Microsoft has made a last-minute decision to pull its much-debated "Recall" feature from the Windows 11 24H2 update set to launch on June 18th. Instead, the company will roll out Recall as a preview through the Windows Insider Program while it works to build user trust and address security concerns. Recall, one of the flagship features of 24H2, creates a searchable 30-day timeline of a user's activities including files, webpages, and screenshots. However, since its announcement on May 20th, Recall has faced heavy criticism over potential privacy risks from storing user data in unencrypted plain text files. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont labeled Recall a "security nightmare" after finding it logged activities to a SQLite database accessible by non-admin accounts. This raised alarms about the depths of user behavior tracked and stored locally on PCs.

Initially, Microsoft had planned for Recall to be enabled by default in 24H2. However, following the backlash, the company backtracked on June 7th, making it an opt-in feature requiring Windows Hello authentication and adding encryption. Those adjustments were still not enough to satisfy Microsoft. In a new blog post, the firm stated Recall did not yet meet its "own standards of quality and security" and that it "must be trustworthy, secure and robust" before a wider rollout. By moving Recall to the Insider Program for further testing and refinement, Microsoft is giving itself more time to get the technology right and rebuild user confidence. A future blog will provide instructions for Insiders to preview Recall on compatible Copilot+ PCs with added security protections.

GIGABYTE today launched its flagship M.2 NVMe SSD, the AORUS Gen5 14000 series. The drive packs the winning combination of Phison PS5026-E26 Max14um controller, with Micron B58R 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory, along with a fast LPDDR4 DRAM cache. The drive comes in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacity variants. The maximum speeds vary for the three.

The 2 TB model is the fastest of the three, with a sequential read speed of up to 14,500 MB/s, and sequential write speed of up to 12,700 MB/s. The 4 TB model is the second fastest, with up to 14,100 MB/s sequential reads, and up to 12,600 MB/s sequential writes. The 1 TB model is third, with up to 13,600 MB/s sequential reads, and up to 10,200 MB/s sequential writes. All three models come without a heatsink, with just a metal film label on top. GIGABYTE recommends pairing the drive with M.2 SSD cooling solutions included with your motherboard to minimize performance throttling. The company didn't announce pricing.

GIGABYTE, the world's leading premium gaming hardware manufacturer, today announced the AORUS C400 GLASS mid-tower gaming case, which has been honored with the 2024 Red Dot Design Award. The AORUS C400 GLASS features a vertical airflow cooling design, ensuring optimal stability and enhanced heat dissipation efficiency within the case. Its compact size of approximately 40 liters still provides an outstanding compatibility, ensuring that performance is not restricted by size limitations. Tool-less design adds convenience for gamers to assembly, enhancing a more user-friendly and efficient building process. Additionally, the case supports RGB FUSION lighting effects, allowing gamers to personalize their rigs' style with ease.⁠

Optimized Vertical Airflow Design
The airflow design of the case is one of the factors to affect the internal thermal performance. Inspired by the stack effect, the AORUS C400 GLASS enhances the speed of air convection, allowing air to rapidly circulate vertically within the case. This achieves more efficient heat dissipation, effectively reducing internal temperatures. The bottom, top, and front panels all feature large-area vent design, minimizing airflow obstructions and facilitating a large volume of intake and exhaust airflow. Additionally, the case comes with four 120 mm ARGB and PWM pre-installed fans positioned at the bottom and rear of the case, providing excellent airflow paths. This setup achieves high-efficiency heat dissipation, ensuring optimal ventilation and stable performance for the computer system.

If you've even started to look for jobs in the tech sector, you know that certifications hold far more weight with most employers than a traditional degree. This e-learning bundle contains a series of online courses that gives aspiring IT professionals exactly what they need: Technical expertise and guidance on how to pass the most crucial CompTIA and Cisco exams with a minimum of wasted time.

What you get here is a series of online video tutorials, each one geared toward a different exam. If you're going for your CompTIA certifications especially, you'll find a roadmap to success that can serve you throughout your career, starting with a course on the Fundamentals ITF+ certification. This is where you can learn everything you need for most entry-level IT jobs, including the basics of file management and the hardware you'll encounter on the job.

For a limited time, you can get this cybersecurity and IT career pathway course bundle (reg. $184).

IBASE Technology Inc., a global leader in embedded computing solutions, proudly unveils its first ultra-compact 2.5" single board computer (SBC) designed for edge computing applications. The advanced IB200 SBC offers exceptional graphics processing performance with the AMD Ryzen Embedded R2000 Series. Featuring 4 cores and 8 threads integrated with the AMD Radeon Vega graphics controller, it delivers twice the CPU core count compared to the R1000 Series.

The industrial-grade IB200 SBC ensures a seamless multimedia experience with two HDMI 2.0b ports supporting 4K display and a dual-channel LVDS with a resolution of 1920x1200 @ 60 Hz. It offers a comprehensive set of connectivity options, including dual Intel I226IT Gigabit LAN ports, four COM, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports with PDPC support, three USB 2.0 headers, and one M.2 2280 M-key and one M.2 2230 E-key slot, ensuring flexibility in storage selection and speed. Additionally, the board is equipped with TPM 2.0 and a SATA II interface, making it a versatile solution for various industrial IoT applications.

Expanding on the success of the O11D EVO, Lian Li has collaborated with Automobili Lamborghini to release a mid-tower case perfect for any petrolhead, the O11 EVO RGB Automobili Lamborghini.

Overview
Italian luxury meets Taiwanese innovation; the O11 EVO RGB Automobili Lamborghini is the next release from Lian Li in the O11 series. A mid-tower case crafted to be both aesthetically stunning and yet functional, the O11 EVO RGB Automobili Lamborghini case continues with the seamless look and dual chamber design of the O11 EVO RGB with additions to really drive home the Lamborghini collaboration.

Use code KOOFR to get 1 TB of cloud storage for life for $119.97 (reg. $810). That's about what it costs to rent one year from other platforms. While Dropbox, OneDrive, and iCloud Drive are beloved by many, they can end up costing you hundreds over a lifetime. If you're looking for a more sustainable storage solution, you should check out Koofr. With a one-time payment, you can own a 1 TB cloud for life and it's on sale at StackSocial for $119.97 (reg. $810) with code KOOFR through June 9.

Koofr is a high-rated cloud storage platform with 290+ positive reviews. Most buyers rave about its incredible lifetime value, and we'd have to agree: With other cloud storage solutions, you're paying around $10 each month which adds up to $120 every year; while, with Koofr, you only have to pay $119.97 once for lifetime use. Your 1 TB cloud is capable of holding around 250,000 photos, 500 hours of HD video, or 6.5 million document pages. If this seems like an excess, remember that this space is intended to cover your needs for life.

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Few days ago at the Xbox Games Showcase, Microsoft has pulled a rather neat surprise, announcing Gears of War: E-Day, which will be developed by The Coalition in Unreal Engine 5. Microsoft did not go into a lot of details, reveling just a few story details about this prequel to the first Gears of War and releasing the official announce trailer. Thankfully, Microsoft and the developer now shared a bit more story and technical details, also confirming that the game will support ray traced lighting, reflections, and shadows.

In an extensive blog over at the Xbox Wire, Microsoft and The Coalition talk about the story behind the Gears of War: E-Day, which will follow younger versions of the original heroes, Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, going back to where it all started with the fight against the Locust invasion. The Creative Director Matt Searcy and Brand Director Nicole Fawcette were keen to note that the developer is working hard to recreate and improve the third-person action, storytelling, and all other things we expect from Gears of War game.

MSI introduces a revolutionary case that departs from the traditional PC case design. This case features a panoramic view with 4 mm tempered glass using chamfering techniques allowing you to appreciate the internal setup from all angles. The rear of this case is decorated with metal nameplates, also comes with ARGB panels at the front bottom, presenting a subdued and refined style.

