Microsoft's $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard has been approved by EU regulators today - rumors emerged late last week that the bloc's executive arm, the European Commission, would give the takeover bid a thumbs up this week, with early indications that May 15 would be the day of declaration. EU antitrust regulators have let the acquisition pass due to commitments/reassurances from Microsoft relating to the cloud gaming sector. This is in sharp contrast to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) organization's judgment, who chose to block the deal in late April and have since added restrictions (as of late last week) via a new interim order.

EU antitrust regulators have found that Microsoft "would have no incentive to refuse to distribute Activision's games to Sony" and that "even if Microsoft did decide to withdraw Activision's games from the PlayStation, this would not significantly harm competition in the home gaming console market." But the European Union's competition regulators have found points of concern (much like the UK CMA's further investigations) and reckon that the segment could be disrupted in the area of cloud gaming services - on PC and console platforms. The body has received the promise of several remedies from Microsoft - these matters will be resolved through flexible terms - including a free license to consumers in EU countries that will grant stream access to "any cloud game streaming services of their choice" - with the ownership of Activision Blizzard PC and console titles (current and future). Cloud providers operating within EU markets will also be offered a free license to stream the Acti-Blizz library.

There are strong indications that Oppo is winding down its operations in France according to a report published by Frandroid last weekend, which goes against the company's denial that it was exiting several markets across the European Union, including France. Frandroid's investigative piece states that French retail workers had provided enough evidence, back in late March, for the publication to make the claim that Oppo was withdrawing from that region. The news outlet has gathered more insider information since then and now claims that a promotions company - Atmospheres - has not been contracted to help market Oppo's lastest smartphone models, including the Find N2 Flip. The agreement between the two firms was already set to end on June 30, but the promo team was expecting a renewal or extension - their boss finally admitted that it was all over and done with.

Frandroid has observed that Oppo is not updating its display material at big box stores, in particular Fnac Darty, and a salesperson confirmed that that they were only obligated to clear existing smartphone stock and related accessories. A former Oppo regional sales manager told the publication about a cessation of product training - under normal circumstances the team gets briefed about the latest products in advance, but the insider confides (under an alias): "We understood that they were leaving...We see the Find X coming out in China, oh no, it's not coming out in France. We see the new Reno phones arriving, will they be released in France? Neither. When the Find N2 Flip arrives, we are told of a store release, and then finally no, it is only available on the web store."

TSMC, a Taiwanese semiconductor giant, is reportedly talking to its partners to develop an $11 billion (€10 billion) factory in Germany with the help of a few European partners. Currently assessing the plant location for Saxony in Germany, the fab wouldn't only be exclusively made by TSMC but will bring in NXP, Bosch, and Infineon that, will create a budget of around 7 billion Euros, including state subsidies, while the total budget is leaning closer to 10 billion Euros in total. However, it is essential to note that TSMC is still assessing the possibility of a Europe-based plant altogether.

Asking for as much as 40% of the total investment to be European-backed subsidies, TSMC wants to create a European facility that will be focused on a growing sector--automotive. If approved in August, the TSMC plant will become the company's first European facility and will first focus on manufacturing 28 nm chips. As one of the first significant EU Chips Act €43 billion investment, it will heavily boost European semiconductor manufacturing.

Bosch is expanding its semiconductor business with silicon carbide chips. The technology company plans to acquire assets of the U.S. chipmaker TSI Semiconductors, based in Roseville, California. With a workforce of 250, the company is a foundry for application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs. Currently, it mainly develops and produces large volumes of chips on 200-millimeter silicon wafers for applications in the mobility, telecommunications, energy, and life sciences industries. Over the next years, Bosch intends to invest more than 1.5 billion USD in the Roseville site and convert the TSI Semiconductors manufacturing facilities to state-of-the-art processes. Starting in 2026, the first chips will be produced on 200-millimeter wafers based on the innovative material silicon carbide (SiC).

In this way, Bosch is systematically reinforcing its semiconductor business, and will have significantly extended its global portfolio of SiC chips by the end of 2030. Above all, the global boom and ramp-up of electromobility are resulting in huge demand for such special semiconductors. The full scope of the planned investment will be heavily dependent on federal funding opportunities available via the CHIPS and Science Act as well as economic development opportunities within the State of California. Bosch and TSI Semiconductors have reached an agreement to not to disclose any financial details of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval.

