Workstation

A Newegg listing of the AMD Ryzen 9 5980HX-powered Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo SE was spotted online. Its specs include a GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD. The Cezanne-based processor was also spotted on the Userbenchmark database.

Lenovo is releasing a second generation of the Lenovo ThinkPad T15p, which is mostly a straightforward CPU update. There are a few additional features though. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 is probably the most important aside from the better FHD screens.

An Intel executive has reportedly uploaded a photo of a slide pointing to very interesting developments in data transfers over USB type-C by accident. The material allegedly points to speeds of up to 80 gigabits per second (Gb/s), which will, furthermore, be supported by physical-layer technology.

The upcoming generation of Apple's Mac Pro could potentially feature Intel's latest Xeon processors that are designed for workstations and servers. It would be an immense upgrade for the aging configurations of Apple's current desktop computers that are intended for professional use.

MSI's latest line of 15- and 17-inch professional-grade PCs have up to 4K displays, 11th-gen core i9 processors and RTX A5000 graphics. Some variants even have the largest-capacity batteries available to laptops. They now also have sales listings that start at US$1,500.

Lenovo has introduced the ThinkStation P350 Tiny, the smallest workstation in the world. The 1.3 kg machine has a 1 litre chassis that is 3.7 cm thick. Lenovo has still managed to include an Intel Core i9 Rocket Lake processor and a dedicated NVIDIA GPU.

The latest market research indicates that Lenovo was the top dog among PC OEMs in terms of shipments during the second quarter of 2021. HP and Dell came in second and third, whereas Apple and Acer were found to have a joint fourth place for the quarter. The market continued to grow as a whole, although some slowdowns compared to early 2021 and 2020 may now be starting to emerge.

Lenovo US has declared today (July 9, 2021) a "second Black Friday", with generous discounts on a range of PCs and peripherals. They include the Core i7-1185G7-powered version of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which started at US$3,369, but can be had for $1,685 instead during this event. A ThinkPad P17 is also involved in this sale, although it is not the latest model.

In earlier years, the energy efficient "Ultra Low Voltage" CPUs of the U series hardly offered any performance, but manufacturers still packed them into workstation laptops. Even though the modern U processors are still considerably slower than H CPUs, at this point their absolute performance is high enough for new models such as the ThinkPad P15s Gen 2 to be able to deliver sufficient power for CAD applications.

TeamGroup has launched the latest generation of its Elite series of desktop U-DIMM RAM sticks. The new 2x16GB modules are the OEM's inaugural DDR5 versions of these components. As such, they are rated for potential advantages such as a 4,800MHz top speed and increased stability.

Lenovo is now offering an upgraded ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 with 11th gen Core and Xeon options along with NVIDIA RTX A5000 graphics. The ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 features a 17.3-inch IPS display that is available in UHD and FHD variants. Prices for the ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 start from US$1,779.

For the first time since its original release in 2018, Lenovo is not merely updating the ThinkPad P1. The new version of the premium mobile workstation, the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 4, is a complete redesign. A large 16 inch 16:10 screen, vapor chamber cooling, top-firing speakers, 5G, a 1080p webcam and Tiger Lake H as well as up to the Nvidia RTX A5000 - Lenovo has packed the ThinkPad P1 G4 with new features.

Lenovo has launched the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 with internal upgrades over the 2020 version. The 2021 ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 continues to offer the GPU in a daughter board and comes in several configuration options including Intel 11th gen Core and Xeon GPUs, NVIDIA RTX A5000 graphics, and UHD displays in both OLED and IPS variants.

The die shots showcase Sapphire Rapids ESF parts that utilize MCM, enabling Intel to creates chips with up to 56 Golden Cove cores. Multi-socket implementations could offer enterprise customers a new Xeon option with higher IPC, better temps at 10nm, scaling up to 3-digit core counts.

Acer has announced that its latest round of consolidated revenue (for May 2021) was its best for 7 seven years. These earnings, which totaled about US$895 million, grew by nearly 23% year-on-year (YoY). The OEM's gaming arm grew by 15.3% YoY, whereas its Chromebooks brought in 30.1% more revenue compared to May 2020.

