A Chinese Topton company has brought new life to the AMD Vega graphics architecture by integrating it into a Network Attached Storage (NAS) motherboard. The Topton N9 NAS motherboard features the Intel Core i7-8705G processor, a unique chip that combines Intel CPU cores with AMD's RX Vega M GL graphics. The Intel Core i7-8705G, initially released in 2018, is an unusual choice for a NAS system. This 14 nm processor features four cores, eight threads, and a boost clock of up to 4.1 GHz. What sets it apart is the integrated AMD RX Vega M GL GPU with 20 Compute Units and 4 GB of HBM2 memory.

The Topton N9 NAS motherboard is designed for the 17×17 cm ITX form factor and offers a range of features like maximum support for 64 GB of DDR4 RAM, M.2 NVMe/SATA and SATA 3.0, eight Intel i226-V controllers for 2.5 Gbit networking, USB 3.0, USB Type-C, and HDMI 2.0 connectivity. While the Intel Core i7-8705G may not be the most obvious choice for a NAS system, the Topton N9 motherboard demonstrates how this unique processor can be repurposed to provide affordable computing power. The integrated AMD RX Vega graphics offer capabilities beyond typical NAS requirements, making this motherboard suitable for various applications, such as home firewalls and routers. The collaboration between Intel and AMD in creating the Kaby Lake-G processors was a rare occurrence in the industry. The Topton N9 starts at $288.56 without a fan/cooler, and adding another $20 bumps the price to $308.46.

Intel Graphics, with its latest Graphics Drivers 31.0.101.3222, changed the coverage of its latest driver updates. The company would be providing game optimizations and regular driver updates only for its Gen12 (Iris Xe), and Arc "Alchemist" graphics products. Support for Gen9, Gen9.5, and Gen11 iGPUs integrated with 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th generations of Intel processors, namely "Skylake," "Kaby Lake," "Coffee Lake," "Ice Lake," and "Cascade Lake," will be relegated to a separate, quarterly driver update cycle, which only covers critical updates and security vulnerabilities, but not game optimizations.

Intel's regular Graphics Driver cycle that includes Day-0 optimizations timed with new game releases, will only cover the Gen12 Xe iGPUs found in 11th Gen "Tiger Lake," "Rocket Lake," and 12th Gen "Alder Lake" processors; besides the DG1 Iris Xe graphics card; and Arc "Alchemist" discrete GPUs. Version 31.0.101.3222 appears to be a transitioning point, and so it has drivers from both branches included within a 1.1 GB package (the main branch supporting game optimizations for new GPUs, and the legacy branch for the older iGPUs). You can grab this driver from here.

ASUS has begun rolling out BIOS updates that add motherboard support for Windows 11 even for processor families that Microsoft said would be left out of their latest Windows OS. Ever since the introduction of Windows 11, the message around specific hardware requirements has been difficult to pinpoint, as the company struggles to send a clear message on exactly which users should be looking to update their hardware - and which should not. ASUS' new BIOS updates will certainly add to the stirring pot, as they are being touted to enable Windows 11 support for Intel CPU families that Microsoft doesn't officially (yet) support for the OS release: Skylake (6th Gen) and Kaby Lake (7th Gen). According to Microsoft, only 8th Gen (Coffee Lake) and later Intel CPUs are supported by Windows 11.

The new BIOS updates typically activate TPM on the users' machine, should it be off at the BIOS level. ASUS has already released beta BIOS versions that introduce support for Windows 11 on Z270, H270 and B250 motherboards, and launched a hub page with compatibility status for a number of its motherboard releases. According to the company in the respective motherboard support pages, "The following motherboards are compatible with Windows 11 under current testing. The upgrability [sic] is subject to the support from operation system or 3rd party drivers availability." Which of course means that even if ASUS has gotten preview versions of Windows 11 to run on systems with this hardware, there's no way to know if the final, retail Windows 11 version will actually offer support for these CPUs. Of course, driver compatibility is also in question, since nothing guarantees Windows 11 to competently manage your hardware on the basis of Windows 10-bound driver packages.

