Latest News - Page 1169

The day is finally here: NVIDIA has unleashed its next-gen Hopper GPU architecture. NVIDIA announced the first Hopper-based GPU -- the new NVIDIA H100 GPU -- at its GPU Technology Conference (GTC 2022).

NVIDIA's new Hopper GPU architecture was named after pioneering US computer scientist, Grace Hopper, and succeeds the Ampere GPU architecture. The new NVIDIA H100 GPU has 80 billion transistors, and now becomes the world's largest and most powerful accelerator.

NVIDIA and TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) worked on the TSMC 4N process node, tweaking it for the Hopper-based H100 GPU. There's PCIe 5.0 support, next-gen ultra-fast HBM3 memory technology with an absolute blistering 3TB/sec (3000MB/sec). Insanity.

Videos from a nearby mining CCTV camera and a car dashcam show a plane rapidly nosing diving into the ground before smoke is seen in the sky.

The plane is China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735, and it crashed in southern China on Monday after what seems to be an extremely fast nose dive. China's state-owned media have reported that of the 132 onboard, there were no survivors at the wreckage, marking China's worst air disaster in nearly three decades.

US Federal Aviation Administration investigator Michael Daniel, who has previously worked on cases where planes have seemingly nose-dived into the ground, said that at the top of his list to begin an investigation would be "foul play". Daniel noted that the plane had power while it was descending, "So, that kind of rules out a catastrophic type of failure".

Reports indicate that Russia is transporting dead and wounded soldiers to Belarus in an attempt to cover up the true number of deals in Ukraine.

RadioFreeEurope has reported that eyewitnesses have seen the morgue in Mazyr, Belarus is currently overflowing with corpses, and that hospitals in the surrounding area are being bombarded with wounded Russian soldiers. Additionally, an eyewitness alleged that "black sacks" are also being loaded from Russian military ambulances onto Russian railway cars.

"Passengers at the Mazyr train station were shocked by the number of corpses being loaded on the train. After people started shooting video, the military caught them and ordered them to remove it," the eyewitness told the media outlet. BusinessInsider reports that Russia is conducting this corpse and wounded soldier transportation secretly, which coincides with Moscow's attempt at concealing the true death toll number. The last time Russia stated how many soldiers it had lost was on March 2, when it stated it had lost 500 troops.

SpaceX is currently developing the world's most powerful and advanced rocket, and the company's CEO said when it will perform its first orbital test flight.

In response to a CNBC post on Twitter, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk replied by posting a series of tweets that were all updates on the Starship rocket and the Super Heavy booster. Musk took to Twitter on Monday and wrote that SpaceX will have 39 flight-worthy Raptor engines built by next month, and it will take another month to integrate those engines into the Super Heavy Booster.

For those that don't know, Starship, when equipped with a Super Heavy booster, stands at nearly 400 feet tall, making it the tallest and most powerful launch vehicle ever created. Starship is designed to be a reusable rocket that is capable of taking lots of cargo and people to the moon and even to Mars. SpaceX has already completed some high-altitude tests with Starship, but it hasn't reached space yet. According to Musk, Starship will attempt to reach space in May.

Russia has said that relations between it and the United States are on the verge of rupturing after Biden accused Russia's President Vladimir Putin as a "war criminal".

Russia has formally responded to President Joe Biden's accusation of Russian President Vladimir Putin being a "war criminal" by summoning U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan to Moscow. The Kremlin has said it will be formally protesting Biden's new label for Putin and added that relations between the U.S. and Russia are now "on the verge of rupture".

The comment from Biden was made on March 16 when the U.S. president said Vladimir Putin "is a war criminal" for the attacks on Ukraine, marking the first time Biden has directly accused Putin as a "war criminal". It should be noted that the label from Biden came only hours after a meeting was held between Biden, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor who has been investing Russia for war crimes for the past two weeks.

After suffering heavy losses Russia has turned towards upgrading its firepower, according to reports from Bloomberg and the Institute for the Study of War.

A recent assessment posted by the Institute for the Study of War revealed that Russian troops have begun to dig in its heels around cities such as Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa and more as the Russian military underestimated the level of Ukraine's defense. With heavy losses Russia has seemingly switched tactics by increasing its firepower which will likely mean more artillery strikes and missile strikes that will no doubt cause more civilian causalities.

Over the weekend Russia's Ministry of Defense announce the country had used Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, or dagger missiles which are a Russian nuclear-capable hypersonic aero-ballistic air-to-surface missile. Each missile has a range of more than 1,200 miles, reaches Mach 10, and is able to perform evasive manuevers throughout its flight towards its target. Russia followed up with another announcement on Sunday that stated it had used Kinzhal missiles to destroy a fuel depot in the Mykolaiv region.

As a big fan of Overwatch, I don't know how I feel about Overwatch 2 just yet... but in saying that, the Overwatch 2 Closed Beta kicks off on April 26.

The upcoming Overwatch 2 Closed Beta is on the PC only at first, leaving console gamers swimming in their potato-flavored tears, where you can sign up for it right here. If you end up getting selected, then Blizzard will email you and you'll be able to participate in the Overwatch 2 Closed Beta.

