Misc: A great New Year 2009 To All

Well, I guess I'd like to say and greet everyone a Happy New Year. If anyone else is wondering, yes I am still very much into IT and CPU and Chipset and the likes. As a matter of fact, if you look at the CPU-Z in the right image, you'll see my Nehalem CPU-Z submitted way before it was launched last year! But umm, I know I never posted it here because my Blog has ceased right?

Anyway, again I'd like to greet you all a great New Year. If anyone is thinking whether I'd moved away from this field, nope and I see myself staying in this field for quite a few more months, if not years, to come.

The technology is really exciting, and I'm actually interested to see how CUDA will grow and show its fangs against IA x86 architecture. It'll be an interesting battle to see in the near future.

So, till next and I wish you all again a great New Year!

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Tech Link (Industry): Hell Freezes Over: NVIDIA Announces Native SLI Support for the Intel X58 Chipset

I know, my Blog has long gone to "rest", but this news made me post again, talk about being a Fanboy *yikes*. Anyway on with the news, if there's anything Intel has been missing on for quite some time in the Chipset-GPU support arena, it is the lack of native support of SLI on Intel-branded-chipset. Since the first release of PCIe way back the i915 series (Grantsdale), it has always been clamored and requested by Intel users: fanboys or normal users alike.

There has been earlier attempts on i915P thru some "rare" products such as the Albatron Mars PX915SLI, but for some weird reason, after some time, SLI support has gone "poof". Also for those hardcore Intel fanboys, they will recall that first ever SLI was indeed supported on Intel E7525 (Tumwater???) platform even before the word SLI became a household name among the techies. Later on, a few "hacked" drivers were released to support the later series of chipsets but soon, these hacked drivers became unpopular specially when "FM Approved" drivers became the norm, diminishing the results obtained from hacked drivers.

But alas, all is not lost, Skulltrail platform has been introduced. However, like the earlier SLI support, the D5400XS is based on a pricey server chipset with dual CPU slot and so adoption isn't as "common".

Hmm, I guess it's a bit of a mouthful introduction. Anyway, there are a few articles now floating on the web and I happen to grab this one from AMDTech (oops, Anandtech I mean):

Of course NVIDIA would wait until I physically left NVISION 08 to actually make an interesting announcement, but there’s no bitterness, I swear :)

The big, no, huge news from today? NVIDIA is enabling native support for 2 and 3-way SLI on Intel X58 based motherboards...without the use of any nForce 200 chips

Source:AMDTech

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-Fin-

As much as I would like to add and put more wordings into my farewell, all I really wanted to say is "Thank You" for visiting the site and for making this part of your daily stop.

I decided to close my Blog, as I see no point. Intel has clearly won, and there's no stopping. The barage of new products to come is just too great, I doubt competition has anything in reserve, at least for now, to combat Intel in the performance arena. I thought A* will come back last October'07, but it was a major dissapointment not to see anything good came out from them after major delays, promises, and more delays.

Who knows, maybe I'll be back if I competition heats up again, but for now, it's boring, rather lonely, to be at the top of the heap.

I will still be a CPU enthusiasts, as always, a techie guy. I'll be up to date, on what's the latest and greatest. And so for now, I bid you all farewell, and thanks again for visiting the site.

Fin...

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Brag: 8Core Penryn, Yorkfield FTW

Yep, I just got back to posting my regular bragging blog. But hey, it's not like I'm not absent for like a month so sorry for that. Anyway, this CPU-Z has been taken quite a long time and I haven't posted it so just to celebrate my "comeback", I posted it for all to see.

If anyone is wondering, this is the server version of the processor I posted just below this post (yes, tha's like more than a month old). Check it out and join me with my drooling.

And yes, I'm back again in posting, but I can't be sure if I can post as regularly as possible. Things have gotten more interesting in my life and well, it takes a lot of my time. But that's good!! Till next bragging...

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Brag: My Penryn and X38 Chipset

Heya all, I'm still alive and very much in business. A lot of people I talk to in real life has been asking if I'm still on hardware thing, and I said, "most definitely". In fact, that is the sole reason why I can't update my Blog as much as I want to.

