Russian business news outlet Kommersant has learned from industry figures that prices of natively-designed computer processors have been on the rise since the beginning of 2023. Domestic manufacturers of PC, server and storage systems are requiring greater supplies of CPUs designed by Baikal Electronics and MCST - the publication posits that growing demand and logistical issues have become the root cause of recent climbs in cost - individuals involved in the computer hardware supply chain have suggested that some processor models have doubled in price. Sergey Ovchinnikov, the chief executive of Norsi-Trans (a server and data storage firm) provided comment: "Production of Russian chips at foreign fabs has become more complex, leading to extended logistics chains and, consequently, an increase in the cost of the final component." International trade sanctions have not prevented the arrival of fresh silicon into the region - Ovchinnikov claims that an unnamed foundry is able to supply (likely via proxy) Russian developers with computer processors.

Kommersant's investigation found out that Baikal's BE-T1000 CPU is now sold for roughly $110 (8900 Rubles) at a popular computer hardware e-tailer (ChipDip) in the region. The very basic dual core MIPS32r5 (28 nm) processor was readily available for $50 (3990 rubles) back in 2018, so its price has risen by 220% in recent times. TSMC was contracted as the manufacturer of Baikal's BE-T1000 CPU, and the Taiwanese foundry started producing these SoCs in 2016. A Baikal Electronics representative has denied any involvement in driving up MSRP, and states that it is up to distributors and retail outfits to determine prices. The company suspects that very old stock is being sold at inflated rates - Kommersant was unable to contact anyone at ChipDip for a statement.

Ampere Computing today announced a new AmpereOne Family of processors with up to 192 single threaded Ampere cores - the highest core count in the industry. This is the first product from Ampere based on the company's new custom core, built from the ground up and leveraging the company's internal IP. CEO Renée James, who founded Ampere Computing to offer a modern alternative to the industry with processors designed specifically for both efficiency and performance in the Cloud, said there was a fundamental shift happening that required a new approach.

"Every few decades of compute there has emerged a driving application or use of performance that sets a new bar of what is required of performance," James said. "The current driving uses are AI and connected everything combined with our continued use and desire for streaming media. We cannot continue to use power as a proxy for performance in the data center. At Ampere, we design our products to maximize performance at a sustainable power, so we can continue to drive the future of the industry."

Researchers at the Technical University of Berlin have published a paper called "faulTPM: Exposing AMD fTPMs' Deepest Secrets," highlighting AMD's firmware-based Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is susceptible to the new exploit targeting Zen 2 and Zen 3 processors. The faulTPM attack against AMD fTPMs involves utilizing the AMD secure processor's (SP) vulnerability to voltage fault injection attacks. This allows the attacker to extract a chip-unique secret from the targeted CPU, which is then used to derive the storage and integrity keys protecting the fTPM's non-volatile data stored on the BIOS flash chip. The attack consists of a manual parameter determination phase and a brute-force search for a final delay parameter. The first step requires around 30 minutes of manual attention, but it can potentially be automated. The second phase consists of repeated attack attempts to search for the last-to-be-determined parameter and execute the attack's payload.

Once these steps are completed, the attacker can extract any cryptographic material stored or sealed by the fTPM regardless of authentication mechanisms, such as Platform Configuration Register (PCR) validation or passphrases with anti-hammering protection. Interestingly, BitLocker uses TPM as a security measure, and faulTPM compromises the system. Researchers suggested that Zen 2 and Zen 3 CPUs are vulnerable, while Zen 4 wasn't mentioned. The attack requires several hours of physical access, so remote vulnerabilities are not a problem. Below, you can see the $200 system used for this attack and an illustration of the physical connections necessary.

Today, AMD introduced the new Ryzen Z1 Series processors, the ultimate high-performance processor for handheld PC gaming consoles. The Ryzen Z1 Series features two high performance processors, the Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme, both offering industry-leading gaming experiences, uncompromising battery life, and featuring AMD RDNA 3 architecture-based graphics. AMD is partnering with Asus to launch the first Ryzen Z1 Series device with the Asus ROG Ally, a premium handheld PC console, featuring up to a Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor.

"At AMD, we're continually advancing the next generation of gaming experiences, from consoles to desktops to on-the-go handheld devices," said Jason Banta, corporate vice president and general manager, Client OEM at AMD. "Ryzen Z1 processors deliver gamers an elite gaming experience and extreme portability in exciting gaming form factors."

