Workstation

Asus has emerged victorious as a result of 2021's Interbrand Best Taiwan Global Brands survey, making it the country's "most valuable" brand that operates worldwide - and for the eighth year running, too. The OEM has attained this accolade due to its fame, resilience to the pandemic and ability to forge partnerships with other groups.

SiFive is aiming to catch up to ARM by committing to deliver significant performance improvements in record time. The Performance P650 processors releasing next year will scale to 16 cores and deliver up to 81% performance increase per core compared to ARM's Cortex-A75.

Samsung has confirmed that one of its latest factories is to be built in the US state of Texas. The OEM may invest a total of U$17 billion to complete this new facility, which should be capable of producing components for use in HPC, 5G and mobile devices once operational.

The bleeding edge of DRAM technology is now officially known as DDR5, rated for twice the data-transfer rates of its predecessor DDR4. However, its own next generation, DDR6, is now slated to launch with double these new speeds - or less than half those of DDR7 again. Both upcoming upgrades are said to be in the works at Samsung already.

Without any actual performance metrics, it is not clear if the Fenghua 1 can take on AMD's and Nvidia's solutions. However, the integration of GDDR6X VRAM and the support for APIs like OpenGL, OpenGLES, OpenCL, Vulkan and DirectX, plus the inclusion of video ports suggest that Innosilicon's card could also act as a workstation or even a desktop GPU.

Although the two vulnerabilities described in today's security advisories are not labeled "critical," Intel describes both as posing a high-security risk. The two issues target Intel processors from generations 7, 10, and 11. Thankfully, BIOS updates will iron out these security flaws.

AMD's recent Accelerated Data Center Premiere Keynote has served to confirm the existence of next-gen products such as the server-grade processors known as EPYC Milan-X. These CPUs are much like those of the previously-unveiled third-gen series, except with 3D V-Cache technology. Their successors were also outlined in more detail.

PNY had revealed that the next generation of its XLR8 Gaming RAM would be DDR5. Now, it has announced that these MAKO and MAKO RGB sticks will be on the market shortly. They will be joined by Performance DDR5, which will support the 4,800MHz speed mentioned earlier.

DDR5 is the next-gen standard that is now emerging with the promise of ultra-fast DRAM to match equally cutting-edge platforms such as Alder Lake. Those 12th-gen Intel processors are currently rated to handle speeds of up to 6,666MHz (or DDR5-6666). Now, G.SKILL claims to have developed the next step in this evolution: DDR5-7000.

A noted leaker has been offering up a wealth of details about a potential 2022 Apple iMac Pro that would be fitted with a choice between the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors. The supposed iMac Pro with Apple Silicon would also sport an HDMI port and possibly be priced at a surprising level. However, it seems only a medium-sized 27-inch option is on the cards right now.

Samsung has announced total revenues and operating profits that ran well into trillions of South Korean won (KRW, or billions of US dollars) for the third quarter of 2021 (3Q2021). The company attributes this success to its silicon production, as well as to the sale of devices such as the Galaxy Z Fold3 and Flip3.

The Ripjaws S5 series is G.SKILL's newest RAM for "high-performance" rigs, and goes up to DDR5-6000 in terms of speed. The OEM asserts that their next-gen memory is made of internal circuits (ICs) "hand-screened" for stability and consistency. It has been launched as kits with dual 16GB modules.

Tipster @ExecuFix revealed what appear to be details for the upcoming AMD Instinct MI250W GPU. The MCM-based card will reportedly feature 110 CUs running at 1.7 GHz, 128GB of HBM2 memory, and a 500W TDP.

SK Hynix has introduced its latest development as high bandwidth memory 3 (or HBM3) as "the world’s best-performing DRAM". It is rated for up to 78% greater data-processing rates compared to its predecessor, thanks to its maker's latest TSV technique. HBM3 also has a new maximum capacity per module, thanks to the latest manufacturing processes.

The ZBook Fury 15 G8 is one of the fastest mobile workstations in its size class. If you're in it for the features and not so much for the speed, however, then the older and likely cheaper ZBook Fury 15 G7 will be more than enough.

If the Precision 5560 looks familiar, then that's because it is essentially the same mobile workstation as the Precision 5550. It's the GPU and PCIe4 storage options available that set the two apart.

There are many different laptop designs, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. While this also applies to large, heavy laptops, there is such a thing as too big. Unfortunately, the Lenovo ThinkPad P17 G2 is a prime example for this. For the next generation, Lenovo should update its design to something that looks more recent.

Lenovo has updated the second generation ThinkPad P15 with new Tiger Lake processors from Intel along with Thunderbolt 4, but the highlight of the mobile workstation is the new professional RTX A3000 GPU from Nvidia, which provides a huge performance boost.

OWC has announced a new kind of USB dock, rated to split 1 Thunderbolt feed between 2 monitors of (technically) up to 8K in resolution. It does so via the newer DisplayPort 1.4 standard, and is also rated to support HDR with compatible displays. OWC asserts that this new accessory can thus boost productivity, gaming or learning for a variety of users.

The story of AMD CPUs in Lenovo's ThinkPad laptops is a story of inequality. AMD systems were disadvantaged from the beginning, particularly in the displays. Finally Lenovo has remedied this disparity, so there's not much missing anymore until all the features are the same.

The prospect of Windows 11 is strongly linked to mixed feelings at present. However, a study based on approximately 11,000 survey responses from participants who currently use the OS found that over 50% of this group would install the update without delay. Accordingly, 17% of the respondents are now in the Insiders program on the strength of Microsoft's latest launch.

NVIDIA has unveiled a new workstation graphics card that is not only small, but also economical. As such, even compact computers can benefit from NVIDIA's most advanced technologies, including AI acceleration through dedicated Tensor cores and ray tracing.

Sources familiar with the matter have told a Chinese news outlet that Intel is one of the first customers for TSMC's 3nm node. The Taiwanese chipmaker has earmarked an entirely new factory for the task, which will churn out Intel server processors and graphics cards. Mass production is expected to start sometime in H2, 2022.

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.