AMD's next-generation Ryzen 9000 "Strix Point" mobile processor, which succeeds the current Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" and Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix," is confirmed to feature a CPU core-configuration of 12-core/24-thread, according to a specs-leak by HKEPC citing sources among notebook OEMs. It appears like Computex 2024 will be big for AMD, with the company preparing next-gen processor announcements across the desktop and notebook lines. Both the "Strix Point" mobile processor and "Granite Ridge" desktop processor debut the company's next "Zen 5" microarchitecture.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from "Zen 5" is that AMD has increased the number of CPU cores per CCX from 8 in "Zen 3" and "Zen 4," to 12 in "Zen 5." While this doesn't affect the core-counts of its CCD chiplets (which are still expected to be 8-core), the "Strix Point" processor appears to use one giant CCX with 12 cores. Each of the "Zen 5" cores has a 1 MB dedicated L2 cache, while the 12 cores share a 24 MB L3 cache. The 12-core/24-thread CPU, besides the generational IPC gains introduced by "Zen 5," marks a 50% increase in CPU muscle over "Hawk Point." It's not just the CPU complex, even the iGPU sees a hardware update.

After two years of decline, the worldwide traditional PC market returned to growth during the first quarter of 2024 (1Q24) with 59.8 million shipments, growing 1.5% year over year, according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. Growth was largely achieved due to easy year-over-year comparisons as the market declined 28.7% during the first quarter of 2023, which was the lowest point in PC history. In addition, global PC shipments finally returned to pre-pandemic levels as 1Q24 volumes rivaled those seen in 1Q19 when 60.5 million units were shipped.

With inflation numbers trending down, PC shipments have begun to recover in most regions, leading to growth in the Americas as well as Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). However, the deflationary pressures in China directly impacted the global PC market. As the largest consumer of desktop PCs, weak demand in China led to yet another quarter of declines for global desktop shipments, which already faced pressure from notebooks as the preferred form factor.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., unveiled today the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 Mobile Platform, bringing on-device generative AI into the Snapdragon 7 series. The Mobile Platform supports a wide range of AI models including large language models (LLMs) such as Baichuan-7B, Llama 2, and Gemini Nano. Fueling extraordinary entertainment capabilities, Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 also brings new select Snapdragon Elite Gaming features to the 7-series including Game Post Processing Accelerator and Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2, enhancing game effects and upscaling gaming content for desktop-level visuals. Plus, this platform brings top-notch photography features with our industry-leading 18-bit cognitive ISP.

"Today, we embark on the latest expansion in the 7-series to create new levels of entertainment for consumers - integrating next-generation technologies for richer experiences," said Chris Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handsets, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 is packed with support for incredible on-device generative AI features and provides incredible performance and power efficiency, while bringing Wi-Fi 7 to the Snapdragon 7 Series for the first time."

Mobile tech tipster, Revegnus, has highlighted an interesting Samsung presentation slide—according to machine translation, the company's electronics division is already responding to an anticipated growth of "client-side large language model" service development. This market trend will demand improved Universal Flash Storage (UFS) interface speeds—Samsung engineers are currently engaged in: "developing a new product that uses UFS 4.0 technology, but increases the number of channels from the current 2 to 4." The upcoming "more advanced" UFS 4.0 storage chips could be beefy enough to be utilized alongside next-gen mobile processors in 2025. For example; ARM is gearing up "Blackhawk," the Cortex-X4's successor—industry watchdogs reckon that the semiconductor firm's new core is designed to deliver "great Large Language Model (LLM) performance" on future smartphones. Samsung's roadmap outlines another major R&D goal, but this prospect is far off from finalization—their chart reveals an anticipated 2027 rollout. The slide's body of text included a brief teaser: "at the same time, we are also actively participating in discussions on the UFS 5.0 standard."

