PCHardCores: October 2018

Wednesday 31 October 2018

What Is Binning? A Basic Definition

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What is the meaning of binning? CPU, GPU and RAM binning explained.

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What Is DRAM in RAM and GPUs? A Basic Definition

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What is the meaning of DRAM? DRAM CPUs and GPUs explained.

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Tuesday 30 October 2018

Apple Launches New Mac Mini: Up to 6 Cores, 64 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD, & TB3

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Apple on Tuesday introduced its first new small form-factor PC in four years. The new Mac Mini is based on Intel’s latest Coffee Lake processors with up to six cores and improves the SFF system in almost all ways possible, making the miniature PC almost as capable as regular desktops. With that said, the considerably higher performance enabled by the new Mac Mini also comes at higher price points when compared to the predecessors.

Apple’s Mac Mini desktops are designed for SOHO market segment as well as everyday workloads that normally do not require very capable hardware. Meanwhile, historically Apple used mobile processors for its Mac Mini, which the company found good enough for the market segment. With its 2018 SFF desktops Apple is changing the game here: the company now calls its Mac Mini a “workhorse” and therefore uses Intel’s custom 8^th Gen Core CPUs with four or six cores operating at 4.6 GHz Turbo Boost frequency. In a bid to cool the processor down, Apple uses a brand-new cooling system featuring a blower.

To bring the Mac Mini even closer to fully-fledged desktop workstations, the new PCs are outfitted with up to 64 GB of DDR4-2666 memory, up to 2 TB SSD, four Thunderbolt 3 ports to connect an external graphics adapter, a storage system, or an Ultra-HD display, as well as an optional 10 GbE NIC that we expect is based on Aquantia AQtion AQC107 silicon (since there are no other suitable controllers on the market). In addition, the new Apple Mac Mini has the company’s T2 security chip for encrypted storage and secure boot. Meanwhile the system also has regular USB 3.0 Type-A ports, an HDMI 2.0 header, and a 3.5-mm audio connector for headphones.

Apple’s new Mac Mini systems start at $799 for a quad-core Core i3-based model outfitted with 8 GB of DRAM, and 128 GB of storage. Previously Apple’s entry-level Mac Mini used to cost $499 - $599, enabling people in budget to tap into Apple’s Mac ecosystem. Meanwhile, once configuration of the new Mac Mini is maxed out with 64 GB of DRAM, 2TB of storage, and a hex-core processor, its price skyrockets to $4,199.

Apple Mac Mini Brief Specifications
		Mac Mini 2018
CPU		Intel Core i3 4C/8T 3.6 GHz 6 MB L3	Intel Core i5 6C/12T 3.0/4.1 GHz 9 MB L3	Intel Core i7 6C/12T 3.2/4.6 GHz 12 MB L3
PCH		?
Graphics		Intel UHD Graphics 630
Memory		8 GB DDR4-2666 Configurable to 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB DDR4-2666
Storage		128 GB PCIe SSD Configuratble to 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, or 2 TB SSD
Wi-Fi		IEEE 802.11ac Wi-Fi + BT 5
Ethernet		1 GbE or 10 GbE
Display Outputs		4 × Thunderbolt 3
Audio		1 × 3.5mm audio out
USB		2 × USB 3.0 Type-A (5 Gbps) 4 × USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C (via TB3)
Other I/O		HDMI 2.0
Dimensions	Width	19.7 cm \| 7.7"
	Height	3.6 cm \| 1.4"
	Depth	19.7 cm \| 7.7"
PSU		~ 150 W (external)
OS		Apple MacOS Mojave

Buy the Apple Mac Mini (2018) at Apple.com

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Apple Announces 2018 MacBook Air: Entry-Level Laptop Gets Essential Refresh

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This morning at a keynote in New York City, Apple took the wraps off of their latest notebook update, the 2018 MacBook Air. The entry-level member of Apple’s laptop lineup is finally getting a much-anticipated redesign, which is seeing the laptop adopt most of the same design characteristics and technologies as Apple’s other laptops, including TouchID and Apple’s T2 controller. Still coming in with a 13.3-inch screen – and now in Retina – the laptop will be shipping on November 7^th.

