Asus Launches Low-Profile GeForce RTX 3050 6GB: A Tiny Graphics Card for All PCs
Asus this week has become the latest PC video card manufacturer to announce a sub-75W video card based on NVIDIA's recently-released low-power GeForce RTX 3050 6GB design. And going one step further for small form factor PC owners, Asus has used NVIDIA's low-power GPU configuration to produce a half-height video card that can fit into low-profile systems.
As Asus puts it, the GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6GB GDDR6 is a 'big productivity in a small package' and for a low-profile dual-slot graphics board, it indeed is. The unit has three display outputs, including a DVI-D, HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 1.4a with HDCP 2.3 support, which makes the graphics card s viable option both for a a dual-display desktop and a home theater PC (Nvidia's GA107 graphics processor supports all popular codecs except AV1). Furthermore, a DVI-D output enables the card to drive outdated displays, which even over half a decade after DVI-D was retired, still hang around as spare parts. Meanwhile, because the card only consumes around 70W, it does not require any auxiliary PCIe power connectors, which are at times not available in cheap systems from big PC makers.
Underlying this card is the aforementioned GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB, which uses the GA107 GPU with 2304 CUDA cores, and it comes with 6GB of GDDR6 memory connected to a narrower 96-bit memory bus (down from 128-bits for the full 8GB version. With a lower boost clock of 1470 MHz (1500 MHz in OC mode), the RTX 3050 6GB has reduced computing performance, delivering 6.77 FP32 TFLOPS versus 9.1 FP32 TFLOPS of the full-fledged RTX 3050.
As a result, the low-profile GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB is very much an entry-level card, though the low power requirements for such a card are also what make it special. This should be plenty for low-end gaming – beating out integrated GPUs – though suffice it to say, it's not going to compete with high-end, power-hungry cards either.
With its diminutive size, the Asus GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6 GB GDDR6 looks to be a nice candidate for upgrading cheap systems from OEMs as well as fixing outdated PCs. What remains to be seen is how price competitive it is going to be. The graphics board already has one low-profile rival from MSI — which costs $185 — so Asus is not the only vendor competing here.
GPUs
Posted by The Techinical Support
MiTAC/Tyan Shows Off Motherboard and Servers for Intel's Xeon 6 CPUs 
Later this year Intel is set to introduce its Xeon 6-branded processors, codenamed Granite Rapids (6x00P) and Sierra Forest (6x00E). And with it will come a new slew of server motherboards and pre-built server platforms to go with it. On the latter note, this will be the first generation where Intel won't be offering any pre-builts of its own, after selling that business off to MiTAC last year.
To that end, MiTAC and its subsidiary Tyan were at this year's event to demonstrate what they've been up to since acquiring Intel's server business unit, as well as to show off the server platforms they're developing for the Xeon 6 family. Altogether, the companies had two server platforms on display – a compact 2S system, and a larger 2S system with significant expansion capabilities – as well as a pair of single-socket designs from Tyan.
The most basic platform that MiTAC had to show is their TX86-E7148 (Katmai Pass), a half-width 1U system that's the successor to Intel's D50DNP platform. Katmai Pass has two CPU sockets, supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 16 slots (8 per CPU), and has two low-profile PCIe 5.0 x16 slots. Like its predecessor, this platform is aimed at mainstream servers that do not need a lot of storage or room to house bulky add-in cards like AI accelerators.
The company's other platform is TX77A-E7142 (Deer Creek Pass), a considerably more serious offering that replaces Intel's M50FCP platform. This board can house up to 4 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 32 slots (16 per CPU with 2DPC), four PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 5.0 x8 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 24 hot-swap U.2 bays. Deer Creek Pass can be used both for general-purpose workloads, high-performance storage, as well as workloads that require GPUs or other special-purpose accelerators.
Meanwhile Tyan had the single-socket Thunder CX GC73A-B5660 on display. That system supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 memory over 16 RDIMMs and offers two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 12 hot-swappable U.2 drive bays.
Finally, Tyan's Thunder HX S5662 is an HPC server board specifically designed to house multiple AI accelerators and other large PCIe cards. This board supports one Xeon 6 6700 processor, up to 1 TB of memory over eight DDR5-6400 RDIMMs, and has five tradiitonal PCIe 5.0 x16 slots as well as two PCIe 5.0 x2 M.2 slots for storage.
MiTAC is expected to start shipments of these new Xeon 6 motherboards in the coming months, as Intel rolls out its next-generation datacenter CPUs. Pricing of these platforms is unknown for now, but expect it to be comparable to... Servers
Realtek Outlines SSD Controller Roadmap: High-End PCIe 5.0 x4 Platform in the Works 
While Realtek is best known in the enthusiast space for for its peripheral controllers such as audio codecs and network controllers, the company also has a small-but-respectable SSD controller business that tends to fly under the radar due to its focus on entry-level and mainstream drives. But Realtek's stature in the SSD space is on the rise, as the company is not only planning new PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers, but also their first high-end, DRAM-equipped SSD controller.
