Intel Core i9-14900KS Review: The Swan Song of Raptor Lake With A Super Fast 6.2 GHz Turbo
For numerous generations of their desktop processor releases, Intel has made available a selection of high-performance special edition "KS" CPUs that add a little extra compared to their flagship chip. With a lot of interest, primarily from the enthusiasts looking for the fastest processors, Intel's latest Core i9-14900KS represents a super-fast addition to its 14th Generation Core lineup with out-of-the-box turbo clock speeds of up to 6.2 GHz and represents the last processor to end an era as Intel is removing the 'i' from its legendary nomenclature for future desktop chip releases.
Reaching speeds of up to 6.2 GHz, this sets up the Core i9-14900KS as the fastest desktop CPU in the world right now, at least in terms of frequencies out of the box. Building on their 'regular' flagship chip, the Core i9-14900, the Core i9-14900KS is also using their refreshed Raptor Lake (RPL-R) 8P+16E core chip design with a 200 MHz higher boost clock speed and also has a 100 MHz bump on P-Core base frequency.
This new KS series SKU shows Intel's drive to offer an even faster alternative to their desktop regular K series offerings, and with the Core i9-14900KS, they look to provide the best silicon from their Raptor Lake Refresh series with more performance available to unlock to those who can. The caveat is that achieving these ridiculously fast clock speeds of 6.2 GHz on the P-Core comes at the cost of power and heat; keeping a processor pulling upwards of 350 W is a challenge in its own right, and users need to factor this in if even contemplating a KS series SKU.
In our previous KS series review, the Core i9-13900KS reached 360 W at its peak, considerably more than the Core i9-13900K. The Core i9-14900KS, built on the same core architecture, is expected to surpass that even further than the Core i9-14900K. We aim to compare Intel's final Core i series processor to the best of what both Intel and AMD have available, and it will be interesting to see how much performance can be extrapolated from the KS compared to the regular K series SKU.
CPUs
Posted by The Techinical Support
Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs 
Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming Gen 5 client SSDs and 128 TB-class datacenter SSD. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.
All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.
The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent introduction of the 8 TB SN850X, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.
The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.
Storage
CXL Gathers Momentum at FMS 2024 
The CXL consortium has had a regular presence at FMS (which rechristened itself from 'Flash Memory Summit' to the 'Future of Memory and Storage' this year). Back at FMS 2022, the company had announced v3.0 of the CXL specifications. This was followed by CXL 3.1's introduction at Supercomputing 2023. Having started off as a host to device interconnect standard, it had slowly subsumed other competing standards such as OpenCAPI and Gen-Z. As a result, the specifications started to encompass a wide variety of use-cases by building a protocol on top of the the ubiquitous PCIe expansion bus. The CXL consortium comprises of heavyweights such as AMD and Intel, as well as a large number of startup companies attempting to play in different segments on the device side. At FMS 2024, CXL had a prime position in the booth demos of many vendors.
The migration of server platforms from DDR4 to DDR5, along with the rise of workloads demanding large RAM capacity (but not particularly sensitive to either memory bandwidth or latency), has opened up memory expansion modules as one of the first set of widely available CXL devices. Over the last couple of years, we have had product announcements from Samsung and Micron in this area.
SK hynix CMM-DDR5 CXL Memory Module and HMSDK
At FMS 2024, SK hynix was showing off their DDR5-based CMM-DDR5 CXL memory module with a 128 GB capacity. The company was also detailing their associated Heterogeneous Memory Software Development Kit (HMSDK) - a set of libraries and tools at both the kernel and user levels aimed at increasing the ease of use of CXL memory. This is achieved in part by considering the memory pyramid / hierarchy and relocating the data between the server's main memory (DRAM) and the CXL device based on usage frequency.
The CMM-DDR5 CXL memory module comes in the SDFF form-factor (E3.S 2T) with a PCIe 3.0 x8 host interface. The internal memory is based on 1α technology DRAM, and the device promises DDR5-class bandwidth and latency within a single NUMA hop. As these memory modules are meant to be used in datacenters and enterprises, the firmware includes features for RAS (reliability, availability, and serviceability) along with secure boot and other management features.
