This shouldn't really need to be spelled out, but AMD clarified that you can't have PCI-Express gen 4.0 running an upcoming Ryzen 3000 "Matisse" processor on older socket AM4 motherboards based on AMD 300-series and 400-series chipsets, and that the processor's PCIe root-complex will run at PCI-Express gen 3.0 speeds. AMD's official reason for this is that the older motherboards can't guarantee reliable signaling needed for PCI-Express gen 4.0 and hence the company decided to blanket-disable PCIe gen 4.0 for the older platforms. This statement was put out by Robert Hallock, senior technical marketing head for CPUs and APUs, on Reddit.

Unofficially, though, we believe there are technological barriers standing in the way of PCI-Express gen 4.0 on the older motherboards, the least of which are the lack of external PCIe gen 4.0-certified re-driver/equalizer components, and lane-switching on boards that split one x16 PEG link to two x8 links. There may be other less technical issues such as PCI-SIG certification for the older platforms. Intel faced a similar challenge with its 3rd generation Core "Ivy Bridge" processors, which introduced PCI-Express gen 3.0 to the mainstream desktop platform, and were backwards-compatible with Intel 6-series chipset (eg: Z68 Express). The older 6-series motherboards could only put out PCIe gen 2.0 with the newer processors.

With its "Zen" CPU microarchitecture, AMD removed support for the FMA4 instruction-set, on paper. This, while retaining FMA3. Level1Techs discovered that "Zen" CPUs do support FMA4 instructions, even through the instruction-set is not exposed to the operating system. FMA, or fused multiply add, is an efficient way to compute linear algebra. FMA3 and FMA4 are not generations of the instruction-set (unlike SSE3 and SSE4), but rather the digit denotes the number of operands per instruction. Support for both were introduced by AMD in 2012 with its FX-series processors, while Intel added FMA3 support in 2013 with "Haswell."

The exact reasons why AMD deprecated FMA4 with "Zen" are unknown, but some developers speculate it's because AMD's implementation of FMA4 is buggy, even though it's more efficient (33% more throughput). Intel's adoption of FMA3 made it more popular, and hence more stable over the years. Level1Techs used an OpenBLAS FMA4 test-program to confirm that feeding "Zen" processors with FMA4 instructions won't just return a "illegal instruction" error, but also the processor will go ahead and complete the operation. This is interesting because FMA4 isn't exposed as a CPUID bit, and the operating system has no idea the processor even supports the instruction. For linear algebra, FMA4 has proven more efficient than AVX in both single- and double-precision.

Intel today released the latest round of CPU micro-code updates for its processors, which expand support for Intel processor microarchitectures ranging all the way back to 1st generation Core "Westmere," and "Lynnfield," and including "Sandy Bridge" and "Ivy Bridge" along the way, at various stages of roll-out (beta, pre-production, and production). This update probably features hardening against "Spectre" variant 4, and perhaps even RSRR (rogue system register read) variant 3A, chronicled in CVE-2018-3640.

If you're holding out on Windows 7 as your PC gaming platform, you may also want to hold out on your current hardware for a long while. Microsoft is making good on a warning it made earlier this year, that it would not provide support to users of upcoming processors on older Windows operating systems. At their launch, Intel's 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processors and AMD "Summit Ridge" and "Bristol Ridge" will receive support from Microsoft only on the Windows 10 operating system. Older Windows versions will not receive drivers from Microsoft that support the new platforms. This is similar to Microsoft cutting off support for Windows XP from Intel's 3rd generation Core "Ivy Bridge" processors.

Without platform support, your Windows installation won't utilize many of the CPU features introduced with "Kaby Lake" and "Zen" and will likely run on a bare-minimum compatibility mode. This effectively cuts off PC enthusiasts from using older Windows versions on new hardware, such as the still-popular Windows 7. Non-Microsoft operating systems such as the latest *nix distributions such as ChromeOS, SteamOS, and OS X are still fully compatible with the upcoming chips.

