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AMD is rumored to be working on more Ryzen CPUs that add even more cores and threads to the equation. Their release is said to be several months away, so it may not be long before AMD reveals a 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen CPU with support for quad-channel DDR4 memory.Although AMD’s Ryzen CPUs have received some criticism for their single-core performance and gaming ability, they have excelled in applications and settings where the full power of their many cores and threads can be utilized. The rumored CPUs that AMD may have in the works would up the ante even more, making them...

Upgrade or die Software king of the world Microsoft is locking down system updates for those using AMD’s Ryzen and Intel’s Kaby Lake processors on Windows 7 and 8.1. Users are now starting to encounter the following error message: “Your PC uses a processor that isn’t supported on this version of Windows.” This message appears when a user attempts to update their OS and a quick look at Microsoft’s support page reveals upgrading to Windows 10 is the only way to fix the problem. Microsoft’s support page on the matter says that Windows 10 is the ‘only’ OS to...

**************************************************************************** Intel has a near-monopoly in the server industry, with its own ads proclaiming that “98 percent of the cloud runs on Intel.” That’s why Microsoft’s pledge to use ARM chips in its severs — hinted at for a while and outlined more fully at the Open Compute Summit this week — is such a big deal. Microsoft is the second biggest cloud company in the US after Amazon, and if it moves even a small bit of its business away from Intel’s products, it threatens the veteran chipmaker’s most lucrative revenue stream, responsible for $7.5 billion in operating...

IBM Q isn’t vaporware. It’s a project years-in-the-making that could help quantum computation reach its massive potential. The future of quantum computers may arrive sooner than you think. When news arrived of IBM’s move to offer the first commercially available universal quantum computer last week, it was characterized as a “handoff” from IBM Research to IBM Systems. According to the company’s CTO and vice president of quantum computing, technical strategy, and systems, Scott Crowder, that’s not entirely the case. “It’s not quite a ‘handoff,’ it’s really a partnership,” explained Crowder. “This is definitely a transition point from it being pure...

Ever so slowly, and not so fast as to give competitor Intel too much information about what it is up to, but just fast enough to build interest in the years of engineering smarts that has gone into its forthcoming “Naples” X86 server processor, AMD is lifting the veil on the product that will bring it back into the datacenter and that will bring direct competition to the Xeon platform that dominates modern computing infrastructure.It has been a bit of a rolling thunder revelation of information about the Zen core used in the “Naples” server chip, the brand of...

AMD has given details of Naples and talked about its support at the Open Compute conference and it also shared a few performance numbers of a dual socket Naples with 64 core and 128 threes versus Intel’s latest dual socket Xeon E5-2699A. Intel’s latest dual socket Xeon E5-2699A is commercially available from a major server OEM. Intel has 22 cores with 44 threads support per socket. A dual socket Intel system supports total 88 threads while the dual socket Naples supports 128 threads. Intel's platform supports total eight memory channels while Naples supports 16, twice the number. Total memory capacity...

The 7nm finFET market is heating up in the foundry business amid the ongoing push to develop chips at advanced nodes. Not long ago, TSMC announced plans to enter the 7nm finFET market. In addition, Intel and Samsung are also separately planning to enter the 7nm finFET race.Now, GlobalFoundries is formally announcing its 7nm finFET technology. Slated for 2018, GlobalFoundries’ 7nm finFET process will be initially manufactured using 193nm immersion scanners, not extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The company plans to make an additional multi-billion dollar investment in its Fab 8 facility in New York to enable the development and production...

Three chips in AMD’s Ryzen line, which became available in high volume Thursday, represent first major processor redesign in five years Advanced Micro Devices Inc. started selling new personal-computer chips that challenge market leader Intel Corp. for the first time in years.

AMD’s new Ryzen desktop processor family is about to arrive in an over-packed station wagon in a matter of days, threatening to put a dent in Intel’s current performance desktop processor market share. AMD has already baited customers with an option to pre-purchase its three top-of-the-line chips, with the most expensive model costing $500 and performing on a par with a similar Intel processor costing over $1,000. That has pushed Intel to lower its prices before the Ryzen family arrives with a bang. The price cuts have already shown up on Microcenter, revealing reductions ranging from $15 to $300. For instance, the Intel...

