AAEON, a leader in industrial PC solutions, announces the BOXER-6642-CML fanless industrial box PC. Powered by 10th Generation Intel Core desktop processors, this innovative solution delivers higher performance with greater value in a low-profile form factor perfect for deploying in tight spaces.
The BOXER-6642-CML is the first fanless industrial PC from AAEON to offer the 10th Generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7/i9 and Intel Celeron processors (formerly Comet Lake) up to 35 W TDP. Utilizing a desktop socket-type chipset, the system delivers greater performance value compared with systems deploying mobile chipsets. Additionally, the system the system can be easily scaled or upgraded to match the performance needs of any application. With up to 64 GB of DDR4 memory, the BOXER-6642-CML ensures top end processing performance to support a wide range of industrial applications.

One key feature of the BOXER-6642-CML is its low-profile industrial design. At only 54 mm in height, the system can fit into any tight space, making it easier to deploy right where it's needed. The system also features a wide voltage input (10 to 35 V) and provides consistent operation without loss of performance in temperatures from 0°C up to 45°C. The BOXER-6642-CML is built with fanless construction, keeping dust and other contaminants out, allowing for reliable, long lasting operation.

In more reason why Microsoft's requirement for hardware trusted platform modules for its upcoming Windows 11 operating system is arbitrary, the company revealed that it is willing to tweak the hardware TPM system requirements to accommodate platforms from 2017, which include the very first generation of AMD "Zen" (Ryzen 1000 series), and Intel 7th Gen Core "Kaby Lake." In a Windows Insider blog posted dated June 28, Microsoft explained in brief why Windows 11 needs TPM 2.0 hardware, and that the "PC Health Check App," the software tool Microsoft is giving users to check whether their PCs measure up to Windows 11, has been temporarily removed from the website while they work on getting its accuracy right.

"The intention of today's post is to acknowledge and clarify the confusion caused by our PC Health Check tool, share more details as to why we updated the system requirements for Windows 11 and set the path for how we will learn and adjust. Below you will find changes we are making based on that feedback, including ensuring we have the ability for Windows Insiders to install Windows 11 on 7th generation processors to give us more data about performance and security, updating our PC Health check app to provide more clarity, and committing to more technical detail on the principles behind our decisions. With Windows 11, we are focused on increasing security, improving reliability, and ensuring compatibility. This is what drives our decisions.

On the sidelines of its 2021 International Supercomputing Conference announcements that mostly covered the HPC-relevant portions of the company's Xe scalar compute architecture, the company also put out a couple of nuggets on Xe HPG, the gaming-grade consumer graphics architecture by Intel, which is expected to power graphics cards capable of AAA gaming at high resolutions. Without mentioning dates, the company announced that Xe HPG will see the light of the day soon.

It's a long march for Intel to break into the gaming graphics card business, and Intel is calling this project "Odyssey." A select few (Intel employees, ISVs, hardware partners, etc.,), have access to greater information and merchandise, as they hold the "Odyssey Card." The company called for them to "redeem" this card for the goodies. "We are soon heading toward a milestone moment, the pending release of the Xe HPG microarchitecture from Intel. Some of you received an Odyssey card and were the first to engage with Intel on this journey. Now is the time to redeem this card, which is one in many steps we hope to formally take forward with you. We have a few required fields here to confirm you have received a card from us," stated Intel.

Intel has partnered with Sabrent to ship NUC 11 Pro Mini PCs with pre-installed Sabrent Rocket 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSDs, on the NUC11TNKv7. The drives feature Toshiba 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash, and are capable of up to 5 GB/s sequential reads, and up to 4.4 GB/s sequential writes, taking advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface. On machines with PCIe Gen 3, the drives can attain up to 3.4 GB/s reads, with up to 2.75 GB/s writes. Lower models of the pre-built NUC 11 Pro feature Transcend TS512GMTS430S M.2 SATA drives.

Intel today, in its 2021 International Supercomputing Conference presentation, revealed that certain next-generation Xeon "Sapphire Rapids" SKUs come with on-package high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Given the context of its presentation, these could be special SKUs designed for high-density HPC setups, in which the processor package includes certain amount of "PMEM" (package memory), besides the processor's 8-channel DDR5 memory interface.

