Latest News - Page 512

NVIDIA will discuss using AI to build next-generation chips for AI at the upcoming Hot Chips 2024 event next week.

The company will discuss how NVIDIA designs some of the most complex products on the planet, with its new Blackwell B200 AI GPU featuring 208 billion transistors, made on TSMC's new 4NP process node. At Hot Chips, NVIDIA will discuss using generative AI to generative optimized Verilog code.

What's Verilog code? Verilog is a hardware description language that describes circuits in the form of code. It's used for design and verification of processors, with NVIDIA building an Agentic AI LLM application to accelerate Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) that generates Verilog code, which can:

NVIDIA has powered up its new Blackwell AI GPUs and run them in real-time inside of their data centers, while teasing it will provide more details about its Blackwell GPU architecture at Hot Chips next week.

The company has been embroiled in rumors of its Blackwell AI GPUs having issues big enough to require a redesign, and issues with Blackwell AI servers leaking through their water-cooling setups. NVIDIA has now shown its new Blackwell AI GPUs running in real-time, with Blackwell on-track to ramp into production and ship (in small quantities) to customers in Q4 2024.

NVIDIA also teased new pictures of various trays available in the Blackwell family, with these first images of Blackwell trays being teased showing just how much engineering and design work goes into these things. It's truly incredible, almost like a work of art... and that's on the outside.

Water will be a critical ingredient needed for humans have to prolonged stays on the surface of the moon, and water is quite heavy, which means transporting it will prove by expensive and inefficient. This means researchers need to look to other methods of producing or finding water on the surface of the moon.

A new report from Reuters states lunar soil samples acquired by China's Chang'e-5 mission and delivered to Earth in 2020 marked the first time in 44 years since humans got their hands on samples from Earth's closest neighbor. With these samples, researchers have been performing many forms of testing and analysis, and one team out of the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered the minerals within the lunar soil samples are rich in hydrogen.

The "brand-new method" involves heating the hydrogen, which then reacts with other elements to produce water vapor. According to the team, one tonne of lunar soil could produce as much as 51 - 76 kg of water, or about a hundred 500ml bottles of drinkable water, or the daily consumption of water by 50 people. The creation of a new method of producing water on the surface of the moon ties directly into China's plans to construct a lunar base by 2035, which will have the goal of permanent human residence.

Apple has been quiet about when it plans on officially unveiling its new line-up of iPhones, but now we a leaked date from a known, and very credible Apple Insider Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Gurman recently wrote that Apple will be hosting its iPhone 16 launch event on September 10, which is in-line with Apple's previous iPhone generation launch events which for the past five years have fallen sometime within the first two weeks of September. Additionally, Gurman revealed that Apple is planning on making its iPhone 16 line-up available in-store and starting to send in the mail to buyers on Friday, September 20.

It isn't just the new iPhone line-up that is being announced as the Cupertino company will also unveil its new Apple Watch Series 10, Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple Watch SE 3, and AirPods 4. On top of all that hardware there will undoubtedly be some further explanation into Apple Intelligence and how its debuting with the release of iOS 18.

Black Myth: Wukong is breaking records on PC, becoming one of the most popular and most-played single-player games in just a few days. The action RPG blends fast-paced combat with Souls-like mechanics in a highly cinematic and richly detailed world. Jak and Kost begin this week's episode of The TT Show by discussing the launch, its cutting-edge ray-traced visuals, and how it plays.

This week is Gamescom week, the biggest gaming convention and conference of the year, so Jak and Kosta also go through some of the big highlights of the show. The surprise Borderlands 4 announcement arrives shortly after the movie adaptation tanked at the box office, a new Mafia game (Kosta convinces Jak that he needs to play the series), and more.

Some of the "more" involves Microsoft, with Xbox announcing that the previously Xbox and PC exclusive Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be coming to PlayStation 5 a month or two after its Xbox Series X|S launch. This is a big move for Microsoft, effectively marking the end of console exclusivity.

The underlying technology of all of these AI-powered tools that are continuous popping up in various sectors of the technology industry are Large Language Models (LLMs), which are powered by number-crunching graphics cards, or GPUs.

The explosion of AI has been fuelled by the possibility of graphics cards now being powerful enough to crunch large swaths of data into a model that can then be queried by users. However, powerful models such as ChatGPT, require thousands of GPUs to continuously fulfil all the requests of the millions of users enjoying the service.

But what if you just wanted to support a few thousand users at a time? Perhaps you are a business that could need an AI chatbot to assist with customer service via your website? And ultimately, do you need thousands of GPUs to achieve this? Apparently not, or at least according to benchmarks from Backprop, an Estonian GPU cloud start-up who managed to get a modest LLM such as Llama 3.1 8B to work on a single NVIDIA RTX 3090 GPU, which was released in late 2020.

The general rule of thumb when gaming is the higher the frames-per-second the smooth the in-game experience will be, particularly if the game you are playing has a lot of objects moving quickly on-screen.

