Okoro's ultraslim SX100 HTPC updated with quad CableCARD support

Who says you need a supercomputer in your den to record four high-def feeds at once? Okoro Media Systems, a long-standing player in the pre-fab HTPC business, has just unleashed the latest update to its OMS-SX100, which measures in at just three inches tall and should slide in easily to whatever AV cabinet you're currently using. The base $1,695 system is equipped with a 2.93GHz Core i3-530 processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a Blu-ray drive, 2TB SATA hard drive, integrated 7.1 channel surround sound, Windows 7 (SageTV 6.5 is an optional install) and gigabit Ethernet. Oh, and did we mention a quad HD tuner and room for up to 219 hours of DVR footage? It's up for order in the source link, but we'd caution against just venturing down for venturing's sake.

Intel shows off 'HERB' the robotic butler, the future is unimpressed

So, you're glamping out on Mars, and of course you need someone to buttle you as you relax within your well appointed, synthetic diamond-reinforced space tent; who better than a robotic butler? Good thing we've come a long way in the last 100 years or so, can you believe that early 21st century humans had to get by with this bot built by Intel named "HERB," who could barely manage to drop an empty into the recycling bin? Sure, he wasn't totally worthless, he could sort dishes and put them in the dishwasher (edible flatware wasn't the norm back then), and managed a vague approximation of speech synthesis (this was before Google blew the lid off the whole artificial voice problem in the 2030s), but it's hard to call any of these capabilities truly useful to any modern family.

Intel set to overhaul desktop CPU range with new models, lower prices

This might be about as shocking as sunny weather in España, but Intel appears set to slash some prices and bump some speeds in its desktop CPU portfolio this quarter. According to DigiTimes and its beloved motherboard maker sources, the desktop dominator intends to introduce a six-core Core i7-970 chip, at a $885 bulk purchase price that should bring the hexacore entry price down from the i7-980X's $999 perch, along with a 2.8GHz i5-760 priced at $205, and -- intriguingly -- a quad-core i5-870S designed specifically for small form factor machines and costing an appropriately inflated $351 a piece. Finally, there's word of a most welcome price tumble for the 3.06GHz i7-950, which moves down to the $294 slot currently occupied by the 2.8GHz i7-930. All this crazy talk seems to reiterate earlier suggestions coming out of HKEPC, so we advise hitting both source links and drawing your own conclusions.

Rumor: Intel to launch Atom N500 series in June, ASUS netbooks to follow

Details on this one are pretty light at the moment, but DigiTimes is reporting that Intel will be launching its Atom N500 series of dual-core processors this June. That word comes from the site's "sources from notebook players," who also say that Intel will be revealing more details on its third generation netbook platform at the same time. Unfortunately, that's about as specific as they're getting right now, but there are naturally some netbooks rumored to be launching alongside the new processors as well, with ASUS apparently already planning at least one N500-based netbook for the third quarter of this year that will sell for around $575. Of course, Intel itself isn't isn't saying any more on the matter than it did during its recent earnings call, but the timing of the rumor does line up suspiciously well with this year's Computex (June 1-5), which would be as good a place as any for a big netbook-related launch.

AMD launches 12-core Opteron server chips, Intel counters with the 8-core Xeon 7500

You thought six cores were nifty? This week, AMD and Intel have begun the multithreaded battle in earnest -- if only on the IT front -- with chips that have up to double that core density. This week, AMD has officially brought us that Opteron 6000 series leaked last week, a set of 8- and 12-core processors aimed at dual- and quad-CPU servers that it claims have both higher performance and lower cost than Intel's recent hex-core offerings. Not to be outdone, Intel has just introduced a 8-core processor series of its own, the Xeon 7500, that it envisions deployed in mammoth 256-processor configurations. In bulk orders of 1,000, a single 12-core Opteron costs nearly $1,200, while the cheapest single 8-core Xeon will set you back a cool $2,461 in the same quantity. We don't doubt they're powerful, and we'd kill for a pair of either in our gaming rig. At those prices though, we'll stick to building our supercomputer out of PS3s -- Oh, wait.