AMD's 12-core and 8-core processors get a new home in 2010
By Kristopher Kubicki - July 16, 2008
AMD's newest roadmap reveals a major shift in early 2010: the company will once again overhaul its socket architecture to make way for DDR3 support. The new socket, dubbed G34, will also ship with two new second-generation 45nm processors. The first of these processors, 8-core Sao Paolo, is described as a "twin native-quadcore Shanghai processor" by one AMD engineer. Shanghai, expected to ship late this year, is AMD's first 45nm shrink of the ill-fated Barcelona processor. This past April, AMD guidance hinted at a 12-core behemoth of a processor. This CPU is now named Magny-Cours after the French town made famous by its Formula One French Grand Prix circuit. Both of these new processors will feature four HyperTransport 3 interconnects, 12MB of L3 cache and 512KB L2 cache per core.
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Friday, July 18, 2008
EU Batters Intel With More Charges
After downing Microsoft, the EU is hot on the chase of its latest target, Intel
By Jason Mick - July 18, 2008
After bringing the world's biggest and most profitable software corporation, Microsoft, to its knees with a record $2.6B USD total in antitrust fines, the European Union began a serious investigation of chip maker Intel and whether it committed antitrust violations. Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, fluctuates between having around 80 to 90 percent of the global microprocessor market, something some would term a monopoly, but which the business world terms more accurately as a "dominant position". After a lengthy investigation -- featuring such assignment as raids of Intel offices in Europe -- the EU decided it had enough evidence to file formal charges. The EU charged Intel with abusing its dominant position by using price slashing and illegal rebates to drive smaller chipmakers out of business and trying to create a monopoly. Obviously, Intel disagreed. Now the European Commission (EC), the EU's business monitoring unit, has battered Intel with a fresh round of charges. It claims it has evidence that Intel bribed a leading European retailer not to stock products containing chips made by rival AMD. It also charges Intel with paying the retailer to delay the release of a product containing AMD chips. AMD had previously made such claims, but was unable to prove them, thus far. It also accused Intel of giving illegal incentives to switch to its chips.The EC has given Intel eight weeks to respond formally to the charges. Intel officials say that they are "disappointed" by the charges. The EC paints Intel as a bully in the report, stating that it "used its considerable muscle to provide substantial rebates to a leading European PC retailer - conditional on it selling only Intel-based PCs."
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By Jason Mick - July 18, 2008
After bringing the world's biggest and most profitable software corporation, Microsoft, to its knees with a record $2.6B USD total in antitrust fines, the European Union began a serious investigation of chip maker Intel and whether it committed antitrust violations. Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, fluctuates between having around 80 to 90 percent of the global microprocessor market, something some would term a monopoly, but which the business world terms more accurately as a "dominant position". After a lengthy investigation -- featuring such assignment as raids of Intel offices in Europe -- the EU decided it had enough evidence to file formal charges. The EU charged Intel with abusing its dominant position by using price slashing and illegal rebates to drive smaller chipmakers out of business and trying to create a monopoly. Obviously, Intel disagreed. Now the European Commission (EC), the EU's business monitoring unit, has battered Intel with a fresh round of charges. It claims it has evidence that Intel bribed a leading European retailer not to stock products containing chips made by rival AMD. It also charges Intel with paying the retailer to delay the release of a product containing AMD chips. AMD had previously made such claims, but was unable to prove them, thus far. It also accused Intel of giving illegal incentives to switch to its chips.The EC has given Intel eight weeks to respond formally to the charges. Intel officials say that they are "disappointed" by the charges. The EC paints Intel as a bully in the report, stating that it "used its considerable muscle to provide substantial rebates to a leading European PC retailer - conditional on it selling only Intel-based PCs."
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What console war? Latest NPD numbers claim everyone wins
By Tim Conneally, July 18, 2008
Whenever video game consoles' sales data is released, we often depict the comparison as some kind of war. But with E3 having ended and the holiday season approaching, NPD suggests the battle may be entirely in our minds. June's total video game sales for the US were $680 million dollars higher than last year, with revenues from consoles and portables combined rising 54% over last year, and revenue from game software 61% higher. One NPD analyst expects total industry sales to be $22 billion this year, making video gaming the single highest-grossing form of entertainment today. With numbers this high, the concept of a "console war" seems silly. The bottom line is that everybody is winning. Sure, Microsoft's Xbox 360 trailed behind both Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 last month in sales, but in the United States video game market, placing third in a booming market isn't all that bad. In terms of raw numbers last month, 666,700 Wiis, 405,000 PS3s, and 219,800 Xbox 360s were sold.
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Whenever video game consoles' sales data is released, we often depict the comparison as some kind of war. But with E3 having ended and the holiday season approaching, NPD suggests the battle may be entirely in our minds. June's total video game sales for the US were $680 million dollars higher than last year, with revenues from consoles and portables combined rising 54% over last year, and revenue from game software 61% higher. One NPD analyst expects total industry sales to be $22 billion this year, making video gaming the single highest-grossing form of entertainment today. With numbers this high, the concept of a "console war" seems silly. The bottom line is that everybody is winning. Sure, Microsoft's Xbox 360 trailed behind both Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 last month in sales, but in the United States video game market, placing third in a booming market isn't all that bad. In terms of raw numbers last month, 666,700 Wiis, 405,000 PS3s, and 219,800 Xbox 360s were sold.
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AMD changes CEO as turnaround pressure intensifies
By JORDAN ROBERTSON and RACHEL METZ Jul 18, 2008
Under Hector Ruiz's leadership, chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. rose to challenge larger rival Intel Corp. as never before in AMD's nearly 40-year history. Yet after six years as AMD's CEO, the embattled Ruiz stepped down Thursday as pressure mounts on the Sunnyvale-based company to dig itself out of a deep financial hole and recover from a devastating product stumble that wound up benefiting Intel in a big way. Ruiz, 62, the only person to head AMD other than founder and longtime chief executive Jerry Sanders, will remain on the board of directors. One of the few Hispanic CEOs of a major U.S. corporation, Ruiz had also been AMD chairman but now takes on the title of executive chairman, a distinction that lets him retain some day-to-day responsibilities.
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Under Hector Ruiz's leadership, chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. rose to challenge larger rival Intel Corp. as never before in AMD's nearly 40-year history. Yet after six years as AMD's CEO, the embattled Ruiz stepped down Thursday as pressure mounts on the Sunnyvale-based company to dig itself out of a deep financial hole and recover from a devastating product stumble that wound up benefiting Intel in a big way. Ruiz, 62, the only person to head AMD other than founder and longtime chief executive Jerry Sanders, will remain on the board of directors. One of the few Hispanic CEOs of a major U.S. corporation, Ruiz had also been AMD chairman but now takes on the title of executive chairman, a distinction that lets him retain some day-to-day responsibilities.
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