AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) and Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) today released the following statement related to the status of global regulatory approvals for AMD's proposed acquisition of Xilinx. "We continue making good progress on the required regulatory approvals to close our transaction. While we had previously expected that we would secure all approvals by the end of 2021, we have not yet completed the process and we now expect the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2022. Our conversations with regulators continue to progress productively, and we expect to secure all required approvals."

There are no additional changes to the previously announced terms or plans regarding the transaction and the companies continue to look forward to the proposed combination creating the industry's high-performance and adaptive computing leader.

If you've been waiting for more details about AMD's next mobile platform, then you're in luck, as the motherload has dropped today, with lots of details about the new Rembrandt APU's that are launching next year. Not only has a picture of the first motherboard, with adhering laptop showed up, but we also have a mostly complete block diagram and a list of expected SKU's, even though not all SKU models are revealed as yet.

AMD's Rembrandt APU will be its first APU with PCIe 4.0 support, which in itself might not be worth the wait, but if paired with the right GPU, this might help increase the performance somewhat compared to the previous generation of APUs from AMD. The bigger news is USB4 support, plus a new GPU which we so far don't know too much about, but it's speculated that it'll be called Radeon RX 680M and should offer 12 compute units. DDR5 memory support is also expected, so Rembrandt clearly has a new memory controller, since the APU is still based on the Zen 3 architecture.

The image upscaling wars keep grassing, with AMD and NVIDIA claiming as many integrations as possible for their respective FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) and DLSS (Deep-Learning Super Sampling) technologies in a bid to achieve maximum market share for their respective technologies. While the entire world was now focusing on Intel's own addition to the image upscaling wars with its XeSS (XE SuperSampling) tech, AMD is apparently looking to introduce a new upscaling tech as early as January 2022. Enter Radeon Super Resolution (RSR).

Right off the bat, do not expect RSR to be AMD's answer to the perceived image quality advantage of NVIDIA's deep-learning-powered DLSS compared to AMD's more open (and cross-hardware compatible) FSR. Instead, AMD seems to be targeting RSR as a game-agnostic upscaling solution that's based on FSR, but which can be enabled at the Radeon driver level for any game that supports exclusive full-screen rendering. AMD is seemingly moving its image upscaling technique further up in the graphics pipeline, which should impact upscaling quality (as there's less information for the image upscaler to work with). What this does enable, however, is an agnostic solution that can be deployed in any game - provided you're rocking one of the two rumored architectures that will support RSR (RDNA and RDNA2, in the form of AMD's RX-5000 and RX-6000 series). Considering the expected release of RSR, it's likely that AMD will have an official announcement around CES 2022, despite the fact that the company won't be physically present due to COVID-19 and logistics concerns.

AMD's first GPU built on the N6 (6 nm) silicon fabrication process isn't some big RX 7000 series behemoth, but the smallest chip from the Navi 2x GPU family, codenamed Navi 24. Based on the same RDNA2 graphics architecture as the rest of the RX 6000 series, the Navi 24 physically packs 1,024 stream processors across 16 compute units (8 WGPs), and on the RX 6500 XT, reportedly comes with 4 GB of memory across a 64-bit wide memory bus. The chip also packs a tiny 16 MB Infinity Cache. VideoCardz scored the first renders of the upcoming Radeon RX 6500 XT and RX 6400, which are based on the Navi 24. The RX 6500 XT features a full-height, 2-slot board design that uses a simple aluminium monoblock fan-heatsink. The RX 6400, on the other hand, is not just low-profile (half-height), but also single-slot.

Update Dec 28th: Unless we're mistaken, the SMDs near the PCIe interface in those renders seem to suggest that the GPU features a PCIe x4 interface. This should offer sufficient bandwidth for a GPU in this segment, and should help lower the pin-count of the GPU, as well as board costs.

