Processors - Page 109

Intel only launched its Skylake-based Core i7-6700K processor just recently, with a professional overclocker already pushing it up to just under 7GHz, sitting at 6998.88MHz.

The achievement was done using an ASRock Z170 OC Formula motherboard, where Hong Kong overclocker Chi-Kui Lam used an engineering sample of the Core i7-6700K, an overclock of 74.9% from its stock frequency of 4GHz. G.SKILL provided the RAM chops with Ripjaws 4 DDR4 RAM, alongside a 1300W PSU. The processor was keeping cool under LN2, which is normally required for these insane CPU overclocks.

The Core i7-6700K at 6.9GHz was only on a single core, with the other three physical cores and the four Hyper-Threaded cores being disabled. So we're looking at a single-core 6.9GHz, which had its voltage cranked up to 1.88V, compared to the 1.2V on the stock CPU.

Samsung has been catching up and beating the likes of Qualcomm in the mobile processor race for the last year or so, but its upcoming SoC codenamed Mongoose, is shaping up to be quite the winner.

Benchmark results of the new Mongoose have leaked, making the 8-core Exynos 7420 from Samsung look like nothing in comparison. Mongoose has each of its four cores clocked at 2.4GHz, down from the eight cores on the Exynos 7420 clocked at 2.1GHz. Mongoose was run in Geekbench, where it scored 2136 in the single-core test, and 7497 in the multi-core test.

If we compare this against the Exynos 7420 with its 1486 in the single-core test and the 4970 from its multi-core test, Mongoose has some serious power to throw around. Even in its 'power-saving mode', Mongoose still beats the Exynos 7420, with 1698 and 5363 in the single- and multi-core benchmarks, respectively. We should expect Mongoose to be unveiled in the coming months, while it should be found in Samsung's handsets sometime in 2016.

Qualcomm isn't doing too well at the moment, and Samsung hasn't had a good time with its new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge sales, leaving the window open for LG to come through and dominate with its upcoming NUCLUN 2 processor.

LG's refreshed NUCLUN 2 processor is being baked onto the 16nm FinFET process and hitting mass production in 2016. But now we're got some very early performance numbers to share with you courtesy of Weibo, where it dominates the 8-core SoC from Samsung in the form of the Exynos 7420. The NUCLUN 2 scores 1796 in the single-core test versus the 1486 from the Exynos 7420. When it comes to the multi-core test, the NUCLUN 2 is capable of 5392 while Samsung's chip manages 4970.

LG's NUCLUN 2 chip has two quad-core CPUs inside of it, with one of them being a quad-core Cortex-A72 clocked at 2.1GHz while the other is a quad-core Cortex-A53 clocked at 1.5GHz.

Qualcomm has been down in the dumps lately, but it looks like the Snapdragon 820 could be something exciting for the company. The upcoming chip is promising a new GPU from Qualcomm, as well as a new image signal processing (ISP) unit.

The Snapdragon 820 should pack an Adreno 5xx GPU which will offer up to 40% more performance while using 40% less power compared to the previous Adreno 430 GPU. The new 500 series GPU will also have support for 4K video at 60FPS through HDMI 2.0, meaning you can stream 4K 60FPS video to your compatible TV or monitor.

The new Spectra ISP is capable of supporting up to three cameras simultaneously and mixed with its best-in-class image quality, we can expect big things for cameras. The new ISP will see images with more natural skin tones, and a wider range of colors at up to 25-megapixels at 30FPS with no shutter lag.

Today's laptops are pretty damn powerful, where personally I use the ASUS ROG G751 gaming laptop as my personal workstation (heck, I'm typing on it right now) with a 34-inch 3440x1440 UltraWide display and a Acer XB270HU 2560x1440 144Hz G-Sync display plugged into it. But the CPUs inside are about to get a heck of a lot faster.