Anyway, if one has any doubts, just check out this new toy. I am not sure if many review sites have gotten their hand s on these babies already, I never really have time to check the hardware sites. Check out the image, it goes to the official CPUZ Validation site. Sorry, no benchmark...

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Press Release: Intel Takes Popular Laptops to 'Extreme' with First-Ever Extreme Edition Mobile Processor; Adds New Desktop Chip

It is now official folks, a new king for laptop has just been launched. Prepare for a slew of mobile gamers on the road, coffee shop, parks, or just about anywhere. This processor will redefine how people used to view laptop as mere corporate office type equipment. Not that there were no gaming laptops before, but the fact that this processor can be overclocked, now that's just a kicker! Read the full press release...

High-Performing Notebook and Desktop Processors Arrive Near First Anniversary of Award-Winning Intel® Core™ Microarchitecture
SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 16, 2007 – Addressing demand for even faster laptop computers for hardcore gamers, artists and media enthusiasts, Intel Corporation today introduced its first Intel® Core™2 Extreme mobile dual-core processor -- the world's highest-performing mobile processor1 -- adopting the brand from the company's flagship desktop offerings. The company also introduced new desktop processors and said it expects to announce battery-friendly quad-core processors for laptop computers next year.

The new products come on the heels of the company's 1-year anniversary of introducing server, desktop and laptop processors based on the innovative Intel® Core™ microarchitecture.

"Laptops are the fastest-growing computing market segment, and there is increasing demand from those who crave the ultimate in video, gaming and design computing performance yet want the freedom and flexibility that a laptop brings," said Mooly Eden, Intel vice president and general manager, Mobile Platforms Group. "Due to our innovative technology and design capabilities, we can offer world-class, power-smart performance for the most demanding mobile users, and are proud to offer it under our Intel Core 2 Extreme brand -- a name that has become synonymous with ultimate performance."

The Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 mobile dual-core processor, with both cores running at a brisk 2.6 GHz, also features mobile-specific power-saving features that help Intel's computer-maker customers deliver more energy-efficient and higher-performing designs. For example, the Intel Core 2 Extreme mobile processor X7800 offers up to 28 percent more performance2 than our previous-generation mobile processor. In addition, for experienced enthusiasts who desire more capability, the Intel Core 2 Extreme mobile processor bus ratio locks (overspeed protection) have been removed3. This offers added technical flexibility in customizing the system so OEMs can unleash even more performance.

Flagship Desktop Processor Introduced
For desktop PCs, Intel is announcing a robust set of new processors, including the flagship Intel® Core™2 Extreme QX6850 quad-core processor. Clocked at 3.0 GHz with a new, faster 1333 MHz system bus speed, the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 will be welcomed by game developers looking to deliver new features and performance levels. Intel also announced new Intel® Core™2 Duo and Core™2 Quad processors.

"Thanks to the Intel Core 2 Extreme quad core processor, the PC version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter* 2 raises gaming to new heights," said Bo Anderson, CEO, GRIN Development Studio*. "Developed by GRIN and published by Ubisoft*, the game draws upon the power of Intel's next-generation multi-threaded engine to provide amazingly realistic gameplay. Intel's quad-core processor uses one core for physics, one for rendering, one for game logic and one for miscellaneous tasks, which can provide consistently higher and more stable frame rates."

Intel Core Microarchitecture – One Year Later
A year ago this month the company began introducing these innovative and energy-efficient products, and in that year Intel Core microarchitecture and its processors have achieved a number of milestones, including:

Delivering the world's first x86 software-compatible quad-core processor line for servers and PCs, as well as storage and embedded systems. To date, Intel has introduced 14 quad-core processor versions.
Receiving more than 75 independent awards and other accolades from online publications and magazine editors around the world. The full list can be reviewed at www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/core2duo/awards.htm.
Securing nearly half (224) of the 500 top-ranked high-performance computers as measured by the recently announced Top 500 Supercomputers List (www.top500.org).
Doubling the performance of laptops with Intel Core 2 Duo processors while maintaining impressive battery life4.
Paving the way for the biggest change to transistor design in 40 years that will combine the company's 45-nanometer manufacturing process and the next-generation Intel® Core™2 and Intel® Xeon® processors.

