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AMD’s Trinity Processor vs. Intel’s Ivy Bridge

By Fei on May 22, 2012

By Melanie Pinola
May 22, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO – AMD’s next-generation A-Series processors, code-named Trinity, are the chip manufacturer’s answer to Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors now appearing in the new Ultrabook laptops.
How much of an improvement do the new Trinity chips offer laptop users and can these new Trinity-based laptops compete against Ivy Bridge? The reviews are in.

Every new generation of chips promises better performance and energy efficiency, and Trinity is no exception. Earlier this year, AMD claimed Trinity would offer significant improvements over its current Llano chips: An overall performance increase of up to 25 percent, 50 percent better graphics performance, and double the performance per watt.
Across the web, tech reviewers have been benchmarking an AMD Trinity test laptop (featuring the A10-4600 quad core processor with integrated Radeon HD 7760G graphics) to put these claims to the test. We’ll have our own tests from the PCWorld Labs soon, but this is how the new accelerated processing unit (APU) is being received so far:

Modest General Performance Improvements: Not Enough to Best Intel

Intel is still the market leader in this highly competitive chips race and, unfortunately, going on CPU performance alone, Trinity still lags behind. Both VR-Zone and HotHardware say the Trinity A10 gets “blown out of the water” by Intel’s Ivy Bridge Core i7 CPU–and even against Intel’s second-generation Sandy Bridge mobile chips in some tests.
AMD positions its top-of-the-line A10 series against Intel’s lower-end Core i7 and higher-end Core i5 chips. Yet an Ivy Bridge mid-range i5-2410M had a 25% CPU performance advantage over the Trinity A10-4600, according to AnandTech‘s comparisons using PCMark.
VR Zone is frank in its assessment, calling Trinity’s single threaded applications and raw memory performance “abysmal.”

Still, AnandTech says Trinity’s new is a step forward from the CPU cores used in Llano. Trinity was about 20 percent faster than Llano in the reviewer’s general CPU performance tests–close to AMD’s 25 percent promise.

(Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPU gains over its Sandy Bridge processor were also modest: About 5 to 10 percent faster in PCWorld tests.)
Great Integrated Graphics, Gaming Performance

As with Intel’s Ivy Bridge, AMD Trinity’s biggest gains are on the graphics side. Tom’s Hardware found Trinity “soundly beating its competition” in graphics processing and–as you see in this chart–in this testing, Trinity leads even against a Llano laptop with a discrete graphics card (the older 3DMark Vantage metric was used to compare against the Intel Sandy Bridge chip, which doesn’t support DirectX 11).

Trinity even bests Intel Ivy Bridge’s impressive graphics performance: The HD7760G integrated graphics processor (IGP) had a 30-percent to 50+-percent performance gain over the Intel HD 4000 IGP in an Ivy Bridge Core i7 chip, according to HotHardware.
This finding would make Trinity really impressive for gaming. Hexus said the chip “offers best-in-class performance and enough grunt to play modern games at reasonable image-quality settings.” In AnandTech’s tests, Trinity had an average 20% lead against Ivy Bridge when comparing performance over 15 game titles. For 11 out of the 15 games, Trinity came out on top.
Significantly Better Battery Life

AMD also managed to significantly improve battery life on Trinity compared to previous AMD chips and even when compared to Ivy Bridge–even though Intel uses a new 22nm production technology, while Trinity still uses the 32nm process of older Llano chips (smaller chips tend to be more energy efficient).
In this AnandTech chart, look at the red bar for Trinity, orange for Llano, and dark green for the Asus laptop equipped with an Ivy Bridge processor to see the battery life performance differences.

AMD claims 50% better battery performance from a Trinity laptop versus Llano–up to 8.5 hours of browsing or 4 hours of YouTube video streaming, according to Slashgear.
Conclusion

Taking the synthetic test results (on a prototype laptop) with a grain of salt, an AMD Trinity-based laptop may tempt you, depending on your needs.

If you require a mobile powerhouse with the best processing performance possible, an Intel quad-core i7 will be your better bet. But if you’re a gamer or want longer battery life in your laptop, AMD has an edge over Intel.

And despite the less-than-overwhelming overall CPU performance gains, Trinity-based laptops will be more than fine for mainstream tasks.

