SoylentNews

TSMC 5nm Products Leaked: AMD Zen 4 CPUs, RDNA3 GPUs, NVIDIA Hopper and Potentially An ‘Intel Xe’ GPU

Products manufactured on the upcoming TSMC 5nm have already been confirmed in a leak from ChinaTimes and while it had products that we were already expecting: AMD Zen 4 CPUs, AMD Radeon RDNA 3 GPUs and NVIDIA Hopper GPU, it also had an unexpected entry: Intel's Xe graphics. There have been a lot of rumblings on the rumor mill of Intel moving to 5nm and this is another feather in that hat. While the bit about AMD CPUs and GPUs and NVIDIA Hopper is confirmed, I would take the portion about Intel Xe with a grain of salt because as per my information - nothing is set in stone right now.

[...] 2021~2022 Mass Production:
AMD: Zen4-architecture CPUs and RDNA3-architecture GPUs
Broadcom: High-speed network processor
Qualcomm: Snapdragon 875 and X60 and other 5G modem
Nvidia: Hopper-architecture GPUs
Mediatek: Dimensity 2000 series 5G chips
Intel: Xe-architecture GPUs or FPGA
Apple: A15 application processor
Huawei HiSilicon: Kirin 1100, AI and Server processors

Zen 4 may launch in late 2021, but could easily slip into 2022.

Intel was said to be producing a high-end GPU on TSMC "7nm", so this would be a follow-up. It could also be an indication that their own "7nm" process (comparable to TSMC "5nm") is failing, or they are hedging their bets and can make any product they want on that node.

Dimensity 1000 looked good on paper, so the follow-up should be interesting.

Separate Snapdragon 875 info:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 flagship 5nm chipset’s details leaked

WTF is "Bluetooth Milan"?

Black Mirror creator not working on season 6 because we already feel depressed

Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker believes humanity could use a bleakness break.

Brooker revealed to the U.K.'s Radio Times that he's not currently working on writing season 6 of Netflix's Emmy-winning series because we've already found ourselves plunged into a nightmarish dystopia like those explored in his shows.

‘Black Mirror’ Creator Says the World Is Too Bleak Right Now for Season 6 to Happen

Black Mirror

BreadBee: A tiny alternative to the Raspberry Pi Zero that supports Linux and costs just US$10

The BreadBee is an ultra-compact board for developers. Measuring in at just 32 x 30 mm, the BreadBee is considerably smaller than other SBCs like the Raspberry Pi Zero. The BreadBee is rather tall though as developer Daniel Palmer has included an Ethernet port. The RJ45 port can transmit data at up to 100 MBit/s. The BreadBee does not support Wi-Fi, but a future model may have an Ampak Wi-Fi module in place of the Ethernet port.

The BreadBee is based on an MStar MSC313E processor, which integrates an ARM Cortex-A7 core with NEON and FPU that runs at 1.0 GHz. There is also 64 MB of DDR2 RAM and 16 MP of SPI NOR flash memory.

Additionally, Palmer has included two multi-pin headers. Specifically, there is a 24-pin dual-row header with a 2.54 mm pitch on one side, which support SPI, I2C, UART and GPIO. On the reverse, Palmer has included a 21-pin header with a 1.27 mm pitch that supports SD/SDIO, USB 2.0 and GPIO.

Also at CNX Software.

BreadBee board will soon be launched on Crowd Supply, and the cost to make the board is said to be around $10 in small quantities. I think Daniel is a regular reader and commenter on CNX Software and may be able to answer any questions here.

AnandTech editor reports that Intel may be incentivizing mini PC makers to delay or not build AMD-based models

AMD was introducing its Ryzen-based mini PCs in late 2019 as alternatives for Intel’s NUC models, but most of these came powered with embedded solutions like the V1000 and R1000 CPUs, or at most Ryzen 2000 APUs. Only Zotac announced a few Ryzen 3 3200U models earlier this year and the company hinted that we could eventually see some mini PCs powered by the freshly launched Ryzen 4000 Renoir APUs later this year. Anandtech's respected reviewer Ian Cutress suggests that this might not be the case and it may take mini PC OEMs up to a year to introduce Renoir-based models, as Intel is actually incentivizing most prominent vendors to delay or not build any AMD-based mini PCs at all.

