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AAEON Reimagines its Flagship UP Board with the Introduction of the UP 710S

AAEON's UP brand, which began with the creation of the credit-card sized UP developer board almost a decade ago, has introduced the UP 710S, a modernized, slimline 85 mm x 56 mm single-board that retains the DNA of its iconic predecessor, but with the addition of new features and greater performance to reflect the technological advancements made over the years.

While the UP 710S retains the credit-card sized form factor of the original UP Board, AAEON has reduced the board's height by 10 mm in order to make the already compact board more suitable for deployment in space-constrained environments, with its height now measuring just 25.13 mm. While such a design change would typically require a tradeoff in the form of a reduction in I/O options, but the UP 710S maintains key functions like GPIO, I2C, SPI, and COM that were previously attainable via a 40-pin HAT through dedicated wafers.

Intel Arc "Battlemage" SoC Teaser Points to December Launch

Intel's discrete GPUs are close, and recent reports indicate Intel will reveal its next-generation Arc Battlemage graphics cards in December, moving from an earlier expected Black Friday announcement. Hardware insider Golden Pig Upgrade first mentioned this timeline shift, with data researcher Tomasz Gawroński providing supporting evidence through shipping manifest analysis. The December timing appears to position Intel's announcement before CES 2025, where AMD plans to showcase its Radeon RX 8000 series with RDNA 4 architecture, and NVIDIA will present its GeForce RTX 50 line. This will give Intel ample room to "steal" the attention of the tech press, who will be busy with NVIDIA and AMD during CES.

X account Bionic_Squash has confirmed Battlemage won't be Intel's final discrete graphics card, addressing questions about the company's long-term graphics development plans. Intel's future roadmap includes the Xe3 "Celestial" architecture, though current information only confirms its initial implementation in mobile chips at a reduced scale. The timeline for a full discrete graphics card using Celestial architecture remains unspecified. We are also left to wonder about Intel's approach to discrete GPU marketing push, as the company has yet to gain any significant footing among enthusiasts. In the coming years, Intel's expansion could prove worthwhile as it updates its GPUs with more performance from newer generations.

Microsoft Releases Official ISO for Windows 11 on Arm

Microsoft's Windows-on-Arm (WoA) project has been going through an expansion phase, with the recent range of Snapdragon X SoCs powering many laptops. However, as we are about to get bombed with WoA devices in 2025, Microsoft has prepared an official ISO image of the Windows 11 operating system, available for users to download on the official website. The download size is about 5 GB and requires an Arm-based system to work, as expected. The need for Windows 11 ISO image for WoA comes from the increased number of desktop builds shipped to developers worldwide based on Arm. There are many workstations like the ones offered by ODMs, with an Ampere Altra or Altra Max processor inside.

This is also good news for enthusiasts waiting for the NVIDIA-MediaTek collaboration to drop its first goodies next year, and we expect to see some interesting solutions arise. With Microsoft investing its developer resources into producing Windows 11 Arm builds, it signals that the adoption of Arm-based devices is about to get much higher interest from the consumer standpoint.

BIOSTAR Introduces MT-N97 Fanless Computer With Intel Alder Lake N SoC

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and IPC solutions, is pleased to introduce the MT-N97 industrial computer. The BIOSTAR MT-N97 industrial computer is a compact, fanless powerhouse designed to meet the high demands of modern industrial applications. Tailor-made for system integrators, AIOT development, automation, edge computing, human-machine interfaces (HMI), and digital signage, the MT-N97 combines robust performance with unwavering stability, providing a reliable foundation for critical operations across various sectors.

Equipped with advanced specs that make it an ideal choice for high-performance, industrial-grade applications, the MT-N97 draws power from an Intel Alder Lake N SOC Processor (Intel N97, 4core, up to 3.6 GHz, TDP 12 W). It combines efficient performance with low power consumption, enhancing reliability and cost-effectiveness for continuous operation. The MT-N97's fanless design ensures quiet, noiseless performance, making it suitable for environments where minimal disruption is critical.

