Yesterday, NVIDIA announced its next-generation Hopper architecture designed for data center applications and workloads. There is always a question of availability, as the previous period showed everyone that the supply chain is overbooked and semiconductors are in very high demand. During the Q&A press session today, NVIDIA's CEO, Jensen Huang, tried to answer as many questions as possible. However, an exciting topic arose regarding the potential collaboration with Intel. As a part of Intel's IDM 2.0 strategy, the company plans to offer its chip manufacturing capabilities to the third-party companies willing to make efforts and port their designs to Intel's semiconductor nodes. NVIDIA, one of the largest TSMC customers, could be a new Intel customer. Below, we compiled a few quotes that highlight Jensen Huang's opinions, taking the quotes from Tom's Hardware.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen HuangOur strategy is to expand our supply base with diversity and redundancy at every single layer. At the chip layer, at the substrate layer, the system layer, at every single layer. We've diversified the number of nodes, we've diversified the number of foundries, and Intel is an excellent partner of ours[…]. They're interested in us using their foundries, and we're very interested in exploring it. [...] I am encouraged by the work that is done at Intel, I think this is a direction they have to go, and we're interested in looking at their process technology. Our relationship with Intel is quite long; we work with them across a whole lot of different areas, every single PC, every single laptop, every single PC, supercomputer, we collaborate. [...] We have been working closely with Intel, sharing with them our roadmap long before we share it with the public, for years. Intel has known our secrets for years. AMD has known our secrets for years. We are sophisticated and mature enough to realize that we have to collaborate.[...] We share roadmaps, of course, under confidentiality and a very selective channel of communications. The industry has just learned how to work in that way.

Intel has published the most significant update to industry power supply specifications since the initial ATX 2.0 specs were introduced in 2003. Updated ATX 3.0 specifications unlock the full power and potential of next-generation hardware and upcoming components built for technologies like PCIe Gen 5.0. Intel has also revised its ATX12VO spec to provide the PC industry with an updated blueprint for designing power supply units (PSUs) and motherboards that reduce power draw at idle, helping customers lower electrical demand.

"Power supplies based on ATX 3.0 and ATX12VO 2.0 will ensure anyone looking to get the most stable and cost optimized performance possible with highest power efficiency out of their desktop PCs will be able to do so - both now and in the future, " said Stephen Eastman, Intel platform power specialist.

MSI, a world leader in computer hardware and solutions, has launched a new generation of revamped mobile workstations. In 2022, MSI rebranded its Workstation lineup to the CreatorPro series. The new series not only meets the needs of professional industries, but also makes the overall design more elegant with clean lines, accelerating business and individual studios with a variety of choices.

Driven by the latest NVIDIA RTX professional graphics, and the 12th gen Intel Core processors, the workstations are now capable of delivering up to 45% performance compared to previous models. The CreatorPro Series speeds up the rendering to guarantee greater visual accuracy and computing power. Whether users are working with large-scale complex modeling, processing big data analytics, rendering architectural blueprints or even experiencing high-fidelity VR content that demands stable frame-rates, MSI's mobile workstations ensure peak performance. Certified by ISV and tested at the highest level to pass MIL-spec standards, MSI Workstations allow users to take their productivity and portability to the next level.

TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products for home, businesses and enterprises, introduces the T12-423 12-bay professional compact NAS. Designed for small-sized and medium-sized businesses, the T12-423 comes equipped with a more powerful and efficient Intel Celeron quad-core processor for high-speed transmission and virtualization applications.

The TerraMaster T12-423 has 12 bays that support 3.5" HDDs and 2.5" SSD/HDDs, up to 240 TB of internal raw storage capacity. It has two M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs for SSD caching. This TNAS comes with 8 GB DDR4 SODIMM memory, upgradeable up to 32 GB (2x 16 GB) with its two SODIMM slots. It is also equipped with two 2.5GbE NICs with Link Aggregation support.