The European Union yesterday (April 18) has announced a substantial investment of $47 billion (€43 billion) as part of its already established plan to support native semiconductor industries. The European Parliament and EU member states have agreed upon new measures to boost the supply of semiconductors in Europe, as the bloc navigates a solution to reduce its dependency on manufacturers located in Asian territories. Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union, released his own statement about the agreement: "We have a deal on EU Chips Act! In a geopolitical context of de-risking, Europe is taking its destiny into its own hands. By mastering the most advanced semiconductors, EU will become an industrial powerhouse in markets of the future."

China and Taiwan are currently the dominant nations in the field of manufacture and export of semiconductor products. The European Union is also playing catch-up with North America, where the United States Chips and Science Act has been effect since last summer - around $280 billion in new funding will be meted out over time to boost domestic research and development, as well as manufacturing of semiconductors in the USA. Governing bodies around the world are shoring up domestic silicon-based manufacturing efforts in order to reduce reliance on products sourced from Asia - where supply chain issues and manufacturing delays have caused global shortages of essential electronic goods.

Intel Foundry Services (IFS) and Arm today announced a multigeneration agreement to enable chip designers to build low-power compute system-on-chips (SoCs) on the Intel 18A process. The collaboration will focus on mobile SoC designs first, but allow for potential design expansion into automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), data center, aerospace and government applications. Arm customers designing their next-generation mobile SoCs will benefit from leading-edge Intel 18A process technology, which delivers new breakthrough transistor technologies for improved power and performance, and from IFS's robust manufacturing footprint that includes U.S.- and EU-based capacity.

"There is growing demand for computing power driven by the digitization of everything, but until now fabless customers have had limited options for designing around the most advanced mobile technology," said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel Corporation. "Intel's collaboration with Arm will expand the market opportunity for IFS and open up new options and approaches for any fabless company that wants to access best-in-class CPU IP and the power of an open system foundry with leading-edge process technology."

Smartphone specialists Oppo and OnePlus have responded to the rumors of both companies exiting several European markets, as well as the UK. In a joint statement provided to Android Authority the message was a promise to stay put in 2023: "OPPO and OnePlus are committed to all the existing European markets. We had a great start in 2023 with the successful launches of several products in Europe and have a line-up of upcoming products for the rest of the year. As always, OPPO and OnePlus will continue to provide more innovative products and the best-in-class service for users moving forward."

Starting yesterday, industry tipsters issued posts about Oppo and OnePlus withdrawing from markets in Europe, with more immediate exits from key territories - France, Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The cited reasons for exiting the aforementioned markets include a massive slowdown in regional sales and legal cases levied by competitors in regard to patent infringements on Oppo's part. The lawsuits that were levied by Nokia have resulted in a number of Oppo and OnePlus devices being banned from sale in Germany.

A new directive from the EU wants its member states to implement new right to repair laws that require hardware manufacturers to repair products up to 10 years from the date of purchase. This also means that devices under warranty will have to be repaired, rather than replaced, to reduce the waste that the faulty devices would most likely have ended up producing. The key part of the new directive is device manufacturers now have to offer the right to repair long after warranties have expired, with some product categories being forced to offer parts for repair up to 10 years after the purchase date, if the customer demands it.

We're not just talking about home appliances here, but also phones and tablets, as well as other consumer electronics, as well as commercial computers. That said, some devices will only be required to have a five year supply of parts and components, which makes sense for some more affordable products. The directive also calls for a union wide "repair matchmaking platform" that should make it easier for consumers to get their products repaired. However, the Right to Repair coalition calls the new directive a missed opportunity, as it wants the right to repair to be universal, but it says that the new directive is at least a step in the right direction. The biggest concern about the new directive is that it doesn't mention anything about the cost of the repairs, so we could end up seeing price gouging on spare parts and repair costs, which would make the new directive moot, as it could be cheaper getting a new product rather than having it repaired.

AAEON, a leading manufacturer of industrial-grade server solutions, has announced the release of the ZEUS-WHI0 4U Rackmount Whitely Platform Server System. The ZEUS-WHI0 is AAEON's first system-level solution to utilize a 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processor (formerly Ice Lake-SP). With up to 40 cores and 80 threads, this platform provides server-grade power while also benefitting from peripheral technologies such as Intel Crypto Acceleration, Intel VT-x, and Intel AES-NI.

