https://www.techspot.com/news/81173-inte...-gpus.html

Quote:Last but not least we have “ADLS,” Alder Lake, which replaces Rocket Lake in 2021 but is still expected to rely on 10nm manufacturing. Only two “dev” models are listed, so we don’t know anything at all really, but it’s likely Intel doesn’t either – it’s still four generations away. There are also three listings yet to be deciphered, “iRYFGT2,” “iJSLSIM,” and “iGLVGT2.” Each with only one model.

https://www.techspot.com/news/81173-inte...-gpus.html

Quote:“TGL” is the juicy Tiger Lake. The successor to the imminent Ice Lake, Tiger Lake will be the mainstream architecture for late 2020 using 10nm. The driver lists eight models employing Gen12 Xe graphics, though in a low-power configuration.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-...40029.html

Quote:In other news, there is also mention of Rocket Lake (RKL) processors in the Intel graphics driver. If you've lost track of Intel codenames, Rocket Lake is billed as the successor to Comet Lake (CML). And yes, Rocket Lake will continue to use Intel's 14nm process node. However, Rocket Lake chips will purportedly utilize both 10nm and 14nm graphics chiplets. The latest Intel roadmap suggests that Rocket Lake should hit the market in the middle of 2020.

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/29...rket-share

Quote:One of the most puzzling data points of the past few years has been AMD’s complete failure to gain market share according to the Steam Hardware Survey. We’ve always warned readers that the SHS might not be accurate, based on problems we’ve observed in the data set in the past, but it’s never been clear what the problems were. Other analyst firms have reported share gains for AMD, but the Steam Hardware Survey — which represents the best public-facing data we have access to — has never shown a real gain for AMD.
...
That’s basically what happened with Steam. And according to AMD, while the company made some corrections to its data, Valve has never been particularly concerned with making sure its numbers track real-life market share. AMD, meanwhile, is drastically underrepresented in iCafe gaming.

“They did change their algorithm a little bit, but they really aren’t motivated to go in and change this,” Herkelman said, “because the purpose of their data is not for market share. The purpose of their data is to show general trends to game developers… it definitely doesn’t track our real share…. you can see the same thing actually happen in our CPU share. It’s still under-represented, it’s the same exact curve, and it’s all related to iCafes.”
...
The one thing that makes no sense in all this is why Valve doesn’t care about inaccuracies in its own data set. The purpose of the SHS may not be to present accurate market share data, but presenting developers with inaccurate data is scarcely better. If developers think that more gamers own GTX 1060 and 1050 Ti cards than actually do (those being the top two GPUs on the survey, with 16.01 and 10.63 percent market share respectively), then they’ll draw the wrong conclusions about which cards they should target for future development.

The only conclusion we can draw is that Valve doesn’t feel whatever inaccuracy remains is enough to impact what developers do. AMD obviously felt strongly enough about the topic to publicly state the problems with using the SHS for market share estimates. It’s not clear what impact this might be having on Nvidia cards, either — adoption rates on some of those GPUs may also be skewed by errors.

We’ll continue to refer to the SHS at times because there’s little practical choice. It’s the only data set of its type available publicly. But this could explain why AMD’s overall CPU market share numbers have been ticking up in other reports but have remained fairly static on Steam. If Chinese iCafe installations grow more quickly than other types of gaming and AMD isn’t represented in that market, it’s not going to appear to gain much market share in either CPU or GPUs. We’ve mostly used the SHS to compare generational adoption for Turing versus Pascal, which should be less-impacted. But if the figures for AMD adoption are incorrect, the figures for at least some Nvidia SKUs will be as well.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ar...39935.html

Quote:Linux publication Phoronix spotted a few patches to the AMDGPU Linux graphics driver that are related to AMD's next-generation Arcturus graphics cards.

When AMD announced its latest Radeon DNA (RDNA) graphics card architecture at Computex 2019, the chipmaker made it very clear that it would co-exist along with the existing Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. The general consensus is that AMD would probably base its future gaming products around the RDNA architecture while relegating the GCN architecture exclusively to its workstation products. Therefore, Arcturus, not Navi, was Vega's successor all along.