By TheresePoletti Columnist Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. released details Wednesday on its forthcoming Ryzen chip, including pricing that has the potential to set off a price war with its big rival, Intel Corp.AMD AMD, +6.87%  said the first three chips based on its highly anticipated Zen architecture will be launched March 2 for the desktop PC and gaming market, with the most powerful chip in the lineup priced at half of what Intel INTC, -0.14%   charges for a similarly configured chip. Investors were enthused by the first concrete news of the chip family, with AMD’s shares rallying...

Competitive performance  There has been much discussion about the eight cores sixteen threads Ryzen CPU and the fact that it will compete quite well against Intel's Core i7 6950 extreme edition but it looks like the Zen with eight cores with sixteen threads will get really close to the performance of the Core i7 7700K. This is the sweet spot of the performance market and in recent years, Intel started charging customers close to 350 Euro/USD for the CPUs at this level, simply because it was lacking any serious competition. Our well placed industry sources confirm that a slightly...

The Trump administration has the visa program for skilled workers in its crosshairs ****************************************************************WASHINGTON—Silicon Valley technology firms, worried about their ability to bring foreign workers to the U.S. under President Donald Trump, are distancing themselves from Indian outsourcing firms, which are heavy users of the same visa program that U.S. tech firms rely on.

The country’s biggest tech companies filed a legal brief late Sunday in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opposing President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration – also known as the immigration ban. Apple, Google, Facebook, and over 90 other companies have filed this amicus brief. Tech firms legally fight against President’s immigration ban “Ninety-seven companies, from Apple Inc. to Zynga Inc., filed an impassioned legal brief condemning President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, stepping up the industry’s growing opposition to the policy,” Bloomberg reported on Monday. Last week, reports had indicated that the industry was considering to send a joint...

Industry Silicon Valley Reacts to President Trump’s Immigration Orders By Rafia Shaikh Jan 30, 2017 22Shares Share Tweet Submit Ashton Kutcher isn’t the only one protesting against Friday’s executive order – widely known as the Muslim ban. Several celebrities, tech companies, and executives in Silicon Valley have come out in opposition of what’s being called an immigration ban. Multiple tech luminaries are resisting the ban, and offering to donate to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) following the enactment of the immigration order.The executive order was signed on Friday by President Donald Trump, banning entry for 90 days to refugees...

It's not just about doping anymore. 60 Minutes reports on hidden motors in bikes -- and how magnets are being used to reinvent the wheel

It will not be Apple after all Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn means that the software giant is on track to become the world’s first trillion dollar company. Equities.com Analyst Michael Markowski claims that Microsoft will reach that threshold before other big companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple. He thinks that Vole will use LinkedIn to become a leader in social media and the emerging crowdfunding industry. Equities.com Analyst Michael Markowski claims that Microsoft will reach that threshold before other big companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple. He thinks that Vole will use LinkedIn to become a...

I have to admit that I am cringing even as I key this in, but there are some very good reasons why many in tech are actually welcoming the incoming administration of Donald Trump. I spent the last few weeks talking to a range of Silicon Valley leaders, all of whom will only talk off the record, because, well, Trump. All of them to a person were against him, some even voicing public opposition, during the campaign, and they all lent strong to tepid support to Hillary Clinton. That said, most indicated that they are seeing what they consider some...

A research team at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has created a transistor with a working 1-nm gate. Lead by faculty scientist Ali Javey, the team says they have thus broken a "major barrier in transistor size" to create the "Smallest. Transistor. Ever."Conventional semiconductor materials will hit a 'brick wall' at 5nm, simply down to the laws of physics, think scientists. However, thanks to the choice of cutting edge materials, the Berkeley Lab team has gained a lot more room for miniaturisation. As described by the Berkeley Lab Blog, the key to the creation...

<p>It was dark and cold that night I stomped down Broadway, talking to my then-boyfriend-now-husband about my feelings. I am always talking about my feelings, and he is always listening. He “mhm”s at the right places and doesn’t interrupt and sometimes says good things at the end. Sometimes he says wrong things, and then I have to explain why those things are wrong, taking us down an emotional tangent that is frustrating and exhausting, but he’s trying to be helpful, I tell myself and breathe. Bless his little heart.</p>

Process node scaling is becoming very expensive Carbon nanotubes have long been proposed as a significant substrate replacement to transform the chip design industry as we know it. They can operate using substantially less electrical charge and are six to ten times faster than silicon, yet due to their incredibly small size they have proven difficult to work with. The search for silicon alternativesOver the past 62 years since the first working silicon transistor was made at Bell Labs, companies have used different doping concentrations to influence electron mobility on circuit designs. But over the past half-decade, the industry...