The BeagleBoard.org Foundation today announces the global availability of BeaglePlay, the most adaptable open-source performance platform available. Built on our proven open source Linux approach, BeaglePlay has a feature set that includes built-in wired and wireless connectivity and ability to connect to a wide selection of sensor and prototyping systems with thousands of options, as well as interfaces and processing performance to support them.

Leveraging the Texas Instruments AM625 processor with quad 64-bit Arm Cortex -A53 cores, low-latency microcontroller subsystems, a dedicated Texas Instruments SimpleLink CC1352P7 sub-1 GHz and 2.4-GHz wireless MCU, and a Texas Instruments WiLink WL1807MOD Wi-Fi module, new and experienced users can use a wide variety of application libraries and examples from Linux, Zephyr, MicroPython and numerous other open source frameworks to add an endless array of sensors, actuators, indicators and new connectivity options.

Late last year, it was reported that Intel is skipping its upcoming "Meteor Lake" microarchitecture for the desktop platform, giving it a mobile-platform debut in late-2023, with "Arrow Lake" following on in 2024, which would address both platforms. In the interim, Intel was expected to release a "Raptor Lake Refresh" architecture for desktop in 2023. It turns out now, that both the "Raptor Lake Refresh" and "Meteor Lake" architectures are coming to desktop—we just don't know when.

Apparently, Intel will brazen it out against AMD with a maximum CPU core-count of just 6 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores possible for "Meteor Lake." It's just that both the P-cores and a E-cores get an IPC uplift with "Meteor Lake." The processor features up to six "Redwood Cove" P-cores with an IPC uplift over the current "Raptor Cove" cores; and introduce the new "Crestmont" E-cores. A lot will depend on the IPC uplift of the latter. Leaf_hobby, a reliable source with Intel leaks on social media, has some interesting details on the I/O capabilities of "Meteor Lake" on the desktop platform.

Intel in its Q4-2022 Financial release call reiterated that its Core "Meteor Lake" processor remains on course for a 2H-2023 launch. The company slide does not mention the client form-factor the architecture targets, and there are still rumors of a "Raptor Lake Refresh" desktop processor lineup for 2H, which would mean that "Meteor Lake" will debut as a high-performance mobile processor architecture attempting to dominate the 7 W, 15 W, 28 W, and 35 W device market-segments, with its 6P+16E CPU that introduce IPC increases on both the P-cores and E-cores; and a powerful new iGPU. The slide also mentions that its succeeding "Lunar Lake" architecture is on course for 2024.

"Meteor Lake" is Intel's first chiplet-based MCM processor, in which the key components of the processor are built on various silicon fabrication nodes, based on their need for such a cutting-edge node; such that the cost-optimization upholds the economic aspect of Moore's Law. The compute tile, the die that has the CPU cores, features a 6P+16E setup, with six "Redwood Cove" P-cores, and sixteen "Crestmont" E-cores. At this point it's not known if "Crestmont" cores are arranged in clusters of 4 cores, each. The graphics tile features a powerful iGPU based on the newer Xe-LPG graphics architecture that meets full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature-set. The processor's I/O is expected to support even faster DDR5/LPDDR5 memory speeds, and feature PCIe Gen 5.

AMD today solved the biggest challenge affecting its mobile processor family against Intel—CPU core-counts in the high-end HX-segment, with the introduction of the new Ryzen 7045HX series "Dragon Range" mobile processors. Based on the "Zen 4" microarchitecture, these processors offer core-counts of up to 16-core/32-thread, and target enthusiast gaming notebooks and mobile workstations. The processors debut the new "Dragon Range" multi-chip module (MCM). This is essentially a non-socketed version of the desktop "Raphael" MCM built in a mobile-friendly BGA package with a thin substrate and no IHS, with up to two 5 nm "Zen 4" 8-core CCDs, and a 6 nm cIOD (client I/O die).

The "Dragon Range" MCM uses the same chiplets as desktop "Raphael" Ryzen 7000 processors, and so its I/O is similar. The cIOD puts out a dual-channel (4 sub-channel) DDR5 memory interface, and a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 interface for discrete graphics, along with two PCI-Express 5.0 x4 links for up to two Gen 5 NVMe SSDs. The platform core-logic (chipset) is functionally similar to the desktop AMD B650E. All processor models in the series come with a TDP of 45 W, and a package power tracking (PPT) of "at least" 75 W. Each "Zen 4" CPU core comes with 1 MB of dedicated L2 cache, and each CCD has 32 MB of L3 cache.

