Western Digital is introducing a new flagship portable SSD today under the SanDisk Professional brand. The PRO-G40 dual-mode PSSD ticks all the right boxes for prosumers, content creators, and studios looking for a high-performance rugged bus-powered portable storage drive with wide compatibility. We have put the 2TB version of the PRO-G40 through our rigorous direct-attached storage evaluation. Read on to find out how the new PSSD stacks up against the competition.
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With Intel’s annual Innovation event taking place this week in San Jose, the company is looking to recapture a lot of technical momentum that has slowly been lost over the past couple of years. While Intel has remained hard at work releasing new products over the time, the combination of schedule slips and an inability to show off their wares to in-person audiences has taken some of the luster off the company and its products. So for their biggest in-person technical event since prior to the pandemic, the company is showing off as much silicon as they can, to convince press, partners, and customers alike that CEO Pat Gelsinger’s efforts have put the company back on track.
Of all of Intel’s struggles over the past couple of years, there is no better poster child than their Sapphire Rapids server/workstation CPU. A true next-generation product from Intel that brings everything from PCIe 5 and DDR5 to CXL and a slew of hardware accelerators, there’s really nothing to write about Sapphire Rapids’ delays that hasn’t already been said – it’s going to end up over a year late.
But Sapphire Rapids is coming. And Intel is finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel on those development efforts. With general availability slated for Q1 of 2023, just over a quarter from now, Intel is finally in a position to show off Sapphire Rapids to a wider audience – or at least, members of the press. Or to take a more pragmatic read on matters, Intel now needs to start seriously promoting Sapphire Rapids ahead of its launch, and that of its competition.
For this year’s show, Intel invited members of the press to see a live demo of pre-production Sapphire Rapids silicon in action. The purpose of the demos, besides to give the press the ability to say “we saw it; it exists!” is to start showing off one of the more unique features of Sapphire Rapids: its collection of dedicated accelerator blocks.
Along with delivering a much-needed update to the CPU’s processor cores, Sapphire Rapids is also adding/integration dedicated accelerator blocks for several common CPU-critical server/workstation workloads. The idea, simply put, is that fixed function silicon can do the task as quickly or better than CPU cores for a fraction of the power, and for only a fractional increase in die size. And with hyperscalers and other server operators looking for big improvements in compute density and energy efficiency, domain specific accelerators such as these are a good way for Intel to deliver that kind of edge to their customers. And it doesn’t hurt either that rival AMD isn’t expected to have similar accelerator blocks.
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With a lot of news and info dropping on Intel’s latest Z790 chipset using the LGA1700 socket, NZXT has pulled the trigger and announced its N7 Z790 motherboard. Available in either white or black, it features a 2.5 GbE controller, Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, benefits from support for PCIe 5.0, and includes three M.2 slots.
In addition to the announcement of Intel’s 13th Gen Core series processors, codenamed Raptor Lake, NZXT has announced its plans to launch the N7 for Z790. As we’ve seen from NZXT motherboards in the past, the N7 Z790 has a large swathe of armor covering the board and is available in both back and white color schemes. It should be noted that neither the black nor white model includes any integrated RGB LED lighting. Typical with an NZXT product, the N7 Z790 comes with support with their CAM software.
Some of the NZXT N7 Z790’s main features include one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, two full-length PCIe 4.0 slots operating at x4/x4, and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Also present on the NZXT N7 Z790 are three M.2 slots, two with support for PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe drives and one with support for both PCIe 4.0 x4 and SATA. NZXT also includes four SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays for more conventional storage. NZXT is also advertising support for DDR5-6000 memory, with a combined total of 128 GB supported across four slots.
NZXT is also advertising a 16+1+2-phase power delivery, with one 8-pin EPS 12 V and one 4-pin 12 V power connector pairing to deliver power to the CPU. Powering the rest of the board’s components is a 24-pin 12V power connector.
The rear I/O is modest yet practical, with two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A and three USB 3.2 G1 Type-A; interestingly, NZXT doesn’t include any rear panel Type-C connectivity. Also on the rear panel are five 3.5 mm audio jacks and one S/PDIF optical output powered by a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec, with two antenna ports for an unspecified Wi-Fi 6E CNVi. Finishing off the rear panel is a single HDMI TM video output, with one Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 GbE controller.