Not entirely unexpected, Intel has started to discontinue its 11th Gen Core processors, also known as Tiger Lake. In a product change notification (PCN) the company has listed no less than five mobile and four desktop parts that the company will stop letting its customers order from the end of June this year, with the last shipment taking place at the end of January 2024.

The discontinued range covers everything from Core i3 to Core i9 models and the full range of discontinued models can be found in the screenshot below. It should be noted that the desktop parts are the B SKU parts that were for example found in Intel's NUC 11 Extreme and are 65 W TDP parts. Most of the mobile parts are still available in products being sold, albeit, most of those products being older SKUs that have been replaced by 12th and 13th Gen Core processors by now. None of the products in the PCN were available directly to end consumers to purchase as far as TPU is aware.

Following its successful demonstration of a MIPI camera solution using the UP Squared Pro 7000 at Embedded World, AAEON have announced a MIPI Expansion Kit for the newly released third generation board. Equipped with the Intel Atom Processors x7000E Series, Intel Core i3-N305 Processor and Intel Processor N Series (formerly Alder Lake-N) and an FPC port supporting MIPI-CSI interface, the UP Squared Pro 7000 emphasizes AAEON's continued dedication to bringing the latest Intel technologies to a wider variety of platforms. One such platform is the LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H, a 4K MIPI Camera Module from leading intelligent embedded camera creator, Leopard Imaging Inc.

The company recently announced that the camera has been designed with full-function drivers to support the Intel Atom Processors x7000E Series, Intel Core i3-N305 Processor, and Intel Processor N Series (formerly Alder Lake-N), allowing users to take advantage of the peripheral Intel technologies that come with the processor platform, such as Intel UHD Graphics on a Windows 10 IoT Enterprise OS.

Intel today expanded its 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" client processor family into the commercial segment. Devices in this segment are bought in bulk by large businesses and enterprises; the processors powering them have certain in-built device security and remote management features that enforce company policy regardless of where the employees take the devices. Intel has been pioneering hardware-level remote-management and device security features for close to two decades now, with its vPro feature-set (originally launched as Centrino vPro in the 2000s. The new 13th Gen Core vPro lineup covers popular processor models across various device form-factor classes, spanning ultraportables (15 W or below), thin-and-light commercial notebooks (28 W to 35 W segment); mainstream commercial notebooks (45 W to 55 W); and commercial desktops (65 W).

The 13th Gen vPro series have a lot in common with the 12th Gen Core vPro series, At a hardware-level, these are processors based on the same "Raptor Lake" silicon as the mainstream-client 13th Gen Core processors, but with the enhanced vPro Management Engine that interacts with a compatible operating system to offer endpoint remote manageability for administrators. The desktop versions of these chips have identical SKU differentiation to 65 W 13th Gen Core processors already launched, but with either vPro or vPro Essentials feature-sets. Something similar applies to the 15 W U-segment, 28 W P-segment, and 35-45 W H-segment Core vPro processors. Along with these processors, Intel is debuting Q700-series chipsets specific to the form-factor. For U- and P-segment mobile processor SKUs, the core-logic is part of the processor package; while the H-segment and S-segment (desktop) processors come with discrete chipsets. With the 13th Gen, Intel is also standardizing a new WiFi 6E (Gig+) WLAN chipset with vPro features.

AIC today announced its EB202-CP is ready to support newly launched 4th Gen AMD EPYC Embedded 9004 processors. By leveraging the five-year product longevity supported by AMD EPYC Embedded processors, EB202-CP provides customers with stable and long-term support. AIC and AMD will join forces to showcase EB202-CP at Embedded World in AMD stand No. 2-411 from 14th to 16th March, 2023 in Nuremberg, Germany.

AIC EB202-CP, a 2U rackmount server designed for AI and edge appliances, is powered by the newly released 4th Gen AMD EPYC Embedded processors. Featuring the world's highest-performing x86 processor and PCIe 5.0 ready, the 4th Gen AMD EPYC Embedded processors enable low TCO and delivers leadership energy efficiency as well as state-of-the-art security, optimized for workloads across enterprise and edge. EB202-CP, with 22 inch in depth, supports eight front-serviceable and hot-swappable E1.S/ E3.S and four U.2 SSDs. By leveraging the features of the 4th Gen AMD Embedded EPYC processors, EB202-CP is well suited for broadcasting, edge and AI applications, which require greater processing performance and within the most efficient, space-saving format.

