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Continuing our Q2 earnings coverage this month, AMD is next out the gate in reporting their earnings. And, has been the story now for most of the last year, AMD is enjoying explosive revenue growth across the company. CPU, GPU, and semi-custom sales are all up, pushing the limits of what AMD can do amidst the current chip crunch, and pushing the company to new levels of profitability in the process.
For the second quarter of 2021, AMD reported $3.85B in revenue, making for yet another massive jump over a year-ago quarter for AMD, when the company made just $1.93B in a then-record quarter. Now, half-way through 2021, AMD’s financial trajectory is all about setting (and beating) records for the company, as evidenced by the 99% leap in year-over-year revenue – falling just millions short of outright doubling their revenue.
AMD’s big run-up in revenue is also reflected in the company’s other metrics; along with that revenue AMD’s net income has grown by 352% year-over-year, now reaching $710M. And if not for an unusual, one-off tax benefit for AMD’s Q4’2020, this would have been AMD’s most profitable quarter ever – and indeed is on a non-GAAP basis. Meanwhile, as you might expect from such high net income figures, AMD’s gross margin has risen even further and now sits at 48%, up 4 percentage points from the year-ago quarter and 2 points from last quarter.
| AMD Q2 2021 Financial Results (GAAP) | |||||||
| Q2'2021 | Q2'2020 | Q1'2021 | Y/Y | Q/Q | |||
| Revenue | $3.85B | $1.93B | $3.45B | +99% | +12% | ||
| Gross Margin | 48% | 44% | 46% | +4pp | +2pp | ||
| Operating Income | $831M | $173M | $662M | +380% | +26% | ||
| Net Income | $710M | $157M | $555M | +352% | +28% | ||
| Earnings Per Share | $0.58 | $0.13 | $0.45 | +346% | +29% | ||
Breaking down AMD’s results by segment, we start with Computing and Graphics, which encompasses their desktop and notebook CPU sales, as well as their GPU sales. That division booked $2.25B in revenue for the quarter, $883M (65%) more than Q2 2020. Accordingly, the segment’s operating income is (once more) up significantly as well, going from $200M a year ago to $526M this year.
As always, AMD doesn’t provide a detailed breakout of information from this segment, but they have provided some selective information on revenue and average selling prices (ASPs). Overall, client CPU sales have remained strong; client CPU ASPs are up on both a quarterly and yearly basis, indicating that AMD has been selling a larger share of high-end (high-margin) parts. According to AMD this is the case for both desktop and laptop sales, and making this the fifth straight quarter of revenue share gains.
Meanwhile the company is reporting similarly good news from their GPU business. As with CPUs, ASPs for AMD’s GPU business as up on both a yearly and quarterly basis. According to the company this is being driven by demand for high-end Radeon 6000 video cards, as well as AMD Instinct (data center) sales. AMD began initial shipments of their first CDNA 2 architecture-based Instinct accelerators in Q2, opening the spigot there for data center GPU revenue going into Q3.
| AMD Q2 2021 Reporting Segments | |||||
| Q2'2021 | Q2'2020 | Q1'2021 | |||
|
Computing and Graphics
|
|||||
| Revenue | $2250M | $1367M | $2100M | ||
| Operating Income | $526M | $200M | $485M | ||
|
Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom
|
|||||
| Revenue | $1600M | $565M | $1345M | ||
| Operating Income | $398M | $33M | $277M | ||
Moving on, AMD’s Enterprise, Embedded, and Semi-Custom segment has once again experienced a quarter of rapid growth, thanks to the success of AMD’s EPYC processors and demand for the 9th generation consoles. This segment of the company booked $1.6B in revenue, $1035M (183%) more than what they pulled in for Q2’20, and 19% ahead of an already impressive Q1’21. The big jump in revenue also means that the segment is even further into the black on an operating income basis, continuing to close the gap with the Computing and Graphics segment even with the all-around growth.
Overall, both the enterprise and semi-custom sides of this segment are up on a yearly basis. AMD set another record for server processor revenue this quarter on the strength of EPYC processor sales. Meanwhile semi-custom revenue was up on both a yearly and a quarterly basis, reflecting the continued demand for the latest generation of consoles.
Looking forward, AMD’s expectations for the quarter and for the rest of the year have been bumped up once again. For Q3 the company expects to book $4.1B (+/- $100M) in revenue, which if it comes to pass will be 46% growth over Q3’20. Meanwhile AMD’s full year 2021 projection now stands at a 60% year-over-year increase in revenue versus their $9.8B FY2020, which is 10 percentage points higher than their forecast from the end of Q1.
Finally, while AMD doesn’t have any major updates on the ongoing Xilinx acquisition, the company has reiterated that it remains on-track. Which means that if all goes according to plan, it will close by the end of the year.
Today we are taking a look at the most powerful SFX-L PSU on the planet, the SilverStone SX1000. As its name suggests, the SX1000 can provide up to 1 kW of power, an unprecedented figure for an SFX form factor power supply. But does such a powerful PSU have a place in the market for compact computers?
JEDEC and the JC-42.6 Subcommittee for Low Power Memories has announced the publication of the new JESD209-5B standard which now includes improvements to LPDDR5, as well as an extension for the standard in the form of new LPDDR5X.
Intel kick-started a form-factor revolution in the early 2010s with the introduction of the ultra-compact NUCs. The systems were meant to be an alternative to the tower desktops used in many applications where the size, shape, and the system capabilities were mostly unwarranted. The success of the NUCs enabled Intel to start reimagining the build of systems used in a wider range of settings.
