The fiftieth TOP500 list of the fastest supercomputers in the world has China overtaking the US in the total number of ranked systems by a margin of 202 to 143. It is the largest number of supercomputers China has ever claimed on the TOP500 ranking, with the US presence shrinking to its lowest level since the list's inception 25 years ago.

Just six months ago, the US led with 169 systems, with China coming in at 160. Despite the reversal of fortunes, the 143 systems claimed by the US gives them a solid second place finish, with Japan in third place with 35, followed by Germany with 20, France with 18, and the UK with 15.

Today, Intel and Micron announced the completion of an expansion to Building 60 (B60) at the IM Flash facilities in Lehi, Utah. The expanded fab will produce 3D XPoint memory media, a building block of Intel Optane technology that includes Intel Optane memory for clients, the recently announced Intel Optane SSD 900P Series and new capacities and form factors of the Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X Series. A ribbon-cutting was held at the facility with Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, employees of the facility and representatives from Intel and Micron.

The IM Flash joint venture was created in 2006 to manufacture non-volatile memory for both Intel and Micron, starting with NAND for use in SSDs, phones, tablets and more. In 2015, IM Flash began manufacturing 3D XPoint technology, the first entirely new memory media in 25 years. The technology was developed to meet the quickly expanding data needs for all types of customers. 3D XPoint technology uses a crosspoint structure to deliver a cell and array architecture that can switch states significantly faster than NAND.

Fujitsu unveils a new generation of its best-selling notebook, the Fujitsu Notebook LIFEBOOK E5 and LIFEBOOK E4 series. A refreshed, slimmer design gives the business notebook line a contemporary look. Under the skin, the fully featured LIFEBOOK E5 is based on the latest Intel processors and is packed with connectivity options, ensuring secure, convenient access to corporate networks via cable, wireless or mobile networks.

All new LIFEBOOK E4 and LIFEBOOK E5 series models feature the new area type fingerprint sensor that responds instantly to provide one-touch login and system unlock. Also focusing on ease-of-use, Fujitsu introduces a precision touchpad that is more accurate, with support for three-finger gestures as featured in the latest version of Microsoft Windows 10, and a sculpted, ergonomic palm rest.

Kingmax, a memory expert, released Zeus Dragon DDR4 on November 13, 2017. This is made for gamers and DIY enthusiasts. The innovative design is integrated with aesthetics and functions which amazes everyone. Gamers can enjoy its appearance and function.

Zeus Dragon DDR4 uses aluminum alloy heat sink to effectively emit heat, therefore protecting memory and extending the service life. Zeus Dragon uses the dragon symbol blending both Eastern and Western style. The luxurious etchings present the superiority of the dragon and display the assertiveness and dignity of royalty. The dragon is above all other creatures and has extraordinary power and stunning speed. Besides its shiny scales, its powerful magic is neck and neck when it fights against Zeus, the ruler of all gods, in order to protect treasure.

We recently reported about MINIX, the hidden Unix-like OS that Intel was secretly shipping in all of their modern processors. This came as a shock to most of us and to MINIX creator Andrew Tanenbaum as well. Although Andrew wasn't completely surprised by the news, since Intel approached him couple years back asking him to make a few changes to the MINIX system. He stated in the open letter that he wasn't looking for economic remuneration, but it would have been nice if Intel had told him about their plans to distribute his operating system in their processors.

Today, Intel announced the Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X Series, the world's most responsive data center solid state drive, is now available in a new 750GB capacity in both half-height, half-length add-in card and a hot-swappable 2.5-inch U.2 form factor. Both form factors and capacities will be broadly available this month.

Increased capacity and multiple form factors expand data center implementation options and deliver both solution-level and total cost of ownership flexibility for customers. Intel Optane technology for data centers combines the attributes of memory and storage with low latency, high endurance, outstanding quality of service and high throughput, creating a new data tier that increases scale per server and reduces transaction costs.

All things must come to an end, and Intel has decided that it's time to retire their Broadwell-E line of processors. The Broadwell-E family is comprised of four models: the Intel Core i7-6800K, 6850K, 6900K and 6950X. According to the Product Change Notification (PCN) document, Intel is still accepting orders until May 25, 2018, while the last shipment is scheduled for November 9 of the same year. So, there is still sufficient time left for those who plan to acquire one of the aforementioned models. However, we don't see any reason to do so now considering that there are far better options on the market.

