Intel today debuted its 2023 N-series entry-level mobile processors targeting a range of low-cost notebook applications, such as educational notebooks for bulk purchase and distribution by public schools. These processors are built on the same Intel 7 (10 nm Enhanced SuperFin) node as the 13th Gen Core processors, but come with just "Gracemont" E-cores, and no P-cores.

The silicon physically features two "Gracemont" E-core clusters amounting to 8 E-cores, 6 MB of shared L3 cache, and an iGPU based on the Xe-LP graphics architecture, with 32 EUs (execution units). The silicon also features a GNI 3.0 for basic AI acceleration using a truncated version of the DLBoost instruction set, and an IPU (as in image processing unit), which can improve web-camera experience (on the fly background noise suppression). The iGPU also offers hardware-accelerated AV1 decoding. On the platform-side, the processor features a single-channel DDR5 memory interface that's backwards-compatible with DDR4, and also supports LPDDR5. Storage interfaces include eMMC, UFS 2.1, and NVMe SSD. Wireless networking options available with the platform include fast WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.

Intel today expanded its 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" Socket LGA1700 desktop processor family with several new 65 W mainstream models. These include all the SKUs that lack an unlocked multiplier, aren't meant for CPU overclocking, and come with slightly lower frequencies and tighter power-management than the unlocked K-series SKUs the company debuted the series with in 2022. The retail packages of these processors include stock Intel fan-heatsinks similar to those the company includes with its 12th Gen "Alder Lake" 65 W processors.

The series is led by the Core i9-13900, an 8P+16E core processor with P-core base frequency of 2.00 GHz, P-core maximum boost frequency of 5.60 GHz, E-core base frequency of 1.50 GHz and 4.20 GHz; and the full 36 MB of L3 cache available on the silicon. The processor base power value is 65 W, and the maximum turbo power is 219 W. Intel lists the MSRP of these processors at $550, a variant without integrated graphics, the i9-13900F, can be had for $524. The Core i7-13700 positioned a notch below, is an 8P+8E processor, with a P-core boost frequency of up to 5.20 GHz, a slightly better 2.10 GHz E-core boost, 30 MB of L3 cache, and the same 219 W MTP value. The i7-13700 is priced at $384, and the iGPU-disabled.

Today at CES, Intel announced its 13th Gen Intel Core mobile processors that bring superior performance and experiences to mobile platforms. Intel introduced 32 new 13th Gen Intel Core mobile processors with a rich suite of features and capabilities for all laptop segments. "The 13th Gen Intel Core mobile processor family delivers unrivaled, scalable performance for leadership platforms across all laptop segments," said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group at Intel. "With our industry-leading technologies and unmatched global partner ecosystem, people can expect a high-caliber mobile experience in new and unique form factors so they can game or create from anywhere."

Intel continues to push the boundaries of performance and expand computing possibilities for gamers and creators with the launch of the 13th Gen Intel Core H-series mobile processors, which includes the first 24-core processor for a laptop. When combined with unique features like support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, best in class connectivity and PCIe Gen 5, 13th Gen HX processors deliver the world's best mobile gaming platform.

TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products for home, businesses and enterprises, announces the launch of the T9-450 and T12-450 high-speed network storage server featuring 10 GbE networking capabilities which are designed for professionals that require high-speed, large-capacity for applications like virtualization, databases, image and video content creation, and others.

TerraMaster T9-450 and T12-450 come in a compact design for its class making it ideal for small- and medium-sized businesses with limited space for professional data storage devices. The T9-450 and T12-450 are also designed for high-capacity storage configurations, supporting up to 20 TB HDD models and a total capacity of 180 TB and 240 TB, respectively. Its compact design and high capacity support makes the TerraMaster 450 Series ideal for creative professionals and growing businesses.

MSI, the leading brand of gaming products, is launching the MEG Trident X2 with the latest 13th-Gen Intel processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics card. This launch focuses on "Play Unbound". This gaming desktop is equipped with the Intel Core i9 processor, enjoying a 41% of performance increase compared with the previous generation. With RTX 40 Series equipped with the latest Fourth-Gen Tensor Cores, Third-Gen RT Cores, and New Streaming Multiprocessors, the frame rate performance of games has been greatly improved as well. Gamers can play at 100 frames under 4K image quality and with special effects turned on. Designed to completely liberate the next-generation performance, MSI's exclusive HMI (Human Machine Interface) has also ushered in a major upgrade. In addition to the original intuitive operation controls, a 4.5-inch touchscreen and G.I. function are now added.

