Processors - Page 114

Apparently, Intel does not like its customers overclocking their new Haswell chips on non-Z87-equipped motherboards. Several of the large motherboard manufacturers have released workarounds that allow their customers to overclock their Haswell processors on motherboards that did not feature a Z87 chipset.

Unfortunately, those workarounds will only function for just a little bit longer as Intel prepares a microcode update that will firmly lock overclocking abilities to only the Z87 hardware. The update appears to be scheduled for this coming week and it's not clear yet on how the update will be pushed to your system. Intel has also not released word on if the microcode update has already been implemented on new retail processors, but we're sure that they will begin pushing it to them soon.

Some interesting information is coming out from Intel engineer Ronak Singhal, who has spent most of his 17-year career at Intel developing relationships with the top computer experts in the world.

The experts he has worked with include huge companies such as Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and more. Singhal spoke with EE Times during a break in a press briefing in regards to Intel's latest Xeon and Atom server chips, where he said: "When three of them all tell you they want the same thing, you know you are on to something."

But, as you can imagine, some companies don't want the same thing and want a CPU that is custom-made to their specific needs. In the last couple of years, Intel have been providing some of their biggest customers like eBay and Facebook, with custom versions of their CPUs. Intel is taking this slow, and isn't rushing into custom-made processors for companies just yet, though.

Today Intel confirmed the existence of the 4.5 watt Haswell CPU that popped up in a datasheet last month. Intel says that the chip will hit markets before the end of the year and that it will be geared towards fanless tablets and convertibles, which do not have much space for cooling hardware.

The 4.5W Haswell is expected to fill in the blank left by Intel's 6W Haswell processors that require an active cooling solution.

It should be noted that the 4.5W rating is the SDP or Scenario Design Power, which describes the sustained power consumption for sustained workloads, and that Intel has not released any information on the processors TDP, which is used to describe power draw in short burst.

A few days ago we reported about Samsung's new Exynos 5 Octa processor, but now we have some more details on the system-on-a-chip (SoC).

The new refreshed 5420 variant of the SoC is based on Mali-T628 MP5 silicon and features four ARM Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.8GHz and four 1.3GHz Cortex-A7s in an ARM big.LITTLE configuration. Samsung are claiming that the refreshed 8-core SoC features 20% more CPU processing power, too.

We also have dual-channel LPDDR3 at 933MHz, which will provide the processor with an insane 1.49GBps of bandwidth, which will help out with that Full HD Wi-Fi display support. Image compression technology is involved, which will help save battery power and use efficient multimedia loading, pushing out more hours of use with high resolution displays.

It was just two years ago that a 1 GHz processor in your smartphone was considered a big deal, but by today's standards 1 GHz is pretty slow. Today, ARM announced that it will be ramping up clock speeds in its mobile processors to the 3 GHz range in 2014.

A statement from the company reveals that it has plans to move away from the 28nm process and begin manufacturing chips on a 20nm process which will set the stage for the 3GHz core speed. TSMC, the fabrication house which has signed a deal to manufacture Apple's new line of chipsets, has said that the new process is expected to deliver a 30 percent increase in clock speed while at the same time a 25 percent reduction in heat. These gains can be attributed to efficiency gains from the next-gen manufacturing process.

ARM says that most of the new transistors added will be dedicated to graphics processing performance. The 25 percent reduction in power function will translate into a 25 percent boost in battery life. Since battery life is still the top complaint when it comes to smartphones ARM says that consumers should look forward to the new 20nm process.

When it was first announced that Intel was using thermal grease instead of solder to attach the CPU die to the heat spreader on Ivy Bridge chips, the overclocking world became very disappointed. The thermal interface material that was used really left a lot to be desired, and as such, Ivy Bridge chips were not as overclocking-friendly as previous generations.

This morning a forum post by user "Toppc" on the Taiwanese website Coolaler has unveiled what appears to be a next-generation Ivy-E ship, which has been delidded to unveil that Intel has once again switched back to solder as the connecting material between the heat spreader and CPU die.

The chip in question is said to be an Ivy Bridge-E Core i7 4960x, which should retail in the $1000 range on release. Fortunately for us, Toppc cared less about his expensive CPU and more by showing the world what was inside. With Intel switching back to solder, we can most likely expect very respectable overclocking numbers coming from Ivy-E this September.

Engadget have had some hands-on experience with Qualcomm's new MDP devices, which are powered by the company's Snapdragon 800 SoC (MSM8974). The tablet the site used is an 11.6-inch device featuring a 1920x1080-pixel display.

Also inside, we find 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 32GB of built-in flash storage with microSD expansion capabilities, a 12-megapixel auto-focus rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel camera up front. The device itself is quite thin, measuring in at just 0.46 inches thick (11.7mm) and has a 3400mAh Li-ion battery crammed inside. Connectivity wise, you're covered with LTE, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4 LE, GPS and NFC. Pressure and humidity sensors also make an appearance.

