Intel's Investor Relations head Trey Campbell, in a "fire-side chat" with top investors at the Cowen Virtual Technology Media and Telecom Conference, reaffirmed Intel's commitment to its server processor roadmap. Intel is on course to introducing its 10 nm Xeon "Ice Lake-SP" enterprise processor family by the end of 2020, and "Sapphire Rapids" sometime within 2021.

"Ice Lake-SP" processor will introduce the new "Whitley" platform, with a new 4,189-pin LGA socket, which leverages PCI-Express gen 4.0. While retaining the DDR4 memory standard, the memory interface has been broadened to 8-channel, and reference memory clock speeds are expected to be increased to DDR4-3200. The company's "Sapphire Rapids" processor is expected to shake up the market, as it introduces next-generation I/O, when it launches alongside the "Eagle Stream" platform in 2021. The processor will be built on the refined 10 nm+ silicon fabrication node, feature "Willow Cove" CPU cores, and I/O feature set that sees the introduction of DDR5 memory standard, and PCI-Express gen 5.0.

Dell Technologies unveiled the world's most intelligent and secure business PCs across its award-winning Latitude, Precision and OptiPlex portfolios to make work more efficient and safe - no matter the location. As the industry's most sustainable commercial PC portfolio, the new devices further advance Dell's commitment to sustainability with recycled materials, sustainable packaging, energy efficient designs and EPEAT Gold registrations.

Professionals can work smarter with Dell Optimizer, the automated Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based optimization technology, now available across Latitude, Precision and OptiPlex devices. The built-in software learns how each person works and adapts to their behavior to help them focus on the tasks that matter most. It works behind the scenes to improve overall application performance; enable faster log-in and secure lock outs; eliminate echoes and reduce background noise on conference calls; and extend battery run time.

ASRock Rack, - the HPC and Workstation leading manufacturer ASRock Rack announces its new mATX workstation motherboard; the W480D4U, which supports the latest 10th Gen Intel Core and Intel Xeon W-1200 Series processors with single socket LGA1200. And the W480D4U is optimized with best compatibility and reliability by supporting the dual channel ECC-UDIMMs.

The W480D4U could be ideal candidate for light loading workstation solution by its small form factor. This compact motherboard provides 4x DDR4 ECC-UDIMMs, as well as two M.2 with PCIe3.0 x4 interface supporting Intel Optane Memory Module and Intel Rapid Storage Technology (Intel RST) in micro-ATX form factor. While having the HDMI supported by Intel CPU integrated Intel UHD Graphics, USB3.2 Gen2 and 8x SATA 6 Gb/s connections, W480D4U will also be the best choice as the light creation workstation for SOHO design studio and freelancers. Moreover, with the BMC AST2500 for IPMI remote management, W480D4U will be your new choice for entry level server solution.

Today the Hot Chips program committee officially announced the August conference line-up, posted to hotchips.org. For this first-ever live-streamed Hot Chips Symposium, the program is better than ever!

In a session on deep learning training for data centers, we have a mix of talks from the internet giant Google showcasing their TPUv2 and TPUv3, and a talk from startup Cerebras on their 2nd gen wafer-scale AI solution, as well as ETH Zurich's 4096-core RISC-V based AI chip. And in deep learning inference, we have talks from several of China's biggest AI infrastructure companies: Baidu, Alibaba, and SenseTime. We also have some new startups that will showcase their interesting solutions—LightMatter talking about its optical computing solution, and TensTorrent giving a first-look at its new architecture for AI.

ASUS today announced the W480 series workstation motherboard and workstation system designed to showcase the full potential of the latest Intel Xeon W-1200 processors. The ASUS W480 workstation series is the ideal choice for small-to-medium businesses and content creators seeking workstations delivering essential performance along with professional-grade reliability and security at a budget friendly price.

Teamed up with the latest Intel Xeon W-1200 processors featuring up to 10 cores, 20 threads, 5.3 GHz clock speeds, and 125 W and 128 GB DDR4-2933 ECC memory support, the ASUS W480 workstation series is purpose-built for 2D/3D CAD applications. The ASUS W480 workstation series also supports ASUS Control Center Express and ASUS Control Center, two versions of enterprise-grade IT monitoring and management software that simplify IT operations and improve productivity with comprehensive control and intuitive functionality.

