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Qualcomm Claims Single-Core Leadership for Its First Server CPU, the Dragonfly C1000, Delivering 250+ Cores & 5 GHz By 2028

The Hot Take: Interesting...

Qualcomm has introduced its first-ever CPU designed for Data Centers, the Dragonfly C1000, which leverages the Oryon architecture. Qualcomm Enters The Agentic AI CPU Race With Dragonfly C1000 Chip, Oryon-Based With Over 5 GHz Clocks, Over 250 Cores, & Aims To Achieve Single-Core Leadership One of the biggest announcements by Qualcomm today was its first release of a CPU for the data center segment, called the Dragonfly C1000. This is a chip purpose-built for Agentic AI & General-Purpose workloads, delivering best-in-class power efficiency and TCO. As per Qualcomm, the Dragonfly C1000 is based on a custom-designed Oryon core architecture that […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/qualcomm-single-core-leadership-first-server-cpu-dragonfly-c1000-250-cores-5-ghz-2028/

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Samsung's Texas fab gains momentum with the arrival of ASML engineers

The Hot Take: More manufacturing states side is good.

Samsung Electronics' foundry plant in Taylor, Texas, is showing signs of moving into equipment-level execution. Key engineers from ASML Korea, the Dutch lithography equipment giant's South Korean unit, have been dispatched to the Taylor facility and are expected to remain on site for roughly six to eight weeks, according to Korean industry publication DealSite.

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Intel-Nvidia co-developed PC processor to reportedly debut at CES 2028

The Hot Take: It seems Nvidia is hedging two architectures against each other. x86 vs ARM. They've been working with MediaTek to create the Spark SoC.

According to an exclusive report by VideoCardz, Intel's first x86 system-on-chip (SoC) integrating an Nvidia RTX GPU has been added to its internal product roadmap and is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2028, potentially making its public debut at CES 2028.

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AMD Mustang Peak: Threadripper switches to TR6 and PCIe 6.0 with Zen 6

The Hot Take: AMD getting ready for Intel refocus on HPDT?

With Threadripper, it has always been a bit like heavy-haul transport on the motorway: massively overdimensioned for normal users, but for certain workloads exactly the kind of tool where every additional lane matters. Now AMD’s next workstation generation has become tangible for the first time. An entry for “TR6 Mustang Peak” has appeared in AMD’s […]

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ASML denies US government report that its EUV chipmaking tool was shipped to China — says 'rumors' are 'inaccurate and damaging to our reputation'

The Hot Take: They're the only manufacturer in an industry they monopolize. I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding...

U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick expresses concerns in a conversation with ASML executives that China has an EUV lithography system as ASML denies shipping such scanners to the PRC.

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AMD and Intel arm x86 against the AI gap with ACE, baking matrix-multiply engines & low-precision formats straight into future CPUs

The Hot Take: Making the CPU important again on the x86 platform.

ACE, the upcoming set of x86 Extensions defined by both AMD & Intel, has seen the latest spec release, focusing on AI acceleration. AMD & Intel Focus on AI Acceleration Through Next-Gen x86 Architectures That Are ACE Compliant Last year, Intel and AMD partnered to strengthen the x86 ecosystem through their "x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group" initiative. The plan was to offer a standardized set of features across architectures to make x86 accessible, scalable, and compatible with future requirements. Four key features were announced: FRED, AVX10, ChkTag, and ACE. Now, the latest ACE "AI Compute Extensions" specifications have been published by AMD […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/amd-intel-arm-x86-with-ace-matrix-multiply-engines-low-precision-ai-formats-future-cpus/

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Intel hires former SK hynix chief Seok-Hee Lee to lead Intel Foundry advanced packaging — company establishing section as 'focused business with dedicated leadership'

The Hot Take: Interesting, I wonder if this means Intel is going to break into SSD and Memory again to address the "shortages".

Intel has appointed Seok-Hee Lee, the former chief executive of memory maker SK hynix and battery maker SK On, as executive vice president of Intel Foundry.

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Non-x86 servers now nearly half the market, IDC says

The Hot Take: I question this very much.

Servers employing x86 chips from AMD and Intel now account for little more than half of server revenue, according to the latest figures from IDC. In its Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker for Q1 2026, the analyst firm says that non-x86 server revenue hit $58.7 billion, representing a startling increase of 107 percent over the same period last year. The results mean that those non-x86 servers make up 47.9 percent of the market revenue, closing in rapidly on the amount of cash spent on x86 boxes. The growth in non-x86 turnover is likely thanks to systems powered by Nvidia’s AI chips featuring Arm cores. Although there is high demand for these, they also cost a pretty packet compared to an average datacenter box. In fact, IDC noted a stark divide shaping the worldwide server market, which reached $122.6 billion in vendor revenue during this period, a 30.4 percent increase year-on-year. On the one hand, AI infrastructure investment from hyperscalers and large cloud providers is “running at a scale that shows no sign of plateauing,” while everything else - the non-accelerated segment - faces a supply-constrained environment, thanks largely to that AI infrastructure spending. As Reg readers will know, memory chipmakers are prioritizing manufacturing capacity for higher margin products for AI servers and GPUs, starving the rest of the market of supply. Component availability, particularly DRAM and NAND flash, is limiting near-term shipment volumes from vendors, IDC says, though order pipelines are strong. Supply of the right chips is therefore the chief limiting factor on server market growth. Revenue for x86 servers still reached $63.9 billion, but this was a decline of 2.9 percent due to those component supply constraints impacting shipment volumes. GPU accelerated servers pulled in $68.9 billion for the vendors, up nearly 25 percent year-on-year, while other accelerated servers surged a massive 122 percent to $17.7 billion. The latter category represents AI systems configured with FPGAs or ASICs rather than GPUs. IDC’s spin on the data is that AI infrastructure adoption is no longer limited to hyperscalers, thanks to developments such as government-led sovereign AI initiatives, while the non-accelerated segment tells a more nuanced story. Although revenue here declined, underlying demand remains strong, but many enterprise customers are holding out against elevated component prices. “Companies aren’t pulling back from infrastructure investment; they’re just not getting servers as fast as they need them. Longer term, emerging workloads, including agentic applications and physical AI ecosystems, will keep demand elevated well beyond the current cycle,” commented IDC research director Juan Seminara. The firm says it expects to see supply normalization beginning in 2027, with capacity relief coming as chipmakers bring new fabrication plants online. Across the last two decades, non-x86 servers accounted for less than ten percent of revenue, and most of that went to IBM which emerged as the last vendor of proprietary servers as Oracle lost interest in Sun and the likes of HPE decided they couldn't sustain businesses built on exotic architectures. ®

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