Some of the OEMs that already joined AMD’s “anti-NUC alliance” include OnLogic, EEPD, Simply NUC, Tranquil PC and ASRock. While the first four are smaller companies that do not have a highly-diversified portfolio, ASRock is already a well-established mini PC maker, and we would expect more powerful mini PC solutions, yet, as it stands, ASRock just began offering mini PC builds sporting the Ryzen 3000 Picasso APUs along with the older Raven Ridge and Bristol Bridge solutions, and that is exactly one year after the launch of the Picasso APUs, as pointed out by Ian Cutress. We are seeing either a 1-year delay for AMD-based small form-factor models, or absolutely no AMD-based mini PCs in the case of big brands like Dell, Asus or MSI, so Cutress may be onto something here.

AMD best-buds, TSMC, designed an 'enhanced' 5nm node for its future Ryzen chips

In a news story from Chainnews (via @chiakokhua), ostensibly about the cut in 5nm and 7nm production orders from Huawei, the piece also notes that TSMC isn't worried about this drop because Apple has taken up the slack. It's asking for a whole bunch of extra chip wafers, potentially competing with AMD for 5nm demand at the end of this year.

But the piece also goes on to say that: "TSMC is said to have developed a 5nm enhanced version of its process specifically for AMD, which has a capacity requirement of no less than 20,000 12-inch wafers per month."

TSMC Delays The Production Of 3nm By 6 Months Amidst Equipment Shortages In The Wake Of The Pandemic – 5nm Is Still On Schedule With Production At Full Capacity

Gaming laptops will never be the same, and it's all thanks to AMD

AMD Zen 3 Based Ryzen 4000 ‘Vermeer’ Desktop CPUs Will Be Compatible With Existing AM4 (X570, X470, B550, B450) Motherboards, Confirmed By XMG

Neural Voice Puppetry: Audio-driven Facial Reenactment (5m28s video)

This AI Makes "Audio Deepfakes" (5m37s video)

Demo (disabled)

arXiv

Previously: Deeper Fakes

Bernie Sanders Drops Out of 2020 Democratic Race for President (archive)

Mr. Sanders championed and popularized liberal policies like “Medicare for all” and free four-year public colleges aimed at lifting up America’s working class, but he faced opposition from many party leaders, elected officials and major donors, as well as large numbers of moderate voters who saw him as too far left.

Mr. Sanders never accepted that argument. In recent weeks he said repeatedly that he had won the ideological debate, asserting that a strong majority of Democrats supported his progressive agenda. But during a striking news conference in Burlington, Vt., last month, he also acknowledged that he was losing the electability battle to Mr. Biden, saying voters had made clear that they thought the former vice president was the best candidate to beat Mr. Trump.

He repeated that argument in his announcement on Wednesday.

“Focusing on that new vision for America is what our campaign has been about and what in fact we have accomplished,’’ he said. “Few would deny that over the course of the past five years our movement has won the ideological struggle.”

Alleged sex pest Joe Biden in.

Latest Zen 3 rumor further reiterates 10-15% IPC gains per thread and 32 MB of shared L3 cache per CCX, Zen 4 to feature 1 MB L2 cache and AVX 512 support

According to AdoredTV's sources, the IPC gains in Zen 3 will be on par with that of Zen 2, which is between 10-15% per thread. Multi-threaded workloads could still see larger IPC gains. Zen 3 will also introduce a new CCX design, which could be among those core architecture improvements Dr. Lisa Su had alluded to earlier. Zen 3 will have one CCX with eight cores with a single L3 cache at 32 MB per CCX. Larger caches such as 48 MB or 64 MB are not indicated. With the new cache design, more number of cores now have access to a common L3 cache on the same die. This will likely reduce latency and improve gaming performance. Zen 3 will continue to use SMT-2 and not SMT-4 as was rumored earlier.

[...] Also being confirmed is something that we had reported back in December 2019 — that the 5nm Zen 4 Ryzen 5000 will herald the beginning of a new socket. New information we have now is that Zen 4 will feature more cores, a 1 MB L2 cache, AVX 512 support, and will look to offer much improved IPC.

"Rumor" in this case means "anonymous sources who (supposedly) emailed a YouTuber".

It was previously reported that Zen 3 would have a modest ~10-12% increase in integer operation performance, but something like a 50% increase in floating point operations.

Zen 2 has 512 KiB of L2 cache per core. New denser nodes like TSMC's "5nm" can allow an increase in the amount without increasing latency. This could go up even more in the future if 3D stacking is used, but the only thing that AMD has talked about so far is the use of HBM stacks on an interposer.