Highly considered by the masses as the best budget-friendly performer, BIOSTAR's A320MH motherboard finally gets a BIOS update to support AMD's 5000 series processors. BIOSTAR A320MH users now have the opportunity to upgrade their systems to the latest AMD's 5000 series processors and get a significant boost in performance and productivity out of their systems. With BIOSTAR's official BIOS patch version A32ESB17, users can upgrade to a range of new processors like the Ryzen 7 5800X.

We can see many motherboard manufacturers follow BIOSTAR's approach providing a new version of BIOS for their A320 motherboards to support AMD Zen 3 processors. This move is undoubtedly a great boon for users of the A320MH motherboard extending the product use cycle even further. Ryzen 5000 series supporting processors list for A320MH motherboard. It is important to note that the updated AMD Ryzen 5000 series is only supported but does not include the 5000G series APU. This is because of limitations of BIOS ROM capacity; the updated Bristol Ridge processor will no longer be supported.

DOWNLOAD: BIOSTAR A320MH BIOS Update

AMD in its 8-K filing with the SEC, disclosed that it has updated its wafer supply agreement (WSA) with GlobalFoundries. Under the latest agreement, AMD commits to buy $2.1 billion worth wafers from GlobalFoundries between 2022 and 2025. The previous version of the WSA saw commitments up to 2024, and wafers worth $1.6 billion. The update hence adds another year and $500 million worth supply.

AMD currently sources 12 nm and 14 nm wafers from GlobalFoundries, which go into making cIOD and sIOD components in its processors, and motherboard chipsets. The move to extend the WSA indicates that the company may continue to use 12 nm-class I/O dies in its processors for the foreseeable future. It will be very interesting to see if 12 nm-class I/O dies make it to next-generation products such as "Genoa" and "Rapael," which integrate the latest IP blocks such as PCI-Express Gen 5 root-complexes, DDR5 memory controllers, and 3rd Gen Infinity Fabric. Processors with 12 nm I/O dies, such as "Milan" and "Vermeer" could be retired only by 2023-24, as AMD will use 2022 to spread across its next-gen product launches.

There has been some discussion as to whether or not AMD would launch any Zen 3 based Threadripper processors or not, considering that the desktop processors have been out for well over a year by now. According to igor's Lab, we now know that AMD is very close to launching some new 5000-series Threadripper Pro CPU's—codename Chagall—that fits into AMD's sWRX8 socket, which is intended for high-end workstations and servers.

It appears AMD is planning to launch five new CPUs, namely the 5995WX, 5975WX, 5965WX, 5955WX and 5945WX. All of the CPUs appear to have a maximum, single core boost clock of 4550 MHz and range from 12 to 64 cores, with a TDP of 280 W and a power range of 170 to 260 Watts. Up to eight channels of DDR4 3200 MHz is supported and up to 128 PCIe 4.0 are expected to be featured as well. For those hoping there would be an HEDT version, we have bad news, as based on what we've found out independently and the information provided by igor's Lab, there won't be any HEDT Chagall CPUs, at least not at this point in time. This means that the upgrade path for sTRX4 motherboards ended up being as bad as for the older TR4 motherboards, as AMD has now abandoned two HEDT platforms in a row.

As the year ends, one of the biggest consumer trade shows, CES, is on the horizon, and manufacturers are ready to present the work that will become real throughout the year. AMD will offer a keynote at the CES 2022 press conference, and we expect to hear more about the upcoming Zen3 processors with 3D V-cache stacked in them. However, what is interesting is that we may listen to more details about Zen4 core. In an exclusive interview conducted by Antony Leather, Forbes contributor and the person behind CrazyTechLab, AMD CTO Mark Papermaster started the hype machine by sharing that AMD will announce some Zen4 core details at the CES 2022 conference.

AMD CTO Mark PapermasterWith regards to the upcoming generation - I point to CES in January. We're excited to be revealing some additional details on our new product launches that will deliver phenomenal experiences and as we've said, later in the year as it progresses we'll share more detail on Zen 4 with some mentioned at CES and more announcements on it over the course of 2022. It will be a very exciting year for AMD.

