The PC Report

A new rumour surrounding AMD’s latest six-core processors has leaked out of AMD HQ. Their “Thuban” six-core CPUs will apparently be showcased at CeBIT 2010 in Germany, followed by a release to the public on April 26. This release will coincide with AMD’s 880G chipset debut.

The new hexa-core processors will go under the Phenom II X6 name and start with the 1075T, 1055T and 1035T models. All CPUs will be based off AMD’s 45nm process and compatible with the AM2+/AM3 sockets. Thuban processors will also have a speed boost-type technology that will function similar to Intel’s Turbo Boost technology featured in their Core i5 and i7 CPUs.

Today AMD has taken one big step in announcing that samples of their Fusion APU (Advanced Processing Unit), codenamed “Llano”, should be available in the first half of this year with volume production in 2011. The 32nm chip will pack both a quad-core processor as well as  a DirectX 11 supporting graphics processor on the one die. The chip is said to run at 3GHz+ and will support DDR3.

This “Llano” chip will go head on with Intel’s single die CPU+GPU solution, Sandy Bridge, which is also set for a 2011 production release. However, AMD will have the heads up on the Intel chip with their DX11-supporting GPU (which is based on the Evergreen DX11 lineup); Intel’s chip only supports DX10. AMD is also boasting that the chip will be less power consuming thanks to  power gating – a technique used on Intel’s Nehalem chips to help lower a core’s power and power up another core (hence Turbo Boost).

Also, for those of you wondering, Intel’s Arrandale and Clarkdale chips are not the same as these single-die CPU+GPU solutions – the Arrandale/Clarkdale chips have two dies (one for the CPU and one for the GPU). Anyway, no doubt we’ll see more of these chips later this year.

New reports are coming through about when both AMD and Intel will release their new six-core processors into their ranges. According to Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers the Intel six-core “Gulftown” CPUs, starting with the Core i7-980X, will be coming out at the end of March this year and priced at greater than US$1,000.

AMD will be releasing their six-core “Thuban” processors sometime in May of 2010. The CPUs will go under the Phenom II X6 1000T series, and will start with the Phenom II X6 1075T, 1055T and 1035T and will all be based off the 45nm process. A quad-core Phenom II X4 960T will also be released along with the six-core CPUs, and the new 890FX and 890GX chipsets will come a month before.

AMD has released 5 new processors into the Athlon II and Phenom II line-up to fill out the lower-end of the scale, and also to compete with the recently released Intel Clarkdale processors. In this selection, we’re seeing two Phenom IIs and three Athlon IIs with prices ranging from US$74 up to US$169.

To get into the itty-bitty details, there is a Phenom II X4 910e running at 2.6GHz with a low power consumption of 65W but the highest price of US$169. Also new to the Phenom II range is the X2 555 BE – a dual-core processor clocking 3.2GHz and costing just US$99. In the Athlon II range there is the X4 635, X3 440 and X2 255 – with clock speeds of 2.9GHz, 3.0GHz and 3.1GHz respectively and prices of US$119, US$84 and US$74 respectively.

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ATI is getting around to filling out the lower-end of their DirectX 11 compatible series with their latest release: the ATI Radeon HD 5670. The new card is made on the same 40nm process as its bigger brothers, carries either 1GB or 512MB GDDR5 RAM and is fully compatible with both DirectX 11 and ATI’s multi-monitor Eyefinity technology.

Performance wise, the HD 5670 is on-par with the performance of Nvidia’s GT 240 card, if not slightly better in real-world testing while using less power to boot. However, of course, this card isn’t really designed for gaming (being a lower-end 5000 series card) so don’t expect fantastic framerates in the latest games. But, for under US$100 you wont find a better card with the same wealth of features.

A few days ago at CES 2010, AMD unveiled their new range of DirectX 11 compatible ATI Mobility Radeons for the new generation of high performance laptops. The top of the line Mobility Radeon HD 5870 of the HD 5800 series is also followed by the HD 5700, HD 5600 and HD 5400 series – all DirectX 11 compatible and all come with support for ATI’s Eyefinity multi-monitor technology.

Asus has already packed the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 into their latest gaming laptop, the ROG G73jh, making it one of the fastest gaming laptops available with full DX11 capabilities. We should be seeing more laptops like the G73jh soon enough (with no battery life, of course) as well as some mid-range laptops for multimedia playback using the lower end HD 5000 Mobility Radeons.

It’s heading up to CES 2010 so it’s just about the right time for huge amounts of new machines to start flooding in for users to enjoy. Heading off the pack is the Lenovo line-up refresh, which has been officially released today.

First up is the new Lenovo ThinkPad Edge, which is rather sexy for a ThinkPad machine and will be available in a few different colors. At launch, you will be able to grab the 13-inch model (14- and 15-inch models coming later) with either an AMD Turion Neo X2 or AMD Athlon Neo X2 processor with up to 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Other features include WiFi b/g/n, optional 3G/WiMAX in-built modem, a built in card reader and HDMI out. It will come preloaded with your choice of either Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional (32-bit or 64-bit)

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The next generation Asus Eee PC has been shown off in an international event. The Eee PC 1201T is one of the first laptops to adopt the AMD Congo platform – the 1201T is going to be powered by the 1.6GHz AMD Neo MV40 and HD 3200 graphics for some netbook grunt comparable to the Intel ION platform. Other internals include 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 250GB hard drive and a 6-cell battery.

All of these bits and bobs will fit inside the sleek looking Eee PC 1201T shell with a 12.1″ display at 1366×768, which unfortunately still carries the borderless trackpad with dimples that many people dislike. No word yet on pricing or availability, but we expect them to be announced soon. It will be interesting to see if 1080p playback really is possible as AMD said…

The Dragon Technology team just loves to push processors to their max, and has done so again with an AMD Phenom II. Via the use of some super-cool liquid helium they managed to push the CPU all the way up to 7.08GHz, shattering the 3DMark06 record. Check out the cool documentary above to see how the team achieved such a feat.

Perfect for the power conscious – some new AMD Athlon II processors that not only are cheap, but also run on relatively low power consumption. Almost all of the eight new AMD processors run at an impressive 45W TDP, including the new Athlon II X4s. While these chips may not be the fastest that AMD has brought out, they certainly are good for those looking for a low power, low cost computer.

In the mix are two X2 CPUs, four X3s and two X4s, which apparently perform “70% better in media and entertainment benchmarks” than the most comparable Intel CPU (I am extremely doubtful of this). When bought in bulk, the processors start at US$69 for the lowest model X2 and go up to US$143 for the best X4 from the new range. Check out more info in the press release.