Dynabook Americas, Inc., formerly Toshiba PC Company, today announced that it has refreshed its performance-rich 14-inch Tecra A40-K and 15-inch Tecra A50-K laptops to benefit from new hybrid-architecture 12th Gen Intel Core P-Series 28 W processor options and Windows 11 Pro. "With more than 35 years of experience creating powerful, feature rich laptops for businesses, our engineers take the time to truly understand the computing pain points faced by professionals, as well as what they need and want in their laptops," said James Robbins, general manager, Dynabook Americas, Inc. "While productivity and portability remain top priorities, we've paid extra attention to making our Tecra laptops feel premium while maximizing their performance, durability and available features without compromising price competitiveness."

From the corner office to the local café, the 14-inch Tecra A40-K is a performance-rich laptop for today's work-from-anywhere professionals. Measuring just 18.9 mm thin, this laptop delivers a productivity-maximizing workspace with a vibrant 14-inch narrow-bezel display, webcam with privacy shutter, backlit keyboard, and large ClickPad with optional fingerprint reader. Offering next-level productivity with matching speed, and style, the 15-inch Tecra A50-K from Dynabook makes any place a productive workspace. Designed for the modern hybrid workplace, this laptop features a 19.9 mm thin chassis that houses an expansive 15.6-inch thin-bezel display, full-size backlit keyboard with 10-key, large ClickPad with optional fingerprint reader and webcam with privacy shutter.

We recently reported on the unnamed discrete Intel Arc Alchemist GPU found in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro. That listing has now been removed but Finnish retailer Proshop has posted two models of the upcoming Acer Swift X laptop featuring Intel Arc A370M graphics cards. The listings include a Core i5-1240P and Core i7-1260P model each featuring 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory and an Intel Arc A370M GPU available to pre-order for 1299 EUR and 1549 EUR respectively.

The Intel Arc A370M is based on the DG2-128EU GPU and is expected to feature 4 GB of VRAM on a 64-bit memory bus. The Intel Arc Alchemist discrete mobile graphics cards will be officially unveiled by Intel on March 30th with claims of a 2x performance improvement from the integrated 96EU Iris-XE GPU found in the Core i7-12700H. The Acer Swift X laptops are listed by Proshop as not being available until May 25th almost 2 months after the official announcement.

Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), a global leader in enterprise computing, storage, networking solutions, and green computing technology, has announced a revolutionary technology that simplifies large scale GPU deployments and is a future proof design that supports yet to be announced technologies. The Universal GPU server provides the ultimate flexibility in a resource-saving server.

The Universal GPU system architecture combines the latest technologies supporting multiple GPU form factors, CPU choices, storage, and networking options optimized together to deliver uniquely-configured and highly scalable systems. Systems can be optimized for each customer's specific Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and High-Performance Computing (HPC) applications. Organizations worldwide are demanding new options for their next generation of computing environments, which have the thermal headroom for the next generation of CPUs and GPUs.

Intel's Arc discrete lineup of graphics card are set to hit the notebook/laptop segment first, and today's discovery is no different. BHPhotoVideo, one of the largest US tech retailers, has posted a listing of Samsung's Galaxy Book2 Pro laptop, spotting Intel's Arc discrete graphics solution. According to the listing, this model was spotting an undisclosed Intel Arc Graphics, 2.1 GHz 12-core CPU, 16 GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory, 512 GB of NVMe PCIe Gen4 storage, 15.6-inch 1080p AMOLED display, WiFi-6E, and came in just 1.13 KG body weight. All of this is packed at 1349.99 USD, which is an early sign of the structure of laptop prices carrying Intel's Arc GPUs.

BHPhotoVideo has now taken down the website listing; however, we still have evidence thanks to the leaker, which you can see below. For more information regarding the exact SKU and more Arc Alchemist data, we have to wait for the March 30th launch.

According to Igor's Lab, Intel has listed a new product on its non-public ARK site that lists what appears to be a motherboard product with an Intel Arc GPU. The product listing is very peculiar, as it's listed as a graphics card, but the "family name" is DG2MB. It's also said to have a clock speed of 4 GHz, 16 MB of cache and a TDP of 200 W. None of this seems to add up in any sensible way and additional information provided by Igor, doesn't improve things, as the chip is using an FC-BGA16E packaging with a pin-count of 2660.