For this year's Computex trade show, Realtek laid out a new SSD controller roadmap that calls for the company to release a trio of new SSD controllers over the next couple of years. First up is a new four-channel entry-level PCIe 4.0 controller, the RTS5776DL, which will be joined a bit later by a PCIe 5.0 variant, the RTS5781DL. But most interesting on Realtek's new roadmap is the final chip being planned: the eight-channel, DRAM-equipped RTS5782, which would be the company's first high-end SSD controller, capable of hitting sequential read rates as high as 14GB/second.
| Realtek NVMe SSD Controller Comparison | |||||||||
| RTS5782 | RTS5781DL | RTS5776DL | RTS5772DL | RTS5766DL | |||||
| Market Segment | High-End | Mainstream | Entry-Level | ||||||
| Error Correction | 4K LDPC | 2K LDPC | |||||||
| DRAM | DDR4, LPDDR4(X) | No | No | No | No | ||||
| Host Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||||
| NVMe Version | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 1.4 | NVMe 1.4 | ||||
| NAND Channels, Interface Speed | 8 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
8 ch, 1600 MT/s |
4 ch, 1200 MT/s |
||||
| Sequential Read | 14 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 3.2 GB/s | ||||
| Sequential Write | 12 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 2.2 GB/s | ||||
| 4KB Random Read IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
| 4KB Random Write IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
Diving a bit deeper into Realtek's roadmap, the RTS5776DL is traditional DRAM-less PCIe Gen4 x4 controller with four NAND chann... SSDs
Realtek Outlines SSD Controller Roadmap: High-End PCIe 5.0 x4 Platform in the Works
While Realtek is best known in the enthusiast space for for its peripheral controllers such as audio codecs and network controllers, the company also has a small-but-respectable SSD controller business that tends to fly under the radar due to its focus on entry-level and mainstream drives. But Realtek's stature in the SSD space is on the rise, as the company is not only planning new PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers, but also their first high-end, DRAM-equipped SSD controller.
For this year's Computex trade show, Realtek laid out a new SSD controller roadmap that calls for the company to release a trio of new SSD controllers over the next couple of years. First up is a new four-channel entry-level PCIe 4.0 controller, the RTS5776DL, which will be joined a bit later by a PCIe 5.0 variant, the RTS5781DL. But most interesting on Realtek's new roadmap is the final chip being planned: the eight-channel, DRAM-equipped RTS5782, which would be the company's first high-end SSD controller, capable of hitting sequential read rates as high as 14GB/second.
| Realtek NVMe SSD Controller Comparison | |||||||||
| RTS5782 | RTS5781DL | RTS5776DL | RTS5772DL | RTS5766DL | |||||
| Market Segment | High-End | Mainstream | Entry-Level | ||||||
| Error Correction | 4K LDPC | 2K LDPC | |||||||
| DRAM | DDR4, LPDDR4(X) | No | No | No | No | ||||
| Host Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||||
| NVMe Version | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 1.4 | NVMe 1.4 | ||||
| NAND Channels, Interface Speed | 8 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
8 ch, 1600 MT/s |
4 ch, 1200 MT/s |
||||
| Sequential Read | 14 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 3.2 GB/s | ||||
| Sequential Write | 12 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 2.2 GB/s | ||||
| 4KB Random Read IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
| 4KB Random Write IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
Diving a bit deeper into Realtek's roadmap, the RTS5776DL is traditional DRAM-less PCIe Gen4 x4 controller with four NAND chann... SSDs
MiTAC/Tyan Shows Off Motherboard and Servers for Intel's Xeon 6 CPUs
Later this year Intel is set to introduce its Xeon 6-branded processors, codenamed Granite Rapids (6x00P) and Sierra Forest (6x00E). And with it will come a new slew of server motherboards and pre-built server platforms to go with it. On the latter note, this will be the first generation where Intel won't be offering any pre-builts of its own, after selling that business off to MiTAC last year.
To that end, MiTAC and its subsidiary Tyan were at this year's event to demonstrate what they've been up to since acquiring Intel's server business unit, as well as to show off the server platforms they're developing for the Xeon 6 family. Altogether, the companies had two server platforms on display – a compact 2S system, and a larger 2S system with significant expansion capabilities – as well as a pair of single-socket designs from Tyan.
The most basic platform that MiTAC had to show is their TX86-E7148 (Katmai Pass), a half-width 1U system that's the successor to Intel's D50DNP platform. Katmai Pass has two CPU sockets, supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 16 slots (8 per CPU), and has two low-profile PCIe 5.0 x16 slots. Like its predecessor, this platform is aimed at mainstream servers that do not need a lot of storage or room to house bulky add-in cards like AI accelerators.
The company's other platform is TX77A-E7142 (Deer Creek Pass), a considerably more serious offering that replaces Intel's M50FCP platform. This board can house up to 4 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 32 slots (16 per CPU with 2DPC), four PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 5.0 x8 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 24 hot-swap U.2 bays. Deer Creek Pass can be used both for general-purpose workloads, high-performance storage, as well as workloads that require GPUs or other special-purpose accelerators.
Meanwhile Tyan had the single-socket Thunder CX GC73A-B5660 on display. That system supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 memory over 16 RDIMMs and offers two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 12 hot-swappable U.2 drive bays.
Finally, Tyan's Thunder HX S5662 is an HPC server board specifically designed to house multiple AI accelerators and other large PCIe cards. This board supports one Xeon 6 6700 processor, up to 1 TB of memory over eight DDR5-6400 RDIMMs, and has five tradiitonal PCIe 5.0 x16 slots as well as two PCIe 5.0 x2 M.2 slots for storage.
