Intel Unveils Rialto Bridge: Second-Gen Xe-HPC Accelerator to Succeed Ponte Vecchio

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With ISC High Performance 2022 taking place this week in Hamburg, Germany, Intel is using the first in-person version of the event in 3 years to offer an update to the state of their high performance/supercomputer silicon plans. The big news out of the show this year is that Intel is naming the successor to the Ponte Vecchio accelerator, which the company is now disclosing as Rialto Bridge.

Previously appearing on Intel’s roadmaps as “Ponte Vecchio Next”, Intel’s GPU teams have been pipelining the development of Ponte’s successor even as the first large installation of Ponte itself (the Aurora Supercomputer) is still being stood up. As part of the company’s 3 year (ish) roadmap that leads to CPUs and accelerators converging with the Falcon Shores XPU, Rialto Bridge is the part that will, if you’ll pardon the pun, bridge the gap between Ponte and Falcon, offering an evolution of Ponte’s design that’s making use of newer technologies and manufacturing processes.

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Intel Showcases Sapphire Rapids Plus HBM Xeon Performance at ISC 2022

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Alongside today’s disclosure of the Rialto Bridge accelerator, Intel is also using this week’s ISC event to deliver a brief update on Sapphire Rapids, the company’s next-generation Xeon CPU which is shipping later this year. While Intel has been beating the drum for their forthcoming, 4^th Generation Xeon Scalable chip for a while, we have yet to hear anything of significance about its expected performance – particularly in the HPC space. So ahead of its formal launch a bit later this year, Intel is finally talking a bit about the expected performance of the HBM-equipped version of the chip, which is aimed in particular at the HPC/supercomputing crowd.

Intel’s first tiled Xeon processor, Sapphire Rapids is also Intel’s first CPU to offer optional on-chip HBM memory, which is being dubbed Sapphire Rapids Plus HBM. The addition of 64GB of HBM2e makes it a fairly complex and expensive chip, but also one with access to far more memory bandwidth than any x86 CPU before it. As a result, the chip is of particular interest to a subset of the high-performance compute community, as it offers an alternative route for workloads that aren’t suitable for GPUs, but still need access to vast amounts of memory bandwidth.

As part of their ISC presentation today, Intel is releasing two slides with performance figures for the HBM version of Sapphire Rapids (Sapphire Rapids Plus HBM). The idea here is to show off the combination of architecture improvements – and in particular, the dedicated accelerator blocks – combined with using 64GB of HBM2e memory to keep those blocks well fed. The pre-production processors are being compared to Intel’s Xeon Platinum 8380 (Ice Lake-SP) chips.

Bearing in mind that these are going to be cherry-picked performance figures, Intel is seeing anywhere between a 2x speed-up in things like Ansys Fluent, to over a 3x improvement for the CloverLeaf Euler equation solver. Both of which are somewhat narrow use cases, but important ones for the HPC market segment.

Sapphire Rapids Plus HBM is due to be released alongside the rest of the Sapphire Rapids family later this year. According to Intel’s current roadmaps, it is due for a successor in the 2023 timeframe, before the entire HBM-equipped Xeon lineup is due to be rolled into the Falcon Shores XPU in 2024.

Gallery: Intel ISC 2022 Press Deck

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AMD Zen 4 flagship CPU looks a major threat to Intel with 5.5GHz boost out of the box

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AMD’s Zen 4 flagship CPU, the 16-core model that’ll likely turn out to be the Ryzen 9 7950X, will be capable of hitting 5.5GHz boost speeds by default, with no overclocking needed.

This revelation was made courtesy of a PC World livestream with AMD’s Director of Technical Marketing Robert Hallock, who clarified some details about the processor powering the gaming PC which ran the Ghostwire Tokyo demo at AMD’s Computex 2022 keynote.

While we already knew that the 16-core CPU reached 5.5GHz in the demo, the really interesting bit is the info that it did this running at default settings – in other words, that’s the boost clock you can expect from the processor out of the box, with no tweaking whatsoever, and no super-fancy cooling solution.

Hallock further observed that the test PC platform used a reference AMD AM5 motherboard with a consumer-level AIO liquid cooler. Interestingly, as Ian Cutress points out on Twitter, the Zen 4 chip is a prototype model (from April), and most threads were running at around 5.5GHz, depending on the exact scene being rendered (and the game played).

Furthermore, 5.2GHz to 5.5GHz was ‘common’ across all threads for Ghostwire Tokyo, going by what Hallock told Cutress.

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Analysis: A big boost for AMD, but don’t forget Raptor Lake is in the wings

This is an exciting glimpse of the potential performance of the Zen 4 flagship, especially bearing in mind that the CPU shown off in the demo is still a work in progress (a prototype from last month, as mentioned).

Recall that Intel’s current top dog for Alder Lake, the seriously pricey Core i9-12900KS, is capable of 5.5GHz, and AMD is matching this here. However, the 12900KS just does 5.5GHz across a pair of cores, and as we see here, the 16-core Zen 4 effort can hit this for all-core boost.

Of course, we have to be careful around this, and when questioned further, Cutress elaborated that 5.5GHz all-core might be achievable in light workloads that don’t tax the chip’s cores much (and don’t require a lot of power per core, therefore it’s perfectly possible to floor the boost accelerator, as it were).

But exact boost speeds will be highly dependent on how taxing any given game is, as well as how heavy and demanding the action gets within that game. So, there lots of caveats here, but the broad takeaway is that any more taxing game isn’t going to be looking at nearly those levels of boost (and as AMD points out, the typical range is from 5.2GHz to 5.5GHz all-core for the easy-going Ghostwire Tokyo).

Also, before we get carried away with the potential of Zen 4 to put a big dent in Intel’s recent progress in the CPU arena, we should also remember that next-gen processors from Team Blue, Raptor Lake, are also due later this year. Those 13th-gen products might even turn up before Zen 4, and could push boost speeds much higher for Intel, with the rumor mill floating figures like 5.8GHz, along with the potential of other gains for gamers in terms of cache developments.

So, this could yet turn out to be a very different battle than the one which this latest revelation from AMD seems to hint at…

• AMD’s new Ryzen 7 5800X3D with 3D V-Cache delivers incredible gaming performance

Via Tom’s Hardware

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Sponsored Post: Comino Grando RM Multi-GPU Workstations Offer Unmatched Performance and Quality

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Comino Grando RM workstations are a new breed of Hyper Performance workstation (HYPE WS) that can transform the workflows of creatives, scientists and medical researchers who rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

If your work is dependent on some serious GPU horsepower, Comino Grando RM workstations offer a solution that isn’t just extremely powerful - but also incredibly quiet. This is thanks to their server-grade liquid cooling, which keeps the temperature of the components down, even when working hard. Rather than using noisy fans, which can get distracting, water cooling is more efficient, and crucially, a lot quieter.

