Thread: Anandtech News

Not content to flood the market in Android variants, Samsung is starting their roll out of Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) devices. The release we received this morning was scant on details or images [Ed. note: The image above is from our Samsung Focus review], but a look at the specifications tells us to expect a significant performance upgrade from Windows Phone's first generation hardware. The new models being premiered share similar internals, including a 1.4 GHz single core SoC, most likely an MSM8255 variant, as found in the HTC Flyer and HP TouchPad. But where the Focus S stands a full head over its sister, the Focus Flash, is in display. The 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus display in the Focus S is wrapped in an 8.55 millimeter that challenges the Galaxy S II for thinness. The Focus Flash provides a smaller frame with its 3.7" Super AMOLED screen, but no details on its thickness. Having split the difference on size around the original 4" Samsung Focus, early adopters need not worry that they are going to be left behind, as Samsung has promised to bring Mango to their first generation hardware.
AT&T was a strong proponent of Windows Phone during its roll out, and it seems they're going to double down with the first major update to the platform. Release and pricing, though, remain unannounced. We'll update with pictures when we've got them.



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And hot on the heels of Samsung's Mango news, HTC has announced they're bringing their surprisingly thin HTC Titan to AT&T with Windows Phone 7.5 in tow. We first learned about the Titan at a fan event in London, and its specs are impressive, most obviously that 4.7" WVGA screen. Unlike the Samsung offerings, HTC's Snapdragon variant will be clocked at 1.5 GHz, though only one core remains on hand. The Titan will be available during the fourth quarter on AT&T, and Mango will be pushed to HTC's earlier Windows Phone devices, the Surround and the HD7S, during the same time frame. We'll have a hands on as soon as we can and will update as news comes about pricing.

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Acer made a value play with their Acer Iconia A500, and the results left something to be desired. How much of that was Honeycomb growing pains is hard to say, but they've added another model to their stable with the Acer Iconia A501. If the incremental model number is any indication to you, then you already know this isn't a big revision. To review, this is a 10.1" Honeycomb tablet, sporting a Tegra 2 SoC and 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB or 32 GB of storage. A microSD slot provides expandability and the regular assortment of cameras and WiFi are included. Sound like a lot of tablets you've heard of before? Yeah. Indeed, the key change is the addition of an HSPA+ modem providing mobile broadband speeds courtesy of AT&T's network. Availability starts this Sunday with the 16 GB model going for $499 and the 32 GB model $549, a $50 premium on the WiFi version. We'll let you know what else is in store when we get our hands on one.
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Though AMD began shipping Bulldozer-based sever CPUs last week, we're still waiting until Q4 for the new architecture to hit the desktop. In the meantime, however, pre-order pricing for the high-end FX-series CPUs (codenamed Zambezi) has been leaked, giving the AMD faithful an idea of how much the new processors will set them back.

AMD Bulldozer FX-series Processors
Name	Cores	CPU Clock	L2 Cache	L3 Cache	TDP	Price
FX-8150	8	3.6GHz (4.2GHz Turbo)	8MB	8MB	125W	$266.28
FX-8120	8	3.1GHz (4GHz Turbo)	8MB	8MB	125W	$221.73
FX-6100	6	3.3GHz (3.9GHz Turbo)	6MB	8MB	95W	$188.32

If you think that these prices seem too low for eight and six-core chips, remember that Bulldozer's architecture is such that a "dual-core" CPU is actually one core with two copies of several hardware features - the CPU is visible to the OS as two cores, but physically each of AMD's cores is somewhere in between Intel's HyperThreading implementation and a "true" dual-core design - you can read Anand's original Bulldozer post for more information on this.
The Bulldozer-based FX-series processors are targeted at the high-end of the market, and therefore do not include an on-board GPU. The 32nm processors will be available in Q4 of this year for socket AM3+ motherboards (and some socket AM3 motherboards with an updated BIOS, though these motherboards may not be able to take advantage of all of Bulldozer's new features).
Source: CPU World


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Last week we confirmed NVIDIA would be introducing a Tegra SoC with integrated Icera baseband called Grey, but we got the timeframe down. Above you'll see the updated Tegra roadmap. Wayne has been pushed out to late 2012/early 2013 and there's now a Kal-El+ part that will refresh the lineup in the middle of next year. Grey will debut in 2013.
Also note that with Wayne, NVIDIA bifurcates the Tegra roadmap into a high end and a mainstream SoC. Wayne (and its derivatives) will continue to be two chip solutions with a discrete modem, while Grey will introduce single chip solutions with integrated Icera basebands.