Intel has just unveiled the very first Xeon processor family for laptops, the E3-1500M v5, which is based on the Skylake architecture. These Xeon-powered laptops will also introduce some enthusiast and professional technologies, such as the new Thunderbolt 3 connector which supports dual 4K displays, USB Type-C, and much more from a single port.

The chipmaker isn't talking about all of the capabilities of its E3-1500M, but we do know that laptops using the Xeon processors will arrive in the fall.

We knew it was coming, but the retail packaging for Intel's upcoming Skylake processors have leaked online. We now have a legitimate look at the Core i7-6700K, and Core i5-6600K processors.

The Core i7-6700K will feature 4 physical cores and 4 HT cores to make up an 8-threaded CPU, while boasting a 4GHz clock speed, support for dual-channel DDR4 and DDR3L memory, as well as Intel HD Graphics 530. The Core i5-6600K on the other hand, features just four physical cores at 3.5GHz, without Hyper-Threading the same dual-channel DDR4/DDR3L RAM support, and Intel HD Graphics 530.

When we heard about AMD's upcoming Zen architecture, we were excited, but with the latest news on this new APU, the excitement level has increased ten fold.

According to WCCFTech, AMD's upcoming APU is being dubbed an "Exascale Heterogeneous Processor", or EHP. AMD's new EHP will pack 32 x86 Zen cores, a massive Greenland-powered graphics die, and up to 32GB of HBM2 on its 2.5D interposer. That's not a mistake, we're looking at a 32-core processor, with enough graphics grunt to play games at 4K, and with up to 32GB of next-gen HBM2.

AMD's EHP can pack up to 32GB of HBM2, but it can be expanded through a DDR4 channel that is baked onto the package. As for the GPU side of this new APU, we don't know how many Greenland GPU cores will be used, but we're sure that AMD will use a smaller node for it, so we should expect it to pack quite the performance punch.

The release of Intel's new Skylake-based processors is right around the corner, alongside the release of the new Z170 range of motherboards. But news has broken that the upcoming flagship Core i7-6700K has been overclocked to a huge 5.2GHz... on air cooling.

The achievement happened with an early BIOS, with the CPU hitting 5198.75MHz - an overclock of 1200MHz above its 4GHz stock clock. Better yet, just 1.35V was required to reach this, which is a damn good achievement considering you need more voltage, and watercooling to get anywhere near that on a current Core i7-4790K.

While it was sitting at 1.35V and 5.2GHz, we don't know what temperatures the overclocked Core i7-6700K was sitting at under load. We should expect many more details to arrive on the Core i7-6700K as we get closer to its launch next month.

A few months ago AMD launched their 'Kaveri' refresh, the A10-7870K, and today they are launching another refresh, the A8-7670K. The A8-7670K will feature 10 compute cores which consists of 4 CPU cores and 6 GPU cores.

Compared to its predecessor, the 7670K will have boosts in both CPU (100MHz turbo/300MHz base) and integrated GPU (37MHz) clock speeds. The 7670K is aimed at users who want strong performing integrated graphics at an affordable price, such as a family PC where games consist of online titles such as League of Legends.

Compared to a similarly priced Intel i3, AMD promises increased CPU and integrated GPU performance, especially when the program utilizes combined CPU and integrated GPU workloads.

In a recent press release, Intel Corporation CEO Brian Krzanich announced some leadership changes within his company, ranging from Presidents to operational management.

First off is Intel President Renée James, said to be stepping down in order to "pursue an external CEO role" after January 2016. Intel's President of Capital, Arvind Sodhani, will retire in January after 35 years in the technology giant and Wendell Brooks, President of Mergers and Acquisitions, will also manage Intel Capital.

Further to this, Aicha Evans formerly from Intel Communication and Devices Group has been promoted into the Management Committee and Josh Walden will lead all product and research teams involved in creation and deployment of new technology categories. In addition, executives Hermann Eul and Mike Bell will leave after a transition period.

