Intel is preparing to unveil its cutting-edge Xeon 6 series server CPUs, known as Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest. These forthcoming processors are set to deliver a significant boost in performance, foreshadowing a new era of computing power, albeit with a trade-off in increased power consumption. Two days ago, Yuuki_Ans posted information about the Beechnut City validation platform. Today, he updated the X thread with more information that Intel is significantly boosting core counts across its new Xeon 6 lineup. The flagship Xeon 6 6980P is a behemoth, packing 128 cores with a blistering 500 Watt Thermal Design Power (TDP) rating. In fact, Intel is equipping five of its Xeon 6 CPUs with a sky-high 500 W TDP, including the top four Granite Rapids parts and even the flagship Sierra Forest SKU, which is composed entirely of efficiency cores. This marks a substantial increase from Intel's previous Xeon Scalable processors, which maxed out at 350-385 Watts.

The trade-off for this performance boost is a dramatic rise in power consumption. By nearly doubling the TDP ceiling, Intel can double the core count from 64 to 128 cores on its Granite Rapids CPUs, vastly improving its multi-core capabilities. However, this focus on raw performance over power efficiency means server manufacturers must redesign their cooling solutions to accommodate Intel's flagship 500 W parts adequately. Failure to do so could lead to potential thermal throttling issues. Intel's next-gen Xeon CPU architectures are shaping up to be one of the most considerable generational leaps in recent memory. Still, they come with a trade-off in power consumption that vendors and data centers will need to address. Densely packing thousands of these 500-Watt SKUs will lead to new power and thermal challenges, and we wait to see future data center projects utilizing them.

The expansion of AI technology affects not only the production and demand for graphics cards but also the electricity grid that powers them. Data centers hosting thousands of GPUs are becoming more common, and the industry has been building new facilities for GPU-enhanced servers to serve the need for more AI. However, these powerful GPUs often consume over 500 Watts per single card, and NVIDIA's latest Blackwell B200 GPU has a TGP of 1000 Watts or a single kilowatt. These kilowatt GPUs will be present in data centers with 10s of thousands of cards, resulting in multi-megawatt facilities. To combat the load on the national electricity grid, US President Joe Biden's administration has been discussing with big tech to re-evaluate their power sources, possibly using smaller nuclear plants. According to an Axios interview with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, she has noted that "AI itself isn't a problem because AI could help to solve the problem." However, the problem is the load-bearing of the national electricity grid, which can't sustain the rapid expansion of the AI data centers.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has been reportedly talking with firms, most notably hyperscalers like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, to start considering nuclear fusion and fission power plants to satisfy the need for AI expansion. We have already discussed the plan by Microsoft to embed a nuclear reactor near its data center facility and help manage the load of thousands of GPUs running AI training/inference. However, this time, it is not just Microsoft. Other tech giants are reportedly thinking about nuclear as well. They all need to offload their AI expansion from the US national power grid and develop a nuclear solution. Nuclear power is a mere 20% of the US power sourcing, and DOE is currently financing a Holtec Palisades 800-MW electric nuclear generating station with $1.52 billion in funds for restoration and resumption of service. Microsoft is investing in a Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) microreactor energy strategy, which could be an example for other big tech companies to follow.

Today, thanks to Yuuki_Ans on the Chinese Bilibili forum, we have more information about the upcoming "Avenue City" platform that powers Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest. Intel's forthcoming Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest Xeon processors will diverge the Xeon family into two offerings: one optimized for performance/core equipped with P-cores and the other for power/core equipped with E-cores. The reference platform Intel designs and shares with OEMs internally is a 16.7" x 20" board with 20 PCB layers, made as a dual-socket solution. Featuring two massive LGA-7529 sockets, the reference design shows the basic layout for a server powered by these new Xeons.

Capable of powering Granite Rapids / Sierra Forest-AP processors of up to 500 Watts, the platform also accommodates next-generation I/O. Featuring 24 DDR5 DIMMs with support for 12-channel memory, with memory speeds of up to 6400 MT/s. The PCIe selection includes six PCIe Gen 5 x16 links supporting CXL cache coherent protocol and 6x24 UPI links. Additionally, we have another piece of information that Granite Rapids will come with up to 128 cores and 256 threads in both regular and HBM-powered Xeon Max flavoring. You can see storage and reference platform configuration details on the slides below.

DeepCool, a global brand in designing and manufacturing high-performance computer components for enthusiasts worldwide, announces the CK SERIES Mid-Tower Cases, which consists the CK500, CK500WH, CK560 and CK560WH. Available in black and white, all cases deliver a balance of airflow, silent performance and exceptional cooling for the modern-day builder.

The CK SERIES deliver a no-nonsense approach to a clean, sleek computer chassis design. For Minimalist Builders who appreciate the CK500 and CK500WH minimal solid front panel can be rest assured that airflow performance is not hindered thanks to enlarged ventilation outlets throughout the front, top, and rear panels for additional air movement. For Builders that insist for even more airflow, the CK560 and CK560WH feature a unique cross-hair patterned steel front panel. All cases offer a clean aesthetic and fits a modern day look while being feature-packed for additional hardware expansion and upgrades.

Lenovo today announced the next generation of its family of entry-level desktop workstations - the ThinkStation P350 Tower, Small Form Factor (SFF) and Tiny. This trio of workstations hosts a technology upgrade - each one is equipped with support for PCIe Gen 4 for faster access to cutting-edge storage technologies, as well as enhanced professional graphics support. This latest generation of desktop workstations becomes Lenovo's most powerful entry-level offering and delivers a complete package of size options that can scale across a variety of industries and their respective workflows. From engineering and architecture, to finance, STEM/higher education and medical, these new desktop workstations offer versatile, flexible and ISV-certified performance at whatever size is best suited for users' needs and working environment.