The NZXT N7 Z790 is scheduled to release with an MSRP of $300 and will be available in Q4 2022 in the USA. NZXT hasn’t shared whether or not this will be released in other regions.
Source: NZXT
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It’s time again for another Intel event, Intel Innovation 2022. With plenty of tech things to reveal to the world ranging from AI, client computing, and data center/cloud computing. Intel is also expected to showcase the generation of products for consumers.
With AMD’s big Ryzen 7000 launch having only taken place just yesterday, Intel is expected to showcase its next generation of products for consumers. Leading the keynote will be visionary Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger.
The live blog will start with the opening keynote from Intel Innovation at 9am PT / 16:00 UTC / 18:00 CEST.
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Netgear has been at the forefront of the SDVoE (Software-Defined Video over Ethernet) initiative with multiple AV switches serving the growing market. The ProAV lineup of managed switches have been sold primarily in a B2B setting by the Netgear Business division. These switches are increasingly becoming part of luxury residential installations requiring an AV-over-IP solution. As part of the CEDIA Expo 2022, Netgear is announcing a new ‘Netgear Home Solutions’ push. The intention is to take the same lineup of Netgear AV products sold by Netgear Business and target it towards both commercial and residential installations.
As part of this initiative, Netgear will be selling ProAV Managed Switches and ProWiFi Access Points to residential installers, along with the Pro version of Insight Remote Management and Pro Support. While the ProAV Managed Switches are already in the market, the new WAX628 and WAX638E APs are complementary to the currently existing members of the Insight Access Point Portfolio.
The WAX628 (already available for residential installers) slots in-between the dual-band AX3600 WAX620 and the tri-band AX6000 WAX630. This AX5400 dual-band solution supports 160 MHz channel bandwidth, and is accompanied by the AX7800 WAX638E which adds 6 GHz band support to the mix. The Wi-Fi 6E AP is slated to come to the market in the next few months.
Netgear is promising margin protection for installers by selling the ProAV and ProWiFi products only through the channel and not via Amazon or other e-tailers. Since these products are going to reach end-consumers through custom installers who have their own cost structures, the lack of any pricing information from Netgear is not surprising.
Netgear’s traditional consumer Wi-Fi router market has evolved rapidly over the last few years. Despite the success of Orbi (in both the consumer and SMB markets), new entrants like eero have gained significant mind and market share. In this context, Netgear has to look towards services and expand into new markets in order to maintain and build upon their technical leadership. Forays into lucrative niches like the residential installer market are not surprising.
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Back at CES 2022, which was held in Las Vegas earlier at the beginning of the year, AMD announced that its new Zen 4 core would be coming sometime in the second half of 22. During AMD’s ‘together we advance_PCs’ live streamed event at the end of August, AMD unveiled its Ryzen 7000 series of desktop processors, with four SKUs aimed at different product segments. Today AMD has officially launched Ryzen 7000 with the Ryzen 9 7950X sitting as the brand’s representative of performance leadership in an x86 processor for desktops.
On paper, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is a 16C/32T behemoth to take overall performance leadership in desktop computing. Their entry point into the market is the Ryzen 5 7600X, which has 6C/12T and harnesses all the benefits of the flagship in a more svelte and affordable chiplet-based package. AMD pins its hopes on bringing that all-important performance crown back to its side with Zen 4 with its new architecture based on TSMC’s 5 nm process; prepare for battle. We’ve detailed what Zen 4 brings to the table regarding the new microarchitecture and tests the new Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X through our CPU suite.
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Intel officially unveiled the final member of their Alder Lake-based NUC12 family earlier this week. The NUC12 Enthusiast (like the three previous Enthusiast NUCs) caters to the gaming / creators market looking for a small form-factor machine with a discrete GPU.
