Processors - Page 93

It was just 24 hours ago that I wrote a story covering Intel CPUs were exposed to a massive security flaw, something that had to be patched at the operating system level, and now most of Silicon Valley has responded.

These security vulnerabilities have been named Meltdown and Spectre, with a website dedicated to them available here. Strangely, there was an NDA placed on this website until January 9, but the NDA has been lifted and the site made live.

Intel and other technology companies have been made aware of new security research describing software analysis methods that, when used for malicious purposes, have the potential to improperly gather sensitive data from computing devices that are operating as designed. Intel believes these exploits do not have the potential to corrupt, modify or delete data.

Right before CES 2018 kicks off, one of the biggest stories of the year for Intel will be the fact that a massive design flaw and security vulnerability has been found in Intel CPUs. Affected processors require an update to the OS, as this affects both Windows and Linux.

The affected Intel processors will not just face a security vulnerability, but a huge performance drop of between 5-30% once the OS has been fixed. Intel processors have a bug that can't be fixed with a microcode update, meaning Microsoft has to issue a fix at a Windows level, or you'll be forced into the arms of an AMD processor, which aren't affected.

How bad is the security issue? Well, an affected processor could have the contents of its kernel memory accessed, which is where super-secure things like passwords, log-ins, and more can be found.

AMD hasn't had a good few months with the limped release of the Radeon RX Vega family of graphics card products, with RTG boss Raja Koduri jumping ship for Intel and the Radeon team virtually disbanded in the aftermath.

We're now seeing the first Intel processor with Radeon RX Vega M graphics in the wild, with a listing on Intel's official website. Intel's upcoming Core i7-8809G is a 4C/8T processor at 3.1GHz, 8MB of cache, 100W TDP, dual-channel DDR4 support, and Radeon RX Vega M GH Graphics... as well as Intel HD Graphics 630, which is... strange.

Intel's upcoming Core i7-8809G processor is the fastest of three CPUs that Intel will offer with Radeon RX Vega M graphics, with the other two chips being the Core i7-8705G and Core i7-8706G.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen Mobile processor with Radeon Vegas graphics will be unveiled early next year, with another 'confirmed' part being reported by VideoCardz.

The new Ryzen 3 2200G will reportedly feature Vega 8 graphics, arriving as a 4-thread APU. There will also be the Ryzen 3 2300U, the slowest mobile APU with just 6 compute units in its Vega GPU.

AMD will have a higher-end Ryzen 5 2400G that will be a 4C/8T chip with Vega 11 graphics (35W and 65W versions). We've already seen Ryzen Mobile with Vega graphics inside of the HP Envy X360 laptops, which have been on Best Buy shelves for nearly a month now. AMD's official unveiling is in January, however. Strange.

AMD is launching multiple new CPUs and APUs next year but we're hearing about a new mysterious "Fenghuang" APU that has just appeared in the SiSoft Sandra database.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen 2 processors will be using the company's Zen+ architecture and made on GlobalFroundries' 12LP node, but this new APU is something very interesting. The new "Fenghuang" APU will be powered by something called "15FF" graphics, which is said to rock 28 Radeon compute units (1792 shader processors) and 2GB of unknown-type VRAM.

The APU is clocked at what looks to be a misidentified 555MHz, 16kB of L2 cache, and 32-bit path to memory. This new APU should rock GPU horsepower that is much faster than Vega 8 and Vega 10 IGPs, but we don't know how much power the APU will need yet.

We all remember those 'Intel Inside' stickers on our PCs and the massive marketing campaign that chipzilla pushed behind it, but now reports are surfacing that say Intel will be cutting the budget to its "co-operative marketing program".

According to CRN, Intel will be reducing the funding that the Intel Inside marketing program receives, in the vicinity of 40-60%. CRN cites unidentified sources, saying that the cuts are being made so that the company can increase budgets to "other groups within Intel that aren't channel-specific or PC-centric".

