Author: batteryforpc

A Chinese user from the KoolShare forums has reviewed and dismantled an engineering sample of Intel’s upcoming NUC 9 Extreme, codenamed Ghost Canyon. It appears that the NUC (Next Unit of Computing) actually uses Intel’s ‘The Element’ module that was revealed earlier this month.

The Intel NUC 9 Extreme measures 238 x 216 x 96mm (L x W x H) and is the chipmaker’s largest NUC yet. Intel will reportedly offer three 45W processor options that span from four cores up to eight cores. You can pick between the Core i9-9980HK, Core i7-9750H and Core i5-9300H.

The NUC’s front panel houses the power button, SD card reader, two USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports, and a single 3.5mm audio jack. The device features honeycomb side panels that allow fresh air to enter from both sides to cool off the internal components. Furthermore, Intel has placed a pair of 80mm cooling fans up top to expel the hot air from the NUC.

Once inside, you’ll notice that the Intel NUC 9 Extreme flaunts with a new layout. The 500W power supply from FSP is located at the bottom of the NUC. A small backplane sits on top of the power supply. This backplane has two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 3.0 x4 slot and a M.2 22110 slot, which has its own heatsink.

The top PCIe 3.0 x16 slot is evidently reserved for The Element module while the second PCIe 3.0 x16 slot is there for you to install a discrete graphics card. In terms of clearance, the Intel NUC 9 Extreme can accommodate dual-slot graphics cards with a maximum length of 20.32cm.

Apparently, Intel has baptized the The Element module as the “NUC Compute Element” board. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll stick to the original name.

As we previously covered, The Element takes the form of a dual-slot PCIe card. It houses the processor, memory and storage devices. Besides the PCIe slot, The Element also draws power from a conventional 8-pin PCIe connector. Intel’s goal with The Element is to offer a swappable and inexpensive solution for NUC owners to upgrade their systems without buying a completely new device.

The processor is cooled with a passive, copper heatsink. A small cooling fan, like the kind you would typically find inside your laptop, helps with heat dissipation.

The Element comes with two SO-DIMM DDR4 slots. You can use up to 64GB of DDR4-2400 memory or 32GB of DDR4-2666 memory. It also has one M.2 2280 port and M.2 22110 port. In total, you install up to three M.2 PCIe or SATA III SSDs on the Intel NUC 9 Extreme, two inside The Element and one on the backplane. RAID 0 and 1 arrays are supported.

Connectivity on The Element includes four USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports and two Thunderbolt 3 ports. There’s one HDMI 2.0a port, which is powered by the 9th-generation Core processor’s integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 solution.

The Element provides you with different options to connect to the Internet. There are two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one based of the i219-LM controller and the other from the i210-AT controller. It also has WiFi 802.11ax and Bluetooth 5 connectivity thanks to the presence of Intel’s Wi-Fi 6 AX200 module.

The Intel NUC 9 Extreme seemingly comes with a limited three-year warranty. There is no word on the official pricing yet. If this leaked NUC roadmap is accurate, the NUC 9 Extreme should land next year.

The 2020 Android update is set to be Android 11 – that’s not speculation, but fact, since Google has confirmed the name itself. This follows, because with Android 10 Google pledged to follow a numerical system of operating system organisation.

That means while Android 9 was Android Pie, Android 10 wasn’t Android Quiche, and Android 11 won’t be Android Rhubarb and Custard (sadly) – but it will be packed with updates and, likely, a few long-awaited features.

Android 11, Google’s next operating system, is set to be revealed in mid-2020, before being released for Pixel devices around September, and then rolled out for other Android devices from late 2020 through well into 2021.

Mid-2021 is a way off, but we’ve already started hearing rumors and news surrounding the upcoming Android operating system. Here we’ll collect everything we know about Android 11.