Intel today announced the Xeon W-1200 line of socket LGA1200 processors aimed at enterprises, workstations, and small-scale server builds. These processors are based on the 14 nm "Comet Lake-W" microarchitecture, and are differentiated from the 10th generation Core "Comet Lake-S" processor family in featuring ECC memory support, vPro support on select SKUs, and the UHD P630 integrated graphics solution. These processors will be supported on motherboards based on the Intel W480, W470, and possibly Q470 chipsets. The processors also introduce Turbo Boost Max 3.0 to this segment with select GPUs. Thermal Velocity Boost is available on only the top SKU.

The lineup is led by the 10-core/20-thread Xeon W-1290P, clocked at 3.70 GHz, with 5.20 GHz max boost frequency, and 20 MB of L3 cache. This SKU also features 5.30 GHz TVB and 4.90 GHz all-core TVB. This is followed closely by the Xeon W-1270P, an 8-core/16-thread part with 3.80 GHz nominal and 5.10 GHz boost frequency, and 16 MB of L3 cache. The W-1250P 6-core/12-thread chip is next in line, with its 4.10 GHz nominal, 4.50 GHz boost, and 12 MB L3 cache. All P-extension SKUs feature generally high clock speeds, and 125 W TDP. Positioned right below these are the non-P SKUs, with their 80 W TDP, and lower clock-speeds.

Intel is reportedly giving finishing touches to a new performance-segment notebook processor positioned between the Core i7-10875H and the flagship Core i9-10980HK, called the Core i9-10885H. Based on the "Comet Lake-H" silicon, this 8-core/16-thread processor has identical clock speeds to the i9-10980HK, but lacks overclocking capabilities. With its default 45 W TDP configured, the processor ticks at 2.40 GHz nominal, with up to 5.30 GHz boost - a 200 MHz speed-bump over the i7-10875H.

Apparently, the chip also features vPro capability, making it fit for commercial-segment notebooks such as the Dell Latitude and Lenovo ThinkPad T-series. Among the other Intel mobile processors with vPro capability are the new Xeon W-10855M 6-core/12-thread and W-10885M 8-core/16-thread processors; and the 15 W category i7-10810U 6-core/12-thread; and i7-10610U i5-10310U 4-core/8-thread processors. These processors are likely to formally launch on May 13.

Semiconductor startup Tachyum Inc. announced today that it has achieved, on schedule, a major milestone in the detailed physical design of its Prodigy Universal Processor. Tachyum now has a complete chip layout, with a verified detailed physical design of more than 90 percent of the design silicon area.

Tachyum's Prodigy is the world's first Universal Processor, combining general-purpose processors, high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI), deep machine learning (ML), explainable AI, bio AI and other AI disciplines within a single chip. This latest milestone achieved integration of key, high-quality Tachyum IP within a multiprocessor environment, and with DDR4/DDR5 DRAM controllers, PCIE 5.0, 112Gb SERDES, USB, GPIO, PLLs and various I/Os. Results of the layout indicate that Prodigy's die size is within product design goals with top-level clocking results that are better than expected.

Cincoze, a professional manufacturer of embedded systems, unveils the GM-1000 rugged GPU computer, which is powered by the 9th/8th generation Intel CPU and supports one MXM GPU module expansion. This GPU computer provides high-performance computing capability with a small footprint design, which is suitable for applications like edge computing, machine vision, image processing, and artificial intelligence.

GM-1000 can be configured with a range of 9th/8th generation Intel CPUs, including Xeon and Core i up to 8 cores. It supports dual channel DDR4 2666 MHz SO-DIMM up to 64 GB. It has abundant I/Os, including 4x COM, 2x GbE LAN, 8x USB, 1x HDMI, and 1x DVI-I. GM-1000 comes with an M.2 M key slot to support NVMe SSD, and M.2 E key slot to support CNVi for WiFi or Bluetooth connection which are commonly required in high speed data storage and communication. All these functions are integrated in a small footprint just 260 mm x 200 mm x 85 mm, making it easily installed in space-limited environments.

