Amd
”AMD's "Shanghai" Chips Revealed
The rat race continues: Shanghai will be 45nm, have up to 12 cores, include the long awaited Hypertransport 3.0 for socket-to-socket and southbridge communication, and can emulate quad channel memory. For more: [DailyTech]Alienware's Updated Aurora Gaming Desktop Starts at $999
Alienware has injected life into the Aurora line with a new gaming rig fitted with quad-core AMD Phenom 9850 processors, your choice of ATI Radeon 3870 X2, HD3850, or HD3870 graphics cards (single or CrossFire configuration), up to 4GB Dual Channel DDR2, and tons of HDD space. Naturally, tricking this thing out with all of the higher-end options is going to make the price ridiculous in a hurry, but a $999 base is about as good as it will get for an Alienware. [Alienware via PC Mag]
Question of the Day: Do You Prefer AMD or Intel CPUs?
The age-old battle between Intel and AMD is resurrected every year as the two duke it out for control of your computer. Back in the day, when I was broke and into building PCs, I often opted for AMD because of budget restrictions. After I graduated, performance was the objective which, at the time, meant a switch to Intel was in order. I took a case by case approach to the debate between Intel and AMD, but many PC builders out there have fierce loyalties to one side or the other despite their ups and downs. So the question is: Do you prefer AMD or Intel processors?
More »
Toshiba Satellite Laptops: New Fusion Look, Charge-Anytime USB Ports, Cheaper Prices
Mr. T's favorite laptop maker rolled out slick, useful and budget-minded updates to its Satellite line today. First up, the 13.3" U400, 14.1" M300, 15.4" A300 and 17" P300 have a new look called "Fusion," a shiny finish with pinstripes and smoothed edges, not unlike that sucka HP's successful smooth-n-shiny-n-pinstripey look. The eight shots in the gallery make the design look a bit greenish, so we'll have to wait to pass final judgment. It's one thing to look nice on the outside, but like T, these have a lot going on on the inside, too... More »AMD Phenom X3 Triple Core Processors Are Crippled Quad Cores in Disguise
Part of AMD's multi-core Phenom blast today is the Phenom X3 8000, "the world's only triple-core x86 processor," which we heard about a few months ago. They're supposed to bargain chips for budget consumers, but they're a nicer bargain for AMD, actually, since it lets them dump bug-plagued quad-core Phenomsby disabling a core. But if performance is your top concern, you might want to steer clear of the whole Phenom batch anyway. We're still waiting for AMD's 45nm chippies, personally. [Hard OCP, Anandtech]AMD Quad-Core Phenom X4 9850 Reviewed (Verdict: Owned by Intel Quad Cores)
The Phenom X4 9850 is at the top of AMD's latest heap of quad-core Phenoms. It's free of the performance-sapping bug that plagued the first batch of Phenoms, and AMD hopes it'll claw back some ground from Intel. Maximum PC stacked it up against two quad-cores from Intel—the mid-rangeish Penryn Core 2 Quad Q9300, as well as an older Core 2 Q6600. Ouchies for AMD, the Intel pair blew past it. More »
amd
AMD Finally Shows Off Its 45nm Processors
At CeBit today AMD finally showed off the fruits of its 45nm labors—one server and one desktop chip, a far cry from the 16 Intel launched with Penryn's debut back in January. But, given AMD's woes lately, on the technical and biznass fronts, we're just glad to see 'em. More »
dell
Dell Ditching Proprietary Parts
One of the best arguments for building your own PCs is that you make the decisions regarding parts, which means you don't have to scrap the whole system or buy sub-standard hardware from the manufacturer when it is time to upgrade. This is especially true for gaming rigs. Dell, one of the biggest offenders when it comes to this issue, has announced that proprietary parts like power supplies and motherboards will be a thing of the past. More »
dell
AMD Tri-Core Phenom Chips Coming to Dell Computers
Amid rumors of Dell dropping AMD processors, TG Daily has discovered Dell actually plans to release a new line of Optiplex PCs with AMD Tri-Core Phenom processors. They also report Dell plans to feature AMD chips in future consumer products later this year. [TG Daily]
