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  The competition between AMD and Intel continues to simmer away, providing great processors for us to test and use inside more powerful systems. AMD's Ryzen chips are built on a more efficient platform, allowing the company to draw out more performance without sucking too much power. Intel is struggling with this in its fabrication plants, but we're hopeful about the upcoming 15th-gen Arrow Lake launch. Intel needs to have a successful launch to bring it back to AMD and maintain healthy competition and here's everything we know. Intel should be able to shrink its process node Smaller usually means better We're fully expecting Intel to bring a new platform and processors, which will be built on its 20A process, the equivalent of a 2nm manufacturing process. For perspective, Intel's 14th-gen chips are built using a 7nm process, behind AMD with TMSC's 5nm process. The smaller the process, the more transistors can be crammed onto the silicon, and the better the per...

Intel has announced a substantial $100 billion investment plan across four states in the United States, aimed at constructing and expanding its silicon chip manufacturing factories. The move comes after securing $19.5 billion in federal grants and loans, with hopes of securing an additional $25 billion in tax breaks. The centrepiece of Intel's ambitious five-year spending plan is the development of what CEO Pat Gelsinger described as "the largest AI chip manufacturing site in the world" near Columbus, Ohio, slated to commence operations as early as 2027. The US government's allocation of federal funds to Intel under the CHIPS Act underscores the nation's commitment to bolstering domestic semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. Intel's investment strategy also involves modernizing facilities in New Mexico and Oregon, as well as scaling up operations in Arizona, where rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is also expanding its presence with suppor...

 The 6 GHz mark remained elusive for a decade until the Core-i9 13900KS launched. For much of computing history, increasing clock speed has been pretty easy, but the mid-2000s brought an end to that. It's been progressively harder and harder ever since to increase the clock speed on CPUs and other processors; the world's first 5GHz CPU launched in 2013 and at the end of 2022, the fastest CPU had a boost frequency of 5.8GHz. But finally, Intel has broken the 6GHz barrier with the launch of its Core i9-13900KS, which is available at retail today. A resurgence in frequency gains Compared to the regular 13900K, the 13900KS has an extra 200MHz max turbo, which isn't really a huge lead and with a price tag of $700 (a $100 premium over the 13900K), it's not exactly an earth-shattering product. However, the 13900KS represents significant technological progress and the revival of generation-to-generation clock speed gains, which have been hard to come by for several years. In fa...