Latest News - Page 1408

AMD has its specially-binned Navi 21 XTXH GPU powering the very, very fastest custom Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards that have been getting announced -- and now the PowerColor Radeon RX 6900 XT Ultimate graphics card has been used to crush a 3DMark Time Spy Extreme world record.

It might not sound like much but the pre-binned Navi 21 XTXH isn't just ready for additional overclocking headroom, but AMD allows the GPU to be clocked past 3GHz -- far beyond it, with the overclockers from team OGS over in Greece using the PowerColor Radeon RX 6900 XT Ultimate graphics card + LN2 cooling to push the Navi 21 XTXH GPU to 3.3GHz.

AMD allows up to an insane 4GHz so that overclockers can reach for the stars with a Navi 21 XTXH-powered Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card. The previous record was by overclocking legend Der8auer who hit 3.2GHz on the same PowerColor Radeon RX 6900 XT Ultimate, but he didn't include benchmark results with that OC.

TSMC was expected to spend between $10 billion and $12 billion on its next-gen 3nm chip factory in Arizona, USA -- but it seems that the Taiwanese semiconductor world leader has much bigger plans.

According to people familiar with the matter, Reuters reports that TSMC is "weighing plans to pump tens of billions of dollars more into cutting-edge chip factories in the U.S. state of Arizona than it had previously disclosed, but is cool on prospects for an advanced European plant".

TSMC is building a next-gen 3nm fabrication plant in Arizona and could spend somewhere between $23 billion and $25 billion to get it operational, which would put them ahead of Samsung which has just begun construction of its new 5nm plant in South Korea. TSMC is already pumping out 5nm chips for companies, with Apple using a custom M1 chip on 5nm inside of its new MacBook and iPad Pro.

Samsung has announced that construction of a new production line has started and that the company expects the plant to be operational in the second half of 2022. This is part of a $151 billion investment into Samsung aiming to be the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology against the likes of so-very-dominant TSMC, Intel, and others.

The new state-of-the-art facility will be making 14nm DRAM and 5nm logic semiconductors, both of which will be based on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology. NVIDIA's next-gen Hopper GPU architecture will be made on 5nm and according to my sources, NVIDIA suffered the blows it has taken with Ampere on the 8nm node from Samsung -- against TSMC and its 7nm node for AMD with Radeon (and Ryzen) because after that, it could get to tap Samsung's new 5nm tech.

This is where NVIDIA will play catch up in a big way, with Samsung's new 5nm plant up and operational in the second half of 2022 we can begin to expect that NVIDIA's next-gen Hopper GPU will be unveiled sometime in the second half of 2022. NVIDIA itself even teased "Ampere Next" for 2022 just last month.

Samsung has just announced that it is boosting its investments in bleeding-edge chip manufacturing, with the South Korean giant spending $151 billion between now and 2030 to boost research into next-gen process technology, and the construction of a new production facility.

The company had previously said that it would be investing $115 billion between now and 2030 but has now revised that, with a larger $151 billion. Samsung Electronics will be pumping the investments into its System LSI and Foundry business, with Samsung "closely collaborating with various semiconductor design companies, component and equipment manufacturers, as well as academia in making progress towards that goal".

Samsung said that the expansion of its Foundry Business will "fuel entire new industries on next-generation technologies like AI, 5G and autonomous driving".

Nintendo is spending more than ever on research and development to help fund new next-gen hardware, games, experimental technologies, and innovative services.

In a recent Q&A session, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa discussed Nintendo's increased research and development expenses. The condensed version of Furukawa's response is that game development costs are rising, Nintendo is currently doing research and studies on beefing up its digital content and services business, and that early phases of next-gen hardware development is underway.

To give Furukawa's statements more context, I decided to put together a look at the company's historical R&D spend since 2002. The results are pretty illuminating. Nintendo has spent $793 million on R&D in FY2021, more than any other period, and rightly so given the higher costs of game dev during this period. The Switch is in the middle of its lifecycle, but Nintendo wants to keep the console's momentum going with a fusillade of games.

