Corning Incorporated, the world's leading manufacturer of optical materials, including high-refractive index glass that enables superior image quality for augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR) wearables, and Pixelligent, a leading high-quality compound material supplier, on Thursday announced a new strategic collaboration to further the development of AR/MR optics. Pixelligent's resins, which are optically transparent polymers, paired with Corning's glass will help reduce product-development time and expand availability of AR devices.

Corning has several years of experience delivering mass-produced quantities of ultra-flat, high-index glass wafers for leading AR device makers. The inherent properties of glass, paired with industry-leading materials science and optical design expertise, make Corning uniquely suited to help customers deliver increasingly demanding functionality for consumer electronics.

ASUS today has launched ExpertBook P2451, a lightweight business laptop that's ideal for all-round productivity, with military-grade robustness and corporate-level security. ExpertBook P2451 is powered by a latest-generation Intel Core i7 vPro processor and also features a dual-storage design, 13-hour battery life1, comprehensive I/O connectivity, and the ASUS SensePoint pointing stick. The compact chassis weighs just 3.42 lb and features a thin-bezel NanoEdge FHD display, which allows a larger screen to fit into a smaller chassis. A cleverly designed 180° hinge makes it easy to share content or collaborate with others. ExpertBook P2451 also features a durable aluminium-alloy lid, steel chassis bracing and E-A-R HDD protection.

ExpertBook P2451 provides all of the productivity features that modern businesses require. The latest-generation Intel Core i7 processor delivers fast and responsive performance while also featuring a dual-storage design that can be specified with up to 2 TB HDD and 1 TB PCIe SSD for ample storage and fast data access speeds. The ASUS SensePoint pointing stick allows for more accurate cursor control, and 13-hour battery life helps when working on the go. ExpertBook P2451 also boasts a futureproof design that allows easy internal component upgrades.

iiyama expands their G-Master portfolio with two new curved Red Eagle monitors - a 24" FHD G2466HSU and a 32" QHD GB3266QSU. Inspired by the human field of view, the 1500R (24") and 1800R (32") curvature of the new Red Eagles brings the edges of the monitors into a more comfortable distance, allowing users to take full advantage of peripheral vision; offering deeper immersion without distortion. FreeSync Premium support means the screens guarantee low input latency and low framerate compensation putting an end to any tearing or stuttering issues at virtually any framerate.

The 24-inch G2466HSU features 165Hz refresh rate and the 32" GB3266QSU - 144Hz. Both offer 1 ms MPRT response time. The Adaptive Sync technology provides dynamic adjusting of the monitors vertical refresh rate to the frame rate of the graphics card while the low framerate compensation effectively removes the minimum refresh rate boundary, putting an end to virtually any tearing or stuttering issues.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, announced today the release of the latest BIOS for the motherboards with the AMD X570, B550, and A520 chipsets to ensure the most comprehensive performance, compatibility, and reliability improvements for users to have the most pleasant user experience on their PCs equipped with AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors.

AMD recently released the Ryzen 5000 series processors which are the most extensive upgrade since 2017. The Ryzen 5000 series includes four models of Ryzen 9 5950X, Ryzen 9 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X, and Ryzen 5 5600X. With the enhancement by the brand new Zen3 core design, these four processors present monumental uplift on performance which attracts notable intension of users to expect further upgrade for their "AMD YES" systems.

Developer CD Projekt Red has announced that Cyberpunk 2077 is now facing another delay - this one of just 21 days. The game is now slated for release on December 10th, which gives the developer more time to work on the launch-day patch so that everything runs as smoothly as possible when the game is out in the wild and in the hands of millions of expectant gamers.

