Intel Reveals Few More Details Regarding 11th Gen "Rocket Lake" Processors

I'll agree with the temperature monitoring taking so long to be integrated into the kernel.

I've never had an issue with sound on an Asrock X370, MSI B450, or Asus X470 or Gigabyte X399. Looking online it seems this was an issue with specific Realtek audio chipsets?

You can't really blame AMD for problems with Realtek hardware - I had an X58 board which had dual Realtek NICs, both of which were a PITA, and another X58 board with one of the "Killer" gaming NICs (which flat out never worked in Linux until long after I abandoned that motherboard).

Only time I've had USB not work properly is when I plugged a USB HDD into a front-case port and it pulled too much power. Drive worked... but would randomly disconnect and reconnect.

I've got Intel systems (laptops, admittedly) where suspend and hibernate don't work correctly in Linux (but are OK in Windows), so again it's not an AMD exclusive issue.

I'll agree with rdrand as well, although I would equally apportion blame between AMD (for having it broken in the first place) and motherboard manufacturers (for being too lazy to issue updates).

I've not had issues disabling or configuring SecureBoot except on the MSI X399 board where it was fixed with a BIOS update.

In my opinion, the one insanely annoying, total fail that AMD have on Linux is one you haven't mentioned: drivers and support for their motherboard (SATA) RAID implementation. It sucks. It may have improved, but when I was trying to get it working (about a year ago) Linux drivers had been removed from the AMD website apparently due to an argument with the 3rd party developer, you had to "get lucky" finding them on a file sharing site via a forum, they were an absolute mission to get to install, required all sorts of fun and games every time there was a kernel update and generally were about as usable and useful as a wet fart in a hurricane. I'm not going to put myself through the torture of trying it out again to see if they've made any progress in the last year, so for me, AMD and RAID on Linux will forever now be followed by "need dedicated RAID card or go Intel". As I needed the PCI-E slots stuffed full of GPUs, for that box I went Intel. And that opened up a whole new can of worms.

...

Y'see, I'd consider Rocket Lake for AVX-512. That's about it. Some of the software I use has recently added an AVX-512 codepath (the other option being CUDA) and I would really, really like to lessen my dependence on nVidia. But I'm not going to sink $$$$$ into an AVX-512 dual-socket workstation without doing some serious testing first; and that for me means physical hands-on time, not messing about with short-term remote access for testing purposes; thus, a lower powered desktop, something I can do some real work on, but won't break the bank.

I wasn't blaming AMD for Realtek driver issues, just pointing out that there are important practical problems with using non-Intel systems. It's easy to say "everything is working fine" when in fact, many things are not.

In terms of why non-Intel USB could be a problem, my own motherboard has Intel USB 3.0 ports and two Asmedia USB 3.1 ports. The Asmedia USB drivers had USB auto-suspend bugs, so they would fail sometimes. I'd plugged in stuff there which kept failing and thought it was the device. Then I looked at dmesg and figured out it was the Asmedia USB ports that caused the problem. The Intel USB ports worked perfectly fine with zero driver problems.

The gap in driver quality for Intel vs non-Intel is big, and affects many things that people use in their everyday life. Claiming that such systems just work fine, is dishonest.
.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Plenty of AMD fanboys claim "Everything is just fine" and then when you press them, they say "Yeha I can't see temperature and power stats but who needs that? Yeah sound doesn't work properly but who needs that? Yeah you need to use out of tree drivers for some Realtek hardware but that's not an issue. Yeah, USB doesn't work properly but who needs that? Yeah, suspend and hibernate doesn't work properly due to motherboard issues but who needs that? Yeah, RdRand is still broken but who needs that? (because motherboard vendor still didn't issue the update) (also proceeds to claim it's a systemd bug) Yeah you can't disable or configure SecureBoot but who needs that?"

I'll agree with the temperature monitoring taking so long to be integrated into the kernel.

I've never had an issue with sound on an Asrock X370, MSI B450, or Asus X470 or Gigabyte X399. Looking online it seems this was an issue with specific Realtek audio chipsets?

You can't really blame AMD for problems with Realtek hardware - I had an X58 board which had dual Realtek NICs, both of which were a PITA, and another X58 board with one of the "Killer" gaming NICs (which flat out never worked in Linux until long after I abandoned that motherboard).

Only time I've had USB not work properly is when I plugged a USB HDD into a front-case port and it pulled too much power. Drive worked... but would randomly disconnect and reconnect.

