PCHardCores: June 2017

Friday 30 June 2017

New Razer Blade Pro (2017)

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This year's update ($3,999) is identical, but has a new Kaby Lake processor inside, and the screen color profile and audio are certified by THX, the ...

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Intel Core i9-7900X

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Intel's Core i9-7900X features a 10-core processor at a significant discount ... Testing demonstrates that the i9-7900X is excellent on CPU-intensive ...

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Swiftech Limited Edition Apogee SKF “Heirloom Series” Now Available - News and Articles – Modders-Inc

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Swiftech Heirlooms. Make it personal. Swiftech has just announced that you can personalize a CPU water cooling block that will best fit the color and look of your PC. With the new Limited Edition Apogee SKF Heirloom Series, from water cooling pioneers Swiftech, you can now pick and choose the colors for your Swiftech Apogee SKF […]

- Post Swiftech Limited Edition Apogee SKF “Heirloom Series” Now Available appeared first on Modders-Inc. #moddersinc

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Why Are Some Analysts Bearish on AMD?

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Morgan Stanley's analyst Joseph Moore is concerned about whether AMD's EPYC processor will be able to compete with Intel's upcoming Purley platform. ... He added that AMD's high-end Ryzen 7 desktop CPU is already struggling ...

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What's AMD's Strategy to Increase Adoption of EPYC Server Processor?

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Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) aims to make its EPYC processor competitive ... Cavium plans to launch its second generation of 64-bit CPUs (central ...

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Will AMD's EPYC Chip Challenge Intel's Xeon Chip?

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Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has introduced two innovative features in its EPYC processors: power usage and the Infinity Fabric. ... connect external peripherals to the CPU, eliminating the need for PCIe switches or bridges.

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Will Naples CPU Help AMD Gain Server Market Share from Intel?

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AMD is also looking to regain some share from Intel (INTC) in the server processor market with its high-end Naples server platform. According to IDC ...

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Lenovo's Y710 Cube with GeForce GTX 1060 6GB drops to $899

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... still trying to clear out inventory of its Y710 Cube PCs with Intel's previous generation Skylake processors inside—specifically, a Core i7-6700 CPU.

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How to Identify User-Upgradeable Notebooks

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If you've heard that notebooks have become less upgradeable over the years, we regret to tell you the rumors are true. Notebooks are increasingly ...

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Microsoft Research Shows Embedded AI on Bread-Crumb Sized Processor

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All sorts of devices could be built with the smaller processor method. ... of AI,” said Saleema Amershi, a human-computer-interaction researcher in the ...

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AMD Ryzen 3 1200 Benchmarks Leaked, Impressive Performance With Moderate Gaming Loads

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AMD recently officially introduced the new Ryzen Pro processor lineup ... No doubt, these stats are rather impressive considering that the CPU is likely ...

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3470 3.2ghz 6MB LGA1155 CPU

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I have a lightly used, mint condition Intel Core i5 Processor i5‑3470 3.2ghz 6MB LGA1155 CPU. Comes with heat sink. Great upgrade for gaming as it ...

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Chip Hall of Fame: Texas Instruments TMS32010 Digital Signal Processor

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This stream would overwhelm a general-purpose CPU, but DSPs can use specialized algorithms and hardware to process the stream into something ...

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Amazon Echo Show Tear Down Reveals Intel Atom CPU And Big Speakers

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The Echo Show runs on a Intel SR2KT Atom x5-Z8350 Processor (2M Cache, up to 1.92 GHz) with 2GB RAM and Sandisk SDIN9DS2-8G 8 GB NAND ...

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AMD Announces Ryzen Pro CPU With Enterprise-Friendly Features For Business And Commercial ...

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AMD's latest Ryzen PRO lineup of processors will be available in six SKUs ... as well as decryption, which cut down the workload on the CPU cores.

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Intel May Ditch its 'Core' Processors Within 5 Years, Next Gen Core in the Works

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A job listing from Intel has given us our strongest indicator yet that the chip giant is looking to move on from its 'Core' CPU design upon which it has ...

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AMD Ryzen desktop CPUs go Pro

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AMD has launched a total of six different Ryzen Pro CPUs, all of which have ... with 18 months image stability and 24 months processor availability.

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A closer look at AMD's new Ryzen Pro chips

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The company's new Ryzen Pro family of processors will be its most ... The new Ryzen Pro 7 was the headline act, offering a "brand-new CPU ...

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A10X Fusion chip in new iPad Pro first consumer device built on TSMC's 10nm process

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Third party analysts have examined the A10X Fusion processor found in the new ... the notably smaller die size, the chip has 8MB of L2 cache, three CPU cores, and a ... including the A9X and A10X in the same family of processors.

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Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.'s (AMD) Ryzen Pro CPUs Want to Conquer Corporate PCs

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Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) announced a new line of processors aimed at the enterprise desktop. The all-new AMD Ryzen Pro ...

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AMD announces new Ryzen PRO desktop processors: Promises good performance, security, and ...

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processors, AMD today has added another tier to its enterprise CPU portfolio with the introduction of AMD RyzenTM PRO desktop processors.

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AMD Ryzen PRO Desktop Processors Officially Introduced

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AMD Ryzen PRO Desktop Processors Officially Introduced ... and the first-ever 8-core,16-thread CPU for commercial-grade PCs, Ryzen PRO provides ...

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Why hardware is eating software

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crystal-processor.jpg ... In the last 20 years x86 processors have gone from less than 10 million ... In other words, it's all software, even the CPU.

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AMD Ryzen 3 1200 CPU benchmarks leak

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The Ryzen 3 1200 is a quad-core CPU with a base clock frequency that ranges from 3.1 GHz to 3.4 GHz. The CPU packs 2x 512KB L2 Cache and 2x ...

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AMD unveils the Ryzen Pro series and hints at the upcoming Ryzen 3 CPUs

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With the Ryzen 7 and 5 series of CPUs, AMD proved that it is able to give ... AMD claims that the Ryzen PRO CPUs offer up to 62% more multithread ...

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AMD announces Ryzen PRO Processors

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With the Ryzen PRO series, AMD offers processors with hardware-based ... So far the AMD's Ryzen PRO CPU lineup includes two eight-core CPUs, ...

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AMD releases new enterprise-grade Ryzen PRO CPUs

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AMD has launched a new family of business-grade desktop processors to ... performance improvements of more than 60% over Intel's i7-7700 CPU.

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AMD Ryzen PRO lineup announced

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These all CPU's will be launched commercially on 29 August 2017. AMD is touting these processors to be a direct competitor against Intel I series and ...

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AMD launches Ryzen PRO desktop processors for professional-grade performance

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Following the global launch of its new EPYC family of server processors, AMD has added another tier to its enterprise CPU portfolio with the ...

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LG G5 vs. LG G6 – Displays and Processors Comparison

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The LG G5 features a Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820 chipset, a dual-core Kryo CPU clocked at 2.15GHz and a dual-core Kryo CPU clocked at ...

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AMD launches powerful Ryzen Pro CPUs for workstations

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The new processor line-up includes Ryzen 3 Pro, 5 Pro, and 7 Pro CPUs – with the high-end versions boasting 8 physical cores and 16 threads.

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Thursday 29 June 2017

TechInsights Confirms Apple’s A10X SoC Is TSMC 10nm FF; 96.4mm2 Die Size

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One of the more intriguing mysteries in the Apple ecosystem has been the question over what process the company would use for the A10X SoC, which is being used in the newly launched 2017 iPad Pro family. Whereas the A10 used in the iPhone was much too early to use anything but 16nm/14nm, the iPad Pro and A10X is coming in the middle of the transition point for high-end SoCs. 16nm is still a high performance process, but if a company pushes the envelope, 10nm is available. So what would Apple do?

