Lenovo is blazing a path for mass adoption of ultra-fast, low-latency laptop connectivity through a series of mobile network operator partnerships committed to making 5G computing a reality for consumers around the world. On the heels of the earlier unveiling of the Lenovo Yoga 5G (known as Lenovo Flex 5G in the US)—the world's first 5G PC in market—Lenovo has formed strategic partnerships with leading 5G service providers around the world: Verizon, EE, Sunrise and CMCC. Powered by the Qualcomm ️ Snapdragon 8cx 5G compute platform, the Yoga 5G laptop delivers high-speed 5G network connectivity (through a 5G service provider) that's up to 10 times faster than 4G.

"Lenovo introduced the world's first 5G laptop in market to equip the mobile generation with smarter technology for always-on connectivity and computing. The hardware is just the first step," says Johnson Jia, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Consumer Business Segment in Lenovo's Intelligent Devices Group. "With our strategic partnerships with global 5G network carriers, consumers will now be able to access easier, faster and more secure connectivity seamlessly from virtually anywhere. As 5G computing holds the power to transform user experiences, we believe it can ultimately disrupt the PC industry for the better."

CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, today announced the launch of the new CORSAIR VENGEANCE a4100 and i4200 Series Gaming PCs, delivering outstanding gaming performance, eye-catching aesthetics, and easy upgradeability with either an AMD Ryzen 3000 Series processor or a 10th Gen Intel Core processor and GeForce RTX -powered graphics from NVIDIA. Equipped with renowned CORSAIR components and ready to game, stream, or both, the new VENGEANCE systems set a high bar for prebuilt gaming PCs.

The CORSAIR VENGEANCE a4100 Series is the latest system in the VENGEANCE line to boast the power of AMD Ryzen, achieving outstanding single-threaded and multi-threaded performance thanks to an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU. An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics card outputs incredibly lifelike graphics with real-time ray-tracing technology. In a first for the CORSAIR VENGEANCE line of systems, the a4100 is available with a pre-installed Elgato 4K60 PRO capture card, perfect for content creators looking to record or stream their gameplay out-of-the-box. With reliable CORSAIR components such as 16 GB of 3,200 MHz VENGEANCE RGB PRO memory, a Hydro Series H60 Liquid CPU cooler, and an RM750 80 PLUS Gold-rated power supply, the VENGEANCE a4100 is ready to tackle today's most demanding games while you share the action with the world.

According to the report from DigiTimes, which cites industry sources, the global supply chain of Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA has been rather confused recently by their launch dates and launch procedures. Due to worldwide pandemic, there are no electronics shows like Computex that are designed for companies to showcase their products there, and thus, there is no unified launch window where you can expect a product to be launched. What's even worse is the fact that the companies have now started to keep their launch dates as a secret in the latest edition of playing with the competition. Launch dates have started to change and now the launch is uncertain even if the launch day is provided.

This has a massive effect on the industry supply chain. By not giving concrete dates to them, companies have left them to wonder when the product will launch. This is hurting their ability to prepare themselves for an upcoming product and possibly cause some delays later on. If not given enough time, the supply chain could not adapt fast enough and the product could come later in the hands of consumers.

This week at the 2020 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, Intel will present a body of research and technical perspectives on the computing transformation driven by data that is increasingly distributed across the core, edge and endpoints. Chief Technology Officer Mike Mayberry will deliver a plenary keynote, "The Future of Compute: How Data Transformation is Reshaping VLSI," that highlights the importance of transitioning computing from a hardware/program-centric approach to a data/information-centric approach.

"The sheer volume of data flowing across distributed edge, network and cloud infrastructure demands energy-efficient, powerful processing to happen close to where the data is generated, but is often limited by bandwidth, memory and power resources. The research Intel Labs is showcasing at the VLSI Symposia highlights several novel approaches to more efficient computation that show promise for a range of applications - from robotics and augmented reality to machine vision and video analytics. This body of research is focused on addressing barriers to the movement and computation of data, which represent the biggest data challenges of the future," said Vivek K. De, Intel fellow and director of Circuit Technology Research, Intel Labs.