This case is compatible with both ATX and Micro-ATX Back-connect motherboards, enabling easy cable management to the back of the case. The dual-chamber design provides a spacious 90 mm area behind the motherboard for cable management. Don't worry about the cable management, the tool-free multi-functional cable covers to hide cables and install SSDs effortlessly. In addition, this case comes with tool-free panels on the top, sides, and front, reducing the hassle of dealing with screws. The integrated front I/O cable design solves the problem of small, hard-to-grasp cables and closely positioned ports, making assembly simpler. The well-arranged ventilation is on the side and bottom to provide fan installation options, and the magnetic dust filters at the side and bottom facilitate easy daily cleaning.

MSI, a leading gaming hardware brand, proudly announces an exciting collaboration with SEGA, a leading Japanese game publisher, to jointly bring gamers on the exploration of the post-apocalyptic world of the newest Shin Megami Tensei game - Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance.

THE DEFINITIVE VERSION OF SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI V
Fully evolved with stunning visuals for modern consoles, the dark lore, unnerving atmosphere, and beautiful and monstrous demons are back and better than ever. Massively expanded with new areas, demons, and music, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance features more accessible gameplay, an improved battle system, new demon experiences, and greater field exploration.

MSI, the leading brand in gaming products, is proud to announce the launch of the MAG Infinite E1. Equipped with processors up to 14th Gen Intel processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics card, the MAG Infinite E1 is designed to be the ultimate gaming companion, delivering unmatched functionality. Built with the iconic MAG spirit of durability and robust construction, the MAG Infinite E1 showcases a design that conveys a stable and endurance, appealing to gamers seeking both power and reliability.

The MAG Infinite E1 is powered by up to an Intel Core i7 processor, offering significant performance enhancements over its predecessor. When combined with the NVIDIA RTX 40 Series graphics card, the MAG Infinite E1 not only leaps in performance but also in AI-enhanced graphics capabilities. Gamers can immerse themselves in lifelike virtual environments with advanced ray tracing and enjoy ultra-high frame rates with minimal latency. Furthermore, the MAG Infinite E1 is equipped with state-of-the-art transmission capabilities including DDR5 memory and M.2 PCI-e SSD slots, ensuring peak performance and making it the ideal choice for gamers who demand the very best.

Set sail for adventure, pirates. Sea of Thieves makes waves in the cloud this week. It's an adventure-filled GFN Thursday with four new games joining the GeForce NOW library. Plus, members are sharing their favorite locations they can access from the cloud. Follow along all month on @NVIDIAGFN social media accounts and post your own favorite cloud screenshots using #GreetingsfromGFN.

Seas the Day
Live the pirate life in the smash-hit pirate adventure game from Rare and Xbox Game Studios. Sea of Thieves takes place in an open world where players can explore the vast seas, engage in ship battles, hunt for treasure and embark on exciting quests. The Sea of Thieves environment is always changing, as various seasons bring new features to the game and offer rich rewards for pirates old and new. Visit uncharted islands in search of treasure, dive deep into narrative-focused Tall Tales, take part in events and forge a path to become a true Pirate Legend. The newest season features the mysterious Sunken City, Cursed Sloop skeleton ships and fresh cosmetics.

Qualcomm has provided new details about the Adreno X1 GPU integrated into their latest series of processors, Snapdragon X Elite/Plus. The Adreno X1 is the first custom-designed GPU from Qualcomm for Windows on ARM systems. The highest configuration of this GPU, known as the "X1-85," features "8" indicating the GPU level and "5" denoting the SKU.

The Adreno X1 boasts up to 6 shaders, 1536 FP32 ALUs, and can handle 96 texels per cycle. It delivers up to 4.6 TFLOPS of peak performance and processes 72 million pixels per second. It supports major graphics APIs, including DirectX 12.1 (Shader Model 6.7), DirectX 11, Vulkan 1.3, and OpenCL 3.0.

Currently, only Phison offers widely available performance PCIe 5.0 NVMe controllers for consumer SSDs, although the competition is heating up and Chinese SSD controller makers MaxioTek and InnoGrit, as well as Taiwanese Silicon Motion either have or will be releasing competing controllers this year. However, it also looks like Taiwanese Realtek will be joining the fray, albeit a tad late, as their upcoming RTS5782 PCIe 5.0 NVMe controller, but the company didn't reveal a release schedule. Although Realtek is known as a more budget friendly chipmaker, regardless of the product segment, the RTS5782 will be an 8-channel controller with support for 3600 MT/s NAND, and it will have a dedicated DRAM cache using either DDR4, LPDDR3, LPDDR4 or LPDDR4x memory. It's said to deliver sequential read speeds of up to 14 GB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 12 GB/s, with random read and write IOPS hitting 2500K.

Realtek is also working on a pair of new DRAM-less models, the PCIe 4.0 RTS5776DL and the PCIe r5.0 RTS5781DL, both having support for 4-channel flash, but still supporting NAND speeds of up to 3600 MT/s. Engineering samples of the RTS5776DL are expected to be available before the end of this year, and it's said to deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 7400 MB/s and random read and write IOPS of 1200K. The RTS5781DL will enter the engineering sample stage in the beginning of 2025 and will up the sequential read and write performance to 10 GB/s and the random read and write IOPS to 1400K. In addition to the new NVMe controllers, Realtek also had its RTS5736DL on display at Computex, which the company claims is the world's lowest power DRAM-less SATA SSD controller, that also supports size of up to 8 TB. Realtek claims the RTS5736DL is an ideal solution to pair with a USB 3.x bridge chip for external drives.

Palit today introduced the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GameRock OmniBlack graphics card. The GameRock OmniBlack is a variant of the GameRock custom design that does away with all illumination. The acrylic embellishment that's supposed to resemble ice or frost on the cooler shroud, remains, it's not illuminated from behind. The three 80 mm GaleHunter fans are now black and opaque, unlike on the original GameRock board, where they were frosted acrylic, and illuminated. The card features the same heavy aluminium fin-stack heatsink you'd find on the company's RTX 4080 GameRock series. The cooler makes the card 3.5-slot thick (71.5 mm thick), almost 33 cm long, and 13.7 cm tall.

Palit has increased the power limit of the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER to 295 W, up from its reference 285 W, although interestingly, the card sticks to NVIDIA reference clock speeds of 2340 MHz base, and 2610 MHz boost, with its memory running at 21 Gbps. The card offers dual-BIOS, however, both BIOSes run the card at the same speeds, with the "silent" BIOS having a quieter fan profile. Based on the same 5 nm "AD103" silicon as the RTX 4080 and RTX 4080 SUPER, the new RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is equipped with 8,448 CUDA cores, 264 Tensor cores, 66 RT cores, 264 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. Palit did not reveal pricing for the GameRock OmniBlack.

Nfina announces the release of a single-socket 144T mid-sized desktop tower server engineered for small and medium-sized businesses, entry-level cloud services, and virtualized environments.

The Nfina 144T features the new Intel Xeon E-2400 processors. Compared to the previous generation Xeon E-2300 processors, they deliver an impressive 34% improvement in performance. Additionally, these processors offer enhanced expandability, supporting two channels of DDR5 memory with speeds of up to 4,800 MT/s, along with 16-lane PCIe 5.0 for increased bandwidth.