The answer, as it turns out, is that they’ve opted to push the envelope. The intrepid crew over at TechInsights has finally dissected an A10X and posted their findings, giving us our first in-depth look at the SoC. Most importantly then, TechInsights is confirming that the chip has been fabbed on TSMC’s new 10nm FinFET process. In fact, the A10X is the first TSMC 10nm chip to show up in a consumer device, a very interesting turn of events since that wasn’t what various production roadmaps called for (that honor would have gone to MediaTek’s Helio X30)

Image Courtesy TechInsights

Apple is of course known for pushing the envelope on chip design and fabrication; they have the resources to take risks, and the profit margins to cover them should they not pan out. Still, that the A10X is the first 10nm SoC is an especially interesting development because it’s such a high-end part. Traditionally, smaller and cheaper parts are the first out the door as these are less impacted by the inevitable yield and capacity challenges of an early manufacturing node. Instead, Apple seems to have gone relatively big with what amounts to their 10nm pipecleaner part.

I say “relatively big” here because while the A10X is a powerful part, and big for a 10nm SoC, in terms of absolute die size it’s not all that big of a chip. In fact by Apple X-series SoC standards, it’s downright small: just 96.4mm². This is 24% smaller than the 16nm A10 SoC (125mm²), and in fact is even 9% smaller than the A9 SoC (104.5mm²). So not only is it smaller than any of Apple’s 16nm SoCs, but it’s also about 20% smaller than the next-smaller X-series SoC, the A6X. Or, if you want to compare it to the previous A9X, Apple’s achieved a 34% reduction in die size. In other words, Apple has never made an iPad SoC this small before.

One key difference here however is that the X-series SoCs have never before been the leading part for a new process node. It has always been iPhone SoCs that have lead the charge – A9 at 16nm, A8 at 20nm, A7 at 28nm, etc. This does mean that as a pipecleaner part, Apple does need to be especially mindful of the risks. If an X-series SoC is to lead the charge for the 10nm generation, then it can’t be allowed to be too big. Not that this has stopped Apple from packing in three CPU cores and a 12-cluster GPU design.

Speaking of size, TechInsights’ estimates for area scaling are quite interesting. Based on their accounting, they believe that Apple has achieved a 45% reduction in feature size versus 16nm, which is consistent with a full node’s improvement. This is consistent with TSMC’s earlier statements, but given the challenges involved in bringing newer processes to market, it’s none the less exciting to actually see it happening. For chip vendors designing products against 10nm and its 7nm sibling, this is good news, as small die sizes are the rule for pretty much everyone besides Apple.

A10X Architecture: A10 Enlarged

Diving a bit deeper, perhaps the biggest reason that A10X is as small as it is, is that Apple seems to have opted to be conservative with its design. Which again, for a pipecleaner part, is what you’d want to do.

Apple SoC Comparison
	A10X	A9X	A8X	A6X
CPU	3x Fusion (Hurricane + Zephyr)	2x Twister	3x Typhoon	2x Swift
CPU Clockspeed	~2.36GHz	2.26GHz	1.5GHz	1.3GHz
GPU	12 Cluster GPU	PVR 12 Cluster Series7	Apple/PVR GXA6850	PVR SGX554 MP4
Typical RAM	4GB LPDDR4	4GB LPDDR4	2GB LPDDR3	1GB LPDDR2
Memory Bus Width	128-bit	128-bit	128-bit	128-bit
Memory Bandwidth	TBD	51.2GB/sec	25.6GB/sec	17.1GB/sec
L2 Cache	8MB	3MB	2MB	1MB
L3 Cache	None	None	4MB	N/A
Manufacturing Process	TSMC 10nm FinFET	TSMC 16nm FinFET	TSMC 20nm	Samsung 32nm

We know from Apple’s official specifications that the A10X has 3 Fusion CPU core pairs, up from 2 pairs on A10, and 2 Twister CPU cores on A9X, all with 8MB of L2 cache tied to the CPU. Meanwhile the GPU in A10X is relatively unchanged; A9X shipped with a 12 cluster GPU design, and so does A10X. This means that Apple hasn’t invested their die space gains from 10nm in much of the way of additional hardware. To be sure, it’s not just a smaller A9X, but it’s also not the same kind of generational leap that we saw from A8X to A9X or similar iterations.

Unfortunately TechInsights’ public die shot release isn’t quite big enough or clean enough to draw a detailed floorplan from, but at a very high level we can make out the 12 GPU clusters on the left, along with the CPU cores to the right. Significantly, there aren’t any real surprises here. TechInsights heavily compares it to the A9X and there’s good reason to do so. IP blocks have been updated, but the only major change is the CPU cores, and those don’t take up a lot of die space relative to the GPU cores. This is what allows A10X to be more powerful than A9X while enjoying such a significant die size decrease.

As for the GPU in particular, Apple these days is no longer officially specifying whether they’re using Imagination’s PowerVR architecture in their chips. Furthermore we know that Apple is developing their own GPU, independent from Imagination’s designs, and that it will be rolled out sooner than later. With that said, even prior to today’s die shot release it’s been rather clear that A10X is not that GPU, and the die shot further proves that.

Apple’s developer documentation has lumped in the A10X’s GPU with the rest of the iOS GPU Family 3, which comprises all of the A9 and A10 family SoCs. So from a feature-set perspective, A10X’s GPU isn’t bringing anything new to the table. As for the die shot, as TechInsights correctly notes, the GPU clusters in the A10X look almost exactly like the A9X’s clusters (and the A10’s, for that matter), further indicating it’s the same base design.

Image Courtesy TechInsights

Ultimately what this means is that in terms of design and features, A10X is relatively straightforward. It’s a proper pipecleaner product for a new process, and one that is geared to take full advantage of the die space savings as opposed to spending those savings on new features/transistors.

Otherwise I am very curious as to just what this means for power consumption – is Apple gaining much there, or is it all area gains? A10X's CPU clockspeed is only marginally higher than A9X's, and pretty much identical to A10, so we can see that Apple hasn't gained much in the way of clockspeeds. So does that mean that Apple instead invested any process-related gains in reducing power consumption, or, as some theories go, has 10nm not significantly improved on power consumption versus 16nm? But the answer to that will have to wait for another day.

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NVIDIA Releases 384.76 WHQL Game Ready Driver

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A few weeks have passed since driver version 382.53, and it’s time again for another driver update from NVIDIA. Now onto release 384 with driver version 384.76, NVIDIA brings us a good number of bug fixes, along with a Game Ready and Game Ready VR title.

Starting things off, the new Release 384 driver branch doesn't bring anything new to the table as far as major features go – at least, nothing that NVIDIA has documented. Instead their efforts have been focused almost entirely on bug fixes and performance improvements. To that end, NVIDIA has addressed issues where Firefall would not run at all. GeForce GTX 1080/1070/1060 stuttering during gameplay in Prey 2 was also addressed, as was texture corruption in No Man’s Sky when SLI was enabled. GTX 970 SLI can now be enabled while Norton 360 is running, as opposed to just when Norton 360 is disabled or in Safe mode. Glitches in Doom (2016) under the Vulkan API were also fixed.

