The Hot Take: This is RISC with RISC, I'm wondering if we'll get a CISC with RISK chip hybrid from Intel or AMD.
IBM's next-generation chip will combine dual ISA within the core, enabling the execution of Z and Arm software simultaneously. IBM Is Sending The World's First Dual-ISA Processor Core For Tape-Out Soon IBM's Christian Jacobi (IBM Fellow & CTO, IBM Systems Development) presented the Hot Chips 2026 talk in which he announced the first Dual-ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) Core for IBM Z and LinuxOne generation. The dual architecture allows IBM to execute both Z- and Arm-based software. IBM states that this isn't putting two different core…
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By ckasprzak | TkOut | August 6, 2026 |
Software
The Hot Take: Interesting...
Proxmox Server Solutions, the company behind the open source Proxmox virtualization stack, has announced a port of its flagship Virtual Environment to the Arm CPU architecture – and a collaboration with Nvidia and Supermicro that made it happen. The outfit’s announcement states that it can now run on 64-bit ARM (arm64/aarch64), but the only fully supported platforms are Nvidia’s Grace Hopper and Vera. Proxmox will also provide “best-effort support” for other UEFI-based ARMv9-A or newer hardware, and says ARMv8-A “generally works as well”. If…
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The Hot Take: This is the biggest limitation to ARM SoC's as their GPU's are mid-range. So acceptance from gamers will require ability to get high end GPU for performance.
The Snapdragon X2 Elite might have doubled down on compute performance, but a multitude of tests show that its GPU continues to be one of the weakest links of the SoC. Fortunately, a user shows that the RTX Spark driver has introduced unofficial eGPU support through a USB4 connection, allowing you to experience competitive shooters like Overwatch at upwards of 200FPS. Redditor shares “simple to follow” instructions on how to bring eGPU support to Snapdragon X2 Elite laptops Notebooks like the ASUS Zenbook A16 offer a solid configuration to…
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The Hot Take: Is ARM going to shine or show it's mid-range performance?
The NVIDIA N1X is surely powerful enough for the Windows-on-Arm market, but the current prototype software prevents it from reaching its full potential. User Puts Microsoft's Unreleased NVIDIA N1X-Equipped Surface Laptop Ultra To Test; Discovers Chip Being Held Back by Unfinished Drivers The NVIDIA RTX Spark laptops will debut in the coming weeks, and if you were wondering about their performance numbers, here is an early sneak peek by a TechPowerUp user, who got his hands on an early prototype from Microsoft. The user "Fouquin" says he found…
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The Hot Take: Still not buying the ARM SoC's are better than discrete system CPUs. We'll have to see how Intel/AMD ACE instructions far against this.
NVIDIA has started using clusters of its own Vera processors to develop future CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerators. The company says initial electronic design automation testing shows performance improvements of up to 1.
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The Hot Take: Interesting, we'll see if they get the ext GPU with the SoC internal GPU issues worked out but I'm still thinking Risc-V may do it better.
Windows on Arm systems were long regarded as an interesting alternative to conventional PCs, but they were significantly limited when it came to demanding hardware support. A current test now shows that this situation is gradually changing. A notebook with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite could be successfully operated with an external NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, […]
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The Hot Take: ARM isn't the answer, sorry.
The decision to employ older Cortex-X925 and Cortex-A725 cores on the RTX Spark to form a 20-core CPU configuration will probably haunt NVIDIA because a new Cinebench 2026 leak reveals that the chipset produces subpar multi-core results, despite Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra housing the SoC set to the ‘High Performance’ profile. Fortunately, the RTX Spark manages to retain some dignity in the single-core benchmark. High Performance mode on Surface Laptop Ultra isn’t enabled by default, but hidden configuration allows RTX Spark’s Cortex…
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The Hot Take: Interesting...
Qualcomm has introduced its first-ever CPU designed for Data Centers, the Dragonfly C1000, which leverages the Oryon architecture. Qualcomm Enters The Agentic AI CPU Race With Dragonfly C1000 Chip, Oryon-Based With Over 5 GHz Clocks, Over 250 Cores, & Aims To Achieve Single-Core Leadership One of the biggest announcements by Qualcomm today was its first release of a CPU for the data center segment, called the Dragonfly C1000. This is a chip purpose-built for Agentic AI & General-Purpose workloads, delivering best-in-class power…
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The Hot Take: ARM seems to be breaking out from everywhere. Fujitsu, Nvidia, AWS and ARM. Qualcomm seems to be playing catch up in the server market from the looks of it.
AWS has provided a first look at its next-generation Graviton5 processor, a custom server CPU developed by Annapurna Labs for deployment across the company's cloud computing platform and AI inference infrastructure.
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The Hot Take: I'm interested in the Surface with this chip to get a decent GPU on an ARM setup and play with ARM Windows more personally. Only professionally worked with it and that was only an inch deep.
Computex 2026 and GTC Taipei will go down in history as the moment NVIDIA used to officially announce its entrance into the PC market. During his keynote at the Taipei Music Center, CEO Jensen Huang announced the RTX Spark – formerly codenamed N1 and N1X – which will power an array of premium laptops and small form factor systems coming this
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