Equipped with seven PCIe slots with up to Gen 4 speed capability, the ZEUS-WHI0 is exceptionally expandable, making it capable of supporting up to four GPU cards for AI acceleration and enhanced graphics realization. Further to this, the ZEUS-WHI0 also supports eight 2.5" or 3.5" HDD via two 4-bay inputs for storage, alongside an additional M.2 2280 M-Key for PCIe [x4].

Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake processor family is supposedly looking good with the new performance/efficiency targets. According to the @OneRaichu Twitter account, we have a potential performance estimate for the upcoming SKUs. As the latest information notes, Intel's 14th-generation Meteor Lake will feature around a 50% increase in efficiency compared to the 13th-generation Raptor Lake designs. This means that the processor can use half the power at the same performance target at Raptor Lake, increasing efficiency. Of course, the design also offers some performance improvements besides efficiency that are significant and are yet to be shown. The new Redwood Cove P-cores will be combined with the new Crestmont E-cores for maximum performance inside U/P/H configurations with 15-45 Watt power envelopes.

For integrated graphics, the source notes that Meteor Lake offers twice the performance of iGPU found on Raptor Lake designs. Supposedly, Meteor Lake will feature 128 EUs running 2.0+GHz compared to 96 EUs found inside Raptor Lake. The iGPU architecture will switch from Intel Iris to Xe-LPG 'Xe-MTL' family on the 14th gen models, confirming a giant leap in performance that iGPU is supposed to experience. Using the tile-based design, Intel combines the Intel 4 process for the CPU tile and the TSMC 5 nm process for the GPU tile. Intel handles final packaging for additional tuning, and you can see the separation below.

According to Bloomberg, Japan and the Netherlands are getting ready to join the US in limiting access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment for China. The three nations are currently in talks—that might end as soon as today—over how they can impose joint limits on what kind of equipment and tools can be exported to China. Apparently there will be no official announcement if a deal is struck, instead the restrictions will simply be implemented as required.

Bloomberg states that the Netherlands will expand export restrictions that ASML is already under, which according to the publication means stricter export rules around DEUV machines, which are used in cutting edge semiconductor nodes. Japan is said to implement similar export restrictions for Nikon as well as Tokyo Electron, with the US already having implemented restrictions for Applied Materials. The export restriction deal is in part being done to appease US equipment makers, who have complained that their international competitors haven't been under the same export restrictions when it comes to China, as they have. The question is if the export restrictions will hinder China in the long run, or if the nation will simply push ahead and develop its own, competing semiconductor manufacturing tools.

Update Jan 28th: Japan and the Netherlands reached an agreement with the US on Friday and the two countries are said to be making individual announcements with regards to their individual agreements with the US.

According to multiple reports and sources close to Tom's Hardware, Intel and Microsoft have quietly resumed operations and a basic level of support in Russia. As to comply with sanctions imposed by Europe, the UK, and US, Intel and Microsoft are forbidden to sell any new technology within the state of Russia. This has made Intel and Microsoft block official software downloads. However, Intel has stated that the company is obliged to provide warranty services that are a part of purchasing an Intel product. "Intel continues to comply with all applicable export regulations and sanctions in the countries in which it operates. This includes compliance with the sanctions and export controls against Russia and Belarus issued by the US and allied nations. Access to resources that meet driver update needs, such as the Intel Download Center and Intel Download Support Assistant (IDSA), are part of Intel's warranty obligations," said Intel, adding that "There have been no recent changes to our operations."

These changes are not exactly "recent," as reports close to Tom's Hardware have noted that downloads were resumed towards the end of 2022. Izvestia and CNews reported that users could access the Intel download portal without VPN and IP masking. This required finding a download section through Google/Yandex, as the official Intel Russia website is still not officially reachable by Russian IPs.

Huawei, the Chinese technology giant, has reportedly filed patents that it is developing extreme ultraviolet (EUV) scanners for use in the manufacturing process of semiconductors. This news comes amid increasing tensions between Huawei and the US government, which has imposed a series of sanctions on the company in recent years. According to UDN, Huawei has filed a patent that covers the entire EUV scanner with a 13.5 nm EUV light source, mirrors, lithography for printing circuits, and proper system control. While filing a patent is not the same as creating an accurate EUV scanner, it could enable China to produce a class of chips below 7 nm and have a homegrown semiconductor production, despite the ever-increasing US sanctions.

