As we gear up for launch of AMD-s Ryzen 3000 series, details are bound to come up with increasing frequency. One of the latest, regarding AMD's in-house developed X570 chipset, which brings a renewed feature set to the AM4 platform, pertains to its PCIe lanes. AMD has included a grand total of 40 PCIe 4.0 lanes on the chipset, which will be distributed between PCIe uplink, USB 3.1 Gen2, USB 2.0 and SATA, as the spec sheet below (which may not be real) indicates. That's a whole load of bandwidth for the PC platform, not counting those PCIe lanes that are to be provided by the Ryzen CPUs.

It seems AMD will be using PCIe support level as a differentiator factor for its chipsets. The X570 is reported to be the only chipset to feature PCIe 4.0 support, while all other chipsets below it (B550 and so on) will only support PCIe 3.0. These lower-end chipsets should be manufactured by ASMedia.

Colorful Technology Company Limited, professional manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and high-performance storage solutions is proud to announce its latest motherboard featuring Intel Z390 chipset which supports unlocked 8-core 9th-gen as well 8th-gen processors from Intel. The new COLORFUL CVN Z390M GAMING V20 is aimed at enthusiasts, system builders, and gamers looking for a serious foundation for an mATX build. This motherboard allows mainstream to high-end builds without breaking the bank while still delivering a performance and features for a wide range of use.

The new COLORFUL CVN Z390M GAMING V20 will feature support for both 8th-gen and 9th-gen Intel processors in the LGA1151 package. This allows users to upgrade from Intel's 8th-generation processor to the 9th-gen CPU that increases core count to give you a performance upgrade. The motherboard also supports DDR4 memory higher bandwidth so applications can run as fast as possible. The motherboard also supports overclocking on unlocked processors for increased performance.

CXL, short for Compute Express Link, is an ambitious new interconnect technology for removable high-bandwidth devices, such as GPU-based compute accelerators, in a data-center environment. It is designed to overcome many of the technical limitations of PCI-Express, the least of which is bandwidth. Intel sensed that its upcoming family of scalable compute accelerators under the Xe band need a specialized interconnect, which Intel wants to push as the next industry standard. The development of CXL is also triggered by compute accelerator majors NVIDIA and AMD already having similar interconnects of their own, NVLink and InfinityFabric, respectively. At a dedicated event dubbed "Interconnect Day 2019," Intel put out a technical presentation that spelled out the nuts and bolts of CXL.

Intel began by describing why the industry needs CXL, and why PCI-Express (PCIe) doesn't suit its use-case. For a client-segment device, PCIe is perfect, since client-segment machines don't have too many devices, too large memory, and the applications don't have a very large memory footprint or scale across multiple machines. PCIe fails big in the data-center, when dealing with multiple bandwidth-hungry devices and vast shared memory pools. Its biggest shortcoming is isolated memory pools for each device, and inefficient access mechanisms. Resource-sharing is almost impossible. Sharing operands and data between multiple devices, such as two GPU accelerators working on a problem, is very inefficient. And lastly, there's latency, lots of it. Latency is the biggest enemy of shared memory pools that span across multiple physical machines. CXL is designed to overcome many of these problems without discarding the best part about PCIe - the simplicity and adaptability of its physical layer.

Intel Tuesday unveiled a new portfolio of data-centric solutions consisting of 2nd-Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Intel Optane DC memory and storage solutions, and software and platform technologies optimized to help its customers extract more value from their data. Intel's latest data center solutions target a wide range of use cases within cloud computing, network infrastructure and intelligent edge applications, and support high-growth workloads, including AI and 5G.

Building on more than 20 years of world-class data center platforms and deep customer collaboration, Intel's data center solutions target server, network, storage, internet of things (IoT) applications and workstations. The portfolio of products advances Intel's data-centric strategy to pursue a massive $300 billion data-driven market opportunity.