As a refresher, Intel created the NUC Enthusiast category back in 2016 with the introduction of the Skull Canyon NUC (NUC6i7KYK). With a 4″ x 5″ motherboard, it had a slightly larger footprint compared to the traditional NUCs. However, the increased size allowed the incorporation of a 45W TDP processor with increased graphics flex. The second generation Hades Canyon moved to a slightly larger board (5.5″ x 8″), while retaining the industrial design of the Skull Canyon NUC. It used the Kaby Lake-G processors with a Kaby Lake processor and an AMD GPU packaged together (with a total TDP budget between 65W and 100W). The NUC11 Enthusiast (Phantom Canyon) went for a more traditional gaming notebook-type architecture with a Tiger Lake-U Core i7-1165G7 and a NVIDIA RTX 2060 laptop GPU.
The NUC12 Enthusiast retains a similar architecture. The key difference lies in the fact that this is first NUC to utilize Intel’s Arc discrete GPU. The specifications of the GPU are much more powerful than the NVIDIA RTX2060, and this has resulted in a redesign of the cooling solution as well as the chassis dimensions compared to the NUC11 Enthusiast.
Similar to the Phantom Canyon family, Serpent Canyon will also come in two varieties – a barebones version, and another with a 1TB SSD / 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM / Windows 11 Home pre-installed. The SKUs utilize the Intel Core i7-12700H notebook processor and the Intel Arc A770M discrete GPU with 16GB of VRAM.
The NUC12 Enthusiast sports a rich set of I/Os. There are two Thunderbolt 4 ports (one in the front and one in the rear) that also carry the display output from the Intel Iris Xe Graphics in the Core i7-12700H. Two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports and a SDXC UHS-II slot, along with an audio jack and a quad-microphone array round out the front panel. On the rear, we have an audio output jack (supporting TOSLINK), a single 2.5 Gbps LAN port, four USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (with a hub chip behind), and the display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1 4Kp60 and 2x Display Port 2.0 (1.4 certified)) from the Intel Arc A770M.
The table below compares the specifications of the flagships in the last three generations of Enthusiast NUCs.
Intel Enthusiast NUCs
Model
Serpent Canyon
(NUC12SNKi72)
Phantom Canyon
(NUC11PHKi7C)
Hades Canyon
(NUC8i7HVK)
CPU
Intel Core i7-12700H
Alder Lake, 6P + 8E / 20T
4.7 GHz (P) / 3.5 GHz (E)
45W TDP (Up to 115W)
Intel Core i7-1165G7
Tiger Lake-U, 4C/8T
2.8 – 4.7 GHz
28W TDP
Intel Core i7-8809G
Kaby Lake, 4C/8T
3.1 – 4.2 GHz
100W Package TDP
GPU
Intel® Intel Arc A770M 16GB GDDR6 @ 1.65 GHz (Discrete)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 (N18E-G1-B Notebook Class 115W) @ 1.285 GHz (Discrete)
Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics (96EU) @ 1.3 GHz (Integrated / On-Die)
Radeon RX Vega M GH 4GB HBM2 @ 1.19 GHz (Discrete / On-Package)
Intel® HD Graphics 630 @ 1.1 GHz (Integrated / On-Die)
Memory
2x DDR4-3200 SODIMMs
1.2V, 64GB max.
2x DDR4-2400+ SODIMMs
1.2V, 32GB max.
