Intel

Intel's new Core i7-980X and Core i7-970 six-core desktop processors are set to debut in March, but could see an early release on Apple's Mac Pro systems in a matter of weeks, according to a new report.

Citing multiple sources, Hardmac reported Tuesday that the partnership between Intel and Apple might allow for the new six-core processors to debut in Mac Pro desktop machines earlier than other hardware. If true, it wouldn't be unprecedented -- the last two revisions of the Mac Pro line had the first crack at their respective chips.

Banking on a resurgence in IT spending by commercial customers, Intel (NSDQ:INTC) has added several new performance improvements and remote management capabilities to its vPro-branded system platforms for the chip giant's newest desktop and mobile processors.

"We started thinking beyond the business," said Brian Tucker, director of marketing for Intel's business client platforms, at a Tuesday demo session of the company's next-generation vPro hardware held in San Francisco.

Santa Clara microchip giant Intel has joined a growing technological quest once considered the stuff of science fiction: enabling people to operate computers, television sets and cell phones solely with their thoughts.

"If we could access the global information network simply by using the power of our thoughts, it would open up incredible new opportunities for computing technology," said Dean Pomerleau, an Intel researcher in Pittsburgh, who is working with scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and elsewhere to decipher brain patterns in a preliminary study of the concept.

Intel has released a patch for its series of silicon-based security protections after researchers from Poland identified flaws that allowed them to completely bypass the extensions.

The implementation errors in Intel's TXT, or trusted execution technology, mean the feature can't be counted on as advertised to protect sensitive files and prevent systems from booting operating systems that have been tampered with. The vulnerability affects the Q35, GM45, PM45 Express, Q45, and Q43 Express chipsets.

Intel has revealed its plans for new products to be unveiled at next month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company said at a special event in San Francisco on Thursday that it will debut 27 new components, including 17 new processors.

Intel director of marketing Uday Marty told reporters that the new chips are designed to cover the entire spectrum and bring the Nehalem architecture throughout the company's product line. Among the new products will be new Core i5 and Core i3 chips to complement the high end Core i7 line.

Netbooks could offer longer battery life and better system performance when Intel launches its second generation of Atom processors, which are due to start shipping soon.

The new netbook chips, code-named Pineview, will draw less power and deliver faster performance, an Intel spokesperson said. Pineview chips are part of the Pine Trail platform, aimed at netbooks and low-cost desktops.

Intel's decision to shelve its graphics chip code-named Larrabee is more an indication of the difficulty of building a new architecture than a sign that Intel's giving up on developing a general-purpose GPU, according to analysts. Demand for GPGPUs is growing in the HPC space, and analysts expect Intel to want to tap into that rather than cede the battle to AMD and Nvidia. This is also one more area in which the chip maker can expand the reach of its Intel Architecture.

Larrabee, Intel's first big push into the graphics processor unit (GPU) market, didn't make much of an impression at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) last September. However, the company made up for that at the recent SC09 supercomputing show.

Developers from Intel Corp. plan to demonstrate the world’s first central processing unit with 48 cores today. The processor is experimental and belongs to Intel Tera-Scale Computing Research program, but Intel claims that the chip has 10 – 20 times higher performance compared to existing Intel Core products.

Performance numbers of Intel's new six-core Xeon were prematurely revealed by Polish website PCLab, showing strong increases in performance for the chip rumored to be in the next iteration of the Mac Pro.

Hardmac reported that test and performance results of Intel's new 6-core Xeon chips code-named "Gulftown" were briefly featured on PCLab before being taken down at the request of Intel. According to the test results, the new chips are nearly 50% faster than the previous quad-core Xenon during parallel tasks, and use up to 50% less power.