Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 is a high performance Arm SoC designed to compete with Apple M3, with Windows 11 thin and light notebooks and Chromebooks being its main target devices. Microsoft pins a lot of hope in chips such as the Snapdragon 8cx series as they offer comparable performance and battery life to the current crop of M3 MacBooks. A lot of water has flown under the bridge since Windows RT, and the latest crop of Windows 11 for Arm has a much wider PC application support base thanks to official translation layers by Microsoft. CPUID has an Arm64 version of the popular CPU-Z utility, which correctly detects all the specs of the Snapdragon 8cx, but more importantly, has a Bench tab that can test the single- and multithreaded performance of the CPU.

A Chinese tech enthusiast wasted no time in putting the Snapdragon 8cx through this CPU-Z internal benchmark, and found surprisingly good performance numbers. The single-threaded bench, which loads one of chip's four Arm Cortex-X1C P-cores, registers a score of 543.7 points. This is roughly comparable to that of the AMD "Zen 2" or Intel "Comet Lake" x86-64 core. The multithreaded test, which saturates all four P-cores, and all four Cortex-A78C E-cores, springs up 3479.7 points, which again compares to entry/mainstream x86-64 processors from AMD or Intel. Not impressed? How about the fact that the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 is a 7 W chip that idles under 2 W for the most part, and can make do with passive cooling, posting scores comparable to 35 W x86 chips that need active cooling?

According to @momomo_us, Intel has discontinued its Cryo Cooling Technology as of July 1, 2023, marking the end of one of the tech industry's few sub-ambient cooling options. The technology, which could chill CPUs to 0 degrees Celsius to enhance performance, accompanied Intel's processors from the 10th-generation Comet Lake to the 13th-generation Raptor Lake. Despite its innovative approach to boosting CPU performance, the cooling solution was not widely embraced. The discontinuation comes just before the arrival of the 14th Generation Raptor Lake Refresh, which will not support the Cryo Cooling tech. Intel plans to maintain updates for the existing Cryo Cooling hardware until December 31, 2023.

This specialized cooling method did see some use in products like the Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360 Sub-Zero and the EKWB EK-QuantumX Delta TEC waterblocks. Interestingly, the technology has managed to work even with non-Intel CPUs, which famous overclocker der8auer managed to get up and running on AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X. Some modifications were in place, but it was possible to do so. The likely reason for shutting down the cryo cooling project is the need for more financial sense to continue to pursue this technology and the effort to keep the cost of R&D down and make funds available for other projects at Intel's laboratories.

PowerLeader, a Chinese computer manufacturer, recently introduced its Powerstar lineup of processors, the first being the PSTAR P3-01105 CPU. Initially, the PSTAR SKU closely resembled the Intel Core i3-10105 10th Generation Comet Lake CPU from Intel. Using a "storm core" microarchitecture, this CPU claims to beat any domestic x86 CPU on performance. While the similarity with the Core i3-10105 CPU was close, the clock speed of 3.7 GHz, core configuration, and a slightly different name were significant indicators of similarity between the two. Thanks to the recent Geekbench 5 benchmark run submission, we now know that the Powerstar CPU is just a rebadged Intel Comet Lake processor. PowerLeader expects the Powerstar units to reach 1.5 million shipments this year, and presumably, more models will be rebadged for an announcement later.

Originally, PowerLeader wanted to ship these designs in pre-assembled systems, so the pricing and availability of standalone PowesStar chips are unknown.

NVIDIA has traditionally refrained from lowering the PCIe lane counts on its mid-range GPUs, doing so only with its most entry-level SKUs, however, this is about to change with the GeForce RTX 40-series. A VideoCardz report says that the upcoming GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, based on the AD106 silicon, comes with a host interface of PCI-Express 4.0 x8.

While this is still plenty of interface bandwidth for a GPU of this market segment, with bandwidth comparable to that of PCI-Express 3.0 x16, using the RTX 4060 Ti on older platforms, such as 10th Gen Intel Core "Comet Lake," or even much newer processors such as the AMD Ryzen 5700G "Cezanne," would run the GPU at PCI-Express 3.0 x8, as the GPU physically lacks the remaining 8 lanes. The lower PCIe lane count should simplify board design for AIC partners, as it reduces the PCB traces and SMDs associated with each individual PCIe lane. Much like DRAM chip traces, PCIe traces are meticulously designed by EDA software (and later validated), to be of equal length across all lanes, for signal integrity.

