BittWare, a Molex company, a leading supplier of enterprise-class accelerators for edge and cloud-computing applications, today introduced new card and server-level solutions featuring Intel Agilex FPGAs. The new BittWare IA-860m helps customers alleviate memory-bound application workloads by leveraging up to 32 GB of HBM2E in-package memory and 16-lanes of PCIe 5.0 (with CXL upgrade option). BittWare also added new Intel Agilex I-Series FPGA-based products with the introduction of the IA-440i and IA-640i accelerators, which support high-performance interfaces, including 400G Ethernet and PCIe 5.0 (CXL option). These newest models complement BittWare's existing lineup of Intel Agilex F-Series products to comprise one of the broadest portfolios of Intel Agilex FPGA-based offerings on the market. This announcement reinforces BittWare's commitment to addressing ever-increasing demands of high-performance compute, storage, network and sensor processing applications.

"BittWare is excited to apply Intel's advanced technology to solve increasingly difficult application problems, quickly and at low risk," said Craig Petrie, vice president, Sales and Marketing of BittWare. "Our longstanding collaboration with Intel, expertise with the latest development tools, including OneAPI, as well as alignment with Molex's global supply chain and manufacturing capabilities enable BittWare to reduce development time by 12-to-18 months while ensuring smooth transitions from proof-of-concept to volume product deployment."

The Mini-PC pioneer Shuttle is venturing to achieve the delicate balance between compactness and flexibility with the 4.7-litre design. It has produced a 9.5 cm flat Mini-PC Barebone for lots of Intel Core processors of the 10th & 11th generation which features two PCI Express slots. This means it can confidently compete directly with workstations from major manufacturers with a similar format.

As its base area is only 25 × 20 cm, smaller than a sheet of A4 paper, it fits almost anywhere. Even the overall height of 9.5 cm is regarded as flat and provides plenty of space, for example for Intel Core i9 processors, dual-slot graphics cards, 64 GB of RAM and three drives. "Probably the biggest advantage over other products in the market is the flexibility. Buyers can decide the details of which components they want to use and the choice of operating system," explains Tom Seiffert, Head of Marketing & PR at Shuttle Computer Handels GmbH. "From the entry-level version with scope for an upgrade, through to the maximum configuration level, with the XH510G2 you have almost free rein to decide on a surprisingly large number of features."

Tech manufacturer JSAUX just announced that the 2nd generation of its Docking Station for Steam Deck is now available for pre-order on its official website. Released at a price of $49.99, this new model features three USB 3.0 ports and a brand new Gigabit Ethernet port that will upgrade the user's experience with Valve's handheld console in 4K TVs. Shippings will start on July 10. Other new accessories for Steam Deck revealed by JSAUX are a special edition of their hard-shell carrying case and a screen protector, sold both as a bundle and separately.

After a successful Gen 1 that was quickly sold out, JSAUX announces that players can get their hands on both the Gen 1 (being sold for $39.99) and the Gen 2. Both products let players enjoy their library in 4K @ 60 Hz on a TV while having the Steam Deck on charge, with access to a variety of ports that allow for multiple add-ons; from external hard drives to an ethernet connection. The docking station also features compatibility with iPads and Android phones with USB-C ports.

Researchers from Università di Bologna and CINECA, the largest supercomputing center in Italy, have been playing with the concept of developing a RISC-V supercomputer. The team has laid the grounds for the first-ever implementation that demonstrates the capability of the relatively novel ISA to run high-performance computing. To create a supercomputer, you need pieces of hardware that seem like Lego building blocks. Those are called clusters, made from a motherboard, processor, memory, and storage. Italian researchers decided to try and use something different than Intel/AMD solution to the problem and use a processor based on RISC-V ISA. Using SiFive's Freedom U740 SoC as the base, researchers named their RISC-V cluster "Monte Cimone."

Monte Cimone features four dual-board servers, each in a 1U form factor. Each board has a SiFive's Freedom U740 SoC with four U74 cores running up to 1.4 GHz and one S7 management core. In total, eight nodes combine for a total of 32 RISC-V cores. Paired with 16 GB of 64-bit DDR4 memory operating at 1866s MT/s, PCIe Gen 3 x8 bus running at 7.8 GB/s, one gigabit Ethernet port, USB 3.2 Gen 1 interfaces, the system is powered by two 250 Watt PSUs to support future expansion and addition of accelerator cards.

Shuttle has been supplying reliable hardware for professional multi-display applications for many years now, and this is also demonstrated by the Taiwanese Mini-PC manufacturer's extensive network of partners and integrators. As of today, two more machines, based on the 11th generation of Intel Core processors, are now available for this very product category.