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The US Department of the Treasury on Wednesday, sanctioned 16 Chinese tech companies involved in supporting the Russian wartime economy, or supplying goods to blacklisted Russian firms, as the war in Ukraine rages on. A surprising name on this list is Beijing Deepcool Industries, the company behind the popular PC cooling, casing, and power supply brand Deepcool. A US State Department release announcing the sanctions, described Deepcool as supplying $1 million worth common high-priority items list (CHPL) goods. These are items that could directly or indirectly support the Russian war-effort in Ukraine. "BEIJING DEEPCOOL INDUSTRIES CO LTD is a PRC-based company involved in the supply of over $1 million worth of CHPL items to Russian companies, including the U.S.-designated, Russia-based AKTSIONERNOE OBSHCHESTVO TASKOM and OOO NOVYI AI TI PROEKT," the State Department release says.

Meanwhile, the executive aspect of the sanctions are handled by the Treasury Department, which restricts all transactions by US firms to the 16 newly sanctioned Chinese companies, which include Deepcool. What this means is that the US-end of Deepcool must immediately cease operations, as it cannot transact any business with its parent company in China. Sale of Deepcool product will also stop, as US residents cannot conduct any business with the company. This could also mean that the US-based subsidiary of Deepcool may not be in a position to provide aftersales support to existing customers in the country.

DeepComputing partners with Canonical to unveil a huge boost to the DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop family. The DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop II is the world's first RISC-V laptop pre-installed and powered by Ubuntu, which is one of the most popular Linux distributions in the world, providing developers with an outstanding mix of usability and reliability, as well as a rich ecosystem with security and support.

Equipped with octa-core 64-bit RISC-V AI CPU
Adding to a long list of firsts, the new DC-ROMA laptop II is the first to feature SpacemiT's SoC K1 - with its 8-cores RISC-V CPU running at up to 2.0 GHz with 16 GB of memory. This significantly doubled its overall performance and energy efficiency over the previous generation's 4-cores SoC running at 1.5 GHz. Moreover, SpacemiT's SoC K1 is also the world's first SoC to support RISC-V high performance computing RVA 22 Profile RVV 1.0 with 256 bit width, and to have powerful AI capabilities with its customised matrix operation instruction based on IME Group design principle!

Display specialist AOC is excited to unveil two new ultra-high definition (UHD) monitors designed for home and office users: the 27" (68.6 cm) AOC U27B3A and U27B3AF. These monitors offer exceptional clarity and vivid colours, making them perfect for a wide range of daily tasks, from spreadsheet work and web browsing to light photo editing and media consumption of any kind. With an impressive pixel density of 163 pixels per inch (PPI), the U27B3A and U27B3AF deliver incredibly sharp and detailed visuals, elevating the user experience to new heights.

Key features of the U27B3A and U27B3AF

• 27" IPS panel with UHD resolution (3840 x 2160) and 60 Hz refresh rate, providing unparalleled clarity with 163 PPI and vivid, accurate colours thanks to the 10-bit colour depth.
• HDR10 compliant for a more dynamic and lifelike viewing experience.
• Adaptive-Sync technology ensures smooth, tear-free visuals.
• Fast response times of up to 4 ms GtG for crisp, blur-free images.
• Built-in 2x 2 W speakers for a seamless audio experience without additional hardware.
• LowBlue mode and Flicker-Free technology for increased viewing comfort.

TrendForce reveals that the DRAM industry experienced a 5.1% revenue increase in 1Q24 compared to the previous quarter. This growth—reaching US$18.35 billion—was driven by rising contract prices for mainstream products, with the price increase being more significant than in 4Q23. As a result, most companies in the industry continued to see revenue growth.

The top three suppliers experienced a decline in shipments in the first quarter, demonstrating the industry's off-season effect. Additionally, downstream companies had higher inventory levels, which led to a significant reduction in procurement volume. As for ASP, the top three suppliers continued to benefit from contract price increases seen in 4Q23. With inventory levels still healthy, there was a strong intention to raise prices.

ASML, the world's sole provider of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems essential for manufacturing the most advanced chips, has revealed its roadmap for pushing semiconductor scaling even further. In a recent presentation, former ASML president Martin van den Brink announced the company's plans for a new "Hyper-NA" EUV technology that would succeed the High-NA EUV systems, which are just beginning to deploy. The Hyper-NA tools, still in early research stages, would increase the numerical aperture to 0.75 from High-NA's 0.55, enabling chips with transistor densities beyond the projected limits of High-NA in the early 2030s. This higher numerical aperture should reduce reliance on multi-patterning techniques that add complexity and cost.

Hyper-NA is bringing challenges of its own to commercialization. Key obstacles include light polarization effects that degrade imaging contrast, requiring polarization filters that reduce light throughput. Resist materials may also need to become thinner to maintain resolution. While leading EUV chipmakers like TSMC can likely extend scaling for several more nodes using multi-patterning with existing 0.33 NA EUV tools, Intel has adopted 0.55 High-NA to avoid these complexities. But Hyper-NA will likely become essential across the industry later this decade as High-NA's physical limits are reached. Beyond Hyper-NA, few alternative patterning solutions exist besides expensive multi-beam electron lithography, which lacks the throughput of EUV photolithography. To continue classical scaling, the industry may need to eventually transition to new channel materials with superior electron mobility properties compared to silicon, requiring novel deposition and etch capabilities.

Stability AI, a maker of various generative AI models and the company behind text-to-image Stable Diffusion models, has released its latest Stable Diffusion 3 (SD3) Medium AI model. Running on two billion dense parameters, the SD3 Medium is the company's most advanced text-to-image model to date. It boasts features like generating highly realistic and detailed images across a wide range of styles and compositions. It demonstrates capabilities in handling intricate prompts that involve spatial reasoning, actions, and diverse artistic directions. The model's innovative architecture, including the 16-channel variational autoencoder (VAE), allows it to overcome common challenges faced by other models, such as accurately rendering realistic human faces and hands.

Additionally, it achieves exceptional text quality, with precise letter formation, kerning, and spacing, thanks to the Diffusion Transformer architecture. Notably, the model is resource-efficient, capable of running smoothly on consumer-grade GPUs without compromising performance due to its low VRAM footprint. Furthermore, it exhibits impressive fine-tuning abilities, allowing it to absorb and replicate nuanced details from small datasets, making it highly customizable for specific use cases that users may have. Being an open-weight model, it is available for download on HuggingFace, and it has libraries optimized for both NVIDIA's TensorRT (all modern NVIDIA GPUs) and AMD Radeon/Instinct GPUs.

A market research of AMD Socket AM5 motherboards sold in South Korea by Danawa, provide some interesting insights on how gamers approach the platform. This research is confined to Korea, but can be extrapolated to other similar markets. The research studies the chipset model, and form-factor of Socket AM5 motherboards sold in the market. The most interesting finding of the research is that the AMD B650 is by far the most popular chipset for the platform, dwarfing even the entry-level A620 chipset by a factor of 8. A staggering 80% of the Socket AM5 motherboards being sold are based on the B650.

It's important to note here, that this figure does not include the B650E, which is separately shown making up just 2% of the volumes. The B650 (non-E) has nearly all platform features, with motherboards based on the chipset providing at least one Gen 5 M.2 NVMe slot that doesn't eat into the lanes of the x16 PEG slot; and with the current generation of GPUs not featuring the PCIe Gen 5 host interface, customers seem more than happy with the Gen 4 x16 PEG slot provided by B650 motherboards. What's more, you get CPU overclocking and memory overclocking on this mid-range chipset, so it appeals to a very wide demographic. The B650E, on the other hand, provides a Gen 5 x16 PEG slot, and motherboards based on this chipset tend to offer premium I/O features, such as a high-end onboard audio solution, premium wireless networking, among others.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today unveiled its latest foundry innovations and outlined its vision for the AI era during Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) U.S., an annual event held at the company's Device Solutions America headquarters in San Jose, California. Under the theme "Empowering the AI Revolution," Samsung announced its reinforced process technology roadmap, including two new cutting-edge nodes—SF2Z and SF4U—as well as its integrated Samsung AI Solutions platform harnessing the unique strengths of its Foundry, Memory and Advanced Package (AVP) businesses.

