Tag: Intel

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Intel unveils Arc laptop graphics, more GPUs coming this summer

Intel revealed its new Arc A-Series GPUs at an event on March 30th. A-Series GPUs will cover laptops, desktops, and workstations, but Intel put the focus on its laptop options to start.

The main two offerings Intel unveiled were the A350M targeting ultra-thin designs and the A370M for more performance in thin-and-light designs. Both of these fall under the ‘Arc 3’ category, with Arc 5 and Arc 7 laptops coming in early summer. The company also shared a teaser video of its upcoming desktop GPU expected this summer.

Intel says Arc 3 graphics will offer enhanced 1080p gaming and content creation. For A370M specifically, Intel says it can deliver more than 60 frames per second (fps) at 1080p on “a range of popular titles.”

Moreover, Intel says many of the first laptops with Arc graphics will be Intel Evo designs. Evo, for those unfamiliar, is a certification program of sorts — laptops marked as ‘Evo’ meet various performance and hardware criteria set out by Intel, such as being lightweight and offering great battery life.

Intel’s new discrete GPUs bring support for Direct X 12 and dedicated ray-tracing hardware, but the first batch announced by Intel only offer around twice the power of the company’s integrated Xe graphics.

Still, this is the first of many GPUs, and it’s likely that Arc 5 and 7 hardware — which will offer more graphics cores, ray-tracing units, memory, and power — will be more appealing to high-end gamers when they arrive this summer.

Intel also showed off its artificial intelligence (AI) ‘XeSS’ super-sampling system that can upscale games to higher resolutions on the fly. Unfortunately, it’s not available yet but will arrive in early summer. Moreover, based on what Intel has said, it seems like XeSS will rely on developers supporting the tech for best results.

Further, as The Verge points out, Intel largely avoided comparing its Arc offerings to hardware from other companies, namely AMD, Nvidia, and Apple. As such, we’ll need to wait on tests from reviewers to see how these products stack up to the competition.

Still, it seems like some of Intel’s tech will help give it an edge. For example, there’s ‘Deep Link,’ which allows systems sporting both Intel CPUs and GPUs to optimize power-sharing to give hardware the juice it needs to complete a task.

Ultimately, this first showing suggests there’s potential to be excited about, but most people should reserve full judgement for real-world tests and for whatever Intel has up its sleeves for the summer.

Source: Intel Via: The Verge

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Intel found a flaw in AMD’s Spectre mitigation, AMD issues fix

Source: https://www.amd.com/en/corporate/newsroom-media

Intel’s security team found a flaw in AMD’s old ‘LFENCE/JMP’ patch to mitigate Spectre vulnerabilities across several generations of Ryzen and Threadripper CPUs.

In response, AMD issued a security bulletin recommending the use of alternate mitigation options. The update also had additional information for software developers.

Spectre is a type of security flaw that affects almost all modern Intel and AMD processors. It can potentially allow attackers to access sensitive data without detection. Worse, last week researchers found that Intel and Arm processors are susceptible to a new kind of ‘Spectre v2’ attack.

Intel uncovered the issue with LFENCE/JMP while investigating the new vulnerability. AMD implemented LFENCE/JMP in 2018 to mitigate against Spectre, but Intel’s researchers found it doesn’t adequately protect against the threat.

As per AMD’s security bulletin, the weakness in LFENCE/JMP spans the following chips:

  • Gen 1, 2, and 3 AMD Epyc processors
  • AMD Ryzen 2000, 3000, and 5000 series desktop processors
  • AMD Ryzen 4000 and 5000 series desktop processors with Radeon graphics
  • 2nd and 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper
  • AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro
  • AMD Athlon 3000 series mobile processors with Radeon graphics
  • AMD Ryzen 2000 and 3000 series mobile processors
  • 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen mobile processor with Radeon graphics
  • AMD Ryzen 3000, 4000, and 5000 series with Radeon graphics
  • AMD Athlon, Athlon 3000, and Ryzen 3000 mobile processors with Radeon graphics for Chromebook

You can view the full list here.

