Over the weekend, there have been a series of leaks from sources such as Golden Pig Upgrade, and High Yield YT, surrounding Intel's next-generation desktop processor, the Core Ultra 2-series "Arrow Lake-S." The lineup is likely to continue the new client processor naming scheme Intel introduced with the Core Ultra 1-series "Meteor Lake" on the mobile platform. "Arrow Lake-S" is rumored to debut the new Socket LGA1851, which retains cooler-compatibility with LGA1700. Although Intel has nucleated all I/O functions of the traditional PCH to "Meteor Lake," making it a single-chip solution on the mobile platform; and although the mobile "Arrow Lake" will continue to be single-chip; the desktop "Arrow Lake-S" will be a 2-chip solution. This is mainly because the desktop platform demands a lot more PCIe lanes, for a larger number of NVMe storage devices, or high bandwidth devices such as Thunderbolt and USB4 hubs, etc.

Another key finding in this latest series of leaks, is that unlike "Meteor Lake," the desktop "Arrow Lake-S" will do away with low-power island E-cores located in the SoC tile of the processor. All CPU cores are located in the Compute tile, which is expected to be built in the Intel 20A foundry node—the company's first node to implement GAAFETs (nanosheets), with backside power delivery; as well as an advanced 2nd generation EUV lithography. Intel's 1st Gen EUV is used on the current FinFET-based Intel 4 and Intel 3 foundry nodes.

According to Financial Times, a regional court in Düsseldorf, Germany, created a significant setback for Intel on Wednesday, issuing an injunction prohibiting sales of some of its processors due to allegations they infringe on a patent held by R2 Semiconductor. R2, a technology firm based in Palo Alto, California, accused Intel of violating its patent related to processor voltage regulation. The ruling applies to Intel's 10th, 11th, and 12th generation Core processors, known as Ice Lake, Tiger Lake, and Alder Lake, as well as its Ice Lake Xeon server SKUs. Newer processors generations (13th, 14th, etc.) don't infringe the patent. Even though Intel noted that it plans to appeal the decision, the ramifications could extend beyond the company itself. Industry experts warn the court order could lead to a sweeping ban on products containing the disputed Intel chips, including laptops and pre-built PCs from major manufacturers like HP and Dell. R2 has waged an ongoing legal fight across multiple jurisdictions to defend its intellectual property.

After initially filing suit against Intel in the United States, R2 shifted its efforts to Germany and other European countries after its patent was invalidated stateside. Intel strongly denied R2's patent infringement claims, alleging the company's entire business model relies on extracting legal settlements through serial litigation. Intel believes the injunction serves only R2's financial interests while harming consumers, businesses, and the economy. The two firms traded barbs in official statements about the case. R2's CEO, David Fisher, rebuffed Intel's characterization of his company, saying it has only targeted Intel for infringement of its clear IP rights. As the war of words continues, the practical impact of the German court's decision remains uncertain, pending Intel's appeal. However, the preliminary injunction demonstrates the massive financial consequences at stake in battles over technological patents.

Yesterday we pre-announced that we're developing an SD Expansion Card. Normally we don't announce a product until we've fully locked the feature-set, brought up the necessary suppliers and manufacturing environment, completed most of the engineering and a substantial level of testing and validation, and are on a high confidence path to a specific release date at a specific price. This is because development of brand new products requires charting a course into the unknown. We set a target for what the product will be from the start, but as we proceed and learn, we often need to adjust the schedule, scope, and cost, and sometimes even need to outright pause or cancel development. Announcing just before shipping is how most companies operate to reduce churn and public uncertainty, but it means the product development process ends up extremely opaque.

We decided we're going to treat this one product on our roadmap a little differently. A full-size SD Expansion Card is consistently the most requested Expansion Card by the community, which makes it a great one to open up. We're just at the start of the process now, and Hyelim on our Marketing team is creating a new YouTube series to share updates and insights as we go through the New Product Introduction (NPI) process. Take a look at the first video (below) and let us know what you think as we complete (or don't complete) the product.

