AMD A8-3870K and A6-3670K Unlocked APUs Listed for Pre-Order

At the end of September we found out that until 2011 ended, AMD planned to launch two new chips in its A-Series APU product family which were supposed to come with unlocked multiplier, dubbed the A6-3670K and A8-3870K, and these two processors have now become available for pre-order in the US.

Both of these processors greatly resemble their predecessors, the A8-3870K coming as a 100MHz higher clocked version of the current A8-3850, which means that it now runs at 3GHz.

The second unlocked APU to be released by AMD is called the A6-3670K and this also is an almost exact copy of the A6-3650 it is meant to replace apart from the 2.7GHz operating speed, again 100MHz higher than that of its predecessor.

Outside of the higher operating clock and unlocked multiplier, both of these chips will feature similar specifications as they sport quad processing cores with 4MB of Level 2 cache memory, an integrated dual-channel DDR3-1866MHz controller, and built-in Radeon HD graphics.

The power consumption of the two AMD accelerated processing units was also left untouched which means that is rated at 100W.

Pre-order prices of the AMD A-Series 3670K and 3870K APUs listed by Bottom Line Telecommunications and uncovered by CPU-World are set at $121.50 (90.6 EUR) and $143.77 (107.25 EUR).

On a quick look, these seem to be identical with what the current A6-3650 and A8-3850 chips are retailing for in the same store, so there is a strong possibility that AMD will introduce the new APUs at the same price level as their current counterparts.

The unlocked multiplier design that AMD plans to introduce with the 3670K and 3870K will greatly improve their overclocking potential since the maximum FSB achieved by Llano APUs is severely limited at this point, mostly due the integrated graphics core.

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$200 Million Go into Anti-Apple Samsung Legal Fund

There doesn't seem to be much chance of Apple and Samsung settling their differences now that their patent war has escalated all around the world, and Samsung's latest move proves it. 

There aren't many things that could make a company change how its finances get distributed and invested, but Samsung is of the opinion that its quarrel with Apple is among them.

According to the Korea Times, the former has chosen to set aside $200 million to use as a legal fund for 2012.

Initially, things looked grim for Samsung and its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, as well as some smartphones.

After an Australian judge issued an injunction against the tablet, the appeal court reverted the decision (sales still can't start until December 9).

Even more recently, the US court denied Apple the injunction it sought and also ruled that most of the patents are either likely invalid or unlikely to really harm Apple.

Thus, as the companies continue to duke it out in other countries, Samsung is determined to make as strong a case as possible.

“This is another factor why Samsung has been maintaining its hard-line stance against Apple” an unnamed Samsung executive told the Korea Times.

“The US ruling is expected to fuel more momentum for it to further strengthen the existing stance.”

Samsung and Apple used to be on cordial terms, until the latter sued the former over the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

With that to invalidate Samsung's unofficial policy of not suing Apple, as it was called, Samsung filed some lawsuits of its own.

The next big confrontation will be the one in Paris, where Samsung hopes to gain another victory.

Currently, Germany still has the Tab 10.1 banned, but the Tab 10.1N was made to circumvent the legal debacle, not that Apple refrained from legally attacking that one too.

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AMD’s 28nm Radeon HD 7670M and HD 7690M Spotted in Asus and HP Notebooks

We definitely are getting closer to the launch of AMD’s Radeon HD 7000 mobile graphics core series and recently two GPUs from this upcoming product family were spotted in notebook models from Asus and HP.

The chips were uncovered by the German PC Games Hardware publication, which spotted them in the configuration of Asus’ X53TK 15-incher and in the HP Envy 17.

The first one of these notebooks, the X53TK, seems to be an all AMD affair since is powered by an A6-3420M APU with integrated HD 6520G GPU, but in order to improve the GAMING performance of its creation Asus also added Radeon HD 7670M discrete graphics to its laptop.

The HD 7670M is actually a Thames XT chip manufactures using the 28nm node and it packs a 128-bit wide memory bus connected to DDR3 memory while its operating clocks seem to be set at 600MHz for the GPU and 900MHz for the memory.