Qualcomm's Weibo social media account has teased an upcoming new product launch: "the spring dragon raises its head, and everything is reborn! The new Snapdragon flagship is about to be released. Let's welcome the New Year and the new era. On March 18, please stay tuned for the Snapdragon flagship new product launch conference." News outlets believe that a variant of the current top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (SM8650-AB) chipset will be introduced next week. Smartphone tech tipster, Digital Chat Station, revealed that a mysterious Qualcomm Snapdragon "SM8635" model was in the pipeline. Early February speculation pointed to a possible "Snapdragon 8s Gen 3" moniker—the added "s" implies that this mobile processor could emerge as a cheaper "sub-flagship" model.

Geekbench 6.2.2 results—posted by a trio of Realme "RMX3851" android smartphones—revealed speculated "8s Gen 3" specifications, including a 3.01 GHz "Big" Core clock, an Adreno 735 integrated GPU, and a 1+3+4 cluster configuration. The pre-release samples could not keep up with finalized Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 hardware in performance gauntlets. A mid-range "Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3" SoC could make an appearance on March 18, but tipsters believe that the event will be dedicated to a single new product. Digital Chat Station reckons that Qualcomm will market the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 "as a Little 8G3."

Dell Technologies will introduce the broadest portfolio of commercial AI laptops and mobile workstations designed to bring organizations and employee productivity into the AI era. "The next generation of PCs is emerging at a pivotal time - with upcoming refresh cycles and new capabilities on the PC creating the perfect storm," said Patrick Moorhead, founder and CEO of Moor Insights & Strategy. "Dell's commercial AI PCs and workstations, coupled with its ecosystem of peripherals, software and services, offer an AI continuum designed to enhance the user experience today and set organizations up for success in the future."

"Every company that wants to remain competitive will have to implement AI in some way, and AI PCs will be central to that," said Sam Burd, president, Client Solutions Group, Dell Technologies. "From running complex AI workloads on workstations to using day-to-day AI-powered applications on laptops, the AI PC will be an important investment that pays dividends in productivity and paves the way to a smarter, more efficient future. Dell's advantage starts with offering more AI PCs across the commercial portfolio from day one, giving customers the ability to start future proofing for AI today."

A mysterious Qualcomm Snapdragon "SM8635" model emerged earlier this month—courtesy of ever reliable smartphone tech tipster Digital Chat Station. They claimed that the unnamed mobile chipset had posted an AnTuTu score of roughly 1.7 million, with specifications including one Cortex-X4 core clocked at 2.9 GHz and an integrated Adreno 735 GPU. TSMC's 4 nm process node was also mentioned—not a particularly big revelation since the latest Snapdragon flagship is a 4 nm part. Early guess work pointed to possible Snapdragon 8s Gen 2 or Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Lite guises, but a Geekbench Browser leak indicates that SM8635 is destined to become "Snapdragon 8s Gen 3," in Digital Chat Station's opinion.

A Realme "RMX3851" android device was tested in Geekbench 6.2.2—stated specifications include a 3.01 GHz "Big" Core clock, Adreno 735 GPU, and a 1+3+4 cluster configuration. Many believe that the SM8635 is positioned as a cut-down alternative to Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (SM8650-AB), given that Realme specializes in producing value-oriented "near flagship" specced smartphones. Wccftech has spent hands-on time with various Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered devices: "You can see in (Realme's Geekbench entry) that the alleged Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 does not perform on the same level as its elder brother, which scores higher in both single and multi-core. For the sake of reference, I have seen the elder sibling going as high as 2,329 in single-core tests and 7,501 in multi-core tests. So, this chipset is performing at half the speed, but of course, this seems like a device that is not completely ready, so the final scores might improve." Further (insider) leaks or an official Qualcomm announcement will confirm whether the posited "Snapdragon 8s Gen 3" moniker is a good guess, although another leaked chip suggests another path. Roland Quandt reckons that a similarly configured "SM7675" SoC will be joining the Snapdragon 7 Gen family.

It's a new year and a time to reset, reflect and think about what the next few months has in store. Here on the Age of Empires team, we've got a LOT lined up for 2024. Instead of trying to summarize it in a lengthy blog post, we decided to make a show of it! We're excited to announce the "New Year, New Age" livestream on February 23rd at 10:00 am PT (1:00 pm ET / 18:00 UTC).