The new normal ushered in by the pandemic will not only become the driving force of digital transformation but will also continue to drive the server market in 2022, according to TrendForce's investigations. It is worth noting that potential unmet demand in 2021 and the risk of future server component shortages will become medium and long-term variables that influence the market. Analyzing the shipment volume of completed servers, a growth rate of approximately 4-5% in completed server shipments is expected next year with primary shipment dynamics remaining concentrated in North American data centers with an annual growth rate of approximately 13-14%. From the supply chain perspective, the ODM Direct business model has gradually replaced the business model of the traditional server market, giving cloud service providers the ability to respond quickly to market changes. However, based on the unpredictability of the market, TrendForce assumes two forecasts for server growth trends. One, the supply situation of key components is effectively improved. Two, the supply situation of key components is exacerbated.

As we approach the next generation of AMD's Ryzen processors, accompanying chipsets will follow the launch of their main co-host device. Enabling different levels of features across the new processor generation, chipset versions are limiting the number of options a platform offers to the end-user. AMD is designing its motherboard chipsets in collaboration with a Taiwanese design firm ASMedia. They usually develop a few chipset types covering low-end, middle-end, and high-end motherboards segments. However, it seems like the high-end motherboard segment could be populated with the same silicon as the middle-end section of the chipset stack; note a few Chinese forum members on BiliBili.

As they note, the high-end AMD X670 chipset could be a multi-chip module (MCM) design incorporating two middle-end B650 chipsets. A combination of two B650 dies is allegedly forming an X670 chipset, and that is what AMD could force motherboard makers to use. By doing so, the Mini-ITX motherboard form factor could be challenging to design and manufacture, meaning that the package of the X670 chipset could be rather extensive. This rumor should, of course, be taken with a massive grain of salt as we don't know how this would function. However, it financially makes sense as AMD wouldn't need to design and request manufacturing for an additional chipset variant.

EK, the premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing a new AMD AM4 socket-based monoblock belonging to the Quantum Line of products, the EK-Quantum Momentum² ROG Strix X570-I Gaming D-RGB. This monoblock is engineered specifically for the ROG Strix X570-I Gaming ITX motherboard from ASUS. The addressable D-RGB LED in the monoblock is compatible with ASUS Aura Sync RGB control and offers a full lighting customization experience for every single diode at any given time. This monoblock is EK-Matrix7 compatible.

This is a complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for Ryzen AMD processors and the monoblock is compatible with the AM4 socketed ROG Strix X570-I Gaming motherboard. This monoblock uses the latest generation of EK Velocity² cooling engine to ensure the best possible CPU cooling while not reducing flow to other components. This water block directly cools the AM4 Ryzen CPU, VRM section, and importantly the X570 Chipset which tends to run quite hot. This eliminates the need for any fans on the motherboard.

In recent years, government institutions have been funding the development of home-grown hardware that will power the government infrastructure. This trend was born out of a desire to design chips with no back doors implemented so that no foreign body could monitor the government's processes. Today, Russian company Baikal Electronics managed to boot up the Baikal-S processor with 48 cores based on Arm Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). The processor codenamed BE-S1000 manages to operate 48 cores at a 2.0 GHz base frequency, with a maximum boost of 2.5 GHz clock speed. All of that is achieved at the TDP of 120 Watts, making this design very efficient.

When it comes to some server configurations, the Baikal-S processor run in up to four sockets in a server board. It offers a home-grown RISC-V processor for safe boot and management, so the entire SoC is controlled by a custom design. Baikal Electronics provided some benchmark numbers, which you can see in the slides below. They cover SPEC2006 CPU Integer, Coremark, Whetstone, 7Zip, and HPLinkpack performance. Additionally, the company claims that Baikal-S is in line with Intel Xeon Gold 6148 Skylake design and AMD EPYC 7351 CPU based on Zen1 core. Compared to Huawei's Kunpeng 920, the Baikal-S design provides 0.86x performance.