MiTAC is expected to start shipments of these new Xeon 6 motherboards in the coming months, as Intel rolls out its next-generation datacenter CPUs. Pricing of these platforms is unknown for now, but expect it to be comparable to... Servers
Realtek Outlines SSD Controller Roadmap: High-End PCIe 5.0 x4 Platform in the Works
While Realtek is best known in the enthusiast space for for its peripheral controllers such as audio codecs and network controllers, the company also has a small-but-respectable SSD controller business that tends to fly under the radar due to its focus on entry-level and mainstream drives. But Realtek's stature in the SSD space is on the rise, as the company is not only planning new PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers, but also their first high-end, DRAM-equipped SSD controller.
For this year's Computex trade show, Realtek laid out a new SSD controller roadmap that calls for the company to release a trio of new SSD controllers over the next couple of years. First up is a new four-channel entry-level PCIe 4.0 controller, the RTS5776DL, which will be joined a bit later by a PCIe 5.0 variant, the RTS5781DL. But most interesting on Realtek's new roadmap is the final chip being planned: the eight-channel, DRAM-equipped RTS5782, which would be the company's first high-end SSD controller, capable of hitting sequential read rates as high as 14GB/second.
| Realtek NVMe SSD Controller Comparison | |||||||||
| RTS5782 | RTS5781DL | RTS5776DL | RTS5772DL | RTS5766DL | |||||
| Market Segment | High-End | Mainstream | Entry-Level | ||||||
| Error Correction | 4K LDPC | 2K LDPC | |||||||
| DRAM | DDR4, LPDDR4(X) | No | No | No | No | ||||
| Host Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||||
| NVMe Version | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 1.4 | NVMe 1.4 | ||||
| NAND Channels, Interface Speed | 8 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
8 ch, 1600 MT/s |
4 ch, 1200 MT/s |
||||
| Sequential Read | 14 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 3.2 GB/s | ||||
| Sequential Write | 12 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 2.2 GB/s | ||||
| 4KB Random Read IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
| 4KB Random Write IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
Diving a bit deeper into Realtek's roadmap, the RTS5776DL is traditional DRAM-less PCIe Gen4 x4 controller with four NAND chann... SSDs
Realtek Outlines SSD Controller Roadmap: High-End PCIe 5.0 x4 Platform in the Works
While Realtek is best known in the enthusiast space for for its peripheral controllers such as audio codecs and network controllers, the company also has a small-but-respectable SSD controller business that tends to fly under the radar due to its focus on entry-level and mainstream drives. But Realtek's stature in the SSD space is on the rise, as the company is not only planning new PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers, but also their first high-end, DRAM-equipped SSD controller.
For this year's Computex trade show, Realtek laid out a new SSD controller roadmap that calls for the company to release a trio of new SSD controllers over the next couple of years. First up is a new four-channel entry-level PCIe 4.0 controller, the RTS5776DL, which will be joined a bit later by a PCIe 5.0 variant, the RTS5781DL. But most interesting on Realtek's new roadmap is the final chip being planned: the eight-channel, DRAM-equipped RTS5782, which would be the company's first high-end SSD controller, capable of hitting sequential read rates as high as 14GB/second.
| Realtek NVMe SSD Controller Comparison | |||||||||
| RTS5782 | RTS5781DL | RTS5776DL | RTS5772DL | RTS5766DL | |||||
| Market Segment | High-End | Mainstream | Entry-Level | ||||||
| Error Correction | 4K LDPC | 2K LDPC | |||||||
| DRAM | DDR4, LPDDR4(X) | No | No | No | No | ||||
| Host Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||||
| NVMe Version | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 1.4 | NVMe 1.4 | ||||
| NAND Channels, Interface Speed | 8 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
8 ch, 1600 MT/s |
4 ch, 1200 MT/s |
||||
| Sequential Read | 14 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 3.2 GB/s | ||||
| Sequential Write | 12 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 2.2 GB/s | ||||
| 4KB Random Read IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
| 4KB Random Write IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
Diving a bit deeper into Realtek's roadmap, the RTS5776DL is traditional DRAM-less PCIe Gen4 x4 controller with four NAND chann... SSDs
Realtek Outlines SSD Controller Roadmap: High-End PCIe 5.0 x4 Platform in the Works
While Realtek is best known in the enthusiast space for for its peripheral controllers such as audio codecs and network controllers, the company also has a small-but-respectable SSD controller business that tends to fly under the radar due to its focus on entry-level and mainstream drives. But Realtek's stature in the SSD space is on the rise, as the company is not only planning new PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers, but also their first high-end, DRAM-equipped SSD controller.
For this year's Computex trade show, Realtek laid out a new SSD controller roadmap that calls for the company to release a trio of new SSD controllers over the next couple of years. First up is a new four-channel entry-level PCIe 4.0 controller, the RTS5776DL, which will be joined a bit later by a PCIe 5.0 variant, the RTS5781DL. But most interesting on Realtek's new roadmap is the final chip being planned: the eight-channel, DRAM-equipped RTS5782, which would be the company's first high-end SSD controller, capable of hitting sequential read rates as high as 14GB/second.
