With its "Zen" CPU microarchitecture, AMD removed support for the FMA4 instruction-set, on paper. This, while retaining FMA3. Level1Techs discovered that "Zen" CPUs do support FMA4 instructions, even through the instruction-set is not exposed to the operating system. FMA, or fused multiply add, is an efficient way to compute linear algebra. FMA3 and FMA4 are not generations of the instruction-set (unlike SSE3 and SSE4), but rather the digit denotes the number of operands per instruction. Support for both were introduced by AMD in 2012 with its FX-series processors, while Intel added FMA3 support in 2013 with "Haswell."

The exact reasons why AMD deprecated FMA4 with "Zen" are unknown, but some developers speculate it's because AMD's implementation of FMA4 is buggy, even though it's more efficient (33% more throughput). Intel's adoption of FMA3 made it more popular, and hence more stable over the years. Level1Techs used an OpenBLAS FMA4 test-program to confirm that feeding "Zen" processors with FMA4 instructions won't just return a "illegal instruction" error, but also the processor will go ahead and complete the operation. This is interesting because FMA4 isn't exposed as a CPUID bit, and the operating system has no idea the processor even supports the instruction. For linear algebra, FMA4 has proven more efficient than AVX in both single- and double-precision.

Principled Technologies Wednesday published its first response to allegations of flawed and misleading "independent" comparison between the $319 AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and the 66% pricier $530 (pre-order price) Intel Core i9-9900K, which Intel used in its launch event to woo gamers and investors. In its response, the company elaborated on the reasons why it tested the AMD chip with memory and cooler settings reputed hardware reviewers found sub-optimal. "One goal of this study was to test the CPUs and their graphics subsystems, not the GPUs, so we ran the tests at the most common gaming resolution (62.06%), 1920×1080," reads the response, touting a foregone conclusion that gamers with $500 8-core processors still game at 1920 x 1080. We get that they, like every CPU reviewer, are trying to simulate a CPU-limited scenario, but to justify their settings with Steam Hardware Survey data as "the most common resolution," is a disingenuous argument.

We next see Principled Technologies justify the use of NH-U14S TR4-SP3 cooler on the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX. Noctua, in its own TDP Guide for this cooler, states that 250W TDP (which also happens to be the TDP of the 2990WX), is the design limit of this air cooler, and goes as far as to mention that an additional NF-A15 fan, which is not included with the cooler, is recommended to be able to "increase Precision Boost headroom," implying that out of the box, the cooler is already bottlenecking the 2990WX. The Core i9-9980XE, on the other hand, has a rated TDP of 165W, and Noctua provides no additional guidance for 165W TDP Core X family processors, such as the Core i9-7980XE. Principled Technologies' reasoning for memory configuration proves they either continue to lack basic knowledge on AMD Ryzen memory controller limitations, or are deliberately disregarding it in an attempt to cripple AMD chips.

Today, we have seen several reports that suggested Principled Technologies (PT) published misleading information in our recent study comparing Intel's gaming processors to AMD's. We apologize for our delay in responding, but it's been a busy day, and we wanted to be as thorough as possible in addressing inquiries concerning our testing. We'll address specific questions and share more detail on our methodology in a moment, but we first must respond directly to attempts to call our integrity into question.

For almost 16 years, we have tested products for our clients because they trust our integrity. We have worked not just for any one company but for dozens of the leading technology firms, including rivals such as Intel and AMD, Microsoft and Google, Dell and HP, and many others.

Well, that proverbial storm of dirty undies did serve to rile up some people over at Intel and their paid-for stint with Principled Technologies, whose name begs for a change for honesty's sake. In wake of the controversy regarding its... flawed... testing of AMD's Ryzen 2700X performance in gaming workloads, Principled technologies has now come forward to say it's retesting AMD's processors in less... biased circumstances.

Let's start with the glass half-full part of this retesting: initial reports of memory timings on AMD's system being set in an almost "whatever" kind of way apparently weren't fair, since Principled Technologies have said they used D.O.C.P. settings for AMD's XMP-equivalent memory settings (not properly disclosed in the initial report, so, it's their own fault this happened). The good stuff ends there, though; numerous other flaws in the methodology, such as the usage of AMD's stock cooling solutions against a Noctua cooler for the Intel system (which they'll now fix on retesting), and the usage of AMD's Game Mode on their consumer Ryzen processors, which meant the usually 8-core processor was working in a 4-core mode (really, now?)... The company will now retest both CPUs in a more even-footed way. How's that for a change?

