The Nice PC Powers Convene
The annual Computex pc expo kicks off in Taepei this weekend. And this yr’s present is shaping as much as be essentially the most packed in years.
Computex rivals CES for an important PC commerce present of the yr, and in most years is attended by not solely the quite a few native Taiwanese corporations (Asus, MSI, ASRock, and others), however the main chip builders have been growing their very own presence as properly. Lately, whereas CES itself tends to land extra high-profile bulletins, in recent times it’s been Computex that has delivered on extra substantial bulletins. That is largely as a result of tech corporations have aligned their product schedules to roll out close to gear within the second half of the yr, when retail gross sales are stronger as a result of back-to-school and vacation purchasing intervals.
This yr’s present, in flip, is seeking to be an particularly massive yr for the PC ecosystem. All the foremost PC chip corporations – AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and the 4th Musketeer, Qualcomm – are holding keynote addresses at this yr’s present, the place they’re anticipated to announce new slates of PC merchandise to ship later this yr. In a standard yr there may be usually solely main bulletins from one or two of the foremost chip corporations, so having all 4 of them on the present delivering prolonged keynotes is setting issues up for what must be an distinctive present.
And whereas the present doesn’t formally open till Monday, media briefings are already properly underway on the bottom. Our personal Gavin Bonshor has been in Taiwan since Tuesday for Intel’s 2024 Tech Tour, and that is simply the tip of the iceberg. Because of this, we’re anticipating a deluge of bulletins from the foremost chip makers over the subsequent few days.
As has develop into customary as of late, the keynotes from all 4 chip distributors can be broadcast reside. And whereas the native time zone for Taiwan (UTC +8) does imply that these bulletins are at comparatively odd hours, most are nonetheless going down in what are cheap hours to observe them again in North America. And for these of you who can’t catch them reside, AnandTech can be reside running a blog most of those keynotes.
So with out additional ado, right here’s a take a look at the Computex 2024 keynote schedule, and what we’re anticipating to see from these shows.
NVIDIA: What’s Subsequent for the AI Ecosystem
When: June 2nd, 7:00am ET (4:00am PT)
What: NVIDIA’s leather-based jacket-wielding CEO Jensen Huang can be presenting a chat “outlining what’s subsequent for the AI ecosystem.”
Description: NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang will ship a reside keynote on June 2 at 7 p.m. Taiwan Time on the NTU Sports activities Middle and can share how the period of AI is driving a brand new industrial revolution throughout the globe.
The place To Watch: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/events/computex/
What To Anticipate: Of the 4 Comuptex-aligned keynotes, NVIDIA’s is each the primary and essentially the most mysterious. The corporate has not telegraphed its intentions for its keynote – and even how lengthy it can run. And with nearly all of NVIDIA’s merchandise intersecting the AI market in some trend, the “AI ecosystem” may conceivably cowl something from servers to smartphones.
With that mentioned, NVIDIA is coming into this present as the seller farthest from the beginning of their subsequent product cycle. The corporate already offered an in depth roadmap for it’s all-important server merchandise at their very own GTC convention two months in the past, leaving them with comparatively little to announce at this spring’s expo. And NVIDIA’s shopper GPUs have historically adopted a 2+ yr cadence, which means they’re not due for refresh till later this yr on the earliest. Nonetheless, NVIDIA is solidly within the driver’s seat of its personal future proper now due to the wild success of its Grace Hopper-based accelerators, so the corporate can (and can) do no matter it pleases.
Notably, even NVIDIA’s keynote itself is a giant rogue. Whereas the AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm keynotes are all official Computex keynotes going down on the TaiNEX 2 expo corridor, NVIDIA’s keynote is off-site, going down the evening earlier than the present formally begins on the Nationwide Taiwan College Sports activities Middle.
AMD: The Way forward for Excessive-performance Computing within the AI Period
When: June 2nd, 9:30pm ET (6:30pm PT)
What: AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su can be presenting a keynote entitled “The way forward for high-performance computing within the AI period.”
Description: AI is driving a revolution that’s quickly reshaping each facet of computing and the know-how trade. Dr. Lisa Su will discover how AMD, along with its companions, is pushing the boundaries in AI and high-performance computing from the information heart, to the sting and finish consumer units.
The place To Watch: https://www.amd.com/en/corporate/events/computex.html
What To Anticipate: The primary off the official Computex keynotes, AMD’s keynote is the closest factor the present has to a “prime” keynote that kicks off the entire present. Like NVIDIA, AMD’s AI-focused description intersects nearly their complete product stack. However as AMD has been persistently executing on a well-published structure roadmap over the previous few years, we’ve a good suggestion of what to anticipate right here.
The massive expectation right here is contemporary information round AMD’s Zen 5 CPU core architecture, and the chips constructed round it. AMD’s most up-to-date Zen 5 roadmap has it slated to ship all three flavors of Zen 5 by the top of this yr, and we’re arising on the two-year anniversary of the Zen 4 structure launch.
Together with consumer chips, AMD has been pushing their server CPUs onerous, they usually’ve beforehand informed buyers that the next-gen EPYC Turin CPU is “looking great”. So we’ll seemingly hear about each consumer and server Zen 5 product plans throughout this keynote.
