A few days ago, we reported a strange Intel Core i5-12490F processor that appeared in the Chinese marketplace. The processor uses the C0 silicon that Intel sits on a pile of and repurposes it to make these odd chips for Asian markets. As we found out, this C0 silicon is a heavily cut-down version, with only six high-performance P-cores present. Compared to the regular Core i5-12400F, it has a bigger L3 cache arriving at 20 MB and slightly higher clock speeds where the base stands at 3.0 G and a boost frequency that manages to ramp up to 4.6 GHz. As a reference, the regular Core i5-12400F has 18 MB of L3 cache, a base frequency of 2.5 GHz, and a boost speed of 4.4 GHz.

Thanks to the early benchmarks, we have the performance numbers in two cases where Intel's Core i5-12490F model is compared to the regular Core i5-12400F. According to the GeekBench data, the first case proves that higher clock speeds of the strange processor, coupled with higher L3 cache, prove to be of help as the single-threaded performance grows by 10%. In comparison, the multi-threaded results show an even more considerable improvement at 15%. The second test shows smaller margins compared to the Core i5-12500, where the Core i5-12490F processor now only leads by 2.5% and 5% in single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads, respectively. This indicates that we have to wait for more benchmarks to see how this design stands in the Alder Lake family and see just how big of an improvement comes from higher frequencies and bigger L3 cache.

j5create, a world leader in high tech computer accessories, and Intel, the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips, are working together to develop one of the worlds' first USB4 multi-port adapters. USB4 is the latest USB specification offering several improvements over legacy USB-C adapters including higher transfer speeds, more efficient bandwidth allocation between data and display protocols, as well as backward compatibility with older USB and Thunderbolt specifications.

"We're thrilled to work with Intel to bring the latest USB peripherals to market." said Steven Lyu, Chief Operating Officer at j5create. "We are always innovating to deliver high-performance solutions users have been anticipating through a variety of products, technologies, and design collaborations." The USB4 multi-port adapters will be one of the first to incorporate the latest Intel USB4 controller, offering Thunderbolt compatibility and USB legacy support. Set to release in Q1 2022, these USB4 multi-port adapters provide efficient and dynamic bandwidth allocation up to 20 Gbps and dual 4K video support in addition to high-speed peripheral ports.

Intel released the substantive portion of its 12th Generation Core, Pentium, and Celeron desktop processors to the retail market, based on the latest "Alder Lake" architecture. The part that's making the most waves is the Core i5-12400, a 6-core/12-thread part that only features "Golden Cove" P-cores (no E-cores or the software-optimization issues they bring). The i5-12400/F, i5-12500, and i5-12600, are based on the "H0" die of "Alder Lake-S," which physically only features six "Golden Cove" P-cores, no "Gracemont" E-core clusters, and only has 18 MB of L3 cache. The larger "C0" die is used across the i5-12600K, Core i7 and Core i9 chips, physically has 8 "Golden Cove" P-cores, 8 "Gracemont" E-cores across two E-core clusters, and 30 MB of L3 cache. It's important to lay out this piece of information to understand what Intel did with the new Core i5-12490F processor that's spotted in markets across Asia.

Apparently Intel is sitting on a pile of "C0" dies, and decided to create the i5-12490F. This chip has 6 "Golden Cove" P-cores, no E-cores, but 20 MB of L3 cache; and is based on a heavily cut-down "C0" silicon. As an "F" SKU, it also disables the iGPU on the silicon. The clocks set are 3.00 GHz nominal, and 4.60 GHz boost, compared to 2.50 GHz nominal, and 4.40 GHz boost of the i5-12400/F, and identical clock speeds to the i5-12500. It's quite puzzling how the "H0" based i5-12500 is differentiated from this chip, given its lower 18 MB L3 cache amount. The base power value is set at 65 W, with maximum turbo power at 117 W. The i5-12490F can hence be simulated using an i5-12600K.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions today announced AORUS RGB DDR5 6000 MHz 32 GB Memory Kit, which uplift frequency to 6000 MHz with RGB lighting for performance boost and striking accents. Enhanced by DDR5 XMP Booster and XMP 3.0 User Profile of GIGABYTE Z690 motherboards, and copper-aluminium heat spreaders with nano-carbon coating thermal design, the new memory kit promises the next-level performance with stability while dissipating heat efficiently under high-speed operation.

