MediaTek has introduced the Kompanio Ultra, the latest milestone in AI-powered, high-performance Chromebooks. Leveraging MediaTek's proven expertise in flagship innovation, this powerful new platform brings fantastic on-device AI capabilities, superior computing performance, and industry-leading power efficiency to the newest Chromebook Plus devices. "The Kompanio Ultra underscores our commitment to delivering groundbreaking computing performance and efficiency that MediaTek has shown as a leader in the mobile compute space for many years," said Adam King, Vice President & General Manager of Computing and Multimedia Business at MediaTek. "We worked closely with Google to ensure the newest Chromebook Plus devices enjoy next-generation on-device AI capabilities, superior performance per watt, and immersive multimedia."

The Kompanio Ultra is MediaTek's most powerful Chromebook processor to date, integrating 50 TOPS of AI processing power to enable on-device generative AI experiences. With MediaTek's 8th-generation NPU, users can expect real-time task automation, personalized computing, and seamless AI-enhanced workflows—with local processing for enhanced speed, security, efficiency, and support for AI workloads without an internet connection. Built on the cutting-edge (TSMC) 3 nm process, the Kompanio Ultra features an all-big-core CPU architecture with an Arm Cortex-X925 processor clocked at up to 3.62 GHz, delivering industry-leading single and multithreaded performance. Whether handling intensive applications like video editing, content creation, or high-resolution gaming, this processor ensures smooth, lag-free performance with unmatched multitasking capabilities.

A great surface makes a whole lot of difference for PC gaming and work. It's part aesthetics, part utility. Here's what you need to know when shopping around. A mousepad is not just a simple accessory. SteelSeries QcK mousepads have proven, over and over, that they are best in gaming. They're washable and durable, feature a non-slip base, and micro-woven cloth optimized for low and high CPI mouse tracking. With more than 15 million sold, our iconic esports mousepads have enabled gamers around the globe to deliver top tier performance. And now, you can join them. Let's dive into a few reasons why.

Pick the exact style you want
The great thing about our new QcK Performance mousepad series—our latest—is that you can pick the kind of surface you want to adapt to your gameplay style. Do you prefer your mouse to glide super smoothly, or do you want more controlled precision with a little friction? Improved glide, more control, or something in between. This gaming mousepad is truly reflective of your style and preference.

A new resident is moving into the cloud—KRAFTON's inZOI joins the 2,000+ games in the GeForce NOW cloud gaming library. Plus, members can get ready for an exclusive sneak peek as the Sunderfolk First Look Demo comes to the cloud. The demo is exclusively available for players on GeForce NOW until April 7, including Performance and Ultimate members as well as free users. And explore the world of Atomfall—part of 12 games joining the cloud this week.

Cloud of Possibilities
In inZOI—a groundbreaking life simulation game by Krafton that pushes the genre's boundaries—take on the role of an intern at AR COMPANY, managing virtual beings called "Zois" in a simulated city. The game features over 400 mental elements influencing Zois' behaviors. Experience the game's dynamic weather system, open-world environments inspired by real locations and cinematic cut scenes for key life events—and even create in-game objects. inZOI lets players craft unique stories and live out their dreams in a meticulously designed virtual world. Dive into the world of Zois without the need for high-end hardware. Members can manage their virtual homes, customize characters and explore the game's dynamic environments from various devices, streaming its detailed graphics and complex simulations with ease.