ASUS and MSI have each put out lists of their motherboards and compatible processors that meet the Windows 11 requirement of a TPM 2.0 spec-compliant trusted platform module, without needing an add-on TPM. ASUS says that its motherboards dating back to the Intel 300-series, and AMD 300-series, and processors compatible with them, meet the requirement, which would mean Intel "Coffee Lake" and forward; and AMD "Zen" and forward. MSI, on the other hand, extends support all the way back to Intel 100-series (when paired with "Kaby Lake" or forward); and AMD 300-series ("Zen" and forward).

For HEDT platforms, both companies support TPM 2.0 on Intel X299, AMD X399, and AMD TRX40. Server- and workstation chipsets from processor generations corresponding to these platforms, will also support Windows 11. Intel and AMD began integrating a firmware TPM with these platforms that met TPM 2.0 specification. Older platforms will require an add-on TPM, which scalpers are selling for upward or $100 these days (normally under $20). The firmware TPM, although present, is usually disabled, and needs to be enabled in the UEFI setup program. In addition, the firmware must be configured for UEFI boot, with Secure Boot enabled, to meet Windows 11 requirements.

In more reason why Microsoft's requirement for hardware trusted platform modules for its upcoming Windows 11 operating system is arbitrary, the company revealed that it is willing to tweak the hardware TPM system requirements to accommodate platforms from 2017, which include the very first generation of AMD "Zen" (Ryzen 1000 series), and Intel 7th Gen Core "Kaby Lake." In a Windows Insider blog posted dated June 28, Microsoft explained in brief why Windows 11 needs TPM 2.0 hardware, and that the "PC Health Check App," the software tool Microsoft is giving users to check whether their PCs measure up to Windows 11, has been temporarily removed from the website while they work on getting its accuracy right.

"The intention of today's post is to acknowledge and clarify the confusion caused by our PC Health Check tool, share more details as to why we updated the system requirements for Windows 11 and set the path for how we will learn and adjust. Below you will find changes we are making based on that feedback, including ensuring we have the ability for Windows Insiders to install Windows 11 on 7th generation processors to give us more data about performance and security, updating our PC Health check app to provide more clarity, and committing to more technical detail on the principles behind our decisions. With Windows 11, we are focused on increasing security, improving reliability, and ensuring compatibility. This is what drives our decisions.

Intel's Core i7-7700K "Kaby Lake" quad-core processor may fall significantly behind its 9th generation successor and today's Ryzen 7 chips, but it remains a formidable piece of silicon for strictly-gaming builds. Can it be bested by a $120 AMD Ryzen 3 3300X? A leaked, alleged Cinebench R15 score suggests that something very fascinating is brewing at AMD. The score points to the i7-7700K having a single-thread score just 0.5 percent higher than the 3300X, which means the multi-threaded score of the 4-core/8-thread AMD chip could end up within striking distance of the i7-7700K.

If this holds up, then AMD has a shot at bringing i7-7700K levels of gaming performance down to $120 (SEP). That would have the potential to seriously disrupt the sub-$200 processor market for gamers, enabling them to build fairly powerful 1440p (or higher) gaming builds. The low price will also let builders allocate more money to the graphics card. Adding to its gaming credentials could be the fact that the "Matisse" MCM features PCI-Express gen 4.0 x16 when paired with an X570 or upcoming B550 chipset motherboard, as detailed in AMD's announcement of the processor. The Ryzen 3 3300 is a 4-core/8-thread processor based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, clocked at 3.80 GHz, with 4.30 GHz boost frequency, and featuring 18 MB of total cache. It is expected to be available from May 2020.

