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| Intel preparing six-core chips for desktops, servers |
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Intel is preparing six-core chips for high-end desktops and servers for release in the first half of this year, the company said Wednesday.
The six-core chips will be based on the company's latest Westmere architecture and deliver faster performance and more power savings compared to earlier quad-core chips, Intel said on a conference call. The chips will contain 1.17 billion transistors and include 12MB of cache, a company spokesman said.
The new chips are made using the 32-nanometer process, which is also used to make the company's latest Core processors introduced in January. The base architecture of both the chips are the same, however, the six-core chips will not include integrated graphics capabilities. Users will need to buy a discrete graphics card to work with the chips.
Intel officials declined to provide further details such as clock speed.
Intel is targeting desktop six-core processors, code-named Gulftown, at enthusiasts like gamers. The processor will fit into the same socket as the older quad-core Core i7 chips targeted at enthusiasts, a company spokesman said. The Gulftown processor will come under the Core i7 brand name and be able to run 12 threads at the same time to boost application performance.
Intel already offers a six-core Xeon processor code-named Dunnington that was announced in 2008. The new six-core Westmere-EP chip will also be offered under the Xeon brand name, but it includes speed and security enhancements. Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in late January that Intel would release Xeon chips made using the 32-nm within three months.
For servers, Westmere also adds a new instruction set for faster data encryption and decryption called Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). That could help secure data residing in servers or virtualized environments.
In addition, the six-core processors include new power management technologies for the chips to be power efficient. For example, the chips will be capable of shutting down idle cores to save power.
The company is also preparing an eight-core chip which is code-named Nehalem-EX, which is Intel's fastest processor to date, Otellini said. The chip is also due for release in the first half of this year.
AMD also plans to come out with a six-core chip for high-end desktops code-named Thuban, though it hasn't officially announced the shipping date for the chip.
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| iPad success tied to AT&T 3G upgrades |
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last week boasted that it would be ready to handle demand for the iPad's wireless connectivity through use of its Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities and a $2 billion increase in network improvements in 2010.
Yet, analysts noted, it's still unclear how well AT&T will manage the iPad's most demanding applications, including streaming video, especially when they are put to use by thousands of users in congested areas.
A specific reason for concern about AT&T's iPad readiness is how fast AT&T can upgrade its 3G capabilities, which will involve installing fiber-optic connections -- called backhaul -- to cell towers and sites where cellular antennas are affixed. Backhaul is a term for the network segments that connect cell sites or other remote equipment to a network core where massive switching gear routes data and calls.
AT&T acknowledged that it needs to install the fiber-optic backhaul to provide the faster wireless speeds of the HSPA 7.2 specification. The High-Speed Packet Access spec, which is sometimes referred to as 3.5G, will bring theoretical throughput to 7.2Mbit/sec. -- many times faster than existing 3G speeds. Realistically, HSPA 7.2 will be much slower, however. AT&T executives have said wireless service will be double current 3G speeds, which would put it at less than 1Mbit/sec.
"Faster 3G speeds will come as AT&T combines the new [HSPA 7.2 software] technology with enhanced cell site backhaul connections over the course of 2010 and 2011," an AT&T spokeswoman said in an e-mail to Computerworld.
The AT&T statement clarifies what many reports stated in January and last week: that AT&T had made a nationwide software upgrade to HSPA 7.2, implying that the faster speeds for the iPad were already available. In fact, the backhaul installation is also required, and that work is only in its early stages.
Just how quickly can AT&T build the backhaul connections? Initial deployments have been made in six U.S. cities -- Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami, the AT&T spokeswoman said. Some cell sites have seen fiber backhaul completed and have been turned on, but she didn't provide further details. In a single city, there could be thousands of cell sites.
Throughout 2010, more cities will be added to the list of those getting backhaul upgrades, the spokeswoman said. "We anticipate the majority of our mobile data traffic will be carried over the expanded fiber-based HSPA-capable backhaul by the end of this year, with deployment continuing to expand in 2011," she added.
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega in December said 25 cities will be HSPA 7.2-capable by mid-2010.
If some areas of the original six cities are running on HSPA 7.2 now, and 25 cities will be ready by July, that could leave some iPad users wanting faster 3G networks when the 3G-capable iPads debut in April.
However, HSPA 7.2 is not the complete upgrade that AT&T has in mind for 2010, according to John Stankey, president of AT&T Operations, who spoke during last week's earnings call. He also mentioned ongoing improvements to trouble spots in New York and San Francisco, and the addition of about 2,000 cell sites nationwide throughout this year.