Also not to be dismissed: Trinity-equipped laptops will, in general, be cheaper than laptops equipped with Ivy Bridge processors. For instance, AMD’s ultrathin laptops are set to be priced about $200 lower than Intel Ultrabooks.
The HP Envy Sleekbook with AMD processor is the first example of this; the Sleekbook is $150 cheaper than HP’s new Envy Ultrabooks with Intel processors.
Stay tuned for more AMD Trinity-based laptop news and reviews.

Intel chases smart TV business with new chip

By Fei on March 21, 2012

By Agam Shah
March 21, 2012

NEW YORK – Intel hopes to find a foothold in the lucrative smart TV market with the introduction of a chip for TVs and set-top boxes.

The Atom CE5300 media chip, announced on Tuesday, will allow users to watch broadcasts, access the Internet and videoconference through smart TVs or set-top boxes, according to an Intel presentation. Intel also will provide a set of networking and multimedia technologies for multiple TV streams to be sent from a set-top box simultaneously to PCs, tablets and other devices.

The new chip represents a renewed effort by Intel to chase the smart TV market after the company wound down its retail digital TV business in October last year. The company has reassigned engineers from the retail TV business to the new Service Provider Division, which is focusing on Internet-based content delivery.

The CE5300 chip succeeds Intel’s previous TV chips, which were built into branded consumer products such as Sony’s TV sets and Logitech’s Revue set-top box, which had Google TV software. Failure of the products led Intel to exit the retail TV business. This new dual-core chip is aimed at cable operators, satellite companies and telecommunication companies delivering Internet and TV services.

The Atom CE5300 chip is now available, an Intel spokeswoman said. The company already has some customers such as Amino, which will show the Freedom Live Media Gateway set-top box with the chip at the IP&TV World Forum in London from March 20 to March 22.

Intel’s previous attempts to enter the TV business have failed, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64. Intel is trying multiple business models to see which one sticks and working with service providers could be provide an easier path for Intel chips to reach living rooms.

The earlier effort to put chips directly in branded products failed because Google TV software was not ready for prime time and people did not readily buy set-top boxes, Brookwood said. Service providers delivering set-top boxes to paying TV customers represent a better chip volume opportunity for Intel.

Intel also failed in the branded-product strategy because TV buyers don’t consider the processor, Brookwood said. People don’t buy TVs as frequently as PCs, so buyers don’t run out and upgrade a TV just for a new quad-core chip.

The CE5300 chip will provide gesture control and high-definition video and gaming capabilities, according to Intel’s presentation. Depending on the service provider’s needs, the company hopes to provide modems, routers, tuners and voice gateways for devices to access Internet services and stream content over Internet Protocol networks. Some providers may also use set-top boxes as media servers, and the company will supply parts for that, according to the presentation.

But challenges await Intel as it tries to find a place in the TV business, Brookwood said.

“They have silicon that offers good value, but they are competing against other companies like MIPS that offer lower cost,” Brookwood said.

Intel also has to contend with ARM, which is already filling Intel’s shoes in the retail TV business. Marvell in January announced an ARM-based chip for televisions that will run Android and Google TV software, which could fill in for failed Intel Inside products such as the discontinued Logitech Revue.

Intel ships a new generation of Atom chips

By Fei on September 28, 2011

By Agam Shah
September 28, 2011

NEW YORK – Intel on Monday started shipping new low-power Atom chips built on the platform code-named Cedar Trail, with numerous improvements to boost graphics and application performance over their predecessor.

The two new Atom chips are targeted at entry-level desktops and all-in-one PCs for Internet surfing and basic multimedia and productivity applications, an Intel spokeswoman said. The new dual-core Atom chips run at clock speeds of up to 2.13GHz and are able play Blu-ray movies.

The Cedar Trail chips succeed the previous generation of Atom processors built on the platform code-named Pine Trail, which was criticized for poor video performance. Netbooks with the new Atom chips will ship in the fourth quarter, the spokeswoman said. Netbooks based on Cedar Trail chips were on display at this month’s Intel Developer Forum.

Netbook shipments have been hurt by growth in tablets, but Intel is keeping the Atom chip for low-cost PCs alive in an effort to offer low-cost computing options. Intel is also promoting ultrabooks as a new class of thin and light laptops with tablet-like features. While the netbooks and desktops are for basic computing, the feature-rich ultrabooks are based on Intel’s much faster Core processors and currently cost around US$1,000, with prices expected to drop.

