Intel is giving its "Raptor Lake" client processor architecture an update in the second half of 2023, called simply "Raptor Lake Refresh." When we first heard about this development back in December 2022, there were two theories on how Intel could name these processors. The first one suggested that it would take the same path as "Coffee Lake Refresh" (9th Gen Core), and give "Raptor Lake Refresh" a whole new generational number scheme (14th Gen Core); while the other held that it would try to carve out new processor model numbers within the 13th Gen, like it did with "Haswell Refresh" (4th Gen Core).

Channel vendors in Taiwan are being communicated that the desktop "Raptor Lake Refresh-S" and mainstream notebook "Raptor Lake Refresh-H" will be the final generation of Core i processors (to retain the current nomenclature), and will be slotted as 14th Gen Core. The top desktop SKU could be named "Core i9-14900K," for example. The ultraportable "Raptor Lake Refresh-U" will be the first generation with the new nomenclature Core branding, while "Meteor Lake" will receive the Core Ultra branding, as it has next-generation CPU cores, iGPU, and an on-package AI accelerator.

Intel is planning to update its desktop processor product-stack in the second half of 2023 with the Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" series. A VideoCardz report suggests that these chips could remain a part of the 13th Gen Core series, and Intel will not carve the 14th Gen Core out of them. This would be similar to how Intel dealt with delays in the commissioning of its 14 nm node by releasing the "Haswell Refresh" and "Devil's Canyon" processors within the 4th Gen Core family. Intel tried something different with "Coffee Lake Refresh," by branding it inside the 9th Gen Core series, instead of keeping it within the 8th Gen Core. This was done because Intel updated the CPU core-counts of its Core i7 SKUs, and introduced the new Core i9 brand extension for the mainstream-desktop segment.

If 4th Gen Core "Haswell Refresh" is anything to go by, Intel could use updated xx50 processor model numbers for "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors. An example of such a naming scheme would be the Core i9-13950K, which succeeds the i9-13900K (the i9-13900KS is a limited edition / limited-release SKU). At this point we don't know what exactly constitutes this Refresh, other than the high likelihood of clock-speed increases across the board. It's possible that Intel may innovate in the areas of die-thinning, die-binning, and process-level power improvements that open up room for these higher clock-speeds (which is what Intel did with 10th Gen "Comet Lake"). These processors could be built in the existing Socket LGA1700 package, and be compatible with existing Intel 600-series and 700-series chipset motherboards, requiring a UEFI firmware update.

Intel's 2023 roadmap for the desktop processor segment sees the company flesh out its 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" desktop family with 65 W (locked) SKUs, and the new i9-13900KS flagship; followed by a new lineup of processors under the "Raptor Lake Refresh" family, due for Q3-2023, with no mentions of a desktop "Meteor Lake" processor in the year. It turns out that "Raptor Lake Refresh" is being designed to fill in for these (i.e. there won't be any "Meteor Lake" desktop chips). This, according to OneRaichu, a reliable source with Intel leaks.

"Meteor Lake" is Intel's first client processor to fully incorporate the company's IDM 2.0 product development strategy of disintegrating the processor into multiple chiplets built on various foundry nodes based on design needs; and combining them onto a single package with a high-performance interconnect. "Meteor Lake" has just one problem and that is CPU core-counts, with rumors pointing to 6P+16E (6 performance cores + 16 efficiency cores) being the maximum core-count possible, something Intel probably feels won't be competitive in the desktop segment against AMD, which will probably have a lineup of "Zen 4" X3D processors out by Q3-2023, with up to 16 P-cores. The company will, however, give "Meteor Lake" a sizable launch in the various mobile segments.

Intel as part of its development process with industry partners and OEMs, allegedly released technical documents in a bare URL that's worded to confirm that its next desktop processor socket will in fact be the LGA1851. We've had some idea since June 2021 that LGA1851 will succeed LGA1700, but this can be taken as a confirmation. Although with a higher pin-count, the LGA1851 package will be physically of an identical size to LGA1700, with mostly identical socket mechanism, so the new socket could maintain cooler compatibility with its predecessor. The additional 151 pins come from shrinking the "courtyard" (the region of the land grid in the center that lacks pins and instead has some electrical ancillaries).

