Intel

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Apple M1 Max vs Intel Alder Lake Core i9 - Who Wins?

Charlotte Henry ·

Benchmarks are out for Intel’s Alder Lake Core i9 chip. The raw numbers look like a win for PC users, even when compared with Apple’s M1 Max. However, as Macworld pointed out, there is a bit more to consider when making comparisons.

Geekbench 5’s OpenCL graphics benchmark results look dramatic. The PC laptops PCWorld tested have expensive discrete GPUs that offer peak performance, and it shows in the results. But a more applicable comparison is to examine the results for the integrated GPUs. In this case, the M1 Max and its 32-core GPU posts a 183 percent increase over the Alder Lake’s integrated GPU, an Iris Xe.

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Here's What Coinbase and Intel Think About the 'Metaverse'

Andrew Orr ·

“The Metaverse” has been hyped in the news recently by companies such as Facebook/Meta. Brian Armstrong, CEO and cofounder of crypto exchange Coinbase, as well as Raja Koduri, Senior vice president and General manager of the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group at Intel, both recently shared their thoughts.

From Mr. Koduri: “Truly persistent and immersive computing, at scale and accessible by billions of humans in real time, will require even more: a 1,000-times increase in computational efficiency from today’s state of the art.”

From Mr. Armstrong: “The Metaverse is the distant evolution of Web3. In its most complete form, it will be a series of decentralized, interconnected virtual worlds with a fully functioning economy where people can do just about anything they can do in the physical world.”

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Intel Stockpiles Legacy Hardware for Security Research at Costa Rica Facility

Andrew Orr ·

The Wall Street Journal reports that Intel has a facility in Costa Rica where it stores legacy hardware for security research.

Intel’s issue reflects a wider concern: Legacy technology can introduce cybersecurity weaknesses. Tech makers constantly improve their products to take advantage of speed and power increases, but customers don’t always upgrade at the same pace. This creates a long tail of old products that remain in widespread use, vulnerable to attacks.

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After Ad Campaign, Intel Launches ‘PC vs. Mac’ Website

Andrew Orr ·

After releasing its ad campaign featuring Justin Long, Intel released a “PC vs. Mac” website comparing the platforms. Juli Clover shares:

Intel positions PCs as more “personalized” to fit a user’s “specific hardware and software needs,” while the ‌M1‌ Macs offer “limited” device support, games, and creation applications. “The bottom line is a PC offers users a choice, something that users don’t get with a Mac,” reads the website.

Notice how all of Intel’s examples are features of Windows, not Intel, a.k.a. actual performance statistics. What a joke.

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Researchers Extract Intel CPU Encryption Key

Andrew Orr ·

Security researchers have successfully extracted the Intel CPU encryption key used to secure updates to the chip.

The key makes it possible to decrypt the microcode updates Intel provides to fix security vulnerabilities and other types of bugs. Having a decrypted copy of an update may allow hackers to reverse engineer it and learn precisely how to exploit the hole it’s patching. The key may also allow parties other than Intel—say a malicious hacker or a hobbyist—to update chips with their own microcode, although that customized version wouldn’t survive a reboot.

Of course, it’s the “other parties” to worry about. The key can be extracted from any chip that uses Intel’s Goldmont architecture. This is used for low-power chips like the Atom, Celeron, and Pentium brands.