Broadwell-E processors debuted last year and were received with mixed reactions. With just one year under their belt, they were eventually replaced by the more powerful Skylake-X models. Intel is probably getting rid of their unsold inventory of Broadwell-E models. Who knows? Maybe we'll even see some price cuts in the not-so-near future.

Elitegroup Computer System (ECS), the global leading motherboard, Mini-PC, Notebooks and mobile device manufacturer, is proud to announce the new LIVA Q, pocket-sized mini-pc featuring Intel Apollo Lake SOC processors, along with 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC storage and HDMI 2.0; this little monster is capable of handling 4K content playback with ease.

The new LIVA Q pocket-sized mini-pc allows you to stay connected with dual network options, a standard RJ45 LAN connector for more stabilized connection and 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.1 for wireless connections. There's also a MicroSD card slot that support up to 128GB memory cards for those who seeks more storage and x2 USB slots for peripherals.

Intel hired Raja Koduri, who resigned as head of AMD's Radeon Technologies Group (RTG), earlier this week. Koduri has been made Senior Vice President and Chief Architect of Intel's future discrete GPUs. That's right, Intel has renewed its dreams to power high-end graphics cards that compete with AMD and NVIDIA. Intel's last attempt at a discrete GPU was "Larrabee," which evolved into a super-scalar multi-core processor for HPC applications under the Xeon Phi line.

This development heralds two major theories. One, that Intel's collaboration with AMD RTG on graphics IP could only go further from here, and what is a multi-chip module of Intel and AMD IP now, could in the future become a true heterogeneous die of Intel's and AMD's IP. Two, that the consolidation of AMD's graphics assets and IP into a monolithic entity as RTG, could make it easier to sell it lock, stock, and barrel, possibly to Intel.

Intel today released its latest Graphics Driver for Windows (GDW). Version 15.60 WHQL (15.60.0.4849), which is applicable for integrated graphics embedded into 6th generation "Skylake," 7th generation "Kaby Lake," and 8th generation "Coffee Lake" processors. The drivers are WDDM 2.3 compliant (Windows 10 Fall Creators Update), and add support for Netflix HDR and YouTube HDR on Windows 10. The drivers also add support for 10-bpc (1.07 billion colors) displays over HDMI, and adds video decode hardware acceleration for several formats introduced after DirectX 12.

For those with beefier Iris Pro graphics, Intel GDW 15.60 adds optimization for "Middle-earth: Shadow of War," "Pro Evolution Soccer 2018," "Call of Duty: WWII," "Destiny 2," and "Divinity: Original Sin." As a WDDM 2.3 compliant driver, version 15.60 enables Windows Mixed Reality headsets plugged into the integrated graphics connectors. Download the driver from the link below.DOWNLOAD: Intel Graphics Driver for Windows 15.60

Intel Xeon Scalable processors are deployed by today's cloud service providers to deliver disruptive performance efficiency across a diverse range of cloud workloads. Today, Intel announced Amazon Web Services' (AWS) public cloud customers can now harness the workload-optimized performance that the Intel Xeon Scalable platform delivers in Amazon's latest cloud instance. Available now, the Amazon EC2 C5 instances are AWS' latest generation, most powerful compute-optimized instances with the best price-to-compute performance.

Intel Xeon Scalable processors are highly agile, high-performance compute engines that allow public cloud environments to seamlessly transition among general purpose compute, high-performance computing (HPC) and AI/deep learning compute. This agility provides public cloud users a wide range of options for their target workloads. Intel Xeon Scalable processors are uniquely architected for today's evolving cloud data center infrastructure, offering energy efficiency and system-level performance that average 1.65x higher performance over the prior generation Xeon processors.

Kontron, a leading global provider of Embedded Computing Technology (ECT), introduces a new member of its high-end industrial computer platforms for control cabinet environments - the Kontron KBox C-102-4. The new model allows the integration of up to four PCIe expansions slots and is thus ideally suited for users requiring a large number of additional interfaces, industrial I/Os, or fieldbuses.

The KBox C-102 series is now available in four alternative design variants: the compact KBox C-102-0 without additional expansion slots, the KBox C-102-1 and KBox C-102-2 with one or two PCI(e) expansion slots respectively, and the new KBox C-102-4 with four PCI(e) expansion slots. The industrial computers are used mainly for control, visualization, and inspection in the production process.