The Atom D2700 processor runs at a clock speed of 2.13GHz, is priced at $52 and can run two threads per core. The D2500 processor operates at 1.86GHz, is priced at $42 and can run one thread per core. The chips have 1MB of cache, and support the HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) and DisplayPort interfaces. The chips will support up to 4GB of memory.

The new chips are made using the 32-nanometer process, while the predecessors were made using the 45-nm process.

Intel boosts laptop battery, graphics with Ivy Bridge

By Fei on September 20, 2011

By Agam Shah
September 20, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO – Chip and system-level improvements that Intel is making with the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture will result in laptops out next year with longer battery life and better graphics, the company said this week.

Laptops with Ivy Bridge will be engineered for CPUs, graphics accelerators, memory and screens to consume less power, the chip maker said at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco.

Laptops with Core processors based on Ivy Bridge will become available in the first half of next year. CPU and graphics processor will be integrated on a single chip, and deliver double the performance-per-watt compared to Core processors based on the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, which are available in PCs today. Intel outlined further details about the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture in multiple sessions at IDF.

Besides making on-chip improvements, Intel is enlisting the help of companies such as LG Display, which at IDF showed the new Shuriken display that can refresh on its own. By leaving the CPU and other components idle, the net 450 milliwatts of power savings can add up to an hour to a laptop’s battery life.

“When I’ve got a static system … the CPU is asleep and the self-refresh is working in the screen itself,” said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC client group.

In addition, Ivy Bridge will support low-power DDR3 memory, which will consume less power than standard DDR3 memory used in most laptops today, said Varghese George, senior principal engineer.

The DDR3L standard offers close to 15 percent power reduction compared to standard DDR3, according to the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standards-setting organization.

The low-power enhancements come as Intel pushes a new category of thin-and-light laptops called ultrabooks. PC shipments have slowed down this year partly due to tablets and with ultrabooks, Intel hopes to bring tablet features such as touchscreens, instant boot capabilities and always-on connectivity to Ivy Bridge laptops.

In trying to press home Intel’s focus on power savings, CEO Paul Otellini looked at power savings with the Haswell microarchitecture, which is Ivy Bridge’s successor and will reach laptops in 2013.

“Haswell was designed to enable a 30 percent power reduction in the connected standby power over the currently shipping notebooks,” Otellini said. He also said a new “system-level power management framework” on Haswell will produce a 20-fold power reduction in microprocessors, which could enable all-day laptop use and 10 days of always-connected standby on a single battery charge.

But users will also see significant power and performance enhancements with Ivy Bridge, which will consume up to half the power at the same performance as current Sandy Bridge chips, said Intel’s senior fellow Tom Piazza. Piazza said Ivy Bridge could alternately deliver double the performance on the same power consumption as Sandy Bridge chips, depending on how the chip is used.

The Ivy Bridge chips will be the first to use tri-gate, also called 3D, transistors, which will be up to 37 percent faster and consume less than half the power of 2D transistors on current chips. Transistors will be stacked on top of each other much like skyscrapers, rather than being placed next to each other as on current chips. The chips will be made using the 22-nm process, while current Sandy Bridge microprocessors are made using the 32-nm process.

The tri-gate breakthrough allows more features to be added to chips by placing transistors vertically or horizontally, Intel’s Varghese said.

“There is a lot of goodness that comes with the tri-gate, but also a lot of challenges,” said Varghese. “For example tri-gate has some restrictions on the kind of sizes you can use in terms of how devices snap to a certain grid.”

Varghese also highlighted on-chip enhancements that could bring multimedia enhancements to Windows PCs. Ivy Bridge will be Intel’s first chip to support DirectX 11, a set of Microsoft tools to accelerate graphics tasks and bring a more realistic gaming experiences to PCs. Advanced Micro Devices already offers on-chip DirectX 11 support with its current Fusion processors, which also combine the CPU and graphics processor on a single chip.

Ivy Bridge is also backward compatible with previous Sandy Bridge sockets, which will help PC makers launch products faster. The chip will also have integrated support for the Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 interconnect technologies.

Intel: Ultrabook is not a sign it failed in tablets

By Fei on June 1, 2011

By Michael Kan
June 01, 2011

TAIPEI – Intel’s proposal of a new class of laptop, the Ultrabook, isn’t an admission that it is losing the battle to put its microprocessors in tablets, according to a company executive.

