Founded back in 1972 as Cray Research, Inc., Cray Inc. is a Seattle-based supercomputer manufacturer, which has been using Opteron processors in the last years to create its computing monsters. Since everything comes to an end, Cray decided to move on and switch from AMD to Intel, although it also has plans to develop systems based on future Opterons...


Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray, said "We’re excited at the potential of bringing together Intel’s powerful silicon expertise and Cray's industry leadership in scalable HPC systems. We pride ourselves in offering the most innovative supercomputing systems and our customers will now enjoy greater choice in processor technologies."

One of the reasons of this decision to choose Intel processors for its systems is probably the fact that AMD had a lot of delays in the last two years, and you can't wait for the processors to be ready when you're building a supercomputer, because we're talking about "supermoney," and "superpenalties" that may come as a consequence of those delays.

"This collaboration provides the HPC market segment with access to the best microprocessors the industry has to offer at any point in time, in the most advanced supercomputers in the world. This further strengthens Cray's industry-leading adaptive supercomputing vision as we move into the Cascade timeframe and beyond," Ungaro concluded.

Currently, NVIDIA doesn't really offer a great deal for those looking to buy a mid-range video card, and ATI's Radeon HD 3850 and HD 3870 look simply great, especially after the latest price drops. Anyway, that doesn't mean NVIDIA sleeps. Although not quite something new, the 9600 GSO card was released earlier today, to fill the area below the 9600 GT(or even above), so let's see what's new and what's old with it, shall we?


First, I should explain why I am not sure where to place the 9600 GSO when compared to its predecessor, the 9600 GT. While the 9600 GT has only 64 stream processors, the 9600 GSO has 96 of them, but its memory bandwidth is lower - 38.4GB/s vs. 57.6GB/s, so I guess we'll have to wait for the first reviews to decide which one is better, and most important, which one delivers the best bang for your buck. Despite its lower memory bandwidth, texture fill rate is better for the 9600 GSO, with 26.4 billion vs. 20.8.

As we heard before, the 9600 GSO is, practically, a rebranded 8800 GS, using the G92 GPU, with 48 texturing units, 12 render back ends and 192-bit memory bus. NVIDIA recommends its partners to put 384MB of GDDR3 memory running at 1600MHz on these boards, but we didn't hear anything about pricing yet...

Since NVIDIA claims the 9600 GSO offers "amazing graphics performance within your reach," I hope to see this card becoming available somewhere around $130, but can't really tell that yet. Anyway, we'll find out pretty soon, you can bet on that!

AMD has encountered a couple of problems in the past few days. First of all it lost a five-year old exclusive deal with supercomputer maker Cray, which teamed up with Intel in order to deliver improved HPC (High Performance Computing) components. As if this wasn’t enough for AMD, the CPU maker is also facing accusations regarding compatibility issues with the 9750 and 9850 125W PhenomX4 processors. The two CPUs appear to run hot on some 780G-powered mobos and the mobo manufacturers are blaming AMD for this problem.

However, AMD says it’s not their fault in this case because the two previously mentioned CPUs are specifically built to work with the newer 790 chipset and manufacturers are trying to build systems on the cheap by using 780G mobos.

Jake Whitman, an AMD spokesperson, tries to clear up things for CNET: "What people have done, mistakenly, is paired a 780G motherboard with the higher frequency Phenom - the 125-watt Phenom. Not all motherboard manufacturers have tweaked their boards to support a 125-watt TDP. We've never made claims that 780G motherboards are enthusiast-class motherboards."

So keep in mind that any 125W CPU from AMD is only to be paired with a high-end mobo for best results and stability.

Currently, the video card is probably the hottest piece of hardware in most brand new computers, and I am not talking about the good-looking coolers or the LEDs added by some producers to their cards' fans. The problem is heat. Obviously, this becomes a really dangerous issue for those overclocking their cards, so today I will tell you about a custom cooling solution designed to do its job well, and to look great, at the same time!


The Akasa Vortexx NEO VGA cooler(pictured above), sporting two copper heatpipes, is a SLI and Crossfire ready cooling system that features a 70 mm sleeve bearing fan working at 2500rpm. Despite this, Akasa claims the Vortexx NEO is a very quiet cooler, and the 290 gr heavy system can be easily installed by anyone, thanks to the fact its design allows tool-free installation.

The list of compatible cards is pretty long,and starts about two graphics cards generations ago, with the Radeon X1800, X1900, continues with the Radeon HD 2600 XT (GDDR4), 2900 Pro/XT, and arrives to the latest HD 3850, HD 3870 cards from ATI, while the Nvidia boards supported include the "oldies" GeForce 6800, 7800, and 7900, as well as the fresh G92-powered 8800 GT and GTS 512, plus the 9600 GT and 9800 GTX.

First, there were only rumors. Then, AMD made public the first details regarding its upcoming mobile and desktop platforms. That was happening almost a year ago, and today, it finally arrived, but for now, there are only available details regarding the new commercial desktop platform, so let's see what do we have here, shall we?


Released as a part of AMD's Business Class initiative, the platform comes with a lineup of processors with up to 2 years stability and longevity from initial product availability, as they claim. This lineup includes X2 dual-cores, as well as X3 and X4 tri- and quad-core Phenoms.

For the system integrators, the new platform gives the freedom of choosing the AMD 780V chipset with on-board video, or to include the ATI Radeon HD 3000-series discrete graphics cards for improved performance. Obviously, non-AMD graphics are also supported.

AMD's COO and president, Dirk Meyer, said "IT decision-makers have a broad range of commercial client solutions to choose from and it is not always clear which systems deliver the best business value. At its heart, AMD Business Class processors are based on the same innovative technology that powers the world’s most advanced servers. Our solutions are designed to give commercial customers the assurance that platforms are designed with their business in mind to help get more from their computing infrastructure, longer."

At last, you should hear some prices for 1000-units batches, before drawing any conclusion - AMD Phenom X4 9600B for $230, the AMD Phenom X3 8600B for $175, AMD Athlon X2 5400B and 5200B for $120 and $110 respectively, AMD Athlon X2 5000B and 4450B for $95 and $85 respectively, and the AMD Athlon 1640B processor, at last, for $50. Pretty good deals, don't you think?