The Federal Trade Commission today sued to block U.S. chip supplier Nvidia Corp.'s $40 billion acquisition of U.K. chip design provider Arm Ltd. Semiconductor chips power the computers and technologies that are essential to our modern economy and society. The proposed vertical deal would give one of the largest chip companies control over the computing technology and designs that rival firms rely on to develop their own competing chips. The FTC's complaint alleges that the combined firm would have the means and incentive to stifle innovative next-generation technologies, including those used to run datacenters and driver-assistance systems in cars.

"The FTC is suing to block the largest semiconductor chip merger in history to prevent a chip conglomerate from stifling the innovation pipeline for next-generation technologies," said FTC Bureau of Competition Director Holly Vedova. "Tomorrow's technologies depend on preserving today's competitive, cutting-edge chip markets. This proposed deal would distort Arm's incentives in chip markets and allow the combined firm to unfairly undermine Nvidia's rivals. The FTC's lawsuit should send a strong signal that we will act aggressively to protect our critical infrastructure markets from illegal vertical mergers that have far-reaching and damaging effects on future innovations."

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) announced Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) has expanded its AMD EPYC processor-based offerings with the general availability of general-purpose Amazon EC2 M6a instances. The M6a instances are powered by 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors delivering, according to AWS, up to 35% better price-performance compared to the previous M5a instances and a 10% lower cost than comparable x86-based EC2 instances.

"Our 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors provide Amazon EC2 users excellent scalability and impressive price-performance compared to previous generation Amazon EC2 M5a instances. This announcement shows our strong collaboration as well as highlights our overall momentum in cloud infrastructure," said Lynn Comp, corporate vice president, Cloud Business, AMD. "Our work with AWS exemplifies our commitment to giving end users innovation and performance for their cloud environments and workloads."

Jon Peddie Research reports the growth of the global PC-based Graphics Processor Units (GPU) market reached 101 million units in Q3'21 and PC CPUs shipments increased by 9% year over year. Overall, GPUs will have a compound annual growth rate of -1.1% during 2020-2025 and reach an installed base of 3,249 million units at the end of the forecast period. Over the next five years, the penetration of discrete GPUs (dGPU) in the PC will grow to reach a level of 31%.

AMD's overall market share percentage from last quarter increased 1.4%, Intel's market share decreased by -6.2%, and Nvidia's market share increased 4.86%, as indicated in the following chart.

According to some testing performed by the team behind RPCS3, a free and open-source emulation software for Sony's PlayStation 3, Intel's Alder Lake processors are enjoying a hefty performance boost when E-Cores is disabled. First of all, the Alder Lake processors feature a hybrid configuration with high-performance P-cores and low-power E-cores. The P-cores are based on Golden Cove architecture and can execute AVX-512 instructions with ease. However, the AVX-512 boost is only applicable when E-cores are disabled as software looks at the whole package. Officially, Alder Lake processors don't support AVX-512, as the processor's little E-cores cannot execute AVX-512 instruction.

Thanks to the team behind the RPCS3 emulator, we have some information and tests that suggest that turning E-cores off gives a performance boost to the emulation speed and game FPS. With E-Cores disabled, and only P-cores left, the processor can execute AVX-512 and gets a higher ring ratio. This means that latency in the ring bus is presumably lower. The team benchmarked Intel Core i9-12900K, and Core i9-11900K processors clocked at 5.2 GHz for tests. The Alder Lake chip had disabled E-cores. In God of War: Ascension, the Rocket Lake processor produced 68 FPS, while Alder Lake produced 78 FPS, representing around 15% improvement.

With Intel's Alder Lake processors released, the company introduced a rather interesting concept of mixing high-performance and high-efficiency cores into one design. This hybrid approach combines performance P-cores based on Golden Cove architecture with high-efficiency E-cores based on Gracemont design. While Intel dedicated a lot of effort to optimizing software for Alder Lake, there are sometimes issues that persist when playing older games. At the heart of ADL processors, a thread scheduler decides which task is running on P or E-cores and ensures the best core gets selected for the job.

However, many users know that E-cores can be recognized as another system by DRM software and cause troubles on the latest 12th Generation machines. GIGABYTE has designed a software tool for its Z690 motherboards to fix this issue, which allows on-demand enablement of E-cores. Users can easily "park" or "unpark" E-cores and enable some older game titles to run efficiently with the help of P-cores. This DRM Fix Tool is a lightweight utility that unfortunately runs exclusively on GIGABYTE motherboards. It is less than a megabyte in size and requires no particular installation. However, it is an excellent addition to GIGABYTE's customers, and all that it needs is the latest BIOS update to run. Here you can download the tool, and below, you can see the list of the latest BIOS versions of GIGABYTE Z690 motherboards that support this tool.