This MEG Trident X2 is not only equipped with the top-of-the-line i9-13900K processor and RTX 4090 graphics card but also comes with MSI's exclusive Silent Storm Cooling 3 heat dissipation technology, which can effectively reduce the heat generated by components. The Air Baffle design can effectively collect the surrounding cold air and prevent the excess heat inside the chassis from flowing back to the graphics card. It is supplemented by the motherboard's upside-down design so that the graphics card is placed on the top to be cooled by the cold air first.

Intel's 2023 roadmap for the desktop processor segment sees the company flesh out its 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" desktop family with 65 W (locked) SKUs, and the new i9-13900KS flagship; followed by a new lineup of processors under the "Raptor Lake Refresh" family, due for Q3-2023, with no mentions of a desktop "Meteor Lake" processor in the year. It turns out that "Raptor Lake Refresh" is being designed to fill in for these (i.e. there won't be any "Meteor Lake" desktop chips). This, according to OneRaichu, a reliable source with Intel leaks.

"Meteor Lake" is Intel's first client processor to fully incorporate the company's IDM 2.0 product development strategy of disintegrating the processor into multiple chiplets built on various foundry nodes based on design needs; and combining them onto a single package with a high-performance interconnect. "Meteor Lake" has just one problem and that is CPU core-counts, with rumors pointing to 6P+16E (6 performance cores + 16 efficiency cores) being the maximum core-count possible, something Intel probably feels won't be competitive in the desktop segment against AMD, which will probably have a lineup of "Zen 4" X3D processors out by Q3-2023, with up to 16 P-cores. The company will, however, give "Meteor Lake" a sizable launch in the various mobile segments.

On Jan. 10, Intel will officially welcome to market the 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and the Intel Xeon CPU Max Series, as well as the Intel Data Center GPU Max Series for high performance computing (HPC) and AI. Hosted by Sandra Rivera, executive vice president and general manager of the Datacenter and AI Group at Intel, and Lisa Spelman, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel Xeon Products, the event will highlight the value of 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and the Intel Max Series product family, while showcasing customer, partner and ecosystem support.

The event will demonstrate how Intel is addressing critical needs in the marketplace with a focus on a workload-first approach, performance leadership in key areas such as AI, networking and HPC, the benefits of security and sustainability, and how the company is delivering significant outcomes for its customers and the industry.

Big things are afoot at Intel's graphics chip division once again, as the company has just broken up its Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics (AXG) business unit which will result in some big changes. For starters, Raja Koduri has been—what we can only refer to as—demoted, given he's back to being chief architect rather than being in charge of the AXG business unit. Some of his staff will be moved to other business units inside Intel as the AXG business unit will cease to exist. This doesn't mean Intel will stop making discrete consumer GPUs, with at least the Battlemage/Arc B-series launch still being planned to take place sometime in 2023.

At the same time, it looks like Raja Koduri will be out of action for what is likely to be at least a month since he posted on Twitter that he's had emergency back surgery while on a business trip. How this will affect his transition back to his role as chief architect is anyone's guess at this point in time. However, he will not be focusing solely on GPUs in the future, but the broader range of products that Intel offers—particularly the integration of GPU, CPU and AI architectures at Intel. We've posted an official statement from Intel after the break, which Intel provided to Tom's Hardware. We also wish Raja a speedy recovery!

The 13th Gen Intel Core desktop processor family has overtaken the longstanding processor overclocking frequency world record. In less than three months, the Intel Core i9-13900K has twice set the frequency overclocking world record.

The ASUS overclocking team officially set a new world record for overclocking, pushing the 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900K past the 9 gigahertz barrier to 9.008 GHz. Additionally, the team set new records in PIFAST (6.85 seconds) and SUPERPI 1M (3.822 seconds). Combining the Core i9-13900K with the ROG MAXIMUS Z790 APEX - and a healthy dose of liquid helium - the ASUS overclocking team became the latest to showcase the unprecedented overclocking performance in Intel's unlocked processors. Working with partners like ASUS, Intel continues to provide desktop enthusiasts and gamers with the best processors and features for overclocking in the PC industry.

Intel's "Raptor Lake" microarchitecture will go mobile this 2023 International CES, with the company planning to substantially expand its 13th Gen Core processor family for notebooks, ultraportables, convertibles, tablets, and pretty much any PC form-factor that you can carry around. The high-end enthusiast mobile parts see processors in the 55 W to 65 W (or higher) TDP range, and with the same 8P+16E core-configuration as the desktop Core i9-13900K, including support for enthusiast features such as overclocking.