The security of our customers' data is a top priority at Intel. As part of Intel's Security First Pledge, our engineers continue to deliver advancements to help safeguard our technology from evolving cyber-threats. It begins with designing and engineering security features into our products and continues in our work with the industry to move security innovation forward.

Today, we are announcing a new security capability. Intel Control-Flow Enforcement Technology (Intel CET) will be first available on Intel's upcoming mobile processor code-named "Tiger Lake." Intel CET delivers CPU-level security capabilities to help protect against common malware attack methods that have been a challenge to mitigate with software alone.

Intel today announced that systems designer-extraordinaire Jim Keller has departed the company citing personal reasons. Whether or not this is a blow to Intel likely depends on how far Jim Keller brought their Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group throughout his two-year tenure at the company whilst serving as its Vice President. The semiconductor and chip architecture world isn't being driven by Mr. Keller himself, obviously; there are a number of architects and designers that bring the industry forward through their concerted efforts. However, it's hard to look past Jim Keller's pedigree when it comes to doing his job - if anything, AMD's Zen architecture is a testament to that, and has put Intel in the place we now see it in the CPU world.

To fill in the void, Intel has announced a reshuffling inside their Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group. Jim Keller will still be serving with Intel for the next six months as a consultant, thus easing the transition. Read the full press-release below.

VLSI engineer and industry analyst, @chiakokhua, who goes by "Retired Engineer" on Twitter, was among the very first voices that spoke about 3rd gen Ryzen socket AM4 processors being multi-chip modules of core- and uncore dies built on different silicon fabrication processes, which was an unbelievable theory at the time. He now has a fantastic theory of what "Rocket Lake-S" could look like, dating back to November 2019, which is now re-surfacing on tech communities. Apparently, Intel is designing these socket LGA1200 processors to be multi-chip modules, similar to "Matisse" in some ways, but different in others.

Apparently, "Rocket Lake-S" is a multi-chip module of a 14 nm die that holds the CPU cores; and 10 nm die that holds the uncore components. AMD "Matisse" and "Vermeer" too have such a division of labor, but the CPU cores are located on dies with a more advanced silicon fabrication process (7 nm), than the die with the uncore components (12 nm).

Today, Intel launched Intel Core processors with Intel Hybrid Technology, code-named "Lakefield." Leveraging Intel's Foveros 3D packaging technology and featuring a hybrid CPU architecture for power and performance scalability, Lakefield processors are the smallest to deliver Intel Core performance and full Windows compatibility across productivity and content creation experiences for ultra-light and innovative form factors.

"Intel Core processors with Intel Hybrid Technology are the touchstone of Intel's vision for advancing the PC industry by taking an experience-based approach to designing silicon with a unique combination of architectures and IPs. Combined with Intel's deepened co-engineering with our partners, these processors unlock the potential for innovative device categories of the future," said Chris Walker, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of Mobile Client Platforms.

Intel has had quite a lot of work trying to patch all vulnerabilities discovered in the past two years. Starting from Spectre and Meltdown which exploited speculative execution of the processor to execute malicious code. The entire process of speculative execution relies on the microarchitectural technique for adding more performance called speculative branch prediction. This technique predicts branch paths and prepared them for execution, so the processor spends less time figuring out where and how will instructions flow through the CPU. So far, lots of these bugs have been ironed out with software, but a lot of older CPUs are vulnerable.

However, an attacker has always thought about doing malicious code execution on a CPU core shared with the victim, and never on multiple cores. This is where the new CrossTalk vulnerability comes in. Dubbed Special Register Buffer Data Sampling (SRBDS) by Intel, it is labeled as CVE-2020-0543 in the vulnerability identifier system. The CrossTalk is bypassing all intra-core patches against Spectre and Meltdown so it can attack any CPU core on the processor. It enables attacker-controlled code execution on one CPU core to leak sensitive data from victim software executing on a different core. This technique is quite dangerous for users of shared systems like in the cloud. Often, one instance is shared across multiple customers and until now they were safe from each other. The vulnerability uses Intel's SGX security enclave against the processor so it can be executed. To read about CrossTalk in detail, please visit the page here.