With so much to come in 2024, we want to show our players around the world what to expect from the Age of Empires franchise this year. We'll be revealing more information on some of our most anticipated titles for 2024 - so expect to see a sneak peek of Age of Mythology: Retold and a first look at Age of Empires Mobile. If you're eager to know what's next for our games already in your library, don't worry, we'll have updates for those titles too.

Qualcomm and its smartphone manufacturer partners are reported to be in a rush to get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset released later this year—Digital Chat Station believes that a pioneering mobile device could enter a mass production phase around September of this year. Prototype devices are allegedly up and running—the tipster's insider sources have alluded to engineering samples being capable of reaching 4.0 GHz clocks on a high-powered Big Core (Nuvia's Oryon or Phoenix). Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC was revealed last October, and working hardware is slowly trickling out via retail avenues in early 2024—Digital Chat Station does not provide any reasoning behind the race to get the successor across the finish line within the same year.

An unnamed smartphone manufacturer is said to have outfitted a "dual-curved screen" model with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset—Wccftech's report suggests that Xiaomi usually gets first dibs on cutting edge Qualcomm processor tech. The Nuvia engineering team has likely got their custom Oryon cores running to more than satisfactory levels—the article points out that: "a previous Geekbench 6 single-core and multi-core leak revealed that the (3 nm) Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 competes with Apple's M3 and is 46 percent faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in multi-threaded workloads." Qualcomm is facing fierce flagship chip competition in 2024—MediaTek's Dimensity 9400 SoC could arrive at a cheaper price point, while offering comparable performance and efficiency.

Phison Electronics, a leading provider of NAND controllers and NAND storage solutions, today announced it has introduced a full range of UFS (Universal Flash Storage) controllers (PS8325, PS8327, PS8329, PS8361). Phison's new UFS solutions support entry-level, middle, premium and flagship smartphone devices to achieve maximum performance in mobile storage and enhance user experiences.

As smartphone devices require higher performance, the storage devices of many entry-level 5G models have transitioned from eMMC to UFS 2.2 storage, and even flagship models of 4G phones have begun adopting the UFS 2.2 specification. Compared to the half-duplex mode of eMMC, the full-duplex mode of UFS 2.2 significantly increases read speeds by three times, not only handling smartphone functions that require processing large amounts of data (such as high-resolution recording and video playback), but also consuming lower power under the same performance speed as eMMC. This helps improve the battery life of smartphones and tablets, meeting the high-performance and low-power consumption needs of mobile devices.

During your commute, do you find yourself grabbing the subway handle, half-awake, or idly gazing at the roadside shops? Perhaps you pass the time scrolling on your phone until you reach your destination station. Whether it's a 15-minute bus ride or a half-hour subway journey, commuting often feels like a less-than-ideal use of time. However, with all these minutes adding up, the time spent is significant. How to make the tedious journey productive? BOOX Palma has the solution.

Petite & Light: Bustling Commutes, Easy Moves
When a time-killer is needed on the go, some people opt for a book. However, flipping through a book becomes a real challenge in a packed carriage with no available seats, and people constantly getting on and off. Not to mention, sometimes you need a free hand to grab onto something for balance. An e-reader may be a better choice. But navigating a typical tablet-sized e-reader with your thumb is not always convenient, and holding it for an extended period may strain your wrist. To deal with all these inconveniences, BOOX Palma is here to help. The petite gadget is the smallest in the BOOX lineup. As its name suggests, this 6.13" mobile ePaper fits your palm, weighing just half as much as a common paperback book. Running on an Android system, it offers a familiar user experience with quick tapping and swiping. During multiple transfers, you can easily slip it in and out of your pocket—no more disruptions to your pace in the urban bustle.

Digital Chat Station has seemingly received insider information regarding the performance of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 mobile chipset—their source reports that a probable engineering sample is already exceeding its predecessor's Big core (Cortex-X4) maximum limit of 3.3 GHz. The rumor mill has Nuvia's custom Oryon cores linked to the next generation mobile processor, although some experts think that the Phoenix design was selected for Gen 4. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite notebook SoC was unveiled last October—this ARM-based solution is set to deliver "a dramatic leap in innovation for computing" thanks to Nuvia's custom Oryon technology. Kedar Kondap, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Compute & Gaming stated that the Snapdragon X Elite offers: "super-charged performance that will delight consumers with incredible power efficiency and take their creativity and productivity to the next level."