| Realtek NVMe SSD Controller Comparison | |||||||||
| RTS5782 | RTS5781DL | RTS5776DL | RTS5772DL | RTS5766DL | |||||
| Market Segment | High-End | Mainstream | Entry-Level | ||||||
| Error Correction | 4K LDPC | 2K LDPC | |||||||
| DRAM | DDR4, LPDDR4(X) | No | No | No | No | ||||
| Host Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||||
| NVMe Version | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 1.4 | NVMe 1.4 | ||||
| NAND Channels, Interface Speed | 8 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
8 ch, 1600 MT/s |
4 ch, 1200 MT/s |
||||
| Sequential Read | 14 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 3.2 GB/s | ||||
| Sequential Write | 12 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 2.2 GB/s | ||||
| 4KB Random Read IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
| 4KB Random Write IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
Diving a bit deeper into Realtek's roadmap, the RTS5776DL is traditional DRAM-less PCIe Gen4 x4 controller with four NAND chann... SSDs
TSMCs Q2'24 Results: Best Quarter Ever as HPC Revenue Share Exceeds 52% on AI Demand 
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. this week said its revenue for the second quarter 2024 reached $20.82 billion, making it the company's best quarter (at least in dollars) to date. TSMC's high-performance computing (HPC) platform revenue share exceeded 52% for the first time in many years due to demand for AI processors and rebound of the PC market.
TSMC earned $20.82 billion USD in revenue for the second quarter of 2024, a 32.8% year-over-year increase and a 10.3% increase from the previous quarter. Perhaps more remarkable, $20.82 billion is a higher result than the company posted Q3 2022 ($20.23 billion), the foundry's best quarter to date. Otherwise, in terms of profitability, TSMC booked $7.59 billion in net income for the quarter, for a gross margin of 53.2%. This is a decent bit off of TSMC's record margin of 60.4% (Q3'22), and comes as the company is still in the process of further ramping its N3 (3nm-class) fab lines.
When it comes to wafer revenue share, the company's N3 process technologies (3nm-class) accounted for 15% of wafer revenue in Q2 (up from 9% in the previous quarter), N5 production nodes (4nm and 5nm-classes) commanded 35% of TSMC's earnings in the second quarter (down from 37% in Q1 2024), and N7 fabrication processes (6nm and 7nm-classes) accounted for 17% of the foundry's wafer revenue in the second quarter of 2024 (down from 19% in Q1 2024). Advanced technologies all together (N3, N5, N7) accounted for 67% of total wafer revenue.
"Our business in the second quarter was supported by strong demand for our industry-leading 3nm and 5nm technologies, partially offset by continued smartphone seasonality," said Wendell Huang, Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer of TSMC. "Moving into third quarter 2024, we expect our business to be supported by strong smartphone and AI-related demand for our leading-edge process technologies."
TSMC usually starts ramping up production for Apple's fall products (e.g. iPhone) in the second quarter of the year, so it is not surprising that revenue share of N3 increased in Q2 of this year. Yet, keeping in mind that TSMC's revenue in general increased by 10.3% QoQ, the company's shipments of processors made on N5 and N7 nodes are showing resilience as demand for AI and HPC processors is high across the industry.
Speaking of TSMC's HPC sales, HPC platform sales accounted for 52% of TSMC's revenue for the first time in many years. The world's largest contract maker of chips produces many types of chips that get placed under the HPC umbrella, including AI processors, CPUs for client PCs, and system-on-chips (SoCs) for consoles, just to name a few. Yet, in this case TSMC attributes demand for AI processors as the main driver for its HPC success.
As for smartphone platform revenue, its share dropped to 33% as actual sales declined by 1% quarter-over-quarter. All other segments grew by 5% to 20%.
For the third quarter of 2024, TSMC expects revenue between US$22.4 billion and US$23.2 billion, with a gross profit margin of 53.5% to 55.5% and an operating profit margin of 42.5% to 44.5%. The company's sales are projected to be driven by strong demand for leading-edge process technologies as well as increased demand for AI and smartphones-related applications.
Semiconductors
Samsung Starts Mass Production of 9th Generation V-NAND: 1Tb 3D TLC NAND 
Samsung Electronics has started mass production of its 9th generation of V-NAND memory. The first dies based on their latest NAND tech come in a 1 Tb capacity using a triple-level cell (TLC) architecture, with data transfer rates as high as 3.2 GT/s. The new 3D TLC NAND memory will initially be used to build high-capacity and high-performance SSDs, which will help to solidify Samsung's position in the storage market.
Diving right in, Samsung is conspicuously avoiding to list the number of layers in their latest generation NAND, which is the principle driving factor in increasing capacity generation-on-generation. The company's current 8th gen V-NAND is 236 layers – similar to its major competitors – and word on the street is that 9th gen V-NAND ups that to 290 layers, though this remains to be confirmed.
Regardless, Samsung says that its 9th generation V-NAND memory boasts an approximate 50% improvement in bit density over its 8th generation predecessor. Driving this gains, the company cites the miniaturization of the cell size, as well as the integration of enhanced memory cell technologies that reduce interference and extend the lifespan of the cells. With their latest NAND technology, Samsung has also been able to eliminate dummy channel holes, thus reducing the planar area of the memory cells.