AORUS RGB DDR5 6000 MHz 32 GB Memory Kit features high clock speed and low power consumption by two 16 GB DDR5 XMP 6000 MHz dual-channel designs with 40-40-40-76 timings, which fit the support of DDR5 memory on Intel Z690 platform. Along with GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS motherboards, AORUS RGB DDR5 6000 MHz 32 GB memory kit can enable "DDR5 XMP Booster" function which detect the brand of memory IC in the BIOS setting to allow users to choose promptly from multiple built-in memory overclocking profiles, boosting the native DDR5 or XMP DDR5 memory speed. Furthermore, "XMP 3.0 User Profile" enables users to create and store XMP profiles of their own to unleash the extreme performance of memories.

From its inception, Lenovo Legion wanted to make the modern gaming experience immersive, as well as more inclusive. At CES 2022, Lenovo Legion once again delivers on its pursuit of unyielding play and productivity to gamers of every generation and content creators, who can now all universally enjoy premium entertainment and play from home battle stations, dorms, esports arenas - or practically anywhere, and look good doing it too.

Lenovo's first batch of 2022 battle-ready PCs, monitors, accessories and gamer-focused software and services unveiled today, which include the powerful 16-inch Lenovo Legion 5i Pro and Lenovo Legion 5 Pro laptops and the polished 15-inch Lenovo Legion 5i and Lenovo Legion 5 laptops. The new gaming laptops come available with Windows 11 gaming performance, next-gen AMD Ryzen processors, or latest 12th Gen Intel Core processors and up to latest fully powered NVIDIA GeForce RTX Laptop GPUs. Inspired by gamer research, these new devices celebrate 'magical minimalism' design and denote a leap towards a contemporary aesthetic with purposeful detailing like an uncluttered wordmark, expressive venting, and immersive lighting. A top-placed camera bump with eShutter kill switch and rear port protection convey a sleek look of power and performance that helps to create a more inclusive experience focused on player enjoyment and winning, not labels. Paired with exclusives beloved by Legion fans such as the advanced thermals of next-level Legion Coldfront 4.0, the hair-trigger speeds and improved ergonomics of Legion TrueStrike keyboard, and optimized tuning via Lenovo Vantage for gaming.

Razer, the world's leading lifestyle brand for gamers, today unveiled its vision for the future of gaming and home computing with Project Sophia, the world's first true gaming desk concept, and the Enki Pro HyperSense, an advanced gaming chair with built-in high-fidelity haptics. Created by Razer's visionary R&D department, both Project Sophia and the Enki Pro HyperSense introduce new innovative solutions to level up any home setup.

With working from home more widespread than ever, many people find it a challenge to configure their set-ups for the multiple different uses required of their systems throughout the day. From being a pure office productivity set-up through to a gaming, streaming or editing suite, each use has a host of extra peripherals and devices to enhance and improve that experience.

The leading global motherboard manufacturer, ASRock, reveals Z690 Taichi Razer Edition, a Razer Chroma RGB integrated motherboard paired with innovation and craftsmanship, poised to perfect Chroma RGB ecosystem on the latest 12th Gen Intel Core desktop processors, and illuminate the strong relationship between ASRock and Razer.

Razer Chroma RGB is the world's largest lighting ecosystem for gaming devices which supports over 500 devices, 150 natively integrated games and over 15 million users worldwide. The integration with ASROCK enables universal compatibility with thousands of addressable RGB (ARGB) components directly into the ecosystem.

congatec - a leading vendor of embedded and edge computing technology - introduces the 12th Generation Intel Core mobile and desktop processors (formerly code named Alder Lake) on 10 new COM-HPC and COM Express Computer-on-Modules. Featuring the latest high performance cores from Intel, the new modules in COM-HPC Size A and C as well as COM Express Type 6 form factors offer major performance gains and improvements for the world of embedded and edge computing systems. Most impressive is the fact that engineers can now leverage Intel's innovative performance hybrid architecture. Offering of up to 14 cores/20 threads on BGA and 16 cores/24 threads on desktop variants (LGA mounted), 12th Gen Intel Core processors provide a quantum leap [1] in multitasking and scalability levels. Next-gen IoT and edge applications benefit from up to 6 or 8 (BGA/LGA) optimized Performance-cores (P-cores) plus up to 8 low power Efficient-cores (E-cores) and DDR5 memory support to accelerate multithreaded applications and execute background tasks more efficiently.

