<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="content">Clarkdale is the desktop processor, but Arrandale is strictly for my notebooks. The architecture is the same as Clarkdale. You've got a 32nm Westmere core and a 45nm chipset on the same package.<br /> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">The two-chip solution does matter more for notebooks as it means that motherboards can shrink. Previously this feature was only available to OEMs who went with NVIDIA's ION platform (or GeForce 9400M as it was once known). This is the first incarnation of Intel's 32nm process so it's not quite as power optimized as we'd like. The first mainstream Arrandale CPUs are 35W TDP, compared to the 25W TDP of most thin and light notebooks based on mobile Core 2. Granted the 35W includes the graphics, but it's not always going to be lower total power consumption (more on this later).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">The Arrandale lineup launching today is <em><strong>huge</strong></em>. Intel launched 7 Clarkdale CPUs, but we've got a 11 mobile Arrandale CPUs coming out today.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="content"> </span></span></p> <p>The architecture is similar to Clarkdale. You get private 256KB L2s (one per core) and a unified L3 cache for the CPU. The L3 is only 3MB (like the Pentium G9650) on the Core i5 and Core i3 processors, but it's 4MB (like the desktop Core i5/i3) on the mobile Core i7. Confused yet? I'll have to admit, Intel somehow took a potentially simple naming scheme and made it unnecessarily complex. We also get some low-voltage parts that have 18W TDPs. They run at low default clock speeds but can turbo up pretty high.</p> <p><span class="content"> <p>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: small;">Turbo is hugely important here. While Clarkdale's Turbo isn't exactly useful, the TDPs are low enough in mobile that you can really ramp up clock speed if you aren't limited by cooling. Presumably this will allow you to have ultra high performance plugged-in modes where your CPU (and fans) can ramp up as high as possible to get great performance out of your notebook. Add an SSD and the difference between a desktop and a notebook just got even smaller.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">Arrandale does have one trick that Clarkdale does not: graphics turbo.</span></p> </span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">GPU bound applications (e.g. games) can force the CPU part of Arrandale into a low power state, and the GPU can use the added thermal headroom to increase its clock speed. This is a mobile only feature but it's the start of what will ultimately be the answer to achieving a balanced system. Just gotta get those Larrabee cores on-die...</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">Chipsets are even more complicated on the mobile side.</span></p> <p><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3705"><span style="font-size: small;">Read more...<br /> </span></a></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span></p>

