iFixit's M3 MacBook Air teardown confirms how Apple made its SSD so much faster

Oliver Haslam | Laptops | Mar 14, 2024 8:30 AM CDT

When Apple released the new M3-powered 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops earlier this month it shared plenty of details about the new machines. We know that on the outside at least, not much had changed while the M3 chip was of course the big improvement on the inside. However, as people quickly began to notice when they started to receive their new laptops, there's also a big SSD speed boost to be enjoyed - specifically when you buy the entry-level 256GB version.

iFixit's M3 MacBook Air teardown confirms how Apple made its SSD so much faster

People who have been using the new M3 MacBook Air have noticed that the 256GB model is significantly faster when moving files around than the older M2 model with the same configuration. When Apple launched the 256GB M2 MacBook Air it was noted that its SSD file transfer speeds were hampered by the use of a single NAND chip whereas those with more storage had two chips, allowing for faster read and write speeds. Now, it seems Apple has gone a different route with the M3 version.

As confirmed by the iFixit video above, Apple has chosen to use two 128GB NAND chips rather than a single 256GB one for the M3 MacBook Air, allowing for read speeds of up to 82% faster and write speeds of up to 22% faster than the M2 version with the same amount of storage.

Continue reading: iFixit's M3 MacBook Air teardown confirms how Apple made its SSD so much faster (full post)

The Apple Vision Pro could launch in these NINE countries soon

The Apple Vision Pro has now been on sale for a few weeks having finally been released to the public on June 2. But the mixed reality headset, or in Apple's parlance the spatial computer, is only available to those in the United States right now. That's expected to change sooner or later, and a new report claims that it might know which countries will be next up on the release calendar.

The Apple Vision Pro could launch in these NINE countries soon

According to that report, there are nine new countries that could potentially see an Apple Vision Pro release next. That's based on code that describes the addition of new languages to the Apple Vision Pro's visionOS software keyboard. Currently, only the English (US) and Emoji keyboards are offered in visionOS 1.1, but new ones are thought be be on the way according to code discovered by MacRumors.

According to the report, the following languages will all be added:

Continue reading: The Apple Vision Pro could launch in these NINE countries soon (full post)

US government warns AI may be an 'extinction-level threat' to humans

Jak Connor | Artificial Intelligence | Mar 14, 2024 12:16 AM CDT

A new report commissioned by the US State Department warns the exponential development of artificial intelligence may pose a significant risk to national security and even humanity.

US government warns AI may be an 'extinction-level threat' to humans

The new report titled "An Action Plan to Increase the Safety and Security of Advanced AI" recommends the US government move "quickly and decisively" with implementing measures that hinder the rise of artificial intelligence-powered systems being developed, even to the point of potentially limiting compute power used to train such models. The report goes on to say that if these hindering measures aren't implemented, there is a chance of AI or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) being an "extinction-level threat to the human species."

The US State Department report involved more than 200 experts in the field, which included officials from companies that are big players in the AI game, such as OpenAI, Meta, Google, Google DeepMind, and government workers. The report goes on to recommend the US government implement limitations on how much compute power any given party developing AI is able to have at one time while also requiring AI companies to request permission from the US government to train any new AI model.

Continue reading: US government warns AI may be an 'extinction-level threat' to humans (full post)

OpenAI reveals its new text-to-video generator Sora will release 'later this year'

Jak Connor | Artificial Intelligence | Mar 14, 2024 12:01 AM CDT

It was only last month that OpenAI revealed its upcoming text-to-video generator platform named Sora, and the general reaction to the new AI-powered tool was impressive yet concerning.

OpenAI reveals its new text-to-video generator Sora will release 'later this year'

The upcoming AI-powered tool works exactly the same way as OpenAI's extremely popular ChatGPT, but instead of the chatbot responding to user prompts with text its capable of producing high-quality video, even to the point of photorealism. OpenAI took to its YouTube channel to share the above video showcasing Sora's capabilities and at first glance it appears some of the examples shown are shot with a real-life camera.

