The Hot Take: Still not buying the ARM SoC's are better than discrete system CPUs. We'll have to see how Intel/AMD ACE instructions far against this.
NVIDIA has started using clusters of its own Vera processors to develop future CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerators. The company says initial electronic design automation testing shows performance improvements of up to 1.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Good to hear, and hope it's true.
Intel is back with unusually strong quarterly figures. In the second quarter of 2026, the company generated revenue of around 16.1 billion US dollars, 25 percent more than in the same period last year. According to Intel, this was the strongest revenue growth in more than 15 years. The data-center processor business in particular benefited [âŚ]
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Trying to kill a dinosaur client.
New Outlook is âpainful and drives me crazy,â one user told me as their organization prepared to ditch Outlook Classic. But does that mean Microsoft will hold off on its plans to force New Outlook? Certainly not. According to Microsoftâs roadmap, it still plans to move all Classic Outlook users to New Outlook starting in March 2027, and weâre not that far away now. New Outlook for Windows has been around for almost three years, as it was first rolled out to testers in 2023. Fast-forward to 2024, and Microsoft released New Outlook for everyone, and it eventually replaced the native Mail & Calendar apps. While Mail and Calendar were not exceptionally good, they still worked better than New Outlook in several areas. Outlook (New) is getting better, but itâs not the best app for everyone Weâre nearly six months away from 2027, and thereâs no denying that New Outlook has gotten significantly better. Microsoft has added up to 15 features in the past several weeks, but most of them are not exactly new. They have already been available in Outlook Classic, and Microsoft is simply catching up. For example, Microsoft has added support for .PST files and improved offline support to cover attachments. Outlook Classic has always supported .PST files, and since it wasnât a web app, the lack of offline support was never an issue. Some of the other improvements include the ability to pin or snooze an email, which is quite handy, but itâs again something you could do in Outlook Classic. More recently, Microsoft rolled out the ability to add multiple categories and create automatic actions to keep your inbox organized or clean. For example, you can set up rules to automatically purge promotional emails and keep only recent messages in your inbox. Microsoft has also added Schedule Send, which was always available in Outlook Classic. At the same time, New Outlook is still missing several useful features that have been available in Outlook Classic for years. Microsoft insists itâll bring everything back in the coming months, but the clock is ticking. Youâll be forced to use New Outlook in March 2027 According to Microsoftâs roadmap seen by Windows Latest, the company is fully committed to moving Outlook Classic users to the new version starting in March 2027, so enterprises have less than a year to prepare for the forced rollout. âThe opt-out phase for Enterprise environments will now begin in March 2027 (previously April 2026), providing organizations with 12 months of lead time to prepare,â Microsoft noted in an update earlier this year. âGCC High and DoD timelines will be communicated separately at a later date.â What happens in March 2027 if you choose to keep using Outlook Classic? All hell is not going to break loose, but you may find yourself automatically redirected to New Outlook when you open Outlook Classic. Fortunately, youâll still be able to switch back to Outlook Classic. However, donât be surprised if it later reverts and you find yourself back in New Outlook again. Weâve seen Microsoft use a similar approach before. When it began replacing Mail & Calendar with New Outlook, it allowed users to opt out and return to the older apps, only for some of them to be moved back to New Outlook later. I am expecting a similar pop-up when Outlook Classic hits the deadline in March 2027, but remember that it does not mean you will be blocked from using the original email client. In another document, Microsoft has clarified that itâll support Outlook Classic until at least 2029, as long as itâs already installed and you have either a perpetual or a subscription license. Of course, you canât expect new features after March 2027. In fact, Outlook Classic has mostly stopped adding new features except a few Copilot and agentic additions. Microsoft says itâs seeing âstrong adoption of new Outlookâ At this point, one thing is clear that thereâs no going back for Microsoft, and New Outlook will eventually become the default experience whether you like it or not. The company also argues that New Outlook is now being adopted by more users, and adoption growth is not just strong, but rapidly âaccelerating.â That may be true because enterprises also need to embrace Copilot, which works more extensively in New Outlook than in Outlook Classic. âWe continue to invest heavily in expanding capabilities and addressing feedback from customers who want to go further with new Outlook. To ensure organizations have the time they need to prepareâand to fully realize the value of ongoing innovationâweâre extending the opt-out timeline,â Microsoft previously said. The post Microsoft still wants to force New Outlook on everyone by 2027, even as users call it painful, and prefer Outlook Classic appeared first on Windows Latest
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Interesting, we'll see if they get the ext GPU with the SoC internal GPU issues worked out but I'm still thinking Risc-V may do it better.
