CPU, APU & Chipsets News - Page 129

Alright... most of you will know that I'm beyond pumped for AMD and their next-gen Zen architecture, but there are some new details that have surfaced on the /r/AMD subreddit, and it has me even more excited.

Intel has been dominating the CPU world for what feels like forever, but when AMD does throw down - Thunderbird, Duron, Athlon X2 - it does it in a big way. Zen is the biggest stomping yet, with multiple things to be excited about. It looks like we can expect an 8-core/16-thread Zen CPU at around $300, which would be freakin' amazing.

Some of the bigger notes from the post is that Zen will arrive in a purported 6850K with 8 CPU cores/16 CPU threads for around $300. This is amazing if it's true, and I believe we are looking at this price bracket for Zen's higher-end SKUs. But then the tease that AMD's Hyper-Threading equivalent is something called SMU and that it's "******* good" with the "same efficiency as Intel's HT", should have everyone excited.

2017 is going to be one of the biggest years in the CPU war for the last decade, with AMD preparing its first real monster in forever with its next-gen Zen architecture, while Intel is preparing their new Kaby Lake architecture - and it looks like Intel might have a sub $180 processor up its sleeve that could really change things up.

Intel's upcoming Core i3-7350K is an entry-level processor that is unlocked and ready for some overclocking fun, but how much will the chip overclock past its 4.2GHz default clock speed.

The Core i3-7350K will feature 4.2GHz boost clocks, 4MB of L3 cache, and will be the only K-series processor in the Core i3 Kaby Lake family. We're looking at a TDP of 91W, the same as the higher-end Core i5 and Core i7 models. We should expect the Core i3-7350K to rock 4 threads of CPU power, with 2 physical cores and 2 cores courtesy of Hyper-Threading.

Intel's next-gen LGA 2066 socket has been detailed, with a tease of the upcoming Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X processors, which will arrive in the second half of 2017.

Both of the new CPUs will support quad-channel DDR4, and while the Kaby Lake-X processors will take care of the mid/high-end markets, the Skylake-X is going to be a new beast. Intel's Skylake-X processor will be a huge 10-core/20-thread processor with undefined clock speeds for now, and 13.75MB of L3 cache.

Not only that, but Skylake-X is expected to support 48 PCIe 3.0 lanes for multi-GPU/enthusiast systems with add-on cards for RAID, 10GbE, etc. The Kaby Lake-X PCH itself has 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes, 10 x USB 3.0, and 8 x USB 2.0 - but the price of the Skylake-X is expected to reach around $1500, or more.

There are a few retailers leaking the price of Intel's next-gen Kaby Lake processors, detailing the cost of the upcoming Core i7-7700K and Core i5-7600K CPUs.

Intel's flagship Core i7-7700K should be priced at $349 in the US, clocking in at 4.2GHz/4.5GHz for base/boost, respectively. We should find 8MB of L3 cache, and a TDP of 91W, with Intel tapping its 14nm Plus process.

The fastest Core i5 processor in the Kaby Lake family is the Core i5-7600K, a quad-core CPU without Hyper-Threading, still baked on the new 14nm Plus process node, with base/boost clocks of 3.8GHz and 4.2GHz, respectively. There's 6MB of L3 cache, and the same 91W TDP, while the price of the Core i5-7600K should hit $239.

AMD has an exciting year ahead of itself in both the CPU and GPU divisions, with their next-gen Vega GPU architecture set to be unveiled soon, and their upcoming Raven Ridge APU that has some surprising tech inside of it.

According to the latest report from Bitsandchips.it, AMD is working on a few Raven Ridge APUs - with the higher-end model featuring a 1024-core Vega GPU with HBM2, 16 CUs, DDR4 support, with Zen CPU cores (4 x CPU cores, 4 x - and it all arrives in TDPs of between 35-95W.

The lower-end version loses the HBM2 technology and kicks the Vega GPU from 16CUs on the high-end model, to 12 CUs on the lower-end model. The 170mm² part will have a TDP of 4-35W, with both versions of the Raven Ridge APUs being made on the 14nm FinFET process.

