Wintel (slang for Windows+Intel architecture) tablets, which launch along with Microsoft's latest Windows 8 operating system, which grab a greater market-share than WoA (Windows on ARM) tablets by the end of 2012, DigiTimes research predicts. This, despite the fact that the x86 and ARM versions of the operating system will be released simultaneously. PC majors such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, ASUStek and Toshiba, have all pledged 1-3 models of Wintel tablets by the end of 2012. Although still an emerging market-segment, tablets will see a clash between x86 and ARM architectures, as they are wooing for the same exact class of devices for the first time in computing history. Intel has made a lot of progress in miniaturizing the Atom processor, while led by the likes of Qualcomm and NVIDIA, ARM processors are getting stronger.

AMD today announced a collaboration with Green Hills Software, the largest independent vendor of embedded software, that brings its industry-leading INTEGRITY real-time operating system (RTOS) to the AMD Embedded G-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) platform. The combination of INTEGRITY RTOS with the AMD Embedded G-Series APU creates a high performance, reliable and secure embedded computing solution or use across a range of applications including industrial control systems, consumer, networking, military/aerospace and medical.

The INTEGRITY RTOS offers support for multi-core x86 CPUs in the AMD Embedded G-Series APU with its v10.0.2 SMP release. The AMD Embedded G-Series APU offers an advanced, low-power, multi-core x86 CPU and a discrete-class DirectX 11-capable GPU on a single chip. This specific family of APUs was created expressly for the requirements of embedded systems, many of which require the precise, deterministic timing of an RTOS.

Imation Japan unveiled two new lines of NAS server products, the T5R desktop/tower, and R4 1U rack-mount NAS. The T5R has five 3.5" SATA HDD bays, along with one Imation RDX cardridge slot (for tape backup of vital data). The T5R comes in two variants, the T5R-5X1TB-HDD, which has five 1 TB HDDs; and T5R-5X2TB-HDD, which has five 2 TB HDDs. The R4, on the other hand, has four 3.5" SATA drive bays, and comes in two variants: R4-4X1TB-HDD with four 1 TB HDDs, and R4-4X2TB-HDD, which has four 2 TB HDDs.

There is a lot in common between the T5R and R4. Both models are driven by Intel Atom D2700 dual-core processor clocked at 2.13 GHz, with 2 GB DDR3 memory, the storage controllers support RAID 0,1,1 E, 3,5,6,10; the primary network interface is a single 1 Gbps Ethernet connection, and expansion features include two USB 3.0, three USB 2.0, and one eSATA. All modern x86 operating systems are supported. Imation did not give out pricing information.

Later this year, AMD will unveil its second-generation accelerated processing units (APUs) in the FM2 package, based on its brand-new "Piledriver" CPU and "Graphics CoreNext" GPU architectures. Among these, the part that is designed keeping overclockers in mind is the A10-5800K, which features an unlocked base clock multiplier, four x86-64 cores, 3.80 GHz (nominal) and 4.20 GHz Turbo Core clock speed, and AMD Radeon HD 7660D graphics. Find out more about the lineup here.

INPAI got its hands on an A10-5800K APU, and supporting socket FM2 motherboard, and wasted no time in comparing it to the current-generation A8-3850. INPAI put the two chips through SuperPi 1M, to measure single-thread performance, and 3DMark 06, to measure embedded-GPU performance. In SuperPi, A10-5800K crunched SuperPi 1M in 23.775 s, the A8-3850 did the same in 26.039 s. With 3DMark 06, the A10-5800K scored 9396 points, while the A8-3850 scored 6223. The inference that can be drawn out of this little test is that Trinity has significantly faster graphics, not so much CPU (taking into account A10-5800K cores were clocked over 30% higher than those of the A8-3850).

We know from a slightly older article, that the first variants of Windows will be released to market some time in Q4-2012. A new report by Bloomberg pin-points that to October, exactly 3 years after the market-launch of Windows 7. Further, Microsoft should launch Windows 8 for both x86 and ARM machine architectures around the same time, in what could be a breather for tablet and low-cost netbook designers. Despite that, there are fewer ARM devices running Windows 8, which will launch around that time, than x86 notebooks/PCs. With an October 2012 launch Microsoft should be able to target shoppers in the crucial winter shopping season, in mature markets, according to Bloomberg Analysts.

