According to the latest leak, AMD's upcoming Phoenix accelerated processing units (APUs) could feature a hybrid design, featuring Performance and Efficiency cores. While there are no precise details, the latest AMD processor programming guide, leaked online, clearly marks these as two types of cores, most likely standard Zen 4 and energy-efficient Zen 4c cores.

These two set of cores will features a different feature set, and the latest document gives software designers guidelines. Such hybrid CPU design, similar to ARM's BIG.little architecture, will allow AMD to be more competitive with Intel's similar P- and E-core design, allowing it to achieve certain performance levels while also maintaining power efficiency.

Intel has quietly canceled its Thunder Bay hybrid system-on-chip (SoC) that combines standard general-purpose CPU Cores and Movidius Vision Processing Unit (VPU) cores. Such chips were aimed at commercial and Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications that relied on computer vision acceleration and edge-computing applications. According to the latest report, it appears that Thunder Bay is canceled as Intel has released a set of patches that removed the Thunder Bay code from the Linux kernel.

Intel kept Thunder bay details well hidden and while earlier rumors pointed to a combination of Intel Xeon x86 CPU cores and Movidius VPU cores, the only Thunder Bay support in Linux patches where showing a combination of ARM Cortex-A53 low-power cores with the Movidius VPU. Intel acquired Movidius back in 2016 and while it is not something that Intel talks about often, there are several products based on Movidius VPUs, including Neural Compute Stick, Intel drones, the Intel RealSense Tracking Camera, and most recently, the Intel Movidius 3700VC VPU, formerly Keem Bay. In any case, it appears that Intel is abandoning an idea of combining general purpose x86 CPU cores and Movidius VPU cores.

Intel faces its stiffest long-term challenge not from AMD in the client desktop and server segments, but from the likes of Apple and Qualcomm in the ultraportable notebook SoC market. The company is looking to meet the challenge head-on with not just its current Hybrid architecture-based "Rocket Lake-U" processors, but the upcoming "Meteor Lake" and "Arrow Lake" architectures, which disaggregate the processor into chiplets build on various foundry nodes, including ones that are external to Intel. The move here is to keep Intel ahead of the curve with Moore's Law buckling. The real ace up Intel's sleeves is "Lunar Lake."

Slated for "beyond 2024" (which could mean 2025 or later), "Lunar Lake" is reportedly a fresh ground-up design for not just the SoC, but also the CPU microarchitecture, with a design focus on performance/Watt, and a focus on mobile devices. This, according to a statement to Dr Ian Cutress. Intel has already brought Hybrid CPU cores to the PC, and with Arm partners loading their SoCs with three or more kinds of CPU cores; Intel could possibly give "Lunar Lake" even more [kinds of] Hybrid processing capabilities. Another hint on the direction in which Intel is heading comes from unlikely quarters—"Sapphire Rapids." Intel's latest enterprise processors attempt to overcome the CPU core-count deficit to AMD, by incorporating various on-die accelerators—these are fixed-function hardware that accelerate specific kinds of enterprise workloads. Intel could give us another lick about "Lunar Lake" in its January 26 Q4-2022 Financial Disclosures Day.

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

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

Sea Sonic Electronics., Co., Ltd. is proud to announce the introduction of the new VERTEX Series of power supplies specifically designed and built to power new PC components requiring the new ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 standards.

On the heel of NVIDIA's recent announcement about the release of the new RTX 4090 VGA cards, we entered a new era, where the power supply, more than ever, has an important role to play. Issues such as VGA excursion power and cable integrity (now with high-grade 12VHPWR connectors) should be resolved.

Today, Logitech unveiled two new product series, Brio 500 webcams and Zone Vibe headphones, designed to meet the evolving needs of hybrid workers.A recent study showed more than 89% of work-from-home adults struggle with unflattering camera angles, poor lighting conditions, and field-of-view limitations when using a built-in laptop camera.* Brio 500 webcams and Zone Vibe headphones address the challenges users face when working from home, while modernizing work and play experiences. Both make it easier for IT managers to equip their organizations' remote and hybrid workforces in an environmentally sustainable way.

