PCWorld September 2016

AMD FINALLY UNVEILED its new Zen microarchitecture, with a pair of CPUs that could put the company back into the fight with Intel’s best. AMD said its Summit Ridge CPU, aimed at high-performance desktops, will pack 8 cores and feature simultaneous multithreading technology to give it 16 threads of processing power. Summit Ridge is targeted for Q1 2017, though a trickle of chips could appear sooner. A second chip for servers, code-named Naples, will feature an astounding 32 cores with SMT, giving it 64 threads per CPU. SMT is similar to Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology, which splits a single core into two virtual cores for more performance. If other tests back up AMD’s demonstration, however, it appears to run neck-and-neck with the newly released Broadwell-E. To prove that Zen has the right stuff,…

After being frankly astounded by AMD’s recent demonstration of its Zen microprocessor, we simply had to sit down with AMD chief technical officer Mark Papermaster to find out more. Here is our interview, lightly edited for length and clarity. (Confused by what we’re talking about? You might want to read our Zen performance report on page 8 before diving in.) PCWorld: Wow. Leading up to this, there were a lot of doubts on the Internet about Zen’s performance, that it could be lower than Intel’s Ivy Bridge. Clearly, you guys have demonstrated that you can run with Intel’s biggest dogs. Papermaster: What we said a year ago—I guess it was in May, at the financial analysts’ meeting, and I know when I put down that 40-percent IPC number, I got a lot…

YOUR PC IS bored. Your smartphone is, too. While you’re reading this story, your digital device is twiddling its thumbs, waiting for you to do something. When a smartphone can offer enough computing power for most tasks without breaking a sweat, you can understandwhy PC sales are tanking—and why Intel’s so enamored with virtual reality. Intel announced the Project Alloy (go.pcworld.com/projectalloy) virtual-reality headset last month at its Intel Developer Forum, as well as the next-generation Kaby Lake (go.pcworld.com/kabylake) microprocessor. Kaby Lake PCs are scheduled to ship in the fall. Intel executives positioned both announcements in the context of VR: Alloy for consuming VR content, and Kaby Lake for producing it. Pinning the PC’s hopes upon VR A few months ago, Intel executives began promoting virtual reality as the leading edge (go.pcworld.com/vrpchw) of the…

MICROSOFT’S PLANNING A BIG BASH for Windows 10’s first birthday, and you’re the one receiving presents. On August 2, the company pushed out the (boringly named) Windows 10 Anniversary Update to Windows 10 PCs, and the update’s chock-full of all sorts of new goodies for you to play with—some niche, some helpful, and all free. Windows Insiders who don’t mind living dangerously with unfinished software tested these new features in Windows 10 preview builds for months, and now the Anniversary Update has hit the masses. You’ll find our overarching thoughts and impressions in PCWorld’s Windows 10 Anniversary Update review, but if you want to just cut to the chase and know about the best new goodies right now, this article’s for you. Let’s dig in! Bash shell This will only appeal to developers, but…

THE WINDOWS 10 ANNIVERSARY UPDATE is full of great new features like a more powerful Cortana, deeper integration with mobile devices, and new inking features designed to make the stylus cool again. But as with any new version of Windows, the Anniversary Update also removes a few features and functionality that some of you might miss. Amid all the excitement over what’s coming to AU, here’s a look at what Microsoft sent to the Recycle Bin. The impersonal login page A small, but nice, cosmetic change—now, when you click or swipe away the lock screen background picture, you don’t end up on a login screen with a plain colored background or the default Windows background. Instead, you get the same picture as your lock screen by default. The new animation for switching between the…

SINCE THE LAUNCH of the Raspberry Pi in 2012, the hobbyist community centered on low-cost, open-source, ARM-based computers has exploded dramatically. Every year, these small, hackable devices get cheaper and more powerful. In 2015, Oakland-based Next Thing Co. upped the ante by successfully Kickstarting a $9 computer it called CHIP to the tune of $2 million in funding. As part of its pitch, Next Thing Co. also showcased the PocketCHIP (go.pcworld.com/pocketchip), a handheld version of the CHIP with a built-in keyboard and touchscreen display. The PocketCHIP includes a 1GHz ARM CPU (with a Mali 400 GPU), 4GB of flash storage, 512MB of RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 4.3-inch touchscreen display, a primitive keyboard, and a five-hour LiPo battery. With this device now shipping to Kickstarter backers, I thought it would be helpful…