Worldwide PC microprocessor revenues in the fourth calendar quarter of 2011 (4Q11) rose to $10.9 billion, up 1.8% compared to 3Q11 and up 14.2% compared to 4Q10, according to the latest PC microprocessor market share study from International Data Corporation (IDC). For the year 2011 compared to 2010, PC microprocessor revenues rose 13.2% to more than $41 billion.

"The average selling price (ASP) that OEMs pay for PC microprocessors rose more than 9% in 2011, making 2011 the second consecutive year of notable ASP increases," said Shane Rau, director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC.

Looking at processor unit shipments in 2011 compared to 2010, overall shipments grew 3.6%. By form factor, mobile PC processor unit shipments grew 3.9% in 2011, while x86 server processor unit shipments grew 9.0%, and desktop processor unit shipments grew 2.7%.

AMD is close to launching a new value accelerated processing unit (APU) in the FM1 package, the A4-3420. This model has been available in OEM/tray package to system manufacturers since January, but now AMD is releasing it to the retail channel, in the PIB (processor in a box) package. This chip has two x86-64 cores clocked at 2.80 GHz, and Radeon HD 6410D graphics with 160 stream processors, with its engine clocked at 600 MHz. The L2 cache size is 512 KB per core. It packs an integrated memory controller supporting dual-channel DDR3-1600 MHz memory, and a PCI-Express 2.0 root hub for discrete graphics. Its rated TDP is 65W. Expect a US $65 price.

NVIDIA today announced that its NVIDIA Tesla GPUs will be featured, for the first time, on two Dell PowerEdge 12th generation rack and tower servers.

Dell designed the new GPU-enabled PowerEdge R720 and PowerEdge T620 servers to accelerate a wide range of computationally intensive, industry standard applications, including Mathworks MATLAB (for computational research) and SIMULIA Abaqus (for computer-aided engineering). In addition, the new servers combine the 512-core NVIDIA Tesla M2090 GPUs with the latest Intel Xeon E5/R CPUs based on the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture to accelerate a range of scientific applications in fields such as life sciences, engineering, weather and climate, and others.

Over the past year, Microsoft has been discussing the vast possibilities offered by the emergence of a new category within the traditional embedded market - intelligent systems.

A critical component of Microsoft's enterprise strategy, intelligent systems enable an unprecedented flow of data with the power to transform industries such as retail, manufacturing and medicine, by connecting devices where data is generated through employees and customers to back-end systems and services where it is translated into strategic insight to inform business decisions.

VIA Technologies, Inc., a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced net sales for February 2012 of NT$ 307.27 million (US$ 10.46 million approximately). This sales revenue represents a 1.44 % month-on-month increase over revenues of NT$ 302.94 million (US$ 10.31 million) in January 2012.

To help customers address the inefficiencies and lost costs of managing multiple support vendors, Dell ProSupport for Multivendor has been globally expanded beyond x86 to include support for storage, networking and UNIX products. This expansion also includes support for additional vendors for servers, desktops and laptops. By consolidating support under one service provider, customers can ensure consistent processes and reduce the resources required to manage complex services contracts from multiple vendors, ultimately simplifying IT management and reducing their IT costs.

"Our customers rely on the expertise, global network and 24x7 availability of Dell ProSupport for their Dell systems and can now experience those same benefits across their entire environment," said Doug Schmitt, vice president, Dell Services. "With the latest expansion of Dell ProSupport for Multivendor, customers around the world can rely on Dell for all of their support needs. From end-user systems to complex data centers and everything in between, customers will save time and money and receive the same award-winning support they've come to expect from Dell ProSupport."

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the world's first quad core Mini-ITX boards featuring the latest VIA QuadCore E-Series processor. The VIA EPIA-M900 and VIA EPIA-M910 are the first two Mini-ITX boards to feature the 1.2 GHz VIA QuadCore E-Series processor, offering enhanced multi-tasking and superb multimedia performance on the lowest quad core power budget for next generation embedded products.

