Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm Introduce New Multi-Core Processors at Computex

The PC market has been the focus of chip mmanufacturers at the Computex tech show in Taipei this week, with both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices promising significant boosts in core count in upcoming processors and Qualcomm unveiling a new chip aimed at Windows 10 Always Connected PCs.

At the show, Gregory Bryant, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Client Computing Group, introduced two chips in the company’s eighth-generation Core processor family, the Lake U Series for midrange and high-end laptops and Amber Lake Series for ultra-thin laptops and tablets. Intel featured new chips for desktop PCs, including a 28-core processor that can run at 5GHz and that will surpass the current 18-core Core i9 chip. It’s due to come to market in the fourth quarter.

Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s Computing and Graphics Business Group, announced the next generation of the company’s Ryzen Threadripper high-end chip based on the Zen architecture. Threadripper 2 reportedly will be based on AMD’s 12-nanometer Zen+ architecture and will sport up to 32 cores and 64 threads. It is scheduled to be released in the third quarter.

Qualcomm officials announced the company’s Snapdragon 850 mobile platform, which is the follow-on to the Snapdragon 835. The 10nm Snapdragon 850, which includes the Snapdragon X20 LTE modem, is designed to bring to highly portable, fanless PCs some of the features found in smartphones, including long battery life and sleeker designs. It also delivers 30 percent better system performance than its predecessor as well as better battery life and data speeds. Systems powered by the Snapdragon 850 will be available later this year, including in one from Samsung.

Qualcomm officials also stressed connectivity for the Snapdragon 850, which can support both WiFi and Gigabit LTE, giving the systems the “always connected” capabilities. The X20 LTE modem delivers up to 1.2G-bps LTE speeds and fast connectivity.

The increases in performance, speed and connectivity are necessary to enable PCs to handle emerging modern workloads, such as artificial intelligence (AI). Intel’s Bryant said the company will help bring AI to PCs through tools and resources given to developers and working with OEMs to put AI capabilities in systems. Intel introduced the AI on PC Developer Program, and at Computex, Asus and Intel introduced a concept dua
l-screen notebook called Project Recog that includes intelligent features. Qualcomm will arm the Snapdragon with its AI Engine, which was introduced in February and includes hardware and software components to enable on-device AI-enabled user experiences.

According to Bob O’Donnell, principal analyst with TECHnalysis Research, the announcements coming out of Computex show a global PC market that, while not what it once was, is still significant. “What we’re seeing is a real revitalization of the core PC components,” O’Donnell told eWEEK.

Read more on Computex here.

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