A team of researchers has penned a new study detailing the use of a cheap NVIDIA chip to control a hypersonic weapon.

The new study published in Propulsion Technology, a Chinese academic journal, details a team of researchers using a NVIDIA Jetson TX2i module to control and perform real-time optimization of the fuel supply system of a scramjet engine used in an air-breathing hypersonic missile. Notably, NVIDIA intends the Jetson TX2i module to be a low-cost solution for edge-computing, or AI. More specifically, the module contains a CPU, GPU and memory, all for a low price of just a few hundred dollars.

Additionally, the Jetson TX2i module isn't subjected to US export restrictions laid against China, which has curbed the exportation of high-end, powerful GPUs. It appears China is demonstrating that even cheap NVIDIA silicon, or any other low-cost silicon, can be used to control some of the deadliest weapons on the planet and that even if an export ban has been placed on the nation, it will find a way to create and control these weapons with chips that only cost a couple hundred dollars.

Elon Musk has been at war against bots on X since he bought the company and his latest strategy to curb the spread of bots is to charge new users a fee to enable posting.

X began testing its "Not-A-Bot" program in New Zealand and the Phillipines in October last year, which involved charging users in those regions $1 to access the platform. Users that paid the $1 received features such as posting, replying, liking and bookmarking X posts.

It remains unclear how successful the test program was, but it appears it was at least somewhat successful as it will be expanded upon as Musk moves to combat "Current AI (and troll farms)" as they "can pass"are you a bot"with ease," wrote Musk on X.

NASA has confirmed in a new blog post that it will be sending a nuclear-powered Dragonfly, a newly designed rotorcraft, to Saturn's moon Titan.

The space agency took to its blog and explained it's made the decision to point the Dragonfly rotorcraft mission at Saturn's organic-rich moon Titan, enabling engineers to enter the final stages of the rotorcraft's development and testing. NASA explains the Dragonfly mission was confirmed with a total lifecycle cost of $3.35 billion and a launch date of July 2028, which is a cost that is two times what was originally proposed, and a delay of more than two years from the initial launch year of 2019.

Due to funding constraints, NASA had to re-juggle the Dragonfly mission, and to compensate for the delay, NASA has added a more powerful rocket that will reduce the time it takes to arrive at its destination. Engineers have equipped the rotorcraft with eight rotors and various scientific instruments. When flown, it looks like a large drone. It's expected that Dragonfly will arrive at Titan in 2034, and once it does, it will mark the first time that "NASA will fly a vehicle for science on another planetary body," writes the space agency.

NASA officials announced on April 15 that the initial plan to get the Mars samples collected by NASA's Perseverance rover is now deemed impractical.

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance has been exploring the Red Planet's desolate landscape since 2021 and collecting samples along the way. These samples are precious as they could contain evidence of ancient microbial life that once lived on Mars, which would mean Earth isn't the only planet capable of hosting life, giving credence to the theory that many planets throughout the universe could also be hosting life. However, we won't know for sure until NASA returns to the samples back to Earth for an in-depth analysis.

Here lies the problem. NASA's initial plan for returning the samples has been plagued by delays, cost overruns, and long timelines. An example of how bad costs have gotten came from an independent review board that estimated in 2020 NASA's return mission would cost anywhere between $2.5 and $3 billion. Now NASA is saying its mission would cost $11 billion, and the samples wouldn't be returned until 2040, with previous estimates putting the return timeline in the 2030s.

Just when you thought Elden Ring was hard enough, a gamer demonstrated his patience and skill at the FromSoftware title by tackling it from start to finish using just a single button and Morse code.

The persistence, patience and resilience of gamers never fails to impressive me, especially when a gamer decides to purposefully make the game they are playing harder than necessary to create a unique challenge. Twitch streamer Silithur embarked on one of these adventures and decided to test his patience in Elden Ring only equipped with a button, Morse code, and a dream of beating the entire game.

On April 13 Silithur achieved what he set out to do, defeating the Elden Boss and becoming an Elden Lord. Elden Ring has become somewhat of a benchmark for gamers wanting to challenge themselves, as Silithur isn't the first to tackle the difficult game in an unconventional way, as back in April another Twitch streamer and psychology graduate beat the game using nothing but a brain signal controller. Another gamer took on Elden Ring with a dance pad, beating it with sweet moves.

In early March, a man from Naples, Florida, took to X, formerly Twitter, to report that an object crashed through his home's roof and two floors, almost hitting his son, who was home at the time of impact.

The homeowner is Alejandro Otero, and on March 8, an object smashed through his roof and both floors of his two-story home, luckily missing his son. Following the impact, NASA launched an investigation into the origin of the object, with predictions from astronomers tracing its origins back to jettisoned debris from the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA has since wrapped up the investigation and confirmed the object is debris from the ISS that was launched from the floating laboratory three years ago. NASA engineers took the object to Kennedy Space Center and confirmed it was a piece of the EP-9 support equipment that was used to mount batteries onto a cargo pallet.