"At a time when numerous technologies are evolving around AI, the key to its implementation lies in high-performance, low-power semiconductors," said Dr. Siyoung Choi, President and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. "Alongside our proven GAA process optimized for AI chips, we plan to introduce integrated, co-packaged optics (CPO) technology for high-speed, low-power data processing, providing our customers with the one-stop AI solutions they need to thrive in this transformative era."

Liquid cooling solutions OEM Asetek saw its stock price drop by over 40% on Wednesday (12th June 2024), as investors responded to the company's announcement of suspending its profitability and revenue guidance for 2024. The release offered an explanation behind this decision. "Based on these new forecasts, the expected increase in demand in the second half of 2024 of the company's liquid cooling products may not materialize. This will result in a significant decline in Group revenue and profitability for 2024 compared to the revenue and profitability guidance issued on March 8, 2024."

The company also stated that it expects the negative trend in the company's revenue may continue into 2025. "The management team and board of directors of Asetek will consider the long- and short-term consequences of the weakened and uncertain market situation. The assessment today is that the negative trend in revenue may continue into 2025. Based on this, a plan containing initiatives to navigate the short and long-term challenges will be developed and then communicated as soon as possible," it said. Asetek is a pioneer in the all-in-one, closed-loop liquid CPU cooler that's popular in the gaming PC segment, but the company should also be in a position to lead the server CPU cooling market given the upward trend in processor cooling needs; but the company is underperforming. This is probably also due to intense competition in the space.

Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA), a global leader in the projector and display markets, today announced the launch of the new Sharp P Series projectors - the XP-P601Q and XP-P721Q. The new P Series projectors are the first Sharp projectors developed leveraging more than 35 years of projector experience from NEC. The Sharp P Series projectors provide viewers with a stunning 4K ultra high-definition (UHD) image that is bright enough for commercial use across a number of industries and signage applications, including in corporate conference rooms, museums, and higher education classrooms.

The new Sharp P Series projectors create a picture that will leave a lasting impression, with the 6,000-lumen P601Q model and the 7,200-lumen P721Q model delivering incredibly sharp and crisp quality even in well-lit settings. This makes the Sharp P Series projectors ideal for corporate settings and higher education classrooms, as well as fast-growing, emerging markets such as museums and golf simulators, which have seen expansive growth in both consumer and commercial markets.

ASRock this week introduced the Radeon RX 6500 XT 8 GB Phantom Gaming graphics card. The RX 6500 XT comes with a reference memory size of 4 GB over the tiny 64-bit GDDR6 memory bus of the "Navi 24" silicon it's based on, but ASRock decided to double this, probably using high-density 32 Gbit memory chips, or two sets of 16 Gbit chips piggybacking each other. The card is spruced up with Phantom Gaming styling, is 24 cm long, standard height, and 2 slots thick. The cooling solution features an aluminium fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of fans. Power is drawn from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. Display outputs include one each of DisplayPort 1.4, and HDMI 2.1 with VRR. This isn't the first RX 6500 XT with 8 GB, Sapphire has had an 8 GB Pulse graphics card in its lineup for a while now. ASRock didn't reveal the pricing of this card.

ESR, the leading brand for mobile accessories and the #1 brand for MagSafe accessories, proudly announces the launch of its latest innovation: the Cyber FlickLock Case for AirPods. This new product sets a benchmark in AirPod protection, combining ESR's exclusive FlickLock safety lock design with advanced features that enhance both security and usability.

Unmatched Security with FlickLock Lock System
The Cyber FlickLock case showcases ESR's new proprietary FlickLock safety lock, ensuring your AirPods always remain secure. The case lid is designed with a total of 7 strong magnets on the upper and lower sides, providing a powerful magnetic strength of 1480 g. The entire body is crafted from resilient TPU + PC materials, fortified with Air Guard corners that offer dual-layer shock absorption. This design provides robust drop-proof protection, safeguarding your AirPods from everyday impacts.

At Computex last week, we got a first look at Gigabyte's new TRX50 AI TOP motherboard—where TOP stands for trillions of operations per second—designed for AMD's Threadripper and Threadripper Pro CPUs. Now the company has released the full specifications of the TRX50 AI TOP and the board is packed to the brim with features. The E-ATX board is home to four PCIe x16 slots, all of which can operate in PCIe 5.0, but one can be limited to PCIe 4.0, depending on your choice of CPU. There's also four NVMe M.2 slots, with CPU dependent functionality. Other features include eight DIMM slots, but these are again CPU dependent, two 10 Gbps Ethernet interfaces via a pair of Marvell AQtion AQC113C controllers, WiFi 7 via a Qualcomm QCNCM865 module and dual audio chips, one for the rear ports and one for the front panel audio.

As this is a 2024 model, USB4 is of course also part of the package, but only one of the two USB4 supports DP Alt-mode, due to there only being one DP input. The board also has an internal USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) header for a case mounted USB-C port, a further six rear 5 Gbps USB Type-A ports, plus a pair of internal headers for a further four 5 Gbps USB Type-A ports. The board also has four SATA ports, a 16+8+4 power phase design, a 14-layer PCB, a debug display and the now common easy release features for the M.2 drive heatsinks and the graphics card. The TRX50 AI TOP also sports what Gigabyte calls "UC BIOS" which has a "User-Centred intuitive UX with Quick Access function", but there's currently no details of how this differs from previous UEFI releases from Gigabyte. There was no word on pricing.

The bell tolls, but it brings good news… Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Metallica strike Fortnite in v30.10! This means an immersive music experience starting June 22 and a Metallica Season in Festival starting June 13 WITH v30.10. It also means a Battle Royale POI based on the M72 World Tour and a Rocket Racing track to take the corner!

METALLICA: FUEL. FIRE. FURY.
Experience Metallica's music like never before in Metallica: Fuel. Fire. Fury. This journey through six of Metallica's fan-favorite songs features gameplay that matches the intensity. The Master of Puppets awaits…

The full-stack NVIDIA accelerated computing platform has once again demonstrated exceptional performance in the latest MLPerf Training v4.0 benchmarks. NVIDIA more than tripled the performance on the large language model (LLM) benchmark, based on GPT-3 175B, compared to the record-setting NVIDIA submission made last year. Using an AI supercomputer featuring 11,616 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs connected with NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking, NVIDIA achieved this remarkable feat through larger scale - more than triple that of the 3,584 H100 GPU submission a year ago - and extensive full-stack engineering.

Thanks to the scalability of the NVIDIA AI platform, Eos can now train massive AI models like GPT-3 175B even faster, and this great AI performance translates into significant business opportunities. For example, in NVIDIA's recent earnings call, we described how LLM service providers can turn a single dollar invested into seven dollars in just four years running the Llama 3 70B model on NVIDIA HGX H200 servers. This return assumes an LLM service provider serving Llama 3 70B at $0.60/M tokens, with an HGX H200 server throughput of 24,000 tokens/second.

EasySMX, a leading manufacturer of gaming peripherals, is excited to announce the launch of the new EasySMX X05 Gaming Controller. Designed with cutting-edge technology and gamer-centric features, the X05 is set to redefine the gaming experience with its affordability and functionality.

EasySMX CEO, Stephen, shared his thoughts on the launch: "At EasySMX, we are committed to providing gamers with innovative and affordable gaming solutions. The X05 controller embodies this commitment by combining advanced technology with user-friendly features, all at an accessible price point. We believe that gaming should be an enjoyable and inclusive experience for everyone, and the X05 is a testament to our dedication to this vision."