Today at MWC 2023, Lenovo unveiled its latest PC and Chromebook solutions to help embrace dispersed hybrid working styles and provide advanced features that empower users across a broad selection of requirements and needs. Encompassing a progressive and contemporary design philosophy, the latest PC solutions, including a comprehensive refresh across the ThinkPad portfolio, focus on improvements in system performance, increased use of more sustainable materials, and continued enhancements to user experience. ThinkPad Z13 and Z16 second generation Windows 11 laptops enhance key areas of hardware and software functionality to help users maintain a creative edge. ThinkPad Z13 also presents a new Flax Fiber top cover, using bio-based materials, for a unique individual look and feel. Lenovo also introduced a redesigned fourth generation ThinkPad X13 and X13 Yoga with narrower bezels, new colors, materials and features to facilitate hybrid work and mobility. The ThinkPad portfolio for 2023 is completed with fourth generation ThinkPad T14s, T14 and second generation T16 workhorse laptops along with the fourth generation ThinkPad L13, L13 Yoga, L14 and L15, designed for businesses with a wide range of mobile computing needs.

Value-conscious businesses seeking focused productivity features can select a fifth generation ThinkPad E14 with new 16:10 displays or a new 16-inch form factor in the ThinkPad E16. Frequent travellers will like the additional protection provided by the new ThinkPad Professional Sleeve, available in 13-inch and 14-inch sizes to support a broad selection of laptops. The highly versatile ThinkCentre Tiny-in-One Gen 5 Monitor offers improved audio-visual capabilities and redesigned features capable of supporting multiple work scenarios. Finally, consumers can enjoy the flexibility offered by the latest IdeaPad Duet 3i, a Windows 11 detachable laptop that seamlessly transitions between clamshell and tablet modes; or relish the ChromeOS eco-system with the latest IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook featuring a range of audio, visual, and connectivity upgrades.

Thanks to the attribution of Puget Systems, we have a preview of Intel's latest Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 workstation processors based on Sapphire Rapids core technology. Delivering up to 56 cores and 112 threads, these CPUs are paired with up to eight TeraBytes of eight-channel DDR5-4800 memory. For expansion, they offer up to 112 PCIe 5.0 lanes come with up to 350 Watt TDP; some models are unlocked for overclocking. This interesting HEDT family for workstation usage comes at a premium with an MSRP of $5,889 for the top-end SKU, and motherboard prices are also on the pricey side. However, all of this should come as no surprise given the expected performance professionals expect from these chips. Puget Systems has published test results that include: Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Unreal Engine, Cinebench R23.2, Blender, and V-Ray. Note that Puget Systems said that: "While this post has been an interesting preview of the new Xeon processors, there is still a TON of testing we want to do. The optimizations Intel is working on is of course at the top, but there are several other topics we are highly interested in." So we expect better numbers in the future.Below, you can see the comparison with AMD's competing Threadripper Pro HEDT SKUs, along with power usage using different Windows OS power profiles:

Intel today announced the new Intel Xeon W-3400 and Intel Xeon W-2400 desktop workstation processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids), led by the Intel Xeon w9-3495X, Intel's most powerful desktop workstation processor ever designed. Built for professional creators, these new Xeon processors provide massive performance for media and entertainment, engineering and data science professionals. With a breakthrough new compute architecture, faster cores and new embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB) packaging, the Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 series of processors enable unprecedented scalability for increased performance.

"For more than 20 years, Intel has been committed to delivering the highest quality workstation platforms - combining high-performance compute and rock-solid stability - for professional PC users across the globe. Our new Intel Xeon desktop workstation platform is uniquely designed to unleash the innovation and creativity of professional creators, artists, engineers, designers, data scientists and power users - built to tackle both today's most demanding workloads as well as the professional workloads of the future." -Roger Chandler, Intel vice president and general manager, Creator and Workstation Solutions, Client Computing Group

Intel's upcoming LGA-7529 socket designed for next-generation Xeon processors has been pictured, thanks to Yuuki_Ans and Hassan Mujtaba. According to the latest photos, we see the massive LGA-7529 socket with an astonishing 7,529 pins placed inside of a single socket. Made for Intel's upcoming "Birch Stream" platform, this socket is going to power Intel's next-generation "Sierra Forest" Xeon processors. With Sierra Forest representing a new way of thinking about Xeon processors, it also requires a special socket. Built on Intel 3 manufacturing process, these Xeon processors use only E-cores in their design to respond to AMD EPYC Bergamo with Zen4c.

