News hot off the wire is that Dr. Randhir Thakur, Director of Intel’s Foundry Services, is set to take up a position as Director of Tata Electronics, an Indian based company, part of the Tata Group.

Source: AnandTech – Intel Isn’t Losing Its New Head of Foundry Services

As part of a suite of SIGGRAPH-related announcements, NVIDIA this morning is announcing a new addition to their RTX line of professional video cards, the RTX A2000. Following NVIDIA’s transitional top-to-bottom product rollouts, the latest member of NVIDIA’s pro GPU lineup is the smallest and cheapest card yet, thanks in large part to its use of NVIDIA’s GA106 GPU. Paired with 6GB of VRAM and aimed in part at small form factor workstations, NVIDIA expects the card to go on sale in October.

Source: AnandTech – NVIDIA Announces RTX A2000 Video Card: Low Profile & Low Power for ProViz

MinisForum, a Shenzhen based manufacturer of compact computing platforms, has been steadily bringing both AMD and Intel-based systems into the market. While the mix has mostly involved platforms that are a couple of generations old (allowing for competitive customer pricing), the company releases products based on the latest processors occasionally. Recently, the company sent across details of two of their 2021 introductions – the EliteMini TL50, and the EliteMini HX90. The TL50 is based on an Intel Tiger Lake-U processor, while the HX90 is based on an AMD Cezanne Zen 3 notebook APU.

The HX90 is the more interesting of the lot – MinisForum has managed to source the top-end APU, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, for the system. The TL50, on the other hand, comes only with the Intel Core i5-1135G7. The TL50 also uses a highly-integrated motherboard with soldered LPDDR4 DRAM (12GB), but the M.2 NVMe SSD the only upgradable component. In fact, the company only offers one configuration with 12GB of soldered DRAM and a 512GB SSD pre-installed with Windows 10 Professional. The form-factor is slightly bigger than the mainstream UCFF NUCs with the 1.2L box including support for the installation of two 2.5″ drives. The TL50 is available for shipping today and is priced at $649.

The HX90, on the other hand, uses a 45W TDP notebook processor, and hence comes with additional cooling requirements. The form factor is correspondingly larger, and the system has a 2.2L volume footprint. The key seller here is the Ryzen 9 5900HX APU which delivers gaming capabilities not found in other systems of similar size / cost. MinisForum is also promising a carbon fibre-infused chassis for a premium look. Unlike the TL50, the RAM is upgradable. Other differences are brought out in the table further down.

The barebones version of the HX90 is currently priced at $629, which apparently includes a $100 early-bird discount (the units aren’t slated to ship until September).

Both PCs look a bit weak in terms of I/O capabilities compared to other mini-PCs in the market – while the TL50 does include a Thunderbolt 4 port and dual gigabit LAN ports, the HX90 has only 1x 2.5G BASE-T port and the USB ports are all Gen 1 (5Gbps). The HX90 does support four simultaneous 4Kp60 display outputs, while the TL50 only supports three such displays. The target markets are slightly different, as the TL50 is meant for home / office scenarios, while the HX90 falls under the gaming mini-PC line. Having had hands-on experience with multiple MinisForum units in the past, my impression of the brand is generally favorable unlike the host of other no-name Shenzhen-based sellers typically found on Amazon. In general, I would recommend the barebones version of their systems when possible – similar to a lot of other system vendors, the pre-built configurations come with only one DRAM slot occupied, leaving significant performance potential untapped.

Source: AnandTech – MinisForum Unveils Cezanne EliteMini HX90 and Tiger Lake EliteMini TL50 mini-PCs

ASRock Rack has unveiled two new motherboards designed for Intel’s Ice Lake SP platform, the SPC621D8 and the SPC621D8-2L2T. Both boards feature a single LGA4189 socket design on an ATX-sized PCB, with eight memory slots supporting up to 2 TB of DDR4-3200 memory, seven PCIe 4.0 slots, and dual PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots. The SPC621D8-2L2T also gets five Ethernet ports, including dual 10 Gb Ethernet on the rear panel.

On the surface, both the ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T and the SPC621D8 share the same core feature set, which includes four full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and three half-length PCIe 4.0 x8 slots. Three of the full-length slots will automatically switch down to PCIe 4.0 x8 when the lower half-length slot is populated. Sitting on either side of the transposed LGA4189 socket are eight memory slots that are arranged into two banks of four. These slots can support up to 2 TB of DDR4-3200 memory, in the form of RDIMMs and LRDIMMs.

The ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T motherboard

The ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T and the SPC621D8 both include a varied selection of storage options, including one PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA M.2 slot and one PCIe 3.0 x1/SATA M.2 slot. The SPC621D8 has support for up to thirteen SATA ports, with six 7-pin headers included from the C621A chipset with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. The SPC621D8-2L2T has support for eight SATA ports, with the same level of RAID support. Both models include two SATA DOM headers and also include a mini-SAS HD header.