Intel would reportedly use the freed up funds to dominating the datacenter market, but have reportedly not added anything else to that list. With the growing list of competitors at Intel's doorstep with AMD in various markets with Ryzen, Threadripper, EPYC, and Radeon Instinct... while Qualcomm just put their marker down with the new Always-On, Always-Connected PC world with Snapdragon and Windows... I don't see how Intel is making a good move here.

There has been a stream of fake news regarding AMD's next-gen Ryzen and new Ryzen 10 processors, but something that has been confirmed is that AMD is planning to launch their second-gen Ryzen CPUs in Q1 2018.

According to the latest roadmap from AMD we should expect Raven Ridge (Ryzen 3 mobile APU) in Q1 2018, a new chip that will be unveiled at an event before CES 2018 in the first week of January. AMD will also release their business-oriented Ryzen PRO mobile APUs in early 2018, while we'll see the second-gen Ryzen CPUs released somewhere in the March timeframe.

AMD can't name their new Ryzen processors 'Ryzen 2' as it would be beyond confusing with the current nomenclature of Ryzen 3/5/7, so we should expect the Ryzen 2000 series. This would allow AMD to push the Ryzen 7 2800X for example, something that would succeed the Ryzen 7 1800X that is currently the flagship Ryzen 7 processor.

The news of AMD's next-gen Ryzen 2 processors has the internet in a tailspin, with a tease of the new Ryzen 7 2800X with 12C/24T at a blistering 5.1GHz blowing everyone away. It is being claimed a fake, and while it probably is, we're still going to report it to just talk about it.

But there is another fake slide that teases the purported Ryzen 10 range of CPUs that would succeed the Ryzen Threadripper range, starting with the Ryzen 10 3920X for $599. From there, we have the Ryzen 10 3950X at $749 and the flagship Ryzen 10 3970X for $899.

AMD's purported Ryzen 10 3920X packs 16C/32T of CPU power at 4.7/5.3GHz for base and boost, respectively, while the Ryzen 10 3950X packs 20C/40T with 4.8/5.3GHz and is 84% faster than the Threadripper 1950X. The flagship Ryzen 10 3970X packs an insane 24C/48T of CPU power at a huge 5.0/5.5GHz and is a whopping 106% faster than Threadripper 1950X.

AMD is preparing for a big CPU launch in early 2018 with an event being held before CES 2018 in the first week of January where we'll see the company detail Ryzen Mobile (which has already launched). But it looks like we might see the tease of the company's next-gen Ryzen 2 family of CPUs.

During a recent video on KitGuru, an AMD slide was teased in the background with 'Ryzen 2' which said "raising the bar for desktop performance" and teasing three new Ryzen 7 processors. We have:

Better yet, the pricing on these new Ryzen 2 processors is damn good with the Ryzen 7 2700 starting at $329, the Ryzen 7 2800 priced at $399 while the flagship Ryzen 7 2800X will be priced at $449.

TSMC, the leading chip-maker in the world, plans to invest tens of billions to make a new high-end chip facility, reports Nikkei Asian Review.

Senior sources say TSMC will invest $20 billion to make the world's first and most advanced chip-making facility in Taiwan, with a rollout date planned for early 2020s. The facility will be aimed at producing ultra-efficient chips on the 3nm node in an effort to keep ahead of the constantly-evolving world of technology, whether mobile devices or new machines.

"This past September, we announced our plan for the world's first 3-nanometer fab located in the Tainan science park [in southern Taiwan]. This fab could cost upwards of $20 billion and represents TSMC's commitment to drive technology forward," TSMC executive Mark Liu told Nikkei Asian Review.

A user recently posted on Baidu that they were able to hack their MSI Z170A XPower Titanium BIOS, allowing it to support the Intel Core i3-8350K Coffee Lake CPU. Although Intel's 6th, 7th, and 8th Generation CPUs all use the same LGA1151 socket, motherboard vendors and Intel only allow 6th and 7th Generation processors to run on the Z170 and Z270 chipsets.

