Planet Lowyat

This is what I’m waiting for which delayed about a month!

Intel officially released its Centrino 2 mobile platform for notebooks July 14, which includes a number of new Core 2 Duo processors, a new chip set and wireless technology that includes support for 802.11 draft-n wireless technologies and WiMax.

The Intel Centrino 2 platform is Intel’s fifth mobile platform and the chip maker is offering two different platforms during this release. The first is Centrino 2 for consumers, and the second is Centrino 2 with vPro that is geared toward enterprise customers.

The launch of Centrino 2 was delayed by about a month after Intel reported some problems with the company’s own integrated graphics and issues related to applying to the Federal Communications Commission for use of the draft-n wireless standards.

Still, the launch is a major event for Intel and shows the importance of notebooks and mobility both with consumers and with the enterprise. Intel is also planning to counter some of the momentum Advanced Micro Devices had when it released its new mobile platform in June.

Mooley Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Platforms Group, emphasized that mobile computing is no longer just about processor performance and battery life. It’s also about style which is transforming the way laptops are being designed and the way vendors are developing slimmer and smaller laptops. This new style is finding its way from the consumer market and into the enterprise with notebooks such as the Lenovo X300.

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AMD AND INTEL are teaming up to backhand Nvidia in the physics arena. They are presenting a unified front to shut out NV for the first time.

If you remember, NV bought Ageia a while ago, and Intel owns Havok. Until today, this left ATI out in the cold; they could do their own and end up with a situation where each GPU has it’s own physics, or simply sit out the fray. They wisely chose to partner with Havok/Intel, and in doing so, marginalise Nvidia.

If the two sides play nice, and I have no doubt they will in the short and medium term, then that leaves the Nvidia/Ageia PhysX API as the red-headed stepchild of the industry. You have the Intel support mechanisms vs the Nvidia ones, Intel financial clout vs Nvidia. Take a guess which one will win that? Since ATI GPUs are in the two leading consoles, owning about 75+% of the installed base for which game devs target, that is a really strong incentive for developers to go Havok.

In the end, this is a political move, likely the first in a string, to cut off Nvidia’s air supply. It forces developers to take sides, Intel or Nvidia, and more importantly, console vs PC. The Intel/NV battle could go either way, likely decided by checkbooks more than anything, but the console/PC decision is done and dusted. NV loses badly here and there is nothing that they can do until the next console generation in 2011 or so.
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The chip maker - Intel is adding a pair of 50-watt quad-core Xeons to its 45-nanometer Penryn line.

Intel is expanding its lineup of 45-nanometer processors with a pair of quad-core Xeon chips that run at 50 watts, announced March 25.

The two new Xeons, the L5410 and the L5420, now give the company more than 35 different microprocessors within its Penryn family of 45-nm chips. Intel first introduced this line of processors in November.

In a meeting earlier this month, CEO Paul Otellini said Intel has already shipped 4 million Penryn processors and will have 72 different models for servers and PCs by year’s end.

These Xeons give Intel’s customers, especially those in the financial sector, a choice of low-watt processors for two-socket servers and workstations within the Penryn family. Previously, Intel offered a range of 45-nm processors with thermal envelopes that ran between 80 and 150 watts.

In addition to the lower-watt Xeons, Intel will roll out a 40-watt, dual-core Penryn processor in April with a clock speed of 3GHz, 6MB of L2 cache and a 1333MHz front side bus (FSB).

The Xeon L5410 has a clock speed of 2.33 GHz and the L5420 has a clock speed of 2.5GHz. Both chips offer 12MB of L2 cache and a 1333MHz FSB. The Xeon L5410 will sell for $320 per 1,000 units shipped, while the L5420 will sell for $380, according to Intel.

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