The VIA QuadCore E-Series processor features a highly optimized, energy efficient multi-core architecture, which is natively 64-bit compatible and comes with a host of additional performance features including Adaptive Overclocking. To meet the low power demands of the embedded market, the VIA QuadCore E-Series processor offers industry-leading energy efficiency, with the VIA QuadCore E-Series 1.2+ GHz processor delivering a thermal design power (TDP) of only 27.5 W. The distributed power of the VIA QuadCore E-Series processor makes it ideal for handling the most demanding HD video formats for immersive multi-display applications and environments.

Hiroshige Goto, contributor for PC Watch that is known for detailed schematics of dies estimated the layout of Ivy Bridge silicon. Ivy Bridge is Intel's brand new multi-core processor silicon built on its new 22 nanometer silicon fabrication process. The four core silicon, which four configurations can be carved, will be built into packages that are pin-compatible with today's Sandy Bridge processors. The die area of Ivy Bridge is 160 mm², it has a total transistor count of 1.48 billion, compared to the Sandy Bridge silicon, which has 1.16 billion transistors crammed into a die 216 mm² in area, built on the 32 nm process.

Ivy Bridge has essentially the same layout as Sandy Bridge. The central portion of the die has four x86-64 cores with 256 KB dedicated L2 cache each, and a shared 8 MB L3 cache, while either sides of the central portion has the system agent and the graphics core. All components are bound by a ring-bus, that transports tagged data between the four CPU cores, the graphics core, the L3 cache, and the system agent, which has interfaces for the dual-channel DDR3 integrated memory controller, the PCI-Express controller, and the DMI chipset bus.

Intel is reportedly working on a new Atom "Cedar View" processor model for low-power static computing devices such as entry-level PCs and nettops, the Atom D2550. This new model retains most of the specifications of the Atom D2500. Its two x86 cores are still clocked at 1.86 GHz, featuring HyperThreading technoloy, 512 KB L2 cache per core, even the TDP stays at 10W. The D2550, however, brings slightly faster integrated graphics. Its graphics core is clocked at 640 MHz, compared to 400 MHz on the D2500. Intel will be taking orders for the new chip from ODMs starting some time in March.

Cyclos Semiconductor, the inventor and only supplier of resonant clock mesh technology for commercial IC designs, today announced at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, CA that AMD has successfully implemented Cyclos' low-power semiconductor intellectual property (IP) in the AMD x86 core destined for inclusion in Opteron server processors and client Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). The adoption of the Cyclos resonant clock mesh IP to reduce power consumption demonstrates the commitment AMD has made to provide its customers with not only class-leading APU performance but also with the lowest possible power consumption.

AMD's 4+ GHz x86-64 core code-named "Piledriver" employs resonant clocking to reduce clock distribution power up to 24% while maintaining the low clock-skew target required by high-performance processors. Fabricated in a 32nm CMOS process, Piledriver represents the first volume production-enabled implementation of resonant clock mesh technology. "We were able to seamlessly integrate the Cyclos IP into our existing clock mesh design process so there was no risk to our development schedule," said Samuel Naffziger, Corporate Fellow at AMD. "Silicon results met our power reduction expectations, we incurred no increase in silicon area, and we were able to use our standard manufacturing process, so the investment and risk in adopting resonant clock mesh technology was well worth it as all of our customers are clamoring for more energy efficient processor designs."

Launched yesterday as a developer-preview, Apple's OS X "Mountain Lion" will support fewer Macs than its predecessor, probably because of increases in hardware requirements for smooth operation that older Macs can't quite guarantee. The support list for Mountain Lion looks like this:

• iMac (mid 2007 or later)
• MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, 2008), (13-inch, plastic, Early 2009 or later)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, 2.4/2.2 GHz), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
• Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

As you can see, some x86 Mac models are out of the support list, including importantly, the pre-Unibody plastic Macbook Pros. Perhaps Apple will support Mac OS X "Lion" with security updates for a lot longer.