Today at CES 2022, Intel announced the world's fastest mobile processor, bringing its performance hybrid architecture to mobile platforms for the first time with new 12th Gen Intel Core mobile processors that are up to 40 percent faster than the previous generation mobile processor. Intel introduced 28 new 12th Gen Intel Core mobile processors that deliver a feature-rich suite of capabilities to create laptops for people to compute whenever and wherever they need - without compromise.

With the introduction of the full 12th Gen Intel Core desktop processor lineup, the 12th Gen Intel Core processor family also represents the company's most scalable lineup to date, powering designs across consumer, enterprise, the Internet of Things (IoT) and other applications. "Intel's new performance hybrid architecture is helping to accelerate the pace of innovation and the future of compute," said Gregory Bryant, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Client Computing Group. "And, with the introduction of 12th Gen Intel Core mobile processors, we are unlocking new experiences and setting the standard of performance with the fastest processor for a laptop—ever."

Today as part of CES 2022, Intel demonstrated advancements and momentum with Mobileye, progress toward discrete graphics leadership and the launch of the newest members of the 12th Gen Intel Core family. With these milestones, Intel furthers its commitment to enable the industry and its customers and partners to harness the technology superpowers - ubiquitous computing, cloud-to-edge infrastructure, pervasive connectivity and artificial intelligence - at the heart of the digital transformation.

During the Intel news conference, Gregory Bryant, executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group, was joined by Lisa Pearce, vice president of the Visual Compute Group, and Prof. Amnon Shashua, Mobileye CEO, to share Intel's progress across multiple strategic businesses. "The Intel execution engine is back. From advancing the PC to high-performance graphics to autonomous driving solutions, Intel and Mobileye are proud to create new ecosystems and opportunities across multiple industries," Bryant said. "Together with our partners and customers, we are driving new innovation across products, platforms and services, and delivering on our vision of enabling world-changing technology that improves the lives of every person on the planet."

Intel today is announcing a slew of new client computing products to kick-start the 2022 International CES. The "Alder Lake" CPU architecture now reaches the biggest class of consumers—notebooks, as well as mainstream desktops. In the mobile space, the company is announcing 12th Gen Core-H processors in the 35 W to 45 W segments with up to 14 CPU cores (6 P-cores and 8 E-cores); and new Core-U in the 15-28 W and 9 W categories; with up to 10 CPU cores (2 P-cores and 8 E-cores), as it detailed in older presentations of the architecture. We also expect the company to flesh out its Socket LGA1700 Core desktop processor lineup with new models across all four brands, and possibly even the entry-level. We're also expecting big announcements to the company's notebook co-engineering initiative, EVO.18:01 UTC: Gregory Bryant takes center stage.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers (Hong Kong Stock Code: 1337), is kicking off 2022 with new Razer Blade gaming laptop models including the Razer Blade 14, Razer Blade 15, and Razer Blade 17. The world's fastest laptops for gamers and creators are equipped with the recently announced NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptop GPUs, up to an RTX 3080 Ti, making the new Blades better than ever, now shipping with Windows 11. All new Razer Blade gaming laptops now also include groundbreaking DDR5 memory, providing blistering clock speeds up to 4800 MHz, an increase in frequency by up to 50% compared to the previous generation.

"The Razer Blade series continues to be the best gaming laptop by providing desktop-class performance on-the-go," says Travis Furst, Senior Director of Razer's Systems business unit. "Additionally, we've enabled creators to work anywhere with gorgeous displays, available NVIDIA Studio drivers, and up to 14-Core CPUs. Users will have the ability to choose any model or configuration that best fits their gaming or creating needs, while getting the latest and greatest in graphics, memory and processing technology."