The leaky taps on social media are ready with some of the first benchmarks of Intel's new mobile flagship, the Core i9-13900HX. The Geekbench score of the chip puts it faster than the desktop Core i7-13700K (8P+8E) and Core i9-12900K "Alder Lake" (8P+8E), which enjoy power limits of up to 251 W, base power of 125 W, and a much more relaxed power-management scheme compared to a mobile chip like the i9-13900HX. The processor scores 2039 points in the single-threaded test, and 20493 points in the multi-threaded one, which puts it ahead of the desktop i7-13700K (which in turn is faster than the i9-12900K). Geekbench detects the processor to feature a maximum P-core boost frequency of 5.40 GHz, which isn't too far from the 5.60 GHz of the 65 W desktop i9-13900 (non-K). CES promises to be action-packed with Intel expected to announce dozens of 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" mobile processor SKUs, and NVIDIA expected to announce the first mobile variants of its GeForce RTX 40-series "Ada" GPUs.

Ahead of CES, Lenovo unveiled its latest generation of consumer devices loaded with standout features and enhancements designed to help people connect with their passions and achieve their daily goals. With five new performance-driving and portable IdeaPad laptops, a sleek and compact IdeaCentre desktop, and a 9-inch Lenovo tablet, these devices are designed for all the spaces and places in line with the on-the-go lifestyle of today's consumer. Whether working, studying, creating, or just catching up with friends out of town, these new products offer speed, versatility, and convenience to suit their needs wherever they are.

"As consumers continue to seek out the most effective ways of working and studying in a hybrid world where versatility and convenience are paramount, Lenovo's IdeaPad products continue to provide reliability and performance at incredible value," says Jun OuYang, Vice President of the Consumer Segment, Intelligent Devices Group, Lenovo. "This latest generation of products come with a range of striking new features and enhancements that significantly improve the user experience while still maintaining its reputation as an affordable product."

Many countries are facing serious energy shortages, and to counter this problem, many are already actively utilizing renewable energy, but they also urgently need the layout of the internet of energy (IoE) to harness this new power. IoE connects equipment, machines, and systems used in energy production, transmission, and consumption through sensors, controls, and software. IoE delivers power where and when it's needed through smart power storage and distribution, and enables forecasting through big data analysis and machine learning. The DV-1000 high-performance and essential rugged embedded computer in the Cincoze Rugged Computing - DIAMOND product line offers high-performance computing in a compact chassis with flexible expansion and industrial wide temperature support, making it the best choice for IoE applications.

Maximum efficiency for renewable energy requires a network for collecting, storing, and distributing energy power. The DV-1000 is compact, about the size of A5 paper (224 x 162 x 64 mm), making it easy to install in any small outdoor electrical cabinet. The DV-1000 supports a 9th/8th generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3 (Coffee Lake-R S series) processor and up to 32 GB of DDR4 2666 MHz memory, providing the high-efficiency computing power for the real-time processing and analysis of large amounts of data, and meeting the high computing requirements required for IoE.

Intel's upcoming flagship Core i9-13900KS "Raptor Lake" processor posts a 5% single-threaded performance lead over the company's current top-chip, the i9-13900K. The i9-13900KS is shown in leaked benchmarks scoring 2366 points in the Cinebench R23 single-thread, compared to 2243 points of the i9-13900K, 1948 points of the upcoming i9-13900 (non-K), and 2057 points of the AMD flagship Ryzen 9 7950X. This works out to a 5.43% gain for the i9-13900KS in comparison to the i9-13900K, and an impressive 15% gain over the 7950X. The multi-threaded score is 3.3% higher between the i9-13900KS and the i9-13900K.

The Core i9-13900KS wins on account of higher frequency, with its P-cores boosting up to 6.00 GHz, compared to 5.80 GHz of its predecessor, and its 150 W processor base power providing better boost state residency. The locked Core i9-13900 is held back by lower clock speeds of up to 5.60 GHz P-core boost, and power limits of just 65 W PBP and 221 W MTP. What's interesting in these numbers, though, is that even the i9-13900 is shown beating the 7950X in the multi-threaded test, scoring about 1.6% higher. Its single-threaded performance is marginally lower than the 7950X. Intel is expected to announce the i9-13900KS alongside locked 65 W 13th Gen Core processors, and 13th Gen Core mobile processors, in its 2023 International CES Keynote address, with product availability expected later in the month.

