Some unreleased Ivy Bridge processors are up on eBay. Not only that, but some Chinese sites still have some listings up.

This goes to show that someone somehow got some engineering samples and leaked them so that the world may experiment with them before the formal announcement.

The Santa Clara, California-based company won't formally introduce the delayed collection until a month or so from now.

Nevertheless, a third-generation Core IB chip is listed on Chinese site Taobao, for a price of 1550 RMB, or $246 / 184.50 Euro.

Additionally, a Core i7-2770K is priced at $440 - $475 (330 to 356.25 Euro) and some Xeon E3-1200v2 series can be found at around $220 / 165 Euro.

To give one example, the Xeon E3-1230v2 can be found at $225 here (168.65 Euro).  Nevertheless, the listings that concern us the most are the ones on eBay, since Chinese websites aren't that easy to navigate for people who don't know the language, even with Google Translate.

Not that it is impossible to deal with Taobao and the others. After all, English-speaking Taobao agents can handle all negotiations with sellers and reship the CPUs, although this will mean a 10% or higher extra fee.

At any rate, searching through eBay may net results like the Core i5-3570K for $319 or Xeon E3-1230v2 CPU for $299. That's 239 Euro and 224 Euro, respectively.

A newly leaked core logic roadmap from Intel confirms that the 22nm "Valley View" Atom chip will arrive in 2013. The slides suggest Valley View will offer a Turbo Mode, which will be different from Ivy Bridge and Haswell, and support for up to four cores, 8GB DDR3 and USB 3.0.

VWV is part of a platform named Balboa Pier, which the slides indicate is a direct successor to CedarView, one of Intel's current mobile platforms. The chip will apparently ditch the third party PowerVR graphics from Imagination Technologies plc (LON:IMG) and instead use Intel's own in-house integrated GPU, found in Ivy Bridge. The Ivy Bridge GPU is estimated to be 20 to 50 percent faster than the GPU in Sandy Bridge, which in turn is more powerful than the old PowerVR chip.

In other words, this will be a big bump graphics-wise -- a clear effort to keep up with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.'s (AMD) graphics-centric approach to systems-on-a-chip. Overall graphics perfromance is expected to see a 4x bump. Intel engineer Jesse Barnes explains to a public mailing list (whoops!), "ValleyView is a CedarView-like chip but with an Ivybridge graphics core."

AMD's next-gen APUs based on the Trinity architecture isn't to be released until the second quarter of this year, a Chinese website has recently posted online a series of benchmarks comparing the performance of the upcoming A10-5800K with that of the current A8-3850 processor.

When it will see the light of day, the A10-5800K will become AMD

Donanim Haber delivers news that AMD will release two new budget FX series processors in Q2 2012, likely in April.

This includes the quad-core FX-4130 and the six-core FX-6130. The latter one offers a 3.6GHz clockspeed, 3.9GHz Turbo, 6MB L2 and 8MB L3 cache. The FX-4130 is clocked at 3.8GHz, with a 3.9GHz Turbo, 4MB L2 but only 4MB L3 cache. Both chips have a 125W TD.

Pricing is TBA.

Five months after the introduction of the Opteron 6200 and Opteron 4200 processors, AMD is expanding its lineup of server chips based on the Bulldozer architecture with the launch of the single-socket Opteron 3200 series CPUs.

Right now, the Opteron 3200 processor range consists of three SKUs, namely the Opteron 3250, 3260, and 3280.

The first two of these feature dual Bulldozer modules for a total of four processing cores and their clock speeds are set at 2.4GHz and 2.7GHz (2.7GHz and 3GHz maximum Turbo), respectively.

The third chip introduced by AMD today packs eight computing cores with a base clock speed of 2.5GHz and 2.8GHz maximum Turbo. Its TDP is rated at 65 Watts, while the quad-core Opteron 3200 series CPUs fit inside a 45W power envelope.

Compared to their desktop counterparts, these three Opteron processors are validated for being used inside servers and come with an improved memory controller that supports up to 32GB of dual-channel ECC RAM running at speeds of up to 1866MHz.

The Opteron 3200 series targets the dense, power efficient 1P Web hosting/Web server market.

"In today's economic environment, dedicated hosting providers need their data centers to become profit centers faster than ever," said Patrick Patla, corporate vice president and general manager, commercial business, AMD.

"With the new AMD Opteron 3000 Series platform, Web and Cloud customers no longer have to compromise with desktop-class platforms in order to hit certain price points.

AMD is preparing the release of a liquid cooled version of the FX-8120, which has recently been made available for pre-order by an online store in the US.

This bundle was dubbed the FX-8120 WOX by the chip maker, the WOX suffix at the end of its name pointing out that the processor is shipped together with an AMD-branded water cooler.