TYAN, an industry-leading server platform design manufacturer and a subsidiary of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation, has launched the latest GPU server platforms that support the NVIDIA V100S Tensor Core and NVIDIA T4 GPUs for a wide variety of compute-intensive workloads including AI training, inference, and supercomputing applications. "An increase in the use of AI is infusing into data centers. More organizations plan to invest in AI infrastructure that supports the rapid business innovation," said Danny Hsu, Vice President of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation's TYAN Business Unit. "TYAN'sGPU server platforms with NVIDIA V100S GPUs as the compute building block enables enterprise to power their AI infrastructure deployment and helps to solve the most computationally-intensive problems."

TYAN's new Thunder HX FT83-B7119 features high density local storage within a 4U 10GPU server platform. The system is based on dual-socket 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, supporting up to 10 NVIDIA V100S or 20 T4 GPUs with 12 hot-swap 3.5" drive bays. The system provides a spare PCIe x16 slot in addition to the 10 double-wide PCIe x16 ones, and it supports high speed networking such as 100 Gigabit EDR InfiniBand or Ethernet. The chassis features tool-less drive trays for added ease of service.

Intel is bringing its Xeon W brand extension of processors meant for workstations, to the LGA1200 socket. The Xeon W brand were typically associated with enterprise variants of HEDT platforms, with those of mainstream desktop sockets reserved for the Xeon E brand. At least 7 SKUs are in the works, beginning with the Xeon W-1290P, W-1290, and W-1290T, which are 10-core/20-thread parts based on the "Comet Lake" silicon, with TDP ratings of 125 W, 65 W, and 35 W, respectively; and nominal clock speeds of 3.70 GHz, 3.20 GHz, and 1.90 GHz, respectively.

The Xeon W-1270P and W-1270 are 8-core/16-thread parts, likely with 125 W, and 65 W TDP ratings, respectively, and clock speeds of 3.80 GHz and 3.40 GHz, respectively. Lastly, there are the 6-core/12-thread Xeon W-1260P and W-1260, clocked at 4.10 GHz and 3.60 GHz, respectively. It's likely that the processors are either compatible with the W480/W480E chipsets, or have a C-series enterprise chipset with a similar feature-set to it. The W-1290P is priced at $620.62, the W-1290 at $568.91, the W-1290T at $568.80; the W-1270P at $492.57, the W-1270 at $416.21; the W-1260P at $358.41, and the W-1260 at $293.12. All prices are per-unit in 1,000-unit tray quantities.

Remember DFI? Those guys are into industrial PCs and embedded systems these days, and put out data sheets of upcoming products implementing the new Intel W480 chipset. A possible step-up from Intel Qx70 series chipset family, the W480 is positioned between the Q470 and Z490, and enables certain quasi-workstation features relevant to client desktops in very big organizations. The chipset enables vPro, and certain other features that helps with remote management.

The DFI specs, without taking model numbers, names several kinds of upcoming Xeon vPro and 10th generation Core E-SKUs. Among these are Xeon vPro processors in core-counts of 10, 8, and 6; and TDP levels of 80 W, and 35 W. It's not known if the 10th gen Xeon vPro succeed the workstation-segment Xeon E-series, which typically don't work on client-segment chipsets. We also see an assortment of Core i9, Core i7, Core i5, Core i3, Pentium and Celeron processors with the "E" brand extension, across a variety of TDP options. Unless we're horribly mistaken, the "E" brand extension could denote ECC memory support, at least in the case of the W480E and Q470E chipset variants.

Today, Microsoft Azure DCsv2-Series featuring a hardware-based trusted execution environment (TEE) built on Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX) was released for general availability. Built on Intel's trusted foundation, the Azure DCsv2-Series makes confidential computing broadly available to enterprise customers who want to leverage cloud computing while helping to keep sensitive workloads protected.