With Intel all set to unveil their new Skylake-S series of processors at Gamescom 2015 in August, we're hearing that the new 'K-series' enthusiast processors will not ship with a stock cooler.

Intel is set to release its Core i7-6700K processor a week after Windows 10 is released, with Intel aiming at enthusiasts buying their own high-performance air, or liquid cooling system for their new CPU. The chipmaker will be offering a new PCG 2015D high performance air and liquid cooling solutions, but the processor itself will ship without a HSF.

The next question is, will Intel drop the price to counter that the processor doesn't include a stock cooler, or will Intel make more profit per K-series CPU it ships, thanks to not giving consumers a cooler.

Intel had planned to jump into the 10nm processor game as early as next year, but it looks like its 10nm-based Cannonlake processor has been pushed back, indefinitely.

The chip giant planned on releasing its 10nm processor in 2016, delaying it into 2017 shortly after. But now the company has experienced serious issues with its 10nm process, deciding to intro the Kaby Lake platform instead. There's not much known on the Kaby Lake platform, other than it being a 14nm process, and the usual dual- and quad-core processors that Intel will surely offer. We should expect the same LGA1151 socket to be used, with power to sit somewhere between 4.5W and 91W.

We should take a lesson from this: while AMD isn't sitting in the best position when it comes to combating Intel in the CPU game, Intel is now at a stalemate when it comes to ushering in a next-generation processor. With 10nm off the table for the next few years, we're looking at nearly rehashed CPUs from Intel until a new technology can be released to market from the company.

Things have heated up in the AMD space hours before the launch of the Radeon R9 Fury X, with rumors circling that Qualcomm is interested in acquiring AMD, according to a report by Seeking Alpha.

Without a large amount of success in recent times there has been many claims by public and media alike of AMD beginning a struggle, without any reports pointing out a direction or solution that AMD might undergo in order to fix its 'issues'. However, in a report by investor company Seeking Alpha, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf mentioned that he is interested in taking over a larger portion of the server scene and adjacent markets - this saw AMD pointed out as the most realistic financial possibility.

There's a few assumptions made here that Qualcomm will either buy out the AMD server business solely or the complete company itself - however, it's one of the best theories put forward yet. AMD recently denied spin-off talk, which helps solidify the idea that it may sell up completely to Qualcomm, rather than pushing away parts of its business.

Despite previous reports that claim AMD plans to spin-off into two separate businesses, the company has been quick to deny those reports.

The Reuters report indicates AMD wants to focus on graphics and licensing away from its server business, with speculation that the ATI brand could be reborn once again.

"AMD provided official confirmation that we have not hired an outside agency to explore spinning-off/splitting the company," said Sarah Youngbauer, spokesperson at AMD, in a statement to eTeknix. "We remain committed to the long-term strategy we laid out for the company in May at our Financial Analyst Day, which encompasses all parts of the business."

Computex 2015 - Rockchip has just unveiled its new "world's lowest power Wi-Fi technology," boasting an 85% power decrease for Internet of Things (IoT) devices when compared to predecessors and claiming it to provide similar power figures to Bluetooth 4.0 LTE.

The patented RKi6000 chip out of this Chinese company was announced during a stint at Computex 2015, with Rockchip stating that its new device uses around 20 mAh of power during use across a more convenient platform than the often range-limited Bluetooth 4.0 option.

There is also the added feature of 'Adaptive Dynamic Power Control Technology' which claims to adjust the chip's power configuration depending on data transmission requirements at any given time. Allowing for a better overall power consumption model when in stand-by or low-use situations.

The race of smaller nodes is quite exciting, with Apple reporting tapping TSMC for its future 10nm processors. We could expect TSMC to handle all of Apple's future A10 processors, which should hit production towards the end of the year.

TSMC will reportedly test out at 10nm pilot line within its 12 factories located in Hsinchu, with the company already starting a semiconductor intellectual property program, where it will partner up with other clients as we get deeper into 2015. With Samsung announcing 10nm production for 2016, the South Korean giant might be falling behind its competitors.

