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Intel Corp. expects its forthcoming Intel Core i7 processors to be much more powerful compared to existing central processing units, according to documents reportedly seen by the media. If the information turns to be precise enough, then Intel has all chances to keep processor performance crown even after smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices launches its new chips.

Documents from Intel Corp. allegedly seen by Expreview web-site reportedly mention that Intel Core i7 processor delivers 52% speed improvement in 3D games, 41% higher performance in media encoding and editing applications as well as 38% greater 3D rendering speed when compared to Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770.

Intel Core i7 965 is a premium class Nehalem-micro-architecture microprocessor for desktops that operates at 3.20GHz. The Core 2 Extreme QX9770 is Intel’s top-of-the-range CPU at the moment at that also works at 3.20GHz. If the information regarding performance improvements is correct, then it means that the new micro-architecture in its first implementation provides roughly 52% more performance at the same clock-speed compared to currently used Core 2 micro-architecture.

Advanced Micro Devices recently said that its forthcoming quad-core processors powered by improved K10 micro-architecture will be roughly 35% more powerful than its existing chips at the same clock-speed.

Intel did not comment on the news-story.

[xbitlabs]

It took a few hours longer than expected, but Sony’s VAIO TT is here. And it’s sexy. This 11.1-inch beauty features a sub-1-inch thick, 2.87-pound chassis made from carbon-fiber, and Sony claims it’s the lightest notebook on the planet to pack Blu-ray capabilities. Arriving in a variety of configurations, the VAIO TT is available with an XBRITE-DuraView LCD, Intel’s Centrino 2 technology, an HDMI output, dual channel 256GB (128GB x 2) SSD setup with RAID, Sprint WWAN (EV-DO Rev. A) and Windows Vista running the show. The Fall-bound TT — which will arrive in premium carbon black, silk black, champagne gold and crimson red outfits — will start at around two large, with the Blu-ray model going for $2,700 and the SSD edition demanding $2,750. There’s no direct mention of a battery life figure, which scares us just a tad, but you can dig into the full release just after the break. [Engadget]

Intel Corp. has decided to postpone the release of its central processing units (CPUs) with built-in graphics core to 2010 because of the “customer feedback”, according to a slide from a roadmap of the chipmaker published by a web-site. “Intel remains committed to delivering stable, high quality, industry leading platforms on a predictable cadence. Based on 2008 client platform learnings and customer feedback, we have realigned our features and schedules for 2009 mainstream Nehalem chips,” a statement published on a slide that resembles a slide from Intel’s roadmap, reads. The slide was revealed by HKEPC web-site.
Originally planned to be released in 2009, code-named Auburndale processor for mobile computers and Havendale chip for desktop PCs (both based on Nehalem micro-architecture) are now scheduled to be launched in early 2010, based on the information from the slide. The delay is hardly critical for Intel in terms of revenue, but since those chips greatly simplify the company’s production process, it is strange that Intel decided to delay such products.
View: The full story @ Xbit-Labs

Intel next-generation CPU architecture, code-named Nehalem, and now known as Core i7, will be officially launched in Q4 of this year, most likely in November.
HEXUS is out in force at this year’s IDF (Intel Developer Forum), and, as usual, we’ll be covering everything of note.
Hexus has managed to benchmark the single-socket, quad-core, eight-threaded, 2.93GHz monster and compare it against Intel’s very own Core 2 Extreme QX9770, QX6800, and AMD’s Phenom 9950 Black Edition. [Hexus]