On the GPU/accelerator facet of issues, AMD is mid-cycle (at finest) with their Intuition MI300 sequence accelerators. With the corporate’s gross sales repeatedly beating their very own expectations, AMD doesn’t appear to want a lot assist transferring this premium silicon proper now. However with AI being the operative buzzword of this yr’s Computex (and certainly, the computing trade as an entire), it might be bizarre for AMD to not have one thing to say about their quickly rising AI accelerator product line.
AMD’s keynote is scheduled to run for 90 minutes – half an hour longer than both Intel’s or Qualcomm’s – so anticipate this to be a reasonably packed presentation.
Qualcomm: The PC Reborn
When: June 3rd, 1:30am ET (10:30pm PT)
What: Qualcomm’s CEO, Cristiano Amon, can be presenting a keynote entitled “The PC Reborn”
Description: The PC trade is experiencing an inflection level, pushed by era-defining innovation that guarantees to vary how we work together with our PCs going ahead. Amon will break down the traits and know-how which have introduced us right here, and extra importantly, the place they may take us throughout productiveness, creativity, and leisure. Amon will showcase the AI-accelerated experiences customers can anticipate from their next-generation PCs and what know-how is required to deliver them to life.
The place To Watch: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2024/05/qualcomm-president-and-ceo-cristiano-amon-will-deliver-a-keynote
What To Anticipate: The brand new child on the block within the PC area, Qualcomm’s keynote can be extra quick and centered than the remainder of the chipmakers. The corporate introduced its Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus SoCs over half a yr in the past, and has been touting them since. Now, the primary shopper units primarily based on these chips are simply a few weeks away from delivery, so Qualcomm is of their closing promotional push for his or her new Home windows-on-Arm platform. Because of this, Qualcomm ought to have much more {hardware} to point out off, with closing silicon and delivery SKUs already outlined.
Whereas Snapdragon X is just not Qualcomm’s first effort to ship an Arm-based SoC for Home windows units – there are 3 generations of 8cx Gen 3 platforms that everybody is completely happy by no means to say once more – the Snapdragon X is Qualcomm’s most severe effort but. At its core is the brand new, high-performance/high-efficiency Oryon CPU core, which mixed with the remainder of Qualcomm’s tried-and-true cellular {hardware} expertise, the corporate is hoping to mould right into a revolutionary Arm-based SoC for Home windows laptops. The corporate can also be relying on a decade of software program growth on Microsoft’s half to make the Home windows-on-Arm ecosystem complete, to not point out as frictionless as attainable.
In addition to power effectivity, Qualcomm’s different massive push is on the burgeoning area of NPUs. The Snapdragon X NPU is rated to ship 45 TOPS of INT8 efficiency, which makes it the primary PC NPU to fulfill Microsoft’s {hardware} requirement for Home windows 11 Copilot+ AI performance. So Qualcomm is seeking to leverage this time-limited alternative to be the primary to supply new performance within the Home windows area – a privilege usually reserved for Intel or AMD.
Intel: Bringing AI In every single place
When: June 3rd, 11:00pm ET (8:00pm PT)
What: Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger will current a keynote entitled “Bringing AI In every single place.”
Description: Element how AI unlocks new prospects within the knowledge heart and cloud, PC, and internationally’s community and edge functions. Gelsinger may also showcase Intel’s next-generation knowledge heart and consumer computing merchandise bringing AI In every single place by making the know-how accessible via open ecosystems help.
The place To Watch: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/events/computex.html
What To Anticipate: The ultimate of the foremost Computex keynotes, Intel has been essentially the most up-front about what to anticipate from their hour-long presentation. The corporate’s Computex 2024 web page already outlines their 4 main matters: AI PCs, Xeon 6 Processors, Gaudi AI accelerators, and Intel’s OpenVINO software program ecosystem.
On the buyer {hardware} entrance, the corporate set the desk with a big teaser earlier this month about their forthcoming cellular PC SoC, Lunar Lake. The following era of Core Extremely processors, Intel is touting vital power effectivity positive factors for the mobile-focused chip, with new architectures driving their Efficiency and Effectivity CPU cores, Xe2 GPU, and a a lot sooner 45+ TOPS (INT8) NPU. Whereas the Lunar Lake announcement is coming comparatively quickly after the Meteor Lake launch, Intel has made it clear that it’s not going to carry again on delivery future merchandise; they need to make up for misplaced time. Nonetheless, Lunar Lake units aren’t anticipated to hit retail cabinets till This autumn of this yr, so this announcement is coming months prematurely of the {hardware} itself.
On the server entrance, Intel has been publicly prepping for the launch of a brand new era of Xeons with the Xeon 6 platform. Probably the most notable a part of this being the discharge of the corporate’s first Effectivity-core Xeon, Sierra Forest. Sierra Forest is ready to be the primary Xeon 6 chip out the door this yr, and can provide as much as 288 E cores on a single chip, permitting Intel to faucet into the numerous (many) core CPU markets that AMD and Arm-based rivals have been unopposed at so far.
Lastly, the corporate has totally pivoted its server AI accelerator technique to its Gaudi accelerators. Gaudi 3 was introduced back in April, and whereas it isn’t anticipated to go toe-to-toe with NVIDIA’s prime accelerators in each workload, Intel is betting that they will beat NVIDIA on crucial workloads, all whereas undercutting them considerably in pricing. The primary Gaudi 3 components are set to be launched within the second half of this yr, so hopefully we’ll be listening to a bit extra about Intel’s plans as a part of their keynote.