Apple is planning to launch its own high-performance processors designed for Macs at the 2020 WWDC, held in the week of 22 June, 2020. This would be the the first step among many toward the replacement of Intel processors and the x86 machine architecture from the Apple Mac ecosystem, in the same fashion as the company replaced PowerPC with x86 last decade. Apple has codenamed the process of graduating to the new machine architecture "Kalamata," and besides detailing the new processor and its architecture, the company could announce a large-scale developer support initiative to help Mac software vendors to transition to the new architecture in time for the first Macs with the new processors to roll out in 2021.

A Bloomberg report on the new processors states that the chips will be based on the "same technology" as the company's A-series SoCs for iOS devices, meaning that Apple will leverage the Arm machine architecture, and has probably developed a high performance CPU core that can match Intel's x64 cores in IPC and efficiency. Macs based on the new processors, will however run MacOS and not iOS, which means much of the clean-break transition woes between PPC and x86 Macs are bound to return, but probably better managed by software vendors. It also remains to be seen how Apple handles graphics. The company could scale up the Metal-optimized iGPU found in its A-series SoCs on its new Mac processor, while also giving them the platform I/O capability to support discrete graphics from companies such as AMD.

Axiomtek - a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted in the research, development and manufacture of series of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency - is pleased to launch the ITC150WM-300S and ITC150WM-500L, two 15.6-inch modular panel PCs with a swappable signage computer module which is based on the newest Intel Smart Display Module (Intel SDM) architecture. The swappable design makes the system maintenance easier in field replacement and upgrade. The ITC150WM-300S and ITC150WM-500L have a 15.6-inch full HD LCD display with 1920 x 1080 resolution, a 10-point projected capacity touchscreen, 300 nits of high brightness and LED backlights. The thickness of both interactive panel PCs is less than 40 mm, which is suitable for use in a space-constrained environment.

Kaby Lake-G was the result of one of the strangest collaborations in the industry - though that may not be a just way of looking at it. It made total sense at the time - a product that combined the world's best CPU design with one of the foremost graphics architectures seems a recipe for success. However, the Intel-AMD collaboration was an unexpected one, as these two rivals were never expected to look eye to eye in any sort of meaningful way. Kaby Lake-G was revolutionary in how it combined both AMD and Intel IP in an EMIB-capable design, but it wasn't one built to last.

Now, after Intel has announced a stop to product manufacturing and order capacity, it's come the time for AMD to pull driver support. The company's latest Windows 10 version 2004 update-compatible drivers don't install on Kaby Lake-G powered systems, citing an unsupported hardware configuration. Tom's Hardware contacted Intel, who said they're working with AMD to bring back "Radeon graphics driver support to Intel NUC 8 Extreme Mini PCs (previously codenamed "Hades Canyon")." AMD, however, still hasn't commented on the story.

Intel today updated the public data-sheet of its 10th Gen Core "Comet Lake-S" desktop processor to reveal precise power limit and tau values of each specific SKU. PL 1 or power level 1 is interchangeable with the processor's TDP as a power value. PL 1 is sufficient for a processor to sustain its base frequency (nominal clocks). For example, a processor with 65 W TDP has PL 1 at 65 W. PL 2 is what affords the processor the power to seek out boost frequencies. This value varies with between model to model, with the unlocked K/KF SKUs getting higher PL 2 values than the locked ones. The company also disclosed Tau. This is a timing variable that tells the processor how long (in seconds) can it stay within PL 2, before having to retreat to PL 1.

Intel's three upcoming processor microarchitectures, namely the next-generation Xeon "Sapphire Rapids," Core "Alder Lake," and low-power "Tremont" cores found in Atom, Pentium Silver, Celeron, and even Core Hybrid processors, will feature a new instruction set that aims to speed up processor cache performance, called CLDEMOTE "cache line demote." This is a means for the operating system to tell a processor core that a specific content of a cache (a cache line), isn't needed to loiter around in a lower cache level (closer to the core), and can be demoted to a higher cache level (away from the core); though not flushed back to the main memory.