The size of the HBM PMEM, and its position in the memory hierarchy, were detailed, too. Given its high-density applications, PMEM may not serve as a victim cache for the processor, but rather be capable of serving as main memory, with none of the DDR5 DRAM channels populated with DIMMs. On machines with DIMMs, the PMEM will serve as a victim cache for the processor's on-die last-level cache, accelerating the memory I/O. "The next-generation of Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named "Sapphire Rapids) will offer integrated High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), providing a dramatic boost in memory bandwidth and a significant performance improvement for HPC applications that operate memory bandwidth-sensitive workloads. Users can power through workloads using just High Bandwidth Memory or in combination with DDR5," says Intel.

At the 2021 International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) Intel is showcasing how the company is extending its lead in high performance computing (HPC) with a range of technology disclosures, partnerships and customer adoptions. Intel processors are the most widely deployed compute architecture in the world's supercomputers, enabling global medical discoveries and scientific breakthroughs. Intel is announcing advances in its Xeon processor for HPC and AI as well as innovations in memory, software, exascale-class storage, and networking technologies for a range of HPC use cases.

"To maximize HPC performance we must leverage all the computer resources and technology advancements available to us," said Trish Damkroger, vice president and general manager of High Performance Computing at Intel. "Intel is the driving force behind the industry's move toward exascale computing, and the advancements we're delivering with our CPUs, XPUs, oneAPI Toolkits, exascale-class DAOS storage, and high-speed networking are pushing us closer toward that realization."

NVIDIA's $40 billion takeover of Arm Holdings plc from SoftBank, got a shot in the arm, as three major licensees of the IP came out in support of the bid. These include Broadcom, MediaTek, and Marvell Technology Group. This development is key for NVIDIA to fight the perception built up by a rival faction, that the democratized nature of the Arm IP would get lost if a chipmaker like NVIDIA owns it. This rival faction is primarily led by Qualcomm.

It's interesting to note the individual backers of the NVIDIA takeover. There is nothing but love between Broadcom and Qualcomm, especially after the former's failed bid to acquire the latter. MediaTek is a major smartphone and IoT SoC maker, dominating the low-cost and mainstream smartphone segments. Marvell is big in datacenter and storage IP. Each of the three are results of huge IP consolidation over the past decade.

The Intel LGA1700/LGA1718 sockets have featured prominently in recent leaks for the upcoming 12th Generation Core Series Alder Lake processors and their Raptor Lake successors we have seen very little mention of the LGA18XX socket. The socket cover for LGA17XX has recently been pictured and it lists also being compatible with LGA18XX which would suggest the two sockets will be somewhat similar. We don't know what products may feature the LGA18XX socket but the most likely option would be the 7 nm Meteor Lake architecture. Intel has developed a new mounting solution for the two sockets with updated hole patterns indicating they are similar.

We have been receiving several leaks for Intel's upcoming DG2 GPUs with a 256 Execution Unit model recently appearing on Geekbench paired with a 14-core Alder Lake mobile CPU. The Alder Lake mobile processor featured an integrated Xe GPU with 96 Execution Units which were also benchmarked. The 256 Execution Unit graphics card tested is likely derived from the mid-range DG2-384 GPU. The 96 EU DG2 iGPU featured a maximum frequency of 1.2 GHz while the 256 EU variant increased that to 1.4 GHz. The DG2-256 scored an OpenCL score of 18,450 points in the Geekbench 5 benchmark which places it at GTX 1050 performance level. The DG2-96 integrated GPU scored 6,500 points which is comparable to a GTX 460. While these performance numbers are low it is important to keep in mind that these are just early results from a mid-range mobile offering and Intel is planning to release cards with 512 Execution Units which should compete with the RTX 3070 Ti and 6700 XT.

SiFive, Inc., the industry leader in RISC-V processors and silicon solutions, today announced launched the new SiFive Performance family of processors. The SiFive Performance family debuts with two new processor cores, the P270, SiFive's first Linux capable processor with full support for the RISC-V vector extension v1.0 rc, and the SiFive Performance P550 core, SiFive's highest performance processor to date. The new SiFive Performance P550 delivers a SPECInt 2006 score of 8.65/GHz, making it the highest performance RISC-V processor available today, and comparable to existing proprietary solutions in the application processor space.

"SiFive Performance is a significant milestone in our commitment to deliver a complete, scalable portfolio of RISC-V cores to customers in all markets who are at the vanguard of SOC design and are dissatisfied with the status quo," said Dr. Yunsup Lee, Co-Founder and CTO of SiFive. "These two new products cover new performance points and a wide range of application areas, from efficient vector processors that easily displace yesterday's SIMD architectures, to the bleeding edge that the P550 represents. SiFive is proud to set the standard for RISC-V processing and is ready to deliver these products to customers today."