Earlier today, AMD's upcoming mobile CPUs leaked and now it's Intels turn, as its soon to be announced 12th Gen Alder Lake mobile parts in the H and U-series have both leaked, courtesy of VideoCardz. These will be Intel's first mobile CPUs with efficiency cores and every single SKU gets at least four of them. When it comes to performance cores, things are a lot more complex, as we're looking at everything from six performance cores, to a mere one for the Pentium and Celeron parts.

Starting with the H-series chips, Intel is set to release a pair of Core i9 parts, three Core i7 parts and three Core i5 parts. The Core i9's have 14 cores, divided between six performance cores and eight efficiency cores and a total of 20 threads. Intel is aiming for the same 5 GHz max turbo frequency as AMD, but Intel's max GPU frequency is a lot lower at a mere 1.45 GHz, compared to 2.4 GHz for AMD's parts. The Core i7's have two nearly identical SKUs, just with lower clock frequencies, but also a 10 core version, that loses four of the efficiency cores and gets a weaker GPU. The Core i5 parts start at 12 cores, of which four are performance cores, with the last SKU only having a total core count of eight. Oddly enough the two higher-end Core i5's have a more powerful GPU than the lowest tier Core i7. All H-series CPUs have a 45 W base TDP, with a boost TDP of between 95 and 115 W.

AMD's next-generation Ryzen "Raphael" processor could launch only in the second half of 2022, confirms a leaked company slide scored by VideoCardz. The slide points to a Ryzen 5000X3D series product-stack update within the 1H-2022. These are Socket AM4 processors that leverage the company's updated "Zen 3(+)" CPU core die (CCD), which features 64 MB of 3D Vertical cache memory in addition to 32 MB of L3. AMD claims that 3DV Cache technology significantly improves performance akin to a generational update (anywhere between 5% to 25% depending on the application). The company is targeting "Spring" 2022 for launch, which would put this around early-Q2.

The "Raphael" Socket AM5 processor is sure to catch much of the attention, as it's the company's true next-gen desktop product. It heralds Socket AM5, a new LGA-based socket; and next-generation connectivity that includes DDR5 memory and PCI-Express Gen 5. The CCDs of these processors are built on the TSMC N5 (5 nm) silicon fabrication node, and are based on the "Zen 4" microarchitecture. The leaked slide shows the first grainy picture of Socket AM5, with a retention mechanism not unlike what we're used to, on the Intel platform. We're hearing rumors that AM5 will somehow manage cooler-compatibility with AM4 despite the radical redesign to the socket. An H2-2022 launch would put "Raphael" close to Intel's 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" launch, as team blue hopes to return to an annual IPC-uplift cadence, with up to 8 "Raptor Cove" P-cores, and 16 "Gracemont" E-cores.

For a significant period, Intel's Next Unit of Computing (NUC) series has featured soldered processors on the PC's motherboard. However, according to the latest leaks from Twitter hardware leaker @9550pro, we have a potential Alder Lake-based NUC featuring desktop processor versions and a dedicated LGA1700 socket. As the leaked image shows, it looks like Intel's NUC 12 Extreme edition will feature an LGA1700 socket that features support for desktop-class of Alder Lake processors. If this leak is correct, we could see a compelling NUC solution filled with Intel-only processors, meaning an Alder Lake CPU and Arc Alchemist discrete graphics card.

There is room for PCIe expansion, which means that theoretically, you could connect any GPU to the mainboard. However, it is natural to assume that Intel could force their own GPU SKUs to launch this mini PC. We have to wait and see what Intel presents at tomorrow's CES 2022 event for more information.

Intel is reportedly disabling the rudimentary AVX-512 instruction-set support on its 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" processors using a firmware/ME update, reports Igor's Lab. Intel does not advertise AVX-512 for Alder Lake, even though the instruction-set was much publicized for a couple of its past-generation client-segment chips, namely 11th Gen Rocket Lake, and 10th Gen Cascade Lake-X HEDT processors. The company will likely make AVX-512 a feature that sets apart its next-gen HEDT processors derived from Sapphire Rapids, its upcoming enterprise microarchitecture.

