Items tagged with processor
Intel Unveils Haswell-E 8-Core Beast Of A Desktop CPU Intel has officially launched their Core i7-5960X high-end, Haswell-E desktop processor today. Unlike Ivy Bridge-E, which maxed out at 6 cores (12 threads), Haswell-E is an 8-core beast of a machine (16 threads), featuring execution units based on Intel’s latest desktop microarchitecture. The Core i7-5960X has a base clock of 3GHz with Turbo Boost speed to 3.5GHz and will have up to 20MB of shared L3 cache. It also features an integrated quad-channel memory controller with official support for DDR4 memory at speeds up to 2133MHz, although higher speeds are possible through overclocking. Haswell-E based processors also feature up to 40...
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We have been eagerly anticipating the release of processors based on Intel’s Haswell-E microarchitecture for quite some time. After about three years of incremental performance improvements at the ultra-high end, as Sandy Bridge-E was eventually replaced by similarly clocked Ivy Bridge-E based processors, the rumored specs of Haswell-E were enticing. Unlike Sandy Bridge-E and Ivy Bridge-E, which maxed out at 6 cores (12 threads) with desktops variants, Haswell-E would be an 8-core machine (16 threads), featuring execution units based on Intel’s latest microarchitecture. Assuming similar clocks, the speculation was that the additional cores and newer microarchitecture would translate...
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Intel's latest processor design and manufacturing effort marks a first for the semiconductor industry. No other semiconductor manufacturer in the world is building chips at the level of Intel's 14nm (nanometer) process node; even large memory manufacturers like Toshiba and Samsung are just now hitting 19nm. As we've reported previously, the processor Intel is rolling out for its first volume production vehicle at 14nm is code named "Broadwell." And, as we learned in a recent meeting at the Intel's Hillsboro, Oregon development and fab center, the first processor family based on Intel's Broadwell microarchitecture, will be known as Core M. Broadwell and the Intel Core M family is what Intel refers...
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Competing with Intel's desktop or notebook processors is like taking on the proverbial 800 pound gorilla, but when it comes to resources, the company is more like an 800 pound gorilla on steroids, with advanced weaponry and a big budget. Intel is a manufacturing and process technology juggernaut. There was a time when the company would use that prowess to simply enable chips at higher clock speeds with larger memory resources. Since then, market demands have shifted to efficient computing, based on performance-per-watt metrics. With a strong X86 architecture in place, Intel is now using their process and manufacturing advantages to leave competitors in the rear view,...
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AMD updated its family of Kaveri-based A-Series APUs for desktop systems today. We first took an official look at Kaveri back in January, when we evaluated the A8-7600 APU. That particular APU is being re-launched today at a new price point, but AMD is also introducing a couple of new APUs as well, namely the A10-7800 and the A6-7400K. As their names suggest, the A10-7800 is a somewhat higher-end APU than the A8-7600 we initially evaluated, and the A6-7400K is a lower-end variant with fewer cores. We’ve got an A10-7800 in hand and have run it through an array of benchmark to show you what its performance looks like in comparison to a few competing chips... AMD Kaveri Update: A10-7800 APU...
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AMD updated its family of Kaveri-based A-Series APUs for desktop systems today. We first took an official look at Kaveri back in January, when we evaluated the A8-7600 APU. That particular APU is being re-launched today at a new price point, but AMD is also introducing a couple of new APUs as well, namely the A10-7800 and the A6-7400K. As their names suggest, the A10-7800 is a somewhat higher-end APU than the A8-7600 we initially evaluated, and the A6-7400K is a lower-end variant with fewer cores. The Updated AMD Kaveri-Based APU Line Up - Find Them At Amazon The complete breakdown of AMD’s updated A-Series APU line-up is listed for you here. As you can see, the A10-7800 has 12 total compute...
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Say it loud and clear with us: "Seven nanometers." That's pretty much a pipe dream right now, both in terms of how far removed we are from that achievement -- 7nm represents a chip technology that's three generations away -- and the technological hurdles required to get there. Nevertheless, IBM wants to make sure we get there, and help accelerate the process, the company announced plans to invest a hearty $3 billion over the next 5 years into chip R&D efforts. IBM's investment will be split into two broad research and early stage development programs, both of which are intended to push the limits of chip technology to meet the emerging demands of cloud computing and Big Data systems. The...
