The Jaguar supercomputer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory was recently upgraded with new AMD processors that gave it enough performance to move up the top 5 supercomputers list. The Jaguar is a Cray XT5 supercomputer and is now the fastest machine in the world.

Jaguar previously used quad-core AMD processors and was upgraded to 6-core processors. The new upgrade gives the supercomputer a theoretical peak performance of 2.3 petaflops/s. The performance on the Linpack benchmark was 1.75 petaflops/second.

I have been looking out the windows trying to spot flying pigs since I read this. After years of fighting in courts, Intel and AMD have settled all antitrust and IP disputes. Intel got out of the thing paying only $1.25 billion to AMD.

That is a lot of money, but it’s not that much considering how bad things could have been. The two companies have also agreed to a 5-year cross-licensing agreement and Intel has agreed to abide by a set of business practice provisions.

According to research firm IDC, the global shipments of CPUs for Q3 2009 have grown at more than double the normal quarter to quarter rate. The latest figures are in and the global CPU market grew 23% for Q3 2009 compared to Q2 2009.

The most growth of any CPU segment was in the netbook CPU category where shipments grew 35.7% over the quarter. Desktop CPU shipments grew 11.4% and x86 server processors grew 12.2%. The global CPU market revenue was over $7.4 billion, a growth of 14% from the previous quarter.

The CPU market has been languishing with poor sales over the last year or so thanks to the poor global economy. As sales of computer systems decline, so do sales of CPUs and other computer components like GPUs.

Last quarter GPU sales increased slightly as OEMs and major computer makers restocked supplies. The same thing may now be happening for the CPU industry as Intel has increased its Q3 outlook for revenue.

In humans, DNA hold all the information about the body that holds all of the information about the person. DNA is so specific to the person that it is used by law enforcement to catch criminals and solve crimes. Researchers at IBM have found another use for DNA.

The company and other researchers have been looking for ways to get the build process used for microprocessors below 22nm. IBM is using DNA molecules as a scaffold for a new class of transistors that use carbon nanotubes or silicon nanawories.

Chinese OEM Tongfong and VIA have announced the latest Via Nano based ultraportable, the Tongfong S30A. It’s just 33mm thick and weighs 1.4kg, with a 13.3-inch display, integrated DVD burner and 2GB of RAM. It uses the VIA 1.3GHz Nano U2250 processor with the unified VIA VX800 MSP and discrete S3 Graphics Chrome 435 ULP graphics, making a great HD-capable machine.

There’s room for a 2.5-inch SATA hard-drive, WiFi b/g and 10/100 ethernet, plus a 4-in-1 card reader, ExpressCard slot, HDMI and VGA ports along with two USB 2.0 ports. The standard battery is a six-cell, but it can be upgraded by removing the DVD burner and slotting in an optional three-cell secondary.

Apparently nVidia’s next-generation GT300 will be different than the GT200. How different? Very, very different. They are calling it the “first truly new architecture since SIMD (Single-Instruction Multiple Data) units first appeared in graphical processors.”

Here’s the gist of a whole bunch of techno-jargon: NVIDIA could be close, very close, to a single chip that can handle tasks that have been separately handled by the CPU and GPU. And that is seriously big. Life changing stuff. Now all we can do is wait for nVidia to actually give us some details.

We all know the global economy is bad, consumers have less money to spend, fewer computers are sold, and thus less CPUs are needed putting Intel and other chipmakers in a bad spot. Intel has announced that it will begin measures that will help it face the challenging economy in America.

Intel says that it will consolidate its manufacturing operations by cutting its capacity to match the current economy. In other words, it’s cutting production and doing so by closing up some of its older tech manufacturing plants.

A new CPU from Intel is big news around the PC enthusiast realm. Intel has introduced its latest Core i7 CPU that promises to deliver vastly superior performance compared to the previous generation of Intel processors.

According to Intel, the Core i7 parts deliver 40% more performance in processing intensive applications compared to the previous generation of processors. The CPU features Turbo Boost Technology that accelerates performance to match a computer user’s needs and the workload of the system at the time.

Unless you live under a rock you know that the economy in the U.S. and abroad is taking a beating right now. Despite the slow economy PC sales and shipments have continued to grow. Some research firms attribute the continued growth in part to the shipment of netbook computers.

IDC reported today that CPU shipments for Q3 2008 hit record highs. Worldwide CPU shipments for PCs grew 14% compared to the previous quarter and grew 15.8% over the previous year. The research firm reports that the Atom from Intel contributed significantly to the overall market performance. Even taking the Intel Atom out of the equation IDC reports that the CPU market grew by 8.3% from the previous quarter and 8.7% from the previous year.

AMD has been taking a beating in the marketplace for a while now at the hands of rival Intel. While Intel profits are up AMDs lagging sales have led to executives leaving the company and talks of employee cutbacks and restructuring of the company.

In an attempt to get some of its lost sales back AMD announced three new Phenom X3 triple-core processors today. The three processors are best combined with the AMD 780 series chipset according to AMD. This will unlock a full HD experience and what AMD calls stunning gaming and digital performance.

Servers serve us well for many tasks behind the scenes from hosting the web pages we like to running the applications your boss, aka “The Man”, makes you use at work. Faster processors for these servers are a good thing.

The faster the processors the faster you can get your work done and the more time you have to surf the Internet, or as we call it when you surf the net at work—“research”. Intel announced a couple new server processors today in its Xeon line. The new parts fit into the L5400 series and both the processors use Intel’s 45nm manufacturing process.