Anandtech News

**FEED** · 01-25-19, 02:36 PM

Today ASRock has announced two brand new motherboards based on AMD's B450 chipset. Notably, both the ASRock B450 and B450M Steel Legend feature the company's "Full Spike" ESD protection for the boards' USB, Ethernet and audio ports, and utilize 60 A power chokes and Nichicon 12 K black capacitors for voltage regulation.
Essentially the same motherboard available in two differnt form factors, the ASRock B450 and B450M Steel Legend motherboards use silver XXL aluminium heatsinks on both the power delivery and chipset. As an added kicker, the chipset heatsink and rear panel cover both include integrated RGB LEDs as well. ASRock has gone with what resembles a digital camouflage patterning which covers the majority of the PCB to make the Steel Legend boards stand out from the crowd.

ASRock B450 Steel Legend ATX (left) and ASRock B450M Steel Legend microATX (right)

Some of the Steel Legends' core features include full lightning/ESD protection across the USB, Ethernet and audio ports. For stability when overclocking, both the B450 and B450M Steel Legend make use of 60 A power chokes and 12 K Black capacitors for voltage regulation. Both boards include a single 8-pin 12 V CPU power connector and are advertised as having a 6-phase power delivery system. Other benefits include AMD StoreMI support, which is native to the B450 chipset, and PCIe Steel Slot protection on the top full-length slot on both the ATX and microATX Steel Legends. A total of four memory slots with support for dual-channel DDR4-3533 and capacity of up to 64 GB is also present.

ASRock B450M Steel Legend microATX motherboard

As for integrated components, the ASRock B450 and B450M Steel Legends share the same controllers including a Realtek ALC892 audio codec, Realtek RTL8111H NIC, and two PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots (one x4 and the other x2). Both models also include four SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1 and 10 arrays. Cooling connectivity is catered for with five 4-pin fan headers on both boards. In fact the only differences between the two boards is their size and the resulting number of PCIe slots available; the mATX board otherwise includes everything found on the full ATX version. To that end, the B450 and B450M Steel Legends both feature two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots (x16 and x8/x4) and a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, while the ATX sized model adds three more PCIe 3.0 x1 slots.

ASRock B450 and B450M Steel Legend share the same rear panel

On the rear panel, both motherboards share the same layout with one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port, one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port, four USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports, and two USB 2.0 ports. A single Ethernet port, five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output are taken care of by a budget-friendly Realtek pairing (RTL8111H and ALC892). Two video outputs consisting of an HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2, with a PS/2 combo keyboard and mouse port rounding off the connectors. Users can expand on the rear panel USB with two USB 2.0 headers and a single USB 3.1 header which are available on both models.
As it stands there's no information on the availability or the pricing of the B450 Steel Legend motherboards, but they are expected to filter into retail channels soon.

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**FEED** · 01-25-19, 05:07 PM

ASUS has quietly introduced a new lineup of ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) PCs, with an interesting balance between media playback and display capabilities. The VivoMini VC65-C1 systems are based around Intel’s 8^th Gen Core processors, with high-end models also sporting Ultra HD Blu-Ray drives for local media playback.

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**FEED** · 01-28-19, 08:09 AM

Last week Honor launched its new 2019 flagship device: the Honor View20. The new flagship phone is the follow-up to last year’s View10, a new segment entry in Honor’s usual line-up. The View series is characterised by their early adoption of full-screen, minimalistic bezel designs; last year’s View10 was one of the early devices bringing 18:9 aspect ratio screens to the masses, while this year’s new View20 further improves the screen-to-body ratio with the introduction of a hole-in-display front-camera setup.
While the hole-in-display camera setup of the View20 is certainly its first striking design characteristic, Honor is also positioning the View20 as a special camera phone as it is one of the first of a wave of 48MP camera sensor devices sporting Sony’s new IMX586.

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**FEED** · 01-28-19, 03:18 PM

ASML said last week that it planned to ship 30 extreme ultraviolet scanners in 2019, up significantly from 2018. The plan is not surprising, as demand for EUV lithography tools is rising and semiconductors manufacturers are building new fabs. In addition, ASML indicated plans to introduce a new EUV scanner that will offer a higher production throughput, the NXE: 3400C.

