IBM and NVIDIA today announced collaboration on a new deep learning tool optimized for the latest IBM and NVIDIA technologies to help train computers to think and learn in more human-like ways at a faster pace. Deep learning is a fast growing machine learning method that extracts information by crunching through millions of pieces of data to detect and rank the most important aspects from the data. Publicly supported among leading consumer web and mobile application companies, deep learning is quickly being adopted by more traditional business enterprises.

Deep learning and other artificial intelligence capabilities are being used across a wide range of industry sectors; in banking to advance fraud detection through facial recognition; in automotive for self-driving automobiles and in retail for fully automated call centers with computers that can better understand speech and answer questions.

The 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processor, and its companion 200-series chipset are almost upon us, with the company planning to launch them this 2017 International CES (early January). It looks like the 200-series chipset is turning out to be what the 9-series chipset was to the 8-series; with a handful new features, but nothing extraordinary. Current 100-series chipset motherboards are already receiving BIOS updates from manufacturers to make them support the new processors. It looks like the succeeding 300-series chipset, which Intel plans towards the end of 2017, could stand out.

Intel is reportedly equipping the 300-series chipset with wireless networking becoming part of the feature-set. This means at least some variants of the chipset could feature native WLAN controllers (likely with external PHY for signal clarity). The company is also planning to implement native 10 Gb/s USB 3.1 (gen 2.0) controllers into the chipset. This decision could impact third-party WLAN and USB 3.1 controller manufacturers, observes DigiTimes.

Intel is readying a follow-on to its 600P series performance-segment PCIe solid-state drive (SSD) series, with the 610P series. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, with PCIe gen 3.0 x4 bus interface, and support for the NVMe protocol, the SSD 610P will be based on TLC 3D NAND flash by IMFlash Technology, the company's joint-venture with Micron Technology. The SSD 610P series will come in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB.

The company is also working on a smaller M.2-1620 variant for notebooks and SFF desktops, which will feature a BGA version of the SSD. These are multi-chip modules of NAND flash stacks and SSD controllers bundled into single packages. The BGA variants will come in sizes of 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB. Not much else (performance figures) are known about these drives, except that Intel plans to release these towards Q4 2017 (after September).

Ahead of its launch, a Core i5-7600K processor (not ES) made its way to Chinese tech publication PCOnline, who wasted no time in putting it through their test-bench, taking advantage of the next-gen CPU support BIOS updates put out by several socket LGA1151 motherboard manufacturers. Based on the 14 nm "Kaby Lake" silicon, the i5-7600K succeeds the current i5-6600K, and could be positioned around the $250 price-point in Intel's product-stack. The quad-core chip features clock speeds of 3.80 GHz, with 4.20 GHz max Turbo Boost frequency, and 6 MB of L3 cache. Like all its predecessors, it lacks HyperThreading.

In its review of the Core i5-7600K, PCOnline found that the chip is about 9-10% faster than the i5-6600K, but that's mostly only due to its higher clock speeds out of the box (3.80/4.20 GHz vs. 3.50/3.90 GHz of the i5-6600K). Clock-for-clock, the i5-7600K is just about 1% faster, indicating that the "Kaby Lake" architecture offers only negligible IPC (instructions per clock) performance gains over the "Skylake" architecture. The power-draw of the CPU appears to be about the same as the i5-6600K, so there appear to be certain fab process-level improvements, given the higher clock speeds the chip is having to sustain, without a proportionate increase in power-draw. Most of the innovation appears to be centered on the integrated graphics, which is slightly faster, and has certain new features. Find more performance figures in the review link to PCOnline below.

News and specifications about Intel's upcoming Kaby Lake-based desktop CPUs are thin, but a recent leak has made it possible to discern at least some details, due to an Intel product change notification (PCN) document.