Interestingly, today's announcement also marks the first time that Samsung has publicly confirmed their use of string stacking in their NAND, referring to it as their "double-stack structure." The company is widely believed to have been using sting stacking back in their 8th generation NAND as well, however this was never confirmed by the company. Regardless, the use of string stacking is only going to increase from here, as vendors look to keep adding layers to their NAND dies, while manufacturing variability and channel hole tolerances make it difficult to produce more than 150-200 layers in a single stack.
| Samsung TLC V- NAND Flash Memory | ||
| 9th Gen V-NAND | 8th Gen V-NAND | |
| Layers | 290? | 236 |
| Decks | 2 (x145) | 2 (x118) |
| Die Capacity | 1 Tbit | 1 Tbit |
| Die Size (mm2) | ?mm2 | ?mm2 |
| Density (Gbit/mm2) | ? | ? |
| I/O Speed | 3.2 GT/s (Toggle 5.1) |
2.4 GT/s (Toggle 5.0) |
| Planes | 6? | 4 |
| CuA / PuC | Yes | Yes |
Speaking of channel holes, another key technological enhancement in the 9th gen V-NAND is Samsung's advanced 'channel hole etching' technology. This process improves manufacturing productivity by enabling the simultaneous creation of electron pathways within a double-stack structure. This method is crucial as it enables efficient drilling through more layers, which is increasingly important as cell layers are added.
The latest V-NAND also features the introduction of a faster NAND flash interface, Toggle DDR 5.1, which boosts peak data transfer rates by 33% to 3.2 GT/s, or almost 400MB/sec for a single die. Additionally, 9th gen V-NAND's power consumption has been reduced by 10%, according to Samsung. Though Samsung doesn't state under what conditions – presumably, this is at iso-frequency rather than max frequency.
Samsung's launch of 1Tb TLC V-NAND is set to be followed by the release of a quad-level cell (QLC) model later this year.
"We are excited to deliver the industry’s first 9th-gen V-NAND which will bring future... SSDs
![TSMC's System-on-Wafer Platform Goes 3D: CoW-SoW Stacks Up the Chips <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21372/tsmcs-system-on-wafer-platform-goes-3d-cow-sow"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21372/tsmc-sow-tesla-dojo-678_575px.png" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>TSMC has been offering its System-on-Wafer integration technology, InFO-SoW, since 2020. For now, only Cerebras and Tesla have developed wafer scale processor designs using it, as while they have fantastic performance and power efficiency, wafer-scale processors are extremely complex to develop and produce. But TSMC believes that not only will wafer-scale designs ramp up in usage, but that megatrends like AI and HPC will call for even more complex solutions: vertically stacked system-on-wafer designs.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21372/tsmcs-system-on-wafer-platform-goes-3d-cow-sow"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21372/tsmc-sow-tesla-dojo-575px.png" /></a></p>
<p>Tesla Dojo's wafer-scale processors — the first solutions based based on TSMC's InFO-SoW technology that are in mass production — have a number of benefits over typical system-in-packages (SiPs), including low-latency high-bandwidth core-to-core communications, very high performance and bandwidth density, relatively low power delivery network impendance, high performance efficiency, and redunancy.</p>
<p>But with InFO-SoW and other wafer scale integration methods, processor designers have to rely solely on on-chip memory. This is perfectly adequate for many applications, but it may not be enough for next-generation AI workloads. Furthermore, with InFO-SoW, the whole wafer has to be processed using one fabrication technology, which may not be optimal, or too expensive for certain designs.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21372/tsmcs-system-on-wafer-platform-goes-3d-cow-sow"><img alt="" src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21372/tsmc-sow-cowos-evolution-575px.png" /></a></p>
<p>So, with its next-generation system-on-wafer platform, TSMC plans to bring together two of its packaging technologies: InFO-SoW and System on Integrated Chips (SoIC), which will allow it to stack memory or logic on top of a system-on-wafer using its Chip-on-Wafer (CoW) method. The CoW-SoW technology, which the company announced at its North American Technology Symposium, will be ready for mass production in 2027.</p>
<p>For now, TSMC is mostly talking about wedding wafer scale processors with HBM4 memory. And given that HBM4 stacks will feature a 2048-bit interface, its tighter integration with logic is something that the industry is considering.</p>
<p>"So, in the future, using wafer level integrations [will allow] our customers to integrate even more logic and memory together," said Kevin Zhang, Vice President of Business Development at TSMC. "SoW is no longer a fiction, this is something we already work with our customers [on] to produce some of the products already in place. This we think by leveraging our advanced wafer level integration technology, we can provide our customer a very important the path allow them to continue to grow their capability to bring in more computation, more energy efficient computation, to their AI cluster or [supercomputer]."</p>
<h3><strong>Related Reading</strong></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21369/tsmcs-16nm-technology-announced-for-late-2026-a16-with-super-power-rail-bspdn">TSMC's 1.6nm Technology Announced for Late 2026: A16 with "Super Power Rail" Backside Power</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21370/tsmc-2nm-update-n2-in-2025-n2p-loses-bspdn-nanoflex-optimizations">TSMC 2nm Update: N2 In 2025, N2P Loses Backside Power, and NanoFlex Brings Optimal Cells</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21371/tsmc-preps-lower-cost-4nm-n4c-process-for-2025">TSMC Preps Cheaper 4nm N4C Process For 2025, Aiming For 8.5% Cost Reduction</a></li>
</ul>
</p> Semiconductors](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sZ9OhEu9mN38k3vK1tLCAMGcN12ZIQsfO-FMN7e8qrlBfU-edkMlYowmxpvDnB4dXwJX9j6N8X_WiXa4CJ0u2bMH7boxlifantVeTVb2ChfyU_mHnrKKZ2yXLAw909GCMWuDMCIeggp_9iiIs=w72-h72-p-k-no-nu)