Comino Grando RM workstations are built to order in the EU, maintaining the highest possible build quality, and thanks to a range of unique configuration options, you can order one that perfectly suits your needs.

Built to Last

Comino’s motto is “engineered, not assembled”, and each workstation has been designed from the ground-up to provide maximum performance and build quality.

Almost every aspect of these workstations are designed and built by Comino, with over 90% of the components designed by the company itself. This level of detail and control allows each part of the workstation to work as one, delivering unrivalled performance and reliability.

The unique liquid cooling loop in every workstation is controlled and monitored by a controller built by Comino, which uses numerous sensors to keep track of the system’s health and performance. Thanks to Comino Monitoring Software, you can also check your system’s health remotely, for complete peace of mind.

The flexibility of Comino Grando RM workstations doesn’t just stop at unique configurations, but also how you buy. You can purchase Comino Grando RM workstations outright, but for UK customers there are also options to lease them as well.

Handling Everything You Need

Thanks to the raw power of Comino Grando RM workstations, they can cover almost all of your inhouse computation tasks, and you’ll rarely need to rely on cloud services to help finish your projects.

Even better, if you have several Comino Grando RM workstations, they can be used to create your very own cloud, allowing you to access the power of these Hyper Performance workstations remotely - perfectly fitting in with our new hybrid way of working.

Because they are so silent when in use, you can use them in an office or studio, or you can install them in a server rack. When installed in a server rack, they can use external cooling for even more impressive performance, supporting up to seven GPUs per system. This method can also be environmentally friendly, as the heat dispelled by Comino Grando RM systems can be repurposed to heat living and office spaces.

Packing hardware like four Nvidia RTX A100 80GB GPUs plus AMD Threadripper Pro, dual Intel Xeon 8368Qs, or dual EPYC CPUs, air cooling solutions would struggle to keep these components cool without producing a lot of noise.

With server-grade liquid cooling, AI research teams, for example, can use the workstations without being distracted by the whirring of fans. Meanwhile, medical teams working in highly controlled environments will appreciate the slower airflow produced by liquid cooling, as well as reduced dust collection.

So, it’s no surprise that Comino Grando RM workstations have been embraced by companies around the world, and used in projects such as the Flamemapper in California, which uses Comino Grando RM Multi-GPU workstations to help predict the effect of wildfires on structures, and can help emergency planners to place protective measure where they are needed the most.

Many CG and 3D rendering studios rely on Comino Grando RM Multi-GPU workstations to create complex and realistic models and scenes.

Danil Krivoruchko, a renowned digital artist based in New York, and who works with the likes of Apple, Nike and Boeing, explains how Comino Grando RM workstations have helped him with his work.

“I’ve used numerous Comino Grando RM workstations during my work on the breakthrough user-influenced self-evolving NFT project, Organic Growth: Crystal Reef, which combines generative art, blockchain, NFTs and user interaction. This project is so unique, multi-layered and complex both visually and computationally, that we had to hire the whole render farm, packed with Grando RMs by Comino, for 3 months to support its development. I got the workstation for myself, as well, to progress through the project faster, as it’s hard to find another workstation as versatile and quiet as Grando RM.”

Successful AI artist and NFT enthusiast from New Zealand, Jesse Woolston, also relies on Comino’s workstations.

“My approach is to use the Comino Grando RM for all my modeling and simulation. So I use it for production, then I have a small render farm to utilize GPU alongside the Comino.

My work focuses on using AI & physics modeling as a means to re-contextualize how we see nature. So far, I've been able to use the Comino Grando RM in multiple circumstances from training my own models to simulating the oceans. The machine has been working beautifully in both large and small scales.

The main factor as to why I love the Comino Grando RM is its ability to be diverse with training and modeling, where I can give it any and all assignments.

I don't have to think too deeply about how to adapt the work to fit my tools, I am able to just utilize the tools and focus on the art.”

Influencers such as sentdex and LEDunit have also been blown away by the possibilities of Comino Grando RM workstations.

If it sounds like  Comino Grando RM workstations would be perfect for your projects, then head over to Comino’s Grando website to find out more.

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Computex 2022: MSI Announces Three AM5 Motherboards For Ryzen 7000 Processors

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During Computex 2022 in Taipei, Taiwan, MSI unveiled four AM5 motherboards designed for AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors, which will be landing later this year. Currently announced are the premium MEG X670E Ace, the mid-ranged MPG X670E Carbon WIFI, and the more business-focused Pro X670-P WIFI motherboards.

Hot on the heels of AMD's announcement that its highly anticipated Ryzen 7000 processors for desktops will be dropping sometime in the fall, motherboard vendors have been slowly unveiling what boards we can expect to see at launch. MSI has dropped some limited information on four new AM5 boards, including two from its flagship MEG series, one from its gaming-focused MPG family, and one from its more affordable Pro series.

Here is what we know so far:

Although MSI has announced there will be an X670E Godlike, we currently don't have any images for this model. As we know from previous motherboard launches, the MSI X670E Godlike will be the company's flagship AM5 board for Ryzen 7000 processors, with a large E-ATX sized PCB and a wave of high-end enthusiast-level features. One interesting feature of the MEG series boards is a front panel USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C header with support for 60 W power delivery.

MSI hasn't specified much or distinguished much of its announced features between either model. Still, MSI does say the MEG series for AM5 includes a monstrous 26-phase power delivery (24+2) with 105 A smart power stages and a stacked fin array heatsink to help cool it. MSI also states that the MEG series will include a large metal backplate with up to four M.2 slots onboard and an M.2 Xpander-Z Gen5 dual add-on card supporting two PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs. Whether these features are specific to the entire MEG series for AM5 remains to be seen. 

The MSI MPG X670E Carbon WIFI uses a carbon black finish across the board, with two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots. MSI states the X670E Carbon WIFI will include four PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots and that the board will be powered by a 20-phase (18+2) power delivery with 90 A power stages.

MSI's fourth and final model is the Pro X670-P WIFI motherboard, which is primarily aimed at SMEs and users looking to build a more professional type system. MSI says the X670-P WIFI will include a 16-phase (14+2) power delivery, with a single PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot and 2.5 GbE/Wi-Fi 6E networking.

At the time of writing, MSI hasn't provided any information regarding controller sets at this time, or how much each of the four models might cost. MSI will likely give more details closer to the launch of the AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs, which are expected to hit retail shelves in Q4 2022.

Gallery: Computex 2022: MSI Announces Three AM5 Motherboards For Ryzen 7000 Processors

Source: MSI

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AMD picks a fight with Intel at Computex 2022 - but where were the GPUs?

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Computex 2022 has now kicked off, with AMD hosting the first keynote of the event in Taiwan, and it used its conference as a chance to take aim at its chief rival, Intel.