A PCN is a document issued by a manufacturer to inform customers about a change to a mass-produced product or its manufacturing process. In this PCN, Intel details a new factory in Vietnam which will work in order to "ensure a continuous supply of the Select Intel Xeon Processor E3-1205, Intel Core i5-7400 Processor, Intel Core i5-7400T Processor, Intel Core i5-7500 Processor, Intel Core i5-7500T Processor, Intel Core i5-7600 Processor, Intel Core i5-7600K Processor, Intel Core i5-7600T Processor, Intel Core i7-7700 Processor, Intel Core i7-7700T Processor and Intel Core i7-7700K Processor products".

At the 2016 annual Microsoft Surface Event, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Surface Computing Panos Panay announced a new addition to the company's Surface lineup: a 28-inch All-in-One, with a 3:2 aspect ratio monitor Microsoft calls a "Pixel Sense Display", packing a 4500x3000 resolution (with around 62% more pixels than 4K resolution, combining to provide about 192 pixels per inch), as well as 10-point touch and Microsoft Pen support.

All of that screen real-estate comes in at just 12.5mm thick - the AIO's innards are actually on the monitor's base, with an hinge that promises to allow the display to be moved seamlessly and in a wide variety of angles, as well as allowing it to take on extra weight in studio mode. All of this is powered by an Intel Skylake processor (configurable as an i5 or i7 model), your choice of an NVIDIA GTX 965 M 2GB or an NVIDIA GTX 980 M 4 GB model, 8 through 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 1 TB or 2TB storage - with all configurable options also including in their base specs what Microsoft calls a "Rapid Hybrid Drive", which at the moment, remains unclear as to its nature of either a SATA or PCIe SSD, or even an SSHD.

Intel today announced the launch of a new generation of Intel Atom processor, the Intel Atom processor E3900 series, designed from the ground up to support the rapid development and the growing complexity of Internet of Things (IoT) businesses. The Intel Atom processor E3900 Series delivers excellent performance and a unique set of features for the edge in segments such as industrial, automotive, video, manufacturing, retail, and more. Intel is also offering an automotive grade processor specifically to address in-vehicle experiences called the Intel Atom processor A3900 series.

Intel Corporation today reported third-quarter GAAP revenue of $15.8 billion, operating income of $4.5 billion, net income of $3.4 billion and EPS of 69 cents. Intel reported non-GAAP operating income of $5.1 billion, net income of $3.9 billion and EPS of 80 cents. The company generated approximately $5.8 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $1.2 billion, and used $457 million to repurchase 13 million shares of stock.

"It was an outstanding quarter, and we set a number of new records across the business," said Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO. "In addition to strong financials, we delivered exciting new technologies while continuing to align our people and products to our strategy. We're executing well, and these results show Intel's continuing transformation to a company that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected devices."

The Intel-Micron joint collaboration in the development of what is promised to be the next step in storage technology is inching ever closer to reality. According to Bench Life, which published a leaked specifications list for the upcoming Intel Optane Memory products, the first application for consumer-grade 3D XPoint technology straddles the line between an SSD and system RAM. Intel calls it a "System Accelerator" solution, and it's meant to operate as an intermediate caching solution between a system's RAM and storage. Codenamed "Stony Beach", Intel's 8000p (and entire 3D XPoint-based products) support is still up in the air, but it's expected that only Kaby Lake and subsequent platforms will be compatible with the technology - which, if true, is sure to limit the product's market penetration.

The consumer products will initially sport capacities of either 16GB or 32GB, leveraging the NVMe protocol at PCIe Gen 3.0 x2 bandwidth in the M.2 form-factor. Mirroring NAND technology, the greater capacity solution will sport the highest performance: with the 16GB part coming in at 1400 MB/s read and 300 MB/s write speeds, against the 32 GB's 1600 MB/s and 400 MB/s, respectively. We see similar results in regards to IOPS, with the 16GB solution offering up to 285,000 read and 70,000 write operations per second, against the 32 GB's solution respective 300,000 read and 120,000 write. As usual with new technologies, expect all these metrics to only go up in time.