However, upon closer inspection of the examples tell-tale signs of AI-generated content begin to stand out, such as physics-based movements like people walking, hand movements, and more. OpenAI is currently "red-teaming" Sora to iron out these issues before its released to the public, which means people are pushing the AI model to its brink to bring these vulnerabilities to light so they can be fixed.

Continue reading: OpenAI reveals its new text-to-video generator Sora will release 'later this year' (full post)

NVIDIA projected to make $130 billion from AI GPUs in 2026, which is 5x higher than 2023

Anthony Garreffa | Artificial Intelligence | Mar 13, 2024 11:33 PM CDT

NVIDIA has had an absolute record-breaking last 12 months or so, but that momentum isn't slowing down... it's only ramping up... to a huge predicted $130 billion in revenue once we get to 2026.

NVIDIA projected to make $130 billion from AI GPUs in 2026, which is 5x higher than 2023

In a new report from Bloomberg, they predict NVIDIA revenue will swell to a huge $130 billion in 2026, a gargantuan $100 billion increase from 2021. The crazy numbers are fueled by the insatiable AI GPU demand, which NVIDIA is absolutely dominating in... and that's just with current-gen H100 AI GPU offerings, let alone its soon-to-be-released H200 AI GPU, and its next-gen Blackwell B100 AI GPU both right around the corner.

We already heard last year that NVIDIA was expected to generate $300 billion in AI-powered sales by 2027, so the leap from $130 billion to $300 billion in a single year -- 2026 to 2027 -- is absolutely mammoth. We've got market researchers like Omdia, predicting NVIDIA to make $87 billion this year from its data center GPUs, and with next-gen AI GPUs right around the corner... well, NVIDIA is really just getting started.

Continue reading: NVIDIA projected to make $130 billion from AI GPUs in 2026, which is 5x higher than 2023 (full post)

Portal 64 dev's latest project? Nintendo 64 powered VR connected to an Oculus Rift headset

N64 expert and programmer James Lambert is back doing the impossible. The developer who successfully ported Valve's iconic first-person puzzle game Portal and got it running natively on Nintendo 64 hardware is shifting to modern VR on the N64. Virtual Reality was a big deal in the 1990s. However, products like Sega VR for the arcades were the VR Stone Age compared to where we are today.

Portal 64 dev's latest project? Nintendo 64 powered VR connected to an Oculus Rift headset

The Nintendo 64 never got a VR peripheral, nor was one ever in development (Nintendo's Virtua Boy device is a different story), but in bringing "modern-day" VR to the system, James Lambert's project involves getting the Oculus DK1 (the development kit precursor to the Oculus Rift) to communicate with the N64 a custom USB adapter.

The reason for using the Oculus DK1 is its simple tracking, fewer sensors, and access to the source code, making it easier to port over to the Nintendo 64. From there, the HDMI port on his modded N64 sends the video signal back to the Oculus DK1, creating a nice little VR loop. Simple.

Continue reading: Portal 64 dev's latest project? Nintendo 64 powered VR connected to an Oculus Rift headset (full post)

Meta has two new AI data centers equipped with over 24,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs

Kosta Andreadis | Artificial Intelligence | Mar 13, 2024 10:31 PM CDT

We know that AI is big business, and that is why companies like Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Amazon are investing mind-boggling amounts of money in creating new infrastructure and AI-focused data centers. As per Meta's latest post regarding its "GenAI Infrastructure," the company has announced two "24,576 GPU data center scale clusters" to support current and next-gen AI models, research, and development.

Meta has two new AI data centers equipped with over 24,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs

That's over 24,000 NVIDIA Tensor Core H100 GPUs, with Meta adding that its AI infrastructure and data centers will house 350,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs by the end of 2024. There's only one response to seeing that many GPUs: a comically long and cartoonish whistle or a Neo-style "Woah." Meta is going all in on AI, a market in which it wants to be the leader.