rumor smashed
Rumor Smashed: Dell Still Stocks AMD-Based Computers Online
Only one consumer desktop—the Energy Star 4.0 Inspiron 531, but still a smattering of business wares, from notebooks to servers. [Dell]
graphics cards
ATI Breaks Teraflop Barrier with Radeon HD 3870 X2 GPU
Remember that honkin' ATI graphics card we showed you at CES? The one that was 1,000 times as fast as a Cray-1? Well, it's official, making its debut today as the $450 ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2. It's the first GPU to break the teraflop barrier, and is nearly double the performance of the HD 3870 you spent all your money on back in November. Press release with technical details after jump. [Product Page] More »
ces 2008
AMD's Strategy for Bringing HD to the Masses
We just met with AMD's CTO Phil Hester, and he clued us in on a few cool high-def processing tricks that the company will pull this year: More »ATI R680 Graphics Card Is 1000X Faster Than a Cray-1 Supercomputer
victory lap
Giz Intern Smokes Competish at Tiger Direct AMD PC Building Contest
Last night, our weekend intern Eric Sheline made his mama proud by finishing fourth in the 11th annual Tiger Direct AMD Acer PC building contest. You'll recall in years past that Blam finished both 3rd and 5th, which means that Sheline basically tied his master, and smoked over 80% of the seasoned editors in the process. Jump for shots of the grinning intern with his winning PC, and a video of our fearless leader in last year's event. More »
rumor
Intel Delays 45nm Quad-Core CPUs to Give AMD a Breather
Rather than continue hammering on AMD while they're down, Intel is apparently taking AMD's troubles as a little break of their own, delaying the launch of three 45nm quad-core Core 2 processors (Yorkfields) until Feb. or March, depending on AMD's release schedule for its upcoming tri-core and Phenom processors. This kind of reminds us of when Toyota wanted to raise its own prices to help out GM and Ford, which makes us sad. We prefer the far bloodier and more competitive processor wars of a couple years ago. [Digitimes via Inquirer]
roundup
Afternoon News: Boffins Galore, Spectrum Auction, Rock, Paper, Scissors and More
• Joining the other boffins we've discussed today is this Indian boffin, who invented a flying carpet by attaching a powerful motor to a thin sheet of fabric. By the way, we have not used the word "boffin" on this site since 2004. Boffin! [Wired]• The FCC announced the participants in the 700MHz spectrum auction. If I were a betting man, I'd go with the Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative FTW!!1! [TechCrunch]
• HP paid Staples $100 million to not stock competitor's ink, and made the money back by charging $8,000 for a gallon of their own ink, according to a lawsuit. The official charge: Dorkateering. [Ars]
• New Scientist claims it has the secret to winning Rock, Paper, Scissors. The battle of wits has begun! [Telegraph]
roundup
Afternoon News: Harry Potter Is Too Close for Comfort, DirecTV Breaking Promises?, Best Buy's Profits Soar and More
• Daniel Radcliffe, a/k/a Harry Potter, just bought an apartment in Manhattan. Coincidentally, it's only four blocks from our NYC headquarters. Luckily we have our own Dark Lord Balthazaar to protect us from his spells. [Gridskipper]• Less than two weeks remain for DirecTV to add 15 more HD channels in order to reach their promise of 100 by the end of 2007. Hope you like the sound of Drying Paint HD, Growing Grass HD and Water Boiling HD, DirecTV customers. [Broadband Reports] [Thanks, Erin!!]
• Toshiba is joining IBM, AMD, Samsung, and others to work on 32nm chip technology. Now the alliance is just an wind, fire and heart away from summoning Captain Planet. [Reuters]
• XM Satellite Radio has settled its lawsuit with Universal Music Group over the time-shifting recording capabilities of XM's Inno player. Surprisingly, the terms still allow for the creation of more time-shifting devices. [Digital Trends]
• Best Buy's profits spiked 52% this quarter, due to fewer promotions on flat-panel TVs. Thanks a lot, Best Buy. [Market Watch]