As previously reported by TPU, in preparation for Intel's Kaby Lake architecture release, MSI published BIOS updates for its MSI 100 series chipset motherboards that (supposedly) guaranteed compatibility with Intel's upcoming platform. However, the new BIOS update seemingly disappeared from MSI's support webpages without any information as to why. According to ComputerBase, MSI representatives mentioned that an error was found in the code, and that a fix was currently being worked on. According to MSI, the fixed BIOSes should be made available shortly.

In any case, this scenario is better than the alternative of it having been users discovering the BIOS support to be defective. MSI did a good job in finding this ahead of Kaby Lake's launch and potential accompanying headaches from a not fully compatible CPU and motherboard combo.

Thanks to AMD's incorporation of an ARM-based "AMD Secure Processor" in their upcoming ZEN micro-architecture, the company is poised to offer something competitor Intel's microprocessors yet don't: memory encryption. This processor, and its underlying technologies, could prove to be a stepping-stone for AMD towards regaining lost server market share. Essentially, because in a market ever more steered by cloud computing considerations, it allows for the client's data to be encrypted at every moment of the work chain. Assuming all works as intended, for the first time not even cloud providers, with either hypervisor-level privileges or even physical access to the servers, will be able to carry out any malicious actions against their clients.

One only has to consider the writing on the wall: Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2018, 30% of Microsoft's revenue will stem from its cloud services; Amazon Web Services (AWS) generated $7.88B in revenue on Q4 2015, up 69% over 2014; and worldwide spending on public cloud services by itself will grow from $70B in 2015 to an estimated $141B in 2019. Cloud computing is here to stay, and with security being as important as it is for some businesses, this is an important area of investment for AMD. This "AMD Secure Processor" will work on essentially two fronts: SME (Secure Memory Encryption) and SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization), backed by an hardware-based SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm).

A major security vulnerability got uncovered, affecting Intel NUC (next-unit of computing) compact system boards featuring 5th and 6th generation Core processors. It involves a BIOS-level security hole, with which an attacker with local administrative privileges can make their malware access the "system management mode," a special BIOS-level user-state, and take full control of the platform.

Intel has since released corrective BIOS updates for its 6th generation "Swift Canyon," 6th generation "Grass Canyon" and "Pinnacle Canyon" boards; and 5th generation "Rock Canyon" boards. Even the performance-oriented "Skull Canyon" NUC, which features Intel's powerful onboard graphics core, isn't spared from this vulnerability. The latest BIOS update can be installed on affected platforms using the Intel Driver Update Utility.

The global gaming market is booting up dramatically, which will also widely increase the demand of high performance computer peripherals. Team Group has been continuously dedicated to satisfy the needs of our consumers in every aspect, and now it will integrate its gaming memory modules into T-Force product line which is specifically designed for people who pursuit extreme high speed and excellent performance. It is also the best and only choice for professional gamers as well as overclockers.

T-FORCE series line up with XTREEM, DARK, VULCAN, and NIGHT HAWK with breathing lights (LED) as sharp as hawk eyes, and the industry's first patented gaming combo package with T-FORCE DARK PRO and DARK 2.5" SSD inside. Leading the trend of high speed gaming, T-FORCE brings you the latest and top notch high speed experience. Whether it's the memory with ultimate performance or the LED memory with a cool look, they are definitely the best choices for gamers and modders.

ASUS today announced that all 100-series motherboards will now support next-generation Intel Core processors. A quick and easy UEFI BIOS update unleashes the full potential of the next-generation high-performance CPUs for socket LGA 1151, reaffirming ASUS as the BEST leading motherboard brand - Best Selling, Easy to Use, Stable and Trusted. Owners of ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG), Pro Gaming, Signature and TUF Z170, H170, B150 and H110 motherboards are able to take advantage of the easy upgrade to the award-winning ASUS UEFI BIOS, which is available today via the relevant ASUS Support web page.