SK hynix was also demonstrating Niagara 2.0 - a hardware solution (currently based on FPGAs) to enable memory pooling and sharing - i.e, connecting multiple CXL memories to allow different hosts (CPUs and GPUs) to optimally share their capacity. The previous version only allowed capacity sharing, but the latest version enables sharing of data also. SK hynix had presented these solutions at the CXL DevCon 2024 earlier this year, but some progress seems to have been made in finalizing the specifications of the CMM-DDR5 at FMS 2024.
Microchip and Micron Demonstrate CZ120 CXL Memory Expansion Module
Micron had unveiled the CZ120 CXL Memory Expansion Module last year based on the Microchip SMC 2000 series CXL memory controller. At FMS 2024, Micron and Microchip had a demonstration of the module on a Granite Rapids server.
Additional insights into the SMC 2000 controller were also provided.
The CXL memory controller also incorporates DRAM die failure handling, and Microchip also provides diagnostics and debug tools to analyze failed modules. The memory controller also supports ECC, which forms part of the enterprise... Storage
Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs
Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming Gen 5 client SSDs and 128 TB-class datacenter SSD. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.
All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.
The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent introduction of the 8 TB SN850X, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.
The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.
Storage
CXL Gathers Momentum at FMS 2024
The CXL consortium has had a regular presence at FMS (which rechristened itself from 'Flash Memory Summit' to the 'Future of Memory and Storage' this year). Back at FMS 2022, the company had announced v3.0 of the CXL specifications. This was followed by CXL 3.1's introduction at Supercomputing 2023. Having started off as a host to device interconnect standard, it had slowly subsumed other competing standards such as OpenCAPI and Gen-Z. As a result, the specifications started to encompass a wide variety of use-cases by building a protocol on top of the the ubiquitous PCIe expansion bus. The CXL consortium comprises of heavyweights such as AMD and Intel, as well as a large number of startup companies attempting to play in different segments on the device side. At FMS 2024, CXL had a prime position in the booth demos of many vendors.
The migration of server platforms from DDR4 to DDR5, along with the rise of workloads demanding large RAM capacity (but not particularly sensitive to either memory bandwidth or latency), has opened up memory expansion modules as one of the first set of widely available CXL devices. Over the last couple of years, we have had product announcements from Samsung and Micron in this area.
SK hynix CMM-DDR5 CXL Memory Module and HMSDK
At FMS 2024, SK hynix was showing off their DDR5-based CMM-DDR5 CXL memory module with a 128 GB capacity. The company was also detailing their associated Heterogeneous Memory Software Development Kit (HMSDK) - a set of libraries and tools at both the kernel and user levels aimed at increasing the ease of use of CXL memory. This is achieved in part by considering the memory pyramid / hierarchy and relocating the data between the server's main memory (DRAM) and the CXL device based on usage frequency.
The CMM-DDR5 CXL memory module comes in the SDFF form-factor (E3.S 2T) with a PCIe 3.0 x8 host interface. The internal memory is based on 1α technology DRAM, and the device promises DDR5-class bandwidth and latency within a single NUMA hop. As these memory modules are meant to be used in datacenters and enterprises, the firmware includes features for RAS (reliability, availability, and serviceability) along with secure boot and other management features.
SK hynix was also demonstrating Niagara 2.0 - a hardware solution (currently based on FPGAs) to enable memory pooling and sharing - i.e, connecting multiple CXL memories to allow different hosts (CPUs and GPUs) to optimally share their capacity. The previous version only allowed capacity sharing, but the latest version enables sharing of data also. SK hynix had presented these solutions at the CXL DevCon 2024 earlier this year, but some progress seems to have been made in finalizing the specifications of the CMM-DDR5 at FMS 2024.
Microchip and Micron Demonstrate CZ120 CXL Memory Expansion Module
Micron had unveiled the CZ120 CXL Memory Expansion Module last year based on the Microchip SMC 2000 series CXL memory controller. At FMS 2024, Micron and Microchip had a demonstration of the module on a Granite Rapids server.
Additional insights into the SMC 2000 controller were also provided.