In the earnings call, Stankey and AT&T Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner both emphasized that AT&T's 20,000 Wi-Fi hot spots will help iPad performance, and that iPad users will also rely on private Wi-Fi service in homes and offices. Lindner said the iPad will be used a "substantial amount of time in a Wi-Fi environment" and promised that if that's not the case, "we'll adapt to it."
Analysts have questioned whether users will rely on a 3G connection for streaming HD video to an iPad or whether they might switch to a faster Wi-Fi connection instead.
Users might initially find the iPad's performance similar to that of the iPhone, at least until AT&T moves to faster cellular connections with the HSPA 7.2 backhaul and even LTE wireless technology, which will go into field trials with AT&T this year.
"I think iPad will work like the iPhone," said Carl Howe, an analyst at Yankee Group Research Inc. "If you have a slower connection, it provides a lower-quality, lower-resolution video stream. Certainly, YouTube works that way on iPhone, and I would expect it to work similarly on iPad."
What matters most, however, is what Apple thinks, since it chose AT&T as its sole 3G provider in the U.S. Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook endorsed AT&T's network record on Jan. 25, calling AT&T a "great partner" on the iPhone exclusive deal and noting that in a vast majority of locations, iPhone customers "are having a great experience."
More telling is that Apple included the HSPA 7.2 theoretical top speed in its initial press release for the iPad, saying it would "support speeds up to 7.2Mbit/sec. on HSDPA networks." (The "D" in HSDPA stands for "downlink.")
Analysts said Apple probably should have added a footnote to its iPad press release: "Where HSDPA is available."
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| Intel ships next-generation Itanium chip |
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Intel on Tuesday said it has started shipping its new Itanium processor codenamed Tukwila, after multiple delays and development problems stalled its release for years.
Itanium chips are 64-bit processors designed to run fault-tolerant servers that require high uptime. The chip's official launch is set for the first quarter of this year, Intel said in a blog entry.
Tukwila is Intel's fastest Itanium processor yet, the company said. It adds numerous performance and architectural enhancements to boost system performance, Intel said in the blog.
"Tukwila more than doubles the performance of its predecessor and adds a range of new scalability, reliability, and virtualization features," Intel wrote. The chip includes a quad-core design and will be an upgrade of the current Itanium 9100 series of chips, codenamed Montecito, which were introduced in 2006.
The announcement comes ahead of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, where Sun Microsystems and IBM are expected to discuss processors for high-end servers. The conference will be held in San Francisco between Feb. 7 and 11. Intel is also due to hold a press briefing on Monday to announce a new processor, though a spokesman declined to comment on whether it would be Tukwila.
Development problems have delayed Tukwila's release. Last February, Intel delayed the chip to add a faster interconnect and support for new technologies like DDR3 memory. In October, the release was delayed again to add application scalability enhancements.
Tukwila will most likely launch on Monday, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst for Insight 64. It is "more than a little late," but not too late, Brookwood said. The high-end chip market moves at a glacial pace, and complex architectures like Itanium take time to develop and manufacture.
Itanium competes with high-end server processors like Sun's Sparc processor and IBM's Power chip.
"In this class of market, it's more important to get [the chip] right than it is to get it early," Brookwood said. Systems based on high-end architectures like Itanium need to be robust and reliable, he said.
IBM it set to launch the Power7 architecture, so suppliers needed an Itanium update to keep up with IBM, Brookwood said. Intel has not seen much success with the Itanium processor however, with only some vendors like HP offering the chips in systems. However, despite the long lag, there is no uncertainty about Itanium's future. Intel has laid out a six-year roadmap for Itanium, he said.
Tukwila's successor will be Poulson, which will be made using the 32-nanometer process, followed by Kittson. Intel did not provide a timeframe for the Poulson's release. Tukwila chips will be made using the 65-nm process.
Intel is scheduled to launch other server chips in the first half of this year. The most anticipated chip is Nehalem-EX, an eight-core x86 chip targeted at high-end systems running applications such as databases. Nehalem-EX will be Intel's fastest server chip to date, Intel's CEO Paul Otellini has said. Also forthcoming in the next three months are Westmere server chips for low and midrange servers.
Nehalem-EX moves the X86 servers into higher territory, but it doesn't match the software and robustness features of Itanium, Brookwood said. Itanium chips are targeted at mainframe systems like HP's NonStop server line, which are a different class of servers than x86 servers.
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| Intel to release Westmere server chips |
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Intel plans to release next-generation Xeon server processors based on the Westmere microarchitecture in the next three months, the company said on Thursday.
Intel plans to refresh its line of Xeon server chips as it ramps up chip production to the 32-nanometer process, said Paul Otellini, Intel's CEO, during a financial earnings call. Intel last week released the first Westmere chips for desktops and laptops, and Xeon server chips are next in line, Otellini said.