Intel late Thursday, through a product change notification, announced the discontinuation of almost its entire 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" desktop processor series. This includes most chips across the Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Pentium, and Celeron desktop chips based on the 14 nm+ "Kaby Lake-S" silicon, across both retail boxed and tray packages. These chips formed Intel's main product lineup through 2017, and had to be quickly succeeded by the 8th generation "Coffee Lake" with the advent of AMD Ryzen. To clear out its inventory, Intel will accept discontinuance orders for these chips until April 2020. A discontinuance order can only be placed by a customer who has previously ordered these exact chips. The last of these orders will be shipped out by October 2020.

Intel late-May made its first major disclosure of the per-core CPU performance gains achieved with its "Ice Lake" processor that packs "Sunny Cove" CPU cores. Averaged across a spectrum of benchmarks, Intel claims a best-case scenario IPC (instructions per clock) uplift of a massive 40 percent over "Skylake," and a mean uplift of 18 percent. The worst-case scenario sees its performance negligibly below that of "Skylake." Intel's IPC figures are derived entirely across synthetic benchmarks, which include SPEC 2016, SPEC 2017, SYSMark 2014 SE, WebXprt, and CineBench R15. The comparison to "Skylake" is relevant because Intel has been using essentially the same CPU core in the succeeding three generations that include "Kaby Lake" and "Coffee Lake."

A Chinese tech-forum member with access to an "Ice Lake" 6-core/12-thread sample put the chip through the CPU-Z internal benchmark (test module version 17.01). At a clock-speed of 3.60 GHz, the "Ice Lake" chip allegedly achieved a single-core score of 635 points. To put this number into perspective, a Ryzen 7 3800X "Matisse" supposedly needs to run at 4.70 GHz to match this score, and a Core i7-7700K "Kaby Lake" needs to run at 5.20 GHz. Desktop "Ice Lake" processors are unlikely to launch in 2019. The first "Ice Lake" processors are 4-core/8-thread chips designed for ultraportable notebook platforms, which come out in Q4-2019, and desktop "Ice Lake" parts are expected only in 2020.

Intel's high-end desktop platform raises the stakes with updated Intel Core X-Series processors that boast a lot more of everything, including cores, cache, bandwidth, and more. The additional processing power plows through CPU-intensive tasks, while the extra bandwidth lets you add more GPUs and NVMe SSDs to accelerate a wider range of workloads.

Anchored by the X299 platform, this upper echelon scales up to 18 cores with the new Core i9-9980XE. It's now joined by an even more exclusive chip with 28 cores and an entirely separate platform that redefines extreme desktop PCs. We have new motherboards designed to exploit the strengths of each CPU. The Prime X299-Deluxe II gives professionals and power users a flexible foundation for serious work and it is not alone, ROG engineers are also working on a new Rampage motherboard geared toward hardcore gamers and overclockers, while the ROG Dominus Extreme shows what's possible when our engineers have the freedom to go beyond traditional boundaries

Without making too much noise about it, Intel sneaked in a revision of its H310 Express entry-level chipset with support for Windows 7. Microsoft, if you'll recall, restricted support for newer processors (Intel "Kaby Lake" and newer, and AMD "Zen" and newer) on the 9-year old operating system, late-2016. There are ways around this restriction. The revised H310 chipset is pin-compatible with its predecessor, and hence major motherboard manufacturers are putting out revisions of their H310 motherboards with the newer chipset, being referred to as either "H310C" or "H310 R2.0."

To bolster this change, Intel is also releasing Windows 7 drivers for the chipset (INF Update Utility); integrated USB 3.0 controllers, the SATA AHCI controller, and even Management Engine Interface (MEI). What you don't get (yet), however, is Windows 7 versions of Intel UHD 6xx Graphics drivers, so you're restricted to using discrete graphics cards. Windows 7 refuses to die down, not just in enterprises, but also among PUBG gamers from China.

