Anandtech News

**FEED** · 02-06-19, 11:38 AM

Retail drives based on the Silicon Motion SM2262EN controller have arrived. The ADATA SX8200 Pro and HP EX950 are nearly identical drives that are replacing last year's flagship models from both brands.

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**FEED** · 02-06-19, 11:38 AM

Keysight, an electronic measurement company, has introduced the industry’s first off-the-shelf testing and validation system for DDR5 DRAM. The N6475A DDR5 Tx compliance test software is aimed at developers of various products that will use the next-generation memory.
Keysight’s DDR5 testing and validation system includes the company’s N6475A DDR5 Tx compliance test software as well as its own M8040A 64 Gbaud High-performance bit error rate tester (BERT) and Infiniium UXR-Series Real-Time Oscilloscope hardware (though it can work with other hardware too). The application performs jitter, electrical, timing, as well as eye measurements, and is designed to test the transmitter PHY of DDR5 SDRAM, data buffer, and register chips. The program automatically compares the results with the DDR5 spec test limits and shows how closely the device passes or fails each test.
Previously developers of various DDR5 products had to design their own testing software or perform all the measurements and analysis manually, which greatly lengthens development time. Now that Keysight’s DDR5 Tx compliance test software and hardware is available, it will be far easier for engineers to optimize transmitter, receiver, and channel designs. So this should speed up how quickly hardware vendors are able to bring DDR5-based devices to the market..
Keysight’s N6475A DDR5 Tx compliance test software and appropriate hardware is now available. Pricing is available upon request.
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Source: Keysight

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**FEED** · 02-07-19, 09:26 AM

After releasing a late-generation product refresh in November in the form of the Radeon RX 590, we had expected AMD's consumer side to be done for a while. Instead, AMD made a rather unexpected announcement at CES 2019 last month: the company would be releasing a new high-end consumer card, the Radeon VII (Seven). Positioned as their latest flagship graphics card for gamers and content creators alike, it would once agian be AMD’s turn to court enthusiast gamers. Now launching today – on the 7th, appropriately enough – we're taking a look at AMD's latest card, to see how the Radeon VII measures up to the challenge.

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**FEED** · 02-07-19, 10:33 AM

Last fall AOC introduced its curved G1-series displays aimed at gamers, offering high refresh rates along with AMD’s FreeSync. This month the company has started selling its flagship G1 model, which has a QHD resolution, runs at 144 Hz, supports FreeSync, and has a 31.5 inch size. The CQ32G1 is now available both in Europe and the US at an MSRP below €400/$400.
The AOC CQ32G1 relies on a 31.5-inch curved VA panel of 2560×1440 resolution, 300-nits peak brightness, a 3000:1 contrast ratio, 1 ms MPRT response times, and a 144 Hz refresh rate. The manufacturer says that the panel can display 16.7 million colors and cover 124% of the sRGB color gamut, but does not say whether it can process any other gamuts.

Being primarily a gaming monitor, the CQ32G1 has three key selling points, including 1 ms ultra-low motion picture response time, AMD’s FreeSync dynamic refresh rate technology, as well as a 144 Hz maximum refresh rate. AOC has not disclosed the FreeSync ranges of the display and whether they are wide enough to support AMD’s Low Frame Rate (LFC) features. Entry-level 144 Hz monitors typically feature very decent FreeSync ranges from 30 to 144 Hz and do support the LFC capability.

As for connectivity, like other AOC's G1 displays, the CQ32G1 keeps the number of ports to a minimum. The monitor has a DisplayPort 1.2, two HDMI inputs (1.4 and 2.0), as well as a 3.5-mm headphone jack. To keep BOM costs in check, the manufacturer decided not to equip its G1 monitors with speakers or a USB hub since neither will be truly appreciated by the target audience. For the same reason, AOC outfitted its CQ32G1 LCD has a rather simplistic stand that can only regulate its tilt (-4° ~ +21.5°)