The developer clarified that the reason for the game's delay is the need to launch it concurrently on all platforms they've committed to - current-gen, next-gen, PC, and Stadia. In total, the developer is working on polishing and testing nine different versions of the game (PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PC, and Stadia). This is just mind-bogglingly complex, as you might expect. We also have to take into account that CD Projekt Red has its own shoes to fill when it comes to final quality, and we must remember that first impressions make or break a videogame's reception in the current climate (remember Mass Effect: Andromeda or any other number of games). It seems that the cautious, methodical approach may be the best one for such a high-stakes release. I, for one, would much rather enjoy a game with less chances of game-breaking bugs than a rushed release - especially considering the amount of platforms the game is shipping for.

MSI, a world-leading gaming motherboard manufacturer, proudly announces the new flagship AMD B550 motherboards - MEG B550 UNIFY and MEG B550 UNIFY-X. The spirit of the UNIFY series consists of modest and pure black design, emphasizing the real value of the motherboard that can be brought to the demanding gamers and power users instead of fancy LED decorations. By eliminating all the redundant RGB LEDs and adopting the UV black printing, the heatsink shows the gleam and the shining reflection of the dragon that symbolizes a mysterious and high-quality image. For the UNIFY series motherboard, MSI put great efforts into those essential parts concerned by those enthusiast gamers, enhancing not only the thermal but also power solution to run with the AMD Ryzen processors.

Emphasizing the ultimate performance, MEG B550 UNIFY brings astonishing overclocking records to enthusiast gamers. With AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT processor, it is an incredible result to push CPU frequency to 6155.35 MHz, becoming the world's record breaker once again.

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of display solutions, launches the VG2756-2K and VG2756-4K 27-inch docking monitors. Developed to be a workstation command center, both the VG2756-2K and VG2756-4K are designed with built-in Ethernet and USB Type-C ports and integrated vDisplay software for quick access to on-screen display settings, giving users more control of their work environment.

The ViewSonic VG2756-2K and VG2756-4K docking monitors deliver fast data, audio, video and charging power over a single USB-C cable, enabling users to quickly and easily create a more streamlined and efficient workspace. Built-in RJ45 Ethernet lets users connect to their wired network and transmit data directly to their computer or laptop via only a single USB-C cable - no docking station needed. One USB-C cable eliminates the need for HDMI, DisplayPort and other cables, wires and adapters. An integrated USB-A hub also allows users to connect to peripherals like a keyboard and mouse. The vDisplay Manager software delivers easy access to OSD settings to control brightness, volume, and more, as well as customized screen templates for multi-tasking.

A German website, Heise.de, has discovered a bug in HDMI 2.1 chipset that causes black screen issues on specific hardware. On AV chipsets sourced by Panasonic, and used by Denon, Marantz, and Yamaha HDMI 2.1 AV receivers, the chipset experiences a specific issue of a black screen. More specifically, the bug happens once you connect Microsoft's newest console, Xbox Series X, or NVIDIA's Ampere graphics cards. When connecting these sources at resolutions like 4K/120 Hz HDR and 8K/60 Hz HDR to Panasonic HDMI 2.1 chipsets, the black screen happens. This represents a major problem for every manufacturer planning to use the Panasonic HDMI 2.1 chipset in its AV receivers, meaning that the issue has to be addressed. The Audioholics website has reached out to Sound United and Yamaha to see what their responses were, and you can check them out below.

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced record revenue for the third quarter of 2020 of $2.80 billion, operating income of $449 million, net income of $390 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.32. On a non-GAAP* basis, operating income was $525 million, net income was $501 million and diluted earnings per share was $0.41.

"Our business accelerated in the third quarter as strong demand for our PC, gaming and data center products drove record quarterly revenue," said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. "We reported our fourth straight quarter with greater than 25 percent year-over-year revenue growth, highlighting our significant customer momentum. We are well positioned to continue delivering best-in-class growth as we further extend our leadership product portfolio with the launches of our next generation Ryzen, Radeon and EPYC processors."

