Pulsar Gaming Gears (AplusX Inc.), a leading developer of high-performance esports peripherals, and VAXEE Corporation, a respected innovator in gaming hardware, today announced the official launch schedule of the new Pulsar eS series of esports equipment. This highly-anticipated product line is the result of the strategic exclusive partnership and joint development work between the two companies, aimed at delivering unparalleled innovation and performance to the esports community.

The initial launch wave includes the Pulsar eS FS-1 Mouse, the Pulsar eS PD170 Mousepads, and the Pulsar eS Armsleeve (Arm Long XL, L, M). All products are in running production and are not limited editions, confirming Pulsar's commitment to making this reference-standard equipment widely available.

In today's cloud-first economy, enterprises are under growing pressure to achieve more with every workload. Cloud infrastructure is no longer just about scalability; it's about aligning technology with business outcomes. That's why AMD and AWS have forged a powerful collaboration that gives customers the freedom to innovate faster, run smarter, and operate more sustainably across the cloud.

At the center of this collaboration is a shared commitment to performance and choice. Together, AMD and AWS are helping organizations optimize cost, scale AI workloads efficiently, and accelerate innovation across industries—from digital services and financial institutions to manufacturers and public sector agencies. With AMD EPYC processor-powered Amazon EC2 instances, customers gain the flexibility and value to tailor their compute infrastructure to their business needs, whether they're modernizing legacy systems, scaling cloud-native applications, or building AI-driven services.

Welcome to the first week of the month of September, no matter if you're prepared for it or not. This week's major release is a sequel to a 2017 game, but this time the main character is a princess turned knight and it'll be available on just about every platform imaginable. The rest of this week is packed with new releases and we kick off the week with some 1920s animation inspired psychological horror, which is followed by a first person sci-fi shooter and a 3D action platformer with a rather unique looking art style. Then we get to experience hell on earth and we round the week off with some third person time travel sci-fi horror. Don't forget to check out the additional games that didn't quite make the list this week.

Hollow Knight: Silksong / This week's major release / Thursday 4 September
As the lethal hunter Hornet, adventure through a kingdom ruled by silk and song! Captured and taken to this unfamiliar world, prepare to battle mighty foes and solve ancient mysteries as you ascend on a deadly pilgrimage to the kingdom's peak. Hollow Knight: Silksong is the epic sequel to Hollow Knight, the award winning action-adventure. Journey to all-new lands, discover new powers, battle vast hordes of bugs and beasts and uncover secrets tied to your nature and your past. Steam link

EA is the proud home to some of the biggest, most exciting interactive entertainment experiences on the planet. Experiences that bring people together every day, offering hundreds of millions of players and fans around the globe new ways to play, create, watch, and connect in, around, and beyond our games. Nothing ruins that fun as fast as cheating. That's why we are excited to introduce EA Javelin Anticheat—the evolution of our flagship anticheat solution, which prevents, identifies, and addresses bad experiences wherever possible, and is a pivotal part of our defense-in-depth strategy. Since its initial launch in 2022, our anticheat solution has supported over 28 million PC players with fair play in over 2.2 billion PC gaming sessions across our largest franchises including EA SPORTS FC, EA SPORTS Madden NFL, Battlefield, F1, EA SPORTS WRC, and Plants vs. Zombies.

The EA Javelin Anticheat brand was carefully chosen to communicate the core attributes of the solution: defense, strength, and agility. One where millions of players and fans around the globe can trust to ensure the integrity of EA games is preserved, allowing for fun-and fair-interactive entertainment. "Our mission is to foster a gaming environment where skill and sportsmanship are the only paths to victory. EA Javelin Anticheat is a testament to our commitment to fair play and integrity."—Elise Murphy, Head of Game Security.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is just around the corner, launching on March 20 for Steam. To celebrate, the team released a new CGI trailer teasing Naoe and Yasuke's motivations on their journey through feudal Japan. Check it out below. Wishlist Assassin's Creed Shadows or pre-purchase it today! Everyone who pre-purchases the game will receive free bonus content, including the Thrown to the Dogs quest at launch, and the Claws of Awaji expansion when it releases later this year. You can also check all our recent Steam news, including more details about the Steam achievements and badges + trading cards available day one!