AMD Unveils the Versal Premium Series Gen 2 Adaptive SoC (FPGA) with PCIe 6.0 and CXL 3.1 For Next-Gen, I/O Rich Applications

AMD on Tuesday released its flagship FPGA series, and possibly its most important product launch after the company's Xilinx acquisition, the Versal Premium Series Gen 2 SoC. It's hard to call this an FPGA, much in the same way as it's hard to call a modern processor "a CPU," there are many integrated devices, platform interfaces, and application-specific accelerators, and much in the same way, the Versal Premium Series Gen 2 is marketed as an "adaptive SoC," rather than a really powerful FPGA. Speaking of I/O, this is AMD's first product to implement PCI-Express Gen 6 and CXL 3.1.

There's no host platform that currently support these standards—neither EPYC "Turin" nor Xeon 6 "Granite Rapids," but it goes to show that the chip is future-ready and can put the new I/O standards to use. The chip is designed to be implemented as a standalone SoC, and so it supports both DDR5 RDIMMs and LPDDR5X, giving end-users the flexibility to go with the two vastly different memory standards depending on what their application is. These capabilities make the Versal Premium Series Gen 2 well-suited for demanding applications in sectors like data centers, communications, test and measurement, aerospace, and defense, where high-speed data processing is critical.

AAEON's FWS-2370 Offers up to 14 LAN with Power-Optimized Intel SoC for High-Speed Networking Solutions

AAEON, a leading provider of scalable and flexible network solutions, has expanded its network security catalog with the launch of the FWS-2370, a desktop network appliance powered by Intel Atom C5000 processors and equipped with up to 14 LAN ports. Built on the Intel Atom Processor C Series platform, with the Intel Atom Processor C5315 as its default CPU, the FWS-2370 is well-suited to SD-WAN, uCPE, and UTM applications, leveraging a number of conducive on-chip technologies such as Intel QAT and Intel VT-d/VT-x. This offers expedited encryption and decryption, while the device's high core count gives it sufficient processing power to facilitate data throughput and manage multithreaded workloads.

The FWS-2370's standout feature is its Ethernet port selection, which is comprised of eight RJ-45 ports, four running at 2.5GbE and four at 1GbE, alongside four 10GbE SFP+ ports with two LAN bypasses. Further distinguishing it from existing market offerings is the option of two PoE af/at ports, which will appeal to organizations requiring redundant high-speed networking and data transfer between multiple locations.

LG and Tenstorrent Expand Partnership to Enhance AI Chip Capabilities

LG Electronics (LG) and Tenstorrent are pleased to announce an expanded collaboration, building on their initial chiplet project to develop System-on-Chips (SoCs) and systems for the global market. Through this partnership, LG aims to enhance its design and development capabilities for AI chips tailored to its products and services, aligning with its vision of "Affectionate Intelligence." LG is dedicated to advancing AI-driven innovation, with a focus on enhancing its AI-powered home appliances and smart home solutions, as well as expanding its capabilities in future mobility and commercial applications.

Recognizing the critical role of high-performance AI semiconductors in implementing AI technology, LG plans to strengthen its in-house development capabilities while collaborating with leading global companies, including Tenstorrent, to boost its AI competitiveness.

Apple's New Mac mini Comes with Removable Storage

Both pictures and videos of a partial teardown of Apple's recently launched Mac mini with the M4 SoC have appeared online courtesy of various Chinese sources. There are at least two interesting parts to these partial teardowns and they're related to storage and WiFi. On the storage front, Apple has moved away from having soldered NAND chips straight on the main PCB of the Mac mini, to instead having them on a custom PCB which is similar to M.2, but a custom Apple design. The PCB pictured contained a pair of 128 GB NAND chips and with the source of the teardown being from China, there's also a video showing a repair shop desoldering the two chips and replacing them with two 1 TB chips, or in other words, the SSD was upgraded from 256 GB to 2 TB.