New Processor Pricing and Availability
The Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 mobile processor, running at 2.6 GHz with 4 MB of L2 cache, is available to OEMs now at a cost of $851. Notebook systems will appear on the market within the next two weeks. The new Intel desktop processors are also shipping to OEMs now, with product available to end users within the next two weeks. Pricing and specifications for the new desktop processors are as follows:

Processor Number of Cores Frequency Front Side Bus (FSB) L2 Cache Price in 1,000-Unit Quantities
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 4 3.0 GHz 1333 MHz 8 MB $999
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 4 2.66 GHz 1066 MHz 8 MB $530
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 2 3.0 GHz 1333 MHz 4 MB $266
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2 2.66 GHz 1333 MHz 4 MB $183
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2 2.33 GHz 1333 MHz 4 MB $163

For more information and high-resolution images, visit the Intel Core™2 Extreme mobile processor press kit at www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/mobile/core2extreme

Source:Intel Takes Popular Laptops to 'Extreme' with First-Ever Extreme Edition Mobile Processor; Adds New Desktop Chip

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Tech Link (Roadmap): Intel Pulls Yorkfield Extreme Edition Into 2007

Looks like better days are coming for the true and faithful FanBoys. The newer products are going to launch earlier than originally sceheduled. It bodes well for those planning an upgrade, or just want to get their hands wet with the latest and greatest. Ready your wallet boys and girls (image from VR-Zone).

Intel has brought forward the launch of Yorkfield Extreme Edition from Q1 2008 to Q4 2007 bringing pressure to AMD Phenom FX slated for launch later this year. Intel has not determined the final clock speed of Yorkfield Extreme Edition but it will be at least 3.33GHz/1333FSB with 2 x 6MB shared L2 cache. Yorkfield and Wolfdale schedule remains unchanged at Q1 2008 and there are 2 SKUs for Yorkfield and 4 SKUs for Wolfdale.

Source:Intel Pulls Yorkfield Extreme Edition Into 2007

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Tech Link (Processor): New Crysis Video: Game kicks a$$ on Intel's Penryn Quad Core

Yeehaw, watch and see how smooth the game play is with the new Penryn-based quad core system. It's like you're watching a movie rather than playing a game, no stall, hiccups, or stutter whatsoever. This platform rocks. The specs is as follows:

System configuration:

Intel Penryn 45nm "Yorkfield"
quad core CPU @ 3.2GHz
Intel 975BX2 Motherboard
NVIDIA 8800GTX
2GB RAM, 250GB HDD
Windows XP



Source:New Crysis Video: Game kicks a$$ on Intel's Penryn Quad Core

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Tech Link (Processor): First Penryn (wolfdale) Numbers

metro.cl of xs managed to find a link containing numbers to early Penryn benchmarks. If you are wondering how the chip performs, then check it out. From those images in that forum link, I say it's looking good.

Ok got this link by MSN,

Here you can see a lot of screenshots, the ones without a CPU-Z by the side, specially Super Pi 1M, take it with a huge grain of salt.

Source:First Penryn (wolfdale) Numbers

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Misc: I just got back!

Wow, I feel like I left everything in the world for granted. But really, the past two weeks has been busy with me. Not anything related to my career or in technology, but more focused on my family. Anyway, now that the challenged has passed, I can now go back to my regular posting. So expect some news posting...

Source:

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Tech Link (Industry): Too Terrible To Contemplate? . . .

I decided to give overclockers.com to see what the usual doomsday predictor (for both A* and I*) have posted on their site. While I am amused with their article, I never really used them as a "factual" source, but hey, I am not saying they are claiming, it's just my "feelings".

Anyway, I read one of author's musings and somehow, this reflects how I feel with A*. There's not much news, and early benchmarks are just for early samples, not too many hard evidence to say how A* will respond. Expand to read more...

There's been a lot of bad news about AMD this year, but a lot of people don't want to hear it.

I'm not talking about fanboys, but those who essentially say, "My God, AMD's got to pull through, because if they don't, that would be bad for me!" (OK, they usually say "us" but it boils down to the same thing.)