Back in February, we reported on Intel considering a resurrection of the "Arrow Lake Refresh" Core Ultra 300 series of CPUs. However, it seems that @Jaykihn, a reliable source of Intel leaks, has confirmed that Intel will indeed push the refresh of Arrow Lake in the form of Core Ultra 300 series of CPUs, limited to K and KF SKUs only. This means we will likely see only overclockable SKUs being refreshed, with possibly enhanced boost frequency and/or core count. With 125 W TDP, these new SKUs would target high-end markets, passionate overclockers, and system integrators selling high-end builds with these CPUs. The refresh's journey to confirmation has been turbulent. Initial rumors in 2023 suggested an ambitious core-count bump for Arrow Lake-S, followed by speculation that Intel would prioritize NPU upgrades, potentially mirroring Lunar Lake's reported 48 TOPS capability—a massive leap from the current Core Ultra 9 285 K's 13 TOPS. By late 2023, leaks hinted at the project's cancellation, but insiders like Chinese leaker Golden Pig Upgrade later revived hopes, asserting that desktop-focused "ARL-S Refresh" had been quietly resurrected.

Jaykihn's latest intel narrows the scope: only K/KF-series chips will receive tweaks, leaving non-overclockable SKUs untouched. Intel is also reportedly developing new performance profiles for existing Arrow Lake CPUs, separate from warranty-voiding BIOS tweaks. These optimizations, alongside the upcoming Intel Performance Optimization (IPO) program, aim to help OEMs and system integrators push pre-built systems further via safer, stability-focused adjustments to clock speeds, power limits, and memory overclocking. While enthusiasts may still prefer manual overclocking, IPO could democratize performance gains for mainstream users. The Core Ultra 300 series will slot into Intel's LGA-1851 roadmap between the base Arrow Lake-S (Core Ultra 200) and 2026's next-gen Nova Lake-S (Core Ultra 400).

Intel has released its latest version of the Arc GPU Graphics Driver, version 101.6651 Beta. The latest GPU graphics driver update brings Game On driver support for the latest Ubisoft Assassin's Creed Shadows game on Intel Arc B-series, A-series Graphics GPUs and Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs, as well as improves performance in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Intel Arc B-series Graphics GPUs. According to Intel's release notes, you can expect up to 15 percent improvement on 1080p resolution and up to 12 percent improvement on 1440p resolution, both with Extreme Settings.

The new GPU graphics driver also fixes an issue in Black Myth: Wukong game on may experience application crash while running benchmark with Full Ray Tracing turned on Intel Arc B-Series GPUs, where the game might experience application crash while running benchmark with full ray tracing turned on. There are several new known issues which you can check out in the full release notes below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6651 Beta

The first MSI Claw was designed for ergonomic comfort and seamless gaming across platforms like Steam, Ubisoft, and Xbox. It even handled mobile games effortlessly. Now, thanks to valuable feedback from our community, we've made significant improvements in both hardware and software for the next generation—introducing the Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+, powered by the latest Intel Lunar Lake processor for enhanced performance and efficiency.

Key Upgrades Based on Community Feedback
1) Enhanced Connectivity with Dual Thunderbolt 4 Ports. Both the Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+ now feature two Thunderbolt 4 ports, allowing you to connect an external SSD without unplugging the power cord. This ensures greater flexibility and seamless gameplay.

A vertical mouse is an ergonomic choice for your desk setup, because it helps to keep your wrists in their natural, in-line position rather than flattened and twisted.
The Hansker Performance Gaming Vertical Mouse achieves this verticality without compromising on any of the high-performance functions you'll need to keep yourself competitive. The onboard PixArt PAW3395 sensor delivers top-tier precision matched by a 1000 Hz polling rate, so you know that your movements and tracking are right where they need to be.

THE GAMER'S VERTICAL MOUSE
The mouse connects through USB-C, Bluetooth, or high-performance wireless dongle for excellent flexibility—and thanks to Windows, Mac, or Linux customization, you can dial in your settings from virtually any system. There's also Low-Force Huano Switches for speed and comfort, as well as a 51-degree ergonomic angle to keep your hands positioned just right. And of course, the sleek, all-black design will look just as at home in a gamer's setup as it would in a more professional space.

We're stepping up our multiplatform gaming offering with exciting news dropping at this year's Game Developers Conference (GDC). We're bringing users more games, more ways to play your games across devices, and improved gameplay. You can read all about the updates for users from The Keyword. At GDC, we'll be diving into all of the latest games coming to Play, plus new developer tools that'll help improve gameplay across the Android ecosystem.

