The annual Computex laptop expo kicks off in Taepei this weekend. And this yr’s present is shaping as much as be essentially the most packed in years.
Computex rivals CES for crucial PC commerce present of the yr, and in most years is attended by not solely the quite a few native Taiwanese companies (Asus, MSI, ASRock, and others), however the main chip builders have been growing their very own presence as properly. Nowadays, whereas CES itself tends to land extra high-profile bulletins, lately it’s been Computex that has delivered on extra substantial bulletins. That is largely as a result of tech companies have aligned their product schedules to roll out close to gear within the second half of the yr, when retail gross sales are stronger as a result of back-to-school and vacation procuring intervals.
This yr’s present, in flip, is seeking to be an particularly huge yr for the PC ecosystem. All the most important PC chip companies – AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and the 4th Musketeer, Qualcomm – are holding keynote addresses at this yr’s present, the place they’re anticipated to announce new slates of PC merchandise to ship later this yr. In a traditional yr there’s usually solely main bulletins from one or two of the most important chip companies, so having all 4 of them on the present delivering prolonged keynotes is setting issues up for what needs to be an distinctive present.
And whereas the present doesn’t formally open till Monday, media briefings are already properly underway on the bottom. Our personal Gavin Bonshor has been in Taiwan since Tuesday for Intel’s 2024 Tech Tour, and that is simply the tip of the iceberg. Consequently, we’re anticipating a deluge of bulletins from the most important chip makers over the following few days.
As has change into customary today, the keynotes from all 4 chip distributors might be broadcast stay. And whereas the native time zone for Taiwan (UTC +8) does imply that these bulletins are at comparatively odd hours, most are nonetheless going down in what are cheap hours to look at them again in North America. And for these of you who can’t catch them stay, AnandTech might be stay running a blog most of those keynotes.
So with out additional ado, right here’s a have a look at the Computex 2024 keynote schedule, and what we’re anticipating to see from these shows.
NVIDIA: What’s Subsequent for the AI Ecosystem
When: June 2nd, 7:00am ET (4:00am PT)
What: NVIDIA’s leather-based jacket-wielding CEO Jensen Huang might be presenting a chat “outlining what’s subsequent for the AI ecosystem.”
Description: NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang will ship a stay keynote on June 2 at 7 p.m. Taiwan Time on the NTU Sports activities Middle and can share how the period of AI is driving a brand new industrial revolution throughout the globe.
The place To Watch: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/occasions/computex/
What To Anticipate: Of the 4 Comuptex-aligned keynotes, NVIDIA’s is each the primary and essentially the most mysterious. The corporate has not telegraphed its intentions for its keynote – and even how lengthy it is going to run. And with nearly all of NVIDIA’s merchandise intersecting the AI market in some vogue, the “AI ecosystem” may conceivably cowl something from servers to smartphones.
With that stated, NVIDIA is coming into this present as the seller farthest from the beginning of their subsequent product cycle. The corporate already introduced an in depth roadmap for it’s all-important server merchandise at their very own GTC convention two months in the past, leaving them with comparatively little to announce at this spring’s expo. And NVIDIA’s shopper GPUs have historically adopted a 2+ yr cadence, which means they’re not due for refresh till later this yr on the earliest. Nonetheless, NVIDIA is solidly within the driver’s seat of its personal future proper now due to the wild success of its Grace Hopper-based accelerators, so the corporate can (and can) do no matter it pleases.
Notably, even NVIDIA’s keynote itself is a giant rogue. Whereas the AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm keynotes are all official Computex keynotes going down on the TaiNEX 2 expo corridor, NVIDIA’s keynote is off-site, going down the evening earlier than the present formally begins on the Nationwide Taiwan College Sports activities Middle.
AMD: The Way forward for Excessive-performance Computing within the AI Period
When: June 2nd, 9:30pm ET (6:30pm PT)
What: AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su might be presenting a keynote entitled “The way forward for high-performance computing within the AI period.”
Description: AI is driving a revolution that’s quickly reshaping each facet of computing and the expertise trade. Dr. Lisa Su will discover how AMD, along with its companions, is pushing the bounds in AI and high-performance computing from the information middle, to the sting and finish consumer units.
The place To Watch: https://www.amd.com/en/company/occasions/computex.html
What To Anticipate: The primary off the official Computex keynotes, AMD’s keynote is the closest factor the present has to a “prime” keynote that kicks off the entire present. Like NVIDIA, AMD’s AI-focused description intersects nearly their whole product stack. However as AMD has been constantly executing on a well-published structure roadmap over the previous couple of years, we have now a good suggestion of what to anticipate right here.
The large expectation right here is contemporary information round AMD’s Zen 5 CPU core structure, and the chips constructed round it. AMD’s most up-to-date Zen 5 roadmap has it slated to ship all three flavors of Zen 5 by the top of this yr, and we’re arising on the two-year anniversary of the Zen 4 structure launch.
Together with shopper chips, AMD has been pushing their server CPUs exhausting, and so they’ve beforehand informed traders that the next-gen EPYC Turin CPU is “trying nice”. So we’ll doubtless hear about each shopper and server Zen 5 product plans throughout this keynote.
On the GPU/accelerator facet of issues, AMD is mid-cycle (at finest) with their Intuition MI300 sequence accelerators. With the corporate’s gross sales repeatedly beating their very own expectations, AMD doesn’t appear to want a lot assist transferring this premium silicon proper now. However with AI being the operative buzzword of this yr’s Computex (and certainly, the computing trade as an entire), it will be bizarre for AMD to not have one thing to say about their quickly rising AI accelerator product line.