There are a handful benefits to what CLDEMOTE does. Firstly, it frees up lower cache levels such as L1 and L2, which are smaller in size and dedicated to a CPU core, by pushing cache lines to the last-level cache (usually L3). Secondly, it enables rapid load movements between cores by pushing cache lines to L3, which is shared between multiple cores; so it could be picked up by a neighboring core. Dr. John McCalpin from UT Austin wrote a detailed article on CLDEMOTE.

Intel's 11th generation Core i7-1165G7 "Tiger Lake-U" processor armed with 4 "Willow Cove" cores and Gen12 Xe graphics fights a pitched battle against AMD Ryzen 7 4800U "Renoir" (8 "Zen 2" cores and Radeon Vega 8 graphics), courtesy of some digging by Thai PC enthusiast TUM_APISAK. The 4800U beats the i7-1165G7 by a wafer-thin margin of 1.9% despite double the CPU core-count and a supposedly advanced iGPU, with 6331 points as against 6211 points of the Intel chip, in 3DMark 11. A breakdown of the score reveals fascinating details of the battle.

The Core i7-1165G7 beats the Ryzen 7 4800U in graphics tests, with a graphics score of 6218 points, against 6104 points of the 4800U, resulting in a 1.9% lead. In graphics tests 1, 2, and 3, the Gen12 Xe iGPU is 7.3-8.9% faster than the Radeon Vega 8, through translating to 2-4 FPS. The Intel iGPU crosses the 30 FPS mark in these three tests. With graphics test 4, the AMD iGPU ends up 8.8% faster. Much of AMD's performance gains come from its massive 55.6% physics score lead thanks to its 8-core/16-thread CPU, which ends up beating the 4-core/8-thread "Willow Cove," with the 4800U scoring 12494 points compared to 8028 points for the i7-1165G7. This CPU muscle also plays a big role in graphics test 4. This battle provides sufficient basis to speculate that "Tiger Lake-U" will have a very uphill task matching "Renoir-U" chips such as the Ryzen 7 4800U, and the upcoming Ryzen 9 4900U (designed to compete with the i7-1185G7).

A roadmap slide from an Intel Partner Connect presentation suggests that the company's client-segment processor lineup will be unchanged for the rest of 2020, with the company briskly launching its 10th generation "Comet Lake-S" desktop processor lineup through May-June, and "Comet Lake-H" a month prior. The Core X "Cascade Lake-X" processor lineup will continue to lead the company in the high core-count HEDT segment, with no indications of new models, at least none higher than 18 cores.

More importantly, this slide dulls expectations of the company refreshing its desktop process segment just before Holiday 2020 with the 11th generation "Rocket Lake-S" silicon that has next-gen "Willow Cove" CPU cores, Gen12 Xe integrated graphics, and PCIe gen 4.0 connectivity, especially with engineering samples of the chips already hitting the radar. Intel is expected to launch 10 nm "Ice Lake-SP" Xeon enterprise processors in 2020, and there was hope for some of this IP to power Intel's next HEDT platform, the fabled "Ice Lake-X," especially with AMD's "Castle Peak" 3rd gen Threadrippers dominating this segment. While there's little doubt that the slide may have originated from Intel, its context must be studied. Partner Connect is a platform for Intel to interact with its channel partners (distributors, retailers, system integrators, etc), and information about future products is far more restricted on these slides, than presentations intended for large OEMs, motherboard manufacturers, etc. Then again, with the COVID-19 pandemic throwing supply chains off rails, it wouldn't surprise us if this slide spells Gospel.

The "Rocket Lake-S" microarchitecture by Intel sees the company back-port its next-generation "Willow Cove" CPU core to the existing 14 nm++ silicon fabrication process in the form of an 8-core die with a Gen12 Xe iGPU. An engineering sample of one such processor made it to the Futuremark database. Clocked at 3.20 GHz with 4.30 GHz boost frequency, the "Rocket Lake-S" ES was put through 3DMark "Fire Strike" and "Time Spy," with its iGPU in play, instead of a discrete graphics card.