<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="content"> </span></span></p> <p>I swear this is the longest it&rsquo;s taken for an Intel architecture to penetrate the market. We first met Nehalem on November 3rd, 2008. It came to us as a high end quad-core processor and took a full year to make it to more affordable motherboards in the form of Lynnfield. Even with P55 motherboard prices down at the magical $99 marker, Intel relinquished control of the $100 - $200 CPU market without a Nehalem to compete down there. Instead we were left with a choice between Penryn, the update to Intel&rsquo;s 2006 Conroe architecture, or Phenom II, AMD&rsquo;s low-cost Nehalem competitor. The choice was simple.</p> <p><span class="content"> <p>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: small;">From $100 to $200, your best bet has been AMD. Either through aggressive pricing on quad-core CPUs or the L3-cache-less Athlon II line, AMD controls the $100 - $200 market. Today we meet Intel's first 32nm CPUs, codename Clarkdale, designed to specifically target that $100 - $200 market. </span></p> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="content"> <p>Technically Clarkdale isn&rsquo;t Nehalem, it&rsquo;s Westmere. Take Nehalem, use 32nm transistors, add in some new instructions for accelerating encryption/decryption, and you&rsquo;ve got the makings of Westmere.</p> </span></span><span class="content"> <p>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: small;">Clarkdale uses a dual-core Westmere and sticks it next to a 45nm Intel GMA die. That&rsquo;s right, meet the first (er, second) Intel CPU with on-chip graphics. Next year we&rsquo;ll see Sandy Bridge bring the graphics on-die, but until then we have Intel&rsquo;s tried and true multi-chip-package to tide us over.</span></p> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="content"> <p>We don&rsquo;t get on-die graphics yet because Intel still hasn&rsquo;t switched over to its make-everything-at-the-best-process-ever strategy. The 32nm fabs are ramping up with CPU production and the 45nm fabs need something to do. Nearly every desktop and laptop sold in 2010 will need one of these 45nm GMA die, so the fabs indeed have something to do.</p> </span></span><span class="content"> <p>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: small;">It&rsquo;s not all rosy with Clarkdale unfortunately. Remember the memory controller that Nehalem so graciously integrated? Clarkdale kicks it off die again. The IMC is housed in the 45nm GMA die. It&rsquo;s still on-package, but not on-die. The benefit is super fast memory access for the graphics core, but slower memory access for the CPU core. In fact, this is a derivative of the memory controller used in older Intel chipsets (e.g. P45/X48). <br /> </span></p> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="content"> <p>The CPU connects to the GMA die using QPI, so bandwidth shouldn&rsquo;t be as big of a problem. Latency is unfortunately hurt as a result. Access times can be longer than older LGA-775 processors thanks to this memory controller design being optimized for FSB architectures. Again, the problem goes away with Sandy Bridge, but today we&rsquo;re faced with it.</p> </span></span><span class="content"> <p>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: small;">Like Lynnfield, Clarkdale uses Intel&rsquo;s LGA-1156 socket. Clarkdale should work in all P55 motherboards, but you&rsquo;ll need a BIOS update. No existing P55 motherboards route video from the socket to a VGA/DVI/HDMI connector, so you&rsquo;ll need a new motherboard if you want to take advantage of the on-package graphics. Enter the H55, H57 and Q57 chipsets.</span></p> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="content">The H and Q-series of chipsets feature what Intel calls its Flexible Display Interface (FDI). This is basically a link between the CPU and the chipset that passes along video output. H5x/Q57 motherboards will have a video out on board so you can use Clarkdale&rsquo;s integrated graphics.<br /> </span><span class="content">Support for Intel&rsquo;s Rapid Storage Technology is probably the main reason you&rsquo;ll want H57 over H55. The difference between H57 and Q57 boils down to security and management features. The H-series is for consumers, the Q-series is for corporate customers. Make sense?</span><br /> </span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3704">Read more...</a><br /> </span></p>

<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="content">Dell has really come into its own in the past few years. Shedding the image (and fur?) of yet another cheap PC OEM, Dell has tried to make design a more important part of its manufacturing as of late. Not every design is a win, but the zino HD appears to be the first nettop styled to have mass market appeal.<br /> </span><span class="content">As soon as Dell announced the zino HD I was bombarded with emails. Not for a review of the system, but for a review of the processors inside the machine. <br /> </span></span><span class="content"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">The 2650e is a single-core K8 based Socket-AM2/AM2+ processor that runs at 1.6GHz. It&rsquo;s got 512KB of L2 cache and the rest of the feature set of the older K8 AM2 processors. As an AM2 chip it&rsquo;s DDR2 only and physically won&rsquo;t fit or work in an AM3 motherboard. Keep that in mind before you go sticking one of these where it doesn&rsquo;t belong.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">Based on its specs, the Athlon 2650e is a near perfect competitor for Intel&rsquo;s Atom. The newly announced D510 runs at 1.66GHz (close enough), but is an in-order architecture with Hyper Threading. Bottom line? The Athlon 2650e should be faster in single threaded apps, but slower in multitasking/multithreaded applications. Great. Atom boasts a lower total TDP as well. <br /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="content">The Athlon X2 3250e fixes the 2650e&rsquo;s biggest shortcoming by adding a second core. The clock speed drops a bit to 1.5GHz, but the rest of the specs stay the same. TDP goes up from 15W on the 2650e to 22W for the 3250e. </span></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3703">Read more...</a><br /> </span></p>

<p><img alt="" width="120" height="80" align="right" src="http://www.innodisk.com/new_pic/matador_02A.jpg" /></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>InnoDisk Corp. a anunţat pe 22 Decembrie lansarea unităţilor SSD ce sunt capabile să realizeze scrierea datelor cu aproximativ 600MB/sec şi citirea cu 800MB/sec.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

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