One of the first Intel NUC (next unit of computing) mini PCs to feature completely discrete GPUs (and not MCMs of CPUs and GPUs), the "Crimson Canyon" NUC8i3CYSM and NUC8i3CYSN, are up for pre-order. The former is priced at USD $529, while the latter goes for $574. The two combine Intel's 10 nm Core i3-8121U "Cannon Lake" SoC with AMD Radeon 540 discrete GPU. Unlike the "Hades Canyon" NUC, which features an MCM with a powerful AMD Radeon Vega M GPU die and a quad-core "Kaby Lake" CPU die; the "Crimson Canyon" features its processor and GPU on separate packages. The Radeon 540 packs 512 stream processors, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs; with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory.

All that's differentiating the NUC8i3CYSM from the NUC8i3CYSN is memory. You get 4 GB of LPDDR4 memory with the former, and 8 GB of it with the latter. Both units come with a 2.5-inch 1 TB HDD pre-installed. You also get an M.2-2280 slot with PCIe 3.0 x4 wiring, and support for Optane caching. Intel Wireless-AC 9560 WLAN card handles wireless networking, while an i219-V handles wired. Connectivity includes four USB 3.0 type-A ports, one of which has high current; an SDXC card reader, CIR, two HDMI 2.0 outputs, and 7.1-channel HD audio. The NUC has certainly grown in size over the years. This one measures 117 mm x 112 mm x 52 mm (WxDxH). An external 90W power-brick adds to the bulk.

Following the releases of the TS-932X (powered by an AnnapurnaLabs CPU) and the TS-963X (powered by an AMD CPU), QNAP Systems, Inc. today completes the high-capacity-compact-size 9-bay NAS lineup with the introduction of the TVS-951X 10GbE multimedia NAS. The new model is powered by a 7th-generation Intel Kaby Lake processor, providing a NAS private cloud solution that combines high capacity and 10GbE high-speed connectivity. The TVS-951X NAS has also won the Red Dot Award (2018) and Computex d&i Award for high-quality product design.

Samsung Electronics today announced the Samsung Notebook 5 and Notebook 3, completing the Notebook portfolio. With a seamless, fluid design and embedded with the latest hardware balancing speed, power and usability, these Notebooks are made for the everyday computing experience that fuses comfort, performance and style.

Design
Both Notebooks feature a slim, sleek, zero-screw contemporary finish continuing Samsung's design heritage. The Samsung Notebook 5 and Notebook 3 measure just 19.6mm and 19.9mm wide respectively, making them easy to use, carry, and transport - whatever your lifestyle. Designed to blend into any environment, the Samsung Notebook 3 is available in 15 inches and 14 inches, as well as, four unique colors - Misty Gray, Night Charcoal, Deep Peach, and Pure White, while the Samsung Notebook 5 is available in 15 inches and comes in a timeless and sophisticated Light Titan color, wrapped in a stylish metal body.

Biostar introduced the TB250-BTC D+ motherboard for crypto-mining builds. This board appears to be a re-brand of Colorful C.B250A-BTC PLUS V20. This is probably a case of Colorful piggybacking Biostar to reach markets it cannot (yet). The socket LGA1151 motherboard supports 6th and 7th generation Core "Skylake" and "Kaby Lake" processors, with basic I/O connectivity, and a single DDR4 SO-DIMM slot. The star attraction here are eight PCI-Express x16 slots with 2U spacing between them. One of these slots is electrically x16, the other are x1 (you only need x1 for mining). There are also eight 6-pin PCI-Express I/O ports, so the x16 slots are powered. The board is 195 mm wide, and 485 mm long, designed for mining cases, or something miners put together themselves. It is expected to be priced around $150.

