Apple has recently released its new line of servers making use of Intel’s Xeon family of processors. The Apple Xserve Quad Core and 8 Core servers feature the Intel Xeon Nehalem processor and is touted to have sizable improvements in performance and power efficiency capabilities. Its features speak for itself.

The new Apple Xserve servers, using the next generation Intel processors and with a new system architecture, are said to offer twice the performance of previous Xserve servers. Along with that, the new Xserve models are more energy efficient than its predecessors, using 19 percent less energy when idle than previous Xserve models. Read the rest of this entry »

AMD on Thursday morning further expanded its “Dragon” desktop platform with the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card, featuring 1.36 TeraFLOPs of computing power, faster GDDR5 memory, and engine clock speeds capable of nearly 1GHz. The GPU card offers support for DirectX 10.1 titles, including Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X., Electronic Art’s BattleForge and SEGA’s Stormrise released last month, as well as GSC Gameworld’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky. According to the company, the new graphics card is not only designed to provide exceptional value to OEMs and channel partners but also to do-it-yourself (DIY) consumers. According to the company, the new desktop graphics card can handle “the most intense games at high resolutions and image quality settings” and can be tuned for further performance enhancements as well as combined with as many as three other ATI Radeon HD 4890 cards in a single PC utilizing ATI CrossFireX technology.

The card also features ATI Stream technology, which in combination with a number of ATI Stream-enabled applications, can accelerate the conversion of standard and HD video into multiple formats for use on differing consumer electronics devices. Software companies such as CyberLink has optimized its video editing software PowerDirector 7 to make use of ATI Stream technology to provide GPU accelerated video conversion. Read the rest of this entry »

NVIDIA on Monday launched what it considers a sweeping change to its pro graphics with significant re-launches and updates to much of its Quadro line. The FX 3800, 4800 and 5800 now all support a new technique known as multi-OS SLI: in systems with multiple supporting cards, a card can be dedicated to an individual virtual OS in Parallels Workstation Extreme and give it nearly the same performance as if the graphics were native. It can also be used for CUDA or other general-purpose tasks that would normally be off-limits to a virtual machine. The cards start with the flagship FX 5800, which continues to have 240 visual effects cores and 4GB of memory; the FX 4800 occupies the upper mid-range with 192 cores and 1.5GB of memory, while the FX 3800 uses the same amount of cores but 1GB of memory and reduced bandwidth in return for using up the space of one regular video card. At the mid-range and lower end, the FX 1800, 580 and 380 scale through 64, 32 and 16 cores while scaling memory from 768MB through to 512MB and 256MB respectively. Read the rest of this entry »

Intel this afternoon finally made its Nehalem-based Xeon processors available to a wider audience. First introduced in the Mac Pro, the single-socket Xeon 3500 (not used by Apple) and the dual-socket Xeon 5500 share the same roots as Core i7 and drop the old northbridge system controller and system bus in favor of a point-to-point architecture known as the QuickPath Interface that talks directly to memory and peripherals. The memory controller is now built-in and can talk to three memory channels, improving bandwidth even as it drops lag. They also add support for HyperThreading, which potentially runs as many as eight program instructions at once on a quad-core processor. For apps that don’t depend on heavily parallel code, a Turbo Boost feature that dynamically shuts down unused cores but ramps up clock speeds on the remaining cores. Both moves let ordinarily lower-clocked Xeons at times outperform the earlier 5400 and 3300 models. Read the rest of this entry »

A new roadmap of upcoming Intel chip upgrades has Intel ramping up clock speeds for its range-topping Core i7 chip as well as adding newer speed grades for its Core 2 line, including the Core 2 Quad S. On May 31st, the chip designer is understood to be introducing a 3.33GHz Core i7 quad-core part, tbe i7-975, that will effectively replace the 3.2GHz model. A 3.06GHz version (i7-950) will also supplant the 2.93GHz model at the same time. The two should be priced at $999 and $562 respectively in large batches. Read the rest of this entry »

Intel is looking for a new place to put it’s Atom in. Besides all the netbooks which carry it, Intel suggests a media phone which should use the Atom and replace current home phones. Essentially the concept phone would basically be a more powerful MID capable of doing more stuff than your regular home phone. The phone will most likely look like a touchscreen nettop running on Mobiln and making calls for you. When will we see a prototype?

Here’s what Intel’s Atom phone should feature:

Dimensions • 5.4 inch x 9.6 inch (137.3 mm x 243.7 mm)

Processor • Intel Atom processor Z5XX 533 MHz FSB

Chipset • Intel System Controller Hub (SCH) US15W

Supported operating systems • Moblin

Memory • 1 GB DDR2 533 MHz SODIMM

Storage • 8 GB Compact Flash• 1 SATA optional

Display/Video/Graphics • 8.9-inch resistant-touch LCD (16:9 aspect ratio LVDS)

Audio • HD audio, up to 4 audio streams

I/O connectivity • 2 SDIO/MMC serial interfaces • RS232 • 1 PCI Express port • 6 USB (5 external, 1 internal) • 2X RJ45 (LAN and PC) • 1 HDMI • 1 RJ22 • 3.0 mm audio jacks – mic input headset output • 2.0 mm phone headset jack • Internal speakers and mic

Modular options • Wi-Fi/Bluetooth • USB port (DECT FXO) • (Camera optional) • 1 mini PCIe slot