When it was introduced in 2008, the MacBook Air employed a then-unusual ultra-portable laptop design, most famously demonstrated by Apple’s equally unusual marketing gimmick of showing it easily fitting into a manila envelope. Since its introduction the MacBook Air paved the way for Ultrabooks as whole in the process, and within Apple’s lineup it eventually settled as the entry-level member of the MacBook family. However in more recent years the laptop ended up neglected, as Apple focused on integrating more expensive technologies into their laptops and with prices to match, which was counter to the MacBook Air’s entry-level nature. As a result, until today the last time the MacBook Air had been significantly updated was in early 2015. So today’s announcement marks the first big update for the laptop in almost 4 years.

2018 MacBook Air Specifications
Model	2018 (Base)	2017 (Base)
Dimensions	0.41 - 1.56 cm x 30.4 cm x 21.2 cm	0.30 - 1.7 cm x 32.5 cm x 22.7 cm
Weight	2.75 lbs (1.25 kg)	2.96 lbs (1.35 kg)
CPU	1.6GHz (3.6GHz Turbo) Core i5 2 CPU Cores	1.8GHz (2.9GHz Turbo) Core i5-5350U 2 CPU Cores
GPU	Intel UHD Graphics 617	Intel HD Graphics 6000
Display	13.3-inch 2560x1600 IPS LCD	13.3-inch 1440x900 TN LCD
Memory	8GB LPDDR3-2133	8GB LPDDR3-1600
SSD	128GB PCIe SSD	128GB PCIe SSD
I/O	2x USB 3.1 Type-C w/Thunderbolt 3 3.5mm Audio Touch ID	2x USB 3.0 Type-A 1x Thunderbolt 2 SDXC Card Reader 3.5mm Audio
Battery Capacity	50.3 Wh	54 Wh
Battery Life	12 Hours	12 Hours
Price	$1199	$999

In terms of design, the MacBook Air fits right in to Apple’s modern laptop families. In fact at first glance it’s not especially distinct from Apple’s other wedge-shaped laptop, the 12-inch MacBook. The vanilla MacBook itself essentially split the difference between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro – taking the size of the former and pairing it with the overall aesthetic design and some of the technologies of the latter – and while the MacBook itself was never a de-facto replacement for the Air, it’s now clear that this is the direction that Apple has wanted to take their laptop line as a whole.

The end result is that by and large, the MacBook Air is the 13.3-inch MacBook that never was. It employs the same wedge shape and aluminum body as the MacBook, and even comes in the same Gold/Silver/Space Grey color trio. In terms of dimensions the laptop is 30.41cm x 21.24cm – giving it a slightly smaller footprint than the previous MacBook Air – while the thickness at the largest point is down from 1.7cm to 1.56cm. Interestingly, the laptop is actually a bit less wedge shaped than its predecessor, as the thinnest point has increased from 0.3cm to 0.41cm. The laptop’s weight is also down a bit, from 1.35kg in the old model to 1.25kg on the new Air.

Meanwhile the focus on slimming the already small MacBook Air down means that the laptop has incorporated a number of technologies and design elements from Apple’s other laptops. This includes the move to exclusively using USB Type-C ports for all charging and data connectivity, with the new laptop getting two of these ports on its left side (versus 1 for the MacBook). Furthermore these are both Thunderbolt 3-capable ports, with all the features and bandwidth that entails, making the Air more like the Pros and less like the vanilla MacBook in this regard. Apple has also retained the 3.5mm audio jack, however the SDXC card slot is no more.

The slim design also means that Apple has integrated their modern butterfly-switch keyboard & Force Touch trackpad combination. First introduced on the MacBook back in 2015, the butterfly switch was designed to be thinner and more stable than contemporary switches, though the shallower key travel has received mixed feedback. Notably, this is now also the largest up-to-date laptop that Apple offers without a touch bar, as Apple stopped updating the touch bar-free 13-inch MacBook Pro earlier this year. Meanwhile like Apple’s other laptops, the Force Touch trackpad offers a solid-state trackpad that generates haptic feedback through a linear actuator, making the entire trackpad a single consistent device, and doing away with the diving-board effect of a pivoting trackpad.

Under the hood details are a little harder to come by. Curiously, Apple is only offering a single CPU option here, an Intel Core i5. And while the company never names the specific processor models they use, the specifications here – 3.6GHz turbo with Intel UHD Graphics 617 – do not match any known Intel chip, even when factoring in various cTDP options. We’ve heard rumors of Intel putting together a Core i5-8210Y, and we’ve reached out to Intel to try to confirm.

