Processors - Page 103

AMD has reportedly begun sampling its new 4-core Ryzen CPUs, the SKU that has multi-threading disabled - these new Ryzen processors will take on Intel in the Core i3/i5 segment.

The new 4-core Ryzen CPUs will have unlocked multipliers, so you'll be able to overclock your heart away - and considering that Intel locks overclocking away on most of its lower/mid-range CPUs, AMD has a good chunk of the market that will be happy with an unlocked quad-core Ryzen processor.

We should expect the quad-core Ryzen CPU to have a base clock of 3.4GHz, with AMD's exciting new SenseMI technology to handle the overclocking on its own - depending on the cooling used. Stock cooler? It won't boost much. AIO cooler? Now we're talking. Custom water cooling? Yeah, baby. LN2? The sky is the limit. Obviously there's a 45W TDP in your way, but I'm sure we should expect a mainstream price on the 4-core Ryzen CPU when it launches in March.

AMD already has me excited over their Ryzen CPUs for consumers and gamers, but the Zen architecture is also going to do big things in the high-performance server market - starting with Naples.

Naples is AMD's high-end server part based on the Zen architecture that AMD is touting as an 'optimized GPU server platform' thanks to its 128 PCIe 3.0 lanes, allowing for 4-6 'direct attached GPUs'. This means it can take 32 x NVMe devices, and 4 x graphics cards - all on a 1U rack. This same 1U rack will sport 2 x InfiniBand EDR interconnects for super-fast data communication between the storage, and server systems.

As for specs, we're looking at up to 32 Zen CPU cores with 64 threads of performance, 64MB of L3 cache, a base clock of 1.4GHz and a turbo clock of 2.8GHz. A dual-CPU version of Naples would rock a massive 64/128 CPU cores/threads with some ultimate performance, especially when you throw Vega-based graphics cards and NVMe-based storage into the mix.

AMD launched an offensive late last year with the massive reveal of Ryzen, and had a more detailed tease at CES 2017 last week - but now, Intel has seemingly reacted by adding Hyper-Threading technology to some its new Kaby Lake-based range of Pentium processors.

Not all of the new Pentium CPUs will receive HT, but TechPowerUp reports that the list includes the "Pentium G4620 (3.7GHz base frequency and integrated graphics HD 630, $93) and G4600 (3.6GHz base frequency, $82), both at 51 W TDP; G4560 (54W TDP at 3.5GHz and integrated HD 610 graphics, $64); and the Pentium G4600T (3GHz, HD 630, $75) and G4560T (2.9GHz, HD 610, $64) slot in as the low power Pentium offerings with a 35W TDP".

But now that some of the new Pentium processors feature Hyper-Threading support, how will Intel make consumers see a difference between the Core i3 models? The company Advanced Vector Instructions 2 (AVX2) extension set, which is mainly used for database processing and video editing - so Intel is hoping there is still a market for a slice of consumers who will buy a HT-enabled Pentium processor over the slightly cheaper Core i3.

It looks like Intel could be in for a world of hurt, and a massive explanation for the reason behind some of its new processors being stupidly easy to hack into a PC - through a simple USB port.

Positive Technologies, a security vendor, has discovered that some of Intel's new CPUs have a debugging interface that can be accessed through USB 3.0 ports. This provides the hacker - and at the point of using as USB flash drive, any person in the world that can hold a USB stick in their hands - full control over the PC. Worse yet, it is completely undetectable by current security tools.

The possibilities of this are virtually unlimited, as someone could plug a USB 3.0 stick in and upload malicious code, keyloggers, and virtually anything else they want. The same flaw allows someone to make the PC completely inoperable, where it is capable of rewriting the entire BIOS. Yeah, that's a pretty big deal.

CES 2017 - Although Qualcomm has just created the world's first 10nm chip with its Snapdragon 835 SoC, and TSMC is working on 7nm chips, Intel affirms that its own 10nm processor will still release in 2017 despite original delays.