AVX-512 is technically not advertised for Alder Lake, but software that calls for these instructions can utilize them on certain 12th Gen Core processors, when paired with older versions of the Intel ME firmware. The ME version Intel releases to OEMs and motherboard vendors alongside its upcoming 65 W Core desktop processors, and the Alder Lake-P mobile processors, will prevent AVX-512 from being exposed to the software. Intel's reason to deprecate what little client-relevant AVX-512 instructions it had for Core processors, could have do with energy efficiency, as much as lukewarm reception from client software developers. The instruction is more relevant to the HPC and cloud-computing markets.Many Thanks to TheoneandonlyMrK for the tip.

With less than a week to the expected announcement for the rest of Intel's Alder Lake family of CPUs, as well as accompanying motherboards, pricing has leaked on a few ASUS B660 and H610 motherboards from a somewhat more unusual location, namely Ecuador. Courtesy of @harukaze5719, who tends to leak all sorts of things on Twitter, we now have a rough idea of what some of ASUS' upcoming motherboards will cost.

The models leaked are the Prime B660M-A WIFI D4, Prime B660M-A D4 and Prime H610M-E D4, all of which are fairly basic models and maybe the most noteworthy thing about them is how little you get for your money. The Prime B660M-A WIFI D4 is listed for US$191.11, which includes 12 percent VAT, although the official currency in Ecuador is US dollars. That said, electronics are normally more pricey in Ecuador than the US, so this should also be taken into account here.

Remember that US$10 billion incentive India approved earlier this month? Well, it looks like India is planning on using at least some of that incentive to win over Intel, as the Indian Minister for IT and Electronics, Ashwini Vaishnaw welcomed Intel to India in a tweet the other day. Some news outlets seem to have taken this tweet as an agreement has already been struck, but this doesn't seem very likely, as Intel hasn't provided any kind of comment on the topic.

That said, the Indian incentive will pay for up to 50 percent of the cost of building a new fab, which we know isn't pocket change, considering that a cutting edge fab can easily cost in excess of US$10 billion. However, it seems highly unlikely that Intel would build a chip fab in India, based on the requirements for such a fab, not only in terms of logistics, but also when it comes to power and water supplies and least not a suitable labour force. What might happen is that Intel sets up something like a chip packaging plant there in the future, much like what it's planning to potentially do in Italy and that the company is expanding in Malaysia.

The Intel Laminar RM1 stock cooler has recently been tested with the Core i5-12400 by Chinese news site 163. The RM1 will be included with the upcoming Intel 12th Generation Core 65 W Core i3, i5, and i7 processors including the i5-12400. This mid-tier cooler positioned underneath the Laminar RH1 doesn't feature LED illumination instead opting for a blue colored ring. The cooler was tested by running the AIDA64 FPU stress test for 8 minutes where the i5-12400 reached a maximum reported temperature of 73°C with an average of 70°C. The processor drew a peak of 89 W with an average of 81 W while the RM1 fan reached a speed of 3100 RPM which was described as audible by the tester. The Intel Laminar stock coolers will be announced alongside the new 12th Generation Alder Lake-S desktop processors on January 4th.

SK hynix today announced that it has completed the first phase of the transaction to acquire Intel's NAND and solid-state drive (SSD) business. Following the recent merger clearance from China's State Administration for Market Regulation on Dec. 22, SK hynix closed the first phase of the transaction by acquiring Intel's SSD business and the Dalian NAND flash manufacturing facility in China. In exchange, SK hynix will pay US $7 billion in consideration.

In the second phase of the transaction, SK hynix will acquire from Intel the remaining assets in relation to its NAND business, including IP related to the manufacture and design of NAND flash wafers, R&D employees for NAND flash wafers, the Dalian facility workforce, and the other associated tangible / intangible assets. Closing of the second phase is expected to occur in or after March 2025 with the remaining payment of US $2 billion, which will complete the entire deal.

In a very confusing move, Intel has informed its suppliers that it won't accept components that have been made in or by labour from the Xinjiang Province in China, only to turn around almost instantly and apologise to China for the fact that it has done so. That said, Intel doesn't appear to have changed its mind, the company simply apologised due to the backlash from Chinese citizens, who are threatening to boycott Intel products.