The development of EUV scanners is a significant milestone for Huawei and the semiconductor industry. However, the company's progress in this area may be hindered by the US government's sanctions, which have limited Huawei's access to certain technologies and markets. It is important to note that Chinese SMIC wanted to develop EUV fabrication based on third-party EUV tools; however, those plans were scrapped as the Wassenaar agreement came into action and prohibited the sales of advanced tools to Chinese companies. Huawei's development could represent a new milestone for the entire Chinese industry.

During The Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference, Greg Joswiak—Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing—begrudgingly said that Apple will comply with the European Union's USB-C charging mandate. He said that Apple has been in a "little bit of disagreement" with the EU over the change to a common charging standard. He made a comment about the fact that the EU initially wanted to standardise on micro USB for charging, but admitted that it never happened. He also claimed that neither USB-C or Apple's own lightning connector would exist today if micro USB had been mandated as the charging standard over 10 years ago, which may or may not be true.

According to Greg Joswiak, Apple feels that their change to chargers fitted with a USB-C port is good enough, since it allows anyone to plug in a USB-C cable into Apple's chargers and charge whatever device they like, regardless of the device connector. However, he conveniently forgot to mention that for such a scenario to work, everyone would have to carry a charging cable around with them, the part most people forget about. He also claimed that moving to USB-C means additional e-waste, due to a billion plus lightning cables being in the market already. The argument doesn't seem to hold though, as it's not as if current Apple device owners are just going to throw out their current devices, because Apple is being forced to move to USB-C. The same holds true for most people who have micro USB devices, they didn't throw them away just because they got some USB-C devices. In fairness, the Lightning cables would end up as e-waste at some point in the future, but so do many old cables of every single type over time. Apple would've preferred the EU not to interfere, as the company believes its solution is superior to USB-C for its customers.

From 2024, all mobile devices in the European Union will have to use USB-C as the standard charging port, courtesy of a new law that was passed by the European Parliament. This means that mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems and earbuds, all have to sport a USB-C port for charging in the near future. Many of these devices already do, with the main exception being Apple, although many lower-end devices still rely on micro USB, due to the lower cost. The European Parliament voted 602 in favour of the new law, with only 13 parliamentarians being against and eight that abstained, which shows that most EU nations were in favour of the move.

From 2026, laptops which adhere to the USB PD 3.0 standard, i.e. up to 100 Watts, will be required to charge via USB-C as well. As such, it seems like the EU didn't enforce support for USB PD 3.1, which goes up to 240 Watts. The EU is also planning on enforcing a common wireless charging standard, which is expected to come into effect by the end of 2024. It's not clear which standard will be chosen, but it's highly likely to be the Qi standard, as it's the most commonly used wireless charging standard.

Microsoft's USD $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard is running into hurdles with competition regulators in both the UK and the EU, with both Brussels and London hinting at a thorough investigation into the impact the acquisition will have on competition in their respective markets. Microsoft is already a game publisher under Microsoft Games Studio, and makes at least two leading gaming platforms—the Xbox and Windows PC; whereas Activision-Blizzard own a constellation of dozens of game developers, and a mountain of IP over some of the most valuable game franchises of all time.

Britain's Competition and Markets Authority has hinted that the acquisition warrants a "second-phase investigation" since it has concerns that the deal would "result in a substantial lessening of competition within a market or markets in the United Kingdom." Over in Brussels, the EU market regulators, too, are taking a closer look at what the deal could entail for European consumers. Sony Computer Entertainment is particularly unhappy with the acquisition, and is the primary source of opposition to the deal that's invoked by regulators. Sony fears that with this acquisition, Microsoft will be in a position to deny popular game franchises such as "Call of Duty" to the PlayStation platform, and will have too much control over whether Sony can deliver an experience comparable or better than that of the Xbox.Many Thanks to DeathtoGnomes for the tip.

