A South Korean website, gamma0burst, has combed through many LinkedIn profiles in an attempt to find unintentional technology leaks—last week's investigation targeted big companies including Apple, AMD, Google and Qualcomm. Employee work histories occasionally display confidential project information—gamma0burst's latest "hidden in plain sight" discovery has linked Apple a TSMC 2 nm process node. Late January reports suggested that the American multinational technology corporation was already queued up for an N2 process technology that utilizes gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet transistors. Information gleaned from a severely redacted screenshot of an Apple employee profile indicates that work has started on 2 nm chip designs, in partnership with Taiwan's premier foundry. Additionally, the portion of revealed text also mentions that this unnamed Apple staffer is/was engaged in "TS3nm" and "TS5nm" designs.

Apple and TSMC's close relationship is well documented—the iPhone/iPad/MacBook maker enjoys preferential access to the latter's best fabrication services. The upcoming M4 and Bionic A18 chipsets have been linked to an "enhanced" 3 nm process node—as mid-February reports suggest. At the time, inside sources proposed that Apple had: "strengthened the AI computing performance of mobile devices and greatly increased the computing power of its own processors, which has simultaneously increased its wafer investment in TSMC. According to industry sources, Apple's wafer production volume for TSMC's 3 nm enhanced version process this year is expected to increase by more than 50% compared with last year, making it firmly the largest customer of TSMC." DigiTimes Asia and MacRumors think that: "Apple is...the first company that will receive chips built on TSMC's future 2 nm process, which is expected to go into production in the second half of 2025. Known simply as 'N2,' it is expected to offer a 10 to 15 percent speed improvement at the same power, or a 25 to 30 percent power reduction at the same speed compared to chips made with the supplier's 3 nm technology."

Samsung and ARM announced a collaborative project last week—the partners are aiming to deliver an "optimized next generation Arm Cortex -X CPU" developed on the latest Gate-All-Around (GAA) process technology. Semiconductor industry watchdogs believe that Samsung Foundry's 3 nm GAA process did not meet sales expectations—reports suggest that many clients decided to pursue advanced three nanometer service options chez TSMC. The South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate is setting its sights forward—with an in-progress SF2 GAAFET process in the pipeline—industry insiders reckon that Samsung leadership is hoping to score a major victory within this next-gen market segment.

Lately, important industry figures have been hyping up Backside Power Supply Delivery Network (BSPDN) technology—recent Intel Foundry Services (IFS) press material lays claim to several technological innovations. A prime example being an ambitious five-nodes-in-four-years (5N4Y) process roadmap that: "remains on track and will deliver the industry's first backside power solution." A Chosun Business report proposes that Samsung is working on Backside Power Supply designs—a possible "game changer" when combined with in-house 2 nm SF2 GAAFET. Early experiments, allegedly, involving two unidentified ARM cores have exceeded expectations—according to Chosun's sources, engineers were able to: "reduce the chip area by 10% and 19%, respectively, and succeeded in improving chip performance and frequency efficiency to a single-digit level." Samsung Foundry could be adjusting its mass production timetables, based on freshly reported technological breakthroughs—SF2 GAAFET + BSPDN designs could arrive before the original targeted year of 2027. Prior to the latest developments, Samsung's BSPDN tech was linked to a futuristic 1.7 nm line.

A handful of Canadian online stores were a good source of pre-release "Raptor Lake Refresh" information in 2023—that tradition continues into the new year, with DirectDial publishing Intel Core i9-14900KS CPU specifications. This premature listing was highlighted by momomo_us, everyone's favorite PC hardware sleuth—prior to this week's discovery, they tracked down two Core i9-14900KS packages in France. The upcoming special edition flagship Raptor Lake Refresh SKU is expected to launch midway through next month—DirectDial's product page mentions that the item is a "New Arrival," with its status listed as "backordered." The BX8071514900KS part code also appeared on PC21 France's online store—confirming that both places will be offering Intel's retail packaged version. Canadian customers could be paying CA$1005 (~$740 USD) on launch day—the French leak outed a possible initial price of €768.34 (~$828 USD).

Intel's 14th Gen Core i9-14900KS is a "Tetracosa-core (24-Core) 3.20 GHz Processor" according to the DirectDial listing—basic specifications appeared online earlier in the month, so there are no big surprises here: 36 MB L3 Cache, 32 MB L2 Cache, 64-bit Processing, 6.2 GHz Overclocking Speed, Socket LGA-1700 and an Intel UHD 770 integrated graphics solution. The i9-14900KS's Thermal Design Power (TDP) max. spec is listed as 150 W, while its Thermal Specification is set at a maximum of 212°F (100°C). A mid-February HKEPC report put the spotlight on leaked OCCT results—the test unit was tracked with a 409 W maximum package power draw at stock speeds—the processor's PL2 power limit was unlocked via BIOS tweaks. High-end PC enthusiasts expected to Team Blue to unveil the selectively-binned special edition SKU at CES 2024—based on past traditions—but their Core i9-14900KS remained under wraps. We hope to see an official unveiling in March.

Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has insisted (on multiple occasions) that leaked Xbox product roadmaps are not a true representation of currently in-progress hardware at the company's Redmond, Washington headquarters. Internal documentation (from 2022) suggested that Microsoft had long term plans for physical media-less next-gen Xbox consoles, as well as a 2024 launch of an "adorably all-digital" Xbox Series X refresh. Early February news reports suggested that a few retail outlets had stopped selling Xbox physical media, due to low sales and a perception that Microsoft's console ecosystem prioritizes digital purchases. Spencer addressed ongoing rumors during a discussion with Game File: "We are supportive of physical media, but we don't have a need to drive that disproportionate to customer demand...We ship games physically and digitally, and we're really just following what the customers are doing. And I think our job in running Xbox is to deliver on the things that a majority of the customers want. And right now, a majority of our customers are buying games digitally."

Exputer's eXtas1s—a tipster specializing in all things Xbox, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard—reckons that the aforementioned Xbox Series X refresh is due to launch this summer: "Microsoft is currently working to release a white-colored Xbox Series X with no disc reader, sources close to eXputer have revealed...This all-digital console is expected to be released sometime between the upcoming months of June and July, but there are chances for a slight delay on that front as well." Allegedly, confidential footage has been distributed within insider networks. The Exputer report suggests that the proposed digital refresh could be "$50 to $100" cheaper than the current MSRP of $499.99 for an Xbox Series X 1 TB model. An improved heatsink and modernized wireless network card are mentioned as possible internal upgrades. Games industry watchdogs reckon that Microsoft is attempting to compete with Sony's digital-only PlayStation 5 models—the Xbox Series S is not considered to be a direct competitor here, due to its lesser specifications.

Last October, Qualcomm introduced Snapdragon X Elite as its most powerful computing processor for PC, but the ARM-based mobile solution is still months away from launch—officially mid-2024. Company leadership has indicated that their custom Oryon CPU—for the "thin-and-light notebook market"—could be hitting retail at the same time as Microsoft's heavily rumored "Windows 12" inauguration. Several PC news outlets have picked up on a mysterious Qualcomm "ZH-WXX" platform appearing on Geekbench Browser—the February 22 entrant seems to be a prototype notebook that sports a "Snapdragon X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm Oryon CPU," and 32 GB of LPDDR5x memory.

There are no next generation operating system revelations here—the system was running a 64-bit install of Windows 11 Insider Preview. Overall Geekbench 6.2.2 tallies are 2574 (single-core), and 12562 (multi-core)—positioning the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite engineering sample just above AMD's Ryzen 9 7940HS top-end mobility-focused "Phoenix" APU in terms of performance. Geekbench Browser's "CPU Information" section identifies the alleged high-end Snapdragon X Elite processor as a "ARMv8 (64-bit) Family 8 Model 1 Revision 201" part. Average clock speeds were listed as 4.01 GHz (base frequency). Cluster 1 seems to contain eight Nuvia-designed Oryon processor cores, while Cluster 2 receives the remaining four units.

Smartphone chipset industry watchdogs believe that the Samsung 3 nm GAA process did not meet customer expectations, due to alleged yield issues. TSMC is seemingly victorious in this segment, as reports suggest that a next-generation 3 nm node production goal of "100,000 monthly wafers by the end of 2024" has been set. Three days ago, Samsung Foundry revealed that it is working on a very advanced SF2 GAAFET process—press outlets in South Korea propose that the manufacturing giant is hoping to outmuscle its main rival in a future 2 nm node category. Tuesday's press introduction stated that a development partnership is set: "to deliver optimized next generation ARM Cortex -X CPU developed on Samsung Foundry's latest Gate-All-Around (GAA) process technology."