"Customers demand the capability to reduce the attack surface and help protect sensitive data in the cloud by encrypting data in use. Our collaboration with Microsoft brings enterprise-ready confidential computing solutions to market and enables customers to take greater advantage of the benefits of cloud and multiparty compute paradigms using Intel SGX technology," said Anil Rao, Intel vice president, Data Center Security and Systems Architecture.

Intel Corporation today reported first-quarter 2020 financial results. "Our first-quarter performance is a testament to our team's focus on safeguarding employees, supporting our supply chain partners and delivering for our customers during this unprecedented challenge," said Bob Swan, Intel CEO."The role technology plays in the world is more essential now than it has ever been, and our opportunity to enrich lives and enable our customers' success has never been more vital. Guided by our cultural values, competitive advantages and financial strength, I am confident we will emerge from this situation an even stronger company."

In the first quarter, Intel achieved 34 percent data-centric revenue growth and 14 percent PC-centric revenue growth YoY. The company maintained essential factory operations with greater than 90 percent on-time delivery while supporting employees, customers and communities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes a new Intel Pandemic Response Technology Initiative to combat the virus where we can uniquely make a difference with Intel technology, expertise, and resources.

Today, HP Inc. unveiled its newest Z by HP mobile workstation and HP ENVY portfolio - designed for creators who push the envelope of what's possible. The HP ZBook Studio, HP ZBook Create, and the HP ENVY 15 are the latest additions to the HP Create Ecosystem, which launched at Adobe MAX in 2019.

The powerful line-up enables all levels of creators, including consumers, prosumers and professionals, to capture, create, and bring to life digital concepts and ideas that can be shared, enjoyed, and experienced. In the past, creators had to choose between heavy workstations or bulky gaming devices to get the power they require for work and play. Today, HP is pushing the boundaries of engineering and creative productivity by allowing photographers, vloggers, graphic designers, architects, film makers, and everyone in between, to achieve what was never thought possible.

A leaked Intel internal slide surfaced on Chinese social networks, revealing five new products the company will build on its 10 nm silicon fabrication process. These include the "Alder Lake" heterogenous desktop processor, "Tiger Lake" mobile processor, "Ice Lake" based Xeon Scalable enterprise processors, DG1 discrete GPU, and "Snow Ridge" 5G base-station SoC. Some, if not all of these products, will implement Intel's new 10 nm+ silicon fabrication node that is expected to go live within 2020.

"Alder Lake" is a desktop processor that implements Intel's new heterogenous x86 core design that's making its debut with "Lakefield." The chip features up to 8 larger "Willow Cove" or "Golden Cove" CPU cores, and up to 8 smaller "Tremont" or "Gracemont" cores. This 8-big/8-small combo lets the chip achieve TDP targets around 80 Watts. Next up is "Tiger Lake," Intel's next-generation mobile processor family succeeding "Ice Lake." This microarchitecture implements "Willow Cove" CPU cores in a homogeneous setup, alongside Xe architecture based integrated graphics. "Ice Lake-SP" is Intel's next enterprise architecture that places mature "Sunny Cove" CPU cores in extreme core-count dies. Lastly, there's "Snow Ridge," an SoC purpose built for 5G base-stations. Image quality notwithstanding, these slides don't appear particularly new, and it's likely that COVID-19 has destabilized the roadmap. For instance, "Alder Lake," and "Ice Lake-SP" are expected to be 10 nm++ chips, a node that doesn't go live before 2021.

Intel's x86 processor architecture has been the dominant CPU instruction set for many decades, since IBM decided to put the Intel 8086 microprocessor into its first Personal Computer. Later, in 2006, Apple decided to replace their PowerPC based processors in Macintosh computers with Intel chips, too. This was the time when x86 became the only option for the masses to use and develop all their software on. While mobile phones and embedded devices are mostly Arm today, it is clear that x86 is still the dominant ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) for desktop computers today, with both Intel and AMD producing processors for it. Those processors are going inside millions of PCs that are used every day. Today I would like to share my thoughts on the demise of the x86 platform and how it might vanish in favor of the RISC-based Arm architecture.