Intel Graphics formally retired the Gen 9 graphics architecture that powered iGPUs found in the company's 6th Gen Core processors. The company continues support for the Gen 9.5 architecture that powers 7th thru 10th Gen processors. With up to 24 EU (execution units), the iGPU provided basic display that met Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 WHQL logo requirements, and supported Direct3D DDI up to API level 11_0. This "retirement" means that Intel Graphics will no longer provide regular driver updates, but relegate support for a much lower update cadence that only ticks when there are critical security or stability issues to fix. The last regular driver for these iGPUs is version 31.0.101.2115.

Axiomtek - a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted to the research, development, and manufacturing of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency - is proud to introduce the IPC972, its new industrial edge AI system with dual GPU support. The highly expandable edge computer supports the Intel Xeon or 10th gen Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processor (code name: Comet Lake S) with the Intel W480E chipset. With the ability to support two NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 GPU cards, the IPC972 enables to facilitate image processing, real-time control, data analysis, deep learning, AOI, data acquisition, and more automation tasks.

Axiomtek's IPC972 continues the IPC970 series design, offering flexible expansion options with one I/O module slot and four PCIe slots. In addition, it has one M.2 Key B 3042/3050 slot with SIM slot for 5G wireless connection, one M.2 Key E 2234 slot for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth modules and one full-size PCIe Mini Card slot with SIM slot for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/LTE modules. With the compact and front-facing I/O design, the IPC972 provides the advantages of fast set-up and easy access and deployment. For stable operation in mission-critical environments, the IPC972 has a wide operating temperature range of -10°C to +60°C and a power input of 24 V DC (uMin=19 V/uMax=30 V) with power-on delay function, over-voltage protection, over current protection, and reverse voltage protection.

According to an investigative report by "Chips and Cheese," the larger L2 caches in Intel's 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake-S" doesn't come with a proportionate increase in cache latency, and Intel seems to have contained the latency increase well. "Raptor Lake-S" significantly increases L2 cache sizes over the previous generation. Each of its 8 "Raptor Cove" P-cores has 2 MB of dedicated L2 cache, compared to the 1.25 MB with the "Golden Cove" P-cores powering the current-gen "Alder Lake-S," which amounts to a 60 percent increase in size. The "Gracemont" E-core clusters (group of four E-cores), sees a doubling in the size of the L2 cache that's shared among the four cores in the cluster, from 2 MB in "Alder Lake," to 4 MB. The last-level L3 cache shared among all P-cores and E-core clusters, sees a less remarkable increase in size, from 30 MB to 36 MB.

Larger caches have a direct impact on performance, as more data is available close to the CPU cores, sparing them a lengthy fetch/store operation to the main memory (RAM). However, making caches larger doesn't just cost die-area, transistor-count, and power/heat, but also latency, even though L2 cache is an order of magnitude faster than the L3 cache, which in turn is significantly faster than DRAM. Chips and Cheese tracked and tabulated the L2 cache latencies of past Intel client microarchitectures, and found a generational increase in latencies with increasing L2 cache sizes, leading up to "Alder Lake." This increase has somehow tapered with "Raptor Lake."

In addition to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which AMD claims to be the world's fastest gaming processor, AMD gave its desktop processor product-stack a major update, with as many as six other processor models spanning a wide range of price-points that help the company better compete with the bulk of the 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" processor lineup. The new lineup sees the introduction of the Ryzen 7 5700X (not to be confused with the Ryzen 7 5700G). The 5700X is based on the same "Vermeer" multi-chip module (MCM) as the Ryzen 7 5800X, unlike the 5700G, which is a desktop APU based on the "Cezanne" monolithic silicon. Both "Vermeer" and "Cezanne" are based on the "Zen 3" microarchitecture.

