j5create, a world leader in high tech computer accessories, and Intel, the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips, are working together to develop one of the world's first USB4 multi-port adapters. USB4 is the latest USB specification offering several improvements over legacy USB-C adapters including higher transfer speeds, more efficient bandwidth allocation between data and display protocols, as well as backward compatibility with older USB and Thunderbolt specifications.

"We're thrilled to work with Intel to bring the latest USB peripherals to market." said Steven Lyu, Chief Operating Officer at j5create. "We are always innovating to deliver high-performance solutions users have been anticipating through a variety of products, technologies, and design collaborations."

There has been a fair bit of confusion about AMD's upcoming AM5 platform when it comes to connectivity and we're going to break things down and explain what the difference is between the B650 and X670 boards. We're also going to cover the processor connectivity, since that's an integral part of any motherboard these days. All the information in this article is based on what we've been told by various sources during Computex.

Although there was a leak with a partial picture of the ASRock X670E Taichi board just days before Computex 2022 kicked off, it was hard to draw any real conclusions from it. The company has revealed more details about it, alongside the X670E Taichi Carrara, X670E Steel Legend and the X670E Pro RS. Let's start with the plain X670E Taichi, since this was the board that leaked. As is obvious now, the board doesn't feature a fan on the chipset heatsink, but rather a set of cogs, something we've seen before from ASRock. The board has very limited expansion options when it comes to PCIe slots, with a pair of x16 slots, which are sharing the 16 PCIe 5.0 lanes from the CPU and that's it. ASRock has gone for four M.2 slots, of which one is PCIe 5.0, most likely the one next to the memory slots. Interestingly, ASRock has kitted out the X670E Taichi with Thunderbolt 4, which means we're looking at an Intel chip here and there should also be support for USB4 and the two ports are located around the back of the board.

Although AMD didn't provide too many details during its Computex 2022 keynote speech about the upcoming AM5 platform, the company did announce that there will be at least three chipsets for the platform and showed pictures of some upcoming motherboards. ASUS has kindly filled in some more details about its upcoming ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme, which will be one of its higher-end models. Sadly the pictures posted are kind of tiny and the company didn't provide a shot of the rear I/O. That said, ASUS did point out some of its new features that we can expect to find on the ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme.

For starters, the board will have a pair of PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, although each slot is likely to only have eight lanes each, when both slots are in use, but ASUS doesn't mention any details here. The board has support for up to five M.2 NVMe SSDs, four of which support PCIe 5.0. Only two are onboard, with the other three being via ASUS' proprietary ROG PCIe 5.0 M.2 card and ROG GEN-Z.2 card. ASUS also promises USB4 support, as well as a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 header with Quick Charge 4+ as well as up to 60 W charging support, for cases with a front USB-C port. On top of the rear I/O is an AniMe Matrix LED display that can be user customised.

Taiwanese ASMedia appears to become the first peripheral chipset company to launch a USB4 host-controller chipset, based on reports from an event the company held this week. ASMedia is at least the first company to get certified by the USB-IF, as its ASM4242 host-controller is the first of its kind to get certified. The ASM4242 was certified alongside the ASM2464PD device controller, although it's unclear exactly what type of device controller this is, but the PD in the model name indicates that it has native support for USB PD power delivery, without the need of any additional chips. This should allow for simpler implementation, as well as it would be saving some PCB space that the extra components no longer take up.

The ASM4242 is said to have a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface and does as such support up to 64 Gbps of bandwidth. As this is a two port controller, it's still not quite enough to enable both ports to operate at the full 40 Gbps that USB4 Gen 3x2 supports, but it should be enough for most consumer implementations. ASMedia has also added support for DP Alt Mode and USB4 is of course also backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 3. ASMedia is already sampling its partners. We should hopefully get a better look at what ASMedia is working on next week, but DigiTimes mentions that ASMedia has also developed PCIe 5.0 controllers of some kind and have finished the tape-out of said products.

Club 3D is proud to present to you the next important step in USB-C technology. Less than a year after the official launch of the new USB Type-C Cable and Connector Specification Revision 2.1 and USB Power Delivery Specification 3.1, we can introduce the first 3 cables following the new standards.

The above just means: With our new cables it is possible to charge with up to 240 W, made possible by the Extended Power Range (EPR), which offers now up to 48 V voltage supply at a remaining 5 A. This is a huge step forward and will help f.e. to charge power hungry gaming notebooks and other devices who were suffering from the limitation of 100 W on previous standard.

