Intel is rumored to have shelved the iteration of its upcoming Z390 Express chipset as earlier publicized, the one which had certain new hardware features. It could now re-brand the existing Z370 Express as Z390 Express and probably bolster its reference design with heftier CPU VRM specifications, to cope better with its upcoming 8-core LGA1151 processors. The Z370 Express is similar in feature-set to the brink of being identical to its predecessor, the Z270 Express. This move could impact certain new hardware features that were on the anvil, such as significantly more USB 3.1 gen 2/gen1 ports directly from the PCH, integrated WiFi MAC, and Intel SmartSound technology, which borrowed certain concepts from edge-computing to implement native speech-to-text conversion directly on the chipset, for improved voice control latency and reduced CPU overhead.

The reasons behind this move could be a combination of last-minute cost-benefit analyses by Intel's bean-counters, and having to mass-produce Z390 Express on the busier-than-expected 14 nm silicon fabrication node, as opposed to current 300-series chipsets being built on the 22 nm node that's nearing the end of its life-cycle. Intel probably needed the switch to 14 nm for the significant increases in transistor-counts arising from the additional USB controllers, the WiFi MAC, and the SmartSound logic. Intel probably doesn't have the vacant 14 nm node capacity needed to mass-produce the Z390 yet, as its transition to future processes such as 10 nm and 7 nm are still saddled with setbacks and delays; and redesigning the Z390 (as we knew it) on 22 nm may have emerged unfeasible (i.e. the chip may have ended up too big and/or too hot). The Z390 Express chipset block-diagram, which we published in our older article has been quietly removed from Intel's website. It's also rumored that this move could force AMD to rethink its plans to launch its Z490 socket AM4 chipset.

Back in 2011, a team of engineers with the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, proposed an audacious new chip air-cooling concept called simply the Sandia CPU cooler. Its design involved a chunky metallic fan not just ventilating the cooler, but also dissipating heat by itself, conveyed through a thin layer of conductive lubricant between the fan and the static heatsink below it. The concept itself never made it to commercial production, but Thermaltake brought something closely resembling it to the market in 2016, with the Engine 27. The company is giving this cooler an even smaller sibling, with the new Engine 17. The number in the model name refers to its Z-height of just 17 mm, making it comfortable for 1U builds.

Besides its reduced Z-height, the design is practically unchanged from the Engine 27 - a round, nickel-plated copper base-plate draws heat from the CPU, which is mated with a 60 mm diameter metallic fan that not just dissipates heat by itself, but also passes air through a ring of aluminium fin channels projecting radially. The reduced height means that this cooler can only handle thermal loads of up to 35W TDP. It only supports Intel LGA115x sockets. Despite its weight, the fan spins between 1,500 to 2,500 RPM, pushing about 9 CFM of air, with a noise output ranging between 11 to 23 dBA. Measuring 91.5 mm x 91.5 mm x 17 mm, it weighs 205 g. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Intel Corporation today announced the resignation of Brian Krzanich as CEO and a member of the board of directors. The board has named Chief Financial Officer Robert Swan interim chief executive officer, effective immediately.

Intel was recently informed that Mr. Krzanich had a past consensual relationship with an Intel employee. An ongoing investigation by internal and external counsel has confirmed a violation of Intel's non-fraternization policy, which applies to all managers. Given the expectation that all employees will respect Intel's values and adhere to the company's code of conduct, the board has accepted Mr. Krzanich's resignation.

Lead developer for OpenBSD Mark Kettenis has announced that OpenBSD will no longer enable Hyper-Threading on Intel processors by default. This move is intended to mitigate security exploits from the Spectre ecosystem as well as TLB and cache timing attacks, because important processor resources are no longer shared between threads. Their suspicion is that some of the unreleased (or yet unknown) attacks can be stopped using this approach.

This move is supported by the fact that most newer motherboards no longer provide an option to disable Hyper-Threading via BIOS. OpenBSD users who still want to use Hyper-Threading can manually enable support for it using the sysctl hw.smt. The developers are also looking into expanding this feature to other CPUs from other vendors, should they be affected, too.

A few months ago we reported that Raja Koduri has left AMD to work at Intel on their new discrete GPU project. Looks like he's building a strong team, with the most recent addition being Tom Forsyth who is the father of Larrabee, which was Intel's first attempt at making an x86-based graphics processor. While Larrabee did not achieve its goal and is considered a failure by many, it brought some interesting improvements to the world, for example AVX512, and is now sold under the Xeon Phi brand.