Built with the latest high-performance Intel Core or Xeon processors with support up to 11th Gen Intel Core or Intel Xeon W processors, the ThinkStation P350 Tower and SFF are tailored for mission-critical tasks that require superior reliability and powerful performance. Both the Tower and SFF also offer NVIDIA RTX professional graphics, with the Tower now able to support up to the NVIDIA RTX A5000 graphics card. In addition to the 500 W power supply, the tower chassis now boasts a new 750 W PSU option - enabling high-end GPU users with the power needed to tackle sophisticated workflows. The ThinkStation P350 Tiny is the industry's smallest workstation at less than 1L and offers uncompromising performance within a form factor 96% smaller than a traditional desktop. Powered by 11th Gen Intel Core processors, it is uniquely qualified for enabling OEM solutions, and can be used as a host for like-local remote workstation power.

Spire is releasing a new series of powerful and dependable 80 PLUS certified ATX power supplies. The EagleForce ATX power supply series aimed at the pc enthusiast en pc gamer. Equipped with selected all high-quality components, supplying optimal power under the most demanding circumstances. The EagleForce units are compliant to the 2.31 version Intel specification standard with advanced circuit design, including better grade A components supporting the newest Intel & AMD dual core & quad core micro-processors.

Auto-thermal fan control, maximizing the air cooling performance whilst maintaining reduced sound levels. Energy sufficient and compliant with the Active Power Factor Correction (APFC) Energy Star & 80 PLUS certified standards. As well as ErP 2013 Lot6, which guarantees that your PSU will use less than 1 W on system standby and lower than 45% transferring efficiency on 5 V standby. Housed in cool black powdered coated enclosures and backed by 2 years manufacturer warranty.

SilverStone has added a new budget option to its lineup, whilst keeping it hip by integrating an ARGB fan (120 mm rated at 18 dBA, with dynamic speeds according to PSU load). There are 17 separate lighting effects available to be cycled at the touch of a button on the PSU's back panel. The new ET500-ARGB PSU features a 500 W output capacity with 80-Plus Bronze efficiency levels. The PSU features a + 12 V single rail design, with a maximum output of 38 A. As it is a budget PSU, there's no place for modular cabling here; the cables that do exist, however, all feature a flat design for easier cable management. The ET500-ARGB offers 1x ATX 24-pin, 1x CPU 8-pin, 1x CPU 4 + 4 pin, 2x PCI-Express 6 + 2 pins, 3x 4-pin, and 4x SATA outputs, which should be enough for budget-minded users.

The ET500-ARGB PSU features the most common protections (Over Current Protection, Over Voltage Protection, Overload Protection, Short Circuit Protection, and Overheat protection, and an Active PFC circuit (full load PF> 0.9) all in an enclosure measuring 150 mm width, 140 mm depth, 86 mm height, and weighing 1.37 Kg. No pricing information was available at time of writing.

Enermax has announced a new entry-level PSU lineup, which they have somewhat clumsily named CYBERBRON (it's not Cybertron nor Cyberborn, but Cyberbron). These are pretty standard affairs, featuring a non-modular cable design (though the cables are flattened for easier routing), 80 plus Bronze certification, and Japanese electrolytic capacitors. A single+rail +12 V design lies under the hood as well, as does a 120 mm fan.

Operating protections are pretty standard as well: OVP (Over Voltage Protection), UVP (Under Voltage Protection), OPP (Over Power Protection), SCP (Short Circuit Protection) and OTP (Over Temperature Protection). Dimensions stand at 150 (W) x 86 (H) x 140 (D) mm. The 700 W version delivers 54 A on the +12 V rail, 17 A under +5V, and 19 A under +3.3 V. Connectors stand at 1x ATX 24, 2x EPS 8, 4x PCIe 6+2, 8x SATA, 4x Molex and 1x Floppy. Pricing starts at around 56,99€, 66,99€ and 76,99€,

MonsterLabo, a maker of fanless PC cases, today announced its latest creation - The Beast. Featuring a design made from glass and 6 mm thick aluminium, the ATX case is resembling a design we usually could see only from the folks like InWin. The whole chassis is actually made up of two 3 KG aluminium heatsinks that feature ten 6 mm copper heat pipes each. All of this is used for heat dissipation and the case can accommodate up to 400 W of TDP in passive mode. When two 140 mm fans, running at 500 rpm, are added the case can cool more than 500 W of TDP. The Beast measures at 450 mm (L) x 380 mm (W) x 210 mm (H), making it for one large and heavy case. It supports graphics cards up to 290 mm in PCB length and is fully capable of supporting the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series "Ampere" graphics cards. Pre-orders for The Beast are starting onOctober 9th, with an unknown pricing. You can expect it to be a high premium over 349 EUR price of The First case. Pre-orders will be shipping in Q1 2021.

As people's taste for life improves, their requirements for hardware equipment is no longer just the aesthetics alone, but also its compactness; in many homes or personal working environments, heavy traditional computers are gradually being replaced by small NUCs (Next Unit of Computing). Intel recently launched a new generation of NUC's in which its hardware equipment such as the processors and graphics cards, etc. were upgraded significantly. However, despite being light and compact overall, there was still a need for high-density power with high wattage to be built in while still being small in size.

In order to meet the restrictions of the usage environment, the system must also have great heat dissipation as well as low noise. Under the brand mission of pursuing top technology to connect with the future product of customers, the R&D team at FSP created the Flex ATX 500 W 80 Plus Platinum power supply for Intel. Not only does it have high wattage and high efficiency, its noise is also less than 40 dB while outputting at full load. Thus, we have successfully developed power specifications exclusively for the needs of partners.