ADATA Technology (Taiwan Stock Exchange: 3260.TWO), a manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, mobile accessories, gaming products, electric power trains, and industrial solutions today announces that it has been awarded six 2022 Red Dot Design Awards for product design excellence. The award winners include the XPG CASTER and SLAYER DDR5 DRAM, XPG ALPHA and PRIMER mice, and ADATA ELITE SE920 and SE880 external solid state drives (SSD).

"From three Red Dot winners last year to six winners this year, ADATA has shown its unwavering emphasis on product design as a key aspect of the user experience," said Ibsen Chen, Senior Product Marketing Director at ADATA. "Whether they be DRAM, gaming mice, or external SSDs, we not only offer users the performance and functionality they require but also a fitting industrial design that appeals to them on an emotional level." The Red Dot Design Award is a globally recognized award that honors innovative companies, praises design excellence, and ultimately recognizes those responsible for tomorrow's trends. An international jury of design experts with a variety of backgrounds assesses each submission on its merits.

Although not yet available directly from AMD, its latest chipset drivers, version 4.03.03.624, have been released by Gigabyte and possibly other motherboard partners and it contains a couple of interesting additions. The first one is support for USB4, albeit only for 64-bit versions of Windows 10 at this point in time. This part really only applies to the Zen 3+ "Rembrandt" mobile Ryzen 6000-series CPUs so far, as they're the only products from AMD that supports USB4 at this point in time.

The other interesting part is that AMD has included a 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer Driver for both the 64-bit version of Windows 10 and Windows 11. As to what this driver does, is anyone's guess at this point in time, but it's likely to be some kind of cache scheduler, or possibly a means for AMD to allocate software that can't take advantage of the 3D V-Cache to the CPU native cache. We should be finding out in a couple of weeks time, as the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is scheduled for retail availability on the 20th of April.

GIGABYTE Technology, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, today announced the all-new 2022 BRIX Extreme mini-PC series, which adopts the latest 12th Gen Intel Core Mobile Processors with Intel's most scalable client architecture that delivers superior computing performance. Benefiting from a new Intel Core design for leadership performance, these processors boost the performance significantly in the all-new performance hybrid design for superior single-threaded & multi-threaded performance. Enhanced by GIGABYTE's exclusive design, the new 2022 BRIX Extreme design integrates four display outputs, including HDMI 2.1, USB4, 2.5G Ethernet, plus the latest WiFi 6E configuration, creating the most powerful multitasking mini-PC with astounding performance and responsiveness for either gaming or content creation.

The latest 12th Gen Intel Core Mobile Processors highlight 10 nm technology, and when compared to the previous generation, these new processors feature a 10% increase in GPU performance, 24% increase in multi-threaded performance, and do so with higher clock frequencies up to 4.70 GHz. The powerful performance in these new processors sets a milestone for the mobile platform. When it comes to benchmark testing, it is inspiring to see that SYSMark 25 Performance scores improve by 14% compared to 11th Gen processors and by 28% on CrossMark too. No more needing to compromise between productivity, performance, and gaming/video performance.

Belkin, a consumer electronics leader, today announces its latest lineup of connectivity solutions built with Intel's Thunderbolt 4 controller. The CONNECT Pro Thunderbolt 4 Dock and Thunderbolt 4 cable leverage Thunderbolt 4 benefits to offer dual display support for video resolutions up to 4K at 60 Hz, total bandwidth of 40 Gbps, Power Delivery for fast charging, and so much more.

Thunderbolt 4, the latest Thunderbolt technology from Intel, offers a host of features to improve current workstation or gaming setups, provides high bandwidth for connecting high-performance devices, helps ensure quality connection between devices and accessories, and makes it easy to charge, transfer data, and transfer video signals through a single port. Thunderbolt 4 offers flexibility, high bandwidth and versatile connectivity to make connecting devices easier without all the extra cables.

Teledyne LeCroy, the worldwide leader in USB protocol test solutions has announced availability of their USB4 compliance test option for the Voyager M4x analyzer and exerciser system. This software option can be used in conjunction with the USB Implementers Forum's (USB-IF's) USB4 Command Verifier (USB4-CV) software to generate traffic conditions and verify responses for the official USB4 logical, protocol, and tunneling layer compliance test specifications.