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Before every major architecture launch from AMD or NVIDIA, the companies typically hold an editor's or tech day. These events usually last about a day (sometimes two) and involve a bunch of press sitting in a conference room while they get peppered with presentations and pepper back with questions. Engineers and key architects are usually present. The goal behind these tech days is to help the press understand, at least from the manufacturer's perspective, what makes their new architecture tick. Benchmarking usually doesn't happen at these events, but typically we get hardware at the event or shortly thereafter. If you're curious, Intel doesn't typically do a tech day - that's what IDF is for.

Two weeks ago AMD held one of these tech days for its upcoming Bulldozer architecture, which will be sold under the FX brand (e.g. AMD FX-xxxx CPU). Although it'll still be a little while before I can talk about most of what transpired at the Bulldozer tech day, there is one thing I'm allowed to share today: overclocking potential.

AMD was conducting overclocking experiments at the tech day and had three different stations setup for us to look at. The first used a sub-$100 closed-loop waster cooling solution from Antec (Kühler series). I can't tell you much about the chip itself other than it is an 8-core FX processor that AMD was able to overclock to 4.8GHz using the Antec Kühler.

Next up was phase change cooling. Armed with a phase change cooler AMD pushed another 8-core FX CPU up to 5.894GHz at 1.632V.

AMD ended on its most aggressive cooling solution: liquid helium. Using liquid helium AMD was able to take Bulldozer to a new world record of 8.429GHz. The resulting overclocked frequency was high enough to get AMD's FX processor inducted into the Guiness Book of World Records for the highest frequency for a computer processor.

None of this tells us much about how Bulldozer will perform unfortunately. The most interesting number is likely the first number (4.8GHz) which gives you the upper bound of what to expect from an overclocked Bulldozer at home without any exotic cooling.

AMD recently announced that it has started shipping server versions of its Bulldozer CPU and that desktop parts will be available in Q4.


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Image Courtesy iFixit

Thunderbolt has seen limited use this year - the standard has only been implemented by Apple and Sony, the rest of the PC market will have to wait until next year when Intel offers a new pair of Thunderbolt controllers to OEMs designing Ivy Bridge systems.
Currently there are two Thunderbolt controllers available: Light Ridge and Eagle Ridge. Light Ridge is the bigger chip that features four Thunderbolt channels (4 x 10Gbps bidirectional = 80Gbps aggregate bandwidth) and two DisplayPort outputs, it's used in the MacBook Pro, Mac mini and iMac. Eagle Ridge is a smaller version of the controller (also available in a small form factor package) used in the MacBook Air. Eagle Ride is effectively half of a Light Ridge, sporting two Thunderbolt channels and one DP output.
Next year we'll see the introduction of two new Thunderbolt controllers, both called Cactus Ridge. The specs are identical to Light and Eagle Ridge, there will be a four and a two channel version. Both chips will be available in a 12mm x 12mm package. No word on pricing but let's hope they are reasonably priced so we may actually see widespread adoption of Thunderbolt next year.


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We’re here in Anaheim, California at Microsoft’s BUILD conference. As has become tradition Microsoft has been holding major developer conferences for their new OSes roughly a year ahead of launch. In 2008 developers and the press got their first in-depth look at Windows 7 at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC), and here in 2011 BUILD is doing much the same for Windows 8.
Today the show kicks off in earnest with a keynote that begins at the same time as this article went live, however yesterday was the first press session, with Microsoft spending most of the day running the press through a series of presentations focused on the end-user. We also had a chance to spend some time using an x86 tablet running Windows 8, with the tablet being the focal point of Microsoft’s new Metro interface. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s start at the beginning. There’s a great deal to discuss about Windows 8, and Metro is the centerpiece.

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Earlier this year Intel revealed its mobile Sandy Bridge lineup, including a slew of 45W quad-core Core i7 SKUs. Next year Ivy Bridge will expand the range to include a 35W quad-core Core i7 SKU. Shaving off 10W off the TDP should enable somewhat smaller notebooks to enjoy the benefits of a quad-core CPU. Apple in particular is limited to 35W in its 13-inch MacBook Pro chassis, we may see a quad-core option in the 2012 13-inch Ivy Bridge MacBook Pro as a result.


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