The last refresh for server chips was in March last year, when the company announced a range of Xeon 5500 series and 3500 series chips based on the Nehalem architecture. The chips were made using the 45-nm process.
The highly anticipated eight-core Nehalem-EX server chip will also be released in the first half, an Intel spokesman said on Thursday. Nehalem-EX will be Intel's fastest server chip to date, Otellini said during the call. The chip will be manufactured using the 45-nm process.
Intel is targeting Nehalem-EX at high-end systems running data-intensive applications such as databases. The chip is based on the Nehalem microarchitecture, which cut data bottlenecks that plagued earlier architectures to improve system performance. An integrated memory controllers helps the CPU communicate faster with systems components or other CPUs inside a system.
The Nehalem-EX chips also includes improvements to meet the specific needs of high-end servers. Error-correction technology derived from its high-end Itanium chips will help reduce data corruption and ensure reliable server performance. Servers based on Nehalem-EX will also include separate buffered memory chips that can temporarily store data alongside main memory for faster task execution.
Westmere is based on the same underpinnings of the Nehalem architecture, but the chips are made using the advanced 32-nm process. Westmere should bring improved performance and power benefits realized from the advanced manufacturing process to server processors.
For example, the chip package will include an integrated graphics processor with the CPU in a multi-chip package. The high levels of integration will lead to smaller chip sizes that deliver better graphics and processing performance while consuming less power.
For servers, Westmere also adds a new instruction set for faster data encryption and decryption called Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), the company has said. That could help secure data residing in servers or virtualized environments. Both the Nehalem-EX and Westmere-EP chips will be capable of shutting down idle cores to save power.
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| Chip makers see stronger DRAM memory prices 2010 |
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Taiwan's biggest DRAM maker, Nanya Technology, reported its first net profit in nearly three years on Wednesday, as DRAM prices rose and demand remained strong in the fourth quarter of last year.
But the company's fortunes came at a cost to anyone buying a new PC. The price of mainstream DRAM chips posted a strong rebound last year after hitting multi-year lows, rising 266 percent, according to investment bank Credit Suisse.
DRAM costs are often passed on to consumers and this year could become a bigger factor in PC prices. Market researchers forecast that DRAM prices will likely remain stable in the first half of this year and rise in the second half due to a strong PC market. Most DRAM chips go into PCs.
Nanya Technology said its fourth quarter net profit was NT$211 million (US$6.64 million), compared to an NT$11.89 billion loss in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose to NT$16.69 billion from NT$6.13 billion last year.
The last time Nanya reported a net profit was in the first quarter of 2007, at NT$3.29 billion.
The company's last profitable quarter was also the last for other DRAM makers as DRAM prices plunged in 2007 due to over-investment in new factories when loans were easy to get. Companies in the industry paid the price with a two-year DRAM glut that sent chip prices down well below profitable levels. Over the same time, PC buyers have become used to getting more for their money with DRAM, a trend likely to slow this year.
This year, demand for a new mainstream DRAM chip, DDR3 (double data rate, third generation), is keeping prices up, as is demand for new PCs, said Pai Pei-Lin, a vice president at Nanya Technology, at a news conference Wednesday. Consolidation in the industry has also helped. Germany's Qimonda AG filed for bankruptcy last year and other companies were forced to mothball some production lines as they laid off staff.
Pai expects Windows 7 to be a big driver of PC demand this year, and said corporations have already started evaluating how to replace aging fleets of PCs. Analysts have talked about the corporate replacement cycle for years as a driver of DRAM and PC sales growth, the idea that companies have to replace PCs to keep up with the times. But for years companies have held onto older PCs, armed with Windows XP. Microsoft Windows Vista was marketed as the next major driver of the corporate replacement cycle a few years ago, but it failed to impress users.
Windows 7 is different, Pai said. People are really happy with the OS and probably won't even wait for Service Pack 1, a major update to the OS, to start buying PCs, he added.
Market researchers have taken a similar view. Strong demand for new desktops and laptops will spur DRAM prices in the second half of this year, according to DRAMeXchange Technology, which operates a clearinghouse for DRAM chips.
Jenny Lai, analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, says PC demand was stronger than expected in the fourth quarter of last year and remains stronger than normal now due to brisk demand for laptop PCs with new Intel chips inside, and demand related to the Lunar New Year holiday in Asia.
She now expects PC shipments to grow 14 percent year-on-year this year, 4 percentage points more than her previous forecast.
DRAMeXchange predicts prices for DDR3 and older DDR2 (second generation) could pull back 10 or 20 percent in the first quarter, normally a slow season for PC demand, and remain subdued in the second quarter. After that, prices will increase.
