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Tid-bits
12/11 - Are Apple and Intel allies or competitors? Will Apple own the digital home? Or will Intel? How about both? Intel's chips shall soon appear in Apple computers. What Intel is trying to accomplish with its V//V (rhymes with "five") initiative sounds a lot like what Apple has been trying to do. "Similarly, Apple Computer Inc. for several years has focused on a digital hub strategy" (Reuters, November 30).
Poor game performance on Intel CPUs may have something to do with the way in which game developers compile their code, in which they allegedly compile without specifying any optimizations, in which case optimization defaults to older CPU architectures. If so, poor gaming performance may be the penalty that Intel pays for keeping technology on the cutting edge. When no optimization is specified, the compiler defaults to blended mode "which is said to optimize code for the Intel Pentium Pro, Pentium II, and Pentium III".
The market for multi-core CPUs is set to explode over the next ten years. "IBM was the first supplier to ship dual-core microprocessors in its server platforms back in 2001".
Sony's Playstation uses "90-nanometer process technology".
NVIDIA's next generation GPU architecture should appear in the second half of 2006. "The new graphics processor will transition to DirectX 10 and support Shader Model 4.0".
Asus has a workstation motherboard that uses the 975X chipset. The 975X enables the ability to run two graphics cards at the same time with single output. The motherboards offers competitive game play, but only "when compared to the NVIDIA nForce 4 Intel Edition SLI".
Notebook sales are "Intel's main growth driver".
Dell notebook sales for the current period are to "be off the charts".
Windows Vista next year is to "drive growth for the computer industry".
The chipset that Intel currently has cultimated specifically for the enterprise is the 945. This is a fairly advanced chipset and supports dual-core CPUs, if I'm not mistaken. The 945 is a good example of how performance is not always the most important measure of a system. The 945 was designed for Intel's Stable Image Platform Program or Technology (SIPP/SIT), which means that it needs to be around for a while. "SIPP components are guaranteed not to be phased out for at least 18 months".
New chipsets from Intel depart from former naming conventions and carry monikers such as G965, Q963, and P965. G means that the chipset includes integrated graphics. The Q designation is new. "Coming in Q2 of 2006, Intel will be introducing 4 new chipsets which depart from traditional Intel convention".