We're sharing a closer look at what's new from Android. We're making Vulkan the official graphics API on Android, enabling you to build immersive visuals, and we're enhancing the Android Dynamic Performance Framework (ADPF) to help you deliver longer, more stable gameplays. Check out our video, or keep reading below.

Large language models (LLMs) love large quantities of memory—so much so, in fact, that AI enthusiasts are turning to multi-GPU setups to make even more VRAM available for their AI apps. But since many current LLMs are extremely large, even this approach has its limits. At times, the GPU will decide to make use of CPU processing power for this data, and when it does, the performance of your CPU cache and DRAM comes into play. All this means that when it comes to the performance of AI applications, it's not just the GPU that matters, but the entire pathway that connects the GPU to the CPU to the I/O die to the DRAM modules. It stands to reason, then, that there are opportunities to boost AI performance by optimizing these elements.

That's exactly what we've found as we've spent time in our R&D labs with the latest AMD Ryzen CPUs. AMD just launched two new Ryzen CPUs with AMD 3D V-Cache Technology, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D, pushing the series into new performance territory. After testing a wide range of optimizations in a variety of workloads, we uncovered a range of settings that offer tangible benefits for AI enthusiasts. Now, we're ready to share these optimizations with you through a new BIOS feature: AI Cache Boost. Available through an ASUS AMD 800 Series motherboard and our most recent firmware update, AI Cache Boost can accelerate performance up to 12.75% when you're working with massive LLMs.

Precision made personal—introducing the QcK Performance Series, our first premium mousepad collection crafted to sync seamlessly with your unique playstyle. Your gameplay is personal, and now your surface can be too. Friction or Glide? You decide. Extra density. Extra consistency. High-grade neoprene foam creates a stable foundation for your mouse to move at high speeds with no sensor skip, round in, round out.

QcK Evolves Again
Introducing the next evolution in gaming—QcK Performance, the first family of performance mousepads engineered with one goal in mind: to elevate your gameplay. Developed in collaboration with top esports athletes, QcK Performance offers three meticulously crafted and unique surfaces: Speed, Balance and Control. Whatever your playstyle, discover the ultimate surface to push your performance to the next level.

Biwin, a world-renowned innovator in cutting-edge memory and storage solutions, proudly introduces the Biwin Black Opal OC Lab Gold Edition DW100 RGB DDR5 192 GB Memory Kit (48 GB x 4), available in DDR5-6400 CL30-39-39-108 1.4 V and DDR5-6000 CL28-36-36-102 1.4 V specifications. Breaking the capacity limits of traditional consumer memory, this ultra-large 192 GB kit offers the performance boost needed for AI computing, large-scale data processing, and next-gen computing.

Push Memory Performance with Revolutionary 192 GB Memory Kit
Biwin Black Opal DW100, delivering an ultra-high-capacity 192 GB (48 GB x4) configuration, redefines what's possible with desktop memory and exceptional memory bandwidth, stability, and efficiency. This breakthrough enables users to take full advantage of DDR5's enhanced data throughput to power fast, out-of-the-box speeds for AI computing, large language models (LLMs), generative AI, and edge computing, and other data-rich workloads.

Hello everyone, RoadCraft's demo has been rolling for the past week, and seeing so many of you give a try to our game filled us with joy! Thousands of you downloaded and tried out the demo and you covered altogether more than 2 billion km on the demo, which is absolutely awesome! We've custom-made this demo to give you a sample of the gameplay and vehicles, but be assured that you're far from having seen everything! Now, we are focused on carefully reading your feedback, and we want to address some of them before we release the full game on May 20th.