Windows on Arm systems were long regarded as an interesting alternative to conventional PCs, but they were significantly limited when it came to demanding hardware support. A current test now shows that this situation is gradually changing. A notebook with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite could be successfully operated with an external NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, [âŚ]
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Hopefully better implemented to prevent all the exploits of the past.
Hyper-Threading is what Intel calls its implementation of what is more academically known as "Simultaneous Multi-Threading" (SMT). This describes a method where a single processor core can interleave processing of two or more separate program threads, usually delivering an overall performance uplift on multi-threaded tasks. Intel killed off
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Mobile market consolidation it seems.
Last week, OnePlus announced what was rumored for months: its exit from the North American and European markets. Now a new report claims Nothing will follow suit, exiting 12 "or more" global markets. This includes the Middle East, Japan, and "parts of Europe". Unfortunately, the report doesn't go into any more detail about specific countries. Nothing is also said to be reducing its workforce by 40%, while its R&D unit is facing layoffs of around 50% in China and 30-40% in London. Nothing Phone (4a) Pro Obviously, Nothing is impacted by the rising memory prices, and seems to want to...
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: I don't think so much ARM as AMD.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has acknowledged that the semiconductor giant must catch up to rivals AMD and Arm, and said it now assumes edge AI and robotics will be a business as big as PCs. Tan made those remarks during Intelâs Q2 earnings call, which saw the company report $16.1 billion revenue â a 25 percent year-on-year increase. âQ2 was another quarter of solid execution,â the CEO said. âRevenue, gross margin, and earnings per share were above our guidance. This marks the seventh consecutive quarter of exceeding our financial expectations.â Yet it didnât deliver a profit as Intel reported a GAAP loss of $11 billion (and a non-GAAP loss of $2.2 billion). Tan remained optimistic about Intelâs prospects, thanks to the AI boom spurring demand for many of its products, and its foundry service. âOur core server CPU franchise is growing faster than ever,â the CEO said, before observing the Xeon 6 range âcontinues to be one of the fastest-ramping products in Intel's history.â That may be the case, but Intelâs hyperscale customers have designed their own Arm-powered CPUs and are deploying so many that analyst firm IDC recently found non-x86 servers now account for almost half of all sales. Intelâs great rival, AMD, has grown its market share to a third of the x86 server market. During the earnings call, Morgan Stanley analyst Joe Moore asked Tan how he plans to regain market share. Tan pointed to Intelâs forthcoming Clearwater Forest, Diamond Rapids, and Coral Rapids processors as evidence the company is creating products that can compete with anyone. âSome areas we are still behind,â he admitted, âbut we are catching up very fast and we try to leapfrog some of the CPU architecture, and we are putting major effort into it. Time will tell.â Tan is also pondering time in terms of how component shortages impact the companyâs sales and revenue. âThe industry is facing one of the most severe supply constraints in its history, across leading-edge logic silicon wafers, memory, and substrates,â he said. âThese shortages will persist for the foreseeable future.â Intel is of course a big player in the semiconductor supply chain, and Tan offered the happy news that wafer output across its major manufacturing nodes exceeded expectations from 90 days ago, and that yields from its leading-edge 18A process âare trending ahead of targets.â The CEO also said, âsupply remains very tight and the near-term linearity of our supply growth is more skewed towards the end of Q3 and into Q4, especially for servers.â He had slightly better news about Intelâs foundry business, which is developing an advanced manufacturing process called 14A that could make Chipzilla a more formidable competitor to TSMC. âWe remain on track for 14A risk production for our internal products in the second half of 2027, and we made the decision in Q2 to fully commit to high volume ramp in 2028,â Tan said. Intelâs current flagship 18A process is also going well. âIn our core PC client segment, Intel 18A is now in volume production across multiple commercial and consumer products,â Tan said. âOur factory output continues to increase sequentially every month. The successful high volume ramp of 18A for our internal products provides important validations as Intel Foundry engages with external customers.â The CEO added his view that âWe still have work to do to establish a strong footprint in the edge and physical AI ecosystem but see this opportunity as an important future growth driver.â So important that Intel recently renamed its PC business the âClient Computing and Physical AI Groupâ (CCPG). That change is more than cosmetic, because CFO David Zinsner said Intel believes âthe edge and physical AI opportunity is likely to at least match the client TAM [total addressable market] over time.â That would make edge and physical AI an $8 billion business, given that in this quarter Intel said ten percent of CCPGâs $8.9 billion revenue came from edge products. Overall CCPG revenue rose 13 percent year-over-year, growth that Intel found pleasantly surprising. Zinsner said the PC market is âsofterâ in part due to âthe memory dynamics in the marketplace,â and predicted Q3 performance will fall. ÂŽ
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: USA domestic manufacturing is blowing up and saving Intel.