Driving the management side of things is an ASPEED AST2500 BMC controller. This can be accessed via a single D-sub video output or a dedicated management Ethernet port hooked up to a Realtek RTL8211E Gigabit controller. Both variants include various headers around the board, with some of the most notable which include a TPM header, COM header, PMBus connector, and an IPMB header. There are five 6-pin fan headers for cooling, one 24-pin 12 V ATX power input that provides power to the motherboard, and one 8-pin and one 4-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input pairing.

The ASRock SPC621D8-2L2T (top) and SPC621D8 (bottom) rear panels

Both boards share a similar rear panel layout, but with one major difference. The ASRock Rack SPC621D8-2L2T includes dual 10 GbE via an Intel X710-AT2 Ethernet controller, which is on top of the two Intel I210 Gigabit controllers and the Realtek RTL8211E management LAN port that are common to both boards. Both panels include a D-sub video output for the BMC, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports, and a UID indicator LED button.

We don’t have pricing for either the SPC621D8-2L2T or the SPC621D8 ATX motherboards or when they will hit retail shelves at the time of writing. 

Source: ASRock Rack

Gallery: ASRock Rack Announces Two ATX Ice Lake SP Motherboards

Related Reading

• ASRock Unveils C621A WS Motherboard, Designed for Xeon W-3300 Workstations
• Intel Launches Xeon W-3300: Ice Lake for Workstations, up to 38 Cores
• Intel 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake SP) Review: Generationally Big, Competitively Small
• GIGABYTE Server: Three New E-ATX Motherboards For Intel Ice Lake-SP Xeons

Source: AnandTech – ASRock Rack Announces Two ATX Ice Lake SP Motherboards

Today Google has teased its new upcoming Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones; in what is likely an attempt to get leaks and the upcoming narrative of the product under control, as opposed to the previous years of quite severe product spoilers several months ahead of the actual official product launches, the company is themselves revealing large important bits about the upcoming new flagship phones.

Google reveals that this year’s Pixel phones will be called the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro, two seemingly similarly sized devices in a high-end configuration with some compromises, and one in an all-bells-and-whistles uncompromising device. In a more exclusive prebriefing with The Verge, it’s stated that the new devices will be truly flagship specced phones competing at the highest end of the market, marking an important step away from the mid-range of the last several years. This is a large shift for Google and has been one of our main criticisms over the last few years – a seeming lack of clear direction where Google wants to be with their Pixel phones, at least until now.

Source: AnandTech – Google Teases Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro with new “Tensor” SoC

With prices on AMD’s Ryzen 5950X 16-core Zen 3 based processor slowly coming back into the realms of MSRP, ASUS is taking advantage of recent events by announcing its latest flagship X570 motherboard, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme. Overtaking the current ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero as the premier motherboard in the ROG series, the Extreme includes a 20-phase power delivery, dual Thunderbolt 4-capable USB Type-C ports, 10 Gb Ethernet, and support for up to five PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives.

In what looks like one of ASUS’s last motherboard unveilings for AMD’s X570 platform, the ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme is ultimately its most feature-packed Ryzen desktop motherboard so far. While ASUS at the time of writing hasn’t unveiled a full list of the specifications, we know many of the board’s core features, giving the EATX-sized board an impressive résumé. At the heart of the ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme are dual full-length PCIe 4.0 slots that operate in either x16/x0 or x8/x8 when paired with a Ryzen 5000 or 3000 desktop processor. ASUS also includes a small PCIe 3.0 x1 slot for one more peripheral.

The ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme design for X570 follows a black glossy aesthetic, with multiple areas of integrated RGB LED lighting, including along the rear panel cover, chipset heatsink, and even part of the underside of the board. Along with other X570/X570S motherboards recently announced, the Crosshair VIII Extreme will feature a passively cooled chipset.

For storage, ASUS includes three onboard PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, with room to add a further two PCIe 4.0 x4 slots via an included DIMM.2 slot located to the right of four memory slots. There are six SATA ports for conventional SATA devices with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. ASUS hasn’t listed the memory QVL list at the time of writing, but we know this board will support up to 128 GB of DDR4 across four memory slots.

Other features include an Intel Thunderbolt 4 controller that’s driving a pair of USB Type-C ports, a Marvel AQC1113CS 10 Gb Ethernet controller, and a second Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controller. On top of this, there’s Intel’s latest AX210 Wi-Fi 6E wireless interface, which also supports the latest BT 5.2 devices. Onboard audio is also quite premium, spearheaded by a ROG SupremeFX ALC4082 HD audio codec and is assisted by an ESS Sabre 9018Q2C DAC. 

With ‘Extreme’ being this model’s moniker and focus, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII uses a 20-phase power delivery (18+2) with premium 90 A power stages and is likely to be arranged in teamed mode, which is a common theme in its power design across the series. This also includes an LN2 mode dip switch designed for enthusiasts looking to use aggressive sub-zero cooling methods such as liquid nitrogen (LN2) or dry ice (DICE) for the maximum benchmark performance.

At the time of writing, ASUS hasn’t announced when the ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme will be available to purchase or how much it will cost. 