The new 9th generation Intel Core processors arrived yesterday with a series of improvements made to entice gamers and content creators. These improvements, however, join others that go beyond pure performance. Intel has introduced several architectural changes to fix the infamous Spectre & Meltdown vulnerabilities, and the new processors mitigate most of the variants of these attacks through a combination of hardware, firmware and OS fixes.

The big changes come to two of the six variants of those vulnerabilities. In both "Rogue Data Cache Load" (Meltdown, variant 3) and "L1 Terminal Fault" (Meltdown, Variant 5) vulnerabilities these new processors have hardware fixes that are new and not present on the rest of the current portfolio of Intel chips. This includes the new Xeon W-3175X (Core-X Skylake-X Refresh), which still depend on firmware fixes to mitigate those problems.

Intel took their opportunity to add a golden sheen to their new 9th Gen CPUs by going as far as showcasing their extreme overclocking capabilities right from the launch event. partering with world-renowned overclocker Splave, Intel showcased how a Core i9-9900K can withstand up to 1.7V Vcore, with a little aid from yours truly liquid nitrogen.

That scorchingly high Vcore paired with the sub-zero temperatures of LN2 allowed for all CPU cores to be overclocked up to 6.9 GHz, with Splave saying some samples could reach 7.1 GHz across all cores. Intel then went on to show some of the increased performance benchmarks - which, as you'd expect, don't showcase a linear performance improvement with increased frequency. Still, it's an impressive pure voltage and frequency feat. Splave went on to say that these new 9th Gen Intel processors can now achieve some 5.3 GHz under watercooling and at a much more mundane 1.4V Vcore. We'll all be able to test that for ourselves soon now won't we?

Although the big stars of today's Intel event have been the new desktop processors, the company also wanted to take this opportunity to launch its new beasts for the workstation field. These are the Intel Xeon W-3175X, which are destined to conquer ambitious users in that professional segment. These unlocked microprocessors, similar (but not equal) to what we saw at Computex in June, have 28 cores, 56 threads and base frequencies of 3.1 GHz, although they can reach 4.3 GHz.

These chips support 68 PCIe 3.0 lanes (44 on the CPU, 24 on the chipset), and there is another important feature on the memory front: the 6-channel DDR4 support allows the user to configure these systems with up to 512 GB at 2666 MHz (ECC and standard). This processor's TDP is 255 W and is based on Intel's Skylake-X architecture.

Anand Srivatsa, Vice President of Intel, officially announced their all-new 9th generation of core processors in today's live stream. While the Coffee Lake refresh has certainly been no secret, a few facts were confirmed today. The Core i9-9900k will be Intel's first broad volume 5 GHz processor and is their first mainstream 8 core, 16 thread offering. In order to facilitate better overclocking results for enthusiasts, the company also confirmed that they will use solder TIM for the whole range of products, which should result in not only better overclocking potential but much lower thermals as well.

NZXT today announces the N7 Z390, its newest motherboard designed around Intel's Z390 chipset and supporting the latest Intel 9th Gen CPUs. With the new N7 everything you need to build a stunning and powerful gaming PC is available right out-of-the-box.

All the essentials are included, along with built-in wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, digital fan control, and HUE 2 integrated RGB lighting channels. Get the N7 into your build even faster with an integrated rear I/O shield. The N7's signature all-metal motherboard cover returns to perfectly match the color and finish of your case, creating a visually seamless backdrop for your components. Additionally, NZXT's CAM software gives you full control over your system's lighting, cooling, and performance straight from your desktop.

MSI, a world leader in gaming hardware, proudly introduces the new Trident X compact desktop with the latest MSI GeForce RTX 2080 graphics cards and Intel 9th Generation Core K series processors. The MSI Trident X is the first compact desktop PC to incorporate an SFX power supply and the highest performing new MSI GeForce RTX graphics cards into a small 10-liter case. The Trident X is a completely new PC experience that rivals the performance of much larger traditional desktop PCs.

The Trident X comes equipped with up to an Intel Core i9-9900K processor for up 50 percent more performance. The i9 provides massive, overclockable performance in a small chassis. Additionally, gamers can take advantage of the newest innovations in graphics and raytracing with up to NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti graphics. With these components, the Trident X provides impressive performance in a small footprint for any task, including gaming or video editing.