A Sedaily article posits that the company's cutting-edge manufacturing tech has already attracted interest from notable parties: "Samsung Electronics is taking advantage of these advantages to win orders for the 2 nm project. Samsung Electronics took its first step by winning an order to produce a 2 nm AI accelerator from Preferred Networks (PFN), Japan's largest AI company. Qualcomm, the world's largest system semiconductor design company, has entered into discussions with Samsung Electronics' System LSI Division, which designs high-performance chips, to produce 2 nm prototypes." December 2023 news reports suggested that Samsung leadership was considering a 2 nm wafer price discount—in order to stay competitive with competing foundry services. It is possible that Qualcomm is evaluating the 2 nm SF2 GAAFET process for a distant Snapdragon 8 "Gen 5" chipset, while Samsung LSI could be working on a 2 nm "Exynos 2600" SoC design.

A mysterious Qualcomm Snapdragon "SM8635" model emerged earlier this month—courtesy of ever reliable smartphone tech tipster Digital Chat Station. They claimed that the unnamed mobile chipset had posted an AnTuTu score of roughly 1.7 million, with specifications including one Cortex-X4 core clocked at 2.9 GHz and an integrated Adreno 735 GPU. TSMC's 4 nm process node was also mentioned—not a particularly big revelation since the latest Snapdragon flagship is a 4 nm part. Early guess work pointed to possible Snapdragon 8s Gen 2 or Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Lite guises, but a Geekbench Browser leak indicates that SM8635 is destined to become "Snapdragon 8s Gen 3," in Digital Chat Station's opinion.

A Realme "RMX3851" android device was tested in Geekbench 6.2.2—stated specifications include a 3.01 GHz "Big" Core clock, Adreno 735 GPU, and a 1+3+4 cluster configuration. Many believe that the SM8635 is positioned as a cut-down alternative to Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (SM8650-AB), given that Realme specializes in producing value-oriented "near flagship" specced smartphones. Wccftech has spent hands-on time with various Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered devices: "You can see in (Realme's Geekbench entry) that the alleged Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 does not perform on the same level as its elder brother, which scores higher in both single and multi-core. For the sake of reference, I have seen the elder sibling going as high as 2,329 in single-core tests and 7,501 in multi-core tests. So, this chipset is performing at half the speed, but of course, this seems like a device that is not completely ready, so the final scores might improve." Further (insider) leaks or an official Qualcomm announcement will confirm whether the posited "Snapdragon 8s Gen 3" moniker is a good guess, although another leaked chip suggests another path. Roland Quandt reckons that a similarly configured "SM7675" SoC will be joining the Snapdragon 7 Gen family.

Mid-January reportage indicated that LG and Samsung plants in South Korea had commenced construction of next-gen Apple iPad OLED parts—while expert analysis has predicted a second quarter launch of 11 and 13-inch "Pro" tablet models. Omdia—an independent analyst and consultancy firm—has compiled its Apple field research into a forecasted roadmap of various portable products. Company analysts believe that: "LG Display (LGD) and Samsung Display (SDC) are preparing to mass-produce RGB tandem stack and Hybrid OLEDs from their half-Gen 6 fabs. Apple also plans to launch the MacBook Pro with OLED displays in 2026. BOE, LGD, and SDC are preparing their fab investments to produce RGB tandem stack and hybrid OLEDs at half-Gen 8.7 fabs."

9to5Mac's insider network detected whispers of possible Apple tablet physical profile adjustments—suggesting that a larger next-gen iPad Air is in the pipeline, alongside a thinner iPad Pro design update: "(we) first reported last year that Apple has been working on two new versions of the iPad Air, codenamed J507 and J537. While one of these models will look pretty much like the current iPad Air, the other will have a larger display. If true, this will be the first time Apple will offer the iPad Air in two different sizes. And according to our sources, this larger iPad Air will have essentially the same dimensions as the current 12.9-inch iPad Pro, suggesting that the screen size will also be almost identical. The smaller iPad Air is unlikely to have any significant design changes."

ARM's in-progress fifth generation "Blackhawk" Cortex design is allegedly going through a troubled phase of development, according to Chinese insider sources. A Revegnus (@Tech_Reve) social media post highlights ongoing issues: "It's reported that the Cortex X5 architecture is underperforming compared to expectations. It's speculated that the high-frequency power consumption has surged explosively. Therefore, if performance is reduced for lower power consumption, the Geekbench 6 multi-core score of Dimensity 9400 may not achieve a score of 9,400 points." A recent Moor Insights & Strategy analysis piece proposed that "Blackhawk" would become "the most powerful option available at launch" later this year—mobile chipsets leveraging ARM's Cortex-X5 design are touted to face tough next-gen competition from Qualcomm and Apple corners.