The new Socket LGA1851 platform is expected to power Intel's "Meteor Lake-S" and "Arrow Lake-S" microarchitectures. Whether "Meteor Lake-S" gets the 14th Gen Core branding is a whole different question. Leaked benchmarks suggest that 2023 will be a rather slow year from Intel in the area of desktop processors, and that toward Q3-2023, the company will release the so-called "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors. These chips are likely built on the same LGA1700 package, and as we've seen from "Coffee Lake Refresh," could warrant a new generational branding to 14th Gen Core (as CFL Refresh formed the 9th Gen Core). Intel could increase clock-speeds, E-core counts, and other process/packaging-level innovations to segment these chips apart from existing 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake." LGA1851 processors like "Meteor Lake" could debut chiplets for Intel, as these have their CPU cores, iGPU, memory-controllers, and uncore components, spread apart on chiplets built on various foundry nodes.

AAEON, an industry leader in embedded industrial computing, announces the BOXER-6842M, the latest solution in high performance industrial computing. Powered by the 8th and 9th Generation Intel Core processors and supporting graphics cards up to 250 W for video capturing applications, the BOXER-6842M is designed for the most intensive applications from Edge AI server to automated optical inspection (AOI).

The BOXER-6842M features the 8th and 9th Generation Intel Core i9/i7/i5/i3 and Xeon E processors (formerly Coffee Lake/Coffee Lake Refresh), offering top end computing performance. Paired with up to 128 GB of SODIMM memory, the system is designed to deliver the best performance possible to handle processing intensive machine vision and AI applications. Additionally, the BOXER-6842M supports graphics cards up to 250 W TDP without the need of a secondary power supply, making setup and deployment even easier.

Axiomtek - a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted in the research, development and manufacture of series of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency - is pleased to announce the IMB525R, its new server-grade ATX motherboard powered by the Intel Xeon E, 9th/8th generation Intel Core, Intel Pentium or Intel Celeron processors with the Intel C246 chipset.

The ATX motherboard offers optimum processor performance, unparalleled flexibility, rich I/O expandability and superior graphics performance; additionally, the server-grade platform supports Error-Correcting Code (ECC) memory which provides improved data integrity and system reliability through automatic data correction. It also features five SATA-600 ports with software RAID 0/1/5/10 for reliable data storage and protection. The IMB525R is specifically suited for industrial workstations, embedded networks, factory automation, robotic motion control, machine vision, and testing and measurement.

Intel Monday revised prices of select 9th generation Core "Coffee Lake Refresh" desktop processor models. These price cuts target the "F" and "KF" brand extensions, which denote a lack of integrated graphics. The price cuts range from 5 percent to 20 percent, and cover key fast-moving SKUs popular with the DIY gaming PC crowd that likes to pair these chips with discrete graphics cards. The entry-level Core i3-9100F gets the biggest cut of the lot. The 4-core/4-thread chip is now selling for USD $97, a 20 percent cut from its $122 MSRP.

Other noteworthy cuts include the popular Core i5-9400F 6-core/6-thread processor, which is now going for $157, compared to its $182 original price. This chip has seen sub-$160 pricing in promotional sales on popular e-tailers such as Newegg. The Core i7-9700F and i7-9700KF are the other popular SKUs among the premium gaming PC build crowd. The two 8-core/8-thread chips are now priced at $298 and $349, respectively. Leading the pack is the Core i9-9900KF, which is going for $463, a small 5% saving over the i9-9900K which you can spend elsewhere, such as slightly faster RAM.

AMD X570 is the company's first in-house design desktop motherboard chipset for the AM4 platform. The company sourced earlier generations of chipset from ASMedia. A chipset in context of the AM4 platform only serves to expand I/O connectivity, since an AM4 processor is a full-fledged SoC, with an integrated southbridge that puts out SATA and USB ports directly from the CPU socket, in addition to LPCIO (ISA), HD audio bus, and SPI to interface with the firmware ROM chip. The X470 "Promontory Low Power" chipset runs really cool, with a maximum TDP of 5 Watts, and the ability to lower power to get its TDP down to 3W. The X570, on the other hand, has a TDP of "at least 15 Watts." A majority of the X570 motherboards we've seen at Computex 2019 had active fan-heatsinks over the chipset. We may now have a possible explanation for this - there are just too many things on the chipset.

According to AMD, the X570 chipset by itself can be made to put out a staggering twelve SATA 6 Gbps ports (not counting the two ports put out by the AM4 SoC). A possible rationale behind this may have been to enable motherboard designers to equip every M.2 slot on the motherboard with SATA wiring in addition to PCIe, without needing switches that reroute SATA connection from one of the physical ports. It's also possible that AMD encouraged motherboard designers to not wire out SATA ports from the AM4 SoC as physical ports to save costs on switches, and dedicate one of them to the M.2 slot wired to the SoC. With the two SATA ports from the SoC out of the equation, and every other M.2 slot getting a direct SATA connection from the chipset, motherboard designers can wire out the remaining SATA ports as physical ports, without spending money on switches, or worrying about customer complaints on one of their drives not working due to automatic switching. This is an extreme solution to a rather simple problem.

