Workstation

The electronics giant Huawei launched its first PC display in 2020. This 23.8-inch peripheral has an FHD IPS panel, and is mostly directed at enterprise-grade customers. It is also now available in a new market: the UK.

Please note this was a joke article posted on April Fools' Day in 2021.
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The ubiquitous chip-design IP-holder Arm perceives the future as one in which processing demands will trend strongly towards AI and data-security needs while moving away from general computing. The company aims to meet it with its latest v9 architecture, packed with advanced support for pursuits such as machine learning (ML) and digital-signal processing (DSP).

AMD has released the latest version of its Adrenalin 2020 Edition driver for Radeon cards. It is hardly essential, yet may be useful for those wishing for the best experience in ray-tracing-heavy titles such as Cyberpunk 2077. It also adds support for some other games, including Outriders and Evil Genius 2: World Domination.

A report from a Taiwanese media site has revealed that both Acer and Asus appear to be planning on implementing price hikes on their popular laptop ranges. The continuing high demand for notebooks and mobile workstations has led to a situation where Acer and Asus are likely to increase product prices in the second quarter of 2021.

Xiaomi's bumper launch of today (March 29, 2021) mainly focused on its new Mi 11-series Android phones. However, it also introduced a number of new products that could be used alongside them, one of which is the new Mi AX9000 router. Its new, gamer-geared design gives it 12 antennae in total, and integrates a top-end Qualcomm chipset for tri-band Wi-Fi 6 speeds and specs.

An intriguing Unreal Engine comparison featuring a whole range of high-powered processors has been carried out by Puget Systems, with the very expensive AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3995WX coming out on top. The test also featured the Zen 3 Ryzen 9 5950X, AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 3990X, and even a Comet Lake Intel Core i9-10900K.

AMD Ryzen CPUs have taken parts of the market by storm since Ryzen 4000 came out. One area that has been left largely untouched: Mobile workstation. Too bad, as the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 1 shows that AMD Ryzen and workstation could go great together.

HP's mobile workstation ZBook Studio G7 is very slim and competes with devices like the Dell Precision 5550 and Lenovo ThinkPad P1. The GPU performance is very good thanks to Nvidia's Quadro RTX GPUs and you can get a very bright 4K DreamColor display.

It appears Apple has been further reducing its current iMac offerings by removing two storage configurations from the purchase options. While this could indicate an upcoming unveiling of an iMac range featuring M-series Apple Silicon, the continuing worldwide chip shortage could force further hardware delays.

According to industry observers, it will be the redesigned iMac and not the MacBook Pro 16 that will truly be able to unlock the full potential of an expected M1X Apple Silicon. Even with an updated cooling solution, thermal restrictions will prevent the MacBook Pro 16 from hitting the performance heights of a larger M1X iMac device.

Rocket Lake-S is a supposedly upcoming line of 11th-gen Intel CPUs with TDPs of up to 125W. A Chiphell user claims to have gotten hold of pre-release samples that indicate this top-end treatment extends to their Core i5 variants. This alleged i5-11600KF is joined by an "i5-11400F" in this new leak.

Crytek has announced that DLSS can be switched on in Crysis Remastered with the game's latest update. Therefore, its performance while running on NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards with RTX may be boosted considerably. Then again, the new potential advantage is also affected by some initial bugs.

It’s been rumored that an Intel Sapphire Rapids team is seemingly working on producing a “mega” APU that could give AMD something to worry about if it is released. The Xeon APU could feature a four-chiplet configuration that would allow the inclusion of a dGPU-level Intel Xe graphics processor and HBM2E support.

Today (March 11, 2021) is a Thursday, which means it's time for new games in. the GeForce NOW library. This week, the streaming service has added 4 The Witcher-series games, which are, moreover, those of the GOG variety. Pascal's Wager (Definitive Edition) is another new entry on the cloud-gaming platform.

AMD has revealed that its third-gen line of processors for data-centers and similar professional use-cases, also commonly known as EPYC Milan, will launch on March 15, 2021. It is thought to offer multiple variants that go up to 64 cores, some of which have been seen on benchmarks tearing through their Intel competition and closest Threadripper analogs.

Despite its designation, the ThinkPad T15g is a full-fledged mobile workstation and shares the chassis construction with the ThinkPad P15. The design was refreshed, but the device still appears pretty outdated due to massive bezels. There is also an issue with the keyboard and coil whine is a problem as well.

New Mac Pro models are rumored to be coming for 2022 that will seemingly remove the need for Intel Xeon W processors. The pricey desktops will apparently be fitted with chips that offer a mixture of performance cores and efficiency cores, leading to speculation that the future Mac Pro desktop PCs will utilize up to 64-core Apple Silicon.

In addition to replacing the battery, the usual maintenance tasks of a laptop also includes cleaning the fan - or fans in the case of models with a dual fan design. This was not an easy task in the ThinkPad laptops of the P series until now. But this is changing with the new Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 1.

The 64-core, 128-thread AMD EPYC 7713 Milan server processor has appeared on Geekbench and produced a multi-core result that has put the competition to the sword. The 64-core Ryzen Threadripper 3990X and, understandably, the 28-core Intel Xeon W-3175X are completely outscored by the monstrous EPYC 7713.

Details about three Intel Tiger Lake-H45 processors have seemingly been revealed in the specsheet for a DT Research LT375 Rugged Mobile Workstation. The highly configurable device can apparently be fitted with an Intel Core i5-11400H, i7-11800H, or i9-11900H, up to a 4 TB SSD, 4K screen, and up to an RTX 5000 graphics card.

The AMD EPYC 7763 server chip has made its first public appearance on Geekbench as part of a dual-processor configuration in a Gigabyte server. The results for the EPYC 7763 were much lower than what could be expected, especially in the multi-core benchmark. The base frequency for the Zen 3 Milan part was measured at 2.45 GHz.

Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of China with an economy best known for cheap power. It has thus reportedly become a magnet for cryptocurrency miners. Apparently, the region does not appreciate this attention, having just outlawed the practice.

More details about AMD’s EPYC Genoa series, which is apparently scheduled for a 2022 launch, have been leaked. It is believed the Zen 4 server chips will support AVX3-512, BFLOAT16, and have a squarer overall package shape. If the rumors are true, then Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids may struggle to compete against EPYC Genoa.

One part of the AMD Ryzen 5000 lineup for 2021 is still not officially announced: The Ryzen Pro CPUs for business laptops. We have already seen the flagship AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U in action through some leaked benchmarks. The spec-sheet of a recently announced Lenovo ThinkPad reveals specifications of both the 5850U and the six-core Ryzen 5 Pro 5650U.

Details about AMD’s Zen 4 5nm EPYC server CPU series, codenamed “Genoa”, have been apparently leaked. It appears core count will go right up to 96, allowing the potential of 192-thread processing. Along with that, the incredibly powerful EPYC Genoa chips will support 12-channel DDR5 and up to 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes.

Lenovo has launched three new mobile workstations called the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 2, ThinkPad P14si Gen 2 and ThinkPad P15s Gen 2. They come with several enterprise-centric features such as an Nvidia (Quadro) T500 GPU, LTE connectivity, and a Smart Card Reader. ThinkPad P14si Gen 2 and P15s will be retail for US$1,389 in March 2021, and the ThinkPad P14si in May 2021 for US$1,169

The 48-core AMD EPYC 7643 Zen 3 server processor has made another appearance on Geekbench, turning up on version 5 of the synthetic benchmark. The Milan chip pulled out a gigantic multi-core score of 33,348 points that puts it +33% ahead of the average result managed by the 64-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X.

Eat your heart out, Razer Project Valerie. The Expanscape Aurora 7 is a laptop prototype that boasts an insane seven screens that fold out from every nook and cranny of the lid and chassis.

Acer has released its latest consolidated financial report, which covers January 2021. It includes revenues that are its highest "for the same period" since 2013. This performance is based on solid year-on-year (YoY) growth for the OEM's gaming, creator-PC and Chromebook sectors.

The 48-core, 96-thread AMD EPYC 7643 server chip has been tested on Geekbench 4 and has come up with a gigantic multi-core score of 121,080 points. The Zen 3 Milan part also wields 256 MB L3 cache and has clock rates of 2.30 GHz to 3.60 GHz. Astonishingly, AMD has even more-powerful CPUs than the EPYC 7643 waiting in the wings.

An HP Enterprise dual processor server with a couple of 32-core AMD EPYC 7513 Milan chips inside it has been spotted on Geekbench. The upcoming Zen 3 parts teamed up to produce a huge result that was +8% over the average recorded by the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X. The EPYC 7513 processors paced themselves at a base rate of 2.60 GHz.

Micron has launched its latest form of DRAM, which is also now in volume production. It is based on the company's 1-alpha (1α, or fourth-generation) 10 nanometer (nm) node, and also incorporates 176-layer NAND for the first time. Micron asserts that has up to 40% more memory cells, and is up to 15% more power-efficient, than its predecessor.

Unnamed 8-core Tiger Lake-H processors from Intel have been producing incredible 1-core scores on UserBenchmark in HP ZBook Studio G8 and HP ZBook Create G8 laptops, although the multi-core scores were quite poor. The mysterious Intel Tiger Lake-H chips recorded a base clock of 3.1 GHz in the benchmark entries.

Users who don't update might get a fancy 10th gen Xeon or Core i9 CPU running slower than a cheaper 9th gen Core i7-9750H. Luckily, all it takes is a quick download from HP to fix the issue.

An AMD EPYC 7543 server processor from the Zen 3-based Milan family has been unearthed on Geekbench where it amassed a huge multi-core score of 25,909 points with the help of its 32 cores. This result places the EPYC 7543 at a similar level as the average result for the 64-core monster that is the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X.

In the past, bright displays and ThinkPads did not come hand in hand. Now, finally, another model cracks the 600-nit mark. The panel in the P15s, which is the brightest in the ThinkPad series, is also used in other workstation-grade ThinkPads.

AMD has announced that the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3955WX, 3975WX, and 3995WX workstation processors will soon be available to private customers from major retailers. The Threadripper PRO chips offer from 16 cores to 64 cores and 32 threads to 128 threads of processing power along with support for 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes. The EPYC “Milan” series has also been teased.

HP has announced two new Intel Tiger Lake-powered convertibles; the HP EliteBook x360 1030 G8 and HP EliteBook x360 1040 G8. Both notebooks can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM, 2TB of solid-state storage, 4K screens, and a 78Wh battery. HP will tell us more about their prices as its January 2021 approaches.

The Precision 3560 is new for 2021, and with Intel's Tiger Lake-U platform. The 15-inch mobile workstation features a new design from last year's model with a larger trackpad and a new keyboard. However, the dedicated mouse buttons have gone, and the pointing stick appears to have been omitted too.

AMD may possibly bring back 16-core SKUs to the HEDT Threadripper lineup with the upcoming Threadripper 5000 series as indicated by a cryptic tweet from developer 1usmus. The 16-core Threadripper SKU, which may be called the TR 5955X, is likely to be similar to the mainstream Ryzen 9 5950X but with support for quad-channel RAM and additional PCIe lanes.

Although still not confirmed by Intel, it looks like the company's partners are ready to introduce the 500-series motherboards on the 11th of January 2021. A month or two after the introduction of these boards, Intel is expected to launch compatible Rocket Lake desktop processors as well.