All ASUS 100-series motherboards that include the ASUS USB BIOS Flashback feature allow users to apply UEFI BIOS updates with ease. For other ASUS 100-series motherboards the necessary UEFI BIOS update takes just one click in an easy-to-use Windows-based BIOS updater application, ASUS EZ Update, which is available to download from the ASUS website.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global PCle SSD Market 2016-2020" report to their offering. The report forecast the global peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) SSD market to grow at a CAGR of 33.24% during the period 2016-2020. The report has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

According to the report, need for managed service data centers will be a key driver for market growth. It is advantageous for an enterprise to operate a colocation facility rather than to build a data center. Data center colocation allows enterprises to rent computing storage, servers, and network. It enables minimal utilization of power and bandwidth and enhances the security of enterprise IT equipment.

Intel's silicon fabrication has evidently hit a huge roadblock. It turns out that not just "Kaby Lake," but its two successors "Cannon Lake" and "Coffee Lake" could also be built on the 14 nm node, at best with a few process-level improvements. "Coffee Lake" is the company's 9th generation Core architecture, which is two steps ahead of even the "Kaby Lake" architecture, which is due later this year. "Kaby Lake" makes its way to the 45W mobile (H-segment) and 15W mobile (U-segment), in Q4-2016 and Q3-2016, respectively. The 15W U-segment will be augmented by "Cannon Lake" (8th generation Core) in Q4-2017. By mid-2018, Intel plans to launch "Coffee Lake" across both H- and U-segments.

According to a "Hot Hardware" report, based on a job listing for a systems engineer at the company, Intel could be staring at the scary prospect of holding out on 14 nm for the next three years, only to be relieved by the stopgap 10 nm node, which makes its debut with the 10th generation Core "Tiger Lake" architecture, due for 2019. "Tiger Lake," its succeeding "Ice Lake," and one other architecture could be launched on 10 nm, before finally deploying 7 nm around 2022.

Intel Corporation and TPG today announced a definitive agreement under which the two parties will establish a newly formed, jointly-owned, independent cybersecurity company. The new company will be called McAfee following transaction close. TPG will own 51 percent of McAfee and Intel will own 49 percent in a transaction valuing the business at approximately $4.2 billion. TPG is making a $1.1 billion equity investment to help drive growth and enhance focus as a standalone business.

Through this transaction, TPG, a leading global alternative asset firm with demonstrated expertise in growing profitable software companies and carve-out investments, and Intel, a global technology leader that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices, will work together to position McAfee as a strong independent company with access to significant financial, operational and technology resources. With the new investment from TPG and continued strategic backing of Intel, the new entity is expected to capitalize on significant global growth opportunities through greater focus and targeted investment.

Microsoft recently sparked a stir when it was reported that the company will support upcoming CPU architectures by Intel and AMD only on Windows 10, with the keyword being "support" and not "compatibility." This means that Microsoft will offer customer-support and likely serve updates to Intel "Kaby Lake" and AMD "ZEN" machines only running Windows 10 (and its enterprise variant Windows Server 2016, based on the NT 10 kernel), and not older versions of Windows. The processors themselves are compatible with any x86 operating system, Windows or *nix, 32-bit or 64-bit. HotHardware dug out the likely causes of this decision.

Apparently, new power-management and SMT features are behind the decision. With its "Kaby Lake" microarchitecture, Intel is introducing a new power-management feature called Speed Shift Technology. This lets the processor adjust its clock-speed to match processing loads at response time of 15 ms. This likely requires OS-level hooks, so the on-die power-management components can poll for processing loads and accordingly raise or lower clock-speeds 66.66 times each second, at no CPU cost. In its ZEN microarchitecture reveal, AMD too spoke about fine-grained, multi-domain clock-gating (≠ power-gating) on its "ZEN" based processors, such as "Summit Ridge."

