AMD Launches Phenom II X4 980 BE

Back in March we reported that AMD was planning on launching a faster version of their Deneb CPU. AMD today launched the Phenom II X4 980 BE, which essentially is just a speed bump with everything staying the same.

Just hit the above link as we have already covered the specifications of this new processor in much detail. The new chip now runs at a stock 3.7GHz with some room left for overclocking.

The Phenom II X4 980 BE is priced at US $195 (Rs. 8699), but by the time it hits our shores, expect the price to shoot up a little. This is just a stopgap CPU till BullDozer arrives, which is when we'll see the new chipsets.

The First Plastic Computer Processor

Two recent developments—a plastic processor and printed memory—show that computing doesn't have to rely on inflexible silicon.

Silicon may underpin the computers that surround us, but the rigid inflexibility of the semiconductor means it cannot reach everywhere. The first computer processor and memory chips made out of plastic semiconductors suggest that, someday, nowhere will be out of bounds for computer power.

Researchers in Europe used 4,000 plastic, or organic, transistors to create the plastic microprocessor, which measures roughly two centimeters square and is built on top of flexible plastic foil. “Compared to using silicon, this has the advantage of lower price and that it can be flexible,” says Jan Genoe at the IMEC nanotechnology center in Leuven, Belgium. Genoe and IMEC colleagues worked with researchers at the TNO research organization and display company Polymer Vision, both in the Netherlands.
The processor can so far run only one simple program of 16 instructions. The commands are hardcoded into a second foil etched with plastic circuits that can be connected to the processor to “load” the program. This allows the processor to calculate a running average of an incoming signal, something that a chip involved in processing the signal from a sensor might do, says Genoe. The chip runs at a speed of six hertz-on the order of a million times slower than a modern desktop machine-and can only process information in eight-bit chunks at most, compared to 128 bits for modern computer processors.