Smartphones or TVs may be Samsung's most popular products, but they are certainly not the most profitable for the company. The South Korea electronics giant has announced its estimates for the third quarter of the year, and that data points to the company achieving the highest operating profit in its entire history. Samsung is set to reach 17.5 trillion won ($15.8 billion), up 20% from the same period last year. Not only that: revenues will also reach a record 65 trillion won ($57.3 billion), almost 5% more than last year.

The surprise of these results lies precisely in the products that have been the main protagonists of these revenues and profits. It wasn't smartphones, and in fact in the second quarter those lost more market share than any other manufacturer with a Galaxy S9 and a Galaxy S9+ whose sales haven't been as good as expected. TVs weren't that succesful either.

The leading global motherboard manufacturer, ASRock, is pleased to announce the launch of the new Intel Z390 motherboard series, and also the Phantom Gaming Motherboards, the latest addition to the company's popular Phantom Gaming line up. These versatile new motherboards support the latest 9th Generation Intel Core processors with socket 1151.

A Blazingly Fast Gaming Network Experience
Fast internet will be the trend of the future, it is certain that the old-fashioned 1 Gbps Ethernet with soon be replaced by the more advanced 2.5 Gbps LAN interface, giving network performance boost to up to 2.5x the speed of old-fashioned gigabit Ethernet. The Z390 Phantom Gaming motherboards will be the first to adopt this new industry standard and provides blazing fast 2.5 Gbps LAN, supporting next generation networking standards, for an unbeatable experience. The intelligent Phantom Gaming 2.5Gb/s LAN platform is designed for the demanding requirements of home networking, content creators, online gamers and users of high-quality streaming media. Also ASRock's Phantom Gaming network software is able to automatically accelerate critical gaming network traffic ahead of other data to provide smoother, stutter-free game performance and give gamers the ultimate competitive edge.

Intel will join the National Association of Manufacturers on Friday, Oct. 5, 2018, to celebrate Manufacturing Day. The majority of Intel's advanced manufacturing and research and development is in the United States, creating high-precision, high-value, IP-driven products that enable industries and businesses to innovate around the world. Intel Corp.'s U.S. manufacturing and research and development facilities are in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico. They operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The release of Windows 10 October 2018 Update has had the side-effects of new driver releases from a variety of manufacturers. NVIDIA released its GeForce 416.16 WHQL drivers today, and now Intel has also released the first driver update for its graphics chips following the release of this major Windows 10 update. This WDDM 2.5 driver introduces HDR10 on internal displays, support for Wide Color Gamut on capable displays, as well as improvements in EDR Quality.

The driver also introduces performance improvements for Microsoft WinML-based applications on 7th Generation Intel Core processors and higher. Power optimizations are also included even when the display is in standby. This driver also has performance improvements for Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 (DirectX 11 version) on 6th Generation Intel Core processors or higher.

The leak train for Intel's latest and greatest mainstream CPU platform is showing no signs of stopping before hitting the final stop when Intel formalizes it officially. Yesterday, we had MSI do a long preview video with everything but the Z390 branding visible, and today we got word of Newegg Canada deciding it could do better. Indeed, searching for "Z390" on their website shows up, at the time of this post, 15 Z390 motherboards from MSI and Gigabyte alike.

Noting that these are in Canadian dollars, the respective Z370 offerings from the same website are priced 30-40% lower at this time where applicable courtesy of some sales but also a direct MSRP-to-MSRP comparison. Keep in mind also that the features may not be identical, and that may contribute also to the pricing strategy we see employed here. These do not look to be placeholders either, given the precision down to two decimal points, but we will have to wait for USD prices to know if this is price gouging from a retailer or a blanket increase worldwide. In anticipation of these links being taken down sooner than later, we just saved a web archive of the page that can be seen here.

Intel's mainstream-desktop flagship Core i7-8700K processor is now retailing north of USD $400, a departure from its launch price of $359, which erodes its competitiveness to the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, which can be had for as low as $319. Prices of 8th generation Core processors remain on the boil across the board as reports emerge of the industry facing supply shortages from Intel. In its defense, Intel claims that the shortage is triggered by a spike in demand, and not a drop in supply.

The company raised its capex by $1 billion YoY to increase its manufacturing output, and has even outsourced manufacturing of non-processor components such as chipsets, to other semiconductor foundries such as TSMC. Prices of other popular SKUs are also on the rise. The Core i5-8400, which launched at $184, is now hovering $225, which is supposed to be the launch price of the i5-8600 (non-K). The i5-8600K is fast approaching the $300-mark. Prices of AMD Ryzen processors remain not just stable, but also a touch lower than their launch prices.