Following today's surprise announcement of an Intel-AMD collaboration (of which NVIDIA seems to be the only company left in a somewhat more fragile position), there have already been a number of benchmark leaks for the new Intel + AMD devices. While Intel's original announcement was cryptic enough - to be expected, given the nature of the product and the ETA before its arrival to market - some details are already pouring out into the world wide web.

The new Intel products are expected to carry the "Kaby Lake G" codename, where the G goes hand in hand with the much increased graphics power of these solutions compared to other less exotic ones - meaning, not packing AMD Radeon graphics. For now, the known product names point to one Intel Core i7-8705G and Intel Core i7-8809G. Board names for these are 694E:C0 and 694C:C0, respectively.

Rumors of the unthinkable silicon collaboration between Intel and AMD are true, as Intel announced its first multi-chip module (MCM), which combines a 14 nm Core "Coffee Lake-H" CPU die, with a specialized 14 nm GPU die by AMD, based on the "Vega" architecture. This GPU die has its own HBM2 memory stack over a 1024-bit wide memory bus. Unlike on the AMD "Vega 10" and "Fiji" MCMs, in which a silicon interposer is used to connect the GPU die to the memory stacks, Intel deployed the Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB), a high-density substrate-level wiring. The CPU and GPU dies talk to each other over PCI-Express gen 3.0, wired through the package substrate.

This multi-chip module, with a tiny Z-height, significantly reduces the board footprint of the CPU + discrete graphics implementation, when compared to having separate CPU and GPU packages with the GPU having discrete GDDR memory chips, and enables a new breed of ultra portable notebooks that pack a solid graphics muscle. The MCM should enable devices as thin as 11 mm. The specifications of the CPU and dGPU dies remain under the wraps. The first devices with these MCMs will launch by Q1 2018.A video presentation follows.

With the transition to multi-core processors, and multi-core processors with integrated core-logic (chipset), the need arose for a low-level SoC embedded into the processor with just enough compute power to make sure all the components you pay for start-up and function as advertised. Enter the Intel ME (management engine). This is a full-fledged computer within your Intel processor, which isn't exposed to you. It runs on its very own tiny x86 CPU core that isn't exposed, and its software is driven on an infinitesimally small ROM and RAM. Since you can't have software without some sort of operating-system, Intel chose MINIX for the job.

MINIX is a Unix-like OS with an extremely small memory footprint. The OS was designed by Andrew Tanenbaum, originally as an educational tool to demonstrate that machines can still be built with extremely tiny code. If you're familiar with the "ring-level" system of hardware-access privilege by software, ring 0 would designate the "highest" level of access. A software with ring 0 access can erase your disk, flash your system BIOS, and even make your CPU run at any C-state. The OS kernel needs these privileges, and hence is a ring 0 software. Most user software, like the web-browser you're reading this on, runs at ring 3 (with the browser's own sandbox, the user-level, and API level forming inner levels). Intel ME runs at ring -3 (negative 3), and your OS has no power over it. Most system BIOS updates for Intel motherboards include a ROM update for ME. ME governs the functioning of the rest of the processor, its start-up, and booting. It also governs silicon-level security and management features that can't be compromised by malware.

Tech leaders HP Inc. and Intel today joined forces with Blizzard Entertainment in major Overwatch League sponsorship deals that represent an extended investment in the groundbreaking professional league. As part of the multiyear agreements, Intel will sponsor future Overwatch competitive events in addition to the Overwatch League. Players taking part in these events will be equipped with cutting-edge gaming hardware from both HP and Intel. HP, and more specifically, its OMEN by HP gaming PCs and displays will be used exclusively for Overwatch League games, with PCs powered by Intel Core i7 processors.

"We're thrilled to be joining forces with HP and Intel to ensure that the teams competing professionally in Overwatch are equipped with top-end technology," said Pete Vlastelica, president & CEO of Blizzard Entertainment's Major League Gaming division. "Multiyear collaborations such as this illustrate the momentum behind the Overwatch League as well as a long-term commitment by us and our partners in what we see as the future of esports."