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**FEED** · 01-29-19, 09:57 AM

One of the major highlights of CES was the reveal of AMD’s next generation Matisse processor. With the cores built on TSMC’s 7nm process, the demonstration of the eight core processor showed performance parity with Intel’s latest eight core, 5 GHz consumer processor – all while consuming less power than the Intel part. AMD’s CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, was on stage to present both Matisse, due for launch in the middle of 2019, and the new line of Radeon VII graphics cards, also using TSMC’s 7nm. We caught up with Lisa for part of a roundtable Q&A session after the keynote presentation.

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**FEED** · 01-29-19, 09:57 AM

The political news cycle around Huawei over the last few weeks has been particularly active. As trade tensions between the US and China over the last year have risen, the company has become a focus-point for the US Justice Department.
Back in December in particular we saw the high-profile arrest of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou in Canada on the grounds of an US arrest warrant. Meng is currently on bail in Vancouver as she awaits extradition hearings by Canadian justice. The primary charges against Meng surround accusations of Huawei circumventing US export sanctions against Iran by using a Hong Kong subsidiary “Skycom”, with Meng committing bank fraud by lying to US banks and trying to hide this connection. Huawei denies any of the asserted violations in the indictment.
Additional charges against Huawei were unsealed on Monday, with the US Justice Department further accusing Huawei of “trying to take a piece of a robot and other technology from a T-Mobile lab that was used to test smartphones”. The charge claims that the event took place in 2012 as Huawei engineers tried to take photos and measurements of an automated screen-tapping robot “Tappy”. Such testing robots have essentially become common place in the industry and are employed by many manufacturers and testing labs. The incident does sound odd in this regard as the technology involved isn’t particularly high-level or that valuable.
In a more recent rebuttal of the US’s accusations, Beijing’s foreign ministry had made a statement on state TV, as quoted by AP:

China called on Washington on Tuesday to “stop the unreasonable crackdown” on Huawei after the United States stepped up pressure on the tech giant by indicting it on charges of stealing technology and violating sanctions on Iran.
Beijing will “firmly defend” its companies, a foreign ministry statement said.
….
The foreign ministry complained Washington has “mobilized state power” to hurt Chinese companies “in an attempt to strangle fair and just operations.”
“We strongly urge the United States to stop the unreasonable crackdown on Chinese companies including Huawei,” said the statement read on state TV.

Even though Huawei’s efforts in the US has seen major set-backs and the company essentially doesn’t see any major presence in that market, the company last year still managed to surpass Apple and take over as #2 smartphone vendor. Later in the same year, the company also managed to pass the 200 million mark of shipped smartphones for 2018, signifying an important step for the company’s consumer business.
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**FEED** · 01-29-19, 11:43 AM

TSMC on Monday said that some of the wafers it has processed recently have lower yields because of a chemical it uses during production. The company began investigation and is in talks with affected customers, thought to include NVIDIA and Huawei, regarding counteractive actions.

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**FEED** · 01-29-19, 01:46 PM

Noctua has today unveiled its new NT-H2 thermal compound, as well a new cleaning solution with the NA-SCW1 cleaning wipes. The NT-H2 looks to improve upon the already existing NT-H1 thermal paste with a new chemical structure and zero curing time.

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**FEED** · 01-29-19, 02:29 PM

B&H Photo and Video, a large retail chain from the USA, has started to list Intel’s Core i9-9900KF processor. The CPU is yet to become available, but since B&H is (as far as we can tell) the only company in the country to offer the product so far, it charges a hefty premium. In fact, the listing for the Core i9-9900KF without integreated graphics has a price more than that of the Core i9-9900K with integrated graphics which is in stock.
The Core i9-9900KF has eight Hyper-Threaded cores that operate at 3.6-5.0 GHz, is equipped with a 16 MB L3 cache, features a dual-channel DDR4-2666 memory controller, and is rated for a 95 W TDP. The CPU features an unlocked multiplier and is aimed at enthusiasts who do not need integrated graphics as they use discrete graphics. The processor was released mainly becase it enables Intel to meet demand for its eight-core CPUs for mainstream platform. Officially, Intel’s Core i9-9900K and Core i9-9900KF processors cost $488 in 1000-unit quantities, but their retail prices vary greatly.
B&H offers to pre-order the Core i9-9900KF for $582.50, whereas the Core i9-9900K is actually available for $530, or for $52.50 less. Possibly because the number of Core i9-9900KF processors that B&H had managed to procure is limited, the company is selling them at a premium even though they lack a useful feature. Either that, or this is a place holder price.