Intel Foundry might be heading into a big deal with NVIDIA, as the company is expected to offer packaging and wafer support for next-gen Feynman GPUs. NVIDIA Feynman GPUs Could Be Intel Foundry's Biggest Win To Date With Chipzilla Providing Both Packaging & Wafer Supply A deal between Intel and NVIDIA won't be a major surprise for those following our previous reports, but it is definitely a big win for Intel's Foundry business. Earlier this year, we reported that NVIDIA might be looking into Intel's upcoming process & advanced packaging technologies for its next-generation GPUs, codenamed Feynman. Well, according to [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-foundry-nvidia-feynman-gpu-wafer-packaging-deal/
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: M$ is the only one to give us Ads on Windows 11....
LG is removing a McAfee pop-up ad from its LG Monitor App Installer after criticism that some LG monitors were silently installing the app through Windows Update and showing ads on every boot. Microsoft says LG agreed to disable the McAfee pop-up, but the broader issue remains: Windows allows certain peripheral companion apps to install automatically without notifying users. Ars Technica reports: Following Gamers Nexus' video, a Microsoft representative stated that the LG Monitor App Installer will no longer show pop-up ads for McAfee. In response to a social media post about the app, Pavan Davuluri, EVP of Windows and devices at Microsoft, said this week: "We've connected with the team at LG and as an immediate next step, they have agreed to disable the McAfee pop-up from their app. We appreciate LG working with us toward a shared goal of a better experience for our mutual customers. We will keep improving here with our ecosystem partners." As mentioned, some LG monitors appear to have been installing LG Monitor App Installer onto Windows computers for months. Publication Windows Latest noted that the app recently got an update, "and its changelog mentions McAfee as an additional app," which could be what prompted more people to see the ads... and then complain about them. However, the removal of McAfee doesn't address the problem of a peripheral installing ad-pushing software onto people's computers. Users have been finding LG Monitor App Installer and its ads on their systems without LG ever showing a prompt or asking for permission. LG has some of the most expensive computer monitors available. Paying, in some cases, over $1,000 for a monitor that ends up forcing ads onto Windows is disruptive and a privacy concern. Once the app is installed, "LG technically possesses permission to use 'all system resources,'" as well as to "collect geolocation, device data, online activity, contacts, user credentials, transactions, and more," [editor-in-chief of Gamers Nexus, Steve Burke] said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Well there goes CPU stocks.
Intel and AMD are signing long term agreements with Chinese data center firms to provide them with CPUs for AI computing, says a report from Reuters. CPUs in AI computing rose to prominence earlier this year after agentic AI demand reshaped the market. Agentic computing places a greater emphasis on CPUs, and according to the sources, the deals are motivated by the rapid price rise due to high demand. AMD & Intel Set To Cover A Year's Worth Of CPU Supplies To Chinese AI Data Centers, Says Report The surge in AI demand for CPUs has also led to Intel [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-and-amd-lock-in-year-long-cpu-deals-with-chinese-ai-firms-as-prices-surge-40/
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