AMD’s keynote is scheduled to run for 90 minutes – half an hour longer than both Intel’s or Qualcomm’s – so anticipate this to be a reasonably packed presentation.
Qualcomm: The PC Reborn
When: June 3rd, 1:30am ET (10:30pm PT)
What: Qualcomm’s CEO, Cristiano Amon, might be presenting a keynote entitled “The PC Reborn”
Description: The PC trade is experiencing an inflection level, pushed by era-defining innovation that guarantees to alter how we work together with our PCs going ahead. Amon will break down the developments and expertise which have introduced us right here, and extra importantly, the place they may take us throughout productiveness, creativity, and leisure. Amon will showcase the AI-accelerated experiences customers can anticipate from their next-generation PCs and what expertise is required to convey them to life.
The place To Watch: https://www.qualcomm.com/information/releases/2024/05/qualcomm-president-and-ceo-cristiano-amon-will-deliver-a-keynote
What To Anticipate: The brand new child on the block within the PC house, Qualcomm’s keynote might be extra rapid and centered than the remainder of the chipmakers. The corporate introduced its Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus SoCs over half a yr in the past, and has been touting them since. Now, the primary shopper units primarily based on these chips are simply a few weeks away from transport, so Qualcomm is of their ultimate promotional push for his or her new Home windows-on-Arm platform. Consequently, Qualcomm ought to have much more {hardware} to indicate off, with ultimate silicon and transport SKUs already outlined.
Whereas Snapdragon X shouldn’t be Qualcomm’s first effort to ship an Arm-based SoC for Home windows units – there are 3 generations of 8cx Gen 3 platforms that everybody is comfortable by no means to say once more – the Snapdragon X is Qualcomm’s most critical effort but. At its core is the brand new, high-performance/high-efficiency Oryon CPU core, which mixed with the remainder of Qualcomm’s tried-and-true cell {hardware} expertise, the corporate is hoping to mould right into a revolutionary Arm-based SoC for Home windows laptops. The corporate can be relying on a decade of software program growth on Microsoft’s half to make the Home windows-on-Arm ecosystem entire, to not point out as frictionless as attainable.
Apart from power effectivity, Qualcomm’s different huge push is on the burgeoning area of NPUs. The Snapdragon X NPU is rated to ship 45 TOPS of INT8 efficiency, which makes it the primary PC NPU to satisfy Microsoft’s {hardware} requirement for Home windows 11 Copilot+ AI performance. So Qualcomm is seeking to leverage this time-limited alternative to be the primary to supply new performance within the Home windows house – a privilege usually reserved for Intel or AMD.
Intel: Bringing AI All over the place
When: June 3rd, 11:00pm ET (8:00pm PT)
What: Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger will current a keynote entitled “Bringing AI All over the place.”
Description: Element how AI unlocks new potentialities within the knowledge middle and cloud, PC, and the world over’s community and edge purposes. Gelsinger may also showcase Intel’s next-generation knowledge middle and shopper computing merchandise bringing AI All over the place by making the expertise accessible by way of open ecosystems help.
The place To Watch: https://www.intel.com/content material/www/us/en/occasions/computex.html
What To Anticipate: The ultimate of the most important Computex keynotes, Intel has been essentially the most up-front about what to anticipate from their hour-long presentation. The corporate’s Computex 2024 web page already outlines their 4 main subjects: AI PCs, Xeon 6 Processors, Gaudi AI accelerators, and Intel’s OpenVINO software program ecosystem.
On the buyer {hardware} entrance, the corporate set the desk with a big teaser earlier this month about their forthcoming cell PC SoC, Lunar Lake. The subsequent technology of Core Extremely processors, Intel is touting important power effectivity positive aspects for the mobile-focused chip, with new architectures driving their Efficiency and Effectivity CPU cores, Xe2 GPU, and a a lot quicker 45+ TOPS (INT8) NPU. Whereas the Lunar Lake announcement is coming comparatively quickly after the Meteor Lake launch, Intel has made it clear that it’s not going to carry again on transport future merchandise; they wish to make up for misplaced time. Nonetheless, Lunar Lake units are usually not anticipated to hit retail cabinets till This autumn of this yr, so this announcement is coming months upfront of the {hardware} itself.
On the server entrance, Intel has been publicly prepping for the launch of a brand new technology of Xeons with the Xeon 6 platform. Probably the most notable a part of this being the discharge of the corporate’s first Effectivity-core Xeon, Sierra Forest. Sierra Forest is about to be the primary Xeon 6 chip out the door this yr, and can provide as much as 288 E cores on a single chip, permitting Intel to faucet into the various (many) core CPU markets that AMD and Arm-based rivals have been unopposed at so far.
Lastly, the corporate has totally pivoted its server AI accelerator technique to its Gaudi accelerators. Gaudi 3 was launched again in April, and whereas it isn’t anticipated to go toe-to-toe with NVIDIA’s high accelerators in each workload, Intel is betting that they’ll beat NVIDIA on crucial workloads, all whereas undercutting them considerably in pricing. The primary Gaudi 3 components are set to be launched within the second half of this yr, so hopefully we’ll be listening to a bit extra about Intel’s plans as a part of their keynote.