USB4 combines the simplicity of the USB Type-C connector with scalable performance capable of delivering data, video, and power across a range of platforms. Design and test engineers that embed this technology into their products need robust compliance test tools to help ensure interoperability and reduce time to market. Introduced in 2019, the Voyager M4x test platform has filled a critical role for early developers performing testing, debug, and analysis of USB4 protocol layer behaviors, and the built-in USB4 exerciser option can emulate custom traffic conditions to ensure devices offer robust operation. Now, the USB4 compliance option enables the Voyager M4x exerciser to support the USB-IF's USB4-CV software for executing approved compliance tests while determining pass/fail results from traces captured by the analyzer.

ORICO unveiled the first USB type-C cable that meets USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 standards. The cable utilizes an Intel IC to offer 40 Gbps transfer speeds, DisplayPort 1.4 passthrough with support for display resolutions of up to 8K @ 60 Hz, and bi-directional 100 W USB PD (power delivery). The cable features a solid alloy casing at the connectors, Nylon braiding throughout, and a reinforced bender that can take up to 10,000 bends. Available in cable lengths of 30 cm, 80 cm, and 2 m, the cable comes in two variants based on connector orientation, with the TBZ cable being standard, and TBW angled 90°. The 30 cm variant is priced at $20, the 80 cm variant at $27, and the 2 m variant at $57. Find them on Amazon here.

j5create, a world leader in high tech computer accessories, and Intel, the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips, are working together to develop one of the worlds' first USB4 multi-port adapters. USB4 is the latest USB specification offering several improvements over legacy USB-C adapters including higher transfer speeds, more efficient bandwidth allocation between data and display protocols, as well as backward compatibility with older USB and Thunderbolt specifications.

"We're thrilled to work with Intel to bring the latest USB peripherals to market." said Steven Lyu, Chief Operating Officer at j5create. "We are always innovating to deliver high-performance solutions users have been anticipating through a variety of products, technologies, and design collaborations." The USB4 multi-port adapters will be one of the first to incorporate the latest Intel USB4 controller, offering Thunderbolt compatibility and USB legacy support. Set to release in Q1 2022, these USB4 multi-port adapters provide efficient and dynamic bandwidth allocation up to 20 Gbps and dual 4K video support in addition to high-speed peripheral ports.

In a few hours, AMD is about to hold its CES press conference, but details of its Ryzen 6000 series Mobile CPUs have made their way online and it looks like anyone considering a new laptop this year, should be in for quite a treat. AMD's CEO, Lisa Su already teased the company's new CPU on social media yesterday, but obviously provided no further details, but courtesy of a leak from VideoCardz, we now have what looks like the full specs.

AMD is apparently planning no less than eight H-series consumer SKUs, plus another two U-series consumer SKUs at launch, plus the rumoured 5x25U Zen 3 based additions, which adds a further three SKUs. The new H-series processors will range from Ryzen 5 to 9 and will have max boost speeds ranging from 4.5 to 5 GHz, which confirms earlier rumours about these chips supporting very high clock speeds. All of the new CPU SKUs will feature 19 or 20 MB of L2 plus L3 cache and with the exception of the three Zen 3 based chips, all of the new processors will be manufactured at 6 nm.

If you've been waiting for more details about AMD's next mobile platform, then you're in luck, as the motherload has dropped today, with lots of details about the new Rembrandt APU's that are launching next year. Not only has a picture of the first motherboard, with adhering laptop showed up, but we also have a mostly complete block diagram and a list of expected SKU's, even though not all SKU models are revealed as yet.

AMD's Rembrandt APU will be its first APU with PCIe 4.0 support, which in itself might not be worth the wait, but if paired with the right GPU, this might help increase the performance somewhat compared to the previous generation of APUs from AMD. The bigger news is USB4 support, plus a new GPU which we so far don't know too much about, but it's speculated that it'll be called Radeon RX 680M and should offer 12 compute units. DDR5 memory support is also expected, so Rembrandt clearly has a new memory controller, since the APU is still based on the Zen 3 architecture.

XPG, a fast-growing provider of systems, components, and peripherals for Gamers, Esports Pros, and Tech Enthusiasts, today announces it will be on location in Las Vegas during the 2022 CES show (Jan. 5-8). Under the theme of 'Dawn of a New Xtreme,' it will be showing off the latest products from XPG and ADATA including gaming systems, peripherals, accessories, and components, such as the newest DDR5 memory, PCIe 5.0 solid state drives (SSD) and the latest state-of-the-art Platinum PSU.