Intel's eight-generation 10nm Cannon Lake CPUs were originally supposed to release in 2016, but the chips were delayed when Intel had some troubles shrinking down the chip's transistors. Now we're right at the beginning of 2017 and Intel has only just launched its seventh-generation Kaby Lake CPUs on the new 200-series Z270 chipset, leading many to believe Cannon Lake would be pushed into 2018--but Intel has set the record straight.

At CES 2017 Intel CEO Brian Krzanich demoed a prototype 2-in-1 device running an eight-gen 10nm Cannon Lake CPU that displayed a promo video. "For those who are wondering if Moore's Law is alive, if 10 nanometers going to be here, the answer is absolutely yes," Krzanich said on stage.

CES 2017 - When we first reported about Intel's new Kaby Lake-based Core i7-7700K hitting 7GHz, it was only with 2 cores enabled - so impressive to see 7GHz, but not so impressive without all 8 cores enabled.

During CES 2017 - overclockers were able to hit 7GHz on the 7700K with all of the CPU cores enabled - using LN2 of course. They hit 7026MHz specifically, with a CPU multiplier of 70, and an FSB of 100.

The new Core i7-7700K has a base clock of 4.2GHz and boost of 4.5GHz, with most people able to hit 5GHz without a problem. The CPU retails for $305 in the US, and obviously changes throughout the world - so for me in Australia, it'll cost $1500 or something ridiculous (jokes, jokes - probably $1200).

CES 2017 - Qualcomm has officially introduced their Snapdragon 835 processor with X16 LTE. Back in November, we reported that the Snapdragon 835 is the first 10nm SoC and we also put an end to the speculations that Qualcomm's next chip will be named Snapdragon 830.

As of today, the Snapdragon 835 is officially out and we, as the phone manufacturers, have high expectations from the Qualcomm's latest processor. The Snapdragon 835 features a new Kryo 820 CPU with four high-performance cores running at 2.45GHz and four efficiency low-power cores running at 1.9GHz. These are backed by dual channel LPDDR4x memory at 1866MHz.

The Snapdragon 835 also has a new Adreno 540 GPU with support for DX12, Vulkan, OpenCL 2.0 and OpenGL ES 3.2. Qualcomm also upgraded the DSP inside of the Snapdragon 835 by including the Hexagon 682, a machine learning-focused upgrade to the Hexagon 680 in the Snapdragon 820.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen CPU could be a great overclocker, something we were teased at during AMD's recent Tech Summit event in Sonoma, California - but now we're hearing that Ryzen might easily hit 5GHz... on air cooling.

The news is coming in a very cryptic way, with Hexus reporting that "the most stirring extra piece of information is mysteriously hidden inside a binary string printed nonchalantly above a feature image on page 10 of the magazine's printed article"... something you can see above.

Reddit user lolwut996633 noticed it, and when put into a binary to plain text converter, it reads:

The holidays can be an interesting time, with Intel rumored to be retiring its Core family of processors in 2019 with the release of Tiger Lake, which will be succeeded with a more efficient, faster approach to the x86 architecture.

Bitsandchips.it is reporting that Intel's next CPU family will be similar to what AMD has done with its Zen architecture, blending in power consumption/performance /price - and in order to save physical space (smaller die), and improve the power consumption/performance ratio, Intel will reportedly get rid of old SIMD and legacy hardware.

This means that we might not have 100% backwards compatibility, but these CPUs won't be here until 2020 - a long time from now. Intel will be able to make a lean, efficient x86 architecture that will compete with AMD's nearly-here Zen architecture. What I'm taking away from this is that AMD will be ahead of the game for a few years until Intel can get their act together with a new architecture to begin competing against the star-studded launch of Zen.

Things are really heating up for Intel just weeks away from the official launch of its next-gen CPU architecture, Kaby Lake - with a leaked review of AMD's new Ryzen processor.

The review had the new Ryzen CPU had its clocks limited to 3.15GHz base and 3.3GHz boost, but AMD has confirmed the enthusiast SKU of Ryzen will kick things off at 3.4GHz, with lots of headroom for overclocking. CPCHardware is a PC magazine in France that has been in operation since 2001, and is reportedly an engineering sample set out to the press under NDA.

