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Santa Clara, CA — NVIDIA on Monday, Feb 04, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AGEIA Technologies, the industry leader in gaming physics technology. AGEIA’s PhysX software is widely adopted with more than 140 PhysX-based games shipping or in development on Sony Playstation3, Microsoft XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii and Gaming PCs. AGEIA physics software is pervasive with over 10,000 registered and active users of the PhysX SDK.

Like graphics, physics processing is made up of millions of parallel computations. The NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT GPU, with its 112 processors, can process parallel applications up to two orders of magnitude faster than a dual or quad-core CPU. More at NVIDIA.

Feb 04, `08 — The first chip to pack more than two billion transistors has been launched by silicon giant Intel. The quad-core chip, known as Tukwila, is designed for high-end servers rather than personal computers.

It operates at speeds of up to 2Ghz, the equivalent of a standard PC chip. A large number of the transistors on the new Intel chip are used for memory. “[It] contains lots off onboard memory and registers which are just a very efficient computer architecture to process data faster. Cache memory holds data to be processed by the chip. The closer it is to the processor, the quicker the data can be crunched.

Intel will also show off a chip designed for ultra-mobile devices, known as Silverthorne. The processor is based on the firms latest transistor technology which contains features just 45 nanometers (billionth of a meter) wide.

Both chips will be shown off at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco.

Taipei, Taiwan — Feb 04, `08 — AMD expects to launch its triple-core Phenom 8400 and 8600 at CeBIT 2008 along with its low-power quad-core Phenom 9100e, however the quad-core Phenom 9700 and 9900 CPUs, which were originally scheduled to launch at the same time, will be delayed for both launch and showcase to a later time, DigiTimes reports citing sources at motherboard makers.

DigiTimes further writes, “The delay of Phenom 9700 and 9900 is due to the TLB bug and AMD is still working to raise core frequencies. The company will launch Phenom 9550 and 9650 in the second quarter this year.

AMD will also delay the launch of its second wave triple-core Phenom 8700, 8650 and 8450 CPUs by a month, from their original schedule in early second quarter.” More at DigiTimes.

CES 2008 — Las Vegas — Jan 07, `08 — Intel unveiled 16 products today, including the company’s first 45 nanometer (nm) processors for Intel Centrino Processor Technology based laptops.

With the introduction of the new processors, Intel will offer 32 desktop, laptop and server processors based on these innovations. Intel also announced continuing momentum in ultra mobile computing and WiMAX.

Mobility: Intel Announces Santa Rosa Refresh Product Line
Santa Rosa Refresh – Intel launched “Santa Rosa Refresh,” an update to Intel Centrino processor technology that includes the next-generation 45nm high-k (Hi-k) mobile processor (codenamed “Penryn”) and improved graphics capabilities.

• 45nm Hi-k Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processor for Centrino — Taking advantage of the Hafnium-based, Hi-k metal gate reinvented transistors inside, Santa Rosa Refresh-based notebooks deliver improved platform performance and great battery life. Graphics improvement focuses on HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc support with an optional third-party decoder, as well as enhanced content and gaming capabilities.
• Santa Rosa Refresh for Desktop — Intel will also use this new mobile technology foundation with the energy-efficient performance of the 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo processor to enable a variety of smaller, cooler and quieter, stylish desktop designs.

Mobile Internet Devices:
• Intel confirms “Menlow” platform shipments in the first half of 2008: Intel is getting ready to ship its first-generation low-power platform, codenamed “Menlow,” in the first half of the year. The Menlow platform is comprised of the “Silverthorne” processor and the “Poulsbo” chipset, both being designed from the ground up for MIDs and UMPCs. At CES, Intel provided a sneak peek of some of the upcoming “Menlow”-based devices and applications that are being optimized for this platform.
• Intel unveils customers planning to launch Menlow-based platforms at CES: In a sign of growing momentum behind MIDs and UMPCs, Intel is showcasing a range of Menlow-based devices from customers who expect to ship these products later this year. In its technology showcase, Intel has Menlow-based MIDs and UMPCs from Aigo, Asus, BenQ, Clarion, Compal, Digifriends, EB, Gigabyte, Lenovo, LG-E, LiteOn, Quanta, Toshiba, USI, and Willcom.
• Skype announces support for Intel-based MIDs: Skype announced a collaboration with Intel to develop a mobile Skype experience for MIDs based on Intel low power processors and chipsets. Mobile users will be able to make Skype voice and video calls and send instant messages on the move while harnessing the PC-like performance of Intel’s MIDs. This new category of small, truly mobile consumer devices with WiMAX and Wi-Fi capabilities will enable free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls and cheap SkypeOut calls to be made on open wireless networks.