“We are late. Today there are many tablets that do not have Intel inside. But we are putting a lot of effort to cash in,” said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC Client Group.

Intel announced the Ultrabook series on Tuesday at Taipei’s Computex trade show. The devices are meant to combine the faster processing speeds of PCs with the thin and light designs of tablets.

Ultrabooks will be less than 20 millimeters (0.8 inches) thick and Intel is working with manufacturers to get a first wave of the devices out by the holiday shopping season at the end of the year priced under US$1,000, the company said Tuesday. Asus said Tuesday that an Ultrabook dubbed the UX21 will be out by the end of the year.

Subsequent ultrabooks will be based on upcoming processors code-named Ivy Bridge, to be released next year, and Haswell, to be released in 2013. Though the first ultrabooks due out on the market do not appear to offer specifications much different than current laptops, the low power consumption of Haswell chips will allow for even slimmer designs and longer battery life, Intel said.

Intel has high hopes for Ultrabooks: it expects they will account for 40 percent of consumer laptop sales by the end of next year.

But the company is also trying to grab a bigger share of the tablet market. Currently most of those devices use chips designed by Intel’s rival, ARM Holdings, because ARM’s designs are considered more power efficient. Unlike Intel, ARM doesn’t make chips itself, but licenses its processor core designs to other manufacturers for incorporation in their own products.

ARM could also pose a threat to Intel’s core business in the PC market. On Monday, ARM predicted more than half of all tablets, mini-notebooks and other mobile PCs sold in 2015 will use the company’s processors.

During an interview with the press, Eden emphasized that Intel was not admitting failure in the tablet market by introducing the Ultrabook, and pointed to the company’s efforts to develop its own microprocessors designed for low-power devices such as tablets. In April, Intel announced its new Atom processor, known as Oak Trail, which Intel expects will be used in 35 tablet designs.

“We always take our competition seriously,” Eden said, adding that he believes Intel will win out in the end because it has more advanced processors. “ARM technology will try to go up into the notebook space. We will try to go down into their space. Let the best one win.”

Intel’s announcement of the Ultrabook also does not mean the company is shifting its attention away from netbooks, according to Erik Reid, general manager for Intel’s mobile platform division.

“We absolutely believe in the netbook category,” he said, adding that Intel will announce new innovations for Netbooks on Wednesday at Computex. Intel also wants to bring the price of netbooks down to $199, Reid said.

Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure

By Fei on May 11, 2011

May 11, 2011

Intel Corporation recently announced a significant breakthrough in the evolution of the transistor, the microscopic building block of modern electronics. For the first time since the invention of silicon transistors over 50 years ago, transistors using a three-dimensional structure will be put into high-volume manufacturing. Intel will introduce a revolutionary 3-D transistor design called Tri-Gate, first disclosed by Intel in 2002, into high-volume manufacturing at the 22-nanometer (nm) node in an Intel chip codenamed “Ivy Bridge.” A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.The three-dimensional Tri-Gate transistors represent a fundamental departure from the two-dimensional planar transistor structure that has powered not only all computers, mobile phones and consumer electronics to-date, but also the electronic controls within cars, spacecraft, household appliances, medical devices and virtually thousands of other everyday devices for decades.

“Intel’s scientists and engineers have once again reinvented the transistor, this time utilizing the third dimension,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. “Amazing, world-shaping devices will be created from this capability as we advance Moore’s Law into new realms.”

Scientists have long recognized the benefits of a 3-D structure for sustaining the pace of Moore’s Law as device dimensions become so small that physical laws become barriers to advancement. The key to today’s breakthrough is Intel’s ability to deploy its novel 3-D Tri-Gate transistor design into high-volume manufacturing, ushering in the next era of Moore’s Law and opening the door to a new generation of innovations across a broad spectrum of devices.

Moore’s Law is a forecast for the pace of silicon technology development that states that roughly every2 years transistor density will double, while increasing functionality and performance and decreasing costs. It has become the basic business model for the semiconductor industry for more than 40 years.

Intel’s 3-D Tri-Gate transistors enable chips to operate at lower voltage with lower leakage, providing an unprecedented combination of improved performance and energy efficiency compared to previous state-of-the-art transistors. The capabilities give chip designers the flexibility to choose transistors targeted for low power or high performance, depending on the application.