The two Barebones DH32U and DH32U5 are supplied with the processor already soldered on and just need to be equipped with drives and RAM, in accordance with the project requirements, and can then be used immediately. There is space for up to 64 GB of RAM, an NVMe SSD and a 2.5 inch drive. The Mini-PCs measuring just 19 × 16.5 × 4.3 cm (DxWxH) have an array of ports and can also be expanded with accessories from the Shuttle range. Spread across the front and back there are 4× HDMI 2.0b, 4× USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbit), 4× USB 3.2 Gen1 (5 Gbit), audio ports, 2× COM, 2× Gigabit Ethernet, a card reader and a remote power-on connection.

Blackmagic Design today announced Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini a new network storage solution with the high performance of 4 M.2 flash memory in a RAID 0 configuration. With its built in 10G Ethernet, the Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini is extremely fast so it allows multiple users to collaborate on video editing in software such as DaVinci Resolve. Plus with Dropbox sync, multiple units can be synchronized across different geographic locations. Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini is available immediately from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide for US$2,995. Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini is the perfect network storage solution for any use. It's great for film and television where large media files need to be shared between multiple users for editing, color correction, audio post and VFX work. It even handles massive 12K Blackmagic RAW digital cinema files. Each user gets zero latency and they don't need to store files on their local computer. It's the perfect solution for DaVinci Resolve.

Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini features a compact rack mount design that's very portable and whisper quiet. Internally it has an array of 4 flash memory cards working in parallel for higher speed. The 10G Ethernet port and the 1G Ethernet port operate as a 2 port network switch. There is also an HDMI monitoring output so customers can watch a live graphic view of the storage operating on a TV or monitor. The Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini is available with 8 TB of flash memory, so customers have lots of space for their files. That's fantastic for television production, as it's small enough to be portable, but it has enough storage space for lots of video media. M.2 flash memory cards are used for extreme reliability, high access speeds and zero seek times. Plus the four M.2 cards are arranged in a parallel RAID 0 group so they can operate much faster than a single card. That ensures enough speed to keep up with the 10G Ethernet connection.

Today MaxLinear announced the immediate availability of two 1000BASE-T Ethernet Switches (GSW125, GSW145) and a quad-port 2.5GBASE-T PHY (GPY245), expanding its Ethernet product portfolio to better serve the industrial, telecommunications, and networking outdoor markets, where products must perform efficiently in harsh temperature environments. With the increase of outdoor Wi-Fi access points, Industrial IoT and Industrial PCs used to collect, monitor and control equipment, products must operate in either high heat or frigid cold environments. Extreme temperatures can impact network operation, data transmission, and system reliability, causing interruptions and downtime, leading to security risks and costly emergency repairs.

"MaxLinear has a 40-year history of being a leading supplier in industrial interface devices, having shipped over 1B serial transceivers over the past five years," said James Lougheed, Vice President of Marketing, High Performance Analog. "As the requirements for industrial-grade Ethernet products continue to grow, we continue to invest to remain in a strong position to support these fast-growing markets."

Fungible, Inc., the composable infrastructure company, today announced a new product offering, Fungible GPU-Connect (FGC ), an innovative solution engineered to revolutionize how data processing power is accessed in enterprise and service provider infrastructures. Fungible GPU-Connect solves the challenges caused by the growing demand for AI/ML, especially in Edge Data Centers with stranded and underutilized GPUs. FGC leverages the Fungible DPU to dynamically compose GPU and CPU resources across an Ethernet network. This provides significant economic benefits and agility to organizations that provision, allocate, and manage expensive GPU resources. For the first time, organizations can create a GPU-powered infrastructure free from the physical limitations of PCIe.

FGC allows data centers to centralize their existing GPU assets into a single resource pool to be attached to servers on demand. Instead of dedicated GPUs sitting idle most of the time, data centers can provide new users with access to the GPU pool, making greater use of existing assets. This disaggregated solution also removes the constraints of having GPUs and CPUs physically co-located. They can be located anywhere within the same data center, eliminating the stranding of expensive GPU resources. The Fungible DPU creates a secure, virtual PCIe connection between the GPU and the server that is transparent to the server and to applications - no special software or drivers are needed. This connection is managed in hardware by the DPU, ensuring a high-performance and low latency connection. This transparency means FGC can be easily retrofitted into existing environments, and can scale with growing demand, ensuring GPUs are always available when they are needed.