More recently, the introduction of the Skull Canyon NUC in 2016 was Intel's first effort to make a gaming-focused SFF PC. And desktop-focused Compute Elements (essentially, a motherboard in a PCIe card form-factor) launched in early 2020 meant that full-blown gaming desktops could credibly come under the NUC banner. Also last year, the Ghost Canyon NUC9 – the first NUC Extreme – made a splash in the market with support for a user-replaceable discrete GPU. Ghost Canyon was extremely impressive, but the restrictions on the dGPU size and high-end pricing were dampeners.
Thankfully, the introduction of Tiger Lake has enabled Intel to make multiple updates in its Compute Element lineup. Incorporating some tweaks and changes learned from their Ghost Canyon experience, Intel has now put forward its flagship NUC for 2021: Beast Canyon. With a desktop-class CPU and ability to accommodate most discrete GPUs in the market, the Beast Canyon NUC promises a lot. Does it manage to exorcise the ghosts of its predecessor? Read on to find the answer.
With the launch earlier this year of Intel’s Ice Lake Xeon Scalable platform, the first Intel enterprise platform based on 10nm, we were always wondering to what extent this silicon would penetrate other markets. Today Intel is answering that question by launching the Xeon W-3300 family, using the same Ice Lake Xeon silicon but in a more focused single socket platform. Xeon W-3300 will offer processors from 12 core up to 38 cores, peaking at 270 W TDP, but offering support for up to 4 TB of memory.
Starting next month, AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 desktop product stack is about to get a little deeper – and a little cheaper – with the addition of the forthcoming Radeon RX 6600 XT. Announced this evening, the Radeon RX 6600 XT is the next step down in the RDNA2-based Radeon lineup, adding a card aimed at mainstream, 1080p gamers. The card will offer 32 CUs’ worth of GPU hardware along with 8GB of GDDR6 memory, and will go on sale on August 11th with prices starting at $379.
The addition of the RX 6600 XT to their desktop lineup has been a long-time coming, as even though the company is already 4 cards deep into their product stack – most recently adding the 1440p-focused RX 6700 XT nearly 5 months ago – AMD hasn’t been offering a mainstream-focused RDNA2 desktop video card until now. In fact, AMD’s been pretty absent from the mainstream 1080p gaming market as a whole over the last several months, as the capacity-constrained company has been focusing its GPU manufacturing resources on laptop parts and the high-end RDNA2 chips. But finally, and at last, it’s time for the 1080p market to get a much-needed boost from AMD’s RDNA2 architecture.
Underpinning AMD’s new 1080p video card is a GPU we’ve already seen once before: Navi 23. This GPU was first employed back in May as the Radeon RX 6600M, the cornerstone of AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 mobile lineup. Now that the laptop market has had a chance to stock up on Navi 23 hardware, the GPU is making its desktop debut in the aptly named RX 6600 XT. And, unlike the RX 6600M, the RX 6600 XT will feature a fully-enabled version of the chip, giving Navi 23 its first chance to completely show off what it’s capable of.
ZTE is one of the rare vendors active in the US market, which makes the new Axon 30 Ultra a quite interesting device that’s surprisingly viable in the current flagship landscape. At $749 it makes the right compromises.
On the back of Intel's recent Ice Lake Xeon W-3300 announcement, ASRock has announced one of the first motherboards to support the new processors, the ASRock C621A WS. Some of its core features include four full-length PCIe 4.0 slots, three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots, two M.2 slots, eight memory slots with support for up to 2TB of DDR4 memory, and dual 10 Gb plus dual Gigabit Ethernet on the rear panel.
The latest iteration of Intel's 3rd generation Xeon Scalable platform comes via the Xeon W-3300 family, which is essentially Ice Lake for workstations. The top SKU, Xeon W-3375, contains 38 cores (76 threads), with a base frequency of 2.5 GHz, 57 MB of L3 cache, and a maximum TDP of 270 W. All of Intel's Xeon W-3300 family includes 64 PCIe 4.0 lanes, up to eight-channel DDR4, and support for up to 256 GM LRDIMMs with a maximum capacity of up to 4 TB per socket.
The ASRock C621A WS motherboard uses a transposed single LGA4189 socket and is flanked by eight horizontally mounted memory slots. There's support for up to DDR4 DIMMs at speeds up to 3200 MT/s, with a maximum capacity of up to 2 TB, with UDIMMs, RDIMMs, and LRDIMMs all supported. Dominating the lower section of the board are four full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and three full-length PCIe 3.0 x8 slots, with one PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA M.2 slot and one PCIe 3.0 x1/SATA M.2 slot. For conventional SATA devices, ASRock includes two SATA ports with one mini-SAS HD connector.
As for network connectivity, ASRock includes a pair of 10 GbE that are powered by an Intel X710-ATX Ethernet controller, as well as another pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports driven by a pair of Intel I210 controllers. Other connectivity includes a D-sub video output which allows users to access the board's BMC functionality, which is provided via an ASPEED AST2500 controller, with a dedicated Ethernet port allowing for remote access to the BMC. In terms of USB, there are four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports on the rear panel, with further expansion available through internal headers. This includes room to installed up to four USB 3.2 G2 Type-C ports through front panel headers, one USB 3.2 G1 Type-A header for two ports, and one USB 2.0 header, which also can support another two ports.