Scores for AMD's upcoming Zen 3 Ryzen 7 5800X (8 core, 16 thread) and Ryzen 9 5950X (16 core, 32 thread) have surfaced on the CPU-Z benchmark. The results, which should - as always - be taken with appropriate salt, point towards the Ryzen 7 5800X scoring 650 single-core and 6593 points in the multi-threaded benchmark. The Ryzen 9 5950X is rated as scoring 690.2 points in the same single-threaded benchmark and 13306.5 points in the multi-threaded one. CPU-Z scores for the Intel Core i9-10900K (10 cores, 20 threads) are set at 584 and 7389 points respectively. This is further fuel to the fire on AMD's current technology and performance leadership.

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) and Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX) today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for AMD to acquire Xilinx in an all-stock transaction valued at $35 billion. The combination will create the industry's leading high performance computing company, significantly expanding the breadth of AMD's product portfolio and customer set across diverse growth markets where Xilinx is an established leader. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to AMD margins, EPS and free cash flow generation and deliver industry-leading growth.

The acquisition brings together two industry leaders with complementary product portfolios and customers. AMD will offer the industry's strongest portfolio of high performance processor technologies, combining CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, Adaptive SoCs and deep software expertise to enable leadership computing platforms for cloud, edge and end devices. Together, the combined company will capitalize on opportunities spanning some of the industry's most important growth segments from the data center to gaming, PCs, communications, automotive, industrial, aerospace and defense.

Toshiba announces the Toshiba MG08-D Series HDDs, designed for a wide variety of business-critical applications, such as email and CRM (Customer Resource Management), data analysis for business intelligence, small-medium business servers, and data-retention and compliance archiving.

Toshiba's 7th generation air mechanical design provides better power efficiency and a lower component count to deliver better total cost of ownership than its earlier generation models. The new series features 4 TB, 6 TB and 8 TB models, in both SATA and SAS interfaces. The new 4 TB1 models are available in 512e, 4Kn and 512n sector models, and the 6 TB and 8 TB models are available in 512e and 4Kn sector models, assuring plug-and-play interoperability for applications using prior 4 TB models.

This generation's GPU release is shaping up to be one of the most interesting in late years; for some good reasons, and bad reasons alike. We've heard - keep in mind, not seen - NVIDIA back down from multiple graphics card releases (the double VRAM versions of RTX 3070 and 3080 come to mind); postponing the RTX 3070 until after they have gleaned exactly what AMD will be offering with their RX 6000 series; preparing to launch an RTX 3060 Ti with no announcement whatsoever and before the RTX 3060 is ever launched; and now, apparently, the company is readying a response to AMD's as-of-yet-unannounced RX 6000 series in the form of the RTX 3080 Ti.

Recent performance leaks have placed an unclear AMD GPU (and apparently, not even the fastest Big Navi chip at that) at the same performance level as NVIDIA's RTX 3080, which is a tremendous increase in performance for the red team, coming from years of only being able to effectively compete in the midrange offerings. Now, Kopite7kimi, a known leaker with a proven track record, has claimed that NVIDIA is already prepping a new GA102-based graphics card, sitting in performance between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. He lists identifies the GPU as GA102-250-A1, 9984FP32, 384bits GD6X - let's call it the RTX 3080 Ti. If those details are correct, this is yet another product demanding the same 628 mm² GA102 GPU be available for it - in a scenario with inadequate availability of the RTX 3080, 3090, and likely 3070 Ti graphics cards already, should that later one actually materialize. The memory bus on this prospective RTX 3080 Ti is apparently inheriting the same design as the RTX 3090, with a 384-bit solution (compared to the RTX 3080's 320 bit), and likely 12 GB of GDDR6X memory.

Facebook has recently announced that their gaming platform has launched several cloud-streamed games playable in the Android Facebook app and through the web browser on PC. The service has been in a limited beta for some time with over 200,000 people trying it in limited regions. Facebook makes it clear that the new offering is not intended to compete with more enthusiast options and will instead focus on low-power games on mobile and web. Facebook intends to target the 380 million people who play games through Facebook every month with native integration of cloud games alongside HTML5 games.