The 22nm 3-D Tri-Gate transistors provide up to 37 percent performance increase at low voltage versus Intel’s 32nm planar transistors. This incredible gain means that they are ideal for use in small handheld devices, which operate using less energy to “switch” back and forth. Alternatively, the new transistors consume less than half the power when at the same performance as 2-D planar transistors on 32nm chips.

“The performance gains and power savings of Intel’s unique 3-D Tri-Gate transistors are like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Mark Bohr, Intel Senior Fellow. “This milestone is going further than simply keeping up with Moore’s Law. The low-voltage and low-power benefits far exceed what we typically see from one process generation to the next. It will give product designers the flexibility to make current devices smarter and wholly new ones possible. We believe this breakthrough will extend Intel’s lead even further over the rest of the semiconductor industry.”

Transistors continue to get smaller, cheaper and more energy efficient in accordance with Moore’s Law – named for Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. Because of this, Intel has been able to innovate and integrate, adding more features and computing cores to each chip, increasing performance, and decreasing manufacturing cost per transistor.

Sustaining the progress of Moore’s Law becomes even more complex with the 22nm generation. Anticipating this, Intel research scientists in 2002 invented what they called a Tri-Gate transistor, named for the three sides of the gate. Today’s announcement follows further years of development in Intel’s highly coordinated research-development-manufacturing pipeline, and marks the implementation of this work for high-volume manufacturing.

The 3-D Tri-Gate transistors are a reinvention of the transistor. The traditional “flat” two-dimensional planar gate is replaced with an incredibly thin three-dimensional silicon fin that rises up vertically from the silicon substrate. Control of current is accomplished by implementing a gate on each of the three sides of the fin – two on each side and one across the top — rather than just one on top, as is the case with the 2-D planar transistor. The additional control enables as much transistor current flowing as possible when the transistor is in the “on” state (for performance), and as close to zero as possible when it is in the “off” state (to minimize power), and enables the transistor to switch very quickly between the two states (again, for performance).

Just as skyscrapers let urban planners optimize available space by building upward, Intel’s 3-D Tri-Gate transistor structure provides a way to manage density. Since these fins are vertical in nature, transistors can be packed closer together, a critical component to the technological and economic benefits of Moore’s Law. For future generations, designers also have the ability to continue growing the height of the fins to get even more performance and energy-efficiency gains.

“For years we have seen limits to how small transistors can get,” said Moore. “This change in the basic structure is a truly revolutionary approach, and one that should allow Moore’s Law, and the historic pace of innovation, to continue.”

The 3-D Tri-Gate transistor will be implemented in the company’s upcoming manufacturing process, called the 22nm node, in reference to the size of individual transistor features. More than 6 million 22nm Tri-Gate transistors could fit in the period at the end of this sentence.

Today, Intel demonstrated the world’s first 22nm microprocessor, codenamed “Ivy Bridge,” working in a laptop, server and desktop computer. Ivy Bridge-based Intel Core family processors will be the first high-volume chips to use 3-D Tri-Gate transistors. Ivy Bridge is slated for high-volume production readiness by the end of this year.

This silicon technology breakthrough will also aid in the delivery of more highly integrated Intel Atom processor-based products that scale the performance, functionality and software compatibility of Intel architecture while meeting the overall power, cost and size requirements for a range of market segment needs.

Look Out for the 256GB Thumb Drive and the 128GB Tablet

By Fei on April 18, 2011

By Bruce Gain
April 18, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO – How much money would you be willing to pay for a 128GB thumb drive or a 512GB solid-state hard disk? What about paying half the amount that you would have to spend today? Intel and Micron Technology say the scenario should become a reality next year.

Thanks to improvements to its production technology, IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture between Intel and Micron, has begun to make 8GB NAND devices using a 20 nanometer (nm) production process. The joint venture should begin to produce samples of 16GB NAND devices later this year.

After production of the 16MB devices begins, memory prices should be twice as cheap next year, thanks to the extra density the devices will have, Micron representatives said. For example, you should be able to buy a 128GB thumb drive sometime next year for the same price that you would pay for a 64GB USB 2.0 thumb drive today.

It should also be possible to buy a 256GB thumb drive in retail channels next year, but as a Micron representative said, “It will command a hefty price,” like 128GB drives do today.

In the PC drive space, you should be able to purchase a 1TB solid-state hard disk sometime in 2012 for the same price that a 512GB model commands now.