MS-98M3 is the embedded 3.5" SBC that supports multiplexing with 11th generation Intel IOTG Core processor, codenamed Tiger Lake-UP3 series of ultra-low power and high-performance products, providing the industry with more reliability and high durability with lower power consumption under the same workload. It has up to four-screen display functions and a rich variety of high and low-speed I/O connection interfaces. The unique heat dissipation design is strong, durable and highly reliable. The wide temperature series can support long-term stable operation in the harsh operating temperature environment of -40~+85°C.

It can be widely used in harsh industrial environments, and provide stable computing performance, which can be deployed in industries ranging from the most edge computing to various Embedded platforms such as machine control and multimedia retail and the high-performance edge computing application products are the core of digital transformation, and how to continuously strengthen their capabilities has become more and more important. Power consumption is intended to realize energy-saving and carbon-reducing applications of various edge high-performance computing, and actively deploy in multiple application fields such as autonomous mobile robots (AMR).

An early review of a retail Intel Core i9-13900K "Raptor Lake" 8P+16E processor shows it holding up to the rumored "20-40" claim, the idea that the processor can be up to 20% faster in gaming, and up to 40% faster in productivity, compared to the current i9-12900K. Much of the gaming performance increase is attributed to the higher IPC of the new "Raptor Cove" P-cores, and the much higher boost clocks they run at (up to 5.80 GHz); whereas the multi-threaded performance boost comes from not just the faster P-cores, but a doubling in the E-core count to 16, and improved E-core cache structures, besides higher clock speeds that they run on. For tests that scale across P-cores and E-cores, the i9-13900K behaves like a 24-core/32-thread processor, which is what it is. Among the tests included are CSGO, AIDA64, 7-Zip, WinRAR, Cinebench R15, R20, and R23; and their average, in comparison to the i9-12900K.

With Intel's 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" facing stiff competition from AMD's Ryzen 7000 series, and the "Zen 4" series being augmented with 7000X3D series in early-2023, it's becoming a foregone conclusion that Intel will launch a possible "Core i9-13900KS" SKU, which is on its way to being the world's first desktop processor that can boost up to the 6.00 GHz mark. The processor should be able to boost its 8 "Raptor Cove" P-cores to the 6.00 GHz mark, given that the maximum boost frequency of the stock i9-13900K is already rumored to be at 5.70 GHz.

At its Tech Tour event in Israel, Intel confirmed that "Raptor Lake" brings a 15% single-threaded, and 41% multi-threaded performance gain over "Alder Lake." The single-threaded gain is from the higher IPC of the "Raptor Cove" P-core, coupled with its frequency set as high as 5.70 GHz; whereas the multi-threaded performance gain is a combination of increased IPC of the P-cores, and increased frequencies for both the P-cores and E-cores. The E-core clusters get more shared L2 cache, which should improve their performance, too.

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X "Zen 4" 6-core/12-thread processor is shaping up to be a speed-demon for purely gaming builds, with the company claiming higher gaming performance than Intel current flagship Core i9-12900K. A combination of high clock speeds (4.70 GHz nominal, 5.30 GHz max boost), high power limits from 105 W TDP (130 W limit), the "Zen 4" IPC, and the fact that all that power headroom is available to just 6 cores, means that the chip is able to sustain boost frequencies better. But what when Core Performance Boost (CPB) is disabled? VideoCardz scored screenshots of a Cinebench R23 run to answer just that.

With CPB disabled (in the motherboard BIOS), the Ryzen 5 7600X scores 1681 points in the single-threaded test, and 13003 points in the multi-threaded one. With CPB enabled (which is the default setting), the 7600X bags 1920 points single-threaded, and 14767 points multi-threaded, which is a 14% performance increase just from the processor's boosting algo. Disabling CPB is generally seen as a silver-bullet against high temperatures for AMD processors, and even here, we see the chip running under 60°C, and pulling 60.2 W peak, as measured by HWinfo; whereas with CPB enabled, the chip can run as hot as 92.1°C, pulling up to 110 W, pushing clock speeds up to 4.45 GHz.

Intel's upcoming Core i9-13900K "Raptor Lake" flagship desktop processor continues to amaze with its performance lead over the current i9-12900K "Alder Lake," in leaked benchmarks of the processor tested in a number of synthetic benchmarks. The 8P+16E hybrid processor posts a massive 30% lead in multi-threaded performance with Cinebench R23, thanks to higher IPC on the P-cores, the addition of 8 more E-cores, higher clock speeds, and larger caches all around. These gains are also noted with CPU-Z Bench, where the i9-13900K is shown posting a similar 30% lead over the i9-12900K.