Although the new Intel Xeon W-3300 family of processors includes native support for Thunderbolt 4 and Intel's Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, ASRock has opted not to use either of these features. Whether this is intentional from ASRock remains to be seen, as it may release more variants later. At the time of writing, ASRock hasn't given pricing information, but we expect the C621A WS to be available in retail channels soon.
An executive visiting various research divisions across the globe isn’t necessarily new, but with a focus on social media driving named individuals at each company to keep their followers sitting on the edge of their seats means that we get a lot more insights into how these companies operate. The downside of posting to social media is when certain images exposing unreleased information are not vetted by PR or legal, and we get a glimpse into the next generation of technology. That is what happened today.
With prices on AMD's Ryzen 5950X 16-core Zen 3 based processor slowly coming back into the realms of MSRP, ASUS is taking advantage of recent events by announcing its latest flagship X570 motherboard, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme. Overtaking the current ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero as the premier motherboard in the ROG series, the Extreme includes a 20-phase power delivery, dual Thunderbolt 4-capable USB Type-C ports, 10 Gb Ethernet, and support for up to five PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives.
In what looks like one of ASUS's last motherboard unveilings for AMD's X570 platform, the ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme is ultimately its most feature-packed Ryzen desktop motherboard so far. While ASUS at the time of writing hasn't unveiled a full list of the specifications, we know many of the board's core features, giving the EATX-sized board an impressive résumé. At the heart of the ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme are dual full-length PCIe 4.0 slots that operate in either x16/x0 or x8/x8 when paired with a Ryzen 5000 or 3000 desktop processor. ASUS also includes a small PCIe 3.0 x1 slot for one more peripheral.
The ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme design for X570 follows a black glossy aesthetic, with multiple areas of integrated RGB LED lighting, including along the rear panel cover, chipset heatsink, and even part of the underside of the board. Along with other X570/X570S motherboards recently announced, the Crosshair VIII Extreme will feature a passively cooled chipset.
For storage, ASUS includes three onboard PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, with room to add a further two PCIe 4.0 x4 slots via an included DIMM.2 slot located to the right of four memory slots. There are six SATA ports for conventional SATA devices with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. ASUS hasn't listed the memory QVL list at the time of writing, but we know this board will support up to 128 GB of DDR4 across four memory slots.
Other features include an Intel Thunderbolt 4 controller that's driving a pair of USB Type-C ports, a Marvel AQC1113CS 10 Gb Ethernet controller, and a second Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller. On top of this, there's Intel's latest AX210 Wi-Fi 6E wireless interface, which also supports the latest BT 5.2 devices. Onboard audio is also quite premium, spearheaded by a ROG SupremeFX ALC4082 HD audio codec and is assisted by an ESS Sabre 9018Q2C DAC.
With 'Extreme' being this model's moniker and focus, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII uses a 20-phase power delivery (18+2) with premium 90 A power stages and is likely to be arranged in teamed mode, which is a common theme in its power design across the series. This also includes an LN2 mode dip switch designed for enthusiasts looking to use aggressive sub-zero cooling methods such as liquid nitrogen (LN2) or dry ice (DICE) for the maximum benchmark performance.
At the time of writing, ASUS hasn't announced when the ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme will be available to purchase or how much it will cost.
Source: ASUS
Back in March, we reviewed AMD's latest Zen 3 based EPYC 7003 processors, including the 64-core EPYC 7763 and 7713. We've updated the data back in June with a retail motherboard, and it scores much higher, showing how EPYC Milan can be refined more than it was at launch. Putting two 64-core processors into a system requires a more than capable motherboard, and today on the test bench is the GIGABYTE MZ720-HB0 (Revision 3.0), which has plenty of features to boast about. Some of the most important ones include five full-length PCIe 4.0 slots, dual 10 GbE, lots of PCIe 4.0 NVMe and SATA storage options, as well as dual SP3 sockets, and sixteen memory slots with support for up to 4 TB of capacity.
Today Google has teased its new upcoming Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones; in what is likely an attempt to get leaks and the upcoming narrative of the product under control, as opposed to the previous years of quite severe product spoilers several months ahead of the actual official product launches, the company is themselves revealing large important bits about the upcoming new flagship phones.
Google reveals that this year’s Pixel phones will be called the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro, two seemingly similarly sized devices in a high-end configuration with some compromises, and one in an all-bells-and-whistles uncompromising device. In a more exclusive prebriefing with The Verge, it’s stated that the new devices will be truly flagship specced phones competing at the highest end of the market, marking an important step away from the mid-range of the last several years. This is a large shift for Google and has been one of our main criticisms over the last few years – a seeming lack of clear direction where Google wants to be with their Pixel phones, at least until now.
ASRock Rack has unveiled two new motherboards designed for Intel's Ice Lake SP platform, the SPC621D8 and the SPC621D8-2L2T. Both boards feature a single LGA4189 socket design on an ATX-sized PCB, with eight memory slots supporting up to 2 TB of DDR4-3200 memory, seven PCIe 4.0 slots, and dual PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots. The SPC621D8-2L2T also gets five Ethernet ports, including dual 10 Gb Ethernet on the rear panel.
On the surface, both the ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T and the SPC621D8 share the same core feature set, which includes four full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and three half-length PCIe 4.0 x8 slots. Three of the full-length slots will automatically switch down to PCIe 4.0 x8 when the lower half-length slot is populated. Sitting on either side of the transposed LGA4189 socket are eight memory slots that are arranged into two banks of four. These slots can support up to 2 TB of DDR4-3200 memory, in the form of RDIMMs and LRDIMMs.
The ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T motherboard
The ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T and the SPC621D8 both include a varied selection of storage options, including one PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA M.2 slot and one PCIe 3.0 x1/SATA M.2 slot. The SPC621D8 has support for up to thirteen SATA ports, with six 7-pin headers included from the C621A chipset with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. The SPC621D8-2L2T has support for eight SATA ports, with the same level of RAID support. Both models include two SATA DOM headers and also include a mini-SAS HD header.
Driving the management side of things is an ASPEED AST2500 BMC controller. This can be accessed via a single D-sub video output or a dedicated management Ethernet port hooked up to a Realtek RTL8211E Gigabit controller. Both variants include various headers around the board, with some of the most notable which include a TPM header, COM header, PMBus connector, and an IPMB header. There are five 6-pin fan headers for cooling, one 24-pin 12 V ATX power input that provides power to the motherboard, and one 8-pin and one 4-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input pairing.
The ASRock SPC621D8-2L2T (top) and SPC621D8 (bottom) rear panels
Both boards share a similar rear panel layout, but with one major difference. The ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T includes dual 10 GbE via an Intel X710-AT2 Ethernet controller, which is on top of the two Intel I210 Gigabit controllers and the Realtek RTL8211E management LAN port that are common to both boards. Both panels include a D-sub video output for the BMC, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports, and a UID indicator LED button.
We don't have pricing for either the SPC621D8-2L2T or the SPC621D8 ATX motherboards or when they will hit retail shelves at the time of writing.
Source: ASRock Rack
Earlier this year, AMD launched its Zen 3 based desktop processor solutions with integrated graphics. Marketed as the Ryzen 5000G family, these processors are the latest offering to combine AMD’s high-performing Zen 3 cores with tried-and-tested Vega 8 graphics, all built on TSMC’s 7nm process. As desktop processors, AMD made them available to system builders for a few months, allowing the company to keep track of stock levels and have a consistent demand during a high-demand phase for silicon. But on August 5th, they will be made available to buy at retail, and we’ve got the most important models to test.
MinisForum, a Shenzhen based manufacturer of compact computing platforms, has been steadily bringing both AMD and Intel-based systems into the market. While the mix has mostly involved platforms that are a couple of generations old (allowing for competitive customer pricing), the company releases products based on the latest processors occasionally. Recently, the company sent across details of two of their 2021 introductions - the EliteMini TL50, and the EliteMini HX90. The TL50 is based on an Intel Tiger Lake-U processor, while the HX90 is based on an AMD Cezanne Zen 3 notebook APU.
The HX90 is the more interesting of the lot - MinisForum has managed to source the top-end APU, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, for the system. The TL50, on the other hand, comes only with the Intel Core i5-1135G7. The TL50 also uses a highly-integrated motherboard with soldered LPDDR4 DRAM (12GB), but the M.2 NVMe SSD the only upgradable component. In fact, the company only offers one configuration with 12GB of soldered DRAM and a 512GB SSD pre-installed with Windows 10 Professional. The form-factor is slightly bigger than the mainstream UCFF NUCs with the 1.2L box including support for the installation of two 2.5" drives. The TL50 is available for shipping today and is priced at $649.
The HX90, on the other hand, uses a 45W TDP notebook processor, and hence comes with additional cooling requirements. The form factor is correspondingly larger, and the system has a 2.2L volume footprint. The key seller here is the Ryzen 9 5900HX APU which delivers gaming capabilities not found in other systems of similar size / cost. MinisForum is also promising a carbon fibre-infused chassis for a premium look. Unlike the TL50, the RAM is upgradable. Other differences are brought out in the table further down.
The barebones version of the HX90 is currently priced at $629, which apparently includes a $100 early-bird discount (the units aren't slated to ship until September).
| MinisForum EliteMinis (Cezanne and Tiger Lake) | ||
| Model | HX90 | TL50 |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX Cezanne (Zen 3), 8C/16T 3.3 - 4.6 GHz 45W TDP (35W-54W cTDP) |
Intel Core i5-1135G7 Tiger Lake-U, 4C/8T 2.4 - 4.2 GHz 28W TDP |
| GPU | AMD Radeon Graphics 8CU @ 2.1 GHz (Integrated / On-Die) | Intel® Iris Xe Graphics @ 1.3 GHz (Integrated / On-Die) |
| Memory | 2x DDR4-3200 SODIMMs 1.2V, 64GB max. |
LPDDR4 12GB (Soldered) |
| Motherboard | 7.5" x 7" Custom | 5.5" x 5.5" Custom |
| Storage | 1x M.2 2280 (key M) PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe/AHCI SSD 2x SATA3 2.5" HDD / SSD |
2x M.2 22x42/80 (key M) SATA3 or PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe/AHCI SSD |
| I/O Ports | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (front) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C (front) 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (rear) |
1x Thunderbolt 4 (front) 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (front) 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (rear) 2x USB 2.0 Type-A (rear) |
| Networking | Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2x2 802.11ax Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.1 module) 1 × 2.5 GbE port |
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2x2 802.11ax Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.1 module) 2 × GbE ports |
| Display Outputs | 2x DP 1.4a 2x HDMI 2.0b |
1x DP 1.4a (rear) 1x HDMI 2.0b (rear) 1x DP 1.4a (via Thunderbolt 4, front) |
| Audio | 7.1 digital (over HDMI and DisplayPort) L+R+mic (front) L+R+mic (rear) |
7.1 digital (over HDMI and DisplayPort) L+R+mic (front) |
| Enclosure | Carbon fibre-infused plastic / Kensington lock | Plastic / Kensington lock |
| Power Supply | 120W (19V @ 6.3A) Adapter | 65W (19V @ 3.42A) USB Type-C (adapter included) |
| Dimensions | 195mm x 190mm x 60mm / 2.22L | 149.6mm x 149.6mm x 55.5mm / 1.2L |
| Miscellaneous Features | VESA mounting plate | VESA mounting plate |
| Pricing | Barebones ($629 - $729) 16GB RAM + 256GB SSD ($799 - $899) 16GB RAM + 512GB SSD ($829 - $929) 32GB RAM + 512GB SSD ($909 - $1009) |
12GB RAM + 512GB SSD ($649 - $699) |
Both PCs look a bit weak in terms of I/O capabilities compared to other mini-PCs in the market - while the TL50 does include a Thunderbolt 4 port and dual gigabit LAN ports, the HX90 has only 1x 2.5G BASE-T port and the USB ports are all Gen 1 (5Gbps). The HX90 does support four simultaneous 4Kp60 display outputs, while the TL50 only supports three such displays. The target markets are slightly different, as the TL50 is meant for home / office scenarios, while the HX90 falls under the gaming mini-PC line. Having had hands-on experience with multiple MinisForum units in the past, my impression of the brand is generally favorable unlike the host of other no-name Shenzhen-based sellers typically found on Amazon. In general, I would recommend the barebones version of their systems when possible - similar to a lot of other system vendors, the pre-built configurations come with only one DRAM slot occupied, leaving significant performance potential untapped.