I've got Intel systems (laptops, admittedly) where suspend and hibernate don't work correctly in Linux (but are OK in Windows), so again it's not an AMD exclusive issue.

I'll agree with rdrand as well, although I would equally apportion blame between AMD (for having it broken in the first place) and motherboard manufacturers (for being too lazy to issue updates).

I've not had issues disabling or configuring SecureBoot except on the MSI X399 board where it was fixed with a BIOS update.

In my opinion, the one insanely annoying, total fail that AMD have on Linux is one you haven't mentioned: drivers and support for their motherboard (SATA) RAID implementation. It sucks. It may have improved, but when I was trying to get it working (about a year ago) Linux drivers had been removed from the AMD website apparently due to an argument with the 3rd party developer, you had to "get lucky" finding them on a file sharing site via a forum, they were an absolute mission to get to install, required all sorts of fun and games every time there was a kernel update and generally were about as usable and useful as a wet fart in a hurricane. I'm not going to put myself through the torture of trying it out again to see if they've made any progress in the last year, so for me, AMD and RAID on Linux will forever now be followed by "need dedicated RAID card or go Intel". As I needed the PCI-E slots stuffed full of GPUs, for that box I went Intel. And that opened up a whole new can of worms.

...

Y'see, I'd consider Rocket Lake for AVX-512. That's about it. Some of the software I use has recently added an AVX-512 codepath (the other option being CUDA) and I would really, really like to lessen my dependence on nVidia. But I'm not going to sink $$$$$ into an AVX-512 dual-socket workstation without doing some serious testing first; and that for me means physical hands-on time, not messing about with short-term remote access for testing purposes; thus, a lower powered desktop, something I can do some real work on, but won't break the bank.

[Jumbotron]

I'm seriously considering Cometlake/Rocketlake, because I know that they have great Linux support and shit will just work.

Whereas with AMD and the AM4 motherboards, I don't know what works and what doesn't. Driver support and reliability is a huge unknown.

Plenty of AMD fanboys claim "Everything is just fine" and then when you press them, they say "Yeha I can't see temperature and power stats but who needs that? Yeah sound doesn't work properly but who needs that? Yeah you need to use out of tree drivers for some Realtek hardware but that's not an issue. Yeah, USB doesn't work properly but who needs that? Yeah, suspend and hibernate doesn't work properly due to motherboard issues but who needs that? Yeah, RdRand is still broken but who needs that? (because motherboard vendor still didn't issue the update) (also proceeds to claim it's a systemd bug) Yeah you can't disable or configure SecureBoot but who needs that?"

** cough, cough ** meltdown/heartbleed/spectre ** cough, cough**

[Jumbotron]

"Please please please don't pay any attention to the new chips coming from one of out competitors* next month which leaks** indicate stomp a mudhole in our best offerings*** for far less money**** pretty please. Wait until another six months for our new chips*****. They'll be better, we promise******. Pinky swear."

* Of course this is AMD, but Intel will probably desperately avoid naming them.
** That at least appear semi-credible.
*** Well, actually, we've been mostly losing in the server space since Epyc arrived, and only AVX-512 has really allowed us to maintain any hope of competition here.
**** Bulk discounts, chip rebrands from Platinum to Gold, etc. don't count.
***** But not a new process - in fact an old one! 14 is twice as good as 7, dontchaknow?
****** Terms and conditions apply.

The above is satire.

You know what makes good satire.....it contains a lot of truth. This is good satire. I particularly enjoyed ****** Terms and conditions apply. LOL!

"Please please please don't pay any attention to the new chips coming from one of out competitors* next month which leaks** indicate stomp a mudhole in our best offerings*** for far less money**** pretty please. Wait until another six months for our new chips*****. They'll be better, we promise******. Pinky swear."

* Of course this is AMD, but Intel will probably desperately avoid naming them.
** That at least appear semi-credible.
*** Well, actually, we've been mostly losing in the server space since Epyc arrived, and only AVX-512 has really allowed us to maintain any hope of competition here.
**** Bulk discounts, chip rebrands from Platinum to Gold, etc. don't count.
***** But not a new process - in fact an old one! 14 is twice as good as 7, dontchaknow?
****** Terms and conditions apply.

The above is satire.

I'm seriously considering Cometlake/Rocketlake, because I know that they have great Linux support and shit will just work.

Whereas with AMD and the AM4 motherboards, I don't know what works and what doesn't. Driver support and reliability is a huge unknown.