Xiaomi held its Mi Mix 2S launch event at Shanghai, China a few hours ago where the Chinese giant revealed their first-ever gaming laptop. The Mi Gaming Laptop sports a clean, brushed aluminum chassis which measures 20.9mm at its thickest point. Being a gamer-oriented product, Xiaomi has added RGB lighting to four different zones around the laptop's body. The Mi Gaming Laptop features a 15.6-inch Full HD panel with a 72% color gamut and slim 9.9mm bezels. The keyboard also has its own RGB lighting and comes with features like 30-key rollover and five programmable keys. In terms of connectivity options, the Mi Gaming laptop provides users with four high-speed USB 3.0 ports, two USB-C ports, a HDMI port, and a 3.5mm jack with its own high-powered amp. Equipped with stereo 3W speakers, the laptop has also earned the Dolby Atmos and Hi-Res Audio certifications.

For cooling, Xiaomi implemented their own 3+2 design for the heatpipes and four air exhausts. Xiaomi's solution relies on two fans to provide active cooling. The Mi Gaming laptop is powered by Intel's latest Kaby Lake Core i7-7700HQ processor and it's available in two versions. The base version carries a $960 price tag and comes with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 8GB of memory, a 128GB SSD and a 1TB hard drive. The high-end version goes for $1,440 and boasts an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, 16GB of memory, a 256GB NVMe SSD, and a 1TB hard drive. The Mi Gaming Laptop will go on sale in China from April 13.

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solution products, introduces the ViewSonic NMP660 Chromebox. Paired with the company's ViewBoard family of interactive flat panel displays or any ViewSonic display, the ViewSonic NMP660 Chromebox can transform any Google classroom into a collaborative learning hub, or provide content management as a signage player and desktop virtualization solution for conference rooms. The ViewSonic NMP660 Chromebox delivers a complete and secure Chrome OS and Google Play experience.

The ViewSonic NMP660 Chromebox offers a quick out-of-the-box set-up, integrated Google management console and built-in security features, making it an ideal solution for educational and corporate environments. It can drive 4K content, and with the swift set-up, users can quickly access popular applications, websites and even games. Powered by Google Hangouts Meet, Google's video conferencing software, the NMP660 facilitate presentations, brainstorming, and decision-making - even when employees, clients, or students are spread across the globe.

Intel today introduced the Core i3-8130U dual-core (2-core/4-thread) ultra low-power processor for thin and light notebooks, and 2-in-1 convertibles. Based on the 14 nm "Kaby Lake-U" silicon, the chip features a TDP of just 15W, making it ideal for all-day power devices. It is clocked at 2.40 GHz, with 3.40 GHz Turbo Boost frequency, and packs 4 MB of L3 cache. In its TDP-down mode, the CPU idles at 800 MHz, lowering the TDP to 10W. Its dual-channel DDR4 memory controller supports up to 32 GB of DDR4-2400 or LPDDR3-2133 memory. On the display side of things are the UHD Graphics 620 iGPU with clock speed ranging between 300 MHz and 1.00 GHz, 24 execution units, and hardware-acceleration for H.265/HEVC with 10bpc color.

BIOSTAR presents another entry-level micro-ATX form factor motherboard - the BIOSTAR H110MDE. This motherboard sports the entry-level Intel H110 chipset that supports the Socket LGA 1151 7th and 6th generation Intel Core processors. The BIOSTAR H110MDE is the perfect solution for desktop users on a tight budget by opting for Kaby Lake and Skylake processors. The compact micro-ATX form factor ensures high compatibility with most desktop cases in the market today. It also comes bundled with a free BullGuard Antivirus Software, another instant saving for builders.

The BIOSTAR H110MDE features the entry-level Intel H110 chipset for the 7th and 6th generation Intel Core processors offering builders instant savings by opting for the previous generation Intel processors. Still, the H110MDE offers the essential features and performance you need for daily computing with its dual DIMM slots supporting up to 32GB of 2400MHz DDR4 memory and a single PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot that supports high-end graphics card and NVMe solid-state drives if desired. As for connectivity, the H110MDE packs a Realtek RTL8111G offering up to 100 MB/s Ethernet connectivity along with two USB 3.1 Gen1 ports and a USB 3.1 Gen1 header offering high-speed data transfers for portable storage drives.

