CPU, APU & Chipsets News - Page 1

DIY gadget YouTuber "Bitluni" has built his own personal RISC-V megacluster, inside of a compact design, check it out:

Overall, the megacluster features 256 x RISC-V-based microcontrollers, operating at a mind-boggling 14.7GHz single-core frequency. Impressive. Remember, these are RISC-V chips, not x86-based processors inside of a regular PC.

The idea behind this is to fit 16 of the superclusters into a single interface, but that created issues down the line, so he designed his own "cluster blade" that featured two microcontrollers mounted on the board, each of them managing the supercluster on top of it. The cluster blade allowed Bitluni to give each supercluster its bus interface.

AMD's next-generation high-end Ryzen AI "Strix Halo" APUs have turned up in new shipping manifestos, featuring up to 64GB capacities and up to 120W TDPs.

The shipping manifestos were noticed by "nbd.ltd" and @harukaze5719, with multiple shipments of the same APU that would've been sent out for evaluation and testing purposes. These manifestos show the Maple DAP reference evaluation platform, which is available in both 32GB and 64GB memory capacities.

The Maple DAP reference systems feature 32GB or 64GB of pre-soldered memory, set by AMD, unlike Intel which is using on-package memory with its next-generation Lunar Lake CPUs.

Intel has just splashed out on buying ASML's bleeding-edge High-NA EUV lithography machines, placing orders for the rest of the machines that the Netherlands-based company will make this year.

In a new report from The Elec, we're hearing that Intel is buying ASML's latest High-NA EUV lithography machines by placing reserve orders for the 5-6 kits that the company will make this year. Intel will be using ASML's new High-NA EUV lithography machines for its upcoming Intel 18A (1.8nm) and Intel 14A (1.4nm) process nodes.

Intel will have the most High-NA EUV lithography machines in 2025, with competitors including SK hynix and Samsung set to get their first batches of High-NA EUV lithography machines in the second half of 2025. Intel will have a rather large advantage over their competitors, especially if production goes well, yield rates are healthy, and the chips that Intel is pumping out are performance leaders.

AMD's next-generation Zen 5-based "Ryzen AI 100 series" processors will be unveiled and launched at Computex 2024 next month, with the latest Ryzen AI 165 processor teased in new leaks.

In a new leak from Chinese reviewer and leaker Golden Pig Upgrade, we can expect the AMD Ryzen AI 165 "Strix Point" APU to feature 10 cores and 20 threads, with an XDNA2-based NPU for AI workloads, offering 45 TOPS of AI performance from the NPU alone.

We've already heard rumbles of a Strix Point APU being officially called the Ryzen AI 9 HX 170, with 12 cores and 24 threads of Zen 5-based CPU power boosting at up to 5.1GHz with the same XDNA2-based NPU for AI workloads. But the new 10-core, 20-thread Ryzen AI 165 "Strix Point" APU could feature a 2+8 or 4+6 configuration (AMD will have Zen 5 and Zen 5c CCXs for Strix Point).

Intel's Panther Lake is still a good way off - if the rumor-mongers are right, Arrow Lake might even be further off than we hoped - but that hasn't stopped the leak machine churning out speculation about Panther Lake CPUs.

Mind you, this latest Panther Lake leak, which comes from X (formerly Twitter) as flagged up by VideoCardz, should be treated with more skepticism than normal, as we're not familiar with the source - a certain Prakhar Verma.

So, fistfuls of salt in hand, the contention is that Panther Lake will be mobile chips only - with no desktop offerings. Theoretically we will get Panther Lake U series CPUs, efficient variants to follow Lunar Lake (which should debut late this year), and Panther Lake H chips to succeed Arrow Lake high-end mobile processors.

AMD's Zen 5 desktop processors - which should be Ryzen 9000, based on previous leaks - might end up with a generational increase in performance that'll disappoint many folks, or that's the conclusion some are drawing given fresh chatter from the grapevine.

Wccftech flagged up this rumor which comes from Weibo - add extra seasoning because of that, but then again, we are told that this is a post from Lenovo China's manager.

According to that manager, we can expect Ryzen 9000 desktop to bring forth an IPC increase of 10% compared to Ryzen 7000 chips - and that's a much lower figure than we've heard from other sources. Although it's worth noting that the source does observe that gains are higher than this in Cinebench single-threaded benchmarks (without mentioning any exact figure).

Intel has been in a spot lately regarding its flagship high-end 13th and 14th Gen Core i9 desktop processors, with widespread reports of instability. The extent and detailed causes of the crashes are still unknown. Still, many believe it to be due to the increased power requirements of high-end Intel CPUs and motherboard profiles and official specs and guidelines bypassing proper voltage regulation.

Various motherboard makers have released BIOS updates to address the issue, implementing new 'Intel Baseline Profiles' to improve stability at the cost of performance. The band-aid approach was simple: reign everything in, and the issues will disappear.

In a new statement for its customers and partners, Intel states that the new 'Intel Default Settings' represent a range of power delivery profiles based on a motherboard's capabilities. In fact, Intel wants customers to continue pushing the new CPUs as it "recommends customers implement the highest power delivery profile compatible with each individual motherboard design."

AMD has shared some data on its CPU shipments courtesy of Mercury Research's first quarter (Q1 2024) report. And it's good news for Ryzen and AMD's growing server market, with Unit Share and Revenue Share increasing year-over-year - with Desktop and Server products leading the charge.

AMD cites growing demand for 4th Gen EPYC and Ryzen 8000 Series processors for the growth in the Client sector. Its server share (compared primarily to Intel) is now 23.6% compared to 18% a year ago. For Desktop processors, aka Ryzen, AMD's share has increased to 23.9% compared to 19.2% a year ago.

Mobile CPUs, which are Ryzen chips for laptops, mini PCs, and PC gaming handhelds, also saw their share increase in Q1 2024 to 19.3% compared to 16.2% a year ago. However, this figure presents a slight dip from the previous quarter - chalked up to a decline in overall shipments for low-end PCs.

Intel's next-gen flagship CPU could be dialing back clock speeds considerably - by a whole lot, in fact, at least if this leak turns out to be correct.

Upfront, let's arm ourselves with the usual helping of seasoning, and indeed a heavier dose than normal here, as this is a rumor that comes from Weibo, not exactly our favored source for reliability (though it does get some things on the money).

At any rate, Wccftech noticed that user 'MebiuW' posted about how Intel's Arrow Lake range - which could be revealed in Q3 - will witness clock speeds being reined in considerably.

The global client-based CPU market showed impressive growth in Q1 2024, with John Peddie Research reporting that shipments hit 62 million units - a 33% increase compared to Q1 2023. However, compared to the previous quarter, this figure represents a 9.4% decrease.

Even though the dip compared to the previous quarter bucks the recent growth trend, the report notes that the Q1 dip, when viewed with the context of year-over-year growth, "is an indication that the market has stabilized and has returned to its traditional cyclic behavior."

Looking into the numbers more closely, Notebooks and Laptops are driving the growth as desktop market share has declined. A year ago, the split between Notebooks and Desktops was 68% and 32%, with this figure changing to 73% Notebooks and 27% Desktops in Q1 2024. With integrated graphics being a key part of the mobile CPU space, iGPU shipments increased by 30% year-over-year.