Revegnus pulled in a rival SoC: "While Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is seen to have minor issues, there is no evidence to support this claim. There might be a problem with low-frequency power consumption not showing clear superiority over ARM's middle cores." Qualcomm's next flagship model is performing admirably according to insiders—an engineering sample managed to score 10,628 points in alleged Geekbench 6 multi-core gauntlets. Late last month prototype clocks were leaked—Digital Chat Station claimed that a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 High-Performance "Big" core was capable of reaching 4.0 GHz. Prior to the latest news, MediaTek's Dimensity 9400 SoC was observed achieving ~10,000 multi-core Geekbench 6 scores—leaked CPU cluster details present a single "Big" Cortex-X5 unit operating alongside three Cortex-X4 cores.

Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based games consultancy Kantan Games was interviewed by CNBC earlier this week—he was invited on-air to provide expert commentary on Sony's freshly revised sales and revenue forecast for PlayStation 5 products. He believes that great forward momentum is best achieved with refreshed hardware, and a well timed launch coinciding with the release of AAA/blockbuster games titles. Last autumn's rollout of slimmer PlayStation 5 consoles was not particularly exciting—with no major bump up in specs or attractive pricing. The development of an inevitable "Pro" variant has circulated around rumor mills for more than a year.

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) and AMD are believed to co-operating on a very potent hardware redesign—reports from late last year posited that a semi-custom "Viola" SoC is in the pipeline. A more expensive RDNA 3-upgraded refresh could attract an additional segment of hardcore gamers, but another industry analyst reckons that Sony is unlikely to implement a standard model price cut later this year (based on past trends). George Jijiashvili, senior principal analyst at Omdia, stated: "A scenario where Sony launches a PS5 Pro, but still experiences declining year-on-year hardware sales is very much within the realms of possibility." Serkan Toto (of Kantan Games consultancy) expressed a more optimistic view: "There seems to be a broad consensus in the game industry that Sony is indeed preparing a launch of a PS5 Pro in the second half of 2024...And Sony will want to make sure to have a great piece of hardware ready when GTA VI hits in 2025, a launch that will be a shot in the arm for the entire gaming industry."

Pat Gelsinger—CEO of Intel Corporation—happily revealed late last month, during an earnings call: "Clearwater Forest, our first Intel 18A part for servers has already gone into fab and Panther Lake for clients will be heading into Fab shortly." The former is positioned as the natural successor to Team Blue's many-times-delayed Xeon "Sierra Forest" (all E-Core) processor family. Intel's second generation E-core Xeon "Clearwater Forest" design is expected to launch in 2025, with a deployment of "Darkmont" efficiency-oriented cores. Official product roadmaps and patch notes have revealed basic "Clearwater Forest" information, but we have not seen many leaks. Bionic_Squash has a history of releasing strictly internal Intel presentation slides—Meteor Lake (MTL-S) desktop SKUs were uncovered last April.

Their latest discovery does not include any photo or documented evidence—Bionic_Squash's concise social media post stated: "Clearwater Forest uses 3D stacking with hybrid bonding." This claim points to the possible deployment of Foveros Direct advanced packaging—this technology was expected to be ready at some point within the second half of 2023, although a mid-December technology showcase implied that things were behind schedule. The fanciest "Clearwater Forest" Xeon processors could arrive with a maximum total of 288 E-core count (and 288 threads)—according to Wccftech analysis: "The CPU package is going to consist of a base tile on top of the interposer which is connected through a high-speed I/O, EMIB, and the cores will be sitting on the topmost layer...Foveros Direct technology will allow direct copper-to-copper bonding, enabling low resistance interconnects and around 10-micron bump pitches. Intel itself states that Foveros Direct will blur the boundary between where the wafer ends and the package begins."

The mysterious Zen 6 "Morpheus" processor architecture was leaked accidentally by an AMD engineer's LinkedIn profile—news outlets picked up on this information last April. Naturally, Team Red's next priority is Zen 5—the latest reports suggest that two different chiplet designs are penciled in for mass production within the second quarter of 2024. Last September, insiders claimed that a proposed EPYC 9006 "Venice" CPU series was based on the sixth-gen microarchitecture. Everest/Olrak_29 has revealed various bits of speculative material regarding futuristic "Ryzen Client" processor designs since the start of 2024.

The latest postings to social media posit that AMD has selected an RDNA 5-based integrated graphics solution (possibly occupying a tile), thus "skipping RDNA 4" on their "Medusa" lineup of Ryzen Client processors. Leaked Microsoft documents revealed that its Xbox hardware design division was considering RDNA 5 for next-gen console specs. Medusa's CPU aspect is allegedly populated by Zen 6 "Morpheus" cores—as claimed in a January tweet. A new package design was also riffed on at the time: "Yes, I have teased this before...Medusa will use 2.5D interconnect with a much higher bandwidth," instead of a "traditional" multi-die design. Industry speculation has AMD's Zen 6 client architecture linked to a loose 2025/2026 launch window.