The service is launching with several latency-tolerant games including Asphalt 9: Legends, Mobile Legends: Adventure, PGA TOUR Golf Shootout, Solitaire: Arthur's Tale, and WWE SuperCard. Facebook won't be launching cloud games on iOS due to the uncertainty around the feature with Apple's current policies and the issues Microsoft has encountered trying to bring xCloud to Apple devices. Facebook Gaming cloud games are now available to try for customers across select US regions on the Facebook app for Android and on the web.

Today, Lenovo announced it has become a reseller of Varjo's human-eye resolution VR and XR headsets. This further deepens the existing collaboration between the two enterprise-class manufacturers and allows customers to easily access a complete solution for their professional virtual and mixed reality workflows. Through the reseller agreement, users can purchase "Certified for Varjo" workstations along with any device available in Varjo's portfolio via Lenovo's distribution channels.

"Many existing VR offerings in the market today are enterprise versions of a consumer designed product," said Mike Leach, solution portfolio lead, Lenovo. "However, Lenovo's professional workstations and Varjo's VR and XR headsets are specifically engineered to perform in the most sophisticated and demanding enterprise use cases. Our ability to offer customers a single point of purchase for certified workstations and VR/XR devices streamlines access to the tools needed for immersive workflows that are changing the way we work today."

ID-COOLING today announced the SE-225-XT BLACK CPU air cooler, featuring 5 HDT V3.0 copper heatpipes, dual 120 mm PWM fans and metal-mecha mounting kit for Intel LGA2066/2011/1200/115X and AMD AM4. This cooler is designed to cool those processors with a TDP under 220 W with 5 newly developed HDT V3.0 heatpipes and a solid built aluminium heatsink. Overall dimension is 128x108x154mm to fit all ATX platforms.

Two 120x120x25mm fans have been included to get a push-pull configuration. Rubber dampeners have been pre-attached to all corners of both sides. With PWM function, both fans will run at 700 to 1800rpm while pushing 76.16CFM air at maximum speed with noise level measured at 15.2 to 35.2 dB. The bundled thermal grease is named ID-TG25, which has a thermal conductivity of 10.5 W/m-K. The SE-225-XT BLACK CPU Air Cooler will be available for 42.99 USD / 39.99 EURO from Late Nov - Early Dec 2020.

SilverStone today introduced white color trims of two of its PermaFrost series all-in-one, closed-loop, liquid CPU coolers. These include the PF360W with its 360 mm x 120 mm radiator, and the PF240W with its 240 mm x 120 mm radiator. The white trim extends from the pump-block body, through the Nylon sleeving of the coolant tubes, onto the radiator (including its aluminium fins), and the included Air Blazer 120RW fans.

The pump-block features an ARGB LED ornament with SilverStone's characteristic snowflake logo, and each of the included fans features ARGB LEDs at the impeller hub, with the impeller serving as a diffuser. Both models include an RGB controller module that cycles between 10 lighting presets, although you can directly plug the cooler into a 3-pin ARGB header of your motherboard for software control. Each of the included Air Blazer 120RW fans turn at speeds ranging between 600 and 2,200 RPM, pushing up to 92 CFM of air-flow with 3.53 mm H₂O static pressure, and 7.4 to 35.6 dBA noise output. Among the CPU socket types supported are LGA1200, AM4, LGA115x, and LGA2066. The company didn't reveal pricing.

FinalWire Ltd. today announced the immediate availability of AIDA64 Extreme 6.30 software, a streamlined diagnostic and benchmarking tool for home users; the immediate availability of AIDA64 Engineer 6.30 software, a professional diagnostic and benchmarking solution for corporate IT technicians and engineers; the immediate availability of AIDA64 Business 6.30 software, an essential network management solution for small and medium scale enterprises; and the immediate availability of AIDA64 Network Audit 6.30 software, a dedicated network audit toolset to collect and manage corporate network inventories.

