Review: Intel's Series 335 delivers more SSD for less money

Intel has revved up its mainstream SSD line from the Series 330 to the Series 335, and the company sent over a 240GB model for evaluation (and 240GB is apparently the only capacity it is launching this series with). The new drives feature 20nm NAND flash memory, compared with the 25nm chips in the older series, but Intel continues to use an LSI/SandForce SF-2281 controller with custom Intel firmware. The company uses the same controller in its Series 330 and Series 520 drives.

But what may be of most interest to consumers is that the Series 335 is significantly cheaper per gigabyte: Intel expects this 240GB drive to cost about the same as a 180GB Series 330. And while the product was officially embargoed until 8:30 a.m. on October 29, we saw it listed for sale online the evening of October 28 at prices between $184 and $225, including shipping.

Like its most recent predecessors, the Series 335 is outfitted with a SATA revision 3.0 (6gbits/s) interface, and the drive comes housed inside a 2.5-inch enclosure that is 9.5mm thick. That thick profile renders it unsuitable for many current ultraportables; however, the stout of heart can easily remove the board from its enclosure and fit it inside a thinner case or install it directly into a vacant drive bay (although doing either will likely void Intel’s three-year warranty).

To judge the unit's performance, the PCWorld Labs put it through our 10GB copy and read tests. Keeping in mind that our current test bed uses a 7200-rpm hard drive to feed and read data from our test subjects, the 335 performed very well. It wrote our 10GB mix of files and folders at 93.2MBps and read them at 57.9MBps; and it wrote our single 10GB file at 124.1MBps while reading it at 129.8MBps.

I conducted some testing outside the lab by replacing the 128GB Kingston SSDNow V Series in my AMD e-450-based laptop with the 240GB 335. The Kingston remains capable in spite of its age, but no one would describe it as a blinding-fast SSD, as evidenced by its PassMark hard-disk score of 260.7. Intel’s 240GB Series 335 drive scored a 2078—nearly 10 times faster. The feel of the system was obviously quite a bit snappier.

Intel’s 20nm NAND flash renders the Series 335 a step up from Intel’s earlier SSDs, but the aggressive pricing is probably the better news for consumers—and it could be bad news for the slew of manufacturers that recently announced new hybrid hard drives.

Source: pcworld.com

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Intel unveils new microprocessors

Netbook app store also previewed.
Intel released a flurry of new computer chips as it seeks to maintain its dominance over rival AMD and prepare for an expected rise in demand.

The new microprocessors, designed to power desktop and laptop PCs, are the first of a new generation of chips featuring smaller transistors that Intel said will juice performance and improve energy efficiency.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Chief Executive Paul Otellini said the company hopes to capitalize on new opportunities presented by a world of hyper-connected products of every stripe.

"Every electronic device will eventually connect to the Internet," he said.

Otellini demonstrated advances in 3D movies, consumer electronics and personal computers, and plugged the forthcoming "Moorestown" platform for smartphones and mobile devices.

"We're on the cusp of a new era in computing," he said. "An era of personal computing essentially where we have many devices for every person, where computing is increasingly integrated into every aspect of our lives."

He also unveiled a test version of an application store aimed at netbooks, the Intel AppUp Center. Apps in a variety of categories can be downloaded for free or bought through an Intel website, and the company plans to expand it to other products such as PCs, smartphones and TVs.

Intel released new chips ahead of arch-foe AMD, which is not due to field chips featuring the smaller 32-nanometer circuits until 2011.

"The juggernaut is rolling on, if you will," said David Kanter, an analyst with Real World Technologies. "It's important because it's their first 32 nanometer products, but if you're looking at what they're releasing in notebook and desktop, this is where they already have a lead over AMD."

Intel, the world's No. 1 chipmaker, had an 81.5 percent share of the PC and server microprocessor market in the third quarter, according to Mercury Research. AMD had 17.8 percent.

The introduction of the new processors come on the heels of the release of Microsoft's new Windows 7 PC operating system software, which Intel expects will prompt consumers and businesses to upgrade to more powerful PCs.

The new processors are the first to include basic graphics capabilities, which the company said will support high-definition video playback and more casual 3D games.

Typically, computers are sold with basic graphics capabilities designed onto separate cards.

Intel also said it is producing chips targeted at automated teller machines as well as medical and communications and other equipment, as the company continues its bid to extend the reach of its chips into new markets.

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Intel opens up the Atom processor to TSMC

Intel on Monday announced a partnership that could provide access to the chip design of its low-cost Atom processor to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

The partnership with TSMC could lead to customized chips that could provide Intel access to new markets it can't reach alone, said Sean Maloney, Intel executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer, during a conference call with reporters.

TSMC will be able to provide its customers with details of Atom's design so that they can design chips based on the chip's core.

Atom chips currently go into low-cost laptops, also known as netbooks, and devices such as mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and smartphones. Future Atom chips will include more integrated PC capabilities, such as graphics and Internet connectivity, that could push the processor into embedded devices and consumer electronics.