"Many remote and hybrid workers are still underequipped and grappling with pre-pandemic era solutions," said Scott Wharton, general manager of Logitech Video Collaboration. "Our innovative new genre of Brio webcams and Zone Vibe headphones answer the call of modern workers who need business-grade quality, style, and affordability for work and play. Transformational features like Brio's Show Mode open up new sharing opportunities for teachers, designers, and architects to easily present physical objects, notes, and sketches remotely over video."

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced the expansion of the AMD EPYC processor footprint within the cloud ecosystem, powering the new Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) E4 Dense instances. These new instances are part of the Oracle Cloud VMware Solution offerings, enable customers to build and run a hybrid-cloud environment for their VMware based workloads.

Based on 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors, the new E4 Dense instances expand the AMD EPYC presence at OCI and are made to support memory and storage intense VMware workloads. The E4 Dense instances utilize the core density and performance capabilities of EPYC processors to provide customers a fast path to a cloud environment, enabling similar performance and advanced security features through enabling the AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) security feature for VMware workloads that they have on-premises.

Yealink, a global leading unified communications (UC) solution provider, has officially announced the release of its new BH7X Bluetooth Headsets to meet the demands of the predominant hybrid working population. Following the launch of the company's WH6X DECT headsets, Yealink has solidified its position as the provider of top professional headsets for office use. Targeting workers of the "H Generation"—a Hybrid breed of professionals that have a pressing need for quality Headsets—the company understands the demand for a product that can fulfill work requirements competently, with portability at its core, and flexible enough for casual use. The new BH7X Bluetooth Headset is the solution.

Engineered for the hybrid generation, the BH7X fits in seamlessly at the office or on the go with its contemporary design and a discrete, hidden boom arm that still guarantees exceptional, professional sound and enjoyment of all-day comfort. In addition to the BH7X, the Yealink Headset family is bolstered by other effective products such as the Yealink UH38 Premium USB headset, which provides stable communication with Bluetooth & USB dual connection; for more personal collaboration usage, interested consumers can also consider the Yealink WH DECT series for all-in-one call control & cross devices usage.

Phanteks debuts a host of new products for the upcoming year at CES 2022 - The brand new Evolv Shift XT Mini-ITX Chassis and Revolt SFX Power Supplies, Matte White Editions for the Evolv X & Eclipse P600S Chassis, white SK PWM D-RGB Fans, white AMP Power Supply and a complete range of Gen4 PCIe Riser Cables and Gen4 Vertical GPU Bracket.

Brand new and unique Evolv Shift XT Mini-ITX Chassis and super compact Revolt SFX Power Supplies
Evolv Shift XT - Compact, Powerful, Futureproof
The Evolv Shift XT brings a unique small form factor that can extend in size to tailor to your cooling performance needs. The Evolv Shift XT has no compromise on performance with support for powerful hardware, whether in Compact, Aircooled, or Liquid Cooled Mode.

Today as part of CES 2022, Intel demonstrated advancements and momentum with Mobileye, progress toward discrete graphics leadership and the launch of the newest members of the 12th Gen Intel Core family. With these milestones, Intel furthers its commitment to enable the industry and its customers and partners to harness the technology superpowers - ubiquitous computing, cloud-to-edge infrastructure, pervasive connectivity and artificial intelligence - at the heart of the digital transformation.

During the Intel news conference, Gregory Bryant, executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group, was joined by Lisa Pearce, vice president of the Visual Compute Group, and Prof. Amnon Shashua, Mobileye CEO, to share Intel's progress across multiple strategic businesses. "The Intel execution engine is back. From advancing the PC to high-performance graphics to autonomous driving solutions, Intel and Mobileye are proud to create new ecosystems and opportunities across multiple industries," Bryant said. "Together with our partners and customers, we are driving new innovation across products, platforms and services, and delivering on our vision of enabling world-changing technology that improves the lives of every person on the planet."