At a minimum, it’s clear that this is one of Intel’s 5 Watt Y-series chips – almost certainly Amber Lake. Launched back in August, Amber Lake is Intel’s latest-generation 5W chips and goes under the 8^th Gen Core branding. Compared to the Broadwell (5^th Gen Core) chips in the previous MacBook Air, these chips represent a big step up in capabilities and performance, incorporating a newer CPU core design as well as a newer GPU design. However it’s also notable that the new chips, even in cTDP up mode, are also much lower power than the older 15W U-series chips Apple used, which means that processor power consumption should be significantly reduced – and the chips thinner as well – though the total performance gain won’t be quite as much as if Apple had stuck with U-series chips.

Using Amber Lake also means we’re once again looking at LPDDR3 memory for an Apple laptop. Apple outfits the standard model with 8GB of the stuff, with 16GB being an option. Amber Lake doesn’t support LPDDR4, so Apple’s options are to either stick with LPDDR3 or use less power efficient DDR4, which is something the company did do for the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

Like all of Apple’s other Macs introduced in the last 12 months, the new MacBook Air also incorporates Apple’s T2 co-processor. The chip essentially incorporates all of the hardware processing functions that the Intel CPU doesn’t offer or which Apple wants to handle themselves, including audio input processing (for Hey Siri), image signal processing (for the FaceTime camera), hardware video encoding, secure boot, a secure enclave for Touch ID, and serves as a (impressively high performance) SSD controller as well. The T2 is one of the biggest differentiators Apple has in the laptop space right now with respect to internal components, as pretty much everyone else uses Intel’s standard hardware.

Speaking of SSDs, the MacBook Air will come with a range of SSD capacities. The base model unfortunately isn’t getting any kind of capacity upgrade from the previous MacBook Air – still shipping with just 128GB – though storage performance should be remarkably better. Meanwhile the top configuration is now 1.5TB, 3x that of the old Air’s top configuration.

The other big and quickly noticeable improvement for the new MacBook Air is the display. Whereas the last-gen Air was the last Apple laptop without a Retina display, the new Air finally gets its pixel density boost. The laptop uses a 2560x1600 panel, and keeping with Apple’s other laptops this is (thankfully) another 16:10 panel. In virtually every respect the new display should be a major step up over the previous Air, not only offering greater pixel densities but switching to a LED-backlight IPS display, versus the previous Air’s very cheap 1440x900 TN display. The net result is greater color stability at off-angles and a wider color gamut that should come a lot closer to the complete sRGB color space.

Rounding out the package, the new MacBook Air incorporates a 50.3 Watt-hour battery. Apple is rating the laptop for 12 hours of battery life, and while this will vary with the workload, their estimates are generally on the mark. Interestingly this battery is slightly smaller than the 54Wh battery in the previous MacBook Air; the lower-power SoC and other improvements mean that average power consumption has dropped a bit, so Apple can hit the same 12 hours on a smaller battery.

On the whole then, the new MacBook Air should be a significant upgrade from the previous model in almost every way, from processing power to display quality. However the increased focus on quality is also matched by an increased price tag, and in general is in-line with Apple’s efforts to focus more on high-end, high-margin products in the Mac space. As a result the new Air starts at $1199, $200 more than the previous model. Notably this is $100 cheaper than the base 12-inch MacBook, meaning this is still the cheapest (modern) MacBook Apple offers. Though it does seem to put a nail in the coffin of the idea of a sub-$1000 MacBook, especially as Apple seems more interested in moving those users on to the new iPad Pros.

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Apple Announces New 11" and 12.9" iPad Pro's with A12X SoC

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Today at Apple’s Special Event in New York, among other things such as the a new release of a new Macbook Air and a new Mac Mini, Apple has taken the opportunity to do a refresh of its iPad Pro line-up, releasing the successors to 2017’s summer devices.

The new iPads succeed both the 2017 10.5” as well as 12.9” models, and Apple describes the new units as the most significant iPad update ever, pushing the envelope of what is possible inside of a tablet device, along with a brand new design.