Both AMD and Intel as producer, and millions of companies as consumer, have invested heavily in the x86 architecture, so why would x86 ever go extinct if "it just works"? The answer is that it doesn't just work.

Intel has decided to restart operations in its previously winded-down Costa Rica facilities. An Intel Product Change Notification (PCN) for their Cascade Lake Xeon Scalable processors shows that the company has added Costa Rica to its three other "Test and Finish" sites - the other three are located in Penang (Malaysia), Kulim (Malaysia) and Vietnam. Intel's aim is to guarantee a "continuous supply" of the affected processors - namely, Cascade Lake second-generation Xeon Scalable processors in the Silver, Gold and Platinum lines (in both boxed and tray SKUs).

This move, which will be done in phases. The first implementation of the Costa Rica operations will be effective on April 19th, with the remaining operations to come online on August 3rd. Intel expects to reduce dependency on their other three Test and Finish sites, while being able to bolster final production capacity by some 25% with this move.

The ubiquitous DDoS-mitigation and CDN provider, Cloudflare, announced that its latest Gen X servers implement AMD EPYC processors ditching Intel Xeons with its older Gen 9 servers. Cloudflare uses multi-functional servers (just like Google), in which each server is capable of handling any kind of the company's workloads (DDoS mitigation, content delivery, DNS, web-security, etc.). The company minimizes server hardware configurations so they're easier to maintain and lower TCO. The hardware specs of its servers are periodically updated and classified by "generations."

Cloudflare's Gen X server is configured with a single-socket 2nd gen AMD EPYC 7642 processor (48-core/96-thread, 256 MB L3 cache), and 256 GB of octa-channel DDR4-2933 memory, along with NVMe flash-based primary storage. "We selected the AMD EPYC 7642 processor in a single-socket configuration for Gen X. This CPU has 48-cores (96 threads), a base clock speed of 2.4 GHz, and an L3 cache of 256 MB. While the rated power (225 W) may seem high, it is lower than the combined TDP in our Gen 9 servers and we preferred the performance of this CPU over lower power variants. Despite AMD offering a higher core count option with 64-cores, the performance gains for our software stack and usage weren't compelling enough," Cloudflare writes in its blog post announcing Gen X. The new servers will go online in the coming weeks.Many Thanks to biffzinker for the tip.

ASUS, the leading IT Company in server systems, server motherboards, workstations and workstation motherboards today announced exclusive Power Balancer technology to support the new 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processor (extended Cascade Lake-SP refresh SKUs) across all server product lineups, including the RS720/720Q/700 E9, RS520/500 E9 and ESC8000/4000 G4 series server systems and Z11 server motherboards.

In complex applications, such as high-performance computing (HPC), AI or edge computing, balancing performance and power consumption is always a challenge. With Power Balancer technology and the new 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processor, ASUS servers save up to 31 watts power per node on specific workloads and achieve even better efficiency with more servers in large-scale environments, significantly decreasing overall power consumption for a much lower total cost of ownership and optimized operations.

Unlocking the full potential of 5G requires transforming network infrastructure from core to edge. As the world's leading network silicon provider, Intel is at the forefront of driving this transformation. Today, the company made a sweeping set of hardware and software announcements, including the launch of the new Intel Atom P5900, a 10 nm system-on-chip (SoC) for wireless base stations, which is a critical early deployment target for 5G networks.

"As the industry makes the transition to 5G, we continue to see network infrastructure as the most significant opportunity, representing a $25 billion silicon opportunity by 2023," said Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of the Data Platforms Group at Intel. "By offering customers the fastest and most effective path to design, deliver and deploy 5G solutions across core, edge and access, we are poised to expand our leading silicon position in this growing market."

Will Intel even make client-segment gaming discrete GPUs now? Because the GPU marketing gurus Intel snatched from AMD to sell them, Chris Hook and Heather Lennon, are reportedly no longer with the company. The two are on their way to an unnamed startup. This, according to a sensational Charlie Demerjian report citing company sources. These exits closely follow that of another valuable chip marketing honcho, John Carvill, who joined Austin-based startup Nuvia, which is designing ASICs and SoCs for the data-center of the future.