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Intel today made a splash at the International Supercomputing Conference in Leipzig, Germany by revealing new details about its next-generation Xeon Phi processor technology. You may better recognize Xeon Phi by its codename, Knights Landing, which we covered in some detail earlier this year. No matter what you call it, this represents a significant leap in High Performance Computing (HPC) that will deliver up to three times the performance of previous generations while consuming less power. A big part of the reason for this is the construction of a new high-speed interconnect technology called Intel Omni Scale Fabric, which Intel has been a bit cagey about, though reportedly it is comprised...
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Nothing really pauses for long in the technology industry, and when it comes to microprocessors, that pace of change is typically even more rapid. AMD's keeping things fresh by announcing a few key managerial changes this week, all wrapped up under its "multi-year strategic transformation." In essence, the company is working to better combine business units that were previously separate, while also creating a single market-focused organization that will be responsible for all aspects of product strategy, product execution, sales and operations. As part of the change, Dr. Lisa Su has been named Chief Operating Officer, and the company will create two business groups focused on bolstering "traditional...
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Intel has been slowly releasing information about its Devil’s Canyon processors for a few months now. If you’ve been on top of the processor scene, you probably know that Devil’s Canyon is the codename for a new revision of Intel’s 4th Gen Core processors, based on the Haswell microarchitecture, that features a high performance polymer thermal interface material (TIM) and updated packaging materials, in addition to an array of additional capacitors to smooth power delivery to the core. The Devil’s Canyon details Intel had strategically released up until a few days ago was all high-level information and lacked specifics about particular model numbers, pricing, and...
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Intel has been slowly releasing information about its Devil’s Canyon processors for a few months now. If you’ve been on top of the processor scene, you probably know that Devil’s Canyon is the codename for a new revision of Intel’s 4th Gen Core processors, based on the Haswell microarchitecture, that features a high performance polymer thermal interface material (TIM) and updated packaging materials, in addition to an array of additional capacitors to smooth power delivery to the core. Devil’s Canyon’s updates are designed to resolve some thermal and overclocking related issues that were first introduced into Intel’s processor line-up with Ivy Bridge....
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Both Intel and AMD have quite successfully combined CPU and GPU engines onto single chips, but up to this point they have tended to work as autonomous islands. The CPU and GPU share some resources, but not a single memory pool. That changes today though, with the official launch of AMD’s Kaveri-based APUs, the first APUs to truly support heterogeneous computing. Kaveri combines AMD’s latest Steamroller CPU microarchitecture with a GCN-based graphics engine, with up to 512 stream processors. Peak CPU clocks will vary depending on model, but the graphics clock maxes out at 720MHz. These AMD desktop-targeted APUs will carry TDPs of 45W – 95W. AMD Kaveri A8-7600 APU Review The GCN-based...
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Way back in 2006, after the ATI acquisition, AMD laid out its Fusion initiative and future plans to integrate a CPU and GPU onto the same processor die. The ultimate goal of Fusion was to seamlessly combine CPU and GPU resources into a single, cohesive compute engine equally adept at handling serial and highly parallel workloads. At the time, the idea seemed ambitious, but history has shown that more and more external resources have consistently been brought onto the CPU die (memory controllers, IO hub, etc.) and graphics would be no different. Since then, both Intel and AMD have quite successfully combined CPU and GPU engines onto single chips, but up to this point they have tended...
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In the quest to build a processor that's an order of magnitude more efficient than what we have available today, the brain is the first thing looked at. Scientists would love nothing more than to fully understand how the brain works, because with that knowledge, not only could things improve on the healthcare side, but computers would benefit as well. Thus, researchers have long been craving for a processor that even partially but realistically behaves just like a brain. It would be able to learn new things as time passes, and enjoy the benefits of unparalleled error-correction. In 2014, a much simpler version of the ideal chip will be made available, which could be the start of great things...
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Remember the peak of the megapixel war, where every single camera manufacturer was popping out a new point-and-shoot model with a slightly higher MP rating? It feels like we may be entering a similar leapfrog battle in the silicon world, as the race to produce chips with "more cores than the other guys" hits full stride. Though more cores generally make a meaningful difference in performance in multi-threaded workloads, more pixels don't always result in higher quality imaging if optics aren't up to par. At any rate, a new report suggests that Intel's latest project internally involves a massively packed 15-core Ivytown chip. The high-end processor will ship first to customers in the enterprise...