DigiTimes, citing industry sources, has reported that PCIe-based SSDs will be overtaking SATA-based solutions during 2019. This makes sense in a number of ways: the smaller footprint for Pcie-based, M.2 SSDs means they are prone to higher adoption form laptop manufacturers tan their SATA counterparts. On the desktop and DIY side of things, SATA solutions have sometimes been preferred to their PCIe counterparts mostly due to the pricing delta between solutions across those form factors.

However, as NAND prices have declined precipitously, and PCIe controllers' pricing has done so too, we are now hitting a point where the cost strain on SATA's additional materials compared to their PCIe counterparts leaves the delta so small that it doesn't make any sense to purchase a SATA-limited drive (usually limited only by the speed of the SATA III interface itself) instead of a PCIe-based one. AS demand picks up some additional 20-25% for 2019, this will mostly be taken up by PCIe-based solutions. Pricing of a 512 GB PCIe storage device is now comparable to that of a 256 GB unit just a year ago. Pricing is expected to keep falling for the duration of this year.

AMD will launch its 3rd generation Ryzen 3000 Socket AM4 desktop processors in 2019, with a product unveiling expected mid-year, likely on the sidelines of Computex 2019. AMD is keeping its promise of making these chips backwards compatible with existing Socket AM4 motherboards. To that effect, motherboard vendors such as ASUS and MSI began rolling out BIOS updates with AGESA-Combo 0.0.7.x microcode, which adds initial support for the platform to run and validate engineering samples of the upcoming "Zen 2" chips.

At CES 2019, AMD unveiled more technical details and a prototype of a 3rd generation Ryzen socket AM4 processor. The company confirmed that it will implement a multi-chip module (MCM) design even for their mainstream-desktop processor, in which it will use one or two 7 nm "Zen 2" CPU core chiplets, which talk to a 14 nm I/O controller die over Infinity Fabric. The two biggest components of the IO die are the PCI-Express root complex, and the all-important dual-channel DDR4 memory controller. We bring you never before reported details of this memory controller.

1-Terabyte SSDs could become a new mainstream-desktop must-have in 2019, as prices of the drives have fallen by 50 percent year-over-year, according to DigiTimes. A 1 TB SATA SSD in the 2.5-inch form-factor can now be had for as little as $99, while faster NVMe drives in the M.2 form-factor start around $130. At the beginning of 2018, 1 TB SATA SSDs used to start around the $160-mark, and NVMe drives north of $200. The 1 TB category includes 960 GB, 1000 GB, and 1024 GB marketed capacities with varying amounts of overprovisioning set by manufacturers.

Falling SSD prices are accelerated by the entry of cost-effective 96-layer 3D NAND flash, higher-density QLC NAND flash, undigested inventories of drives based on older technologies such as 64-layer or TLC NAND flash; and a 15 percent sequential quarterly drop in NAND flash prices in the industry. Growth in speeds of client-segment SSDs have remained largely flat over the year, and not much is to be expected in performance growth other than perhaps the advent of PCIe gen 4.0 based enterprise SSDs towards the end of the year.

The Intel Xeon W-3175X processor is available today. This unlocked 28-core workstation powerhouse is built for select, highly-threaded and computing-intensive applications such as architectural and industrial design and professional content creation. Built for handling heavily threaded applications and tasks, the Intel Xeon W-3175X processor delivers uncompromising single- and all-core world-class performance for the most advanced professional creators and their demanding workloads.

Kingston at CES 2019 demonstrated its A2000 NVMe SSDs, which the company has developed with a specific goal in mind - undercut SATA-based SSDs. This has, until now, been impossible, due to increased costs of NVMe controllers over their SATA counterparts, but such is the trend with any technology - prices do come down after a product is first introduced. Some NVMe solutions have used cut-down controllers that only supported PCIe x2 buses, but not the A2000 - they will use full-fledged PCIe 4x lanes, and will be available in 240, 480, or 960 GB capacities.