Specifications of AOC's G1 Series Gaming Displays
		C24G1	C27G1	C32G1	CQ32G1
Panel		24" VA	27" VA	31.5" VA
Native Resolution		1920 × 1080			2560 × 1440
Maximum Refresh Rate		144 Hz
Dynamic Refresh	Tech	AMD FreeSync (LFC is not confirmed)
Range	30 - 144 Hz (?)
Brightness		250 cd/m²			300 cd/m²
Contrast		3000:1
Viewing Angles		178°/178° horizontal/vertical
Response Time		1 ms MPRT
Pixel Pitch		0.27156 mm²	0.3114 mm²	0.3637 mm²	0.2724 mm²
Pixel Density		90 PPI	81 PPI	70 PPI	93 PPI
Curvature		1500R	1800R
Color Gamut Support		sRGB
Inputs		1 × DisplayPort 1.2 2 × HDMI 1.4 1 × D-Sub			1 × DisplayPort 1.2 1 × HDMI 1.4 1 × HDMI 2.0
USB Hub		-	-	-	-
Audio		3.5 mm Headphone Output?
Proprietary Enhancements		AOC Flicker Free
Power Consumption	Idle	0.5 W?
Operating	20 W	23 W	50 W	37 W
Stand Adjustments	Tilt	-4 ~ +21.5°		-5 ~ +21.5°	-4° ~ +21.5°
Swivel	-34 ~ +34°		-	-
Height	130 mm	-	-	-
Pivot	-		-	-
VESA Mounts		100 × 100 mm
Launch Timeframe		Q4 2018	September 2018	Q4 2018	Q1 2019
Additional Information		Link	Link	Link	-
MSRP		$230	$280	$300	>$400

The AOC CQ32G1 gaming monitor is now available from leading retailers like Amazon. In the US, the product is available for $395. In mainland Europe the device will cost €399, whereas in the UK it will be priced at £359.
Buy AOC CQ32G1 on Amazon.com
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Source: AOC

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**FEED** · 02-07-19, 11:46 AM

HiDisc, a Japanese brand that belongs to Magnetic Laboratories company, has started sales of its 1 TB SDXC memory cards in Japan. The cards do not offer very high performance, but surprisingly carry the Application Performance Class 2 (A2) badge that we often only see on microSD cards for smartphones as well as tablets.
The HiDisc 1 TB SDXC card uses the UHS-I bus and is rated for up to 95 MB/s read transfer speed as well as up to 70 MB/s write speed, in line with other high-capacity memory cards. The product carries the Video Speed Class 30 badge and therefore guarantees that it features at least 30 MB/s sequential write speeds as well as simultaneous interleaving of eight different files. The latter is important for those who shoot videos in Ultra-HD resolutions (e.g., 4K, 5K, etc.)
Furthermore, it also has the A2 badge, meaning that it offers a random performance of at least 4000 read IOPS and 2000 write IOPS support as well as support such capabilities as command queuing (with a minimum depth queue of 2 and a maximum depth queue of 32) to optimize random read performance, caching to hit write performance targets, as well as self-maintenance capabilities. The A2 spec was designed to ensure that Android apps for smartphones and tablets (which use microSDs) could be installed on memory cards and run without performance issues. It is unclear which apps will be installed and run from SD cards, but it looks like either Magnetic Laboratories has certain ideas regarding applications that will use its card (Android-based drones?), or just decided to use an A2-ready SD controller inside its latest card.
It is noteworthy that HiDisc’s 1 TB SDXC card was designed to work in the range between -25° and 85°C (-13°F to 185°F), which is good enough for harsh environments. In particular, the card may be used inside cameras or drones operated in Northern or Southern countries.

HiDisc SDXC 1 TB Card
	HDSDX1TCL10UI3JP3
Sequential Read Speed	up to 95 MB/s
Sequential Write Speed	up to 70 MB/s
Minimum Sequential Write Speed	at least 30 MB/s
Minimal Random Read Speed	at least 4000 IOPS
Minimal Random Write Speed	at least 2000 IOPS
Operating Temperatures	-25° and 85°C (-13°F to 185°F)
Interface	UHS-I
Availability	14 2019
SDA Labels	A2, V30, U3

The HiDisc 1 TB SDXC card (HDSDX1TCL10UI3JP3) is now available in Japan, albeit in very limited quantities. The product costs ¥39,800 ($362), which is a bit below pricing of Lexar’s 1 TB SDXC card at Amazon ($399). Meanwhile, the card is priced at ¥49,800 ($454) when purchased online. It is unknown if this card will be found outside the Japanese market.
Buy Lexar Professional 633x 1TB SDXC on Amazon.com
Ian - personally I think that Mag-Lab parent company logo is an odd one.