For those not familiar with Intel ARK, it's Intel's product specification website and there's a public version, as well as a version that only select Intel customers have access to and it's from the latter this information has been sourced. As to what this product could be, is anyone's guess at this point, but the MB in the model name suggests it might be some kind of embedded motherboard with an Intel CPU and GPU, possibly for some kind of NUC product.

SiFive, Inc., the founder and leader of RISC-V computing, today announced it has raised $175 million in a Series F financing round, valuing the company at over $2.5 billion. The Series F round was led by Coatue Management, a global technology investment firm that invests in companies at all stages - from venture to growth through public markets. SiFive is substantially accelerating the development of the company's RISC-V products, future roadmap, and ecosystem to achieve the unlimited potential that RISC-V has for SiFive's customers and partners.

Founded six years ago by the inventors of RISC-V, SiFive introduced the world to the open standard ISA and transformed the future of compute. Today, RISC-V is firmly established as one of the major global compute platforms, with adoption all around the world, as evidenced by recent industry announcements including the Intel $1B innovation fund, featuring a goal of catalyzing the RISC-V ecosystem. SiFive has design wins with more than 100 customers including several of the world's largest hyperscale companies and 8 of the top 10 semiconductor companies, in applications ranging from automotive, AR/VR, client computing, data center, and intelligent edge.

Intel's ambitious new flagship desktop processor, the Core i9-12900KS, started shipping to early customers before retail embargo. By this we don't mean enthusiasts with privileged ties to the company, but retailers. PC enthusiast DAGINATSUKO was able to purchase one online for roughly USD $790, before the store they purchased from took down the listing.

Pictures of the retail i9-12900KS reveal a darker-themed box than that of the i9-12900K, with "Special Edition" written on the front-face. The chip features an S-Spec code "SRLDD." We also learn a few interesting tidbits about the i9-12900KS from this source. Apparently, its processor base power (PBP) is set at 150 W, and its maximum turbo power (MTP) at 260 W. The standard i9-12900K comes with 125 W PBP and 241 W MTP. The increased power limits support a more aggressive boosting algorithm, with the maximum Turbo Boost clocks on the P-cores set at 5.50 GHz, compared to 5.20 GHz on the i9-12900K. The P-core base frequency is increased by 200 MHz, too, now at 3.40 GHz.

[Editor's note: We have posted our HYTE Y60 review here.]

HYTE, the new PC components, peripherals, and lifestyle brand of iBUYPOWER, today launched the new Y60 mid-tower PC case. Taking a new angle on design, the Y60 boasts a style unlike any other case available on the market.

The uniquely constructed Y60 ATX case features a three-part, bezel-less, tempered glass front and side panel that provides an unobstructed internal view from a left, right, or center orientation. When the glass panels are removed, chamfered molding on the ceiling and floor of the case draw the eye inward, creating a modern aesthetic and allowing the system to be displayed in an open-air format. Users will have the option to choose from three colorways, white and black, black and black, and red and black, to best fit the aesthetic of their setup.

Today Lenovo announced the latest additions to the ThinkPad portfolio: the X13 and X13 Yoga Gen 3, plus refreshed third generation ThinkPad L series laptops designed to empower a hybrid workforce with enhanced collaboration and connectivity features. Following the unveiling of the latest ThinkPad X1 and all-new Z series at CES, and more recently the innovative ThinkPad X13s and updated workhorse T series, refreshing ThinkPad X series and L series completes one of the most comprehensive business laptop portfolios available. Devised to offer customers the best choice, ThinkPad is built leveraging the core tenets of design, innovation and quality. Focused on enhancing the fundamental features that power hybrid working, the latest laptops deliver enhancements including Dolby Voice, FHD cameras, Wi-Fi 6E1, 5G sub6 and 4G LTE wireless WAN, and battery options on select models for the best choice between lightweight mobility and the flexibility of extended battery life.