First, the elephant in the room, the absence of fuel consumption
We know that fuel consumption is a core element in SnowRunner or Expeditions. But RoadCraft is a totally new experience for us, in the simulation field. It has been developed on a new iteration of our engine, and its technical specifications differ from those of our other games. For those reasons, it doesn't offer the same gameplay features. Map exploration and traversal is not as central, rebuilding and reshaping terrain are. When we started the development, we initially had a fuel consumption system, however this mechanic was tedious and didn't bring anything interesting to the core gameplay of the game. However, it doesn't mean we want to throw away the idea without any reflection, and especially after seeing all your feedback on it. We might think about integrating fuel consumption, but later on, in a new game mode for example.

Apple's new budget-friendly iPhone 16e model was introduced earlier this month; potential buyers were eyeing a device (starting at $599) that houses a selectively "binned" A18 mobile chipset. The more expensive iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models were launched last September, with A18 chips on-board; featuring six CPU cores, and five GPU cores. Apple's brand-new 16E smartphone seems to utilize an A18 sub-variant—tech boffins have highlighted this package's reduced GPU core count: of four. The so-called "binned A18" reportedly posted inferior performance figures—15% slower—when lined up against its standard 5-core sibling (in Geekbench 6 Metal tests). The iPhone 16E was released at retail today (February 28), with review embargoes lifted earlier in the week.

A popular portable tech YouTuber—Dave2D (aka Dave Lee)—decided to pit his iPhone 16E sample unit against older technology; contained within the iPhone 15 (2023). The binned A18's 4-core iGPU competed with the A16 Bionic's 5-core integrated graphics solution in a 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited head-to-head. Respective tallies—of 2882 and 3170 points—were recorded for posterity's sake. The more mature chipset (from 2022) managed to surpass its younger sibling by ~10%, according to the scores presented on Dave2D's comparison chart. The video reviewer reckoned that the iPhone 16E's SoC offers "killer performance," despite reservations expressed about the device not offering great value for money. Other outlets have questioned the prowess of Apple's latest step down model. Referencing current-gen 3DMark benchmark results, Wccftech observed: "for those wanting to know the difference between the binned A18 and non-binned variant; the SoC with a 5-core GPU running in the iPhone 16 finishes the benchmark run with an impressive 4007 points, making it a massive 28.04 percent variation between the two (pieces of) silicon. It is an eye-opener to witness such a mammoth performance drop, which also explains why Apple resorted to chip-binning on the iPhone 16e as it would help bring the price down substantially."

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a leading brand in gaming PC components, gaming laptops, and Hi-fi audio products, introduces the COLORFUL X15 XS - a budget-friendly yet powerful gaming laptop designed for gamers and creators seeking performance and value. Building from the success of the X15 XS series gaming laptops, the latest model features a cleaner and simpler design and new packaging.

Powered by up to a 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12500H processor and an NVIDIA RTX 3050 laptop GPU, the COLORFUL X15 XS delivers the speed and efficiency needed to tackle a wide range of tasks. Whether you're working on demanding projects, studying for exams, or diving into immersive gaming sessions, the X15 XS ensures smooth multitasking, responsive performance, and stunning graphics. With advanced cooling and a high-refresh-rate display, the X15 XS is built to keep up with your productivity and entertainment needs without compromise.

Thermal Grizzly introduces the TG Delidded CPU series with delidded processors and assumes the manufacturer's warranty. As a provider of delidding tools and products for delidded processors, Thermal Grizzly is a well-known name among hardware enthusiasts and overclockers. With the TG Delidded CPU, even beginners now have a gateway into the world of maximum cooling performance.

With the TG Delidded CPU, Thermal Grizzly offers PC enthusiasts and gamers the ability to use direct-die cooling solutions—without the risk of delidding the CPU themselves. Delidding, or removing the heat spreader, allows coolers to be mounted directly where heat is generated: on the chips/chiplets of the CPU. However, since CPU dies are highly susceptible to damage, direct-die cooling solutions such as the Mycro Direct-Die water coolers or High Performance Heatspreaders should be used.