The Intel Xeon roadmap will split in 2024, where Sierra Forest will populate dense and efficient cloud computing with E-cores, while its Granite Rapids sibling will power high-performance computing using P-cores. This interesting split will be followed by the new LGA-7529 socket pictured below, which is a step up from Intel's current LGA-4677 socket with 4677 pins used for Sapphire Rapids. With higher core densities and performance targets, the additional pins are likely to be mostly power/ground pins, while the smaller portion is picking up the additional I/O of the processor.20:20 UTC: Updated with motherboard picture of dual-socket LGA-7529 system, thanks to findings of @9550pro lurking in the Chinese forums.

Intel's Xeon processors feature a wide range of embedded functionalities that the company has developed over the years. One such is the Virtual RAID on CPU (VROC) that enabled the functionality of an NVMe RAID card on the CPU, simplifying the installation, cost, and maintenance of high-performance storage arrays. Debuting in 2017, it is present in some consumer-facing Core models and Xeon Scalable platforms where it sees the highest usage. However, on January 6, Intel posted a product change notice that notified the users that the VROC function would be discontinued, with the last orders being placed on January 23 and the last shipping with VROC being made on March 31. This caused confusion, especially in the enterprise sector, which utilizes Intel Xeon processors for their workloads and storage arrays.

Tom's Hardware has reached out to Intel for clarification and got the following statement:

Intel SpokespersonThe PCN [Product Change Notice] was prematurely posted while the decision was under evaluation. After discussing with the ecosystem and customers we realize there is significant demand for this product and intend to continue to support it.

AI is at the heart of humanity's most transformative innovations—from developing COVID vaccines at unprecedented speeds and diagnosing cancer to powering autonomous vehicles and understanding climate change. Virtually every industry will benefit from adopting AI, but the technology has become more resource intensive as neural networks have increased in complexity. To avoid placing unsustainable demands on electricity generation to run this computing infrastructure, the underlying technology must be as efficient as possible.

Accelerated computing powered by NVIDIA GPUs and the NVIDIA AI platform offer the efficiency that enables data centers to sustainably drive the next generation of breakthroughs. And now, timed with the launch of 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, NVIDIA and its partners have kicked off a new generation of accelerated computing systems that are built for energy-efficient AI. When combined with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs, these systems can deliver dramatically higher performance, greater scale and higher efficiency than the prior generation, providing more computation and problem-solving per watt.

TYAN, an industry-leading server platform design manufacturer and a MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation subsidiary, today introduced 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based server platforms highlighting built-in accelerators to improve performance across the fastest-growing workloads in AI, analytics, cloud, storage, and HPC.

"Greater availability of new technology like 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors continue to drive the changes in the business landscape", said Danny Hsu, Vice President of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation's Server Infrastructure Business Unit. "The advances in TYAN's new portfolio of server platforms with features such as DDR5, PCIe 5.0 and Compute Express Link 1.1 are bringing high levels of compute power within reach from smaller organizations to data centers."

Inspur Information, a leading IT infrastructure solutions provider, announced that its G7 server platform fully supports 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors. The 16 servers making up the brand-new lineup are industry-leading in terms of performance, openness, intelligent operation & maintenance, and sustainability. Compared with the previous generation of Intel-based products, these servers have 61% higher performance and up to 30% higher computing performance per unit of power consumption. The server platform is designed to be deployed in general-purpose computing, critical computing, AI, and other application scenarios.

Inspur Information's brand-new G7 platform was designed with green technology, open-source solutions, security, and intelligence as priorities. It is an industry-leading example of system design, energy efficiency, and operation & maintenance management. G7 servers support diversified computing, with the most comprehensive product lineup in the industry. With a focus on green energy, this product line supports cold plate and immersion cooling schemes, and has unique cooling designs such as T-shaped radiator and advance heat detection with intelligent regulation, which all work together to reduce energy consumption by up to 30%. The new series also supports cloud operation and maintenance for intelligent fault diagnosis with an accuracy rate up to 95%.

Today, Lenovo unveiled 25 new ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile server and hyperconverged solutions powered by Intel's 4th Generation Xeon Scalable Processors as part of its recently announced Infrastructure Solutions V3 portfolio. Designed to help accelerate global IT modernization for organizations of all sizes, the integrated solutions deliver advanced performance, efficiency and management capabilities specifically optimized for complex workloads, including mission-critical, AI, HPC and containerized applications.

"In today's competitive business climate, modern infrastructure solutions that generate faster insights and more efficiently enable complex workloads from the edge to the cloud are critical across every major industry," said Kamran Amini, Vice President and General Manager of Server & Storage, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group. "With the performance and management improvements of the Intel-based ThinkSystem V3 portfolio, customers can reduce their IT footprint by up to three times to achieve greater ROI and more easily transform their infrastructure with one seamless platform designed for today's AI, virtualization, multi-cloud and sustainable computing demands."

