Another glorious year in tech is coming to a close. As ever, the PC got faster, better and often cheaper in 2009. But as one chip engineer said to another, nostalgia ain't what it used to be. Instead of looking back, therefore, allow us to regale you with the likely highlights for the personal computer in 2010.
Early 2010 for Intel will be all about rolling out its new 32nm revision of the Nehalem architecture. Known as Westmere, the first installment of this new family of 32nm processors will be Clarkdale, a superficially unassuming dual-core CPU to be flogged under the Core i3 and Core i5 brands.
However, by virtue of being the first PC processor to combine both a CPU and graphics in a single package, Clarkdale is much more interesting than your average budget chip. Rest assured, we'll be running Clarkdale through its paces early in the new year, so keep your scanners peeled.
Indeed, we'll be taking a particular interest in the graphics half of the Clarkdale equation – especially in the context of Intel's recent decision to put the high performance Larrabee graphics architecture on ice. For the foreseeable future, in other words, traditional integrated graphics is all Intel will offer.
For performance enthusiasts, of course, the six-core Gulftown processor will be the 32nm Westmere chip of choice. Almost certainly on sale before summer, Gulftown will go under the Core i9 brand. Tests of early engineering samples suggest it's a killer – every bit as overclockable as Intel's existing quad-core beasties.
As if that wasn't enough, Intel has a brand new architecture penciled in for the fag end of 2010. Relatively little is known of Sandy Bridge. But what we can say is that is will be based on 32nm technology and pack Intel's 256-bit AVX addition to the existing 128-bit SSE instruction set. It should be a bit of a floating point beast, then.
But what of AMD? In architectural terms 2010 will be a year of making do. The much-needed Bulldozer core doesn't arrive until 2011. Indeed, AMD's CPU-GPU fusion chip, otherwise known as the Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), isn't due until 2011, either.
In the meantime, AMD will keep things interesting with a new family of chips known as Thuban. Essentially a minor revision of existing Phenom II CPUs, the big news will be a six-core variant. Given AMD's current performance shortfall, pricing should be keen. A sub £200 six-core chip by next summer? Very likely.
Full story: Tech Radar
