COMPUTEX 2019
EVERY YEAR FOR A WEEK IN THE BLAZING TAIWAN HEAT, THE PC HARDWARE INDUSTRY GATHERS TO SHOW OFF ITS WARES. COMPUTEX IS THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT ON THE PC CALENDAR, AND MORE NEW PRODUCTS ARE LAUNCHED HERE IN THIS WEEK THAN AT ANY OTHER TIME IN THE YEAR.
HERE’S WHERE WE SEE EXCITING NEW TECHNOLOGIES COME TO LIFE AS PRODUCTS, IT’S WHERE THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE DESIGN AND ENGINEERING ARE ON HAND TO DISCUSS THEIR GEAR AND WHAT MAKES IT WHAT IT IS. IT’S ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR THE GREAT MANY TAIWANESE PC COMPANIES BECAUSE THIS IS THEIR HOME BASE. ALL THE BIG PLAYERS LIKE ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE AND ASROCK, SYNOLOGY, QNAP, COOLER MASTER, THERMALTAKE AND THE VAST SEA OF PERIPHERAL MAKERS ARE HERE IN FORCE, WITH ABSOLUTELY EVERY NEW PRODUCT THEY CAN MUSTER. INDEED, COMPUTEX IS SO CLOSE TO THE HEART OF TAIWAN THAT THE SHOW IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC FOR ITS FINAL TWO DAYS – AND ATTENDANCE IS STRONG.
WE GO BECAUSE IT’S THE VERY BEST WAY TO GET A HANDLE ON WHERE PC TECH IS AT, AND WHAT’S JUST AROUND THE CORNER. PUTTING THE ANNUAL COMPUTEX REPORT TOGETHER IS ALWAYS EXCITING FOR US, AND WE HOPE REWARDING AND INFORMATIVE FOR YOU. THE GEAR IN THE PAGES THAT FOLLOW SHOW WHERE THE PC IS HEADING, AND IN THE MONTHS AHEAD MANY OF THESE PRODUCTS WILL FIND THEIR WAY INTO OUR LABS FOR TESTING AND COMPREHENSIVE REVIEWS.
CPUs INTEL
We came for the CPUs, but left seeing so much more. Yes, Intel at long last unveiled its first properly available 10nm CPUs. They’re up to four-core parts intended for laptops. Known as the Ice Lake family, they’re officially named ‘Intel 10th Generation Core’. Inside is Intel’s new Sunny Cove architecture, which boasts built-in support for Wi-Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax) and Thunderbolt 3. They also have new Iris Plus Gen11 integrated graphics.
There are 11 of these 10th gen CPUs in this first release, covering i3, i5 and i7. Detailed specifications and model names were not announced at Computex, but they’re in the hands of manufacturers, so it won’t be long before we see 10th gen laptops and will know more.
As in the past, Intel has split its new laptop CPUs into two ranges – the Y-series, which will be low power (9W TDP, up from 5W in the last gen), and the U-series which will have a nominal TDP of 15W, though can run higher. Interestingly, both series will have the new integrated graphics (IGP), so even lowly fanless Y-series devices will have some graphics heft. The IGP will run at up to 1.1GHz and sport up to 64 Execution Units, while the CPUs will have a top turbo frequency of 4.1GHz. All up, the new CPUs are said to have a performance boost of around 18% over the last gen Skylake mobile parts introduced in 2016.
These CPUs are exactly the shot in the arm that Wi-Fi 6 needs and there’s no doubt their impending ubiquity will help uptake of the new Wi-Fi standard. It’s