In "Fire Strike," the "Rocket Lake-S" ES scores 18898 points in the physics test, 1895 points in the graphics tests, and an overall score of 1746 points. With "Time Spy," the overall score is 605, with a CPU score of 4963 points, and graphics score of 524. The 11th generation Core "Rocket Lake-S" processor is expected to be compatible with existing Intel 400-series chipset motherboards, and feature a PCI-Express gen 4.0 root complex. Several 400-series chipset motherboards have PCIe gen 4.0 preparation for exactly this. The increased IPC from the "Willow Cove" cores is expected to make the 8-core "Rocket Lake-S" a powerful option for gaming and productivity tasks that don't scale across too many cores.

Intel is planning to introduce its first NUC (next unit of computing) device based on the 11th generation Core "Tiger Lake" processor by the end of 2020, according to leaked company roadmaps covering NUCs. These point to Intel refreshing its "Hades Canyon" performance-segment NUC mini-PC with a "Tiger Lake-U" processor, a 3rd party discrete GPU, and slightly bigger device size (1.35 L vs. 1.2 L of the original "Hades Canyon"). At the very top, the "Ghost Canyon" NUC 9 Extreme with "Coffee Lake-HR" processors will continue to hold the fort into 2021.

The mainstream NUC mini-PC lineup will continue to be "Frost Canyon," powered by "Comet Lake-U" 10th generation Core processors. Q2-Q3 2020 will see Intel launch significant updates to its NUC Compute Element lineup, with "West Cove," "Ghost Canyon," and "Quartz Canyon" holding the mainstream, performance-segment, and professional segment, respectively; while are likely based on "Comet Lake-H" processors; and "Austin Beach" low-power compute element based on "Comet Lake-U."

Intel CEO Bob Swan, in his Virtual Computex YouTube stream, advocated that the industry should focus less on benchmarks, and more on the benefits of technology, a line of thought strongly advocated by rival AMD in its pre-Ryzen era, before the company began getting competitive with Intel again. "We should see this moment as an opportunity to shift our focus as an industry from benchmarks to the benefits and impacts of the technology we create," he said, referring to technology keeping civilization and economies afloat during the COVID-19 global pandemic, which has thrown Computex among practically every other public gathering out of order.

"The pandemic has underscored the need for technology to be purpose-built so it can meet these evolving business and consumer needs. And this requires a customer-obsessed mindset to stay close, anticipate those needs, and develop solutions. In this mindset, the goal is to ensure we are optimizing for a stronger impact that will support and accelerate positive business and societal benefits around the globe," he added. An example of what Swan is trying to say is visible with Intel's 10th generation Core "Cascade Lake XE" and "Ice Lake" processors, which feature AVX-512 and DL-Boost, accelerating deep learning neural nets; but lose to AMD's flagship offerings on the vast majority of benchmarks. Swan also confirmed that the company's "Tiger Lake" processors will launch this Summer.The Computex video address by CEO Bob Swan can be watched below.

Intel today issued a product change notice announcing the discontinuation of its 8th generation Core desktop processor family, and models of Pentium Gold and Celeron processors based on the 14 nm "Coffee Lake" silicon. The PCN covers every 8th gen SKU in the retail- and OEM channels. The company set key dates for the discontinuation. The lineup is discontinued as of June 1, 2020. Suppliers and OEM customers can last order their products on December 18, 2020. The last product shipment is slated for June 4, 2021. It's likely that the 9th generation Core desktop processor family will be follow next year. The 8th generation Core "Coffee Lake" saw the first increase in core counts for Intel's mainstream desktop processor family in close to a decade.