Cut to the chase

What is it? The newest Android operating system

When is it out? Likely September 2020, at least on Pixel phones

How much will it cost? Android 11 will be available for free

Android 11 release date

Google tends to unveil some of the features of its newest operating system at Google IO in May, before releasing the OS for Pixel phones in September – this year, for example, it debuted on the Pixel 4.

After that, different smartphone brands will have their devices eligible for the update slowly over time. The OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro were the first non-Google smartphones which came with Android 10 in the box, but it could be a different company for Android 11.

Not all smartphone manufacturers upgrade immediately, however, and it’ll likely be some time in 2021 that all smartphones that can upgrade, have had the upgrade made available.

Android 11 features

There’s only one Android 11 feature we know of so far – it’s confirmed for the operating system though, so it’s not just speculation.

This feature is ‘Scoped Storage’, which was initially meant to be available in Android 10, but Google pushed it back due to complaints from Android developers.

Scoped Storage is a new way of organizing what information and files your apps can read – in short, it makes memory read speeds much quicker, improves your security, and stops you needing to give every new app permissions.

That’s the only Android 11 feature we know of, but since Android 10 isn’t available on most devices yet, it’ll be a while before we get to hear about more.

What we want to see in Android 11

These are the improvements we’d like to see in Android 11, that we still don’t have in the latest build of Google’s operating system.

1. A new NFC file-sharing alternative

With Android 10 came the removal of Android Beam, which let phones share files over NFC. All you had to do was tap phones together to share files, but it’s gone now.

It’d be useful to have some easy-to-use alternative that lets you share photos, videos, music, or other files just by pressing the phones against each other – at the moment it can be quite a hassle to use a specific app to do so, and Apple’s Airdrop is a useful feature that has no equivalent in Android.

2. Improved dark mode

Dark mode isn’t for everyone, but those who use it love it – or they want to, at least, but in Android 10 it has a lot of problems.

Firstly, not that many apps have their own dark modes, not even all Google apps, so using your smartphone with dark mode on can often see you jumping straight from dark apps to light ones, and back again.

Secondly, on apps that do have dark mode some text isn’t color-swapped, and can remain invisible – this actually happens on Google search, so you can’t see suggested results.

For dark mode to be useful on Android smartphones, it needs to actually be usable for most apps, instead of just an optional toggle here and there.

3. Extended chat ‘bubbles’

One of the new features of Android 10 was the introduction of chat ‘bubbles’, similar to Facebook Messenger, laid over the top of other apps, that let you see all your conversations over several apps all in one easy-to-access format.

Not all apps are compatible though, and while some of those that you use to message people, there are many that aren’t, with only the main text app Messages, and Google Hangouts, compatible. That means if you want to have conversations over various apps, for the most part you’re still going to be using those apps.

It’d be really useful if more apps became compatible – WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, and perhaps even dating apps! Then, it’d be incredibly easy to keep on top of your various conversations across all the different apps that fill up your phone. 

Adobe Premiere Rush is the dangling carrot that has been just out of reach for Chromebook users everywhere for well over a year at this point. To be fair, Adobe only previewed the cross-platform application when it debuted in June of 2018, but the path from that debut took nearly a year for Premeire Rush to actually land on devices. When it did arrive in May of 2019, again Chromebook users were told it was “coming soon” only to sit around and wait for months on end for Adobe to actually deliver on its promises.

Nearly six months since that actual product debut, we’ve heard next to nothing from Adobe on the Chromebook front, but if a thumbnail image in the Google Store is any indicator, we could be seeing Premiere Rush on Chromebooks in the very near future. Take a look at the listing for the Core i7 variant of the new Pixelbook Go below:

There is no doubt that the app being displayed on the Pixelbook Go on the right is Adobe Premiere Rush. Clearly, Google decided what image they wanted to accompany each different model in the Pixelbook Go lineup. All the other versions have screens displaying apps that already exist on Chromebooks and each one increases in complexity as the models go up in price. The entry level Core m3 model displays a generic website, the upgraded Core i5 model has YouTube TV, the Core i5 with 16GB of RAM displays G Suite apps, and the final i7 model is shown with Adobe Premiere Rush.

