intel News - Page 5 of 44 - CNX Software

August 9, 2023August 9, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Intel Downfall (Gather Data Sampling) vulnerability impacts AVX2/AVX-512 workloads

After vulnerabilities like Spectre and Meltdown were discovered in 2018, Intel processors have more vulnerabilities with the Downfall attacks that target the Gather instruction part of AVX2/AVX-512 and impact 6th generation Skylake up to 11th generation Tiger Lake processors introduced as far back as 2014. It does not affect more recent processors, and as somebody who has just purchased a laptop based on a 13th Raptor Lake processor, I guess I can breathe a sigh of relief until the next vulnerability is discovered, but people using hardware with older Intel processors will have to update the OS and suffer from a performance impact, at least for tasks leveraging AVX2 or AVX-512. The website about the Downfall vulnerability explains: Downfall attacks targets a critical weakness found in billions of modern processors used in personal and cloud computers. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2022-40982, enables a user to access and steal data from […]

July 25, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Intel AVX10.2 ISA to enable AVX-512 capabilities on E-cores

Intel AVX10 SIMD instructions will succeed AVX-512 instructions with AVX10.2 adding support for Intel E-cores to bring multimedia and AI acceleration to low-power cores, while the earlier AVX10.1 will add version-base enumeration and make 512-bit instructions optional, but still only work on Intel (Xeon) P-cores. The new Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 10 (AVX10) architecture was unveiled in an update to the Advanced Performance Extensions (Intel APX) bringing AVR-512-like support to new hybrid processors with P-cores and E-cores, as well as potentially their entry-level versions with E-cores only. Intel explains the new SIMD architecture includes all the capabilities and features of the Intel AVX-512 ISA, both for processors that feature 256-bit maximum vector register sizes, as well as for processors that feature 512-bit vector registers. The AVX10 ISA adds a new version-based enumeration scheme that reduces the number of CPUID feature flags needing to be checked for feature support. As mentioned […]

July 12, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Intel kills its NUC business

Intel has just decided to shut down its Next Unit of Compute (NUC) business selling mini PC, PC, boards, and modules directly to customers, as the company told partners they will stop direct investment into that part of their business. We first wrote about Intel NUC in 2014, but the company’s first NUC was launched in 2013, and I can only imagine Intel decided to kill the NUC business in order to focus on its core business which is to sell processors. They won’t directly compete against their customers anymore, although it’s unclear if this was part of the decision… I have mostly read praises about the NUC family over the years, but I’ve had a mixed experience myself. One family member asked for a reliable mini PC, so I recommended a Core-i5 NUC and while it mostly worked fine, we had to purchase a separate USB WiFI dongle as […]

May 20, 2023May 20, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Intel NUC 13 Rugged “Bravo Canyon” fanless Alder Lake-N mini PC is designed for 24/7 operation

The Intel NUC 13 Rugged, codenamed “Bravo Canyon, is an upcoming fanless and dust-resistant mini PC powered by an Alder Lake-N processor and designed for 24/7 operation suitable for business and industrial applications, albeit just in a 0°C to 40°C or 50°C temperature range. The rugged computer is offered with either an external or internal heatsink, supports up to 16GB DDR5 memory, comes with 64GB eMMC flash, M.2 sockets for NVMe and/or SATA SSDs, two 4Kp60 capable HDMI 2.1 ports, two 2.5GbE networking interfaces, four USB 3.2/2.0 ports, and optional support for WiFi 6, 4G LTE cellular connectivity, and an internal expansion bay. Intel NUC 13 specifications: Alder Lake-N SoC (one or the other) Intel Atom x7425E quad-core processor up to 3.4 GHz with 6MB L3 cache, Intel UHD Graphics; 12W TDP Intel Atom x7211E dual-core processor up to 3.2 GHz with 6MB L3 cache, Intel UHD Graphics; 6W TDP […]

March 24, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

MIPI CSI camera works with Intel Atom x7000, Processor, and Core i3 Alder Lake-N processors

