IDF is well underway and we've just gone through the Ultrabook section of the convention center. Everyone from Foxconn to Lenovo had Sandy Bridge based Ultrabook designs at the show. Remember the Ultrabook roadmap is a three year plan, these first solutions will simply bring thinner and lighter designs. There are some common trends exhibited by all Ultrabooks: primarily the chiclet keyboard and many of them make liberal use of aluminum. 

Check out the gallery below for shots of all the systems at the show.

Paul Otellini just showed off a Medfield based Android phone (running the "latest" version of Android) and immediately announced a development partnership with Google. Andy Rubin from Google just joined him on stage to announce that all future releases of Android will be optimized for Intel x86 architecture. This ultimately means we'll see x86 in addition to ARM ports of future versions of Google. We already know that Intel isn't the launch partner for Ice Cream sandwich, but it looks like Intel may be in the running for whatever comes after it.

The first Medfield based phones are expected in the first half of 2012. It looks like MeeGo is old news and Intel is throwing its weight behind Android.

Intel just announced, unsurprisingly, Haswell's design is complete and already in the testing phase. Update: We just confirmed that although Haswell is complete, the solar powered demo below wasn't running Haswell silicon. Sorry for the confusion!  Intel just demonstrated the very first Haswell system powered entirely by a solar cell. While it has no plans to productize a solar powered computer, the demonstration clearly demonstrates Haswell's new 1 0 - 20W power target.

Intel just announced that Haswell (due out in 2013) was designed to reduce connected standby power by 30% compared to Sandy Bridge. The Haswell platform as a whole will deliver a 20x decrease in connected standby power, which Intel believes will enable connected standby battery life to last up to 10 days. The idea here is to be able to put your notebook to sleep and have it continually fetch cloud updates (email, IMs, tweets) for up to 10 days on a single charge.

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.

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.

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

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. 

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.

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

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. 

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. 

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.

At Computex Intel announced that Ivy Bridge would be its first processor to support a configurable TDP. Today all CPUs are rated at a single maximum TDP. Mainstream notebook processors fall in the 35 - 45W range, while mainstream desktops are around 65W. As the world embraces mobility and interfaces like Thunderbolt enable new usage models for notebook users (e.g. docking station with a beefy external GPU), Intel had to rethink its power strategy.

Today with a 35W CPU, Intel guarantees the OEM that if it implements a chassis and cooling system capable of dissipating that much heat the chip will operate as intended. If the OEM offers an optional dock or high-performance cooling mode that could cool a higher wattage chip, the CPU can't take advantage of it. Ivy Bridge changes this. 

Ultra low volt (ULV) and extreme edition IVB parts will carry three TDP ratings: nominal, a lower configurable TDP (cTDP down) and an upper configurable TDP (cTDP up). Let's talk about cTDP up first.

ULV Ivy Bridge parts will be rated at 17W, similar to the ULV SNB CPUs that are used in Ultrabooks and the new MacBook Air. Intel will also guarantee these chips at a higher frequency with a TDP of 33W. If the Ivy Bridge MacBook Air could dissipate 17W of heat normally but when placed on a docking station with additional cooling capabilities could remove 33W of heat, the CPU would simply run at a much higher frequency when docked. This goes beyond simple turbo as it exceeds the CPU's nominal TDP, whereas turbo mode is mostly bound by TDP.

The same applies in reverse. If you want the chip to behave as if it were a 13W part instead of a 17W part, that will be possible as well. It's configurable performance based on the current conditions. If you have tons of cooling ability, you get more performance. If you need battery life, you get a chip that makes your system behave like an ultraportable.

The extreme edition IVB parts will also support configurable TDP. 55W parts will be able to go up to 65W or go down to 45W. 

You can expect that Intel will use configurable TDP as a reason for customers to buy the more expensive versions of Ivy Bridge. Ivy Bridge is expected to arrive on notebooks and desktops in April - May 2012.

One aspect of differentiation between Android smartphones has always been how smoothly they scroll both in the OS and in the browser. Later versions of Android have addressed the issue by adding varying degrees of GPU acceleration to the OS, but there's still the need of raw memory bandwidth and the GPU horsepower to back it up. It turns out that Samsung's Galaxy S 2 delivers both.