This choice in screens would make sense as Google is likely trying to convey the higher end models having more processing power for more intense tasks. The question is, why would they use Premiere Rush if they didn’t think this app was going to be a part of the Chromebook experience very soon?

In short, I don’t think they would. There are literally millions of apps and billions of websites they could have chosen for this photo, yet they chose to go with Adobe Premiere Rush. If I were betting on it, I’d say we’ll hear something about Rush landing on Chrome OS around October 28th when the Pixelbook Go is expected to start shipping out. I could see this being a Pixelbook Go exclusive for a month or so, but I hope that isn’t the case. There are countless Chromebooks up to the task of running this app, and I really think it has the ability to fundamentally change the audience Chromebooks can be geared towards.

Will Premiere Rush make Chromebooks the ultimate video editing machines? No way. But the addition of this capability on the type of scale promised by Adobe Premiere Rush is basically unheard of right now on Chromebooks. With a video editor that already has a massive user base and desktop versions in play, legit video editing on a Chromebook never looked so close.

AMD has three new Threadripper processors lined up for a November launch, according to information obtained by Videocardz. These include the Threadripper 3960X, 3970X, and the 3990X. The Threadripper 3960X and 3970X will be unveiled on November 5 with review embargo lifting on November 19. The Threadripper 3990X will be officially launched during CES 2020 although, it will still be teased alongside the other two Threadrippers. The Threadripper 3980X can also be expected to be unveiled during CES 2020.

The specifications of the 3rd generation Threadrippers are all speculation as of now, but there is some credible information doing the rounds online. This generation will also see the introduction of 280W TDP SKUs, up from the 250W ones seen in Threadripper 2. The base SKU will be the Threadripper 3960X with 24 cores and 48 threads with a 250W TDP. Next comes the Threadripper 3970X with 32 cores and 64 threads (250W) followed by the Threadripper 3980X with 48 cores and 96 threads (280W). Finally, the flagship SKU will be the Threadripper 3990X with 64 cores and 128 threads and a 280W TDP. Base and boost clocks are still not known at this point.

The Threadripper 3rd generation will also see a new socket and possibly, separate platforms for ‘Enthusiast’ and ‘Workstation’ use cases. Reports seem to indicate that Threadripper 3000 will not be backward compatible with the current X399 chipset and instead, will require a new TRX40, TRX80, or WRX80 chipset. The new chipsets will also be featuring a new socket with additional power pins required for PCIe Gen4. Check out the images below for specifications and thermal requirements of the chipsets as was revealed by GamersNexus last month.

With such massive core counts, it will be interesting to see the kind of multi-core benchmark records the Threadripper 3000 series will be setting in the coming weeks. Although we’ve seen the 18-core Intel Cascade Lake-X Core i9-10980XE surpassing the Threadripper 2950X in Geekbench, we have also seen it fall significantly behind an alleged 32-core Threadripper 3000 processor in the same benchmark. Intel currently has no HEDT offerings to counter the extreme core counts expected in upcoming Theadripper processors and if priced right, AMD could have a winner once again. 

AMD’s Radeon Image Sharpening feature is designed to improve image quality with minimal performance costs. However, it is only supported by Radeon Polaris / Vega / Navi graphics cards and only under Microsoft Windows 10. An independent open-source project has implemented contrast adaptive sharpening support for Vulkan that is similar to Radeon Image Sharpening but will work for any Vulkan-enabled GPU — including NVIDIA GPUs.

vkBasalt is this new open-source project that provides contrast adaptive sharpening for any Vulkan game with its implementation being a Vulkan post-processing layer. With being implemented as a Vulkan layer, it’s effectively GPU/driver-independent and in this case once installed can be loaded with the ENABLE_VKBASALT / ENABLE_VKBASALT32 environment variables.