More than 500 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. This week, we've got a ton of DLSS news. Alan Wake 2: Night Springs is out now with full ray tracing and DLSS 3.5, Black Myth: Wukong is launching August 20th with full ray tracing and DLSS 3.5, and there's a new gameplay trailer from Star Wars Outlaws, which launches August 30th with ray tracing and DLSS 3.5. Also, Pax Dei enters Early Access on June 18th with DLSS 3, The First Descendant launches July 2nd with DLSS 3, and a Dragon's Dogma 2 game update has introduced support for DLSS 3. Additionally, the Final Fantasy XIV Online: Dawntrail benchmark, Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game, and Soulmask are all available now with day-one DLSS 2 support.

Alan Wake 2: Night Springs Expansion Available Now
Night Springs, a new expansion for Remedy Entertainment's critically acclaimed Alan Wake 2 is now available to download and play. Alan Wake is trying to find a way out of the endless loops of the Dark Place by penning new scripts for a TV show he once wrote for: Night Springs. Play as several characters from the world of Alan Wake and experience the familiar turned strange in multiple self-contained episodes. By playing on a GeForce RTX 40 Series PC, you'll receive the definitive experience in Alan Wake 2 and the new Night Springs expansion. Crank fidelity and immersion to 11 with fully ray-traced visuals, further refined by DLSS Ray Reconstruction. Play at over 80 frames per second at 4K thanks to our AI-powered DLSS Super Resolution and Frame Generation technologies. And maximize responsiveness with NVIDIA Reflex.

AMD late Tuesday released the latest version of its Chipset Software. This is an important piece of software that, besides providing drivers for the various onboard SoC interfaces of the processor and chipset, provides your Windows operating system with software-side processor power-management (PPM) awareness. Version 6.05.28.016 is the latest version of it, supporting AMD 300-series, 400-series, 500-series, and 600-series chipsets. Version 6.05.28.016 adds support for the new Windows 11 24H2 Update. Support is added for a new program (possibly the latest version of Ryzen Master). The release also adds a few unspecified bug-fixes.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Chipset Software 6.05.28.016The change-log follows.

Today, MLCommons published results of its industry AI performance benchmark, MLPerf Training v4.0. Intel's results demonstrate the choice that Intel Gaudi 2 AI accelerators give enterprises and customers. Community-based software simplifies generative AI (GenAI) development and industry-standard Ethernet networking enables flexible scaling of AI systems. For the first time on the MLPerf benchmark, Intel submitted results on a large Gaudi 2 system (1,024 Gaudi 2 accelerators) trained in Intel Tiber Developer Cloud to demonstrate Gaudi 2 performance and scalability and Intel's cloud capacity for training MLPerf's GPT-3 175B1 parameter benchmark model.

"The industry has a clear need: address the gaps in today's generative AI enterprise offerings with high-performance, high-efficiency compute options. The latest MLPerf results published by MLCommons illustrate the unique value Intel Gaudi brings to market as enterprises and customers seek more cost-efficient, scalable systems with standard networking and open software, making GenAI more accessible to more customers," said Zane Ball, Intel corporate vice president and general manager, DCAI Product Management.

Leader in PC gaming components, products and pre-builts, NZXT, has unveiled a new line of products that refine the PC-building experience for gamers. Revealed at Computex 2024, NZXT's new products further highlight its commitment to help gamers obtain a gaming PC in the simplest way possible. Whether gamers decide to build it from scratch, upgrade their existing rig, or purchase a pre-built custom gaming PC, NZXT has them covered. The innovative F-Series RGB Core single-frame fans lead the lineup, a reimagined NZXT H7 Flow and high-performance C-Series ATX 3.1 power supplies converge to make this product reveal one of the best of the year in gaming PC hardware.

As a simpler alternative to modular fan connections and daisy chains, the new F240, F280, and F360 RGB Core single-frame fans combine multiple high-performance fans into a seamless, all-in-one design. The RGB Core single-frame fans simplify installation by reducing the number of cables and screws needed, streamlining the building process and cleaning up the overall look. The single 8-pin cable combines RGB and PWM connections, which can be directly managed via the new NZXT Control Hub (available Q3 2024) or connected to any 5 V ARGB and fan port on a motherboard using a splitter for flexibility.

Alogic, the leading manufacturer and seller known for its innovative, efficient, and well-admired connectivity solutions, is set to introduce an exciting array of new products at InfoComm 2024 in Las Vegas. The company will unveil six groundbreaking products in the end-user computing and smart connectivity space.

The highlights of Alogic's new launches include:

Clarity 5K Touch 27" UHD Monitor
A 27" UHD display with touch capabilities, the Clarity Touch offers a unique combination of 5k color accuracy and touch feature which makes it the ultimate canvas for creatives. It continues the legacy of the Clarity series with enhanced visual accuracy and a focus on color precision found in its predecessors.

Prepare for a stand-out gaming experience with the finest picture quality. Boasting powerful visual specifications, the Philips Evnia 34M2C6500 will be available for purchase on 12 June 2024. The large, 34-inch (86.36 cm) screen with a 1800R curvature of the Philips Evnia 34M2C6500 monitor pairs well with its WQHD (3440 x 1440) resolution and QD OLED panel for a realistic and visually accurate picture experience.

The pinnacle experience of the Philips Evnia 34M2C6500 is playing visually rich games, and it will accentuate colour where it counts: The Smart Crosshair feature will automatically change the colour of the crosshair to be visible against the game's background so gamers can aim better. Needless to say that the Philips Evnia 34M2C6500's immersive curved frame would be incomplete without its QD OLED panel, which is designed to provide incredible brightness and infinite contrast in DisplayHDR TrueBlack 400 quality.

The race is on for memory manufacturers to bring the next generation GDDR7 graphics memory into mass production. While rivals Samsung and Micron are aiming to have GDDR7 chips available in Q4 of 2024, South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix revealed at Computex 2024 that it won't kick off mass production until the first quarter of 2025. GDDR7 is the upcoming JEDEC standard for high-performance graphics memory, succeeding the current GDDR6 and GDDR6X specifications. The new tech promises significantly increased bandwidth and capacities to feed the appetites of next-wave GPUs and AI accelerators. At its Computex booth, SK Hynix showed off engineering samples of its forthcoming GDDR7 chips, with plans for both 16 Gb and 24 Gb densities.

The company is targeting blazing-fast 40 Gbps data transfer rates with its GDDR7 offerings, outpacing the 32 Gbps rates its competitors are starting with on 16 Gb parts. If realized, higher speeds could give SK Hynix an edge, at least initially. While trailing a quarter or two behind Micron and Samsung isn't ideal, SK Hynix claims having working samples now validates its design and allows partners to begin testing and qualification. Mass production timing for standardized memories also doesn't necessarily indicate a company is "late" - it simply means another vendor secured an earlier production window with a specific customer. The GDDR7 transition is critical for SK Hynix and others, given the insatiable demand for high-bandwidth memory to power AI, graphics, and other data-intensive workloads. Hitting its stated Q1 2025 mass production target could ensure SK Hynix doesn't fall too far behind in the high-stakes GDDR7 race, with faster and higher-density chips to potentially follow shortly after volume ramp.

According to sources familiar with the matter and reported by Bloomberg, the Biden administration is considering imposing further export controls to limit China's ability to acquire advanced semiconductor technologies crucial for developing AI systems. Gate-all-around (GAA) transistor technology and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips are at the center of the proposed restrictions. These cutting-edge components play a pivotal role in creating powerful AI accelerators. GAA transistors, a key feature in next-generation chips, promise substantial improvements in power efficiency and processing speeds. Meanwhile, HBM chips enable high-speed data transfer between a processor and memory. While existing sanctions prevent American firms from supplying Chinese companies with equipment for manufacturing leading-edge chips, concerns persist that China could still attain advanced capabilities through other means.