In gaming benchmarks, these leads translate into a roughly-10-15 percent gain in frame-rates. Games still aren't too parallelized, Intel Thread Director localizes gaming workloads to the P-cores, which remain 8 in number. And so, the gaming performance gains boil down mainly to the IPC increase of the "Raptor Cove" P-cores, and their higher clock-speeds, compared to the 8 "Golden Cove" P-cores of the i9-12900K. From the looks of it, the i9-13900K will maintain a competitive edge over the upcoming AMD Ryzen 9 7950X mainly because the high IPC of 8 (sufficient) P-cores sees it through in gaming benchmarks, while the zerg-rush of 24 cores clinches the deal in multi-threaded benchmarks that scale across all cores.

A screenshot of an alleged AMD Ryzen 9 7950X "Zen 4" processor surfaced on the web, courtesy of OneRaichu, and this time there's no blur-out with the score field—15645 points. When compared to the alleged CPU-Z Bench scores of the Core i9-13900K "Raptor Lake" from last week, the Intel 8P+16E hybrid processor ends up 7.9% faster than this score, but still a very close second.

The Ryzen 9 7950X ends up a significant 23.47% faster than the leaked score of the Core i7-13700K (8P+8E), and the AMD flagship scores 33.5% faster than the previous-gen Intel flagship Core i9-12900K. While both the i7-13700K and i9-12900K are 8P+8E, the "Raptor Lake" gets ahead with higher IPC for the P-cores, slightly higher clocks, and more cache for the E-core clusters. The 7950X is also 32.12% faster than its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 5950X "Zen 3," and a whopping 58.39% faster than the Core i7-12700K (8P+4E).

The Cinebench R20 score of an AMD Ryzen 7 7700X "Zen 4" processor (possibly engineering sample), was allegedly leaked to the web by "Extreme Player Hall," a video-format tech news published on Bili Bili, as discovered by 9550pro on Twitter. The 8-core/16-thread processor was shown scoring 773 points in the single-thread test, and 7701 points in the multi-threaded one. These numbers put it 25-30 percent faster than the current Ryzen 7 5800X, as pointed out by Greymon55. The multi-threaded performance of this chip is roughly on par with that of the 5900X, which means AMD is overcoming a 50% CPU core-deficit on the backs of higher IPC and memory bandwidth.

The 25% single-core performance gain over the 5800X, if extrapolated to other less-parallized workloads such as gaming, could put this processor about 5-10% ahead of the 5800X3D, and about 4-9% ahead of the Core i9-12900K. The 7700X could face an uphill task measuring up to "Raptor Lake" in multi-threaded tests, given that Intel is doubling down on its Hybrid Architecture, with more E-cores across the lineup. AMD may still have a crack at matching Raptor Lake's gaming performance with future variants that have 3DV Cache.

In what could be evidence of Intel pulling off a major generational IPC increase, Chinese PC enthusiast Extreme Player, with access to a Core i9-13900K engineering sample (ES), tested the chip on a handful synthetic tests, with the processor yielding significant performance gains over its predecessor, the i9-12900K. The most striking performance number has to be the CPU-Z Bench single-core test, which shows an impressive 9.41 percent increase over that of the i9-12900K.

The i9-13900K packs "Raptor Cove" performance cores, which Intel claims come with a generational IPC increase over the "Golden Cove" P-cores. The 9.4% performance increase could be a result of not just increased IPC, but also higher clock speeds (set at 5.50 GHz, the assumed maximum boost frequency of the retail processor). The multi-threaded CPU-Z Bench sees an incredible 46.34% performance increase. This stems from not just increased performance on the eight P-cores, but also the doubling in E-cores from 8 to 16. The E-core clusters also see a doubling in L2 cache sizes. The story repeats with Cinebench R23, with an incredible 13.53% single-thread performance increase, and a 40.25% multi-threaded performance increase.

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

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

AMD over the weekend reportedly released the AGESA V2 PI 1.2.0.7 microcode to motherboard vendors and PC OEMs. This particular version of AGESA gains importance to those on Windows 11, as it corrects a performance-stuttering issue caused due to frequent polling of the fTPM by the OS. The new version of AGESA is also bound for AMD 300-series chipset motherboards, where it adds official (stable) support for Ryzen 5000 series processors, letting those on the 5-year old platform enjoy an IPC uplift as much as 60% (Zen 3 vs. Zen). 1.2.0.7 is also rumored to address certain stability issues with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and enables BCLK overclocking on the chip, as long as the processor doesn't draw more than 1.35 V in the Vcore voltage domain. It's now over to the motherboard vendors and PC OEMs, to encapsulate 1.2.0.7 with their firmware and release to end-users.