Intel 9th Gen Core CPUs
AnandTech	Cores	Base Freq	Turbo Freq	IGP	IGP Freq	DDR4	TDP	Price (1ku)
i9-9900K	8 / 16	3.6 GHz	5.0 GHz	UHD 630	1200	2666	95 W	$488
i9-9900KF	8 / 16	3.6 GHz	5.0 GHz	-	-	2666	95 W	$488
i7-9700K	8 / 8	3.6 GHz	4.9 GHz	UHD 630	1200	2666	95 W	$374
i7-9700KF	8 / 8	3.6 GHz	4.9 GHz	-	-	2666	95 W	$374
i5-9600K	6 / 6	3.7 GHz	4.6 GHz	UHD 630	1150	2666	95 W	$262
i5-9600KF	6 / 6	3.7 GHz	4.6 GHz	-	-	2666	95 W	$262
i5-9400	6 / 6	2.9 GHz	4.1 GHz	UHD 630	1050	2666	65 W	$182
i5-9400F	6 / 6	2.9 GHz	4.1 GHz	-	-	2666	65 W	$182
i3-9350KF	4 / 4	4.0 GHz	4.6 GHz	-	-	2400	91 W	$173
Relevant Intel 8th Gen Core CPUs
i3-8350K	4 / 4	4.0 GHz	-	UHD 630	1150	2400	91 W	$168
i3-8100	4 / 4	3.6 GHz	-	UHD 630	1100	2400	65 W	$117
i3-8100F	4 / 4	3.6 GHz	-	-	-	2400	65 W	$117

Earlier in January Intel added six more CPUs to its 9^th Gen Core lineup: the eight-core Core i9-9900KF and Core i7-9700KF; the six-core Core i5-9600KF, Core i5-9400F, and Core i5-9400F, as well as the quad-core Core i3-9350KF. According to Intel’s current terminology, the processors with model numbers ending with F lack integrated graphics, so these new CPUs will mainly target PCs that have to use discrete graphics.

The i9-9900K Packaging

Other retailers are also starting to list the F processors. In the UK, Scan is offering the 9900KF in retail packaging for £510 at pre-order (compared to the 9900K at £500), as well as the Core i5-9400F at £190 listed as in stock.
Buy Intel Core i9-9900K on Amazon.com
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Source: B&H

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**FEED** · 01-29-19, 04:52 PM

AMD on Tuesday said it had amended its wafer supply agreement with GlobalFoundries. Under the terms of the new deal the two companies agreed about prices and volumes of wafers that AMD will purchase from the U.S.-based foundry till at least 2021. Meanwhile, since the original WSA is continuing through March 1, 2024, the companies will have to continue talks.
While all leading-edge CPUs and GPUs from AMD at 7 nm node and beyond will be made by TSMC as GlobalFoundries decided to abandon its 7 nm fabrication process in a bid to focus on specialized manufacturing technology, it will remain AMD’s long-term strategic supplier of wafers processed using its 12 nm and thicker processes (i.e., 14 nm and others). The new agreement sets purchase commitments by AMD and prices by GlobalFoundries.
The new WSA enables AMD to contract any foundry to produce chips at 7 nm and thinner nodes without any without any one-time payments or royalties to GlobalFoundries, as per agreement signed several years ago.
At present AMD sells numerous products fabricated by GlobalFoundries using its 12LP and 14LPP manufacturing technologies. Furthermore, the company will have to support numerous customers with the said products for embedded and commercial applications (e.g, Ryzen Pro, Ryzen embedded, and EPYC processors). Therefore, AMD will clearly need GlobalFoundries going forward. Moreover, AMD’s next-gen server processors will use I/O dies made using GF’s 14LPP technology.
The statement by AMD reads as follows:
“Today AMD announced it entered into a seventh amendment to its wafer supply agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. (GF). GF continues to be a long-term strategic partner to AMD for the 12nm node and above and the amendment establishes purchase commitments and pricing at 12nm and above for the years 2019 through 2021. The amendment provides AMD full flexibility for wafer purchases from any foundry at the 7nm node and beyond without any one-time payments or royalties.”
This is a breaking news, we are adding more details as we get them.
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Source: AMD

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