Intel Sues Oregon Engineer Who Left For Microsoft, Allegedly Taking Trade Secrets With Him

Intel sued a former Oregon employee last week, alleging he took trade secrets with him when he bolted for Microsoft and used the information to gain an advantage in subsequent business negotiations with Intel. From a report: The engineer, Varun Gupta, worked for Intel for a decade before leaving for Microsoft in January 2020, according to the suit. He allegedly loaded…

Security Researchers Detail New ‘BlindSide’ Speculative Execution Attack

“Security researchers from Amsterdam have publicly detailed ‘BlindSide’ as a new speculative execution attack vector for both Intel and AMD processors,” reports Phoronix:
BlindSide is self-described as being able to “mount BROP-style attacks in the speculative execution domain to repeatedly probe and derandomize the kernel address space, craft arbitrary memory read gadgets, and enable reliable exploitation. This works even in face of…

Massive 20GB Intel IP Data Breach Floods the Internet, Mentions Backdoors

FallOutBoyTonto writes: A leaker today posted on Twitter a link to a file sharing service that contains what an anonymous source claims is a portion of Intel’s crown jewels: A 20GB folder of confidential Intel intellectual property. The leaker dubbed the release the “Intel exconfidential Lake Platform Release ;)” The folder has been posted by an anonymous source that claims more…

Lenovo and AMD Launch Threadripper Pro CPU To Take on Intel Xeon

AMD finally brings a workstation-class — in other words, security-conscious — processor to challenge the Intel Xeon on the desktop with its Ryzen Threadripper Pro. With up to 64 cores, the pro version of AMD’s multicore powerhouse Threadripper processors incorporates essentials like support for massive amounts of memory and board-level security, critical for uses which move a ton of sensitive data,…

AMD Launches 3 Second-Gen Epyc Processors With 50% Lower Cost of Ownership

Advanced Micro Devices said it is adding three new 2nd-Gen AMD Epyc server processors that can deliver up to 50% lower cost of ownership than rival Intel Xeon processors. From a report: The chips are part of AMD’s attempt to grab technology leadership away from Intel, which has long dominated the server chip market. AMD has had an advantage lately with…

Ampere Altra is the First 80-core ARM-based Server Processor

Ampere has unveiled the industry’s first 80-core ARM-based 64-bit server processor today in a bid to outdo Intel and Advanced Micro Devices in datacenter chips. From a report: Ampere announced today that it has begun providing samples of the Ampere Altra processor for modern cloud and edge computing datacenters. The Ampere Altra processor runs on 210 watts and is targeted at…

Intel Debuts 5G Server and Base Station Chips, Plus a PC Network Card

Intel’s sale of its consumer 5G modem unit signaled its exit from the smartphone business last year, but the company remains heavily committed to participating in the growing 5G marketplace — primarily on the carrier and enterprise sides. Today, the company announced three chips built for various types of 5G computers, plus a 5G-optimized network adapter for PCs. From a report:…

AMD Threadripper 3990X 64-Core Beast Spotted Outscoring Dual Intel Xeon Platinum

MojoKid writes: When AMD unveiled its forthcoming Ryzen Threadripper 3990X 64-core processor at CES 2020 this year, the company made no bones about comparing its performance to a many-core competitive platform from Intel. Under the hood of the yet formally released high-end workstation AMD chip are 64 physical cores capable of processing 128 threads in SMT, with a 2.9GHz base clock,…

‘We’re Approaching the Limits of Computer Power — We Need New Programmers Now’

Ever-faster processors led to bloated software, but physical limits may force a return to the concise code of the past. John Naughton: Moore’s law is just a statement of an empirical correlation observed over a particular period in history and we are reaching the limits of its application. In 2010, Moore himself predicted that the laws of physics would call a…

AMD Unveils Ryzen 4000 Mobile CPUs Claiming Big Gains, 64-Core Threadripper

MojoKid writes: Yesterday, AMD launched its new Ryzen 4000 Series mobile processors for laptops at CES 2020, along with a monstrous 64-core/128-thread third-generation Ryzen Threadripper workstation desktop CPU. In addition to the new processors, on the graphics front the oft-leaked Radeon RX 5600 XT that target’s 1080p gamers in the sweet spot of the GPU market was also made official. In…