Asus’ use of the HD 7670M in a hybrid-graphics configuration with the A6-3420M APU suggests that the GPU is based on the VLIW5 architecture.

At the heart of the Radeon HD 7690M part that is used by HP for its Envy 17 notebook also stands the Thames XT core, but his time this is coupled with GDDR 5 memory clocked at 800MHz.

The GPU frequency was not mentioned, but a previous report indicates that this is clocked at the same 600MHz as in the case of the HD 7670M we talked about earlier in this article.

Neither Asus, nor HP, has mentioned a release date for their Radeon HD 7000-powered notebooks, but if we were to guess we would say that these will be unveiled most probably during CES 2012.

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Intel Core i3-2370M and i5-2450M CPUs Could Launch on December 11

At the end of this week, Intel could expand its mobile Sandy Bridge processor range with two new CPUs from the Core i3 and Core i5 product families that will slightly improve upon the specs of the chips these are meant to replace.

Both of these upcoming processors were spotted by CPU-World inside an HP document which covered the configuration options available for its Pavilion dv6 notebooks.

In addition to confirming the specs of the two processors, the HP doc also mentioned that the CPUs will be available in the dv6 starting with December 11, which suggests this is the date when Intel plans to make the Core i3-2370M and i5-2450M official.

The first one of these processors, the i3-2370M, was designed to come as a replacement for the Core i3-2350M CPU launched at the start of September and slightly improves the specs of its predecessor.

What this means is that we will get a 100MHz bump in the base frequency of the chip enabling it to come clocked at 2.5GHz compared to the 2.4GHz of the 2350M it's meant to replace.

The rest of the specs were left untouched so the Core i3-2370M includes two computing cores with Hyper-Threading support, 3 MB of last level cache, support for the AVX instruction set and an on-board HD 3000 GPU.

Intel’s second chip to arrive on December 11, the i5-2450M, is also meant to replace a current part in the company’s lineup, namely the Core i 5-2430M.

This time too, Intel limited the changes to the core frequencies of the processor, which now comes with a base clock of 2.5GHz and a maximum Turbo Boost speed of 3.1GHz, compared to the 2.4GHz and 3GHz frequencies of the CPU is meant to replace.

In addition the processor clocks, Intel has also increased the maximum clock speed of the integrated graphics core that now works at 1.3GHz.

No details regarding pricing are available, but Intel usually sells these for the same price as the chips they are meant to replace.

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Fujitsu Arrow ES IS12F Goes Official at KDDI in Japan

Fujitsu appears determined to bring to the market the thinnest smartphones ever, and the new Fujitsu Arrow ES IS12F is the latest such handset, the one that claims the top spot on the list. 

Being only 6.7mm (0.26 inches) thin, the new device is as slim as the Fujitsu ARROWS μ F-07D smartphone that was seen recently en-route to NTT DoCoMo.

Arrow ES IS12F will make an appearance on shelves at wireless carrier KDDI in Japan, and has just been made official with Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system on board and with waterproof capabilities.

The specifications list of the new Android smartphone includes a 4-inch AMOLED touchscreen display that can deliver a 480 x 800 pixel resolution, a 5-megapixel camera with image stabilization capabilities, or a fast 1.4GHz Snapdragon MSM8655 application processor.

Fujitsu also packed Arrow ES IS12F with Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, along with support for CDMA and GSM networks, and with a 1,400mAh battery capable of delivering 400 minutes of talk time.

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Intel’s Unreleased Pentium B970 Spotted in HP's Pavilion dv6 Notebook

By the end of this year, Intel is expected to launch a new series of mobile processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture and one of these upcoming chips, the Pentium B970, was just spotted inside an HP document.

This doc details the technical specifications of the company’s Pavilion dv6 notebook which it seems like soon it will be updated to feature new processor options. One of these is the Pentium B970.

Starting with the release of its first Sandy Bridge-based Pentium B940, every mobile Pentium CPU released by Intel since then has come as a 100MHz higher clocked part when compared to its predecessor.

The dual-core Pentium B970 is no exception to this rule and, as CPU-World reports, other than this small speed bump it will most probably be identical with the current B960.