The upgrade brought with it some extra performance as well, even if the write speed remained at a comparatively slow 2900 MB/s, the read speed went up from 2000 MB/s to 3300 MB/s which is a significant gain in performance. This is obviously not a consumer friendly upgrade path, but we'd expect to see third party upgrade options at some point in the future, assuming there's no black listing of third party storage modules. The NAND controller is still likely to be integrated into Apple's SoC, but the PCB that the NAND flash chips are mounted onto appears to have some kind of SPI flash on it as well, which might make third party upgrades a lot harder.

Nintendo Switch Successor: Backward Compatibility Confirmed for 2025 Launch

Nintendo has officially announced that its next-generation Switch console will feature backward compatibility, allowing players to use their existing game libraries on the new system. However, those eagerly awaiting the console's release may need to exercise patience as launch expectations have shifted to early 2025. On the official X account, Nintendo has announced: "At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well. Further information about the successor to Nintendo Switch, including its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date."

While the original Switch evolved from a 20 nm Tegra X1 to a more power-efficient 16 nm Tegra X1+ SoC (both featuring four Cortex-A57 and four Cortex-A53 cores with GM20B Maxwell GPUs), the Switch 2 is rumored to utilize a customized variant of NVIDIA's Jetson Orin SoC, now codenamed T239. The new chip represents a significant upgrade with its 12 Cortex-A78AE cores, LPDDR5 memory, and Ampere GPU architecture with 1,536 CUDA cores, promising enhanced battery efficiency and DLSS capabilities for the handheld gaming market. With the holiday 2024 release window now seemingly off the table, the new console is anticipated to debut in the first half of 2025, marking nearly eight years since the original Switch's launch.

Geekom's Mini Air12 Lite mini PC is now on sale for less than $200

GEEKOM, a Taiwanese tech company also known as the Green Mini PC Global Leader, just released its first model powered by an Intel Alder Lake-N series SoC. The GEEKOM Mini Air12 Lite is a tiny desktop PC with an Intel N100 quad-core processor, DDR4-3200 RAM, a PCIe Gen 3 SSD, and support for dual displays. The mini PC is now available on Amazon and GEEKOM's official website.

The Mini Air12 Lite measures 135.5 x 115.5 x 34.5 mm (0.5L) and weighs about 1 kilogram. It features a single SO-DIMM slot which supports up to 16 GB of DDR4-3200 MHz memory, and an M.2 2280 slot that can accommodate a PCIe 3.0 or SATA SSD of up to 1 TB. The mini PC runs on a licensed copy of Windows 11 Pro out of the box.

New Arm CPUs from NVIDIA Coming in 2025

According to DigiTimes, NVIDIA is reportedly targeting the high-end segment for its first consumer CPU attempt. Slated to arrive in 2025, NVIDIA is partnering with MediaTek to break into the AI PC market, currently being popularized by Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD. With Microsoft and Qualcomm laying the foundation for Windows-on-Arm (WoA) development, NVIDIA plans to join and leverage its massive ecosystem of partners to design and deliver regular applications and games for its Arm-based processors. At the same time, NVIDIA is also scheduled to launch "Blackwell" GPUs for consumers, which could end up in these AI PCs with an Arm CPU at its core.

NVIDIA's partner, MediaTek, has recently launched a big core SoC for mobile called Dimensity 9400. NVIDIA could use something like that as a base for its SoC and add its Blackwell IP to the mix. This would be similar to what Apple is doing with its Apple Silicon and the recent M4 Max chip, which is apparently the fastest CPU in single-threaded and multithreaded workloads, as per recent Geekbench recordings. For NVIDIA, the company already has a team of CPU designers that delivered its Grace CPU to enterprise/server customers. Using off-the-shelf Arm Neoverse IP, the company's customers are acquiring systems with Grace CPUs as fast as they are produced. This puts a lot of hope into NVIDIA's upcoming AI PC, which could offer a selling point no other WoA device currently provides, and that is tried and tested gaming-grade GPU with AI accelerators.