Examples of this are found all throughout the gaming landscape, such as competitive first-person-shooters, MOBAs, third-person-shooters, and even fighting games. However, where a high frame rate isn't necessarily needed is in games that's content is much slower in speed, such as RPG titles with thick stories and high amounts of detail.

The current generation of consoles on both the Xbox and PlayStation fronts were marketed to consumers with a performance jump in the framerate department, with the PS5 and Xbox Series X being capable of 120FPS in select circumstances. However, Obsidian Art Director Matt Hansen doesn't believe this framerate headroom is necessary when building a first-person, single-player game, especially when the goal is to crank digital fidelity to the highest it can possibly go.

Sony has announced the MENA Hero Project, a new initiative that invests into the emerging market in an effort to help grow the video games industry.

With Sony's new global development programs, PlayStation is expanding into new worldwide geographies from the inside out. Sony first introduced its China Hero Project in 2023, offering publisher assistance and other aid to developers.

Now Sony is doing the same for the MENA region (Middle-East and North Africa). The MENA Hero Project will offer services and support to 12 countries via specific incubator programs that will help get games off the ground.

Obsidian is targeting a 30FPS minimum for Avowed on Xbox Series X/S consoles, similar to Starfield at launch.

Avowed will deliver 30FPS on Xbox Series X/S consoles at launch in order to provide a more smooth experience and prioritize graphics and visual effects. At least that's what Avowed art director Matt Hansen said in a recent 32-minute interview with the Iron Lords podcast.

"We are targeting 30 FPS, bare minimum. It's a first-person, single-player game, you don't necessarily need 60 frames,"Hansen said.

PlayStation's new live service hero-shooter Concord is currently available on PC and PS5, but less than 1,000 players have jumped in on Steam.

Early estimates indicate that Concord, the latest live service game from Sony Interactive Entertainment's Firewalk Studios, is off to a slow start on PC.

According to data compiled by SteamDB, Concord has less than 1,000 players currently in-game with the squad-based FPS achieving a peak count of around 697 players. The data aggregator notes that Concord is currently #78 in Steam's top sellers, with an estimated ownership of around 2.9K - 6.5K users.

Diablo 2: Resurrected has a particularly overpowered build that has essentially broken the game for over a year now...will Blizzard actually jump in to make changes and roll out a fix?

The remaster of Diablo 2 has been on the market for roughly 3 years now, and its developer, a studio previously known as Vicarious Visions, has been absorbed into Blizzard proper. Since then, Diablo 2 has received a few noteworthy patches that introduced some interesting runewords and changes into the game.

One of these updates included the introduction of the Mosaic runeword, which has essentially broken Diablo 2. Mosaic was part of the Patch 2.6 update released in February 2023. For over a year now, Mosaic has run rampant in the game, allowing players to essentially create one of the most overpowered builds for magic- and rune-finding, essentially unlocking a new level of access to items that has never before been available in Diablo 2.

Black Myth: Wukong has sold 10 million copies across the globe as of August 23, just 3 days after release, developer Game Science has announced.

Chinese gaming sensation Black Myth: Wukong is a verified hit. The game has now sold 10 million copies across PlayStation 5 and PC (including sales on Valve's Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Tencent's WeGame platforms), making it one of the fastest- and best-selling video games of all time.

With numbers like these, Black Myth: Wukong is brushing up against greats like Nintendo's mega-hits Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Pokemon Scarlet/Violet duo, both of which sold a similar 10 million copies in a specific span (note that these sales include many months of pre-orders and the 3-day period refers to the general availability since launch to the dates the numbers were reported).

Hbada's E3 Ergonomic Gaming Chair supports your body during those hours spent working, but also when you're taking a break to watch a movie or relax with your favorite game. In today's world, many of us spend considerable time sitting and interacting with cutting-edge technology. Whether it's for work, rest, play, or all of the above, choosing the right chair for maintaining a healthy and comfortable lifestyle is not only important but essential.

Hbada has been developing, designing, and releasing award-winning ergonomic chairs for over a decade now. The Hbada E3 Ergonomic Gaming Chair represents the pinnacle of ergonomics, with the company bringing the same commitment to cutting-edge technology as the devices we all interact with. In 2008, the company was the first to introduce large-angle adjustable technology to the industry, considering home office life, study, entertainment, and relaxation. What's large-angle adjustable technology? Well, it lets you recline like you're sitting in a fancy movie theater on one of those high-end leather recliners.

This commitment to ergonomics and support has led Hbada to develop new technologies and materials, from three-zone lumbar protection to the introduction of the T-Shaped Support System. The Hbada E3 Ergonomic Gaming Chair cements the brand as a global leader in supporting a healthy lifestyle while maintaining the look, feel, and quality of a professional ergonomic chair. Let's take a closer look to find out what makes the Hbada E3 Ergonomic Gaming Chair a cutting-edge product for all your sitting needs.

Mecpow is about to launch two new laser engravers that design to make home creations much easier, safer, and faster at a discounted price.