The most exciting part of the AMD Computex 2022 keynote was when we got more information about AMD’s next-generation Ryzen 7000 series desktop PCs. AMD has been putting pressure on Intel in the desktop CPU space for a good few years now, and its current Ryzen 5000 CPUs are some of the best processors you can buy right now.

From what we saw on stage at Computex 2022, it looks like AMD is keen to keep that pressure up. Built on the efficient 5nm Zen 4 architecture, the processors will offer more L2 cache per core, higher clock speeds and, according to AMD, over 15% better single-thread performance compared to AMD 5000 chips.

We also got an early glimpse of a Ryzen 7000 CPU, which was running at a 5.5GHz clock speed while playing a game. These CPUs look set to be fantastic gaming CPUs, then, but AMD also showed off the processor’s creative chops by running a multi-threaded rendering workload in the popular Blender application. The Ryzen 7000 chip, AMD claimed, offers a hefty 30% increase in performance compared to an Intel Core i9-1200K.

That’s certainly an impressive boast, especially as the chip AMD showed off was a pre-production model, so the final version could be even better. It’s certainly given AMD enough confidence to directly call out its competitor Intel during its keynote. Sadly, we won’t be able to see Intel’s response, as unlike in previous years, Team Blue won’t be having a keynote at Computex 2022.

Interestingly, Zen 4 chips will come with integrated AMD RDNA 2 graphics. While this is nice to have for people who want decent graphical experiences without needing a graphics card, as our Computing Editor John Loeffler said during the live blog, it’ll be quite unlikely that there will be many people using the high-end Ryzen 7000 CPUs without also having a graphics card.

(Image credit: AMD)

Other announcements

AMD also spoke about the new AM5 socket, which is a 1718-pin LGA design with support for up to 170W TDP processors, dual-channel DDR5 memory, and new SVI3 power infrastructure. That last bit allows performance to be high and consistent across all cores, something Intel usually has the advantage with.

The AM5 socket, which will be what motherboards have to support Ryzen 7000 CPUs, also has, according to AMD, the “most PCIe 5.0 lanes in the industry”, with up to 24 lanes.

AM5 motherboards will come in the following tiers:

• X670 Extreme: Bringing the most connectivity and extreme overclocking capabilities with PCIe 5.0 support for two graphics slots and one storage slot
• X670: Supporting enthusiast overclocking with PCIe 5.0 support on one storage slot with graphics support optional
• B650: Designed for performance users with PCIe 5.0 storage support

Asrock, Asus, Gigabyte and MSI were mentioned as motherboard makers who will be bringing out AM5 mobos.

On the mobile side, AMD announced a new Zen 2-based “Mendocino” processors which will be found in budget and mid-range laptops and Chromebooks around the $399 - $699 (£299 - £599, AU$560 - AU$999) price range. With the current cost of living crises, this could be a wise move, allowing AMD to power more affordable laptops.

The first laptops and Chromebooks with Mendocino CPUs should come to market during Q4 2022.

There was also talk of AMD Advantage laptops which use AMD hardware to offer high-end gaming experiences, along with high-refresh screens and long battery lives. They will also make use of AMD SmartAccess Storage, which supports Microsoft DirectStorage, along with various AMD features to make games load even faster, and perform better when it comes to asset streaming.

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Analysis: GPUs MIA

(Image credit: AMD)

On the whole, we liked a lot of what we saw at AMD’s keynote (which you can watch below). The company is certainly on a roll when it comes to its processors, and it’s always a thrill to see one company directly take on its competitors. While we won’t see Intel’s response at Computex 2022, Team Blue has been busy working on its next-gen CPUs as well to take on AMD, so this year could be very exciting when it comes to processors.

However, AMD doesn’t just make CPUs, and there was a noticeable absence from the keynote this year: GPUs. We had hoped to hear something about AMD’s next-gen RDNA 3 graphics cards, but they were missing in action.

Evidently, we’re still likely some time away from RDNA 3’s launch - and AMD has just released some new current-gen GPUs, the RX 6950 XT, RX 6750 XT and RX 6650 XT, and probably didn’t want to overshadow their launch with talk of what’s coming up next - it’s still a shame we didn’t get anything.

Especially as AMD’s other big rival, Nvidia, is at Computex 2022, and at its keynote in a few hours, we may get a glimpse of what Team Green is cooking up for the future of GPUs.

This year, Computex is once again virtual, but we'll still be bringing you all the breaking computing news and launches as they happen, so make sure you check out all of TechRadar's Computex 2022 coverage.

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AMD Announces Mendocino APU: 6nm Mainstream Mobile Zen 2 Laptop Chip Coming In Q4

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Alongside their big desktop update for later in the year, AMD is also using this year’s Computex to announce an update to the low-end segment of their mobile lineup. In the fourth quarter of this year the company will be rolling out a new chip codenamed “Mendocino”, which is aimed at mainstream, high-volume Windows and ChromeOS notebooks. With 4 Zen 2 cores and RDNA 2 graphics, the relatively petite chip is intended to go into notebooks in the $399 to $699 range.

Based on its intended market segment, AMD Mendocino (no relation to Intel’s) is positioned to end up as the successor to a mix of lower-end AMD SoC products, including the bottom of the Ryzen mobile stack (e.g. Ryzen 5300U) as well as AMD’s Ryzen C-class chips. Mainstream laptops are a huge part of the market in volume, and for both good reasons and bad, it’s always been an area where AMD has done well for itself. And while the current chip shortage hasn’t been fully resolved, AMD is finally in a position to update the lower-end of its APU lineup with some newer hardware built on a more recent manufacturing process, replacing their current hodgepodge of mostly Picasso (4C 12nm Zen+) based SKUs.

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AMD Ryzen 7000 Announced: 16 Cores of Zen 4, Plus PCIe 5 and DDR5 for Socket AM5, Coming This Fall

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During the AMD Keynote at Computex 2022, its CEO, Dr. Lisa Su officially unveiled their next generation of Ryzen processors and the successor to the highly successful Ryzen 5000 series. The new family, the Ryzen 7000 series, will feature up to 16 Zen 4 cores using TSMC's optimized 5 nm manufacturing process. 

AMD Ryzen 7000 also officially marks the end of its long-serving AM4 socket, with the new AM5 LGA1718 socket replacing it with a freshly announced trio of new performance-driven chipsets, including X670E, X670, and B650.

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Computex 2022: AMD Live Blog Keynote (2am ET/06:00 UTC)

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Although COVID isn't over quite yet, things are close enough for this year's Computex event. Kicking things off once again is AMD, who is broadcasting a keynote address headed up by the one and only Dr. Lisa Su.

According to AMD, the PC-focused keynote will cover both mobile and desktop, with AMD and its partners focusing on cutting edge hardware and "breakthrough performance." AMD's Computex keynotes rarely disappoint, and we don't expect this one too, either.

