SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Belarus and Human Rights Violations
Belarus repeatedly interrupts at UN amid 'new iron curtain' warnings
Belarus and its allies have repeatedly tried to muzzle speakers at the UN amid warnings of a new iron curtain falling across Europe during an ill-tempered debate on alleged human rights violations.
The body’s 47-member human rights council voted by 23 votes to two with 22 abstentions to adopt a resolution condemning rights violations in Belarus and requesting the UN high commissioner on Human Rights to take up the issue and report back to the council.
The debate was repeatedly interrupted by the Belarus representative, backed by delegates from Russia, China and Venezuela, who tried to limit presentations – including from Alexander Lukashenko’s main election challenger, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, on procedural grounds.
Tikhanovskaya’s short video message had barely begun when the Belarusian representative, Yuri Ambrazevich, demanded it be switched off. He repeatedly interrupted the screening, raising procedural objections and insisting her words had “no relevance on the substance ... on the events that are taking place today”.
He was overruled by the council president, Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger.
Would you buy a 10-core CPU?
Does this level of granularity make sense in AMD's lineup? Previously, if you wanted more than 8 Zen cores, you went directly to 12.
Here's the Zen 2 launch prices + $1 (July 2019). All of these CPUs have two threads per core:
Ryzen 5 3600 - 6 cores, $200
Ryzen 5 3600X - 6 cores, $250
Ryzen 7 3700X - 8 cores, $330
Ryzen 7 3800X - 8 cores, $400
Ryzen 9 3900X - 12 cores, $500
Ryzen 9 3950X - 16 cores, $750
Two quad-cores, the Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X, were added at $100 and $120 in April 2020.
One "problem" that AMD has is that TSMC yields are "too good". There aren't that many 8-core chiplets with 4 bad cores on them, so they disable perfectly acceptable cores. For lower-core count models, they can lower costs by using a single chiplet. So there's never any reason to make a 6-core with two chiplets, 3 cores enabled on each, because those chiplets could be used in more expensive CPUs with more cores enabled.
The 3300X was distinguished from the 3100 by including all of its 4 cores on a single CCX (half of the Zen 2 chiplet). That improves latency and performance somewhat. With Zen 3, the entire chiplet will be unified (to some extent). Enabling 5 cores on each chiplet may make more sense than it would have with Zen 2. So there's your possibility of a 10-core.
Here's some discussion about it, although it was a couple months before the surprise launch of the Zen 2 quad-cores, which showed that AMD is willing to disable half a chiplet.
If the rumor is correct, AMD can use the 10-core model to push down prices and/or "increase core counts" despite the top model continuing to sit at 16 cores. For example, AMD can slide the 10-core in at $400, knock out a superfluous 6 or 8-core, and lower those prices a bit, while keeping 12-core at $500 and 16-core at $750 (or slightly lower, like $700).
Previously: AMD 2021-2022 Roadmap: Zen 3 Refresh on AM5?
PicoRio RISC-V SBC: Flame On
Board only exists on paper:
PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an Open Source Alternative to Raspberry Pi Board
Linux capable RISC-V boards do exist but cost several hundred dollars or more with the likes of HiFive Unleashed and PolarFire SoC Icicle development kit. If only there was a RISC-V board similar to the Raspberry Pi board and with a similar price point… The good news is that the RISC-V International Open Source (RIOS) Laboratory is collaborating with Imagination technologies to bring PicoRio RISC-V SBC to market at a price point similar to Raspberry Pi.
From the comments:
I was compelled to comment after laughing hysterically at seeing “open source” and “Imagination Technologies” mentioned in the same breath.
Samsung 16 GB LPDDR5 DRAM Package Take Two
Samsung Begins Mass Production of 16Gb LPDDR5 DRAM
Samsung is now manufacturing 16 Gb LPDDR5 DRAM chips, which it will use to make 16 GB packages, among others.
They were stacking 8x 12 Gb and 4x 8 Gb chips in their previous abominations. These ones are likely to be cheaper. It's also 16.3̅6̅% faster at 6,400 MT/s instead of 5,500 MT/s.
No word yet on 24 GB or 32 GB packages.
Previously: Samsung Announces Mass Production of 16 GB LPDDR5 DRAM Packages
Statues + Machine Learning
XuanTie 910 / Alibaba XT910 RISC-V Core
More Details about Alibaba XT910 64-bit RISC-V Core
No GPU! "Legal challenges for a high-performance core"!
Previously: Alibaba Announces a 16-Core RISC-V CPU
Alibaba Claims its RISC-V Core is Faster than ARM Cortex-A73
AMD 2021-2022 Roadmap: Zen 3 Refresh on AM5?
