Gaming News: Intel is shipping a new Core i7 chip…

IDG News Service - Intel is shipping a new Core i7 chip for gamers that runs at 4.4GHz -- and can be overclocked to 5GHz.

The Core i7-4790K is a quad-core chip based on the Haswell microarchitecture. It draws 88 watts of power and has 8MB of cache, integrated graphics, memory controllers and support for the latest I/O technologies. It also supports multithreading and allow cores to process two tasks at one time.

The chip, now Intel's flagship PC processor, is mainly for gaming and enthusiast desktops.

It's Intel's first chip capable of running at over 4GHz under normal conditions. It can be overclocked to 5GHz in air-cooled systems, said Renee James, president of Intel, during a keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei.

Intel's not the first chip company to reach 5GHz though: Advanced Micro Devices offers FX chips for gamers with clock speeds of up to 5GHz.

Chip makers moved away from cranking up chip clock speeds in favor of adding cores as a way to boost performance about a decade ago. Bumping up clock speeds generated more heat and consumed more electricity. Performance improvements over time have also come by shrinking chips and integrating more components such as graphics cores.

But AMD and Intel haven't given up on clock speed altogether: They continue the battle on their flagship chips with the aim of capturing the performance crown.

Intel recalls Sandy Bridge chipsets

Intel Identifies Chipset Design Error, Implementing Solution

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 31, 2011 - As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel Corporation has discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel® 6 Series, code-named Cougar Point, and has implemented a silicon fix. In some cases, the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives. The chipset is utilized in PCs with Intel's latest Second Generation Intel Core processors, code-named Sandy Bridge. Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue. The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue.

The company expects to begin delivering the updated version of the chipset to customers in late February and expects full volume recovery in April. Intel stands behind its products and is committed to product quality. For computer makers and other Intel customers that have bought potentially affected chipsets or systems, Intel will work with its OEM partners to accept the return of the affected chipsets, and plans to support modifications or replacements needed on motherboards or systems. The systems with the affected support chips have only been shipping since January 9^th and the company believes that relatively few consumers are impacted by this issue. The only systems sold to an end customer potentially impacted are Second Generation Core i5 and Core i7 quad core based systems. Intel believes that consumers can continue to use their systems with confidence, while working with their computer manufacturer for a permanent solution. For further information consumers should contact Intel at www.intel.com on the support page or contact their OEM manufacturer.

Intel is suggesting that the problem is restricted to a performance issue and cannot cause data loss. If you have either of the P67 or H67 “Cougar Point” chipsets you should contact your computer manufacturer to obtain a fixed system.

The chipsets that are in question are no longer being shipped by Intel and the company has already started manufacturing the updated versions. These should reach customers by the end of February. Intel estimates that this issue will cost them around $700 million where $300 million of that was incurred during the first quarter production interruption.