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Sources: Akiba PC Hotline, Magnetic Laboratories

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**FEED** · 02-07-19, 12:18 PM

Today Qualcomm announced a new entry into its “upper mid-range” line-up of SoCs: The Snapdragon 712. The announcement is quite surprising, as it seems the chip might possibly simply be a higher bin variant of the Snapdragon 710:

Qualcomm Snapdragon Upper Mid-Range SoCs
SoC	Snapdragon 710	Snapdragon 712	Snapdragon 675
CPU	2x Kryo 360 (CA75) @ 2.2GHz 6x Kryo 360 (CA55) @ 1.7GHz	2x Kryo 360 (CA75) @ 2.3GHz 6x Kryo 360 (CA55) @ 1.7GHz	2x Kryo 460 (CA76) @ 2.0GHz 256KB L2 6x Kryo 460 (CA55) @ 1.7GHz 64KB L2
GPU	Adreno 616	Adreno 616 +10%	Adreno 612
DSP	Hexagon 685
ISP/ Camera	Spectra 250 ISP 32MP single / 20MP dual		Spectra 250 ISP triple-camera support
Memory	2x 16-bit @ 1866MHz LPDDR4X 14.9GB/s 1MB system cache
Integrated Modem	Snapdragon X15 LTE (Category 15/13) DL = 800Mbps 3x20MHz CA, 256-QAM UL = 150Mbps 2x20MHz CA, 64-QAM		Snapdragon X12 LTE (Category 12/13) DL = 600Mbps 3x20MHz CA, 256-QAM UL = 150Mbps 2x20MHz CA, 64-QAM
Encode/ Decode	2160p30, 1080p120 H.264 & H.265
Mfc. Process	10nm LPP		11nm LPP

On paper, the only visible difference between the Snapdragon 712 and its predecessor seems to be a 100MHz boost on the part of the CPU cores. Qualcomm also claims that the new chip offers 10% faster graphics rendering compared to the 710, which would consecutively mean that the Adreno 616 is seeing a similar boost in its clock frequency.
At the time of writing we can’t see any other differences between the two products. As a reminder, Qualcomm Snapdragon branding not merely covers the SoC chip itself, but the whole platform which also includes accompanying components such as PMICs, WiFi chipsets, audio chipsets as well as RF front-end solutions for cellular connectivity. Stay tuned as we try to find out more and confirm on whether the chip differs in any other way.
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**FEED** · 02-07-19, 01:41 PM

Seagate this week reiterated that the company is on track to launch two crucially important technologies later this calendar year. Firstly, the company plans to start ramping up its 16 TB hard drives featuring heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology in 1H 2019. Secondly, the manufacturer intends to launch its first 14 TB HDDs featuring two actuators, up to 500 MB/s sequential read speed, and up to 160 IOPS later this year. Also the company is already testing its next iteration of HAMR that will enable hard drives with capacities up to 24 TB.

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**FEED** · 02-07-19, 03:15 PM

It’s been a less than a year since Motorola released its g6 line-up late last April, but today we see the company announcing new refreshes and a brand new generation of phones, introducing the new Moto g7s. The new line-up continues what seems to have become a quite established formula for Motorola, with the new phones each respectively having updated hardware and features to keep pace with the ever evolving mid-range smartphone segment.
A big change over last year’s setup is that the new Moto g7 plus and the regular Moto g7 now both come in the same form-factor, a marked difference to last year’s models where the g6 plus was a notably larger phone. The new Moto g7 power adds a new variant alongside the g7 play in terms of lower priced positioning – offering a similarly lower specced model, but which focuses on battery longevity.
Going over the specification of the new phones:

Motorola Moto g7 variants
	Moto g7	Moto g7 plus	Moto g7 power	Moto g7 play
SoC	Snapdragon 632 4x Kryo 250 (CA73) @ 1.8GHz 4x Kryo 250 (CA53) @ 1.8GHz	Snapdragon 636 4x Kryo 250 (CA73) @ 1.8GHz 4x Kryo 250 (CA53) @ 1.8GHz	Snapdragon 632 4x Kryo 250 (CA73) @ 1.8GHz 4x Kryo 250 (CA53) @ 1.8GHz
Display	6.2" 2270x1080 (19:9) LTPS LCD		6.2" 1570x720 (19:9) LTPS LCD	5.7" 1512x720 (19:9) LTPS LCD
Dimensions	157.0 x 75.3 x 8.0 mm 172 grams	157 x 75.3 x 8.3 mm 176 grams	160.8 x 76 x 9.4 mm 198 grams	148.7 x 71.5 x 8.1 mm 168 grams
RAM	4GB		3GB	2GB
NAND	64GB + microSD		32GB + microSD	32GB + microSD
Battery	3000 mAh (11.55Wh)		5000 mAh (19Wh)	3000 mAh (11.55Wh)
Front Camera	8MP 1.12µm	12MP 1.25µm	8MP 1.12µm F/2.2	8MP 1.12µm F/2.2 LED selfie flash
Primary Rear Camera	12MP, 1.25µm DP-PDAF F/1.8 lens	16MP, 1.22µm F/1.7 lens OIS	12MP, 1.25µm PDAF F/2.0	13MP, 1.12µm PDAF F/2.0
Secondary Rear Camera	5MP Depth sensor		-
SIM Size	NanoSIM (Dual-SIM in some markets)		NanoSIM
Wireless	802.11a/b/g/n, BT 5.0 LE, NFC, GPS/GLSS/Galileo/ BDS	802.11a/b/g/n/ac, BT 5.0 LE, NFC, GPS/GLSS/Galileo	802.11a/b/g/n, BT 4.2, GPS/GLSS
Connectivity	USB Type-C 3.5mm headset
Features	Fingerprint reader, face unlock	Fingerprint reader, face unlock, stereo speakers	Fingerprint reader, face unlock	Fingerprint reader, face unlock
Launch OS	Android 9.0
Launch Price	USD $299	EUR 299€	USD $249	USD $199

All four phone models come with major upgrades in the SoC: The new g7 and g7 power come with a Snapdragon 632, while the g7 plus comes with a Snapdragon 636. The SoCs share the same high-level CPU configuration: four Cortex A73 derived cored running at 1.8GHz, along with four Cortex A53 derived cores at also 1.8GHz. What is important to note here, is that compared to last year’s g6 offerings, all the g7 models now offer big CPU cores. In practical terms, this means that we should expect 2-2.5x performance increases in many workloads, a one-time generational jump we won’t see any time soon again in this price category.

g7 play

Motorola has streamlined the offerings in terms of DRAM and storage capacities, and as such we see both the g7 and g7 plus offered with 4GB and 64GB base options. The g7 power comes at a lower specced 3GB/32GB option, while the g7 play only offers 2GB.
As previously mentioned, a big change in the new line-up is the fact that the new g7 and g7 plus are now actually identical form-factor devices, both coming with 6.2” 2270x1080 LCD screens. It’s to be noted that the screen is of an 19:9 aspect ratio, so don’t let the wide diameter scare you as the phone’s body still is at a reasonable 75.3mm wide. Both these variants come with a 3000mAh battery.
The g7 power also comes in a similar form-factor, but it is quite bulkier in all metrics, especially in terms of thickness as the phone figures in at 9.4mm. The bigger thickness serves to house the new 5000mAh battery of the phone, undoubtedly the feature that made Motorola market the phone as the “power” variant of the new g7 series. This variant also comes with a 6.2” 19:9 screen, however it features a lower resolution coming in at 1570x720.
The g7 play has the same low-resolution screen, but in a 5.7” diameter which makes this the smallest of the series with a lesser width of 71.5mm. The play’s smaller size also applies to its thickness which is of a more normal 8.1mm and housing a 3000mAh battery.

g7 plus

Camera wise, it looks like both the g7 and g7 power feature 12MP sensors with 1.25µm pixels – on the former we find a dual-pixel PDAF sensor while the latter only has a more traditional PDAF sensor. Other differences are an f/1.8 aperture lens on the g7 while the g7 power’s lens comes in at f/2.0.
The g7 plus is actually the model with the highest grade camera system: a 16MP sensor with 1.22µm pixels and an f/1.7 aperture lens. This is also the only model whose camera module offers OIS. Like on the g7, we find a 5MP depth sensor alongside the main unit.

g7 play

The g7, g7 power and g7 play come with an 8MP front camera – while the g7 plus upgrades this to a 12MP unit with bigger pixels. The g7 play offers a front-facing LED flash for selfies. This latter feature is house in a display notch – the g7 plus and g7 play come with a notch design more similar to that of an iPhone X, while the g7 power has one more reminiscent of an OnePlus 6. The regular g7 comes with a teardrop notch, actually offering the highest screen-to-body ratio of the series.

g7 power

The g7 becomes available today in Brazil and Mexico, and will follow up in a few day in Europe. It will also be rolled out in other global markets including North America over the coming months at a price of $299 USD. The g7 plus comes at 299€ EUR and won’t be available in NA, the g7 power and g7 play come at respectively $249 USD and $199 USD with the same global roll-out as the g7.

