AMD to refresh its Opteron processor line with new 'Shanghai'

AMD-rival to leading Intel-will release the long-awaited, next-gen processor version of Opteron known as 'Shanghai'. This might send AMD into taking the lead over rival Intel.

Shanghai-using the technogically advanced 45nm fabrication- will put AMD on par with Intel which has been manufacturing 45nm fabricated processor for nearly a year.

The first Shanghai models will be available for x86 sockets. The chips officially named as Opteron 8000 and 2000 series will be clocked at around 2.3GHz to 2.7GHz...consuming 75 watts of power. AMD also plans to release a low-power-consuming processor which consumes only 55 watts and also a powerful, faster chip consuming 105 watts of power by the first quarter of the coming year. Also, a code-named 'Deneb'-for desktops- will be released before the end of this year. 

Intel to officially ship dual-core Atom

Intel is dominating the world of the netbook with its Atom processor(single core). The processor running at 1.6GHz speed powers the vast majority of netbooks that are available to purchase right now. The tiny chip is absolutely perfect for the netbook market thanks to its low cost and low power requirements.

It's no secret that Intel is bringing new Atom processors to market for the low-cost computer segment. Intel announced that its dual-core Atom processor is now shipping. The part is known as the Intel Atom Processor 330. The dual-core processor cores run at 1.6GHz and have 1MB of L2 cache.

The processor has an 8W TDP and supports DDR2 667 RAM. Intel says that the new Atom is available as an integrated package and has been validated with the Intel 945GC Express chipset. The chipset features integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950 and Intel High Definition Audio.

DailyTech reported in mid-August that Intel was going to be releasing its dual-core Atom precessor and Intel sure did; just a few days before September end. Intel is still having shortages of its single-core Atom processors in the channel.

Intel backstabs Microsoft...

According to New York Times; Intel has decided not to upgrade its computers to 80,000Windows Vista. This sure must be bitter news to Microsoft. Microsoft might have made a wrong move which might be irreversible by launching the super-slow, bloated, ill-fated "junk PC". According to Times Reports:

"The company made its decision after a lengthy analysis by its internal technology staff of the costs and potential benefits of moving to Windows Vista, which has drawn fire from many customers as a buggy, bloated program that requires costly hardware upgrades to run smoothly."

Microsoft specially and specifically launched the "Vista capable PC" scheme to help Intel meet its quarterly earnings by selling older Intel chipsets that couldn't run Windows Vista properly.

For now, Windows 7 might be Microsoft's only hope.