So be sure to join us at 2am Eastern (06:00 UTC) to catch a glimpse of what AMD has planned for the rest of 2022 and beyond.

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Apple’s 27-inch Mini-LED monitor could face a disappointingly lengthy delay

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Apple’s rumored 27-inch monitor which is said to sport Mini-LED tech won’t be out nearly as soon as previous chatter from the grapevine suggested.

MacRumors spotted a tweet from Ross Young, a well-known leaker (and CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants), indicating that the 27-inch monitor has been pushed back considerably by Apple.

Apple leak! The 27" MiniLED monitor has been delayed as it was going to be produced at Quanta in Shanghai which has been locked down. Production is in the process of being moved to a different location and has been delayed. It now looks like an October release.May 20, 2022

See more

As you can see, word is that rather than being launched in June as originally intended (presumably that meant WWDC, which takes place early in the month), the display may not pitch up until October 2022.

Young explains that the delay is due to the lockdown in Shanghai, as production was supposed to be handled there (by Quanta), but Apple has been forced to switch to a different location. That’s obviously not a trivial change, and so if this is indeed the case, we can certainly expect a few months to be added to the waiting time for this 27-inch screen.

Note that Apple’s MacBook Pro production is also in the same boat, according to a recent report.

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Analysis: Studio Display Pro to doubtless be an expensive proposition

In theory, this could be an Apple Studio Display Pro, a higher-end version of the new Studio Display, the main difference being a big one – the addition of Mini-LED, of course.

The rumor mill (including Young) originally believed that a 27-inch iMac Pro was inbound, but there was apparently some confusion around this, and previous mentions of such an iMac were actually based on leaks pertaining to this 27-inch Mini-LED monitor. Although there are still some folks on Twitter questioning whether this might still be an all-in-one computer from Apple, rather than just a display.

If it is a Studio Display Pro, we can of course expect it to be pricey. In the above tweet, Young was asked by one commenter about a ballpark for the price tag, but the leaker only replied that it would be “expensive”.

That’s no surprise, though, given that the Apple Studio Display is already a pricey proposition itself, starting at $1,599 (£1,499 / AU$2,499). We could expect a serious Apple premium added to any Pro version with Mini-LED, with that perhaps more or less doubling the price tag to around three grand.

• Are you a keen photographer? Then we’ve picked out the best monitors for your needs

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AMD graphics cards could get a free speed boost

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AMD could give its graphics cards a big boost with an incoming driver that considerably improves performance, or that’s the word from the GPU grapevine.

This comes from YouTube leaker RedGamingTech (RGT) who has heard from a couple of separate sources that AMD is in the process of making some meaningful changes across its driver stack.

Specifically, we’re talking about DirectX 11 (DX11) improvements, plus OpenCL and OpenGL, and performance could be ramped up to the extent that AMD gives the driver a new name – supposedly ‘Vanguard’ (take that with an especially heavy dose of condiments, though, as it might just be a pre-release codename).

The revamped driver version is rumored to arrive in a month or two, apparently, though it might make sense to launch it alongside AMD’s incoming RDNA 3 graphics cards to make an even bigger impact with those next-gen GPUs (which will likely come later in 2022 – but we don’t know exactly when, of course).

The performance tweaks won’t be limited to RDNA 3 products, mind, and should apply to all of AMD’s more recent graphics cards. RGT isn’t sure how far back support will go with the new driver, but we can hope it’ll reach multiple past generations. (Although the reality is it could quite possibly be limited to RDNA 3 plus RX 6000 GPUs, at least in terms of the big performance upticks, if recent driver changes are anything to go by – we’ll discuss that in the next section).

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Analysis: Boosting performance – and changing public perceptions?

As RGT points out, this theoretical driver would potentially usher in some important performance boosts, because there are still a good number of games that use DX11, even though it’s been superseded by DX12, or titles that offer both but may run better with the former.

This rumor holds more weight because we’ve seen with a fresh beta graphics driver that AMD is already trying to push forward with DX11 performance, making some big claims of average frame rate gains of around 10% with RX 6000 series GPUs (current-gen products are the ones which see the biggest difference).

And it’s true that a third-party, the developer of CapFrameX (a frame time capture and analysis utility) has done some benchmarking and discovered a few major leaps forward with certain games, like God of War performing up to 41% better with the new driver, and a 24% surge in frame rates for Crysis Remastered.

Clearly, this is something AMD wants to work at, so it makes sense that it’ll be an ongoing focus – and if the future driver is indeed furnished with a new name, that indicates some fairly hefty changes under the hood. We shouldn’t get carried away with rumors, though, so let’s temper our expectations for now.

To some extent, this may all be part of a grander plan for AMD to distance itself from the idea that it has somewhat wonkier drivers than Nvidia, as that perception is still one that clouds Team Red’s GPU range. Indeed, it’s something that Nvidia recently had a jab at as you may recall, asserting that it has ‘superior’ GPU drivers.

There was a time, not so long ago, when most everyone thought Intel was the ‘safe’ CPU bet above AMD, and then Ryzen came along to turn that idea around, or at least level the playing field in terms of reputation for reliability. Now, maybe AMD is attempting to perform a similar trick with its GPUs…

• The next-gen AMD GPU that PC gamers want most may be a long way off yet

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Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1: Moving to TSMC for More Speed, Lower Power

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As the dark of the night rolls into China this evening, Qualcomm is hosting a mobile-focused product launch event they’re calling “Snapdragon Night”. Headlining the event is the announcement of the company’s new flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. A mid-generation update to their flagship smartphone SoC, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the 8+ Gen 1 follows Qualcomm’s annual tradition of releasing a refresh product to boost performance and to give partners something new to work with for the second half of the year. And for this year in particular, we’re looking at a very notable change in chips from Qualcomm.

Unlike previous generations where Qualcomm merely launched a faster speed bin of their existing silicon, for 2022 we have something more substantial to talk about. Qualcomm has switched up foundries entirely – moving from Samsung to TSMC – and as a result is rolling out a new die. Thanks to this, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Qualcomm is reaping something of a one-off manufacturing gain, allowing them to both dial up CPU and GPU performance while simultaneously cutting power consumption.

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The SilentiumPC Fera 5 CPU Cooler Review: Quiet Cooling on a Budget

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In today’s review, we are taking a look at the Fera 5 tower CPU cooler from SilentiumPC.

SilentiumPC's main focus is to design and produce products with a very good price-to-performance ratio – which is to say, budget products for the mainstream market. The Fera 5 CPU cooler, in turn, embodies those ideals, with a focus on effective and quiet cooling from a cooler that sells for around €30. And while a budget cooler isn't going to chart new territory in the CPU cooling space, as we'll see, SilentiumPC has been able to strike a solid balance between performance and price, delivering a tower cooler that is notably quieter than typical budget coolers.