The massive rise in market demand for notebook computers in response to distance learning needs and WFH applications from 2020 to 2021 has generated not only a double-digit growth in notebook panel shipment, but also a price hike of more than 40% for notebook panels, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. As various suppliers subsequently scramble to manufacture OLED, LTPS, and oxide panels, TrendForce forecasts these high-end notebook panels to reach a 17.8% market share in 2021 and 21.4% in 2022.

Panels based on OLED technology are primarily supplied by SDC, whose OLED notebook panel shipment for 2020 reached 800,000 pcs. SDC is expected to ship more than four million pcs of OLED notebook panels in 2021, with room for further growth in 2022. In addition to SDC, EDO is also expected to begin mass producing OLED notebook panels in 2H21-1H22. As such, TrendForce expects OLED panels to reach a 1.3% penetration rate in the overall notebook panel market this year. Although BOE and CSOT are currently fully engaged in Hybrid OLED development, Hybrid OLED panels will not enter mass production until 2023 due to technological and cost-related bottlenecks that are yet to be resolved.

ASUS today has extended their hybrid-cooling technology to NVIDIA's top-tier graphics cards by officially listing ROG Strix LC versions of NVIDIA's RTX 3080 Ti to market availability. Initially only offered in AMD's RX 6000-series lineup, the new cards from ASUS feature a hybrid cooling system and aggressive aesthetics. The cooling system in itself features a hybrid air and liquid cooling solution: a single fan in the graphics' card shroud is responsible for cooling the VRM subsystem and 2.5-slot aluminium heatsink, while the GA-102 chip at the heart of the RTX 3080 Ti is handed a more premium way of offloading heat via a watercooling solution - itself guaranteed by a 240 mm radiator and dual 120 mm fans. As is par for the course these days, there's an RGB bonanza in both the shroud and the radiator fans.

ASUS is introducing a vanilla, NVIDIA-reference clock version (the ROG Strix LC RTX3080Ti-12G Gaming, at 1,665 MHz) and an OC version (ROG Strix LC RTX3080Ti-O12G Gaming) which ups the reference clocks to 1,860 MHz. Both cards feature custom-engineered PCBs, and power delivery is handled by 3x 8-pin connectors. I/O is taken care of by 3x DisplayPort 1.4a and 2x HDMI 2.1 connectors. Expect pricing to completely disregard MSRP and to float according to market conditions - which while much improved in recent weeks, still carries the added chaff of months of mining and scalping demand.

AMD is innovating its own x86 hybrid processor technology formulated along the Arm big.LITTLE hybrid CPU core topology that inspired Hybrid processors by Intel. Under this, the processor has two kinds of CPU cores with very different performance/Watt bands—one kind focuses on performance and remains dormant under mild processing loads; while the other hand handles most lightweight processing loads that don't require powerful cores. This is easier said than done, as the two kinds of cores feature significantly different CPU core microarchitectures, and instruction sets.

AMD has filed a patent describing a method for processing workloads to be switched between the two CPU core types, on the fly. Unlike homogenous CPU core designs where workload from one core is seamlessly picked up by another over a victim cache like the L3, there is some logic involved in handover between the two core types. According to the patent application, in an AMD hybrid processor, the two CPU core types are interfaced over the processor's main switching fabric, and not a victim cache, much in the same way as the CPU cores and integrated GPU are separated in current-gen AMD APUs.

NVIDIA today announced NVIDIA AI Enterprise, a comprehensive software suite of enterprise-grade AI tools and frameworks optimized, certified and supported by NVIDIA, exclusively with VMware vSphere 7 Update 2, separately announced today.

Through a first-of-its-kind industry collaboration to develop an AI-Ready Enterprise platform, NVIDIA teamed with VMware to virtualize AI workloads on VMware vSphere with NVIDIA AI Enterprise. The offering gives enterprises the software required to develop a broad range of AI solutions, such as advanced diagnostics in healthcare, smart factories for manufacturing, and fraud detection in financial services.