UPDATE: Some slides have surfaced today on Reddit that actually place Intel's updated 10 nm roadmap as starting initial risk production in 2Q 2018. The same leaks also point towards a yearly advancement in process technology (akin to Intel's current 14 nm+ and 14 nm++ production processes), with 10 nm+ risk production on 1Q 2019 and 10 nm++ on 1Q 2020. This roadmap, however, is relative to Intel's Custom Foundry partners; as such, this doesn't go directly against Intel CEO's Brian Kzarnich remarks on the latest investor call, since he was likely talking about the 10 nm ramp-up on Intel's own products.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has come out to say that the company's first 10 nm CPUs based on the "Cannon Lake" micro-architecture will see the light of day before this year's end. Intel has been having a slew of ramp-up delays with its 10 nm products, which prompted a slippage from an expected 2016, full-scale launch (whose ship has sailed, clearly) towards a timed, product-tier based strategy. Intel opted to first introduce 10 nm technology to FPGA accelerators, which due to their redundancy, would suffer less from yield issues.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, has released the new GIGABYTE Z370N WIFI motherboard based on the Intel Z370 chipset. The new motherboard incorporates powerful performance capabilities within a compact design to provide users with a versatile motherboard for building their ideal PCs.

The GIGABYTE Z370N WIFI motherboard is optimized to support 8th Gen. Intel Core Processors. For a mini-ITX form factor, this motherboard can truly maximize the power of the Intel Core i7-8700K processors by easily reaching overclocked frequencies of 5GHz and higher. The motherboard uses an Intersil Hybrid Digital VRM design to ensure that power is distributed effectively, enabling the GIGABYTE Z370N WIFI to perform at its highest standards. Additionally, over 1000 memory modules have been validated by GIGABYTE to ensure proper compability with support for XMP profiles up to a frequency of 4600MHz when overclocked.

Intel today announced the launch of the Intel Optane SSD 900P Series, the first SSD for desktop PC and workstation users built on Intel Optane technology. Intel, in collaboration with Roberts Space Industries, announced the new SSD at CitizenCon, a Star Citizen community gathering in Frankfurt, Germany.

The Intel Optane SSD 900P Series delivers incredibly low latency and best-in-class random read and write performance at low queue depths - up to four times faster than competitive NAND-based SSDs - opening incredible new possibilities. With the new SSDs, users will unlock more potential from their platform. The Intel Optane SSD 900P Series is ideal for the most demanding storage workloads, including 3D rendering, complex simulations, fast game load times and more. Up to 22 times more endurance than other drives also gives the heaviest users peace of mind.

Intel Corporation today reported third-quarter 2017 financial results. "We executed well in the third quarter with strong results across the business, and we're on track to a record year," said Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO. "I'm excited about our progress and our future. Intel's product line-up is the strongest it has ever been with more innovation on the way for artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and more." "In the third quarter, we delivered record earnings, exceeded our EPS expectations, and increased our profit expectations for the full year," said Bob Swan, Intel CFO. "We feel great about Intel's transformation and where we are nine months into our three year plan." In the third quarter, the company generated approximately $6.3 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $1.3 billion, and used $1.1 billion to repurchase 31 million shares of stock.

In the third quarter, Intel saw strength across the business. The data center, Internet of Things and memory businesses all achieved record quarterly revenue, and Intel extended its performance leadership with the launches of 8th Gen Intel Core and Intel Xeon Scalable processors. Intel's FPGA business, the Programmable Solutions Group, is experiencing strong momentum, winning designs with automotive and cloud service provider customers that advance Intel's position in artificial intelligence. The company also furthered its autonomous driving efforts with exciting customer wins and the completion of the Mobileye tender offer, four months earlier than expected.

Intel today announced it has begun shipping its Intel Stratix 10 SX FPGA - the only high-end FPGA family with an integrated quad-core ARM* Cortex*-A53 processor. With densities greater than 1 million logic elements (MLE), Intel Stratix 10 SX FPGAs provide the flexibility and low latency benefit of integrating an ARM processor with a high-performance, high-density FPGA needed to tackle the design challenges of next-generation, high-performance systems.

By integrating the FPGA and the ARM processor, Intel Stratix 10 SX FPGAs provide an ideal solution for 5G wireless communication, software defined radios, secure computing for military applications, network function virtualization (NFV) and data center acceleration.