NVIDIA also resolved CPU bottlenecks that occur when 3DVision is enabled, as well as issues with DirectX 12 titles failing to capture via GameStream. Issues with choppy video playback on the Windows Store video app while V-Sync was off were fixed. Last and probably least, a typo was corrected in NVIDIA Control Panel for the Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances name on the Stereoscopic 3D Compatibility page.

The Game Ready headliner for this edition is the LawBreakers “Rise Up” Open Beta while Spider-Man: Homecoming VR Experience is the token Game Ready VR title. Slated to launch on August 8^th, LawBreakers is developed by Cliff Bleszinski, whose pedigree includes games from the Unreal and Gears of War series, and is a class/character-based sci-fi ‘hero shooter,’ similar to games like Overwatch and Team Fortress 2. NVIDIA has polished their drivers in preparation for the “Rise Up” Open Beta, which goes from June 30^th to July 3^rd. As for the Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Homecoming VR Experience is a free tie-in to the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming film, and will be available for download on June 30^th. While Homecoming VR is not exactly a full game, and described in the title itself as a “VR experience,” NVIDIA has prepped their drivers in advance regardless.

Wrapping things up, NVIDIA has added an SLI profile for FIFA 17, as well as adding a “debug” option in the NVIDIA Control Panel Help menu, which removes all overclocking performance and power settings.

The updated drivers are available through the GeForce Experience Drivers tab or online at the NVIDIA driver download page. More information on this update and further issues can be found in the 384.76 release notes.

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ARM SoCs Take Soft Roads to Neural Nets

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MX8 processor. ... It supports jobs run on the SoC's CPU, GPU, and DSP and includes Hexagon DSP vector extensions to run 8-bit math for neural ...

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G.Skill Announces Quad-Channel DDR4-4200 Kit for Intel Skylake-X CPUs

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In addition, G.Skill is also introducing its new Trident Z Black series dual-channel DDR4-4400 kit for Intel's Kaby Lake-X processors. G.Skill's lineup of ...

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AMD Announce Ryzen Pro CPUs, Use Best Quality Zen Wafers and Tout Intel Beating Performance

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AMD has announced the launch of no less than six new Ryzen CPUs ... Currently, none of the budget Ryzen 3 tier processors have been released, ...

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AMD Accidentally Reveals Ryzen 3 1200 and 1300 Processors, First Benchmarks Leaked ...

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While Anandtech was quick to spot this fact, we have something even better for you: benchmarks of the Ryzen 3 1200 processor, the budget level CPU ...

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AMD Launches Ryzen PRO CPUs For Corporate Desktops

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This all makes up AMD's Secure Processor (SP) platform, which is enabled by a dedicated chip on the CPU, using an ARM Cortex-A5 processor.

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Microsoft's latest project embeds artificial intelligence onto bread-crumb size computer processors

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Microsoft Research today announced a new project that embeds artificial intelligence onto bread-crumb size computer processors. This project is ...

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AMD Unveils Biz-Focused Ryzen Pro CPUs

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AMD made waves when it announced powerful and relatively cheap Ryzen processors for consumer PCs in February, and the company is back this ...

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AMD EPYC 7601 CPU Hammers SiSoft Sandra Benchmark Database With 32 Cores And 64 Threads

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It feels a little weird to write about performance results for AMD's EPYC processors and not have to tie the word "leak" into it. As we covered just last ...

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AMD's Ryzen Pro Processor Family Targets Security-Conscious Enterprises

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The new Ryzen Pro lineup of six processors will support such security ... Models range from the AMD Ryzen 3 Pro 1200, with four CPU cores and a ...

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Qualcomm's New Processor For Budget Phones Has Dual Camera Support

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The Snapdragon 435 processor from Qualcomm powered quite a lot of ... The company claims that the higher-performing octacore ARM Cortex A53 CPU ... Budget handsets powered by the Snapdragon 450 processor will be ...

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G.Skill Announces Quad-Channel DDR4-4200 Kit for Intel Skylake-X CPUs

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G.Skill this past week has formally announced its quad-channel memory kits designed for the latest Intel Core i7 (Skylake-X) CPUs and the Intel X299 platform. The flagship 64 GB Trident Z kit boasts a 4200 MT/s data transfer rate, a rather notable step up from the company's "entry-level" 3600 MT/s kit. In addition, G.Skill is also introducing its new Trident Z Black series dual-channel DDR4-4400 kit for Intel’s Kaby Lake-X processors.

G.Skill’s lineup of memory kits for the Intel X299 platform consists of 8 GB and 16 GB Trident and Trident Z RGB DIMMs based on Samsung’s popular 20nm-fabbed 8 Gb DDR4 DRAM modules. The various kits are available at 3600 MT/s, 3733 MT/s, 3800 MT/s, 4000 MT/s, and 4200 MT/s data transfer rates, while their voltages run from 1.35 to 1.4 V. As you'd expect, the higher clocked kits also come with higher latency, with latencies starting at CL16 and reaching CL19 by DDR4-4200 speeds. Which goes to show that even though Intel's Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X CPUs can handle very high DRAM frequencies, the tradeoff between clocks and timings has not gone anywhere.

Meanwhile it's interesting to note that despite G.Skill's recent obsession with RGB lighting – resulting in the company offering RGB-equipped DIMMs for most of the Trident Z range – the fastest DDR4-4200 and DDR4-4400 kits are not available with RGB lighting. Keeping in mind that this kind of extreme DDR4 overclocking requires increased voltage and very “clean” power, it may not be easy to apply RGB to such DIMMs without affecting their stability. Still, keeping in mind that G.Skill itself demonstrated DDR4-4200 Trident Z RGB DIMMs in quad-channel mode at Computex, it is a matter of time before appropriate modules will hit the market.

G.Skill's Trident Z Memory for Intel's X299 Platform
Speed	CL Timing	Voltage	Kit Configuration	Kit Capacity	Family
DDR4-3600	CL16 16-16-36	1.35 V	4×8 GB 8×8 GB	32 GB 64 GB	Trident Z Trident Z RGB
DDR4-3600	CL17 19-19-39		4×16 GB 8×16 GB	64 GB 128 GB
DDR4-3733	CL17 17-17-37		4×8 GB 8×8 GB	32 GB 64 GB
DDR4-3733	CL18 19-19-39		4×16 GB 8×16 GB	64 GB 128 GB
DDR4-3800	CL18 18-18-38		4×8 GB 8×8 GB	32 GB 64 GB
DDR4-3800	CL19 19-19-39		4×16 GB 8×16 GB	64 GB 128 GB
DDR4-4000	CL18 19-19-39		4×8 GB 8×8 GB	32 GB 64 GB
DDR4-4200	CL19 19-19-39	1.4 V	8×8 GB	64 GB	Trident Z
DDR4-4400	CL19 19-19-39	1.4 V (?)	2×8 GB	16 GB	Trident Z Black

G.Skill traditionally announces its new memory modules a little bit ahead of their retail launch and does not set MSRPs ahead of actual availability, so pricing has not yet been disclosed on the company's newest kits.

AMD Ryzen Pro Processors For Enterprise Workloads Launched – Feature Workstation Class ...

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AMD has officially released their enterprise focused Ryzen Pro processors which feature the best ... Each CPU is segmented in three sections.

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Alienware 17 R4 2017 Gaming Laptop Review: Powerful And Refined

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Alienware sent over a high-end configuration with an Intel Core i7-7820HK quad-core Kaby Lake CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GPU, 512GB ...

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AMD Confirms Ryzen 3 1300 And 1200 Processors With Specs Revealed In Ryzen PRO Unveiling

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AMD first introduced us to its 14nm Zen family of processors with the Ryzen 7 lineup, and later with Ryzen 5. Up until this point, AMD has been ...