Apple has today patented a new approach to how it uses memory in the System-on-Chip (SoC) subsystem. With the announcement of the M1 processor, Apple has switched away from the traditional Intel-supplied chips and transitioned into a fully custom SoC design called Apple Silicon. The new designs have to integrate every component like the Arm CPU and a custom GPU. Both of these processors need good memory access, and Apple has figured out a solution to the problem of having both the CPU and the GPU accessing the same pool of memory. The so-called UMA (unified memory access) represents a bottleneck because both processors share the bandwidth and the total memory capacity, which would leave one processor starving in some scenarios.

Apple has patented a design that aims to solve this problem by combining high-bandwidth cache DRAM as well as high-capacity main DRAM. "With two types of DRAM forming the memory system, one of which may be optimized for bandwidth and the other of which may be optimized for capacity, the goals of bandwidth increase and capacity increase may both be realized, in some embodiments," says the patent, " to implement energy efficiency improvements, which may provide a highly energy-efficient memory solution that is also high performance and high bandwidth." The patent got filed way back in 2016 and it means that we could start seeing this technology in the future Apple Silicon designs, following the M1 chip.

Update 21:14 UTC: We have been reached out by Mr. Kerry Creeron, an attorney with the firm of Banner & Witcoff, who provided us with additional insights about the patent. Mr. Creeron has provided us with his personal commentary about it, and you can find Mr. Creeron's quote below.

EVGA over the weekend launched an extensive lineup of GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards that either feature liquid cooling, or come with preparation for DIY liquid cooling. The EVGA Hydro Copper line of graphics cards include the RTX 3090 FTW3 Hydro Copper, RTX 3090 XC3 Hydro Copper, RTX 3080 FTW3 Hydro Copper, and RTX 3080 XC3 Hydro Copper. These are essentially the same FTW3 or XC3 graphics cards EVGA debuted its RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 lineups with, but come with factory-fitted, full-coverage water blocks. These blocks are made of nickel-plated copper, with clear acrylic tops that have a plastic top-plate with a printed pattern similar to the one found on the back-plates. The tops are studded with addressable RGB LEDs which are connected directly to RGB controllers on the PCB, and can be controlled via the Precision X1 software. These cards have the same factory-overclocked speeds as their air-cooled siblings, but are priced about $150-200 higher.

Next up, are the Hybrid Cooling line of graphics cards, which feature factory-fitted, all-in-one, closed-loop, liquid cooling solutions. Much like the FTW3 and XC3 Hydro Copper series, we see EVGA reuse its RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 FTW3 and XC3 PCBs to carve out their Hybrid Cooling variants. The FTW3 Hybrid Cooling cards feature addressable RGB illumination on the radiator fans, while the XC3 Hybrid Cooling series cards lack illumination on the cards. All four variants feature 240 mm x 120 mm radiators, and a pair of included 120 mm fans. The cooling solution features a pump-block cooling the GPU, while a series of heatsinks and a lateral fan cool the memory and VRM components. These cards have a similar $150-200 premium over the air-cooled FTW3 and XC3 cards.

Intel's upcoming Core "Alder Lake-S" desktop processor, which is shaping up to be the first Hybrid desktop processor, surfaced on the SiSoft SANDRA benchmark database, as dug up by TUM_APISAK. The chip is reported by SANDRA to be 16-core/32-thread, although this is expected to be a combination of eight "big" high-performance cores, and eight "small" high-efficiency cores, in a multi-core topology similar to Arm big.LITTLE. Other specs read by SANDRA include clock speeds around "1.40 GHz," ten 1.25 MB L2 caches (possibly 8x 1.25 MB for the big "Golden Cove" cores, 2x 1.25 MB for the two groups of small "Gracemont" cores), and 30 MB of L3 cache. The Hybrid processor architecture is expected to introduce several platform-level innovations to the modern desktop, taking advantage of the extremely low power draw of the "Gracemont" cores when the machine isn't grinding serious workloads.