The CXL memory controller also incorporates DRAM die failure handling, and Microchip also provides diagnostics and debug tools to analyze failed modules. The memory controller also supports ECC, which forms part of the enterprise... Storage
G.Skill Intros Low Latency DDR5 Memory Modules: CL30 at 6400 MT/s 
G.Skill on Tuesday introduced its ultra-low-latency DDR5-6400 memory modules that feature a CAS latency of 30 clocks, which appears to be the industry's most aggressive timings yet for DDR5-6400 sticks. The modules will be available for both AMD and Intel CPU-based systems.
With every new generation of DDR memory comes an increase in data transfer rates and an extension of relative latencies. While for the vast majority of applications, the increased bandwidth offsets the performance impact of higher timings, there are applications that favor low latencies. However, shrinking latencies is sometimes harder than increasing data transfer rates, which is why low-latency modules are rare.
Nonetheless, G.Skill has apparently managed to cherry-pick enough DDR5 memory chips and build appropriate printed circuit boards to produce DDR5-6400 modules with CL30 timings, which are substantially lower than the CL46 timings recommended by JEDEC for this speed bin. This means that while JEDEC-standard modules have an absolute latency of 14.375 ns, G.Skill's modules can boast a latency of just 9.375 ns – an approximately 35% decrease.
G.Skill's DDR5-6400 CL30 39-39-102 modules have a capacity of 16 GB and will be available in 32 GB dual-channel kits, though the company does not disclose voltages, which are likely considerably higher than those standardized by JEDEC.
The company plans to make its DDR5-6400 modules available both for AMD systems with EXPO profiles (Trident Z5 Neo RGB and Trident Z5 Royal Neo) and for Intel-powered PCs with XMP 3.0 profiles (Trident Z5 RGB and Trident Z5 Royal). For AMD AM5 systems that have a practical limitation of 6000 MT/s – 6400 MT/s for DDR5 memory (as this is roughly as fast as AMD's Infinity Fabric can operate at with a 1:1 ratio), the new modules will be particularly beneficial for AMD's Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 9000-series processors.
G.Skill notes that since its modules are non-standard, they will not work with all systems but will operate on high-end motherboards with properly cooled CPUs.
The new ultra-low-latency memory kits will be available worldwide from G.Skill's partners starting in late August 2024. The company did not disclose the pricing of these modules, but since we are talking about premium products that boast unique specifications, they are likely to be priced accordingly.
Memory
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's.
Western Digital Introduces 4 TB microSDUC, 8 TB SDUC, and 16 TB External SSDs
Western Digital's BiCS8 218-layer 3D NAND is being put to good use in a wide range of client and enterprise platforms, including WD's upcoming Gen 5 client SSDs and 128 TB-class datacenter SSD. On the external storage front, the company demonstrated four different products: for card-based media, 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards with UHS-I speeds, and on the portable SSD front we had two 16 TB drives. One will be a SanDisk Desk Drive with external power, and the other in the SanDisk Extreme Pro housing with a lanyard opening in the case.
All of these are using BiCS8 QLC NAND, though I did hear booth talk (as I was taking leave) that they were not supposed to divulge the use of QLC in these products. The 4 TB microSDUC and 8 TB SDUC cards are rated for UHS-I speeds. They are being marketed under the SanDisk Ultra branding.
The SanDisk Desk Drive is an external SSD with a 18W power adapter, and it has been in the market for a few months now. Initially launched in capacities up to 8 TB, Western Digital had promised a 16 TB version before the end of the year. It appears that the product is coming to retail quite soon. One aspect to note is that this drive has been using TLC for the SKUs that are currently in the market, so it appears unlikely that the 16 TB version would be QLC. The units (at least up to the 8 TB capacity point) come with two SN850XE drives. Given the recent introduction of the 8 TB SN850X, an 'E' version with tweaked firmware is likely to be present in the 16 TB Desk Drive.
The 16 TB portable SSD in the SanDisk Extreme housing was a technology demonstration. It is definitely the highest capacity bus-powered portable SSD demonstrated by any vendor at any trade show thus far. Given the 16 TB Desk Drive's imminent market introduction, it is just a matter of time before the technology demonstration of the bus-powered version becomes a retail reality.
Storage
0 Comments