A great demand of mobile and ultra-mobile PCs has been recorded over the past months in Asia and the American continents and with the advancements in CPU technology we can now tap a pretty big amount of processing power by using only reduced form-factor PCs. To provide this processing power, Intel came up with the Atom CPU, specifically designed for the new wave of compact mobile PCs. AMD was quick to point out that already had an answer to the Atom architecture and it recently turned out that these CPUs were faster than the Atom, although needed a bit more power to run. Now Intel wants to bring the dual-core Atom and take the compact mobile PCs to another level.

Rumors about the dual-core Atom have started to circulate on the Internet since May 2008, but Intel has managed to prevent any major information leak about the CPUs up until recently. The guys over at Engadget China somehow got hold of a dual-core Atom and some info on the new architecture. The CPU you see in the above image is supposed to be the new Atom 330 dual-core and should be officially launched some time in October.

Atom 330 is expected to provide more than double the processing power offered by its predecessor, thanks to its two cores working at 1.6GHz with four threads. The CPU package also integrates 1MB of L2 cache and will work with a 533MHz FSB. Atom 330 is going to be included in the next wave of nettops, netbooks and ultramobile PCs arriving Q4 2008.

While AMD concentrates almost entirely on the latest details of the 45nm Deneb launch, it still manages to find enough time to take care of some soon-to-be released entry-level and mainstream chips.

Initially expected to hit the market in early 2009, the 45nm CPUs from AMD appear to be a bit rushed, since a new leaked document obtained by CHW shows that December should see the start of production of the new Phenom quad-core X4 chips with 45nm architecture, and these are not featuring the Deneb micro-architecture. It appears that the new CPU’s are only dye-shrinks of the existing ones and are rated at 3.0GHz and 2.8GHz, using up 125W of power. As always, the volumes will be minimal in December and the CPUs are expected to be available worldwide only in January 2009.

The leaked document also mentions that the 15W AMD Athlon 2650e – expected to compete with the Intel Atom – is scheduled for a November release, with a clock speed reportedly rated at 1.5GHz. A faster dual-core X2 3250e rated at 1.5GHz and using up 22W of power is also going to be released in order to compete with the upcoming dual-core Atom. Both CPUs are said to have slightly higher power requirements than their Atom counterparts, but AMD is confident they’ll end up faster and cheaper.

Other CPUs that will be launched this fall include a dual-core Athlon X2 processor, model number 5050e, with a 2.6GHz clock speed and low 45W power consumption, plus a three-core 8850 chip rated at 2.5GHz and 95W of energy use. OK, enough with this entry-level stuff; we want the Deneb!

In the beginning (circa 1970) there were the mono-core CPUs, and they’ve dominated the market for more than three decades. The last four years brought the dual and quad-cores and the next logical step looks to be six and eight cores. Intel mentioned that Nehalem six-cores will be introduced later in 2009, but it looks like the Core i7 CPUs won’t be the first six-cores to hit the market from Intel. The CPU giant already intends to release a series of native six-cores in the second half of September, but it’ll be server-oriented.

The native six-core CPUs bear the Xeon 7400 brand name and were codenamed Dunnington. According to CNET, the Xeon 7400 series will be manufactured at 45nm and will feature a shared 16MB L3 cache. The new CPUs are socket compatible with the previous Xeon 7300 series, so there won’t be any need to buy new motherboards. The 7400 series is also compatible with the Xeon MP standard and are intended for systems using four or more CPU sockets.

Don’t expect to see any cheap components here as these are server CPUs after all. The top of the line model – Xeon X7460 – is expected to be available for $2,651, but there are cheaper models going all the way down to just a little over $1,000. Anyway, I still think that a quad-crossfire setup with four Radeon HD 4870X2 graphics cards performs better than a 24-core server.

Later edit:

This is just one example of a powerful dedicated server that can run relatively high load websites.

With Core i7 scheduled for Q4 this year, you’d think Intel should concentrate entirely on solid marketing strategies for the new CPUs, but no, they still have enough time to release some Core 2 CPUs. No high-end this time, only some entry-level stuff. However, Intel chose to release these new models in a more silent way, no aggressive campaigns and intrusive ads whatsoever. We just found these available at online retailers with a blinking “new” beside them.

First and foremost is a quad-core CPU model number Q8200, followed by a dual-core E5200. Both of these integrate the 45nm micro architecture. The third CPU is aimed at the mobile phone market and is officially known as Celeron D 450, coming in a 65nm package.

According to Guru3d, Q8200 is meant as a true entry-level quad-core chip and runs at 2.33GHz with only 4MB of L2 cache along with a 1,333MHz front system bus. The dual-core E5200 is clocked at 2.5GHz, a Level 2 cache cut down to 2MB and a system bus reduced to 800MHz. The 65nm Celeron D 450 also features a 800 MHz FSB, and is the slowest of the three with a 2.2GHz clock and just 512KB of L2 cache.

Bulk prices for the three CPUs are as follows: in 1,000-unit quantities - $224 for the Q8200, $84 for the E5200 and $53 for the 450. Intel also plans to cut down prices for other Core 2 CPUs, just before the official Core i7 release.

We learned about some awkward Nehalem specs yesterday, but that didn’t slow down Intel’s Core i7 promotion campaign. Today, Intel was kind enough to inform us about the upcoming Core i7 prices.

Fuddzila informs that we should be seeing three Core i7 CPUs at launch time, currently expected to be in early November. Each of the three Bloomfield CPUs practically corresponds to one of the three usual market sectors (high-end, mid range and entry level).

The high-end model and the most expensive of the three is a Core i7 clocked at 3.2GHz and QPI at 6.4. The actual model denomination wasn’t mentioned, but we know it’ll cost around $999. This is the first Extreme Edition Core i7 to be released.

The mid range CPU is clocked at 2.93 GHz and has QPI at 4.8 and 8MB cache. Again, there’s no official name and will be available for $562 wholesale price. That means it’ll be only slightly more expensive than the current gen Q9650 Core 2 Quad at 3.0GHz selling for $530.

The cheapest Bloomfield generation CPU announced by Intel works at 2.66GHz and has the same QPI at 4.8 and 8MB cache. It is expected to retail for $284, and I’m sure it will be the most appealing of the three, since the performance gaps between them usually doesn’t support the price difference theory.