For instance, China's leading chipmaker, SMIC, could potentially integrate GAA transistors into its existing 7 nm process node, markedly enhancing performance. Access to HBM would further augment China's ability to develop AI accelerators on par with cutting-edge offerings from US firms. The reflections within the Biden administration show a strategic effort to preserve America's technological edge by denying China access to key semiconductor innovations. However, implementing such stringent export controls is a delicate balancing act, as it risks heightening tensions and prompting Chinese retaliation. No final decision has been made, and officials continue weighing the proposed restrictions' pros and cons. Nonetheless, the discussions highlight the pivotal role that semiconductor technology plays in the great power rivalry between the US and China, especially in the AI era.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" desktop processors based on the "Zen 5" microarchitecture won't beat the Ryzen 7000X3D series at gaming workloads, said Donny Woligroski, the company's senior technical marketing manager, in an interview with Tom's Hardware. The new "Zen 5" chips, such as the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 9 9950X, will come close to the gaming performance of the 7800X3D and 7950X3D, but won't quite beat it. The new processors, however, will offer significant generational performance uplifts in productivity workloads, particularly multithreaded workloads that use vector extensions such as VNNI and AVX512. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D remains the fastest gaming desktop processor you can buy, it edges out even Intel's Core i9-14900KS, in our testing.

Given this, we expect the gaming performance of processors like the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 9 9950X to end up closer to those of the Intel Core i9-13900K or i9-14900K. Gamers with a 7000X3D series chip or even a 14th Gen Core i7 or Core i9 chip don't have much to look forward to. AMD confirmed that it's already working on a Ryzen 9000X3D series—that's "Zen 5" with 3D V-cache technology, and is sounds confident of holding on to the title of having the fastest gaming processors. This doesn't seem implausible.

Microsoft has unexpectedly halted the rollout of the upcoming Windows 11 24H2 update to Windows Insiders on the Release Preview Channel. The pause was quietly announced through an update to the original release blog post, which had initially touted the preview's new features like Wi-Fi 7 support, Sudo for Windows, Rust in the Windows kernel, and various UI enhancements. Microsoft has not provided an official reason for hitting the brakes on the 24H2 preview rollout. Brandon LeBlanc, the Windows Insider Senior Program Manager, simply stated, "We are working to get it rolling out again shortly."

However, a glimpse at the Microsoft Feedback Hub reveals a multitude of issues reported by Insiders testing the 24H2 build. Complaints range from application freezes and performance degradation to VPN connectivity problems. Some users have even taken to social media to voice their frustrations, with one describing the Arm version as a "disastrous, worst 'release' preview I can remember." The Release Preview Channel is typically recommended for commercial users and those wanting to test upcoming Windows releases before general availability. Meanwhile, the Dev Channel caters to users who are comfortable with instability and rough edges. As The Register notes, the current situation echoes Microsoft's troubled rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, which contained a data deletion bug.

EK, the leading manufacturer of premium liquid cooling gear, is proud to introduce the EK-Quantum Momentum² ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme D-RGB - Plexi. This top-tier Ultrablock-class product, part of EK's renowned Quantum Line, is engineered for the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme motherboard to ensure flawless compatibility.

The EK-Quantum Momentum² ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme D-RGB - Plexi is equipped with the award-winning EK-Quantum Velocity² cooling engine, delivering direct cooling to crucial motherboard components, such as the primary M.2 drive. This monoblock also features:

• Direct connection to Vector² GPU water block and Active Backplate Sets via bypass valves
• Temperature sensors
• Liquid flow meter
• Direct integration with the ROG water-cooling zone
• ILM Replacement Kit

Liftr Insights, a pioneer in market intelligence driven by unique data, revealed today that it detected AWS's recent launch of an 896-core instance type, surpassing the previous highest core counts by any cloud provider. This is important to companies looking to improve performance. If they are not using these, their competitors might be.

Liftr data show the previous AWS high core-count instance had 448 cores and first appeared in May 2021. Prior to that, the largest instance available in the six largest cloud providers (representing over 75% of the public cloud space) was a 384-core instance first offered by Azure in 2019.

AMD just announced the "This is why we Game" Q2-2024 game bundle. With a qualifying AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT or RX 7700 XT graphics card from a participating retailer, you can choose any two free games from the following: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Starfield, Lies of P, and Company of Heroes 3. The bundle campaign period is from today (June 11), till July 20, 2024. You'll need to purchase a qualifying graphics card within this campaign period to be eligible. Once you've selected your two free games, you can redeem them (add them to your DRM platform account) before August 17, 2024. The Bundle is open in all countries except a handful mentioned in the terms & conditions page. Customers in Japan can only redeem one among the four games.

The high purchase price of an electric vehicle (EV) remains one of the biggest barriers for potential buyers on a global scale. EVs are currently more expensive to build than traditional gasoline-powered cars, primarily because of the high costs associated with advanced battery and e-motor technology. The near-term solution is to enhance the efficiency of the existing battery technology through energy savings at the vehicle level, including improved integration with EV station infrastructure. This is exactly the challenge that Silicon Mobility, an Intel Company, has now solved with today's launch of the new OLEA U310 system-on-chip (SoC). This next-gen technology promises to significantly improve the overall performance of electric vehicles (EVs), streamline design and production processes, and expand SoC services to ensure seamless operation across various EV station platforms.

Representing a first for the industry, the new SoC is the only complete solution that combines hardware and software in one and is engineered to match the need for powertrain domain control in electrical architectures with distributed software. Built with a unique hybrid and heterogeneous architecture, a single OLEA 310 FPCU can replace as many as six standard microcontrollers in a system combination in which it controls an inverter, a motor, a gearbox, a DC-DC converter and an on-board-charger. Using the 310 FPCU, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 suppliers can control multiple and diverse power and energy functions simultaneously in real time.

NETGEAR, Inc., the leading provider of innovative and secure solutions for people to connect and manage their digital lives, today expanded its WiFi 7 mesh and standalone router lines with the new Orbi 770 Tri-band Mesh System and Nighthawk RS300 Router. NETGEAR's most affordable WiFi 7 products to date build on the company's promise to provide powerful WiFi performance and secure connectivity.

WiFi 7 Changes the Game
WiFi 7 unlocks 2.4 times faster speeds than WiFi 6, delivers low latency and better handles WiFi interference for families to seamlessly enjoy next gen 4K/8K streaming, video conferencing, gaming, and more. Since the launch of NETGEAR's first WiFi 7 offerings - Nighthawk RS700 and Orbi 970 - multi-gig internet speeds have become more affordable, work from home demands have remained steady, and more devices such as AR/VR headsets or AI-focused platforms like CoPilot+ have been introduced that require extreme low latency and higher throughput.

Acer Inc. announced its consolidated revenues for May at NT$21.13 billion with 18.4% growth month-on-month and 16.8% growth year-on-year (YoY), achieving 11 consecutive months of YoY growth. Consolidated revenues for year-to-May reached NT$97.81 billion with 15.9% growth YoY, while revenues from the personal computers [1] business grew 26.0% YoY in May and 22.6% YoY year-to-May.