Apple M4 Max CPU Faster Than Intel and AMD in 1T/nT Benchmarks

Early benchmark results have revealed Apple's newest M4 Max processor as a serious competitor to Arm-based CPUs from Qualcomm and even the best of x86 from Intel and AMD. Recent Geekbench 6 tests conducted on the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro showcase considerable improvements over both its predecessor and rival chips from major competitors. The M4 Max achieved an impressive single-core score of 4,060 points and a multicore score of 26,675 points, marking significant advancements in processing capability. These results represent approximately 30% and 27% improvements in single-core and multicore performance, respectively, compared to the previous M3 Max. This is also much higher than something like Snapdragon X Elite, which tops out at twelve cores per SoC. When measured against x86 competitors, the M4 Max also demonstrates substantial advantages.

The chip outperforms Intel's Core Ultra 9 285K by 19% in single-core and 16% in multicore tests, surpassing AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X by 18% in single-core and 25% in multicore performance. Notably, these achievements come with significantly lower power consumption than traditional x86 processors. The flagship system-on-chip features a sophisticated 16-core CPU configuration, combining twelve performance and four efficiency cores. Additionally, it integrates 40 GPU cores and supports up to 128 GB of unified memory, shared between CPU and GPU operations. The new MacBook Pro line also introduces Thunderbolt 5 compatibility, enabling data transfer speeds up to 120 Gb/s. While the M4 Max presents an impressive response to the current market, we have yet to see its capabilities in real-world benchmarks, as these types of synthetic runs are only a part of the performance story that Apple has prepared. We need to see productivity, content creation, and even gaming benchmarks to fully crown it the king of performance. Below is a table comparing Geekbench v6 scores, courtesy of Tom's Hardware, and a random Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-00-1DE) run in top configuration.

Samsung Electronics Announces Results for Third Quarter of 2024, 7 Percent Revenue Increase

Samsung Electronics today reported financial results for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2024. The Company posted KRW 79.1 trillion in consolidated revenue, an increase of 7% from the previous quarter, on the back of the launch effects of new smartphone models and increased sales of high-end memory products. Operating profit declined to KRW 9.18 trillion, largely due to one-off costs, including the provision of incentives in the Device Solutions (DS) Division. The strength of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar resulted in a negative impact on company-wide operating profit of about KRW 0.5 trillion compared to the previous quarter.

In the fourth quarter, while memory demand for mobile and PC may encounter softness, growth in AI will keep demand at robust levels. Against this backdrop, the Company will concentrate on driving sales of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and high-density products. The Foundry Business aims to increase order volumes by enhancing advanced process technologies. Samsung Display Corporation (SDC) expects the demand of flagship products from major customers to continue, while maintaining a quite conservative outlook on its performance. The Device eXperience (DX) Division will continue to focus on premium products, but sales are expected to decline slightly compared to the previous quarter.

Apple Mac Studio with M4 Ultra SoC Reportedly Delayed, MacBook Air Remains on Schedule

Apple's M4-equipped MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and 24" iMac lineups are set to debut next week. The M4 family of desktop-class SoCs, which will soon be joined by the M4 Pro and M4 Max, is likely to bring substantial performance improvements to the aforementioned Mac models. If the recently leaked benchmarks are anything to go by, the M4-powered lineup appears poised to outperform Intel's "Lunar Lake" rather comfortably, while bringing the heat to AMD's "Strix Halo" as well as Intel's upcoming "Arrow Lake-H"-powered notebooks.