In a recent live stream, MSI gave a sneak peek at their next generation of motherboards. The first one shown was a new red and black themed Gaming Plus model reminiscent of the early days in the MSI Gaming brand. It features a few quality of life improvements one of which is an enlarged PCIe latch making GPU removal a bit easier in cramped environments or when you happen to have a beefy air cooler. Keep out zones were also highlighted on the back of the motherboard giving users a visual cue to make sure other components, standoffs, screws etc do not come into contact with those particular regions. Furthermore, they also included an angled slot in the board's design for easier access to both the SATA ports and USB 3.0.

Intel processor integrated graphics will get its first major hardware update in 4 years since Gen 9.5 "Skylake," with the introduction of the Gen11 architecture that debuts with the company's "Ice lake" processors. The company confirmed in an XDC 2018 conference presentation that the iGPU will support DisplayPort 1.4a along with VESA DSC (display stream compression), enabling it to support display resolutions as high as 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels) with 120 Hz refresh-rate.

Without DSC, 5K-120 Hz requires 42.4 Gbps of bandwidth (not counting interconnect and protocol overheads), which even DisplayPort with HBR3 cannot provide, as it caps out at 32.4 Gbps. DSC offers "visually lossless" compression of the 5K-120 display stream down to roughly 14 Gbps, which can be comfortably handled by DisplayPort 1.4a. 8K (8192 x 4320 pixels) at 60 Hz also becomes possible. Merely supporting these new high resolutions doesn't imply Gen11 iGPUs can game at those resolutions. Support for them is necessitated by rapid increases in resolutions (pixel densities) and refresh-rates of high-end notebooks and ultra-portable devices.The complete slide-deck follows.

The tides at Intel have been blacker than they have been blue due to woes in silicon production - and the slow, sure steps of their rival AMD. It's been a rough, domino-powered ride: Intel has faced delay after delay of their 10 nm fabrication process technology. This, in turn, has constrained their production capacity, leading top shortages and increasing prices of Intel processors, and expensive chipset redesigns, moving them up from Intel's top-of-the-line 14 nm process back to 22 nm. So, yeah, after such a stream of lows, the first high note to be struck leaves a much lasting impact - and this has happened on Intel's stock pricing.

A research report from Steve Mullane, analyst at BlueFin Research Partners, says that Intel could be looking on sooner-than-expected ramp-up of their 10 nm process - slated for a June 2019 timeframe. "Intel's second-half production levels suggest upside to analyst revenue estimates for the fourth quarter and first quarter of 2019," further stating that suppliers believe production of new 10 nm silicon could be pulled forward from the June 2019 timeline by four to six weeks. This news brought about a jump in Intel share price up by 5%, while simultaneously reducing AMD's stock price by some 3.6%. At the end of trade day, these highs and lows converted to a 3.55% increase for Intel and a 7.65% drop for AMD.

Intel has submitted the first patches with Vulkan support to their open-source OpenCV library, which is designed to accelerate Computer Vision. The library is widely used for real-time applications as it comes with 1st-class optimizations for Intel processors and multi-core x86 in general. With Vulkan support, existing users can immediately move their neural network workloads to the GPU compute space without having to rewrite their code base.

At this point in time, the Vulkan backend supports Convolution, Concat, ReLU, LRN, PriorBox, Softmax, MaxPooling, AvePooling, and Permute. According to the source code changes, this is just "a beginning work for Vulkan in OpenCV DNN, more layer types will be supported and performance tuning is on the way."

It seems that now, with their own GPU development underway, Intel has found new love for the GPU-accelerated compute space. The choice of Vulkan is also interesting as the API is available on a wide range of platforms, which could mean that Intel is trying to turn Vulkan into a CUDA killer. Of course there's still a lot of work needed to achieve that goal, since NVIDIA has had almost a decade of head start.

Intel could very soon fork its high-end desktop platform into two, with the introduction of the new Z399 socket LGA2066 chipset later this quarter; and the fabled X599 chipset powering LGA3647 processors. The move is probably triggered by AMD's introduction of new 24-core and 32-core Ryzen Threadripper processors that wipe out competitiveness of its existing "Basin Falls" X299 platform. The X599 could essentially be a C629 with the addition of some client-segment features (and the subtraction of some enterprise-segment ones), whereas the Z399 is a whole different beast.