Over the past six months we've looked at a varied selection of Z590 motherboards. While most of these have been in the mid-range to premium category, today we are taking a look at a more modest and cost-effective Z590 model. The Z590 Steel Legend WiFi 6E sits toward the lower end of ASRock's Z590 offerings. It combines a varied feature set that includes 2.5 gigabit Ethernet, Intel's latest Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, three M.2 slots, all while adopting a unique urban camouflaged PCB design. We give the Z590 Steel Legend our attention and see if budget Z590 has its limitations or if it's money well spent.
When Facebook was scaling its technologies and pivoting to completely public use in the late 2010s, it started an internal project around data efficiency and scalability. The goal was to end up with a solution that provided scalable resources, efficient compute, and enabled cost savings. In 2011, combined with Intel and Rackspace, the Open Compute Project was launched to enable a set of open standards that could benefit all major industry enterprise players. OCP is also a fluid organization, providing its community a structure that is designed to enable close collaboration on these evolving standards, pushing for 'commodity hardware that is more efficient, flexible and scalable, throwing off the shackles of proprietary one-size-fits-all gear'. OCP also has a certified partner program, allowing external customers to be part of the ecosystem that covers data center facilities, hardware, networking, open firmware, power, security, storage, telecommunications, and future technologies.
In this interview today we have Rebecca Weekly, who not only sits as the VP and GM of Intel's Hyperscale and Strategy Execution, but is also an Intel Senior Principal Engineer. However, today we are speaking to her in her role as Chairperson and President of the Board of the Open Compute Project, being promoted on July 1st of 2021.
Despite the Z590 chipset being the premium option for Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake processors, and the boards starting around $200, not every model is there to decimate the wallet. Every vendor has models designed for entry-level, mid-range, and even the flagship models - it's all a question of where the vendor thinks those delineated markets are. Some boards certainly have eye-watering prices attached to them, for example. Focusing on the mid-range segment, today we're taking a look at the ASUS TUF Gaming Z590-Plus WIFI. Its most prominent features include three M.2 slots, USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C support, and a solid pair of networking controllers, including Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet. The sub $300 Z590 market is awash with options for users, but does ASUS hold the key to unlocking Rocket Lake's potential at what it thinks is a reasonable price? Let's find out.
As part of a suite of SIGGRAPH-related announcements, NVIDIA this morning is announcing a new addition to their RTX line of professional video cards, the RTX A2000. Following NVIDIA’s transitional top-to-bottom product rollouts, the latest member of NVIDIA’s pro GPU lineup is the smallest and cheapest card yet, thanks in large part to its use of NVIDIA’s GA106 GPU. Paired with 6GB of VRAM and aimed in part at small form factor workstations, NVIDIA expects the card to go on sale in October.
Today Samsung is holding its second Mobile Unpacked event for the year, announcing the new Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the new Galaxy Z Fold 3.
Late last year, we took stock of the the state of the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ecosystem. It was not a rosy outlook at that time. But since then, many vendors have introduced new products in the 20 Gbps-performance class, and host support has also started to look up. A few new enclosures in this speed class have also appeared in the market.
In parallel, we have seen 3D NAND layer counts go up and QLC become more prevalent. Capacities of SSDs and external bus-powered direct-attached storage (DAS) devices have increased, with 4TB being offered by almost all vendors. Consumer trends in terms of DAS workloads has also undergone some shifts.
To that end, today we're going to take a fresh look at the market for 20Gbps external storage enclosures, thanks to some new enclosures as well as our new DAS test suite. Read on for a detailed look at our new direct-attached storage testing infrastructure, along with the evaluation results from our first set of evaluated products - the Silverstone Tek MS12 and the Yottamaster HC2-C3 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20Gbps NVMe SSD enclosures.
Today, we see HONOR announce the company’s new flagship Magic 3 series of devices. The new Magic 3 series consists of 3 new phones, the “regular” Magic 3, the Magic 3 Pro, and the Magic 3 Pro+.