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced the addition of two new technology leaders to its executive leadership team, as well as several changes to Intel business units. Current Intel executives Sandra Rivera and Raja Koduri will each take on new senior leadership roles, and technology industry veterans Nick McKeown and Greg Lavender will join the company.

"Since re-joining Intel, I have been impressed with the depth of talent and incredible innovation throughout the company, but we must move faster to fulfill our ambitions," said Gelsinger. "By putting Sandra, Raja, Nick and Greg - with their decades of technology expertise - at the forefront of some of our most essential work, we will sharpen our focus and execution, accelerate innovation, and unleash the deep well of talent across the company."

Intel is in talks with the German government to build a European chip factory hoping to counter the global chip shortages and help achieve the EU local chip manufacturing target. Germany is interested in attracting semiconductor companies to increase domestic chip production to improve security for their automotive industry which increasingly relies on foreign chips. Intel wants to open up manufacturing capacity at their foundries to external companies allowing them to compete with TSMC and Samsung in the high-end market. Intel is seeking large subsidies from the German government to the tune of several billion to help make the new factory a reality.

The recently leaked Windows 11 build appears to include certain optimizations for hybrid architecture processors. The developer preview provides a small improvement to Intel Lakefield processors and that boost will likely increase when Windows 11 officially launches. The Intel Lakefield processor family features a hybrid core design with 1 big core and 4 small cores, this is similar to the Apple M1 and similar hybrid designs are expected from AMD in the future. The Intel Lakefield Core i7-L16G7 CPU was tested by HotHardware and they measured performance improvements of 2% - 8% in various synthetic benchmarks including GeekBench 5, Cinebench R23, and PCMark 10. These performance improvements will benefit Intel's upcoming 12th generation Alder Lake processors and their Raptor Lake successors along with AMD's rumored Strix Point APUs.

Intel's foray into the discrete GPU market is inching ever closer, and with that diminishing time to market, leaks are getting more common. Renowned leaker TUM_APISAK has shared some performance numbers for Intel's upcoming DG2 graphics card, part of the company's Xe HPG (High Performance Gaming) architecture. In the leak, he also confirmed that Intel is working on a cut-down version of their top offering (which features 4,096 shading units spread across 512 EUs) in the form of a new SKU that offers 448 EUs and 3584 shading units running at 1.8 GHz. That is the actual chip whose relative performance was shared.

According to TUM_APISAK, users should expect the Intel DG2 448 EU graphics card to offer performance that's around the NVIDIA RTX 3070 (5% lower performance for the Intel part) and AMD's RX 6700 XT (8% lower performance for the Intel part). As for the performance of the full-fat 512 EU chip, another leaker, Moore's Law is Dead, expects its performance to fall very slightly lower than the performance offered by NVIDIA's RTX 3080 and AMD's RX 6800/6800 XT. The 512-EU DG2 should also feature higher Boost clocks up to 2.2 GHz. Intel's launch of their Xe HPG graphics architecture is expected to occur before the end of the year, likely starting with the highest performance/highest margin parts, trickling down the product stack through the beginning of 2022. Intel's launch should help in alleviating the lack of available graphics cards, whilst simultaneously breaking a duopoly market.

Intel has been working with its partners to release the Intel Iris Xe DG1 GPU for use in prebuilt computers. ASUS is one of these partners along with GUNNIR who have both announced versions of the card. The ASUS DG1 was the first of these cards to release as part of the "Gamer Xtreme Gaming Desktop" from CyberPowerPC in May. The ASUS DG1 found in that system has recently been tested by ETA PRIME in various games and synthetic benchmarks. The DG1 is only compatible with select motherboards so the card was tested with the Intel Core i5-11400F and ASUS PRIME H410M-A/CSM motherboard included in the computer.