The current silicon crisis is often perceived as bad news for CPU and GPU supplies worldwide. However, a new report highlights the point that its ramifications might be more widespread than that. It indicates that disrupted sales of a controller chip necessary for working USB 4/Thunderbolt 4 might lead to a lack of PCs with 11th-gen Intel processors next, or to OEMs resorting to releasing the same machines without this spec.

The revamped W-series now includes the WS76/66 and WE76 high-end models with up to an i9-11980HK CPU, up to 64 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and a choice between the RTX A5000 or A3000 professional GPUs plus screens up to 4K. These models also include PCIe 4.0 support and a Thunderbolt 4 connector, while the WF76/66 models do not, and also support only up to an i7-11800H CPU with RTX A2000 or T1200 and 1080p screens.

The AMD Radeon Pro W6800 has surfaced on the Geekbench 5 OpenCL database. The Radon Pro W6800 is based on the same Navi 21 GPU as the consumer Radeon RX 6800 but offers 32 GB RAM and, apparently, much higher clocks. The OpenCL results of the Radeon Pro W6800 show significant improvements over the W5700 series and seem to be on par with an NVIDIA Quadro GV100.

Optoma has announced the FHDS130 SOLO LED Display as its latest addition to its line of large-scale products in the "pro-AV" category. The 130-inch screen is calibrated by the OEM out of the box, and is rated for clarity, brightness and sharpness. It also has a single-cable solution that might reduce installation time and complexity by a considerable margin.

The Eyesafe display specialists have confirmed that Gigabyte monitors have achieved its TÜV Rheinland certification for user health and comfort. Four of these Aorus-brand models are on the market, whereas one still awaits a launch. Therefore, the OEM can say the displays are as low on blue-light emissions as they are high on gaming performance.

The second generation of the ThinkPad P14s is equipped with Tiger Lake CPUs and an Nvidia Quadro T500. In this case, the latter is also what will persuade users to opt for the new model.

ViewSonic's ColorPro VP2768a has won one of the Technical Image Press Association's (TIPA) World Awards for 2021, in recognition of specs and features prized by photography experts. The monitor also already boasts Pantone validation and TÜV SÜD-certified color-blindness simulations; therefore, the OEM might now tout its performance yet further with this new title.

Marvell has announced that its latest line of SSD controllers has upgraded to PCIe 5.0 and NVMe 1.4b support. These specs render the Bravera SC5 series compatible with up-to-date cloud-related demands, or so the OEM asserts. They are also rated to offer advanced security and response-time features.

A battery of benchmarks has revealed the potential performance differences between the 2021 Apple iMac 24 with a single fan and the higher-end model with two fans. The dual-fan iMac 24 gained around a 10% performance advantage over the single-fan model, which struggled to keep its M1 Apple Silicon at an optimal temperature.

Acer is offering ConceptD 5 and ConceptD 5 Pro content creator laptops with Intel Tiger Lake-H processors and NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ampere Laptop GPUs. The ConceptD 5 Pro variant offers NVIDIA's professional Ampere RTX A3000 and RTX A5000 options as well. Both the ConceptD 5 and ConceptD 5 Pro feature 16:10 Pantone-validated displays, Acer Vortex Flow cooling, and Corning Gorilla Glass touchpads.

The recently released 2021 24-inch Apple iMac all-in-one desktop computer with M1 SoC comes in three variants, with the differences mostly listed on Apple’s website. However, cooling system differences between the base iMac 24 and mid-tier iMac 24 have seemingly been omitted, even though they could affect the performance of the M1 Apple Silicon.

It has been claimed that the Apple iMac Pro for 2021 will feature a choice of processors that go up to a mighty 32-core option from the Apple Silicon ranks. It’s not yet known if this M-series chip will be named the M1X or something else at the moment. The same source also offered up a few other additional supposed M-series iMac Pro details.

