News

Intel Announces Its Range Of 13th Gen Core Processors

Intel’s 13th Gen processors have landed, offering support for DDR5 and DDR4 memory, with the same LGA1700 sockets used by the outgoing generation.

Published

4 years ago

September 28, 2022

Nour Nasir

Intel

At the Intel Innovation event on September 27th, the processor giant revealed its latest 13th Generation Core processor family. The chips are powered by Intel’s performance hybrid architecture and come in six new unlocked variants for desktop applications.

The new lineup is headed by the monstrous Core i9-13900K and Core i9-13900KF, which utilize 24 cores for a total of 20 threads. The “E” cores sport a base frequency of 2.2Ghz, while the “P” cores max out at 3.0Ghz — though the turbo frequency can push those numbers to 4.3Ghz and 5.8Ghz, respectively. In terms of power draw, both top-of-the-line processors are rated at 125W, with max power topping out at 253W.

intel 13th gen core processors

The range is codenamed “Raptor Lake“, and Intel claims that the entire family of processors will offer users up to a 15% increase in single-threaded performance and up to a 41% increase in multi-threaded performance compared to the outgoing 12th generation.

Speaking of the rest of the Raptor Lake family, two i7 and two i5 processors will also feature in the lineup, with K and KF variants of each, with the latter not supporting integrated graphics.

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There’s also some good news for system builders and serial upgraders: Although limited to a max speed of 5600Mhz, DDR4 RAM will still be supported by the new processors, which also use the same LGA1700 socket configuration — meaning Z690 and Z790 motherboard owners can sample the power of Raptor Lake without the need for a complete system refresh.

As for laptop users, Intel has confirmed that the new 13th Gen processors will be finding their way into portable PCs in the near future, sticking to the familiar naming convention of U, P, H, and HX. The new 13th Gen Raptor Lake range will hit stores from October 20th, though there’s no word on availability levels as yet.

News

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.