![](https://twitter.com/share?url=https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2024/04/asus-launches-low-profile-geforce-rtx_3.html&text=Asus Launches Low-Profile GeForce RTX 3050 6GB: A Tiny Graphics Card for All PCs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21303/asus-launches-lowprofile-geforce-rtx-3050-6gb-a-tiny-graphics-card-for-all-pcs"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21303/asus-rtx-3050-lp-678_575px.jpg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Asus this week has become the latest PC video card manufacturer to announce a sub-75W video card based on NVIDIA's recently-released low-power GeForce RTX 3050 6GB design. And going one step further for small form factor PC owners, Asus has used NVIDIA's low-power GPU configuration to produce a half-height video card that can fit into low-profile systems.</p>
<p>As Asus puts it, the <a href="https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/graphics-cards/asus/rtx3050-6g-lp-brk/?">GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6GB GDDR6</a> is a 'big productivity in a small package' and for a low-profile dual-slot graphics board, it indeed is. The unit has three display outputs, including a DVI-D, HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 1.4a with HDCP 2.3 support, which makes the graphics card s viable option both for a a dual-display desktop and a home theater PC (Nvidia's GA107 graphics processor supports all popular codecs except AV1). Furthermore, a DVI-D output enables the card to drive outdated displays, which even over half a decade after DVI-D was retired, still hang around as spare parts. Meanwhile, because the card only consumes around 70W, it does not require any auxiliary PCIe power connectors, which are at times not available in cheap systems from big PC makers.</p>
<p>Underlying this card is the aforementioned GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB, which uses the GA107 GPU with 2304 CUDA cores, and it comes with 6GB of GDDR6 memory connected to a narrower 96-bit memory bus (down from 128-bits for the full 8GB version. With a lower boost clock of 1470 MHz (1500 MHz in OC mode), the RTX 3050 6GB has reduced computing performance, delivering 6.77 FP32 TFLOPS versus 9.1 FP32 TFLOPS of the full-fledged RTX 3050.</p>
<p>As a result, the low-profile GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB is very much an entry-level card, though the low power requirements for such a card are also what make it special. This should be plenty for low-end gaming – beating out integrated GPUs – though suffice it to say, it's not going to compete with high-end, power-hungry cards either.</p>
<p>With its diminutive size, the Asus GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6 GB GDDR6 looks to be a nice candidate for upgrading cheap systems from OEMs as well as fixing outdated PCs. What remains to be seen is how price competitive it is going to be. The graphics board already has one low-profile rival from MSI — which <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=45726&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FMSI-RTX-3050-LP-6G%2Fdp%2FB0CTJZCJH1%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Danandtech-us-1232310080652528306-20">costs $185</a> — so Asus is not the only vendor competing here.</p>
</p> GPUs){kind=link}
![](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2024/04/asus-launches-low-profile-geforce-rtx_3.html&media=https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uNNOdIS53bVbeRpegpXTj1J7amapJmrdFLvPlaSNiG6eo8NQdp3vZuOAXVB5zAfPPJfwUDW8vwPnAd4GwF5Ht25IVkYFS61fUshkP-7I7Q0Ls1T3IhIsUHswcj0I74PKFSbwM6ODRJGfs&description=Asus Launches Low-Profile GeForce RTX 3050 6GB: A Tiny Graphics Card for All PCs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21303/asus-launches-lowprofile-geforce-rtx-3050-6gb-a-tiny-graphics-card-for-all-pcs"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21303/asus-rtx-3050-lp-678_575px.jpg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Asus this week has become the latest PC video card manufacturer to announce a sub-75W video card based on NVIDIA's recently-released low-power GeForce RTX 3050 6GB design. And going one step further for small form factor PC owners, Asus has used NVIDIA's low-power GPU configuration to produce a half-height video card that can fit into low-profile systems.</p>
<p>As Asus puts it, the <a href="https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/graphics-cards/asus/rtx3050-6g-lp-brk/?">GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6GB GDDR6</a> is a 'big productivity in a small package' and for a low-profile dual-slot graphics board, it indeed is. The unit has three display outputs, including a DVI-D, HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 1.4a with HDCP 2.3 support, which makes the graphics card s viable option both for a a dual-display desktop and a home theater PC (Nvidia's GA107 graphics processor supports all popular codecs except AV1). Furthermore, a DVI-D output enables the card to drive outdated displays, which even over half a decade after DVI-D was retired, still hang around as spare parts. Meanwhile, because the card only consumes around 70W, it does not require any auxiliary PCIe power connectors, which are at times not available in cheap systems from big PC makers.</p>
<p>Underlying this card is the aforementioned GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB, which uses the GA107 GPU with 2304 CUDA cores, and it comes with 6GB of GDDR6 memory connected to a narrower 96-bit memory bus (down from 128-bits for the full 8GB version. With a lower boost clock of 1470 MHz (1500 MHz in OC mode), the RTX 3050 6GB has reduced computing performance, delivering 6.77 FP32 TFLOPS versus 9.1 FP32 TFLOPS of the full-fledged RTX 3050.</p>
<p>As a result, the low-profile GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB is very much an entry-level card, though the low power requirements for such a card are also what make it special. This should be plenty for low-end gaming – beating out integrated GPUs – though suffice it to say, it's not going to compete with high-end, power-hungry cards either.</p>
<p>With its diminutive size, the Asus GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6 GB GDDR6 looks to be a nice candidate for upgrading cheap systems from OEMs as well as fixing outdated PCs. What remains to be seen is how price competitive it is going to be. The graphics board already has one low-profile rival from MSI — which <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=45726&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FMSI-RTX-3050-LP-6G%2Fdp%2FB0CTJZCJH1%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Danandtech-us-1232310080652528306-20">costs $185</a> — so Asus is not the only vendor competing here.</p>
</p> GPUs){kind=link}