IBM today announced its new 127-quantum bit (qubit) 'Eagle' processor at the IBM Quantum Summit 2021, its annual event to showcase milestones in quantum hardware, software, and the growth of the quantum ecosystem. The 'Eagle' processor is a breakthrough in tapping into the massive computing potential of devices based on quantum physics. It heralds the point in hardware development where quantum circuits cannot be reliably simulated exactly on a classical computer. IBM also previewed plans for IBM Quantum System Two, the next generation of quantum systems.

Quantum computing taps into the fundamental quantum nature of matter at subatomic levels to offer the possibility of vastly increased computing power. The fundamental computational unit of quantum computing is the quantum circuit, an arrangement of qubits into quantum gates and measurements. The more qubits a quantum processor possesses, the more complex and valuable the quantum circuits that it can run.

Intel's upcoming lineup of mobile processors with the novel hybrid core technology are codenamed Alder Lake-P. Contrary to the desktop Alder Lake-S, the P variant was envisioned with a lower power budget in mind to fit various form factors. Today, we get to see some of the first benchmarks of the Alder Lake-P processors and get to compare them to AMD's competing products. In the Geekbench 5 listing discovered by BechLeaks, Intel's Core i7-12800H processor with six performance and eight efficiency cores appear. The CPU ran at a base frequency of 2.8 GHz, while Geekbench didn't show boosting clocks in the submission.

The CPU managed to score 1654 points in single-core results and 9618 points in multi-core runs. If we compare this to AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, a direct competitor, the CPU is faster by 25% and 35% in single-core and multi-core results, respectively. If the previous Tiger Lake-H generation is a reference, the Alder Lake-P chip manages 12% and 20% higher single-core and multi-core scores. This specific processor is part of the GIGABYTE AORUS 15 YE4 laptop used for the Geekbench 5 benchmark test run.

Today, Intel celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Intel 4004, the world's first commercially available microprocessor. With its launch in November 1971, the 4004 paved the path for modern microprocessor computing - the "brains" that make possible nearly every modern technology, from the cloud to the edge. Microprocessors enable the convergence of the technology superpowers - ubiquitous computing, pervasive connectivity, cloud-to-edge infrastructure and artificial intelligence - and create a pace of innovation that is moving faster today than ever.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 4004 chip. Think of how much we've accomplished in the past half-century. This is a sacred moment for technology. This is what made computing really take off!," said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. The 4004 is the pioneer microprocessor, and its success proved that it was possible to build complex integrated circuits and fit them on a chip the size of a fingernail. Its invention also established a new random logic design methodology, one that subsequent generations of microprocessors would be built upon, before evolving to create the chips found in today's modern devices.

AMD EPYC class of enterprise processors has gotten infected by as many as 22 different security vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities range anywhere from medium to high severity, affecting all three generations of AMD EPYC processors. This includes AMD Naples, Rome, and Milan generations, where almost all three are concerned with the whole 22 exploits. There are a few exceptions, and you can find that on AMD's website. However, not all seems to be bad. AMD says that "During security reviews in collaboration with Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, potential vulnerabilities in the AMD Platform Security Processor (PSP), AMD System Management Unit (SMU), AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) and other platform components were discovered and have been mitigated in AMD EPYC AGESA PI packages."

AMD has already shipped new mitigations in the form of AGESA updates, and users should not fear if they keep their firmware up to date. If you or your organization is running on AMD EPYC processors, you should update the firmware to avoid any exploits from happening. The latest updates in question are NaplesPI-SP3_1.0.0.G, RomePI-SP3_1.0.0.C, and MilanPI-SP3_1.0.0.4 AGESA versions, which fix all of 22 security holes.

With AMD's Ryzen 5000 series of processors, you needed 400 or 500 series chipset to run the latest generation. However, some reports of users enabling their Ryzen 5000 series processors to run on some 300 series chipset motherboards. And this made everyone curious if AMD's partners will ever bring proper firmware support to run Ryzen 5000 processors on AMD 300 series chipsets. According to today's round of news, ASUS and GIGABYTE have released a firmware update for their A320 boards that enabled Ryzen 5000 processors to run at their total capacity.