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AMD Ryzen PRO enterprise desktop processors announced

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After announcing its powerful yet affordable Ryzen CPUs, AMD has announced a new range of processors catering to the enterprise audience. The all ...

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Intel vs. AMD: One CPU To Rule Them All

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In this article, we will be looking at the Intel and AMD processors and what ... These CPUs will range from quad-core offerings to as much as 18-core ...

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Ucom starts U!Cloud solution for businesses

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While creating servers, customers will be able to choose the number of processor cores (CPU Cores), processor speeds (CPU Mhz), as well as the ...

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AMD quietly reveals Ryzen 3 chip details with Ryzen Pro's launch

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Today, AMD's disruptive Ryzen processors stepped out of the mainstream and into the business world with the announcemnt of Ryzen Pro chips ...

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AMD targets businesses with more secure, faster Ryzen Pro CPUs

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AMD has unveiled its new Ryzen Pro desktop processors, aiming to bring speedy performance, as well as security and reliability to business PCs.

The Pro range mirrors the consumer Ryzen CPUs, with baseline offerings being named the Ryzen 3 Pro, which steps up to the Ryzen 5 Pro, with the top-of-the-line processors being the Ryzen 7 Pro.

Ryzen 3 Pro models will be quad-core (four-thread) with the entry-level CPU running with a base clock speed of 3.1GHz with boost to 3.4GHz, and a TDP of 65W.

The Ryzen 5 Pro 1500 will also be quad-core but with eight-threads, a clock speed of 3.5GHz/3.7GHz (boost) and the same TDP. With the Ryzen 5 Pro 1600, AMD has gone with six-cores (12-threads) and a clock speed of 3.2GHz/3.6GHz.

Moving to the top-tier, the Ryzen 7 Pro 1700 will have eight-cores (16-threads) and a clock speed of 3GHz/3.7GHz, again maintaining a TDP of 65W.

The flagship model is the Ryzen 7 Pro 1700X which is also an eight-core (16-thread) CPU but it bumps the clock speed up to 3.4GHz/3.8GHz, although in this case the TDP rises to 95W.

AMD claims that in Cinebench R15 benchmarking, the Pro 1700 beat out Intel’s Core i7-7700 by 62% in multithreaded performance.

Secure and reliable

In terms of security, AMD notes that the new processors benefit from a built-in AES 128-bit encryption engine, and the likes of secure boot, firmware TPM 2.0, plus support for Windows 10 Enterprise security features.

On the reliability front, the chipmaker asserts that Ryzen Pro products are sourced from wafers with the highest yields, delivering commercial-grade quality to help ensure a long lifespan of the CPU.

You also get open standard DASH manageability, meaning CPU-agnostic admin to ensure that businesses avoid getting locked into a proprietary solution.

Pricing hasn’t yet been talked about, but AMD says that the Ryzen Pro range will be available worldwide in the second half of this year. Ryzen Pro Mobile processors are expected to arrive in the first half of 2018.

We’ve highlighted the best CPU deals from AMD and Intel here

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Reinders: “AVX-512 May Be a Hidden Gem” in Intel Xeon Scalable Processors

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Today, GPUs and CPUs work tirelessly to accelerate algorithms based on ... to Intel's recently announced Xeon Scalable processor line very soon.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 News: What to Expect from the New Processor

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The improvements of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 include: improved CPU and GPU as it is equipped with Adreno 506, which increased the ...

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Intel Core i9-7900X X-Series 10-Core Processor Review

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AMD Ryzen PRO Family Announced With On-Chip Memory And Virtualization Encryption Engine

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Last week saw the launch of AMD's EPYC 7000 series processors for data center servers, ... For one, Ryzen PRO processors are cherry-picked parts. ... and the first-ever 8-core,16-thread CPU for commercial-grade PCs, Ryzen PRO ...

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AMD Ryzen Pro CPUs With Hardware Encryption for Secure Corporate and Enterprise PCs ...

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Each CPU has a dedicated hardware co-processor on the same package, which the company says is superior to having a secure module on the ...

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Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Launches Ryzen PRO Desktop Processors

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Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) added another tier to its enterprise CPU portfolio with the introduction of AMD Ryzen™ PRO desktop ...

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AMD Launches Ryzen PRO CPUs: Enhanced Security, Longer Warranty, Better Quality

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This morning AMD is introducing their Ryzen PRO processors for business and commercial desktop PCs. The new lineup of CPUs includes the Ryzen ...

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AMD Ryzen Pro CPUs To Challenge Intel In The Enterprise Arena

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AMD has revealed Ryzen Pro, a family of central processing units (CPU) ... Six Ryzen Pro processors. based on 14nm fabrication, are available, ...

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AMD announces Ryzen PRO CPU lineup

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AMD announces Ryzen PRO CPU lineup ... As with the previous batch of Ryzen desktop processors, these new Ryzen PRO chips deliver a big ...

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AMD debuts Ryzen Pro CPUs to battle Intel vPro

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After launching seven Ryzen processors based on the new Zen microarchitecture, AMD has turned its focus to the data center by releasing the Epyc ...

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AMD targets businesses with more secure, faster Ryzen Pro CPUs

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AMD has unveiled its new Ryzen Pro desktop processors, aiming to bring speedy performance, as well as security and reliability to business PCs.

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AMD unveils Ryzen Pro, enterprise processors with a security focus

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based semiconductor company said the new addition to the firm's enterprise CPU portfolio is a family of desktop processors, designed to "meet the ...

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AMD's Ryzen Pro Processor Lineup Revealed

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It's all in the name too; Ryzen Pro processors will take aim at Intel's traditional vPro CPUs. These CPUs generally target professionals and businesses ...

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AMD Ryzen PRO Desktop Processors Deliver Professional-Grade Performance, Security, and ...

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AMD Ryzen PRO Desktop Processors Deliver Professional-Grade ... today added another tier to its enterprise CPU portfolio with the introduction of ...

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AMD Ryzen Pro could be the Intel alternative your laptop needs

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The company's new Ryzen Pro family of processors will be its most ... security processor within the CPU, allowing for more thorough and powerful ...

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AMD Announces Ryzen PRO Enterprise Processors

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AMD isn't holding anything back, and they're releasing one Zen-based CPU after another. The company is back with another offering for enterprise ...

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AMD Ryzen Pro targets workstations with enterprise performance, security

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AMD is promising up to 52 percent better computer performance over the ... According to AMD, each Ryzen Pro CPU will significantly outperform the ... in processor clock speeds when system and processor cooling is sufficient, and ...

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Ryzen Pro platform brings a dash of Epyc to corporate desktops

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The most interesting features of Ryzen Pro chips come from the embedded AMD Secure Processor that's integrated into each Ryzen CPU. The SP will ...

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Intel Coffee Lake-S CPUs Will Not Be Compatible With LGA 1151 Socket? i3 CPUs Might Not ...

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Intel Coffee Lake-S CPUs will be the 8th generation of mainstream processors that will be hitting the market sometime later this year. While there is ...

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AMD Inadvertently Reveals Ryzen 3 1300 & 1200 Details

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If you were paying close attention to this morning’s announcement of AMD’s new Ryzen Pro SKUs, then you likely noticed something interesting: the non-X PRO chips all have the same performance specifications as their standard consumer counterparts. Specifically, both of the non-X PRO SKUs with existing Ryzen 5 & 7 counterparts have the same core counts, clockspeeds, and TDPs. And for the final 2 Ryzen PRO 3 SKUS? Well, AMD has inadvertently shown their hand here when it comes to forthcoming Ryzen 3.