WiMAX: Mobile WiMAX Takes the Stage in 2008
Intel’s integrated Wi-Fi/WiMAX module (codenamed “Echo Peak”) will debut in certain next-generation Intel Centrino processor-based laptops (codenamed “Montevina”) beginning in the middle of the year. The company’s low-power mobile WiMAX silicon specifically designed for mobile Internet and consumer electronic devices (codenamed “Baxter Peal”) will also be available this year.

Consumer Desktop PCs: 45nm Goes Mainstream this Quarter
• “Penryn” family of processors comes to mainstream desktop PCs – Intel announced three quad-core and four dual-core 45nm-based processors for consumer desktop PCs arriving later this month and throughout the first quarter of the year. The new 45nm Intel Core 2 Quad and Intel Core 2 Duo processors have a range of speeds and feature large L2 caches and Intel HD Boost, which delivers increased performance on such multimedia applications as video editing and encoding.
• Intel Core 2 Processor with Viiv technology – Intel will also extend the performance and energy efficiency of the new 45nm processors with Intel HD Boost to the Intel Core 2 Processor with Viiv technology platform. The company will also focus future plans on delivering silicon-driven capabilities that support the areas of better connecting, protecting and managing digital content – as well as delivering the performance required to view, share and enjoy it.

• Later this quarter:
– The Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Processor (3.2 GHz/1600 MHz system bus 45nm Hi-k metal gate processor formerly codenamed “Yorkfield”) and Intel X48 Express Chipset targeted at high-end PC users and enthusiasts. The Intel X48 Express Chipset continues to push the performance envelope with native support for XMP 1600 DDR3 memory.
– “Skulltrail” is a new dual processor-based platform that will provide extreme high-end enthusiasts with a fantastic professional media creation and gaming experience. The platform will feature two quad-core Intel Core 2 Extreme processors for 8-core performance and 4 PCI Express x16 Gen 1.1 slots with planned support for up to 4 graphics cards. More at Intel (in pdf).

Dec 25, `07 — DigiTimes is reporting on AMD adjusting its triple-core CPU model numbers and launch dates, citing sources at motherboard makers.

“AMD will launch two B2 stepping triple-core CPUs, Phenom 8600 and 8400 in March of next year, while in the second quarter, the company will launch three more models, Phenom 8700, 8650 and 8450.

The Phenom 8400 and 8600 will feature core frequencies of 2.1GHz and 2.3GHz, respectively, while the Phenom 8700 will clock at 2.4GHz. Phenom 8650 and 8450 will be based on B3 stepping cores, and will have frequencies of 2.3GHz and 2.1GHz, respectively. All five CPUs will have a 95W TDP.

The high price/performance ratio of the triple-core CPUs could force Intel to cut prices of its quad-core products which could cause higher-end models to cut into sales of lower-end CPUs, noted the sources. However, AMD could also face the same problem, they added.” More at DigiTimes.

Dec 25, `07 — Nvidia will launch the mid-range part for its GeForce 9600 GPU series, codenamed D9P or G94, in February 2008, DigiTimes is reporting citing graphics cards makers.

“The G94, the first mid-range GPU to feature a 256bit memory interface, is expected to pose a strong challenge to AMD’s Radeon HD 3850 (RV670PRO) of the same class, the sources commented.