For tablets, which consume a large percentage of the world’s NAND supply, it is difficult to say how plummeting memory prices will affect the total cost of these devices, but I would expect to see tablets with 128GB of memory to be in the pipeline.
Besides offering larger memory capacities, the NAND devices will shrink in size. The 8 GB NAND devices will be up to 40 percent smaller compared with existing 8GB devices produced with a 25 nm process. The extra real estate means more room for larger-sized batteries, screens, or more chips for extra computing horsepower, Intel and Micron said.

Times certainly have changed. It wasn’t that long ago when a 1GB thumb drive commanded a premium price and solid-state drives were in the prototype stage. Going further back in time, a Micron representative said the per-gigabyte price of NAND memory devices was about $1000 in the mid 1990s while prices have plummeted to about $1 per gigabyte today. Suppliers have been able to shrink the memory chip and the circuitry designs over the years, thanks largely to advances in lithography similar to what AMD and Intel have done with CPUs.

Extra memory capacity at an affordable price can obviously be put to good use at a small business or home office. Besides being able to buy tablets and smartphones with much more memory, think how nice it will be to be able to copy a large chunk of your PC hard drive’s data onto a thumb drive. You can then carry the data with you in your pocket to take on trips or just for an easy file transfer from one machine to another. (Hopefully the drive will be encrypted, of course.) Workstations with 1TB solid-state drives at affordable prices will not be so bad to have, either.

PC makers rolling out new Sandy Bridge laptops

By Fei on February 24, 2011

By Agam Shah
February 24, 2011

NEW YORK – Lenovo and Sony on Tuesday announced faster laptops based on Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors, which the PC makers said could offer longer battery life than models based on Intel’s older chips.

Lenovo announced ThinkPad T, L and W business laptops, while Sony announced a lineup of Vaio C laptops with Intel’s new Core i3, i5 and i7 chips. Dell in early February announced business laptops based on the Sandy Bridge chips.

The laptops will ship starting mid-March and come with dual-core and quad-core processors and fixed Sandy Bridge chipsets. Late last month Intel halted shipments of Sandy Bridge chipsets after it found a design flaw, which prompted some PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell to halt or delay product shipments.

Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors are faster and more power efficient than its predecessors, which could help programs run faster while consuming less power, said Roger Kay, principal analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates.

“That ends up translating to longer battery life,” Kay said.

Sandy Bridge also marks the first time that Intel has put the CPU and graphics processor in a single chip, which is a big step forward, Kay said.

“You have decent graphics… in a very power-conserving environment,” Kay said.

Another power saving on Sandy Bridge is Turbo Boost 2.0, in which idle processing cores can be shut down to save power. The technology is also able to crank up the speed of cores depending on the level of processing power needed.

Lenovo said its ThinkPad T420 delivers up to 15 hours of battery with a nine-cell battery, better than the 11 hours of its predecessor. Lenovo has taken advantage of certain hooks provided by Intel to shut down idle components when not in use, which has helped improve the battery life, Kay said.

Intel has also included new graphics capabilities into the Core chips that speed up the creation and rendering of video. A feature called Quick Sync allows the conversion of high-definition video into a format suitable for smartphones in just a few seconds. Another feature called Wireless Display 2.0, available with Sony’s new Vaio C multimedia laptops, allows users to wirelessly stream high-definition content from the laptop to high-definition TVs.

The ThinkPads are bundled with Intel’s Core VPro platform, which combines software and hardware technology for IT administrators to remotely manage and secure laptops. The platform includes many new remote management features such as Anti-Theft 3.0, which allows IT managers to remotely disable stolen or lost laptops over wired, Wi-Fi or 3G networks. The laptops can be reactivated through a code provided by the IT department.

Tablets with Intel’s Meego OS coming in second quarter

By Fei on January 31, 2011

By Agam Shah
January 31, 2011

NEW YORK – Tablets and netbooks based on Intel’s Meego OS are expected to start shipping in the second quarter this year, a source familiar with Intel’s plans said on Friday.

Intel has been investing heavily in the development of Meego, which is a lightweight Linux OS for tablets, smartphones and embedded devices. Thus far, Meego has not been offered by any tablet or netbook vendor.

Meego is currently in version 1.1, with version 1.2 due for release between April 21 and April 27, according to the Meego roadmap.