Apple iPad Pro Comparison
	iPad Pro 10.5" (2017)	iPad Pro 12.9" (2017)	iPad Pro 11" (2018)	iPad Pro 12.9" (2018)
SoC	Apple A10X Fusion 3x Apple Hurricane 3x Apple Zephyr 12 core GPU		Apple A12X 4x Apple Vortex 4x Apple Tempest 7 core A12 GPU
Display	10.5-inch 2224x1668 IPS LCD DCI-P3, 120Hz	12.9-inch 2732x2048 IPS LCD DCI-P3, 120Hz	11-inch 2388x1668 IPS LCD DCI-P3, 120Hz	12.9-inch 2732x2048 IPS LCD DCI-P3, 120Hz
Dimensions	250.6 x 174.1 x 6.1 mm 469 / 477 grams (WiFi / LTE)	305.7 x 220.6 x 6.9 mm 677 / 692 grams (WiFi / LTE)	247.6 x 178.5 x 5.9 mm 468 / 468 grams (WiFi / LTE)	280 x 214.9 x 5.9 mm 631 / 633 grams (WiFi / LTE)
RAM	?	4GB LPDDR4	?	?
NAND	64GB / 256GB / 512 GB		64GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB
Battery	30.4 Wh	41.0 Wh	29.37 Wh	36.71 Wh
Front Camera	7MP, f/2.2, Auto HDR, Wide Color Gamut, Retina Flash		7MP, f/2.2, Smart HDR, Wide Color Gamut, Retina Flash
Rear Camera	12MP, 1.22µm pixels, f/1.8, PDAF, OIS, Auto HDR, Wide Color Gamut, True Tone Quad-LED flash		12MP, f/1.8, PDAF, Smart HDR, Wide Color Gamut, True Tone Quad-LED flash
Cellular	2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Category 9)		2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Category 4)
SIM Size	NanoSIM		NanoSIM
Wireless	802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO, BT 4.2 LE, GPS/GLONASS		802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO, BT 4.2 LE, GPS/GLONASS
Connectivity	Apple Lightning, 3.5mm headphone, Apple Smart Connector		USB-C Apple Smart Connector
Launch OS	iOS 10		iOS 12.1
Launch Price	Wi-Fi: $649 (64GB) $749 (256GB) $949 (512GB) Wi-Fi + LTE: $779 (64GB) $879 (256GB) $1079 (512GB)	Wi-Fi: $799 (64GB) $899 (256GB) $1099 (512GB) Wi-Fi + LTE: $929 (64GB) $1029 (256GB) $1229 (512GB)	Wi-Fi: $799 (64GB) $949 (256GB) $1149 (512GB) $1549 (1TB) Wi-Fi + LTE: $949 (64GB) $1099 (256GB) $1299 (512GB) $1699 (1TB)	Wi-Fi: $999 (64GB) $1149 (256GB) $1349 (512GB) $1749 (1TB) Wi-Fi + LTE: $1149 (64GB) $1299 (256GB) $1499 (512GB) $1899 (1TB)

The new iPad’s most striking feature is their new design: These are the first iPads that have gotten rid of the home button, allowing Apple to reduce the bezels and significantly increase the body-to-screen ratio of the new models.

The smaller 11” iPad largely matches the same form-factor as last the previous 10.5” model, which Apple claims was immensely successful. Here Apple has used the reduction of the bezels to increase the screen size of the device. In terms of resolution, the 11” model comes in at 2388 x 1668, which means that the screen’s aspect ratio has changed from 4:3 to a wider 4.3:3 or 12.9:9.

The bigger 12.9” model, as the name says, doesn’t change in terms of screen diagonal, and maintains the 2732 x 2048 resolution of the previous model. It’s interesting to see here that this model is still 4:3 in its aspect ratio, marking a difference between the small and big models.

Both displays are “Liquid retina” LCD panels, and checkmarks on all possible Apple features that a display can have: Wide gamut support with DCI-P3, True Tone support, and most importantly, “Pro Motion” or more commonly known as 120Hz refresh rates.

The removal of the home button also means significant changes in terms of unlocking the new iPad Pro’s: Here we see the adoption of Face ID, with the usual set of sensors integrated onto the top bezel of the tablets. Software navigation follows the same gesture paradigm as the iPhone X.

Powering the new tablets is the brand-new Apple A12X SoC. Apple here seemingly has jumped over one generation of tablet SoCs, as we never saw the A11X released or commercialised.

The new A12X SoC, as its name implies, is based on the IP generations that were found in the A12 SoC, just bigger and better. The CPU complex employs 4x Vortex CPUs as the high-performance cores, along with 4x Tempest CPUs serving as the higher-efficiency, low-power CPUs, making this SoC Apple’s first 8-core CPU SoC. We don’t know much about the frequencies of the cores, but I imagine they’ll be similar or higher than the 2.5GHz Vortex cores of the A12.