With the introduction X599 and LGA3647, Intel could restore competitiveness at the >$1,500 market segment with new 24-core, 26-core, and 28-core "Skylake-X" XCC (extended/extreme core count) processors; whereas the introduction of Z399 could be necessitated with a that of a new 22-core chip for the LGA2066 socket, from which Intel can carve out new 20-core and 22-core SKUs. Existing Skylake-X LCC and HCC chips could be forwards-compatible with Z399, and X299 motherboards could still be eligible for supporting new 20-core and 22-core processors via BIOS updates. The Z399 could introduce a handful of new client-segment features Intel is introducing with the Z390.

Growing anger among PC manufacturers, retailers, and consumers in general, over supply issues with Intel processors, compounded with rising prices, and prompted Bob Swan, CFO and Interim-CEO of Intel, to write an open-letter, addressed to customers and partners, which counts you, since we received it in our main news channel from Intel. The language in the e-mail is straightforward and we wouldn't want to interpret it further than Intel grappling with a combination of massive demand from both its cloud-computing customers, and PC manufacturers hit by a surge of customers upgrading their machines (probably because it took Intel 10 years to increase CPU core counts, giving people a reason to upgrade).

To mitigate this, Intel is firing up all its manufacturing assets, across Oregon, Arizona, Ireland and Israel, in addition to its main foundries, by pumping in an additional $1 billion in capital expenditure (which is now at $15 billion). The letter doesn't miss out mentioning 10 nm, that the company is making progress with yields, and that volume production should roll out in 2019 (without offering guidance as to when). Intel also reassured PC OEMs that their supply teams will be in closer contact with them over the coming weeks. Without further ado, the open-letter follows verbatim.The letter follows.

In a statement that could refute speculation that Intel processors are in short-supply because the company is allocating its fabs for 9th generation processor launch, Compal President Martin Wong stated that supply issues with Intel processors could go on till the second half of 2019 (at least 9 more months). The issues threaten to undermine worldwide notebook shipments, he added. Compal is a major Taiwan-based notebook ODM and whitebox electronics manufacturer that supplies to major notebook brands.

Wong is miffed that Intel hasn't provided any clear schedule for restoration of supply normalcy. Intel responded that it is "cooperating closely" with its partners to manage the extra orders, and that supply priority will be given to Xeon and Core processors, including Core brand extensions "U-series" (ultraportable) and "Y-series" (ultra low-power).

Intel's in-house sub-10 nanometer silicon fabrication dreams seem more distant by the day. Raymond James analyst Chris Caso, in an interview with CNBC stated that Intel's 10 nm process development could set the company back by at least 5 years behind TSMC. In its most recent financial results call, Intel revised its 10 nm outlook to reflect that the first 10 nm processors could only come out by the end of 2019. "Intel's biggest strategic problem is their delay on 10nm production - we don't expect a 10nm server chip from Intel for two years," analyst Chris Caso said in a note to clients Tuesday. "10nm delays create a window for competitors, and the window may never again close."

By that time, Intel will have missed several competitive milestones behind TSMC, which is in final stages of quantitatively rolling out its 7 nm process. Caso predicts that by the time Intel goes sub-10 nm (7 nm or something in that nanoscopic ballpark), TSMC and Samsung could each be readying their 5 nm or 3 nm process roll-outs. A Rosenblatt Securities report that came out late-August was even more gloomy about the situation at Intel foundry. It predicted that foundry delays could set the company back "5, 6, or even 7" years behind rivals. Intel is already beginning offload some of its 14 nm manufacturing to TSMC. Meanwhile, AMD is reportedly planning to entirely rely on TSMC to make its future generations of "Zen" processors.

Intel today introduced 1.5 TB variants of the Optane 905p SSD that implements 3D XPoint memory. The drive comes in half-height PCI-Express 3.0 x4 add-on card, and 15 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor with U.2 interface. Both variants offer sequential transfer rates of up to 2,600 MB/s reads, with up to 2,200 MB/s writes. Random access speeds are rated at up to 575,000 IOPS reads, with up to 550,000 IOPS writes. A function of its sheer capacity and 3D XPoint, endurance for these drives is rated at 27.37 PB (bytes written). The drives retain the feature set of their less capacious siblings, including 256-bit AES native encryption. The company didn't release pricing.