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SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher/Editor Nicholas Vinen Technical Editor John Clarke – B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Jim Rowe – B.A., B.Sc. Bao Smith – B.Sc. Tim Blythman – B.E., B.Sc. Advertising Enquiries (02) 9939 3295 adverts<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Allan Linton-Smith Dave Thompson David Maddison – B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Geoff Graham Associate Professor Graham Parslow Dr Hugo Holden – B.H.B, MB.ChB., FRANZCO Ian Batty – M.Ed. Phil Prosser – B.Sc., B.E.(Elec.) Cartoonist Louis Decrevel loueee.com Founding Editor (retired) Leo Simpson – B.Bus., FAICD Silicon Chip is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 626 922 870. ABN 20 880 526 923. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Subscription rates (Australia only) 6 issues (6 months): $70 12 issues (1 year): $127.50 24 issues (2 years): $240 Online subscription (Worldwide) 6 issues (6 months): $52.50 12 issues (1 year): $100 24 issues (2 years): $190 For overseas rates, see our website or email silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au * recommended & maximum price only Editorial office: Unit 1 (up ramp), 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 194, Matraville, NSW 2036. Phone: (02) 9939 3295. ISSN: 1030-2662 Printing and Distribution: Editorial Viewpoint Intel is in trouble If you have kept up with computers over the last few years, you will know that Intel’s major competitor, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), has been giving them a run for their money, especially in the server space. For many years, Intel had such a commanding lead in the computer CPU market that they did very little R&D. They would release a new generation of processors that was marginally better than the last one every couple of years, raking in cash while putting in minimal effort. That came back to bite them over the last few years as AMD got over the problems it had in the early 2010s and brought out its very successful lineup of ‘Zen’ processors. Apple also shook up the laptop market with their M-series of processors from 2020. One big advantage of these processors is that they have much better performance per watt compared to many of Intel’s offerings. As this is going to press, AMD has just started launching their Zen 5 line of CPUs, with modest performance improvements over Zen 4 but significantly lower power consumption. Intel has pushed its technology too hard in an attempt to deal with this threat. The 12th-generation Core CPUs were perfectly fine, but the 13th and 14th-generation processors were pushed to higher frequencies, voltages and power levels in an attempt to compete with AMD on performance. To put this into perspective, the 16-core AMD Ryzen 7950X draws around 140W under heavy load with its default settings, giving similar overall performance to Intel’s 24-core 14900K. However, in its launch configuration, the 14900K drew over 300W under heavy load – more than twice as much as the AMD part! That high power draw is undesirable, but that isn’t why Intel is in trouble. To get the chips to run fast enough to be competitive with AMD’s, they have pushed their clock speeds as high as possible. To achieve high ‘boost’ clock speeds, when just a couple of cores are loaded, they are feeding some CPUs with 1.5-1.6V (it’s closer to 1.0-1.3V under normal conditions). It seems that is too much, and it is killing them. Intel has promised a patch to fix this. However, many 13th and 14th-generation Intel CPUs are affected, and some will have already been damaged. The patch might stop future damage but won’t fix that which has already occurred. So, they will likely be replacing a large number of processors as they just announced a two-year warranty extension on affected products. There’s also the problem that some people with these faulty chips have had their warranty claims denied. They really need to fix this properly but they must know it will cost them a lot of money, so they are putting it off. It doesn’t help that they just announced massive layoffs, with around 15,000 jobs gone. While I think AMD’s technology is currently better overall than Intel’s, mainly due to superior power efficiency, I don’t want a situation where AMD gets lazy because they have no major competitor, the reverse of what happened 10 years ago. We need both companies to be healthy so there is active competition in the space. Intel needs to fix this pronto. While they have admitted that some of their processors have stability problems, they have not fully explained the cause and they have yet to deploy a proper solution. Their reputation is suffering as the situation remains unresolved for so long. New Prices Print (AU) Combined (AU) Print (NZ) Combined (NZ) 12 months $130 $150 $155 $175 24 months $245 $280 $290 $325 Prices from October 1st, 2024; 24-26 Lilian Fowler Pl, Marrickville 2204 2 Silicon Chip all prices are listed in Australian dollars (AUD). Australia's electronics magazine by Nicholas Vinen siliconchip.com.au