XPG's and ADATA are gearing up to bring next-generation performance to gamers and other users with its latest PCIe Gen5x 4 SSDs and DDR5 DRAM. At the booth, visitors will get a first look at the XPG LANCER RGB DDR5 and CASTER RGB DDR5 that deliver next-level performance of up to 6000 MT/s and 7000 MT/s, respectively. ADATA's industrial-grade DDR5-4800 U/SO/R-DIMM memory with on-die ECC & PMIC will also be on display.

OWC, the premier zero-emissions Mac and PC technology company, and a respected provider of Memory, External Drives, SSDs, Mac & PC Docking Solutions, Network Attached Storage, and Performance Upgrade Kits, announces the OWC miniStack STX, the world's first Thunderbolt 4 Certified storage and hub expansion solution that seamlessly stacks with the Mac mini. It is also a Plug and Play expansion companion for Thunderbolt or USB-equipped Macs, PCs, iPads, Chromebooks, and Android tablets.

Three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C compatible) ports connect to millions of Thunderbolt, USB-C and future USB4 devices and accessories. A universal HDD/SSD bay and an NVMe M.2 SSD slot provide massive storage capacity expansion and can be combined in a RAID 1 configuration. With up to 770 MB/s of storage performance, the OWC miniStack STX is great for bandwidth-intensive video editing, photography, audio, virtual machines, and everyday data backup and access tasks. Its heat-dissipating aircraft-grade aluminium with an internal heat sink and high-efficiency fan provides cool, nearly silent operation.

Last week, the EU Commission announced that it's working towards making USB-C the universal standard for charging portable electronics and this week, the USB-IF is bringing new Certified USB Type-C cable and Certified USB4 logos to help consumers figure out what is what. However, the USB-IF is also pointing out that consumers should only buy Certified USB products from trusted sources, suggesting that there are a lot of products in the market that don't meet the various USB specifications.

The new logos can be seen below and the first one is for devices that support 40 Gbps speeds over USB. Keep in mind that although USB4 is broadly based on Thunderbolt 3, the cables aren't going to be exactly the same, but that some USB4 implementations can also support Thunderbolt 4, just to complicate things a little bit extra. This logo can also be used with 40 Gbps capable ports on devices.

The new Surface Laptop Studio features what Microsoft calls a boundary-pushing design, yet we felt like we'd seen the easel before. Lo and behold, Acer ConceptD 3 Ezel launched last year with a very similar design and HP launched the similar Spectre Folio in 2018. Not to belittle Microsoft here, as they have designed a much slicker hinge mechanism than Acer, while seemingly also improving upon the materials used and unlike HP's Spectre Folio, this is a "full fat" laptop and not a glorified tablet.

The Surface Laptop Studio is a strange looking machine, as it has an overhang, something I never expected to see on a laptop and although it appears to have been designed to allow for better cooling, there's just something about it that irks me. Yes, it makes it appear thinner than it really is and Microsoft uses the overhang to tuck away and charge the optional Surface Slim Pen 2 underneath, but it just looks odd for a lack of a better word. Oddities aside, it should be Microsoft's most powerful Intel powered laptop to date and it even packs a discrete NVIDIA GPU.

The Ultrabook name seems to have faded away, but the concept has clearly not gone anywhere and Gigabyte has announced its new U4-series of what they simply call ultralight notebooks. This is also the first 14-inch notebook series from Gigabyte in a while, since the company has focused on 15.6 and 17.3-inch models over the past couple of years' with the last 14-inch model from the company being the AERO 14.

The U4-series is quite a different beast, as the AERO 14 was still weighing in at 1.89 kg, whereas the U4 is almost half that at 990 grams. If you're a sucker for sturdy products, then this might be what you've been waiting for, as Gigabyte claims it meets the MIL-STD 810G specification, which means that the product has gone through "simulation-testing has been conducted in eight harsh working environments, including extreme altitude, temperature and humidity, mechanical vibration, sand and dust, salt fog, etc."

VIA Labs, Inc. (VLI), a leading supplier of SuperSpeed USB, USB Power Delivery Controllers, and now USB4 controllers today unveiled the VIA Labs VL830 USB4 Endpoint Device. USB4 is a major update to the USB architecture, enabling multiple simultaneous data and display protocols to share a single high-speed link with support for a maximum aggregate bandwidth of 40 Gbps. VL830 offers both USB and DisplayPort functionality and operates at full performance when used with Thunderbolt 4 or USB4 systems, and is also backward compatible with previous-generation devices such as laptops, tablets, and phones that support DisplayPort Alternate Mode over USB Type-C.