The researchers who found the flaw performed the exploit on Linux, but so far there haven’t been examples of the using the exploit on platforms like Windows.

Finally, The Verge points out that patches for Spectre-related vulnerabilities have been known to cause performance issues, especially on older hardware. However, benchmarking platform Phoronix tested the impact of initial patches for Intel and AMD chips in 2019 and found AMD CPUs were less affected than Intel.

Image credit: AMD

Source: Tom’s Hardware, AMD Via: The Verge

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Lockdown of China’s Silicon Valley could mean trouble for worldwide electronics market

Portland, OR, USA – Oct 19, 2021: The Foxconn logo is seen on a new iPhone 13 Mini. Foxconn Technology Group is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer and a key Apple supplier.

The recent lockdown of Shenzhen means trouble for electronic supplies around the globe.

The city located in southeastern China is known as a technology hub and supplies electronics for many notable brands, including Apple.

Earlier this week, the city was put on lockdown as cases around China saw a dramatic incline, in line with the county’s zero-tolerance COVID policy. According to Reuters, it’s the largest outbreak the country has seen in two years.

Foxconn confirmed it has suspended operations in the city for at least the first half of the week. The company makes electronics for several companies and is a major supplier of iPhones.

Reuters reports Unimicron Technology Corp, with customers including Apple and Intel, has also suspended operations at this time. Sunflex Technology, a flexible printed circuit board maker, has followed suite. 

The government may allow companies to open shop again if they can create a bubble where employees work and live, similar to the experience during the Winter Olympics, the publication reports.

Mass testing is happening in the city at this time.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Reuters

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Leaked M1 Ultra benchmark shows it outperforming Intel Mac Pro’s 28-core CPU

Apple unveiled a ton of products at its ‘Peek Performance’ event this week, but the star was easily the new Mac Studio and M1 Ultra chip. But, questions remain about how well the Mac Studio and M1 Ultra actually perform — Apple made some lofty claims on stage.

Well, according to a leaked Geekbench score for the M1 Ultra chip, performance looks pretty good.

Now, before I get too deep into this, it’s important to note that benchmarks are not always the best way to judge a computer. Benchmarks can be useful for comparing performance between devices through a consistent test, but they may not always be indicative of real-world performance. Moreover, it can sometimes be hard to note the impact of significant hardware differences — for example, the amount of RAM in a device — in a benchmark.

With that out of the way, this GeekBench 5 result for the M1 Ultra shows the chip hit a single-core score of 1,793. As 9to5Mac points out, that puts it in line with all of Apple’s M1 chips, which makes sense given one of the biggest differences between them is the number of cores.

Things are more interesting with the M1 Ultra’s multi-core result: 24,055.

That’s a pretty impressive score, especially when you take it in context. For example, our test of the MacBook Pro with the new M1 Pro chip scored 9,318 in GeekBench’s multi-core test. My Windows desktop with a 10th Gen Intel Core 19-10900K scored 10,192 in multi-core, and Intel’s new 12th Gen Core i9-12900HK laptop chip scored 13,523. 9to5 also pointed out that Intel’s 28-core Xeon W-3275M processor, which is currently the best CPU you can get in Apple’s Mac Pro machine, scored 19,951 in GeekBench’s multi-core test. That suggests the M1 Ultra performs about 20 percent better than the Intel Xeon W-3275M.

Perhaps the more impressive part of this is the M1 Ultra chip almost certainly hits that high performance while using a fraction of the power that the Intel chips use.

As impressive as the M1 Ultra is, it’s worth keeping in mind that the Mac Pro offers a high level of customizability, allowing people to equip it with multiple AMD Radeon Pro GPUs and up to 1.5TB of RAM. Those could be difference-makers in some highly intensive workloads that need a lot of memory — the M1 Ultra maxes out at 128GB (which is way more than most people need, but for those intense workloads, may come up laughably short).

All that said, Apple did tease plans to introduce a new Mac Pro with Apple Silicon in the future. Although unlikely, part of me hopes whatever chip Apple introduces for the new Mac Pro offers the same level of flexibility as the current Mac Pro in terms of memory expansion.