The latest AIDA64 update introduces optimized benchmarks for Intel "Tiger Lake" and "Rocket Lake" processors, monitoring of sensor values on SteelSeries Apex TKL OLED displays, and supports the latest AMD and Intel CPU platforms as well as the new graphics and GPGPU computing technologies by both AMD and NVIDIA.

DOWNLOAD: AIDA64 Extreme v6.30

Chinese marketplace Taobao has a number of retailers listing NVIDIA's RTX 3060 Ti graphics card for pre-order - a graphics card that hasn't officially been confirmed by NVIDIA. The Taobao listings fall within the 2049 to 2999 Yuans (305 to 446 USD) range; however, expectations are that NVIDIA's MSRP for the card won't be above $400. That retailers are already listing the card should all but confirm its existence, and marks an interesting way for NVIDIA to operate, introducing the Ti model before the actual RTX 3060 graphics card.

Current information places the RTX 3060 Ti as using the same 392 mm², 17.4 B transistor GA104 chip as the RTX 3070, albeit under the GA104-200 nomenclature; the chip is expected to leverage 4,864 CUDA cores, 152 Tensor Cores, and 38 RT Cores (the RTX 3070 features 5888, 184, and 46 of these respectively). Base clock is apparently set at 1410 MHz with up to 1665 MHz Boost, and should feature the same 8 GB GDDR6, 14 Gbps memory subsystem as the RTX 3070. The RTX 3060 Ti is expected to launch come mid-November, and perhaps we'll hear more about it when NVIDIA officially introduces the RTX 3070 graphics card.

TSMC, the world's leading semiconductor manufacturing company, is rumored to start production of its 6th generation Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology. As the silicon scaling is getting ever so challenging, the manufacturers have to come up with a way to get as much performance as possible. That is where TSMC's CoWoS and other chiplet technologies come. They allow designers to integrate many integrated circuits on a single package, making for a cheaper overall product compared to if the product used one big die. So what is so special about 6th generation CoWoS technology from TSMC, you might wonder. The new generation is said to enable a massive 12 stacks of HBM memory on a package. You are reading that right. Imagine if each stack would be an HBM2E variant with 16 GB capacity that would be 192 GB of memory on the package present. Of course, that would be a very expensive chip to manufacture, however, it is just a showcase of what the technology could achieve.

Update 16:44 UTC—The English DigiTimes report indicates that this technology is expected to see mass production in 2023.

AMD has won a contract to empower the LUMI supercomputer, designed for the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) in conjunction with 10 European countries. The contract will see AMD provide both the CPU and GPU innards of the LUMI, set to be populated with next-generation AMD Epyc CPUs and AMD Instinct GPUs. The supercomputer, which is set to enter operation come next year, will deliver an estimated 552 petaflop/s - higher than the world's current fastest supercomputer, Fugaku in Japan, which reaches peak performance of 513 petaflop/s - and is an Arm-powered affair.

The contract for LUMI's construction has been won by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), which will be providing an HPE Cray EX supercomputer powered by the aforementioned AMD hardware. LUMI has an investment cost set at 200 million euros, for both hardware, installation, and the foreseeable lifetime of its operation. This design win by AMD marks another big contract for the company, which was all but absent from the supercomputing space until launch, and subsequent iterations, of its Zen architecture and latest generations of Instinct HPC accelerators.

PNY Announced today the addition of the new XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X RGB DDR4 3600 MHz Desktop Memory to the Company's assortment that will deliver the overclocked performance demanded today combined with the brilliance of RGB lighting and unmatched style. Life today demands speed and performance in everything that we do. Whether for work, content creation, learning, or gaming - and we do game - the demand for speed and performance has never been greater and as such, to count on components that deliver this speed and performance is not a luxury but a must. Consider it delivered.