The 8th Generation processors, which offer more cores per dollar, can only run on the new and more expensive Z370 motherboards. When news of the incompatibility between 8th Generation Core processors and Z170 and Z270 motherboards broke, people were upset about the reasons given for locking the new CPUs out of the more affordable motherboards.

Power delivery concerns were the main reason we were given as to why Intel would not support 8th Generation CPUs on previous Z170 and Z270 chipsets. It seems that nature, or rather one very smart thinking hacker, found a way to make it work. They were able to trick the motherboard into accepting the unsupported CPU. The voltage regulator module on the Z170A XPower Titanium is a very robust one, and should not pose a problem with the newer CPUs.

It was barely a year ago that the Core i7-7700K was the gaming CPU king, and then the rumors of its successor in the Core i7-8700K began earlier this year. Well, before we wrap up 2017 the rumors are now starting on the next-gen Core i9-9700K, Intel's next-gen mainstream CPU king.

Intel's upcoming Core i9-9700K will reportedly feature 8C/16T of CPU power and will be made on the impressively-small 10nm Cannon Lake CPU architecture. We shouldn't expect the new 9700K to beat the 8700K in brute CPU clock speeds, but it will beat it when it comes to multi-tasking because of its 8C/16T versus the 8700K and its 6C/12T.

If the rumors of the Core i9-9700K are true, we can see AMD has directly impacted Intel with its push into the world of mega-tasking with a heap of CPU threads. The previous-gen Core i7-7700K was a 4C/8T chip, the 8700K was a 6C/12T, and now the 9700K is reportedly an 8C/16T chip. Bring it on.

It looks like Intel is preparing to announce a new mobile variant of its Core i9 processor, with AIDA64 - the popular system information, diagnostics and auditing software, included a tease of Intel's unannounced processors in the latest beta of AIDA64.

We have now been teased with mobile and desktop Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, and Core i9 processors. The Core i9-8950HK is the most exciting, as it's the first Coffee Lake/Core i9 CPU for notebooks. Better yet, the 8950HK is an overclockable chip that rocks 6C/12T for freaking notebooks.

As for the other unannounced CPUs from Intel, we can expect new Coffee Lake-H processors in the form of a new Core i3 quad-core chip, Core i5 six-core chip, and Core i7 with 6C/12T of power. The full list of 8th and 9th generation processors is long, thanks to AIDA64:

Intel has found itself in seriously hot water, issuing a new security alert that management firmware on a bunch of new PC, server, and Internet-of-Things processor platforms are vulnerable to a remote attack.

Mark Ermolov and Maxim Goryachy of Positive Technologies Research found the new vulnerabilities, which could see attackers remotely launching commands on Intel-based computers. We're talking about most desktop and laptop CPUs launched under the Core brand since 2015, and even Xeon and Atom lines of processors.

Intel CPUs Affected By Remote Attack Bugs:

Qualcomm has announced that commercial shipments of their new Centriq 2400 family of server CPUs, which are made on Samsung's fresh 10nm FinFET process and pack a huge 18 billion transistors into an area of 398 mm².

Inside, Qualcomm's new Centriq CPUs have up to 48 single-thread 64-bit ARM v8-compliant cores, a custom design that Qualcomm has dubbed Falkor. These cores have a base clock of 2.2GHz while the peak clocks ramp up to 2.6GHz on the Centriq 2460.

Each and every Falkor core has 64GB of L1 instruction alongside something Qualcomm calls "24KB single-cycle L0 cache" that is made for low-power operation, bringing it up to a total of 88KB of l-cache per core. In total, the Centriq 2460 has 48 cores, 60MB of cache, 2.2/2.6GHz base/peak frequency, and 120W TDP.

It wasn't even a couple of hours ago that news broke that Raja Koduri, the boss of Radeon Technologies Group, left AMD. Now rumors are starting with "sources closed to the related companies" telling WCCFTech that Koduri would be joining Intel.