TechPowerUp has discovered that there are NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards in retail circulation that come with too few render units, which lowers performance. Zotac's GeForce RTX 5090 Solid comes with fewer ROPs than it should—168 are enabled, instead of the 176 that are part of the RTX 5090 specifications. This loss of 8 ROPs has a small, but noticeable impact on performance. During recent testing, we noticed our Zotac RTX 5090 Solid sample underperformed slightly, falling behind even the NVIDIA RTX 5090 Founders Edition card. At the time we didn't pay attention to the ROP count that TechPowerUp GPU-Z was reporting, and instead spent time looking for other reasons, like clocks, power, cooling, etc.

Two days ago, one of our readers who goes by "Wuxi Gamer," posted this thread on the TechPowerUp Forums, reporting that his retail Zotac RTX 5090 Solid was showing fewer ROPs in GPU-Z than the RTX 5090 should have. The user tried everything from driver to software re-installs, to switching between the two video BIOSes the card comes with, all to no avail. What a coincidence that we had this card in our labs already, so we then dug out our sample. Lo and behold—our sample is missing ROPs, too! GPU-Z is able to read and report these units counts, in this case through NVIDIA's NVAPI driver interface. The 8 missing ROPs constitute a 4.54% loss in the GPU's raster hardware capability, and to illustrate what this means for performance, we've run a couple of tests.

ASUS today announced the all-new ExpertBook B5 laptop series (B5405/B5605) - a lightweight, AI-enhanced marvel powered by the latest up to Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2) with Intel vPro and built-in Intel Arc graphics, ushering in a new era of productivity. Packed with cutting-edge AI capabilities, including a dedicated NPU, ExpertBook B5 is built to streamline complex business tasks and accelerate productivity - especially during video calls, with exclusive ASUS AI ExpertMeet delivering optimized audio, video and real-time transcription for seamless collaboration.

Engineered for professionals who demand both performance and security, ExpertBook B5 is protected by ASUS ExpertGuardian, an enterprise-grade security suite that safeguards data, user identities and system integrity with multi-layered protection. With an up to 15 hours battery life for all-day performance on the go, this durable, MIL-STD-810H-tested business laptop empowers uninterrupted productivity. ExpertBook B5 also underscores the ASUS commitment to sustainability with the integration of a Digital Product Passport (DPP), providing transparent lifecycle tracking and reinforcing responsible environmental practices.

Intel today launched two new Ethernet product lines - the Intel Ethernet E830 Controllers and Network Adapters, and the Intel Ethernet E610 Controllers and Network Adapters - designed to meet the growing demands of enterprise, telecommunications, cloud, edge, high performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. These next-generation solutions provide robust, high-performance connectivity while enhancing energy efficiency and security, and lowering total cost of ownership (TCO).

"In today's interconnected world, networking is essential to the success of business and technology transformation. With the launch of the Intel Ethernet E830 and E610 products, we are helping customers meet the growing demand for high-performance, energy-efficient solutions that optimize network infrastructures, lower operational costs and enhance TCO." -Bob Ghaffari, Intel vice president, Network and Edge Group

Apple's unannounced M4 MacBook Air family is likely reaching market availability status at some point next month. Last December, slimline notebook enthusiasts started hearing about an updated lineup; macOS's Sequoia 15.2 update reportedly referenced upcoming MacBook Air M4 13-inch and 15-inch models. An early sample unit—named "Mac16,12"—has participated in a Geekbench 6.4.0 (macOS AArch64) gauntlet; results appeared online yesterday. The alleged "MacBook Air 13" candidate posted an overall Metal score of 54,806, and an overall OpenCL tally of 36,305. The two separate Geekbench Browser entries confirm that the sampled device makes use of a 10-core M4 processor, with Cluster 1 containing four performance cores. Cluster 2 consists of six power efficiency-oriented cores. Base frequency is listed at 4.41 GHz; reportedly the highest recorded for an M4 SoC. Said chip accessed 24 GB of unified memory, during its macOS 15.2 (Build 24C2101)-based test session.