AMD is preparing to update its Ryzen Threadripper PRO line of workstation processors, with product announcements slated for January 2022, along the sidelines of CES, with availability slated for March 8, 2022, according to a VideoCardz report. The new Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5000 series processors are likely to combine "Zen 3+" CCDs (6 nm, featuring 3D Vertical Cache memory), with full sWRX8 I/O that includes 128 PCI-Express Gen 4 lanes, and 8-channel DDR4 memory. There are no sTRX4 options on the horizon.

What's interesting with the lineup is that CPU core-counts range all the way from 12-core/24-thread to 64-core/128-thread. Past generations of Threadripper WX stuck with higher core-counts (32 and up). The series begins with the Threadripper PRO 5945WX (12-core/24-thread), followed by the PRO 5955WX (16-core/32-thread), the PRO 5965WX (24-core/48-thread), PRO 5975WX (32-core/64-thread), and the 64-core/128-thread PRO 5995WX. There's no 48-core part in the stack. The TDP of all these chips is rated at 280 W.

AMD's next generation Radeon "Navi 3x" line of GPUs could see a 50% increase in shaders and a doubling Infinity Cache memory size, according to some educated-guesswork and intelligence by Greymon55, a reliable source with GPU leaks. The Navi 31, Navi 32, and Navi 33 chips are expected to debut the new RDNA3 graphics architecture, and succeed the 6 nm optical-shrinks of existing Navi 2x chips that AMD is rumored to be working on.

The top Navi 31 part allegedly features 60 workgroup processors (WGPs), or 120 compute units. Assuming an RDNA3 CU still holds 64 stream processors, you're looking at 7,680 stream processors, a 50% increase over Navi 21. The Navi 32 silicon features 40 WGPs, and exactly the same number of shaders as the current Navi 21, at 5,120. The smallest of the three, the Navi 33, packs 16 WGPs, or 2,048 shaders. There is a generational doubling in cache memory, with 256 MB on the Navi 31, 192 MB on the Navi 32, and 64 MB on the Navi 33. Interestingly, the memory sizes and bus widths are unchanged, but AMD could leverage faster GDDR6 memory types. 2022 will see the likes of Samsung ship GDDR6 chips with data-rates as high as 24 Gbps.

The semicondustor market in 3Q21 is red hot with total revenue of the global top 10 IC design (fabless) companies reaching US$33.7 billion or 45% growth YoY, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. In addition to the Taiwanese companies MediaTek, Novatek, and Realtek already on the list, Himax comes in at number ten, bringing the total number of Taiwanese companies on the top 10 list to 4.

Qualcomm has been buoyed by continuing robust demand for 5G mobile phones form major mobile phone manufacturers with further revenue growth from its processor and radio frequency front end (RFFE) departments. Qualcomm's IoT department benefited from strong demand in the consumer electronics, edge networking, and industrial sectors, posting revenue growth of 66% YoY, highest among Qualcomm departments. In turn, this drove Qualcomm's total 3Q21 revenue to US$7.7 billion, 56% growth YoY, and ranking first in the world.

According to the latest round of rumors coming from tech media VideoCardz, Intel could be preparing an answer to AMD's 3D V-cache in the form of... pre-binned Core i9-12900KS? As per the report, Intel could be making a pre-binned, pre-overclocked Core i9-12900KS processor with an all-core turbo boost frequency of 5.2 GHz. This alleged clock speed will push the processor to some fantastic heights and increase the overall performance of the regular Core i9-12900K processor. With AMD's Ryzen processors with 3D V-cache incoming, Intel has prepared this solution to keep up with the increasing pressure from AMD.

So far, we don't know the specific requirements for Core i9-12900KS to reach 5.2 GHz. However, we assume that Voltage needs a big boost, making cooling and power supply requirements increase. This special edition Alder Lake design should launch around the same time frame that AMD reveals its 3D V-cache enabled Ryzen processors, so Intel doesn't let AMD steal the performance crown.