The sources revealed that while Nvidia’s latest entry-level G98 (D8M) GPU, made at the 65nm process, has started shipping since early December, the G94 will make its debut on February 14. The G94 will also be made on a 65nm process at TSMC, the sources added.

The G94, with its official price temporarily set at US$169, features 64 stream processors and supports PureVideo Gen 2, the sources said.” More at DigiTimes.

Dec 24, `07 — DigiTimes is reporting on AMD notifying its partners that the launch of higher-end quad-core Phenom processors, including the 9700 and 9900, will be postponed to the second quarter of 2008 from the original schedule of early 2008, citing sources at motherboard makers.

“However, whether AMD’s triple-core Toliman series CPUs will also see delay will be the key decision for the company, since Toliman offers a high price/performance ratio compared with Intel’s quad-core CPUs. A delay for Toliman will hurt AMD the most, noted the sources.

The sources commented that the reason for the delay of 9700 and 9900 is because AMD has not yet been able to solve the translation lookaside buffer (TLB) erratum found in the chips.” More at DigiTimes.

On December 19, 2007, AMD released a new AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition quad-core processor with Clock Multiplier Control for tunable performance. The newest Black Edition processor can improve platform performance by unlocking the potential of AMD OverDrive– the industry’s most powerful Windows-based performance tuning utility. More at AMD.

As per the headline, AMD press release ( click on the thumbnail for a screen shot) has NO mention of any kind of specs / clock speed.

OK! after a little bit Googling, found some specs at X-bit Labs:

“Quad-core AMD Phenom processor 9600 Black Edition will operate at 2.30GHz clock-speed, 2MB shared L3 cache and 512KB dedicated L2 cache per core and will have support for dual-channel PC2-8500 (DDR2 1066MHz), just like the typical AMD Phenom 9600 chip. However, the Black Edition processor has unlocked clock multiplier, which allows enthusiasts to clock the new chip higher than 2.30GHz without any issues that are associated with overclocking.”  More at X-bit Labs.

MILPITAS, Calif –BUSINESS WIRE– Sigma Designs, a leading provider of highly integrated  solutions, today announced that its highly integrated SMP8634 media processor was selected by Sharp Corporation to power its new line of AQUOS Blu-ray disc players and recorders.

Sharp’s new products include the BD-AV1 and AV10 Series for the Japanese market and the recently introduced slim-profile AQUOS BD player, model BD-HP20U, the company’s first offering in the US market.

Sharp’s new series of AQUOS Blu-ray disc recorders BD-AV1 and AV10 enable recording and playback of digital broadcasts of HDTV programs that capture the same high-resolution image quality of broadcast TV that VCR users are accustomed to experiencing.

AQUOS also offers full compatibility with 24 movie frames per second playback, matching the native filming format for most movies as well as HDMI output support of 1080/24p video and Dolby TrueHD, and an i.LINK (IEEE1394) input for connecting to a Sharp AQUOS High-Vision recorder. More here.

Taipei, Taiwan — On Dec 17, Micro-Star International (MSI) announced that it has already prepared P7N Diamond and P7N SLI Platinum mainboards to support the 45nm Intel processor at the same time when new nForce chipset launches.

P7N Diamond utilizes nForce780i chipset together with top performance specifications and supports 3-way SLI technology. While, P7N SLI Platinum utilizes nForce750i chipset, making this mainboard cost-effective.

Highly Efficient Circu-Pipe and GreenPower Design
The use of selected high-grade components is the common characteristic of the P7N series mainboards. Although the two mainboards have different market segments, they both come with MSI’s exclusive Circu-Pipe design. Circu-pipe can effectively reduce the high temperature from the chipset and MOSFET.

Selected high-quality solid capacitors and POSCAP!
The all capacitors on these two mainboards are high-quality solid capacitors that are made in Japan. These capacitors with low impedance and high ripple current and other characteristics provide better filtering effect. To further highlight P7N Diamond products, the PWM capacitors on this mainboard are based on POSCAP. POSCAP (Polymerized Organic Semiconductor Capacitor) is a high grade product recently developed by Sanyo.

