INSIDE Secure to Provide NFC Technology and Products to Intel

INSIDE Secure, a leader in semiconductor solutions for secure transactions and digital identity, today announced it has entered into an agreement with Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) to provide the company with INSIDE's NFC products and technologies. The agreement marks a significant milestone for INSIDE Secure and the future of the NFC industry, helping move this emerging technology towards full-scale market adoption.

Firm Thinks More Factors Than HDD Shortage Behind Intel's Reduced Q4 Revenue Forecast

Nomura Equity Research, an investment broker, recons that factors other than, and more significant than hard disk drive (HDD) shortage caused due to the recent Thailand floods affecting HDD manufacturing, are behind Intel's reduced Q4 forecast. Earlier this week, Intel shaved off close to a billion dollars from its Q4 Revenue Guidance, leveling the blame on HDD shortages, as HDD is a near-indispensable component in manufacture and assembly of a vast majority of PCs. Nomura Equity Research thinks "weak sell-through" is that other factor.

Sapphire Works on Two Value Motherboards

Sapphire is working on two new entry-level motherboards for AMD FM1 and Intel LGA1155 platforms. The FM1 board, called the Pure White A55, is a budget micro-ATX board based on the AMD A55 FCH; while the LGA1155 board is the Pure Platinum H61P, an ATX board based on the Intel H61 chipset. The Pure White A55 uses a simple 5+1 phase VRM to power the AMD A-Series APU or Athlon II FM1 CPU. The FM1 socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting dual-channel DDR3 memory. The "Memory Free" feature stabilizes memory clock speeds, voltages, and timings if wrong settings make the system fail POST, at the push of a button.

Intel Outs Extreme Board DX79TO, Sandy Bridge-E Platform On The Cheap

Intel's Desktop Board division didn't miss out on the Sandy Bridge-E LGA2011 platform launch, after all, it's ceremonial for Intel to launch a new generation of processors with its own branded motherboards that are fully compatible with them. While Intel had two models of LGA2011 motherboards in the pipeline, the DX79SI and DX79TO, only the former was launched in November, which made it to most platform reviewers. The DX79SI was launched at a price point of US $289 - $299 MSRP, though some retailers easily set that price above $300. The new DX79TO is designed to be a down-scaled version of the DX79SI, targeting a price range of $203 - $208, according to ARK. Naturally then, the price that's 30% lower than that of the DX79SI invites some aggressive feature-cutting.

USB-IF Announces Intel 7 Series and Intel C216 Chipset Family USB 3.0 Certification

The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) today announced the upcoming Intel 7 Series Chipset and Intel C216 Chipset Family host silicon has achieved SuperSpeed USB certification by the USB-IF. The certified solution includes four SuperSpeed USB ports integrated into the chipset, enabling manufacturers to conveniently incorporate SuperSpeed USB into their systems.

Intel Lowers Q4 Revenue Guidance, Blames Hard Drive Shortages

Microprocessor maker Intel has revealed that its Q4 revenue will be lower than previously expected, mostly due to the hard drive supply problems brought on by the floods in Thailand. Intel says that the HDD shortages are forcing PC makers to reduce CPU inventories, and this, of course, is affecting its sales. The chip company expects the hard drive shortages to continue into Q1 but is hopeful that things will get back on track in the first half of 2012.

The updated Q4 guidance talks about a revenue of $13.7 billion, plus or minus $300 million. This is down from the $14.7 billion, plus or minus $500 million predicted in October.

Intel adds Celeron G460 to its Processor Offer

As 2011 is drawing to a close Intel is keeping it light with new releases. So light that that the latest update to its processor line-up brings just one new chip, the entry-level Celeron G460. The G460 is made on 32nm process technology and features one core clocked at 1.8 GHz, two threads, 1.5MB of cache, integrated Intel HD Graphics, and a TDP of 35W.

The Celeron G460 costs $37 (pricing is for 1,000-unit tray quantities) which means it shares a price point with the 1.6 GHz Celeron G440.

Intel Core i7-3960X and i7-3930K CPUs Transitioning to C2 stepping in January

As previously reported, Intel's first wave of Sandy Bridge-E processors have VT-d (Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O) disabled due to an errata in the C1 stepping. That issue couldn't be resolved in time for the launch but it's getting fixed with the C2 stepping which is set to start rolling out to customers on January 20th, 2012 (samples have already been delivered).

The CPUs moving to the C2 stepping are the hexa-core  (3.3 GHz) and Core i7-3930K (3.2 GHz). Beside the fixed VT-d, the C2 chips will feature new S-spec and MM numbers so a BIOS update for current motherboards will likely be required.

Intel Core i7-3770 Put Through 3DMark 06, Cinebench, and Fritz Chess

An increasing number of people within the industry have access to Intel Ivy Bridge engineering samples. Some of them are generous enough to share performance details with the public. One such kind soul posted 3DMark, Fritz Chess, and Cinebench test results. An Intel Core i7-3770 sample was the test candidate, this chip has all components and features available to Ivy Bridge LGA1155 enabled, including HyperThreading, a faster uncore, and the full 8 MB L3 cache. The chip was put through 3DMark 06 (to test its CPU and iGPU performance), Cinebench 11.5 (both single-thread and multi-threaded), and Fritz Chess Benchmark (again, both single and multiple threads).

More screenshots follow.

Intel to Retire its LGA1366 and LGA1156 Processors in 2012

Since Ivy Bridge is still a few months away from release, Intel has decided to keep itself busy by sealing the fate of a bunch of older processors including the Core i7-930, i7-950, i7-960, i7-980 and i7-990X which are part of the LGA1366 platform, and the LGA1156-compatible Pentium G6950, G6960 and Core i3-540, i5-650, i5-660, i5-670, i5-680, i7-860 and i7-870.