Japan's Jiji news agency has cottoned onto a major computer memory industry rumble—a Friday Reuters report suggests that Kioxia has offered an olive branch to SK Hynix, perhaps in a renewed push to get its proposed (and once rejected) merger with Western Digital over the finishing line. The South Korean memory manufacturing juggernaut took great issue with the suggested formation of a mighty Japanese-American 3D NAND memory chip conglomerate—SK Hynix's opposition reportedly placed great pressure on Western Digital (WD), and discussions with Kioxia ended last October.

Kioxia is seemingly eager to resume talks with WD, but requires a thumbs up from SK Hynix—according to Jiji's insider source(s), the Tokyo-headquartered manufacturer is prepared to offer its South Korean rival a nice non-volatile memory production deal. Kioxia's best Japanese 3D NAND fabrication facilities could play host to SK Hynix designs, although it is too early to tell whether this bid has been accepted. The Yokkaichi and Kitakami plants are set to receive a 150 billion yen Government subsidy—Kioxia and WD's joint venture is expected to move into cutting-edge semiconductor production. The Japanese government is hoping to secure its native operations in times of industry flux.

We are likely to see even more Intel Core i9-14900KS pre-release leaks as its rumored mid-March launch window approaches—hardware sleuth, momomo_us, has spent the weekend following any Team Blue breadcrumb trails. Their latest discovery points to "BX8071514900KS" and "CM8071504820506" product codes, and two listings on PC21 France's web shop. Intel seems to be offering its upcoming limited edition Raptor Lake Refresh über-flagship unit in two different guises—the first being a traditional boxed package, and the second appears to be a tray option (for system integrators). As pointed out by VideoCardz, it is not unusual to see OEM parts reach retail channels—similar cases have leaked in the past. The no frills tray choice: "offers a more cost-effective option for users who don't require fancy packaging or bundled coolers, making it a budget-friendly choice for the new CPU."

The Core i9-14900KS is far from being a wallet friendly prospect, yet the untimely listings indicate that the OEM option shaves off a grand total of €16 (~$17.25) when lined up against its fancy boxed sibling. The French retailer states that both items are on order, with zero stock in their warehouses. The boxed Core i9-14900KS seems to cost €768.34 (~$828) including taxes, while the tray variant's entry indicates a charge of €752.62 (~$811), with VAT factored in. These leaked prices are subject to change—perhaps the current figures are based on a distributor's pre-launch estimation. PC21 France does not display any pricing for the already released Core i9-14900K and 14900KF SKUs, but VideoCardz has checked other retail listings in the country—they reckon that the gulf between "K" and "KS" is €146 (best case scenario).

Murmurings of a delayed Nintendo "Switch 2" release schedule appeared online earlier this week—Brazilian games journalist, Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe, made claims during an "OX do Controle" videocast—based on insider information. Additionally, he broke the bad news on social media: "Nobody wants to hear this, but this one is pretty intense. After consulting five sources from three different continents, all echoing basically the same thing, we can reveal (that) the launch of the Switch's successor should only happen in 2025." Several global news outlets have performed their own investigations, following up on OX do Controle's declaration.

Eurogamer reached out to its network of "trusty" insiders—their Friday evening update stated that: "(we) can now corroborate the earlier reports/whispers that the Switch 2, once destined for release later in 2024, is now set for Q1 2025...The console's launch moving into early next year—but still within the coming financial year—is designed to ensure Switch 2's launch line-up features as many titles as possible, Eurogamer understands." Video Games Chronicle's Andy Robinson has similarly checked in with his pool of industry spies: "VGC has heard from multiple sources who said Nintendo has told publishers its next console will now launch in Q1 2025. According to the sources, third-party game companies were recently briefed on an internal delay in Nintendo's next-gen launch timing, from late 2024 to early the following year. One publishing source suggested the delay was so that Nintendo could prepare stronger first-party software for the console. It's possible the next-gen Nintendo console will now follow a similar timeline to the Switch, which was released in March but announced the previous year."

HXL (@9550pro) has highlighted an intriguing pinned post on the Chinese Zhihu community site—where XZiar, a self described "Central Processing Unit (CPU) expert," has shared a very fuzzy/low quality screenshot of a Windows Task Manager session. The information on display indicates that a "Genuine Intel(R) 0000 1.0 GHz" processor was in use—perhaps a very early Lunar Lake (LNL) engineering sample (ES1). XZiar confirmed the pre-release nature of the onboard chip, and teased its performance prowess: "It's good to use the craftsmanship that others have stepped on. It can run 2.8 GHz with only A1 step, and it is very smooth."