Intel has recently released 4 new Atom C3000 chips now sporting "R" and "L" suffixes, these chips join the lineup as it enters its third year of service. The dual-core C3338R chip comes in at 38 USD and gains a 300 MHz base clock boost along with QAT support for just a $1 premium over the C3338. The quad-core C3436 comes in at 64 USD and features the lowest per-core pricing of the entire lineup at just 16 USD per core and with a 10.75 W TDP. The 96 USD quad-core C3558R gains a 200 MHz base clock boost and DDR4-2400 support for a 10 USD and 1 W TDP premium over the C3558. Finally, the 209 USD octa-core C3758R gains a 200 MHz base clock boost for a 16 USD and 1 W TDP increase over the Intel Atom C3758.

Today, during the VR/AR Global Summit Online Conference, Lenovo announced the latest addition to its portfolio of commercial virtual reality (VR) solutions - the Lenovo Mirage VR S3 headset with ThinkReality. The new VR solution for enterprise was unveiled during the keynote speech by Nathan Pettyjohn, Commercial AR/VR Lead, Intelligent Devices Group, Lenovo.

The Lenovo Mirage VR S3 is an all-in-one headset developed in conjunction with Pico Interactive, a global technology company that develops innovative VR and enterprise solutions. Specifically designed for enterprise, the Lenovo Mirage VR S3 features a 4K display for clearer visuals, hands-free control for utilization with or without the provided controller, and an easy to clean, hygienic face plate suitable for mass use. Built with integrated audio and up to three hours of battery life, the new VR headset is rugged, light weight and ready to scale within the enterprise.

Intel is discontinuing the special dodecahedron LDPE retail packaging for its previous-generation flagship desktop processor, the Core i9-9900K. The processor itself is still an active SKU, but its retail packaging will likely now revert to a more conventional-looking paperboard cuboid package, resembling that of the Core i9-9900KF. There is no mention of any change to the "limited edition" Core i9-9900KS. The product change notification (PCN) may have been triggered by the i9-9900K getting succeeded by the 10-core i9-10900K processor that ships in a simpler (though still premium-looking) hard paperboard package with a large front-face window; and the fact that the dodecahedron LDPE package presented logistics problems for distributors, as crates of these processors could pack fewer units than with smaller cuboid boxes, and needed additional styrofoam cushioning to prevent transit damage.

To support its efforts to build a competitive consumer GPU lineup under the Xe brand, which Intel likes to call its "Odyssey," the company scored another higher-up from AMD, this time Ali Ibrahim. He joined Intel this month as a vice-president within the Architecture, Graphics and Software group, although the company didn't specify his responsibilities. "We are thrilled that Ali has joined Intel as Vice President, Platform Architecture and Engineering - dGPUs to be part of the exciting Intel Xe graphics journey," said an Intel spokesperson in a comment to CRN.

During his 13-year tenure at AMD, Ali Ibrahim was the chief-architect of the company's cloud gaming and console SoC businesses, which provides valuable insight into Intel's breakneck efforts to build high-end discrete GPUs (something it lacked for the past two decades). Intel is the only other company that is capable of building semi-custom chips for someone like Microsoft or Sony as the inventor of x86, provided it has a GPU that can match AMD's in the console space. Likewise, with gaming taking baby steps to the cloud as big players such as Google betting on it, Intel sees an opportunity for cloud gaming GPUs that aren't too different from its "Ponte Vecchio" scalar processors. The transfer of talent isn't one-way, as AMD recently bagged Intel's server processor lead Dan McNamara to head the EPYC brand.

Antec Inc., the leading provider of high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade, and Do-It-Yourself market, is happy to announce that all current 115x compatible CPU water blocks and air coolers are also compatible with the new Intel LGA 1200 socket, utilized on motherboards supporting the 10th generation of Intel Core processors. The new socket was very recently launched along with the Z490 motherboards that support the latest Comet Lake-S Intel processors.

LGA 1200 was designed as a replacement for the LGA 1151. The LGA 1200 has 1200 protruding pins to make contact with the pads on the processor. It uses a modified design of LGA 1151 with 49 extra pins on it, improving power delivery and enabling support for future incremental I/O features. Pin 1 position remains the same as it was in previous generation processors.