With more distributed workforces, security remains the number one concern amongst IT decision makers. ThinkShield hardware and software protection that integrates a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) with Windows 11 Secured core PCs enhances security from every angle. Complementary security features embedded in Intel Hardware Shield available exclusively on Intel vPro platform-based devices or AMD Ryzen PRO 6000 Series processors with AMD PRO Security demonstrate the ThinkPad "secure by design" philosophy. Furthermore, ThinkPad is integrating the optional fingerprint reader into the power button for added convenience.

Intel today announced the first phase of its plans to invest as much as 80 billion euros in the European Union over the next decade along the entire semiconductor value chain - from research and development (R&D) to manufacturing to state-of-the art packaging technologies. Today's announcement includes plans to invest an initial 17 billion euros into a leading-edge semiconductor fab mega-site in Germany, to create a new R&D and design hub in France, and to invest in R&D, manufacturing and foundry services in Ireland, Italy, Poland and Spain. With this landmark investment, Intel plans to bring its most advanced technology to Europe, creating a next-generation European chip ecosystem and addressing the need for a more balanced and resilient supply chain.

Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, said: "Our planned investments are a major step both for Intel and for Europe. The EU Chips Act will empower private companies and governments to work together to drastically advance Europe's position in the semiconductor sector. This broad initiative will boost Europe's R&D innovation and bring leading-edge manufacturing to the region for the benefit of our customers and partners around the world. We are committed to playing an essential role in shaping Europe's digital future for decades to come."

The output value of the world's top 10 foundries in 4Q21 reached US$29.55 billion, or 8.3% growth QoQ, according to TrendForce's research. This is due to the interaction of two major factors. One is limited growth in overall production capacity. At present, the shortage of certain components for TVs and laptops has eased but there are other peripheral materials derived from mature process such as PMIC, Wi-Fi, and MCU that are still in short supply, precipitating continued fully loaded foundry capacity. Second is rising average selling price (ASP). In the fourth quarter, more expensive wafers were produced in succession led by TSMC and foundries continued to adjust their product mix to increase ASP. In terms of changes in this quarter's top 10 ranking, Nexchip overtook incumbent DB Hitek to clinch 10th place.

TrendForce believes that the output value of the world's top ten foundries will maintain a growth trend in 1Q22 but appreciation in ASP will still be the primary driver of said growth. However, since there are fewer first quarter working days in the Greater China Area due to the Lunar New Year holiday and this is the time when some foundries schedule an annual maintenance period, 1Q22 growth rate will be down slightly compared to 4Q21.

After months of rumors and speculations, it looks like we are finally going to receive official information from Intel regarding the exact country the company plans to do semiconductor R&D and manufacturing in within Europe. Today, the company published its media alert post, showing that we are finally going to receive exact information tomorrow. As we have previously reported, the current round of suggestions led to Intel building a fab inside Germany; however, it still remains to be confirmed. Once the information is out, we are going to report on it and finally see where team blue is headed next. You can find the announcement below.

As part of its IDM 2.0 strategy, Intel is committed to investing in research and development (R&D) capabilities and manufacturing capacity to meet the surging demand for advanced semiconductors and to build a more resilient, globally balanced supply chain.

Join a webcast with CEO Pat Gelsinger where he will share details of Intel's latest plans for in semiconductor R&D and manufacturing in Europe.

When: 6 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. CET), Tuesday, March 15
Where: Watch live on the Intel Newsroom.
Event Replay: A video replay will be available on the Intel Newsroom following the webcast.

Less than 24 hours after Apple's launch event, the first Geekbench numbers for the new Apple M1 Ultra CPU are out and the numbers are interesting to say the least. For starters, the system the Geekbench numbers are from, is the top of the range 20 Core SKU with 128 GB of RAM. This helps us get some additional insight into Apple's new CPUs. As Apple didn't provide much in technical terms yesterday, nor on its website, we now know that the clock speed of the M1 Ultra is the same 3.2 GHz as the regular M1. It also appears that the CPU cache remains the same, even though Geekbench is only listing the cache of the efficiency cores for some reason.