The "A1" designation implies that the leaked sample is among the first LNL processor prototypes to exit manufacturing facilities—Intel previewed its "Lunar Lake-MX" SoC package to press representatives last November. XZiar's followers have pored over the screenshot and ascertained that the leaked example sports a "8-core + 8-thread, without Hyperthreading, 4P+4LPE" configuration. Others were confused by the chip's somewhat odd on-board cache designations—L1: 836 KB, L2: 14 MB and L3: 12 MB—XZiar believes that prototype's setup "is obviously not up to par," when a replier compares the spec to an N300 series processor. It is theorized that Windows Task Manager is simply not fully capable of detecting the sample's full makeup, but XZiar reckons that 12 MB of L3 cache is the correct figure.

XFX is reported to be updating its existing Speedster QICK 319 RX 7800 XT Core Edition model—VideoCardz has discovered a pale variant, imaginatively dubbed as the "White Edition." The article does not disclose their source of information and photos, but a quick Google search reveals that Bermor Techzone (BTZ), a Philippines-based e-tailer, has the white version in stock—their listing indicates a price of ₱30,900 (~$552), with no added premium over the existing black model. VideoCardz believes that this is XFX's first foray into white RDNA 3 territories, perhaps in reaction to rival graphics card manufacturers offering a growing pool of almost colorless options.

A SNOW WOLF variant of the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 10 GB card was added to XFX's Chinese product lineup last October, marking the release of their first ever white design deployed on an AMD GPU. We hope to see alternative color options rolled out further up in XFX Radeon RX 7000-series hierarchy, but the QICK 319's treatment does not extend to its PCB (judging from the leaked photos)—fellow Team Red Navi hardware-specialist PowerColor has this market segment cornered it seems. VideoCardz reckons that an official unveiling of XFX's Radeon RX 7800 XT Speedster QICK 319 "white subvariant" is "imminent."

Intel's 14th Generation "Raptor Lake Refresh" processor series debuted in "enthusiast" SKU form last October—Team Blue's official product unveiling was less than surprising, since multiple SKUs and specifications had been leaked throughout mid-to-late 2023. The true top-of-the-pile Intel Core i9-14900KS SKU was first linked to a possible announcement at January's CES trade show, but did not appear in any of last year's leaked product lists. Team Blue proceeded to introduce its 14th Gen "mainstream" 65 W SKUs to the crowd in Las Vegas, but the leaked Core i9-14900KS model did not pop up, contrary to tipster claims—Intel had a history of presenting "KS" variants during January showcases.

Industry experts reckon that the current Raptor Lake Refresh flagship—Core i9 14900K—is getting some extra time in the spotlight, before its inevitable dethroning courtesy of a "Special Edition" sibling. BenchLife has reached out to its cadre of insiders, following yesterday's reports of a "gargantuan 409 W maximum package power draw." The alleged top dog 14th Gen Core part is perhaps only a month away from launch, as leaked by industry moles: "According to our reliable sources, Intel plans to launch the Intel Core i9 in mid-March 2024. 14900KS is a limited edition processor with a clock speed of 6.2 GHz, but we cannot confirm whether it will be sold to a specific system vendor or a specific channel."

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, discussed planned generative AI software features during an early February earnings call: "As we look ahead, we will continue to invest in these and other technologies that will shape the future. That includes artificial intelligence, where we continue to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort, and we're excited to share the details of our ongoing work in that space later this year." His "prepared" statement did not provide any specific insights into involved technologies, but many iPhone experts believe that the upcoming release of iOS 18 could be "the biggest update" in Apple mobile operating system history. The American multinational technology giant is seemingly taking a relaxed approach with internal artificial intelligence developments—rival smartphone maker, Samsung, has already jumped into the on-the-go AI deep end with its recently launched Galaxy S24 series. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (for Galaxy) chipset is ready to take on all sorts of artificial intelligence-augmented tasks, while a next-gen ARM Cortex-X "Blackhawk" unit (leveraging "great" LLM performance) is in the pipeline for a late 2024 rollout.

Taiwan's Economic Daily News has reached out to insider contacts, albeit on the hardware side of things—their sources reckon that Apple is working on next generation processors that sport "significantly upgraded Neural Engine performance with additional cores." Tipsters believe that plans for 2024 include an effort to "significantly strengthen the AI computing power of the (existing) M3 and A17 processors," while the true "new generation" M4 and Bionic A18 chipsets will be augmented with greater AI computing core counts. Taiwan's top foundry is reportedly in the mix: "Apple has strengthened the AI computing performance of mobile devices and greatly increased the computing power of its own processors, which has simultaneously increased its wafer investment in TSMC. According to industry sources, Apple's wafer production volume for TSMC's 3 nm enhanced version process this year is expected to increase by more than 50% compared with last year, making it firmly the largest customer of TSMC."

