Yesterday, Apple launched its next-generation M4 chip based on Apple Silicon custom design. The processor is a fourth-generation design that brings AI capabilities and improved CPU performance. First debuting in an iPad Pro, the CPU has been benchmarked in Geekbench v6. And results seem to be very promising. The latest M4 chip managed to score 3,767 points in single-core tests and 14,677 points in multi-core tests. Compared to the M3 chip, which scores 3,087 points in single-core and 11,702 in multi-core tests, the M4 chip is about 22% faster in single-core and 25% faster in multi-core synthetic benchmarks.

Of course, these results are not real-world use cases, but they give us a hint of what the Apple Silicon design team has been working on. For real-world results, we have to wait a little longer to see reviews and results from devices such as MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, which should have better cooling and possibly better clocks for the chip.

Marvell today announced OCTEON TX2, the latest family of infrastructure processors targeting a wide variety of wired and wireless networking equipment including switches, routers, secure gateways, firewall, network monitoring, 5G base stations, and smart network interface controllers (NICs). Massive increases in data traffic coupled with escalating requirements for end-to-end security are intensifying the need for highly scalable compute platforms with integrated workload-optimized hardware accelerators to meet performance, power and total cost of ownership requirements. Building on five generations of the industry's most scalable and widely adopted infrastructure processor platform, the OCTEON TX2 family is enabled by a broad software ecosystem including a feature-rich software development kit (SDK) and virtualization support, delivering a unique combination of performance and programmability. The OCTEON TX2 portfolio extends Marvell's industry-leading performance and scalability, delivering a 2.5x improvement over the previous generation and scaling up to 200 Gbps of packet processing throughput.

id Software, the pioneering game studio behind "Doom" and "Quake," in a marketing video about how its developers and gamers are benefiting from AMD Ryzen processors, hinted that it is working on a new next-generation game engine that succeeds idTech 6, which is heavily optimized for AMD Ryzen processors. id CTO Robert Duffy spoke at length about how Ryzen is putting more CPU capabilities in the hands of gamers at attractive price-points, which is letting game developers add that much more content and production design that benefits from this level of parallelism and performance.

The most interesting part about Duffy's comment comes later in the video, where he talks about a new game engine that id is working on, which will be "far more parallel than idTech 6" (far more multi-core and multi-thread friendly), and that it will be able to consume "all of the CPU [compute power] that Ryzen can offer." Duffy also confirmed that "Quake Champions," the studio's upcoming online hero-based FPS, will be optimized for both Ryzen and Radeon Vega.The video follows.

AMD today announced new CPU offerings for the AMD Embedded R-Series high-performance computing platform, along with the introduction of a discrete GPU promotional program to provide embedded designers more choices for meeting demanding performance requirements.

The new options include quad-core and dual-core CPUs scaling from 2.2 GHz to 3.2 GHz with Thermal Design Power (TDP) ranging from 17 to 35 watts for applications that require high performance x86 compute such as network attached storage (NAS). To address high-end visual needs for applications like digital gaming and signage that require high-performance x86 compute coupled with industry-leading discrete graphics, AMD is introducing a new discrete GPU promotional program that provides customers with both a CPU and discrete GPU for savings of up to 20 percent.

Shanghai, the 45nm core from AMD, is likely to debut late this year. It will be similar in many aspects to the currently-availabe B3 stepping of the Socket 1207 Opteron (Barcelona) shipping today. Unlike Barcelona however, which has its HyperTransport 3.0 clock generator fused off, Shangai should utilize HyperTransport 3.0 for inter-CPU communication. Also, AMD has a new "native six-core" Shanghai derivative in store, currently codenamed Istanbul. This processor is clearly targeted at Intel's recently announced six-core, 45nm Dunnington processor. AMD plans to utilize 2 Istanbul cores to create a 12-core CPU, where both cores will communicate with each other via HyperTransport 3.0. A quad-channel memory controller may also be possible. All new Shanghai CPUs should be backwards compatible with existing Socket 1207 motherboards.

Shanghai is currently taped out and running Windows at AMD.

Nintendo has released firmware update 3.1U for the Wii, adding official USB keyboard support. This should greatly increase web browsing experience with the Internet Channel. The update also adds the following:

• USB keyboard compatibility
• Links received on the Wii Message Board can now be opened in Internet Channel
• Can now send web-links to friends to view
• Can copy text from page being viewed and paste it into a search engine

Delivering a multi-core triple threat, AMD today announced the addition of AMD Phenom triple-core processors to its desktop roadmap. AMD Phenom triple-core processors, expected to be the world's first PC processors to integrate three computational cores on a single die of silicon, can help deliver the visual experience, performance and multitasking capabilities of true multi-core technology to a broader audience. Offering state-of-the-art platforms and a next-generation architecture with expected availability in Q1 2008, the industry's only x-86 triple-core desktop processor shows why AMD's the smarter choice, with its expanded portfolio for customers to offer platforms with unique multi-core options. AMD Phenom quad-core processors remain on schedule to ship in 2007.