Zotac has been a pioneer in bringing compact small form-factor (SFF) machines to the market right since the ION days. A few years back, they also got into the other expanding PC market segment - gaming systems - using the same SFF approach. With the burgeoning market for compact systems (kickstarted by the success of the Intel NUC initiative), Zotac has grown from strength to strength. The company now has around 8 different mini-PC families targeting different segments. The ZBOX E series caters to the gaming crowd and is marketed under the MAGNUS tag. The company's current flagship is the ZBOX MAGNUS ONE (introduced at the 2021 CES). Coupling a desktop Comet Lake CPU with an nVIDIA Ampere GPU, it promises plenty of gaming prowess. Read on for a detailed look at the performance and value proposition of the top-end ZBOX MAGNUS ONE model - the ZBOX-ECM73070C-W2B.
News hot off the wire is that Dr. Randhir Thakur, Director of Intel’s Foundry Services, is set to take up a position as Director of Tata Electronics, an Indian based company, part of the Tata Group.
After several months of various teasers, Intel is finally starting to put the band together for their first high-performance discrete GPUs and video cards. This morning the company is kicking its pre-launch marketing game into high gear by announcing a new brand name that these video cards will sold under: Arc. As well, the company is finally giving us our first real (albeit wide) launch window for the hardware. The first Arc video cards, based on the "Alchemist" generation of hardware, will be released in the first quarter of 2022, kicking off Intel’s formal foray into high-performance discrete consumer graphics for desktop and mobile.
Today we’re reviewing a rather unusual device, the new ASUS “Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders”. The device had been first announced a month ago by Qualcomm and ASUS, and represents a sort of weird kind of collaboration between the two companies.
Today Samsung Display Company (SDC) is announcing the introduction and mass production of a new generation of OLED panel called “Eco²OLED”.
Back in January, Intel launched its Jasper Lake platform with a range of dual-core and quad-core Tremont Atom-based processors.. Primarily aimed at the notebook and Chromebook market, Intel's Jasper Lake Celeron and Pentium Silver chips are using 10nm Tremont Atom cores as low as 6 W. Today we have learned that ASUS has unveiled its first Jasper Lake system via the N5105I-IM-A mini-ITX motherboard for the DIY market, with a passively cooled design, and supports the Intel Celeron N5105 4-core 4-thread processor.
Based on the small form factor mini-ITX platform, the ASUS N5105I-IM-A includes two SO-DIMM memory slots, although ASUS hasn't revealed a full list of the specifications. It is using a 4-pin 12 V ATX power input, with an additional 4-pin 12 V power output. The N5105I-IM-A is designed to support Intel's Celeron N5105 processor, which features four Tremont Atom cores, four threads, and features a base frequency of 2 GHz, a turbo frequency of 2.9 GHz, and has a 10 W TDP.
Due to the low power by the Intel Celeron N5105, ASUS has opted for a gold-colored copper CPU heatsink, which comes supplied with the board. Looking at onboard connectivity, ASUS includes what looks like a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, with two SATA ports and one 4-pin fan header for a chassis fan. Video is provided by the graphics on the CPU.
On the rear panel is a range of input and output, including two video outputs consisting of an HDMI and D-sub output, with three Serial ports. The board also includes support for an RJ11/DIO connector that is regularly used for cash registers and an MSR/RFID reader for credit and debit card payments. In terms of USB, four Type-A ports are likely USB 3.0, and it also includes one Ethernet port that an unspecified controller powers.
At the time of writing, we don't have any information on the pricing or the availability of the ASUS N5105I-IM-A motherboard.
Source: FanlessTech
Colorful has unveiled two new motherboards designed for Intel Rocket Lake and Comet Lake processors. The CVN B560I Gaming V20 and CVN B560I Gaming Frozen are based on the Mini-ITX form factor, and both share the same feature set; the only difference is in the aesthetics. The most prominent features include one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, four SATA ports, and a Gigabit Ethernet controller.
Designed around the budget-friendly Intel B560 chipset for 11th and 10th generation Intel desktop processors, both the Colorful CVN B560I Gaming V20 and Frozen models include an unspecified 8-phase power delivery (6+2), with one 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input and a 24-pin 12 V ATX motherboard inputs. On the right-hand side of the board are a pair of memory slots with support for up to DDR4-4266 and can accommodate up to 64 GB.
At the time of writing, Colorful hasn't divulged its controller set, but we know it has one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot and one full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot along the bottom of the board. For cooling, both boards include three 4-pin fan headers with four straight-angled SATA ports, which can be found on the right-hand side of the PCB. The only difference between both models is that the Frozen variant has a white PCB, and the V20 uses a black PCB. This gives users the option to find a solution to fit their systems aesthetic; However, Colorful doesn't specify if either model includes integrated RGB LED lighting. We would assume neither does based on the images.
Both models share the same rear panel I/O layout and include one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Colorful provides a pair of video outputs, including HDMI and DisplayPort, while an unspecified HD audio codec powers three 3.5 mm audio jacks. Regarding networking, there's one Gigabit Ethernet port and a Wi-Fi 6 CNVi, which also includes support for BT 5.0 devices.
At present, Colorful hasn't provided pricing or when the CVN B560I Gaming V20 and Gaming Frozen models will hit retail shelves.
Source: Colorful
Coming off of the popular reception of their first family of retail NVMe SSDs, SK hynix this morning is adding another model to the Gold P31 family: the long-awaited 2TB version. The higher capacity drive, still using SK hynix’s in-house controller and 128L NAND, is being launched with immediate availability today, with retail pricing set at $280.