How do you define “Extreme”? How about as a high-velocity, quad-core processor packed into a mobile platform? That’s what Intel announced this afternoon at the Intel Developers Forum. Heretofore known as Core 2 Extreme, the cat (or chips) are now officially out of the bag.
In July, the first Core 2 Duo Extreme Mobile X9100–a Penryn dual-core CPU–to show up at our labs debuted inside Micro Express’s JFL9290 laptop. The PC World Test Center is still putting that machine through its paces (you can check out our assessment of its little brother, the Micro Express JFL9226, in the meantime), but the initial numbers are impressive. It dominated our WorldBench 6 tests, notching a score of 115 and posting decent frame rates in Doom 3 (47 frames per second at 1024 by 768 resolution, with antialiasing) courtesy of a 256MB nVidia GeForce 9600M GT GPU. The real speed king, though, is the QX9300 (a Penryn Quad Core)–and it’s now out the door, launching this week.
View: the full story @ PCWorld

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Advanced Micro Devices is making it clear that its upcoming 45-nanometer processor for servers—”Shanghai”—will compete against what Intel brings to market with its new line of processors based on the upcoming “Nehalem” microarchitecture. According to AMD Senior Vice President Randy Allen, the chip will ship in Q4 2008, and his company will be ready with its server products before Intel. “They [Intel] won’t be factoring our 45-nanometer Shanghai product and be making shipments of that by the end of the year,” Allen said.
However, despite much talk about how Shanghai will be competing against Nehalem, there was a notable absence of details about Shanghai during Allen’s press conference, held on the eve of the Intel Developer’s Forum, including specifics on performance improvements. AMD has previously said Shanghai will contain 6MB of Level 3 cache compared with the 2MB of L3 cache in the company’s current crop of quad-core Opteron processors. Something AMD has in its favor is that the Shanghai chips will be compatible with the current group of Opteron chips. With BIOS update, users can upgrade their systems fairly easily, which should help AMD move the products into the marketplace.
View: Full Story at eWeek

VIA has tacitly confirmed that it’s quitting the PC chipset business, claiming that there’s no longer a third-party chipset market worth the name. Richard Brown, VIA’s marketing chief, told Custom PC: “We believed that ultimately the third-party chipset market would disappear… That has indeed come to pass.”
VIA’s perspective is that with Intel producing almost all the chipsets used with Intel processors, and with AMD increasingly the prime supplier of system logic for its own processors, there’s a rapidly narrowing space for third-party chipset makers. In VIA’s case, it appears it has decided the gap is now too narrow, and it’s getting out. At the very least, it saves it having to go to the expense of licensing Intel’s new QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) bus, set to debut with the giant’s ‘Nehalem’ CPUs.
View: The full story @ The Reg

Intel Corporation announced today that desktop processors based on the company’s upcoming new microarchitecture (codenamed “Nehalem”) will be formally branded “Intel® Core™ processor.” The first products in this new family of processors, including an “Extreme Edition” version, will carry an “i7″ identifier and will be formally branded as “Intel® Core™ i7 processor.” This is the first of several new identifiers to come as different products launch over the next year.

Products based on the new microarchitecture will deliver high performance and energy efficiency. This “best of both worlds” approach is expected to extend Intel’s processor leadership in future mobile, desktop and server market segments. [Intel]

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Intel’s Nehalem processor architecture will still hold to the Core naming scheme when it appears late this year, if an apparent leak of company logos proves authentic. Although the platform will make fundamental changes, Nehalem will reportedly be known as Core i7 for at least all its desktop variants, which will include dual- and quad-core mainstream processors as well as a 3.2GHz Extreme processor for high-end gaming desktops.
The reason for the change is unclear, though Intel will have an increasing number of cores with the new architecture and so will have a harder time maintaining a simple naming scheme for its processors as for Core 2, which has been split into Solo, Duo, and Quad variants. The i7 refers to Nehalem as the seventh x86 platform generation to come from Intel.
The alleged slip doesn’t indicate whether the naming will apply to mobile processors, although these in recent years have kept the same name as their desktop counterparts. Workstation- and server-class processors have usually kept to the Xeon naming system.
Intel is believed ready to announce its first Core i7 processors on August 11th but with shipping only taking place in the fall. Notebook-ready versions are still due in early 2009.

News Source: MacNN via Expreview