These 45nm and 32nm CPUs are set to be available for further orders until June 29, 2012, and will continue to ship either until supplies are depleted (for the boxed versions) or until December 7th, 2012 (for the tray SKUs). As always, it's onwards and upwards.

Intel Ivy Bridge Desktop Processor Models Tabled

Russian website Overclockers.ru claims to have a complete picture of what Intel's upcoming 22 nm Core "Ivy Bridge" desktop (2012 Core Processor Family) looks like. The site compiled model names, extensions, clock speeds, Turbo Boost speeds, L3 cache sizes, and TDP ratings of as many as 18 models, most of which are quad-core.

Intel to add TRIM support for RAID 0 in upcoming drivers

One of the barriers to using SSDs in RAID setups, other than the high price of the drives themselves, has been the lack of TRIM support when running in that mode. TRIM is a command that allows an OS like Windows 7 to inform an SSD which blocks of data can be wiped and marked for re-use. This process, sometimes referred to as garbage collection, mitigates the performance degradation that inevitably occurs as an SSD becomes “dirty.”

Intel Announces Sandy Bridge Extreme Processor

Intel has unleashed a new high-end chip, known as the Sandy Bridge Extreme Edition i7-3960X, a 3.3GHz silicon powerhouse that can process 12 threads simultaneously and comes with 15MB cache.

Two other chips, the i7-3930K and the i7-3820, come with clock speeds of 3.2GHz and 3.6GHz respectively, with six cores and 12MB and four cores and 10MB. At $990, it is the most expensive desktop processor from Intel and will push the old i7-990x down the pecking order; it is also one of the hotter CPUs with a TDP of 130W when running at default speeds.

Intel Releases SSD Toolbox 3.0 Software

Intel released the Solid-State Drive Toolbox 3.0 system software, which it recommends for use with its SSDs. SSDs have a limited number of times they can rewrite data onto their NAND flash cells. The most common 20-nanometer class MLC NAND flash offers around 5,000 rewrite cycles. This software monitors your Intel SSD for performance degradation, and provides a measure of how many rewrite cycles are left, so you can plan beforehand about backing up your data and replacing it. The software also provides a suite of diagnostics for your Intel SSD. Lastly, the software can update your drive's firmware without the need for a DOS bootable disk.

DOWNLOAD: Intel SSD Toolbox 3.0

Intel and Micron Open Singapore NAND Flash Memory Operation

Intel Corporation (Nasdaq:INTC) and Micron Technology, Inc. today expanded their NAND Flash memory joint venture operations with the official opening of IM Flash Singapore. The US$3 billion facility is expected to employ about 1,200 and is currently ramping production of the companies' industry-leading 25 nanometer (nm) NAND Flash memory. The companies announced the opening of the state-of-the-art 300 millimeter facility at a ceremony with Singapore government representatives, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

American Portwell Intros Intel Sandy Bridge COM Express Type 2 Carrier Board

American Portwell recently announced that the company has expanded its COM Express Type 2 product portfolio to include a new solution that is compatible with Intel's second-generation Core processors, code named Sandy Bridge.

GE Intros Embedded HPEC Board Powered by Intel Sandy Bridge Quad-Core CPUs

GE Intelligent Platforms just announced that Intel's second-generation Core processors have found their way in one of the company's most advanced multiprocessor platforms, the DSP280 rugged dual socket 6U VPX board that is designed to be used in high performance embedded computing solutions.

These are usually deployed by the military inside manned and unmanned airborne, ground and naval vehicles to perform tasks such as ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance), radar, sonar, and image and sensor processing.

Intel refutes Apple exclusivity for Thunderbolt I/O, LaCie and Promise detail first Thunderbolt peripherals

We can think of a pretty good reason why Apple might have a head-start when it comes to Thunderbolt-capable machines, but Apple doesn't actually have a timed exclusive on the technology, at least according to Intel PR. The company told us that while it's currently targeting an early 2012 launch for Thunderbolt with other OEMs -- whereas the new MacBook Pro has Thunderbolt right now -- there's nothing stopping other manufacturers from launching machines with the 10Gbps interconnect a good bit earlier if they so desire.

Intel Identifies Sandy Bridge Chipset Design Error, All Shipments Stopped

As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel Corporation has discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel 6 Series, code-named Cougar Point, and has implemented a silicon fix. In some cases, the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives. The chipset is utilized in PCs with Intel's latest Second Generation Intel Core processors, code-named Sandy Bridge. Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue. The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue.

Intel intros ultra-compact 310 SSD series

Intel has launched a new ultra-tiny solid-state drive series that practically matches the performance of its 2.5-inch drives in a fraction of the footprint. The company's new 310 SSD series measures only 51 x 30 x 5mm and weighs less than 10 grams. Despite their compact size, the new drives offers peak sustained reads and writes of 200MB/s and 70MB/s, which isn't far behind the 2.5-inch 80GB X25-M's read/write rates of 250MB/s and 70MB/s.

	310 Series 40GB	310 Series 80GB	X25-V 40GB	X25-M 80GB
Sustained reads	170MB/s	200MB/s	170MB/s	250MB/s
Sustained writes	35MB/s	70MB/s	35MB/s	70MB/s
4KB random reads	25k IOPS	35k IOPS	25k IOPS	35k IOPS
4KB random writes	2.5k IOPS	6.6k IOPS	2.5k IOPS	6.6k IOPS