After a very long reign of the most popular water block on the market, the EK-Quantum Velocity, it's time to make the Quantum leap yet again. The next generation EK Quantum Line water block - the EK-Quantum Velocity² enters the stage in full D-RGB glory. The water block features EK-Matrix7 compatibility, a standard where increments of 7 mm manage the height of products and the distance between ports. This product uses a socket-specific cooling engine to ensure the best performance and optimal flow with low restrictions on every platform. Three years after the original Velocity water block launch, EK is officially launching the Velocity² AM4, which is engineered for the popular AMD AM4 socket and Ryzen series desktop processors. Other Velocity² CPU water blocks will also follow shortly, tuned specifically for each CPU socket and IHS geometry on the market.

This new water block kept the name "Velocity" because it retained the ability to be responsive and agile in the world of liquid cooling. Embedded in the Velocity² is a next-generation EK CPU water block cooling engine that is socket-specific. A combination of mounting pressure and cold plate geometry, tailored for the IHS and die layout of AMD AM4 socket processors, is used to achieve low hydraulic flow restriction and high performance. Thе lathe-turned cold plate is made with precision to cover the IHS effectively and put optimal pressure on the die area. Flow is also being directed into areas that need it most.

Quite possibly the first sighting of a next-generation AMD processor with DDR5 memory surfaced on the web. A BAPCo CrossMark Database entry references a prototype processor with the name-string "AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000560-40_Y," running on a platform titled "ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. M3402RA." The chip has 16 GB of memory across 2 memory channels, and a memory frequency of 4800 MHz DDR. The platform here could be either a desktop motherboard, or a notebook. 4800 MHz is an unusual memory speed for a mobile platform, unless it's a single stick of DDR5-4800 SO-DIMM, with two 40-bit channels.

The first notebooks with DDR5 memory make landfall early next year, when Intel launches mobile variants of its 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" processors. This would mean that DDR5 SO-DIMMs are already in circulation with OEMs. If the theory of this being a mobile chip holds true, it could very well be the "Rembrandt" APU that combines "Zen 3+" CPU cores with an iGPU based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture. If however the platform is a prototype Socket AM5 motherboard, it could be one of the first sightings of a next-generation "Raphael" desktop processor with "Zen 4" CPU cores, and a combination of DDR5 memory and PCI-Express Gen 5.

Managing massive datasets is excessively complex and costly. Today, Seagate Technology Holdings plc, a world leader in mass-data storage infrastructure solutions, announced the new Exos Application Platform (AP) with a new controller featuring 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processors. The efficient, scalable, affordable end-to-end compute and storage platform delivers integrated compute and storage in a single enclosure optimizing rack space utilization, power efficiency, heat dissipation, and storage density.

The need for advanced storage solutions continues to rise to unprecedented levels with the ever-increasing growth in data generation. According to a report commissioned by Seagate and conducted by the research firm IDC, Rethink Data, enterprise data is expected to grow at an average rate of 42.2% over the next two years. The survey, which was conducted by IDC, also found that only 32% of data available to enterprises is put to work. The remaining 68% is unleveraged.

NVIDIA has reportedly pushed midlife refreshes to its GeForce RTX 30-series "Ampere" graphics card family to beyond January, according to a report by Igor's Lab. The company was supposed to launch as many as three high-end graphics card SKUs in early-Q1, which include a 16 GB variant of the RTX 3070 Ti, which maxes out the GA104 silicon, a refreshed RTX 3080 12 GB variant, which keeps the CUDA core count of the original RTX 3080, but maxes out the 384-bit memory bus width of the GA102; and the RTX 3090 Ti, which maxes out both memory and CUDA cores on the GA102.

It's being reported that while the RTX 3090 Ti launch is on schedule, with announcements slated for NVIDIA's 2022 International CES presentation; the RTX 3070 Ti 16 GB and RTX 3080 12 GB could be launched only after the Chinese New Year (at least mid-February). The three SKUs, we predict, are designed to calibrate NVIDIA's lineup against a possible refresh of AMD's RDNA2 graphics architecture on the TSMC N6 (6 nm) node, which could allow the company to dial up engine clocks across the board, along with faster 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory, to better compete against the RTX 30-series. AMD is expected to announce these 6 nm GPUs in its CES presentation.