With the release of the Ryzen PRO 3 specifications, AMD has now confirmed what we’ve been suspecting for the Ryzen 3 specifications for a while now. Ryzen 3 is a quad-core CPU without SMT, so we’re looking at just 4 threads instead of 8, albeit 4 threads without any of the resource contention SMT can sometimes cause. On which matter, it’s worth pointing out that AMD has already previously commented that Ryzen 3 will use the same die as Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7, so we’re looking at 4 cores distributed over 2 CCXs, like the Ryzen 5 1400 & 1500X.

AMD Ryzen 5 & 3 SKUs
	Cores/ Threads	Base/ Turbo	XFR	L3	TDP	Cost	Cooler
Ryzen 5 1600X	6/12	3.6/4.0	+100	16 MB	95 W	$249	-
Ryzen 5 1600	6/12	3.2/3.6	+100	16 MB	65 W	$219	Spire
Ryzen 5 1500X	4/8	3.5/3.7	+200	16 MB	65 W	$189	Spire
Ryzen 5 1400	4/8	3.2/3.4	+50	8 MB	65 W	$169	Stealth
Ryzen 3 1300*	4/4	3.5/3.7	TBD	8 MB	65 W	TBD	-
Ryzen 3 1200*	4/4	3.1/3.4	TBD	8 MB	65 W	TBD	-

Similarly, AMD’s reveal indicates that Ryzen 3 will have the same cache structure as the lowest-end Ryzen 5, the 1400. That means just half of the chip’s total 16MB of L3 cache is enabled. However each core still retains its full 512KB of L2 cache. Finally, this inadvertent reveal also confirms that TDPs for the lowest-end members of the Ryzen family will stick with the same 65W TDP as all but the highest-performance Ryzen chips.

Of course, it should be noted here that AMD’s accidental reveal doesn’t mean that the 1300 & 1200 will be the only Ryzen 3 chips we’ll see. Just like the Ryzen 5 and 7 only had a couple of PRO counterparts, it’s likely that the story will be the same for the Ryzen 3 series. In particular, Ian suspects a Ryzen 3 1300X will show up, but we shall see in due time…

Gallery: AMD Inadvertently Posts Ryzen 3 1300 & 1200 Details

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AMD Launches Ryzen PRO CPUs: Enhanced Security, Longer Warranty, Better Quality

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AMD has introduced its Ryzen PRO processors for business and commercial desktop PCs. The new lineup of CPUs includes Ryzen 3 Pro, Ryzen 5 PRO and Ryzen 7 PRO products with four, six or eight cores and various frequencies. The chips have the same feature set as other Ryzen devices, but also offer enhanced security, 24 months availability, a longer warranty and promise to feature better quality.

AMD Ryzen Pro: The Family Portrait

The AMD Ryzen PRO lineup of processors consists of six SKUs that belong to the Ryzen 7, Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 families targeting different market segments and offering different levels of performance. As one would expect, the Ryzen 7 PRO are aimed at workstation applications and thus have all eight cores with simultaneous multithreading enabled, the Ryzen 5 PRO are designed for advanced mainstream desktops and therefore have four or six cores with SMT, whereas the Ryzen 3 PRO are aimed at office workloads that work well on quad-core CPUs without SMT. Specifications of the Ryzen 7 PRO and the Ryzen 5 PRO resemble those of regular Ryzen processors. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 3 PRO are the first chips from the Ryzen 3 lineup and thus give us a general idea what to expect from such products: four cores without SMT operating at 3.1 – 3.5 GHz base frequency along with 10 MB of cache.

AMD Ryzen PRO Specifications
	Cores/Threads	Frequency		Cache		TDP
		Base	Boost	L2	L3
Ryzen 7 PRO 1700X	8/16	3.5 GHz	3.7 GHz	4 MB	16 MB	95 W
Ryzen 7 PRO 1700		3 GHz	3.7 GHz			65 W
Ryzen 5 PRO 1600	6/12	3.2 GHz	3.6 GHz	3 MB
Ryzen 5 PRO 1500	4/8	3.5 GHz	3.7 GHz	2 MB
Ryzen 3 PRO 1300	4/4	3.5 GHz	3.7 GHz		8 MB
Ryzen 3 PRO 1200	4/4	3.1 GHz	3.4 GHz

Just like other Ryzen CPUs, all the Ryzen PRO chips fully support ECC technology, but with certain limitations when it comes to data transfer rates and memory modules — these are peculiarities of the controller and the PRO moniker cannot change them. One of the things to note is that AMD used only DDR4-2400 memory for its internal testing of the Ryzen PRO CPUs, thus, expect PC makers to use the same speed DRAM for their desktops as well.

In fact, when it comes to general feature set, all AMD Ryzen PRO CPUs support the same capabilities as their non-PRO brethren do, including AMD’s SenseMi, Precision Boost, Extended Frequency Range, Neural Net Prediction and so on. In fact, there is the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 1700X CPU in the lineup with extended performance and 95 W TDP (the first for any AMD PRO platform). Meanwhile, there are four things that the Ryzen PRO bring to the table: enhanced security features, enterprise-class manageability, processor and platform longevity and enhanced quality (which we are going to touch upon later).

With the launch of the Ryzen PRO, AMD offers its iGPU-less processors for business desktops for the first time ever. Previously the company only offered its A PRO-series APUs with integrated graphics and TDP ranging from 35 to 65 W. By contrast, the new CPU are offered with 65 – 95 thermal envelops, which means that we are not going to see ultra-small form-factor workstations running AMD Ryzen PRO, but may finally see full-sized desktops.

It makes sense to note that all Ryzen PRO CPUs, including the highest performing and the most affordable SKUs, will support all of the advertised enterprise/business-grade capabilities. AMD is especially proud about that because its rival Intel does not support enterprise features (such as vPro) on lower-end Core i3 models. At this point AMD does not disclose prices of its Ryzen PRO CPUs and the only metrics that AMD uses for comparison against competing SKUs is performance, not MSRPs or TDPs.

AMD Ryzen PRO Competitive Positioning Based on Performance
AMD			Intel
Model	Key Features	Price	Model	Key Features	Price
Ryzen 7 PRO 1700X	8C/16T, 3.5/3.7 GHz, 20 MB cache, 95 W	?	-	-	-
Ryzen 7 PRO 1700	8C/16T, 3/3.7 GHz, 20 MB cache, 65 W		Core i7-7700	4C/8T, 3.6/4.2 GHz, 8 MB cache, 65 W	$303 - $312
Ryzen 5 PRO 1600	6C/12T, 3.2/3.6 GHz, 19 MB cache, 65 W		Core i5-7500	4C/4T, 3.4/3.8 GHz, 6 MB cache, 65 W	$192 - $202
Ryzen 5 PRO 1500	4C/8T, 3.5/3.7 GHz, 18 MB cache, 65 W		Core i5-7500	4C/4T, 3.4/3.8 GHz, 6 MB cache, 65 W	$192 - $202
Ryzen 3 PRO 1300	4C/8T, 3.5/3.7 GHz, 10 MB cache, 65 W		Core i3-7100	2C/4T, 3.9 GHz, 3 MB cache, 51 W	$117
Ryzen 3 PRO 1200	4C/8T, 3.1/3.4 GHz, 10 MB cache, 65 W		-	-	-

Such comparison shows that AMD’s Ryzen PRO lineup for desktops can cover a wider range of performance requirements than Intel’s mainstream vPro offerings do. For example, the AMD Ryzen PRO 1700X does not have a direct competitor from Intel, according to AMD. Which may indicate that vPro supporting Xeon E5s are considerably more expensive than the Ryzen PRO 1700X is going to be. In addition, AMD’s Ryzen 3 PRO 1200 also does not have a corresponding rival from the Core i3 lineup from performance point of view, based on AMD’s comparison. However, since Intel also offers Core i7 and Core i5 CPUs with TDP reduced to 35 W (for which AMD does not have announced competitors in the Ryzen PRO range), such performance-focused comparison does not display a complete picture.