The portable SSD market has been steadily expanding thanks to the increasing digital footprint of consumers. Technological advancements such as 3D NAND with high layer counts and the emergence of QLC have enabled SSD capacities to increase substantially over the last few years. And with those economies of scale kicking in, multiple vendors are finally able to offer consumer-focused flash-based storage devices in capacities up to 4TB.
At the 2021 CES, Western Digital introduced 4TB variants of almost all their portable SSD families, including their flagship SanDisk Extreme PRO v2 and the WD_BLACK P50 lines. In March, Crucial updated its affordable X6 lineup to include a 4TB version. WD's flagships and Crucial's mainstream X6 offerings represent two ends of the pricing spectrum. At the same capacity point, they present an interesting view of the tradeoffs involved in bringing a portable SSD to the market. Read on for an analysis of the performance and value propositions of the SanDisk Extreme PRO v2 and the Crucial X6 4TB portable SSDs.
On the back of a myriad of new motherboard launches based on AMD's X570 chipset, we have the MSI MEG X570S Ace Max. The new Max motherboard supersedes the previous X570 Ace, and fittingly has lots of new and improved features. Some of the biggest features of the new Ace Max include a large 18-phase power delivery with premium 90 A power stages and the inclusion of an Intel Wi-Fi 6E wireless interface. Other features include four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, support for DDR4-5300 memory, and 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet.
Perhaps on par with MSI's flagship X570 model, the Godlike, the MSI MEG X570S Ace Max looks to take things to the next level with a stylish all-black design with contrasting gold stripes and multiple areas of integrated RGB lighting. Looking at PCIe support on the X570S Ace Max, it includes three full-length PCIe 4.0 slots that operate at x16 or x8/x8/+x4, with a single PCIe 4.0 x1 slot. The latter of which unfortunately shares bandwidth with the Wi-Fi 6E module, so when that is in use, the slot is disabled.
Looking at storage options, the MSI MEG X570S Ace Max has four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, including three with support for SATA drives, as well as eight SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. MSI also includes an M.2 Xpander-Z Gen4 S M.2 PCIe 4.0 addon card for users looking to add more M.2 storage. Memory support is also impressive, with support for up to DDR4-5300 and a maximum supported capacity of up to 128 GB across four memory slots. Keeping the system cool is a combined total of eight 4-pin headers, including one designated to a CPU fan, one for a water pump, and six for chassis fans. MSI also has a premium power delivery, with an 18-phase design using 90 A power stages versus the 60 A power stages used on the original MEG X570 Ace.
The rear panel has a solid array of input and output befitting a premium model, including one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, three USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports. It uses a Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 GbE controller for Ethernet, and Intel's latest AX210 Wi-Fi 6E wireless interface for Wi-Fi, offering access to the 6 GHz band and support for BT 5.2 devices. There's also a premium onboard audio pairing of a Realtek ALC4082 HD audio codec and an ESS Sabre 9018Q2C DAC.
At the time of writing, we don't have pricing information or when the MSI MEG X570S Ace Max will be available at retail, but we expect this to be within the coming months.
Source: MSI
This week Intel held its annual Architecture Day event for select press and partners. As with previous iterations, the company disclosed details about its next generation architectures set to come to the market over the next twelve months. Intel has promised the release of its next-generation consumer and mobile processor family, Alder Lake, to come by the end of the year and today the company is sharing a good number of details about the holistic design of the chips as well as some good detail about the microarchitectures that form this hybrid design: Golden Cove and Gracemont. Here is our analysis of Intel’s disclosure.
For Intel’s 2021 Architecture Day presentations, the yin to the CPU company’s traditional yang is GPUs. Intel has spent the last few years preparing to enter the market for discrete GPUs, with aims of competing in everything from consumer video cards up to HPC-class accelerators. And now, as the company already begins preparing for 2022, those efforts are finally coming to a head. Intel’s big breakout effort in the discrete GPU space starts in earnest next year with Xe-HPG and Xe-HPC, so for their 2021 architecture day, Intel is opening up a bit more about the GPU architectures that will be driving their first wave of high-performance products next year.
Alongside a sneak peek at their forthcoming Xe-HPG architecture, the other big reveal today from Intel’s consumer graphics group comes from the software side of the business. Along with preparing Intel’s software stack for the 2022 launch of the first Arc products, the group has also been hard at work at their own take on modern, neural net-driven image upscaling techniques. The product of that research is Xe Super Sampling, or XeSS, which Intel is pitching as the best solution yet for high image quality and low processing cost image upscaling.
In our coverage of the semiconductor space, we typically think of two main vectors of hardware – the CPU and the GPU. Beyond that, we look at FPGAs, microcontrollers, and this decade is bringing the advent of the dedicated AI processor. What ties all of these products together is actually the FPGA - a field programmable gate array that allows a skilled technician to essentially build a custom circuit out of configurable gates. This means an FPGA can be used to design and simulate a full CPU or GPU, but also an FPGA offers a reconfigurable way to offer optimized compute power that adapts to the needs of its users without the cost of millions or tens of millions to design dedicated silicon. One of the first FPGA companies on the market was Lattice Semiconductor, which now focuses on small power efficient FPGA designs that end up in everything from consumer devices to servers.