Concept renders and a short animated clip of an iMac Pro 2021 have appeared online along with some fresh claims about the potential M-based Apple workstation. The design shown in the fan-made images should please those interested in snapping up the next Apple iMac Pro, which will apparently come in a 31.5-inch size.

Seagate recently announced the 14TB Mach.2 hard disk drive, with a maximum sustained transfer speed of 524 MB/s. This would put its throughput in line with many conventional SATA SSDs and several times faster than other commercial HDDs.

CTL, a company that normally caters to the needs of modern offices or schools in its devices, has announced a pair of monitors touted to match up to this reputation. The 24-inch FHD IP2381 has a VA IPS panel, whereas the IP2781 is an ADS QHD 27-inch display. They both have the same new minimalist stand and bezels, however.

Intel's Andi Kleen submitted a new patch for the Linux kernel in which he stated that Intel's upcoming Sapphire Rapids server parts will use Golden Cove cores, not Willow Cove, as seen in Tiger Lake CPUs.

Corsair has announced that it will start switching to DDR5 in its next-gen modules. It hails the upcoming standard as a significant upgrade for memory, as well as for PCs in general, due to its increased bandwidth, maximal density per die and speed compared to its predecessor.

The new and colorful 24-inch Apple iMacs with M1 chips have started popping up on Geekbench and have revealed strong performances, especially in single-core testing. The M1 iMac was able to surpass any average single-core score by all previous iMac and iMac Pro models regardless of size or Intel processor variant.

Samsung has announced the "industry-first" development of DRAM that combines DDR5 memory with the compute express link (CXL) connection. The OEM believes this kind of interface, based on PCIe 5.0, is the next big thing in datacenter, machine-learning and cloud computing, particularly when it comes to scalability.

MSI has refreshed its professional Creator 17 notebook with some exciting new hardware, such as a mini-LED screen with 1,000 nits peak brightness, an Intel Core i9-11900HK processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card, and more.

The system will use the same award-winning aesthetic as the ZBook Studio G7 but with several major internal updates. Thunderbolt 4, for example, now comes standard alongside new Xeon and Quadro options.

NVIDIA recently unveiled its 2021-2025 roadmap for the datacenter segment. The roadmap indicates that an Ampere successor, likely Lovelace, could arrive next year, with a new GPU architecture beyond that set to arrive before 2024.

Intel had recently outlined plans to establish new plants in Europe, possibly in a bid to address the prevailing chipset-supply crisis. However, a new report suggest that the OEM expects something in return for the potential economic boost for the regions in question: namely, that European governments contribute up to €8 billion (US$9.7 billion) to the project in question.

The ZBook Firefly 15 G7 already heated up considerably under load, but it could just about keep heat development under control. The follow-up model now shows a similar behavior.

Apple has now officially made its new 2021 24-inch iMac computers with M1 Apple Silicon available to order. There are plenty of configurations for shoppers to choose from, with prices ranging from US$1,299 for the entry-level iMac to US$3,127.98 for the model with all the hardware and software it can handle.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) had indicated that its flagship Consumer Electronics Show (CES) might be able to return to a live format in 2022. Now, the group has confirmed that this is indeed the case. Therefore, the conference will be held in its classic Las Vegas setting through January 5 to 8 of next year.

Razer's latest wireless mouse has a renewed design that is, as the OEM claims, ideal for various grip or handling types used for gaming. It also features its brand's second-gen mechanical switches, as well as its 5G optical sensor. However, the Orochi V2's most eye-catching spec is probably its ultra-long battery life, even if Razer has settled on a slightly unexpected way to deliver it.

The ViewSonic ColorPro Professional Monitor is a display with its own in-built click-wheel control that doubles as a calibration sensor. This feature, along with others such as a "minimalist" build, easy-attach shade hood and inbuilt ambient light, has won it an iF Design Award for 2021.

Intel has announced its first financial report for 2021, which is for the first quarter of this year (1Q2021) that has just ended in March. It shows that the chip giant's net income is US$3.4 billion - 41% less compared to that of 1Q2020. Its earnings are also down by 1% year-on-year (YoY), even though its computing business is up by 8%.