Intel co-founder Gordon Moore's claim that transistor counts in microprocessors can be doubled with 2 years, by means of miniaturizing silicon lithography is beginning to buckle. In its latest earnings release, CEO Brian Krzanich said that the company's recent product cycles marked a slowing down of its "tick-tock" product development from 2 years to close to 2.5 years. With the company approaching sub-10 nm scales, it's bound to stay that way.

To keep Moore's Law alive, Intel adopted a product development strategy it calls tick-tock. Think of it as a metronome that give rhythm to the company. Each "tock" marks the arrival of a new micro-architecture, and each "tick" marks its miniaturization to a smaller silicon fab process. Normally, each year is bound to see one of the two in alternation.

AMD is planning to play a neat branding game with Intel. Branding of the company's 2016 lineup of CPUs and APUs will emphasize on "generation," much in the same way Intel does with its Core processor family. AMD will mention in its PIB product packaging, OEM specs sheets, and even its product logo (down to the case-badge), that its 2016 products (FX-series CPUs and A-series APUs) are the company's "6th generation." 2016 marks prevalence of Intel's Core "Skylake" processor family, which is its 6th generation Core family (succeeding Nehalem/Westmere, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell, and Broadwell). AMD is arriving at its "6th generation" moniker counting "Stars," "Bulldozer," "Piledriver," "Steamroller," and "Excavator," driving its past 5 generations of APUs, and the occasional FX CPU.

It turns out that the emphasis on "generation" is big with DIY and SI retail channels. Retailers we spoke with, say that they find it easier to break through Intel's often-confusing CPU socket change cycle, which ticks roughly every 18-24 months. Customers, they say, find it easier to simply mention the "generation" of Core processor they want, to get all relevant components to go with them (such as motherboard and memory bundles). While AMD's FX brand clearly didn't see generations beyond "Piledriver," the company's decision to unify the socket for its FX and A-Series product lines next year, with AM4, makes "6th generation FX processor" valid.

Major pre-built desktop manufacturers began listing products driven by 5th generation Core "Broadwell" processors, which are having a brief stint at the markets before being replaced by 6th generation Core "Skylake" processors in Q3-2015. The 5th Generation Core family is led by two parts, the Core i5-5675C, and the Core i7-5775C, both of which come with unlocked base-clock multipliers, are based on Intel's new 14 nanometer silicon fab process, and built in the LGA1150 package, compatible with existing Intel 9-series chipset based motherboards, with BIOS updates.

The Core i5-5675C and i7-5775C aren't exactly successors of the i5-4690K and i7-4790K. The i7-5775C is placed in a product tier Intel calls "P1+," while the i5-5675C is placed in one called "MS2+." The two aren't exactly in the same plane as P1K (eg: i7-4790K) or MS2K (eg: i5-4690K), respectively, and don't qualify as P1 (eg: i7-4790 non-K) or MS2 (eg: i5-4690 non-K). The two still feature unlocked multipliers. This places them somewhere between P1K/MS2K and P1/MS2. Both the i5-5675C and i7-5775C are quad-core chips, and physically feature just 6 MB of L3 cache. The i7-5775C has access to all 6 MB of it, while the i5-5675K features just 4 MB.

In what could be a sign of Intel being stuck with "undigested" Core "Haswell" inventories, BGA chips becoming commonplace for desktop platforms that don't see CPU upgrades, or even "Broadwell" being too short a stopgap between "Haswell" and "Skylake," the company has reportedly decided to launch just two socket LGA1150 Core "Broadwell" parts, when the silicon hits the market towards June.

Built in the 14 nm silicon fab process, "Broadwell" will bring about performance/Watt increments, and Intel doesn't appear to be in the mood to trade those in for higher clock speeds (higher performance out of the box). It's relevant to note here, that the "Broadwell" core is essentially an optical shrink of the "Haswell" CPU architecture to 14 nm, much like "Ivy Bridge" was to "Sandy Bridge," even if the silicon seating the cores itself is much different (meatier iGPU). Intel will be going in with just two parts, both of which are unlocked, for PC enthusiasts to chew on. These include the Core i7-5775C and the Core i5-5675C.

