Year 2007 Preview: Predictions and Rumors
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The year 2006 was quite full of surprises and shocking events. I know there were more than a few predictions about 2006; some of them came true, while others proved false. What can we expect from 2007?
We definitely can't know for sure. Analyzing the ambiguous news sources, facts, rumors, current market statistics and future plans I'll try to predict the future of hardware computing. Keep in mind that the following headlines and events are only predictions and expectations, not guarantees.
Preview in a Nutshell
Preview in a nutshell? Yes, here I'll cover most of the hardware areas in a few sentences then explain them separately later. AMD's Quad FX platforms (socket 1207 FX) are out already. By this time Intel is working hard on the transition to the 45nm to release newer processors. Kentsfield apparently still holds the performance crown. AMD should also hit the market with the release of K8L (K10) chips. New Santa Rosa Opterons are built for the Socket F. This is a simple case of AMD-Intel competition on the central processing unit fields.
DirectX10 will be released with Windows Vista. Expect to see new DX10 (Shader Model 4.0): ATI R600 and Nvidia G80 (which is already out but newer revisions are expected), G84, G86, G90s. There's quite a bit of competition in this area too. New chipsets and motherboards will also be released for different socket types and platforms.
In the area of software it's crystal clear that this year will be dominated by Vista. We'll see how newer games will handle the DX10 API, and also how the video card drivers will perform on Vista. So 2007 should be a quite challenging year with a lot of competition on the marketplace.
Other fantastic news to expect is the release of DDR3 memories and PCI-E 2.0-that should be twice as fast as PCI-E.
Next: Central Processing Units >>
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