AMD starts shipping rivals to Intel's Kaby Lake CPUs to OEMs-- specifically the 7th generation Bristol Ridge-based A-Series featuring the AM4 platform aimed at desktop system use.

The CPUs support DDR4 memory and next-gen I/O standards, including PCIe Gen 3, USB 3.1, NVMe and SATA Express. They also promise high-speed processing, smooth gaming and enhanced media streaming (with 4K/UHD video support in both H.264 and H.265 formats) capabilities. The chips carry up to 4 Excavator cores and come in 65W and 35W versions.

Meanwhile the AM4 socket is a unified socket infrastructure providing compatibility between A-Series processors and upcoming "Summit Ridge" CPUs.

Intel announces the first CPUs in what it describes as the "7th generation Core" family-- Kaby Lake, a mid-generation 14nm Skylake refresh bridging the gap until the 10nm Cannonlake CPUs finally hit the market.

As Chipzilla tends to, Kaby Lake will arrive in waves, the first being a selection of six Y- and U-series chips designed for laptops and other compact form factor machines. As such, the draw of such CPUs is less raw power (in that respect little has changed since Skylake) and more the addition of new capabilities to laptops.

Videos is of particular interest, since all Kaby Lake integrated GPUs support hardware-accelerated decoding and encoding of 10-bit HEVC/H.265 video streams and the decoding of 8-bit VP9 streams  complete with Dolby Vision and HDR10 HDR standard support. HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 support are also included, enabling the output of 4K video at 60Hz over an HDMI cable.

HP appears to be all about unusual PC form factors-- the Pavilion Wave is a mini PC built around a 360-degree speaker, while the Elite Slice features a modular compact design.

The Pavilion Wave looks less like a PC and more like a piece of audio gear. It features a triangular, fabric-coated chassis and an integrated speaker complete with a parabolic reflector the company says provides "superior" 360-degree audio for one's music and movies. Web chats are also catered for, since the PC carries dual-microphones.

Technical specifications include support for up to quad-core desktop CPUs, 2TB HDD, 128GB SSD, 16GB DDR4 RAM and an optional Radeon R9 M470 GPU. Connectivity comes through wifi, x3 USB, x1 HDMI, x1 DisplayPort (allowing it to push video to two 4K displays) and ethernet ports.

Fractal Design announces a pair of additions to the Dynamic series fans-- the Dynamic X2 GP-12 and GP-14 all-purpose fans, both featuring high-grade LLS bearings for a higher MTBF figure.

As the names might suggest, the fans are 120 and 140mm respectively. According to Fractal Design the fans have an MTBF of up to 10000, an improvement from non-X2 fans in the series using hydraulic bearings with a claimed 40000 hours MTBF.

PC makers wanting to prove their green credentials will need to try harder, as the European Commission (EC) tightens the criteria of the EU Ecolabel covering the production, construction and life cycle of desktop, notebook and tablet computers.

First introduced in 1992, the Ecolabel is a voluntary certification scheme allowing businesses to prove their products or services have a low environmental impact. Following the updated criteria vendors will need to show the "energy efficiency and upgradability" of devices, as well as the ease said devices can be dismantled and recycled.

"The EU Ecolabel promotes Europe's transition to a circular economy, supporting both sustainable production and consumption," EC commissioner for the environment Karmenu Vella says. "Thanks to transparent ecological criteria, consumers can make conscious choices, without compromising on the quality of the products. Similarly, the Ecolabel rewards those manufacturers who choose to design products that are durable and repairable, promoting innovation and saving resources."

HP presents an unusual-looking gaming PC at Gamescom 2016-- the Omen X Desktop, a machine supposedly powerful enough to handle 4K and VR gaming built inside a glowing cube-shaped chassis.

A special stand allows the cube to stand on one corner, making it look like some kind of science fiction artifact. As well as looking cool the design is also DIY enthusiast friendly, since it provides tool-less access, clean cable management, and easy customisation and upgrade options. How so? The cube divides components in different chambers, while HDDs come in easy-to-swap compartments.

The baseline Omen X Desktop model carries an Intel i7 Skylake CPU, 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD, 256GB SSD, liquid cooling and an AMD Radeon RX 480 GPU together with x10 USB ports. Other configurations are also available, maxing out at either dual Nvidia GTX 1080 or AMD Radeon R9 Fury X GPUs.

AMD hosts a special "Path to Zen" event in San Francisco to provide further details on the upcoming Zen processor lineup-- one the company says should launch in desktop form early next year.

The result of 4 years of work, Zen processors are designed to provide high performance in systems as varied as fanless 2-in-1s, embedded systems, high-performance computing and datacentres. CEO Dr. Lisa Su says "the performance and efficiency of our Zen core showcases AMD at its best," and the CPUs are able to deliver "a 40% generational improvement in instructions per clock."

The chips are built using a 14nm FinFET process and feature Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT), the AMD take on Intel's HyperThreading allowing Zen cores to run multiple threads simultaneously. Further improvements come in an instruction scheduler featuring an 8MB L3 cache together with a larger L2 cache to push 5x the bandwidth to the core than the previous Excavator design.

Both DigiTimes and Windows Central report Microsoft plans to use the Surface brand for another PC form factor--- the All in One (AIO), a device reportedly created as an alternative to the next generation Surface Book.

The DigiTimes source claims Intel Kaby Lake CPU shipment delays have led to Microsoft postponing the launch of the 2nd Surface Book to H1 2017, thus the need of a different PC product for H2 2016. It also says the Surface AIO can have a "strong impact" on the global AIO PC market, one currently going through the declines felt in the rest of the PC industry.

According to DigiTimes Research 2016 global AIO PC shipments are to total 12.6 million units, down from the 14m shipped in 2015.