AMD will have another Navi GPU out this year with rumors swirling on the new Navi 24 being teased, codenamed "Beige Goby" and spotted in new Linux drivers.

For reference, Navi 21 was codenamed "Sienna Cichlid" while Navi 22 was codenamed "Navy Flounder" while Navi 23 is codenamed "Dimgrey Cavefish" because reasons. The new Navi 24 GPU should be powering the not-yet-announced Radeon RX 6500 or Radeon RX 6400 series graphics cards.

The new RDNA 2-powered Navi 24 GPU will reportedly have 1 SDMA engine (normally discrete GPUs have 2 SDMA engines), 16MB of Infinity Cache, and 16 Compute Units (1024 shader cores). But then our friend Tom @ Moore's Law is providing more details in that the single small 16 compute units + tiny IC + single GDDR6 chip = great low-power Radeon RX 560 replacement that should consume under 75W.

1980s action stars John McClane and John Rambo are coming to Activision's billion-dollar Call of Duty trifecta.

Activision already teased big crossovers from Die Hard and Rambo, but now they've confirmed the classic macho heroes are coming to more games other than Warzone. In a recent Tweet, the company announced guerrilla survivor John Rambo is coming to Warzone, Black Ops Cold War, and Warzone on May 20.

The crossover is complete with a new area set in Die Hard's Nakatomi Plaza. It's also likely that John McClane will show up too (Activision made a fictional website for Nakatomi Duct Cleaning and a fake email account for John M.).

Remedy wants to be in full control over publishing and financing of certain projects, but company CEO Tero Virtala is careful to say it'll still pursue third-party deals.

Like independent developers IO Interactive and Bungie, Remedy too has aspirations to self-publish its own games. In a recent earnings report, Remedy CEO Tero Virtala outlined a tentative plan for this endeavor.

Remedy plans to use portions of the 41.5 million Euros generated from its recent share offering to help fund new projects. Virtala was light on exact details and didn't say which of the companies new games would be self-published or self-financed, but he did say the company will carefully evaluate its options. Being in total control of financing, marketing, and publishing is very risky, and Remedy is intent on balancing these risks, therefore it's pursuing a varied business model.

NASA has dropped a very cool video on its Perseverance Mars Rover Twitter page that shows a close-up of the surface of Mars.

NASA has taken to the personal Twitter page for Perseverance, the most recent rover to land on Mars. The Twitter account for Perseverance tweets from the first-person perspective, which is a neat and kind of comical personification that I believe NASA does to also include children in space exploration - not just adults.

According to the tweet, Perseverance blasted the rock with its laser and then used its robotic arm to get a nice close-up of it. A Twitter user asked Perseverance 'what's the scale of images', Perseverance replied by saying, "The main rock in the wider shot is around 20 in / 50 cm wide; the darker section I focused in on is about the size of a thumbprint." If you were wondering if the laser makes a cool sound when it blasted the rock, you can actually listen to it on the NASA website, check out this link here.

According to reports, on Friday, May 14, China will be attempting to successfully land on Mars with a lander and rover.

Back in July 2020, China launched a spacecraft carrying the Tianwen-1 lander and rover towards Mars. If China can pull this off, it will be the first nation to successfully send a spacecraft into Mars' orbit, drop a lander down, followed by a rover all in the same mission. The orbiting spacecraft is currently preparing for the capsule's release that will carry both the lander and the rover.

Once preparation is complete, it will drop the capsule that will fall through the atmosphere and deploy a parachute to carry it safely to the Red Planet's surface. The lander will fire its thrusters downwards to gently lower itself to the surface. From there, the lander will deploy a ramp for China's rover to exit onto the Martian ground.

Trading cards are leaving Target after a man pulled a gun out in a dispute over trading cards in a Target parking lot.

Target has announced that it will be removing all trading cards from store shelves from May 14 onward after a man on May 7 pulled a gun out during a fight over trading cards. Target states it is temporarily suspending the "sale of MLB, NFL, NBA and Pokemon trading cards within our stores, effective May 14." Target added that it decided to remove these trading cards "out of an abundance of caution", and that shoppers can still purchase them online "Guests can continue to shop these cards online at Target.com."