Intel has published a preview article covering its new AVX10 ISA (Instruction Set Architecture)—the announcement reveals that both P-Cores & E-Cores (on next-gen processors) will be getting support for AVX-512. Team Blue stated: "Intel AVX10 represents a major shift to supporting a high-performance vector ISA across future Intel processors. It allows the developer to maintain a single code-path that achieves high performance across all Intel platforms with the minimum of overhead checking for feature support. Future development of the Intel AVX10 ISA will continue to provide a rich, flexible, and consistent environment that optimally supports both Server and Client products."

Due to technical issues (E-core related), Intel decided to disable AVX-512 for Alder Lake and Raptor Lake client-oriented CPU lineups. AMD has recently adopted the fairly new instruction set for its Ryzen 7040 mobile series, so it is no wonder that Team Blue is attempting to reintroduce it in the near future—AVX-512 was last seen working properly on Rocket and Tiger Lake chips. AVX10 implementation is expected to debut with Granite Rapids (according to Longhorn), and VideoCardz reckons that Intel will get advanced instructions for Efficiency cores working with its Clearwater Forest CPU architecture.

Intel decided to drop the relatively new AVX-512 instruction set for laptop/mobile platforms when it was discovered that it would not work in conjunction with their E-core designs. Alder Lake was the last generation to (semi) support these sets thanks to P-cores agreeing to play nice, albeit with the efficiency side of proceedings disabled (via BIOS settings). Intel chose to fuse off AVX-512 support in production circa early 2022, with AMD picking up the slack soon after and working on the integration of AVX-512 into Zen 4 CPU architecture. The Ryzen 7040 series is the only current generation mobile platform that offers AVX-512 support. Phoronix decided to benchmark a Ryzen 7 7840U against older Intel i7-1165G7 (Tiger Lake) and i7-1065G7 (Ice Lake) SoCs in AVX-512-based workloads.

Team Red's debut foray into AVX-512 was surprisingly performant according to Phoronix's test results—the Ryzen 7 7840U did very well for itself. It outperformed the 1165G7 by 46%, and the older 1065G7 by an impressive 63%. The Ryzen 7 APU was found to attain the highest performance gain with AVX-512 enabled—a 54% performance margin over operating with AVX-512 disabled. In comparison Phoronix found that: "the i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake impact came in at 34% with these AVX-512-heavy benchmarks or 35% with the i7-1065G7 Ice Lake SoC for that generation where AVX-512 on Intel laptops became common."

Intel is in the process of discontinuing its eleventh generation Tiger Lake-U CPU lineup according to the company's own Product Change Notification (PCN) system. Team Blue's database points to the final batch of (x86 Willow Cove architecture) processors getting shipped out on December 29, with an October 2023 cutoff point for last orders. These 11th Gen Core units (with Iris Xe iGPUs) have been part of laptops, mobile devices and small-form-factor (SFF) systems since launching in 2020. Intel started the end-of-life (EOL) for more powerful variants (some Tiger Lake-H models and the entire Tiger Lake-B range) back in April of this year.

Tiger Lake was an early example of a 10 nm++ SuperFin product, with improved production yields leading to the creation of high performance gaming laptop CPUs (the aforementioned H and B models), alongside the basic low power U-series. Intel has also added Tiger Lake-H35 models to the discontinuance list (totaling 42 models), and a trio of 500-series chipsets that were designed to accommodate their embedded 11th generation processor family: RM590E, HM570E and QM580E. Plenty of Tiger Lake-based stock still exists on the market, but Intel will be very keen to clear that excess - in favor of making way for its 12th and 13th generation product ranges.

Intel Graphics formally retired the Gen 9 graphics architecture that powered iGPUs found in the company's 6th Gen Core processors. The company continues support for the Gen 9.5 architecture that powers 7th thru 10th Gen processors. With up to 24 EU (execution units), the iGPU provided basic display that met Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 WHQL logo requirements, and supported Direct3D DDI up to API level 11_0. This "retirement" means that Intel Graphics will no longer provide regular driver updates, but relegate support for a much lower update cadence that only ticks when there are critical security or stability issues to fix. The last regular driver for these iGPUs is version 31.0.101.2115.