It looks like Intel has achieved the design goals of its new Core i7-8705G multi-chip module, built in collaboration with AMD. Combining a 4-core/8-thread "Kaby Lake" CPU die with an AMD "Vega" GPU die that has its own 4 GB HBM2 memory stack, the ruthless duo put similarly-priced discrete GPU setups to rest, such as the combination of an 8th generation Core processor + NVIDIA GeForce MX 150. More importantly, entry-level discrete GPU combinations with high-end mobile CPUs have a similar power/thermal envelope as the i7-8705G MCM, but at significantly higher PCB footprint.

Dell implemented the Core i7-8705G on one of its latest XPS 15 2-in-1 models. The device was compared to an Acer Swift 3 (SF314-51), which combines a Core i5-8250U processor with GeForce MX 150 discrete graphics; and a Dell XPS 13 9370, which implements an 8th generation Core processor that has Intel's workhorse graphics core, the HD 620. The three devices squared off against each other at "Rise of the Tomb Raider" game benchmark. The i7-8705G averaged 35 frames per second (fps), while the MX 150 barely managed 24 fps. The HD 620 ran a bored intern's PowerPoint slideshow at 9 fps.

Intel did the impossible in 2017, by collaborating with rival AMD after decades, on a product. The new Core i7-8000G series processors are multi-chip modules that combine quad-core "Kaby Lake" CPU dies with discrete AMD Radeon Vega GPU dies that have their own dedicated HBM2 stacks. With performance-segment notebooks and sleek AIO desktops building momentum for such products, Intel sees a future in building its own discrete GPUs, at least dies that can replace the AMD Radeon IP from its Core G-series processors.

With former AMD Graphics head Raja Koduri switching to Intel amidst rumors of the company investing in discrete GPUs of its own, details emerge of the company's future "Arctic Sound" and "Jupiter Sound" graphics IP, which point to the possibility of them being discrete GPU dies based on the Gen 12 and Gen 13 graphics architectures, respectively. According to Ashraf Eassa, a technology stock commentator with "The Motley Fool," both "Arctic Sound" and "Jupiter Sound" are discrete GPU dies that connect with Intel processor dies over EMIB, the company's proprietary high-density interconnect for multi-chip modules. It could be a long wait leading up to the two, since the company is still monetizing its Gen 9.5 architecture on 8th generation Core processors.

By the time Intel launched its 8th generation Core "Coffee Lake" desktop processor family (September 25, 2017, with October 5 availability), the company was fully aware that the product it is releasing was vulnerable to the three vulnerabilities plaguing its processors today, the two more publicized of which, are "Spectre" and "Meltdown." Google Project Zero teams published their findings on three key vulnerabilities, Spectre (CVE-2017-5753 and CVE-2017-5715); and Meltdown (CVE-2017-5754) in mid-2017, shared with hardware manufacturers under embargo; well before Intel launched "Coffee Lake." Their findings were made public on January 3, 2018.

Intel's engineers would have had sufficient time to understand the severity of the vulnerability, as "Coffee Lake" is essentially the same micro-architecture as "Kaby Lake" and "Skylake." As one security researcher puts it, this could affect Intel's liability when 8th generation Core processor customers decide on a class-action lawsuit. As if that wasn't worse, "Skylake" and later micro-architectures could require micro-code updates in addition to OS kernel patches to work around the vulnerabilities. The three micro-architectures are expected to face a performance-hit, despite Intel extracting colorful statements from its main cloud-computing customers that performance isn't affected "in the real-world." The company was also well aware of Spectre and Meltdown before its CEO dumped $22 million in company stock and options (while investors and the SEC were unaware of the vulnerabilities).