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the value of trading cards to increase drastically, with some Pokemon cards such as a mint condition Charizard sold for $300,000 in January - it was worth $16,000 in 2019. According to Joe Maddalena, executive vice-president at Texas-based Heritage Auctions said, "When Covid-19 hit, a lot of Gen X and Millennials were looking for things to do and we found a lot of these guys and girls started playing Pokemon again because they grew up with it."

The United States Customs and Border Protection agency made a very surprising announcement on Monday regarding cow poo and traveling.

According to the announcement Customs agents located cow dung in a travelers luggage, and now the agency is publicly telling all travelers to stop packing cow dung into luggage because of the health risks that come with it. Just last month Customs agents found two cow dung patties in a suitcase that was accidentally left behind by a Air India flight traveler. So, why cow dung?

There is a seemingly growing belief that cow dung offers some health benefits, and some of those beliefs stretch as far as cow dung offering protection against COVID-19, hence the the dung being placed in the travel luggage. It should be noted that Customs has prohibited cow dung transportation from India to the US because of the risk it poses to transmitting Foot and Mouth Disease to livestock. Foot and Mouth Disease has been wiped out of the US since 1929.

Elon Musk's tweet about Tesla now not taking any Bitcoin as payment for Tesla vehicles caused a significant dip in cryptocurrencies value.

It was only a few days ago that Musk announced that Tesla would not be taking any Bitcoin as payment for Tesla vehicles, citing the energy needed to mine Bitcoin. Musk said that Tesla still intends to use the currency for transactions "as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy". Since Musk has halted Bitcoin payments to Tesla due to environmental concerns, Tesla is now looking towards other cryptocurrencies that use much less energy.

According to attorney, John E Deaton, Musk has handed "the best ad campaign" to Ripple's (XRP) executives. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and other executives aren't strangers to promoting how energy-efficient Ripple is, with Garlinghouse recently stating that XRP is 10,000 times more energy-efficient than Bitcoin. XRP isn't the only energy-efficient cryptocurrency on the market. Other options include one of Musk's personal favorites - Dogecoin.

Earlier this week, Elon Musk announced that Tesla has suspended Bitcoin payments for Tesla vehicles, and now the billionaire is working with the developers behind Dogecoin.

A recent Tweet found on the official Elon Musk Twitter account reveals that Musk is currently working with the developers behind Dogecoin to "improve systems transaction efficiency". Musk goes on to say that the coin is "potentially promising", which may be a hint towards Tesla potentially accepting Dogecoin as a payment, which is something Musk has asked his audience before.

Almost every time Musk Tweets out about Dogecoin, the price of the coin is affected significantly. This time is no different, and since Musk's Tweet reveals he is working with Dogecoin developers, the impact of his news caused a spike in the coins price. At the time of writing this, the coin's price increased by 17.42%, bringing it to its current price of $0.51. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

It won't be long now until the famous Hubble Space Telescope is replaced with the long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched back in 1990, and the development for its replacement began in 1996. Since then, the JWST has gone through multiple delays caused by cost overruns and major redesigns, but now we are finally nearing the end of its development. The JWST opened its primary mirror for the last time on Earth before its launch scheduled for October 31, 2021.

So, how much better is the JWST going to be compared to Hubble? Well, the JWST has a far larger mirror than Hubble and also sports a sun shield the size of a tennis court that basically acts as a beach umbrella to keep it cool. Astrophysicist Blake Bullock, who is a director at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, the contractor on the project, said, "It is the biggest, most powerful telescope ever to be put in space. There are big telescopes on the ground but nothing of this nature and complexity in space. Hands down, it's the most powerful thing out there."

The United States is currently under siege when it comes to cyberattacks, forcing the White House to respond to recent events.