Besides the new bundle, the CPU sports the same specs as the regular FX-8120 according to CPU-World, meaning that it includes four Bulldozer modules to deliver a total of eight cores.

These are paired with 8MB of shared Level 3 cache memory and are clocked at 3.1 GHz, but thanks to the addition of the Turbo Core technology the CPU can reach speeds as high as 4GHz when not all cores are active.

The regular version of the FX-8120 comes bundled with an air-cooled fan/heatsink combo and has an MSRP of $205 (about 156 EUR).

In comparison, the new WOX edition FX-8120 CPU retails for $310 US (roughly 236 EUR), which makes it $105 more expensive than its air cooled version. Sadly, the availability date of the FX-8120 WOX is not yet known.Both processors are bundled with the same AMD liquid cooling solution that was developed by Asetek and sports a 120mm radiator and two fans, the latter configured to work in a push-pull mode.

The FX-8150 WOX liquid cooling bundle has an MSRP of $375 (roughly 285 EUR) and is available from various retailers, including Amazon.

Intel's 2013 Haswell architecture may includea  L4 cache that can be shared between the CPU and the GPU. The primary reason for the new cache layer would be to significantly improve graphics performance.

While as-yet unannounced by Intel itself, the claim comes from VR-Zone which claims to have spotted evidence that the Haswell launch line-up will include desktop chips featuring integrated graphics some two or three times faster than the best Ivy Bridge has to offer.

The biggest change, however, comes in the form of a new layer of cache memory. In addition to the usual L1, L2 and L3 cache layers, VR-Zone claims Haswell is to ship with a chunk of L4 cache. Traditionally, such a feature is limited to expensive chips aimed at the high-performance computing (HPC) market.

Several websources confirm that AMD's upcoming Trinity APU will be 29 percent faster than Llano in productivity applications, and up to 56 percent faster in terms of graphics. Interestingly, AMD will offer ultra-low-voltage editions of Trinity with a TDP of 17W, these chips are claimed to offer identical performance to current 35W Llano offers.

Like-for-like, the new 'Piledriver'-based Trinity CPU is to be 29 per cent faster than its Llano counterparts, with the chip witnessing an even greater improvement in graphics performance, with a 56 per cent increase, all manufactured on TSMC's 32nm node, with figures originating from PCMark Vantage and 3DMark Vantage respectively. It has been suggested that Turbo Boost 3.0 could offer up to a 900MHz over-clock, bringing some APUs comfortably over the 4GHz mark.

Whilst still based on the VLIW4 instruction-set from AMD's Radeon HD 6900-series of graphics cores, aside from a clear boost in core-count and/or clock speed, AMD has enhanced Trinty's graphics offering further with the inclusion of VCE, the video codec engine found in the new 7000-series of GPUs, AMD's answer to Intel's Quick Synch, enabling low-power hardware encoding of H.264, along with several enhancements to accelerated video playback.

These cores will go by the name of Piledriver and will support a series of new instruction sets introduced with the Bulldozer architecture, such as AVX and AES-NI, as well as DDR3-2133 memory.  On the graphics side, AMD has added a series of new HD media accelerator technologies to its chips, such as a Video Compression Engine, and support for its multi-monitor EyeFinity configurations.

Notebooks configured with the mobile version of the Trinity APUs should be capable of reaching

German tech site ComputerBase got its hands on a new desktop platform roadmap from Intel, click on the thumbnail:

Although somewhat semi confirmed DigiTimes mentions that Intel plans to introduce its first 22nm Ivy Bridge processors by the end of April. The launch lineup will include the Core i7-3770K, Core i7-3770, Core i7-3770S, Core i7-3770T and Core i5-3550, while the Core i5-3470, Core i5-3470S, Core i5-3475S, Core i5-3570 and Core i5-3570S will be released in early June.

Motherboards based on the 7-series chipsets should appear by early April, and the Ivy Bridge based Core i3 and Pentium processors are anticipated in August.

Additionally, the site also received word that Intel's next-generation, the Haswell processor and Lynx Point chipset, are expected by March 2013.

AMD added the MSRPs of FX-4170 and FX-6200 Bulldozer CPUs to its official price list. Both the FX-4170 and FX-6200 are a faster than the FX-4100 and the FX-6100 they replace, so when it priced these two chips AMD decided that they should cost $20 more than their predecessors.