Over the last three years at Lattice, Jim has initiated a cultural shift that is playing out in the company roadmaps – new products, a more agile approach, and a need to focus on enabling machine learning at every part of its product stack. The recent financial disclosures at Lattice show an increasing demand for its hardware, as well as the company making strides to double its addressable market over the next five years. I thought this would be a good time to reconnect with Jim to find out exactly what he’s doing at Lattice to earmark the next generation of growth at this foundational FPGA company.
This week as part of the annual Hot Chips semiconductor conference, Samsung’s memory division has presented a poster/slides on a project it is currently working on with impressive end-point results. The company details a 512 GB module of DDR5 memory, running at DDR5-7200, designed for server and enterprise use. This is a step up from the 256 GB modules at the top end of the market today, but to get there, Samsung has been introducing some new features and functionality.
Over the last couple of years, a great deal of concern has developed around the future of semiconductor manufacturing, both with respect to total capacity and where the next generation of fabs will be hosted. The current chip crunch has underscored that current fab capacity is too small for a world where there’s a silicon chip in practically everything, and meanwhile geopolitical matters have made nations increasingly worried about where today’s cutting-edge fabs are located – mostly in Taiwan and South Korea. Consequently, we’ve seen governments kick-start initiatives to woo fab companies or otherwise incentivize the domestic construction of next-generation fabs, including the United States Department of Defense, whom today is awarding Intel an agreement to provide commercial foundry services for the DoD.
As announced by Intel this morning, Intel’s Foundry Services group has secured an agreement with the United States Department of Defense to provide fab services under the Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes - Commercial (RAMP-C) program. RAMP-C is one of several US government programs to encourage domestic chip production, with this program focused on chip production for defense needs. In short, the DoD wants to ensure it will be able to have its chips (and other necessary commercial hardware) fabbed within the United States on a leading-edge commercial manufacturing node, and it is tapping a consortium of companies lead by Intel to develop the necessary foundry ecosystem.
Along with Intel, the consortium also includes IBM, Cadence, Synopsys and other companies, all of whom will be providing their relevant expertise and technologies to the project. These companies will be working together on what’s a fairly forward-looking service agreement, as the DoD is looking at fab needs several years down the line. Ultimately, the group is being tasked with establishing a semiconductor IP ecosystem around Intel’s forthcoming 18A process – the most advanced process on their development roadmap – which isn’t due to start ramping until 2025.
At this point Intel and the DoD are not announcing the value of the services agreement. There is no doubt some hedging going on, and there are multiple milestones Intel & co will need to hit between now and 2025 as part of their participating in the RAMP-C program.
But in the meantime, even being able to claim the DoD as a major customer for Intel Foundry Services is a big win for the group, which is still in the early stages of lining up customers and proving that it has learned from past mistakes, both with regards to offering contract foundry services, and in operating a leading-edge fab ecosystem. As a reminder, Intel has previously announced that it will be spending around $20 billion to build a pair of new fabs in Arizona, so success for IFS hinges on finding big customers like the DoD to fill those fabs with orders.
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs. Today we start at 8:45am PT, so set your watches and notifications to return back here! The first set of talks is all about CPUs: Intel Alder Lake, AMD Zen 3, IBM Z, and Intel Sapphire Rapids.
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs.
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs.
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs.
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs.
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs.
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs.
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs.
Welcome to Hot Chips! This is the annual conference all about the latest, greatest, and upcoming big silicon that gets us all excited. Stay tuned during Monday and Tuesday for our regular AnandTech Live Blogs.
In today's review, we are taking a look at Noctua's NH-U12S Redux, a price-optimized version of their highly popular NH-U12S tower CPU cooler. The NH-U12S Redux has been redesigned to bring the same kind of Noctua performance, but at a retail price of just $50, making it more affordable to the masses.
Intel introduced the Willow Cove micro-architecture with their Tiger Lake processors in the latter part of 2020. These were designed to span a wide range of performance levels and applications, with TDPs ranging from as low as 7W up to 65W.
While mobile systems are the prime market for the 7W - 15W SKUs, higher TDP processors have found themselves in a number of different form-factors ranging from notebooks and UCFF mini-PCs to full-blown gaming desktops. Many ultra-compact mini-PCs based on Tiger Lake have been introduced by different vendors in the last few quarters. Competitively speaking, the Tiger Lake UCFF PCs come in at a time when systems based on AMD's compelling 7nm Zen 2-based Ryzen 4000U series of processors are already well-established in the market.
Can Tiger Lake shift the value proposition metric back towards Intel? Read on for our review of ASRock Industrial's flagship 'NUC' based on Tiger Lake - the NUC BOX-1165G7.
The gaming market has experienced significant growth over the last decade. In addition to boosting PC sales, the peripherals market associated with the segment has also expanded. Installed sizes for games now regularly run into hundreds of gigabytes, thanks in large part to support for increased resolutions and more detailed graphics. The data also needs to be loaded into memory as fast as possible in order to improve the gaming experience.
Unsurprisingly then, gamers want the fastest possible portable SSDs to store their games. The 20 Gbps transfer rates promised by USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 has an instant appeal in this market segment. Keeping this in mind, many vendors have introduced USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 bus-powered portable SSDs targeting the gaming crowd. Last year, we looked at Western Digital's WD_BLACK P50. Seagate's FireCuda Gaming SSD was available in the market around the same time, but it didn't make it to our testbed in time for that review.
We recently got the Seagate offering into our latest testbed, and took the opportunity to refresh the numbers for the WD_BLACK P50 with our latest test suite as well. Read on for our hands-on review of the Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD.
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