As a reminder, we did an extensive deep dive on the A12 and its CPU microarchitecture, seeing astoundingly good performance tiers above the competition. Apple mentioned during the keynote that the new A12X is more powerful than 92% of the available laptops in the market, which isn’t very surprising given the performance levels we saw on the A12.

Along with the 8-core CPU, we see a 7-core GPU of the same generation as on the A12. It’s to be noted that a large amount of the increased GPU performance (Compared to an A12) will go towards driving the 120Hz screen, but it’s also a very significant increase over the last generation A10X GPU. Here Apple also made the fun comparison that the new iPads are as powerful (graphically speaking) as an Xbox One S, while being 94% smaller.

Apple for the first time also employs a neural engine/NPU in the iPads, featuring the same neural network accelerator block as found on the A12, sporting up to 5 TeraOPS of processing speeds.

The A12X comes in at a massive 10 billion transistors and is manufactured on TSMC’s 7nm process node. The A12 came in at 7 billion with a die size of 83.27mm² - if we assume similar density we’re expecting the A12X to come in around a bit less than 120mm², still, not all that big historically speaking.

As is usual with Apple, we can’t yet confirm the RAM configurations of the new iPads, but the new storage options come in at 64, 256, 512, and 1TB options.

Cameras on the new iPads seem similar in specs as the 2017 models, with a 7MP f/2.2 front-facing module and a 12MP f/1.8 module in the back. Apple does say it’s a new sensor, so we’re possibly talking about the same new 1.4µm sensor as on the iPhone XS. It does come with all the new XS features such as Smart HDR.

The camera module unfortunately does protrude with a camera bump. This is accentuated by the fact that the new iPads are now even thinner, shaving off 0.2mm from the past 10.5” model and 1 whole millimetre off the 12.9” model up to a total of 5.9mm on both units.

The reduced form-factor and volume of the new models, especially the 12.9” model, is unfortunately also mirrored by a reduction in battery capacity, as we see a 11% smaller battery coming in at 36.71Wh. The new 11” model sees a smaller 3.5% decrease, totalling at 29.37Wh. Here the increased power efficiency of the new SoC as well as possible screen efficiency gains will need to counter-act the reduced capacities.

A definitely cool feature of the new iPads is the way the new Apple Pencil is charged: Apple has made away with the awkward charging of the pen via the Lightning port, and instead now uses wireless charging. The new Pencil magnetically attaches itself to one side of the new iPads, wirelessly charging this way. A new feature of the new pencil is also the ability to tap it, acting as a sort of button action that will vary depending on the application used.

Speaking of Lightning port – it is no more. The new iPads now offer a single USB-C port instead, claiming it offers better interoperability with various new modern devices. It can also be used to reverse charge other devices, such as your iPhone.

Unfortunately with the removal of the Lightning port, we also saw the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack. Here again I’m just outright furious about the implications – not just because internal component space usage is in no way a rationale for removing it on iPads, but specifically because if you’re a power-user using the new iPad Pro’s in a professional way, and actively using the USB-C port for connectivity, there is no way than a complicated set of dongles to get wired audio out of the new iPads. Apple here now offers a new USB-C to 3.5mm adapter for $9 (I do wonder if it’s really just compatible with the iPads, as Apple describes it to be). You’ll need another dongle as well if you want to charge or connect devices at the same time.

At least a positive on the audio side is that the new iPad Pro’s promise to offer great speakers, with separate tweeters and woofers, promising up to 2x better bass and also improved wider stereo separation.

The new iPad Pro’s continue to be offered in WiFi only and also LTE versions. Here Apple advertises gigabit LTE speeds, which might again indicate the adoption of Intel’s new XMM7560 for cellular connectivity.

Lastly, there comes the pricing and availability. The entry-level 11” model comes in at $799 for 64GB, and goes up to $1549 for the 1TB variants. The 12.9” models start at $999, going up to $1749. The cellular variants receive a $150 premium on top. Here Apple really demands quite the premium at $800 per TB of storage, and similarly I’m disappointed to see 64GB and not 128GB being the base model, even though the new generation is respectively $150 and $200 more expensive at launch. The new iPad Pro’s are available for pre-order now, with units available on November 7^th.

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New GIGABYTE X299-WU8 Workstation Motherboard: Dual PLX8747, but Built for Core-X?

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In what appears to either be a silent launch, GIGABYTE has launched a new workstation motherboard called the X299-WU8. The new GIGABYTE X299-WU8 has a total of seven full-length PCIe 3.0 slots with a consumer-professional convergent aesthetic due to waves of stainless steel PCIe armor slot protection as well as offering full support for NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics cards and server grade network ports.