Source: GeekBench Via: 9to5Mac

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Samsung unveils Galaxy Book2 Pro, Pro 360 with 12th Gen Intel chips and Arc

Samsung has unveiled its latest Windows laptops, the Galaxy Book2 Pro and Book 2 Pro 360, at MWC. The new laptops build on last year’s Galaxy Book Pro with new features, improved hardware, Windows 11 and more.

There’s plenty to unpack with the Book 2 Pro and Pro 360, but before we dig into specs, there are some highlight features worth making note of. Chief among them is Samsung’s ‘Multi Control,’ which allows Galaxy Book users to control their Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 with the Galaxy Book’s keyboard and mouse.

If that seems familiar, it’s probably because it’s practically identical to Apple’s ‘Universal Control’ feature. That said, Apple’s Universal Control hasn’t actually launched yet — it’s still in beta and, at this rate, it seems like Samsung might actually beat it to the punch.

Samsung also touted the security features of its new laptops. Another highlight was the 87° 1080p webcam with ‘Auto Framing’ that tracks subjects to keep them in frame, like Apple’s Center Stage. Bixby will also make its way onto the Book 2 Pro and Pro 360 so you can continue to not use it on your laptop as well as your smartphone now.

Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro in Silver and Graphite.

As for specs, the Book 2 Pro and Pro 360 both seem loaded. Both laptops sport 12th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 chips with Intel Evo certification, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of storage. All the laptops use Intel’s Xe integrated graphics, although the 15.6-inch Book 2 Pro will also have access to Intel Arc graphics.

On that note, both laptops some in 13.3- and 15.6-inch options with SuperAMOLED FHD (1920×1080 pixel) screens, with the Pro 360 offering a 360° hinge and S-Pen support (thankfully, one comes in the box). The laptops support Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1, fingerprint authentication and more. The 15.6-inch Book 2 Pro also has 5G available.

Galaxy Book 2 Pro in ‘tent mode’

Overall, these new Galaxy Books look impressive, although it, unfortunately, looks like they’ll come loaded with Samsung software like last year’s Galaxy Book. For anyone deeply committed to the Samsung ecosystem, that may be welcome, but for everyone else, it’s more bloat to uninstall from your new PC.

Samsung says the Galaxy Book 2 Pro and Pro 360 will be available in ‘Silver,’ ‘Graphite,’ and ‘Burgundy’ (only for the Pro 360) and will launch in April.

Images credit: Samsung

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Intel, Samsung hype the future of touchless food ordering coming to Quebec

Source: https://news.samsung.com/ca/samsung-canada-brings-innovation-to-foodservice-industry-with-unique-touchless-display-solution

Intel and Samsung are really, really excited about a new touchless interactive kiosk headed to select St-Hubert locations in Montreal and Laval, Quebec.

Both companies reached out to MobileSyrup about the ‘AIRxTOUCH KIOSK Series 3,’ a fancy retail kiosk from Luxembourg-based iNUI Studio. In short, the kiosk leverages “air touch” technology to allow customers to interact with it without actually touching the display. It actually sounds kinda neat, although it remains to be seen how well it works in practice.

Specifically, the Air Touch tech uses proprietary image processing algorithms to allow “mid-air interaction (5 cm from the screen)” with support for common interactions like clicking, double-clicking, drag and drop, slide, zoom, and more.

As for where Samsung and Intel come in, both companies supply core pieces of the AIRxTOUCH kiosk solution — it uses a Samsung QMR Series 55-inch display, while the kiosk runs on Intel’s NUC 11 Pro Kit.

According to a press release provided by Intel, “Canada and the St-Hubert chain were chosen as one of the first global locations for this food ordering technology with additional implementations expected in other food chains across North America.”

Initially, I thought the whole AIRxTOUCH kiosk was ridiculous (thanks in part to this overly dramatic marketing video) but after thinking about it a bit, I may actually be on board with this thing.

Assuming it works well, a touchless ordering kiosk would be great (especially with the pandemic) as it would hopefully reduce the number of people touching a shared surface. Plus, there are other potential applications — these kiosks could work in malls, transportation hubs and other places where a self-serve option is common.