The Ryzen 7 5700X is an 8-core/16-thread processor clocked at 3.40 GHz base and 4.60 GHz boost, compared to the 3.80 GHz base and 4.80 GHz boost frequency of the 5800X. Another key difference is its 65 W TDP, compared to 105 W of the 5800X, which could differentiate its boosting behavior and overclocking headroom compared to the 5800X. AMD is pricing the 5700X at USD $299 (MSRP), making it a competitor to the Intel Core i5-12600KF. Interestingly, the retail PIB (processor-in-box) package of the 5700X does not include a stock cooler despite its 65 W TDP. A 95 W-capable Wraith Spire wouldn't have hurt.

Today marks the simultaneous launch of three XPC cubes on the market on the European continent. The "XPC" series from the Taiwanese Mini-PC manufacturer has been impressing users since 2001 with its compact design and wide range of possible applications. The SH570R6, SH570R6 Plus and SH570R8 models are based on the Intel H570 chipset, which is suitable for Intel Core processors of the 11th generation (Rocket Lake) and 10th generation (Comet Lake). Shuttle states that the current top-performing model is the Intel Core i9-11900K with 125 Watt TDP, 8 cores, 16 threads, 16 MB cache and a turbo frequency of 5.3 GHz.

To match the comprehensive processor support, up to 128 GB of RAM, spread across four slots, can be installed. There are also very few upper limits when it comes to suitable mass storage devices. Fast NVMe SSDs can be fitted in the M.2-2280 slot and, thanks to the four SATA ports, so can the corresponding number of hard drives or SSDs. The R6 chassis provides space for two 3.5" data carriers (one internal, one external) and a 5.25" drive; the R8 model, by contrast, can be fitted with four internal 3.5" data carriers - with a corresponding adapter 2.5" formats are of course also suitable.

Axiomtek - a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted in the research, development, and manufacture of series of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency - is pleased to introduce the IPC970, its new feature-rich, expandable 4-slot industrial system. This intelligent industrial computer is powered by the Intel Xeon or 10th generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processors (code name: Comet Lake S) with the Intel W480E chipset. The powerful edge computing system supports NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card with 10,496 CUDA cores and a whopping 24 GB of GDDR6X memory for powerful GPU computing capability. The ruggedized IPC970 enables simultaneous AI processing for intelligent AI computing at the edge.

The Axiomtek's IPC970 provides flexible expansion options with one I/O module slot and three PCIe slots plus one blank expansion slot. In addition, it has a full-size PCIe Mini Card slot for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/LTE modules, one M.2 Key B 3042/3050 socket for 5G wireless connections, and one M.2 Key E 2230 socket for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth modules. Its front-facing I/O design makes it easy to access and deploy. To ensure stable and reliable operation in harsh industrial environments, the IPC970 has a wide operating temperature range of -10°C to +70°C and a power input of 24 V DC (uMin=19 V/uMax=30 V) with power-on delay function, over-voltage protection, over current protection, and reverse voltage protection.

The 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" microarchitecture will see Intel unify its desktop- and mobile processor IP, back to the way things were up to the 9th Gen. With its post-14 nm silicon fabrication nodes in their infancy, Intel had diverged the client processor IP across its 10th and 11th Gen Core. With 10th Gen, the company introduced "Ice Lake" for ultra-portable platforms (28 W and below), while retaining 14 nm "Comet Lake" for mainstream notebooks (28 W to 45 W); while keeping desktop exclusively with 14 nm "Comet Lake." For 11th Gen, the story is mostly similar. Cutting-edge 10 nm "Tiger Lake" now covers all mobile categories, while desktop receives an IPC upgrade, thanks to the 14 nm "Rocket Lake." The 12th Gen will see a common microarchitecture, "Alder Lake," span across all client segments, from 7 W ultra mobile, to 125 W enthusiast desktop.

This, however, doesn't mean that Intel has a one-size fits all silicon that it can carve SKUs out of. The company has developed as many as three physical dies based on "Alder Lake," which vary in CPU core counts, the size of the iGPU, and other on-die components. "Alder Lake" is a hybrid processor with a combination of larger "Golden Cove" P-cores, and smaller "Gracemont" E-cores. The P-cores are spatially large, and along with their L3 cache slices, take up a large share of the compute portion of the silicon. The E-cores come in clusters of 4 cores each.