Added support means if you have a system with an A320 chipset and plan to upgrade your processors, you may not need to buy a whole new platform for the Zen3-based processors, and you could update your BIOS version to the latest version and perform an upgrade. Check your board's BIOS version and see if you are eligible for an upgrade on ASUS and GIGABYTE websites.

Intel's fourth-generation Core processors, codenamed Haswell, are subject to new security exploits. According to the company, a vulnerability exists inside the graphics controller of 4th generation Haswell processors, happening once the DirectX 12 API loading occurs. To fix the problem, Intel has found that disabling this API results in a fix. Starting with Intel graphics driver 15.40.44.5107 applications that run exclusively on DirectX 12 API no longer work with the following Intel Graphics Controllers: Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200/5100, HD Graphics 5000/4600/4400/4200, and Intel Pentium and Celeron Processors with Intel HD Graphics based on 4th Generation Intel Core.

"A potential security vulnerability in Intel Graphics may allow escalation of privilege on 4th Generation Intel Core processors. Intel has released a software update to mitigate this potential vulnerability. In order to mitigate the vulnerability, DirectX 12 capabilities were deprecated." says the Intel page. If a user with a Haswell processor has a specific need to run the DirectX 12 application, they can downgrade their graphics driver to version 15.40.42.5063 or older.

Today, AMD announced its continued momentum and collaboration with Microsoft Azure, who is offering the 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processor in the latest generation of Dasv5 and Easv5 Azure Virtual Machines (VMs). Azure is also introducing new confidential VMs, DCasv5 and ECasv5, which use the latest advanced security features available in 3rd Gen EPYC processors, including Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Secure Nested Paging (SEV-SNP).

The new Azure confidential VMs, DCasv5 and ECasv5, the first EPYC processor-based confidential VMs at Azure and the first confidential VMs to use SEV-SNP, will enable customers to have the data in their security focused applications encrypted in use, in transit and at rest. The updated Dasv5 VMs, optimized for general purpose workloads, and the Easv5 VMs, optimized for memory-based workloads, deliver better price-performance for most general purpose and memory intensive workloads compared to prior EPYC processor-based Microsoft Azure VMs.

The x86 instruction set architecture has experienced many issues, and today's announcement is no exception. Yesterday morning, the Linux kernel received an urgent set of patches that are supposed to fix "yet another hardware trainwreck," as Thomas Gleixner, the kernel developer, describes. This time, the problem occurs with the high precision event timer (HPET) that stops once x86 processors reach PC10 idle state. In that event, the timer stops even when the OS/kernel uses it and could potentially cause a vulnerability inside a processor that an attacker can exploit. The problem has been known for quite a while since, in 2019, the Linux kernel started removing HPET functionality from some Intel processors.

The priority of this patch for Linux Kernel version 5.15-rc5 is high and marked as an urgent update. A reliable hardware timer and an interrupt are a must for the proper function of a processor. The hardware fix for this will not happen soon, so the Linux kernel has to adapt to it and create a solution at the software level. According to Mr. Gleixner, "The probability that this problem is going to be solved in the forseeable future is close to zero, so the kernel has to be cluttered with heuristics to keep up with the ever growing amount of hardware and firmware trainwrecks. Hopefully some day hardware people will understand that the approach of "This can be fixed in software" is not sustainable. Hope dies last..."

AAEON, an industry leader in embedded solutions, introduces the BOXER-6643-TGU compact industrial system. With rugged construction, the system delivers the performance and innovative technologies of the 11th Generation Intel Core U processors (formerly Tiger Lake) to applications in tough environments, providing wide operating temperature range and 5G support, to power embedded controller and Industrial IoT (IIoT) gateway applications.

The BOXER-6643-TGU is powered by the 11th Generation Intel Core U processors, delivering greater performance over previous generations, with innovative Intel technologies ensuring more accurate, secure data processing. With up to 64 GB of memory, the system allows users to utilize the full extent of the system's processing capabilities, and with the Intel Iris Xe embedded graphics, users can leverage more powerful GPU processing to power AI and Edge Computing industrial applications. With dual HDMI ports, the system can also support 4K high definition video on two monitors, perfect for powering digital signage.

The European Processor Initiative (EPI) https://www.european-processor-initiative.eu/, a project with 28 partners from 10 European countries, with the goal of making EU achieve independence in HPC chip technologies and HPC infrastructure, is proud to announce that EPAC 1.0 RISC-V Test Chip samples were delivered to EPI and initial tests of their operation were successful.

One key segment of EPI activities is to develop and demonstrate fully European-grown processor IPs based on the RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture, providing power-efficient and high-throughput accelerator cores named EPAC (European Processor Accelerators).