Current AMD professional-grade offerings, such as the Radeon Pro Vega II, Radeon Instinct MI60 and Radeon Instinct MI50 employ the Vega 20 silicon, which TSMC produces for AMD on the 7nm manufacturing process. There's a high possibility that Arcturus will probably use a variation of the Vega silicon, and there is some evidence to support the rumor.
...
AMD could announce Arcturus at SIGGRAPH 2019 in July or Hot Chips in August. Either convention would be a great place to reveal an enterprise graphics card. As hinted in the AMD PowerPoint slide, Arcturus could launch next year.

7-11-2019

This is crazy”: FCC kills part of San Francisco’s broadband-competition law

The Federal Communications Commission today voted to preempt part of a San Francisco ordinance that promotes broadband competition in apartment buildings and other multi-tenant structures. 

The goal of the city law is clearly to give residents the ability to switch from one ISP to another and allow whichever ISP the resident chooses to use the wire heading into that resident's apartment unit.

Pai claimed that the city's rule "deters broadband deployment" and infringes on the FCC's regulation of cable wiring. The Pai-led Republican majority ensured that the preemption passed with a 3-2 vote, while the FCC's two Democrats voted against the preemption.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/asus-t...39790.html

Quote:Under this new trade-in program, customers can take their old gear and swap them out for some of the graphics cards out there in a more affordable manner. Asus will allow customers to trade in any Nvidia GeForce graphics card beginning from the GTX 650 and up. The cards that can be submitted are divided into quality tiers -- Good, Better and Best -- based on the card's chipset and performance. Branding doesn't matter. If you trade in a higher-tier card, you're going to get more cash back on your trade-in, of course.
...
This is how it works. You first need to purchase a "qualifying product" from Asus between July 1 and August 31. You can check what products meet said standards via Asus' website. Then, you need to complete an online claim form within 30 days of your purchase date. You'll be prompted to mail in your old graphics card within 45 days of your claim approval, and then voila! Your reward balance will be sent via bank transfer within 30 days after Asus validates your trade-in.
...
As far as AMD cards go, only Radeon RX 480 and RX 580 are currently a part of the deal.
...
Right now, it appears that this deal is only available in the UK, but given that it's a great move for folks who want to make a little moolah off their old components, hopefully it'll move to the U.S. in the near future.

Commodore 64 system to return with classic games


6-27-2019


Modern versions of iconic gaming consoles have been popularized in recent years, but the rebirth of this latest product will surely resonate with early computer users.

The updated product comes with a full-sized retro keyboard, a classic joystick and a selection of classic games, including Speedball and Cyberdyne Warrior. It will cost $199.99 when it launches in early December.

The chunky, tan-colored Commodore 64 computer brought personal computing into the home for millions of users in the early- and mid-1980s. People used their C64s, as they were known, for everything from basic office functions to primitive games like “Impossible Mission.” It was limited to 64 kilobytes of memory — about the equivalent of one long email.

Commodore sold more than 17 million of its C64 systems, according to the manufacturer Commodore International. The Guinness Book of World Records once listed Commodore 64 as the best-selling computer model of all time.

6-20-2019

UFO sightings spark concern among lawmakers

 Three more U.S. senators received a classified Pentagon briefing on Wednesday about a series of reported encounters by the Navy with unidentified aircraft

The briefings come several days after President Donald Trump has been briefed on the reports. “I did have one very brief meeting on it,” he said. “But people are saying they’re seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly.”

“There are people coming out of the woodwork,” said one former government official who has participated in some of the meetings.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/pci-si...39676.html

Quote:The PCIe 4.0 interface is finally coming to market next month with the launch of AMD's Ryzen 3000 series processors, but the PCI-SIG, the standards body behind the PCIe specification, is already plowing forward with work on PCIe 6.0, which it announced will be completed in 2021. The announcement comes on the heels of the body's formal release of the PCIe 5.0 standard last month.

The new PCIe 6.0 interface double the Gigatransfer rate to 64 GT/s, which doubles effective bandwidth over PCIe 5.0 to 256 GB/s of throughput and retains the same maximum of 16 lanes.