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Zen 3 Breathing Room, and Navi Ray Tracing Support
Rumor : AMD Zen 3 Delivers 8%+ IPC & 200Mhz Higher Clock vs Zen 2
Not stunning, but could end up as a 13-14% overall performance increase. (1.08*(4.1/3.9)) = 13.5% for the 3800X.
If true, Zen 3 is a nice breather for AMD. Not a fantastic increase, but still somewhat better than the Zen+ increase.
Rumor : AMD Bringing Ray Tracing Support to Navi in December
Hardware acceleration of raytracing is confirmed for PlayStation 5. This is not that. The generation of desktop GPUs after Navi might have dedicated acceleration (Navi 2?).
Microsoft's DirectX Ray Tracing is mentioned, but not Vulkan (yet).
This would be a replacement for Vega, which is used in enterprise GPU products. AMD has basically split the consumer and business product lines, with RDNA (Navi, Navi 2...) being focused solely on gaming GPUs. Maybe Arcturus will be known as GCN 6th gen, beats me.
Tiptoeing Around Hunter Biden
Tiptoeing Around Hunter Biden (archive)
So far, none of the Democratic primary candidates have taken a hard swing at Mr. Biden, focusing instead on the impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump. But a few are, quite delicately, trying to raise some concerns. Former Representative Beto O’Rourke suggested, albeit mildly, that Hunter Biden’s work posed a problem, telling reporters, “I would not allow a family member, anyone in my cabinet to have a family member, to work in a position like that.”
Senator Cory Booker called Mr. Biden “truly an honorable man” on CNN last week, adding, “This is in no way can besmirch his character, his honor and his incredible service to this country over decades.” But, he noted, “I just do not think that children of presidents, of vice presidents during an administration should be out there doing that.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar took a similar position when asked whether she’d be comfortable with the child of her vice president sitting on the board of a foreign company. “I can promise you right now, my own daughter, who’s only 24, does not sit on the board of a foreign company,” she said, also on CNN. “But that is not the issue. The issue here is what the president is doing.”
Much of the rest of field has largely dodged the question. Senator Elizabeth Warren initially said she didn’t know when asked whether her ethics plan would prevent a top official’s child from getting a job with a foreign company. Since then, she’s pivoted back to Mr. Trump when asked similar questions. And Senator Kamala Harris, when asked about the issue, has taken to simply saying: “Leave Joe Biden alone.”
FYI: This was posted the same day that Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were indicted.
Overly Determined Stalker
Stalker 'found Japanese singer through reflection in her eyes'
A Japanese man accused of stalking and sexually assaulting a young pop star told police he located her through the reflection in her eyes in a picture, according to local media reports.
The man said he had identified a train station reflected in the singer's eyes in a selfie she posted online.
The 26-year-old then waited at the station until he saw his victim and followed her to her home, police said.
[...] The suspect told police that after zooming in on the image of her eyes, he used Google Street View to identify the station.
He also said he had studied videos the woman shot in her apartment, looking at details such as the placement of curtains and the direction of natural light coming through the window to try to determine exactly which floor she lived on, reports said.
Blame the 30+ megapixel phone cameras.
#CNNHeroes #Inspirational
7nm Zen 2 Laptop CPUs in Q1 2020
So here is what AMD has planned next: An AMD gaming laptop, equipped with a Ryzen 5 CPU, complete with discrete graphics, starting from $699. While I do not have confirmation of the exact specification, I do know this pricing is being based on a 7nm Ryzen part with 6-cores along with a dGPU (the Radeon RX 5300M/5500M potentially) and will go up against the Intel Core i5-8265U + GTX 1050 setup. This represents a serious level of gaming performance in the mobility segment and the GTX 1050 could be called the starting point of a true gaming laptop. That said, AMD is clearly pursuing the thin, light and fast ideology while offering good gaming performance.
Interesting, but still skippable. I want to see 8 cores (matching consoles), AV1 decoding (unclear what kind of GPU or version of Video Core Next will be used), and at least 1 GiB of L4 cache (compare to the just cancelled Core i7-8809G which has 4 GiB of HBM on the same package as the CPU and "discrete" AMD GPU).
Two Trump/Giuliani Henchmen Arrested for Ukraine Corruption
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two key subjects in House Democrats' impeachment inquiry who worked with Rudy Giuliani in an effort to gather damaging information about Joe Biden, have been arrested, a spokesperson for the US attorney's office in Manhattan confirmed Thursday morning.