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AMD’s CPU market share hits an all-time high – how worried is Intel now?

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AMD has set a new record for its overall CPU market share (when it comes to x86 processors), despite a drop in the total sales of these chips.

The CPU numbers for Q1 2022 were crunched by Mercury Research, which found that AMD reached an all-time high of a 27.7% market share in processors (with Intel holding the remainder, of course). That’s up strongly from 20.7% in the same quarter of 2021, meaning that year-on-year, AMD has piled on 7% market share (an increase of a third).

This includes all x86 silicon, meaning not just desktop, laptop and server processors, but also custom-built chips for the likes of games consoles (along with Internet of Things devices too).

Dean McCarron of Mercury told Tom’s Hardware: “For all-inclusive share … AMD gained share in the first quarter and set a new record high at 27.7%, beating the 25.6% record set last quarter. Recall last quarter AMD broke the record it had set more than 15 years ago of 25.3%.”

So, as you can see, Team Red is now in a stronger position than it was during the firm’s previous peak a decade-and-a-half ago, with the promise of being able to push forward more and make further gains.

The overall CPU market fell across all sectors, including a rather precipitous drop of 30%, quarter-on-quarter, in terms of the number of units shifted for desktop PCs. That represents the biggest slide ever seen from one quarter to the next, to put it in perspective.

With desktop CPUs, AMD held a share of 18.3%, reversing some of the recent slide the firm has seen over the course of last year – during Q1 2021, a year back, the company was actually on 19.3%. But the Q1 2022 figure of 18.3% is up strongly on the previous quarter, where AMD sank to 16.2%, its worst performance since 2018 (with Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs doubtless driving some good sales for Team Blue in that final quarter of 2021).

For notebook processor market share, AMD ticked up to 22.5% (that’s up from 21.6% the previous quarter – solid progress).

However, one of the most telling shifts came in the server market, where AMD rose to an 11.6% share, up from 8.9% a year ago, with steady gains coming every quarter.

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Analysis: AMD server gains must be a concern for Intel

Even though AMD’s server market share is still relatively modest, Intel will doubtless be worried about the erosion happening in this particular sphere. Team Red now owns 11.6% of the market, and that’s risen strongly from a 5.1% share back at the start of 2020 – there’s a level of consistency about AMD’s upward progress which will be a real concern for dominant power Intel. Indeed, if we wind the clock back to 2018, AMD had next-to-no market share in this arena.

AMD’s Epyc processors have been nothing short of a revelation, with Milan-X chips recently unleashed complete with 3D V-cache, big performance boosts, and the promise of some serious power savings (reducing long-term cost, which is, of course, a crucial aspect of these server products).

AMD will certainly be pleased with its progress in servers, and in overall terms for total x86 share, helped by supplying chips for consoles as we already mentioned.

The other point that jumps out in this bunch of figures is the severity of that decline in desktop processor sales, with a steep 30% drop. Both Intel and AMD saw their numbers tank in that regard, but AMD held up better, Mercury Research theorizes, because the quarter saw retailers selling off excess CPU inventory – and there was more of that for Intel.

In other words, AMD hasn’t been pumping out as many desktop processors in recent times, and we’ve seen that in some of the stock shortages which have cropped up, as Team Red prioritizes production of those Epyc chips, understandably as they’re bigger profit-spinners than consumer models.

The decline in desktop CPU sales may also be tied up in folks having less disposable income as various economic headwinds are coming increasingly into play, such as rising energy costs, inflation and so forth. Also, bear in mind that the pandemic and people working from home has buoyed hardware upgrades and sales in recent times, and we may be seeing that activity now dropping off.

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AMD’s new driver runs some games way faster with RX 6000 GPUs

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AMD has released a new graphics driver – albeit still in testing – but the fresh release is very noteworthy in terms of the performance improvements it provides for gamers running a Team Red graphics card.

The boost which AMD’s Software Preview Driver May 2022 delivers to RX 6000 GPUs – which were just joined by a trio of new offerings earlier this week, including a refreshed flagship RX 6950 XT – is a considerable one for DX11 games, and around 10% on average, AMD claims.

That includes some pretty incredible gains for certain games, in particular World of Warcraft: Shadowlands which runs up to 30% faster with this preview (beta) driver, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey does nearly as well with an up to 28% increase (compared to the Adrenalin version 22.5.1 graphics driver).

Total War Saga: Troy posts an impressive 17% boost, too, while GTA V comes in at up to 11%, and Watch Dogs: Legion hits 10%, with Valorant at 7%, according to AMD’s own testing.

Along with those core performance improvements, AMD has made a couple of other moves with this beta driver, including introducing a new version 1.1 of Radeon Super Resolution or RSR, which is Team Red’s frame rate booster that works across a whole swathe of games (as opposed to FSR, which must have support baked into the game by developers). RSR 1.1 adds a slider for ‘sharpen effect’ which, as you might guess, sharpens up the image, so you can adjust the appearance to your liking.

Also, some Smart Access Memory (SAM) optimizations have been implemented for Death Stranding and Watch Dogs: Legion, with up to 10% better performance promised in former, and 13% in the latter (at 1440p resolution with a Radeon RX 6950 XT graphics card). SAM facilitates frame rate gains due to giving the Ryzen CPU full access to GPU memory (it’s Team Red’s take on Resizable BAR, essentially).

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Analysis: Big gains, but don’t forget – this is still a beta

As Tom’s Hardware, which spotted this, points out, away from AMD, other folks have already been running benchmarks which show some even more impressive results for boosts in DX11 frame rates in some cases.

Namely the developer of CapFrameX (a tool used for frame times capture and analysis) who found that God of War ran up to 41% quicker with the new driver (on a 6800 XT), and Crysis Remastered ticked along with up to 24% gains. With Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the dev also observed that there were lessened lows – the maximum dip the frame rate experiences – with a 34% improvement on that score.

So, AMD has clearly done some good work with this May driver release, but obviously bear in mind that as it’s still in beta, you may experience unpredictable glitches or outright bugs – there are doubtless still issues to iron out (which is the whole point of a test release).

In other words, if you don’t want to experience any wonkiness with your gaming, hold off on this for now and grab the fully finished driver version when it emerges. As to when that’ll be, we don’t know, as AMD didn’t furnish us with any predicted timeframe; but it shouldn’t be too long, we’d hope.

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Intel Launches Alder Lake-HX Series Core Processors: 55W and PCIe 5.0 For High-End Mobile

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Intel today is announcing a new range of mobile 12th Gen Core family processors designed for enthusiast and desktop-replacement class laptops, the Alder Lake-HX series. Focusing on the more performance-driven high-end models, the Alder Lake HX series transfers its hybrid desktop design (ADL-S) into a thinner BGA package with up 16 cores (8P+8E) that's more suitable for mobile devices. And since it's based on that desktop hardware, Alder Lake-HX also brings with it some additional features that were previously limited to the desktop, such as support for PCIe 5.0, as well as a more desktop-like base TDP of 55 Watts.