To date, Intel has alone developed and sold its Atom processors for netbooks and MIDs. The company wants to maintain tight control over the types of products the derivative Atom chips will go inside, Maloney said. Intel will not be transferring Atom's manufacturing process technology to TSMC, so any chips that result from the deal will be manufactured by Intel.

"What we're doing here ... we will be picking the segments we go after," Maloney said.

The companies have collaborated for close to 20 years on products that include WiMax chips.

Intel officials shied away from answering questions on whether the TSMC deal would affect Atom's product road map or future smartphone chips like Moorestown. Details surrounding the deal are still being worked out, Intel officials said.

This agreement is similar to a strategy employed by Arm, which generates revenue by licensing smartphone and embedded chip designs to chip makers, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. Arm has licensed its chip cores to companies such as Texas Instruments and Qualcomm, which provide chips for smartphones.

"This is a direct attack on competing processors, especially the Arm processor, which is trying to move upstream from phones and embedded gadgets, while Intel is trying to move downstream with Atom into this overlapping space. The battleground in the middle will be aggressive and potentially bloody, with huge potential returns," Gold wrote in a research note.

The partnership will help Intel add a revenue stream by licensing out its Atom core, and adds "massive market potential" through TSMC's customers, Gold wrote. TSMC has connections to many consumer and lower-end products like smartphones and embedded device markets, especially in Taiwan and Japan, Gold wrote.

The partnership is a win for both companies, said Rick Tsai, president and chief executive officer of TSMC, during the call. It is mutually beneficial as it will allow both companies to generate additional revenue and reach new markets, especially at a time when the semiconductor industry is struggling.

"People in our industry must work together ... so we can share the benefits," Tsai said.

Intel has taken a number of steps to develop integrated chips that could fit into new products like set-top boxes and TVs. Intel in February said it was prioritizing its move from the 45-nanometer process to the new 32-nanometer process technology, which should help the company produce faster and more integrated chips.

To that effect, the company said it would spend US$7 billion over the next two years to revamp manufacturing plants. It will also help Intel make more chips at lower costs and add efficiencies to the production process. Intel will begin producing chips with 32-nm circuitry starting in late 2009.

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Intel to invest $7B on U.S. plants

Intel will spend $7 billion over the next two years to revamp three U.S. manufacturing plants, and the company's CEO called on other companies to also invest in the future as a way to combat an economic recession.

Intel will update manufacturing plants in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon to build new 32-nanometer processor chips, Paul Otellini, the company's president and CEO announced today.

Intel sees the tough economic times as an opportunity for investment in the future, Otellini told the Economic Club of Washington "Tough as these times are, we are not blinking," he said. "Today, I am pleased to announce our intention to stamp the words, 'made in America,' on even more Intel products in the months and years to come."

He called on other U.S. companies to join Intel, even as dozens of companies are laying off workers. "A secure future requires investment in areas that will give rise to new industries and new ideas," he said. "We can't look to government to do this."

The three U.S. plants will support about 7,000 Intel employees and "multiple thousands" of contractors

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Intel's net profit drops 90%

Steep loss from investments; one bright spot was Atom chips revenues

(IDG News Service) Intel Corp.'s fourth-quarter profit plunged 90% from a year earlier, as the chip maker battled a worsening economy and recorded a steep loss from investments.

The company recorded net profit of $234 million for the quarter ended Dec. 27, compared to $2.27 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. The net profit also fell short of the $257.22 million consensus expectation from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

The results included a loss of $1.1 billion from equity investments and interest. That loss was primarily due to a billion-dollar reduction in the value of Intel's investments in Clearwire, the company said.

The company's fourth-quarter revenue was in line with lowered expectations of $8.2 billion. Fourth-quarter revenue was down 23% year-over-year and 19% sequentially. Revenue from microprocessors and chip sets was lower compared to the third quarter.

The bright spot for Intel this quarter was sales of Atom chips that go into netbooks, small laptops designed for Web surfing and productivity applications. Revenue from Atom microprocessors and chip sets was up 50% sequentially to $300 million.

Intel did not project revenue guidance for the first quarter of 2009, citing "economic uncertainty and limited visibility."

While the economic environment is uncertain, the company is adjusting its business plans to adapt to build for the future, said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO, in a statement. The company is entering new markets and has cut costs by around $3 billion since 2006, he said.

The restructuring yielded $800 million in savings in 2008, Otellini said during a conference call yesterday. The company ended the year with approximately 84,000 employees, down 3% from a year earlier.

"Intel has weathered difficult times in the past, and we know what needs to be done to drive our success moving forward. Our new technologies and new products will help us ignite market growth and thrive when the economy recovers," Otellini said.

The company hopes to ramp up to the 32-nanometer process technology to lower chip-manufacturing costs and increase production. It will then be able to make more chips at lower costs, which should add efficiencies to the production process, said Stacy Smith, Intel's chief financial officer, during the call.