Major infrastructure such as pipelines, water-treatment plants, hospital I.T. systems, and more have all experienced cyberattacks. Cyberattacker cut off a pipeline to the Eastern Seaboard for days and also attempted to poison a Florida water-treatment plant. According to Fox News, other major infrastructure is being targeted as well, such as transportation hubs, energy facilities, and utility companies.

From the attacks that have already occurred, it's reasonable to suggest they can be seen as acts of war, especially when you consider how many millions of lives would be affected if, for example, drinking water was poisoned for an entire city. Not to mention, holding hostage hospital I.T. systems is certainly not what an ally does. President Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that will add additional strength to the seemingly buckling U.S. cyber defense systems, as well as boost the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

HTC announced the Vive Pro 2 this week with a much higher resolution and higher refresh rate than the previous model. The headset supports Display Stream Compression to enable that high-bandwidth signal to pass through a DisplayPort 1.2 cable and work with the Vive Wireless Adapter. Unfortunately, the wireless kit still can't handle the full specs of the new headset.

HTC's Vive Pro 2 has several features that set it apart from the competition. The headset includes dual 2448x2440 120Hz RGB LCDs to give you an ultra-high-resolution VR experience. The new Vive is also compatible with all the existing SteamVR-based Vive accessories, such as the Vive Trackers and the Valve Index controllers. The headset also retains the original Vive Pro's shape, making it compatible with the new Vive Facial Tracker.

Compatibility with the Vive Wireless Adaptor is one of the most significant factors that set the new headset apart from the competition. The Oculus Quest 2 can run PC VR content via a WIFI connection, but HTC has the market cornered if you want the freedom of a tether-free headset and high-precision tracking with accessories.

Orbbec and Microsoft have teamed up to develop a series of Time-of-Flight (ToF) 3D cameras built with Microsoft's 3D sensor technology and Orbbec's embedded computing technology. Orbbec's ToF cameras support multiple ToF Sensors, onboard depth computing, and motion tracking via a 6-axis IMU. The new cameras will also have the ability to run depth vision algorithms through the onboard computing hardware to convert raw data into depth images locally.

"Microsoft is a world leader in high-resolution ToF sensor technology and cloud-based service. Its knowledge and intellectual property allow Orbbec to offer a full range of ToF cameras for the widest possible spectrum of uses," noted David Chen, co-founder and director of engineering for Orbbec. "Orbbec is excited to join the Azure Depth Platform Program, to jointly develop solutions that will enhance the capabilities of both Orbbec and Microsoft's customer and partner ecosystems."

The new cameras, which Orbbec expects to launch in 2022, would have direct integration with Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to enable "device management, data streaming and AI analytics capabilities."

One of VR's most popular shooters just got better. Population: One Season 2 launched on Thursday, with a new Western-themed map, more weapons to blast your enemies with, and even bigger multiplayer matches for even more fun.

BigBig VR launched Population: One in October 2020, the game became one of the most popular titles around. In February, the developer launched Season 1: Uprising, the first update to the game, which introduced five new weapons and launched Battle Pass, a 10-week paid pass that gets you exclusive content and skins.

Season 1 has since concluded, and on Thursday, BigBox VR kicked off Season 2: The Frontier, another 10-week period with an optional paid subscription with extra content. Season 2: The Frontier introduces a new map based in a western town. In the spirit of the western theme, Season 2 also adds the ability to dual-wield the Matador shotguns. BigBox VR added flick reloading so you can add shells without dropping a weapon.

Bionik today announced two accessories for your VR headset. The company is preparing to release a hypoallergenic face cushion for the Oculus Quest 2 to keep your headset clean. It also announced an update to the Mantis VR headphones that work with almost any VR headset.

Bionik's Face Pad VR is a direct replacement for the factory face cushion. The company said the cushion is made of "soft, absorbent, hypoallergenic materials." Bionik's product designers also added vents to the frame to give the headset extra ventilation for extended use.

Bionik's Mantis VR headphones are an accessory for almost any VR headset. These clip-on headphones give you better audio for your VR experience without the need to mess with a separate pair of headphones. The Mantis VR has a universal clip that attaches to the side strap of your headset to give you high-fidelity over-the-ear audio.