Computex CPU News

AMD announced that it would release new microcode for motherboard BIOS updates that will disable the core-unlocking feature, preventing people from going to 4-cores if they purchased say a dual-core Phenom II.

Gigabyte says you [can still unlock the extra cores] on its motherboards with Dual-BIOS technology.

Essentially, Gigabyte said that it will store the old microcode in the secondary BIOS chip, and allow you to do normal BIOS updates on the primary chip. Does this mean that you can't have a backup firmware of your latest BIOS should the first chip corrupt? Gigabyte told us no. The company has upgraded its BIOS chips to be able to store extra information.

The new processors being introduced [at Computex] are the T9900, P9700, P8800, and SU2700. The SU2700 processor features a 1.3GHz clock speed, 2MB L2 Cache, 800FSB, and a TDP around 10W that should easily enable very thin (0.8”-1”) laptops with substantially longer battery life (around 8 hours with a 57WHr battery) in the sub $1000 market sector. The T9900 is the new dual core performance leader in the ULV market with a clock speed of 3.06GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 1066FSB, and a power TDP around 35W. Intel is also releasing the P9700 at 2.80GHz with the same features as the T9900 but with a 25W TDP rating. The P8800 features a dual core design, 2.66GHz clock speed, 1066FSB, 3MB cache, and a 25W TDP rating. Pricing for the new processors were not available and instead we received the standard platform cost ranges that these processors will be utilized in.