A Samsung rep has been caught claiming that they are “planning to release a 2GHz dual-core CPU-equipped smartphone by next year”, adding that “this product will have the data processing capacities of a regular PC”. Not only does Samsung plan on using these chips in their own smartphones, they’re also hoping to sell the components to other manufacturers as well. More »
RIM’s Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said in an interview with PCMag that while “the multicore platform is currently perfect for tablets,” BlackBerry just isn’t ready to jump into the dual-core smartphones pool alongside LG, Samsung, Motorola et al. He cited “battery life, size, weight, thickness and cost” as reasons for delaying the faster processor speed. [PCMag via BGR via TechRadar]
If these specs are to be believed, the Thunderbolt will be HTC’s first dual-core phone (with a 1.2GHz MSM8960 processor), and will contain an 8MP rear-facing camera and 5MP forward-facing camera. More »
A team of computer researchers have managed to squeeze an incredible 1000 separate cores into a new form of CPU, resulting in what they expect to be a 20-fold increase in current performance. More »
AMD’s making a strong budget play today, releasing its 3.2GHz Phenom II dual core desktop processor for under $US100. It comes as part of a broader release that also includes the Phenom II X4 910e, clocked at 2.6GHz but energy friendly at 65W, as well as three new Athlon II processors that range from 65W-95W and $US74-$US119. More »
Details for Intel’s new quad- and dual-core i7 and i5 chips have leaked in the form of a roadmap, so we’ve got some excellent specifics, including release dates and prices. More »
Now it’s official, AMD has bumped its Athlon processors off the high horse and replaced them with Phenom X2 (dual core) and Phenom X4 (quad core) processors, and the company says these new chips will be part of its enthusiast platform it calls FASN8. The company’s saying that when you lash these chips together with its DirectX 10 ATI Radion HD 2000 series graphics cards shipped today, you’ll get, well, some serious graphics performance. We’ll believe it when we see it, but the ability to have two of these quad-core processors on one motherboard will surely make for some serious eight-way action.
AMD added lots of bluster along with the announcement, too:
With this announcement, AMD also unleashes some world-class marketing guff, calling these Phenom X4 chips the first “true quad core” processors, accusing “other products” of “packaging two dual core chips to form their quad core processors.” Accusations such as this volley directed at Intel signal a hot chip war on the way.
It’s going to take a lot for AMD to catch up to Intel, though, but the enhanced performance per watt of these chips, along with their Dual Socket Direct Connect architecture, 128-bit FPUs and shared L3 cache might just put a bit of heat on Intel for a while. We can’t wait to see the benchmarks on these chips, because until we see the performance numbers, this just sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo. – Charlie White
Press Release [AMD]