45nm Processor and 3-way SLI ready!
P7N series mainboards are Intel 45nm processor and 3-way SLI ready. The 45nm Quad Core CPU support brings more benefits to multimedia and multitasking by enhancing the performance and reducing the waiting time for any kind of applications. It provides extremely high definition audio/video stream editing and offers higher performance on 3D gaming and professional graphic rendering.

MSI design quad PCI-E VGA slot on P7N Diamond for more than the new Nvidia 3-way SLI technology, also comes with PCI-E Gen2 to offer wider bandwidth. This will bring higher 3D gaming resolutions with more detail DX10 effects. More at Micro-Star International.

Taipei, Taiwan — Dec 19, `07 — DigiTimes brings us another Intel launch-delay news, just 2 days after Intel’s X48 chipset postponement.

DigiTimes reports on Intel adjusting its product strategy and delaying three 45nm quad-core CPUs, Core 2 Quad Q9300, Q9450 and Q9550, that were originally scheduled to launch in January next year, citing sources at motherboard makers.

“Intel has already notified its partners that it will push back the launch of the three CPUs to February or March next year, depending on AMD’s schedule for triple-core and the upcoming Phenom CPUs.

Launching the CPUs now will not benefit Intel much in its battle with AMD, while they could cause damage to Intel’s 65nm quad-core CPUs, therefore the company has decided it is in no rush to release new products until AMD is able to present more of a threat.” More at DigiTimes.

East Fishkill, NY and TOKYO, Japan –December 18, `07 — IBM and Toshiba today announced that they have entered into a joint development agreement on 32nm bulk complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process technology.

Since December 2005, IBM and Toshiba have collaborated on fundamental advanced research related to semiconductor process technologies at the 32nm technology generation and beyond at the research facilities in Yorktown and Albany, New York. Building on the success of this ongoing research collaboration, the two companies have agreed to extend the scope of the joint development work to now include 32nm bulk CMOS process technology.

Under the new agreement, Toshiba joins a six company IBM Alliance for 32nm bulk CMOS process technology development based in East Fishkill, New York.

Through this collaboration IBM and Toshiba plan to accelerate development of next-generation technology to achieve high-performance, energy-efficient chips at the 32nm process level, and to enhance the companies’ leadership in the global semiconductor industry.

“This agreement caps a year of extraordinary momentum for IBM and its semiconductor Alliance Partners,” said Gary Patton, vice president for IBM’s Semiconductor Research and Development Center. “In 2008 we’ll continue to strive to collectively deliver the industry breakthroughs and manufacturing milestones that come from talented engineers and semiconductor experts working in an open, collaborative environment with access to world class R&D facilities such as UAlbany NanoCollege’s Albany NanoTech complex.” More at Toshiba.

Sixty years ago three scientists, , from Bell Laboratory in the US invented the Transistor - the tiny switches at the heart of all silicon chips - replacing vacuum tubes and mechanical relays and revolutionizing the entire electronics world. The team was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1956.

Analyst Malcolm Penn at BBC News writes an in-depth article on the history of transistor: “Following the transistor’s invention by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley at Bell Labs in 1947, no one really knew quite what to do with the invention.

Little more than a laboratory curiosity, it was not until manufacturers realized that the tiny switches would enable products to be built smaller, more reliably and with less power consumption than with conventional electronic valves that the market started to develop.

It took the technologists five years to come up with the first practical transistor application - a hearing aid in 1952.

Eight years after the transistors first laboratory demonstration, launched in December 1955, the watershed product that truly grabbed the world’s attention was the first transistor radio, pocket-sized Regency TR1.

Most of the early device manufacturers were traditional valve companies, soon to be displaced by the fledgling specialist semiconductor companies, the most famous of which being Fairchild Semiconductor in Palo Alto, California and Texas Instruments (TI) in Dallas, Texas.

A spin out from Shockley Semiconductors, Fairchild proved to be a hotbed of technology innovation throughout the whole of the 1960s, including the invention of the Planar manufacturing process - the ability to print tiny patterns on the silicon surface using photographic techniques - still the foundation for today’s mainstream technology.

