For a while, we’ve been seeing reports that Apple could become one of the key major customers Intel signed up for chip production in its Foundry fabs—a critical factor in Intel’s long-term effort to turn the fab division around. At first, this may have been little more than Intel shareholder’s wishful thinking, but it appears the contract may indeed happen, with Intel set to manufacture Apple chips—for laptops as well as mobile phones. Read more “Future Apple Silicon processors will be fabbed by Intel Foundry”
Category: Processors
x86 ACE Instructions: AMD Zen 7 core’s AI acceleration detailed
Longtime rivals AMD and Intel have established a joint consortium seeking to make their x86 processors and their future extensions more compatible instead of using the differences and exclusive features as (anti)competitive advantages. In autumn they settled on several extensions to be made standard: AVX10/AVX-512, APX, ChkTag, FRED, and also the ACE matrix extension for AI compute, about which very little had been known until now. Read more “x86 ACE Instructions: AMD Zen 7 core’s AI acceleration detailed”
EXPO 1.2 brings support for CUDIMM memory to the AMD platform
The launch of AMD’s next‑generation desktop processors (Zen 6 architecture) is apparently still many months away. It is therefore surprising that a new feature is coming to AM5 motherboards at the current time: AMD has introduced EXPO 1.2, a new generation of DDR5 memory overclocking profiles for the AM5 platform. EXPO 1.2 adds several previously missing capabilities, especially initial support for higher‑speed CUDIMM modules. Read more “EXPO 1.2 brings support for CUDIMM memory to the AMD platform”
Performance boost for Intel CPUs: Impact of FRED measured
While little is known about AMD’s Zen 6 CPUs, quite a lot has been leaking about Intel’s competing Nova Lake CPUs. Nova Lake could be an interesting and innovative generation thanks to new cores bringing back AVX‑512 and introducing APX for the first time. And they will be boosted by another new technology: FRED, which is already present in Panther Lake CPUs, and as it turns out, it brings notable benefits in certain applications. Read more “Performance boost for Intel CPUs: Impact of FRED measured”
Ryzen 7 5800X3D will come back to commemorate 10 years of AM4
AMD’s AM4 platform is often praised for its long life and upgradability. But if you have a gaming PC with an AM4 motherboard, your ideal upgrade would be the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with 3D V‑Cache, which is long out of production, with many who wanted it having missed the chance to get one which undermines the theoretical upgradability in practice. However, luck may still smile on you—AMD is reportedly considering bringing this CPU back to market. Read more “Ryzen 7 5800X3D will come back to commemorate 10 years of AM4”
Nova Lake to feature new 2L-ILM socket to prevent CPU bending
Since Alder Lake (12th‑gen Core), Intel has been using a rectangular desktop CPU socket—first LGA 1700, now LGA 1851, and at the turn of the year the LGA 1954 platform for Nova Lake is expected. These sockets, however, have been associated with complaints about CPU bending caused by the mounting mechanism and cooler pressure. With Nova Lake, Intel is preparing a solution, though it may not be available on all motherboards. Read more “Nova Lake to feature new 2L-ILM socket to prevent CPU bending”
Arrow Lake Refresh CPU pricing considerably higher than announced
Last year’s Nvidia GeForce RTX 5000 and AMD Radeon RX 9000 GPU launches were widely criticised for “fake MSRP.” That refers to situations where companies announce an attractive price that creates a good first impression and earns praise in reviews, only for the cards to immediately become more expensive or never actually appear at the advertised price. It now looks like something similar may be happening with Intel’s new processors. Read more “Arrow Lake Refresh CPU pricing considerably higher than announced”
Intel and AMD to increase CPU prices by 10–15 %
Although memory and SSD prices are currently very high, the it wasn’t nearly as bad in the CPU market—Intel just released the new “Plus” refresh CPUs at surprisingly low pricing, and AMD responded with discounts. Unfortunately, rising manufacturing costs driven by demand for AI hardware will likely hit this segment as well. Both Intel and AMD are reportedly preparing CPU price increases, which will make PCs even more expensive. Read more “Intel and AMD to increase CPU prices by 10–15 %”
Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition is here: 16‑cores and 2× 3D V‑Cache
Ever since the first 3D V‑Cache processors in 2022, the possibility of a desktop CPU with 16 cores and 3D V‑Cache mounted on both CPU chiplets has been on the table. AMD never made it reality despite many asking for it, until now. Hints such a CPU was coming started pouring in last year though. It didn’t arrive with the gaming 9850X3D model in January, but this week, AMD is finally making this long-awaited CPU real. Read more “Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition is here: 16‑cores and 2× 3D V‑Cache”
Core Ultra 270K Plus beats existing high-end. No KF version, though
Intel is launching new CPUs for the LGA 1954 socket, refreshed “Plus” models of the Core Ultra 200S “Arrow Lake” lineup. These focus on offering great bang for buck, adding more cores. As a result, Intel abandoned the pricier Core Ultra 9 flagship and gave full core count to the lower-tier Core Ultra 7 270K Plus. In the end, it will even be faster than the previous Core Ultra 9 285K—in practice, ironically running at higher clock speeds. Read more “Core Ultra 270K Plus beats existing high-end. No KF version, though”
Arrow Lake Refresh Intel desktop CPUs launched: SKUs and pricing
Intel has officially released the so-called Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs for the LGA 1851 desktop socket. This platform won’t receive a new generation like laptops did in the 1.8 nm Core Ultra 300 Panther Lake CPUs. Instead, new models of the 3 nm Arrow Lake generationare coming. And although they do not have a new architecture, they should be very interesting when it comes to the bang-for-buck ratio. Read more “Arrow Lake Refresh Intel desktop CPUs launched: SKUs and pricing”
Intel to unveil new Core Ultra 200 desktop processors next week
Originally, Intel was expected to launch the Core Ultra 200 (Arrow Lake) desktop CPU refresh right at the beginning of the year in January. That did not happen, but Intel is still preparing these new models for its lineup, and they should reach stores very soon. The dates when customers can expect them have now leaked. Earlier reports indicated March or April, but Intel will apparently manage to launch them within the first quarter after all. Read more “Intel to unveil new Core Ultra 200 desktop processors next week”
Unified Core: Breakthrough Change Is Coming To Intel CPUs
Since 2021 Intel has been using a hybrid CPU architecture with big and little cores (starting with 12th-gen Core CPUs, though it had already been tried a year and a half earlier in the Lakefield SoC). However, the little “E-Cores” derived from former Atom SoC are quite unpopular among some. Now, a radical change is emerging on the horizon—instead of maintaining two completely different core architectures, Intel is moving to a single one. Read more “Unified Core: Breakthrough Change Is Coming To Intel CPUs”
Bartlett Lake, Intel’s P-Core Only CPUs: Models and Specs
We’ve previously covered Bartlett Lake, a remarkable CPU generation from Intel that resembles something of a parallel Plan B product. While Arrow Lake is being sold for the desktop LGA 1954 socket, Bartlett Lake continues to use LGA 1700, is manufactured on a 7nm process, and supports DDR4 memory. Most notably, it drops E-Cores entirely and consists solely of “big” cores. We’ve now learned the complete specs of these chips. Read more “Bartlett Lake, Intel’s P-Core Only CPUs: Models and Specs”
Zen 6: How Many Cores Will AMD’s New Desktop Processors Have?
Recently, we’ve covered upcoming Intel products a lot, but here’s something for the fans of AMD looking forward to its next-generation Zen 6 architecture processors to be excited about. In addition to new cores and a newly designed I/O chiplet—expected to deliver better memory performance and lower power consumption—Zen 6 is primarily set to increase core counts.And the actual core counts for various individual models has now surfaced online. Read more “Zen 6: How Many Cores Will AMD’s New Desktop Processors Have?”






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