AMD Learns From Past Mistakes And Pushes Back Launch Of Ryzen 9000 Series CPUs ▉

AMD SVP and GM of Computing and Graphics, Jack Huynh on Twitter X:

We appreciate the excitement around Ryzen 9000 series processors. During final checks, we found the initial production units that were shipped to our channel partners did not meet our full quality expectations. Out of an abundance of caution and to maintain the highest quality experiences for every Ryzen user, we are working with our channel partners to replace the initial production units with fresh units. As a result, there will be a short delay in retail availability. The Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X processors will now go on sale on August 8th, and the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X processors will go on-sale on August 15th. Apologies for the delay. We pride ourselves in providing a high quality experience for every Ryzen user, and we look forward to our fans having a great experience with the new Ryzen 9000 series.

AMD is doing the right thing even if you want to be cynical about it. They’ve learned their lesson from the vapor chamber issues that were found during the launch of the Radeon 7900 XTX graphics cards and are not letting potential issues with the Ryzen 9000 series of CPUs.

As this article from AnandTech clarifies, this only affects only the desktop processors.

Importantly, however, this announcement is only for the Ryzen 9000 desktop processors, and not the Ryzen AI 300 mobile processors (Strix Point), which are still slated to launch next week. A mobile chip recall would be a much bigger issue (they’re in finished devices that would need significant labor to rework), but also, both the new desktop and mobile Ryzen processors are being made on the same TSMC N4 process node, and have significant overlap due to their shared use of the Zen 5 architecture. To be sure, mobile and desktop are very different dies, but it does strongly imply that whatever the issue is, it’s not a design flaw or a fabrication flaw in the silicon itself.

While it’s good to know it’s not a design flaw, which I still think is the case with Intel’s situation involving the 13th and 14th series i9 and i7 CPUs, we may never actually know the reason this happened. Hopefully we do once this situation gets sorted out though.

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Assassin’s Creed At The Paris 2024 Olympics ▉

Who’s the mysterious hooded figure carrying the Olympic torch throughout Paris?

As the 2024 Paris Olympics kicks off with the opening ceremony, spectators notice a resemblance between the torchbearer and a video game character from Assassin’s Creed — and they seem to be loving the similarity of the unknown figures traveling through the city using parkour moves.

While we can’t confirm whether there’s actually a connection between the game and the torchbearer video game creator Ubisoft, a French video game publisher, tweeted a photo from “Assassin’s Creed Unity” during the Olympics opening ceremony. The game just so happens to be set in Paris during the French Revolution.

As soon as I saw it I was like “Wait, is that an Assassin’s Creed reference?” and apparently it was. Nobody is outright saying it, but this tweet from Ubisoft pretty much confirms it for me. I also keep forgetting that Ubisoft is French.

Generally speaking I thought the opening ceremony was long but one of my favorites over the years. I loved how they incorporated the entire city into the show and didn’t really do much that, to me, was terribly fancy or smacked of over the top tech¹ like drones. It was also unapologetically French and driven by French history and blended with modern France. I mean who else has the balls to incorporate Les Miserables, a French Revolution song, and have it performed by a French metal band with a French opera singer.

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