Alder Lake-N Customer Reference Board MIPI CSI camera

Most Intel processors do not come with a MIPI CSI camera, but some Alder Lake-N processors do, and Leopard Imaging has designed the LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H MIPI CSI camera module that is compatible with the Intel ADL-N CRB (Alder Lake-N Customer Reference Board) and custom Alder Lake-N boards equipped with a compatible MIPI CSI connector. The 13MP camera supports resolutions up to 3864 x 2176 and works with boards and embedded systems based on Intel Atom processors x7000E Series, Intel Core i3-N processors, and Intel Processors N-Series processors. LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H specifications: Sony IMX415 CMOS image sensor Diagonal – 6.43 mm (Type 1/2.8) Active Pixels – 3864 (H) x 2176 (V) Pixel Size: 1.45 x 1.45 μm Optical Format: 1/2.8″ Effective Focal Length – 4.063 mm Aperture, F/#2.29 ± 5% IR Filter – 650 nm IR cut filter Field of View (FOV) – 81.7˚ horizontal, 44.7˚ vertical; 95.1˚ diagonal Lens Mount – M12 x […]

January 27, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Intel kills PathFinder IDE for RISC-V processors

Intel has just discontinued PathFinder Eclipse-based development environment for RISC-V processors with the website now reading: We regret to inform you that Intel is discontinuing the Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V program effective immediately. Since Intel will not be providing any additional releases or bug fixes, we encourage you to promptly transition to third-party RISC-V software tools that best meet your development needs. PathFinder was a pre-silicon open-source development environment with support for vairous RISC-V cores, a set of other IP’s, multiple operating systems, and toolchains. It allowed designers to create RISC-V SoCs to and run them on FPGA platforms such as the Terasic developer kit or Startix-10 GX evaluation kit. PathFinder appears to just be one of the casualties after Intel reported a loss for Q4 2022, and announced it will lose even more in Q1 2023 with Tom’s Hardware also highlighting Intel would stop investing in new products for […]

January 24, 2023January 25, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

HiFive Pro P550 “Horse Creek” RISC-V motherboard with 16GB RAM to launch this summer

SiFive HiFive Pro P550 RISC-V motherboard based on Intel “Horse Creek” quad-core SiFive Performance P550 processor will launch this summer with 16GB DDR5 memory, two PCIe expansion slots, Gigabit Ethernet networking, USB 3.x ports, and on-board graphics. Intel Horse Creek platform was first revealed when SiFive unveiled the SiFive Performance P550 64-bit RISC-core with Cortex-A75 class performance in June 2021. The companies then demonstrated an internal Intel Horse Creek board with 8GB DDR5 and PCIe Gen5 at the Intel Innovation 2022 Developer Conference last October, and it looks like the 7nm RISC-V processor, manufactured with an Intel 4 process, will finally be available to developers this summer with the launch of the HiFive Pro P550 motherboard/development system. HiFive Pro P550 preliminary specifications: SoC – Intel-SiFive Horse Creek SoC equipped with 4x SiFive Performance P550 RV64GBC RISC-V cores with a 13-stage, 3-issue, out-of-order (OoO) pipeline GPU – “On-board graphics” [Update: […]

January 20, 2023January 20, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Quiet, ultrathin AirJet solid state active cooling chips could replace fans

Frore Systems Airjet Mini and Airjet Pro are active cooling chips that are just 2.8mm thick and quietly suck cool air in from the top of the chip before pushing it out the sides with the aim to replace traditional fan-based solutions in ultrabooks, or be integrated into VR headsets and smartphones for improved cooling. Yesterday we saw that cameras could clean themselves with micro-vibrations, and it happens that processors can be cooled with vibrations too as the Airjet chips are comprised of tiny membranes that vibrate at ultrasonic frequencies to generate a flow of air that enters through inlet vents in the top and transformed into high-velocity pulsating jets exiting from one side of the chip. The AirJet module is actually not placed directly on the processor in ultrabooks but on copper pipes because it allows for thinner designs that way. The company says the AirJet Mini and Pro […]