China's National Supercomputer Center (NUDT) introduced their Tianhe-3 system as a prototype back in early 2019—at the time it had been tested by thirty local organizations. Notable assessors included the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center. The (previous generation) Tianhe-2 system currently sits in a number seven position of world-ranked Supercomputers—offering a measured performance of 33.86 petaFLOPS/s. The internal makeup of its fully formed successor has remained a mystery...until now. The Next Platform believes that the "Xingyi" monikered third generation supercomputer houses the Guangzhou-based lab's MT-3000 processor design. Author, Timothy Prickett Morgan, boasted about acquiring exclusive inside knowledge ahead of international intelligence agencies—many will be keeping an eye on the NUDT, since it is administered by the National University of Defence Technology (itself owned by the Chinese government).

The Next Platform has a track record of outing intimate details relating to Chinese-developed scientific breakthroughs—the semi-related "Oceanlight" system installed at their National Supercomputer Center (Wuxi) was "figured out" two years ago. Tianhe-3 and Oceanlight face significant competition in the form of "El Capitan"—this is the USA's prime: "supercomputer being built right now at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in conjunction with compute engine supplier AMD. We need to know because we want to understand the very different—and yet, in some ways similar—architectural path that China seems to have taken with the Xingyi architecture to break through the exascale barrier."

Various news outlets have been keeping tabs on OpenAI's CEO—Sam Altman—the AI technology evangelist was reported to be pursuing an ambitious proprietary AI chip project in early 2024. Inside sources pointed to late-January negotiations with important investment personnel in the Middle East—many believe that OpenAI leadership is exploring the idea of establishing its own network of semiconductor production plants. Late last week, The Wall Street Journal followed up on last month's AI industry rumors: "(Altman) has another great ambition: raising trillions of dollars to reshape the global semiconductor industry. The OpenAI chief executive officer is in talks with investors including the United Arab Emirates government to raise funds for a wildly ambitious tech initiative that would boost the world's chip-building capacity, expand its ability to power AI." One anonymous insider reckons that "the project could require raising as much as $5 trillion to $7 trillion."

TSMC is reportedly in the equation—Altman allegedly conducted talks with top brass last month—their expertise in cutting edge fabrication techniques would be of great value, although it is somewhat futile to reveal too many industry secrets given the sheer scale of OpenAI's (reported) aggressive expansion plans. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) suggests that the embryonic venture is far more "open" than previously reported—a collaborative venture could be established once funding is secured, although Altman & Co. face "significant obstacles" en route. WSJ proposes that the somewhat OpenAI-centric fabrication network is best founded by a joint partnership—involving multiple investors, contract chip manufacturers (perhaps TSMC), and energy/power providers. OpenAI appears to be the "primary buyer" of resultant fabricated AI chips, with manufacturing services also offered to other clients. The scale of such an endeavor is put into perspective by WSJ's analysis (via inside sources): "Such a sum of investment would dwarf the current size of the global semiconductor industry. Global sales of chips were $527 billion last year and are expected to rise to $1 trillion annually by 2030. Global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment—the costly machinery needed to run chip factories—last year were $100 billion, according to an estimate by the industry group SEMI."

Attention is now turning to the late February Mobile World Congress (WWC) 2024 trade show—following journos recovering from their recent CES gauntlet-esque ordeals. An exclusive Windows Report piece proposes that Lenovo representatives will be heading to Barcelona with a very special next generation laptop in hand. The publication has a outed a number of upcoming portable devices, two weeks prior to Lenovo's intended showcase (February 26 - 29)—we witnessed a similar occurrence last year with WinFuture leaking Microsoft's September Surface refreshes. Six notebook refreshes (ThinkPad and ThinkBook) are mentioned in the latest report, as well as Gen 2 version of Lenovo's ThinkVision M14T portable monitor.

The alleged headliner seems to be a concept model, that slides into the company's ThinkBook range—Windows Report has leaked heavily watermarked images, but little in the way of technical specifications: "Lenovo's transparent laptop features a bezel-less design, with the display being completely see-through. The deck also seems completely transparent, with the main components being housed in and under the chin, which is the area that's not transparent. There's also a non-transparent slim frame that surrounds the entire deck, probably housing the ports." An anonymous source reckons that the transparent OLED ThinkBook runs on Windows 11, and Lenovo's tried and trusted design language is very apparent (when in use).

