News Bits: Intel "Montevina" for 2008, Dell in Trouble over Intel Pact, AMD Notebook Share Decline?

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Intel &quot;Montevina&quot; Centrino platform for 2008

While 2007 will center around the upcoming Santa Rosa Centrino platform, Intel has hinted at a new platform, codenamed Montevina, which will be announced sometime around Q2 2008. Montevina will not be a complete replacement for Santa Rosa, but instead will build upon it. It will keep features such as small form factors, use of DirectX 9 integrated graphics at a minimum, HDCP encryption via HDMI, DVI, and UDI, HD DVD and Blu-ray support, and flash memory technology.

Montevina will feature new chipsets, codenamed Cantiga, with GM (integrated graphics) and PM (used with notebooks featuring dedicated graphics) variants. It will also have ICH9M or ICH9; it will replace the upcoming Santa Rosa's ICH8M.

Among new features being introduced to Montevina, VT Technology and Intel Trusted Execution Technology will be included, along with Robson 2.0, which will permit booting the operating system off of high-speed flash memory. Processing power for Montevina will be provided by Intel's upcoming 45nm die shrink of the Core 2 Duo, Penryn.

Read More (DailyTech)

Dell in trouble - Investor lawsuit over Intel pact

Investors have filed a lawsuit against Dell, accusing the company of incorrectly accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars in payments from Intel.

Dell has been accused of artificially inflating profits &quot;by secretly receiving approximately $250 million a quarter in likely illegal rebate kickbacks payments&quot; from Intel. Dell in return received an exclusive deal to purchase Intel CPUs. And finally, Dell's executives have been accused of participating in a &quot;widespread, long-running scheme to defraud&quot; shareholders, as well as inflating Dell's stock price.

Read More (Yahoo! News)

Notebook makers say AMD notebook share may stall

Due to Intel's pricing campaign designed to promote its Core 2 Duo processor, notebook makers are saying that AMD's share of the notebook market, despite hitting a record in Q4 2006, may not be able to go any higher. Before the launch of the Core 2 Duo, the AMD 64-bit dual-core Turion X2 processor was a popular CPU for bargain machines. However, as Intel's Core 2 Duo shipments rise, a pricing campaign it will launch in May will aim to make them more mainstream. Intel is likely to take some lost share.

AMD had a 19.4% share of the notebook market in Q4 2006, the highest ever. Dell became a main proponent of AMD's high market share when it started selling AMD-based notebooks in November 2006. Dell originally planned to sell about 500,000 AMD notebooks in Q4, but only sold about 400,000 and failed to reach their goal. Another main reason AMD's notebook market share hit record levels is because of Acer's AMD-based notebook sales in Europe.

Read More (DigiTimes)

World of Warcraft expansion now available for download

Blizzard is now offering downloadable expansion packs - players can go through the Account Managment page on www.worldofwarcraft.com to buy expansion keys and download the game client.

Prior to downloadable expansions, gamers had to purchase the expansion pack via a retail box online, or at Best Buy or Gamestop.

The Burning Crusade expansion pack has sold over 2.4 million copies in the first few days; the majority of the 8.5 million players have yet to upgrade. It is not mandatory that players buy the expansion, but they will be not be able to see new content in the Outland, nor will they be able to gain higher levels.

Read More (TGDaily)

 

Looks like we can be excited for Montevina before Santa Rosa even comes out...I would think that DX10 would be supported for integrated graphics for Montevina, though.

 

And the two new races, Blood Elves and the Draenei!

 

Santa Rosa?? Montevina??? Arrgh which one to wait?????

**** Intel...

 

Montevina/Penryn may be my next notebook--assuming I can hold out that long LOL.

Also, the lower-budget Core-based CPUs are going to dig into AMDs market share in notebooks.

 

"hold out that long"?....with the powerhouse of a notebook you have now?