Along the sidelines of GDC 2015, Intel offered a few details on how the year could look for its desktop processor lineup. The company is preparing to launch socketed Core "Broadwell" processors in mid-2015 (late Q2 or early Q3), likely in the sidelines of Computex 2015. Broadwell is an optical shrink of "Haswell" to the new 14-nanometer silicon fab process, with a minor feature-set update, much in the same way as "Ivy Bridge" was an optical shrink of "Sandy Bridge" to the 22 nm process.

The socketed Core "Broadwell" chips could come in the LGA1150 package, running on existing 8-series and 9-series chipset motherboards, with BIOS updates. The optical shrink seems to be working wonders for the silicon. Quad-core chips based on "Broadwell" could come with TDP rated as low as 65W (and we're not talking about the energy-efficient "S" or "T" brand extensions here). Some dual-core variants in the series may even be based on the smaller Core M "Broadwell" silicon, which physically features just 2 cores (and isn't a bigger quad-core silicon with two cores disabled in what's a colossal waste of rare-earth metals on a production scale). Some of those dual-core parts could come with TDP rated as low as 28W.

Intel's Ivy Bridge purge continues as the Santa Clara-based company announced its plans to retire five more chips based on the aging architecture, the Core i3-3110M, i3-3120M, i3-3130M, i3-3217U, i3-3227U. These mobile CPUs were released between Q2 2013 and Q1 2013 and are set to 'survive' until Q2 2015 as May 22nd is the last day of shipments. Intel is still taking orders for these processors but that will stop November 21st.

Having already planned the discontinuance of a heap of Ivy Bridge processors, Intel has this week confirmed that several supporting chipsets - the Z77, H77, Z75 and Q75, will also be 'going away' in 2015. According to Intel's product change notification the four LGA1155 desktop chipsets will be available for ordering until January 23rd, 2015 and will continue shipping until July 10th.

An identical schedule was also announced for seven Ivy Bridge-based mobile processors, the Celeron 1020M, 1005M, 1000M, 1037U, 1017U, 1007U and 1019Y.

Intel's presentation for Italian technology conference 3D Revolution 2014 was leaked to the web, revealing the company's most up-to-date desktop CPU roadmap, which looks deep into 2015. It reveals a wealth of new information. To begin with the HEDT (high-end desktop) segment, Intel plans to drag Core i7 "Ivy Bridge-E" through Q3-2014, and launch its succeeding Core i7 "Haswell-E" processor close to Q4-2014, or late into Q3, which would pin its launch some time in September 2014. "Haswell-E" is built in the new socket LGA2011-3 package, and is supported exclusively by Intel X99 Express chipset. It also heralds DDR4 memory to the consumer space. "Haswell-E" will have its reign till late-Q3 2015, when Intel plans to launch Core i7 "Broadwell-E," which is built in the same package, and supported by the same X99 platform, but based on a swanky new 14 nm silicon.

Things get interesting with the company's mainline desktop processors. Intel recently launched its "Haswell" Refresh silicon, and is bound to launch their unlocked variants, codenamed "Devil's Canyon," on the 25th of June. Built in the LGA1150 package, "Haswell" Refresh runs on both 8-series and 9-series chipset. Intel's 9-series chipset was originally designed to launch alongside the company's first processors built on the 14 nm silicon fab process, codenamed "Broadwell," which is an optical shrink of "Haswell," with a few minor tweaks and speed bumps, just as "Ivy Bridge" was to "Sandy Bridge." Intel's "Broadwell" chips are now expected to debut in Q1-2015, probably along the sidelines of the 2015 International CES. These chips will be supported by existing LGA1150 motherboards, some with BIOS updates.