ENTER FEUDAL JAPAN
Explore the captivating open world of feudal Japan, from spectacular castle towns and bustling ports to peaceful shrines and war-ravaged landscapes. Adventure through unpredictable weather, changing seasons, and reactive environments. Become Naoe, a shinobi Assassin, and Yasuke, a legendary samurai, as you experience their riveting stories and master their complementary playstyles. As Naoe, use stealth to avoid detection and agility to confound your enemies. As Yasuke, strike your foes with lethal precision and power.

AMD and Nutanix have jointly developed virtualization/HCI solutions since 2019, working with major OEMs including Dell, HP and Lenovo, systems integrators and other resellers and partners. You can learn more about AMD-Nutanix solutions here.

AMD EPYC Processors
The EPYC 9004 family of high performance processors provide up to 128 cores per processor to help meet the demands of a wide range of workloads and use cases. High density core counts allow you to reduce the number of servers you need by as much as a five to one ratio when looking at retiring older, inefficient servers and replacing with a new one. Systems based on AMD processors can also be more energy efficient than many competitive processor based systems. For example, running 2000 VMs on 11 2P AMD EPYC 9654 processor-powered servers will use up to 29% less power annually than the 17 2P Intel Xeon Platinum 8490H processor-based servers required to deliver the same performance, while helping reduce CAPEX up to 46%.

ASUS today announced its groundbreaking next-generation infrastructure solutions at SC24, featuring a comprehensive lineup powered by AMD and Intel, as well as liquid-cooling solutions designed to accelerate the future of AI. By continuously pushing the limits of innovation, ASUS simplifies the complexities of AI and high-performance computing (HPC) through adaptive server solutions paired with expert cooling and software-development services, tailored for the exascale era and beyond. As a total-solution provider with a distinguished history in pioneering AI supercomputing, ASUS is committed to delivering exceptional value to its customers.

Comprehensive Lineup for AI and HPC Success
To fuel enterprise digital transformation through HPC and AI-driven architecture, ASUS provides a full lineup of server systems that are powered by AMD and Intel. Startups, research institutions, large enterprises or government organizations all could find the adaptive solutions to unlock value and accelerate business agility from the big data.

The stage is set and the anticipation palpable as DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO adds new names to its latest lineup of fighters. Power and speed are often worthless without precision and timing. These new characters are well aware of that. In the DRAGON BALL universe, you have encountered characters who seamlessly blend both speed and power, creating a formidable fusion of strength and agility. However, among all of them, some make their raw strength or rapid movements their defining trait. The newly revealed characters are charted below.

Producer Jun Furutani revealed more details about the game's mechanics
DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO brings back enhanced gameplay elements that the franchise has been known and cherished for, making battles even more spectacular, faster, impressive and authentic to the anime. Evolved features such as "Skill Count", "Revenge Counter" and "Vanishing Assaults" have been added, giving chances for players to counterattack their foes, and add more strategy to their fights. As you discover more about DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, ask yourself: will you prefer raw, overwhelming power or lightning-fast agility?

AMD today released its first drivers to implement Microsoft's DirectX Agility SDK version 1.613, which introduces the new DirectX 12 Work Graphs 1.0 API. AMD has extensively worked on implementing the new technology, which among other things, significantly reduces the CPU's role in most common shader graphics workloads, and improve GPU shader thread saturation, as the GPU waits less on the CPU's share of shader workloads. The new AMD Software Adrenalin 23.40.14.01 drivers are off the main driver update channel, and is intended for developers and enthusiasts to start exploring GPU Work Graphs. GPU Upload Heaps, and certain features of Shader Model 6.8 on supported AMD Radeon GPUs. There are some known issues with the driver specific to AMD's implementation of GPU Work Graphs, and the latest version of the Agility SDK in general, which are listed below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.40.14.01 for Agility SDK Support

Microsoft's DirectX department is scheduled to show off several innovations at this month's Game Developers Conference (GDC), although a late February preview has already spilled their DirectSR Super Resolution API's beans. Today, retail support for Shader Model 6.8 and Work Graphs has been introduced with an updated version of the company's Agility Software Development Kit. Program manager, Joshua Tucker, stated that these technologies will be showcased on-stage at GDC 2024—Shader Model 6.8 arrives with a "host of new features for shader developers, including Start Vertex/Instance Location, Wave Size Range, and Expanded Comparison Sampling." A linked supplementary article—D3D12 Work Graphs—provides an in-depth look into the cutting-edge API's underpinnings, best consumed if you have an hour or two to spare.