Today, Arm unveiled new computing solutions to accelerate autonomous decision-making with safety capability across automotive and industrial applications. The new suite of IP includes the Arm Cortex -A78AE CPU, Arm Mali -G78AE GPU, and Arm Mali-C71AE ISP, engineered to work together in combination with supporting software, tools and system IP to enable silicon providers and OEMs to design for autonomous workloads. These products will be deployed in a range of applications, from enabling more intelligence and configurability in smart manufacturing to enhancing ADAS and digital cockpit applications in automotive.

"Autonomy has the potential to improve every aspect of our lives, but only if built on a safe and secure computing foundation," said Chet Babla, vice president, Automotive and IoT Line of Business at Arm. "As autonomous decision-making becomes more pervasive, Arm has designed a unique suite of technology that prioritizes safety while delivering highly scalable, power efficient compute to enable autonomous decision-making across new automotive and industrial opportunities."

Lenovo is very excited to unveil the latest addition to our premium X1 portfolio, ThinkPad X1 Nano. The lightest ThinkPad ever at just 1.99 pounds (907 g) breaks new ground for performance and functionality in an incredibly featherweight package. Lenovo's first ThinkPad based on Intel Evo platform and powered by 11th Gen Intel Core processors, the X1 Nano delivers supreme speed and intelligence while maintaining outstanding battery life. Stunning visuals are delivered through a narrow bezel 13-inch 2K display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, and four speakers and four 360-degree microphones enhance the audio-visual capabilities. For a truly immersive user experience, the X1 Nano supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. State of the art connectivity is provided by WiFi 65 and optional 5G will deliver higher bandwidth capability and drive new levels of always on always connected efficiency and collaboration in a new hybrid working world.

Lenovo today is also delighted to announce that the world's first foldable PC, ThinkPad X1 Fold, is available to order and will ship in a few weeks. A pinnacle of engineering innovation, the X1 Fold offers a revolutionary mix of portability and versatility that defines a new computing category enabled by Intel Core processors with Intel Hybrid Technology and made possible by Intel's Project Athena innovation program. Blending familiar functionality that we all know from smartphones, tablets and laptops into a single foldable PC device that will forever reshape the way you work, play, create and connect. With optional 5G, you can trust that your connection speed is more secure and optimized where available and that you are better protected with ThinkShield security features. Find out more how ThinkPad X1 Fold is pioneering a new category: A Game Changing Category

NVIDIA's announcement of the new RTX 3000-series cards has led to simultaneous announcement of add-in card partners with their solutions and custom takes on the same. These typically come in the form of a press release, with common specifications shared and emphasis on the cooling systems as well as other brand-specific features. EVGA was no different, and the PR shows off their new iCX3 cooling technology in it. More interesting to the enthusiasts and overclockers among us is newer information on their halo card- the RTX 3090 K|NGP|N (Kingpin)- with product management director Jacob revealing it will continue to use a hybrid AIO cooler as with the RTX 2080 Ti variant, but with a massive 360 mm radiator and three 120 mm fans for the behemoth GA102 die and accompanying power delivery solution. No word on pricing or retail availability yet, but look forward to your friendly neighborhood TPU reviews in due course of time to help make a purchase decision on your next GPU.

IBM today revealed the next generation of its IBM POWER central processing unit (CPU) family: IBM POWER10. Designed to offer a platform to meet the unique needs of enterprise hybrid cloud computing, the IBM POWER10 processor uses a design focused on energy efficiency and performance in a 7 nm form factor with an expected improvement of up to 3x greater processor energy efficiency, workload capacity, and container density than the IBM POWER9 processor.