Since Haswell is already doing an encore and Broadwell is looking good coming up, Intel has decided to do a little cleaning and discontinue some of its older processors. No less than 17 processors are set to get the axe and they are the Ivy Bridge-based Core i5-3330, i5-3330S, i5-3340, i5-3340S, i5-3470, i5-3475S, i5-3470S, i5-3470T, i5-3550, i5-3570, i5-3570S, i5-3570T, i5-3570K, i7-3770, i7-3770K, i7-3770S and i7-3770T.

The CPUs listed will continue to be available for ordering until December 24th while shipments will happen until June 5th, 2015.

The BIS-3922 is an expanded Fanless 3rd Generation Intel Quad Core i7 Ivy Bridge System featuring Habey USA's proprietary ICEFIN design. Improving our tried-and-true system, BIS-6922, the new BIS-3922 offers more I/O for even more applications and solutions. The BIS-3922 is designed to allow bottom access to a 3.5" HDD bay, mSATA slot (mini-PCIE) and RAM slot for easy installation and maintenance. The system also features 6 DB9 COM ports on the front panel, one of which is a dedicated RS-422/485.

Habey's proprietary ICEFIN design ensures maximum heat dissipation and a true fanless system. The technology was tested and reviewed by Anandtech on our BIS-6922 system and the same technology is integrated into the new BIS-3922. In addition, there are no vent holes to further extend the life of the system by protecting the system from dust build up. Built with the Intel QM77 chipset, this system is compatible with the 3rd generation Ivy Bridge Core processors. Whatever the application, be it automation, digital signage, network security, point of sale, transportation or even digital surveillance, this high performance fanlesss Intel 3rd Gen Quad-Core i7 Ivy Bridge Dual NIC system is designed to be reliable, secure and easy to manage. Click Here for pricing or questions.

At GDC, Intel announced a backpedal from its plans to eventually reshape desktop CPUs into components that come hardwired to the motherboards across the line, by announcing three new CPU families. It includes the Haswell-E HEDT platform, Broadwell performance platform, and Devil's Canyon. The three are expected to launch in reverse order, beginning with Devil's Canyon. A variant of existing "Haswell" silicon in the LGA1150 package, Devil's Canyon is codename for a breed of hand-picked chips with "insane" overclocking potential. In addition to binned dies, the chips feature a performance-optimized TIM between the die and the integrated heatspreader (IHS). The dies will be placed on special "high tolerance" packages, with equally "special" LGA contact points. The chips will be designed with higher voltage tolerance levels. Devil's Canyon is expected to branded under the existing Core i7-4xxx series, possibly with "Extreme" brand extension. It will be compatible with motherboards based on the Z97 chipset.

Next up, is "Broadwell." A successor to Haswell, Broadwell is its optical shrink to Intel's new 14-nanometer silicon fab process, with minor improvements to IPC, new power-management features, and likely added instruction sets, much like what "Ivy Bridge" was to "Sandy Bridge." It will take advantage of the new process to step up CPU and iGPU clock speeds. Broadwell is expected to launch in the second half of 2014. Lastly, there's Haswell-E. Built in the company's next-gen LGA2011 socket (incompatible with the current LGA2011), this HEDT (high-end desktop) processor will feature up to eight CPU cores, up to 15 MB of L3 cache, a 48-lane PCI-Express 3.0 root complex, and a quad-channel DDR4 integrated memory controller (IMC). Intel is also planning to launch a socketed variant of the Core i7-4770R, which is based on the company's Haswell GT3e silicon, which features the Iris Pro 5200 graphics core, with 40 execution units, and 128 MB of L4 cache.