For those interested in the thin-and-light segment, the MacBook Air has always presented itself as a very decent option. According to recent reports by Mark Gurman, the M4-equipped MacBook Air is scheduled for launch sometime during January to March of 2025, with mass production set to start soon. The Mac Studio, which was supposedly slated to launch alongside the MacBook Air, is now delayed by a few months and will possibly see the light of day during the second quarter of 2025.

DeepComputing and Andes Technology Partner to Develop the World's First RISC-V AI PC Featuring Ubuntu Desktop

DeepComputing, a pioneer in RISC-V innovation, today announced a strategic partnership with Andes Technology Corporation, a leading provider of high-efficiency, low-power 32/64-bit RISC-V processor cores. Together, the two companies collaborate to develop the world's first RISC-V AI PC, powered by Andes' 7 nm QiLai SoC. This innovated low-power PC will come equipped with Ubuntu Desktop and aims to redefine AI computing by combining industry-leading hardware and software designed specifically for RISC-V.

The collaboration marks a significant milestone in the evolution of AI PCs, which utilize artificial intelligence to enhance productivity, creativity, entertainment, security, and more. The power-efficient RISC-V AI PC, based on the QiLai SoC, integrates a multi-core CPU, vector processor, GPU, and various peripherals for optimal performance, and AI workload handling. This product is designed to cater to developers and enterprises looking for advanced, open-standard RISC-V solutions.

Qualcomm's Next Gen Snapdragon 8 Elite with Oryon CPU Cores Announced

At Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform, the most powerful and world's fastest mobile system-on-a-chip ever. Our flagship mobile platforms are now taking on the Elite name, showcasing the remarkable progress it represents for the industry. This platform debuts industry leading technologies such as the second generation custom-built Qualcomm Oryon CPU, Qualcomm Adreno GPU and enhanced Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, all of which deliver game changing performance improvements.

These innovations empower the Snapdragon 8 Elite to transform user experiences with their devices - making on-device multi-modal generative AI applications a reality on smartphones powered by Snapdragon. These technologies also fuel many other experiences across camera capabilities, with our most powerful AI-ISP, as well as next level gaming, super-fast web browsing and more.

Synaptics Launches New Veros Brand with Two Dual-Band Wireless Chips

Synaptics Incorporated today launched the Veros Seamless Intelligent Connectivity brand with high-performance systems on chip (SoCs) for Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth, and 802.15.4. Signifying leadership and innovation, Veros encapsulates decades of field-hardened technology and IoT connectivity expertise. It encompasses Synaptics' entire wireless portfolio of proven solutions characterized by superior performance, interoperability, coexistence, power efficiency, and bill of materials integration.

The new high-performance SoCs, the SYN4383 and SYN43756E, add to Veros by explicitly targeting devices that demand the highest Wi-Fi throughput and range with seamless network interoperability. The SYN4383 extends Synaptics' award-winning "Triple Combo" Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/802.15.4 series with real simultaneous dual-band (RSDB) operation and greater system integration. The SYN43756E fortifies Synaptics' widely adopted 2x2 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo SoCs with a 6E Wi-Fi band and LE Audio.

Microchip Releases 20 Advanced Wi-Fi Products for Industrial and Commercial Applications

With Industry 4.0, the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), digitized manufacturing and the age of IoT everything, the demand for wireless connectivity in commercial and industrial applications is growing at an exceptional pace. These applications typically require reliable connectivity that can withstand extreme environments that are exposed to high temperatures, background noise and obstructions. To help meet this need, Microchip Technology has added 20 products to its Wi-Fi portfolio. Expanding one of the industry's most extensive wireless connectivity product lines, Microchip offers high-performance Wi-Fi microcontrollers (MCUs), network and link controllers and plug-and-play modules designed to simplify development and speed time to market.

The company's Wi-Fi solutions are designed to support various application needs and developer skill levels. The selection ranges from modules that are regulatory certified in several countries that require no Radio Frequency (RF) expertise and little programming to robust Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) with industrial-level features.