Winning in extreme game titles demands higher framerates allowing for faster on-screen loading letting gamers perform at their best. Faster memory means less bottlenecking for modern CPUs and GPUs that thrive off high speed RAM. The PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X RGB DDR4 3600 MHz Desktop Memory delivers the required Overclocked Performance and supports XMP 2.0 technology to provide a superior gaming experience.

Empowering the world's most essential data infrastructures, Western Digital Corp. today announced that Dropbox Inc., a leading global collaboration platform, is one of the first to qualify the Ultrastar DC HC650 20 TB, host-managed, shingled magnetic recording (SMR) hard disk drives (HDD). With Western Digital SMR HDDs serving as the storage foundation for its custom-built, multi-exabyte storage platforms, Dropbox continues its strategic path, taking advantage of the highest storage densities with the lowest TCO without sacrificing data durability and availability for its 600 million+ online customers.

"We've been working with Western Digital for many years, and throughout several phases of our storage platform development," said Andrew Fong, vice president of engineering, Dropbox. "Online tools and services are more important than ever before, so we need to be able to quickly innovate, expand functionality and scale to help stay competitive. We look forward to deploying these higher capacity 20 TB SMR hard drives to further our cost savings and to provide our customers with even more value. Western Digital is an important strategic partner and we look forward to continuously pushing cloud infrastructure boundaries together."

Ahead of the official release date for NVIDIA's RTX 3070 graphics cards (set for October 29th, the day after AMD's Navi announcement on October 28th), PALIT has taken the wraps of their RTX 3070 JetStream graphics card. The JetStream features a relatively subdued design with a glossy black color and a gray JetStream logo (which apparently lights in with RGB illumination) in-between the dual fan cooling solution.

The card's PCB is short - extremely short, even - meaning that it ends around the middle section of the actual cooler shroud (and backplate, which accompanies the shroud). This also means that the power connectors (a 2x 8-pin solution) sits in the middle of the card, rotated 90º relative to the cards' length. This particular choice from Palit could mean difficulties for cable routing and tidying up builds. Overall, the card features an attractive, low-key design. PALIT will reveal the full card specifications come the official launch on October 29th.

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Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) (the "Company" or "Seagate") today reported financial results for its fiscal first quarter ended October 2, 2020. "Seagate delivered solid September quarter results supported by strong recovery in the video and image applications market and healthy cloud data center demand, which drove double digit year-over-year revenue growth for our mass capacity storage solutions. We see indications for Enterprise demand to improve and we expect this to continue as the broader markets gradually recover, supporting our positive December quarter outlook and reinforcing our revenue expectations for the fiscal year," said Dave Mosley, Seagate's chief executive officer.

"Demand for data continues to explode, even through this current period of market uncertainty. As a leader in mass data management, Seagate is executing a technology roadmap focused on helping customers put their valuable data to work. We are on track to ship our first HAMR drives for revenue in December, which is an important industry milestone to support the growing need for mass capacity storage. We also have introduced CORTX, an open-source, object-storage software, along with Lyve Rack that together offer enterprises a simple, secure and efficient way to manage massive volumes of data. These developments illustrate our confidence in identifying and capturing future growth opportunities, and we are further underscoring the confidence in our strategy and long-term cash generation abilities with a 3% increase in our quarterly dividend and a $3 billion increase to our existing share repurchase authorization."

More and more often we create content, run webinars, while video-conferences are replacing meetings at the office. We require and expect more, also on the issue of sound. The Genesis Radium 300 300 XLR studio microphone is here to fulfill those needs. The manufacturer says that the Radium 300 XLR is a professional studio microphone. Thanks to its 30 Hz - 16 kHz frequency range and high sensitivity it provides high quality, clear sound. Its cardioid character filters background noise, recording the sounds only directed at the microphone. Parents of noisy children and owners of loud mechanical keyboards will surely appreciate this feature.