Intel's upcoming Alder Lake family of processors, more specifically the desktop ALD-S SKUs, are supposedly going to require a higher peak current for the upcoming processors. In the table provided by the Chinese tech media outlet, FCPOWERUP, we are seeing that ALD-S processors have different power requirements for the ATX12V rails on their power supplies. The listed table shows the previous generation of Intel processors, the 10th and 11th generation, as available in 165 Watt variants. Even though there are no 165 Watt Comet Lake and Rocket Lake SKUs, this is only a placeholder for their PSU recommendations in case those SKUs were to be released.

According to the table, the peak current recommendation for the upcoming Alder Lake is higher at least 5 Amps across all SKUs. The 165 Watt SKUs have the requirement of 45 Amps (compared to the 40 A of Comet Lake and Rocket Lake), while the 125 Watt SKUs require 39 Amps, which is higher than the previous 34 Amp requirement. For 65 Watt models, the new peak recommendation is 38.5 Amps, a jump from the previous 30 Amp choice. The lowest rated 35 Watt SKUs are recommended to use 20.5 A, while the previous generations used 16.5 A current. It should be noted that the continuous rating has not been changed (new generation 35 Watt models actually use less current), which indicates that Alder Lake could have higher peak usages of power, meaning that PSU choice should be made with a 50-100 Watt higher rating.

Axiomtek - a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted in the research, development and manufacture of series of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency - is proud to announce the MANO540, a Mini-ITX motherboard powered by the FCLGA1200 10th Gen Intel Core i9/i7/i5/i3 processor (codename: Comet Lake) with the Intel H410 chipset. It also supports two 260-pin DDR4-2933/2666/2400 SO-DIMM sockets for up to 64 GB of memory. With a small form factor of 17 x 17 cm, this industrial motherboard is an excellent choice for space-constrained environments. The advanced MANO540 is specifically designed for performance-demanding applications with its excellent reliability as well as communication and edge computing capabilities.

"Axiomtek's MANO540 supports ubiquitous high-speed data transfer interfaces, including PCIe 3.0, USB 3.2 Gen1 and SATA-600. It also features one M.2 Key B slot for USB 3.2 interface 5G module. The expansion is provided by one PCIe x16, one M.2 Key E slot and one full-size PCI Express Mini Card slot for wireless devices such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth," said Kenny Lin, the product manager of the Product Planning Division at Axiomtek. "This industrial motherboard is integrated with Intel integrated Gfx graphics engine with UHD 4K resolution and provides rapid video acceleration and dual-view capability through the DisplayPort, HDMI 2.0 and VGA. Axiomtek also offers the ECM500, an industrial chassis designed for the MANO540 to help shorten the time to market."

XMG introduces an additional configuration variant to the high-end NEO range of gaming laptops with Intel's new Tiger Lake H45 processors. The eight-core CPUs from the 11th Core generation not only offer higher performance compared to their predecessors, but also boast the advantages of a completely updated platform. These includes support for PCI Express 4.0 and Thunderbolt 4 - features that the AMD version of the XMG NEO cannot offer. In addition, the models utilising the new Intel processor also benefit from a slight performance increase on the graphics card side. The GPU in the XMG NEO 15 and NEO 17 (M21) now operates with a TGP of up to 165 instead of 150 watts.

AAEON, an industry leader in embedded solutions, announces the GENE-CML5 3.5" subcompact board featuring the 10th Generation Intel Core processors (formerly Comet Lake). The GENE-CML5 brings the latest in computing technology and flexibility, enabling developers to deploy their next generation industrial and AI Edge applications.

The GENE-CML5 brings the LGA1200 socket 10th Generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors, as well as Intel Pentium and Celeron processors to the 3.5" subcompact form factor. Supporting processors up to 4.4 GHz CPU frequency, the GENE-CML5 leverages the socket-type chipset to allow developers and end users to easily maintain, scale, and upgrade the platform to suit their processing requirements. Combined with 64 GB DDR4 memory, the GENE-CML5 delivers fast processing speeds on par with desktop systems. Additionally, the chipset allows the compact board to take advantage of Intel vPro and Intel Active Management Technology (iAMT), enabling remote system monitoring and management.