For those that don't know, Mecpow is a professional company that is dedicated to providing home laser engraving machines that are designed to enable the user to express their creative vision easily. The Mecpow X4 is capable of cutting designs into various materials such as 10mm engraving in wood panels, 6mm in black acrylic, and 0.08mm in stainless steel panels with a single pass. Notably, the X4 has a maximum engraving speed of 22,000 mm/min and a ultra-fine laser dot that is capable of getting as fine as 0.08mm x 0.1mm.

Moreover, the X4 comes with the USB connectivity that enables offline operation, along with a TF card port that can be operated via the control panel. Additionally, users can connect their phone over Wi-Fi to the engraver and with its support for a wide range of compatible software such as the MKSLaser app, Laser GRBL and LightBurn software, users are able to enjoy flexibility. Moreover, the X4 comes with support for a wide range of operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and Mac, along with Android and iOS for smartphone support.

There's already a mini PC packing a flagship (Strix Point) AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor kicking about, albeit a pre-release model, but it has been reviewed - and the results are impressive.

VideoCardz reports that ETA Prime on YouTube grabbed the scoop here and put the compact prototype from SOUYO through its gaming paces, with the integrated RDNA 3.5 graphics (featuring a beefy 16 CUs) in the HX 370 carving out some nicely smooth frame rates.

Okay, so the caveat here is that in 1080p resolution, the graphics are on low settings (or sometimes medium) - and FSR kicks up the frame rate, too - but still, you get a decent enough image quality, and a fluid 60 FPS across a range of games.

Microsoft has announced its hosting a Windows security meeting at its Redmond headquarters next month, and the meeting will focus on the meltdown that was the CrowdStrike outage that caused 8.5 million Windows machines to enter infinite boot loops that required physical intervention for remediation.

Aidan Marcuss, the corporate vice president of Microsoft Windows and devices wrote on the Windows Experience Blog the meeting will be held on September 10 and is called the "Windows Endpoint Security Ecosystem Summit". The summit will be attended by CrowdStrike, along with key partners in Windows security who will all sit down for a discussion about improving resiliency and protecting critical infrastructure.

The meeting comes after CrowdStrike rolled out a faulty driver update to its Falcon Sensor cybsecurity software, resulting in an error within the kernel of machines, which then caused approximately 8.5 million Windows machines to be thrown into infinite bootloops. Some of the systems that were down were also critical infrastructure such as emergency services, telecommunications providers, airport systems, financial systems, and more.

The head of Amazon Web Services (AWS) has suggested that in the future developers may need to be required to learn different skills as they won't necessarily be coding anymore.

According to AWS head Matt Garman, going forward 24 months or "some amount of time" the requirements for developers will have changed, with the AWS specifically saying "coding in 2025 may be different than it was as a developer in 2020." While Garman didn't specifically name the catalyst for what will change the coding landscape, the answer appears obvious - the rise of sophisticated artificial intelligence programs.

AWS has stated that Garman wasn't issuing a "warning" to developers, but the sentiment still rings true - the coding landscape will look very different over the next few years, especially considering how much it has already changed since the rise of AI-powered tools. For example, AWS has let go of hundreds of good as of April, and according to Garman the amount of time writing code for a product is going to continually reduce, and the job will be more focussed on knowing what the customer needs.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang will be flying over to Taiwan to attend SEMICON Taiwan 2024, where he will meet with SK hynix and TSMC executives according to local media.

Jensen will reportedly meet with SK hynix's president at SEMICON, where the two will provide the world with an update on their progress, as well as working with TSMC on next-generation HBM memory chips like HBM4.

NVIDIA, TSMC and SK hynix recently formed a "triangular alliance" for a collaborative effort to make next-gen AI GPUs and next-gen HBM memory. SEMICON Taiwan 2024 is a big event for the semiconductor industry, and with the triangular alliance there, we should expect some updates to GPU and HBM roadmaps, and more.

LG Electronics wants to make Life Good in the data center market, with the South Korean giant expanding its production to cash in on the AI boom.

How? LG recently said at its Investors Forum write-up that "in the HVAC sector, LG leads the high-efficiency market with its advanced inverter and heat pump technologies, and it is actively targeting the cooling systems market for AI data centers, where demand is surging".

LG expanded on this, saying that the LGE chiller business is on track to become a unicorn (a privately owned startup company that has a valuation of over $1 billion, and isn't listed on the stock market) in 3 years, and now sees new opportunities -- big money -- in the data center business, cooling data centers.

Embark Studios has unleashed a new trailer for its upcoming PvPvE action survival shooter, ARC Legends, at Gamescom's Opening Night Live event. Check it out:

ARC Legends started as a free-to-play title into a fully-fledged $40 premium release, with developer Embark Studios -- ex-DICE developers who worked on the better Battlefield games, and more recently, THE FINALS -- setting a launch date for some time in 2025.

You will play as an Arc Raider, topside explorers scavenging the destroyed world for supplies for the subterranean settlements. They must fight each other as well as enemy robots called Arc Machines for those resources, and can only grow as characters if you make it back to the settlement in one piece.