000 write cycles. The size of pages goes from 4 to 8 KB and blocks from 512 KB to 2 MB. This will necessitate adjustments in controllers to keep levels of performance high. The last Intel roadmap includes an SSD update with this memory in the 4th quarter, with the 80 GB version having been abandoned in favour of the 160, 300 and 600 GB versions.