An Intel official declined to say when Meego-based tablets and netbooks would come out, saying the company doesn’t comment on unannounced products. However in the past Asustek Computer and Acer have voiced support for Meego.

Intel has already shown Meego on tablets. The demonstration highlighted the multitasking capabilities of the OS, with the ability to run multiple applications at the same time, and allowing up to five users to play a game simultaneously.

With Meego, Intel hopes to provide an OS optimized for a range of low-power devices based on its Atom processor. Atom competes with the ARM processor, which is used in most tablets including Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. Intel is also porting Android 3.0, code-named Honeycomb to work on Atom chips.

Meego was originally announced in February last year by Intel and Nokia. The OS merged Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo OSes, and development is now being managed by The Linux Foundation.

Devices based on Intel’s latest Oak Trail tablet chip, which is based on an Atom processor, are expected to reach the market by either late this quarter or early next quarter. Intel is also expected to talk about its latest smartphone chip, code-named Medfield, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from Feb. 14 to Feb. 17.

The Meego OS will vie for market share with tablet OSes including Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. Canonical in the past has said it would come out with a version of the Ubuntu OS for tablets.

While the company doesn’t have commercial tablet customers, automobile alliance Genivi Alliance said it would standardize on the adoption of MeeGo for use in in-vehicle entertainment and Internet systems. Genivi Alliance members include BMW and General Motors.

Intel, Other Top Companies Unveil NewCloud Mission: Open Data Centers

By Fei on January 10, 2011

January 10, 2011

Intel Corporation unveiled several new initiatives under its “Cloud 2015” vision aimed at making cloud-based Internet computing more interoperable, secure and simplified.

Intel’s Cloud 2015 vision has three key elements: a “federated” cloud that allows enterprises to share data across internal and external clouds; an “automated” network that automatically allows the secure movement of applications and resources to significantly improve energy efficiency in data centers; and PC and device-savvy “client-aware” clouds that know what types of applications, commands and processing should take place in the cloud or on your laptop, smartphone or other device – thus taking a user and specific device’s unique features into account to fully optimize an online experience.

Intel will support these goals by creating software and building new capabilities into Intel Xeon processors, which include features such as Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) and Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT) that form the basis of cloud computing today.

As a step toward Cloud 2015, Intel helped create the Open Data Center Alliance, a coalition of more than 70 leading businesses that together represent more than $50 billion in annual IT investment and that have cloud research or projects underway. Alliance Steering Committee members include BMW, China Life, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Inc., National Australia Bank, Shell, Terremark and UBS. The alliance will lay out future hardware and software requirements that lead to more open and interoperable cloud and data center solutions. Intel plays a unique advisory role within the alliance, whose initial membership is focused on end user companies rather than technology providers.

Intel embraces the Open Data Center Alliance’s vision and goals and plans to deliver products and solutions consistent with these goals. Intel will work with its hardware and software partners, engaging the industry to innovate on open standards, delivering a faster ramp to the next stage of the Internet, and delivering an open, interoperable and secure cloud that will empower the next generation of business, movies, gaming, music, social media and other yet-to-be-invented Web services.

“The industry has an opportunity to accelerate the potential of cloud computing, delivering even better industry economics through this transformation,” said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager, Intel Data Center Group. “With the Open Data Center Alliance we now have the world’s top businesses focused and actively engaged with Intel and the high-tech industry, accelerating solutions to the cloud’s key challenges. The server industry has gone through an amazing transformation since the Intel Pentium® Pro’s introduction in 1995; our goal is to ensure that cloud computing continues to deliver breakthrough economics based on the same fundamental principle —innovation on open, interoperable standards.”

The goal of the Intel® Cloud Builders program is to provide a path to the Cloud 2015 vision. Intel announced a significant expansion of this program that brings together leading system and software solution partners to provide proven cloud building recipes and practical guidance on how to deploy, maintain and optimize a cloud infrastructure.

While the alliance will determine future requirements for cloud infrastructure, the Intel Cloud Builders program will help bring these requirements to life with full solutions. The program now has a total of 20 reference architectures with several more on the horizon. It represents a community of the most critical providers of technology in the cloud, including Canonical, Cisco, Citrix, Dell, EMC, Enomaly, Eucalyptus Systems, Gproxy, HP, IBM, Intel, Joyent, Microsoft, NetApp, NetSuite, Novell, Parallels, Red Hat, Univa and VMware.

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