Intel Corp. has kicked off February by informing partners (and anyone interested) about the discontinuance schedule of nine products including two Ivy Bridge mobile processors - the Core i7-3840QM (2.8 GHz) and i7-3740QM (2.7 GHz), and seven Bay Trail-based SoCs - the Pentium N3510 (2.0 GHz) and J2850 (2.41 GHz) and the Celeron N2910 (1.6 GHz), N2810 (2.0 GHz), N2805 (1.46 GHz), J1850 (2.0 GHz) and J1750 (2.41 GHz).

The Pentium N3510, J2850 and Celeron N2910 are the first to go as they will only be available for orders until February 21st and will continue shipping until April 25th. The rest are set to survive quite a bit longer, their last order date being August 22nd, while shipments won't end until February 6th, 2015.

The last Sunday of 2013 has seen Intel do a little price slashing, taking between 4% and 26% off the price tag of 31 processors, mostly mobile models. The only desktop chips that got a cut (between 9% and 11%) were three low-power Haswell-based chips, namely the Core i7-4770R, i5-4670R and i5-4570R.

On the mobile front we have lower prices for a trio of high-end quad-cores (i7-4960HQ/5% cut, i7-4950HQ/5% cut, i7-4850HQ/7% cut) as well as for a multitude of Celeron CPUs based on the Ivy Bridge, Haswell and Bay Trail architectures. The full list of price cuts is available in the table below.

Here's the first picture of Intel's next-generation Core i7 HEDT (high-end desktop) processor, codenamed "Haswell-E." Based on Intel's latest "Haswell" micro-architecture, the chip will be Intel's first HEDT processor to ship with eight cores, and the first client CPU to ship with next-generation DDR4 memory interface. In addition to IPC improvements over "Ivy Bridge" that come with "Haswell," the chip integrates a quad-channel DDR4 integrated memory controller, with native memory speeds of DDR4-2133 MHz; a PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complex with a total of 40 PCI-Express lanes, and yet the same DMI 2.0 (4 GB/s) chipset bus.

Built into the LGA2011-3 socket, "Haswell-E" will be incompatible with current LGA2011 motherboards, as the notches of the package will vary from LGA2011 "Ivy Bridge-E." Intel will introduce the new X99 Express chipset, featuring all 6 Gb/s SATA ports, integrated USB 3.0 controllers, and a PCI-Express gen 2.0 root complex for third-party onboard controllers. Interestingly, there's no mention of SATA-Express, which Intel's next-generation 9-series chipset for Core "Broadwell" platforms reportedly ships with; and X99 isn't looking too different from today's Z87 chipset. With engineering samples already out, it wouldn't surprise us if Intel launches "Haswell-E" along the sidelines of any of next year's big-three trade-shows (CES, CeBIT, and Computex).

Themis Computer today announced the Intel Core i7 NanoPAK small form factor computer, the newest member of the Themis Tactical Systems product family. The small, light footprint and powerful performance of the Intel Core i7 NanoPAK make it an ideal solution for rugged commercial and military field applications. The NanoPAK i7 computer integrates an Intel 3rd generation Core i7 (Ivy Bridge) processor with FLASH storage in a small, light footprint that optimizes size, weight, power, and cooling. NanoPAK i7 computers are complete, stand alone systems designed for unmanned vehicles, ground vehicles, man-wearable, shipboard, and other extreme environments, where space, weight, power, and cost (SWAP-C) are critical.

Intel has just revealed plans to discontinue two of its quad-core Ivy Bridge mobile processors, the 2.7 GHz Core i7-3820QM and 2.6 GHz i7-3720QM. Both models are being pushed aside to leave more room for Haswell-based chips.

The Core i7-3820QM and i7-3720QM will still be available for orders up until June 27th, 2014, and are set to ship till December 5th.

TechPowerUp announced GPU-Z 0.7.4, the latest version of the popular PC graphics subsystem information, monitoring, and diagnostics utility. Version 0.7.4 introduces support for several of the recently launched, and upcoming high-end graphics chips, including Radeon R9 290X, Radeon R9 290, and Radeon R9 270; from AMD's stable, and the GeForce GTX 780 Ti from NVIDIA. Among the other chips supported from the two, include the Radeon HD 8280, HD 7310; and GeForce GT 635, and Quadro K3100M.