Digital Chat Station's brief assessment of the prototype Snapdragon 8 Gen 4's Big core prowess is also glowing: "4.0 GHz is no longer a dream" on smartphones. Past reports have Qualcomm signed up with TSMC for an unspecified 3 nm production process—next generation silicon will benefit greatly in terms of power efficiency, with custom Oryon or Phoenix cores (allegedly) achieving greater clock speeds thanks to some extra headroom. As mentioned above, the previous-gen Kryo Prime core—using TSMC's advanced 4 nm node—is factory restricted to 3.3 GHz. Tipsters reckon that efficiency cores are not part of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 design, due to the innate benefits of 3 nm—according to Digital Chat Station, MediaTek is taking similar steps with its upcoming Dimensity 9400 SoC.

For Backbone's first-ever game collaboration, we've partnered with the legendary Kojima Productions to bring you the Backbone One - DEATH STRANDING Limited Edition controller. This collaboration commemorates the release of DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT for iOS. The Backbone One controller features custom product and packaging designs that blend the innovative design of the Backbone One with the artistic vision of Hideo Kojima and his award-winning title, DEATH STRANDING. Backbone One - DEATH STRANDING Limited Edition includes a free copy of DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT for iOS. Your complimentary copy of the game also gives you the ability to play it on iPad and Mac. The best way to experience DEATH STRANDING on your iPhone 15 is with Backbone! Tomorrow Is In Your Hands.

Designed in Partnership with Kojima Productions
Hideo Kojima, the mastermind behind DEATH STRANDING and founder of Kojima Productions, is renowned for his innovative storytelling and game design approach. His collaboration with Backbone is a further testament to his vision of pushing the boundaries of gaming, blurring the lines between console and mobile experiences.

Brands in the ePaper industry are shining like stars in the sky, and we are all working to make the ePaper category brighter. With our progress and the support of our users, we are honored to be awarded the Best Seller of E Ink Color Products of 2023 by E Ink Corporation. And this star is about to shine brighter, doing its best to spread the glow to more users.

We started to partner with E Ink since our establishment in 2008. And since then, we have been determined to become an innovative ePaper brand that will never settle for convention. With the introduction of breakthrough products and features during our growth, we finally saw the emergence of color ePaper. It was called Kaleido technology four years ago. Despite its youth, it had enormous potential. We couldn't wait to put it on our product and officially introduced it to our users in 2021—if you remember the Nova3 Color.

We're excited to finally share The Elder Scrolls: Castles, our new mobile game from the team behind Fallout Shelter. The team has been hard at work on it for the last few years and we absolutely adore it. In Castles, you'll build your own dynasty where every day in our world is a year in the game's world. Citizens are born, they die, rulers change, and can be betrayed. This soft launch is one of the first steps as we get your feedback and make changes before it launches worldwide.

Let us know what you think and preregister at elderscrolls.bethesda.net/castles to be among the first to play! The Elder Scrolls: Castles is currently available in the Philippines and will be available to more countries in the coming months. For any questions, see our Customer Support page here.

Samsung Electronics today unveiled the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24, unleashing new mobile experiences with Galaxy AI. Galaxy S series leads the way into a new era that will forever change how mobile devices empower users. AI amplifies nearly every experience on Galaxy S24 series, from enabling barrier-free communication with intelligent text and call translations, to maximizing creative freedom with Galaxy's ProVisual Engine, to setting a new standard for search that will change how Galaxy users discover the world around them.

"The Galaxy S24 series transforms our connection with the world and ignites the next decade of mobile innovation," said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics. "Galaxy AI is built on our innovation heritage and deep understanding of how people use their phones. We're excited to see how our users around the world empower their everyday lives with Galaxy AI to open up new possibilities."

Today at CES 2024, HP Inc. ushered in a new era of computing with its latest portfolio of PCs, monitors, and peripherals designed to reimagine how we interact and live with technology.