In January of this year, Intel launched its first Alder Lake 12th Gen Core mobile processor, the Alder Lake-H family. In February, it then announced more for the lower-powered market through its Alder Lake-P and Alder Lake-U series with up to 14 cores with a mixture of its Performance (P) and Efficiency (E) cores. Intel has now officially launched the more premium of its 12th Gen Core series for mobile, the Alder Lake-HX series with up to 16 cores (8P+8E), and its new memory and core overclocking technology.

The latest in Intel's arsenal is designed for premium and enthusiast laptops, with seven new chips ranging from sixteen cores and twenty-four threads, all the way down to an eight-core and twelve thread SKU. According to Intel, the Alder Lake-HX series completes its Alder Lake mobile family, with options spanning many different markets using its hybrid 12th Gen Core architecture to deliver a significant range in mobile performance for enthusiasts, gamers, and workstation use cases.

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Intel’s jaw-dropping launch decision means you won’t get Arc desktop GPU for months

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Intel’s desktop Arc GPUs have been the subject of much speculation regarding a potential delay of their launch, and now we have news from the chip giant itself that the discrete graphics cards won’t arrive any time soon for regions outside of China.

This is disappointing, of course, but not exactly a surprise given that over the past couple of weeks, it’s been looking more and more likely that Arc Alchemist desktop products were going to slip going by the rumor mill. What’s really dismaying here is how far they may have potentially slipped for regions outside of Asia.

The news came from a blog post penned by Lisa Pearce, Vice President and General Manager for the Visual Compute Group at Intel.

Pearce wrote: “We will release our entry-level Intel Arc A-series products for desktops (A3) first in China through system builders and OEMs in Q2. Etail and retail component sales will follow shortly in China as well. Proximity to board components and strong demand for entry-level discrete products makes this a natural place to start. Our next step will be to scale these products globally.

“Roll-out of Intel Arc A5 and A7 desktop cards will start worldwide with OEMs and system integrators later this summer, followed by component sales in worldwide channels.”

“This staggered approach gives us confidence at each step that we can effectively serve our customer base.”

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Analysis: A substantial delay that Intel can ill afford

Where does this leave us? It’s pretty bad news regarding an expected timeframe for the arrival of Arc Alchemist desktop graphics cards in the US and Europe, that much is clear. And indeed where does it leave Intel? Not in a good place, we’d suggest.

There’s bound to be some anger and frustration from gamers (outside of China) who are keenly awaiting an alternative to AMD and Nvidia – along with a surge of even more GPU stock, exerting further downward pressure on pricing – and who’d been promised a Q2 launch for these discrete Arc GPUs. And yes, Intel again underlined its commitment to a Q2 launch as recently as just over a week ago.

The fact is, of course, that Intel will have a Q2 launch, just one that’s solely in Asia, and there was no mention of such an approach, or a staggering on a regional basis (or a staggering of OEMs then standalone cards, for that matter).

There are a few interesting points to highlight in the blog post, including that sentence about ‘proximity to board components’, with the choice of China apparently being based on production concerns to some extent, then?

Pearce also says the following as a kind of excuse for the delay: “Unlike notebook designs, desktop systems have a vast set of combinations, including memory, motherboards, and CPUs. To initially limit some of this variation, we will launch working with system builders and OEMs with specific configurations.”

While that’s true enough, it’s not like Intel suddenly realized this, at this point in the Arc desktop development process. So why all the bluster about a Q2 launch – which was taken as read as being global – always being in the cards if the company knew the complexities around making the desktop products were continuing to be a thorny problem.

We – and many others – have speculated for a while now that Intel is needing extra time to nail the drivers, and there’s also a mention of software issues in the post, albeit relating to sluggish availability of laptop GPUs. Again, the situation with those mobile Arc graphics cards was that they launched in Q1 (just), but have only been available in Korea thus far – sound familiar? – with Pearce noting that Intel has “had some software readiness delays” which have contributed to delaying wider global availability of Arc-powered notebooks (plus Covid lockdowns are in the mix here, too).

Tracing a timeline...

All in all, this is grim-sounding news given how far out Arc Alchemist desktop GPUs look to have been pushed, if we try to trace out a rough timeline based on what we’re told here (Pearce doesn’t give any dates at all, save that Q2 availability will happen, just in China).

So, while the discrete Arc GPUs will be out in China from Q2 onwards, presumably late June, they will just be supplied to OEMs, meaning the cards will only be purchased as part of a prebuilt PC. Retail sales of standalone graphics cards will “follow shortly”, so let’s say that’ll be late July (or maybe early August).

The next step will be the rollout of Intel Arc A5 and A7 desktop GPUs worldwide, but only to OEMs, and that will happen “later this summer” – so late August, we can guess, is when these first Alchemist offerings will be available in the US and Europe (presumably).

And that’ll be “followed by component sales in worldwide channels”, and we note that there’s no mention of ‘shortly’ or ‘soon’ here, which seems to suggest there could be a little bit of a wait after the launch of Arc GPUs in prebuilt desktops. If the latter is happening late in August, then, we can guess September would be labeled as ‘soon’, so we’re most likely looking at October as a best-case scenario of standalone Arc GPUs actually being on shelves outside of Asia. Potentially, things could slip even further than that…

Even if Intel doesn’t suffer any further issues and hits this October release, there’s a big problem with discrete Arc Alchemist coming that late in the year – AMD and Nvidia have next-gen GPUs which are also due around that time.

This means that Intel’s Arc products will be going up against RTX 4000 and RDNA 3 graphics cards, most likely – these ranges are rumored for Q3, or early Q4, so September or October time – and both are expected to make some serious performance leaps. (Nvidia is purportedly ramping up frame rates massively, admittedly with equally big power demands in theory, and AMD is rumored to be running with an all-new MCM or multi-chip module design, a radical change which could have huge benefits for its higher-end models).

To sum up the situation in a nutshell, this means the Intel Arc desktop flagship – which might be one of the later models to arrive in the Alchemist line-up anyway, or so we’ve heard – is currently rumored to trade blows with Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti, and so it might end up squaring off against more like the RTX 4060, which, er, isn’t a good look for Team Blue (in terms of flagship equals mid-range).

Surely, if that’s the case, pricing will then become the only viable way Intel can attack the market, particularly considering it’s looking like GPU availability issues are easing already – meaning prices are normalizing – and inventory issues could have largely evaporated completely as we roll towards the end of 2022 (so gamers won’t be scrabbling for any vaguely palatable stock they can get their hands on in certain price segments).