GPU-Z 0.7.4 also introduces a number of fixes, including accuracy in reporting release date of the Radeon R9 280X, die-size of AMD "Tahiti," ROP counts on Intel "Haswell" and "Ivy Bridge" IGPs. The new GPU-Z also lets you extract video BIOS from AMD Radeon cards even without any driver for the GPU being installed. The mini stress-test that clogs the PCIe bus interface, forcing it to run at maximum possible speeds (thereby giving you an accurate picture of the PCIe configuration), can now be paused by left-clicking the stress render window. A few rare crashes with systems running Intel IGPs, were addressed.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.7.4 | GPU-Z 0.7.4 ASUS ROG-themed

The change-log follows.

Intel Corp. has recently revealed the discontinuance schedule for the 3.2 GHz Core i3-3210 and 3.3 GHz i3-3225 desktop CPUs and the 2.6 GHz Core i7-3720QM, 2.7 GHz i7-3820QM and 2.9 GHz i7-3920XM mobile chips. These are all Ivy Bridge-based models and have been introduced between Q2 2012 and Q1 2013. As usual, the reason for discontinuing the chips is market demand, which is shifting towards newer products.

According to Intel's plans, the boxed and tray versions of the processors will continue to be available for order up until March 28th, 2014, and will ship until September 5th, 2014.

Lenovo today announced, at the Intel Developer Forum, two new tower servers, the ThinkServer TS140 and ThinkServer TS440. Armed with the latest Intel Xeon E3 processors and Intel AMT 9.0 for remote manageability, these affordable, whisper-quiet tower servers are designed for powerful performance and expansive scalability, ideal for small-to-medium-sized businesses and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) that require rich features and functionality at an attractive price point.

Equipped with the latest Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3 processors, the ThinkServer TS140 and TS440 tower servers offer 15 percent faster performance than previous generations. The TS140 and TS440 also feature Intel AMT 9.0 to provide outstanding remote manageability tools for easy and efficient server maintenance. Intel's AMT technology is certified with popular MSP ecosystem management consoles like N-Able, Level Platforms and Kasaya, enabling MSPs to manage end-user networks remotely and more cost effectively.

Intel's pocket-sized prodigy, NUC (next unit of computing), made waves since 2012, when it launched as a full-fledged desktop system, based on Core "Ivy Bridge" platform. The industry has since been looking forward to second-generation NUC, which runs the company's latest Core "Haswell" processors. One such fun-size powerhouse was spotted at PAX Prime. Labelled Intel D54250WYK, the kit runs a Core i5-4250U dual-core processor (1.30 GHz clocks, 2.60 GHz Turbo Boost, 3 MB L3 cache, HD Graphics 5000, 15W TDP). The reference-design enclosure is smaller in size than its predecessor, measuring 116.6 mm x 112 mm x 34.5 mm, compared to the original's 116.5 mm x 112 mm x 39.3 mm. Connectivity on the device include a single 3.5 mm headset jack, four USB 3.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, and mini-DisplayPort (both of which give out 7.1-channel digital audio). Wireless connectivity options could include anything from 802.11 b/g/n (or even 802.11 ac), Bluetooth 4.0. Intel could detail, or perhaps even launch, its next-generation NUC at IDF San Francisco.

x86 heavyweight Intel Corp. has just updated its desktop processor offer with a bunch of new Haswell and Ivy Bridge models. Detailed below, this latest release wave includes the 3.5 GHz Core i7-4771, four Core i5 chips priced at $182 (two Haswell and two Ivy Bridge CPUs), Core i3s going from 2.9 GHz to 3.6 GHz, five Pentiums, plus a couple of Ivy Bridge-based Celerons. The processors cover a price range that starts at $42 (for the low-power Celeron G1620T) and tops $314 (for the Core i7-4771).