"DRAM vendors will have a great opportunity to remain profitable for the whole year," the company said in a research note.
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| Microsoft confirms 17-year-old Windows bug |
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Google engineer reveals ancient flaw in all 32-bit versions of Windows.
Microsoft late yesterday issued its second advisory of the last week, warning users that a 17-year-old bug in the kernel of all 32-bit versions of Windows could be used by hackers to hijack PCs.
The vulnerability in the Windows Virtual DOS Machine (VDM) subsystem was disclosed Tuesday by Google engineer Tavis Ormandy on the Full Disclosure security mailing list. Coincidentally, Ormandy received credit for reporting the single vulnerability that Microsoft fixed last week on its regular Patch Tuesday.
The VDM subsystem was added to Windows with the July 1993 release of Windows NT, Microsoft's first fully 32-bit operating system. VDM allows Windows NT and later to run DOS and 16-bit Windows software.
Yesterday's advisory spelled out the affected software -- all 32-bit editions of Windows, including Windows 7 -- and told users how to disable VDM as a workaround. Windows' 64-bit versions are not vulnerable to attack.
It was Microsoft's second advisory in seven days; last week, the company posted a warning of a critical flaw in Internet Explorer after Google said its corporate computers had been hacked by Chinese attackers. That bug is to be patched later today.
"An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode," said the newest advisory. "An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights."
Jerry Bryant, a program manager with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), said that the company had not seen any actual attacks using the vulnerability, and also downplayed the threat if hackers do exploit the flaw. "To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must already have valid logon credentials and be able to log on to a system locally, meaning they must already have an account on the system," Bryant said in an e-mail.
Typically, Microsoft ranks this kind of vulnerability -- which it classified as an elevation of privilege flaw -- as "important," the second-highest of the four ratings in its four-step system.
Ormandy said that the vulnerability goes back nearly 17 years to Windows NT 3.1's release, and exists in every version of Windows since. He reported the bug to Microsoft more than seven months ago.
"Regrettably, no official patch is currently available," Ormandy wrote on Full Disclosure Tuesday. "As an effective and easy-to-deploy workaround is available, I have concluded that it is in the best interest of users to go ahead with the publication of this document without an official patch." The workaround Ormandy included in his message was the same as Microsoft's: Edit group policies to block 16-bit applications from running.
Although Ormandy divulged information about the vulnerability, even posted attack code that works on Windows XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7, Microsoft didn't take him to task in the advisory for prematurely revealing the bug, as it almost always does researchers who spill the beans before a patch is ready.
Presumably, Microsoft will issue a fix for the flaw at some point, but as is its practice in security advisories, it didn't promise to do so. The next regularly-scheduled security update is slated for Feb. 9.
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| Apple may replace Google search with Bing |
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There comes a point in many epic stories where the hero must team with its erstwhile rival to take on an even greater threat. For Apple, that time may be now. A report in BusinessWeek on Wednesday suggests that Apple may be in talks with Microsoft to replace the iPhone's default search engine, Google, with Microsoft's own offering, Bing.
As recently as 2007, this would have been unthinkable: Google was the stalwart ally who'd helped Apple build the iPhone's Maps and YouTube applications, and Microsoft was the longtime nemesis whose 1997 $150 million investment was viewed by many as a deal with the devil. Google CEO Eric Schmidt even had a seat on Apple's board of directors, a position that could never have belonged to Microsoft founder Bill Gates or CEO Steve Ballmer.
But the best of friends have a way of becoming the worst of enemies (just ask Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier). Schmidt departed Apple's board, Apple rejected several of Google's iPhone apps, and now the two seem to be competing at every turn.
And yet, through all of that, Google remained inextricably linked to much of Apple's software: its search box, for example, is prominently displayed in Safari on both the iPhone and the Mac. (The Windows version of Safari, like the iPhone version, lets users choose between Google or Yahoo.) And Google, of course, makes money off ads displayed when people make searches through that box.
Given the two companies' prominent placement at the forefront of the technology industry, it's no surprise that Apple might turn to another high-stakes player to help take a bite out of Google--even if that third player has as tortuous a history with Apple as Microsoft does. But at this point, both Apple and Microsoft stand to lose more from Google than they do from each other.
Of course, even if Apple and Microsoft strike a deal to make Bing the iPhone's default search engine, there's no guarantee that iPhone users won't switch back to Google en masse (assuming Google is left as an option).
And if Google is really that much of a concern, it raises the question of those other points of intersection between the search giant and Apple. It's already been rumored that Apple is developing its own mapping software and the BusinessWeek piece also suggests that the Bing deal may only be an interim solution while Apple develops its own search effort.
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