Intel's First High-Volume Foveros Packaging Facility, Fab 9, Starts Operations
Intel this week has started production at Fab 9, the company's latest and most advanced chip packaging plant. Joining Intel's growing collection of facilities in New Mexico, Fab 9 is tasked with packaging chips using Intel's Foveros technology, which is currently used to build the company's latest client Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) processors and Data Center Max GPU (Ponte Vecchio) for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) applications.
The fab near Rio Rancho, New Mexico
MLCommons To Develop PC Client Version of MLPerf AI Benchmark Suite
MLCommons, the consortium behind the MLPerf family of machine learning benchmarks, is announcing this morning that the organization will be developing a new desktop AI benchmarking suite under the MLPerf banner. Helmed by the body’s newly-formed MLPerf Client working group, the task force will be developing a client AI benchmark suit aimed at traditional desktop PCs, workstations, and laptops. According to the consortium, the first iteration of the MLPerf Client benchmark suite will be based on Meta’s Llama 2 LLM, with an initial focus on
Asus Launches USB4 Add-In-Card: Two 40 Gbps Ports for Desktops
Asus has introduced a USB4 PCIe add-in-card for the company's desktop motherboards, allowing users to add two USB4 ports to their systems. The card can be used to connect up to four devices and a display to each of its ports, and can even be used to charge laptops that support USB charging.
The Asus USB4 PCIe Gen4 Card is based on ASMedia's ASM4242 controller and supports two USB4 ports at 40 Gbps data rates, with up
Wi-Fi Alliance Introduces Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7: 802.11be Prepares for Draft Standard Exit
The final approval of the 802.11be standard may only be scheduled for December 2024 , but that has not put a spanner in the works of the Wi-Fi Alliance in creating a Wi-Fi 7 certification program.
At the 2024 CES, the program was officially announced with products based on silicon from Broadcom, Intel, Mediatek, and Qualcomm obtaining the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 tag. Broadcom, Mediatek, and Qualcomm have already been through two generations of Wi
The Corsair A115 CPU Cooler Review: Massive Air Cooler Is Effective, But Expensive
With recent high-performance CPUs exhibiting increasingly demanding cooling requirements , we've seen a surge in releases of new dual-tower air cooler designs. Though not new by any means, dual-tower designs have taken on increased importance as air cooler designers work to keep up with the significant thermal loads generated by the latest processors. And even in systems that aren't running the very highest-end or hottest CPUs, designers have been looking for ways to improve on air cooling efficiency, if only to hold the
TSMC 2nm Update: Two Fabs in Construction, One Awaiting Government Approval
When Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is prepping to roll out an all-new process technology, it usually builds a new fab to meet demand of its alpha customers and then either adds capacity by upgrading existing fabs or building another facility. With N2 (2nm-class), the company seems to be taking a slightly different approach as it is already constructing two N2-capable fabs and is awaiting for a government approval for the third one.
We are also preparing our N2 volume production
TSMC Posts Q4'23 Earnings: 3nm Revenue Share Jumps to 15%, 5nm Overtakes 7nm For 2023
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. released its Q4'2023 and full year 2023 financial results this week. And along with a look at the financial state of the firm as it enters 2024, the company's earnings info also offers a fresh look at the utilization of their various fab nodes. Of particular interest, with TSMC ramping up production of chips on its N3 (3 nm-class) process technology, N3 (aka N3B) has already
Apple to Cut Blood Oxygen Feature from Newly-Sold Apple Watches in the U.S.
Following the latest legal defeat in Apple's ongoing patent infringement fight over blood oxygen sensors, the company is set to remove its blood oxygen measurement feature from its Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 sold in the U.S. The decision comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit declined to extend a pause on an import ban imposed by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) last year , making way for the ban to finally take effect.
The legal setback stems
AMD Rolls Out Radeon RX 7900 XT Promo Pricing Opposite GeForce RTX 40 Super Launch
In response to the launch of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 40 Super video cards, AMD has announced that they are instituting new promotional pricing on a handful of their high-end video cards in order to keep pace with NVIDIA's new pricing.
Kicking off what AMD is terming a special "promotional pricing" program for the quarter, AMD has been working with its retail partners to bring down the price of the Radeon RX 7900 XT to $749 (or lower), roughly
Seagate Unveils Mozaic 3+ HDD Platform as HAMR Readies for Volume Ramp
Seagate's financial reports have been indicating imminent mass production of HAMR HDDs for a few years now, and it looks like the wait for these drives to appear in retail is finally at an end. The Seagate Exos product family is getting a 30TB capacity point, thanks to the use of heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology. The company talked to the press last week about the Mozaic 3+ platform – their first high-volume HAMR platform – and how it sets the stage for rapid areal