Raja leaving AMD and joining Intel will surely be interesting, with AMD CEO Lisa Su currently in talks with analysts to try and minimize the impact of Raja's departure to AMD. Raja's future at Intel could truly be bright, since Intel just yesterday announced a collaboration with AMD using their semi-custom division to build a new chip that would use Raja's work from Vega, into Intel's new Kaby Lake-G products.

This new Intel/AMD team up was birthed from Raja's vision, and a day after it was announced he's out of the company. I reached out to industry sources to confirm the news earlier today, and then asked about Intel, to which they said nothing is concrete yet. They did confirm that Raja would fit perfectly at Intel, either working in their new Intel/AMD products, or working on a new discrete GPU for Intel, with Intel's near unlimited pockets.

Radeon Technologies Group boss Raja Koduri took a leave of absence, or a sabbatical, or something a couple of months ago, but has now officially departed the company.

Before we get into the letter that Koduri wrote to AMD, this news comes just 24 hours after Intel announced its new Kaby Lake G processors will have AMD Radeon Vega GPU technology inside. It's almost as if Koduri waited until that news broke, and then strategically (see: stock prices) left the company.

AMD launched their Radeon RX Vega graphics card family a few weeks ago now, and were instantly put nearly out gamers' minds when NVIDIA launched their offensive against Radeon RX Vega 56 with the new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti last week.

Intel has officially unveiled its new Kaby Lake G processor family, infused with AMD's next-gen Radeon Vega GPU with 4GB of HBM2 on-board. This new Intel/AMD processor has now had some benchmark numbers leak, and I don't really know what to expect from here on out.

We now know that there are prototypes in the wild, which should arrive as the Core i7-8809G and the Core i7-8705G. The flagship Core i7-8809G has a board name of 694E:C0, while the Core i7-8705G is the 694C:C0.

AMD's custom multi-chip modules (MCMs) will feature the Vega GPU and offering up 24 compute units, with 1536 stream processors in total. GPU clocks should be at 1000MHz for the 694E variant, while the 649C variant is 20% faster at 1190MHz. The faster version should rock 3.3 TFLOPs of compute performance, which is around half that of the APU inside of the new Xbox One X console, a semi-custom design that AMD also worked on.

Intel has been rumored to use AMD Radeon Vega GPU technology inside of its upcoming mobile CPUs, and now the company has confirmed the news 100% with their new Core processor featuring custom discrete graphics from AMD.

This new CPU will be an "evolution" of Intel's work on the 8th generation Core processors, with the H-series chips to power manage the entire module (that now has a CPU, GPU, and HBM2) in order to squeeze the best battery life out of notebooks. We should expect the first samples to begin shipping in Q1 2018.

Intel said they first approached AMD, with AMD treating their Radeon GPU as a single, semi-custom design in the same way they look at their semi-custom designs for Microsoft and Sony with the Xbox and PlayStation consoles. It's a gutsy move by Intel, and a is-it-even-real moment for AMD and the consumer world that never saw this coming. Seeking Alpha went as far to call it fake news, showing they had no clue what they were talking about, and should now be eating the words off their screen.

Intel might have launched its new Core i7-8700K and Core i9-7980XE flagship processors for the Z370 and X299 platforms, but the company will be releasing some form of 10nm CPU this year with volume production and new SKUs in the second half of 2018.

Intel boss Brian Krzanic said that the company is "on track to ship our first low-volume 10-nanometer part by the end of the year". During Intel's recent earnings call, he said that the company will be increasing 10nm production in the first half of 2018, with "high volume and system availability in the second half of 2018".

This means we can expect a 10nm CPU released this year, with the new Cannon Lake CPU family to make an appearance in a lower-end SKU at first. We should see super limited supplies of this new 10nm processor, which could be a reaction to Qualcomm's impending release on the 10nm node, sending Intel scurrying to get 10nm off the ground and into consumers' hands.