There are some interesting benchmark results, with a bunch of render programs being run on the Ryzen CPU at 3.3GHz, against the $1000 processor from Intel in the form of the Core i7-6900K. Not only that, but we have the 6800K, FX-8370, and more.

AMD teased their next-generation CPU architecture not too long ago at their annual AMD Tech Summit 2016 event in Sonoma, California - benchmarking the new 8-core/16-thread version of the Summit Ridge platform, better known as Ryzen.

Now we have some new benchmarks that have been leaked, with Cinebench R15 results that pit Ryzen against Intel's new Kaby Lake-based Core i7-7700K processor.

AMD's new Ryzen CPU clocked at 3.4GHz (it will be faster than this when it launches) against the Core i7-7700K, with Ryzen coming out on top - but a fair margin, too. This is to be expected however, as the 7700K is a 4-core/8-thread CPU against the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen CPU.

If you've been keeping up with Intel's upcoming Kaby Lake-based Core i7-7700K, you'll know that they run - well, rather freakin' hot. Way hotter than the previous 6700K, and normally double the temps of the 6700K on the current 7700K engineering samples that are being sent around to various tech press.

New work has been done on the 7700K with retail samples, and cooled by the Thermalright 6 cooler by AnandTech forum member 'RichUK'. Out of the box, the temperatures of the Core i7-7700K hit 60C under load, but when the 7700K was pushed to 5GHz and pushed to 100% load, the temperatures spiked at a mammoth 96C.

Even at 96C, the 7700K was stable at 5GHz with 1.34V coursing through its silicon, while 1.264V was used at a stable 4.7GHz (and hitting 83C) on a Corsair H110i cooler on quiet mode.

I've had my head flooded with AMD's next-gen Zen architecture, now called Ryzen, for months - but I thought I'd see what people are searching for - Intel's new Kaby Lake architecture, or AMD's next-gen Zen architecture.

According to Google Trends data, over the last 12 months people have been searching for "Intel Kaby Lake" more over the last 6 months - shifting from 1 this time last year, to a peak of 20 in early September, and now sitting at 13 - all from a scale of 0-100. "AMD Zen" on the other hand, has been trending more and more over the last few months - starting at 19 this time last year, peaking at 74 in the third week of August, and now spiking at maximum levels of 100/100.

You have to hand it to AMD: they have been killing the marketing on Zen this year, and the hype seems to be real. This trend is something I've been noticing over the last two years or so, where more and more people are aware of the codename behind AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel's new products. Zen on the other hand, seems to be a very strong brand name - and probably makes sense as to why AMD kept the word 'Zen' in their new Ryzen CPUs.

AMD Tech Summit 2016 - AMD has made its next-gen CPU family official, dubbed Ryzen, and we're only scratching the surface of what it's capable of.

AMD flew a very select number of tech press to Sonoma, California for its annual Tech Summit - where we were quickly briefed on Ryzen, AMD's new CPU family based on the Zen architecture.

The enthusiast SKU of Zen will arrive in the form of "Summit Ridge", which will be an 8-core/16-thread CPU clocking in at 3.4GHz minimum. We also have 20MB of L2+L3 cache, and AMD's newly-touted "Sensing and Adaptive Technology".

Intel's high-end next-generation enthusiast Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X CPUs are expected for a reveal in Q3 2017, with Digitimes reporting Intel will showcase the new chips at Gamescom 2017 in Germany.

Both Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X extreme CPUs will be a 14nm refresh of the current Broadwell-E series built on the new X299 chipset, with the new enthusiast line being called Basin Falls. Skylake-X is expected to come in 6, 8 and 10-core variants possibly with up to 4.3GHz and 20-threads, Turbo Boost 3.0 support, 140W TDP, and 13.75MB L3 cache.

Kaby Lake-X is expected to come in only 4-core variants with 8MB CPU L3 cache, 112W TDP, and only Turbo Boost 2.0 support.

Qualcomm has announced that it has started commercial sampling of the world's first 48-core SoC on the 10nm node, with ARM-based Falkor 10nm CPU used in the upcoming chip family 'Centriq 2400'.