Motherboard
7″ x 8″(Custom)
5.5″ x 8″ (Custom)
Storage
2x M.2 22×80 (key M) PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD (CPU-attached)
1x M.2 22×80 (key M) SATA3 or PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD (via PCH)
1x M.2 22×80/110 (key M) PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe/AHCI SSD
1x M.2 2280 (key M) SATA3 or PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe/AHCI SSD
2x M.2 22×42/80 (key M) SATA3 or PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe/AHCI SSD
I/O Ports
2x Thunderbolt 4 Fast-Charging (front + rear)
1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (front)
1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A Fast-Charging (front)
4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (rear)
1x SDXC UHS-II Card Slot (front)
CIR (front)
1x SATA III Power + Data Internal Header
2x USB 2.0 Internal Header
2x Thunderbolt 3 (rear)
4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (rear)
1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (front)
1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (front)
1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A Fast-Charging (front)
1x SDXC UHS-I Card Slot (front)
CIR (front)
1x SATA III Power + Data Internal Header
2x USB 2.0 Internal Header
Networking
Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E AX1690i
(2×2 802.11ax Wi-Fi inc. 6 GHz + Bluetooth 5.2 module)
1 × 2.5 GbE ports (Intel I225-LM)
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201
(2×2 802.11ax Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.1 module)
1 × 2.5 GbE port (Intel I225-LM)
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265
(2×2 802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2 module)
2 × GbE ports (Intel I219-LM + Intel I210-AT)
Display Outputs
2x DP 2.0 (1.4 certified) (via Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, iGPU)
1x HDMI 2.1 (up to 4Kp60) (rear, dGPU)
2x DP 2.0 (1.4 certified, dGPU)
2x DP 1.4a (via Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, iGPU Display Pipe)
1x mini-DP 1.4a (rear, dGPU, up to 8Kp60, MST)
1x HDMI 2.0b (rear, dGPU, up to 4Kp60)
1x HDMI 2.0a (front, dGPU)
1x HDMI 2.0a (rear, dGPU)
2x mini-DP 1.3 (rear, dGPU)
2x DP 1.3 (via Thunderbolt 3 Type-C ports, dGPU)
Audio
7.1 digital (over HDMI and DisplayPort)
L+R+mic (front)
L+R+TOSLINK (rear)
Audio Codec
Realtek ALC274
Realtek ALC700
Enclosure
Metal and plastic
Kensington lock with base security
Power Supply
330W (19V @ 16.9A) Adapter
230W (19V @ 12.1A) Adapter
Dimensions
230mm x 180mm x 60mm / 2.5L
221mm x 142mm x 42mm / 1.3L
221mm x 142mm x 39mm / 1.2L
Miscellaneous Features
Vertical stand included
Vertical stand and VESA mount included
VESA mount included
Lid with customizable RGB LED illumination behind user-replaceable mask
CEC support for HDMI ports
Front-panel CIR support for IR remotes
Status LEDs in front panel
Beam-forming microphone array
3-year warranty
The block diagram below gives some insights into the design of the system in relation to the I/O capabilities.
Despite the Arc A770M supporting a PCIe 4.0 x16 link to the host processor, the Serpent Canyon configuration keeps the connection at x8. Both PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 slots are CPU-attached ones. The SD card slot is connected via a PCIe lane instead of USB – this should allow maximum possible performance for different SD cards. While the official specifications indicate that the slot is UHS-II, the technical product specifications document also indicates SD Express support. This depends on the exact SD controller being used in the board, and we have reached out to Intel for clarification. Three of the four Type-A ports in the rear are enabled by a 1:4 Gen 2 hub, which is not ideal in terms of bandwidth sharing. However, the availability of additional ports is always welcome. On the display front, the front Thunderbolt 4 port can support a display bandwidth of around 17 Gbps, while the rear port can support up to 35 Gbps. With multi-stream support on the Type-C port, the system can drive a total of six diifferent displays – five at 4Kp144 (DP/Alt-DP) and one at 4Kp60 (HDMI). Two 8Kp60 displays can also be driven using a multi-cable / -port solution.
Intel also provided a complete teardown picture along with the press release. The combined cooling solution for the CPU and dGPU with the thermal shroud and heat pipes is clearly seen. Whether this solution aids in / enables performance tuning via the Intel Deep Link Dynamic Power Share feature remains to be seen in hands-on evaluation.
Overall, the Serpent Canyon NUC is a huge step-up for Intel. Moving to a fully in-house solution for both the CPU and dGPU in a small form-factor portable machine will enable the company to gain a larger share of the gaming / creator systems / eSports total addressable market. Based on paper specifications, the level of integration and gaming prowess in the NUC12 Enthusiast should be well beyond what has traditionally been possible in this form factor. On the pricing front, the Mini-PC version with pre-installed OS will come in at $1350, while the barebones version can be purchased for $1180 later this month. These numbers roughly track the introductory pricing for previous-generation Enthusiast NUCs.
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Even though the main focus this month has been on AMD’s upcoming launch of its Ryzen 7000 desktop series processors based on the Zen 4 architecture, AMD is also in the process of launching its 7020 series of processors designed for entry-level mobile, codenamed Mendocino. It has launched four new SKUs for mobile, including two Ryzen series models and two Athlon variants, all based on its Zen 2 architecture.