Tucker summarized the Work Graphs API: "(it) utilizes the full potential of your GPU. It's not just an upgrade to the existing models, but a whole new paradigm that enables more efficient, flexible, and creative game development. With Work Graphs, you can generate and schedule GPU work on the fly, without relying on the host. This means you can achieve higher performance, lower latency, and greater scalability for your games with tasks such as culling, binning, chaining of compute work, and much more." AMD and NVIDIA are offering driver support on day one. Team Red has discussed the launch of "Microsoft DirectX 12 Work Graphs 1.0 API" in a GPUOpen blog—they confirm that "a deep dive" into the API will happen during their Advanced Graphics Summit presentation. NVIDIA's Wessam Bahnassi has also discussed the significance of Work Graphs—check out his "Advancing GPU-driven rendering" article. Graham Wihlidal—of Epic Games—is excited about the latest development: "we have been advocating for something like this for a number of years, and it is very exciting to finally see the release of Work Graphs."

In developing the OPX1000, a controller fit for the ever-growing quantum processors counting 1,000 qubits and beyond, we had to think deeply about every detail that impairs scalability. Our recently unveiled OPX1000 module for microwave generation (MW-FEM) generates pulses up to 10.5 GHz directly, without analog oscillators or mixers. The choice of technology to reach microwave frequencies is not trivial. We choose cutting-edge direct digital synthesis (DDS) for very specific reasons, and we believe it will enable scalability and performance to an even greater degree. In this blog, we dive deeper into the considerations for going this route and existing alternatives. So stick around, whether you like mixers or hate them, this will be an interesting ride.

Summary of Technologies for Microwave Operation
The control signals for qubit drive and readout often fall in the microwave range, which is outside the range of baseband controllers. Many qubit labs have solved the issue with solutions based on mixing, including single sideband mixers, IQ-mixers, or more complicated schemes such as double super-heterodyne (DSH) conversion. Mixer-based solutions make use of analog local oscillators (LOs) that are multiplied by the signal of a controller or an AWG. IQ-mixers naturally suffer from two main spurs (affectionate name for unwanted signals), the LO leakage and the mixer image, which require non-trivial calibration to be removed. Other schemes, such as double super-heterodyne, offer a zero-calibration solution but use many more components. Additionally, mixing schemes require having an LO source per mixer if different drive frequencies are used. Having a low phase source per mixer is very expensive, and in order to cut prices, will probably include a phase-lock loops (PLL), leading to phase differences between channels, which is detrimental for multi-qubit systems. In other words, while mixers can be useful, we need to be aware of the pros and cons involved.

Microsoft has implemented two new features into its DirectX 12 API - GPU Upload Heaps and Non-Normalized sampling have been added via the latest Agility SDK 1.710.0 preview, and the former looks to be the more intriguing of the pair. The SDK preview is only accessible to developers at the present time, since its official introduction on Friday 31 March. Support has also been initiated via the latest graphics drivers issued by NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD. The Microsoft team has this to say about the preview version of GPU upload heaps feature in DirectX 12: "Historically a GPU's VRAM was inaccessible to the CPU, forcing programs to have to copy large amounts of data to the GPU via the PCI bus. Most modern GPUs have introduced VRAM resizable base address register (BAR) enabling Windows to manage the GPU VRAM in WDDM 2.0 or later."

They continue to describe how the update allows the CPU to gain access to the pool of VRAM on the connected graphics card: "With the VRAM being managed by Windows, D3D now exposes the heap memory access directly to the CPU! This allows both the CPU and GPU to directly access the memory simultaneously, removing the need to copy data from the CPU to the GPU increasing performance in certain scenarios." This GPU optimization could offer many benefits in the context of computer games, since memory requirements continue to grow in line with an increase in visual sophistication and complexity.