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And they are still behind Intel. AMD today released five more chips based on the 45nm manufacturing process including the first ever 3 core CPU at that size. The results are overall pleasing to the reviewers but still leaves a bit to be desired as they are still behind Intel in performance. The upside is that they are good for overclocking and cheaper overall. They could be appealing for budget gamers and those looking for a decent CPU for a nice price. Check out the links below for reviews and the official announcement.

Review: HotHardware

Review: DesktopReview

Official Announcement: AMD

It seems today was the end of the Intel NDA for the Core i7 as tons of review sites have simultaneously released their reviews. A few key features among many others that the i7 brings to the table include an integrated memory controller for lots of memory bandwidth, QuickPath Interconnect which replaces the Front Side Bus, a new chipset X58, and of course a new socket, the LGA1366. The Core i7 also brings back hyper-threading so its four cores can run eight processes simultaneously. That is just the quick rundown, but there are tons and tons of reviews and thorough breakdowns out there to check out. I’ve included a few that I particularly found useful.

HotHardware: Getting To Know Intel’s New Core i7, Video Spotlight
Computer Shopper: Intel’s Core i7 Debuts: Systems, CPUs, and Motherboards Reviewed
CustomPC: Intel Core i7 – all you need to know

Engadget also has a writeup about the Falcon Northwest Mach V featuring the Core i7 and a whopping 12GB of RAM. Its other features include liquid cooling, dual ATI Radeon 4870X2 video cards, 1 TB of storage, and Blu-Ray AND HD-DVD. The price to be one of the first on the block with Core i7? Only $8,238, ouch! The system does look amazing though, so I am sure it is worth every penny in workmanship if you have the cash to afford it. It isn’t like an Alienware system which are very tacky.

Full Article and pictures: Engadget

All in all it has been a fairly exciting day in the wide world of CPUs. Yeah, the systems out right now are pretty pricey, but the mainstream and more affordable systems are coming and this is just a taste of what more of us can see down the road. The new architecture by Intel sure looks like a winner so far.

AMD just issued a release saying that president and CEO Dirk Meyer will be making a “significant corporate announcement” tomorrow, which sounds ominously like those breakup rumors are coming true — particularly since Dirk’s on record saying that the chipmaker plans to spin off manufacturing and fabrication into a new company.

Full Article: Engadget

Well, I don’t know how I feel about this. It should help out AMD from a financial standpoint, but it won’t help from a quality control standpoint since they won’t be able to control the manufacturing process as closely. I guess we shall see what tomorrow brings.

The Inquirer seems to think that the GPU powerhouse will release an x86 chip as early as next week. However, this is not the first time NVIDIA has been rumored to be developing a CPU and nothing came out of that rumor. So, I guess we will sit back and wait to see what NVIDIA has up their sleeves. Perhaps this is in response to Intel’s Larrabee which is their venture into the GPU market which is due as early as late 2009. More competition in the CPU market is always great, but with the recent troubles with the mobile GPUs NVIDIA may be cash strapped and have to put these plans on the back burner.

Full Article: The Inquirer

Is the end of the Intel-AMD duopoly nigh? Via Technologies is hoping this may be the case when it announces the “Isaiah” processor later this month.

The company’s first high-performance x86 chip will be targeted at the mainstream PC market–another first for the Taipei-based chip supplier. Via processors have historically appeared in ultrasmall mobile devices (such as the OQO), embedded computers, or thin-client computers.

“It puts us into the mainstream market for the first time,” said Richard Brown, vice president, corporate marketing at Via.

Isaiah, like Via processors before it, will still hew to the lower-power line, however.

Other differences include: Atom uses a more simple “in-order execution” design compared to Isaiah’s Superscalar, out-of-order design.

Because of this more sophisticated design, Isaiah may deliver higher performance than Atom, though independent benchmarking will be the final judge.

Via subsidiary Centaur Technology designed the processor. “Centaur has been working on this for the last three years. It’s between two and four times the performance of C7 (Via’s current processor). So, it’ very, very close to (Intel’s) Core 2. Core 2 solo (single core),” Brown said.

Full Article: CNet

While it is good to have more competition in the market, Via is still a few years behind AMD and Intel. The Core Solo that they are equating it to was released in the beginning of 2006. However, if they can put pressure on the ultra portable market, that’s great. I have been hesitant to purchase a device with a Via chip because it has been relatively unknown, but I will keep my eye on their future performance.