Tom, who has previously worked at Oculus, Valve, and 3DLabs posted on Twitter that he's joining Intel in Raja's group, but he's "Not entirely sure what he'll be working on just yet." At Oculus and Valve he worked on Virtual Reality projects, for example he wrote big chunks of the Team Fortress 2 VR support for the Oculus Rift. Taking a look at Tom's papers suggests that he might join the Intel team as lead for VR-related projects, as that's without a doubt one of Raja's favorite topics to talk about.

Oh well, this almost makes us think of this industry as going hand in hand merrily, tongue-in-cheeking each other towards fulfilling, eternal happiness. It's a shame that this not usually the shape of our industry, but really, life isn't either, so let's keep our expectations in check. All in all, Intel's Twitter response to the viral, beautifully-crafted AMD initiative of exchanging one of Intel's commemorative 8086K CPUs for one of its Threadripper 1950X processors is equally satisfying - there's an unavoidable smile to be found while considering these two exchanges.

Kudos, Intel. Kudos for both companies for keeping it in a good spirit. If only we didn't have strange things such as Optane memory shenanigans going on concurrently...

Intel's Optane products, based on the joint venture with Micron, have been hailed as the next step in memory technology - delivering, according to Intel's own pre-launch slides, a mid-tier, al-dente point between DRAM's performance and NAND's density and pricing. Intel even demoed their most avant-garde product in recent times (arguably, of course) - the 3D XPoint DIMM SSD. Essentially, a new storage contraption that would occupy vacant DIMM channels, delivering yet another tier of storage up for grabs for speed and space-hungry applications - accelerating workloads that would otherwise become constrained by the SATA or even NVMe protocol towards NAND drives.

Of course, that product was a way off; and that product still hasn't come to light. The marriage of Optane's density and speed with a users' DRAM subsystem is just wishful thinking at best, and the dreams of pairing DRAM and 3D Xpoint in the same memory subsystem and extracting the best of both worlds remains, well... A figment of the imagination. But not according to some retailers' websites, though. Apparently, the usage of Intel's Optane products as DRAM memory has already surfaced for some vendors - Dell and HP included. How strange, then, that this didn't come out with adequate pomp and circumstance.

AMD acknowledges Intel's contribution to the x86 architecture over the last 40 years. However, AMD is convinced that they are the leading company for future high-performance computing, and will "take it from here". That's why AMD will hold its own online sweepstakes to give the first 40 U.S.-based winners of the Intel sweepstakes the opportunity to swap their 6-core prize for a 16-core monster. To put things into perspective, the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X has 16 cores, 32 threads, 40 MB of cache, and 64 PCIe Gen3 lanes. Now that's something hard to pass up on! AMD's sweepstakes will go live on June 25 at 1:00:00 PM EDT. If you were one of the lucky Core i7-8086K winners and want to take up on AMD's offer, check this page for further details.Update: Intel's response didn't take long. The company posted the following message to their Intel Gaming Twitter account: "if you wanted an Intel Core i7-8086K processor too, you could have just asked us. :)"

Lenovo recently announced its latest ThinkPad P52 mobile workstation designed for 3D rendering, content creation, and AI simulations. The laptop can be equipped with a 8th generation Intel Core or Xeon hexa-core processor. What's amazing with the Lenovo ThinkPad P52 is its ability to house up to 128 GB of DDR4 memory and 6 TB of storage. The P52 flaunts a 15.6-inch 4K display with a 10-bit color depth, 100% Adobe color gamut, and 400 nits of brightness. The laptop's graphics duties are delegated to a mobile high-end NVIDIA Quadro P3200 GPU with 6 GB of GDDR5 memory.

The ThinkPad P52 comes with two Thunderbolt 3 ports alongside three USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 ports, a HDMI 2.0 port, and a mini DisplayPort 1.4. It also comes with a Smart Card and an integrated 4-in-1 card reader. Internet connectivity includes a conventional RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port, Intel Wireless-AC 9560 802.11ac adapter with integrated Bluetooth 5.0, and a Fibocomm 4G LTE (Cat 9) modem. The ThinkPad P52 isn't only fast, but it's probably one of the most secure mobile workstations to date. Lenovo implemented various security measures into the P52 such as TPM 2.0, IR camera, fingerprint reader, and ThinkShutter. The manufacturer didn't disclose the pricing of the ThinkPad P52. However, we'll find out soon as the laptop should be available by late June.

