Half of all desktop PCs shipped in 2009 will be loaded with quad core processors, according to a study by research firm iSuppli.

“At the moment quad core only exists on top end machines, which proportionately account for a small part of the market. However by 2009 the firm expects the processors to be common in a much larger number of cheaper machines machines. By the third quarter of 2007 the firm predicts that quad cores will appear in five per cent of mainstream desktops, increasing to reach 18 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 49 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009,” PC Retail Magazine reports.

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Intel has disclosed the presence of an enthusiast gaming platform code-named “Skulltrail“, PC Magazine reports.

“Little is known of Skulltrail, other than it will be a dual-socket, dual-core platform due later in the year. Rival AMD has already disclosed the Quad FX (also known as “4X4″), a dual-socket platform that can hold AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 processors. Intel executives declined to comment further,” the report says.

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Forthcoming Intel “Penryn” processors, when used in desktop computers, will have more than 40 percent better gaming performance than their currently available Core 2 counterparts, according to indicators presented today at Intel Developer Forum in Beijing.

There are also expected increases of about 15 percent for imaging-related applications and 25 percent for 3-D rendering, as well as more than 40 percent faster video encoding with Intel SSE4 optimized video encoders.

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Debian Project announced last week the Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 operating system, codenamed “etch”, which is the first version officially supporting 64-bit AMD64 and Intel EM64T.

Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 includes a number of updated software packages from previous version, such as the K Desktop Environment 3.5.5a (KDE), an updated version of the GNOME desktop environment 2.14, the Xfce 4.4 desktop environment, the GNUstep desktop 5.2 and X.Org 7.1.

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Toshiba announced yesterday 17-inch Satellite P205 and 15.4-inch Satellite A205 notebook PC series. Almost all P205 models and the whole A205 lineup feature 64-bit CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo T5300 or T5500).

These Toshiba’s multimedia notebooks ship only with 32-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate, depending on model.

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Intel will introduce its Core 2 Extreme QX6850 processor in the Q3 of 2007. This quad-core 64-bit CPU is clocked at 3GHz with a FSB of 1333MHz and will be supported by the Intel Bearlake X38 chipset, DV Hardware reports.

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 and will be priced at $999 in 1,000 unit quantities reportedly.

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CentOS 5.0 Linux distributon was released yesterday. The announcement says it’s available for both for the i386 (32-bit) and x86_64 (64-bit) architectures.

CentOS is built by recompiling source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

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AMD plans to release in May the 64-bit dual core Turion 64 X2 TL-66 notebook processor clocked at 2.3GHz and built using 65nm technology, HKEPC reports.

AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-66 has 512KB of L2 cache per core and supports DDR2-800 dual channel memory, while its thermal design power (TDP) remains at 35W.

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Apple has announced today that it will not be able to release its Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system in early June as planned. The forthcoming 64-bit operating system will be launched new OS in October instead.

The company says the Leopard’s launch is delayed, because it had to borrow engineering and QA resources from its operating system team in order to finish software for iPhone device on time.

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Intel plans to push its forthcoming Santa Rosa platform, scheduled for launch at the beginning of May, under its notebook PC platform brands Centrino Pro and Centrino Duo, as well as under a Viiv branded desktop platform too, according to Digi Times’ sources.

“PC makers such as AOpen, Sony and Shuttle have used mobile on desktop (MoDT) platforms to create small form factor systems targeted primarily at noise or space sensitive environments, such as SOHO and living room PC markets. However, these systems have found difficulty in expanding sales in to the wider desktop market due to higher costs, lower performance, and lower expansion options compared to traditional desktop systems,” the report says.

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SiS and PCCHIPS today announced the PCCHIPS P33G desktop PC Micro ATX motherboard, which is based on SiS671FX chipset. The PCCHIPS P33G supports 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Celeron D FSB1066/800/533MHz socket 775 processors.

It supports up to 4GB of DDR2 667/533 memory and is “compatible with Windows Vista”. The P33G has an integrated SiS Mirage 3 graphics engine and one PCI Express x16 slot.

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AMD has cut prices for its desktop processors with price tags falling up to $200 for high-end Athlon 64 FX-70 series processors, Digi Times reports.

“Several products have also been discontinued including the socket AM2-based Athlon 64 FX-64, and the socket 754-based Sempron 3400+ and 3000+. Under the newly published list, socket 754 has been phased-out, while only three socket 939 units remain suggesting that this architecture will also be discontinued soon,” the report says.

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Intel today launched the 64-bit quad-core Core 2 Extreme QX6800 processor with 2.93 GHz clock speed. As same as older QX6700 at 2.66 GHz, it has 8MB of L2 cache and 1066MHz front-side bus.

DailyTech reports the Core 2 Extreme QX6800 is priced at $1199, but after Q3’07 price cuts will cost $999.

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Intel has silently launched the Core 2 Duo U7600 and Core 2 Duo U7500, the corporation’s first 64-bit ultra-low voltage (ULV) processors.

The U7600 is clocked at 1.2 GHz, while the U7500 runs at 1.06 GHz. Both have 2MB of L2 cache and a 533 MHz front-side bus, as well as TDP (thermal design power) of 10 watts.

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AMD has launched the Opteron 2222 SE and Opteron 8222 SE dual core processors, both running at 3GHz. The new CPUs for workstations and servers offer 2MB of L2 cache and the same integrated memory controller and HyperTransport technology (a high-speed chip-to-chip interconnect) as other processors in that series, E Week reports.

The 2222 SE model is designed for two-way systems, while the 8222 SE model is made for use in for four- and eight-way servers.

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