Hook and Lennon were responsible for the PR dexterity AMD RTG enjoyed through its ups and downs this decade. With RTG head Raja Koduri leaving for Intel to head its GPU development project, his former comrades at RTG soon followed. The flight of GPU marketing talent out of Intel at this stage could be the first of many hints that Intel has made a big decision with regards to how it plans to monetize Raja's work. "Ponte Vecchio" is Intel's ambitious GPU compute processor designed primarily for HPC and AI workloads. There's tumbleweed coming out of Intel on "Arctic Sound" since Q2-2019, a contraption that more closely resembles graphics cards as you know it.

At Supercomputing 2019, Intel unveiled its vision for extending its leadership in the convergence of high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) with new additions to its data-centric silicon portfolio and an ambitious new software initiative that represents a paradigm shift from today's single-architecture, single-vendor programming models.

Addressing the increasing use of heterogeneous architectures in high-performance computing, Intel expanded on its existing technology portfolio to move, store and process data more effectively by announcing a new category of discrete general-purpose GPUs optimized for AI and HPC convergence. Intel also launched the oneAPI industry initiative to deliver a unified and simplified programming model for application development across heterogenous processing architectures, including CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs and other accelerators. The launch of oneAPI represents millions of Intel engineering hours in software development and marks a game-changing evolution from today's limiting, proprietary programming approaches to an open standards-based model for cross-architecture developer engagement and innovation.

Intel issued a product change notification (PCN) dated November 13, calling for a recall of boxed Xeon E-2274G processors from customers and distributors. The boxed SKU of the E-2274G, which includes a stock cooling solution, has been marked as "discontinued" and "end of life." Intel is offering an E-2274G tray processor (chip-only) as replacement for the returned inventory. The cause for the recall is the cooling solution included in the boxed SKU, which has been found to be insufficient to cool the E-2274G, a 4-core/8-thread processor based on the 14 nm++ "Coffee Lake" microarchitecture, with a rated TDP of 88 W.

The E973708-003 fan-heatsink included with boxed Xeon E-2274G processors is supplied by Foxconn, and has been known to be bundled with Intel's entry-level client-segment processors, such as the Pentium Gold series and Core i3 series (chips with TDP typically rated 65 W or less). It features a thin, circular, all-aluminium heatsink, which lacks a copper core that certain other LGA115x-compatible stock coolers by Intel have. The heatsink makes contact with the CPU over pre-applied TIM on an aluminium surface, with spirally-projecting fins dissipating heat under the fan's airflow. It could be been an oversight bundling such an underpowered cooler with an 88 W TDP processor that's designed for the rigors of mission-critical use-cases such as workstations and small-business servers.Heatsink images courtesy: AndyKingParts (Amazon seller)

Intel's first Xe GPU built on the company's 7 nm silicon fabrication process will be codenamed "Ponte Vecchio," according to a VideoCardz report. These are not gaming GPUs, but rather compute accelerators designed for exascale computing, which leverage the company's CXL (Compute Express Link) interconnect that has bandwidth comparable to PCIe gen 4.0, but with scalability features slated to come out with future generations of PCIe. Intel is preparing its first enterprise compute platform featuring these accelerators codenamed "Project Aurora," in which the company will exert end-to-end control over not just the hardware stack, but also the software.

"Project Aurora" combines up to six "Ponte Vecchio" Xe accelerators with up to two Xeon multi-core processors based on the 7 nm "Sapphire Rapids" microarchitecture, and OneAPI, a unifying API that lets a single kind of machine code address both the CPU and GPU. With Intel owning the x86 machine architecture, it's likely that Xe GPUs will feature, among other things, the ability to process x86 instructions. The API will be able to push scalar workloads to the CPU, and and the GPU's scalar units, and vector workloads to the GPU's vector-optimized SIMD units. Intel's main pitch to the compute market could be significantly lowered software costs from API and machine-code unification between the CPU and GPU.Image Courtesy: Jan Drewes