It was at Fairchild in 1965 that Gordon Moore, one of the co-founders of chip-giant Intel, sketched out his prediction of the pace of silicon technology, subsequently became known as Moore’s law.” More at BBC News, Nobelprize.org.

SANTA CLARA, CA— Extreme gaming just got a whole lot better. On Dec 13, NVIDIA extended its SLI technology, which enables the use of multiple graphics processing units (GPUs) on a single computer, allowing up to three GeForce graphics cards to be used in a single machine.

Now hot, new, graphics-intensive titles, such as Call of Duty 4, Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and Unreal Tournament 3, can be played at the highest resolution possible, with all the graphics settings cranked to the max, and antialiasing applied for the first time.

NVIDIA’s new 3-way SLI delivers up to a 2.8x performance increase over a single GPU system, giving high-end gamers 60 frames per second at resolutions as high as 2560×1600 and with 8x antialiasing. 3-way SLI technology means you no longer have to dial back the image quality settings on the newest PC games. For example, gamers with 3-way SLI can play Crysis at high resolutions such as 1920×1200 with all the advanced DirectX 10 effects such as motion blur, ambient occlusion, and soft shadows turned on.

The heart of a 3-way SLI system is an NVIDIA nForce 680 SLI MCP motherboard and three GeForce 8800 GTX or GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics cards. With 3-way SLI, gamers can harness the power of 384 stream processors, a 110+ gigatexel per second texture fill rate, and over two gigabytes of graphics memory for no-compromise gaming performance.

3-way SLI gives gamers the flexibility to scale their graphics processing power with one, two, or three GeForce GPUs, depending on their desired price and system configuration. 3-way SLI systems are available from leading gaming PC system builders and the components needed to build your own 3-way SLI system are available from leading retailers. More at SLI Zone, nVIDIA.

NEW YORK — Dec 13, `07 — AMD has delayed shipment of major chip products until next year but aims to return to profitability in 2008, Chief Operating Officer Dirk Meyer said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

Reuters further writes, “AMD, the world’s No. 2 supplier of computer processors, has struggled in the last two years with market share losses and chip shipment delays. It posted four straight quarters of losses this year amid renewed competition from its far larger rival, Intel.

Meyer said AMD would ship its high-end Barcelona chip products and Phenom products in the 2008 first quarter. Speaking at a meeting with analysts, he apologized for delays and promised to do better next year. The Barcelona chip is designed for computer servers and the Phenom chip is aimed at desktop PCs.” More at Reuters.

Dec 13, ‘07 — Intel is challenging modders to show off their creative skills in building Intel processor-based mods for an online competition. Intel delivers the unrivaled performance and energy efficient processors that modders can then build just about anything from, including an 18-wheeler Mac truck.

Get a glimpse at these creations and vote on your favorite one by visiting the Intel Modding Competition Group on Channel Intel. Check out the contest and see why modders Demand Intel.

Excerpts from IntelModder Group’s welcome message:

“Now, just join the group, upload a video of your Intel processor-based mod, and start voting! Click more to learn about the contest details.

Why submit? In addition to bragging rights, we’ll be giving away some pretty sweet prizes to the top 3 submissions.

-The Grand Prize Winner receives their choice of any Intel desktop or notebook processor, their choice of Intel motherboard, an Intel backpack stuffed with Marriott Bucks ($200), a gift certificate for Ubisoft ($50) games, specialty coffee bucks ($15), 20 free Wi-Fi sessions and 3 months free broadband TV from AT&T.

The contest requires two things:
1- Your mod needs to be based on any Intel processor and
2- You must submit a video shorter than 1 minute to the ‘mod contest site that shows the how cool your ‘mod is.

The official rules and all the details can be viewed in the Intel Modding Competition video on the site. We’re going to be running this contest through the New Year and will be accepting video submissions until 11:59:59 pm on January 14th.”

More at IntelModder Group.

Tokyo, Japan — Digital World-Tokyo reports on Inventor of Flash memory planning to develop 3D super processors.