Lenovo today launched the Yoga Book, the world's thinnest and lightest 2-in-1 tablet, designed for unmatched productivity while on-the-go. Built for mobility and to solve the most common challenge among tablet users - how to achieve productivity and entertainment in one device - the Yoga Book is a tablet that looks and acts like no other. Up until now, we've been using tablets in ways we weren't meant to: for productivity, for example, which becomes painful when typing or applying a stylus onto a touch screen that you're using on-the-go.

The Yoga Book removes that difficulty by taking the fundamental building blocks from the DNA of what makes a great tablet - namely portability, long battery life and a rich app ecosystem - and entwines it into a strand of creativity and productivity through a suite of powerful new hardware and software features, including: the instant halo keyboard, the dual-use stylus that writes on paper and screen, and the productivity-driven Book U.

Intel takes computing to the next level with the 7th Gen Intel Core processor family. The 7th Gen Intel Core processors are designed for the immersive Internet and built on a strong foundation of the Skylake microarchitecture. Intel's latest 14 nm processors deliver more responsive performance than ever, fantastic entertainment and gaming, robust security, and even more natural, intuitive interactions with your PC. With incredible improvements that transform the viewing experience with 4K UHD videos, 360-degree videos , multiple video streams, and premium content playback, the 7th Gen Intel Core processors for mobile platforms enable a new way to enjoy the sharp and engaging content across a range of form factors.

Intel scales 7th Gen Intel Core processors to a variety of PC designs at a wide range of price points, which may include features such as Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C single-wire connection, low power premium audio and hassle-free facial recognition such as Windows Hello. Users can also expect to see PC designs based on 7th Gen Intel Core processors with a variety of intuitive input options such as touch, voice, and stylus.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today launched XPG FlameDDR4 memory modules. Featuring a sleek heatsink emblazoned with a flame design, XPG Flame DDR4 is available in 288-pin U-DIMM and 260-pin SO-DIMM. This marks the first XPG memory for notebooks, and makes XPG Flame an appealing choice for gamers, overclocking, and competitive benchmarkers on desktops, notebooks, and small form factor (SFF) PCs. XPG Flame uses the most carefully-sorted and assembled boards and chips for assured quality and stability. Customers can choose modules in 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB densities, with speeds up to 3000 MHz on U-DIMM and 2800 MHz on SO-DIMM. All XPG Flame modules support Intel XMP 2.0 (Extreme Memory Profile) specifications and ship with a lifetime ADATA product warranty.

Following the launch of bestselling XPG Z1 DDR4 memory and lucrative XPG Dazzle LED DDR4, XPG Flame brings a highly attractive option for desktop gamers, overclockers, and tuners. With a sleek low profile heatsink, XPG Flame U-DIMM modules use a 10-layer black PCB with 2oz of copper. All of these ensure stable performance and a long module lifespan in every situation, from the most system-stressing games to competitive overclocking and benchmarking. Stock clocks range from 2400 MHz to 3000 MHz, driven by 1.2V to 1.35V. Higher speeds are quite readily possible thanks to the premium chips, circuitry, and PCB materials employed. Intel XMP 2.0 support means users have more ways to access memory overclocking, including directly from the operating system rather than via more complex BIOS settings.

Someone with access to a Core i7-7700K "Kaby Lake" processor and an ASRock Z270-Extreme4 motherboard put the chip through SiSoft SANDRA 2015 CPU tests. Engineering sample or not, the clock speeds of the chip appear to check out with those of the lineup as we know it. The core ticks at 4.20 GHz, with a maximum Turbo Boost frequency of 4.50 GHz. You also get 8 MB of L3 cache, and HyperThreading. The benchmark confirms that Intel is working on a new platform refresh chipset, with the Z270 chipset succeeding the existing Z170. Existing LGA1151 could support the new chips, with BIOS updates.