But now we also know the PC system requirements for Activision-Blizzard's upcoming Overwatch 2, at least in its Closed Beta form. You won't need much, so there's not much change on your PC hardware requirements over the original Overwatch. 60FPS on Medium settings requires an Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 5 series CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon R9 390, 8GB of RAM, and 50GB of storage space.

Unity has just revealed its latest visual masterpiece from its Demo and R&D teams, collaborating on Enemies -- showing off a next-gen demo that would stress any PC -- and will be fully unveiled during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) between March 23-25. Check it out:

The new Unity "Enemies" showcases all of the power and capabilities of the Unity platform for creating "high-end, visually compelling content". The developer explains: "Our real-time 3D (RT3D) technology is constantly evolving to meet the ever-growing expectations creators have for visual quality and realism".

"All High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) features have been improved and some new systems were introduced, including Adaptive Probe volumes and Screen Space Global Illumination (SSGI). Real-time ray traced reflections, ray traced ambient occlusion, and native support for NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) allow the demo to run at 4K with image quality comparable to native resolution".

Fortnite players have raised over $36 million for Ukrainian relief in just one day.

Yesterday, Epic Games announced that it woulddonate 100% of all Fortnite purchases to humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Microsoft joined in and offered to also give its cut of Fortnite revenues towards donations. Based on Fortnite earnings data disclosed in the Epic vs Apple trial, I predicted that this could lead to tens of millions of dollars in donations. This happened a lot faster than I expected.

Epic has confirmed that Fortnite players have spent over $36 million on in-game purchases in just one day's time. This includes Epic's total cut on all platforms + Microsoft's 30% cut from Fortnite purchases on Xbox platforms. Fortnite and Epic Games are now the single largest contributor towards relief efforts for Ukraine, followed by the Stand for Ukraine Humble Bundle that has raised over $10 million.

PlayStation has officially acquired Jade Raymond's new indie team Haven Studios in an effort to bolster its live service ambitious.

Sony wants to have 10 live service games on the market by 2026. Two of its latest buyouts have served this goal; First with the$3.6 billion purchase of Bungie, and now with its recent acquisition of Have Studios.

Formed in 2021 by industry veteran Jade Raymond (of Assassin's Creed fame), PlayStation had originally teamed up with Haven Studios to bring a new live game to its console platform. After a long courting process Sony today put a ring on it and officially purchased Haven Studios. According to SIE boss Herman Hulst, Haven Studios' new game is a "modern multiplayer experience that brings gamers together in positive and meaningful ways."

CD Projekt RED is teaming up with Epic Games for its new Witcher game...but it won't be exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

Today CDPR announced a new Witcher game is in development. The project promises a "new saga" for The Witcher franchise and is being built in collaboration with Epic Games. CDPR has signed a massive 15-year deal with Epic Games to use the Unreal Engine 5 for various projects. Through the development of The Witcher 4 on UE5, CDPR will help Epic innovate and iterate upon the engine for next-gen open-world games.

This collaboration won't extend to exclusivity, though. CD Projekt RED makes it very clear this isn't a marketing deal and Epic hasn't purchased exclusivity rights for the next Witcher project. The new Witcher game is planned to release on a bunch of platforms, likely including consoles, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.

CD Projekt RED has signed a collaborative15-year deal to use and iterate upon Unreal Engine 5 technology.

Today CDPR and Epic Games announced a partnership that will help usher in a new era of Unreal Engine 5 optimization. CD Projekt RED plans to use Unreal Engine 5 for its recently announced new Witcher game, but not only that, CDPR will also help iterate and build the engine through the development of new games. In short, CDPR is helping Epic make UE5 even better for open-world games.

"This new relationship with Epic covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant. Developers from CD PROJEKT RED will collaborate with those from Epic with the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences, beginning with the development of the next game in The Witcher franchise."

The next Witcher game has been announced by CD Projekt RED, and it will be a "new saga" for the franchise that's being developed on Unreal Engine 5.

The Witcher 4 is currently in development at CD Projekt RED. The game will feature a new protagonist--one that represents a cat, or a lynx, instead of the White Wolf that Geralt represented--and CDPR says this will be the start of an all-new saga for the beloved IP. As per Jason Slama, game director on the new Witcher title, the project is in early phases: "We have tons of roles open as we are in early pre-production and there's even the possibility of remote work we could discuss!"

The developers are also switching from their powerful proprietary RED Engine tech to the more flexible Unreal Engine 5. The RED Engine was used for Cyberpunk 2077 and led to lots of complications on old-gen platforms.

Alexei Mordashov is a Russian billionaire that has recently lost his $116 million property following imposed sanctions amid Russia's invasion into Ukraine.

The Russian billionaire's property is located in Portisco, on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, Italy, and has now been seized by Italian authorities, marking the second asset owned by Mordashov that has been seized, with the first being his 215-foot yacht worth $71 million. BusinessInsider reports that earlier in the month, Mordashov transferred his $1.1 billion stake in a mining company to his wife in a clear move of attempting to remain in control of his immense wealth.

