October 22nd, 2008

Samsung says it is no longer interested in SanDisk

Posted by John Morris @ 7:52 am

Categories: Uncategorized, semiconductors

Tags: SanDisk Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Memory Industry, EE Times, Flash Memory, John Morris

Samsung has abruptly dropped its $5.8 billion bid for the memory card-maker SanDisk.

In a letter to SanDisk’s board, Samsung Electronics CEO Yoon Woo Lee wrote that the recent quarterly results heightened concerns about SanDisk’s ability to weather a protracted downturn in the memory industry and the broader economy. In addition, SanDisk had just announced a preliminary agreement with its manufacturing partner, Toshiba, to in effect sell some of its share of the NAND flash back to Toshiba in exchange for cash and relief from some other financial obligations. EE Times has posted the full text of Samsung’s letter.

For its part, SanDisk said it remained open to discussions with Samsung, but only at a price that it felt reflected the value of the company’s intellectual property. And it questioned whether Samsung really wanted to buy the company in the first place. (The SanDisk press release is here.) The negotiations (or lack thereof) were also complicated by a key licensing agreement between Samsung and SanDisk that is set to expire in less than a year. SanDisk earns hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties from this agreement each year.

SanDisk’s quarterly results were disappointing, but it’s hard to believe that they were a surprise to Samsung. The entire memory industry has been suffering through a severe downturn for some time, and the math is simple. Memory suppliers invested heavily in expanded production, which resulted in sharp oversupply that is expected to extend from 2007 through the first half of next year. As a result memory prices have fallen below production costs, even for suppliers with the most advanced technology. Initially this mainly affected the DRAM suppliers, but eventually it caught up with the NAND flash players as well.

Ultimately it seems SanDisk and Samsung were too far apart on price to even begin to tackle other formidable issues. Here is a link to my previous post on the technology that made SanDisk an attractive target for Samsung.

August 12th, 2008

Review roundup: AMD's Radeon 4870 X2 delivers

Posted by John Morris @ 7:41 am

Categories: AMD, Desktops, Nvidia, PC gaming, PC graphics, Uncategorized

Tags: Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Graphics, Radeon, GPU, Radeon 4870 X2, Games, Video Cards, Personal Technology, Hardware, Components

AMD has been on a roll lately with its Radeon 4800 series GPUs, and with the official introduction of the Radeon 4870 X2, it can now claim the world’s fastest 3D gaming card.

The Radeon 4870 X2 combines two of AMD’s fastest GPU, the RV770, each clocked at 750MHz on a single graphics card for a total of 1,600 stream processors. It is also the first card to offer 1GB of GDDR5 graphics memory, which supports higher data rates than GDDR3. Asus, Diamond Multimedia, Gigabyte, MSI, Palit, Sapphire and several other board makers will offer Radeon 4870 X2 graphics cards for around $550. These should be available immediately. AMD also announced a dual-GPU version of the Radeon 4850 (625MHz GPUs, 1,600 stream processors and 2GB GDDR3 memory), which will be available in September at around $400.

The Radeon 4870 X2 competes directly with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 280. When Nvidia launched the GTX 280 and GTX 260 in June, it said the high-end cards would cost about $650, but you can now find them for significantly less.

Given the strong performance of the Radeon 4850 and 4870 (also launched in June), it is little surprise that dual-GPU versions would post impressive scores (several enthusiast sites jumped the gun and posted previews last month). The final reviews confirm that AMD has grabbed the lead in performance–at least for now. The difference is clear, especially on demanding games such as Crysis at high resolutions with high-quality settings.

The Radeon 4870 X2 and 4850 X2 can be used in CrossFireX mode (two cards), but the performance here did not scale as you would expect. In the press release, AMD states CrossFireX will deliver about three times the performance of a single Radeon 4870 graphics card on “some games,” but few games really take advantage of the extra GPUs, and in some cases, a single Radeon 4870 X2 graphics card outperforms three GPUs. Eventually drivers and games will be better-optimized for CrossFireX and Nvidia’s SLI, but since the Radeon 4870 X2 provides plenty of horsepower for nearly all current games, it’s hard to complain too much about CrossFireX.

AMD ATI Radeon 4870 X2 reviews:

• CustomPC
• DriverHeaven.net
• ExtremeTech
• HotHardware
• Neoseeker
• PC Perspective
• The Tech Report
• TechGage
• The Guru of 3D
• Tom’s Hardware
• TweakTown

July 1st, 2008

AMD Phenom gets (a little) faster

Posted by John Morris @ 11:32 am

Categories: AMD, Desktops, Energy efficiency, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, PC gaming, Power conservation, Uncategorized, multicore processors, quad-core processors, semiconductors

Tags: Desktop, AMD Phenom, Quad-core, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., HotHardware, 9950BE, Processors, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components

AMD has rounded out both the high and low ends of its desktop processor line with three new Phenoms. Though the chips have the same basic design, they are targeted at very different audiences by virtue of frequency, power consumption and price. The Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition–now AMD’s fastest quad-core desktop CPU at 2.6GHz–is designed for enthusiasts and gamers. At the opposite extreme, the Phenom X4 9350e and Phenom X4 9150e are much slower (2.0GHz and 1.8GHz, respectively), but they are about as “green” as quad-core CPUs get.

