And it's the good type of penny-pinching goodness you'll probably get this early into fall. Word has it in the hardware enthusiast community that Intel has ordained new pricings on the market's most popular processors, including those of Xeons and Celeron. Core 2 Duos and Quads have been seen with much lower tags, meaning there's hope for a visit to the local hardware retail shop this fall. Price changes await at the full story.

Thanks to our pals over at N4G, we've heard something new from Ascaron Entertainment and their long-silent project that is Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. We've heard very few things about it since the action RPG's major showing at the last Game Developers Conference. Now news has come forth that says Ascaron and Intel are in cahoots for a major upbringing of gaming in mobile computing platforms, and it's got something to do with Intel's next generation Centrino platform.

Remember Mark Rein's concern that not all PCs are capable of playing today's bleeding edge games? The PC Gaming Alliance was formed to relaunch the PC as the ultimate gaming platform, and but that hasn't helped much. Luckily, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) came up with a great idea: the Germany-based semiconductor giant has released AMD GAME! - a label akin to Game for Windows that would set standards for identifying game-capable hardware. More details in the full article.

News and images of Intel's newest "gaming platform" for extreme hardware enthusiasts just hit the web recently, and dozens of hardware discussions have been revolving around them. The Skulltrail motherboard seems to be picking up more than just hype, as the newest details to arise from images show Intel's been making steady adjustments to the server-turned-extreme gaming motherboard. That and a little more at the full story.

In the quest for making ultra-realistic video games, a team of experts have banded together to create the "super chip", meant to power computers and game consoles even further than the currently-used silicon chips. More details in the full article.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), one of the leading manufacturers of processors and graphics technology, has recently announced that it will be developing and licensing graphics core technology to semiconductor manufacturers in the handheld industry.

This decision is a major move in advancing the company's plans toward its goal of developing "the ultimate visual experience". AMD has been providing its technology to PCs and gaming consoles for years now, so it has a solid background in the field.

STMicroelectronics has already licensed AMD graphics technology. Included in the deal are the 2D and 3D vector graphics engine and software which are compliant with OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenVG 1.0. OpenGL ES is used for creating user-interfaces while OpenVG is used for rendering graphics, both of which are geared toward mobile handheld devices and cellular phones. STMicroelectronics has decided to integrate AMD’s handheld unified shader architecture graphics technology with its Nomadik platform.

AMD has been working with different fields involved with developing handheld platforms such as semiconductor suppliers, OEM, and application developers. They are hoping to push for improved graphics on handhelds through the use of their technology in conjunction with the latest APIs.