Specifically, using his charts and mine, it wasn't hard to recognize the jump in the multithreaded, 64 bit results from geek bench in the categories of integer, floating point and memory streaming tests, as well as the threaded tests. (Memory tests were slightly faster, the others were drastically so.) Interesting, as the Core i5 chip is clocked at 2.66GHz and the Core2Duo iMac I tested runs at 3.06GHz.

(The turbo boost function, which overclocks the Core i5 chip to up to 3.2GHz when running non-multithreaded apps, should be kicking in performance here, too.)

Interesting, but two things to remember: Core i7 chips are coming out for the iMac shortly and will run at 2.8GHz and have hyperthreading so the 4 cores emulate 8. And there are still not many (if any at all) major OS X apps that can take advantage of Snow Leopard's multicore support. [Electronista's tests, Gizmodo's iMac Review]

The new quad-core "Clarksfield" chips are the most expensive and powerful, and will be able to scale up clock speed with a feature called "Turbo Boost" that shuts down cores that aren't being used. They'll come in 1.6, 1.73 and 2.0GHz models, scalable to 2.8, 3.06, and 3.2GHZ, respectively. They'll be pretty pricey at $340, $750 and $1,000. The dual-core chips are significantly cheaper but at the expense of cache size. The quad-cores should be arriving this fall, with the first of the dual-cores hitting in early 2010. Check out the image for more details. [PC Watch (translated) via Electronista]

We'd heard rumblings before, but if true, this warning is a pretty clear indication of a refresh. The current iMac line, released in late April 2008, probably isn't due for any kind of massive redesign. The most obvious reason is that it just isn't very old, especially compared to its nearly-senile relative, the Mac Mini. There also haven't been many rumors floating around about new iMacs, but it does look likely that the desktops will get a bump from dual- to quad-core procs in time for the release of Snow Leopard.

This is based on anonymous sources, of course, and without confirmation from Apple (which we won't get), this stays classified as a rumor. But it might be a reason to hold off on a new iMac purchase, at least for a little while. [AppleInsider]

These seem kinda redundant, since you can pick up a Core 2 Quad 6600 for that much (or the newer 45nm Q9300 for not a whole lot more), both of which trounced AMD's fastest quad core in benchmarks. And AMD's triple cores ain't exactly anything to sing about to begin with. [DigiTimes via Tech Report]

As soon as Intel released these 5400 series Penryn processors this month, HP sent us this top-of-the-line xw8600 workstation with two of them inside. This expensive machine—aimed at oil and gas explorers, video editors and animators—is not really a gamer's box, but instead showcases the capabilities of these new four-way processors. Our test machine's 3.16GHz quad-core "Harpertown" processors (officially called the Intel Xeon E5460 Quad Core), use Intel's latest 45nm Penryn microarchitecture. Yep, those are as fast as these suckers get. The catch? They each cost $1550 more than the lowest-cost Xeon quad-core chip offered, the 2GHz 5405.
Due to their finer geometry (going from 60nm down to 45nm), you get 50% more cache, resulting in 6MB of shared cache between each dual core, totaling 12MB of cache in each processor—that's 24MB total in our test machine. In addition to that, the frontside bus is also running at 1333MHz, giving you a 30% speed boost over its predecessor.

Check out this pic (and another larger one in the gallery showing the task manager along with the graphic it's rendering) that tells the story of all eight cores screaming away at the same time, rendering a complex graphic on the CineBench benchmark. Here it's just finished the render:
Video editors and scientists like to be able to expand everything inside one of these boxes. Although we had a "paltry" 4GB of RAM inside, you'll be able to cram 128GB up in there as soon as 8GB RAM sticks are available—Q1 of next year, we're told. You can also fill the thing up with storage, using your choice of eight Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) ports or six SATA connections, in addition to FireWire ports on the front and back, and dual Gigabit Ethernet. (You can lash them together for faster networking.) If you wanted to, you could set up a disk array on those SAS ports to get 2GB/sec drive performance.

HP included the NVIDIA FX 4600 workstation-class graphics card in the package, but there's room for two PCI Express x16 graphics cards tied together, certain to be a favorite of animators and those oil and gas explorers who need to simulate all kinds of complex graphics. The FX 4600 has 768MB of GDDR3 memory on board, useful for CAD designers working with huge graphics. And yes, it could most definitely play Doom.

We especially like this workstation's case. Normally they're staid and gray-looking, but HP stuck on some special sticky graphics that may look a bit cheesy, but are an improvement over the typical plain-Jane exterior. Never mind the visuals, HP's made this an extraordinarily quiet machine too, where even though it's packed with hardware, you can hardly hear it running next to you. We also like its tool-less chassis: Once you get the hang of it, you can take out drives and fans in a snap with nary a screwdriver in sight. Overall, it's an outlandishly configurable and powerful platform, practically begging you to turn it into whatever kind of monster workstation your heart desires.

Check out the benchmarks below, and you'll see that this $8,551 machine slam-dunks last year's fastest HP xw8400 workstation:It's fast. Blazingly fast, and on some benchmarks it's a whole lot quicker than last year's model. Its speed is just unreal, and you can feel it with every click. Impressive. [HP xw8600 Workstation]

Further spec details are scarce, but Lenovo did mention that the D10 is outfitted with a 5400 Xeon processor and the S10 with a 3GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9650. They also noted that both computers would use NVIDIA graphics and dual Gigabit Ethernet and multiple slots, bays and USB ports for expandability. Expect the D10 and the S10 to be released this January for $1,739 and $1,199 respectively. [Press Release and Electronista]

Saving power is becoming increasingly important in server rooms now, both because of the high cost of electricity and from pressure to become greener. AMD has developed a system, called CoolCore, where individual parts of the processor are turned off when they're not needed.

There will be nine chip options, all manufactured with 65nm technology, and all with 512KB of level two cache per core and 2MB shared. The top of the range 2GHz 8350 is expected to be priced at $1,019 for quantities over 1,000, with options all the way down to $209. There are expected to be more than 50 products launched this week using the chips, from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Dell. [AMD]

That's not all. To start up the bike, all you have to do is put your finger on the fingerprint reader, then punch the virtual ignition button. Oh, and there's an on-screen kickstand control too. If you thought Ghost Rider's hog was nice, well, you're right. But this is even better, despite its lack of flaming tires. [Intel via Mystic Gadgets]

According to TWL, the laptop will come with a 17-inch LCD and two Nvidia 8800 video cards. There will be room for dual hard drives (up to 160GB each) and you'll also get Intel's 975 chipset. Again, you should take this with a grain of salt, but I do admit, it would be nice if these shots were the real deal. Although I have no clue what kinda battery would be needed to power this monster. – Louis Ramirez

Spy Pictures of Quad-Core Enabled Laptop and Details [TWL via i4U]