Since the launch of Barcelona last September, AMD has been promising faster clock speeds, but getting there has clearly been a challenge. To reach 2.6GHz, AMD has boosted the TDP, a measure of the maximum power draw, to 140 watts. By comparison, the 2.5GHz 9850BE has a TDP of 125 watts. HotHardware has posted some of the first numbers on the 9950BE, and the results are what you’d expect. It is slightly faster than the 9850BE, and offers similar performance to Intel’s 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600, but it still doesn’t match the performance of Intel’s faster Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme chips, which extend to 3.2GHz. Like all BE versions, the 9950 is designed for easy overclocking using AMD’s OverDrive utility. HotHardware said it was able to crank the 9550BE to 3.1GHz using standard cooling.

Right now both the new 9550BE and 2.5GHz 9850BE are priced at $235, but next week AMD will cut the price of the 9850BE to $205. Eventually AMD will remove the BE designation and features from the 9850 (in fact, the processor price list already reflects this change), but for a short time you’ll be able get an easily overclockable 2.5GHz quad-core for about $200. Though AMD hasn’t announced it yet, the other Phenom X4s such as the 2.4GHz 9750 ($215) and 2.3GHz 9650 ($195), are likely to get price cuts as well. Still Intel’s Q6600 is stiff competition at $199 with a TDP of 95 watts.

AMD announced its first Energy Efficient 65-watt Phenom X4, the 9100e, in March. The 9350e and 9150e, which are based on the newer B3 stepping of the processor, replace the 9100e. Ars Technica tested the 9350e against the 2.5GHz 9850 and, once again, the 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600. Given its relatively low clock speed, it’s no surprise that the 9350e can’t keep up, but it does make AMD’s Spider platform (9350e, 780G chipset, and Radeon HD 4850) “quite attractive to end-users who want quad-core scaling without a higher monthly bill.”

Since there are few mainstream workloads that truly take advantage of multiple cores, however, the customer for PCs based on these slower, but more power-efficient, quad-cores is less clear. AMD says it is designed for two markets: small form-factor PCs, especially for home theaters, and for relatively inexpensive business desktops. By pairing the Energy Efficient X4s with the 780G chipset, OEMs should be able to offer quad-core systems with decent integrated graphics for around $500. HP already sells some desktops with the 9100e, but no major OEMs have announced systems with the 9350e or 9150e yet.

The 9150e and 9350e are priced a $175 and $195, respectively. To make room for them, AMD lowered the prices on the triple-core processors, which previously topped out at $195. The prices now range from $125 for the 2.1GHz Phenom X3 8450 to $175 for the 2.4GHz Phenom X3 8750.

The 9950BE is likely to be the end of the line for the Phenom X4. Given its 140-watt TDP, the current Phenom X4 probably won’t reach frequencies beyond 2.6GHz at acceptable manufacturing yields. And most of the company’s engineers have already moved on to the 45nm Deneb desktop and Shanghai server processors, which should ship by the end of this year. This straightforward processor “shrink” will not only lower manufacturing costs, but it should allow AMD to reach higher frequencies with its quad-core chips and close the performance gap with Intel at the high-end.

April 16th, 2008

Intel says business is fine, especially in notebooks

Posted by John Morris @ 7:16 am

Categories: Desktops, Intel, OLPC, Uncategorized, flash memory, multicore processors, notebooks, quad-core processors, semiconductors

Tags: PC, NAND, Intel Corp., Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, John Morris

The key message from Intel’s earnings call last night: consumers and businesses are still buying lots of PCs and microprocessors despite economic woes in the U.S.

The ramp of the company’s latest 45nm Penryn processors, which first appeared in servers, then notebooks, and finally desktops, is impressive. Intel has shipped more than 8 million 45nm chips so far–double the shipments it reported a little more than a month ago at an analyst meeting. More important, Intel said it still expected PC unit shipments to grow in double-digits this year. Market researcher IDC predicts the number of PCs shipped will grow from 258 million last year to 286 million this year, a growth rate of 11 percent.

Much of the growth has been notebooks, and that will continue. People tend to buy more laptops per person, and replace them more frequently than desktops, according to Intel. “I think a notebook is becoming a bit of a fashion statement and that has a cache associated with it, and we are seeing some of that,” Intel CEO Paul Otellini said on the call. “You have certainly seen that with the Apple product line growth.”