Pricing for Intel's upcoming Rocket Lake-S series of desktop processors has recently been leaked by a Dutch computer store. The 11th Generation Intel Core i5, i7, and i9 processors will feature the new Comet Lake CPU architecture while the lower-end Intel Core i3, and Intel Pentium processors will retain the older Cypress Cove CPU architecture. The new Intel Core i9 processors have returned to an 8 core 16 thread design down from the 10 core 20 thread design found in 10th generation processors.

The Intel 11th Generation Core i9 series will be approximately 6.6% cheaper than their predecessors but with 2 fewer cores and 4 fewer threads. The other new processors all see price increases from their 10th generation versions with an average increase of 6.5%. The new Comet Lake CPU architecture is expected to bring significant IPC improvements which may allow them to regain the title of best gaming CPU.

Here's the first picture of GIGABYTE's next-generation flagship Socket LGA1200 motherboard based on Intel Z590 chipset, with out-of-the-box support for 11th Gen Core "Rocket Lake" desktop processors, the Z590 AORUS Xtreme. Featuring the company's most premium component selection, the board pulls power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS power connectors, conditioning it for the CPU using a massive 21-phase VRM. The only expansion slots on this board are three PCI-Express x16, from which at least two are wired to the CPU (Gen 4.0 x16 or Gen 4.0 x8/x8 with Rocket Lake, Gen 3.0 with Comet Lake); with the third slot being wired to the PCH. Underneath the cladding are three M.2 NVMe slots, from which one is Gen 4.0 x4, and wired to the CPU, while the others are wired to the PCH.

The GIGABYTE Z590 AORUS Xtreme reportedly one-ups the current generation with new connectivity that includes Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax over 6 GHz radio band), and Thunderbolt 4. The board also features 20 Gbps USB 3.2x2 ports, and wired networking options that include 10 GbE and 2.5 GbE. The board will also be among the first to feature the latest Realtek ALC4080 audio CODEC that replaces the ALC1220 as the company's most premium CODEC. The main stereo channel on the board will still be pulled by an ESS Sabre Reference DAC. We should learn more about this board around mid-January, when Intel is expected to allow its motherboard partners to announce their Intel 500-series chipset products.

Just a few days ago, Intel has decided to surprise us and give out information about its upcoming Rocket Lake-S platform designed for desktop users. Arriving early next year (Q1) the Rocket Lake-S platform is yet another iteration of the company's 14 nm node. However, this time we are getting some real system changes with a new architecture design. Backporting its Golden Cove core to 14 nm, Intel has named this new core type Cypress Cove. What used to be the heart of Ice Lake CPUs, is now powering the Rocket Lake-S platform. Besides the new core, there are other features of the platform like PCIe 4.0, new Xe graphics, and updated media codecs. You can check that out here.

Today, we have gotten the first benchmarks of the Intel Rocket Lake-S system. In the Userbenchmark bench, an unknown eight-core Rocket Lake CPU has been compared to Intel's 10th generation Comet Lake-S processors. The Rocket Lake engineering sample ran at 4.2 GHz while scoring a single-core score of 179. Compared to the Core i9-10900K that runs at 5.3 GHz, which scored 152 points, the Cypress Cove design is 18% faster. And if the new design is compared to the equivalent 8C/16T Compet Lake CPU like Core i7-10700K clocked at 5.1 GHz and scoring 148 points, the new CPU uarch is up to 22% faster. This represents massive single-threaded performance increases, however, please take the information with a grain of salt, as we wait for the official reviews.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the popular graphics sub-system information and diagnostic utility. Version 2.35.0 adds support for new GPUs, and fixes a number of bugs. To begin with, GPU-Z adds support for AMD Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs based on the "Navi 21" silicon. Support is also added for Intel DG1 GPU. BIOS extraction and upload for NVIDIA's RTX 30-series "Ampere" GPUs has finally been introduced. Memory size reporting on the RTX 3090 has been fixed. The latest Windows 10 Insider Build (20231.1000) made some changes to DirectML, which caused GPU-Z to report it as unavailable, this has been fixed.

TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.35.0 also makes various improvements to fake GPU detection for cards based on NVIDIA GT216 and GT218 ASICs. Hardware detection for AMD Radeon Pro 5600M based on "Navi 12" has been fixed. Among the other GPUs for which support was added with this release are NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core PCIe, Intel UHD Gen9.5 graphics on the i5-10200H, and Radeon HD 8210E and Barco MXRT-6700. Grab GPU-Z from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.35.0The change-log follows.

Intel VP and GM of Client Computing Group Desktop, Workstations and Gaming, John Bonini, in a Medium blog post renewed the company's commitment to gaming, by announcing the tentative launch timeline of the company's next-generation Core desktop processors. The 11th Gen Intel Core "Rocket Lake" processors will launch in Q1-2021. "I'm also happy to confirm that the next generation 11th Gen Intel Core desktop processors (codenamed "Rocket Lake") is coming in the first quarter of 2021 and will provide support for PCIe 4.0. It'll be another fantastic processor for gaming, and we're excited to disclose more details in the near future," he said.

It's important to note the timing of this post. AMD later today (8th October) will announce its next-generation Ryzen processors based on the "Zen 3" microarchitecture, and is widely expected to push the IPC envelope even further. This would mean that from the near-parity AMD enjoys with Intel's "Skylake" based "Comet Lake" processor, AMD would begin to achieve a clear IPC lead over Intel for the first time in over 15 years. An alleged Intel 500-series chipset motherboard launch-related slide leaked earlier this week pins the chipset's launch in mid-March 2021. Given that Intel tends to launch new processors and chipsets in tandem, this would possibly put the launch of "Rocket Lake" toward the very end of Q1-2021. "Rocket Lake" is expected to introduce Intel's first IPC gains in the desktop segment since 2015. The chips use new "Cypress Cove" CPU cores, which are a 14 nm backport of "Willow Cove."

Have you ever felt the need that your motherboard needs more ports? Different peripherals can occupy quite a lot of USB ports and almost fill up all of them quickly. That is where the Portwell PEB-9783G2AR motherboard comes into play. Being built on Intel's latest W480E/Q470E chipset designed to accommodate any 10th generation 10 core CPU with a TDP of up to 80 W, the board can run either a Xeon W CPU or regular Comet Lake-S Core CPU. However, what makes this board unique is not its chipset or anything, it is the number of USB ports present.

Portwell has put an astonishing 20 (you read that right) USB 3.1 Gen1 ports on the board, which you can run at a full 5 Gbit/s data signaling rate at the same time. The board doesn't use any splitting technology so you are getting the full bandwidth. To get that many ports to run at full capacity, Portwell has presumably re-routed chipset lanes for SATA 3 connectors and used them for USB ports, leaving only two SATA 3 ports. The board is built for the FlexATX form factor and features a sideways PCIe 3.0 port. Being built for Xeon, the board also features support for ECC memory and up to 128 GB of it. While the pricing is not yet available, you can get a quote on Portwell's website.

Intel is preparing to launch an 8-core mobile processor based on its 10 nm "Tiger Lake" microarchitecture, according to a corporate memo by leading notebook OEM Compal, which serves major notebook brands such as Acer. The memo was drafted in May, but unearthed by momomo_us. Compal expects Intel to launch the 8-core "Tiger Lake-H" processor in Q1 2021. This is big, as it would be the first large 10 nm client-segment silicon that goes beyond 4 cores. The company's first 10 nm client silicon, "Ice Lake," as well as the "Tiger Lake-U" silicon that's right around the corner, feature up to 4 cores. As an H-segment part, the new 8-core processor could target TDPs in the range of 35-45 W, and notebooks in the "conventional thickness" form-factor, as well as premium gaming notebooks and mobile workstations.