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.

Intel Graphics has introduced feature rivaling NVIDIA VSR (virtual super resolution) for Chromium-based web-browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, which enhances the quality of streaming video, both from lower resolutions to higher; as well as improving the quality at native resolution. This was discovered in the change-log of a Chrome build, which talks about the introduction of a "-features=IntelVpSuperResolution" command-line argument to start Chrome with, to enable the feature.

Apparently, the Intel VSR feature works on Intel iGPUs dating back to the 11th Gen Core ("Tiger Lake" and "Rocket Lake,") based on the Xe-LP graphics architecture. The feature should come particularly handy when trying to upscale online video from lower resolutions (such as SD 360p/480p or HD 720p), up to Full HD (1080p) or higher. It's reported that VSR is enabled by default on Chrome/Edge 110, and doesn't require that command-line argument. To use it, you will need Intel iGPU graphics drivers version 27.20.100.8681 or later.

Intel has recently updated its open-source C++ header file library for high-performance SIMD-based sorting to support the AVX-512 SIMD instruction set. Extending the capability of regular AVX2 support, the sorting functions now implement 512-bit extensions to offer greater performance. According to Phoronix, the NumPy Python library for mathematics that underpins a lot of software has updated its software base to use the AVX-512 boosted sorting functionality that yields a fantastic uplift in performance. The library uses AVX-512 to vectorize the quicksort for 16-bit and 64-bit data types using the extended instruction set. Benchmarked on an Intel Tiger Lake system, the NumPy sorting saw a 10-17x increase in performance.

Intel's engineer Raghuveer Devulapalli changed the NumPy code, which was merged into the NumPy codebase on Wednesday. Regarding individual data types, the new implementation increases 16-bit int sorting by 17x and 32-bit data type sorting by 12-13x, while float 64-bit sorting for random arrays has experienced a 10x speed up. Using the x86-simd-sort code, this speed-up shows the power of AVX-512 and its capability to enhance the performance of various libraries. We hope to see more implementations of AVX-512, as AMD has joined the party by placing AVX-512 processing elements on Zen 4.

DFI, the leading global provider of embedded solutions and Edge AI computing technology across multiple industries, is releasing the new Edge AI inference computer EC70A-TGU. EC70A-TGU is powered by Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake Core processors, with 8 GB onboard memory in a compact platform. Equipped with an all-new GPU in Iris Xe embedded graphics, EC70A-TGU delivers disruptive GPU graphics performance and enables faster processing of images and video streams. Users can leverage the GPU to power cutting-edge AI solutions for various applications, including Industrial Automation, AMR/AGV, Smart Transportation, Medical Imaging, etc.

Maintaining the small size of the previous generation fanless embedded system, the EC70A-TGU is equipped with a compact fanless design, measuring only 181.6 mm x 57 mm x 118.4 mm, while providing significantly upgraded performance. In addition, EC70A-TGU supports multiple I/Os, outperforming its counterparts with up to 6 USB 3.1 ports, and can be connected to more sensors and devices.

According to an investigative report by "Chips and Cheese," the larger L2 caches in Intel's 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake-S" doesn't come with a proportionate increase in cache latency, and Intel seems to have contained the latency increase well. "Raptor Lake-S" significantly increases L2 cache sizes over the previous generation. Each of its 8 "Raptor Cove" P-cores has 2 MB of dedicated L2 cache, compared to the 1.25 MB with the "Golden Cove" P-cores powering the current-gen "Alder Lake-S," which amounts to a 60 percent increase in size. The "Gracemont" E-core clusters (group of four E-cores), sees a doubling in the size of the L2 cache that's shared among the four cores in the cluster, from 2 MB in "Alder Lake," to 4 MB. The last-level L3 cache shared among all P-cores and E-core clusters, sees a less remarkable increase in size, from 30 MB to 36 MB.