What this means is that the 2.3GHz CPU should come equipped with 2MB of Level 3 cache memory, built-in Intel HD graphics, SSE4 support as well as with an integrated dual-channel memory controller.

Other more advanced features like HyperThreading or AVX support is sadly missing from the features pack as it’s the case with most other Sandy Bridge-based Pentium CPUs out there (the only exception is the Pentium 350 for micro-servers). The TDP of the Pentium B970 should be set at 35 Watts.

According to the HP document, this latest mobile Pentium CPU will be available in the Pavilion dv6 notebook starting with December 11.

Even though we have no official confirmation, we suspect that this is also the date when Intel plans to launch this processor.

No other laptops running the B970 were spotted so far, but it shouldn’t take notebook manufacturers too long to update their creations to include this CPU once it’s made official.

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Nokia’s Store QML Client Updated, Nokia E6 Now Supported

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has made available for download a new flavor of its Store QML Client or Symbian devices, offering support for a few more smartphones than before. 

However, this is not all, since Store QML Client 3.20.044 also adds support for additional languages, while also bringing a series of other enhancements into the mix.

One of the most important improvements in the new release, for example, is the addition of support for the Nokia E6 smartphone.

At the same time, Nokia focused a bit on the carrier billing area, so as to make sure that users receive a great experience when trying the service.

 The complete release notes for the new application flavor include:

• Support for Arabic, Hebrew and Kazakh languages
• Support for VGA resolution for devices such as Nokia E6
• Improved Virtual Keyboard for Text Entry, allows users to enter text directly in the entry form entry fields “utilizing a split-screen view”
• Improved Search Experience: Spelling correction and Alternative results
• Improved reliability for operator billing while connecting via WLAN. Note that this only applies to WAP-Direct billing methods.

In a post on its Nokia Beta Labs blog, Nokia also notes that it plans on activating another feature on/after December 16th, namely Registration Lite.

Through this, new consumers can download a number of up to 10 free applications without having to create a Nokia account for that.

For those out of the loop, we should note that the Store QML client is available for all handsets that are based on Symbian^3 (including PS1, PS2 “Anna” and SR1 “Belle,” except for those devices with VGA resolution, such as the E6-00, Nokia explains).

The Nokia Store QML client, currently available only in a beta flavor, is meant to replace the current Store client on Symbian^3 and Symbian Anna devices.

The new flavor of the application is available for download as well, via this link.

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Giada Uses Intel’s Atom Cedarview CPUs in Its Latest i35G Nettop

While Intel appears to be struggling to release the mobile version of its Atom Cedar Trail platform into the wild, is desktop counterpart seems to be doing quite well, Giada just announcing that it has used these chips for a new nettop, the Giada i35G.

The design of the i35G reminds us more of a laptop than a nettop computer and is housed inside an ultra slim case that measures no more than 26.3mm (a little bit more than one inch) in thickness.

Giada was able to make its nettop so thin by going with Intel’s Atom Cedarview processors, users having the option of choosing between the 2.1GHz D2700 and 1.83GHz D2500 CPUs.

Both of these chips are based on the Cedarview architecture and feature a 10W TDP, 1MB of L2 cache and built-in graphics, but the former also comes with Hyper-Threading enabled to process up to four threads simultaneously.

In addition, the chips also sport an integrated 1066MHz memory controller as well as a 640MHz on-die GMA 3650 GPU that is based on a PowerVR core.

However, Giada chose not to use this integrated graphics core for their nettop and instead went with an Nvidia GF119 graphics core.

The rest of the nettop’s configuration includes 2GB of DDR3 system memory, a 320GB 2.5-inch hard drive Wireless LAN 802.11n and Bluetooth connectivity as well as a multi-format card reader.

Despite the small size, Giada’s nettop does however come with a wide variety of ports and connectors including a pair of jacks for plugging in a mic and headphones, four USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA port, as well as DVI and HDMI video outputs.

No info regarding pricing or availability was provided by Giada, but the i35G should arrive in stores soon enough.

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