One of everlasting legacies from former President of The United States (POTUS) Mr. Barrack Obama will be the creation of Chinese semiconductor industry. Following the ban on completion of Tianhe-2 supercomputer in 2014, Chinese government did not double down, but decided to put semiconductor industry as one of top 3 national priorities, and started to infuse over a quarter of trillion U.S. dollars, i.e. 2 trillion RMB (Yuan) into the domestic semiconductor industry, creating not a train, but a “Hyperloop Express” that is changing the semiconductor industry landscape. First, we’re starting to see the power of homegrown computers with ShenWei 260-core CPU processors powering the
Meet The One, Corsair’s First PC System
In 2016, we saw the departure of a seasoned executive from GigaByte to Corsair. That transfer would not be odd if it was not for that person being the spiritual leader behind the BRIX line of mini-PC’s. Having Colin join Corsair, we believed that the time for an ultimate compact gaming PC would not be too far away, and the result is now public. Known as the Corsair One, this is the first complete computer system from a popular peripheral manufacturer. It is a take on the living room PC market, coming after the compact Bulldog PC concept (aka Steam machine). Corsair stated that the
Intel Can’t Hide Strategical Mistakes, AMD to Pounce?
If you would align your wristwatch to the sound of Intel’s tick tock, you would miss your important meeting. The launch of a new generation of processors represents a symbolic beginning of a new cycle and for Intel, “Kaby Lake” launch was everything but normal. First launching the Ultra-low Voltage parts (the U series), then the Desktop line-up and finally the mainstream notebook designs, with troublesome rumors about its enterprise, Xeon-branded counterpart. Kaby Lake is perhaps too focused on the processor power task rather than processor performance. A lullaby. The same story for the last six years continues. Admittedly, for the past 18 months there were whispers
AMD RYZEN Launch: Finally a Competitor?
At their “New Horizon” event in Austin, Texas, AMD (finally) introduced the first production Zen processor. To make the matters interesting, the company did not show the high end version of the Zen architecture, but rather the entry level 8-core version. The demonstrations included several CPU-intensive workloads; Blender and Handbrake, 3D rendering tasks with the ZBrush and KeyShot. No enthusiast demonstration would be complete without gaming, thus AMD also included Doom, Star Wars: Battlefront (Rogue One DLC), Dota 2, and Battlefield 1 demonstrations. The event also featured a demonstration of base 8-core Zen (product line also to include sexa-core and quad-core processors) going against an 8-core Broadwell-E Core i7-6900K in
Does MSI Hold a Trump Card in Wireless VR Race?
Several weeks ago, MSI announced the MSI VR One backpack at the Tokyo Game Show. Unlike the competition, MSI also made an announcement about the future sales as well, launching into production during October. Originally intended for launch on October 30th, it took until middle of November to bring the availability of VR One into both North America and Europe. Truth to be told, the concept of a portable VR backpack is getting challenged by innovations such as the HTC/TPCast Wireless Gig (60GHz) concept product. The extent and efficiency of wireless data transfer between headset and PC’s has not yet been confirmed in practice. Nor how it
Gigabyte: Lock and Load for Intel’s Kaby Lake
On April 19, 1965, in anniversary issue of Electronics magazine, director of research and development at Fairchild Semiconductor, Gordon E. Moore had a short article named “Cramming more components onto integrated circuits”. There he has presented his views on the future of semiconductor components industry. In essence, an observation expressed in this article was later popularized as “Moore’s Law” (Number of transistors on a microprocessor chip will double approximately every two years). Moore’s Law has held the line for many years and only in 2015 Intel stated that the pace of advancement has slowed. Now a second, much less quoted Moore’s law, comes to the
MSI Backpack Brings Freedom into VR
One of key detractors for a complete immersion into virtual reality experience is the presence of cables which hinder your digital movement. Hence, the question for the VR industry is… what is freedom and how one becomes free? If you ask that question to someone from MSI, he or she would just smile and gave you something… backpack alike. You would than realize that suddenly it’s possible to have your cake and eat it too. It is possible to hunt dragons next to your sleeping girlfriend or boyfriend without waking her (or him). Actually, not just one pack but several big, ugly packs of dragons. What
Future 2016 and 2017 Intel Processors Benchmarks Leaked
Over the course of 2016 and 2017, Intel will introduce two new architectures for the desktop platform – Broadwell-E and Kaby Lake. Broadwell-E will succeed the venerable Haswell-E as a drop-in replacement for the X99 platform. On the other side, Kaby Lake is Intel’s third (and last?) processor architecture that uses 14nm FinFET process. First to launch will be Broadwell-E processors in six-, eight- and ten-core versions (sexa-, octa-, deca-core). Branded as Core i7-6800 and i7-6900 Extreme Edition series, these processors represent the best Intel can offer to the market. The company adopted a two-fold approach; i7-6850K, a six-core processor for ultimate overclockers clocked at
MSI Teams with HTC, Launches ‘Mac Pro’ Box for VR Gaming
What started as a ‘MyStar International’, manufacturing motherboards in Taiwan and trying to penetrate the western markets – turned into a global leader in technology development and sales. Sales-wise, MSI is now more a force known for its gaming notebooks rather than motherboards, but the core business of motherboards and graphics cards is not showing any restrain. Titanium motherboards and Lightning graphics cards come with a lot of great features, and innovation is spreading throughout the company. One such example is recently announced collaboration between MSI, HTC and Valve, which went largely unnoticed (here’s a free hint – don’t put strategy announcements together with product announcements). Starting
2016 Intel High-End Lineup to Feature Six, Eight and Ten Cores
As we mentioned in our previous stories, Intel plans to debut the high-end, 14nm Broadwell-E processors for desktops, workstations and servers, replacing the 22nm Haswell-E. When it comes to the desktop side of things, the company traditionally offered two different core and several clock configurations – but that is about to change. There will be at least four processors belonging to the Core i7 6800 series, all of which will feature different cores and clocks. All cores are to come unlocked, meaning you should be able to overclock these systems quite nicely. i7 6800K – six-core, 12 logic cores, 15MB L3 Cache, 3.4 GHz Base
Intel's Kirk Skaugen,14nm 2015: Broadwell Q1, Skylake 2H
Intel’s Kirk Skaugen provided an update of the state of 14nm processors in Intel’s roadmap for 2015 and gave an idea of when we can expect products.