Notebookcheck and Wccftech compared the aforementioned data points with slightly older M4-equipped hardware, including a premium model. Both outlets observed a "measly" five percent performance difference. Elaborating on their findings, Notebookcheck stated: "as always, we would recommend taking early benchmark results with a healthy amount of skepticism for the time being. With that being said, the MacBook Air 13 benchmarked falls about 5% short of the median Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Metal results we achieved so far when benchmarking the M4 versions of Apple's Mac Mini and MacBook Pro 14." The rumored next-gen MacBook Air is expected to operate with a fan-less cooling system—press outlets reckon that the MacBook Pro's air-cooled operation puts it at a slight advantage (in benchmarks).

GIGABYTE, a global leader in computing innovation and technology, will showcase its full-spectrum AI computing solutions that bridge development to deployment at MWC 2025, taking place from March 3-6.

"AI+" and "Enterprise-Reinvented" are two of the themes for MWC. As enterprises accelerate their digital transformation and intelligent upgrades, the transition of AI applications from experimental development to democratized commercial deployment has become a critical turning point in the industry. Continuing its "ACCEVOLUTION" initiative, GIGABYTE provides the comprehensive infrastructure products and solutions spanning cloud-based supercomputing centers to edge computing terminals, aiming to accelerate the next evolution and empower industries to scale AI applications efficiently.
⁠

Moore Threads has released version 290.100 of its MTT S Series Windows desktop driver; today's freshly published patch notes describe "performance and experience optimizations" for multiple modern games titles. Press coverage of the Chinese graphics card manufacturer's hardware portfolio has concentrated mostly on deficiencies, relative to Western offerings. Despite being the first desktop gaming graphics card to arrive with a PCI Express Gen 5 bus interface, Moore Threads' MTT S80 model has consistently struggled to keep up with mainstream competition. Most notably, their current 200 W TDP-rated flagship—packing 4096 "MUSA" cores—trailed behind AMD Radeon iGPUs, according to March 2024 benchmarks.

The latest Moore Threads driver improvements were tested out internally, prior to public release. Patch notes claim that Infinity Nikki (DirectX 12-only) average frame rates "increased by more than 40%." Another DX12 title was benched—Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding: "average frame rate has increased by more than 50%." The largest upgrade was observed when playing A Plague Tale: Requiem; the MTT engineering team claims that average in-game frame rates climbed by more than 120%. We hope that independent outlets will publish results based on their own testing methodologies, in the near future. Going back to September 2023, Moore Threads boasted about driver update 230.40.0.1 producing a 40% gaming performance uplift for MTT S80 and S70 cards. Outside the gaming sphere, Moore Threads has hinted about its MTT S80 GPU being a high achiever with DeepSeek's R1-Distill-Qwen-7B distilled model.

Well, the wait is over and early reviews for AMD's Strix Halo APUs have finally dropped. For those who kept up with the leaks and rumors, the high-end RDNA 3.5 Radeon 8060S iGPU was repeatedly rumored to features up to 40 CUs, allowing for raw performance that keeps up with several discrete-class mobile GPUs. Now that we have concrete information, it appears that the Strix Halo iGPU does indeed trade blows with mid-range mobile GPUs, which is an undeniably impressive feat for an integrated unit. Some of the fastest x86 iGPUs - the Arc 140 V, Radeon 890M, are all left in the dust, although Apple's highest-end offerings are unsurprisingly well ahead.

