UPDATED 02:04 EDT / MAY 29 2017

EMERGING TECH

Computex 2017 kicks off this week: Here’s what’s coming at Asia’s big tech show

Computex 2017, the largest information technology conference in Asia, kicks off May 30 in Taipei, Taiwan and runs until June 3.

This year may not be quite as announcement-filled as last year, whose product introductions included Zenbo, a mobile robot from AsusTek Computer Inc., Intel Corp.’s first 10-core desktop central processing unit and a range of virtual reality tech. But there are still a lot new products coming, from new processors for artificial intelligence to cutting-edge VR headsets.

Acer Inc. got ahead of the competition before the start of Computex 2017 with the announcement of its latest hardware last week. The company announced its Nitro 5 gaming laptop, a portable 2-in-1 laptop called the Spin 1, and two tablets, including one with a quantum dot display.  

Micro-Star International, commonly known as MSI, also got ahead of everyone else with the announcement last week of its new personal computers and gaming technology. More details about both announcements are expected at Computex.

Here’s a look at what else we can expect from Computex this week, based on the rumors making the rounds — and what has been announced already:

Asus

Getting in ahead of the official start of Computex, Asus just introduced a series of new laptops at a press conference Monday in Taipei:

* Zenbook Flip S (UX370), which the company called the “world’s thinnest convertible” that’s also “one of the lightest” It’s 10.9 millimeters thick and weighs 1.1 kilograms and uses a 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7500U processor. It starts at $1,099.

* ZenBook Pro (UX550), described as having “pure, unadulterated power. Asus said it’s the thinnest, lightest and most powerful ZenBook Pro yet. It’s powered by the highest-performance 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ quad-core processor and a gaming-grade Nvidia Corp. GeForce GTX1050 Ti graphics. It’s 18.9mm thick and weighs 1.8 kg and starts at $1,299.

* ZenBook 3 Deluxe (UX490), which Asus said is the world’s thinnest 14-inch laptop, at 12.9mm, and it weighs 1.1kg. Prices start at $1,199.

* VivoBook Pro 15 (N580), a 15.6-inch Windows 10 laptop powered by a 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ quad-core processor. It costs $799.

* VivoBook S15 (S510), a “mainstream” 15.6-inch Windows 10 laptop that’s 17.9mm thick and weighs 1.5 kg. and starts at $499.

The company’s gaming brand, Republic of Gamers, has teased a gaming laptop powered by Ryzen that will make an appearance at the show.

With it comes to smartphones, Asus has already launched two new ones at CES this year, the Google Inc. Tango-powered Zenfone AR, which goes on sale this summer, and the Zenfone 3 Zoom.

It has also been a year since the company debuted Zenbo, so the company could announce the broader availability of the robot, currently only available in Taiwan, and additional accessories for it, though those didn’t appear at the press conference.

Nvidia

Nvidia Corp.’s keynote presentation, presented by Chief Executive and founder Jensen Huang, focused on artificial intelligence. The big reveal early Tuesday is that it has signed up four of the world’s largest makers of computers to adopt its graphics chip-powered server design for artificial intelligence work in the most demanding “hyperscale” data centers. The so-called original design manufacturers are the four major Taiwanese makers of computers and other electronic products: Hon Hai Precision Ind Co. Ltd. (known as Foxconn), Inventec Corp., Quanta Computer Inc. and Wistron Corp. They will be part of an Nvidia partner program providing the manufacturers early access to the HGX architecture powered by Nvidia’s graphics processing units, or GPUs.

The data center design is the same one used in Microsoft Corp.’s Project Olympus initiative, Facebook Inc.’s Big Basin systems and Nvidia’s own DGX-1 AI supercomputers. Nvidia has a similar program for cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web Services Inc., but this is the first time the ODMs will get early access.

AMD

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. could choose Computex to unveil its new Vega graphics chip. AMD revealed the first details about its Vega graphics processing unit architecture at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The company confirmed last month that the graphics chips would arrive in the next two months.

AMD could also unveil its Ryzen 9 Threadripper processors, which will reportedly compete with Intel’s rumored Core i9 line of high-end chips. The Ryzen 9 Threadripper will have 16-core processors, which could be slower than the Ryzen 7 CPUs in frequency, but would be able to handle multifaceted workloads.

ARM

Ahead of the official start of Computex, smartphone chip designer ARM Holdings plc has announced a new lineup of processors that has been designed specifically to tackle the challenges of artificial intelligence and machine learning that run directly on your device.

The company unveiled the ARM Cortex-A75 that has a claimed 22 percent improvement in performance over the A73 and the Cortex-A55. Both the Cortex A75 and A55 will use ARM’s relatively new DynamIQ foundation, which the company announced in March.

It also announced the new Mali-G72 graphics processor, which has a 25 percent improvement in efficiency and is 17 percent better in machine learning compared to its predecessor, the G71.

Dell

Dell Technologies Inc. will be holding a press conference during Computex, but little is known about what the company will unveil.

Dell could provide a demonstration of its VR headset for Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 10 Holographic program.

In October, Microsoft announced that several hardware manufacturers will soon be offering VR headsets for Windows 10 starting at just $299. Some of these manufacturers, including Dell, showcased their headsets at CES, but these remained under glass and there was no hands-on demonstration.  

Dell’s VR headset, alongside the other manufacturers, is expected to launch later this year so the company could choose Computex to provide a demonstration.  

Intel

Rumors have been making the rounds that Intel will unveil a new lineup of desktop CPUs with a new high-end Core i9 CPU with 12 cores. With a power consumption of 140W and 12 cores, the top-of-the-range CPU is expected to also have a very high price tag. Other Core i9 CPU options include 6, 8 and 10 cores.

The company could also tease, or announce, its eighth-generation Core chip (Coffee Lake) that’s due in the second half of this year.

Microsoft

Microsoft has already hosted two of its own events this month, including the launch of the Surface Laptop and new Surface Pro, so nothing major is expected from the company at Computex.

Microsoft did announce last week that it would present, together with Qualcomm Inc., at Computex. The companies are expected to provide information on bringing Windows to ARM-based processors, which will allow Win32 apps to be run on a mobile device that has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.

Computex will probably showcase some entry-level devices running Windows 10 S, which Microsoft announced earlier this month. The operating system features more security, faster load times and faster start time, but app downloads are restricted to the Microsoft’s app store.

Image: Computex

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