The phone side of things features a 4.3-inch 720p display with a 1500mAh battery. Engadget chucked the Snapdragon 800 SoC into the benchmarking ring, and found some truly ridiculous results. In just a few tests, it truly blows the competition away - completely. Things like AnTuTu 3.x score 13,836 on the current Snapdragon S4 Pro, compared to a whopping 33,828 with the Snapdragon 800 doing the work.

Last week during E3, AMD launched its new FX-9590 CPU, the world's first factory clocked 5GHz CPU. While the timing was a little odd for such a big deal product, it still managed to make some enthusiasts turn their heads and once again look AMD's way. Unfortunately in another weird move, AMD announced that the new CPU would only be available to system integrators for the time being.

AMD neglected to release any pricing information for the CPU, but lucky for us, a Tier 1 system integrator, PC SuperStore, posted pricing information on the AMD FX-9590 as well as the FX-9370, which is the 4.7GHz little brother. AMD seems to think that the 5GHz FX-9590 is worth a premium of $920, while the FX-9370 will only run consumers $346 for a mere 300MHz drop in clock speed.

As a long time AMD user, the idea of a $920 CPU simply turns me off entirely. I was actually considering sticking with AMD for my new system when the FX-9590 is released to consumers, but at that pricing point, I will just switch over to an Intel Core i7 Haswell 4770K, which may only have four cores compared to the eight of the AMD CPU, but the Haswell will use half the power, and with HyperThreading and Turbo Boost, it will outperform the CPU by leaps and bounds. Just for full transparency, if AMD would have priced the FX-9590 at around $450-$500, I most likely would have stuck with them.

The first half of 2014 will see AMD release its first ARM-based CPU, if the Wall Street Journal is correct. AMD, the company best known for it's APU line of processors is said to be building their first-ever ARM CPU as we speak. The chip is codenamed Seattle and is based on a similar ARM architecture to that used in smartphones and tablets currently.

Rumors have it that the first chip released will be an eight-core version with a sixteen-core model being released later down the line. Both processors will have a clock speed of 2GHz, but no word yet on cache sizes or any other CPU specifics. We do know that Seattle will be aimed at the server industry, which is a fast growing market in desperate needs of power saving CPUs.

This is not the first time that someone has aimed an ARM processor at the server world; Applied Micro Circuits did something similar with their X-Gene "server-on-a-chip," and it worked out fairly well for them. The major question is if AMD can manage to follow in AMC's footsteps and make this a profitable venture. I guess we will have to revisit this in a year to find out.

Intel have just launched their Haswell processors, or fourth-generation Core processor, but they will never stop. The 2014 platform known as Haswell-E will launch as an 8-core processor, oh baby, yeah.

Intel's Haswell-E platform will launch in 2014 and will be their enthusiast platform, we're going to get into some specs now so you'd better put a book on your lap or something. Haswell-E is set to debut in the second half of next year and will be Intel's first 8-core desktop CPU, so expect some serious CPU performance. We should see an offer of between 6- and 8-core CPUs with up to an amazing 20MB of L3 cache.

But, wait, there's more! 8 physical CPU cores means we're still greeted with Hyper-Threading, meaning 16 logical cores. Maximum TDP for Haswell-E should sit at around 130-140W with the processor itself sitting on the 22nm second-generation Hi-k process. Performance-wise, with the additional two physical CPU cores and the usual improvements in the architecture, we should expect a 33-50% performance increase over the 2014 platform.

E3 2013 - AMD has just unveiled its most powerful CPU to date, the FX-9590, and eight-core processor that is clocked at 5GHz from the factory. Alongside the FX-9590, AMD also showed off a 4.7GHz FX-9370 both of which feature the company's flagship Piledriver architecture.

"At E3 this week, AMD demonstrated why it is at the core of gaming," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Products Division at AMD. "The new FX 5 GHz processor is an emphatic performance statement to the most demanding gamers seeking ultra-high resolution experiences including AMD Eyefinity technology. This is another proud innovation for AMD in delivering the world's first commercially available 5 GHz processor."

Do not get too excited though as for now the FX-9590 and FX-9370 are both only being offered to systems integrators. AMD says this is just the initial rollout and that both of the eight-core processors will eventually be available for individual purchase. At the moment no pricing information has been released but as soon as we know more we will be sure to keep you updated.

Intel have officially launched their new Haswell processors, something you can read about in our review. Something a little more interesting though, which comes from Hardware.info in the Netherlands, is that Haswell is seeing issues with USB 3.0.

They've done some very, very extensive testing and confirmed there are USB 3.0 issues with the 8-series chipset. They tested 22 USB 3.0 drives, with 14 of them experiencing issues and were unable to stay connected when a Haswell system woke back up from standby. Hardware.info have an insane round up of 33 Haswell-based motherboards if you'd like to do some weekend reading!

AMD has just launched a new line of new super low-power processors that are aimed at the NAS and microserver markets. The quad-core and dual-core processors, code-named Kyoto, are designed for high density servers where computer makers try to jam as many processors in a small amount of space as possible.

The new processors include the Opteron X2150 which is the quad-core variant which consumes about 11 watts of power while the Opteron X1150 features dual cores and consumes about 9 watts of power. Both processors are clocked at 2GHz and are said to run faster than similar Intel Atom processors.