"We believe that the best innovations are also the most personal ones," said Samuel Chang, Senior Vice President & Division President of Personal Systems Consumer Solutions, HP Inc. "New technologies from HP deliver solutions that allow us to be more personalized than ever, taking advantage of game-changing innovations like AI that will alter the way that technology moves us forward."

TrendForce predicts a significant rise in mobile DRAM and NAND Flash (eMMC/UFS) prices for the first quarter of 2024, with an expected seasonal increase of 18-23%. This surge could be further amplified in a market dominated by a few major players or if brand clients resort to panic buying under pressure.

Observations for 1Q24 indicate steady production planning by Chinese smartphone OEMs. A clear rise in memory prices is driving buyers to actively increase their purchasing efforts as they aim to establish secure and competitively priced inventory levels.

TechPowerUp today announced the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the popular graphics sub-system information and diagnostic utility for gamers, enthusiasts, and engineers alike. Version 2.56.0 adds a host of new features, usability upgrades, and support for new GPUs. To begin with, we've added the ability to list and detect DLSS 3 Frame Generation and DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction in the NVIDIA DLSS section of the Advanced tab. The DLSS Scanner that detects the versions of DLSS libraries in your installed games. It now gives you the ability top open that game's folder in its context menu and select the target DLL file in File Explorer. The Sensors tab can now show the NVIDIA crossbar clock sensor, which by default is "off," and can be enabled for monitoring in the app Settings that you can find in the hamburger menu. Fixes have been added for Intel Arc video BIOS version reporting, and release dates for Arc A580.

Among the new NVIDIA GPUs supported with TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.56.0 are NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada, RTX 4500 Ada, new RTX 2050 Laptop GPU, L40s, and Hopper H800 PCIe AIC. Among the new AMD GPUs supported with this release are the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE, RX 6750 GRE, Radeon Pro W7700, and Pro V620 MxGPU. The new Intel GPUs supported include Intel Arc A570M, A530M, and GPU Flex 170. Grab the latest GPU-Z from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.56.0The changelog follows.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Mobile Platform to amplify immersive experiences and bring premium performance to consumers' everyday life. The upgraded platform delivers across-the-board advancements to ignite on-device AI, fan-favorite mobile gaming, a creativity-charged camera and powerful 5G connectivity. The new platform is fully equipped to enable exciting new use-cases including up to 2.63 GHz peak CPU speeds, over 50% faster GPU performance, and 60% improved AI performance per watt while still delivering incredible power efficiency.

"Intelligently designed to balance performance and power efficiency, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Mobile Platform delivers a selection of premium experiences that are brand new to the Snapdragon 7-series," said Christopher Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handsets, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "By working closely with our OEM partners, we're able to help make the next generation of in-demand features, such as enhanced AI and extraordinary camera capabilities, more widely accessible to consumers." Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 will first be adopted by key OEMs including HONOR and vivo with the first device expected to be announced this month.

In collaboration with Microsoft, Durabook today announced the availability of Windows 11 Secured-core PCs for its mobile rugged computing portfolio. The Durabook S15 Rugged Laptop and U11 Rugged Tablet with advanced Windows 11 security are immediately available to protect sensitive data for professionals on the move.

Mobile, Rugged, Secure for a Perilous World
Executives, military officers, and other professionals who work in potentially hazardous environments are often responsible for highly sensitive data such as financial information, classified intelligence, and intellectual property. They are also often on the road where their computing devices are exposed to abundant cybersecurity threats, including malware and firmware attacks. These attacks are in addition to the physical perils such as being dropped, exposed to dust and potentially combustible fine particulate in the air, extreme temperatures, high humidity and water intrusion.