"We are absolutely prioritizing the investment that it takes to get to 32nm process technology ... we are going to get there as fast as we possibly can. That gives us a performance advantage, cost advantage and allows us to get to this higher level of integration that the future markets we want to serve requires," Smith said.

Intel hopes to fit integrated chips made using the new manufacturing process into devices like set-top boxes and TVs, which will create new markets and revenue opportunities, Smith said.

Netbooks emerged as a steady revenue stream for Intel, and the segment is ripe for growth in the tough economic environment, Otellini said. The company established the business and has a good base to grow with, but competition is heating up, he said. New competitors are entering Intel's turf with netbooks that offer unique applications, Otellini said. For example, one netbook is being marketed as a communications device.

"There are already models in Japan, for example, where you get a netbook for 1 yen (1 cent U.S.) if you sign up for a wireless subscription. People will play with those models much like they did in the early days of the cell phone, and it's difficult to figure which of those will stick," Otellini said.

Looking ahead, Intel will also continue to invest in research and development to have a gaggle of new products ready when the recession ends, Otellini said.

The company's new Nehalem microarchitecture is expected to make its way to new products like desktops and notebooks by the second half of the year, Otellini said. The new architecture will offer incremental growth opportunities in new markets and form factors. Intel launched its first Nehalem-based Core i7 chips for high-end gaming desktops in November.

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Intel planning to harvest free energy

Intel’s chief technology officer Justin Rattner has been detailing the latest research from Intel labs into power saving and generation.

Chief among the systems being developed are "wireless identification and sensing platform," or WISPs. These small sensors can be implanted into buildings, devices or even humans and could generate power by scavenging it from the environment, micro generating their own power through sunlight, thermal energy or even sound waves

“We’re sitting in a room that’s awash with energy,” he said.

“There’s photons of light hitting the desk, thermal energy from body heat and you could even harvest the energy from a moving trackball on a BlackBerry.”

These sensors would have a small radio and could provide real-time reporting on environments by sending bursts of data to receivers before recharging. A pilot scheme has seen WISPs installed on San Francisco street sweepers to monitor air pollution.

However, the technology has big implications for better data centre management he said. By implanting WISPs in data centres managers could get a far more accurate picture of heat dissipation and shift computing loads to cooler areas of a data centre to cut costs.

“We’ll be able to model the weather inside the data centre,” he said.

“This will enable thermally-aware load management. You can migrate workloads to cooler sections of the data centre and stop freezing the whole data centre and operate at a wider variety of temperatures.”

Looking ahead WISPs could be used on a mass scale in society to track germ movements though the air or even implanted in the human body to identify viruses.

Rattner did say that this technology was 4-5 years away at best but researchers in Intel’s research centres were having very promising results.

Copyright © 2008 vnunet.com

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Intel unveils mobile phone technology

Intel has taken the wraps off its new line of mobile phone technology, which allows better gaming performance, power saving and digital imaging capability.

Codenamed Bulverde, the new technology will find its way onto Intel's X-Scale processor line, commonly used in PDAs and mobile phones.

The new features are borrowed from existing notebook and desktop processor lines. SpeedStep -- first seen in Intel's mobile Pentium III CPUs -- will now feature on the X-Scale, allowing real-time voltage and frequency changes to preserve battery life.

MMX technology, first introduced in the original Pentium, will also be incorporated onto the chip. Dubbed Intel Wireless MMX, the technology will bring audio and video enhancements that Intel hopes will increase gaming performance, video streaming and voice recognition. Wireless MMX was originally announced last year.

Other features include Intel's Quick Capture feature, which allows higher quality video and still camera sensors to produce higher resolution images (up to four megapixel) and higher quality video capture.

Expect more information on Bulverde early 2004.

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Intel introduces new technology aimed at new approach to care

Intel has rolled out its first in a series of health monitoring devices aimed at tracking chronic and age-related conditions. The new technology, which connects patients and physicians, gives the company a foothold in what is considered a new category of personal health systems.

The Intel Health Guide goes beyond the simple patient monitoring systems on the market today, Intel executives said. It combines an in-home patient device with an online interface - the Intel Health Care Management Suite - making it possible for clinicians to monitor patients in their homes and manage care remotely.

Intel received Food and Drug Administration clearance in July for the Intel Health Guide.

"The Health Guide is a step forward in offering more personalized and effective management of chronic health conditions in the home," saidLouis Burns, vice president and general manager of the Intel Digital Health Group. "Intel has spent years researching the needs of both caregivers and patients, and we are now moving to launch a series of products that will help extend care from the hospital to the home. Our products will help address the challenges of an aging population and rising rates of chronic disease."

The technology offers interactive tools for personalized care management and includes vital sign collection, patient reminders, surveys, multimedia educational content and feedback and communications tools such as video conferencing and alerts. Clinicians have ongoing access to data to better manage each patient's conditions.

Intel is collaborating with healthcare industry leaders around the world to validate the clinical benefits of the Health Guide for a wide range of chronic disease conditions and health and wellness applications.

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