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**FEED** · 02-08-19, 10:40 AM

Xilinx this week introduced a comprehensive HDMI 2.1 IP subsystem for its various cores. The IP subsustem supports resolutions of up to 8K along with other features of the HDMI 2.1 spec, such as high refresh rates and HDR. The subsystem is now ready for licensing by Xilinx chip customers.
Xilinx’s HDMI 2.1 design features the company’s high-speed I/O transceivers that support HDMI 2.1’s data rates (presumably up to 48 Gbps) along with appropriate processing capabilities. The HDMI 2.1 subsystem can be combined with Xilinx’s decoders/encoders for various codecs supporting up to 8K resolutions.
The HDMI 2.1 subsystem enables developers of chips for various applications (including professional AV equipment, cameras, media players, monitors, projectors, KVM, digital signage) to build highly-integrated SoCs that can transmit, receive and process up to 8K video as well as support a “complete” HDMI 2.1 interface. In their turn, such SoCs will replace expensive custom, non-integrated HDMI 2.1 implementations that tend to use multiple chips.
Unfortunately, Xilinx is a bit light on the details on which HDMI 2.1 features its IP core actually supports. The company confirms an 8K (7680×4320) resolution and implies on “higher frame rates and high dynamic range” along with HDMI 2.1 data rates, but does not detail exact numbers. According to HDMI Forum, companies can use HDMI 2.1 branding to designate products that support certain HDMI 2.1 features, but not necessarily all of them. Therefore, it remains to be seen which capabilities Xilinx’s IP core actually supports.
"Today's professional AV and broadcast markets continue to demand higher resolution, higher frame rates and high dynamic range, to deliver more immersive viewing experiences," said Ramesh Iyer, director of marketing, Pro AV and Broadcast market, Xilinx. "Our customers can now implement the complete HDMI 2.1 interface on-chip, creating highly-integrated designs that can natively handle 8K processing. And customers can combine this functionality with 8K lightweight mezzanine codecs for 8K over IP streaming, reducing real-estate, power consumption and BOM costs."
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Source: Xilinx

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**FEED** · 02-08-19, 02:09 PM

Akasa is prepping an aftermarket chassis for Intel’s 8th Gen "Bean Canyon: NUC systems. The Turing chassis will allow Intel’s NUC 8 ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) computers to be converted to fanless systems, eliminating the noise that they produce.
Intel's Bean Canyon NUC systems are based on the company's 8^th Gen Core i3/i5/i8 processors, which offer two or four cores as well as Iris Plus Graphics 655 (GT3e) iGPU. Theu are designed for users who need better graphics performance in a very compact form-factor. Apart from a 28 W CPU, Bean Canyon PCs also pack up to 32 GB of DDR4 memory, an M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA SSD, a 2.5-inch storage device, a Thunderbolt 3 controller to plug in an external graphics or storage sub-system, a 802.11ac Wi-Fi solution, and just about everything else that one comes to expect from an UCFF PC. Needless to say, the compact system packs a lot of heat, and as a result it uses a blower-based cooler in order to keep it in check
However Akasa has decided to do one better, and is putting together a chassis for Bean Canyon that allows the NUC to be converted into a passive, silent system.

Akasa is already known for its Galactico chassis (its scheme is depicted below) for Intel’s Skull Canyon NUC aimed at users seeking for UCFF gaming PCs. Based on the pictures of the Turing case published by FanlessTech, the upcoming chassis for Intel's Bean Canyon uses the same principle as its predecessor: it has a large CPU heat exchanger featuring multiple heat pipes that transfer heat from the processor to massive radiators. While the Galactico features two aluminum radiators located on the sides of the chassis, the Turing features an additional radiator above the CPU as well.

Quite naturally, Akasa’s Turing and Galactico chassis make Intel’s NUC systems considerably larger than they originally are, but they eliminate all the noises that these PCs produce. Furthermore, they retain all the I/O ports that the computers have, including GbE, USB Type-A/Type-C, TB3, HDMI, DP, audio, microSD, and even antennae fitting holes.

According to FanlessTech, Akasa will launch its Turing chassis shortly. Pricing is uknown, but it is likely that it will be comparable to a ~$200 MSRP of the Galactico.
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Source: FanlessTech

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