At its stock speeds, the i7-7700K churns out a SANDRA 2015 "Processor Arithmetic" score of 151.94 GOPS. Its "Processor Multimedia" score yielded is 379.8 Mpix/s. To put things in perspective, a Core i7-6700K "Skylake" processor running at its stock speed of 4.00 GHz core with 4.20 GHz Turbo Boost typically yields 140.88 GOPS in "Processor Arithmetic" and 353.8 Mpix/s in "Processor Multimedia" tests, according to LegitReviews. Intel is expected to launch the 7th generation Core processor family, alongside the 200 series chipset, later this year. Kaby Lake is Intel's third CPU micro-architecture for the 14 nm process, after "Skylake" and "Broadwell."

Intel is preparing a broad lineup of enterprise CPUs based on the upcoming 14 nm "Kaby Lake" silicon, besides the first wave of its desktop lineup, with no less than 8 quad-core SKUs. What makes the lineup of the Xeon E3-1200 V6 family more comprehensive than previous generations is the fact that some of the SKUs feature integrated graphics. Predecessors of the E3-1200 V6 series generally lack integrated graphics. Intel denoted parts that feature integrated graphics with Xeon E3-###5 V6, and endowed them with the GT2 graphics available on the "Kaby Lake" common silicon shared between the Xeon E3-1200 V6 and 7th generation Core series.

All eight SKUs launched by Intel are quad-core and feature 8 MB of L3 cache, six of them feature HyperThreading. Three of the SKUs feature integrated graphics. The SKUs without integrated graphics have 74W TDP rating, the ones with it have 78W TDP rating. Some of the notable SKUs include the E3-1280 V6, with 3.90 GHz nominal clocks, E3-1275 V6 with 3.70 GHz clocks and GT2 integrated graphics; and E3-1225 V6, featuring 3.30 GHz clocks, and integrated graphics. The Xeon E3-1200 V6 series processors will be built in the LGA1151 package, and will be compatible with the C232 and C236 chipset motherboards. The company could launch these chips by the end of 2016.

Intel is reportedly planning launch its 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processors by Q4-2016. Its desktop variants, built in the existing LGA1151 package, will be the third Intel micro-architecture built on the 14 nm process (after "Skylake" and "Broadwell" architectures). With this generation, Intel is planning to sub-classify LGA1151 into three categories, to ensure people don't try to install higher-powered CPUs on low-power machines.

These are LGA1151-Standard Power; LGA1151-Low Power; and LGA1151-Ultra Low Power. These are defined by the TDP of the packages. Standard Power chips run at 95W TDP, Low Power at 65W TDP, and Ultra Low Power at 35W TDP. There could be motherboards and machines that, depending on their VRM setup, completely shut out Standard Power or even Low Power chips.

NVIDIA accused Intel of cheating in its ISC 2016 presentation, particularly in a performance-related slide, in which it claimed that its "Knights Landing" Xeon Phi HPC processor provides faster training of neural nets than NVIDIA "Maxwell" GPUs. In a slide, Intel claimed that a Xeon Phi HPC processor card is 2.3 times faster at training deep-learning neural nets, and 38 percent better scaling across nodes, than NVIDIA "Maxwell" GPUs, which triggered a swift response from the GPU maker, which made significant investments in deep-learning technologies over the past three years.

NVIDIA argued that Intel is using the classic technique of running outdated benchmarks to test its neural net training speeds. The company says that if Intel used the latest version of the same benchmark (Caffe AlexNet), the "Maxwell" GPU will be found to be 30 percent faster than the Xeon Phi at training neural nets. NVIDIA also notes that "Maxwell" is only its previous-generation part, and a "Pascal" based HPC processor would easily be 90 percent faster than the Xeon Phi. More importantly, NVIDIA notes that Intel compared 32 of its new Xeon Phi servers against four-year-old Nvidia Kepler K20 servers being used in ORNL's Titan supercomputer. The latest "Pascal" GPUs leverate NVLink to scale up to 128 GPUs, providing the fastest deep-learning solutions money can buy.