Starting off with 3D Mark Time Spy, the 40-CU Radeon 8060S, housed in the 13-inch ROG Flow Z13, managed an impressive score of 10,200 points according to Notebookcheck. This puts the iGPU in close proximity to other RTX 4070-powered 14-inch gaming laptops, such as the Zephyrus G14 which managed to rake in around 10,300 points. Compared to the previous iteration of the ROG Flow Z13, which boasts a 65-watt RTX 4070, the Radeon 8060S-powered Z13 pulls ahead by around 5%. Laptops with more substantial power envelopes do race ahead significantly, such as the 140-watt RTX 4070 Laptop-powered Razer Blade 14 which managed over 13,000 points. In the Steel Nomad benchmark, however, the Radeon 8060S appears less impressive, trailing behind not only the RTX 4070 Laptop, but also systems with the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU (110 W).

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the Micron 4600 PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD, an innovative client storage drive for OEMs that is designed to deliver exceptional performance and user experience for gamers, creators and professionals. Leveraging Micron G9 TLC NAND, the 4600 SSD is Micron's first Gen 5 client SSD and doubles the performance of its predecessor.

The Micron 4600 SSD showcases sequential read speeds of 14.5 GB/s and write speeds of 12.0 GB/s. These capabilities allow users to load a large language model (LLM) from the SSD to DRAM in less than one second, enhancing the user experience with AI PCs. For AI model loading times, the 4600 SSD reduces load times by up to 62% compared to Gen 4 performance SSDs ensuring rapid deployment of LLMs and other AI workloads. Additionally, the 4600 SSD provides up to 107% improved energy efficiency (MB/s per watt) compared to Gen 4 performance SSDs, enhancing battery life and overall system efficiency.

Shrinking components was (and still is) the main way to boost the speed of all electronic devices; however, as devices get tinier, making them becomes trickier. A group of scientists from SANKEN (The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research), at Osaka University has discovered another method to enhance performance: putting a special metal layer known as a metamaterial on top of a silicon base to make electrons move faster. This approach shows promise, but the tricky part is managing the metamaterial's structure so it can adapt to real-world needs.

To address this, the team looked into vanadium dioxide (VO₂). When heated, VO₂ changes from non-conductive to metallic, allowing it to carry electric charge like small adjustable electrodes. The researchers used this effect to create 'living' microelectrodes, which made silicon photodetectors better at spotting terahertz light. "We made a terahertz photodetector with VO₂ as a metamaterial. Using a precise method, we created a high-quality VO₂ layer on silicon. By controlling the temperature, we adjusted the size of the metallic regions—much larger than previously possible—which affected how the silicon detected terahertz light," says lead author Ai I. Osaka.

Intel's Core Ultra 7 255H "Arrow Lake" processor has demonstrated impressive performance improvements in recent PassMark benchmarks, achieving a 32% higher single-core score compared to its "Meteor Lake" predecessor. The Arrow Lake-H chip recorded 4,631 points in single-threaded tests, significantly outpacing the Core Ultra 7 155H's 3,500 points while delivering a 15% overall improvement in CPU Mark ratings. The performance leap comes from Intel's architectural overhaul, implementing "Lion Cove" performance cores alongside "Skymont" efficiency cores on TSMC's N3B process node. This combination enables the 255H to achieve higher boost frequencies while maintaining the same core configuration as its predecessor—six P-cores, eight E-cores, and two Low Power Efficiency (LPE) cores.

Notable in this iteration is the absence of Hyper-Threading, resulting in 16 threads compared to the 155H's 22 threads. Arrow Lake-H maintains Intel's heterogeneous structure, incorporating up to eight Xe-LPG+ graphics cores derived from the Alchemist architecture. The neural processing unit (NPU) capabilities remain consistent with Meteor Lake, delivering 13 TOPS of INT8 performance. This positions the chip below Lunar Lake's 45 TOPS. Despite performance improvements, market success will largely depend on system integrators' ability to deliver compelling devices at competitive price points, particularly as AMD's Strix Point platforms maintain strong positioning in the $1,000 range. The battle of laptop chip supremacy is poised to be a good one in the coming quarters, especially as more Arm-based entries will force both Intel and AMD to compete harder.