The Genesis Radium 300 300 XLR microphone is sold with a set of accessories which simplify installation and use. Its regulated, metal arm guarantees installation flexibility. Mounting the microphone from the top or down should not be any challenge. The set also includes an anti-vibration holder, a foam anti-noise cover, and a pop filter. These elements provide high quality, clean sound, which is so important for content creators and remote employees.

Intel's chief architect and senior vice president of discrete graphics division, Mr. Raja Koduri, is said to be scheduled to present at Samsung Electronics Event day. With a presentation titled "1000X More Compute for AI by 2025", the event is called Samsung Foundry SAFE Forum. It is a global virtual conference designed to be available to everyone. So you might be wondering what is Mr. Koduri doing there. Unless you have been living under a rock, you know about Intel's struggles with node manufacturing. Specifically, the 10 nm node delays that show the company's efforts to deliver a node on time. The same is happening with the 7 nm node that also experienced significant delays.

Intel has a contract to develop an exascale supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory, called Aurora. That supercomputer is using Intel's CPUs and the company's upcoming Xe GPUs. Since the company has problems with manufacturing and has to deliver the products (it is bound by several contracts) to its contractors and customers, it decided to look at external manufacturers for its products, specifically Xe graphics. Being that Mr. Koduri tweeted an image of him visiting Samsung Giheung Fab in Korea, and now presenting at the Samsung Foundry event, it is possible that Intel will tap Samsung's semiconductor manufacturing process for its Xe GPU efforts and that Samsung will be the contractor in charge.

Cougar today introduced the VM410, its flagship stereo gaming headset. The VM410 comes with a few segment-first features, including quite a few bits borrowed from audiophile-grade headphones. To begin with, its cans are suspended on a 3-axle metal joint that allows for horizontal and vertical adjustments. A silicone headband can be adjusted at the cans, while metal over-bands hold the two cans together structurally. The detachable microphone stock holds a large 9.7 mm unidirectional mic condenser.

As for the cans of the VM410, they pack meaty 53 mm neodymium drivers with graphene diaphragms, papylon mesh, and a cavernous back chamber. You get two sets of user-replaceable earcups, one with soft-touch leather, and the other with breathable polyester fabric. It doesn't end there. Cougar used audiophile-grade cabling to go with the headset, with each of the two cans having a triple-insulated copper cable running up to the plug. The headphones component offers sensitivity of up to 116 dB at 1 kHz, 32 Ω impedance, and 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency response. The mic is -113 dB sensitive at 1 kHz, with the same 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency response as the headphones, and <2 kΩ impedance. The company didn't reveal pricing.

GIGABYTE backed up its late September launch of the RTX 3080-based VISION OC graphics card targeted at creators, with one based on the GeForce RTX 3090 (model: GV-N3090VISION OC-24GD), a GPU that offers greater dividends to creators thanks to its 24 GB video memory. GIGABYTE's VISION brand of graphics cards and motherboards are targeted at creators, and the RTX 3090 VISION OC, when paired with NVIDIA's GeForce Studio drivers, provides a formidable solution halfway between the gaming and professional-visualization market segments.

The GIGABYTE RTX 3090 VISION OC comes with the same board design as the RTX 3080 VISION OC, but with the addition of the NVLink interface for explicit multi-GPU. The card comes with a mild factory-OC which sees the GPU boost up to 1755 MHz (vs. 1695 MHz reference), while the memory is left untouched at 19.5 Gbps (GDDR6X-effective), for 940 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Display interfaces include three DisplayPort 1.4a and two HDMI 2.1 connectors. The card draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. It uses a triple-slot, triple-fan cooling solution with the VISION design scheme. The company didn't reveal pricing.