AMD today unveiled its next-generation Ryzen 7000 desktop processors, based on the Socket AM5 desktop platform. The new Ryzen 7000 series processors introduce the new "Zen 4" microarchitecture, with the company claiming a 15% single-threaded uplift over "Zen 3" (16-core/32-thread Zen 4 processor prototype compared to a Ryzen 9 5950X). Other key specs about the architecture put out by AMD include a doubling in per-core L2 cache to 1 MB, up from 512 KB on all older versions of "Zen." The Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs will boost to frequencies above 5.5 GHz. Based on the way AMD has worded their claims, it seems that the "+15%" number includes IPC gains, plus gains from higher clocks, plus what the DDR4 to DDR5 transition achieves. With Zen 4, AMD is introducing a new instruction set for AI compute acceleration. The transition to the LGA1718 Socket AM5 allows AMD to use next-generation I/O, including DDR5 memory, and PCI-Express Gen 5, both for the graphics card, and the M.2 NVMe slot attached to the CPU socket.

Much like Ryzen 3000 "Matisse," and Ryzen 5000 "Vermeer," the Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" desktop processor is a multi-chip module with up to two "Zen 4" CCDs (CPU core dies), and one I/O controller die. The CCDs are built on the 5 nm silicon fabrication process, while the I/O die is built on the 6 nm process, a significant upgrade from previous-generation I/O dies that were built on 12 nm. The leap to 5 nm for the CCD enables AMD to cram up to 16 "Zen 4" cores per socket, all of which are "performance" cores. The "Zen 4" CPU core is larger, on account of more number-crunching machinery to achieve the IPC increase and new instruction-sets, as well as the larger per-core L2 cache. The cIOD packs a pleasant surprise—an iGPU based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture! Now most Ryzen 7000 processors will pack integrated graphics, just like Intel Core desktop processors.

Enthused with its IPC leadership, Intel is possibly planning a return to the high-end desktop (HEDT) market segment, with the "Alder Lake-X" line of processors, according to a Tom's Hardware report citing a curious-looking addition to an AIDA64 beta change-log. The exact nature of "Alder Lake-X" (ADL-X) still remains a mystery—one theory holds that ADL-X could be a consumer variant of the "Sapphire Rapids" microarchitecture, much like how the 10th Gen Core "Cascade Lake-X" was to "Cascade Lake," a server processor microarchitecture. Given that Intel is calling it "Alder Lake-X" and not "Sapphire Rapids-X," it could even be a whole new client-specific silicon. What's the difference between the two? It's all in the cores.

While both "Alder Lake" and "Sapphire Rapids" come with "Golden Cove" performance cores (P-cores), they use variants of it. Alder Lake has the client-specific variant with 1.25 MB L2 cache, a lighter client-relevant ISA, and other optimizations that enable it to run at higher clock speeds. Sapphire Rapids, on the other hand, will use a server-specific variant of "Golden Cove" that's optimized for the Mesh interconnect, has 2 MB of L2 cache, a server/HPC-relevant ISA, and a propensity to run at lower clock speeds, to support the silicon's overall TDP and high CPU core-count.

The next-generation AMD Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" desktop processors in the Socket AM5 package are rumored to enter mass-production soon, according to Greymon55 on Twitter, a reliable source with AMD leaks. Silicon fabrication of the chips may already be underway, as the source claims that packaging (placing the dies on the fiberglass substrate or package), will commence by late-April or early-May. "Raphael" is a multi-chip module of "Zen 4" CCDs fabricated on the TSMC N5 (5 nm) node, combined with a cIOD built on a yet-unknown node. A plant in China performs packaging.

It's hard to predict retail availability, but for the Ryzen 5000 "Vermeer" processors, this development milestone was reached in June 2020, with the first products hitting shelves 4 months later, in November. This was, however, in the thick of the pre-vaccine COVID-19 pandemic. The "Zen 4" CPU cores are expected to introduce an IPC increase, as well as higher clock speeds. Also on offer will be next-gen connectivity, including PCI-Express Gen 5 (including CPU-attached Gen 5 NVMe), and DDR5 memory. These processors will launch alongside Socket AM5 motherboards based on the new AMD 600 series chipsets.