Eliyan Delivers Highest Performing Chiplet Interconnect PHY at 64Gbps in 3nm Process

Eliyan Corporation, credited for the invention of the semiconductor industry's highest-performance and most efficient chiplet interconnect, today revealed the successful delivery of first silicon for its NuLink -2.0 PHY, manufactured in a 3 nm process. The device achieves 64 Gbps/bump, the industry's highest performance for a die-to-die PHY solution for multi-die architectures. While compatible with UCIe standard, the milestone further confirms Eliyan's ability to extend die-to-die connectivity by 2x higher bandwidth, on standard as well as advanced packaging, at unprecedented power, area, and latency.

The NuLink-2.0 is a multi-mode PHY solution that also supports UMI (Universal Memory Interconnect), a novel chiplet interconnect technology that improves Die-to-Memory bandwidth efficiency by more than 2x. UMI leverages a dynamic bidirectional PHY whose specifications are currently being finalized with the Open Compute Project (OCP) as BoW 2.1.

Realtek Showcasing Highly Integrated 2.5G Ethernet Switch Solution and Complete xPON Broadband Solutions at Network X 2024

Realtek Semiconductor will participate in Network X 2024 (October 08~10, 2024), an event being held in Paris, France, that will bring together over five thousand people from all over the world to include senior network infrastructure and service professionals from telcos, leading vendors, industry bodies, governments, analysts, and media to showcase the latest trending products, solutions, and services. Realtek will exhibit its highly integrated 2.5G Ethernet switch solutions and complete xPON broadband solutions to meet various bandwidth application needs.

Highly Integrated 2.5G Ethernet Switch Solution
With breakthroughs in large language model technology, generative AI has ushered in a new era of AI applications. The demand for AI applications is no longer confined to high-end cloud applications but has extended from the cloud to edge computing and is becoming increasingly widespread. Consequently, the high bandwidth requirements at the edge have become more critical. Currently, edge network speeds commonly use 1GbE. To address the growing bandwidth demands of AI applications, Realtek has developed a 2.5G Ethernet switch solution that integrates various technologies to provide 2.5GbE downstream bandwidth and 10GbE upstream bandwidth. This solution is designed to support future AI-enabled endpoint devices, such as AI PCs and AI notebooks, to meet their high bandwidth needs. Additionally, this 2.5G Ethernet switch solution can be used in Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 wireless routers, supporting high bandwidth applications to meet user demands for high bandwidth at the edge in AI applications.

MediaTek Announces Dimensity 9400 Flagship SoC with All Big Core Design

MediaTek today launched the Dimensity 9400, the company's new flagship smartphone chipset optimized for edge-AI applications, immersive gaming, incredible photography, and more. The Dimensity 9400, the fourth and latest in MediaTek's flagship mobile SoC lineup, offers a massive boost in performance with its second-generation All Big Core design built on Arm's v9.2 CPU architecture, combined with the most advanced GPU and NPU for extreme performance in a super power-efficient design.

The Dimensity 9400 adopts MediaTek's second-gen All Big Core design, integrating one Arm Cortex-X925 core operating over 3.62 GHz, combined with 3x Cortex-X4 and 4x Cortex-A720 cores. This design offers 35% faster single-core performance and 28% faster multi-core performance compared to MediaTek's previous generation flagship chipset, the Dimensity 9300. Built on TSMC's second-generation 3 nm process, the Dimensity 9400 is up to 40% more power-efficient than its predecessor, allowing users to enjoy longer battery life.

Thundercomm Launches RUBIK Pi on Qualcomm Platforms

At an industry event in Austin today, Thundercomm announces RUBIK Pi, the first Pi built on Qualcomm SoC platforms for developers. RUBIK Pi is an innovative tool that aims to lower the barriers application development with AI inference, allowing developers to access high-performance, easy-to-deploy AI R&D tools.