Intel has announced its two new Atom processor lines, with the E3900 series aimed at connected devices and wearables, while the A3900 series is for smart auto apps, reports Engadget.

Intel's new E3900 will be the main member of its IoT products, aimed at applications in many different industries, which is capable of prioritizing which processes to perform itself and which to send over to the datacenter, a strategy that's called fog computing. Intel will have its Atom E3900 series in quad-core form at up to 2.5GHz, and these chips will handle graphics on up to three screens at once.

The A3900 series has Intel aiming at the automotive industry in wide-ranging areas from in-car entertainment, digital instrument clusters, and even advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Intel won't be launching the Atom A3900 series until Q1 2017.

AMD has confirmed it will be launching its next generation Zen CPU architecture in early 2017, during the company's Q3 2016 earnings call.

Chris Hemmelgarn from Barclays asked: "With Summit Ridge launching in Q1 of 2017, I guess how would you expect the channel to ramp that? Do you see it ramping pretty fully in the first couple of quarters of the year, or are you looking for more normal PC seasonality?", to which AMD CEO Lisa Su replied: "You know, I would expect that there will be a relatively good initial demand for Summit Ridge that may be you know, not quite at the seasonal patterns".

Su added: "From where we see, Summit Ridge is playing in a space in the high-end desktop that we currently aren't offering a product. So we believe we'll be competitive certainly with Core I5 as well as Core I7 and we will be launching in those areas".

Intel's next generation Kaby Lake architecture has been teased, but we haven't seen CPUs in the wild just yet - even though there are countless leaks on the new Core i7-7700K, and the latest one is the best.

The upcoming Core i7-7700K has been overclocked on a 100-series motherboard, with it hitting 6.7GHz thanks to LN2 cooling - and considering its stock 4.2/4.5GHz clocks for base and boost, respectively - this is the fastest Core i7 CPU from the Kaby Lake family.

HKEPC is behind the Core i7-7700K overclocked to 6.7GHz, where he used an ASRock Z170M OC Formula motherboard and GALAX HOF DDR4 RAM. The multiplier on the 7700K was upped to x67, while the bus speed wasn't touched. We don't know what voltage was used, but with HKEPC using LN2, we're sure it was pretty high.

Samsung is dealing with massive issues with the halt of sales of its Note 7 smartphones after a handful of them had battery-related issues, with the number meant to not just stop with the purportedly fixed Note 7, except it didn't. Now we're hearing about the future of SoCs from Samsung, as they've just announced mass production of their 10nm FinFET process.

Executive VP and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics, Jong Shik Yoon announced: "The industry's first mass production of 10nm FinFET technology demonstrates our leadership in advanced process technology. We will continue our efforts to innovate scaling technologies and provide differentiated total solutions to our customers".

How does 10nm benefit us? The new 10nm FinFET LPE process uses an advanced 3D transistor structure that includes new process technology and design compared to the previous node. With Samsung shrinking down to 10nm, we'll see a 30% increase in area efficiency, as well as a 27% higher performance ratio, and 40% lower power consumption. 10nm isn't easy, with the new node being one of the smallest in mass production, Samsung used "cutting edge techniques such as triple-patterning to allow bi-directional routing are also used to retain design and routing flexibility from prior nodes".

Intel has something truly monstrous with its upcoming Knights Landing LGA 3647 socket, with Serve the Home teasing us with some pictures of the gigantic LGA 3647 socket.

The upcoming Knights Landing platform will support 6-channel DDR4 support, as well as no dual-latch system that is used on the LGA 2011 platform. Serve the Home explains that the socket and thermal designs that they have seen "do not have latching mechanisms", and instead they're seeing "solutions that secure the CPU to the heat sink".

Here we have a comparison shot of Broadwell-EP, LGA 3657 (Knights Landing), and Broadwell-DE.