What’s more surprising is Intel’s optimism about a particular category of notebooks, low-cost laptops that use its Atom processor. Rather than replacing existing laptops with cheaper ones, Intel thinks this new category could significantly expand the overall market.

“Our unit shipments [of notebook CPUs] were up sharply versus last year and with the introduction of the low-cost Netbook category, we believe that the shipment crossover of desktop PCs to mobile PCs will now happen this year and not next year, as we originally anticipated,” Otellini said. “The bulk of the early sales of the Netbooks has been either in mature markets or tier one cities of places like China, and most people that are buying them are buying them as a fashion accessory, as a second or third notebook in the household . . . But I really think the unknown dynamic is what happens when these $200 to $300 Netbooks are unleashed in India and China and Indonesia and there is no model for that at this point in time because you are dealing with something that’s never existed before.”

The only negative note was flash memory, a business that shows no signs of improving anytime soon. Intel manufactures two types of flash: NOR, which is used in cell phones, and NAND, which is used in a wide variety of electronics. Combined revenues were down 15 percent simply because there’s too much flash in the world, so prices are dropping at a faster rate than the actual manufacturing costs.

Intel recently completed the spin-off of its NOR business to new company Numonyx, which also includes the NOR assets of STMicroelectronics. Intel will continue to supply NOR flash to Numonyx for a few quarters. The NAND flash comes from a joint venture with Micron. In its own earnings call a couple of weeks ago, Micron essentially said things were going fine. It has made progress cutting manufacturing costs, and it announced some moves to slow down the growth in the amount of NAND flash it manufactures for both companies. But last night it sure sounded like Intel is prepared to make more drastic moves if NAND flash doesn’t pick-up. “I want to assure our shareholders that we entered this business to make money and we will continue to make the appropriate decisions necessary to that end,” Otellini said.

March 28th, 2008

The new, improved AMD Phenom

Posted by John Morris @ 4:12 am

Categories: AMD, Desktops, Intel, Uncategorized, multicore processors

Tags: AMD Phenom, Quad-core, Link, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Chip, Phenom X4 Line, 95W, Processors, Performance Management, Semiconductors

As expected, AMD announced its updated quad-core Phenom processor lineup, and made the new triple-core version official.

The expanded Phenom X4 line includes four chips: the 2.2GHz 9550, 2.3GHz 9650, 2.4GHz 9750, and 2.5GHz 9850 Black Edition. AMD also released a low-power version of the quad-core, the 1.8GHz Phenom X4 9100e, which has a TDP of 65W. The triple-core chips, which I’ve written about previously, include the 2.1GHz Phenom X3 8400 and 2.3GHz Phenom X3 8600.

The quad-core chips with model numbers ending with “-50″ are the latest version, the B3 stepping, that corrects the cache problem in the original design and effectively improves performance. The triple-core chips, however, are not the B3 stepping. AMD said they will be replaced by the 2.1GHz 8450, the 2.3GHz 8650, and 2.4GHz 8750.

Several sites have posted reviews of the new chips. The links are below if you want all the ugly details. The short version: The B3 stepping corrects the cache problem and improves performance, and faster clock speeds make the Phenom X4 more competitive (previously the fastest version was the 2.3Ghz Phenom 9600). But even the 2.5GHz Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition can’t match the performance of Intel’s mainstream quad-core chip, the 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600, which was released more than a year ago. Meanwhile, the newer–and much more costly–Intel Yorkfield quad-core chips are starting to ship. Ars Technica concludes that AMD would have to push the Phenom X4 to at least 2.7GHz just to match the Q6600, and lately the company has been talking a lot about 45nm transition, but hasn’t said much about further ramping clock speeds on the existing 65nm Barcelona processors later this year.

That means for now AMD Phenom X4 processors, and certainly the X3 chips, will be a value play. Despite the performance improvement, the new versions will be a bit cheaper than the original Phenoms:

New processors:

• Phenom X4 9850 (125W): $235
• Phenom X4 9750 (125W and 95W versions): $215
• Phenom X4 9650 (95W): $215
• Phenom X4 9550 (95W): $209

Old processors:

• Phenom 9600 (95W): $251
• Phenom 9500 (95W): $209

The pricing of the Phenom X3s was not in AMD’s press materials (and still isn’t on the company’s price list), but clearly they need to be well below $200 and the fact that they’ll be making their debut in systems on QVC is an indication of the target audience. Other reports indicate that they will be priced between $160 and $180.

None of this is necessarily a bad thing. AMD says typical mainstream desktops using multi-core Phenoms and its new 7890G chipset will cost $600 to $800, which should make them very attractive. But for now Intel retains its solid lead on desktop performance.