Larger caches have a direct impact on performance, as more data is available close to the CPU cores, sparing them a lengthy fetch/store operation to the main memory (RAM). However, making caches larger doesn't just cost die-area, transistor-count, and power/heat, but also latency, even though L2 cache is an order of magnitude faster than the L3 cache, which in turn is significantly faster than DRAM. Chips and Cheese tracked and tabulated the L2 cache latencies of past Intel client microarchitectures, and found a generational increase in latencies with increasing L2 cache sizes, leading up to "Alder Lake." This increase has somehow tapered with "Raptor Lake."

Minisforum is going to launch two new Intel chip mini PCs which are named NUCXI5 and NUCXI7. Both of them will share the same case design, equipped with a discrete graphics card, and will come with a thunderbolt port to perform ultimate gaming performance. The Minisforum NUCXI5 is equipped with Intel Core i5-11400H CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU. The Intel Core i5-11400H is a high-end Hexa-core SoC that was announced in mid-2021. It belongs to the Tiger Lake H45 family. It has 6 cores and 12 threads and can be boosted up to 4.5 GHz. The CPU offers a 12 MB L3 cache and supports DDR4-3200 memory. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile is an Ampere graphics card that was announced in 2021. It is based on the GA106 Ampere chip and offers 6 GB of GDDR6 graphics memory.

The other one, Minisforum NUCXI7, uses an even more powerful CPU and GPU which is Intel Core i7-11800H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070. The Intel Core i7-11800H is a high-end Octa-core SoC that was also announced in mid-2021. It has 8 cores, and 16 threads that can be boosted up to 4.6 GHz. The CPU offers 24 MB of Level 3 cache and supports DDR4-3200 memory. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile was also announced in 2021. It offers 8 GB of GDDR6 graphics memory with a 256 Bit memory bus.

Intel's next-generation Core "Meteor Lake" processors will debut the new Xe-LPG graphics architecture for its iGPU. A successor to the Xe-LP architecture powering iGPUs since 11th Gen Core "Tiger Lake," the Xe-LPG graphics architecture is tailored for small-scale GPU designs such as iGPUs. It sheds much of the bulk that the Xe-HPG has, which is optimized for discrete GPU designs. A leaked block diagram of "Meteor Lake" describes Xe-LPG as featuring a new "extended gaming mode," new Adaptix power sharing, which is probably a power-management optimization that prioritizes power share to the iGPU; and even more media encode acceleration capabilities.

The Core "Meteor Lake" compute tile will also feature the latest Gaussian Network Accelerator, GNA 3.5, which speeds up AI deep-learning neural net building and training. The chip features a purpose-build VPU (visual processing unit), similar to the ones in mobile SoCs, which improves the device's ability to recognize faces, or even augmented-reality applications. Lastly, with "Meteor Lake," Intel is debuting the new "Crestmont" E-core clusters that introduce an IPC improvement over the "Gracemont" E-cores powering "Alder Lake" and "Raptor Lake."

WEROCK Technologies, introduces the "Rockbook X130", a new fully rugged notebook with a 13.3-inch screen and 11th generation Intel Tiger Lake processors. It is designed for professional use in industrial manufacturing, automotive, public safety and utility sectors. Despite its fully ruggedized design and waterproof casing, the new model offers numerous amenities familiar from regular laptops: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, Thunderbolt 4 and a backlit keyboard are just a few highlights.

Groundbreaking performance for extensive and complex projects is promised by the Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processors from Intel 's Tiger Lake platform, which is manufactured in 10 nm SuperFin technology. They offer performance, responsiveness, long battery runtimes and impressive graphics with the Iris Xe GPU. Efficient work is also enabled by the included Windows 11 Pro, and a USB-C Thunderbold 4 port ensures fast connections between devices.