Forbes data indicates that Mordashov is the wealthiest individual in Russia with a net worth of $29.1 billion, which means that the seizure of his $116 million property and his $71 yacht probably doesn't have him worried. In response to these sanctions, Mordashov has said, "I have absolutely nothing to do with the emergence of the current geopolitical tension, and I do not understand why the EU has imposed sanctions on me."

NASA's Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016 and has recently completed its 39th close flyby of the planet.

Juno only recently completed its approach with Jupiter as the spacecraft passed by on January 12 at approximately 38,000 miles away from the top of Jupiter's clouds. During its approach, Juno snapped several images of the southern hemisphere of Jupiter, with two moons to the right of the frame. NASA shared the image on March 16 and explained that by zooming in on the image, you can see Io on the left and Europa on the right.

On NASA's blog post, it wrote that Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanic body in our solar system and that Europa is an icy moon surface that has an ocean of liquid water deep beneath its surface. NASA researchers have previously suggested that Europa's subsurface ocean may house some form of life. Juno will be making "the closest flyby of the enigmatic moon in decades," where it will be able to get a closer look at its surface with several of its scientific instruments.

A Chinese company has announced the construction of a new supersonic jet that is designed to travel from China to New York in just 60 minutes.

The company behind the project is Space Transportation, and according to its announcement, the company will be building a "rocket with wings" that will be much cheaper than the rockets used to take satellites into low-Earth orbit, while also being much faster than a commercial plane. Space Transportation has posted a demonstration video to its website, and the showcases four individuals getting aboard the jet that then orientates vertically and then launched.

Several seconds pass, and the boosters release from the body of the jet, falling back down to Earth safely and landing on the launchpad for future launches. The jet continues to climb and then travels to its destination in either New York or China, where it will arrive only 60 minutes after launching. Space Transportation expects it will be conducting ground tests by 2023, the first flight on the supersonic by 2024, and the first crewed flight in 2025.

More than 10,000 people reported Google Maps being down on Friday morning last week, as users were able to get onto the app/website but couldn't see anything besides an erased Earth.

On Friday morning at around 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT individuals took to Twitter to report Google Maps being down across Android, iOS and desktop applications. Users during this time were able to plug in new addresses/locations, pull up directions, and use the as per normal, but couldn't see any visual representation of the map.

DownDetector, a website dedicated to tracking connectivity issues for apps and websites reported that more than 12,000 people around the world reported the outage at the same time. Google Maps was down for approximately 90 minutes, and during that time it took down a multitude of features on other apps that use Google Maps as infrastructure such as Waze, Snapchat, Lyft, Accenture and more.

Since Russia began its invasion into Ukraine and the West retaliated with heavy sanctions, the tension between the United States and the Kremlin rose, spilling over to the space program and the International Space Station.

The relationship between Russia's space agency, Roscosmos and NASA begun being strained when Roscosmos' chief Dmitry Rogozin started publishing subtle threats on Twitter towards the ISS, causing many to be concerned about the safety of the astronauts aboard the station. Rogozin posted videos of the ISS crashing, threatened to decouple the Russian segment of the station, and let the station crash into the United States.

Russian state-owned media recently published a spliced video that showcased Russian cosmonauts abandoning NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, which was later followed up by a statement from Roscosmos that pledged it wouldn't leave behind the astronaut and that it has never "let anybody doubt its reliability as a partner." Now, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet has spoken out about the future of the ISS, marking one of the first active astronauts to comment on the overall situation with Russia, Ukraine, and the ISS.

NVIDIA is hosting its annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC 2022) this week, where we should be introduced to their next-gen Hopper GPU architecture.

We should see NVIDIA introduce a next-gen MCM-based (multi-chip module) GPU with the flagship GH100, which should be a monster GPU with up to 140 billion transistors -- yeah, that's 140,000,000,000 transistor -- around 2.6x times the largest GA100 GPU from NVIDIA.

The full GH100 GPU should have 140 billion transistors, 144 Streaming Multiprocessors, and an insane 18,432 CUDA cores. The dual GPU chiplet design would have 2 x 144 SMs (288 SMs) and a mind-boggling 36,864 CUDA cores. It would be absolutely bonkers, and the 1000W+ power figures in rumors of the last few months come into play... and man, I can't wait. Bring it on, NVIDIA.

Apple's new M1 Ultra SoC is finally here, powering the new Mac Studio, and has now been torn apart by Max Studio... giving us a look at Apple's next-gen chip made by TSMC on 5nm.

The new Apple M1 Ultra SoC combines two M1 Max SoC using MCM (multi-chip module) chips combined through UltraFusion. You can't see the silicon dies with the photos as there is a huge heat spreader that Apple has placed on top of the massive M1 Ultra SoC.

Apple's new M1 Ultra chip has a 20-core CPU, packing 16 high-performance cores with 4 high-efficiency cores -- joined by a 64-core GPU -- and 128GB of unified memory, a 2x more powerful media engine, and 800GB/sec of memory bandwidth.