The A2000 series will make use of different controllers, which means Kingston is sourcing from more than one manufacturer (Silicon Motion's SM2263-series and Phison's low-cost controllers). While that could introduce performance variations, Kingston says that they will be making sure the experience and performance stays consistent between differently-sourced products, and that the only reason for this is to decrease overall BOM costs to achieve a lineup-wide below-SATA cost. NVMe drives typically require less materials than SATA drives, and as a plus, aren't constrained by link bandwidth limitations. This is huge news for the industry, because if Kingston manages to do its bidding 2Q2019, as they expect, the industry will follow suit - they won't be leaving the lowest-priced, and consequently, likely highest-volume product, to a single player. Kingston is quoting up to 2000 MB/s sequential read speeds as well as up to 1500 MB/s sequential write speeds.

PLEXTOR, a leading developer of award-winning solid-state drives (SSDs) and other high-performance digital storage devices, today announced the introduction of its latest line of PCIe and SATA SSDs at this year's CES.

The new M10Pe PCIe SSD Series offers a new level of speed and performance targeted for all PC gamers and applications intensive users. The new series combines advanced 96-layer 3D NAND flash and industry leading controller to deliver awesome sequential read/write speeds up to 3,200/2,500 MB/s and random read/write speeds up to 410,000/320,000 IOPS.

ASUS dabbled with cases from time to time, and its latest creation is the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Strix Helios, an ATX mid-tower to go with your other ROG Strix-branded hardware. Built with brushed-metal finished steel and tinted tempered glass, the Strix Helios features an elaborate aRGB LED illuminated front embellishment that includes the ROG logo, which can be directly plugged in to the 3-pin aRGB header of your motherboard. It also comes with four USB 3.1 front-panel ports, one of which is type-C, all of which plug into your motherboard's standard USB 3.1 headers. You also get LED and fan-controls.

Although marketed as a mid-tower, the ROG Strix Helios is large, measuring 249 mm x 564 mm x 592 mm (WxHxD), and supports E-ATX motherboards in addition to smaller form-factors. Inside, you get a horizontally partitioned layout. Storage areas include two 3.5-inch/2.5-inch trays, and four additional 2.5-inch mounts. Among the cooling features are three 140 mm front intakes, which come with three factory-fitted fans, two 140/120 mm top vents that are vacant, and a 120 mm rear exhaust, which has a factory-fitted fan. In addition to 8 expansion slots, you get 2 vertically oriented slots so you can show off your graphics card better (PCIe riser cable not included). The company didn't reveal pricing.

HTPC case maker HDPLEX unveiled the DC-ATX 800W, a nano-ATX form-factor power-converter. This accessory, roughly as big as a power brick, takes in 6-pin PCIe, 8-pin PCIe, and 8-pin EPS connectors from your main rig, and depending on how many connectors you plug-in, puts out up to 800 Watts of power through a 24-pin ATX, and three downstream PCIe/EPS connectors, with the unit itself handing DC-to-DC switching of 12V to 5V and 3.3V voltage domains. This accessory is ideal if you have a high-Wattage power supply with multiple vacant EPS and PCIe connectors, and want to power a second mini-ITX machine, while saving a lot of space on the side. It uses some pretty high-grade components to ensure 24x7 operation, including Sanyo Japan-made solid-state capacitors, Infineon-made MOSFETs, Würth Elektronik inductors, and controller chips supplied by National Semiconductor and MPS. Available in the coming weeks, the DC-ATX 800W is priced at $190.

During our visit with Toshiba at CES 2019, we were shown not only new technologies that they will be rapidly deploying but a large number of SSDs for various market segments. The biggest draw was their 96-layer BiCS Flash with 4-bit-per-cell quadruple-level cell (QLC) technology. Toshiba is now pushing the boundary for capacity as a single chip device can reach 1.33 Tb (Terabits) while a single package device with 16-dies stacked architecture can reach 2.66 TB. That said, they are already sampling their 1 TB NVMe single package BG4 series SSDs to PC OEM customers in limited quantities.

