Intel releases its Xeon E7 processor family-- supporting to up to 10 cores to deliver what Intel says is is a performance increase of 40% over the company's previous generation.

The E7 family contains 18 new processors for 2-, 4- and 8-socket servers, and is expandable to servers with 256 sockets-- meaning IT managers can replace 18 dual-core servers with a single E7-based server. The new chips include Intel's Intelligent Power technology to manage idle power consumption according to workload. 

Intel offers 10 advanced 10-core versions of the chip, Read more...

Acer CEO and President Gianfranco Lanci resigns from the company with immediate effect, with chairman J.T. Wang as temporary CEO. 

The company says Lanci "held different views" from the board's majority, causing "failure to reach consensus" on the direction Acer should take in the future-- basically whether the company should concentrate on shifting volume (as it does now) or making more profit from its products. 

Analysts say the company should shift towards tablet production (rather than its staples, laptops and netbooks) in order to boost profits-- Read more...

Sources close to AMD tell Digitime of the company's plans to release 6 Llano-series desktop APUs in Q3 2011, with 5 more following in Q4 2011, in its effort to take on Intel's Sandy Bridge.

AMD should be unveiling its 32nm A-series Llano APUs at Computex Taipei 2011, the sources continue.

Llano the code name for AMD's Sandy Bridge rival-- with the A-series chips carrying dual- or quad-core processing units, Radeon HD 6000-series graphics chip and dual-channel DDR3 memory controller. They are also meant to have power-saving features, including Read more...

Jon Peddie Research reports the global workstation market gaining a moderate 6.4% sequential gain in Q4 2010-- growth the analyst describes as a new high water mark (at least compared to 2010's recessionary lows). 

In total the industry shipped 903.7 thousand workstation units in Q4 2010.

HP and Dell continue reigning the W.W. workstation market-- HP has the lead with 41.3% market share, while former leader Dell has 37.2% share. JPR also believes HP's current leadership represent a long-term "changing of the guard" for the workstation market's top.  Read more...