Gallery: ASUS Unveils ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme Motherboard, Flagship X570

Source: ASUS

Related Reading

• AMD Zen 3 Ryzen Deep Dive Review: 5950X, 5900X, 5800X, and 5600X Tested
• EVGA Teases an AMD X570 Dark Edition: For Ryzen 5000 Enthusiasts
• The ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming Motherboard Review
• Investigating Performance of Multi-Threading on Zen 3 and AMD Ryzen 5000
• Testing the New 3DMark CPU Benchmark: For the Boids

Source: AnandTech – ASUS Unveils ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme Motherboard: Flagship X570

On the back of Intel’s recent Ice Lake Xeon W-3300 announcement, ASRock has announced one of the first motherboards to support the new processors, the ASRock C621A WS. Some of its core features include four full-length PCIe 4.0 slots, three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots, two M.2 slots, eight memory slots with support for up to 2TB of DDR4 memory, and dual 10 Gb plus dual Gigabit Ethernet on the rear panel.

The latest iteration of Intel’s 3rd generation Xeon Scalable platform comes via the Xeon W-3300 family, which is essentially Ice Lake for workstations. The top SKU, Xeon W-3375, contains 38 cores (76 threads), with a base frequency of 2.5 GHz, 57 MB of L3 cache, and a maximum TDP of 270 W. All of Intel’s Xeon W-3300 family includes 64 PCIe 4.0 lanes, up to eight-channel DDR4, and support for up to 256 GM LRDIMMs with a maximum capacity of up to 4 TB per socket.

The ASRock C621A WS motherboard uses a transposed single LGA4189 socket and is flanked by eight horizontally mounted memory slots. There’s support for up to DDR4 DIMMs at speeds up to 3200 MT/s, with a maximum capacity of up to 2 TB, with UDIMMs, RDIMMs, and LRDIMMs all supported. Dominating the lower section of the board are four full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and three full-length PCIe 3.0 x8 slots, with one PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA M.2 slot and one PCIe 3.0 x1/SATA M.2 slot. For conventional SATA devices, ASRock includes two SATA ports with one mini-SAS HD connector.

As for network connectivity, ASRock includes a pair of 10 GbE that are powered by an Intel X710-ATX Ethernet controller, as well as another pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports driven by a pair of Intel I210 controllers. Other connectivity includes a D-sub video output which allows users to access the board’s BMC functionality, which is provided via an ASPEED AST2500 controller, with a dedicated Ethernet port allowing for remote access to the BMC. In terms of USB, there are four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports on the rear panel, with further expansion available through internal headers. This includes room to installed up to four USB 3.2 G2 Type-C ports through front panel headers, one USB 3.2 G1 Type-A header for two ports, and one USB 2.0 header, which also can support another two ports. 

Although the new Intel Xeon W-3300 family of processors includes native support for Thunderbolt 4 and Intel’s Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, ASRock has opted not to use either of these features. Whether this is intentional from ASRock remains to be seen, as it may release more variants later. At the time of writing, ASRock hasn’t given pricing information, but we expect the C621A WS to be available in retail channels soon.

Gallery: ASRock Unveils C621A WS Motherboard, Designed for Workstation

Related Reading

• Intel Launches Xeon W-3300: Ice Lake for Workstations, up to 38 Cores
• Supermicro Ultra SYS-120U-TNR Review: Testing Dual 10nm Ice Lake Xeon in 1U
• Update on Intel Sapphire Rapids in 2022: Q1 for Production, Q2 for Ramp, H1 Launch
• DIY on Intel Ice Lake Xeon Just Got A Little Closer

Source: AnandTech – ASRock Unveils C621A WS Motherboard, Designed for Xeon W-3300 Workstations

Starting next month, AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 desktop product stack is about to get a little deeper – and a little cheaper – with the addition of the forthcoming Radeon RX 6600 XT. Announced this evening, the Radeon RX 6600 XT is the next step down in the RDNA2-based Radeon lineup, adding a card aimed at mainstream, 1080p gamers. The card will offer 32 CUs’ worth of GPU hardware along with 8GB of GDDR6 memory, and will go on sale on August 11^th with prices starting at $379.

The addition of the RX 6600 XT to their desktop lineup has been a long-time coming, as even though the company is already 4 cards deep into their product stack – most recently adding the 1440p-focused RX 6700 XT nearly 5 months ago – AMD hasn’t been offering a mainstream-focused RDNA2 desktop video card until now. In fact, AMD’s been pretty absent from the mainstream 1080p gaming market as a whole over the last several months, as the capacity-constrained company has been focusing its GPU manufacturing resources on laptop parts and the high-end RDNA2 chips. But finally, and at last, it’s time for the 1080p market to get a much-needed boost from AMD’s RDNA2 architecture.

Underpinning AMD’s new 1080p video card is a GPU we’ve already seen once before: Navi 23. This GPU was first employed back in May as the Radeon RX 6600M, the cornerstone of AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 mobile lineup. Now that the laptop market has had a chance to stock up on Navi 23 hardware, the GPU is making its desktop debut in the aptly named RX 6600 XT. And, unlike the RX 6600M, the RX 6600 XT will feature a fully-enabled version of the chip, giving Navi 23 its first chance to completely show off what it’s capable of.

Source: AnandTech – AMD Announces Radeon RX 6600 XT: Mainstream RDNA2 Lands August 11th For 9