The crux of the GIGABYTE X299-WU8 includes the implementation of two Broadcom PLX8747 PCIe switches. This allows the board to operate at either x16/x16/x16/x16 or x16/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8, for GPUs or FPGAs or other PCIe accelerators. The GIGABYTE X299-WU8 is based on the Intel X299 HEDT chipset and according to the supported CPU list on the GIGABYTE website, looks ready for the new Inel Basin Falls Skylake-X refresh such as the new 18-core i9-9980XE processor which is just around the corner to being released onto the market. While there is no official information on the boards inclusive power delivery, the X299-WU8 features dual 8-pin 12 V CPU power inputs, a 24-pin ATX 12 V motherboard power input and a single 6-pin PCIe power input for the boards PCIe slots.

Memory support is catered for with eight slots offering users the capability to install up to 128 GB - this is due to using the consumer UDIMMs, rather than anything ECC (this board does not support ECC, because the processors do not). The official specifications states support for up to DDR4-2666 as per the Skylake-X processor specifications, but the official QVL memory support list shows support for DDR4-4000 through the use of X.M.P 2.0 profiles. The X299-WU8 conforms to the CEB form factor which is similar to E-ATX, but users looking to pair this board up with an existing E-ATX case should err on the side of caution and physically check sizing for possible complications and constraints.

More interestingly along the bottom edge of the boards PCB is an LED debug, a power switch, a reset switch and clear CMOS switch all located next to each other. Also alongside these is two full RGB LED headers with support for RGBW LEDs and runs in conjunction with the GIGABYTE RGB Fusion software. Like a true server board, a lot of the attention is aimed at cooling with a total of eight 4-pin fan headers with a combined total of nine different temperature sensors located across the board. All of these 4-pin headers work in tandem with the GIGABYTE Smart Fan 5 utility and the sensors and headers are also interoperable with each other.

Focusing on the storage the GIGABYTE X299-WU8, there's a total of eight SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays. In addition to this is a single PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA capable M.2 slot which allows drives up to and including M.2 2280 to be installed; this slot is located just below the X299 chipset heatsink. This board is also certified ready for support with Intel's Optane memory modules.

The X299-WU8 consumer workstation board also makes use of dual Intel-based server Gigabit LAN ports with the exact controllers currently unconfirmed (I211-AT?), but will most probably allow for teaming between the LAN. Onboard audio is facilitated by five 3.5 mm audio jacks and a single S/PDIF optical output due to the inclusion of a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec. USB real estate consists of two USB 3.1 Gen2 ports with a Type-A and Type-C both present, with an additional six USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports and two further USB 2.0 ports. Finishing off the rear panel on the X299-WU8 is a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combination port. Users looking to bolster the USB further will be happy to know that the GIGABYTE X299-WU8 includes a pair of USB 3.1 Gen1 front panel headers for an additional four USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports.

The current pricing and availability is yet unknown, but the GIGABYTE X299-WU8 will support the impending Basin Falls Intel Skylake-X refresh processors including the Core i9-9980XE, Core i9-9960X and the rest of the upcoming Basin Falls desktop SKU list. The target is clearly on the workstation market, but GIGABYTE looks to have amalgamated elements from their AORUS gaming range as RGB support is included and the board's accessories bundle is set to include a 12-month license to XSplit Gamecaster and Broadcaster. One of the key features will be the extra PCIe bandwidth afforded by the PCIe switches, so users with lots of PCIe requirements only need apply. We also know that those PLX8747 chips are super expensive, so we might be looking at nearly $1000 for this board. I guess at that price, they couldn't even throw in a 10G NIC. Users will have to buy their own, and thankfully there are enough slots for one.

We have reached out to GIGABYTE for more information.

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AMD reveals Radeon Pro Vega 20 and Pro Vega 16 mobile graphics cards

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These CPUs will be available within the Apple MacBook Pro next month.

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Apple Updates the Mac Mini: Space Gray and 8th Gen Intel Processors

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Apple announced a new Mac Mini at an event in Brooklyn today. It comes in Space Gray with 4-core and 6-core Intel 8th Generation CPUS. Apple says its five times faster than previous Mac Minis. It will be available on Nov. 7 and can be ordered today.