Back in January, Intel overturned an antitrust ruling by the EU and didn't have to pay the $1.2 billion fine, but it seems like the company isn't satisfied with getting out of having to pay a huge fine, but is now asking the EU to compensate the company for interest lost. As such, Intel has filed for "payment of compensation and consequential interest for the damage sustained because of the European Commissions refusal to pay Intel default interest" with the EU General Court. The sum of money Intel is asking for is based on the European Central Bank's refinancing rate and as the original fine was levied back in 2009, Intel claims they're owed more than half of the value of the fine.

Intel is also expecting further interest on the money, if the payment is late from the EU. It should be noted that the European Commission has already paid Intel €38 million in interest on the fine that was paid back in 2009, but Intel is clearly not happy and is asking for a much greater sum. However, the battle between the European Commission and Intel isn't over, as the Commission is working on appealing the ruling, so depending on the outcome of that appeal, Intel might have to pay back the fine to the EU. For those that don't remember the original reason for the antitrust fine, Intel was accused of giving rebates to certain partners and system integrators to make sure they didn't use AMD products in their systems, among other things.

After the EU lawmakers agreed on making USB Type-C the charging interface standard for the union, it appears US senators are considering something similar. Although it's early days at this point, with just a letter penned by a few democratic senators to the Secretary of Commerce, the route to implementation is likely to be a lot longer. The reasoning is very similar to the one from the EU lawmakers, namely to reduce e-waste and make life easier for consumers. The letter states that "the average consumer owns approximately three mobile phone chargers, and around 40 percent of consumers report that, on at least one occasion, they "could not charge their mobile phone because available chargers were incompatible.""

It goes on to say that innovation should benefit consumers rather than come at their expense, especially as consumers end up with a collection of incompatible chargers and connectivity cables. In reality things are a bit more complex, as so often is the case, but there's really no reason why more standardised chargers can't finally become the norm, with the computer and mobile industries largely pushing for USB Type-C as the common connector, with some exceptions. The extra incentive by regulation should help speed things up, but the USB standard isn't as straightforward as the politicians seem to think, which could cause some consumer complaints during the transition period. However, certified USB PD compliant devices should make everyone's life simpler in the long term. Time will tell if the Secretary of Commerce agrees with the senators and there's obviously no guarantee that USB Type-C will be the chosen standard, regardless of how likely it is.

Recent news suggests that TSMC isn't too interested in setting up a fab in Europe, but it appears there are other interested parties that are now courting the EU, namely a potential joint venture between GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics. The two companies are hoping to get a slice of the same cake as Intel, namely the European Chips Act, to help subsidise the cost of the proposed fab. Although GlobalFoundries are headquartered in New York and STMicroelectronics in Geneva, the latter being a French-Italian conglomerate, the planned location for the new fab will be somewhere in France.

It's highly unlikely that this will be a cutting edge or even a leading edge fab, as neither company is in the business of producing products in those market segments. ST makes a wide range of chips from MCUs and other types of microprocessors, to specialised memory products, a wide range of sensors, MEMS based devices and all kinds of electronics for electrical vehicles, as well as highly specialised components for the space industry. GloFo obviously stepped off the competitive foundry ladder some years ago and have been focusing on specialised processes and nodes since then, such as FD-SOI, a technology, something the two companies announced a joint partnership around earlier this year. As such, it's likely that this potential fab will focus on making parts needed for the automotive industry in Europe, among other things. There's still a long way to go and neither company has made any kind of official statement about the potential partnership as yet.

As the world comes to grips with chip shortages due to supply chain disruptions and ripple-effects from the global pandemic, Intel's leaders are urging Congress to fund the CHIPS for America Act to create a more stable future for the U.S. tech industry.

In 1990, 80% of the world's semiconductors were produced in the U.S. and Europe. Today, 80% are produced in Asia, where countries provide substantial incentives to domestic semiconductor industries. This helps create a 30% to 50% cost disadvantage for companies that produce semiconductors in the U.S.
Increasing manufacturing in both the U.S. and the European Union is key to helping rebalance the global supply of chips. In February, EU President Ursula von der Leyen announced the European Chips Act, with the goal of doubling the EU's global semiconductor manufacturing share to 20% by 2030. It also provides for more R&D investments in disruptive technologies, supports small business and startups by attracting new talent to Europe for them, and focuses on building partnerships with like-minded countries to strengthen interdependencies.