As we learned in May, AMD’s Zen 2 based ‘Mendocino’ APUs are designed as part of its lower-end mobile processor stack for entry-level thin notebook and laptop solutions. The affordable APUs incorporate up to 4 Zen 2 CPU cores, as well as AMD’s integrated Radeon 610M graphics, all with a maximum TDP of 15W.
Focusing specifically on the AMD 7020 series APUs announced today, the top SKU is the Ryzen 5 7520U. Using AMD’s new Ryzen Mobile CPU numbering system, the 7520U is a model year 2023 chip under the Ryzen 5 series banner using its Zen 2 core architecture. The U suffix technically means 15-28W, but in this case AMD has confirmed that all of the current chips have a max TDP of 15W.
The AMD Ryzen 5 7520U benefits from a 2.8 GHz base frequency across its four cores, with a 1T boost frequency of up to 4.3 GHz. It also includes a total of 6MB of cache, split between 4MB of L3 and 2MB of L2 (512KB per core).
AMD Ryzen 7020 Series (Mendocino) Lineup
SKU
Cores/Threads
CPU Frequency
(Base)
CPU Frequency
(1T Boost)
Cache
iGPU
TDP
Ryzen 5 7520U
4C / 8T
2.8 GHz
4.3 GHz
2MB L2 + 4MB L3
Radeon 610M
15 W
Ryzen 3 7320U
4C / 8T
2.4 GHz
4.1 GHz
2MB L2 + 4MB L3
Radeon 610M
15 W
Athlon Gold 7220U
2C / 4T
2.4 GHz
3.7 GHz
1MB L2 + 4MB L3
Radeon 610M
15 W
Athlon Silver 7120U
2C / 4T
2.4 GHz
3.5 GHz
1MB L2 + 2MB L3
Radeon 610M
15 W
Moving down the stack is the Ryzen 3 7320U, which has four cores and eight threads but a base core clock speed of 2.4 GHz and a single core boost frequency of up to 4.1 GHz. Like the Ryzen 5 7520U, it also benefits from a combined cache of 6 MB across its L2/L3 cache structure.
Looking at the Athlon-branded 7020 series chips, the Athlon Gold 7220U offers two cores and four threads, with a base frequency of 2.4 GHz, a single core boost frequency of up to 3.7 GHz, and 5 MB of shared L2/L3 cache. The Athlon Silver 7120U is pretty much the Athlon Gold 7220U, but it has a slightly lower 1T boost frequency of 3.5 GHz and half as much L3 cache (for a total of 3MB instead of 5MB)
AMD Radeon 610M with two graphics cores for performance at the entry-level
All of today’s announced AMD’s Zen 2 Ryzen and Athlon 7020 series will support up to 32 GB of LPDDR5 memory in a dual-channel (64-bit) configuration, and feature two graphics cores/CUs based on its RNDA 2 technology, which AMD is branding the Radeon 610M integrated graphics chip. All four mobile APUs will also include a TDP of up to 15 W.
At the time of writing, AMD hasn’t revealed specific pricing aside from a total laptop price range of between $399 and $699. However, it has announced that its AMD Ryzen 7020 Series Ecosystem partners are Acer, HP, Lenovo, and Microsoft, with notebooks featuring these chips expected to start appearing on retail shelves sometime in Q4 2022.
Source: AMD
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With NVIDIA’s fall GTC event in full swing, the company touched upon the bulk of its core business in one way or another in this morning’s keynote. On the enterprise side of matters, one of the longest-awaited updates was the shipment status of NVIDIA’s H100 “Hopper” accelerator, which at introduction was slated to land in Q3 of this year. As it turns out, with Q3 already nearly over H100 is not going to make its Q3 availability date. But, according to NVIDIA the accelerator is in full production, and the first systems will be shipping from OEMs in October.
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Among the spate of announcements from NVIDIA today as part of their fall GTC 2022 event, the company is delivering a surprising shake-up to their DRIVE automotive SoC plans. Effective immediately, NVIDIA has cancelled Atlan, their planned post-Orin SoC for 2025 automobiles. In its place, NVIDIA is announcing Thor, an even more powerful SoC set to launch in the same 2025 timeframe.
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