New AMD Secure Technologies

Now, time to talk about security features of the AMD Ryzen PRO platform. For years AMD’s processors for business PCs supported security technologies (collectively known as AMD Secure Processor and Platform Security Processor before that) enabled by the ARM TrustZone platform with the ARM Cortex-A5 core. AMD’s previous-gen PRO-series APUs included Secure Boot, Content Protection, per-Application security, fTPM 2.0, and support for Microsoft Device Guard, Windows Hello, fingerprint security, data protection and so on. The Ryzen PRO adds Transparent Secure Memory Encryption (TSME) on top of them.

To explain what TSME is, it makes sense to refer to AMD’s Zen memory encryption technologies in general. The Zen microarchitecture features two important technologies: Secure Memory Encryption (SME) and Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) that protect data in DRAM using a dedicated AES-128 engine.

When data is stored on storage devices, it is usually encrypted, but when it is processed, it is almost never is, leaving possibilities to steal certain confidential things. As the name suggests, Secure Memory Encryption encrypts content of DRAM in a bid to eliminate data snooping by unauthorized programs or administrators (this is more likely to happen in a server/datacenter environment, but still). This feature will be particularly important for NVDIMMs going forward as they store data even after unplugged from their hosts.

The SME encrypts data when it is written to DRAM and decrypts it when it is read. The AES-128 key is generated NIST SP 800-90 compliant hardware random number generator and then managed by the AMD-SP hardware (thus, in a secure environment only). Although a dedicated engine performs the encryption/decryption, the process still takes time and thus adds latency for memory accesses. AMD claims that the actual performance impact is not significant, but will have to test it before making any conclusions of our own. AMD’s Zen microarchitecture supports full and partial memory encryption for cases when performance is a concern. Meanwhile, both require OSes and software to be modified in order to work properly. Meanwhile, AMD’s processors also support Transparent SME mode that that encrypts DRAM completely, can be enabled from BIOS and thus be used with legacy OSes and programs. At this point Transparent SME is the only type of SME supported by the Ryzen Pro, but AMD’s EPYC processors support all of them.

The Secure Encrypted Virtualization in many ways resembles the SME, but in this case, it enables owners to encrypt virtual machines, isolating them from each other, hypervisor and hosting software. The SEV is an extension to AMD’s virtualization architecture that uses the same hardware as the SME to protect/sandbox selected VMs using different AES-128 keys and eliminating some of the security threats particularly in datacenter environments. As the SEV uses different keys for different VMs, it does not work with TSME. By contrast, SEV is fully enabled on AMD’s EPYC processors (it will be interesting to see whether Threadripper chips support the feature as well).

One thing that should be noted is that both SME and SEV should be supported not only by processors themselves, but also on the platform and the software levels. With the exception of TSME mode (which will still require BIOS/chipset support), it will take some time before actual systems can take advantage of the new technologies supported by AMD’s Zen microarchitecture. A good thing is that owners of the Ryzen PRO will be able to use TSME already this year and this is where AMD’s new business platform excels Intel’s Core-series offerings.

Enterprise Manageability and Reliability

In addition to security capabilities, business PCs require some other hardware features as well.

First off, the Ryzen PRO platforms support DASH management protocol and therefore PCs featuring the chips can be remotely managed using tools based on this industry standard developed by vendors of appropriate computers. AMD Pro-series processors have supported DASH for years, no changes here.

Secondly, AMD’s Ryzen PRO platforms support 18-month platform stability and 24-month processor availability. AMD guarantees that the Ryzen PRO chips it launches this year will be available for two more years without changes to software, enabling business customers to buy and deploy new systems running the CPUs without modifying the software they use.

Finally, all AMD Ryzen PRO CPUs are covered with a 36-month limited warranty, up from 12-month warranty for consumer processors. The reason why AMD offers extended warranty for its business CPUs (apart from the fact that its customers demand this) is because it uses wafers with highest yields/least amount of defective parts to build the Ryzen Pro. AMD believes that wafers with the lowest manufacturing variability provide chips that are “set to meet long term reliability”.

Available This Fall

AMD promises to share more information about its Ryzen PRO CPUs and supporting platforms on August 29, 2017. The company does not say that actual systems will be available on this date, but since the chip designer already disclosed plans to ship Ryzen PRO in the second half of this year, it is safe to say that at least some Ryzen Pro-based desktops will ship this fall.

As for vendors, expect the usual workstation/commercial PC makers like Dell, HP, Lenovo and other to offer desktops powered by AMD’s Ryzen Pro.

Gallery: AMD Ryzen PRO Presentation

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AMD announces their new Ryzen Pro series of Desktop CPUs

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AMD has announced their new Ryzen Pro series of Desktop CPUs, which are designed to offer professional-grade performance, security and reliability at affordable prices.

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For medical, industrial, and automotive applications

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Bluechips (Thailand) has introduced the X'Posure V4 carrier board for CPU modules with Smarc-Standard version 1.0 and version 1.1. ... Smarc (Smart Mobility Architecture) allows the use of various processor modules equipped ...

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AMD Ryzen 7 AGESA 1006 performance and DDR4 memory check - review - An introduction at a ...

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Tweak your processor, we can reach 4.0 GHz on all cores on just air cooling. In this article we use liquid cooling and clock the CPU to 4.1 Ghz on all ...

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Qualcomm launches Snapdragon 450 at MWC Shanghai 2017

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Looking at battery life figures, Qualcomm claims an extra 4 hours of usage with the new processor compared to one equipped with a Snapdragon 435.

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ZTE nubia NX907J with octa-core CPU and 13MP camera clears TENAA

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... certification from Chinese telecommunication authority TENAA. Listed as NX907J, the device is powered by 1.4GHz octa-core processor, and sports ...

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Announced – Uses 14nm FinFET Process, Enhanced Dual-Camera ...

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The existing generation of Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 series processor is 435, and it was a pretty decent processor. ... Higher performing octa-core ARM Cortex A53 CPU results in 25 percent increase in computing performance ...

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Benchmark listings of alleged Vivo X9s reveal its specs ahead of launch

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... be powered by an Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor. The Octa-core CPU is clustered into two groups, which are clocked differently.

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Wednesday 28 June 2017

Samsung will eat Chipzilla in second quarter

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“The memory chip market has grown bigger than the CPU market,” he said. DRAM chip prices increased 25 percent in the first half of 2017, while ...

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Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3179)

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... tested) convertible-hybrid laptop has the power of an Intel Core m3 processor that outperforms lower-powered systems with Celeron or Atom CPUs.

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Have we hit the PC plateau?

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Firstly, applications began moving onto the web, moving most of the CPU ... of them on mobile stores is fueling the growth in ARM processor R&D.

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PiSoft Partners with Rockchip and CEVA to Develop 360 Degree Panoramic Camera Solution

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The solution utilizes the Rockchip RV1108 visual processor which ... and vision DSP to run advanced imaging and computer vision algorithms, ...