AMD Ryzen 2021-2022 roadmap partially leaks
The big takeaways seem to be:
Warhol: A 2021 Zen 3 refresh desktop CPU (after this year's Zen 3 Vermeer), except that it may be on the new AM5 socket with DDR5 memory, so it would break compatibility with current motherboards. It could have some "Zen 3+" IPC enhancements, reminiscent of the slight gains of "Zen+". Still uses PCIe 4.0.
Raphael: 2022 Zen 4 desktop CPU. It could have an entry-level amount of integrated graphics on a chiplet. Most of Intel's desktop CPUs have integrated graphics, while AMD has forgone it. But there is probably plenty of room for the I/O die, 2-3x 8-core CPU chiplets, and a tiny GPU chiplet, especially given that it will be on TSMC's dense "5nm" node. This is the one I'm hoping will have gigabytes of L4 cache stacked on the I/O die.
Dragon Crest: Early 2022 successor to the low power Van Gogh APU, featuring Zen 3 cores and enhanced RDNA2. If the target is really early 2022, then AMD is being very aggressive about introducing new products at a fast pace.
AMD's Van Gogh: Low Power Zen 2 + RDNA2 + LPDDR5
This looks excellent for low power laptops/2-in-1s and maybe SBCs/SFF. Some details have been known for a while but this fleshes it out a bit. I'm expecting it will top out at quad-core but hexa/octo-core would be hilarious. One piece of information that came out at Hot Chips 2020 was that AMD originally planned for Renoir to have up to 6 cores, but was able to bump that up to 8 cores because of how good the "7nm" node was. It looks like an enhanced version of "7nm" will be used here which should have some performance, power, and maybe density improvements.
If it features RDNA2 graphics, it may have real-time ray-tracing support. This is presumed to work in AMD's IP by repurposing a number of the GPU's cores (i.e. they can't be used for rasterization at the same time). Van Gogh may have more GPU die area than you would expect for low power integrated graphics, just clocked low enough to meet the TDP target.
The main downside I see is that almost every single device will have soldered (non-expandable) RAM. That's the norm these days but it's still disappointing.
Trump will win again
Biden's going to lose. He might win the popular vote, just like Hillary did, but even if that happens, the electoral college will get Trump re-elected.
It's going to happen.
How am I so sure?
ENTROPY.
Decay and rot is the paradigm of the universe, and so Trump's megalomaniacal authoritarianism and lies will win.
America is a dying, schizophrenic empire filled with so many tendrils of malevolent forces penetrating every orifice that you could make spaghetti by slicing it up.
I just watched Biden's speech. He has a light, hopeful message.
But I know what hope really gets you. Disappointment and suffering.
I strongly believe that the country as it is, will not survive another 4 years of Trump. I'm betting either civil war, or a descent into a crushing authoritarian police state that makes prior comparisons of America to such regimes laughable.
The end is nigh, America is dead.
Alexei Navalny Poisoned
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny in coma after suspected poisoning: spokeswoman
Russian opposition leader and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny is in a coma after falling ill from suspected poisoning, his spokeswoman said Thursday.
Navalny, 44, started feeling unwell while on a return flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk, his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on Twitter. The plane later made an urgent landing in Omsk, she added.
Loud groaning can be heard in video footage apparently filmed on the flight taken by Navalny, which was shared on the Baza Telegram channel. More video apparently filmed through the airplane window shows an immobile man being taken by wheeled stretcher to a waiting ambulance.
He only drank black tea in an airport cafe before takeoff, Yarmysh told Russian radio station Echo of Moscow. "We assume that Alexey was poisoned with something mixed into the tea. It was the only thing that he drank in the morning. Doctors say the toxin was absorbed faster through the hot liquid," Yarmysh tweeted.
Alexei Navalny: 'Poisoned' Russian opposition leader in a coma
The Kremlin said that it wished Mr Navalny a "speedy recovery".
[...] Ms Yarmysh said later that Mr Navalny was on a ventilator and in a coma, and that the hospital was now full of police officers. All of his belongings were being confiscated, she added.
She also said that doctors were initially ready to share any information but then they later claimed the toxicology tests had been delayed and were "clearly playing for time, and not saying what they know". Diagnosis would be "towards evening", she was told.
Both Mr Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya, and doctor, Anastasia Vasilyeva, have arrived at the hospital. Mrs Navalnaya was initially denied access to her husband because authorities said the patient had not agreed to the visit, Ms Yarmysh said, although she was later allowed on to the ward.
Dr Vasilyeva said they were seeking to transfer the opposition leader to a specialist poison control centre in Europe, but hospital doctors were refusing to provide records of his condition.
Alexei Navalny: Plane to bring 'poisoned' Russian critic to Germany
A German peace foundation is hoping to send an air ambulance to bring Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny to Berlin for treatment following his suspected poisoning.