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Monday 29 October 2018

AMD is working on 'high-performing' GPUs, but it may be a while

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AMD may be killing it in the high-end and mid-range CPU market, but it's no secret that the PC hardware maker has fallen behind when it comes to GPUs. If you ask most tech outlets or independent reviewers, AMD's Vega-series GPUs were decidedly weak compared to Nvidia's 10-series alternatives.

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AMD Threadripper 2970WX & 2920X Review: 12-core and 24-core CPUs for work

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AMD is launching new 12 and 24-core 2nd-gen Threadripper parts known as the 2920X and 2970WX. Spec-wise the 12-core part is virtually identical to the 16-core part we saw in August, minus the obvious reduction in core count and the same is true when comparing the 24-core and 32-core parts....

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AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation Threadripper 2920X and 2970WX Review

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If the 2nd Generation of Ryzen Threadripper CPUs piqued your interest but you wanted more cores, or fewer, then the 2920X and 2970WX should be on your shortlist.

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The AMD Threadripper 2 CPU Review: The 24-Core 2970WX and 12-Core 2920X Tested

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This year AMD launched its second generation high-end desktop Ryzen Threadripper processors. The benefits of the new parts include better performance, better frequency, and parts up to 32 cores. We tested the first two processors back in August, the 32-core and the 16-core, and today AMD is launching the next two parts: the 24-core 2970WX and the 12-core 2920X. We have a full review ready for you to get your teeth in to.

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Day of the Dead: AMD Releases new Carrizo FM2+ APU, the A8-7680

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Reports of a new Carrizo APU have been floating around for the past couple of weeks as several ASRock FM2+ recently had BIOS updates stating ‘now supporting new Carrizo APU’. Of course, this sounds preposterous: why would a new Carrizo APU, on an old platform, on an old 28nm process, be launched? When we spoke to our contacts at ASRock, even they did not know. It looks like AMD has let the cat out of the bag, albeit without an official announcement.

In AMD’s own Master Product List, which lists every SKU that AMD makes / has stock of, several new listings have shown up which correspond to the naming conventions of a Carrizo APU.

In this listing, we see the AD767KXBJCWOF, which is the A8-7670K, a known product. Then we have several listings that start AD7680, for the new A8-7680 processor, followed by the A8-7690K, another known unit.

AD7680ACABBOX will be the code for the boxed processor, and AD7680ACABCBX is likely for the tray units sold to OEMs to put into their systems. Currently, out of all the FM2+ boards in the market, only a few A68 boards have it listed as compatible:

ASRock FM2A68M-HD+
ASRock FM2A68M-DG3+
ASUS A68HM-K
ASUS A68HM-Plus
GIGABYTE F2A68HM-DS2
GIGABYTE F2A65HM-H
GIGABYTE F2A68HM-S1
MSI A68HM-E33-v2

It would appear that all of these boards (and some by Biostar, which don’t list the CPU), have processed an AGESA Carrizo PI-1.3.0.0 update for the chipset in order to accept the new processor. This means that most of these boards currently on the shelves will need to be flashed to the latest update.

Specifications for the processor are still a little unknown. Given the name, the A8-7680, it is expected to fall somewhere between the A8-7690K and the A8-7670K, which means it should be a dual module processor with four threads (remember AMD’s ‘one module, two threads’ hardware? No, we don’t want to either), a base clock of 3.5 or 3.6 GHz, a turbo clock of 3.8 GHz, a Radeon R7 integrated graphics with 757 MHz base frequency, two channels of DDR3-2133 support, and a TDP of 65W.

The processor seems to be listed at two shops in Europe already, however both are listed as out of stock: LambdaTek for £51.67 ($55) and CentralPoint in the Netherlands for 52 EUR + tax ($59)

Our only guess for this new processor is that AMD has a particular customer who needs a refresh processor custom to their needs. Normally this would fly under the radar and be an OEM only part (and probably be part of the 8000 series), but for whatever reason (they made too many?) it seems to perhaps be coming to retail.

At around the $55-$59 mark, AMD also offers the Athlon 200GE with Ryzen cores and Vega graphics, although that system requires DDR4. This new Carrizo part is DDR3, but I doubt that the price difference in the memory would really make up for the difference in performance. If we happen to pick up a sample, we’ll let you know if the dead have truly risen, or if it’s just for a single night/SKU only.

Sunday 28 October 2018

Deepcool Gamer Storm Castle 280RGB Cooler Review

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A big, 280 radiator aims to provide this AIO a bit more breathing room for your CPU overclocks, but falls a bit short.