Intel revealed specifications of its upcoming "Kaby Lake + AMD Vega" multi-chip module, the Core i7-8809G, on its website. A number of these specs were already sniffed out by Futuremark SystemInfo, but the website sheds light on a key feature - dual integrated graphics. The specs sheet confirms that the chip combines a 4-core/8-thread "Kaby Lake" CPU die with an AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH graphics die. The CPU is clocked at 3.10 GHz, and SystemInfo (from the older story) confirmed that its Turbo Boost frequency is up to 3.90 GHz. The L3 cache amount is maxed out a 8 MB. The reference memory clock is set at dual-channel DDR4-2400. What's more, the CPU component features an unlocked base-clock multiplier.

Things get interesting with the way Intel describes its integrated graphics solution. It mentions both the star-attraction, the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH, and the Intel HD Graphics 630 located on the "Kaby Lake" CPU die. This indicates that Intel could deploy a mixed multi-GPU solution that's transparent to software, balancing graphics loads between the HD 630 and RX Vega M GH, depending on the load and thermal conditions. Speaking of which, Intel has rated the TDP of the MCM at 100W, with a rider stating "target package TDP," since there's no scientifically-correct way of measuring TDP on a multi-chip module. Intel could build performance-segment NUCs with this chip, in addition to selling them to mini-PC manufacturers.

IBASE Technology Inc., a world leader in the manufacture of industrial motherboard and embedded systems, today launches a new ET975 COM Express Computer-on-Module based on the ultra-low voltage 7th Generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processor (Kaby Lake-U) produced using a 14 nanometer manufacturing process technology. Characterized with product longevity, performance computing and low power consumption, the ET975 is suitable for applications found in factory automation, kiosk, communications, medical imaging and digital signage environments.

The ET975 comes with features that provide high performance and reliable operation across a wide range of industrial and embedded applications. The ET975 COM Express Type 6 compact module is equipped with two DDR4-2133 SO-DIMM sockets with a 32GB memory capacity, operating temperature range from 0°C to +60°C, and Intel Gen 9 HD low-power integrated graphics on the SoC providing 4K resolution via popular display interfaces such as DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort and LVDS. A rich set of standard I/Os available are one gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0 and eight USB 2.0 ports, two serial ports and two SATA III ports.

Akasa today introduced the Pascal MD (A-NUC40-M1) fan-less case for Intel 7th generation "Dawson Canyon" NUC boards, namely NUC7i3DNBE, NUC7i3DNKE, and NUC7i3DNHE. The case boasts of IP65-compliant waterproofing, including modular waterproof connectors at the back of the case, which connect internally with the various ports of the NUC board. Its body doubles up as a chunky, ridged aluminium heatsink, to cool the "Kaby Lake" SoC. The case measures 234.6 mm x 238 mm x 76.3 mm (WxDxH), and comes with 2 m long modular cables with connectors for power, USB 3.0, network, and HDMI. The case is recommended for outdoor builds such as digital signage, automobile, marine vessels (navigation computers), etc.

Ahead of its Q1-2018 launch after a CES reveal, Intel's Core i7-8709G multi-chip module (MCM) was picked up by Thai PC enthusiast and tech vlogger "TUM APISAK," revealing some of its first specifications as read by Futuremark SystemInfo, a hardware-detection component common to various Futuremark benchmark suites. The "Kaby Lake-G" MCM combines a quad-core "Kaby Lake" CPU die with an AMD Radeon "Vega M" graphics die that has a dedicated HBM2 memory stack on-package.

Futuremark SystemInfo puts out quite a few specs of the i7-8709G, beginning with its 4-core/8-thread CPU based on the "Kaby Lake" micro-architecture, which is clocked at 3.10 GHz with 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost; Radeon RX Vega M (694C:C0) graphics core with 4 GB of HBM2 memory across a 1024-bit memory bus; with its GPU engine running at 1.19 GHz, and memory at 800 MHz (204.8 GB/s memory bandwidth); although the core-config of the iGPU remains a mystery. We recommend you maximize the video below for legible details.