Intel Beats Estimates, Reports Strong Q3 2014 Earnings
Intel reported earnings of $3.3 billion on record $14.6 billion of revenue, which beat expectations from Wall Street.
Asus X99-E WS Motherboard Leaked
As more and more X99 motherboards leak, it only made sense to release a portion of the trove of boards that haven’t already been announced or leaked. The Asus X99-E WS, a Bright Side of News* exclusive, is a particularly interesting one because it is Asus’ (TPE:2357) latest high performance motherboard for workstation users. Because X99 is an entirely new platform there are very likely going to be a lot of people searching for new workstation boards like the X99-E WS to upgrade their workstations. In terms of features, you get all the expected things like Haswell-E support, a plethora of PCIe 3.0 slots, which includes support
Devil's Canyon Reviewed
Devil’s Canyon, Intel’s new K – SKU Haswell chips have arrived. The 4690K and 4790K are the new chips that have four cores running at 4GHz (with 4.4GHz Turbo / 4.5 Max single core Turbo). These were created with the goal of being able to provide higher clocks stably so there are new features that have been added to these chips. There are added capacitors and beefed up power delivery design with these CPUs. One of the much talked about new features is the reworked TIM called Next-Generation Polymer Thermal Interface Material (NGPTIM). With the enhanced specs of Haswell comes a higher Wattage spec for these
Intel Unleashes Devil's Canyon, Boosts the Desktop
Intel has made it quite clear that they are dead set on reviving the PC market, especially from the high performance desktop point of view. They are showing their commitment to that vision today with the announcement of their new Devil’s Canyon refresh to the Haswell CPUs that they had launched last year. These new Devil’s Canyon CPUs are designed to accompany the company’s newly launched Z97 chipset, which adds a few minor features to the already existing Z87 chipset that Haswell had launched with. In fact, Gigabyte launched their full Z97 line of motherboards yesterday incorporating some of the new features of the Z97
Surface Pro 3 – Surface Gets Bigger and Better
Microsoft has clearly not stopped with their aspirations with the new Surface Pro 3 that they launched today. This is a follow up to their Surface Pro 2, which also featured an Intel ultra low voltage Core family CPU, except now you have a choice of a Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 CPU as opposed to only being able to choose an i5. The CPU in the Surface Pro 3 is actually the same as it was in the 2, which is a little disappointing but Intel’s Broadwell won’t hit until much later this year. Once that new Intel chip starts to pick
Surface Pro 3 – Surface Gets Bigger and Better
Microsoft has clearly not stopped with their aspirations with the new Surface Pro 3 that they launched today. This is a follow up to their Surface Pro 2, which also featured an Intel ultra low voltage Core family CPU, except now you have a choice of a Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 CPU as opposed to only being able to choose an i5. The CPU in the Surface Pro 3 is actually the same as it was in the 2, which is a little disappointing but Intel’s Broadwell won’t hit until much later this year. Once that new Intel chip starts to pick
AVC launches a cooler for upcoming Intel Core i5 processor
In case you never heard about AVC, this company is a well-known large OEM/ODM manufacturer of cooling equipment. If you own a retail boxed processor from either Intel or AMD, chances are that in the past or present, you had AVC-built cooler bundled with the CPU. As company description explains, this company has extremely long lead-times, needed for implementation into designs of computers from manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Acer and many others. If we take into account that the mainstream Nehalem platform (Lynnfield and Clarkdale processors, probably branded as Core i3 & i5) is set to debut this summer, it’s no wonder that i5
OCZ rolls out a low-latency, low-voltage DDR3-2000 for Core i7
OCZ launches low-latency DDR3-2000 memory kit.
Biohazard Annihilation F.A.T.E.: Life with a Ferrari
Supercars, supercomputers… they all have things in common. Regular cars and regular computers can do things just like supercars and supercomputers. But, there is something special in owning something “super”. Biohazard Annihilation F.A.T.E. is member of supergamingcomputers. Is it good enough?
