AMD Stream Processor First to Break 1 Teraflop Barrier

—Next-generation AMD FireStream™ 9250 processor accelerates scientific and engineering calculations, efficiently delivering supercomputer performance at up to eight gigaflops-per-watt —

DRESDEN, Germany -- June 16, 2008 --At the International Supercomputing Conference, AMD (NYSE:AMD) today introduced its next-generation stream processor, the AMD FireStream™ 9250, specifically designed to accelerate critical algorithms in high-performance computing (HPC), mainstream and consumer applications. Leveraging the GPU design expertise of AMD’s Graphics Product Group, AMD FireStream 9250 breaks the one teraflop barrier for single precision performance. It occupies a single PCI slot, for unmatched density and with power consumption of less than 150 watts, the AMD FireStream 9250 delivers an unprecedented rate of performance per watt efficiency with up to eight gigaflops per watt.

Customers can leverage AMD’s latest FireStream offering to run critical workloads such as financial analysis or seismic processing dramatically faster than with CPU alone, helping them to address more complex problems and achieve faster results. For example, developers are reporting up to a 55x performance increase on financial analysis codes as compared to processing on the CPU alone, which supports their efforts to make better and faster decisions. Additionally, the use of flexible GPU technology rather than custom accelerators assists those creating application-specific systems to enhance and maintain their solutions easily.

From: AMD News

Innovation That Breaks the Performance Barrier

Intel® 45nm high-k metal gate silicon technology is the next-generation Intel® Core™ microarchitecture. With roughly twice the density of Intel® 65nm technology, Intel's 45nm packs about double the number of transistors into the same silicon space. That's more than 400 million transistors for dual-core processors and more than 800 million for quad-core. Intel's 45nm technology enables great performance leaps, up to 50-percent larger L2 cache, and new levels of breakthrough energy efficiency.

Smaller transistors pack the performance punch

Intel's had the world's first viable 45nm processors in-house since early January 2007—the first of fifteen 45nm processor products in development. With one of the biggest advancements in fundamental transistor design in 40 years, Intel 45nm high-k silicon technology can deliver more than a 20 percent improvement in transistor switching speed, and reduce transistor gate leakage by over 10 fold.

Taking great leaps forward in transistor design

Using a combination of new materials including hafnium-based high-k gate dielectrics and metal gates, Intel 45nm technology represents a major milestone as the industry as a whole races to reduce electrical current leakage in transistors—a growing problem for chip manufacturers as transistors get even smaller.

This new transistor breakthrough allows Intel to continue delivering record-breaking PC, laptop, and server processor speeds well into the future. It also ensures that Moore's Law—a high-tech industry axiom that transistor counts double about every two years to deliver more performance and functionality at decreasing cost—thrives well into the next decade.

Delivering the world's first 45nm processor to the world

The first processors based on the new Intel 45nm high-k silicon technology deliver many new architectural advancements impacting hardware and software performance. Intel has also moved to 100 percent lead-free materials in our 45nm technology and is making the additional move to halogen-free products in 2008 in order to meet our environmental performance goals. Included in the first 45nm launch are new members of the Intel® Core™2 processor and Intel® Xeon® processor families.

from: Intel Site