"VIA Labs VL830 represents a culmination of our experience in developing USB Type-C, USB Power Delivery, and USB 3.2 products, an industry leader in time to market, and contribution and participation in standards development," said Terrance Shih, Business Development Director, VIA Labs, Inc. "USB4 is based on Thunderbolt technology and we are very excited to deliver these capabilities at new price points."

The first desktop processors to implement AMD's "Zen 4" microarchitecture will feature integrated graphics as standard across the lineup, according to a Chips and Cheese report citing leaked AMD design documents. Currently, most of the Socket AM4 desktop processor lineup lacks integrated graphics, and specialized "G" SKUs with integrated graphics dot it. These SKUs almost always come with compromises in CPU performance or PCIe I/O. With its 5 nm "Raphael" Socket AM5 desktop processor, AMD is planning to change this, in a bid to match up to Intel on the universality of integrated graphics.

Built in the 5 nm silicon fabrication process, the "Raphael" silicon combines "Zen 4" CPU cores along with an iGPU based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture. This would be the first time AMD updated the SIMD architecture of its Ryzen iGPUs since 2017. The RDNA2-based iGPU will come with a more advanced DCN (Display CoreNext) component than current RDNA2-based discrete GPUs, with some SKUs even featuring DisplayPort 2.0 support, besides HDMI 2.1. By the time "Raphael" is out (2022-23), it is expected that USB4 type-C would gain popularity, and mainstream motherboards as well as pre-built desktops could ship with USB4 with DisplayPort 2.0 passthrough. AMD relies on a discrete USB4 controller with PCI-Express 4.0 x4 wiring, for its first Socket AM5 platform.

Cable Matters, an industry-leading connectivity solutions supplier, today launched two innovative USB-C video adapters with 8K and dual 4K 60 Hz resolution support for the ultimate work and play video solution. The Cable Matters USB-C to 8K HDMI and DisplayPort Adapter combines an HDMI adapter and a DisplayPort adapter into one for maximum flexibility and performance. The USB-C video hub supports up to an 8K resolution over HDMI or DisplayPort, enabling ultra high-resolution video over one convenient adapter.

"This is one of the first adapters on the market to support 8K video through DisplayPort and HDMI," said Cable Matters President and CEO Jeff Jiang. "It is the perfect one-adapter solution for 8K devices." Cable Matters also launched the USB-C to Dual HDMI Adapter. It leverages the latest standard as specified in HDMI 2.1 to support up to an 8K resolution on one HDMI port. Both USB-C adapters support dual 4K 60 Hz monitors if two video ports are in use at the same time, providing the ultimate multi-monitor solution for the serious worker or gamer.

In 2011, computers were clogged with too many input/output (I/O) ports. There were USB ports for data; Ethernet ports for internet; and DisplayPort, HDMI and VGA ports for video. Despite being large enough to accommodate multiple ports, the computers still couldn't keep up with users' needs.

The solution? Intel launched Thunderbolt technology, which consolidated data, video and power on a single, small connector. Thunderbolt allowed users to move data quickly and confidently among connected smart devices - like PCs, docks, monitors, solid state drives, external hard drives and cameras - using that single connector. At the time, Thunderbolt boasted the ability to transfer a full-length, high-definition movie in less than 30 seconds and back up a full year of continuous MP3 music playback in just over 10 minutes.

OWC, the premier zero-emissions Mac and PC technology company, and a respected provider of Memory, External Drives, SSDs, Mac & PC docking solutions, and performance upgrade kits announces the OWC Envoy Pro FX universal compatible Thunderbolt and USB Portable SSD. By supporting the max performance capability of any interface up to 2800 MB/s and built like a tank with dust/drop/waterproof certification, you can transfer gigabytes of data in seconds anywhere.

The OWC Envoy Pro FX is ideal for everyone and every need for Mac and PC compatibility spanning back to 2010. Fast, tough, Bus-powered (no AC adapter needed) portability. That's a lot of features boxes checked off. The OWC Envoy Pro FX then goes to the next level by being the ideal drive for various uses and ranging from photography, video, and document storage backups to a secondary/portable OS boot drive. The perfect on-set project drive for editing dailies, multi-angled camera shots, utilizing large sample libraries within audio projects, or portable Steam games library.