Sources of UDN have stated that the factory locations of TSMC that are working on 10nm are incredibly important to the Taiwanese manufacturer if it wants to secure a super client like Apple. If TSMC can indeed get its 10nm node production up to scratch in time, Samsung might lose out in its future contracts to Apple for the A10 processor.

I really have to stop reading about Intel's upcoming Xeon platforms, as I'm just going to disappoint myself that I'll never own one. The chipmaker is teasing its next-gen Xeon Skylake platform: Purley. The new architecture is going to be quite the leap over the current generation, with support for 6-channel DDR4, up from the quad-channel DDR4 support we have today.

Skylake Purley will be one of the biggest updates to the Xeon platform in quite a long time, with Skylake EX Purley supporting not just 6-channel DDR4, but up to eight processors that support 28 cores per chip, too. We also have the AVX 512 instruction set that will include the 100G OmniPath interconnect.

The OmniPath interconnect is something you've probably never heard of before, which is something that will be called Storm Lake. The PCH itself will be codenamed Lewisburg, with it sporting updated Ethernet controllers. The TDP that Skylake EX Purley processors will have will be between 45W and 165W, with CPUs slotting into something called Socket P. Another major update to the platform will see the number of PCIe slots increased to 48, with x4, x8 and x16 divisions allowed, which is a big upgrade to the platform.

Intel has said that the development of its 10nm technology is coming along well, with the chipmaker to begin talking about its plans for the future using 10nm later in the year.

President of Intel, Renee James, said during a recent Q&A session with stockholders at Intel's annual meeting: "The 10nm development is progressing very well. You will start to see start-up cost in the second half of the year on 10nm. We will talk about the timing of [10nm] later this year - the early part of next year about when that will happen".

We don't know much about Intel and its 10nm manufacturing process, but the company is wanting to increase transistor density, while reducing per transistor cost. This is something that other companies have failed to do with their shift into 14nm and 16nm FinFET processes, but Intel will hopefully see much more success with its 10nm technology.

Samsung is currently sitting at 14nm technology inside of its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge smartphones, but we won't stay there for long if ARM has any say in the matter.

ARM is reporting set for the Ares core to hit just 10nm, something that will "reach smartphone and tablet makers by the end of next year". Ares will be here first with 10nm, but ARM is already teasing its successor: Prometheus. Prometheus will consume just 600-750mW of power, but Linley Gwenapp from analyst firm The Linley Group, believes that Ares will still have a place in the world.

Gwenapp said: "Ares core could reach smartphone and tablet makers by the end of next year. ARM is already well advanced on a next-generation high-end CPU that will follow the A72. In fact, this project is so far along that the A72 team could 'steal' some portions of the next-generation design. For example, a new floating-point unit reduces latency by 33%. The prefetcher, also from the next-gen design, improves the data-cache hit rate to boost performance. The next-gen branch predictor reduces mispredictions by 20%".

We aren't even half way through the year but we're hearing about what Intel will be releasing in the second half of 2016, according to a new leaked roadmap from the chipmaker.

Intel is expected to launch the Skylake architecture during Computex 2015 next month, something that will include the flagship Core i7-6700K processor. But what about 2016? Well, we are looking at Intel moving into their first 10nm processors with the new Cannonlake architecture, which should be an extremely low-power CPU, something that is going to really take flight in Ultrabooks. The mobile parts will come out in 10nm first, with desktop CPUs made on the 10nm arriving sometime in 2017.

Moving onto the HEDT side of things, Intel will release its next-gen High-End Desktop processor in Q3 2016 in the form of Skylake-E. Before that, we should expect Broadwell-E in Q1 2016, which will work on the current LGA 2011-3 socket. The new Skylake-E architecture will launch sometime in the second half of 2016.