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 platform now official

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The Snapdragon 450 processor is now official. It's built upon the 14nm process, which is meant to give the new chipset considerable gains in both ...

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Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 450 Budget Processor

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The upcoming successor to the low-end Snapdragon 435 processor now ... Improved CPU and GPU: Higher performing octa-core ARM Cortex A53 ...

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Why I'm Staying Long AMD Despite Suggestions The Stock Is Relatively Overvalued

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... could probably help AMD take 40% of the discrete video card business, 30% of the desktop x86 CPU, and 10% of the x86 server processor industry.

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Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 450 chip will power the next wave of budget Android phones

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First up are the somewhat obvious improvements in CPU and GPU speed, which the company notes is up to 25 percent faster than the 435. ... The new processor is able to handle more advanced camera systems now, with support ...

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AMD EPYC 7601 SiSoft Sandra And Cinebench 2P Benchmarks Revealed; Comparison Of AMD's ...

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AMD's EPYC line of processors meet the needs of today's datacenter ... connectivity direct to the CPU with no PCIe switches or bridges required.

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Qualcomm unveils new Snapdragon 450 processor

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According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 450 boasts 25% more GPU and CPU performance than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 435.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Brings More Muscle And Efficiency To Mid Range Smartphones

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The Snapdragon 450 is the first mid-range processor to be built on a ... Looking beyond CPU and GPU performance, the Snapdragon 450 contains ...

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Mobile Processor Announced

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Intel are rumoured to be releasing Z370 motherboards later this year

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Intel is rumoured to be releasing Z370 motherboards later this year, with upgraded networking capabilities and support for Coffee Lake CPUs.

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Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon Wear 1200 SoC: LTE Categories M1 & NB1 for Wearables & Smart Trackers

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Back around this time last year, Qualcomm introduced their Snapdragon Wear 1100, the company’s first SoC specifically designed for budget, low-power wearable devices. The humble SoC featured just a single Cortex-A7 CPU core and LTE Cat 1 support, but for the market Qualcomm had designed it for, this was more than sufficient. Now at MWC Shanghai 2017, the company is launching an even more low power successor to the Snapdragon Wear 1100, the aptly named Snapdragon Wear 1200.

The Snapdragon Wear 1200 is an interesting development from Qualcomm, as while the name can be a bit deceiving, it’s the first in a new generation of products for the company. Taking the basic principles of the 1100, Qualcomm has integrated a new modem that supports new, ultra-low-power communication modes for LTE standardized in the last year: LTE Category M1 and Category NB1. In fact this is Qualcomm’s first SoC to support the 3GPP’s Low Power WAN technologies.

Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear SoCs
	Snapdragon Wear 1200	Snapdragon Wear 1100	Snapdragon Wear 2100
SoC	Cortex-A7 @ 1.3GHz Fixed-function GPU	Cortex-A7 @ 1.2GHz Fixed-function GPU	4x Cortex-A7 @ 1.2GHz Adreno 304
Process Node	28nm LP	28nm LP	28nm LP
RAM	LPDDR2	LPDDR2	LPDDR3-800 MT/s
Display	Simple 2D UI	Simple 2D UI	Up to 640x480 @ 60fps
Modem	Qualcomm (Integrated) 2G (E-GPRS) / LTE (Cat M1 & Cat NB1)	Qualcomm (Integrated) 2G / 3G / LTE (Category 1 10/5 Mbps)	Qualcomm X5 (Integrated) 2G / 3G / LTE (Category 4 150/50 Mbps) Connected version only
Connectivity	802.11b/g/n/ac, BT 4.2 LE, GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou	802.11b/g/n/ac, BT 4.1 LE, GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou (Wi-Fi and BT optional)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz), BT 4.1 LE, NFC, GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou, USB 2.0 Connected and Tethered versions

Briefly touching on the specs of the Wear 1200, the core processor is almost unchanged from the Wear 1100. The SoC is still powered by a single Cortex-A7 CPU core and paired with a simple display controller that is just barely a fixed function GPU. It is meant to be a low-power (and low cost) SoC, through and through.

The big change here for Qualcomm is on the modem side. Whereas the Wear 1100 shipped with a multi-mode 2G /3G / LTE Cat 1 modem – as low a power a design as one could get at the time – the Wear 1200 incorporates a much more power-efficient and very much forward-looking modem. One that supports only basic 2G (E-GPRS) functionality, along with the aforementioned LTE Cat M1 and NB1 standards.

This is the first product announcement to cross our desk supporting these new standards, and ultimately the Snapdragon Wear 1200 will be the first of many devices/chips that we see to do so. Part of the 3GPP’s Release 13, the standards body has been focusing on reducing power consumption, complexity, and costs for radios for IoT devices, wearables, and other simple devices as part of their LPWAN initiative.

At a high level, LTE Cat M1 is designed to be a relatively straightforward, further power-optimized form of LTE. The max data rate is just 1Mbps up and down – and the Wear 1200 doesn’t even reach those speeds – using tricks like a minimum-width 1.08Mhz channel and half-duplex communication to cut power consumption, all the while still being compatible with existing LTE networks. LTE Cat NB1 takes this a step further, going with a stand-alone LTE-derived narrowband implementation that uses just a 180KHz channel, which combined with other technologies offers the lowest amount of bandwidth (max 250Kbps) but also the lowest power consumption and improved range.

3GPP Low Power WAN LTE Standards
	LTE Cat M1	LTE Cat NB1
Network Type	LTE-Compatible	Seperate Band
Bandwidth	1.08MHz	180KHz
Peak Download	1 Mbps	250 Kbps
Peak Upload	1 Mbps	250 Kbps / 20 Kbps

For Qualcomm and other wearable/IoT device manufacturers, these new standards will be a significant part of making the Internet of Things live up to its name, by allowing even the lowest-power, lowest-cost devices to have LTE network functionality. Unsurprisingly then, one of the first places we’re going to see it deployed is in low-cost wearables, where Internet access is beneficial, but battery life concerns are significant.

As for the Wear 1200 in particular, Qualcomm’s wearable-class SoC keeps a low profile even for M1/NB1 devices. The SoC can support 300Kbps down and 375Kbps up for Cat M1, and just 20Kbps down and 60Kbps up for Cat NB1. And no, the latter isn’t a typo: NB1 devices are expected to send data as much (if not more than) they receive it, so the Wear 1200’s data rates vary accordingly. Meanwhile, despite the limited bandwidth these standards offer, the Wear 1200 supports 15 RF bands along with some notable LTE features, particularly VoLTE. Interestingly however, while Qualcomm supports the latest low-power IoT standards, they don’t support the equivalent low-power 2G standard, EC-GSM. The Wear 1200 does support 2G in the form of E-GPRS, so there is GSM backwards compatibility for when LTE isn’t available, but the future Qualcomm is planning for is very much one where LTE is everywhere and 2G won’t be needed.

Modems aside, the Wear 1200 is otherwise a function-optimized design. Like its predecessor, the SoC supports WiFi and Bluetooth for various connectivity options, along with augmenting the standard GPS/GLONASS/Beidou/Galileo geo positioning systems. The new SoC retains the same small size of its predecessor, with the chip measuring 79mm2. Overall, Qualcomm is touting a 10 day standby battery life for the SoC, which would be a significant improvement over the 7 day standby of the Wear 1100.