Source:Too Terrible To Contemplate? . . .

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Tech Link: Intel talks future chips, power, efficiency and mobility

nordichardware has a scoop on Intel's future chips and other things on the roadmap. The article is not that comprehensive, but it's an interesting one as it gives bits and info on future products from chipzilla. Expand to read the article...

Last week Intel held a press event at its main quarter office in Santa Clara, California. Intel displayed its 1 Teraflops chip whose 80 core design has been discussed in earlier reports. Except from the mighty multithreading monster code-named "tera-scale silicon prototype", there was also a lot of talk about power consumption and efficiency. That the performance increase with every generation is a given, but how the power consumption and power efficiency evolves is not as predictable. Intel is continuously working on new technology to improve the efficiency of the circuits, thus lowering the power consumption and it revealed some of its newest progress at the event.

"A prototype of the technology was demonstrated in a PCI Express card with a chip that consumed one-tenth the power of a card with today's chip technology, or 2.7 milliwatts versus 20 to 30 milliwatts. Reducing power consumption is critical, given that using today's technology to power a PCI Express card with a bandwidth of a terabit per second would require 100 watts of energy, Casper said."

The basic idea is that Intel wants every chip to use precisely the amount of power necessary to perform a given task. Intel has been looking at wireless circuits and been able to reduce the power consumption by up to 50% to 70% by shutting off the Wi-Fi circuits when it's not needed.

Over at InformationWeek there is a longer report on Intel's press event where they also bring up the UMPC concept and other ventures.

Source:Intel talks future chips, power, efficiency and mobility

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Tech Link (Processor): Core 2 Duo E6750 Review

HardwareSecrets tested this amazing processor and well, they aren't too impressed about it. I guess they missed the fact that it does run on higher FSB on the same/similar TDP and clockspeed meaning these processors can now take a beating on memory intensive applications (and yeah, overclocking too). On the same/similar clock speed, there will be hardly any difference from applications that don't rely on fast memory access. Anyway, check it out...

Conclusions
On all our tests Core 2 Duo E6750 performance was identical to Core 2 Duo E6700, even though it uses a faster front side bus – and we simulated the use of several different types of application.

So what is the advantage of using a Core 2 Duo E6750 instead of a Core 2 Duo E6700? Based on the results from our tests, none.

Then why Intel is launching this new 1,333 MHz external bus? We have two answers for that.

First, on quad-core CPUs the higher external clock rate may increase the system performance. This happens because currently on Intel quad-core CPUs the cores are arranged into two pairs. The cores inside each pair can talk directly to each other, but if they need to talk to a core that belongs to the other pair they need to go to the front side bus and make this connection going thru outside the processor. Increasing the CPU external clock rate increases, at least in theory, the speed each core pair can talk to each other. For a detailed explanation about this subject please read our Intel Quad Core Overview and Roadmap article.

We will have to wait until we review a quad-core CPU based on this new FSB to see if this is really the case.

The second reason we can see is regarding DDR3-1333 memories, which will be supported by the Intel X38 chipset to be launched in July. Using DDR3-1333 memories with a Core 2 running externally at 1,333 MHz you will be able to match the FSB clock with the memory clock, allowing you to achieve the maximum performance with current technology.

In retrospect we must keep in mind that this is the first time in six years that Intel is launching a new front side bus speed with memories matching it. When the Pentium 4 was launched, for example, it used the then-new 400 MHz FSB and there were no 400 MHz memories at the time – this was PC-100 times and DDR-400 wasn’t available yet. The same thing happened when they launched the 533 MHz, the 800 MHz and even the 1,066 MHz external clock speeds. Even to this date Intel chipsets do not officially support DDR2-1066 (even though Intel P965 and P35 can access memories at 1,066 MHz just fine and P35 officially support DDR3-1066). DDR3-1333 availability may be an issue, but that is a totally different story.

Source:Core 2 Duo E6750 Review

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Tech Link (Processor): New Member In Core 2 Duo Processor Family: Introducing CPUs with 1333MHz Bus

xbitlabs has a pretty good info on the new breed of processors from Intel. They have put it thru the test and come out good even with a sound beating and torture from the crew. Check it out...