Acer's strategy to expand multiple business engines continued to gain momentum. Total revenues from businesses other than computers and displays contributed 26.5% of the group's total revenues in May and 29.0% year-to-May.

be quiet!, the German manufacturer for premium PC components, is proud to announce a new member to its family of high-end air coolers: Dark Rock 5. With its single-tower design, Dark Rock 5 offers outstanding cooling performance at low noise levels for builds that won't fit dual-tower designs like Dark Rock Pro 5 or Dark Rock Elite. Like its bigger brothers, Dark Rock 5 offers maximum compatibility with high-end consumer motherboards and RAM-modules. With its sleek black design, Dark Rock 5 knows how to impress: whether you use it for gaming, for workstations or as a reliable companion in your home office.
Better performance, easier installation

Dark Rock 5 improves on the high-performance benchmarks of its predecessor, Dark Rock 4, combining a proven and iconic design with cutting edge fan technology. Six high-performance heat pipes are connected to an asymmetrical heat sink with additional cut-outs for high RAM and VRM cooler compatibility, while a consumer-grade Silent Wings 4 120 mm PWM fan delivers perfect air pressure and virtually inaudible operation (29.8dB(A) at maximum fan speed). For those in search for the highest performance, a second fan can be installed optionally at the exhaust side. As with other Dark Rock models, special black coating with ceramic particles enable perfect heat transfer -- and an elegant look.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading brand of performance overclock memory and PC components, is pleased to announce that CENS from Germany won the title of OC Champion in the 8th Annual OC World Cup 2024 overclocking competition. After a grueling day of extreme overclocking with liquid nitrogen cooling, using the latest Intel Core i9-14900KF processor and ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Apex Encore motherboard, CENS is walking away with the grand cash prize of $10,000 USD!

After the first 3 days of exhausting extreme overclocking in the Live Qualifier Stage of the OC World Cup 2024, biso biso, CENS, and Seby qualified for the Grand Final Stage on June 7. The Grand Final round is comprised of a maximum memory frequency challenge and 3 benchmarks with CPU speed fixed at a maximum of 7 GHz, demonstrating the incredible capability of the latest 14th Gen Intel Core processors and the extraordinary overclock skills of each OC World Cup 2024 Grand Final contestant.

At Computex 2024, we discovered in Sharkoon's booth, among many other products, the latest additions to its keyboard portfolio: the Sharkoon SGK50 PBT Wood series. These newly announced mechanical keyboards have one particular thing - they are made of wood (body, baseplate, palm rest). To quote Sharkoon, "they are the world's first wooden mechanical keyboards to be mass-produced," so we can expect decent prices for something that was previously considered a premium, limited-edition product. They do look really nice and we already can see them fit to those who appreciate classic, elegant design with a touch of wood.

The keyboards come in three sizes: a 60% model, the SGK50 S2 PBT Wood; a 75% one, the SGK50 S3 PBT Wood; and the full-size 96% format known as SGK50 S4 PBT Wood. The primary difference lies in their size, as the internal components are the same - based on Sharkoon's SGK50 with Gateron G Pro 3.0 Yellow switches and a hot-swap PCB for 3-pin and 5-pin switches. Interestingly, each keyboard is unique in appearance, as the base is CNC-milled from a single piece of wood, giving them slight visual differences. We don't have an exact date for when these wooden mechanical keyboards will be available in stores. However, the prices seem to range from €149.9 to €169.9.

TechPowerUp and Team Group have partnered to bring you the Computex 2024 Giveaway. We had a deluge of news from Computex for you last week, and it's easy to miss this Giveaway, so we've extended it to tomorrow, June 12, 2024. The Giveaway is open worldwide. Up for grabs, are a Team Group T-Force Xtreem DDR5-7600 32 GB (2x 16 GB) memory kit, a Team Group 1x PD20M Mag 2 TB Portable SSD, a Team Group T-Create Expert Smart 1 TB SDXC Card + R31 Card Reader; and a C222 USB 3.2 Gen 1 256 GB Flash Drive—useful and contemporary memory hardware from Team Group, and it could be yours! Hurry!

For more information, and to participate, visit this page.

Possible specifications of the various NVIDIA GeForce "Blackwell" gaming GPUs were leaked to the web by Kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks. These are specs of the maxed out silicon, NVIDIA will carve out several GeForce RTX 50-series SKUs based on these chips, which could end up with lower shader counts than those shown here. We've known from older reports that there will be five chips in all, the GB202 being the largest, followed by the GB203, the GB205, the GB206, and the GB207. There is a notable absence of a successor to the AD104, GA104, and TU104, because NVIDIA is trying a slightly different way to approach the performance segment with this generation.

The GB202 is the halo segment chip that will drive the possible RTX 5090 (RTX 4090 successor). This chip is endowed with 192 streaming multiprocessors (SM), or 96 texture processing clusters (TPCs). These 96 TPCs are spread across 12 graphics processing clusters (GPCs), which each have 8 of them. Assuming that "Blackwell" has the same 256 CUDA cores per TPC that the past several generations of NVIDIA gaming GPUs have had, we end up with a total CUDA core count of 24,576. Another interesting aspect about this mega-chip is memory. The GPU implements the next-generation GDDR7 memory, and uses a mammoth 512-bit memory bus. Assuming the 28 Gbps memory speed that was being rumored for NVIDIA's "Blackwell" generation, this chip has 1,792 GB/s of memory bandwidth on tap!

Jabra, a global leader in true wireless sound and hybrid work solutions, is unveiling the Elite 8 Active Gen 2 and Elite 10 Gen 2 earbuds. Building upon the same great design and success of their predecessors, these next-generation earbuds come with enhancements that strengthen the audio experience.

This includes the world's first LE Audio smart case, enhanced spatial sound powered by Dolby Audio for a better music experience, and enhanced Natural HearThrough for better awareness when outdoors. Jabra's Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) has also been made even stronger with improved mid- and low-frequency noise cancellation.

Assassin's Creed Shadows, launching on November 15, revealed 13 minutes of brand-new gameplay footage at Ubisoft Forward. In the walkthrough, Yasuke arrives in Fukuchiyama to track a corrupt daimyo. His trail leads him to confront a samurai who is abusing his power, and it's here that Assassin's Creed Shadows showcases its new combat, featuring destructible armor, devastating but risky posture attacks, and multiweapon combat. Yasuke crushes his foes with massive swings from his powerful kanabo before dispatching the samurai in a duel of katanas.

When the time comes to assassinate the daimyo inside his castle, players will be able to choose between Naoe and Yasuke; in the walkthrough, we see Naoe take the lead on infiltrating the towering complex. The stealthiest Assassin yet, Naoe has a host of tools at her disposal that allow her to strike silently and move about unseen. She can go prone and crawl through tall grass, peek around corners, or extinguish lights to hide in the shadows. She can swing and climb using her grappling hook, knock out NPCs, assassinate targets from a distance using her kusarigama, and more.

During Ubisoft Forward showcase, we got a whole new gameplay trailer showing off a lot of details for the upcoming Star Wars Outlaws open-world game that is set to launch on August 30th. In addition, Ubisoft also released the new overview trailer, showing off some of the locations and missions that you will be able to take in the game.

The new gameplay trailer focused on locations and encounters, including Tatooine and Mos Eisley. It follows the protagonist, Kay Vess, on a mission to Mos Eisley, where he needs to track an expert gunslinger. The trailer shows off dogfights, and what to expect from the dynamic side, including stealth aspect of the game. It also reveals how you would be able to gain skills.

A curiously described graphics card was detected by Olrak29 as it was making it through international shipping. The shipment description for the card reads "GRAPHIC CARD NAVI48 G28201 DT XTX REVB-PRE-CORRELATION AO PLATSI TT(SAMSUNG)-Q2 2024-3A-102-G28201." This can be decoded as a graphics card with the board number "G28201," for the desktop platform. It features a maxed out version of the "Navi 48" silicon, and is based on the B revision of the PCB. It features Samsung-made memory chips, and is dated Q2-2024.

AMD is planning to retreat from the enthusiast segment of gaming graphics cards with the RDNA 4 generation. The company originally entered this segment with the RX 6800 series and RX 6900 series RDNA 2 generation, where it saw unexpected success with the crypto-mining market boom, besides being competitive with the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. This bust by the time RDNA 3 and the RX 7900 series arrived, and the chip wasn't competitive with NVIDIA's top-end. Around this time, the AI acceleration boom squeezed foundry allocation of all major chipmakers, including AMD, making large chips based on the latest process nodes even less viable for a market such as enthusiast graphics—the company would rather make CDNA AI accelerators with its allocation. Given all this, the company's fastest GPUs from the RDNA 4 generation could be the ones that succeed the current RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT, so AMD could capture a slice of the performance segment.