Intel today marked one of the most important product launches in company history with the unveiling of 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids), the Intel Xeon CPU Max Series (code-named Sapphire Rapids HBM) and the Intel Data Center GPU Max Series (code-named Ponte Vecchio), delivering for its customers a leap in data center performance, efficiency, security and new capabilities for AI, the cloud, the network and edge, and the world's most powerful supercomputers.

Working alongside its customers and partners with 4th Gen Xeon, Intel is delivering differentiated solutions and systems at scale to tackle their biggest computing challenges. Intel's unique approach to providing purpose-built, workload-first acceleration and highly optimized software tuned for specific workloads enables the company to deliver the right performance at the right power for optimal overall total cost of ownership. Additionally, as Intel's most sustainable data center processors, 4th Gen Xeon processors deliver customers a range of features for managing power and performance, making the optimal use of CPU resources to help achieve their sustainability goals.

Supermicro, a Total IT Solution Provider for Cloud, AI/ML, Storage, and 5G/Edge, is announcing an expanded product line with exciting new ARM-based series of servers as part of the MegaDC family. Using Ampere Altra and Ampere Altra Max processors, the Mt. Hamilton platform leverages a single unified motherboard design, targeting cloud-native applications, such as Cloud Gaming, Video-on-Demand, CDN, IaaS, Database, Object-Storage, dense VDI, and Telco Edge (Distributed Unit and Centralized Unit) solutions. In addition, the new servers address several objectives for cloud-native workloads, specifically delivering high performance per watt while executing scalable workloads and those that require very low latency responses.

"Supermicro continues to bolster our product line by introducing ARM-based servers, using the Ampere Altra and Altra Max CPUs," said Ivan Tay, SVP of Product Management, Supermicro. "Expanding our already broad server product line gives customers even more choices for their specific workloads. We can quickly offer optimized application servers for customers worldwide using our Building Block Solutions approach."

The United States has recently imposed several sanctions on technology exports to China. These sanctions are designed to restrict the transfer of specific technologies and sensitive information to Chinese entities, particularly those with ties to the Chinese military or government. The primary motivation behind these sanctions is to protect American national security interests, as well as to protect American companies from unfair competition. According to Financial Times, we have information that Chinese tech Giant, Alibaba, can not access Arm licenses for Neoverse V1 technology. Generally, the technology group where Neoverse V-series falls in is called Wassenaar -- multilateral export control regime (MECR) with 42 participating states. This agreement prohibits the sale of technology that could be used for military purposes.

The US argues that Arm's Neoverse V1 IP is not only a product from UK's Arm but a design made in the US as well, meaning that it is a US technology. Since Alibaba's T-Head group responsible for designing processors that go into Alibaba's cloud services can not use Neoverse V1, it has to look for alternative solutions. The Neoverse V1 and V2 can not be sold in China, while Neoverse N1 and N2 can. Alibaba's T-Head engineer argued, "We feel that the western world sees us as second-class people. They won't sell good products to us even if we have money."

Intel is planning a January 2023 market debut of its 4th Gen Xeon Scalable "Sapphire Rapids" server processors, which will be followed rather quickly by the launch of Xeon W-3400 and W-2400 processors targeting a segment of the market that spans HEDTs and workstations. According to information scored by leaf_hobby, a reliable source with Intel roadmap leaks; the company is planning a February 2023 announcement of these processors, followed by availability of the W-2400 in March, and W-3400 in April.

Intel could extensively market the various hardware-accelerators on the "Sapphire Rapids" MCM to the workstation crowd, where they might help users overcome the rather low CPU core-count of these processors compared their upcoming AMD Threadripper 7000 series counterparts. "Sapphire Rapids" tops out at 60-core/120-thread per socket, whereas the SP5-based Threadripper 7000 is expected to offer 96-core/192-thread. Both platforms offer the latest I/O, including PCIe Gen 5, CXL, and ECC DDR5 memory.

AIC Inc., (from now on referred to as "AIC"), a leading provider in enterprise storage and server solutions, today revealed its new edge server appliance powered by 4th Gen AMD EPYC processors (codename Genoa). The new server, EB202-CP, is designed to deliver superior performance in a compact size while offering excellent cost efficiency. Combined with the 4th Gen AMD EPYC processors, EB202-CP is expected to drive the innovations in AI, training simulation, autonomous vehicles and edge applications. AIC will showcase EB202-CP at SC22 expo from November 14th to 17th, 2022.