Last week SK Hynix revealed ambitious plans for its next wave of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) products—their SEMICON Korea 2024 presentation included an announcement about cutting-edge HBM3E entering mass production within the first quarter of this year. True next-gen HBM development has already kicked off—TPU's previous report outlines an HBM4 sampling phase in 2025, followed by full production in 2026. South Korea's Pulse News believes that TSMC has been roped into a joint venture (with SK Hynix). An alleged "One Team" strategic alliance has been formed according to reports emerging from Asia—this joint effort could focus on the development of HBM4 solutions for AI fields.

Reports from last November pointed to a possible SK Hynix and NVIDIA HBM4 partnership, with TSMC involved as the designated fabricator. We are not sure if the emerging "One Team" progressive partnership will have any impact on previously agreed upon deals, but South Korean news outlets reckon that the TSMC + SK Hynix alliance will attempt to outdo Samsung's development of "new-generation AI semiconductor packaging." Team Green's upcoming roster of—"Hopper" H200 and "Blackwell" B100—AI GPUs are linked to a massive pre-paid shipment of SK Hynix HMB3E parts. HBM4 products could be fitted on a second iteration of NVIDIA's Blackwell GPU, and the mysterious "Vera Rubin" family. Notorious silicon industry tipster, kopite7kimi, believes that "R100 and GR200" GPUs are next up in Team Green's AI-cruncher queue.

Phoronix head honcho, Michael Larabel, has noticed another set of interesting updates for AMD Graphics on Linux—albeit in preparation for next generation solutions: "engineers on Monday (February 5) posted a few new patch series for enabling some updated IP (intellectual property) blocks within their open-source AMDGPU Linux kernel graphics driver. This new IP is presumably part of the ongoing hardware enablement work for their next-gen RDNA 4 graphics." Team Red GitHub patches for "GFX12" targets appeared online last November, again highlighted by Larabel's investigative work—AMD engineers appear to be quite determined with their open-source software endeavors, as seen in LLVM-Project notes regarding GFX1200's enablement.

The new "IP block" updates included patches for the enabling ATHUB 4.1, LSDMA 7.0, IH 7.0, and HDP 7.0—presumably for next generation Radeon graphics solutions. Larabel provided a quick breakdown of these components: "ATHUB 4.1 is needed for clock-gating / power management features, LSDMA 7.0 is the latest IP for Light SDMA for general purpose System DMA (SDMA) on the GPU, IH 7.0 for the Interrupt Handler on the GPU, and HDP 7.0 for the Host Data Path support for CPU accessing the GPU device memory via the PCI BAR. As far as code changes, the big chunks of the work are from the auto-generated header files." He believes that AMD's engineers have largely moved on from current generation tasks: "The big version bumps for these IP blocks all the more are likely indicative of these bits being for next-gen RDNA 4 as opposed to further iterating on RDNA3 or similar." The patches could be merged into the upcoming Linux 6.9 release, possibly coinciding with a Radeon RX 8000 series rollout.

DigiTimes Asia has reached out to insiders at fabrication toolmakers in an effort to delve deeper into claims made by industry analysts at the start of 2024—both SemiAnalysis and China Renaissance have proposed that TSMC is unlikely to adopt High-NA EUV production techniques within a five year period. The latest news article explores a non-upgrade approach for the next couple of years: "TSMC has not placed orders for high-numerical aperture (High-NA) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) tools and is unlikely to use the technology in 2 nm and 1.4 nm (A14) process manufacturing." Intel Foundry Services (IFS) will be one of the first semiconductor manufacturers to go online with ASML's latest and greatest machinery, although no firm timeframes have been confirmed. Team Blue's Taiwanese rival (and occasional business partner) is seemingly happy with its existing infrastructure, but industry watchdogs propose that cost considerations are key factors behind TSMC's cautious planning for the next decade.

The DigiTimes insider sources believe that TSMC will not budge until at least 2029, possibly coinciding with a 1 nm production node—analysts at China Renaissance reckon that High-NA EUV machines could be delivered in the future when facilities are readied for an "A10" codenamed process. TSMC published a very ambitious "transistor count" product timeline in early January (see below)—the first "1 nm" products are supposedly targeted for a 2030 rollout, but this schedule could change due to unforeseen circumstances. Intel is expected to "phase in" its fanciest ASML gear collection once the 18A process becomes old hat—Tom's Hardware thinks that 2026 - 2027 is a feasible timeframe.