In their words, “If his plans are successful, the inventor of flash memory is just a few steps away from delivering three-dimensional semiconductors that will give us processing chips running at ten times the speed of current-generation designs.

Fujio Masuoka, CTO of Unisantis Electronics in Japan, has announced a deal (in pdf) to work on his 3D chip designs with Singapore’s Institute of Microelectronics to take advantage of the island nation’s government facilities and specialists.

Masuoka, who invented flash memory while at Toshiba, says he intends to pay royalties to the Singapore government while licensing the new super chips to major manufacturers. All of which means we could soon be using CPUs that make current cutting-edge architecture like the Cell look like a horse-drawn cart.” More at DigitalWorldTokyo.

Taipei, Taiwan — December 06, ‘07 — ASUS today released the world´s first EN8800GT graphics card model with 1GB graphics memory with Qimonda – the new EN8800GT/HTDP/1G.

This powerful graphics card features the latest generation of NVIDIA GPUs; and with an unparalleled large onboard memory size, is designed to provide feature-rich DirectX 10 gaming and the best multimedia playback at ultra-high resolutions and maximum quality settings. Moreover, with the integrated new SmartDoctor feature, users will have the option to overclock the Shader Clock for more than 10% graphical performance boosts, while the unique Glaciator Fansink design keeps the GPU temperature 7ºC cooler than reference designed boards.

Unprecedented 1GB GDDR3 Onboard Memory from Qimonda for Best Graphical Output
“The ASUS EN8800GT/HTDP/1G is the first EN8800GT model in the world to leverage the Qimonda DRAM that comes equipped with 8pcs of 1GB GDDR3 graphics memory,” said C.P. Wu, General Manager of ASUS Graphics and Multimedia Business.

More at ASUSTeK.

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY - Dec 06, 2007 — Supercomputers that consist of thousands of individual processor “brains” connected by miles of copper wires could one day fit into a laptop PC, thanks in part to a breakthrough by IBM scientists announced today.

And while today’s supercomputers can use the equivalent energy required to power hundreds of homes, these future tiny supercomputers-on-a-chip would expend the energy of a light bulb.

In a paper published in the journal Optics Express, the IBM researchers detailed a significant milestone in the quest to send information between multiple cores — or “brains” — on a chip using pulses of light through silicon, instead of electrical signals on wires.

The breakthrough — known in the industry as a silicon Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator — performs the function of converting electrical signals into pulses of light. The IBM modulator is 100 to 1,000 times smaller in size compared to previously demonstrated modulators of its kind, paving the way for many such devices and eventually complete optical routing networks to be integrated onto a single chip. This could significantly reduce cost, energy and heat while increasing communications bandwidth between the cores more than a hundred times over wired chips.

Today, one of the most advanced chips in the world — IBM’s Cell processor which powers the Sony Playstation 3 — contains nine cores on a single chip. The new technology aims to enable a power-efficient method to connect hundreds or thousands of cores together on a tiny chip by eliminating the wires required to connect them. Using light instead of wires to send information between the cores can be 100 times faster and use 10 times less power than wires.

IBM’s optical modulator performs the function of converting a digital electrical signal carried on a wire, into a series of light pulses, carried on a silicon nanophotonic waveguide. First, an input laser beam is delivered to the optical modulator, which acts as a very fast “shutter” which controls whether the input laser is blocked or transmitted to the output waveguide.

When a digital electrical pulse arrives from a computer core to the modulator, a short pulse of light is allowed to pass through at the optical output. In this way, the device “modulates” the intensity of the input laser beam, and the modulator converts a stream of digital bits (“1”s and “0”s) from electrical signals into light pulses.

The report on this work, entitled “Ultra-compact, low RF power, 10 Gb/s silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator” by William M. J. Green, Michael J. Rooks, Lidija Sekaric, and Yurii A. Vlasov of IBM’s T.J.WatsonResearch Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. is published in Volume 15 of the journal Optics Express. This work was partially supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) through the Defense Sciences Office program “Slowing, Storing and Processing Light”.More at IBM.