Although Geekbench isn't a reliable cross-platform benchmark, we do at least get an idea of how the new SoC from Apple performs. The single core performance is more or less on par with the Apple M1 Max, but loses out quite easily to Intel's Alder Lake processors. However, once we move to the multi-threaded test, the M1 Ultra really shows what it's capable of. Surprisingly the performance scaling is almost linear with the double of performance CPU cores compared to the M1 Max, which suggests that Apple's multi-chip module design is extremely capable. The interesting thing will be to see how well this design scales for GPU intensive applications. Stepping outside of the Apple ecosystem, the M1 Ultra ends up somewhere around an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X in terms of multi-core performance. Scaling over some of the detailed tests aren't somewhere between 80-90 percent depending on the particular test compared to the M1 Max, if we compare to the faster results on Geekbench, which is still quite impressive considering we're looking at two M1 Max CPUs that are technically glued together.

In-person events are slowly getting back together, and Intel is one of the first to grab tech media's attention with the Intel Vision 2022 conference announcement. Schedule for two days in a row, May 10th and May 11th, Intel's 2022 Vision conference looks like a teaser for some exciting news. The company is expected to present some business insights, hold keynotes, breakout sessions, technology showcases, demos, and exhibitions from sponsors and partners. It requires registration, which is a paid fee of $899 until April 11th, and $1499 after that for in-person seats; however, it is free for digital visitors.

Earlier today, we reported about Intel's plans to release Arc Alchemist discrete graphics card lineup sometime between May and June, so this could be one of the days the company selects for official product launch. We are still not sure about that, so please take those thoughts with a grain of salt. Be sure to tune in and see what Intel plans to do in the future.

Intel is reportedly targeting early-Summer (May-June) for the launch of its ambitious attempt at AAA gaming graphics cards for desktops, the Arc "Alchemist" series, based on the Xe-HPG graphics architecture, according to a report by Igor's Lab. Product launches are expected anywhere between May 2 and June 1, so one could expect some market availability within Summer. The Arc "Alchemist" series is designed to be sold through a handful board partners Intel already has strong industry relations with. The Arc "Alchemist" lineup will initially target four market segments, including the performance segment, meant for maxed out AAA gaming, with XeSS possibly even enabling 4K Ultra HD gameplay. Intel's entry to the gaming graphics space is expected to introduce an element of competitive pressure against both NVIDIA and AMD, as the company has the financial muscle to keep investing in this market if it tastes success with "Alchemist."

ASRock Industrial launches a new range of industrial motherboards powered by 12th Gen Intel Core Processors (Alder Lake-S) with up to 16 cores and 24 threads, supporting the new Intel 600 Series W680, Q670, and H610 chipsets. Featuring high computing power with performance hybrid architecture and enhanced AI capabilities, rich IOs and expansions for up to quad displays 4K@60 Hz, USB 3.2 Gen2x2 (20 Gbit/s), triple Intel 2.5 GbE LANs with real-time TSN, multi M.2 Key M, ECC memory, plus TPM 2.0, and wide voltage support. The new series covers comprehensive form factors, including industrial Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, and ATX motherboards for diverse applications, such as factory automation, kiosks, digital signage, smart cities, medical, and Edge AIoT applications.

With the exponential growth of data in the world today, coupled with the shift from centralized clusters of compute and data storage to a more distributed architecture that processes data everywhere—in the cloud, at the edge, and at all points in between—Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are taking on an increasingly important role in modern applications from the data center to the network to the edge. The flexibility, power efficiency, massively parallel architecture, and huge input/output (I/O) bandwidth make FPGAs attractive for accelerating a wide range of tasks from high-performance computing (HPC) to storage and networking. Many of these applications put enormous demands on memory, including capacity, bandwidth, latency and power efficiency.

To handle these high-demand applications, Intel today introduced product details for the Intel Agilex M-Series FPGAs, built on Intel 7 process technology, the industry's highest memory bandwidth FPGAs with in-package HBM DRAM. The Intel Agilex M-Series incorporates several new functional innovations and features that provide the industry with the high-speed networking, computing and memory acceleration required to meet ever-more ambitious performance and capability goals for networks, cloud and embedded edge applications.