Senior VP and GM of Qualcomm Datacenter Technologies, Inc. Anand Chandrasekher, explains: "The Qualcomm Centriq 2400 series processors will drive high performance, power efficient ARM-based servers from concept to reality. Qualcomm requires the leading edge of integrated circuit technology to deliver high performance at low power for the newest premium smartphones. We are first in 10nm IC technology for mobile, and leveraging our expertise in ARM processors and system on chip design, we are the first with our Qualcomm Centriq family of server processors to bring the leading edge to the datacenter".

We have no idea about the technical and performance side of the processor, so we don't know how to compare it against current x86 offerings - but Qualcomm has beaten Intel to the 48-core/10nm CPU game in 2017.

With the impending release of Intel's next-gen Kaby Lake family of processors, we're seeing disappointing numbers from the flagship Core i7-7700K - which is barely faster than the current-gen Core i7-6700K, but the new 7700K runs much hotter.

The bigger news that has just dropped is that Intel and AMD have reportedly signed a new contract that will see AMD Radeon GPU technology inside of Intel's next-gen CPUs. AMD would provide Radeon GPU technology for Intel's integrated graphics, after years of Intel trying to make it work - and it looks like they just can't get their GPU game up to scratch, so they're going to their main rival... AMD.

The news is coming from HardOCP boss Kyle Bennett, who wrote on the HardOCP forums: "The licensing deal between AMD and Intel is signed and done for putting AMD GPU tech into Intel's iGPU". Bennett continued, saying that "Intel in no way wants this to be public", but that's kind of hard on a public forum - and now, here with this post.

AMD will be hosting its New Horizon event on December 13, where we will be introduced to the new Ryzen CPUs, and their new enthusiast SKU motherboards in the form of the AM4-based X370 chipset.

There will be multiple board partners at the event, all showing off their new Ryzen-capable X370 motherboards rocking the new AM4 socket. AMD previous teased the New Horizon event, where they said: "Join AMD at New Horizon on 12/13 at 3pm CST for an exclusive advance preview of our new "Zen" CPU ahead of its 2017 Q1 release. New Horizon is AMD's fan-focused event, designed to engage our most dedicated customers".

AMD continued: "As well as a hands-on preview of the power of "Zen", attendees will be able to talk to the AMD minds behind the chip itself and grab expert gaming advice from eSports & Evil Geniuses legend PPD. The event is hosted by industry veteran Geoff Keighley, who'll introduce special guests throughout the day".

AMD has been working on its next-gen Zen architecture for years now, and the more we hear about it - the more excited we become. It looks like the 'SR7' chip will be priced at $499 and provide performance levels of Intel's $999 chip in the Core i7-5960X.

But, we still don't know what AMD will call their new CPUs... until now. After digging around on Reddit, I stumbled across something very revealing: AMD has trademarked a bunch of new product names, starting with Ryzen. There are other names as well, with ThreadRipper sounding pretty awesome - and I'm sure it'll arrive as a freshly-powered HyperThreading competitor on the 16-threaded Zen CPU that's priced at $499.

AMD has trademarked the following names:

AMD has teased an event for December 13, where we should learn about all things Zen - with the event titled "New Horizon". New Horizon will be hosted by gaming journalist Geoff Keighley in Austin, Texas - and it'll be livestreamed, too.

New Horizon will be an exclusive preview of the enthusiast/high-end Zen, which is reportedly priced at $499 and combats against Intel's Core i7-5960X, which costs $999. The new enthusiast SKU of the yet-to-be-branded Zen CPU will feature 8 cores and 16 threads of CPU power - the biggest leap for an AMD processor in many, many years.

AMD teases: "Join AMD at New Horizon on 12/13 at 3pm CST for an exclusive advance preview of our new "Zen" CPU ahead of its 2017 Q1 release. New Horizon is AMD's fan-focused event, designed to engage our most dedicated customers. As well as a hands-on preview of the power of "Zen", attendees will be able to talk to the AMD minds behind the chip itself and grab expert gaming advice from eSports & Evil Geniuses legend PPD. The event is hosted by industry veteran Geoff Keighley, who'll introduce special guests throughout the day".