An AMD Ryzen 5 9600X "Zen 5" processor engineering sample has been overclocked to 5.70 GHz on all cores, and put through the CPU-Z Benchmark. Here, the chip is found to score 871 points in the single-thread benchmark, and 7096 points in the multithreaded benchmark. The overclock to 5.70 GHz is significant, as this is the maximum boost frequency of the upcoming Ryzen 9 9950X flagship part. The single-thread benchmark highlights that "Zen 5" has a similar IPC to the "Raptor Cove" P-core of the Intel Core i9-14900K processor, while the 7096 points multithreaded score is higher than the that of the Ryzen 7 5800X "Zen 3," meaning that AMD is overcoming the deficit of two whole cores (33% of the core-count of the 9600X) with just IPC and faster memory. AMD is expected to launch the Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors in July 2024.

Apple today previewed macOS Sequoia, the next version of the world's most advanced desktop operating system, bringing entirely new ways of working and transformative intelligence features to Mac. macOS Sequoia is full of exciting new capabilities, including iPhone Mirroring, which expands Continuity by enabling full access to and control of iPhone directly from macOS. Safari gets another big update with the new Highlights feature for effortless information discovery on webpages while browsing. The new Passwords app makes it even easier to access passwords and organize credentials all in one place. Gaming advances with a more immersive experience, as well as a breadth of new titles, including Assassin's Creed Shadows, Frostpunk 2, and more.

macOS Sequoia also introduces Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system for Mac, iPhone, and iPad that combines the power of generative models with personal context to deliver intelligence that's incredibly useful and relevant. Built with privacy from the ground up, Apple Intelligence is deeply integrated into macOS Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18. It understands and creates language and images, takes action across apps, and draws from personal context, simplifying and accelerating everyday tasks. Taking full advantage of the power of Apple Silicon and the Neural Engine, Apple Intelligence will be supported by every Mac with an M-series chip.

QCY, a premier audio brand renowned for its expertise in wireless audio technology, announces the launch of MeloBuds Pro Adaptive ANC Wireless Earbuds. These wireless earbuds deliver Hi-Res Audio and stereo sound with powerful ANC while ensuring exceptional comfort for extended wear.

Equipped with Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), MeloBuds Pro auto-adjusts noise cancellation to adapt to your ear accordingly by analyzing your ear canal structure and how you wear it. The ANC system contributes to a wide frequency range (20 Hz-2500 kHz), with maximum ANC depth as high as 46 dB. Featuring 6 microphones and a wind noise-minimizing design, AI-based voice pickup technology ensures crystal-clear calls by cancelling ambient noise while enhancing vocals.

Xigmatek made huge strides in the case design game this year at Computex. The pillarless left-corner has been a recurring theme with cases this year, but Xigmatek took things up a notch or two. Firstly, it incorporated the seamless pillarless design element, where two separate glass panels don't meet at the pillarless corner creating a glass seam, but rather a single glass panel curves around the edge. Secondly, some of its case designs have clear glass top-panels. The Pano series is a great place to start our coverage. The Pano and Pano Arctic, are black and white trims of the baseline Pano case, with its seamless-pillarless design. You still get a panoramic view of your build, but the top panel metal, with a 3x 120 mm fan/radiator mount.

The vertically partitioned case sees the right compartment end just before the side-facing fan-vents, which are recessed, so even with a thick radiator and fans, nothing gets in the way of a long graphics card. The left compartment has at least 10 cm of crawl space, because the PSU is mounted sideways. This means ample room for motherboards with backside connectivity. The Pano Ultra is 25% larger in volume than the Pano, and has the same layout, except the top panel is now glass, and the bottom panel is designed such that a radiator installation there wouldn't interference with an add-on card installed in the last slot of the motherboard—so there's a compartment down there, you can install a few 3.5-inch drives if you don't have a radiator.

Thermalright brought several new CPU and M.2 SSD coolers to the 2024 Computex. Our tour of the Thermalright Computex booth began with the HR10, a high-performance active cooling solution for M.2-2280 SSDs. Its design involves an aluminium base from which two heatpipes draw heat from the drive, pushing it through an aluminium fin-stack, which is ventilated by a 40 mm fan. The cooler comes in two trims—black and silver/chrome. The Frozen Infinity 360 is the company's flagship AIO liquid CPU cooler. It features a 360 mm radiator, a cube-shaped pump-block which features an infinite-reflection ARGB ornament. Each of the three included 120 mm fans has infinite reflection ARGB diffusers along their sides. The cooler comes in black- and white trims.

The Thermalright Royal Lord is a thick single fin-stack (U-type) CPU cooler. It features a large CPU base that supports HEDT processors, seven 6 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heatpipes, fully soldered construction, and a high static-pressure 120 mm fan with a fluid-dynamic bearing. This cooler supports large CPU sockets such as the Intel Socket E, or AMD sTR5. The Thermalright Burst Assassin 120 EVO, much like the Royal Lord, is a single fin-stack heatsink, but with a narrower fin-stack, a brushed metal 2-tone top-plate, and two 120 mm fans in push-pull configuration, instead of just one. This cooler uses six 6 mm-thick heatpipes, and has dark powder-coating along all its metal bits.

Arm CEO Rene Haas predicts that SoCs based on the Arm CPU machine architecture will beat x86 in the Windows PC space in the next 5 years (by 2029). Haas is bullish about the current crop of Arm SoCs striking the right balance of performance and power efficiency, along with just the right blend of on-chip acceleration for AI and graphics, to make serious gains in this market, which has traditionally been dominated by the x86 machine architecture, with chips from just two manufacturers—Intel and AMD. On the other hand, Arm has a vibrant ecosystem of SoC vendors. "Arm's market share in Windows - I think, truly, in the next five years, it could be better than 50%." Haas said, in an interview with Reuters.

Currently, Microsoft has an exclusive deal with Qualcomm to power Windows-on-Arm (WoA) Copilot+ AI PCs. Qualcomm's chip lineup spans the Snapdragon Elite X and Snapdragon Elite Plus. This exclusivity, however, could change, with a recent interview of Michael Dell and Jensen Huang hinting at NVIDIA working on a chip for the AI PC market. The writing is on the wall for Intel and AMD—they need to compete with Arm on its terms: to make leaner PC processors with the kinds of performance/Watt and chip costs that Arm SoCs offer to PC OEMs. Intel has taken a big step in this direction with its "Lunar Lake" processor, you can read all about the architecture here.

Valkyrie brought an exhaustive lineup of CPU coolers to the 2024 Computex. This is also the only manufacturer we've come across that put a color display on top of a tower-type CPU cooler, a feature that've we've seen catch on with nearly every AIO liquid CPU cooler manufacturer. There are air coolers with displays on top, but those are LED segment displays putting out basic information such as temperature readings from ACPI. The company displayed an aluminium fin-stack cooler with a large top-plate that has a color display embedded in it, under its Loki brand. The top-plate is wider than the heatsink, but matches the width of the cooler when you install a 120 mm fan. So for those squeamish about liquid cooling, here's a neat alternative.

The Valkyrie Loki series also includes air coolers without this display, replaced by anime art and ARGB LED diffusers. We've seen single fin-stack coolers with dual-fan ventilation (push-pull), and dual fin-stack coolers under the Loki, Merlin, and Mist brands. Switching gears to the liquid cooling lineup, and we see the all-black Valkyrie Dracula, characterized by high static-pressure fluid dynamic bearing fans, and a concealing side mounts for the fans that give the three individual fans the appearance of a compound fan. The model shown at Computex featured a 360 mm x 120 mm radiator.