Part of the reasoning behind the ban of components from the Xinjiang Province is said to be due to US laws and is apparently not entirely in line with Intel's own views on the situation. A statement from Intel said "We apologize for the distress caused to our esteemed Chinese customers, partners and the general public," although it's unclear if this is going to be enough to calm the Chinese public, which tend to be able to stir up quite a lot of trouble for foreign companies in China that are seem to be anti China.

Although Intel has already announced that it won't be making any decision with regards to its investments in Europe this year, new rumours courtesy of Reuters are now suggesting that Intel is eyeing Italy for an investment of €4 to €8 billion for a new, advanced semiconductor chip packaging plant. This largely leaves Germany and France as the options for Intel's so called "megafab" that the company is planning to build in Europe over the next few years.

Intel has already said it would invest around US$7 billion for a similar chip packaging plan in Penang, Malaysia, a location where Intel already has a chip packaging facility. When contacted by Reuters, Intel said "We are encouraged by the many possibilities to support the EU's digital agenda and 2030 semiconductor ambitions. While current negotiations are ongoing and confidential, we plan to make an announcement as soon as possible." The Italian government is also said to have some concerns with regards to how many jobs the plant will actually create, as well as what the energy costs will be, which could throw a spanner in the works if Intel doesn't provide the right answers.

XPG, a fast-growing provider of systems, components, and peripherals for Gamers, Esports Pros, and Tech Enthusiasts, today announces it will be on location in Las Vegas during the 2022 CES show (Jan. 5-8). Under the theme of 'Dawn of a New Xtreme,' it will be showing off the latest products from XPG and ADATA including gaming systems, peripherals, accessories, and components, such as the newest DDR5 memory, PCIe 5.0 solid state drives (SSD) and the latest state-of-the-art Platinum PSU.

XPG's and ADATA are gearing up to bring next-generation performance to gamers and other users with its latest PCIe Gen5x 4 SSDs and DDR5 DRAM. At the booth, visitors will get a first look at the XPG LANCER RGB DDR5 and CASTER RGB DDR5 that deliver next-level performance of up to 6000 MT/s and 7000 MT/s, respectively. ADATA's industrial-grade DDR5-4800 U/SO/R-DIMM memory with on-die ECC & PMIC will also be on display.

SK hynix Inc. today announced that it has received merger clearance from the Chinese antitrust authority, State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) for its acquisition of Intel NAND and SSD business. With SAMR's merger clearance SK hynix has received all required merger clearances in eight jurisdictions from the relevant competition authorities.

SK hynix will continue to prepare to close the transaction including achieving all of the closing conditions. The consideration for the 1st Closing is USD 7 billion. Upon the 1st Closing, SK hynix will acquire the Intel SSD business (including SSD-associated IP and employees) and Dalian facility. SK hynix sincerely welcomes and appreciates SAMR's merger clearance for the deal. SK hynix will enhance its competitiveness of NAND Flash and SSD business by continuing the remaining post-merger integration process.

Intel today released oneAPI 2022 toolkits. Newly enhanced toolkits expand cross-architecture features to provide developers greater utility and architectural choice to accelerate computing. "I am impressed by the breadth of more than 900 technical improvements that the oneAPI software engineering team has done to accelerate development time and performance for critical application workloads across Intel's client and server CPUs and GPUs. The rich set of oneAPI technologies conforms to key industry standards, with deep technical innovations that enable applications developers to obtain the best possible run-time performance from the cloud to the edge. Multi-language support and cross-architecture performance acceleration are ready today in our oneAPI 2022 release to further enable programmer productivity on Intel platforms," said Greg Lavender, Intel chief technology officer, senior vice president and general manager of the Software and Advanced Technology Group.

New capabilities include the world's first unified compiler implementing C++, SYCL and Fortran, data parallel Python for CPUs and GPUs, advanced accelerator performance modeling and tuning, and performance acceleration for AI and ray tracing visualization workloads. The oneAPI cross-architecture programming model provides developers with tools that aim to improve the productivity and velocity of code development when building cross-architecture applications.