Articles by Paul Alcorn, Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech

As a teenager, Paul scraped up enough money to buy a 486-powered PC with a turbo button (yes, a turbo button). Back when floppies were still popular he was already chasing after the fastest spinners for his personal computer, which led him down the long and winding storage road, covering enterprise storage. His current focus is on consumer processors, though he still keeps a close eye on the latest storage news. In his spare time, you’ll find Paul hanging out with his kids or indulging his love of the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals.

Articles by: Paul Alcorn

Intel’s entire turnaround plan hinges on this one new chip family – Clearwater Forest pictured, Intel’s first 18A chip slated for high-volume manufacturing

By Paul Alcorn published 24 September 24

Intel displays its first processor slated for high volume manufacturing with the company's 18A node, a node that CEO Pat Gelsinger has said he bet the company on.

Intel Launches Granite Rapids Xeon 6900P series with 128 cores — matches AMD EPYC’s core counts for the first time since 2017

By Paul Alcorn published 24 September 24

Doubled core counts finally catch up with AMD.

AMD’s laptop OEMs decry poor support, chip supply, and communication — OEM complains the company has "left billions of US dollars lying around" due to poor execution: Reports

By Jowi Morales, Paul Alcorn published 14 September 24

Analysts and media contend that AMD is losing the confidence of laptop OEMs because of its focus on AI and data center GPUs.

AMD plans for FSR4 to be fully AI-based — designed to improve quality and maximize power efficiency

By Jarred Walton published 13 September 24

The team in charge has already been working on this for 9–12 months.

AMD announces unified UDNA GPU architecture — bringing RDNA and CDNA together to take on Nvidia's CUDA ecosystem

By Paul Alcorn published 9 September 24

Two become one.

AMD deprioritizing flagship gaming GPUs: Jack Huynh talks new strategy against Nvidia in gaming market

By Paul Alcorn published 8 September 24

The battle seems to be over before it starts.

AMD's Z2 Extreme CPU for next-gen gaming handhelds will arrive in early 2025

By Jowi Morales published 6 September 24

AMD confirmed the arrival of the Z2 Extreme in early 2025 during a Q&A session at IFA 2024.

Intel announces cancellation of 20A process node for Arrow Lake, goes with external nodes instead, likely TSMC [Updated]

By Paul Alcorn published 4 September 24

Out with the Intel node, in with TSMC.

Intel launches Lunar Lake: claims Arm-beating battery life, world’s fastest mobile CPU cores

By Paul Alcorn published 3 September 24

Aiming for the battery life crown.

The AMD Zen 5 Gaming postmortem: Larger generational gains than many reported, game-boosting Windows Update tested, Ryzen 5 7600X3D gaming benchmarks, too

By Paul Alcorn published 3 September 24

Objects in mirror are larger than they appear.

AMD updates Zen 5 Ryzen 9000 benchmark comparisons to Intel chips — details 'Admin' boost coming to Windows 11, chipset driver fix

By Paul Alcorn last updated 22 August 24

AMD penned a blog post today to clarify Zen 5's gaming performance after withering criticism in the wake of its turbulent Ryzen 9000 launch.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X Review: Zen 5 at Full Power

By Paul Alcorn published 14 August 24

We tested AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X in a battery of gaming and productivity benchmarks to compare it to competing Intel processors.

Intel issues statement on microcode update that addresses CPU instability and crashing errors — claims patch has negligible performance impacts, future processors not impacted

By Jowi Morales, Paul Alcorn published 9 August 24

You need to install a BIOS update to ensure that your Raptor Lake CPU is not frying itself.

AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X Review: Zen 5 brings upgraded gaming performance (Updated)

By Paul Alcorn published 7 August 24

Editor's Choice

We tested AMD's Ryzen 5 9600X in a battery of gaming and productivity benchmarks to see how it compares to competing Intel processors.

Puget says its Intel CPU failure rate is lower than AMD Ryzen failures — system builder releases failure rate data, cites conservative power settings

By Jowi Morales, Paul Alcorn published 3 August 24

High-end PC builder Puget Systems say that its data indicate a lower than expected failure rate for its Intel builds, compared to what’s widely reported.

Intel vs AMD: Which CPUs Are Better in 2024?

By Paul Alcorn published 3 August 24

We wade into the endless debate: Who makes the best CPU, AMD or Intel? Here's the blow-by-blow in ten categories.

Intel announces two extra years of warranty amid chip crashing and instability issues — longer warranty applies to 13th- and 14th-Gen Core processors

By Paul Alcorn published 1 August 24

Intel announced today that it will extend the warranty on its boxed Intel Core 13th- and 14th-Gen processors by two additional years.

Intel to lay off more than 15% of workforce — 15,000 or more employees — encountered Meteor Lake yield issues, suspends dividend

By Paul Alcorn published 1 August 24

Intel announced plans to lay off more than 15% of its workforce amid troubling results.

Ampere unveils monstrous 512-core AmpereOne Aurora processor — custom AI engine, support for HBM memory

By Paul Alcorn published 31 July 24

Ampere is adding a 512-core AmpereOne Aurora processor to its roadmap, and it also divulged pricing for its AmpereOne lineup.

AMD may have delayed Ryzen 9000 launch due to a typo — mislabeled Ryzen 7 chip emerges, Ryzen 5 9600X impacted, too [Updated]

By Paul Alcorn published 28 July 24

An image of a Ryzen 9000 processor with incorrect product labeling has emerged, hinting at the reason for AMD's recent delay in its Zen 5 launch.

Intel's CPU instability and crashing issues also impact mainstream 65W and higher 'non-K' models — damage is irreversible, no planned recall

By Jeff Butts published 28 July 24

While we thought the crashing bug plaguing Intel CPUs had been solved, the problem has been revealed to be more expansive than initially thought.

AMD delays its Ryzen 9000 launch due to unspecified quality issue — new launch in August; chipmaker pulls back all units shipped globally for quality checks [Updated]

By Paul Alcorn published 24 July 24

AMD hits the brakes on its Zen 5-powered Ryzen 9000 processors.

AMD dishes out more Zen 5 details — compact core is 25% smaller than the normal core, new SoC and chip architecture with dual CCXs

By Paul Alcorn published 24 July 24

Tying it all together.

Intel finally announces a solution for CPU crashing and instability problems — claims elevated voltages are the root cause; patch coming by mid-August [Updated]

By Paul Alcorn published 22 July 24

Intel announced that elevated voltages are the culprit behind the crashing errors with its overclockable processors.

An interview with AMD's Mike Clark, the Father of Zen — 'Zen Daddy' says 3nm Zen 5 is coming fast; also talks compact cores for desktop chips

By Paul Alcorn published 22 July 24

AMD expands on its Zen 5 architecture.

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