Security researchers have discovered a vulnerability affecting all modern Intel Core and Xeon processors, which is an exploit of a performance optimization feature called "lazy FP state restore," which can be exploited to sniff out sensitive information, including cryptographic keys used to protect sensitive data. The flaw affects all x86 micro-architectures by Intel, "Sandy Bridge" and later.

The "lazy FP state restore" feature is a set of commands used to temporarily store or restore the FPU states of applications running "lazily" (as opposed to "eagerly"). Red Hat put out an advisory stating that numbers held in FPU registers could be used to access sensitive information about the activities of other applications, including encryption keys. Intel began working with popular OS vendors to quickly roll out software patches against the vulnerability.

ASUS today introduced the WS X299 SAGE/10G, a step up variant of the WS X299 SAGE it launched back in Q4-2017. As you can tell from the model name, this board's star-attraction is 10 Gbps Ethernet. It features not one, but two 10 GbE interfaces, replacing the dual 1 GbE interfaces of the original. These interfaces aren't backed by low-cost controllers, but the Intel X550-AT2 "Sageville," which is an $80 chip by itself, and drives both interfaces.

ASUS also used the opportunity to improve the CPU VRM a bit. Although it's still the same combination of chokes and MOSFETs, pulling power from two 8-pin EPS connectors, ASUS improved the secondary VRM heatsink, which pulls heat from the main heatsink over a flattened heat-pipe. This heatsink is now made of a dense aluminium fin-stack like the main heatsink, a section of which protrudes all the way to the rear I/O shield. The rear I/O now consists of four USB 3.1 gen 1 ports, two USB 3.1 gen 2 ports (including a type-C port), and the 8-channel HD audio cluster, besides the two 10 GbE ports. The rest of the board's feature-set is unchanged from the original. We expect a $100 premium over the original's price.

Intel is readying a refresh to its "Basin Falls" HEDT platform (LGA2066 client high-end desktop), with a new 22-core silicon. This part is neither Skylake HCC (20 tiles, up to 18 cores) nor Skylake XCC (30 tiles, up to 28 cores), but a new die with four more tiles than the Skylake HCC silicon, all of which are cores. The new silicon could let Intel design 20-core and 22-core SKUs for the X299 Express chipset, and is seen as a direct response to AMD's 24-core Ryzen Threadripper II processor, which was recently shown beating the 18-core i9-7980X in tech demos. The 32-core Threadripper II could face competition from the 28-core HEDT processor Intel is readying for Q4-2018, but that processor won't be compatible with LGA2066.

In related news, the company is giving finishing touches to a new 8-core "Coffee Lake" die for the mainstream-desktop platform (LGA1151 socket, 300-series chipset). This die features 8 cores, and likely 16 MB of shared L3 cache, while retaining the iGPU and uncore components from the existing Coffee Lake-S die. The chip could retain the classic "Ring Bus" design. The new 8-core mainstream-desktop SKUs, and at least two new high-end desktop SKUs (20-core and 22-core), could be launched in September 2018. The "Basin Falls" refresh, coupled with the new LGA3647 "Purley" derivative for the 28-core monstrosity, will be all Intel has to face AMD this year, with the company's next HEDT silicon, "Cascade Lake-X" being reportedly delayed to the second half of 2019, probably due to foundry problems.

Intel researchers are taking new steps toward quantum computers by testing a tiny new "spin qubit" chip. The new chip was created in Intel's D1D Fab in Oregon using the same silicon manufacturing techniques that the company has perfected for creating billions of traditional computer chips. Smaller than a pencil's eraser, it is the tiniest quantum computing chip Intel has made.

The new spin qubit chip runs at the extremely low temperatures required for quantum computing: roughly 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit - 250 times colder than space. The spin qubit chip does not contain transistors - the on/off switches that form the basis of today's computing devices - but qubits (short for "quantum bits") that can hold a single electron. The behavior of that single electron, which can be in multiple spin states simultaneously, offers vastly greater computing power than today's transistors, and is the basis of quantum computing.

Today, HP is introducing the new HP ProBook x360 440 G1 laptop PC designed to adapt to the way growing businesses and on-the-go professionals work. Business owners and mobile professionals want a powerful convertible PC that delivers the business performance features required to help address their company needs - both in and outside the office. These are users with passion for business that need a versatile device which combines style, powerful processing, and "built for business" features to deliver enhanced business experiences that typically cannot be achieved with a consumer PC.