"To lead in developing AI means leading investments in hardware infrastructure," the pot writes. "Meta's long-term vision is to build artificial general intelligence (AGI) that is open and built responsibly so that it can be widely available for everyone to benefit from."

Continue reading: Meta has two new AI data centers equipped with over 24,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs (full post)

This new pocket-sized PC features an Intel N100 'Alder Lake-N' CPU, fanless design

Anthony Garreffa | Computer Systems | Mar 13, 2024 10:08 PM CDT

MeLE has just revealed its new stick PC, featuring an Intel N100 "Alder Lake-N" processor, which will fit in your pocket. Check it out:

This new pocket-sized PC features an Intel N100 'Alder Lake-N' CPU, fanless design

The new MeLE pocket-sized PC measures just 146 x 61 x 20mm and weighs only 184g, which makes it about the size of a regular smartphone. Inside, we've got the Intel N100 "Alder Lake-N" processor with 4 cores -- all Efficient cores --operating at between 800MHz and 3.4GHz.

We've got 8GB or 16GB of LPDDR4X-4266 memory and either 128GB or 256GB of eMMC storage, which isn't expandable. MeLE includes two USB 3.2 ports for external storage if needed. On the GPU side of things, the MeLE pocket-sized PC features Intel UHD graphics with 24 Execution Units, which support dual 4K 60Hz displays. There's no DisplayPort here, but there is USB Type-C, which unfortunately doesn't have DP Alt mode.

Continue reading: This new pocket-sized PC features an Intel N100 'Alder Lake-N' CPU, fanless design (full post)

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X used by cryptominers, making $3 per day in profit from their CPUs

Anthony Garreffa | Cryptocurrency & Mining | Mar 13, 2024 9:36 PM CDT

Uh-oh... it's starting again... AMD's current-gen Ryzen 9 7950X processor has become a super-popular CPU for crypto mining, earning higher profits than some of the fastest GPUs on the market.

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X used by cryptominers, making $3 per day in profit from their CPUs

Our friends at Wccftech are reporting that because of the rise of Bitcoin pricing, CPUs are being used for crypto mining, whereas Qubic (QBIC), crypto miners are using CPUs that have AVX2 and AVX512 instructions on the Zen 4 architecture, which are great for crypto mining. Intel dropped AVX512 support for its processors, starting with Alder Lake, seeing crypto miners flocking to Ryzen 7000 series processors.

AMD processors were used for Raptoreum mining algorithms, using the huge L3 cache on Ryzen and Threadripper CPUs. 3D V-Cache models featured gigantic pools of cache stacked on the chips, perfect for crypto mining. Qubic (QBIC) coins generate a profit of around $3 per 24 hours, including the electricity cost of running a Ryzen 9 7950X processor, even at 170W of power consumption.

Continue reading: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X used by cryptominers, making $3 per day in profit from their CPUs (full post)

Samsung to use MR-MUF technology, like SK hynix, for its future-gen HBM products

Anthony Garreffa | Artificial Intelligence | Mar 13, 2024 9:00 PM CDT

Samsung is reportedly using MUF technology for its next-gen HBM chip production, with the South Korean giant reportedly issuing purchasing orders for MUF tools.

Samsung to use MR-MUF technology, like SK hynix, for its future-gen HBM products

The company says that the "rumors" it will use MUF technology are "not true," according to Reuters, which is reporting the news. HBM makers like SK hynix, Micron, and Samsung are all fighting for the future of HBM technology and future-gen AI GPUs, and it seems Samsung has its tail between its legs now.

One reason Samsung is falling behind is that it has stuck with its chip-making technology, non-conductive film (NCF), which has caused production issues. Meanwhile, HBM competitor and South Korean rival SK Hynix has switched to mass reflow molded underfill (MR-MUF) to work through NCF's weakness, "according to analysts and industry watchers," reports Reuters.

Continue reading: Samsung to use MR-MUF technology, like SK hynix, for its future-gen HBM products (full post)