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Platform Trends: AMD's Phenom-enal New Athlon You've got to draw the line somewhere, and AMD has drawn it between dual- and triple-core processors: While its newest dual-core has the same DNA as the chipmaker's Phenom X3 and X4, it carries the older Athlon name instead of the prestigious Phenom moniker. But while it's the new top of the Athlon line, it isn't the fastest. In other words, what gives? Friday , December 19, 2008 03:00:00 PM |
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Platform Trends: Breeding Like ... Netbooks Do you have your netbook yet? The compact, low-priced laptops have jolted the mobile PC market to the tune of 14 million sales in their first full year; brought Linux to a new audience; and struck sparks for online applications and storage. But should you opt for an 9-inch, 10-inch, or 12-inch screen? How small is too small when it comes to keyboards? And will the sleek but no-frills minis help or hurt the traditional notebook segment? Monday , December 08, 2008 11:35:00 AM |
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Platform Trends: Intel's Core i7: Quad-Core of Solace It's not true that every new Intel processor brings a different new motherboard socket to dash upgrade hopes: The Core i7 brings two. Even so, Vince Freeman says, the new CPU shows such a combination of brute force and flair it might be called the i007. Here's a look under the hood, with some thoughts about why the Core i7 needs more than one chipset and why AMD might be more competitive than you think. Friday , November 21, 2008 05:00:00 PM |
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Platform Trends: Taking the X58 Express to the Future Radical changes in Intel's Core i7 processor bring radical changes to the usually evolutionary, not revolutionary, desktop chipset sector. The X58 Express takes advantage of the i7's onboard memory controller to allow colossal bandwidth, with a new QuickPath Interface speeding communication between chipset and CPU. But when it comes to peripheral support, Intel's looking strictly forward, not back. Friday , November 07, 2008 05:00:00 PM |
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Platform Trends: Nvidia and AMD Take Graphics in Different Directions No niche is too small for the PC graphics giants to cram in a new product, but AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4000 series has lacked an entry in the $100 to $150 price range preferred by avid but unwealthy gamers -- until now. Meanwhile, Nvidia targets even more frugal desktop shoppers with faster-than-Intel integrated graphics ... although both vendors have already done that with under-$60 dedicated cards. Tuesday , October 28, 2008 11:10:00 AM |
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Platform Trends: AMD's Entry-Entry-Level Graphics Processor You've heard of sharing the wealth, but AMD is doing it with a vengeance: Even though its ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2, 4870, and 4670 graphics processing units now rule the high-end, mainstream, and entry-level segments, the company has added two more members to the HD 4000 family at a lower-than-low $55 and $39. Is there a market for deliberately limited-performance PC graphics? Vince Freeman says yes indeed. Tuesday , October 14, 2008 10:00:00 AM |
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Platform Trends: Nehalem Set to Fly with the X58 After four years of LGA775 processors and motherboards, the socket-shufflers at Intel have struck again. But this time tossing your old platform is worth the cost. The Core i7 "Nehalem" CPU's all-new architecture promises a performance revolution. And the X58 desktop chipset may be even more impressive, combining colossal bandwidth with a three-channel memory controller, the return of Hyper-Threading, and a graphics-card surprise. Sunday , September 28, 2008 06:30:00 PM |
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Platform Trends: AMD's Most Affordable R700s Its ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 are the champs of the mid-priced PC graphics market, and the 4870 X2 wears the single-card crown for high-end systems. Now AMD unveils more bad news for Nvidia by bringing the same R700 graphics processor architecture to the under-$100 segment -- and a mix of price, performance, and power consumption that surpasses anything yet seen. Sunday , September 14, 2008 10:15:00 AM |
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Platform Trends: Budget GPUs Galore We're used to reading about AMD's and Nvidia's fastest, fire-breathing graphics cards, but the rivals are now hunting bargain hunters -- Nvidia putting its GeForce 9 Series technology on a $59 diet, AMD revving up a fast integrated-graphics chipset while preparing new ATI Radeon HD 4400 cards. How do these strategies stack up against each other -- or against simple price cuts on last year's cards? Sunday , August 31, 2008 06:00:00 PM |
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Platform Trends: Intel Gets Up and Atom Suddenly, no small, light, low-priced notebook -- a.k.a. netbook, a.k.a. Asus Eee 901, Acer Aspire One, MSI Wind, or Dell Comingsoon -- is complete without Intel's battery-sipping Atom N270 processor. Actually, that 1.6GHz, Hyper-Threading CPU is just one of seven Atoms, with thermal design power as low as 0.65 watt, and they're destined for more than just netbooks. Here's a look under the hood. Sunday , August 17, 2008 11:15:00 AM |
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Platform Trends: Nvidia Reseeds its Mainstream Line Monday , August 04, 2008 11:35:00 AM |
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Platform Trends: The Year of Serious Storage Saturday , July 19, 2008 04:30:00 PM |
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Montevina Mania: Intel Unveils Centrino 2 Notebook Platform Tuesday , July 15, 2008 02:05:00 PM |
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Platform Trends: AMD's Massive Retaliation: The Radeon HD 4000 Series Monday , July 07, 2008 11:25:00 AM |
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Platform Trends: The GeForce GTX 200 Series: Big, Bad, and Proud of It Friday , June 20, 2008 03:00:00 PM |
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Platform Trends: Intel Does the New Chipset Thing Monday , June 09, 2008 01:30:00 PM |
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Eee, Atom, Aspire, Wind: It's a Small (Notebook) World at Computex Tuesday , June 03, 2008 04:00:00 PM |
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Platform Trends: AMD/ATI: Slowdown? What Slowdown? Monday , May 26, 2008 10:30:00 AM |
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Platform Trends: DDR-3 Heads for the Mainstream Friday , May 09, 2008 04:00:00 PM |
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Platform Trends: AMD Hits a Triple with the Phenom X3 Monday , April 28, 2008 12:15:00 PM |