New 65 Nanometer Solution Features the Latest HD AVC Technology to Support Multiple Video Formats and a 50% Reduction in Power Consumption

IRVINE, Calif — Dec 05, ‘07 — /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Broadcom today announced a new single-channel, multi-format high definition (HD) satellite receiver chip that enables manufacturers to develop low cost satellite set-top boxes (STBs).

The new satellite system-on-a-chip (SoC) is manufactured in 65 nanometer (nm) process technology and includes the highest level of functionality, fully integrating a single tuner/demodulator, as well as the latest AVC (advanced video coding) decoder that supports multiple video formats.

By reducing the number of components required to develop satellite set-top box products, Broadcom has reduced power consumption by more than 50% over competing solutions, lowering system bill of materials (BOM) cost while reducing the complexity and size of designing next generation satellite STBs.

The BCM7325 operates on a dual-threaded MIPS(R) CPU core running at 333MHz resulting in over 550DMIPS of performance. The BCM7325 is designed to support UMA and non-UMA memory architectures, utilizing a 400-MHz clock, 32-bit wide DDR2 memory I/F for enhanced performance and allows cost-effective memory implementations.

The BCM7325 supports several interfaces for TV output on-chip including HDMI, baseband composite, component or S-Video, and incorporates Broadcom’s advanced 2D graphics engine that enables true studio-quality text and graphics, efficiently using its memory and bandwidth. More at Broadcom.

Dec 05, ‘07 — DailyTech is reporting on Intel showing no signs of slowing down when it comes to its mobile processors.

“Intel will up the ante again on January 6, 2008 with its new 45nm Penryn-based Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme dual core processors.

It’s highly plausible that the chips could make their first appearance at CES 2008 (January 7, 2008) with further unveils at MacWorld 2008 in Apple’s oft-rumored tablet, revamped MacBook Pros or refreshed iMac desktops.

Initial Penryn mobile processors will launch exclusively with a 35W thermal envelope. Existing Merom mobile processors (T7000-series) also fit inside the 35W envelope at standard voltage. However, with the Montevina Centrino refresh in the second half of 2008, new Penryn mobile processors will receive a 25W TDP rating instead.” More at DailyTech, Intel Laptop Roadmap (in pdf).

Dec 04, ‘07 — Slashdot reports on a story by “The Tech Report” on possible chip problems with AMD’s quad-core Opteron, Phenom processors.

“Errata are not uncommon with new processors, but a problem with the TLB logic in AMD’s quad-core Opteron and Phenom processors appears to be quite serious. The erratum is so severe that AMD has issued a ’stop ship’ order on all quad-core Opterons.

AMD has also blamed this bug for the delay of the 2.4GHz Phenom, despite the fact that the erratum is unrelated to clock speed. A BIOS-based workaround for the issue has been made available to motherboard makers, but it apparently carries a 10-20% performance penalty.

What’s more disturbing is that AMD knew of the erratum and the potential performance hit associated with fixing it before it launched the Phenom processor. Hardware provided to the press for reviews did not include the fix, conveniently overstating Phenom performance.”

Excerpts from The Tech Report:

“The erratum is a chip-level issue involving the TLB logic for the L3 cache that can cause system hangs in specific circumstances. AMD has a fix for the problem in the works, but it degrades performance.

In order to better understand this problem, TR spoke with Michael Saucier, Desktop Product Marketing Manager at AMD. Saucier confirmed that the TLB erratum can cause the system to hang when the chip is experiencing high utilization.

Apparently contradicting prior AMD statements on the matter, Saucier flatly denied any relationship between the TLB erratum and chip clock frequencies. He also said there’s no relationship between clock speeds and the performance degradation caused by the BIOS-based fix for the erratum.

we’ve already discovered that our Phenom review overstates the performance of the 2.3GHz Phenom. We tested at a 2.3GHz core clock with a 2.0GHz north bridge clock, because AMD told us those speeds were representative of the Phenom 9600. Our production samples of the Phenom 9500 and 9600, however, have north bridge clocks of 1.8GHz.”

