Fujitsu: also a 500 GB in 2'' 1/2 Penryn: 6 cores, 16 MB of L3 cache, end of 2008 Report : 1, 2 or 3 graphic cards? The complete Geforce 9 line or almost Intel 45nm, availability issues

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Fujitsu: also a 500 GB in 2'' 1/2   Posted on 25/02/2008 at 22:09 by Nicolas - source: Fujitsu

	After Hitachi and Samsung, it’s now Fujitsu’s turn to announce a 500 GB hard drive in 2" ½ format. Available starting in May, the MHZ2 BT 500GB will theoretically not be too interesting because its rotation speed is only 4200Rpm versus 5400 Rpm for its competitors. Also, its height is 12.5mm while that offered by Samsung is the standard 9.5mm. Other characteristics are rather close to Hitachi’s drive: SATA-II (3.0 Gbits /s) type interface, 8MB of cache, 3 platters, and a reading access time of 12ms and 14ms in writing. All of this for an average power consumption of 1.8 Watt in these operations and a sound level of 21 dBA in stand-by.

Penryn: 6 cores, 16 MB of L3 cache, end of 2008   Posted on 25/02/2008 at 18:34 by Nicolas - source: DailyTech

	While the Nehalem is still planned for the end of the year, Intel should also launch the Dunnington in the second half of 2008. These are CPUs derived from the Penryn architecture and equipped with 6 cores. Destined for the Xeon line, they have 16 MB of L3 cache in addition to three L2 caches each of 3 MB, reminding us of the Barcelona’s design. Other specifications are quite close to other Penryn Xeons; however, note that the FSB is limited to 1066 MHz and the TDP is equal or less than 130W. This processor may appear attractive because it should normally be compatible with currently available motherboards while at the same time offering first rate performances. As for the Nehalem, they will require new motherboards because they use the QuickPatch Interconnect bus.

Report : 1, 2 or 3 graphic cards?   Posted on 25/02/2008 at 15:54 by Damien

	After SLI and the very controversial Quad SLI, Nvidia has decided to reinforce its offer of multi-GPU systems with triple SLI. This gives us the occasion to take full inventory on the performances of SLI and CrossFire configurations. > Report: 1, 2 or 3 graphic cards?

The complete Geforce 9 line or almost   Posted on 25/02/2008 at 14:02 by Nicolas

	Digitimes has unveiled some new information on the different cards and GPUs Nvidia will commercialize under the GeForce 9 name. In the high end, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should be launched in the first half of March followed by the GeForce 9800 GTX and GT which will come at the end of March or beginning of April. In May, the GeForce 9600 GS will make an appearance. This card will help support the GeForce 9600 GT in the mid-range but logically it should have a lower performance and price. The GeForce 9500 GT (G96) is expected out in June followed by the 9500 GS in July. The latter should most likely offer performances close to the 8600’s. Note that in the $30-$90 segment, the Californian manufacturer’s market share has fallen below 3%. In the short term, the GeForce 8300, 8400 and 8500 therefore will not have any true successors except for motherboard GPUs, or in other words, IGPs.

Intel 45nm, availability issues   Posted on 25/02/2008 at 00:47 by Marc

	The launch of the latest Intel 45 nm processors is proving to be more difficult than planned. In the beginning, everything appeared to go well as last May the Santa Clara giant unveiled the first Yorkfield benchmarks. At the end of October, the first commercialized version, the QX9650, was launched. In early December, the first grain of sand in the machine came with the discovery of a bug which only affected 45 nm quad-core versions of the new CPUs. The result was that although officially launched in the beginning of January like dual core versions the rest of the quad core line would not arrive in stores before the beginning of March. However, since then even dual core versions (E8200, E8400, E8500), which were not supposed to be affected, are hard to find more than a month after their launch. So has Intel had problems with increases in power in its new 45nm production lines? Was demand on the more profitable server and laptop sectors initially underestimated and consequently CPU desktop production has been negatively affected? It’s hard to know the real reason but either way it’s a very unfortunate situation. Also, according to the latest rumors, it’s still a question of rather tight supplies of 45nm dual cores until the end of the first quarter. As for quad cores, the situation isn’t very optimistic either as there should be difficulties until the end of the second quarter. In the meantime, the more impatient amongst us can of course look to 65 nm Core 2s which, although they consume more and have slightly lower performances, are all very good CPUs.