Intel 45nm core 2 duo processor enhances security

Intel Corporation announced the 45-nanometer (nm) Intel Core2 Duo Processor E8400 with 7-year lifecycle support for embedded applications

At the Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley, Intel Corporation announced the 45-nanometer (nm) Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E8400 with 7-year lifecycle support for embedded applications. To enhance security in embedded solutions, the processor also supports Intel® Trusted Execution Technology.

Based on Intel’s revolutionary high-k metal gate transistor formula and manufactured on the company’s 45nm process, the E8400 processor offers increased performance by doubling transistor density and increasing cache size up to 6 MB, which is a three-fold enhancement over the previous-generation Intel Core2 Duo E6400. The Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8400 is available to customers today and costs $183 USD in quantities of 1,000.

The 45nm processor includes a Super Shuffle Engine that enhances Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) algorithms optimized for graphics and multimedia processing. The Super Shuffle Engine reduces latency and improves the speed of existing SSE instructions while enabling significant gains on the latest Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (SSE4) instruction set. Developers can benefit from the SSE4 media instruction sets for the enhancement of video editing and encoding that is inherent in many embedded applications, such as interactive clients and digital signage.

Intel To Launch Mobile Quad-Core Processors

Keeping in mind the advent of desktop based quad-core processors in the mainstream, it was just a matter of time before they showed up in a mobile version too. This was confirmed by Digitimes , which goes onto say that Intel will be planning to launch its first quad-core CPU for notebooks, the Core 2 Extreme QX9300, in the third quarter this year. This new processor will be manufactured at 45nm and have a core frequency of 2.53GHz. The CPU will support FSB speeds up to 1066MHz, include 12MB L2 cache and have a maximum TDP of 45W.

While this announcement is good in terms of consumer choice, it raises a number of interesting questions. Despite the low heat dissipation of these processors, they will be a lot more power hungry as compared to standard dual-core processors and this will directly affect battery life. Secondly with such powerful chips, the GPU market will also need to keep pace enabling more realistic gaming on laptops, which is abysmal to say the least at its very best.

SAP announces new partners for SME offerings

SAP and Intel the world's biggest makers of business software and microchips, will jointly offer servers pre-packaged with SAP software aimed at medium-sized firms, the two companies said.

The package, which companies should be able to use straight out of the box, is SAP's first venture into hardware offerings pre-installed with its software and will be followed by other such partnerships, SAP said at the CeBIT technology fair on Tuesday.

"The offering targets midsize companies in the manufacturing, service and trade industries and directly addresses the demands in these market segments for quick and easy implementation, and tailored yet scalable solutions at predictable costs," SAP said in a statement.

The hardware for the prototype SAP is showing at CeBIT is provided by open-source software specialist Novell's Linux Enterprise.

SAP said the offering, which brings together its Business All-in-One software and modular servers based on Intel's Xeon processors, would help smaller companies reduce their total cost of ownership for IT systems.

Germany-based SAP is pushing to expand its strong customer base among large enterprises to include more smaller businesses and the drive is a crucial part of its plan to double its market value and raise profitability to a level comparable with rivals.

It is also readying for market another, hosted software offering aimed at smaller companies which it will offer over the Internet for a fixed regular subscription fee that will include remotely managing its customers' IT systems.

SAP said on Tuesday it had signed up 21 new IT service providers as partners for this hosted offering, Business ByDesign, bringing its total number of Business ByDesign partners to 43.

The new partners include are mainly small service providers in China, France, Germany and Britain -- some of the countries where SAP plans to first roll out the service.

SAP has said it aims to have about 1,000 customers using Business ByDesign by the end of the year.

Intel picks "Atom" as name for new chip family

Intel Corp has picked "Atom" as the new brand name for its latest microprocessor, the world's largest semiconductor company said.

The Intel Atom processor is the name for the new family of low-power processors, the brains of digital devices, that will power mobile Internet devices and ultra low-cost and small notebook and desktop personal computers.

Intel sees a big market for the Internet-connected devices that can fit in one's pocket and for what it is calling the netbook, a low-cost PC costing around $250.

The Intel Atom processor is based on a new microarchitecture designed for small devices and low power consumption, Intel said. The chip is less than 25 square millimeters, and 11 of the chip's dies -- the slivers of silicon with 47 million transistors each -- would fit in an area the size of a U.S. penny.

The new chips, previously code-named Silverthorne and Diamondville, are made on Intel's 45 nanometer chipmaking technology and slated for introduction toward the middle of this year.

"Diamondville and Silverthorne both represent an attempt by Intel to sell chips profitably for a whole lot less," said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at market research firm Insight 64. "This is the first new processor design coming out of Intel since the Pentium Pro in 1995."

Atom joins other Intel brands including Core, Core 2, Celeron, and Xeon, names for other processors the Santa Clara, California-based company makes and sells.

Intel also announced the Intel Centrino Atom processor technology brand aimed specifically at mobile Internet devices. It was formerly code-named Menlow.

Centrino Atom includes the Intel Atom processor, a low power companion chip with integrated graphics, a wireless radio, as well as thinner and lighter designs.

Sean Maloney, chief sales and marketing officer for Intel, said that Atom is "a fundamental new shift in design, small yet powerful enough to enable a big Internet experience on these new devices. We believe it will unleash new innovation across the industry."

Intel also said that Atom has potential for new sales dollars in consumer electronic devices and other gadgets, and said it was well positioned for growth in all of those segments with Atom's low-power architecture as a foundation.