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) selected next-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named "Sapphire Rapids") to power the supercomputers used within NNSA's Life Extension Program for mission-critical efforts in stockpile stewardship. The NNSA's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory awarded a subcontract to Dell Technologies to supply the Intel-powered computing systems that will be deployed at the NNSA's Tri-Labs (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories).

Today's news supports the NNSA's Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program operated at the NNSA's Tri-Labs. The Commodity Technology Systems contract (CTS-2) awarded today will enable these three national laboratories to build more powerful, energy-efficient computing systems that will focus on performing extensive modeling and simulation capabilities in support of NNSA's stockpile stewardship program.

TYAN, an industry-leading server platform design manufacturer and a MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation subsidiary, today introduced a new Intel Xeon E-2300 processor-based server motherboard to the market. The new product is designed to offer enhanced performance, greater PCIe support and faster memory speeds for entry-level servers in data centers and prevailing Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) servers in 5G networks.

"TYAN's Tempest CX S5560 server motherboard based on Intel Xeon E-2300 processor is optimized for cloudand edge computing applications. By utilizing Intel's features of increased DDR4 speeds, double M.2 slots, and PCIe 4.0 capabilities, TYAN's customers can get outstanding performance and maintain their competitiveness with cost-effective benefit", said Danny Hsu, Vice President of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation's Server Infrastructure Business Unit.

AMD is slowly preparing the launch of the latest and greatest Ryzen processor family based on the Zen 4 CPU core design. Among various things that are getting an overhaul, the Raphael processor generation is now getting revamped temperature reading and better power management circuitry. According to an Igor's Lab report, AMD has prepared a few new improvements that will make temperature reading and power management easier for PC enthusiasts. Currently, the reported CPU temperature is called Tcontrol (Tctl), which is what the cooling solution sees. If Tctl is high, the fans spin up and cool the system. If Tctl is low, the fans slow down to reduce noise.

With Raphael, the CUR_TEMP (current temperature) output part of Tctl has been upgraded to reflect a much smoother curve, and avoid jittering with fans as they are not spiking so suddenly anymore. This is helping contribute to the noise output and has made it run at a consistent fan speed in the system. Another note about Raphael is a new power management technique. AMD has designed the AM5 platform to avoid sudden power spikes, to maintain maximum efficiency over time. It is a design decision made from the very start, and the CPU will try to constrain itself in the TDP range that it is configured for. For more details about the circuitry, please head over to the Igor's Lab article.

[Editor's note: We have published the review of HYTE Revolt 3 Case here.]

HYTE, the new PC components and lifestyle brand of iBUYPOWER, a leading manufacturer of high-performance custom gaming PCs, today released its premier product, the Revolt 3 Mini-ITX PC case. Previously announced during CES 2021 as the Revolt 3 MK3, the Revolt 3 was designed with careful consideration for DIY PC enthusiasts, gamers, and creators alike.

"iBUYPOWER is excited to introduce its new sub-brand, HYTE, to our community with its very first product, the Revolt 3" said Darren Su, Executive Vice President of iBUYPOWER. "With over 20 years of experience as a systems integrator we felt like we had a unique perspective to bring to the table when developing PC Components. We approached the Revolt 3 with the goal of designing a case with the freedom and flexibility that would allow the use of a wide range of components without imposing performance restrictions based on the size of the case."

Tachyum Inc. today announced that it has successfully executed the Linux boot process on the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) prototype of its Prodigy Universal Processor, in 2 months after taking delivery of the IO motherboard from manufacturing. This achievement proves the stability of the Prodigy emulation system and allows the company to move forward with additional testing before advancing to tape out.

Tachyum engineers were able to perform the Linux boot, execute a short user-mode program and shutdown the system on the fully functional FPGA emulation system. Not only does this successful test prove that the basic processor is stable, but interrupts, exceptions, timing, and system-mode transitions are, as well. This is a key milestone, which dramatically reduces risk, as booting and running large and complex pieces of software like Linux reliably on the Tachyum FPGA processor prototype shows that verification and hardware stability are past the most difficult turning point, and it is now obvious that verification and testing should successfully complete in the coming months. Designers are now shifting their attention to debug and verification processes, running hundreds of trillions of test cycles over the next few months, and running large scale user mode applications with compatibility testing to get the processor to production quality.