In addition to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which AMD claims to be the world's fastest gaming processor, AMD gave its desktop processor product-stack a major update, with as many as six other processor models spanning a wide range of price-points that help the company better compete with the bulk of the 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" processor lineup. The new lineup sees the introduction of the Ryzen 7 5700X (not to be confused with the Ryzen 7 5700G). The 5700X is based on the same "Vermeer" multi-chip module (MCM) as the Ryzen 7 5800X, unlike the 5700G, which is a desktop APU based on the "Cezanne" monolithic silicon. Both "Vermeer" and "Cezanne" are based on the "Zen 3" microarchitecture.

The Ryzen 7 5700X is an 8-core/16-thread processor clocked at 3.40 GHz base and 4.60 GHz boost, compared to the 3.80 GHz base and 4.80 GHz boost frequency of the 5800X. Another key difference is its 65 W TDP, compared to 105 W of the 5800X, which could differentiate its boosting behavior and overclocking headroom compared to the 5800X. AMD is pricing the 5700X at USD $299 (MSRP), making it a competitor to the Intel Core i5-12600KF. Interestingly, the retail PIB (processor-in-box) package of the 5700X does not include a stock cooler despite its 65 W TDP. A 95 W-capable Wraith Spire wouldn't have hurt.

Intel is allegedly advancing the launch of its 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake-S" desktop processors to some time in Q3-2022, according to a report by Moore's Law is Dead. It was earlier believed to be a Q4 launch, much like "Alder Lake" was, in 2021. The report predicts the debut of "Raptor Lake" in the desktop segment in Q3-2022 (between July and September), with certain mobile SKUs expected toward the end of the year, in Q4. The Core "Raptor Lake-S" processor is built in the existing Socket LGA1700 package, and is being designed for compatibility with existing Intel 600-series chipset motherboards with a firmware update.

The "Raptor Lake-S" silicon is built on the existing Intel 7 (10 nm Enhanced SuperFin) node, and physically features eight "Raptor Cove" P-cores, along with sixteen "Gracemont" E-cores that are spread across four clusters. The chip has additional cache memory, too. Moore's Law is Dead predicts that the "Raptor Cove" P-core could introduce an IPC uplift in the region of 8 to 15 percent over the "Golden Cove" core, while the chip's overall multi-threaded performance could be anywhere between 30 to 40 percent over "Alder Lake-S," on account of not just increased IPC of the P-cores, but also eight additional E-cores.

When Intel announced the company's first hybrid design, codenamed Alder Lake, we expected to see more of such design philosophies in future products. During Intel's 2022 investor meeting day, the company provided insights into future developments, and a successor to Alder Lake is no different. Codenamed "Raptor Lake," it features a novel Raptor Cove P-core design that is supposed to bring significant IPC uplift from the previous generation of processors. Using Intel 7 processor node, Raptor Lake brings a similar ecosystem of features to Alder Lake, however, with improved performance across the board.

Perhaps one of the most exciting things to note about Raptor Lake is the advancement in core count, specifically the increase in E-cores. Instead of eight P-cores and eight E-cores like Alder Lake, the Raptor Lake design will retain eight P-cores and double the E-core count to 16. It was a weird decision on Intel's end; however, it surely isn't anything terrible. The total number of cores now jumps to 24, and the total number of threads reaches 32. Additionally, Raptor Lake will bring some additional overclocking improvement features and retain socket compatibility with Alder Lake motherboards. That means that, at worst, you would need to perform a BIOS update to get your previous system ready for new hardware. We assume that Intel has been working with software vendors and its engineering team to optimize core utilization for this next-generation processor, even though they have more E-cores present. Below, we can see Intel's demonstration of Raptor Lake running Blender and Adobe Premiere and the CPU core utilization.

Tachyum today announced that it was selected by the Slovak Republic to participate in the latest submission for the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI), to develop Prodigy 2 for HPC/AI. Prodigy 2 for HPC/AI will enable 1 AI Zettaflop and more than 10 DP Exaflops computers to support superhuman brain-scale computing by 2024 for under €1B. As part of this selection, Tachyum could receive a 49 million Euro grant to accelerate a second-generation of its Tachyum Prodigy processor for HPC/AI in a 3-nanometer process.

The IPCEI program can make a very important contribution to sustainable economic growth, jobs, competitiveness and resilience for industry and the economy in the European Union. IPCEI will strengthen the EU's open strategic autonomy by enabling breakthrough innovation and infrastructure projects through cross-border cooperation and with positive spill-over effects on the internal market and society as a whole.