Plenty of AMD fanboys claim "Everything is just fine" and then when you press them, they say "Yeha I can't see temperature and power stats but who needs that? Yeah sound doesn't work properly but who needs that? Yeah you need to use out of tree drivers for some Realtek hardware but that's not an issue. Yeah, USB doesn't work properly but who needs that? Yeah, suspend and hibernate doesn't work properly due to motherboard issues but who needs that? Yeah, RdRand is still broken but who needs that? (because motherboard vendor still didn't issue the update) (also proceeds to claim it's a systemd bug) Yeah you can't disable or configure SecureBoot but who needs that?"

[Paradigm Shifter]

"Please please please don't pay any attention to the new chips coming from one of out competitors* next month which leaks** indicate stomp a mudhole in our best offerings*** for far less money**** pretty please. Wait until another six months for our new chips*****. They'll be better, we promise******. Pinky swear."

* Of course this is AMD, but Intel will probably desperately avoid naming them.
** That at least appear semi-credible.
*** Well, actually, we've been mostly losing in the server space since Epyc arrived, and only AVX-512 has really allowed us to maintain any hope of competition here.
**** Bulk discounts, chip rebrands from Platinum to Gold, etc. don't count.
***** But not a new process - in fact an old one! 14 is twice as good as 7, dontchaknow?
****** Terms and conditions apply.

The above is satire.

[Jumbotron]

I was hoping intel would be able to compete, just to keep AMD pricing in check, but it's not looking so good.

I think 2022 is when AMD is going to start implementing the techie skim across product lines, because Intel will have no answer to the point of LOL. Come on Intel... you can't operate like the post office forever. Sun was massive, and put the dot in dot com, and now they're dot dead. Don't bitch out like that.

I wish that were true actually because AMD needs MORE profits to stay competitive and viable for the long term. But Intel has deep enough pockets to start a price war with AMD. In fact, they already have. It's one of the reasons Intel's stock has been cratering. Wall Street now knows Intel is full of shit and the only way they can compete with AMD is to drop prices which eats profitability which of course....kills the stock price.

But that said....WHAT a turnaround from the mid 2000's and the moribund Steamroller days of AMD and Intel throwing out 100+ SKUs of iSomethingmeaningless CPU's. And in that time, Intel has shed it's entire mobile division, it's entire modem division, shut down the Larrabee/Knight's Landing initiative and just recently sold off it's entire NAND/SSD division to HK Hynix. And they STILL can't get 10nm yield up enough in a profitable manner.

The only thing they have done right...to a point...is after almost 50 years Intel is about to make a decent GPU. And it took them only 3 years. Of course...they had to poach half of AMD's GPU engineers to accomplish that feat, but still.....

[ThoreauHD]

I was hoping intel would be able to compete, just to keep AMD pricing in check, but it's not looking so good.

I think 2022 is when AMD is going to start implementing the techie skim across product lines, because Intel will have no answer to the point of LOL. Come on Intel... you can't operate like the post office forever. Sun was massive, and put the dot in dot com, and now they're dot dead. Don't bitch out like that.

[muncrief]

Intel is paying for decades of stagnation and customer neglect. I mean seriously, the fact that they simply can't move to 7nm is a stunning indictment of their incompetence and greed. So long as AMD couldn't compete they were happy to churn out the same crap at unfathomable prices, and they had no plans to change, ever. But now that they're confronted by an ethical engineering powerhouse like AMD the truth of their feeble character and ineptitude has been exposed for all to see.

All I can say is thank goodness, and enjoy your comeuppance.

[Jumbotron]

Wait...WHAT ?? THEY BACK PORTED TO A 14NM NODE !! SMH. AMD HAS BEEN AT 7NM. QUALCOMM IS AT 7NM GOING TO 5NM. SAMSUNG IS WORKING ON 3NM. APPLE IS SHIPPING 5NM AND WORKING ON 3NM. AND INTEL IS GOING FROM 10NM TO....14NM ??????

Looks like this EPIC takedown of this latest Intel process shitshow is SPOT ON. Here's a clip.

" What we should have said is that Intel would never be dumb enough to backport a 10nm architecture that was not designed with process portability in mind to a 14nm process. It would be too big, too inefficient, and simply not competitive with IP blocks designed and tuned for 14nm from the start. A company would need to be desperate and have their backs to the wall so badly that flushing tens of millions of dollars on this port for nothing more than a headline grab and an eventual black eye is worth it. That’s what we should have said but we would have been wrong there too, Intel it seems _IS_ that dumb."

Here's the link to the entire post. Must read!!

https://semiaccurate.com/2020/10/29/intels-palpable-desperation-on-display-with-rocket-lake/