Conclusion
Well, let’s sum up a few things now. Intel’s decision to equip their Core 2 Duo processors with faster 1333MHz bus support is regarded as another move towards higher performance of this processor family. It is partially true. As we have seen today, higher bus speed will obviously boost the performance in most applications. However, unfortunately, this boost will not be as significant as we hoped: it hardly ever gets beyond 3%. But, the changes in the bus frequency are not the only thing that determined the advantage of the new CPUs over their predecessors: different clock frequencies are another reason. For example, the nominal frequency of the top Core 2 Duo E6850 model has now risen to 3.0GHz, while before today the maximum frequency of the existing Core 2 Duo processors used to be only 2.93GHz. This also affects the performance, and together with the faster bus it brings in more confident victory of the top Core 2 Duo CPUs. In other words, the launch of the Core 2 Duo CPUs with 1333MHz bus will become another part of the progress CPUs on Core micro-architecture are making. Although we all wish that they were moving at a little bit faster pace towards the promising Penryn family.

Higher bus frequency is not the only nice thing about the new processors. They are based on the new G0 stepping of the Conroe core that boasts better frequency potential. As a result, the FSB Wall has been pushed farther back and the overclocking results have improved significantly. For example, our overclocking experiments revealed that the new processors can work at 3.6-3.8GHz with traditional air-cooling onboard. Therefore, Core 2 Duo E6850, 6750 and 6550 should become very popular among overclockers, especially since Intel is going to price them very affordably. According to the preliminary data, Core 2 Duo E6850 will sell for $266, Core 2 Duo E6750 - for $183, and Core 2 Duo E6550 – for $163. This attractive price tag will certainly help Intel stimulate the transition to systems with 1333MHz bus.

Source:New Member In Core 2 Duo Processor Family: Introducing CPUs with 1333MHz Bus

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Tech Link (Motherboard): Asus P5W DH Deluxe/WiFi In-Depth Overclocking Review

madshrimps has posted a review of a "relatively" old board. After reading it, I felt that it wasn't about the baord itself but more on the overclocking side of things. I kinda agree with the author about the Dewar + LN2 thing, as this seems to be the most common way to proclaim leetness nowadays. Am I against it? Definitely not, but I am not as excited as before, when I really have to dig out all the crazy mods and stuff like that. Anyway, check it out and sorry for the rant..

Conclusive Thoughts:

The P5W DH Deluxe will most likely be retired with honors as an Asus classic. Unfortunately we cannot do much about the boot-strap issue except to try and work with it. With the price of DDR2 4GB kits such as GSkill 2x2GB DDR2-667 for $199 Newegg (CL4-4-4-12 @ 1.8 ~ 19V) this would make for a powerful Gaming system in Crossfire mode, or a great little Server with WiFi and the EZ-RAID back-up. Although reading through the Xtremesystems thread indicates some P5W DH owners have misdirected their dissatisfaction towards Asus, sadly they seem unaware Asus cannot re-design the 975X. Lest we forget this chipset was originally released in 2005 and if any company would find a work-around Asus would given the 865PE pseudo-PAT debacle. When I began this article I wasn't sure where it would lead me and I thought 400FSB was my limit on this board. To see 445FSB performance and then 460FSB + potential I can only hope those frustrated P5W DH owners will go back to the BIOS and try again.

As I stated earlier 8300MB/s is the highest I can recall overclocking any Intel system lately and while it’s not up there with the “Big Boys”, so what. Anyone can buy the most expensive hardware and then break records; I don’t recall the Art of Overclocking ever being about that. Overclocking used to be a community of DIY hobbyists whom aided one another to get more from less. What happened? I can pour LN2 over my head and proclaim to be COOL, all it costs is the price of a Dewar. Although the P5W DH is still fetching a premium price ( $199 at Newegg) the P5W DH still has much to offer and I hope this review has shown just how much. We ran our E6400 at 445FSB passing all benchmarks and this system has been running for 14-days straight at that speed Gaming, multitasking and running SETI BIONIC without incident.

Source:Asus P5W DH Deluxe/WiFi In-Depth Overclocking Review

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