To optimize embedded and mobile applications for today's IoT requirements, AAEON, a leading manufacturer of advanced hardware platforms for SDN, NFV, SD-WAN and white box uCPE solutions, today announced the launch of NanoCOM-TGU, a COM Express Type 10 Powered by the 11th Generation Intel Core Processor Family (formerly Tiger Lake UP3). Our NanoCOM-TGU not only offers powerful computing capability, but also the graphical processing power enabled by Intel UHD Graphics to optimize AI and Deep Learning applications in COM Express Type 10 mini form factor (84 mm x 55 mm).

NanoCOM-TGU is powered by the 11th Generation Intel Core SoC is designed for applications with intensive data and graphic processing needs. The SoC integrates both powerful CPU and GPU, as well as AI and Deep Learning acceleration engines, to accelerate processing capability in embedded mobile applications, such as telematics, public sectors, and Industrial automation.

LG Electronics USA today unveiled its first gaming laptop, expanding its premium UltraGear lineup and bringing exciting news to gamers worldwide. A powerful performer with a seriously sleek design, the CES 2022 Innovation Award-winning laptop delivers sublime gaming experiences that can be enjoyed anywhere, at any time. LG's take-anywhere gaming rig features an 11th Gen Intel Tiger Lake H processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q graphics card, dual-channel memory and an ultra-fast dual SSD setup. In addition to a 17-inch IPS panel with a 1 millisecond response time and a 300 Hz refresh rate, the LG UltraGear gaming laptop ensures immersive, fluid gameplay for even the most graphically demanding PC games thanks to the latest top-of-the-line hardware. Also, LG's cooling system with vapor chamber keeps the laptop running cool, even when pushed to the limits.

Sharing DNA with LG's lightweight gram laptops, the 17G90Q has a streamlined, highly-portable design. The new, slim laptop features a large screen and 93Wh battery while maintaining a thickness of under 0.84 inches and a weight of less than 5.952 pounds. The LG UltraGear gaming laptop's aluminium casing offers style and durability, while the winged UltraGear badge on its exterior clearly communicates the power and quality for which LG's premium gaming brand is known.

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.

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.

Intel have recently launched five NUC X15 Laptop Kits featuring Tiger Lake processors and NVIDIA RTX 30 Series graphics. The Intel NUC laptops are sold direct to system integrators without memory or storage and are not available for direct consumer purchase so availability and pricing are unknown. Intel has two processor options available with the Core i5-11400H and i7-11800H paired with an RTX 3060 or RTX 3070 graphics card. The three display options all feature narrow bezel IPS panels and are available in 144 Hz FHD, 240 Hz FHD, and 165 Hz QHD configurations. The laptops all feature mechanical keyboards with RGB lighting, WiFi 6, Thunderbolt 4, PCIe Gen 4 storage, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.1, Windows Hello, and a 94 Wh battery.

The 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" microarchitecture will see Intel unify its desktop- and mobile processor IP, back to the way things were up to the 9th Gen. With its post-14 nm silicon fabrication nodes in their infancy, Intel had diverged the client processor IP across its 10th and 11th Gen Core. With 10th Gen, the company introduced "Ice Lake" for ultra-portable platforms (28 W and below), while retaining 14 nm "Comet Lake" for mainstream notebooks (28 W to 45 W); while keeping desktop exclusively with 14 nm "Comet Lake." For 11th Gen, the story is mostly similar. Cutting-edge 10 nm "Tiger Lake" now covers all mobile categories, while desktop receives an IPC upgrade, thanks to the 14 nm "Rocket Lake." The 12th Gen will see a common microarchitecture, "Alder Lake," span across all client segments, from 7 W ultra mobile, to 125 W enthusiast desktop.

This, however, doesn't mean that Intel has a one-size fits all silicon that it can carve SKUs out of. The company has developed as many as three physical dies based on "Alder Lake," which vary in CPU core counts, the size of the iGPU, and other on-die components. "Alder Lake" is a hybrid processor with a combination of larger "Golden Cove" P-cores, and smaller "Gracemont" E-cores. The P-cores are spatially large, and along with their L3 cache slices, take up a large share of the compute portion of the silicon. The E-cores come in clusters of 4 cores each.