The recent comments from Google Stadia Montreal Creative Director Alex Hutchinson regarding game streaming revenue sharing have generated significant public backlash from consumers and developers alike. The Creative Director suggested that game streamers should have to purchase a commercial license or pay royalties to game developers in return for streaming their games. These comments were quickly associated with Google Stadia by the community which has prompted Google to issue a statement distancing themselves from Alex Hutchinson's comments. Alex Hutchinson's Twitter bio has also been updated to reflect that all opinions are his own.

Google

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The recent tweets by Alex Hutchinson, creative director at the Montreal Studio of Stadia Games and Entertainment, do not reflect those of Stadia, YouTube or Google.

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Electronic Arts have recently confirmed that Apex Legends will be coming to Steam when Season 7 launches on November 4, 2020. Players with existing progression and unlocks can transfer their progress from Origin to Steam and vice versa. The game will still require an EA account to play even if launched through Steam. EA also announced that the Nintendo Switch version has been delayed to 2021 but will include full feature parity and cross-play support with existing platforms.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking, and storage solution innovator, today introduced the lightning-fast NVMe all-flash TS-h2490FU. With 24 drive bays for U.2 NVMe Gen 3 x4 SSD, the TS-h2490FU provides up to 472K/205K iSCSI 4K random read/write IOPS with ultra-low latency. Equipped with four 25 GbE SFP28 and two 2.5 GbE RJ45 LAN ports, five PCIe Gen 4 slots, and 1100 W redundant power supplies, the TS-h2490FU provides exceptional hardware and connectivity. The ZFS-based QuTS hero operating system also includes powerful applications for data reduction and SSD optimization, ensuring that SSD performance and lifespan is maximized for mission-critical virtualized workloads and data centers with all-flash investments.

TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products including network-attached storage (NAS) devices,launches the F4-210 1 GB version, the same 4-bay NAS for personal cloud storage at a more affordable price. The TerraMaster F4-210 is just a portion of the price of an Intel-based NAS device. The F4-210 supports up to 108 TB of storage and supports 3.5" SATA hard drives and 2.5" SATA hard drives and solid-state drives.

The TerraMaster F4-210 is perfect for users that are looking for a powerful personal cloud storage solution without a hefty investment. Costing just half the price of an equivalent Intel x86 quad-core processor-based NAS storage, the F4-210 can deliver modest read/write speeds of up to 124 MB/s with two WD Red 4 TB hard drives in RAID 0. The F4-210 supports various private cloud services including Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive.

Last week we brought you a report on how you could end up with a paperweight of an Oculus Quest 2 VR HMD if your Facebook account linked to the headset is banned. There's another aspect to this mess—voluntary account deletion. What if you decided you no longer need your Facebook account, and for whatever reason (read: privacy), decided to delete your account"? Turns out, that all the Oculus games that you own, will be gone forever, according to CixLiv on Twitter, who took the time to actually read the ToS. Deleting your Facebook account, which is a step beyond deactivating it, is a permanent erasure of your data on Facebook, which means that your Oculus profile gets deleted alongside, along with your digital rights to all the games that you purchased.

Ubisoft Connect will be the new universal home for all Ubisoft in-game services, activities, and communities on all platforms. Everything you've used Uplay and Ubisoft Club for in the past will be refreshed, expanded, and merged into Ubisoft Connect starting October 29, which coincides with the launch of Watch Dogs: Legion. Designed for the next generation of gaming and beyond, Ubisoft Connect is just the beginning of Ubisoft's commitment to making cross-platform features standard in the future. That includes cross-platform progression on games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Immortals Fenyx Rising, and Riders Republic.

"Next-generation gaming goes beyond technological improvements and better graphics," says Vice President of Online Services Stephanie Perotti. "To us, as a creator and publisher, it is about bringing more fluidity and versatility to the experience, to have the freedom to play games on whatever device and with whoever you want. Ubisoft Connect is our take on a new seamless experience to not only ease the transition between generations and platforms, but also be the starting point for new services that further contribute to new, more player-centric ways of enjoying games."