I’m currently here in San Francisco attending the Intel Developer forum for all you PC enthusiasts out there. We got a chance to speak about the Core i7 with Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group. In response to the i7 and Intel’s latest upkeeps, Gelsinger stated:

Our engineers have put together an incredible processing family here that will include a tremendous amount of new processor features all centered on delivering faster computer performance and terrific energy efficiency.

The company’s desktop PC chips branded Intel Core i7 processors and initial energy-efficient, high-performance server products (”Nehalem-EP”) are running towards lead to production. Intel is also planning to manufacture a second server derivative designed for the server marker (”Nehalem-EX”), and desktop (”Havendale” and “Lynnfield”) and mobile (”Auburndale” and “Clarksfield”) client versions around the second half of 2009.

Keep checking back as we will have more from IDF for all of you.

Back when we did our review on the Crossfire 4870’s, we were left utterly impressed by the sheer amount of productivity and results that provided for an effulgence of gaming pleasure over even the latest of the Nvidia offering of the GTX 280’s and GTX 260’s with value of power and price. It seems AMD is setting the barriers this generation, and trying to cross them over and over again. With the introduction of the HD 4850 1GB and HD 4870 1GB, AMD had amped up the offering for the initial consumer price point models. Now, they’ve just broken their own barrier with the latest innovation of the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 series. As the first consumer graphics card with 2 GB of memory, and the first card to implement a 512bit GDDR5 memory architecture through the inordinate amount of pixel pipelines, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card stoically dominates the competition in a whole new level for the enthusiast gamers.

We wanted to make something people can love, and feel secure with. - Dirk Meyer, President, AMD: Commenting to WhatIfGaming on the HD 4870 X2 card.

Don’t you just hate it when your laptop is about to crap out because you’re using a high mobility graphics solution just for a simple site? Realizing this 2 hours in, you have to reboot to change to the other less powerful solution for more life. But, not anymore.

As a brother ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology for notebook computers, ATI PowerXpress lets notebook users automatically switch between an ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3400 series discrete graphics processor and an integrated AMD M780G with ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 graphics without rebooting every time.

AMD announces ATI XGP (Fancy for External Graphics Platform) Technology, a new external PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 graphics platform, designed to take a crack at giving Notebook users more graphical power that Desktop users have. ATI XGP is an exclusive technology that capitalizes on PCIe 2.0 to deliver enthusiast-class graphics via a connected cable to an externally powered and cooled device.

It’s certainly interesting, but we’re looking towards seeing how it can play out. Nano-PCI Express anyone?

Next generation platforms are hard to come by. In Taiwan for Computex, AMD announced the stunning introduction of a new next-gen platform. It platform features new AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processors with ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series Graphics (Mobile tech) for 3D performance and HD image quality, with wireless integration for greater throughput and range.

New notebook designs will come from leading OEMs including Acer, Asus, Clevo, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP, MSI, NEC and Toshiba.

Source: AMD Press Release

AMD announces AMD GAME. Specifically designed to help consumers select perfectly suited PCs for high-definition gaming, AMD GAME! PCs combine a balance of multi-core processors, HD digital media, and next-generation graphics processing power to exceed current console performance.

Nice job, AMD. Now all we need to do is get those developers focused on better programming resolve.

ATI has been able to create an external GPU. The card, codenamed Lasso, should be introduced to the public at Computex. The press release states that the new tech, while incredibly innovative, won’t be compatible with existing laptops. In fact, the external GPU requires a new high-speed connector to function properly. This pops up the question; will the new USB be challenged? In any case, the prospects of an external GPU should be the holy grail of gaming.