Intel and AMD will be releasing new CPUs that support DDR5 DRAM solutions for PCs and servers this year. In response, the DRAM industry led by South Korean suppliers is developing solutions to complement the arrival of the new CPUs. In the midst of the gradual shift to DDR5, DRAM suppliers will also scale back the supply of DDR3 solutions, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. With Korean suppliers accelerating their withdrawal from DDR3 production, Taiwanese suppliers yet to kick off mass production using newly installed capacities, and Chinese suppliers falling short of their expected yield rate, the global supply of DDR3 solutions will undergo an impending decline. With respect to the demand side, however, not only has the supply of networking chips been ramping up, but material shortage issues are also gradually easing. As such, buyers are now procuring DDR3 solutions ahead of time, resulting in a tight supply and demand situation in the DDR3 market. TrendForce therefore expects DDR3 DRAM prices to recover from a bearish first quarter and undergo a 0-5% QoQ increase in 2Q22.

Unless you have been living under a rock, chances are you are following the news about the Russia-Ukraine war disputes. Not to get too political, we are here to report about your favorite rivals—AMD and Intel—officially stopping the delivery of processors to Russia and Belarus. Firstly, an AMD representative told PCWorld that "Based on sanctions placed on Russia by the United States and other nations, at this time AMD is suspending its sales and distribution of our products into Russia and Belarus. It is all AMD products and products we power (PCs, etc) in Russia and Belarus." Additionally, Intel posted an official quote, which you can find below.

IntelIntel condemns the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and we have suspended all shipments to customers in both Russia and Belarus. Our thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by this war, including the people of Ukraine and the surrounding countries and all those around the world with family, friends and loved ones in the region.

"We are working to support all of our employees through this difficult situation, especially those with close ties to this region. We have launched an employee donation and matching campaign through the Intel Foundation that has already raised over $1.2 million for relief efforts, and we are proud of the work our teams in surrounding areas including Poland, Germany and Romania are doing to aid refugees. We will continue to stand with the people of Ukraine and the global community in calling for an immediate end to this war and a swift return to peace.

Intel today launched its 12th Gen Core Processors with vPro. Released across the company's mobile and desktop product lines, these processors are targeted at pre-built commercial desktops and commercial notebooks that companies typically issue their employees, which come with a host of security and remote-management features suitable to a large corporate environment. With this generation, Intel is bringing vPro to even more market segments, including ultraportables designed under the Intel Evo banner; a new breed of enterprise-grade Chromebooks for businesses built entirely on the Chrome OS platform and cloud-based apps; and for the first time, an SMB version of vPro called vPro Essentials, which will make it to entry-level Core i5 processors with vPro.

Security, Productivity, and Future-readiness form the three areas in which Intel innovated for 12th Gen Core processors with vPro. The company added new capabilities for Threat Detection Technology, which can detect ransomware and supply-chain attacks, and can work with various endpoint security software. Intel Hardware Shield technology prevents attacks from "below" the software (below ring-0, or at the firmware, microcode, or hardware levels). This is achieved through hardware-accelerated virtualization and encryption of the entire software environment. Hardware-based protections extend to vPro Enterprise for Chrome.

Dynabook Americas, Inc., formerly Toshiba PC Company, today announced the all-new Portégé X40L-K, a hyperlight 14-inch modern laptop that takes premium, high-performance computing to new extremes. The Portégé X40L-K is among the first wave of new laptops from Dynabook to benefit from the enhanced performance, efficiency and security offered by hybrid architecture 12th Gen Intel Core P-Series 28 W processors, LPDDR5 memory and Windows 11 Pro.

"The all-new Intel Evo based Portégé X40L-K is truly a masterpiece every way you look at it and serves as an impressive demonstration of Dynabook's nearly four decades of experience in engineering premium laptops for mobile professionals," said James Robbins, General Manager, Dynabook Americas, Inc. "It's compact, powerful, durable, uniquely stylish, and secure. While all impressive, none of these qualities sum up the magic of this laptop. You must hold it to truly appreciate the incredible engineering and craftsmanship that went into making it the lightest and highest-performing 14-inch laptop in our history."