A spokesperson for AMD said:

Intel are just days away from launching their fourth-generation Core processors otherwise known as 'Haswell', and now they're teasing the world by stating that Haswell-based notebooks will offer 50% more battery life than Ivy Bridge-based counterparts.

Haswell CPU's were designed with mobile devices in mind, with one of their core focuses being lower power consumption, according to Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Intel Architecture Group, Rani Borkar, when speaking in a media briefing. Longer battery life also will not be coming at the cost of lowered performance, as in idle or standby mode, Haswell chips will do even better, extending battery life to something like 20 times what Ivy Bridge products can offer.

The big question here is, is this enough for consumers to get back into PCs again? Smartphone and tablet sales have no signs of stopping, while PC sales are moving backwards, let's hope this ignites a fire under consumers' feet.

Intel has announced the new Silvermont microarchitecture that, as you would expect, brings with it increased performance and decreased power draw. The new architecture will rely on Intel's 22nm Tri-Gate SoC process to realize these performance gains and power draw reductions.

Silvermont is aimed at a wide variety of applications that need low-power CPU's. This means we should see Silvermont showing up in smartphones, tablets, and even datacenters once it is released. Silvermont offers up to three times the performance of current generation Atom processors while consuming five times less power.

Intel have just taken the wraps off of the new naming on their integrated graphics found in the fourth-generation Core processors, otherwise known as "Haswell". Welcome to the Intel Iris and Iris Pro Graphics. Iris Pro will be available on select CPUs denoted by an R at the end, such as the i7-4770R.

Iris is a huge leap over the previous third-generation Core processors, with nearly twice the graphics performance and over three times the graphics performance of the second-generation Core processors.

When Intel compare their fourth-generation Ultrabook part, the Core i7-4558U (a 28W part) gets pitted against the Core i7-4650U (a 15W part) and the third-generation Core i7-3687U (a 17W part) it is a decent distance from them in terms of performance. Compared to the previous-generation part, the new i7-4558U is over twice as fast in 3DMark 11, and around 1.5x the performance in both 3DMark 06 and 3DMark Vantage.

This morning AMD announced the next big advancement concerning their APU technology. AMD heterogeneous Uniform Memory Access (hUMA) is an intelligent computing architecture that enables the CPU, GPU, and other processors to work in harmony from a single piece of silicon in a single pool of memory and seamlessly move task to the best suited processing unit.

This means that in a single application, some calculations will run on the CPU while others run on the GPU accessing the same memory though the same addresses without worrying about which software touched the data last. AMD has been able to achieve this by moving the GPU and CPU onto a single die and then AMD enabled the GPU to have direct access to the CPU memory from the same address space. Finally AMD was able to simplify the data sharing by updating the GPU memory set so that it can follow pointers and complex data structures in the same way that the CPU does. These advancements allowed for better efficiency and lower power consumption.

AMD is touting hUMA as restoring the GPU to the world of Uniform Memory Access. As it sits now the GPU utilizes non-uniform memory access and creates a mass of coding headaches for developers. With hUMA application coding can be simplified, and made more efficient throughout the code base. hUMA will also allow discrete GPU's to access other discrete GPU or APU memory space.

VR-Zone has posted up a picture of what appears to be box art for the upcoming Intel line of processors known as Haswell. Intel is really pushing a conceptual computing and creativity aspect this year, so the box design definitely fits within that strategy. But, is it the actual box art?

The box art shown above departs from the typical box art used by Intel. For instance, the top part of the front of the box features a wider case-badge instead of the typical small badge. We likely won't know for sure until Haswell launches at Computex in early June, which we reported earlier today.

After a very successful first quarter for the Snapdragon 600, Qualcomm is moving forward with production on its next-generation system on a chip processor for mobile devices. A Qualcomm exec has confirmed with Engadget that the Snapdragon 800 is expected to move into mass production beginning late May.

Based around the Krait 400 architecture, the Snapdragon 800 is a quad-core beast that could likely see clock speeds as high as 2.3GHz with very low power consumption. An internal Adreno 330 GPU will be capable of 4K playback at 30fps. 802.11 B/G/N Wi-Fi, USB 3.0 and 4G LTE are also built into the chip, alongside a quick charging circuit and voice command capabilities.

Qualcomm is keeping quiet on which handset manufacturers have placed orders and as such, there is no official word, or speculation on which upcoming smartphones will feature the new SoC. We will tune an ear to the market as always and report back once we get word on any upcoming devices featuring the Snapdragon 800.

This morning Intel announced via its Facebook page and Twitter account that it would be unveiling its next-generation Core processor family at Computex on June 4th. Codenamed Haswell, the new processor family is no secret at this point, though.

Haswell architecture is designed to optimize the power savings and performance benefits from the move to FinFET transistors on the improved 22nm process, and feature a fully integrated voltage regulator, moving the power scaling duties from the motherboard and onto the processor itself.

The new king of speed is said to be the Core i7-4770K, which is a quad-core, eight thread 3.9GHz beast. While the middle of the road low power consumption chip is said to be the Core i5-4670T that runs four cores at 3.8GHz.