Durabook, the global rugged mobile solutions brand owned by Twinhead International Corporation, announced today the introduction of its dramatically upgraded Z14I fully-rugged laptop. The unit includes a slew of remarkable features, including an 11th Gen. Intel Core processor, latest Thunderbolt 4, NVMe PCIe SSD drive, 14" FHD 1,000 nits display with proprietary DynaVue sunlight-readable technology, fanless and hot-swappable battery design, MIL-STD-810H and MIL-STD-461G certifications, and ANSI/ISA 12.12.01-2000, CI/D2 classification. In addition, the newly upgraded Z14I delivers 1.6x faster CPU performance than its predecessor. When combined, its feature package makes the Durabook Z14I the world's toughest fully-rugged laptop.

"Our new advanced Z14I laptop goes above and beyond the standard requirements to elevate the user experience," stated Twinhead CEO Fred Kao. "This fully rugged laptop solution with its endless customization capability through its unique expansion box design fits perfectly in professional services and military/government applications such as mapping/dispatching, recording systems, CAD, assets management, and maintenance diagnostics. Additionally, as strong as they come, the unit is the best laptop in the market for outdoor usage."

Following the Intel versions of the high-end laptops from the NEO model series, XMG is also revamping the CORE 15 and CORE 17 from the upper mid-range performance sector. The discreetly elegant gaming notebooks combine Intel's Core i7-11800H with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 with maximum TGP. But the upgrade to the new Tiger Lake processors is not only accompanied by the transition to PCI Express 4.0 connections to the graphics card and M.2 SSD. The M21 model generation of the CORE laptops also integrates a Thunderbolt 4 connection for the first time and introduces extended options for CPU undervolting and memory tuning.

Just this January, XMG introduced the E21 model generation of its CORE laptops with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 and either AMD or Intel processors. Following the launch of the new 11th generation Core processors, the Intel-based versions of the XMG CORE 15 and CORE 17 (M21) now receive an update to the latest eight-core CPU i7-11800H. This is still accompanied by a GeForce RTX 3060 in the maximum configuration with a TGP of up to 130 watts, including 15 watts Dynamic Boost 2.0. A MUX switch allows NVIDIA Optimus to be disabled via the BIOS.

When Intel launched its Tiger Lake processors for laptops, the company has foreseen a smooth integration by OEMs and plenty of design wins. While that has turned out to be true, there seems to be a big problem lurking in the OEM component supply chain. In the new Tiger Lake systems, the CPU carries support for Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 technologies. However, these protocols can not work on their own, as they require external power delivery controllers (PDC) to function. These PDCs are used to regulate and control all of the power circulating in the USB specification, and they come in a form of a separate chip. This chip is later integrated into PCBs of various systems implementing these technologies.

Today, we have a report coming from Igor's LAB, in which we are told that the availability of these chips could be very bad. Intel's OEMs are using Texas Instruments (TI) 994AD PDC, however, as the supply of these chips becomes scarce, OEMs are turning to TI 993AC/994AC chips. Intel advises OEMs, carrying these chips in their systems, to only communicate benefits of Thunderbolt 4 and exclude USB 4 mentions, or to communicate benefits of Thunderbolt 4 and reference USB 4 "compatibility." This means that every OEM using the alternative chips will get Intel's Thunderbolt 4 certifications, as the company plans to temporarily issue certifications with these chips included, while the supply chain regulates. TI's 993AC/994AC are assumed to not have the power and regulation capability of the USB 4 as the 994AD PDC can.

The recently announced flagship Intel i7-1195G7 11th generation Tiger Lake mobile processor with a 5.0 GHz single turbo clock has recently been tested in Geekbench V5. The processor achieved an extremely impressive score of 1700 points in single-core performance which puts it above many desktop-class processors including the Ryzen 5000X lineup and only just below Intel's Rocket Lake-S desktop processors. The benchmarks come from a pre-production CLEVO NV4XMJ unit with the processor scoring between 1662 to 1700 points across three samples. We expect further benchmarks for the new processor to be available imminently as the CPU is already available in select products.