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If you're Intel, great news abounds. While the holiday quarter always tends to be positive for the chip giant, Q3 is one of those mysteries. This year, however, Wall Street is apt to be pleased with what the company accomplished. Intel reported third-quarter earnings this week, posting strong revenue of $13.5 billion alongside net income of $3 billion. All told, total revenue was up 5% sequentially, but flat year-over-year. That said, the Data Center Group saw record revenue of $2.9 billion, a rise of 12% compared to Q3 of last year. This quarter also saw the launch of 4th-gen Core products, not to mention over forty 22nm products for ultra-mobile products, networking, storage, and server market...
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Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa processor is the first eight-core chip for smartphones, but it's always been a little deceiving to refer to it as a true eight-core part. That's because not all eight cores fire up at the same time. Instead, the more powerful quad-core ARM Cortex A15 cores handle CPU intensive tasks while the less powerful (and more battery efficient) quad-core ARM Cortex A7 cores tackle less intensive chores, but never at the same time. That's about to change. Taking a big step towards true eight-core processing, Samsung announced its Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) solution for Exynos 5 Octa to fully maximize the benefits of the ARM big.LITTLE technology. "It's usually assumed that...
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This most recent metamorphosis of the PC hasn’t been kind to the high-end desktop processor segment. While the industry as a whole continues to focus on the steadily growing ultra-mobile market, and releases new products in rapid succession, there have only been two major flagship desktop processors released since the Intel Core i7-3960X hit the scene in late 2011—the slightly faster Intel Core i7-3970X and AMD’s limited edition FX-9590. And even then, AMD’s chip is most likely going to compete with Intel’s more mainstream quad-core parts. We’ll know exactly how it performs soon enough, when we complete our full evaluation of the FX-9590. Low-power parts...
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This most recent metamorphosis of the PC hasn’t been kind to the high-end desktop processor segment. While the industry as a whole continues to focus on the steadily growing ultra-mobile market, and releases new products in rapid succession, there have only been two major flagship desktop processors released since the Intel Core i7-3960X hit the scene in late 2011—the slightly faster Intel Core i7-3970X and AMD’s limited edition FX-9590. And even then, AMD’s chip is most likely going to compete with Intel’s more mainstream quad-core parts; we’ll know exactly how it performs soon enough, when we complete our full evaluation of the FX-9590. Low-power parts that...
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Intel is reportedly going to add over a dozen new processors to its desktop Haswell line on September 1, which is just two days away at this point. That means if you're currently shopping Intel chips, you may want to wait until after the weekend to see what Intel has on tap and whether or not any of the prices for current parts come down. According to Digitimes, among the new releases will be the high-end Core i7 4771, mid-range Core i5 4440 and Core i3 4340, and entry-level Pentium G3430. Intel is also planning to launch new Haswell parts for notebooks. Among the two dozen chips slated for laptops, there will be the Core i7 4610Y, Core i5 4300Y, Pentium 3560Y, and Celeron 2955U. In case you're...
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They say that time heals all wounds, and while Samsung vs. Apple probably won't be entirely patched up in the near future, it seems that the two are beginning to smile a bit more. As the steam from the ongoing patent battles starts to die down, a new report suggests that Apple has agreed to allow Samsung to supply processors for its next-generation iPhone. Specifically, a 14nm "A9" chip. Recently, we also heard reports that Taiwan's TSMC would begin making Apple processors, so this could be a case of dual sourcing, or choosing Samsung for certain product lines and TSMC for others. These chips probably won't ship in iOS products until the 2015 time frame, so the impending iPhone 5S or iPhone 6...
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If you thought today's mobile devices were fast, wait until you see what ARM has up its sleeve for next year. Chip makers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and GlobalFoundries have both let it be known that they're planning to build 3GHz ARM processor sometime in 2014, which will inevitably end up in System-on-Chip (SoC) platforms for smartphones and tablets. The fastest ARM chip currently available is 2.3GHz, though the majority of high-end parts are in the neighborhood of 1.6GHz, such as what's found in Samsung's flagship Galaxy S4 handset. By bumping the clockspeed to 3GHz, ARM is sending a clear message to rivals Intel and AMD that it doesn't plan on conceding the mobile market,...
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