Finally, looking at the broader picture, the wearables market is still trying to figure out what it wants to be – and what consumers will actually buy – and for the Wear 1200 Qualcomm is particularly interested in courting the “kid watch” market. A segment of the larger smart tracker market, Qualcomm is looking to tap into what is already a significant market in Asia – and especially China – where it’s not uncommon to give your kid a limited functionality watch that allows you to contact them, while the watch works in conjunction with geofencing applications to keep tabs on their whereabouts. Driven in part by demographics and in part by technology, Qualcomm expects the market for kid tracking watches to further grow, with SoCs like the Wear 1200 further improving the utility of these devices and bringing their cost down. These improvements would also filter down to other parts of the smart tracker market, such as pet tracking and elderly tracking devices.

In fact the company is hitting the ground running: along with the launch of today’s SoC, they are also partnering with Borqs and Quanta to develop smart tracker/kid watch reference designs, so that hardware manufacturers can get a jump on developing Wear 1200-based trackers. And like the Snapdragon Wear 1200 itself, these reference designs are available and shipping today. So while Qualcomm isn’t specifically commenting on when their customers’ consumer devices will be ready, it will almost certainly be before the end of the year.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 unveiled; features faster CPU, GPU, and support for dual cameras

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Be Quiet announces their Silent Loop 360 liquid CPU cooler

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Be Quiet has announced their Silent Loop 360 liquid CPU cooler, coming with a large 360mm radiator and support for all modern CPU sockets.

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PiSoft Partners with Rockchip and CEVA to Develop 360 Degree Panoramic Camera Solution

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Qualcomm announces 14nm based Snapdragon 450 with highest power-efficiency for mid-range ...

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 mid-end chipset announced at MWC Shanghai 2017

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The processor, which is aimed at budget phones, promises to deliver significant ... 450 is an octa-core processor, and there is also the ARM A53 CPU.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Introduced; To Increase 25% CPU Performance in Mid-Range ...

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Tuesday 27 June 2017

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 450 Midrange SoC

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Kicking off today is second Mobile World Congress of the year, MWC Shanghai. As the de facto home of smartphone manufacturing, and home for an increasing number of major mobile device vendors, the tradeshow has taken on increased importance in recent years. This year is no exception, with several different announcements of note coming out of the show.

Starting things off for everyone is Qualcomm, who is at the show to announce their latest mainstream Snapdragon 400 series SoC: the Snapdragon 450. The successor to Qualcomm’s 2016 Snapdragon 435, the Snapdragon 450’s biggest claim to fame is also its smallest: it will be the first Snapdragon 400 series SoC to be fabbed at 14nm, finally moving Qualcomm’s mainstream SoC lineup off of 28nm LP and on to a more recent and more power efficient manufacturing node.

Qualcomm Midrange Snadpragon Family
SoC	Snapdragon 450	Snapdragon 435	Snapdragon 625
CPU	4x A53 @ 1.8GHz 4x A53 @ 1.8GHz	4x A53 @ 1.4GHz 4x A53 @ 1.4GHz	4x A53 @ 2.0GHz 4x A53 @ ? GHz
Memory	1x 32-bit LPDDR3	1x 32-bit @ 800MHz LPDDR3 6.4GB/s b/w	1x 32-bit @ 933MHz LPDDR3 7.45GB/s b/w
GPU	Adreno 506	Adreno 505	Adreno 506
Encode/ Decode	1080p H.264 & HEVC (Decode)	1080p H.264 & HEVC (Decode)	2160p H.264 & HEVC (Decode)
Camera/ISP	Dual ISP 13MP + 13 MP (Dual) 21MP (Single)	Dual ISP 8MP + 8MP (Dual) 21MP (Single)	Dual ISP 24MP
Integrated Modem	"X9 LTE" Cat. 7 300Mbps DL 150Mbps UL 2x20MHz C.A. (DL & UL)	"X9 LTE" Cat. 7 300Mbps DL 100Mbps UL 2x20MHz C.A. (DL & UL)	"X9 LTE" Cat. 7 300Mbps DL 150Mbps UL 2x20MHz C.A. (DL & UL)
USB	3.0 w/QuickCharge 3.0	2.0 w/QuickCharge 3.0	3.0 w/QuickCharge 3.0
Mfc. Process	14nm	28nm LP	14nm

At a high level, the Snapdragon 450 is a very straightforward successor to the 435. Qualcomm has taken most of the 435’s design principles and brought them forward for the smaller Snapdragon 450. For example, we’re still looking at an octa-core ARM Cortex-A53 implementation, however thanks to the 14nm process Qualcomm has been able to bump up the maximum clockspeed from 1.4GHz to 1.8GHz. Similarly, Qualcomm has updated the GPU from an Adreno 505 on the Snapdragon 435 to an Adreno 506 on the Snapdragon 450, with the more powerful GPU said to offer 25% better performance.

Meanwhile more significant upgrades have been made to the ISPs and USB controller. Similar to the Snapdragon 435, the 450 supports a single camera at up to 21MP. However if it’s used in a dual camera configuration – as is increasingly popular these days for artificial Bokeh and telephoto modes – then it can handle a pair of 13MP sensors, up from 8MP on the Snapdragon 435, and a notable improvement as 13MP seems to increasingly be the baseline for midrange phones. Qualcomm’s video processor blocks have also been improved, in part to keep up with the improved sensor, and as a result the 450 can now capture video at up to 1080p60, doubling the maximum framerate over the Snapdragon 435’s 1080p30 limit. Meanwhile the USB controller has been upgraded from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0, allowing for much faster transfers from Snapdragon 450 devices. And, like its predecessor, the 450 also supports QualComm’s QuickCharge 3.0 tech over said USB port.

Cellular connectivity is once again provided by Qualcomm’s Integrated X9 modem, which supports LTE Category 7 down and Category 13 up, for a maximum of 300Mbps down and 150Mbps up respectively. Interestingly, on the Snapdragon 435, Qualcomm limited that SoC for just 100Mbps up despite the fact that Category 13 allows for 150Mbps; so this is the first X9-equipped Snapdragon 400 SoC to actually be able to hit 150Mbps up, going by Qualcomm’s specifications. The 450 also retains the 435’s Hexagon DSP, however like so many other parts of the SoC, the 450’s DSP has been further enhanced to reduce power consumption.

Last but not least, Qualcomm is promising some solid battery life improvements with the Snapdragon 450 over its 435 predecessor. While the company has invested some of their 14nm gains in improving clockspeeds throughout the chip, they’ve also retained a lot of those gains for reducing overall power consumption, a philosophy similar to what they did with the Snapdragon 835 this year as well. To that end the company is promoting that Snapdragon 450 phones will be able to deliver 4 hours more battery life relative to 435 phones.

Overall it’s interesting to note just how much the Snapdragon 450 sounds a lot like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625, their 14nm SoC from 2016. Both chips use a octa-A53 CPU configuration, X9 LTE modem, and Adreno 506 GPU. In fact the Snapdragon 450 is even pin compatible with the Snapdragon 625, which means that handset manufacturers can immediately begin working with the new SoC in existing designs. However given this close similarity, I’m also left to wonder whether the Snapdragon 450 is a new die, or a cut-down 625. In any case, the two chips still have some differences between them: particularly that the Snapdragon 625 clocks higher and features a more powerful ISP and video decode block.

Wrapping things up, as is often the case with Qualcomm’s SoC reveals, today’s announcement comes ahead of vendor sampling and wide release. The company will begin commercial sampling in Q3 of this year, and the chip should show up in retail devices by the end of the year.

Gallery: Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Press Deck

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