The Pi product is a must-have for electronics enthusiasts and developers. It can be seen as a microcomputer, integrating a processor, memory, storage, and various interfaces on a credit card-sized board. Thundercomm, a world-leading IoT product and solution provider, building on its expertise in ICT technologies and developer workflows, launched RUBIK Pi, aiming to create the most user-friendly AI R&D tools.

AMD to Become Major Customer of TSMC Arizona Facility with High-Performance Designs

After Apple, we just learned that AMD is the next company in line for US-based manufacturing in the TSMC Arizona facility. Industry analyst Tim Culpan reports that TSMC's Fab 21 in Arizona will soon be producing AMD's high-performance computing (HPC) processors, with tape out and manufacturing expected to commence on TSMC's 5 nm node next year. This move comes after previously reported Apple's A16 SoC production, which is already in progress at the facility and could see shipments before the end of this year, significantly ahead of the initially projected early 2025 schedule. The production of AMD's HPC chips in Arizona marks a crucial step towards establishing an AI-hardware supply chain operating entirely on American soil, which is expected to further expand with Intel Foundry and Samsung Texas facility.

Making HPC processors domestically serves as a significant milestone in reducing dependence on overseas semiconductor manufacturing and strengthening the US's position in the global chip industry. Adding to the momentum, TSMC and Amkor recently announced a collaboration on advanced packaging technologies, including Integrated Fan-Out (InFO) and Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS), which are vital for high-performance AI chips. However, as Amkor facilities are yet to be built, these chips are going to be shipped back to Taiwan for packaging before being integrated into the final product. Once the Amkor facility is up and running, Arizona will become the birthplace of fully manufactured and packaged silicon chips.

AMD Granite Ridge "Zen 5" Processor Annotated

High-resolution die-shots of the AMD "Zen 5" 8-core CCD were released and annotated by Nemez, Fitzchens Fitz, and HighYieldYT. These provide a detailed view of how the silicon and its various components appear, particularly the new "Zen 5" CPU core with its 512-bit FPU. The "Granite Ridge" package looks similar to "Raphael," with up to two 8-core CPU complex dies (CCDs) depending on the processor model, and a centrally located client I/O die (cIOD). This cIOD is carried over from "Raphael," which minimizes product development costs for AMD at least for the uncore portion of the processor. The "Zen 5" CCD is built on the TSMC N4P (4 nm) foundry node.

The "Granite Ridge" package sees the up to two "Zen 5" CCDs snuck up closer to each other than the "Zen 4" CCDs on "Raphael." In the picture above, you can see the pad of the absent CCD behind the solder mask of the fiberglass substrate, close to the present CCD. The CCD contains 8 full-sized "Zen 5" CPU cores, each with 1 MB of L2 cache, and a centrally located 32 MB L3 cache that's shared among all eight cores. The only other components are an SMU (system management unit), and the Infinity Fabric over Package (IFoP) PHYs, which connect the CCD to the cIOD.

Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Surfaces in Testing, Codenamed "Project Glymur"

Qualcomm debuted its Snapdragon X Elite/Plus series of laptop processors a few months ago, and the company is already testing the next-generation Snapdragon X2 series. Interestingly, the new "SC8480XP" SoC is carrying a codename "project Glymur." Up until now, Qualcomm has exclusively used codenames of places in Hawaii. However, with the Snapdragon X2 series, it shifts to Iceland, with the highest waterfall name being used for this next-generation processor. While we have almost zero clue about core counts and clocks, we know that the CPU cores will be an iteration of Nuvia's Oryon design, likely being pre-designed before the acquisition of the Nuvia design team.

According to Winfuture, Qualcomm started testing the next-generation SC8480XP SoC in July and August, testing various RAM and storage configurations. The company will likely evaluate the best configurations for the upcoming platform, tune the RAM speed with the SoC, and decide on guidelines for storage configurations. We are still waiting to see meaningful hints about the next-generation platform, and we are especially curious about the clocks and core counts that Qualcomm is preparing.
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