The two men were charged with conspiring to get around federal laws that prohibit foreign nationals from contributing to US campaigns, according to the indictment, which was first published by the New York Times. They're accused of entering into "secret agreements" to hide the scheme from candidates and federal regulators, laundering foreign money into the campaigns through various corporate identities, and using "straw donors" to make the contributions.
Two Men Who Worked With Rudy Giuliani To Dig Up Dirt On Biden Have Been Arrested
Two Giuliani associates linked to Ukraine investigations indicted on campaign finance charges
2 Giuliani Associates Linked to Ukraine Scandal Arrested for Violating Campaign Finance Rules
1st Time Billionaires Paid Lower Tax Rate than Working Class
A new book-length study on the tax burden of the ultrarich begins with a startling finding: In 2018, for the first time in history, America’s richest billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than the working class.
“The Triumph of Injustice,” by economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman of the University of California at Berkeley, presents a first-of-its kind analysis of Americans’ effective tax rates since the 1960s. It finds that in 2018 the average effective tax rate paid by the richest 400 families in the country was 23 percent, a full percentage point lower than the 24.2 percent rate paid by the bottom half of American households.
In 1980, by contrast, the 400 richest had an effective tax rate of 47 percent. In 1960, that rate was as high as 56 percent. The effective tax rate paid by the bottom 50 percent, by contrast, has changed little over time.
The analysis differs from many other published estimates of tax burdens by encompassing the totality of taxes Americans pay: not just federal income taxes but also corporate taxes, as well as taxes paid at the state and local levels. It also includes the burden of about $250 billion of what Saez and Zucman call “indirect taxes,” such as licenses for motor vehicles and businesses.
Gender Equality
It will never be a literal thing, only a useful fiction, sorry. You want proof? Tide doesn't make laundry soap that smells like bacon or WD-40.
NEW! Scotch Whisky Flavored Tide Pods
This "capsule" Scotch whisky doesn't require a glass
Glenlivet's Tide Pod-like booze capsules have captivated social media
For the ultimate meal, you need the ultimate beverage.
16-core Ryzen 9 3950X Beats 24-core Threadripper 2970WX?
Ryzen 9 and Threadripper
3950X = 16 cores, 3.5 GHz base, 4.7 GHz turbo, 105W TDP
2970WX = 24 cores, 3 GHz base, 4.2 GHz turbo, 250W TDP
2990WX = 32 cores, 3 GHz base, 4.2 GHz turbo, 250W TDP
Unnamed 32-core Threadripper 3 CPU could be between 30% and 70% faster than the 32-core 2990WX. The unnamed 24-core Threadripper 3 CPU could beat/match 2990WX. That's probably important if 24-core TR3 launches months earlier than 32-core TR3. 24-core TR3 will likely be the cheapest chip with the fewest cores of that lineup (no new 16-core Threadrippers anymore), and could beat the top TR2 chip.
This could be accounted for by a 20% base clock increase, ~18% IPC increase, better AVX2 support, etc. The performance of Threadripper 3 may be significantly improved by better memory bandwidth (half the cores were constrained previously) and new motherboards supporting 8-channel memory, etc.
Expect a 48-core TR3, and maybe 64-core eventually.
Looks like Zen 3 improvements could be relatively minor, and no 3-4 way SMT. Nothing is mentioned about HBM on-chip L4 cache. That is the big improvement I would wait for.
AMD Ryzen 9 3900 Tested: Unreleased 65W Processor Sets World Records
12-core drops down from 105W TDP, and will presumably launch at $450 or less instead of $500 for 3900X.
Statement Regarding Illegal Contributions From Foreign Govts
Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public
office: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign
national in connection with a U.S. election.(1) This is not a novel concept. Electoral intervention
from foreign governments has been considered unacceptable since the beginnings of our nation.
Our Founding Fathers sounded the alarm about “foreign Interference, Intrigue, and Influence.”
They knew that when foreign governments seek to influence American politics, it is always to
advance their own interests, not America’s. Anyone who solicits or accepts foreign assistance risks
being on the wrong end of a federal investigation. Any political campaign that receives an offer of
a prohibited donation from a foreign source should report that offer to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.(1) 52 U.S.C. § 30121(a)(2).