![](https://web.whatsapp.com/send?text=Asus Launches Low-Profile GeForce RTX 3050 6GB: A Tiny Graphics Card for All PCs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21303/asus-launches-lowprofile-geforce-rtx-3050-6gb-a-tiny-graphics-card-for-all-pcs"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21303/asus-rtx-3050-lp-678_575px.jpg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Asus this week has become the latest PC video card manufacturer to announce a sub-75W video card based on NVIDIA's recently-released low-power GeForce RTX 3050 6GB design. And going one step further for small form factor PC owners, Asus has used NVIDIA's low-power GPU configuration to produce a half-height video card that can fit into low-profile systems.</p>
<p>As Asus puts it, the <a href="https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/graphics-cards/asus/rtx3050-6g-lp-brk/?">GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6GB GDDR6</a> is a 'big productivity in a small package' and for a low-profile dual-slot graphics board, it indeed is. The unit has three display outputs, including a DVI-D, HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 1.4a with HDCP 2.3 support, which makes the graphics card s viable option both for a a dual-display desktop and a home theater PC (Nvidia's GA107 graphics processor supports all popular codecs except AV1). Furthermore, a DVI-D output enables the card to drive outdated displays, which even over half a decade after DVI-D was retired, still hang around as spare parts. Meanwhile, because the card only consumes around 70W, it does not require any auxiliary PCIe power connectors, which are at times not available in cheap systems from big PC makers.</p>
<p>Underlying this card is the aforementioned GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB, which uses the GA107 GPU with 2304 CUDA cores, and it comes with 6GB of GDDR6 memory connected to a narrower 96-bit memory bus (down from 128-bits for the full 8GB version. With a lower boost clock of 1470 MHz (1500 MHz in OC mode), the RTX 3050 6GB has reduced computing performance, delivering 6.77 FP32 TFLOPS versus 9.1 FP32 TFLOPS of the full-fledged RTX 3050.</p>
<p>As a result, the low-profile GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB is very much an entry-level card, though the low power requirements for such a card are also what make it special. This should be plenty for low-end gaming – beating out integrated GPUs – though suffice it to say, it's not going to compete with high-end, power-hungry cards either.</p>
<p>With its diminutive size, the Asus GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6 GB GDDR6 looks to be a nice candidate for upgrading cheap systems from OEMs as well as fixing outdated PCs. What remains to be seen is how price competitive it is going to be. The graphics board already has one low-profile rival from MSI — which <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=45726&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FMSI-RTX-3050-LP-6G%2Fdp%2FB0CTJZCJH1%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Danandtech-us-1232310080652528306-20">costs $185</a> — so Asus is not the only vendor competing here.</p>
</p> GPUs | https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2024/04/asus-launches-low-profile-geforce-rtx_3.html){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Asus Launches Low-Profile GeForce RTX 3050 6GB: A Tiny Graphics Card for All PCs <p align="center"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/21303/asus-launches-lowprofile-geforce-rtx-3050-6gb-a-tiny-graphics-card-for-all-pcs"><img src="https://images.anandtech.com/doci/21303/asus-rtx-3050-lp-678_575px.jpg" alt="" /></a></p><p><p>Asus this week has become the latest PC video card manufacturer to announce a sub-75W video card based on NVIDIA's recently-released low-power GeForce RTX 3050 6GB design. And going one step further for small form factor PC owners, Asus has used NVIDIA's low-power GPU configuration to produce a half-height video card that can fit into low-profile systems.</p>
<p>As Asus puts it, the <a href="https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/graphics-cards/asus/rtx3050-6g-lp-brk/?">GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6GB GDDR6</a> is a 'big productivity in a small package' and for a low-profile dual-slot graphics board, it indeed is. The unit has three display outputs, including a DVI-D, HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 1.4a with HDCP 2.3 support, which makes the graphics card s viable option both for a a dual-display desktop and a home theater PC (Nvidia's GA107 graphics processor supports all popular codecs except AV1). Furthermore, a DVI-D output enables the card to drive outdated displays, which even over half a decade after DVI-D was retired, still hang around as spare parts. Meanwhile, because the card only consumes around 70W, it does not require any auxiliary PCIe power connectors, which are at times not available in cheap systems from big PC makers.</p>
<p>Underlying this card is the aforementioned GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB, which uses the GA107 GPU with 2304 CUDA cores, and it comes with 6GB of GDDR6 memory connected to a narrower 96-bit memory bus (down from 128-bits for the full 8GB version. With a lower boost clock of 1470 MHz (1500 MHz in OC mode), the RTX 3050 6GB has reduced computing performance, delivering 6.77 FP32 TFLOPS versus 9.1 FP32 TFLOPS of the full-fledged RTX 3050.</p>
<p>As a result, the low-profile GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB is very much an entry-level card, though the low power requirements for such a card are also what make it special. This should be plenty for low-end gaming – beating out integrated GPUs – though suffice it to say, it's not going to compete with high-end, power-hungry cards either.</p>
<p>With its diminutive size, the Asus GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6 GB GDDR6 looks to be a nice candidate for upgrading cheap systems from OEMs as well as fixing outdated PCs. What remains to be seen is how price competitive it is going to be. The graphics board already has one low-profile rival from MSI — which <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=45726&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FMSI-RTX-3050-LP-6G%2Fdp%2FB0CTJZCJH1%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Danandtech-us-1232310080652528306-20">costs $185</a> — so Asus is not the only vendor competing here.</p>
</p> GPUs&body=https://compbuddey.blogspot.com/2024/04/asus-launches-low-profile-geforce-rtx_3.html){kind=link}
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's.