AMD today launched its first client processors that feature the compact "Zen 4c" CPU cores, with the Ryzen 5 7545U and Ryzen 3 7440U mobile processors for thin-and-light notebooks. The "Zen 4c" CPU core is a compacted version of the "Zen 4" core without the subtraction of any hardware components, but rather a high density arrangement of them on the 4 nm silicon. A "Zen 4c" core is around 35% smaller in area on the die than a regular "Zen 4" core. Since none of its components is removed, the core features an identical IPC (single thread performance) to "Zen 4," as well as an identical ISA (instruction set). "Zen 4c" also supports SMT or 2 threads per core. The trade-off here is that "Zen 4c" cores are generally clocked lower than "Zen 4" cores, as they can operate at lower core voltages. This doesn't, however, make the "Zen 4c" comparable to an E-core by Intel's definition, these cores are still part of the same CPU clock speed band as the "Zen 4" cores, at least in the processors that's being launched today.

The Ryzen 5 7545U and Ryzen 3 7440U mobile processors formally debut the new 4 nm "Phoenix 2" monolithic silicon. This chip is AMD's first hybrid processor, in that it has a mixture of two regular "Zen 4" cores, and four compact "Zen 4c" cores. The six cores share an impressive 16 MB of L3 cache. All six cores feature 1 MB of dedicated L2 cache. There is no complex hardware-based scheduler involved, but a software based solution that's deployed by AMD's Chipset Software, which tells the Windows scheduler to see the "Zen 4" cores as UEFI CPPC "preferred cores," and prioritize traffic to them, as they can hold on to higher boost frequency bins. The "Phoenix 2" silicon inherits much of the on-die power-management feature-set from the "Phoenix" and "Rembrandt" chips, and so are capable of a high degree of power savings with underutilized CPU cores and iGPU compute units.

Samsung Electronics today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. Total consolidated revenue was KRW 67.40 trillion, a 12% increase from the previous quarter, mainly due to new smartphone releases and higher sales of premium display products. Operating profit rose sequentially to KRW 2.43 trillion based on strong sales of flagship models in mobile and strong demand for displays, as losses at the Device Solutions (DS) Division narrowed.

The Memory Business reduced losses sequentially as sales of high valued-added products and average selling prices somewhat increased. Earnings in system semiconductors were impacted by a delay in demand recovery for major applications, but the Foundry Business posted a new quarterly high for new backlog from design wins. The mobile panel business reported a significant increase in earnings on the back of new flagship model releases by major customers, while the large panel business narrowed losses in the quarter. The Device eXperience (DX) Division achieved solid results due to robust sales of premium smartphones and TVs. Revenue at the Networks Business declined in major overseas markets as mobile operators scaled back investments.

SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has started commercialization of the LPDDR5T (Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo), the world's fastest DRAM for mobile with 9.6 Gbps speed. The company said that it has obtained the validation that the LPDDR5T is compatible with Qualcomm Technologies' new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform, marking the industry's first case for such product to be verified by the U.S. company.

SK hynix has proceeded with the compatibility validation of the LPDDR5T, following the completion of the development in January, with support from Qualcomm Technologies. The completion of the process means that it is compatible with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. With the validation process with Qualcomm Technologies, a leader in wireless telecommunication products and services, and other major mobile AP (Application Processor) providers successfully completed, SK hynix expects the range of the LPDDR5T adoption to grow rapidly.

"Strix Point" is the codename for AMD's next-generation mobile processor succeeding the current Ryzen 7040 series "Phoenix." More details of the processor emerged thanks to "All The Watts!!" on Twitter. The CPU of "Strix Point" will be heterogenous, in that it will feature two different kinds of CPU cores, but with essentially the same ISA and IPC. It is rumored that the processor will feature 4 "Zen 5" CPU cores, and 8 "Zen 5c" cores.

Both core types feature an identical IPC, but the "Zen 5" cores can hold onto higher boost frequencies, and have a wider frequency band, than the "Zen 5c" cores. From what we can deduce from the current "Zen 4c" cores, "Zen 5c" cores aren't strictly "efficiency" cores, as they still offer the full breadth of core ISA as "Zen 5," including SMT. In its maximum configuration, "Strix Point" will hence be a 12-core/24-thread processor. The two CPU core types sit in two different CCX (CPU core complexes), the "Zen 5" CCX has 4 cores sharing a 16 MB L3 cache, while the "Zen 5c" CCX shares a 16 MB L3 cache among 8 cores. AMD will probably use a software-based solution to ensure the right kind of workload from the OS is processed by the right kind of CPU core.