Personal Computing

What is Skulltrail?

Increasingly, people are asking, “What is Skulltrail and will it make my head explode?” The answer is, yes it will, hence the name.* That’s what happens when you take an Intel® D5400XS motherboard with two CPU sockets, a quad-channel memory interface and four PCI Express slots (each with a full sixteen lanes at its disposal), squeeze in a couple of Intel® Core™2 Extreme QX9775 3.2 Ghz server-class, quad-core CPUs with 12MB of L2 Cache each, add a 400 MHz (1600QDR) FSB to complement the 5400 Northbridge and make sure the BIOS offers a vast range of over-clocking options for speeds of up to a mouth-watering 4 GHz, not forgetting to ensure NVIDIA SLI and ATI Crossfire compatibility. Et voilà.

* The answer given here is not strictly true but what follows is.

Mapping challenge in Crysis territory

Crysis, the most eagerly anticipated first-person shooter of 2007, has been well received and its devotees are gearing up for the first-level Mapping Tool Contest. Globetrotting Crysis players can’t wait to show off their fiendish configurations of strategic territorial sites and spawn points and develop more. The Contest promises to showcase the Crysis Mapping tool and how it exploits multi-core technology to offer new levels of strategic complexity.

• Find out more about the Intel Crysis Mapping Contest >

The real deal: Extreme gaming goes mobile.

Wrap your mind around this. It's a gaming laptop that really can compete with your desktop PC.

Now introducing Intel® Core™2 Extreme dual-core mobile processor. That's right. Mobilized.

• Find out more about unwired and unrivalled raw power >

Demo plunges gamers into Crysis

Under the cloak of a moonless night sky, swooping low over the horizon come Black Ops teams from Intel and Crytek. Their mission: to deliver Contact, the entire first chapter of Crysis, the next-generation, first-person shooter optimized for Intel® Core™2 Extreme processors. Your target is this playable demo. Your objective: to download it and play it mercilessly. Ensure success by clicking the link at the end of this communication.

• Get the full mission brief >

Multi thread, multi impact at Crytek and Grin Studios

If you want to really understand the impact of multi-thread, multi-processor technology, you have to spend time with the world’s top developers. We took our cameras inside Crytek, the company behind the massive new FPS Crysis. We also did a spot of mass shooting inside Grin Studios, targeting the Special-Forces-trained developers responsible for the latest build of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare 2 (GRAW2). And this is it. Your chance to meet the Crytek and Grin Studios teams and see how they’re using bleeding edge technology to create beyond epic battle sequences.

• Read more and watch the Crytek and Grin Studios videos >

CryEngine2 goes Extreme

There is a truly amazing game on the horizon. Crytek's CryEngine 2, powering FPS-game Crysis, brings every blade of grass, every piece of foliage to life in a beautiful, truly immersive game environment. And every round of ammunition bristles with intent.

• Read more and watch the Crytek video >

Rag doll: that’s when people bounce off walls

Intel has worked closely with Havok and has helped to optimize HydraCore. This software technology accelerates Havok-powered games by capitalising on multi-core and multi-threaded hardware to deliver game-play experiences that are up there with the next-generation game platforms.

• Read more and watch Havok video >