AMD in its technical brief revealed that its Zen 2 microarchitecture has hardware mitigation against the Spectre V4 speculative store bypass vulnerability. The current generation "Zen" and "Zen+" microarchitectures have OS-level mitigation. A hardware mitigation typically has less of a performance overhead than a software mitigation deployed at the OS or firmware level. In addition, just like older generations of "Zen," the new "Zen 2" microarchitecture is inherently immune to Meltdown, Foreshadow, Spectre V3a, Lazy FPU, Spoiler, and the recently discovered MDS vulnerability. In comparison, the 9th generation Core "Coffee Lake Refresh" processors still rely on software or microcode-level mitigation for Spectre V4, Spectre V3a, MDS, and RIDL.

With 7 nm AMD Ryzen 3000 processor family expected to make landfall early-July, and "Ice Lake" nowhere in sight, a panicked Intel announced the development of the Core i9-9900KS 8-core/16-thread LGA1151 processor. Based on the 14 nm "Coffee Lake Refresh" silicon, this processor has a base-frequency of 4.00 GHz, up from 3.60 GHz of the original; and an all-core Turbo Boost frequency of 5.00 GHz, identical to the original i9-9900K, which has its max-turbo set at 5.00 GHZ, too. A revamped Turbo Boost algorithm is expected to yield significant gains in multi-core performance. The company didn't reveal TDP, pricing, or availability.

Intel is readying a new stepping of 9th generation Core processors, which could require motherboard BIOS updates. ASUS released a statement in which it mentions that Intel is preparing to launch processors based on the new stepping of "Coffee Lake Refresh" silicon from Q2-2019. It goes on to say that BIOS updates have been released for its entire line of Intel 300-series chipset motherboards for supporting the new stepping. The company doesn't mention what the stepping ID is, or what's different.

The statement reads: "ASUS has released BIOS updates for all 300 series motherboards, adding support for the forthcoming 9th Generation Intel Core processors based on new stepping. These processors are scheduled for launch in Q2, 2019. The latest BIOS updates are available for download now from the ASUS website." You can find these updated BIOS ROMs on the product page of your motherboard on ASUS website.

Japanese PC maker Fujitsu put out a definitive list of all 9th generation Core/Pentium/Celeron desktop processors as part of its updated desktop motherboard BIOS update document, expanding on the models Intel currently has out. Intel had, in January, stated that it will add several new 9th generation Core desktop processor models in Q1 2019, beginning with the Core i5-9400 and i5-9400F 6-core/6-thread processor, along with "KF" variants of the i5-9600K, i7-9700K, and i9-9900K, which lack integrated graphics. Later this month, the lineup could be expanded with new 9th generation Core i3 series, which includes the i3-9100 and i3-9300 4-core/4-thread processors, overclocker-friendly i3-9350K, and additions to the Core i5 lineup, including the i5-9500 and the i5-9600 (non-K).

Here's where it gets interesting. Apparently, the iGPU-devoid "F" extension is being applied to nearly all 9th gen Core SKUs, and not just the ones already launch. So, you can expect an i5-9500F, i5-9600F (besides the already launched i5-9600KF), i3-9100F, and i3-9350KF. Apparently Intel is harvesting dies with defective iGPUs to target DIY PC gamers who are bound to use discrete graphics cards. The 2-core/4-thread Pentium G5600 is also getting "F-ed," with the G5600F.

Intel finally disclosed specifications of its entire 9th generation Core "F" extension desktop processor SKUs. The ARK pages confirm the lack of integrated graphics solutions, although they won't mention if the iGPU is merely disabled or physically absent. Among these SKUs are the Core i9-9900KF, Core i7-9700KF, and Core i5-9600KF, which have the same exact CPU clock speeds as the the i9-9900K, i7-9700K, and i5-9600K, respectively.

The Core i3-9350K is a new kid on the block. This 4-core/4-thread chip ticks at 4.00 GHz, with 4.60 GHz Turbo Boost, and features 8 MB of shared L3 cache. The Core i5-9400F, again, is practically the same CPU as the i5-9400, with the exception of iGPU. Another interesting specification to note with these SKUs is their maximum memory amount, which has been reduced to 64 GB from 128 GB on the original "K" SKUs. As Intel announced in its Monday evening presentation, These six new SKUs will be rolled out over Q1-2019, beginning with the i5-9400 later this month. The "KF" and "F" SKUs will only come out after January, but before April.