Jon Peddie Research reports the growth of the global PC-based Graphics Processor Units (GPU) market reached 123 million units in Q2'21 and PC CPU shipments increased by 42% year-over-year. Overall, the installed base of GPUs will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.5% during 2020-2025 to reach a total of 3,318 million units at the end of the forecast period. Over the next five years, the penetration of discrete GPUs (dGPU) in the PC will grow to reach a level of 25%.

AMD's overall market share percentage from last quarter decreased by -0.2%, Intel's market share increased 0.1%, and Nvidia's market share increased 0.06%, as indicated in the following chart. Overall GPU unit shipments increased by 3.4% from last quarter, AMD shipments increased 2.3%, Intel's shipments rose 3.6%, and Nvidia's shipments increased 3.8%.

Intel's upcoming Alder Lake processor family is set to bring a mixture of big and little cores, combined into one package designed for the hybrid way of computing. Alongside the CPU cores, Intel is also etching integrated graphics into the Alder Lake silicon. However, according to Komachi (@KOMACHI_ENSAKA), there will be Alder Lake SKUs that don't feature a working integrated GPU. Just like we witnessed Intel produce "F" models for its past few generations of Core processors, we could see a re-appearance of the F SKUs with Alder Lake as well. In the leaked listing, Komachi notes the appearance of Intel Core i5-12600KF, Core i7-12700KF, and Core i9-12900KF.

All of the listed models are overclockable SKUs, just with their integrated graphics disabled. Just like the previous generation, Intel decided to introduce this SKU, giving customers a few benefits with the non-functional iGPU. As there is no GPU to produce heat, overclocking efforts could be much better on the "F" SKUs. In addition to that, these SKUs could be a bit cheaper compared to the regular models, saving the buyers some spare cash if they are going to purchase a 3rd party dedicated GPU anyway.

At the annual Hot Chips conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled details of the upcoming new IBM Telum Processor, designed to bring deep learning inference to enterprise workloads to help address fraud in real-time. Telum is IBM's first processor that contains on-chip acceleration for AI inferencing while a transaction is taking place. Three years in development, the breakthrough of this new on-chip hardware acceleration is designed to help customers achieve business insights at scale across banking, finance, trading, insurance applications and customer interactions. A Telum-based system is planned for the first half of 2022.

Today, businesses typically apply detection techniques to catch fraud after it occurs, a process that can be time consuming and compute-intensive due to the limitations of today's technology, particularly when fraud analysis and detection is conducted far away from mission critical transactions and data. Due to latency requirements, complex fraud detection often cannot be completed in real-time - meaning a bad actor could have already successfully purchased goods with a stolen credit card before the retailer is aware fraud has taken place.

The first desktop processors to implement AMD's "Zen 4" microarchitecture will feature integrated graphics as standard across the lineup, according to a Chips and Cheese report citing leaked AMD design documents. Currently, most of the Socket AM4 desktop processor lineup lacks integrated graphics, and specialized "G" SKUs with integrated graphics dot it. These SKUs almost always come with compromises in CPU performance or PCIe I/O. With its 5 nm "Raphael" Socket AM5 desktop processor, AMD is planning to change this, in a bid to match up to Intel on the universality of integrated graphics.

Built in the 5 nm silicon fabrication process, the "Raphael" silicon combines "Zen 4" CPU cores along with an iGPU based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture. This would be the first time AMD updated the SIMD architecture of its Ryzen iGPUs since 2017. The RDNA2-based iGPU will come with a more advanced DCN (Display CoreNext) component than current RDNA2-based discrete GPUs, with some SKUs even featuring DisplayPort 2.0 support, besides HDMI 2.1. By the time "Raphael" is out (2022-23), it is expected that USB4 type-C would gain popularity, and mainstream motherboards as well as pre-built desktops could ship with USB4 with DisplayPort 2.0 passthrough. AMD relies on a discrete USB4 controller with PCI-Express 4.0 x4 wiring, for its first Socket AM5 platform.

While the server industry transitions to the latest generation of processors based on the x86 platform, the Intel Ice Lake and AMD Milan CPUs entered mass production earlier this year and were shipped to certain customers, such as North American CSPs and telecommunication companies, at a low volume in 1Q21, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. These processors are expected to begin seeing widespread adoption in the server market in 3Q21. TrendForce believes that Ice Lake represents a step-up in computing performance from the previous generation due to its higher scalability and support for more memory channels. On the other hand, the new normal that emerged in the post-pandemic era is expected to drive clients in the server sector to partially migrate to the Ice Lake platform, whose share in the server market is expected to surpass 30% in 4Q21.