The new edition of TOP500 is out - and it is a surprise to see AMD heavily featured in the fastest supercomputers. Of the top 5 supercomputers in the world - AMD products find there way into all but one. Surprisingly, we have to look at #5 for the first showing of Intel.

Architecturally, Intel's Nehalem based Xeon CPUs are vastly superior to AMD's Shanghai based Opterons. However, six core Opterons do have a core count advantage. Even with 50% more cores, the quad core Xeons often sneaks past their Opteron rivals. There are applications which prefer the higher core count - and perhaps this is something supercomputer makers consider.

More next page.

Intel plans to launch four 32nm dual-core Arrandale CPUs (Calpella platform), the Core i5-520M, Core i5-430M, Core i3-350M and Core i3-330M, in the first half of January 2010 for the mainstream notebook market with one of them featuring Intel's Turboboost technology.

Intel has once again found itself in the middle of legal troubles. Following the mammoth $1.45 billion EU fine earlier in the year, an FTC complaint to be made soon, New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has sued Intel for similar antitrust violations.

Cuomo accuses Intel of "abusing its dominant position in the chip market to keep its main rival, Advanced Micro Devices, at bay". Fair enough, considering this very accusation has been proven and penalized by EU, South Korea and Japanese authorities.

More details next page.

As we expected, AMD is now releasing a new revision of the Phenom II X4 965, C3. The most notable feature is reduced power consumption, dropping from a seary 140W to 125W. In reality, the previous 965 was right on the boundary of 125W anyway, so the actual drop in load power is reported to be more to the tune of 10W. A thermal improvement is also expected to yield a greater overclocking headroom, though that needs to, and will be, tested soon.

In addition, there are a few other tweaks, such as official support for four DDR3 modules at 1333 MHz, and C1E is finally supported in hardware. AMD have struggled with power management, especially the original Phenom series, with slower software power switching costing big chunks of performance. Switching power states through hardware will have "virtually no impact" on performance.

More details next page.

This is a rumour that has surfaced and died several times, and it has resurfaced again. However, this time, there is more evidence than usual. Over the last year or two, Nvidia have spent a lot of time and effort into marketing stream computing. GPUs, or parallel processors, are significantly more powerful than their CPU counterparts. However, parallel processors can only process specific instructions, and a CPU is still required for general processing. So, as much as Nvidia would convince consumers about the benefits of GPU, there is no doubt a GPU would be useless were it not run together with a CPU.

Recently, Nvidia reportedly presented a CPU+GPU for 2017. AMD Fusion is all about the same central idea - a GPU and a CPU on one die. Though Intel will be the first with a GPU and a CPU on one package, they will be on different dies, and the GPU will be a weak Intel IGP anyway. Now, rumours are suggesting Nvidia are keen to not be left behind by the CPU+GPU revolution, and are developing x86 CPUs.

More details next page.

According to Digitimes, AMD is making several changes to its CPU schedules, particularly corresponding to the Phenom II line. Phenom II X4 910 and 945 are EOL already. AMD will stop taking orders for a whole raft of CPUs starting Q1 2010. These CPUs will be currently existing steppings of Phenom II X4 925, 965, 810; Phenom II X3 720; Phenom II X2 540; Athlon II X4 620; and Athlon II X3 425.

A new stepping of Phenom II CPUs is expected to hit, reducing power consumptions of several Phenom II products. Phenom II X4 955 is expected to move to 95W, Phenom II X4 965 to 125W. A new Phenom II X4 965, clocked at 3.6 GHz is also rumoured as part of this new stepping.

More details next page.

A Japanese website has leaked slides from a major presentation organized by AMD Japan. We have a roadmap with all details, not just CPU, but GPU, IGP, Chipset and entire platforms from AMD all the way till 2011 - for both Desktop and Notebooks. 

The most successful and longest selling Nehalem CPU, the Core i7 920, will finally be replaced in Q1 2010 by Intel. 

Although Core i5/i7 Lynnfield CPUs are out in the wild, it must be noted that Intel have so far refused to cut prices of previous-gen Core 2 processors. The Core ix line will be further advanced come January 2010 with the introduction of dual-core Clarkdale CPUs, branded Core i3/i5. However, Fudzilla reports that there are no signs of price cuts even in January.

The last official Core 2 price adjustment was way back in late Q2, in response to the Phenom II threat. Since then, however, the prices have remained the same.

More details next page.

Intel has once again found themselves in trouble with Antitrust authorities. Following closely after Intel's unprecedented $1.45 billion fine by the EU, it is the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) who are set to file an official complaint.

Intel responded by saying "Our business practices are lawful and (work) to the benefit of consumers."

Nevertheless, Intel has already been fined by three major trade authorities - Japan, South Korea and EU - for anti-competitive practices.

More next page.