And if this scenario plays out, will Intel be willing to go for the throat with some truly bargain-basement price tags? Well, sadly, the buzz on the grapevine thus far doesn’t seem to suggest that’s the case…

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AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs could arrive in September to steal Intel’s Raptor Lake thunder

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AMD’s next-gen CPUs based on Zen 4 – presumably Ryzen 7000 models – could be launched as soon as September, if the latest rumor turns out to be correct.

This comes from DigiTimes which cites the usual unnamed industry sources, and so keep your skeptical head on, naturally – the tech site is a bit hit and miss when it comes to the accuracy of its rumor-mongering.

Still, this doesn’t seem like an unreasonable prospect, with the grapevine already having suggested the possibility of a Q3 launch for Zen 4, and Wccftech, which flagged this up, also floats the idea that AMD may reveal Ryzen 7000 desktop processors at Computex, which takes place at the end of May (a rumor which has been around before, too).

That means we could soon have a much better idea of how Team Red’s next-gen silicon shapes up, with the CPUs expected to deliver a beefy upgrade, being based on a whole new architecture (Zen 4, built on TSMC 5nm) and coming with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 support.

Apparently we can expect to be treated to at least a glimpse of Ryzen 7000 performance and some in-depth demos at Computex, so that’s something to look forward to in just a couple of weeks, in theory.

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Analysis: Racing with Raptor Lake

Zen 4 processors are officially pegged with an H2 2022 launch, a vague timeframe which could mean anything from July onwards. However, there are certainly reasons why AMD might want Ryzen 7000 CPUs to be out of the door sooner rather than later in the second half of the year.

Indeed, in many ways this is a vital generation for AMD, as it’s playing catch-up with Intel at this point, because Team Blue’s Alder Lake processors already offer DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 support, so Team Red needs to get these features out there, at the very least to avoid the perception of not being at the cutting-edge along with Intel (regardless of how much real-world impact those technologies have right now).

Moreover, Ryzen 5000 chips are in danger of feeling a bit dated, as Alder Lake has come and gone, and Intel’s next-gen Raptor Lake is on the horizon now, carrying a bunch of further performance improvements. And if the latter 13th-gen Core processors turn up answered, before Ryzen 7000, then that’s not a great look for AMD. 

Again, Team Red will seem to be lagging behind (and indeed, it could well be seriously lagging behind – depending on exactly how much more performance Raptor Lake can muster, but it could be a good upgrade for gamers if various rumors are to be believed, including the potential of hitting a staggering 5.8GHz with clock speeds).

Raptor Lake has been rumored to launch in Q3 2022, and we’ve previously suggested that September 2022 could be the most likely date Intel’s looking at – so it would make sense that AMD wants to make sure that Ryzen 7000 is also around to take on the 13th-gen silicon. Ideally, Team Red would want to beat Intel to the punch, but obviously Zen 4 products have to be ready – and maybe that’s not possible.

At any rate, we’d be foolish to attempt to draw any conclusions about which next-gen CPU family will come to market first, as it could be either – but really, AMD needs to get in there first if at all possible.

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AMD Announces Ryzen 5000 C-Series For High-End Chromebooks

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In September 2020, AMD released its Ryzen 3000 C-series for Chromebooks, a line up of budget-priced chips based on the 12nm Picasso (Ryzen+) architecture that featured up to 4 cores and 8 threads and up to 11 Radeon Vega compute units. Nearly two years on and AMD has just announced four new Ryzen 5000 C-series SKUs designed to bring the performance benefits of its Cezanne (Zen 3) architecture to the Chromebook space.

The four new Ryzen 5000 C-series processors range from 8C/16T to 2C/4T, all with a 15 W TDP and designed to improve productivity and battery life over existing Ryzen 3000 C-series processors and Intel's 11th Gen Tiger Lake chips.

Aimed at the premium area of the Chromebook market, the new AMD Ryzen 5000 C-series looks to offer OEMs and users premium options for the latest generation of Chromebooks with some higher-end features such as fast charging and Wi-Fi 6E networking capability.

AMD Ryzen 5000 C-Series For Chromebooks (Zen 3)
AnandTech	Core/ Thread		Base Freq	1T Freq	L2/L3 Cache	iGPU	iGPU Freq	TDP
Ryzen 7 5825C	8	16	2000	4500	20 MB	Vega 8	Up to 1.8 GHz	15 W
Ryzen 5 5625C	6	12	2300	4300	19 MB	Vega 7	Up to 1.6 GHz	15 W
Ryzen 3 5425C	4	8	2700	4100	10 MB	Vega 6	Up to 1.5 GHz	15 W
Ryzen 3 5125C	2	4	3000	3000	9 MB	Vega 3	Up to 1.2 GHz	15 W

Looking at the specifications of the Ryzen 5000 C-series line-up, the top model is the Ryzen 7 5825C with an impressive 8 cores and 16 threads which is double that of the previous top-tier Chromebook Ryzen processor, the AMD Ryzen 7 3700C. It has a base core frequency of 2 GHz, with a boost core clock of up to 4.5 GHz on a single core, which is bolstered by its Radeon Vega 8 integrated graphics with a maximum boost frequency of up to 1.8 GHz.

The second model in the new line-up is the Ryzen 5 5625C, which has 6 cores, 12 threads, and integrated Radeon Vega 7 graphics with a maximum boost frequency of up to 1.6 GHz. The 6 cores feature a base frequency of 2.3 GHz, while one of these cores can boost up to 4.3 GHz for applications that demand additional performance.

Focusing on the two entry-level models in the line-up, the Ryzen 3 5425C benefits from 4 cores and 8 threads with a base frequency of 2.7 GHz, with a boost frequency on one core of up to 4.1 GHz, as well as AMD's Radeon Vega 6 graphics that can boost up to 1.5 GHz. The Ryzen 3 5125C is the lowest in the new C-series stack with just 2 cores and 4 threads, has a consistent core clock speed of 3 GHz, and has 3 Vega graphics compute cores with a maximum boost frequency of up to 1.2 GHz.

As we go from top to bottom, each model in the line-up increases in base core frequency, while the boost clocks bar the Ryzen 3 5125C, which has a set core clock speed of 3 GHz, experience a drop in frequency. All the Ryzen 5000 C-series models feature a 15 W TDP envelope, so core frequency on both the Zen 3 cores and the Radeon Vega cores will depend on the application, task, or game being used to optimize the relative power envelope to fit within the 15 W TDP threshold.

While we don't typically concern ourselves with vendor-given performance data, perhaps the most impressive of AMD's claims is battery life. AMD is claiming that the Ryzen 5 5625C has up to improve battery life by 94% when directly compared to Intel's Core i5-1135G7 processor, which, if true, is very impressive. One of the main benefits of the Chromebook series is usability, and having an improved battery life can increase overall productivity and lifespan when using it while traveling between charges.