Anyway, if you happen to live in Montreal or Laval and frequently visit St-Hubert, keep an eye out for one of these and give it a try if you see one.

Image credit: Samsung

Source: Intel, Samsung

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Intel purchases first next-gen chip-making tool set to arrive in 2024

Intel announced that it ordered the first of a new generation of chip-making machines from ASML, a Dutch manufacturer of photolithography systems.

The purchase is Intel’s latest move in a larger effort to get back on top of the chip game. Each of the new ASML machines, dubbed ‘Twinscan EXE:5200,’ cost on average $340 million USD (about $425 million CAD) and should arrive in 2024. It’s considered critical to advancing processor progress. One of the main ways chipmakers advance processors is through miniaturization. By shrinking chip circuitry, manufacturers can fit more into processors, enabling them to do more work.

Photolithography, which literally means “writing on stone with light” according to CNET, is core to the process of miniaturizing chip circuitry. Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) have both surpassed Intel in this regard thanks to the use of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light. The shorter wavelength of EUV allows manufacturers to inscribe finer patterns on silicon wafers.

CNET reports that Intel was late to the EUV game, but the company is now working to correct that. The company expects to start selling its first EUV chips in 2023 with processors based on the ‘Intel 4’ node — the company’s somewhat confusing new name for its 7nm process.

The new Twinscan EXE:5200 machines are scheduled to be delivered in 2024 for Intel operations beginning in 2025. The machine uses an advanced EUV tool with a high numeric aperture (NA) to inscribe even finer patterns on silicon wafers.

In simpler terms, that means we’re still several years out from seeing Intel’s more advanced and hopefully more competitive NA EUV process (likely as part of the Intel 18A process slated for 2025). Intel is only just ramping up EUV with Intel 4, which was originally supposed to launch in 2021 but was infamously delayed (and renamed).

With Samsung and TSMC already using EUV for 5nm and even 4nm (with Samsung’s new Exynos 2200), there’s still a clear gap between the companies. Even though Intel’s first in line for NA EUV technology, it’s still behind on current EUV. And it’s not like either Samsung or TSMC will sit idle and let Intel catch up. The next few years will certainly be interesting in the chip market and I expect competition will heat up as Intel chases the top spot.

Source: CNET

Image credit: Intel

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Intel reveals 12th Gen desktop CPU that can hit 5.5GHz

Intel followed up its earlier CES 2022 CPU announcement by revealing a desktop processor capable of boosting to 5.5GHz on a single core out-of-the-box.

After previously teasing the CPU, Intel has officially announced the 12th Gen Core i9-12900KS (as Tom’s Hardware notes, the ‘S’ likely means the chip will be a limited edition, which could make it hard to find). The ability to hit 5.5GHz on a single core marks a roughly 300MHz improvement over what Intel achieved on the i9-12900K.

Further, The Verge says that an on-stage demonstration from Intel showed the 12900KS running at a sustained 5.2GHz across all performance cores while running Hitman 3. While certainly impressive, Intel didn’t share details on the chip’s power draw or what cooling solution was used.

As for when you’ll be able to buy the i9-12900KS, well, probably not anytime soon. Intel’s executive vice president Gregory Bryant said that the CPU would ship to “OEM customers” during the presentation. That suggests the chip will be available in pre-built computers to start — it’s not clear if or when Intel will sell the CPU directly to customers who want to build their own PCs.

For more information about Intel’s latest CPUs, check out our coverage here. You can check out more news from CES 2022 here.

Image credit: Intel

Source: The Verge, Tom’s Hardware

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Intel says it started shipping first-gen Arc GPUs to manufacturers

Intel’s Arc GPUs are getting a little closer to reality. Alongside a wealth of CPU announcements at CES 2022, Intel took a little time to provide an update on its anticipated entry into the GPU field.

During its CES 2022 keynote, Intel revealed that it had started shipping its first-gen ‘Alchemist‘ GPUs to manufacturers of desktop and laptop systems, which include Acer, Asus, Clevo, Dell, Gigabyte, Haier, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, MSI and NEC.