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Friday 26 October 2018

896 Xeon Cores in One PC: Microsoft’s New x86 DataCenter Class Machines Running Windows

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This week Microsoft released a new blog dedicated to the Windows Kernel internals. The purpose of the blog is to dive into the Kernel across a variety of architectures and delve into the elements, such as the evolution of the kernel, the components, the organization, and in this post, the focus was on the scheduler. The goal is to develop the blog over the next few months with insights into what goes on behind the scenes, and the reasons why it does what it does. However, we got a sneak peek into a big system that Microsoft looks like it is working on.

For those that want to read the blog, it’s really good. Take a look here:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-Kernel-Internals/One-Windows-Kernel/ba-p/267142

When discussing the scalability of Windows, the author Hari Pulapaka, Lead Program Manager in the Windows Core Kernel Platform, showcases a screenshot of Task Manager from what he describes as a ‘pre-release Windows DataCenter class machine’ running Windows. Here’s the image:

Click to zoom. Unfortunately the original image is low resolution

If you weren’t amazed by the number of threads in task manager, you might notice that on the side there’s a scroll bar. That’s right: 896 cores means 1792 threads when hyperthreading is enabled, which is too much for task manager to show at once, and this new type of ‘DataCenter class machine’ looks like it has access to them all. But what are we really seeing here, aside from every single thread loaded at 100%?

So to start, the CPU listed is a Xeon Platinum 8180, Intel’s highest core count, highest performing Xeon Scalable ‘Skylake-SP’ processor. It has 28 cores and 56 threads, and by math we get a 32 socket system. In fact in the bumf below the threads all running at 100%, it literally says ‘Sockets: 32’. So this is 32 full 28 core processors all acting together under one version of Windows. Again, the question is how?

Normally, Intel only rates Xeon Platinum processors for up to 8 sockets. It does this by using three QPI links per processor to form a dual-box configuration. The Xeon Gold 6100 range does up to four sockets with three QPI links, ensuring each processor is linked to each other processor, and then the rest of the range does single socket or dual socket.

What Intel doesn’t mention is that with an appropriate fabric connecting them, system builders and OEMs can chain together several 4-socket or 8-socket systems into a single, many-socket interface. Aside from the fabric to be used and the messaging, there are other factors in play here, such as latency and memory architecture, which are already present in 2-8 socket platforms but get substantially increased going beyond eight sockets. If one processor needs memory that is two fabric hops and a processor hop is away, to a certain extent having that data in a local SDD might be quicker.

As for the fabric: I’m actually going to use an analogy here. AMD’s EPYC platform goes up to two sockets, but for the interconnect between sockets, it uses 64 PCIe lanes from each processor to host AMD’s Infinity Fabric protocol to act as links, and has the benefit of the combined bandwidth of 128 PCIe lanes. If EPYC had 256 PCIe lanes for example, or cut the number of PCIe lanes down to 32 per link, then we could end up with EPYC servers with more than two sockets built on Infinity Fabric. With Intel CPUs, we’re still using the PCIe lanes, but we’re doing it in one of three ways: control over Omni-Path using PCIe, control over Infiniband using PCIe, or control using custom FPGAs, again over PCIe. This is essentially how modern supercomputers are run, albeit not as one unified system.

Unfortunately this is where we go out of my depth. When I spoke to a large server OEM last year, they said quad socket and eight socket systems are becoming rarer and rarer as each CPU by itself has more cores the need for systems that big just doesn't exist anymore. Back in the days pre-Nehalem, the big eight socket 32-core servers were all the rage, but today not so much, and unless a company is willing to spend $250k+ (before support contracts or DRAM/NAND) on a single 8-socket system, it’s reserved for the big players in town. Today, those are the cloud providers.

In order to get 32 sockets, we’re likely seeing eight quad-socket systems connected in this way in one big blade infrastructure. It likely takes up half a rack, of not a whole one, and your guess is as good as mine on the price, or power consumption. In our screenshot above it does say ‘Virtualization: Enabled’, and given that this is Microsoft we’re talking about, this might be one of their internal planned Azure systems that is either rented to defence-like contractors or partitioned off in instances to others.

I’ve tried reaching out to Hari to get more information on the system this is, and will report back if we get anything. Microsoft may make an official announcement if these large 32-socket systems are going to be 'widespread' (meant in the leanest sense) offerings on Azure.

Note: DataCenter is stylized with a capital C as quoted through Microsoft's blog post.

Buy Xeon Gold 6134 on Amazon.com

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