So far, AMD has announced two of its partners already on board with its Ryzen 5000 C-series for Chromebooks, including HP and Acer. Both are launching new models due later on in the year, but AMD highlighted two new models:

HP Elite C645 G2 Chromebook

The first of the new Chromebooks to feature AMD's Ryzen 7 5825C processor is the HP Elite C645 G2. HP is expected to offer multiple display options, including various configurations of its 14" 1080p touchscreen panel and plenty of impressive features. These include support for up to 16 GB of LPDDR4X memory with up to 512 GB of PCIe storage. Other features include the latest Wi-Fi 6E wireless and BT 5.2 connectivity and an optional 4G LTE version. The HP Elite C645 will also have a 5 MP integrated webcam, a SmartCard terminal for a CAD-capable keyboard, and an SEC fingerprint sensor for added security.

The HP Elite C645 G2 Chromebook is expected to hit retail shelves in Q2 2022, with pricing currently unknown.

Acer Chromebook Spin 514

The second of the new Ryzen 5000 C-series Chromebooks is the Acer Chromebook Spin 514, which is a 2-in-1 convertible with a 14" touchscreen. Acer is using the AMD Ryzen 7 5825C processor in this model, and it can support up to 256 GB of PCIe Gen 3 storage and support the latest Wi-FI 6E routers with BT 5.2 connectivity. Acer has specified that the Chromebook Spin 514 includes military-grade MIL-STD 810 durability with a Corning gorilla glass touchscreen panel that supports sRGB 100% color.

At the time of writing, Acer says the Chromebook Spin 514 will be available in Q3 2022, with expected pricing not disclosed.

It is expected that more vendors will adopt AMD's Ryzen 5000 C-series processors for Chromebooks in the coming months, although these are OEM only, and pricing is currently unknown on each of the models.

Source: AMD

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Qualcomm Launches Wi-Fi 7 Networking Pro Series for 10Gbps Access Points

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The last few months have seen multiple vendors launch products in the Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) space. Mediatek demonstrated working 802.11be-compliant silicon under the Filogic lineup earlier this year. Concrete technical details and part numbers were not announced during the event. Last month, Broadcom introduced a comprehensive Wi-Fi 7 portfolio, detailing multiple 802.11be radios for access points, a networking SoC built keeping 802.11be bandwidth in mind, and a client radio for mobile applications.

Wi-Fi 7 / 802.11be Background

The 802.11 Working Group's focus with 802.11be has been on extremely high throughput. This has been achieved primarily through a combination of three different aspects:

• Support for up to 16 spatial streams
• Support for channel widths up to 320MHz (with operation in 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands)
• Support for 4096-QAM (4K-QAM) resulting in better utilization of available spectrum (a faster modulation / coding scheme).

It must be noted that wider channels are available only in the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands.

Theoretically, these aspects allow for up to around 46 Gbps of wireless throughput. 802.11be also aims to enable usage of Wi-Fi for real-time applications by including features for low-latency communications such as Multi-link operation (MLO). This allows a client and an access point to simultaneously communicate over multiple channels that might even belong to different bands.

The 802.11be specifications also allow for better performance in environments with heavy interference by permitting adaptive puncturing - the desired channel need not be necessarily contiguous. This improves on the preamble puncturing feature already available as part of the 802.11ax specifications.

Interference and co-existence with non-Wi-Fi users of the same spectrum is handled using automatic frequency coordination (AFC). Unlike the Open AFC initiative (of which Broadcom is a part), Qualcomm is opting to provide its own turnkey solution for its customers.

As expected, AFC will require the device agent to be connected to the Internet for channel configuration and power modulation purposes.

Qualcomm's Wi-Fi 7 Portfolio

At MWC 2022, Qualcomm had provided details of their 802.11be client silicon targeting mobile devices. The FastConnect 7800 is expected to become available in H2 2022, and integrates Bluetooth 5.3 support with key Wi-Fi 7 features. Today, the company is introducing its Wi-Fi 7 Networking Pro Series access point platforms to expand its Wi-Fi 7 portfolio.

Qualcomm started marketing its Wi-Fi solutions under the Networking Pro and FastConnect monikers back in 2019, with the launch of its Wi-Fi 6 solutions. The 2^nd generation products catered to the Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem, and it comes as no surprise that today's 3^rd Gen. launch focuses on Wi-Fi 7.

The introduction of the Networking Pro tag has contributed to opaqueness in the composition of the router / AP platforms from a end-consumer perspective. Unlike Broadcom's public announcement of core details of the networking SoC, and characteristics of the various radio options for its reference designs, Qualcomm provides these details only to their customers. Eventually, these details do become public after market availability of the products. For example, the Networking Pro 800 platform's breakdown is available here - we see a core WiSoC with integrated MAC and baseband coupled with discrete radios. Therefore, it is disappointing that Qualcomm has not given us much to analyze in today's announcements beyond basic product specifications. These high-level feature specifications match the features in Broadcom's products announced last month.

It must be noted that Qualcomm also provides the 'Immersive Home' platform for entry-level Wi-Fi routers. These are typically similar to the 'Networking Pro' platforms, except for cut-down stream counts and reduced WiSoC capabilities in terms of CPU core counts and frequencies. Given that Qualcomm refused to provide any details of CPU core counts or frequencies for the Networking Pro series being launched today, we need to wait for an official announcement related to their Wi-Fi 7 portfolio for the cost-sensitive segment.

The 3^rd Gen. Networking Pro series consists of four members, with stream counts ranging from 6 in the Networking Pro 620 to 16 in the Networking Pro 1620. Radio options exist for two or four streams in each of the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands.

Qualcomm claims peak system PHY rates of up to 33 Gbps, and per-channel wireless PHY rates of more than 10 Gbps, with the capability of supporting more than 500 users in each channel.

The availability of 6 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi is not universal. Qualcomm indicated that different configurations of the Networking Pro 3rd Gen series are possible, based on the allocation.

Qualcomm's Wi-Fi 7 Networking Pro series will allow its customers to create a wide range of enterprise-class and premium wireless access points / routers. The platforms are already sampling - we should be seeing market availability of BE10000, BE16000, BE21000, and BE33000 Wi-Fi routers based on them in a few quarters.

5G-based fixed wireless access is fast becoming an attractive option for many consumers - sometimes even as the primary broadband connection. Qualcomm's strengths in 5G will act as an asset from a bundling perspective for integrated Wi-Fi 7 / 5G platforms. However, Broadcom has significant presence with service providers for 10G PON and DOCSIS 4.0. It is likely that those high-speed ISPs will find Broadcom's possible bundled offerings attractive for their Wi-Fi 7-capable consumer gateways. While we wait for Mediatek and MaxLinear (to whom Intel sold their Home Gateway Platform Division) to reveal their Wi-Fi 7 cards fully, it appears that initial battle will be between products based on Qualcomm's 3^rd Gen. Networking Pro series and those using Broadcom's Wi-Fi 7 portfolio.

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