These latest drives with their new BiCS FLASH technology incorporate everything into a tiny SSD that offers class-leading storage with sequential read performance reaching up to 2250 MB/s. Random read performance can also hit exceptional levels reaching up to 380,000 IOPS. For now, these BG4 based drives are targeted at ultra-thin PC notebooks, IoT embedded systems and will be made available in four capacities including; 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and finally 1 TB. To meet expected demand, Toshiba will also be opening a facility in Japan dedicated to this latest technology in order to bring even higher capacities per NAND module.

Toshiba Memory Corporation, the world leader in memory solutions, today announced the BG4 series, a new line-up of single package NVMe SSDs with capacities up to 1,024 GB, which places both innovative 96-layer 3D flash memory and an all-new controller into one package to deliver best-in-class read performance. The BG4 series is currently sampling to PC OEM customers in limited quantities, with general sample availability expected later in the second calendar quarter of 2019.

This new series of single package SSDs, featuring PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 lanes, offers sequential read performance up to 2,250 MB/s, and with improved flash management delivers industry-leading random read performance up to 380,000 IOPS. The BG4 single package SSDs are suitable for compact and performance-oriented systems, such as ultra-thin PC notebooks, IoT embedded systems and server boot in data centers.

Western Digital Corporation, a data infrastructure leader, today announced it is extending the breadth and depth of its data center portfolio into the rapidly evolving in-memory computing market segment. The new Ultrastar DC ME200 Memory Extension Drive is the company's first product that enables customers to better optimize in-memory system capacity/performance for running demanding applications that drive today's real-time analytics and business insights.

"Today's requirement for faster analytics, data processing, cloud services and high-performance computing (HPC) is increasing demand for in-memory computing across a variety of industries, including healthcare, telecommunications and IT, and retail," said Ashish Nadkarni, group vice president, IDC. "By expanding in-memory capacity, the Ultrastar memory drive helps alleviate the high cost of adding extra DRAM, as well as addresses the physical limitations of available DIMM slots, where scaling is either cost-prohibitive or nearly impossible."

AMD today held its "New Horizon" event for investors, offering guidance and "color" on what the company's near-future could look like. At the event, the company formally launched its Radeon Instinct MI60 GPU-based compute accelerator; and disclosed a few interesting tidbits on its next-generation "Zen 2" mircroarchitecture. The Instinct MI60 is the world's first GPU built on the 7 nanometer silicon fabrication process, and among the first commercially available products built on 7 nm. "Rome" is on track to becoming the first 7 nm processor, and is based on the Zen 2 architecture.

The Radeon Instinct MI60 is based on a 7 nm rendition of the "Vega" architecture. It is not an optical shrink of "Vega 10," and could have more number-crunching machinery, and an HBM2 memory interface that's twice as wide that can hold double the memory. It also features on-die logic that gives it hardware virtualization, which could be a boon for cloud-computing providers.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, announced the release of the Z390 DESIGNARE motherboard with full support for the newest 8-core Intel Core i9-9900K processors. The newest addition to the GIGABYTE DESIGNARE series is a feature-packed motherboard that provides content creators the fastest and most efficient tools to showcase their creativity and craftsmanship. GIGABYTE DESIGNARE Series motherboards bring out the best in workstation graphics cards, maximize M.2 SSD and DDR4 RAM performance, and fully support powerful CPUs such as the newest 8-core Intel Core i9-9900K CPU. With built in USB Type-C Thunderbolt , and native USB 3.1 Gen 2 to provide 40Gb/s transmission speed, the board is designed with effective storage performance as a key feature. GIGABYTE Ultra-Durable Technology and exclusive software also bring additional value for digital content creators and design professionals.

"Today's content creators are seeking faster and more efficient performance from their PCs. GIGABYTE created the DESIGNARE series a few years back to fulfill these user demands," stated Jackson Hsu, Deputy Director of the GIGABYTE Channel Solutions Product Development Division. "Z390 DESIGNARE is the newest addition to this constantly evolving content creation focused series and is loaded with features that enable content creators to express their artistic creativity through their PCs with excellent performance and efficiency."