AMD Phenom B3 reviews coverage:

• Phenom, part deux: Ars reviews AMD’s B3 silicon revision [Ars Technica]
• Higher Clock Speeds, No TLB Issues and Better Pricing: The New Phenom [Anandtech]
• AMD Phenom X4 9850 Processor Review - B3 Stepping [Legit Reviews]
• AMD Phenom X4 9850 Processor Review - Long Awaited B3 [PC Perspective]
• AMD Phenom X4 9850 B3 Revision [Hot Hardware]
  
• AMD’s Phenom X4 9750 and 9850 processors: Let’s try this again [Tech Report]
• AMD Phenom Changes Stepping to B3: TLB Bug - in the Past [X-bit Labs]

March 4th, 2008

Intel and AMD finalizing new notebook technology

Posted by John Morris @ 6:30 am

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: AMD Turion, Dual-core, Platform, Roadmap, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp., Chip, Montevina, U3300, PM45

Within the next couple of months, both Intel and AMD will be releasing new notebook platforms. Here’s what we know so far.

Details of Intel’s new platform, called Montevina and due in June, have been slowly leaking out for months. But Daily Tech has filled in a lot of the details.

Earlier this year, at the CES trade show, Intel announced its new 45nm processors for both laptops and desktops. These Penryn processors are gradually replacing the 65nm Merom chips found in most Intel-based laptops. Montevina is a new platform, meaning it includes the system chipset, integrated graphics and new network controllers, as well as a dozen additional Penryn processors to round out the lineup. Montevina will replace the current notebook platform known as Santa Rosa, which is used with both Merom and Penryn processors. Intel will reportedly brand the new platform Centrino 2 to emphasize its new features.

Here are the details on the new processors as reported by Daily Tech and others:

Model	Frequency	FSB	L2 Cache	TDP	Price
Performance
Core 2 Duo T9600	2.80GHz	1066	6MB	35W	$530
Core 2 Duo T9400	2.53GHz	1066	6MB	35W	$316
Power-optimized Performance
Core 2 Duo P9500	2.53GHz	1066	6MB	25W	$348
Core 2 Duo P8600	2.40GHz	1066	3MB	25W	$241
Core 2 Duo P8400	2.26GHz	1066	3MB	25W	$209
Small Form Factor
Core 2 SP9400	2.4GHz	1066	6MB	25W	$316
Core 2 SP9300	2.26GHz	1066	6MB	25W	$284
Core 2 SL9400	1.86GHz	1066	6MB	17W	$316
Core 2 SL9300	1.60GHz	1066	6MB	17W	$284
Core 2 SU9400	1.40GHz	800	3MB	10W	$289
Core 2 SU9300	1.20GHz	800	3MB	10W	$262
Core 2 U3300	1.20GHz	800	3MB	5.5W	$26

Like the chips found in the Apple MacBook Air and the Lenovo X300, the Small Form Factor chips use new packaging that is more compact. The U3300 is a specialized chip that is nearly as power-efficient as Silverthorne/Atom (3W), and it is clearly designed for the smallest subnotebooks.

Montevina also includes three new system chipsets. The GM45 and GM47 will include Intel’s new integrated graphics. The PM45 is designed for use with AMD and Nvidia graphics. In addition to the usual Ethernet and Wi-Fi options, Montevina will also offer WiMax mobile wireless broadband, though given the difficulties facing Sprint and Clearwire, it could take some time to build out a national network.

AMD is also working on a new notebook platform, known as Puma, which is scheduled to ship in the second quarter. The platform includes a new processor family, Griffin, and a new chipset, the RS780M. Griffin is an updated version of the current 65nm K8 chip with more cache. Puma promises some novel power management features, and AMD has been positioning it as the best performance per watt solution to extend battery life. More recently, AMD said it has about 100 “design wins” for Puma, but otherwise has provided few details.

Last week, a German-language site, ComputerBase.de, posted what it claims is AMD’s notebook roadmap for 2008 (here’s a translated page). The roadmap shows a total of six new Griffin processors in the second quarter under the Turion Ultra, Turion, Athlon and Sempron brands:

• Turion Ultra ZM-86: 2.4GHz dual-core; DDR2-800MHz; 2MB L2 cache; 35W
• Turion Ultra ZM-82: 2.2GHz dual-core; DDR2-800MHz; 2MB L2 cache; 35W
• Turion Ultra ZM-80: 2.0GHz dual-core; DDR2-800MHz; 2MB L2 cache; 32W
• Turion RM-70: 2.0GHz dual-core; DDR2-800MHz; 1MB L2 cache; 31W
• Athlon QL-60: 1.90GHz dual-core; DDR2-667MHz; 1MB L2 cache; 35W
• Sempron SI-40: 2.0GHz single-core; DDR2-667MHz; 512KB L2 cache; 25W

Next year, things will get more interesting. AMD plans to release the Swift platform, which will include the first Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) with both a dual-core processor and an integrated graphics processor on the same chip–one of the key product goals of its acquisition of ATI.