NVIDIA today announced NVIDIA Spectrum -4, the next generation of its Ethernet platform which enables the extreme networking performance and robust security needed for data center infrastructure at scale. The world's first 400 Gbps end-to-end networking platform, NVIDIA Spectrum-4 provides 4x higher switching throughput than previous generations, with 51.2 terabits per second. It consists of the NVIDIA Spectrum-4 switch family, NVIDIA ConnectX -7 SmartNIC, NVIDIA BlueField -3 DPU and the DOCA data center infrastructure software to supercharge cloud-native applications at scale.

Built for AI, NVIDIA Spectrum-4 arrives as data centers are growing exponentially and demanding extreme performance, advanced security and powerful features to enable high-performance, advanced virtualization and simulation at scale. The Spectrum-4 Ethernet platform includes key features needed for the uncompromising requirements of these technologies.

Excelero, a Tel Aviv-based provider of high-performance software-defined storage, is now a part of NVIDIA. The company's team of engineers—including its seasoned co-founders with decades of experience in HPC, storage and networking—bring deep expertise in the block storage that large businesses use in storage-area networks.

Now their mission is to help expand support for block storage in our enterprise software stack such as clusters for high performance computing. Block storage also has an important role to play inside the DOCA software framework that runs on our DPUs.

We are delighted to introduced the brand new CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4, or TS4, offering a staggering 18 ports of connectivity in order to expand even the most demanding of workflows. This powerful new dock is available from today in the US, UK, EU, and available in the Rest of the World in Mid-March 2022. First introduced in 2013, the Thunderbolt Station line of docks have become highly acclaimed, and considered amongst the best in the docking category. The TS4 continues this trend by introducing class-leading features not available on other Thunderbolt 4 docks.

With 18 ports of connectivity, the TS4 leads the way in the wealth of connectivity options it provides. At a time when other Thunderbolt 4 docks on the market generally offer in the realm of 11 ports, the TS4 not only provides more ports, it represents incredible value. Included in the TS4's 18 ports is a full size DisplayPort 1.4 connector. The majority of Thunderbolt 4 docks at this time do not include a built-in video port. The TS4 makes it easier to connect a monitor directly to the dock without the need for an adapter.

Exponential demand growth for remote and unmanned terminals in smart home, logistics, manufacturing and other end-user applications has driven iterative updates in Wi-Fi technology. Among the current generations of technologies, Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) is mainstream while Wi-Fi 6 and 6E (802.11ax) are at promotional stages, according to TrendForce's investigations. In order to meet the connection requirements of industry concepts such as the Metaverse, many major manufacturers have trained their focus on the faster and more stable next generation 802.11be Wi-Fi standard amendment, commonly known as Wi-Fi 7. Considering technical characteristics, maturity, and product certification status, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E are expected to surpass Wi-Fi 5 to become mainstream technology in 2022, with global market share expected to reach 58%.

Although most people use WiFi for their network connectivity these days, there are times when a wired connection is needed, say for large file transfer and backups. We've finally seen a transition onwards from Gigabit Ethernet on the humble desktop PC, but for some 2.5 Gbps isn't enough and 10 Gbps has become more and more of a viable option. However, it seems like QNAP has decided that 10 Gbps is getting a bit long in the tooth and as such, the company has introduced a 16-port SFP28 switch, for those that are craving even faster LAN speeds.

The QSW-M5216-1T has a combined switching capacity of 820 Gbps and all of the 25 Gbps SFP28 ports are backwards compatible with 10 Gbps SFP+ based network cards. There's also a single multi-gig capable RJ45 port that goes from 100 Mps to 10 Gbps, plus a 1 Gbps management port, as well as a serial port around the back for management. The QSW-M5216-1T is also capable of combining four ports into a 100 Gbps capable link, when combined with QNAP's QXG-100G2SF-E810 100 Gbps capable network card, although it retails for north of US$1,000. A more reasonable alternative would be the US$219 QXG-25G2SF-CX4 dual-port 25 Gbps card, which seems quite reasonably priced for the speeds on offer.

Innodisk has announced its all-new EGPL-T101 M.2 2280 10GbE LAN module, the first 10GbE LAN designed in M.2 form factor, features flexible integration and excellent compatibility with existing network infrastructure for crucial backward compatibility. Looking into the booming markets and scenarios ranging from surveillance to gaming, networking, and industrial uses, the growing demand for high-speed LAN solutions is promising. Additionally, interference issues are also occurring more often as the size of the PCIe form factor cannot fit in the smaller design of IPC platforms nowadays. Being the leading global provider of industrial embedded flash and memory, Innodisk is introducing the first M.2 10GbE LAN module designed to meet the demand for increased speed and reduced size, high-speed LAN solutions.