Large on-die caches are expected to be a major contributor to IPC and gaming performance. The upcoming AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor triples its on-die last-level cache using the 3D Vertical Cache technology, to level up to Intel's "Alder Lake-S" processors in gaming, while using the existing "Zen 3" IP. Intel realizes this, and is planning a massive increase in on-die cache sizes, although spread across the cache hierarchy. The next-generation "Raptor Lake-S" desktop processor the company plans to launch in the second half of 2022 is rumored to feature 68 MB of "total cache" (that's AMD lingo for L2 + L3 caches), according to a highly plausible theory by PC enthusiast OneRaichu on Twitter, and illustrated by Olrak29_.

The "Raptor Lake-S" silicon is expected to feature eight "Raptor Cove" P-cores, and four "Gracemont" E-core clusters (each cluster amounts to four cores). The "Raptor Cove" core is expected to feature 2 MB of dedicated L2 cache, an increase over the 1.25 MB L2 cache per "Golden Cove" P-core of "Alder Lake-S." In a "Gracemont" E-core cluster, four CPU cores share an L2 cache. Intel is looking to double this E-core cluster L2 cache size from 2 MB per cluster on "Alder Lake," to 4 MB per cluster. The shared L3 cache increases from 30 MB on "Alder Lake-S" (C0 silicon), to 36 MB on "Raptor Lake-S." The L2 + L3 caches hence add up to 68 MB. All eyes are now on "Zen 4," and whether AMD gives the L2 caches an increase from the 512 KB per-core size that it's consistently maintained since the first "Zen."

It looks like Intel and TSMC have a deal in place to manufacture 3 nm chips. The world-leading Taiwanese fab is setting up a new facility exclusively to cater to Intel, according to DigiTimes, citing industry sources. This facility will be located in the Baoshan area of Hsinchu, in northern Taiwan. The 3 nm node will enable Intel to keep its newfound cadence of launching new CPU microarchitectures with IPC increases each year. The annual IPC increase cadence in particular, would be faster than even the "Tick-Tock" cadence prior to 2015, as the company pushed IPC increases and foundry nodes each alternating year. The company faces stiff competition from AMD, which has been posting IPC increases each year since 2017, and leveraged TSMC 7 nm nodes to beat Intel in the IPC game for the first time in over 17 years.

With its 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake-P" mobile processors still on the horizon, Intel is already building test batches of the 14th Gen "Meteor Lake" mobile processors, at its Fab 42 facility in Chandler, Arizona. "Meteor Lake" is a multi-chip module that leverages Intel's Foveros packaging technology to combine "tiles" (purpose built dies) based on different silicon fabrication processes depending on their function and transistor-density/power requirements. It combines four distinct tiles across a single package—the compute tile, with the CPU cores; the graphics tile with the iGPU: the SoC I/O tile, which handles the processor's platform I/O; and a fourth tile, which is currently unknown. This could be a memory stack with similar functions as the HBM stacks on "Sapphire Rapids," or something entirely different.

The compute tile contains the processor's various CPU core types. The P cores are "Redwood Cove," which are two generations ahead of the current "Golden Cove." If Intel's 12-20% generational IPC uplift cadence holds, we're looking at cores with up to 30% higher IPC than "Golden Cove" (50-60% higher than "Skylake."). "Meteor Lake" also debuts Intel's next-generation E-core, codenamed "Crestmont." The compute tile is rumored to be fabricated on the Intel 4 node (optically a 7 nm-class node, but with characteristics similar to TSMC N5).

Intel is slowly preparing to launch its 4th generation of Xeon Scalable processors, with it being the first arrival of the 10 nm designs to the server market. Codenamed Sapphire Rapids, these processors are expected to bring much-needed IPC and platform improvements so Intel can keep up with AMD's EPYC processors. Today, we are getting some first performance results as well as some information about a specific 20 core, 40 threaded Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids SKU. In a leaked Geekbench 4 submission, the latest Xeon processor was tested and we get to see even more details about the processor.

Featuring 20 cores and 40 threads, the CPU has a base clock speed of 1.5 GHz. It features as much as 40 MB of L2 cache and 75 MB of L3 cache spread across the die. The system was tested on an Intel reference platform called VulcanCity, with this configuration carrying 32 GB of DDR5 memory. The reported results of the benchmarks that this processor went through are not very impressive. These numbers are easily beaten by AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, however, this is only an engineering sample with low clock speed and it could be possible that Geekbench is not optimized to run on this processor. You can check out some of the performance numbers below, and see the submitted results here.