Intel's next-generation "Cannon Lake" CPU micro-architecture could see the introduction of the AVX-512 instruction-set to the mainstream segments (MSDT or mainstream-desktop, and mobile). It is currently available on the company's Core X "Skylake-X" HEDT processors, and on the company's Xeon "Skylake-W," Xeon Scalable "Skylake-SP," and in a limited form on the Xeon Phi Knights Landing and Knights Mill scalar compute chips.

The upcoming "Cannon Lake" mainstream silicon will feature AVX512F, AVX512CD, AVX512DQ, AVX512BW, and AVX512VL instructions, and will support AVX512_IFMA and AVX512_VBMI commands, making it a slightly broader implementation of AVX-512 than the "Skylake-SP" silicon. The new AVX-512 will vastly improve performance of compute-intensive applications that take advantage of it. It will also be a key component of future security standards.

In an interview with Bit-tech, ASUS ROG motherboard product manager Andrew Wu has let the proverbial cat out of the bag: apparently, compatibility of Z270 boards with Coffee Lake processors wouldn't have been impossible after all. When asked why the new Coffee Lake CPUs aren't compatible with the previously released Z270 platform, Andrew Wu explained that it" (...) depends on Intel's decision." Andrew Wu also went on to mention that Intel's stated power delivery reasons don't "make much difference", and that ASUS themselves could make their Z270 motherboards compatible with Coffee Lake. For that, however, they'd need "(...) an upgrade from the ME [Management Engine] and a BIOS update", for which "Intel somehow has locked the compatibility."

It seems all of that extra "pin-count" doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of the current Coffee Lake lineup with up to six core processors - the CPU socket and platform as designed with Z270 would have been able to handle the increased core counts and power loads. The question gets murkier with Intel's ability to release an 8-core CPU to the Z370 platform though - that particular amount of cores might indeed prove to be too much for Z270's power delivery. Making an educated guess, it would seem that Intel could have allowed for Coffee Lake compatibility on Z270 motherboards on CPUs up to 6 cores, but would need the new revisions on the Z370 platform to allow for operation of 8-core Coffee Lake chips.

BIOSTAR introduces its flagship Intel Z370 motherboard under the third generation RACING series, the BIOSTAR RACING Z370GT7. This motherboard supports the latest 8th generation Intel Core processors also known as Coffee Lake. The RACING Z370GT7 sports premium features that gamers, overclockers, professional content creators, and modders demand. It has a luxurious golden black color theme and advanced RBG lighting customizations with Advanced VIVID LED DJ. New and improved features: the smart A.I FAN and reinforced PCI-E slots to handle heavier graphics cards make the new-gen RACING Series much more robust. Push performance and harness the power of the new Intel Core i7-8700K 6-core, 12-thread processor along with dual Intel Optane-ready M.2 slots for the fastest PCIe NVMe drives available today.

BIOSTAR's 3rd Gen RACING Design
BIOSTAR revamps the RACING series motherboards with a much more flashy and high-end design with a golden black color theme.

• Gold I/O Armor - Gold I/O Armor strongly protects I/O interfaces and components from static electricity. The RGB LED lights on top of the armor
• are controllable with the Advanced VIVID LED DJ for more lighting control.
• Gold Tattoo RACING R - The classic "R" sign on the heatsink shows the spirit of RACING Series.
• RGB Rainbow Lighting Effect - 10 flashing modes for RGB lighting effect bring you more customization fun via Advanced VIVIVD LED DJ utility.
• Gold PCB Treatment - The 3rd Gen RACING Z370 motherboards ascend to a higher level of luxury and fashion for your gaming world!

With the rather fast introduction of the Intel Core i7-8700K (just 9 months following the January 3rd launch of the i7-7700K), retailers are finding themselves with quite a bit of unsold i7-7700K (and even i7-6700K) inventory. Consumers are drawn to either the i7-8700K, or the competing AMD Ryzen processors. To help the market digest these unsold chips, Intel started a new game-bundle dubbed "Game Without Compromise."

Buyers of brand-new Core i7-7700K and i7-6700K processors will receive game keys to "Total War: Warhammer II" and "Assassins Creed: Origins," which is effectively a $100 value-addition to these $330 quad-core chips. It provides an upgrade path to users of the older 100-series/200-series chipset platform. As with most such game bundles, the "Game Without Compromise" bundle will be limited to select retailers.