The Vellamo data above measures scrolling performance, higher numbers being better of course. Compared to all high end GPUs available in Android smartphones today, the Galaxy S 2 is significantly faster. The Exynos 4210 features a dual-channel LPDDR2 memory interface along with a very powerful Mali-400 MP4 GPU. Combined with Samsung's GPU accelerated browser the SGS2 is able to deliver a huge leap in scrolling performance.

This week Intel will begin sharing some of the first details of its Ivy Bridge processor (2012 Core i-series CPU) at the annual Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. While the show officially starts on Tuesday, we have some early details about the chip.

Sandy Bridge was Intel's first high-end architecture to integrate a GPU on-die. The SNB GPU is available in two configurations: GT1 with 6 EUs (processors/execution units/cores) and GT2 with 12 EUs. All mobile versions ship with GT2 while most desktop parts ship with GT1. Intel calls GT2 its HD Graphics 3000 while GT1 chips come with HD Graphics 2000. There's a less featured version of GT1 that's simply called Intel HD Graphics as well and it's found in Sandy Bridge Pentium & Celeron CPUs.

Ivy Bridge's GT2 configuration has 16 EUs, no word on how many the GT1 configuration will have. As a result Intel is expecting a 60% increase in 3DMark Vantage scores (Performance Preset) and a 30% increase in 3DMark '06 scores. IVB GT1 on the other hand will only see performance increase by 10 - 20%. If we look at the 3DMark Vantage data from our Llano notebook review, a 60% increase in performance over SNB would put Ivy Bridge's GPU performance around that of AMD's A8. It remains to be seen how well this translates into actual gaming performance though.

The other information about Ivy Bridge's GPU has been known for a while: DX11, OpenCL 1.1 and OpenGL 3.1 will all be supported. The last tidbit we have is that Quick Sync performance is apparently much improved. Intel is privately claiming up to 2x better performance than Sandy Bridge in accelerated video transcoding or lesser gains but improved image quality. The performance improvements only apply to GT2 IVB configurations.

Earlier this morning we published our long awaited review of the Samsung Galaxy S 2. In it we dedicated a few pages to investigating Samsung's own Exynos 4210 SoC. The chip a full featured dual-core Cortex A9 design, comparable to TI's OMAP 4. The big news however is the Exynos 4210 is the first SoC in a smartphone to use ARM's Mali-400 GPU. 

Samsung implemented a 4-core version of the Mali-400 in the 4210 and its resulting performance is staggering as you can see above. Although it's still not as fast as the PowerVR SGX 543MP2 found in the iPad 2, it's anywhere from 1.7 - 4x faster than anything that's shipping in a smartphone today.

The Mali-400 MP4 is put to good use in the Galaxy S 2 as our own Brian Klug found it to be the smoothest experience by an order of magnitude compared to any currently available Android phone.

The downsides to the Mali-400 MP4? It doesn't have the best triangle throughput, which could be an issue in future games that may scale along that vector rather than simply increasing pixel shader complexity.

Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs were launched in January and so far, the desktop i7 lineup has consisted of three SKUs: i7-2600, i7-2600K and i7-2600S. Earlier this week, Intel released 16 new Sandy Bridge CPUs, but the desktop i7 series remained unchanged. Yesterday, Intel updated their Material Declaration Data Sheets (MDDS) with product code for i7-2700K. The exact product code is:

BX80623I72700K SR0DG

For comparison, the product code for i5-2500 is:

BX80623I52500 SR00T

Lets break down the product codes. The first two letters, "BX", stand for boxed unit. These letters would be different if the unit wasn't a boxed unit, for example "FF" is for non-boxed PGA988 units. There could be a third letter "C" which means it's a boxed unit for China market (hence there are two product codes for i7-2700K). After that, there is a five number code "80623". This is a specific code for all boxed desktop Sandy Bridge CPUs. Finally we get to the processor number which is the most interesting part and in this case, revealed the i7-2700K. There is still a separate spec code after the processor number and it's processor specific as well. 