AIC EB202-CP is a 2U rackmount server with 22 inches in depth. It supports eight E1.S/ E3.S or U.2 SSDs which are front-serviceable and hot-swappable. The E1.S/ E3.S drives are Enterprise and Datacenter SSD Form Factor (EDSFF) that enables EB202-CP to provide high-density all-flash NVMe for half petabyte storage capabilities and enhance IOPS and space utilization. EB202-CP has great expansion functionality and supports up to two double-stack GPU or accelerator cards, two FHHL/HHHL PCIe 5.0 cards and an OCP 3.0 card. Based on AIC server board Capella, EB202-CP supports single 4th Gen AMD EPYC processor and eight DDR5 DIMMs. The 4th Gen AMD EPYC processors, built on "Zen 4" architecture, are optimized for general-purpose workloads across enterprise, cloud and edge. This new generation of AMD EPYC features the world's highest-performing x86 processor, PCIe 5.0 ready, and enables low TCO. It also delivers leadership energy efficiency as well as state-of-the-art security features.

Intel's upcoming Sapphire Rapids processors have faced multiple delays over the past few years. Built on Intel 7 manufacturing process, the CPU is supposed to bring new advances for Intel's clients and significant performance uplifts. However, TrendForce reports that the mass production of Sapphire Rapids processors will be delayed from Q4 of 2022 to the first half of 2023. The reason for this (yet another) delay is that the Sapphire Rapids MCC die is facing a meager yield on Intel 7 manufacturing technology, estimated to be at only 50-60% at the time of writing. Economically, this die-yielding percentage is not profitable for Intel since many dies are turning out to be defective.

This move will stop many OEMs and cloud service providers (CSPs) from rolling out products based on the Sapphire Rapids design and will have to delay it until next year's mass production. On the contrary, AMD is likely to reap the benefits of Intel's delay, and AMD's x86 server market share will jump from 15% in 2022 to 23% in 2023. Given that AMD ships processors with the highest core counts, many companies will opt for AMD's solutions in their data centers. With more companies being concerned by their TCO measures with rising energy costs, favors fall in the hand of single-socket servers.

Starting next year, AMD will move to a new model number scheme for its mobile processors and it appears that the company has decided to use the first digit to represent the model year, which should alleviate some past confusion. The second digit in the model name will represent where in the product stack the specific chip will sit and here we're potentially getting some new 6 and 8 models, although nothing guarantees that AMD will actually implement these segments into real products. The third digit represents the architecture, so a four equals Zen 4 for example.

The last digit in the model names is a new addition where AMD has sub SKUs that offer some performance advantage of the base SKU of a specific model and this digit will apparently only be represented by a 0 or a 5. Finally AMD has added a new suffix too, where C stands for Chromebook. This translates to 15-28 Watt chips that have been designed specifically for Chromebook usage. The current HX, HS and U suffix lettering will carry over, alongside the lower-case e for 9 W versions the U SKUs. AMD has also segmented it's mobile CPUs according to the chart below, to try and deliver a clearer use case for its various CPU models. The chart is pretty self explanatory, although some of the segmentation will apply to updated models of current designs, whereas others will only apply to new laptop designs. The new model numbering scheme will apply to at least 2025.

Qualcomm is a company well known for designing processors going inside a vast majority of smartphones. However, the San Diego company has been making attempts to break out of its vision to focus on smartphones and establish new markets where it could show its potential for efficient processor design. According to Bloomberg's insights, Qualcomm is planning to re-enter the server market and try again to compete in the now very diverse space. In 2014, Qualcomm announced that the company is developing an Arm ISA-based CPU that will target servers and be an excellent alternative for cloud service providers looking at efficient designs called Centriq. Later on, in November of 2017, the company announced the first CPU Centriq 2400, which had 48 custom Falkor cores, six-channel DDR4 memory, and 60 MB of L3 cache.

What happened later is that the changing management of the company slowly abandoned the project, and the Arm CPU market was a bit of a dead-end for many projects. However, in recent years, many companies began designing Arm processors, and now the market is ready for a player like Qualcomm to re-enter this space. With the acquisition of Nuvia Inc., which developed crazy fast CPU IPs under the leadership of industry veterans, these designs could soon see the light of the day. It is reported that Qualcomm is in talks with Amazon's AWS cloud division, which has agreed to take a look at Qualcomm's offerings.