The Arc GPUs will mark a significant shift for Intel as they make the company’s new Xe graphics architecture available in discrete laptop and desktop GPUs. Xe, and previous Intel graphics solutions, have typically been available as integrated options added to the company’s CPUs. While integrated graphics can be capable enough for most people, they often don’t stack up to dedicated, discrete GPUs in certain workloads or in gaming.

Intel talks a big game about Arc as well. The company said that Arc graphics will offer “industry-leading” features, such as hardware-accelerated ray tracing and Xe Super Sampling (XeSS), which Intel describes as an upscaling technology powered by artificial intelligence. Another benefit to Arc will be support for Intel’s ‘Deep Link‘ technology, which should provide performance and efficiency boosts by allowing Intel CPUs and GPUs to work together.

While it’s good to see Intel’s Arc plans moving forward, The Verge points out that we’re still missing a lot of information. Manufacturers may have their hands on Arc, but there’s no word on when they’ll release computers with Intel GPUs. Further, we don’t know if or when Intel will make discrete Arc GPUs available for people to buy and integrate into their own custom-built rigs. Intel also hasn’t shared any details about specifications or cost.

That being said, Intel also shared at CES 2022 that it will require discrete Arc GPUs as part of its Evo certification program for laptops using Intel 12th Gen Core H-Series chips. With Evo laptops expected to start shipping in the first half of 2022, we may get to see Intel Arc out in the world sooner rather than later.

You can read more about Intel at CES 2022 here, or check out more news from CES 2022 here.

Source: Intel Via: The Verge

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Intel details new 12th Gen Core mobile processors at CES 2022

Intel kicked off CES 2022 by announcing its 12th Gen Intel Core Mobile chips, which include what the company boldly claims is the “fastest mobile processor ever.”

There are 28 12th gen mobile processors joining 22 desktop processors, with Intel’s Core i9-12900HK leading the pack and running on the Intel 7 process (Intel’s new, confusing name for its 10nm ‘SuperFin Enhanced’ process). The company also detailed new 65- and 35-watt 12th Gen desktop processors and Core U- and P-series mobile processors aimed at ultra-thin-and-light designs.

The Core i9-12900HK is the flagship of Intel’s 12th Gen mobile CPUs and heads the H-series processors aimed at gaming rigs and other high-performance mobile machines. It also bears the crown of “fastest mobile processor ever created,” although it remains to be seen how this (and other 12th Gen CPUs) stack up to the competition in real-world testing.

Intel’s new chips utilize the ‘P-core’ and ‘E-core’ designs the company first detailed at its October Innovation event. As a refresher, P- and E-cores represent performance and efficiency, respectively, and should help the 12th Gen mobile chips better deliver performance when needed, and scale back to conserve power in other situations. The 12th Gen H-series CPUs offer up to 5GHz clock speeds, 14 cores comprised of up to six P-cores and eight E-cores, and 20 threads total.

The company says its H-series CPUs offer up to 28 percent “faster gaming” than last year’s Core i9-11980HK. Additionally, Intel says users “may see up to 43% higher performance in 3D rendering gen-over-gen.”

Moreover, the new CPUs offer support for DDR5 and DDR4 memory, integrated Wi-Fi 6E, Thunderbolt 4 and more.

Other announcements from Intel include updates to its Evo certification platform, with over 100 co-engineered designs sporting 12th Gen Intel chips (including some with foldable displays) are expected to start passing Evo verification soon. These designs include Intel P- and U-series chips, and for the first time, H-series chips. Intel says it expects most of these products to be available for purchase in the first half of 2022.

On the desktop side, Intel announced new ‘Laminar Coolers’ for its 65-watt processors alongside the 22 new desktop CPUs unveiled at CES.

Finally, Intel wrapped things up with some details about its vPro business platform, which include a new vPro Enterprise platform, vPro and Intel Evo designs and a small-business-oriented vPro Essentials platform.

Those interested can learn more about Intel’s CES announcements here. You can check out more news from CES 2022 here.

Images credit: Intel