GIGABYTE, the world's leading computer brand, is known for its stylish and high-performing motherboards, graphics cards, gaming monitors, and more. The award-winning products are praised by worldwide consumers for their class-leading build quality and performance. What makes GIGABYTE products even more impressive is their friendly designs based on a thorough understanding of user needs and expectations. These ingenious designs are primed to make the products easier to assemble and upgrade for a much-enhanced user experience.

GIGABYTE's Intel-based Z790 series and AMD AM5-based X670, B650 gaming motherboards are equipped with tech that makes PC building and upgrades as easy as possible. The DIY-friendly PCIe EZ-Latch design allows users to easily detach the graphics card from the PCIe slot with a quick-release mechanism; the M.2 EZ-Latch makes installing M.2 SSDs effortless thanks to the screwless design. These latest-gen motherboards also support Intel XMP and AMD EXPO overclocking memory modules for maximum compatibility, and GIGABYTE BIOS comes packaged with pre-installed profiles to help users get greater performance with ease.

ASUS today announced Mini PC PL64, an industrial mini PC featuring a fanless design and powered by up to a 12th Generation Intel Core i7 (15 W) processor. Each PL64 unit has been subjected to a battery of reliability tests, and the fanless design ensures optimal performance even in ambient temperatures of up to 50°C. This mini PC features dual LAN ports, including 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, dual COM ports, five USB ports, along with triple 4K display support at 60 Hz.

Mini PC PL64 employs a new, almost-silent fanless design that minimizes dust ingress into the chassis to prolong product life. The fanless design and 15-watt CPU support make PL64 ideal for industrial applications where reliability, durability, and low noise are paramount. The cooling system in PL64 efficiently dissipates heat, enabling this mini PC to be deployed in hot environments reaching 50°C.

Intel as part of its development process with industry partners and OEMs, allegedly released technical documents in a bare URL that's worded to confirm that its next desktop processor socket will in fact be the LGA1851. We've had some idea since June 2021 that LGA1851 will succeed LGA1700, but this can be taken as a confirmation. Although with a higher pin-count, the LGA1851 package will be physically of an identical size to LGA1700, with mostly identical socket mechanism, so the new socket could maintain cooler compatibility with its predecessor. The additional 151 pins come from shrinking the "courtyard" (the region of the land grid in the center that lacks pins and instead has some electrical ancillaries).

The new Socket LGA1851 platform is expected to power Intel's "Meteor Lake-S" and "Arrow Lake-S" microarchitectures. Whether "Meteor Lake-S" gets the 14th Gen Core branding is a whole different question. Leaked benchmarks suggest that 2023 will be a rather slow year from Intel in the area of desktop processors, and that toward Q3-2023, the company will release the so-called "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors. These chips are likely built on the same LGA1700 package, and as we've seen from "Coffee Lake Refresh," could warrant a new generational branding to 14th Gen Core (as CFL Refresh formed the 9th Gen Core). Intel could increase clock-speeds, E-core counts, and other process/packaging-level innovations to segment these chips apart from existing 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake." LGA1851 processors like "Meteor Lake" could debut chiplets for Intel, as these have their CPU cores, iGPU, memory-controllers, and uncore components, spread apart on chiplets built on various foundry nodes.

Today, Intel announced the 2023 release of the Intel oneAPI tools - available in the Intel Developer Cloud and rolling out through regular distribution channels. The new oneAPI 2023 tools support the upcoming 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Intel Xeon CPU Max Series and Intel Data Center GPUs, including Flex Series and the new Max Series. The tools deliver performance and productivity enhancements, and also add support for new Codeplay plug-ins that make it easier than ever for developers to write SYCL code for non-Intel GPU architectures. These standards-based tools deliver choice in hardware and ease in developing high-performance applications that run on multiarchitecture systems.

"We're seeing encouraging early application performance results on our development systems using Intel Max Series GPU accelerators - applications built with Intel's oneAPI compilers and libraries. For leadership-class computational science, we value the benefits of code portability from multivendor, multiarchitecture programming standards such as SYCL and Python AI frameworks such as PyTorch, accelerated by Intel libraries. We look forward to the first exascale scientific discoveries from these technologies on the Aurora system next year."
-Timothy Williams, deputy director, Argonne Computational Science Division

It would appear that motherboards based on the upcoming Intel B760 chipset aren't much of a secret, as even online price comparison sites are now starting to post details about the upcoming models. German Geizhals has posted details about Biostars B760A Silver motherboard and although the site doesn't have pictures of the board, it does provide a drawing from what appears to be the manual. As this is an entry level model, there isn't too much to get excited about, but it appears to be a decent enough board overall.