MiTAC/Tyan Shows Off Motherboard and Servers for Intel's Xeon 6 CPUs
Later this year Intel is set to introduce its Xeon 6-branded processors, codenamed Granite Rapids (6x00P) and Sierra Forest (6x00E). And with it will come a new slew of server motherboards and pre-built server platforms to go with it. On the latter note, this will be the first generation where Intel won't be offering any pre-builts of its own, after selling that business off to MiTAC last year.
To that end, MiTAC and its subsidiary Tyan were at this year's event to demonstrate what they've been up to since acquiring Intel's server business unit, as well as to show off the server platforms they're developing for the Xeon 6 family. Altogether, the companies had two server platforms on display – a compact 2S system, and a larger 2S system with significant expansion capabilities – as well as a pair of single-socket designs from Tyan.
The most basic platform that MiTAC had to show is their TX86-E7148 (Katmai Pass), a half-width 1U system that's the successor to Intel's D50DNP platform. Katmai Pass has two CPU sockets, supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 16 slots (8 per CPU), and has two low-profile PCIe 5.0 x16 slots. Like its predecessor, this platform is aimed at mainstream servers that do not need a lot of storage or room to house bulky add-in cards like AI accelerators.
The company's other platform is TX77A-E7142 (Deer Creek Pass), a considerably more serious offering that replaces Intel's M50FCP platform. This board can house up to 4 TB of DDR5-6400 RDIMMs over 32 slots (16 per CPU with 2DPC), four PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 5.0 x8 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 24 hot-swap U.2 bays. Deer Creek Pass can be used both for general-purpose workloads, high-performance storage, as well as workloads that require GPUs or other special-purpose accelerators.
Meanwhile Tyan had the single-socket Thunder CX GC73A-B5660 on display. That system supports up to 2 TB of DDR5-6400 memory over 16 RDIMMs and offers two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, two OCP 3.0 slots, and 12 hot-swappable U.2 drive bays.
Finally, Tyan's Thunder HX S5662 is an HPC server board specifically designed to house multiple AI accelerators and other large PCIe cards. This board supports one Xeon 6 6700 processor, up to 1 TB of memory over eight DDR5-6400 RDIMMs, and has five tradiitonal PCIe 5.0 x16 slots as well as two PCIe 5.0 x2 M.2 slots for storage.
MiTAC is expected to start shipments of these new Xeon 6 motherboards in the coming months, as Intel rolls out its next-generation datacenter CPUs. Pricing of these platforms is unknown for now, but expect it to be comparable to... Servers
Realtek Outlines SSD Controller Roadmap: High-End PCIe 5.0 x4 Platform in the Works
While Realtek is best known in the enthusiast space for for its peripheral controllers such as audio codecs and network controllers, the company also has a small-but-respectable SSD controller business that tends to fly under the radar due to its focus on entry-level and mainstream drives. But Realtek's stature in the SSD space is on the rise, as the company is not only planning new PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers, but also their first high-end, DRAM-equipped SSD controller.
For this year's Computex trade show, Realtek laid out a new SSD controller roadmap that calls for the company to release a trio of new SSD controllers over the next couple of years. First up is a new four-channel entry-level PCIe 4.0 controller, the RTS5776DL, which will be joined a bit later by a PCIe 5.0 variant, the RTS5781DL. But most interesting on Realtek's new roadmap is the final chip being planned: the eight-channel, DRAM-equipped RTS5782, which would be the company's first high-end SSD controller, capable of hitting sequential read rates as high as 14GB/second.
| Realtek NVMe SSD Controller Comparison | |||||||||
| RTS5782 | RTS5781DL | RTS5776DL | RTS5772DL | RTS5766DL | |||||
| Market Segment | High-End | Mainstream | Entry-Level | ||||||
| Error Correction | 4K LDPC | 2K LDPC | |||||||
| DRAM | DDR4, LPDDR4(X) | No | No | No | No | ||||
| Host Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||||
| NVMe Version | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 2.0 | NVMe 1.4 | NVMe 1.4 | ||||
| NAND Channels, Interface Speed | 8 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
4 ch, 3600 MT/s |
8 ch, 1600 MT/s |
4 ch, 1200 MT/s |
||||
| Sequential Read | 14 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 3.2 GB/s | ||||
| Sequential Write | 12 GB/s | 10 GB/s | 7.4 GB/s | 6 GB/s | 2.2 GB/s | ||||
| 4KB Random Read IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
| 4KB Random Write IOPS | 2500k | 1400k | 1200k | - | - | ||||
Diving a bit deeper into Realtek's roadmap, the RTS5776DL is traditional DRAM-less PCIe Gen4 x4 controller with four NAND chann... SSDs
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