Thursday will see Blizzard's most ambitious take on the MMO genre—taking it to the mobile platform exclusively, with "Diablo Immortal." The game is being launched as "free to play," and like most titles built on this business-model, you buy in-game items to improve your gameplay, some of these are lootboxes. Blizzard decided to not release the game in countries with laws against lootboxes. This would mean that gamers in The Netherlands and Belgium would miss the game, Blizzard will not release or support the game for players from these countries. Even if they manage to install the game somehow (eg: using a VPN), Blizzard says it cannot guarantee that such players won't be banned from the game (because even playing the game would be illegal).

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) today announced its ongoing commitment in Europe by building its first factory in the region for next-generation high performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) systems to accelerate delivery to customers and strengthen the region's supplier ecosystem. The new site will manufacture HPE's industry-leading systems as custom-designed solutions to advance scientific research, mature AL/ML initiatives, and bolster innovation.

The dedicated HPC factory, which will become the fourth of HPE's global HPC sites, will be located in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic, next to HPE's existing European site for manufacturing its industry-standard servers and storage solutions. Operations will begin in summer 2022.

This past week, the EU's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee agreed on adopting USB Type-C as the union's standard charging connector, with 43 votes in favour and two against. It's part of the Radio Equipment Directive and it means that USB-C is now very close to becoming the de facto connector for charging a wide range of consumer electronics. The charging standard will apply to what the committee calls small and medium-sized electronic gadgets and include mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers. Exemptions will apply for devices that are too small to incorporate a USB-C port, such a smart watches, health trackers and some sports equipment.

The directive still has to be approved by the EU parliament, which is expected to happen in May during the plenary session. There will be an initial transition period and the new requirements aren't expected to start to apply until early 2024. In addition to the new directive, the MEPs also want to see clear labelling on devices in terms of how much power they can deliver, since this can sometimes be hard to figure out as a consumer. They also want to see clear labelling on product packaging if a charger is supplied or not. Furthermore, the MEPs want the European Commission to present a strategy with regards to wireless chargers by the end of 2026, to make sure there's some kind of minimal interoperability between the various wireless charging standards. This is said to be to try and avoid market fragmentation, as well as to reduce e-waste and to try and prevent consumer "lock-in" to proprietary charging standards. The EU is said to end up with 11 to 13-thousand tons of e-waste from chargers alone on a yearly basis, so it's not hard to see why the union wants to see a unified charging standard for most electronics.

With Intel still not having announced where in Europe they'll set up shop next, but with Magdeburg, Germany being the hot ticket, Italy is now trying to figure out how they can win over some chip makers, least not Intel. The country is working on a €4 billion chip fund of its own to entice chip makers to set up shop in the nation. However, it seems like the fund is going to spread out over time, as it'll run until 2030, the same time frame as the EU's €15 billion chip fund is going to run. Italy will apparently divide the money in chunks of €500 million per year from 2023 to 2030.

Italy was apparently considering giving it all to Intel, according to Reuters, plus another €4 billion in other incentives, over a 10 year period. If that is still the case, isn't clear, especially as the nation is said to be in talks with STMicroelectronics, MEMC Electronic Materials, Tower Semi (now Intel) and others. Reuters claims that negotiations with Intel are very tough, as the company has a lot of demands. The Italian government is also said to be promoting "research and development of microprocessor technology and investments in new industrial applications of innovative technologies".

At Intel's 2022 investor meeting, the company has presented a technology roadmap update to give its clients an insight into what is to come. Today, team blue announced one of the first discrete data-centric graphics cards in the lineup, codenamed Arctic Sound-M GPU. Based on the DG2 Xe-HPG variation of Intel Xe GPUs, Arctic Sound-M is the company's first design to enter the data center space. The DG2 GPU features 512 Execution Units (EUs), which get passive cooling from the single-slot design of Arctic Sound's heatsink, envisioned for data center enclosures with external airflow.

One of the most significant selling points that Intel advertises is support for hardware-based AV1 encoding standard. This feature allows the card to achieve a 30% greater bandwidth, and it is the main differentiator between consumer-oriented Arc Alchemist GPUs and itself. The card is powered by PCIe power and an 8-pin EPS power connector. Arctic Sound-M is already sampling to select customers and it will become available in the middle of 2022.Below is Intel's teaser video.