Details of desktop Core i7 and Core i5 "Ivy Bridge" processors in the LGA1155 package have been detailed at lengths, in the past. Core i3 parts based on the same 22 nm Ivy Bridge silicon, however, were relatively known. Tables listing out updated information about the lineup points out that Intel has as many as five Core i3 "Ivy Bridge" desktop processors in the works, all dual-core, and among which two are low-power parts.

The table also suggests that these Core i3 chips will have reduced features, importantly, the lack of PCI-Express 3.0 bus. When connected to these chips, PCI-E 3.0 add-on cards (such as graphics cards) will function in PCI-Express 2.0 mode. Further, these chips will lack support for AES-NI (accelerates encryption), VT-d (enhanced virtualization), and TXT (security). Certain models in the lineup have faster integrated graphics, denoted by a "5" in the end of the model number. These chips also lack Turbo Boost for the x86 cores, but feature HyperThreading.

As Intel's tick-tock CPU development Juggernaut rolls on, things seem very much on track, looking into the near future. Intel will launch its new "Ivy Bridge" 3rd Generation Core processor family in early-April 2012, which is a miniaturization of what is essentially the "Sandy Bridge" to the new 22 nm process, with IPC and instruction-set improvements, along with a faster graphics controller. The new process will also up clock speeds and overclocking headroom for chips that support it. What's more interesting, though, is that the architecture that succeeds Ivy Bridge, codenamed "Haswell", will be less than an year away in April...well almost.

A roadmap slide sourced by DonanimHaber pins the launch of Haswell to March-June, 2013. Haswell is a brand new CPU architecture that will succeed Ivy Bridge. According to the conventional idea of Intel's tick-tock CPU development strategy, it will be built on the 22 nm fab process, which will have gained some maturity by then. Intel follows a "tick-tock" product development model. Every year, Intel's product lineup sees either of the two. A "tock" brings in a new x86 architecture, a "tick" miniaturizes it to a newer silicon fabrication process. Earlier reports indicated that Haswell Core processors will be based on a newer socket, the LGA1150, and hence it will not be compatible with LGA1155 platforms.

While Intel and AMD are making efforts to come up with low-power x86 processor platforms to compete with the plethora of ARM processor vendors, manufacturers of the target devices of these low-power x86 processors - tablets, netbooks, and smartphones; note that the architecture simply isn't competitive due to its prices. ARM processors are manufactured by a variety of companies, in a variety of different SoC configurations, and as such the tough competition among these companies ensure ARM processor platforms are comparatively cheaper to low-power x86 ones.

Intel recently debuted its 32 nm "Medfield" Atom processors, with power consumption as low as 11W for the platform. In the second half of 2012, it will launch another line of processors with under 10W power consumption, for high-end smartphones. AMD, on the other hand, will unveil "Hondo", which combines its x86 architecture with Radeon graphics IP, and a power consumption target of less than 5W. In 2013, it plans to launch the "Temash" APU, with power consumption under 2W, and built on the 28 nm process.

Back in the 1990's, when the software industry knew the 32-bit x86 address-space limitation was closing in, they geared up for transition to another machine architecture, then came AMD64 and EM64T, which allowed an x86 processor to perform in both 64-bit and 32-bit modes. Microsoft didn't want users of its 64-bit Windows to be deprived of using software coded for 32-bit Windows, which was infinitely more in number than 64-bit software. Hence it developed what is known as Windows-on-Windows 64 (WOW64), a translation layer that interfaces 32-bit software and drivers to the 64-bit OS and drivers. With its next major Windows version, Windows 8, Microsoft wants to give the ARM architecture a big push, with a Windows 8 version for ARM computing devices (such as tablets and netbooks). Guess what?

A latest bulletin at MSDN hints at the possibility of Microsoft working on a x86-to-ARM translation layer, which allows you to run desktop windows (Win32) software on Windows 8 ARM, effectively "Windows-on-Windows ARM". Without specifically pointing out the ability to run Win32 software on ARM, the bulletin mentions the ability to run non-metro applications (native Windows) on SoC (system-on-a-chip) architectures. It could also just be a reference to Intel's single-chip SoCs such as Medfield, which are x86-based. If Microsoft pulls off a "WOWARM", it could spell terrible news to Intel, because something such as the hypothetical WOWARM is all that stands between ARM and high-performance desktop PCs. In a market that only has two other competitors (AMD and VIA), dozens more could join in overnight, including NVIDIA's karmic entry after being shunned off an x86 license.