The B760A Silver sports four DDR5 DIMM slots, a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots, as well as three PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs and an M.2 for an optional Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card. Other features include an HDMI 2.1 and DP 1.2 port around the back, as well as 2.5 Gbps Ethernet and a 10 Gbps USB-C port. The board has a front header for another 10 Gbps USB-C port, but there's no support for a 20 Gbps USB-C port. Biostar has at least not been stingy with fan headers, as a total of six are spread out around the board and for those that like RGB lights, there are also three ARGB headers. Geizhals isn't listing any retailers stocking the board as yet, so we don't get any indication on the cost of the board.

TECNO, a global innovative technology brand with operations in over 70 markets, recently announced the latest MEGABOOK S1 at TECNO Flagship Product Launch 2022 in Dubai, delivering its first flagship laptop to users.

In 2019, TECNO announced new efforts in building a digital product ecosystem by launching its AIoT business strategy, aiming to deliver digital to every person, home, and organization and help them create a fully- connected smart digital lifestyle. Following this vision, as the upgraded line of MEGABOOK T1, the flagship MEGABOOK S1 highlights the concept of ideas that create wonders, targeting users in professional fields like business and the creative industries, helping them work with ease while still achieving a higher efficiency.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, today announced the ultimate overclocking motherboard Z790 AORUS TACHYON with the latest 13th gen Intel Core processors has smashed 10 world O.C. records including PCMark 7, 3D Mark…etc, as well as 16 GFP (Global First Place) of individual category test by different core numbers, and obtained 9 HFP (Hardware First Place) highest record in specific CPU ID vs. core count. Designed by world-famous overclocker, GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS TACHYON packs overclocker-exclusive features with top-quality components to become the dream motherboard for overclockers, which delivers unparalleled O.C performance with a more friendly and thoughtful interface to set its leading role on Z790 O.C. motherboards.

"It's inspiring that Z790 AORUS TACHYON breaks 10 overclocking world records and more than 20 various overclocking scores, which not only proves GIGABYTE's strong R&D strength but also demonstrates that GIGABYTE's devotion to providing formidable O.C motherboard. We believe this is just the beginning and will continue to create superior overclocking performance and records by Z790 AORUS TACHYON. We look forward to seeing more overclockers around the world using this motherboard to break more world records!" said Jackson Hsu, Director of the GIGABYTE Channel Solutions Product Development Division.

Intel is planning to refresh its desktop processor product stack with new "Raptor Lake Refresh" SKUs in Q3-2023, according to a leaked roadmap. At this point it's unclear if these are just new SKUs within the 13th Gen Core desktop product stack, or if they'll form the 14th Gen Core family, much in the same way as "Coffee Lake Refresh" formed the 9th Gen Core, replacing the 8th Gen Core "Coffee Lake." At this point we don't know what constitutes "Raptor Lake Refresh," but it provides Intel's product managers with the opportunity to increase CPU core-counts across the product stack without needing a new silicon (the Raptor Lake silicon has 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores), slightly higher clock-speeds, and other improvements. We don't know if this will herald a new CPU socket or platform at this point, either.

The most interesting item in this leaked roadmap slide has to be the reference to the "mainstream workstation" segment, with products in the 250 W TDP bracket. The so-called "Sapphire Rapids 64L" could be a cut-down version of the "Sapphire Rapids" enterprise processor on a new socket, backed by the Intel W790 chipset. The "64L" part of the codename could be a reference to its PCIe Gen 5 lane count of 64, which is less than the 112 available to the full "Sapphire Rapids" silicon in its W-3400 product-stack. It's unclear if these processors feature a Core X branding like their predecessors from the "Cascade Lake-X" family, or Xeon W. Besides fewer PCIe lanes, Intel could also segment these chips with fewer DDR5 memory channels, though both the PCIe and DDR5 connectivity will be much wider than those of the "Raptor Lake-S" mainstream desktop processors.

With Christmas fast approaching, a guide to holiday gift-giving is here. Shop the latest gift to get the greatest reaction. The Mini IT11 Mini PC is the newest member of the GEEKOM Mini series. Premium product. Premium gift. Prepare to buy the premium GEEKOM Mini IT11, which will be available on December 12, 2022. The GEEKOM Mini IT11 is ready to run Windows 11 Pro OS, delivering improved productivity and a personalized, intuitive user experience.