Innodisk's EGPL-T101 is the first M.2 2280-to-single 10GbE Base-T Ethernet module which is also the smallest 10GbE expansion solution available today and ten times faster than standard Ethernet. By supporting PCI Express Gen 3x2, the EGPL-T101 module can provide sufficient bandwidth for one 10GbE LAN port suitable for server and industrial applications' high-speed network demands.

Based on the Intel 600-series chipset leak earlier today, it was easy to conclude that all 600-series motherboards would be getting PCIe 5.0 support, but alas, that is not the case. We've already seen some rock bottom Z690 without PCIe 5.0 and thanks to Videocardz we now know that Gigabyte's B660 Gaming X DDR4 will also lack PCIe 5.0 support.

How do we know this board doesn't support PCIe 5.0? First of all, the x16 slot closest to the CPU uses one of Gigabyte's older reinforced PCIe 4.0 slots, whereas all of its Z690 boards with PCIe 5.0 support uses a new, white type of slot. These slots use a visually different kind of reinforcement as well, even if it's only marginally different. However, Gigabyte doesn't appear to be silk screening PCIe 5.0 on supported boards and it's possible that they're using a different slot vendor for the B660 boards.

Akasa has been into client networking products lately, with its recent low-profile 2.5 GbE adapter. The company's latest product in the category is the AK-PCCE25-02. This card provides 2.5 Gbps wired Ethernet connectivity, along with 25.5 Watts of Power-over-Ethernet (PoE), which should power equipment such as repeaters or cameras. It features all power switching components on board, and relies on a SATA power input for this purpose, and doesn't load the PCIe slot for PoE. Without the SATA power input, the PoE function is disabled, and it works like any other 2.5 GbE adapter. The card remains half-height, and a low-profile bracket is included. The company didn't reveal pricing.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has selected Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to build its third-generation, high performance computing (HPC) system, called Kestrel. Named for a falcon with keen eyesight and intelligence, Kestrel's moniker is apropos for its mission—to rapidly advance the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) energy research and development (R&D) efforts to deliver transformative energy solutions to the entire United States.

Installation of the new system will begin in the fall of 2022 in NREL's Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) data center. Kestrel will complement the laboratory's current supercomputer, Eagle, during the transition. When completed—in early 2023—Kestrel will accelerate energy efficiency and renewable energy research at a pace and scale more than five times greater than Eagle, with approximately 44 petaflops of computing power.

Intel has dominated the client Wi-Fi + Bluetooth network adapter market in the PC space for some time now, particularly with WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E interfaces integrated with motherboards. Even on the AMD platform, motherboard vendors have extensively packaged not just Intel-branded WiFi + Bluetooth modules, but also their wired LAN controllers. In the commercial desktop and commercial notebook markets, Intel leverages this position to push its vPro management suite, with Intel WLAN controllers featuring vPro support. This is something felt lacking in the rival AMD PRO ecosystem, and something the company is looking to change with its collaboration with MediaTek.

AMD RZ660 will be the first controller based on this partnership. Based on the MediaTek Filogic 330P chipset, the controller combines WiFi 6E (6 GHz), with the latest generation Bluetooth (at least Bluetooth 5.2). Driver software and support for this solution will be handled by AMD, as would distribution. MediaTek stated that the first notebooks and desktop PCs (includes DIY motherboards) featuring the AMD RZ660 will debut in 2022. The AMD-supplied driver software would also enable the company to create special "PRO" variants of the RZ660 to bundle with its Ryzen PRO SoCs for the commercial PC and workstation markets. There doesn't appear to be any such collaboration with wired Ethernet, as there is an even competition between Intel and Realtek over the 2.5 GbE PHY market, with both companies offering gaming-specific variants—Intel Killer and Realtek DragonLAN.

The 58th annual edition of the TOP500 saw little change in the Top10. The Microsoft Azure system called Voyager-EUS2 was the only machine to shake up the top spots, claiming No. 10. Based on an AMD EPYC processor with 48 cores and 2.45GHz working together with an NVIDIA A100 GPU and 80 GB of memory, Voyager-EUS2 also utilizes a Mellanox HDR Infiniband for data transfer.

While there were no other changes to the positions of the systems in the Top10, Perlmutter at NERSC improved its performance to 70.9 Pflop/s. Housed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Perlmutter's increased performance couldn't move it from its previously held No. 5 spot.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the production availability of its EM6 Series Enterprise NVMe-oF solid state drives (SSDs) for Ethernet Bunch of Flash (EBOF) systems. Using the Marvell 88SN2400 NVMe-oF SSD converter controller that converts an NVMe SSD into a dual-ported 25Gb NVMe-oF SSD, KIOXIA EM6 Series drives expose the entire SSD bandwidth to the network.