As a result, the FX-4170 has an MSRP of $135 (about 102 EUR), while the FX-6200 has a recommended price of $165 (roughly 125 EUR). The FX-4170 is a quad-core processor with a base speed of 4.2GHz and a 4.3GHz maximum Turbo, which is quite a departure from AMD

Earlier this week Intel launched Romley platform, which is positioned as a replacement of 3-year old Tylersburg platform. The latter platform was introduced in 2009, and utilized Nehalem-based Xeon 5500 microprocessors, eventually superseded by Xeon 5600 CPUs.

Nevertheless, the Xeon 5500 series is still in production, and only this week Intel announced upcoming discontinuation of Xeon 5500 series. According to Product Change Notification (PCN) documents, published by Intel, the following Xeon models will be retired:

• High-performance versions: W5590, W5580, X5570, X5560 and X5550
• Mainstream versions: E5540, E5530, E5520, E5507, E5506, E5504, E5503 and E5502
• Low-power versions: L5530, L5520 and L5506

The last order date for these CPUs is September 28, 2012. Embedded versions of Xeon E5504 and E5540 will still be available for order after that date. Other OEM chips will be shipped until March 27, 2015. All boxed aforementioned Xeons will be shipped until supplies last.

We review the Core i7 3820 processor. The chip features four computing cores with Hyper-Threading support working at 3.6GHz (3.8 GHz max Turbo), 10MB of Level 3 cache memory, a quad-channel memory controller, and a built-in 40-lane PCI Express 3.0 controller.

Still, the Core i7-3820 might not have its MP's unlocked, but that doesn't mean it cant overclock on the baseclock + it has a multiplier still capable of 43. Today we'll test the Core i7-3820 and will see how it performs in its baseline configuration and obviously also try to overclock it a little.

Read the article here.

Ivy Bridge processors aren

In a very weird move Intel today released all details on their upcoming Ivy Bridge based processors. The processors still use the Core i3, i5 en i7 branding yet names this the '3rd generation Core processors'.

The biggest changes are to be found in the die shrink and thus the move from 32nm towards 22nm. The graphics performance of the IGP will be slightly better and Intel's Turbo boost technology revision 2.0 is used.

Intel released the specs of the Core i5 and Core i7 desktop and mobile processor, Core i3 still is TBA.

Intel has been delaying Ivy Bridge because of problems in the 22nm node. You may expect the Core i5 and I7 processors around June 2012. An exact date is yet to be announced though.

The tables below show specs partially know and leaked a while ago, but these are now official from Intel. Also the documents make not of an U model with flexible TDP selector, to be controlled by OEMs in 17W, 14W and 25W. Here's an overview. Read the docs here.

Desktop i7

Desktop i5

Mobile i7

Mobile i5

Overall, the prices were slashed by 2% - 15% for Phenom CPUs, and by 6% - 9% for FX chips. The parts, discounted the most in absolute terms, are FX-8120, and Phenom II X4 965, 975, and 980. They have got $20 cheaper. AMD FX-6100 had modest $10 price drop, however let's not forget that this is the second drop since processor's introduction last October. The biggest relative price cut, almost 15%, was for Phenom II X4 965.

AMD launched two new FX Series processors, the FX-6200 hexa-core and the FX-4170 quad-core, and announced price reductions for the October-released FX-8120 and FX-6100.

The FX-6200 and FX-4170 are made on 32 nm process technology, and feature an AM3+ package, a TDP of 125 W, and 8 MB of L3 cache. The FX-6200 has a base clock of 3.8 GHz (4.1 GHz Turbo) and is up for pre-order @ 152.70 Euro while its quad-core sibling is set to 4.2 GHz (4.3 GHz Turbo) and is selling for 120.60 Euro. The updated FX-8120 and FX-6100 prices stand at $185 and $145, respectively.

The Finiancial Times reports that Intel expects its next-generation microprocessors to go on sale eight to 10 weeks later than initially planned, according to Sean Maloney, executive vice-president of Intel and chairman of Intel China.

In his first interview to discuss Intel

Intel's Ivy Bridge series of CPUs has been the topic of many rumors and leaks recently, but its die layout has not been disclosed yet. That did not stop Hiroshige Goto, contributor for PC Watch, from estimating it and the configurations it would allow for, says softpedia:

According to him, the layout is the same as the one exhibited by the Sandy Bridge collection.

The central portion has four x86-64 cores, each with 256 KB of dedicated L2 cache memory. All are connected by 8 MB of shared L3 cache.

On the sides of the central portion lie the system agent and the graphics core, the HD 4000 which behaves up to 122.1% better in benchmarks compared to SB's HD 3000.

The system agent includes a PCI Express controller, the DMI chipset bus and the interface for dual-channel DDR3 memory. What binds all these separate entities together is a ring-bus, which transports data between the CPU cores, L3 cache and system agent.

All in all, the die area should be of roughly 166 square millimeters (160 mm