The ASUS DG1 features 80 Execution Units for 640 shading units running at a speed of 1.5 GHz, along with 4 GB of LPDDR4X memory running at 4266 MHz. The card only draws 30 W so features a fully passive design with no additional power connectors. The ASUS DG1 scored 1630 points in the 3DMark Time Spy test, 5837 points in Fires Strike, and 21313 points in Night Raid. The card was also tested in a variety of games including Forza Horizon 4, Injustice, Overwatch where it managed 1080p low 60 FPS performance. These performance numbers are comparable to a Radeon HD 7870 or a GTX 760 while drawing significantly less power. You can view the complete video from ETA PRIME testing the card below.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, launched its first dual-port 100 GbE network expansion card - the QXG-100G2SF-E810. Featuring an Intel Ethernet Controller E810 and PCIe 4.0, the QXG-100G2SF-E810 provides up to 100 Gbps bandwidth for QNAP NAS or Windows /Linux devices to attain optimal performance in a wide range of applications and services. It is a perfect match for unleashing the full potential of QNAP's TS-h2490FU NVMe all-flash storage that can be paired with high-speed switches for high-performance, low-latency data centers.

"The QXG-100G2SF-E810 redefines ultra-high-speed networking with 100 Gbps connectivity," said Stanley Huang, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "Users can also configure network redundancy to achieve network failover via the switch for continuous service and high availability." The QXG-100G2SF-E810 is ideal for I/O-intensive and latency-sensitive virtualization and data centers, and boosts network efficiency with the support of iWARP/RDMA and SR-IOV (coming soon). When used in a server or workstation, it supports Windows Server (2016 or 2019) and Linux platforms (Drivers required).

Intel's upcoming Ponte Vecchio graphics card is set to be the company's most powerful processor ever designed, and the chip is indeed looking like an engineering marvel. From Intel's previous teasers, we have learned that Ponte Vecchio is built using 47 "magical tiles" or 47 dies which are responsible either for computing elements, Rambo Cache, Xe links, or something else. Today, we are getting a new piece of information coming from Igor's LAB, regarding the Ponte Vecchio and some of its design choices. For starters, the GPU will be a heterogeneous design that consists out of many different nodes. Some parts of the GPU will be manufactured on Intel's 10 nm SuperFin and 7 nm technologies, while others will use TSMC's 7 nm and 5 nm nodes. The smaller and more efficient nodes will probably be used for computing elements. Everything will be held together by Intel's EMIB and Foveros 3D packaging.

Next up, we have information that this massive Intel processor will be accountable for around 600 Watts of heat output, which is a lot to cool. That is why in the leaked renders, we see that Intel envisioned these processors to be liquid-cooled, which would make the cooling much easier and much more efficient compared to air cooling of such a high heat output. Another interesting thing is that the Ponte Vecchio is designed to fit inside OAM (OCP Accelerator Module) form factor, an alternative to the regular PCIe-based accelerators in data centers. OAM is used primarily by hyper scalers like Facebook, Amazon, Google, etc., so we imagine that Intel already knows its customers before the product even hits the market.

We now have preliminary benchmarks for the unreleased NUC 11 Extreme Beast Canyon NUC in 3DMark. We have already seen various leaks of the upcoming device detailing the available configurations and options. The NUC 11 Extreme will be offered with a choice of four processors with the highest being the upcoming Intel Core i9-11900KB which is the star of today's benchmarks. The i9-11900KB equipped NUC was paired with a desktop RTX 3060 and was put through its paces in the Fire Strike and Time Spy 3DMark benchmarks. The i9-11900KB is a specialty processor designed for use in NUC products with the new add-in card form factor and is largely comparable to the desktop i9-11900.

The Intel Core i9-11900KB is an 8 core 16 thread mobile processor with a base clock of 3.3 GHz, a boost clock of 4.9 GHz and a thermal velocity boost of 5.3 GHz. The chip features 24 MB of L3 cache and comes with a configurable TDP of 55 W/65 W. The base clock is higher than the 2.5 GHz found on the desktop i9-11900 while the boost clock is 300 MHz less and the thermal velocity boost is 100 MHz higher. The Intel Core i9-11900KB averages 93% - 101% of the performance of the i9-11900 which is to be expected considering the clock speeds.

Today during the Six Five Summit, Intel unveiled its vision for the infrastructure processing unit (IPU), a programmable networking device designed to enable cloud and communication service providers to reduce overhead and free up performance for central processing units (CPUs). With an IPU, customers will better utilize resources with a secure, programmable, stable solution that enables them to balance processing and storage.

"The IPU is a new category of technologies and is one of the strategic pillars of our cloud strategy. It expands upon our SmartNIC capabilities and is designed to address the complexity and inefficiencies in the modern data center. At Intel, we are dedicated to creating solutions and innovating alongside our customer and partners—the IPU exemplifies this collaboration," said Guido Appenzeller, chief technology officer, Data Platforms Group, Intel.