With a revolutionary microarchitecture with 4 Cores, 8 Threads, up to 12M Cache, and 5.00 GHz, the 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor delivers incredible power and responsiveness. Applications such as document creation, web surfing, rendering, video and image editing can take advantage of its high efficiency and superfast response speed. In combination with fast memory and massive storage, the GEEKOM Mini IT11 is powerful enough to handle even users' most demanding tasks and entertainment needs.

Intel is expanding its 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" desktop processor family with a number of new SKUs, led by the new flagship Core i9-13900KS. A leaked company slide confirmed the upper-end SKUs' specs. Led from the top, the new i9-13900KS packs the same 8P+16E (8 performance cores + 16 efficiency cores) configuration as the i9-13900K. It has a slightly higher 3.20 GHz base frequency compared to the 3.00 GHz of the i9-13900K, but boosts all the way up to 6.00 GHz, compared to 5.80 GHz of the i9-13900K. To ensure improved boost frequency residency, Intel bumped up the processor base power value from 125 W to 150 W, while leaving the maximum turbo power value untouched at 253 W.

We also see the specs of the non-K Core i9-13900 and Core i7-13700, which offer the same 8P+16E and 8P+8E core-configs as the i9-13900K and i9-13700K, respectively, but without unlocked multipliers. The i9-13900 ticks at 2.00 GHz with 5.60 GHz maximum turbo frequency, whereas the i7-13700 does 2.10 GHz base, with up to 5.20 GHz boost, compared to 3.40 GHz base and 5.40 GHz boost of the i7-13700K. As "locked" chips both have lower processor base power values of just 65 W, and maximum turbo power values of 219 W. Both these chips could include a cooling solution in the box, which is very likely the Laminar RH1 stock cooler that company includes with the i9-12900 and i9-12700. Intel is expected to announce these chips alongside a large number of 13th Gen Core i5 SKUs on January 3.

Intel Arc "Alchemist" graphics architecture was originally developed as a forward-facing PC GPU architecture with many of the contemporary graphics technologies, including full DirectX 12 Ultimate support, however, the GPU curiously lacks hardware support for DirectX 9. Released 20 years ago, DirectX 9 continued to power AAA PC titles well into the 2010s as game console development lagged (the era of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), and most e-sports titles of the time included either native or fallback DirectX 9 support for those on older GPUs. This is a problem for Intel, as many of the currently-popular e-Sports titles may still use DirectX 9, and so the Intel Graphics team set out to individually optimize DirectX 9 titles with each new Arc GPU driver release.

While Arc GPUs lack DirectX 9 support, foolproof API translation technologies exist, which convert DirectX 9 API instructions into DirectX 12. This is not fundamentally unlike how 32-bit applications work on 64-bit Windows (using WOW64 machine-architecture translation). This, however, requires per-game optimization to ensure any engine-level special features are correctly translated. With the latest 101.3959 Beta drivers, Intel optimized popular DirectX 9 titles "League of Legends," "Counter Strike: Global Offensive," "Starcraft 2," "Payday 2," "Guild Wars 2," "Stellaris," "NiZhan," and "Moonlight Blade." The company seems to be going about this the smart way, by relying on market analysis for selecting the games in need of optimization (understanding what DirectX 9 games are still being played).

Adding to its incredibly popular UP Xtreme product line, industry leader AAEON has announced the release of the UP Xtreme i12, the next generation developer board with 12th Generation Intel Core Processors (formerly Alder Lake-P). Improving upon the 11th Generation Intel Core Processor SoC of its predecessor, the UP Xtreme i11, AAEON's next-generation UP Xtreme i12 utilizes the 12 core, 16 thread hybrid architecture of 12th Generation Intel Core Processors, making it more energy-efficient despite possessing double the previous generation's thread count. With these improvements, the UP Xtreme i12 offers up to 20% greater CPU performance, while also hosting 32 GB onboard LPDDR5 system memory, which provides double the bandwidth and memory capacity of the previous generation.

The UP Xtreme i12's configuration of HDMI 2.0b, eDP 1.4, and two DP 1.4 slots give it the necessary tools to host four simultaneous 4K displays, alongside USB 4.0 and 2.5 GbE ports ensuring high-speed connectivity to peripheral cameras. Compounding this powerful, efficient function is the 2.47 x increase in graphics speed provided by Intel Iris Xe graphics, which makes the board an excellent candidate for smart retail deployments.