Due to their ability to scale performance of NVMe SSDs, native NVMe-oF architectures are well-suited for applications such as artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), high performance computing (HPC) and storage expansion. In the case of HPC, leveraging the Lustre file system, which is used to provide high bandwidth and parallel access to compute clusters, is beneficial to NVMe-oF based storage, such as EBOF systems with EM6 SSDs, that enable high availability (HA) configurations. An HPC HA configuration example consists of multiple and redundant network connections between a compute host and an EBOF with 88SN2400-connected NVMe SSDs, to deliver scalable throughput based on the number of SSDs.

Although we did mention the MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE in our Z690 motherboard roundup piece, until now, we didn't really know what the board looked like, since MSI has been very shy when it comes to sharing details of the board. However, now the company has released a couple of pictures of the board, courtesy of the board winning a pair of CES 2022 Innovation Honoree awards.

We're still short on details of this monster board, as it'll measure 305x310 mm, which almost puts it in SSI EEB territory. The board has what can only be described as a full cover, since outside of the CPU socket and some of the components near it, you really can't see anything. On top of the memory modules, MSI has gone for a display of some kind that seems to display some system information, such as the CPU type and current clock speed. The location of the display doesn't seem to be ideal though, but it's said to measure in at 3.5-inches.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today launched the eight-port 2.5GbE unmanaged switch - the QSW-1108-8T. Featuring eight 2.5GbE ports, plug-and-play set up, automatic loop detection and blocking, and auto-negotiation functions, the QSW-1108-8T is a cost-efficient high speed network upgrade solution for homes and businesses.

"One of the major elements holding back people from upgrading their Ethernet infrastructure is the cost and availability of switches and adapters. QNAP have demonstrated a firm commitment to the 2.5GbE ecosystem, with the new QSW-1108-8T switch representing an affordable way for home and business users to take their Ethernet network to the next level," said Ricky Ho, Product Manager of QNAP.

Belkin, a global consumer electronics leader, today unveils the Works With Chromebook certified USB-C 14-Port Docking Station at InfoComm 2021. The docking station joins four power and connectivity solutions in Belkin's family of certified Works With Chromebook products. Each product is tested to meet Google's compatibility standards and equips any organization with the solutions that make adapting to evolving technology simple and seamless.

Engineered with the growing number of Chrome OS users in mind, the USB-C 14-Port Docking Station is capable of automatic firmware updates through Chrome OS and offers wide compatibility with all Chromebooks for an enhanced and seamless connectivity experience. It is designed to house multiple ports for extreme productivity - HDMI 2.0, DP 1.4, USB-C, USB 3.1 Gen 2, 65 W PD 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, Audio In/Out - providing users with the option to display, connect and charge with one simple and modern solution.

With 2.5 Gbps Ethernet gaining popularity, we're seeing more and more companies launching 2.5 Gbps products and Akasa is the latest to join the fray. Although there's nothing really unique about this 2.5 Gbps card, it is the lowest profile card we've seen so far, which might make it suitable for certain builds where a regular card wouldn't fit.

The awkwardly named AK-PCCE25-01 features a Realtek Ethernet controller, although we can't quite make out which one, but it's one of the RTL8125 variants. The card comes with a full-height and half-height bracket and drivers for Windows 7 through 10, as well as Linux are provided. Retail pricing seems to be around US$31.95/£27.98/€29.90, which is in line with the competition, or somewhat cheaper.

Today, Intel introduced Loihi 2, its second-generation neuromorphic research chip, and Lava, an open-source software framework for developing neuro-inspired applications. Their introduction signals Intel's ongoing progress in advancing neuromorphic technology. Neuromorphic computing, which draws insights from neuroscience to create chips that function more like the biological brain, aspires to deliver orders of magnitude improvements in energy efficiency, speed of computation and efficiency of learning across a range of edge applications: from vision, voice and gesture recognition to search retrieval, robotics, and constrained optimization problems.

"Loihi 2 and Lava harvest insights from several years of collaborative research using Loihi. Our second-generation chip greatly improves the speed, programmability, and capacity of neuromorphic processing, broadening its usages in power and latency constrained intelligent computing applications. We are open sourcing Lava to address the need for software convergence, benchmarking, and cross-platform collaboration in the field, and to accelerate our progress toward commercial viability." -- Mike Davies, director of Intel's