Crucial , a leading global consumer brand of Micron Technology for memory and storage upgrades, today announced a new 32GB Nonvolatile DIMM (NVDIMM) to help companies preserve critical data in the event of a system power loss and limit costly downtime. The first Crucial NVDIMM to operate at 2933 MT/s, the new module provides companies powerful and persistent memory performance while reducing the amount of NVDIMMs needed in a server.

In fast-paced business environments, sales and customer satisfaction are decided in milliseconds. Crucial NVDIMMs give organisations the advantage when data transactions hang in the balance by fusing memory with on-module NAND, providing near-instant access with data persistence. In the event of a system power loss, the NVDIMM would back up DRAM data to the NAND with help from an ultracapacitator, its backup power source. Crucial NVDIMMs are compatible with the latest 2.5 inch drive bay and HHHL PCIe AgigA Tech PowerGEM ultracapacitors, enabling continual power to up to four NVDIMMs during power loss until a backup is completed.

Be Quiet!, the market leader in PC power supplies in Germany for twelve consecutive years, announces its new mainstream power supply series: Pure Power 11. The series consists of six models with fixed cables ranging from 300 to 700 watts and four models with modular cables ranging from 400 to 700 watts. Previously, Pure Power 10 introduced DC-to-DC transformation to be quiet!'s best selling power supply series, improving crossload performance and voltage regulation on its minor rails. Pure Power 11 expands on this proven technology by upgrading both passive and active components, enabling higher efficiency of up to 92% with 80 PLUS Gold certification, and leading to less heat generation and quieter operation. Manufacturer warranty has also been increased from three to five years.

Pure Power 11's standout technology includes a DC-to-DC convertor, significantly improving both voltage quality on the 3.3V and 5V rails as well as crossload stability. The so-called "Active Clamp + SR" topology contributes to high efficiency ratings and stability. Pure Power 11 power supplies rated 400 watts or higher are 80 PLUS Gold certified, peaking at 92% efficiency. The models with 300 or 350 watt output are 80 PLUS Bronze certified. Up to 96% of the PSU's total power goes to the 12V rails powering the PC's critical components.

ZOTAC today introduced its GeForce RTX 2070 Mini series graphics cards, which could be the most compact RTX 20-series products in the market right now. With 21 cm length, and 12.9 cm height, these cards are more friendly with space-constrained cubical cases meant for micro-ATX and mini-ITX motherboards. ZOTAC's RTX 2070 Mini lineup consists of two variants, the base (model: ZT-T20700E-10P), and the factory-overclocked OC variant (ZT-T20700F-10P). Both cards are identical, and vary with clock speeds. The base variant offers NVIDIA-reference clock speeds of 1410 MHz base, and 1620 MHz GPU Boost; while the OC variant increases the boost frequency to 1650 MHz. Memory on both cards is untouched, at 14 GHz (GDDR6-effective).

On both cards, power is drawn from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. The PCB is slightly shorter than the cooler itself. The cooler consists of a dense aluminium fin-stack, to which heat drawn from the GPU is fed by copper heat pipes. The heatsink is ventilated by two fans, one of which is 90 mm, and the other 100 mm. Display connectivity curiously includes a dual-link DVI-D connector on card, in addition to three DisplayPorts and a HDMI. The VirtualLink port is MIA. The base variant is priced around $530, and the OC variant around $550.

CORSAIR , a world leader in PC gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, today announced the CORSAIR Force Series MP510 M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, the latest and fastest in its range of M.2 solid state drives. The MP510 delivers blazing fast sequential read speeds up to 3,480MB/sec, and sequential write speeds up to 3,000 MB/s, making it CORSAIR's highest performing SSD yet.