Powered by Windows 10 and high-performance 8th Gen Intel Core processors, the ultra-slim ProBook x360 440 delivers the power, security, and durability growing businesses demand in a versatile 360° design. Users can quickly turn thoughts into action with the optional HP Active Pen, and easily transition to desktop productivity with a single cable that supports docking via USB-C .

ASUS today announced VivoBook Flip 14 (TP412), a stylish new addition to the VivoBook Flip Series of convertible laptops featuring a 360°-flippable display that allows this versatile device to be used in laptop, stand, tent and tablet modes - or anything in between.

VivoBook Flip 14 features an ASUS NanoEdge touchscreen with a 6.15mm-thin bezel for more immersive viewing. Powered by up to an 8th Generation Intel Core i7 processor with 16GB memory for powerful and energy-efficient performance, VivoBook Flip 14 is also equipped with up to a 1TB SSD and a touchpad-mounted fingerprint sensor for one-touch login via Window Hello. VivoBook Flip 14 also supports the ASUS Pen active stylus for accurate input and writing with a natural, responsive feel.

ASUS today announced the new ZenBook Pro 15 with ScreenPad (UX580), a high-performance professional-grade laptop that innovates how the touchpad is used. The ZenBook Pro 15 with ScreenPad is built for demanding professionals who value power, top-end specifications, and innovation in an elegant design. The ZenBook Pro 15 provides compelling performance thanks to up to an 8th generation Intel Core i9 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti discrete graphics, ultra-fast PCI Express -based storage, high-speed 2400MHz DDR4 RAM, 802.11ac Wave 2 gigabit-class Wi-Fi and Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C ports. The ZenBook 15 Pro with ScreenPad also features a built-in fingerprint reader for fast, convenient and secure one-touch Windows Hello login.

The ZenBook 15 Pro with ScreenPad's beautiful up to 4K display provides professional-level visuals covering 100% of the Adobe RGB color space and 132% of sRGB, and providing guaranteed color accuracy with a Delta-E (ΔE) color difference of less than 2.0. The ZenBook 15 Pro with ScreenPad also features ASUS' ultra-slim NanoEdge bezels for an immersive 83% screen-to-body ratio.

MSI, world's leading brand in gaming hardware, has lifted the curtain for its two brand new laptops at Computex 2018, the GF63 and the PS42. Respectively tailored for gamers and professionals, both models feature the ever-so-popular thin bezel design. The near edge-to-edge aesthetics are not only lighter in weight but also smaller in dimension. Together with the previously-announced GS65, MSI has set a new standard for portability with the "Thin Bezel Gaming" genre.

GF63: Bringing thin and light gaming to the mainstream.
The brand new GF63 debuts in Computex with its 15.6" ultra slim footprint and thin bezel with measuring less than 2 kg in weight. Continuing MSI's gaming DNA and powerful performance, the GF63 carries up to 8th Gen. Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics, while lasting over 7 hours in battery life. The GF63 provides gamers a new choice of "portable gaming firepower!"

Lenovo, at Intel's Computex presser, revealed a product that could put Apple design to shame. The new Yoga Book Generation 2 is a notebook+tablet convertible, with two displays on the opposite sides of the conventional clam-shell. In the notebook mode, the bottom half converts to a keyboard, with actuators providing tactile feedback. Since the bottom half's screen is a touchscreen as much the top half, you can configure the keyboard layout and "trackpad" position any which way you want. When not typing, the bottom half becomes an extended screen of the top half. Under the hood is a "new generation" processor (very likely the 10 nm Core M3-8114Y).

Intel today announced the Core i7-8086K six-core processor in the LGA1151(v2) package, compatible with 300-series chipset. This processor commemorates 40 years since the company's 8086 processor, which was the spiritual ancestor of the x86 architecture that dominates modern day computing. Based on the same 14 nm "Coffee Lake" silicon as the i7-8700K, this chip features high clock speeds of 4.00 GHz nominal, with a maximum Turbo Boost frequency of 5.00 GHz. Like the i7-8700K, it features 256 KB of dedicated L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor will go on sale from 8th June, the company didn't reveal pricing, but it's rumored to be a conspicuous USD 486.