AMD today announced that AMD President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su will host its 2022 Product Premiere on January 4, 2022. Dr. Su will highlight innovations and solutions featuring upcoming AMD Ryzen processors and AMD Radeon graphics. The AMD Product Premiere livestream will be accessible to the public beginning at 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday, January 4 at AMD.com; replays will be available after the conclusion of the livestream event. The link to the AMD 2022 Product Premiere event page can be found below.

XFX started selling the AMD BC-160 cryptocurrency mining card based on the AMD "Navi 12" silicon. The card is available on AliExpress for $2,000. The "Navi 12," if you recall, is an MCM mobile GPU that AMD developed exclusively for the 2019 MacBook Pro. It combined an RDNA-based GPU die with up to 16 GB of HBM2 across a 2048-bit wide interface. Built on the 7 nm node, the GPU die of "Navi 12" on the BC-160 is configured with 36 compute units (2,304 stream processors), and 8 GB of HBM2 across the full 2048-bit memory bus.

The card uses a blower-type cooling solution, and is rated with 150 W of typical board power, with a claimed 69.5 Mh/s (ETH). Drivers are provided for Linux, and mining software supported include Team Red Miner and Phoenix Miner. The card features a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 interface, its driver supports systems with up to 12 of these installed. A marketing slide sheds light on the nomenclature AMD is using for its mining cards. The "BC" in BC-160 represents "blockchain compute," the "1" stands for generation, in this case, first generation; and "60" represents hashrate-class with ETH.

Just yesterday, thanks to the Linux driver update, we found information stating that AMD's upcoming EPYC Genoa processor generation based on Zen 4 core IP will have a 12-channel memory controller. However, we didn't know how AMD engineered the memory controller of this processor generation and some of its maximum capabilities. However, there is an exciting discovery. According to the report from ComputerBase, with information exclusive to them, AMD will enable up to 12 TB of DDR5 memory spread across 12 memory channels. The processor supports DDR5-5200 memory, but when all 24 memory slots (two per channel) are populated, the DDR5 maximum speed drops to 4000 MT/s.

It is unclear why this is the case, and if any difficulties were designing the controller, so the maximum speed drops when every slot is used. One reassuring thing is that the bandwidth created by 12 memory channels should be sufficient to make up for the lost speed of DDR5 memory reduction.

Since the introduction of the NUC by Intel some years ago, the mini PC space has taken off and one of the more popular NUC alternatives has been the BRIX series from Gigabyte and the company has just announced the BRIX Extreme. This is Gigabyte's first BRIX series based on the AMD Ryzen 5000U series of APUs and three different options will be available, in the shape of the R3-5300U, R5-5500U and the R7-5700U. This translates to four, six and eight core CPUs with a 15 W TDP, although these are all Zen 2 based, rather than Zen 3, which is slightly disappointing.

This is also one of the first device we've seen that uses the new AMD RZ608 WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module which was announced a little while back. Other features include 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, an M.2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe slot for an SSD, two HDMI 2.0a ports, a mini DP port port and a USB-C port with DP Alt mode, both supporting DP 1.4 and all display outputs can be used concurrently with four 4K displays. Gigabyte will offer the BRIX Extreme in a low profile chassis as well as a slightly bigger chassis that can either house a 2.5-inch SATA drive, or an optional expansion module.

AMD is allegedly preparing to announce the Radeon RX 6000S mobile graphics card based on a refreshed RDNA 2 architecture. The new card will be manufactured on TSMC's N6 process which offers an 18% logic density improvement over the N7 process currently used for RDNA 2 products resulting in increased efficiency or performance. The switch to the IP compatible N6 node should also improve yields and shorten production cycles allowing AMD to remain competitive with new cards from NVIDIA and Intel. We have limited information on this alleged card except that it will likely be announced in early 2022 at CES and that AMD may also release discrete RX 6000S series desktop graphics cards.