Available in 240 GB, 480 GB, 960 GB, and 1920 GB capacities, the MP510 offers extreme storage performance in the ultra-compact and simple M.2 2280 form factor, fitting directly into a motherboard or notebook. Utilizing the ultra high-speed NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 interface for maximum bandwidth, the MP510 leaves traditional SATA 6Gbps and even previous generation M.2 SSDs in the dust. Loading everything from large video and image files to games, applications or the operating system faster than ever before, the MP510 supercharges your system's performance, whatever you're doing.

Gigabyte today announced they were expanding their SSD storage lineup (started with the UD PRO series SATA III SSDs) with M.2 solutions. The new SSDs transfer data under the NVMe protocol and carry the M.2 form factor, in 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB sizes.

According to Gigabyte's own product pages, the 256 GB version has a sequential read and write speed of up to 1200 MB/s and 800 MB/s, while the 128 GB model cuts those speeds down to 1100 MB/s read and 500 MB/s write.

AKITIO, in a partnership with Intel will be releasing a special edition of the popular Node Lite PCIe box, bundled with the recently announced Intel Optane 905P, 960GB SSD as well as other higher capacity drives as they become available.

The Intel Optane 905P SSD is a new technology that is different from NAND flash memory. The Optane is a hybrid between DRAM and typical storage memory. By connecting the Intel Optane drive inside the Akitio Node Lite via Thunderbolt 3, we are able to fully utilize the Thunderbolt 3 bandwidth to achieve incredibly fast performance of up to 2200MB/s in both read and write. Unlike NAND flash based SSD's that provide fast performance in only large sized random read/write operations, the Optane drive provides the same phenomenal speeds in both large and small file transfers.

GIGABYTE is ready with its Z390 Aorus Elite motherboard. The name might suggest that it's the company's flagship product based on the Z390 chipset, but in reality, it's part of the company's new nomenclature that differentiates boards from different price-points. The current "Gaming 3, Gaming 5, and Gaming 7" series is going to be replaced. The cheaper "Gaming 3" extension will be replaced by "Elite." The slightly divergent "Ultra Gaming" extension gets replaced by "PRO." The mid-tier Gaming 5, on the other hand, extension is replaced by "Ultra." The high-end Gaming 7 tier is replaced by "Master," and the flagship Gaming 9 extension by XTREME. We've already seen one of these with the recent Aorus X399 XTREME TR4 motherboard.

Moving on to the product at hand, the Z390 Aorus Elite is a somewhat entry-tier product that's probably priced around the $150-mark, owing to the high chipset price and the higher CPU VRM requirements it mandates. We already count a 13-something-phase VRM (which could include phase-doubling). The "Gaming 3" extension historically lacked NVIDIA SLI support, and that carries over to the Z390 Aorus Elite. The second PCIe x16 slot on this board is electrical x4, and wired to the PCH. Storage connectivity, besides six SATA, includes two M.2 slots with x4 wiring, one of which includes a heatsink. GIGABYTE boards are known for good onboard audio implementations, and this board is no exception. It appears to have WIMA capacitors, ground-layer isolation, EMI shield over the CODEC, which very likely could be an ALC1220. USB 3.1 connectivity, including a type-C port, and 1 GbE interface driven by an i219-V could make for the rest of it. There's minimal RGB bling on board, but you'll get 2-3 aRGB headers.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today announces the launch of XPG SX6000 Pro PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 SSDs. With NVMe 1.3 technology and 3D NAND Flash, they sport excellent speeds and up to 1TB of capacity, making them a viable alternative to SATA SSDs. In addition, SX6000 Pro SSDs are slimmer than standard M.2 2280 SSDs for a higher level of compatibility thanks to a single-sided design.

ADATA produces the SX6000 Pro in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. For PC users looking at tangible performance enhancements, the SX6000 Pro makes complete sense as a SATA successor. The principal advantage of the SX6000 Pro is embodied in its superb cost-performance ratio. Using 3D TLC NAND, NVMe 1.3 technology, and a PCIe Gen3x4 interface, it reaches up to 2100 MB/s read and 1500 MB/s write and random performance of up to 250K/240K IOPS. This means up to four times the speed of typical SATA SSDs.