Latest leak confirms that Intel is preparing new Xeon processors targeted at the entry level market. These Xeon chips, which are based on Coffee Lake-S, have been rebranded from Xeon E3 to Xeon E. The Xeon E-2000 family consists of ten models featuring up to six cores. They differ from their consumer Coffee Lake counterparts in terms of features, memory support, operating frequencies, and TDP ratings. Seven of the ten processors come with iGPUs as denoted by the G suffix in the model number. The new Xeon E-2000 processors will be manufactured in Intel's Vietnam facility. The first batches of these processors are expected to ship sometime around June 25, 2018.

ASRock, a global leader in motherboard, graphics card, and small form factor PC, today announced that it will demonstrate its Intel and AMD series motherboard, Phantom Gaming series graphics card, and blockchain solution at COMPUTEX Taipei 2018, from June 5 to June 9, 2018.

The cutting edge computing solutions will be part of ASRock exhibit, showcasing its latest technologies and solutions addressing the demands of daily computing, gaming, and blockchain computing applications, including:

• Intel 300 series motherboard;
• AMD B450 series motherboard;
• Latest Phantom Gaming series graphics card;
• The world's leading solution for blockchain and high performance computing;
• Small Form Factor Solution equipped with Intel 300 series chipset and Mini-STX motherboard.

ZOTAC Technology, a global manufacturer of innovation, is proud to unveil a wide range of upcoming products and hardware in COMPUTEX 2018. At the forefront are the next generation of ZBOX Mini PCs featuring next-gen CPU and gaming-grade network hardware, never-before-seen gaming machines from ZOTAC GAMING, the latest VR GO backpack with an all-new design, and award-winning PCs. An exclusive showcase of ZOTAC's leading innovations in graphics card, as well as a grand stage set for the defuse-filled ZOTAC CUP MASTERS Asia Regional Finals are also the show-stoppers to invigorate the excitement.

Two ZBOX Mini PCs which won the COMPUTEX 2018 d&i award takes center stage. First is the ZBOX CI660 nano with an all-new passive cooling chassis design inspired by the honeycomb, one of nature's most recognized and strongest structures. The first Mini PC to be equipped with an 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, the ZBOX CI660 nano can handle up to a 25W TDP processor and delivers the most powerful performance from a ZBOX C Series Mini PC in complete silence.

MSI, the pioneer and global leader enabling Professional industry, introduces today the brand new All-in-One PC, PRO 24X Series, with an incredibly ultra-slim design measuring only 6.5 mm thick. As slender as a ballpoint pen, its simple metallic slim stand elegantly complements the Ultra-slim display while its brushed metal patterning on the rear cover provides a stylish and contemporary design. The PRO 24X Series is equipped with IPS Grade Panel which instantly optimizes the screen colors and brightness to ensure that users can enjoy every scene at its best, and with an incredibly narrow 2.2mm ultra-slim bezel, it blends seamlessly into any workspace and helps users to focus on their professional tasks.

For a traditional All-in-One PC, it might be very difficult to upgrade the hardware, but with the MSI Easy Maintenance Design, maintaining or upgrading your 2.5" storage on the PRO 24X will not be a nightmare anymore. Furthermore, with Intel CoreTM i3 above processor, the PRO 24X supports Intel Optane technology which provides an unparalleled combination of high throughput, low latency, high quality of service, and high endurance. However, if users would like to enjoy a blazing fast system boot up and insanely quick loading of applications and data, this stylish model also supports one NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD.

Born to fulfill gamers' satisfaction, MSI and Intel team up to offer gamer a game software pack bundle which includes up to eight games available such as Warhammer: Vermintide II and X-Morph you must not be missing. By purchasing a selected Intel 300-series motherboards and desktops from MSI, we grant you a free $180 plus software pack. The bundle starts from May 1st to June 30th.

Jon Peddie Research, the industry's market research firm for the graphics industry, has updated it's quarterly Market Watch report. Overall, the report finds the crypto-currency market is continuing to influence the PC graphics market, though its influence is waning. Market watch found that year-to-year total GPU shipments increased 3.4%, desktop graphics increased 14%, notebooks decreased -3%. GPU shipments decreased -10% from last quarter: AMD decreased -6%, Nvidia decreased -10%, and Intel decreased -11%.

AMD increased its market share again this quarter benefiting from new products for workstations, and crypto-currency mining, Nvidia held steady, and Intel decreased. Over three million add-in boards (AIBs) were sold to cryptocurrency miners worth $776 million in 2017, and an additional 1.7 million were sold in the quarter.