The 8-core "Tiger Lake-H" silicon is the first real sign of Intel's 10 nm yields improving. Up until now, Intel confined 10 nm to the U- and Y-segments (15 W and below), addressing only ultra-portable form-factors. Even here, Intel launched U-segment 14 nm "Comet Lake" parts at competitive prices, to take the market demand off "Ice Lake-U." The H-segment has been exclusively held by "Comet Lake-H." Intel is planning to launch "Ice Lake-SP" Xeon processors later this year, but like all server parts, these are high-margin + low-volume parts. Compal says Intel will refresh the H-segment with a newer 8-core "Comet Lake-H" part in the second half of 2020, possibly to bolster the high-end against the likes of AMD's Ryzen 9 4900H. Later in 2021, Intel is expected to introduce its 10 nm "Alder Lake" processor, including a mobile variant. These processors will feature Hybrid technology, combining "Golden Cove" big CPU cores with "Gracemont" small ones.

Intel's upcoming Core i9-10850K desktop processor, which was earlier believed to be an OEM-exclusive, is coming to the DIY retail channel after all. The 10-core Socket LGA1200 processor surfaced on retailers Cyclotron and LambdaTek as pre-orders, priced at 472€ and £459, including taxes, which aligns with its rumored USD $449 pre-tax price Stateside. At these prices, the i9-10850K is closer in price to the locked i9-10900 than to the top i9-10900K part.

Based on the 14 nm "Comet Lake-S" silicon, the Core i9-10850K is a 10-core/20-thread processor clocked up to 5.20 GHz, with 20 MB of L3 cache. Where it differs from the i9-109xx series is the lack of the Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) feature. You still get an unlocked multiplier. The i9-10850K is hence provides a roughly $50 saving over the i9-10900K to give up the 100 MHz higher clock speed enabled by TVB. In the retail channel, the chip goes by the SKU "BX8070110850K."

ECS today rolled out the SF110 Q470 line of mini-PC barebones designed for 10th Gen Core "Comet Lake-S" desktop processors. The SF110 Q470 comes in two variants based maximum processor TDP supported - a 35-Watt model, and a 65-Watt model. The former includes a 90 W power brick, while the latter comes with a 120 W power brick and a meatier CPU cooling solution inside. Both barebones are based in the Intel Q470 chipset.

Inside, you'll get two DDR4 SODIMM slots supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4-2933 memory, an M.2-2280 slot with both PCI-Express 3.0 x4 and SATA 6 Gbps wiring, and a 2.5-inch drive bay with a SATA 6 Gbps backplane. USB connectivity includes two 10 Gbps USB 3.2 gen 2 ports on the front panel, one 10 Gbps USB 3.2 gen 2 type-C port, and four 5 Gbps USB 3.2 gen 1 type-A ports on the rear panel. Networking includes a 1 GbE connection driven by an Intel i219-V controller, and 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.2 WLAN card (you can opt for a newer AX201 card with 802.11ax + Bluetooth 5). Both the 35 W and 65 W variants physically measure 205 mm x 176 mm x 33 mm (HxDxW). Display outputs include an HDMI 2.0, two DisplayPorts, and a D-Sub. A COM port covers legacy connectivity. The company didn't reveal pricing.

ASRock Rack today introduced the W480M WS socket LGA1200 motherboard targeted at workstation builds, in the Micro-ATX form-factor. This board should appeal greatly to those wanting a very conservative-looking motherboard with a green PCB and conventional-finned aluminium heatsinks cooling the CPU VRM and PCH. Based on the Intel W480 chipset, the board not only supports all 10th Gen Core "Comet Lake" processors, but also Xeon W-1200 series processors based on the silicon, including support for ECC memory when paired with Xeon processors. The board draws power from a combination of a 24-pin ATX and 8-pin+4-pin EPS connectors; conditioning it for the CPU with a 6+2 phase VRM.

Expansion slots on the ASRock Rack W480M WS include a PCI-Express 3.0 x16, an open-ended PCI-Express 3.0 x8 (which splits lanes from the x16 slot), and an open-ended PCI-Express 3.0 x4 slot that's wired to the PCH. Storage connectivity includes two M.2-2280 slots with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 wiring, each, and eight SATA 6 Gbps ports, one of which has reinforced power delivery for SATA DOMs. The onboard audio solution is simple ALC892 fare, but the networking on offer consists of two 1 GbE ports driven by Intel i210 series controllers. There's quite some legacy connectivity, including COM and SGPIO. The board offers a large number of 4-pin PWM fan headers so it could be used in 2U rack chassis with server ventilation. The company didn't reveal pricing.