Designed over five years with hundreds of new and pending patents, the IBM POWER10 processor is an important evolution in IBM's roadmap for POWER. Systems taking advantage of IBM POWER10 are expected to be available in the second half of 2021. Some of the new processor innovations include:

In a sign of AMD's answer to Intel Hybrid tech being quite far away from implementation in a product, the company filed patents to a rival/similar technology only as recently as June 30, 2020, with the patent application being dug up by Underfox. The patent calls for a multi-core processor topology with two kinds of CPU cores - a "high-feature" core (big core), and a "low-feature" one (small core).

Here's where AMD's design is different: it calls for closely integrated groups of the two kinds of cores (one big core, and one small core), called "Processor Clusters." The dedicated L1 caches of the big and small cores in each group shadow data, while an L2 cache is shared between the two cores. Several such big+small Processor Clusters sit across a die, sharing the chip's last-level cache (L3 cache). This is unlike Intel's Hybrid design, where the big and small cores are spread apart on the die, with little cache coherency (Lakefield die-shot by le Comptoir du Hardware below). The patent also details the workflow of how the processor reconciles the ISA differences between the two core types.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today released HybridMount 1.2, which allows users to mount folders from remote servers on a local NAS to act as local shared folders. HybridMount allows NAS users to access mounted remote folders based on local access rights, making it an ideal remote file sharing solution for multi-site workplaces and international companies.

"Remote folders that were mounted on a local NAS through HybridMount were previously only accessible to those who performed the mounting task. From HybridMount 1.2, IT staff can set access permissions to mounted remote folders for local users, allowing their entire organization to benefit from greater file sharing convenience and coordinated access to cloud-based files," said Josh Chen, Product Manager of QNAP.

Intel is preparing to launch an 8-core mobile processor based on its 10 nm "Tiger Lake" microarchitecture, according to a corporate memo by leading notebook OEM Compal, which serves major notebook brands such as Acer. The memo was drafted in May, but unearthed by momomo_us. Compal expects Intel to launch the 8-core "Tiger Lake-H" processor in Q1 2021. This is big, as it would be the first large 10 nm client-segment silicon that goes beyond 4 cores. The company's first 10 nm client silicon, "Ice Lake," as well as the "Tiger Lake-U" silicon that's right around the corner, feature up to 4 cores. As an H-segment part, the new 8-core processor could target TDPs in the range of 35-45 W, and notebooks in the "conventional thickness" form-factor, as well as premium gaming notebooks and mobile workstations.

The 8-core "Tiger Lake-H" silicon is the first real sign of Intel's 10 nm yields improving. Up until now, Intel confined 10 nm to the U- and Y-segments (15 W and below), addressing only ultra-portable form-factors. Even here, Intel launched U-segment 14 nm "Comet Lake" parts at competitive prices, to take the market demand off "Ice Lake-U." The H-segment has been exclusively held by "Comet Lake-H." Intel is planning to launch "Ice Lake-SP" Xeon processors later this year, but like all server parts, these are high-margin + low-volume parts. Compal says Intel will refresh the H-segment with a newer 8-core "Comet Lake-H" part in the second half of 2020, possibly to bolster the high-end against the likes of AMD's Ryzen 9 4900H. Later in 2021, Intel is expected to introduce its 10 nm "Alder Lake" processor, including a mobile variant. These processors will feature Hybrid technology, combining "Golden Cove" big CPU cores with "Gracemont" small ones.

Intel Corporation today reported second-quarter 2020 financial results. "It was an excellent quarter, well above our expectations on the continued strong demand for computing performance to support cloud-delivered services, a work- and learn-at-home environment, and the build-out of 5G networks," said Bob Swan, Intel CEO. "In our increasingly digital world, Intel technology is essential to nearly every industry on this planet. We have an incredible opportunity to enrich lives and grow this company with a continued focus on innovation and execution."

Intel achieved record second-quarter revenue with 34 percent data-centric revenue growth and 7 percent PC-centric revenue growth YoY. These results were driven by strong sales of cloud, notebook, memory and 5G products in an environment where digital services and computing performance are essential to how we live, work and stay connected.