More at The Tech Report.

New Processor Provides 10x Performance Increase at One Tenth the Cost and Flexibility for HD Video Processing and Multi-Channel Applications.

HOUSTON, Texas — Dec 03, ‘07 /PRNewswire/ — To allow consumers to seamlessly move content across their video end products, Texas Instruments is offering a new DaVinci technology digital media processor for video transcoding in media gateways, multi-point control units, digital media adaptors, video security DVRs and IP set-top boxes.

Wrapped with a complete offering of development tools and digital media software, the new TMS320DM6467 DaVinci processor is a DSP-based system-on-chip (SoC) specifically tuned for real-time, multi-format, high-definition (HD) video transcoding. Integrating an ARM926EJ-S core and 600 MHz C64x+(TM) DSP core along with a high-definition video co-processor, conversion engine and targeted video port interfaces, the system solution delivers a 10x performance improvement over previous generation processors to perform simultaneous, multi-format HD encode, decode and transcoding up to H.264 HP@L4 (1080p 30fps, 1080i 60fps, 720p 60fps). More at DaVinci/TMS320DM6467.

Video security systems will see similar BOM (bill of materials) reductions and have the flexibility to implement multi-format multi-channel encode (up to four channels of MPEG4/H.264 MP D1 plus four secondary channels of MPEG4/H.264 MP CIF) or decode (up to six channels of MPEG4/H.264 MP D1) for hybrid digital video recorder (DVR) and server (DVS) systems. The DM6467 has an integrated C64x+ DSP which can accommodate video analytics or proprietary video processing algorithms. The DM6467 integrated ARM9, 10/100/1000 EMAC and ATA interfaces would eliminate the need for external host processor enabling a single chip DVR/DVS system.

Pricing and Availability

The DaVinci TMS320DM6467 is now sampling to select customers and will be sold in 50Ku volume for $35.95. The DVEVM is scheduled to begin shipping in 1Q08 from TI and TI Authorized Distributors. theDaVincieffect.

SAN JOSE, Calif –BUSINESS WIRE– Dec 01, ‘07 — Samsung Electronics announced today that it has developed the world’s fastest memory, a GDDR5 (series five, graphics double-data-rate memory) chip that can transfer data at six gigabits per second, which is more than four times faster than that of memories in state-of-the-art game consoles today.

Samsung’s GDDR5, which will be introduced at a density of 512 Mbit (16Mb x 32) chips, is capable of transmitting moving images and associated data at 24 gigabytes per second.

“We’re pushing image enhancement to a limit never before realized, enabling the smoothest, clearest animation that gamers have yet to experience,” said Mueez Deen, Marketing Director, Graphics Memory, Samsung Semiconductor. “Samsung’s 512Mb GDDR5 will enable the kind of graphics hardware performance that will spur software developers to deliver a new level of eye-popping games.”

The new Samsung graphics memory operates at 1.5 volts, representing an approximate 20 percent improvement in power consumption over today’s most popular graphics chip – the GDDR3.

Samples of Samsung’s new GDDR5 chip have been delivered to major graphic processor companies last month and mass production is expected in the first half of 2007.

Samsung expects that GDDR5 memory chips will become the de facto standard in the top performing segment of the market by capturing more than 50 percent of the high-end PC graphics market by 2010.

Related:

Hynix Introduces Industry’s First 1Gb GDDR5 DRAM

Samsung Intros Its Highest-Speed DDR2 Main Memory and Fastest Graphics Memory

Taipei, Taiwan — Nov 30, ‘07 — DigiTimes is reporting on AMD’s plan to drop the price of its Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 GPUs by around $20, citing sources at graphics card makers.

DigiTimes further writes,”In response to AMD’s plans, Nvidia also notified its partners that it will consider following up with price reductions of its own, causing several makers to delay mass orders to prevent themselves from absorbing the price damage, according to the sources.”

The original official Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 prices were US$179 and US$219. More at DigiTimes.