Zen 4 should be pretty interesting. AVX-512 support would allow it to catch up to Intel in the few benchmarks and pieces of software that actually use AVX-512 instructions, and could lead it to become more widely used. I am guessing that Zen 4 will have up to 50% more cores, e.g. a 24-core Ryzen 9 5950X.

NEW!: This AI Makes "Audio Deepfakes" (5m37s)

Neural Voice Puppetry: Audio-driven Facial Reenactment

Everybody Can Make DeepFakes Now! (6m55s)

Hyperparameter Tuning As Easy As 1-2-3

First Order Motion Model for Image Animation

Older video: This AI Makes The Mona Lisa Speak…And More! (4m22s)
Older video: This AI Makes Amazing DeepFakes…and More (4m48s)

The audio synthesis part might be more difficult, or the code is being deliberately held back.

President Trump's Job Approval Rating Up to 49%

Approval rating up five percentage points from prior poll
60% approve of president's response to COVID-19
Job approval higher among independents, Democrats

The data was collected from March 13 to March 22. Some gaffes were reported during this time but it might take another round of polling to measure any effect from those.

President Trump is as popular as he's ever been right now

Trump’s Reelection May Hinge On The Economy — And Coronavirus

A lot can go wrong for Trump, and even if the economy bounces back, a lot of local businesses could end up shuttered (say goodbye to comic book shops, many restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, real estate agents, etc). But he is riding high and the media has picked up on why:

The media must stop live-broadcasting Trump’s dangerous, destructive coronavirus briefings
Trump uses daily coronavirus briefings to replace campaign rallies
Are Trump's coronavirus briefings the new 2020 campaign rallies?
“They Are a Clown Show”: Media Orgs Wrestle With Covering Trump’s Campaign-Rally COVID-19 Briefings
CNN and MSNBC Staff Push Back on Airing Trump’s Coronavirus ‘Lies’
Trump’s White House coronavirus briefings draw ‘Bachelor,’ ‘MNF’ ratings
Trump’s Briefings Are a Ratings Hit. Should Networks Cover Them Live?
Trump Turns a Crisis Into His New Nightly TV Show
Trump's coronavirus briefings see big audiences. Some argue that's bad

Free press was helpful to Trump in 2016, when Hillary Clinton outspent him about 2-to-1.

Joe Biden Debuts His Own Briefing To Counter Donald Trump’s Daily Spotlight
Joe Biden found his footing — then coronavirus changed everything

The marketing blitz, though, is undermined by a Biden campaign that still seems unprepared for this moment. The jury-rigged television studio in the rec room of Biden’s house projects more like a home-movie production than a high-tech presidential campaign.

He gave his first speech — about COVID-19, of course — on Monday, amid confusion about when the remarks would start. Biden got out of sync with the teleprompter and lost his place. He called the governor of Massachusetts “Charlie Parker” (his last name is Baker).

That was the bad news. The good news was that viewership was limited. None of the major television stations carried it live. It both relieved and frustrated many backers of the former vice president. The operational glitches of the campaign right now make them cringe.

When low viewership is seen as a positive (because gaffes go unnoticed), you've got a problem. Reuters points out the effect on fundraising:

Biden battles for attention as coronavirus threatens to blunt Democrat's momentum

But when [Joe Biden] delivered the debut speech on Monday morning, major cable news networks broadcast New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus briefing instead.

[...] Instead of the former vice president wrapping up the Democratic nomination, the coronavirus has taken attention away from the 2020 White House race and threatens to blunt Biden’s momentum by postponing state nominating elections and indefinitely halting in-person campaign events and fundraisers.

By contrast, Trump, who initially played down the virus’ impact, has used his daily televised White House briefings on the crisis to project optimism about getting the pandemic under control and grab media attention.

The turn of events frustrates Democrats who were eager to move past the nominating contest’s intraparty fighting. It is forcing the Biden campaign to recalibrate quickly to find new ways to connect with voters and donors and compete for attention as Trump leads the national response to the crisis.

“You’re not going to have high-dollar donor parties,” said Ed Rendell, the former Pennsylvania governor and Democratic National Committee chairman, who supports Biden. “That’s going to hurt.”

Trump can get free press as usual (for now), Biden's messaging can't seem to get the same traction, and you can kiss those $50,000-a-plate fundraiser dinners goodbye.

Some media outlets may stop giving Trump's daily briefings coverage, but that would hurt ratings and ad revenue. So history could repeat itself.