The specs of i7-2700K are unknown though. It's also a question whether there will be i7-2700 and i7-2700S or not. However, we would expect i7-2700K to carry similar specs as i7-2600K (four cores, Hyper-Threading, unlocked multiplier, 8MB L3...), but a slightly higher default frequency. Given Intel's history, 100MHz (one multiplier) increase sounds likely, making i7-2700K's stock frequency 3.5GHz with up to 3.9GHz Turbo. Price wise i7-2700K should also replace i7-2600K, making its price ~$317.

There is no word on the availability of i7-2700K. Leaked roadmaps suggest something equal or better than i7-2600K between Q3'11 and Q1'12. Considering that Intel just released new CPUs a few days ago, it seems unlikely that the release is imminent. On the other hand, it makes no sense to release i7-2700K just before Ivy Bridge, thus our guess would be Q4'11, around the same time as AMD's Bulldozer hits the shelves.

Source: Intel via CPU-World

Four months ago NVIDIA announced the acquisition of Icera, a baseband solution provider. Icera's technology didn't make it into any smartphones but it did have some success in the USB modem market. The obvious impteus for the acquisition was to eventually integrate Icera basebands into NVIDIA Tegra SoCs, providing a "single chip" solution for those customers who want it. Currently Qualcomm is the only major SoC player to offer an application processor with integrated baseband with its Snapdragon SoC.

After the acquisition was announced NVIDIA wouldn't commit to any timeframe for integrating Icera's technology, even going as far as to say that many customers weren't demanding that level of integration at this point. Yesterday NVIDIA's CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang confirmed that we'd see a mainstream Tegra offering with an integrated "3G/4G" baseband from Icera in 2012 alongside its Wayne SoC. This integrated SoC is codenamed Grey. Xbit Labs was the first to report on the story and we just confirmed it with NVIDIA.

Grey will coexist with Wayne. Jen-Hsun referred to Grey as being able to address the "majority of the smartphone market" indicating that it may be a smaller design than Wayne. NVIDIA has yet to confirm the architecture behind Wayne (or Grey) at this point, but we can only assume that by 2012 it'll be time for NVIDIA to shift to Cortex A15 at 28nm. 

Dust off your old-school shooter skills: a demo for the indie cyberpunk FPS Hard Reset is now on Steam.

Hard Reset comes from Flying Wild Hog, a Polish developer made up of talent from People Can Fly (Painkiller), CD Projekt Red (The Witcher) and City Interactive (Sniper: Ghost Warrior). You play an Army veteran tasked with defending humanity from a growing robotic threat.

In an effort to best serve their audience, Flying Wild Hog chose to make the title PC-exclusive and it shows. Their proprietary engine is capable of some truly stunning visuals, and the combat – full of circle-strafing and back-pedaling – harkens back to older id Software shooters. It also includes more modern weapon customization to keep things fresh.

Hard Reset releases at $30 next Tuesday, but if the brief demo wins you over, you can save a little cash by pre-ordering for $27. 

Source: Steam

The TouchDroid project, which was created just weeks ago in the wake of HP's Touchpad liquidation sale, has already disbanded. The project's discontinuation stems not from technical problems but because of accusations of code theft by the CyanogenMod team, which has also been working to bring Android to HP's defunct tablet.

After the TouchDroid team posted a video showing off the Touchpad running a touch-enabled install of Android 2.3, the CyanogenMod team accused TouchDroid team members of stealing code from the CyanogenMod port and passing it off as their own. In the end, the TouchDroid team gave the CyanogenMod team credit for its work, posted a dump of what they had done up to that point and declared that the team was "no longer actively working on a port" of Android to the Touchpad.

Meanwhile, the CyanogenMod team's work continues, and appears to be going well - at this writing, the only major component that doesn't appear to be functioning in their port is wi-fi, and at this rate I'd expect that to be fixed soon. In the meantime, you can read the Android Police report for a full description of the chat transcripts, forum posts, and tweets through which this drama unfolded.

Source: Android Police