At the AMD Financial Analyst Day event, Engadget got to take a look at a reference design notebook made by Compal, a high-volume notebook ODM, that's based on AMD's next-generation "Trinity" accelerated processing unit. This reference design is what Compal will send to its downstream OEMs to sample its architecture, features, and performance. The pictures reveal the notebook to be typically-sized, with a thickness of 18 mm, packing a low-voltage variant of the Trinity silicon. It is targeting the $500-600 market, and will be feature-rich, including four "Piledriver" architecture x86-64 cores, Radeon HD 7000M graphics, and the latest-generation connectivity, including USB 3.0, HDMI, and mini-DisplayPort (could this be LightningBolt?).

While it may not be as high profile as the Windows 8/ARM pair, Android/ x86 is still a match with potential. It certainly has a long way to go but progress is being made, and proof of that progress was seen at CES 2012 where AMD showcased a MSI WindPad 110W tablet running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

The WindPad 110W packed a Z-01 APU (two x86 cores @ 1.0 GHz, Radeon HD 6250 graphics), 2 GB of RAM, and was available for some hands-on time, unlike the Tegra 3-powered Windows 8 tablet also seen at CES. Things weren't perfect with the 110W/Android 4.0 mix as the tablet did experience occasional freezes but keep in mind it's all a work in progress. People interested in converting their WindPad 110W from a Windows device to an (experimental) Android tablet can download the Android 4.0 for Brazos ISO via this page.

AMD's competitive technology to Intel Thunderbolt, called "Lightning Bolt" (codename, marketing name may differ), surfaced at CES, where AMD was showing off its upcoming "Trinity" accelerated processing units. The technology was dissected by Anandtech, revealing exactly how AMD plans to achieve its goal of providing a much lower-cost alternative to Thunderbolt, over a similar-looking interface. While Thunderbolt is essentially PCI-Express x4 over DisplayPort, Lightning Bolt is the much more mature USB 3.0 SuperSpeed over DisplayPort. It is a single cable that combines a USB 3.0 with DisplayPort (display), and power (sourced directly from the PSU).

The part that makes it affordable is that AMD has already mastered GPU technologies that allow several displays connected to its GPUs using DisplayPort daisy-chaining; while USB 3.0 controllers are getting cheaper by the quarter. Connections of DisplayPort, USB 3.0 and power converge at a Lightning Bolt multiplex, from which the actual ports emerge. Lightning Bolt will stick to established mini-DisplayPort specifications.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA VB7009 embedded Mini-ITX board. Measuring only 17cm x 17cm, the VIA VB7009 Mini-ITX is an extremely flexible embedded board with top class functionality and performance for POS and kiosks.

The VIA VB7009 is a cost effective solution offering a broad range of power efficient VIA CPU choices, including the dual core VIA NanoTM X2 processor, providing superior flexibility to match customers' embedded computing needs. Paired with the VIA VX900 unified all-in-one media system processor, the VIA VB7009 Mini-ITX embedded board delivers a highly optimized platform that boasts stunning HD video performance of the most demanding video formats at resolutions of up to 1080p.

The onslaught of ARM-powered smartphones and tablets has taken a bit toll on not just the netbook (cheap, slow notebook, Steve Jobs' views), but even the future of Intel's x86 architecture as everyday computing devices get smaller. Sure, Intel has an x86-based processor platform in the works for smartphones and tablets, codenamed "Medfield", but its intentions towards the two form-factors come across as hollow and short-sighted when you look at the latest partner release, where it pitches the ultrabook form-factor as "the answer" to ARM tablets.

It goes on to list out exactly why tablets are function-limited, and can never become people's everyday computing device; and how ultrabooks can offer more functionality at similar compactness of form-factor as tablets. This directly implies that Intel's intentions with Medfield are to merely cash-in on what it perceives to be a short-term demand for processors that drive ultra-compact tablets; at least till ultrabooks get cemented in the market, so it could push tablets out of the market and bring "order" back to the PC segment.