Thanks to the information coming from Yuuki_Ans, a person which has been leaking information about Intel's upcoming 4th generation Xeon Scalable processors codenamed Sapphire Rapids, we have the first die shots of the Sapphire Rapids processor and its delidded internals to look at. After performing the delidding process and sanding down the metal layers of the dies, the leaker has been able to take a few pictures of the dies present on the processor. As the Sapphire Rapids processor uses multi-chip modules (MCM) approach to building CPUs, the design is supposed to provide better yields for Intel and give the 10 nm dies better usability if defects happen.

In the die shots, we see that there are four dies side by side, with each die featuring 15 cores. That would amount to 60 cores present in the system, however, not all of the 60 cores are enabled. The top SKU is supposed to feature 56 cores, meaning that there would be at least four cores disabled across the configuration. This gives Intel flexibility to deliver plenty of processors, whatever the yields look like. The leaked CPU is an early engineering sample design with a low frequency of 1.3 GHz, which should improve in the final design. Notably, as Sapphire Rapids has SKUs that use in-package HBM2E memory, we don't know if the die configuration will look different from the one pictured down below.

SiFive, one of the hottest new semiconductor start-ups specializing in performance RISC-V processors, has received an offer for acquisition from Intel, for USD $2 billion, according to a Bloomberg report, citing sources close to the deal. SiFive was last valued at $500 million in 2020, when it was raising funds. SiFive is potentially benefiting from NVIDIA's ongoing acquisition of Arm, as the company has the ingredients to whip up high-performance processors based on the open-standard RISC-V machine architecture. Both SiFive and Intel declined to comment on the Bloomberg story.

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards, all-in-one gaming and multimedia solutions, and high-performance storage, announces the launch of the GPU History Museum in partnership with NVIDIA. COLORFUL has recently relocated to Shenzhen New Generation Industrial Park. With that, COLORFUL is proud to announce the launch of the first GPU History Museum in China. The museum will showcase the beginnings of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), to the development and evolution of graphics cards up to the present generation.

Chinese manufacturer GUNNIR has recently announced their "Blue Halberd" Iris Xe DG1 graphics card a few months after Intel announced the discrete GPU. GUNNIR joins ASUS in releasing the only two discrete Iris Xe graphics cards based on the DG1 GPU however, these products are only available to OEM and general retail availability is unlikely. The low-profile GPU features a single HDMI and VGA connector along with a 45 mm fan which will keep the 30 W TDP card cool. The card comes with a base frequency of 1.2 GHz and a boost clock of 1.5 GHz while the 4 GB of LPDDR4X memory is clocked at 4267 MT/s.

When Intel launched its Tiger Lake processors for laptops, the company has foreseen a smooth integration by OEMs and plenty of design wins. While that has turned out to be true, there seems to be a big problem lurking in the OEM component supply chain. In the new Tiger Lake systems, the CPU carries support for Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 technologies. However, these protocols can not work on their own, as they require external power delivery controllers (PDC) to function. These PDCs are used to regulate and control all of the power circulating in the USB specification, and they come in a form of a separate chip. This chip is later integrated into PCBs of various systems implementing these technologies.

Today, we have a report coming from Igor's LAB, in which we are told that the availability of these chips could be very bad. Intel's OEMs are using Texas Instruments (TI) 994AD PDC, however, as the supply of these chips becomes scarce, OEMs are turning to TI 993AC/994AC chips. Intel advises OEMs, carrying these chips in their systems, to only communicate benefits of Thunderbolt 4 and exclude USB 4 mentions, or to communicate benefits of Thunderbolt 4 and reference USB 4 "compatibility." This means that every OEM using the alternative chips will get Intel's Thunderbolt 4 certifications, as the company plans to temporarily issue certifications with these chips included, while the supply chain regulates. TI's 993AC/994AC are assumed to not have the power and regulation capability of the USB 4 as the 994AD PDC can.

The recently announced flagship Intel i7-1195G7 11th generation Tiger Lake mobile processor with a 5.0 GHz single turbo clock has recently been tested in Geekbench V5. The processor achieved an extremely impressive score of 1700 points in single-core performance which puts it above many desktop-class processors including the Ryzen 5000X lineup and only just below Intel's Rocket Lake-S desktop processors. The benchmarks come from a pre-production CLEVO NV4XMJ unit with the processor scoring between 1662 to 1700 points across three samples. We expect further benchmarks for the new processor to be available imminently as the CPU is already available in select products.