AMD's Radeon RX 7700 XT has always felt a little out of place because when it launched alongside the Radeon RX 7800 XT last year, only $50 USD separated the two graphics cards. This made the Radeon RX 7800 XT look like the better option, as the extra performance meant that it competed directly with the impressive GeForce RTX 4070.

Cut to February 2024, and AMD announced that it was officially dropping the MSRP of the Radeon RX 7700 XT from $449 USD to $419 USD. This is a modest price drop but a step in the right direction, as the Radeon RX 7700 XT's performance makes it a great alternative to the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti. Immediately following the price cut, we reported on some models, like the reference Sapphire PULSE variant, sold for $399.

It looks like AMD's partners are dropping the Radeon RX 7700 XT price to under $400 across several models (thanks Videocardz.com) - with options from Sapphire, ASRock, and PowerColor below.

Bringing modern generative AI technologies to audio headsets has always been a given; however, how it works with the new Dell Premier Wireless ANC Headset (WL7024) available today is unique. Typically, we associate headphones and headsets with noise cancellation with travel - with ANC being all about cutting out background noise.

The Dell Premier Wireless ANC Headset takes a different approach because it is designed for professionals and those times when you need to jump into a meeting or Zoom call while out and about or in an otherwise noisy environment.

The Dell Premier Wireless ANC Headset uses AI uplink and downlink noise cancellation, removing background noise on both ends. The real magic comes with how the headset's AI noise cancellation "preserves the human voice," so you only hear the sounds of those speaking, just like sitting in a closed meeting room.

Foxconn and NVIDIA are teaming up to battle the future of AI, with Foxconn chairman Liu Yangwei saying yesterday that we'll see the progress of what the companies have been working on, later this year.

The two companies have teamed up for three major platforms: AI factories, AI smart manufacturing, and AI smart electric vehicles. Foxconn is expected to ramp up its support with NVIDIA in building next-gen Blackwell GB200 AI servers, which was announced at the 2024 Taipei International Automotive Electronics Show.

The Foxconn executive flew to the United States to personally attend NVIDIA's recent GTC (GPU Technology Conference), where he said that the two companies would be working on AI factories and that "everyone will soon see some construction on NVIDIA's AI factories".

ASML has just shipped its second-ever High-NA EUV lithography machine to a mystery new customer, with the first chip-making tool -- worth $370 million, by the way -- received by Intel not too long ago now.

The Dutch company shipped its newest High-NA EUV lithography machine to Intel earlier this year, but it wouldn't announce who its second customer was. It's expected to be a company like TSMC, NVIDIA, Apple, or even Samsung.

Intel will use ASML's new Twinscan EXE:500 High-NA EUV lithography machine in early production sometime between 2026 and 2027, to make its next-gen Intel 14A-based processors. ASML is the largest company in the Netherlands, with the Dutch government recently enacting "Operation Beethoven" to keep ASML from branching out overseas, and keeping its most valuable asset in the Netherlands by improving infrastructure, schooling, housing, and more around the Eindhoven region where ASML is based.

NVIDIA is working with the PC industry to create a new SFF gaming PC ecosystem that will be powered by "SFF Enthusiast GeForce" GPUs, which makes me think... could this be a huge test for a GeForce-powered console?

The new SFF Enthusiast GeForce GPU isn't going to be a new release, nor will it be some next-gen Blackwell-based Mini-ITX graphics card. What NVIDIA is doing here is working with AIB partners to get tiny GeForce RTX series GPUs, like the RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4060, into Mini-ITX systems... but what about monster GPUs?

NVIDIA's higher-end GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER and flagship RTX 4090 graphics cards will need a much bigger case, more cooling, and a beefier PSU. There are particular SFF cases on the market that are capable of housing a triple-slot, huge graphics card, but with NVIDIA putting its foot into the SFF ecosystem this hard, we will see future chassis designs with NVIDIA's new SFF guidelines in place.

With well over 500 games and apps using RTX technologies like DLSS, a new batch of PC games each week adds support for NVIDIA's AI-powered upscaling and Frame Generation tech. This week, three titles are adding support for DLSS 2 upscaling with DLAA, including the popular Manor Lords launching into Early Access on April 26.

The excellent news for GeForce RTX gamers is that DLSS will see a 47% average boost to performance when playing in 4K, with everything from the GeForce RTX 4070 and higher able to deliver a 60+ FPS experience at this resolution. NVIDIA notes that all desktop GeForce RTX 40 Series cards can provide a 60+ FPS experience at 1440p and 1080p with max settings.

Manor Lords is currently the most wish-listed game on Steam, with the ambitious medieval strategy game mixing city-building, social simulation, and large-scale Total War-style battles. It's the sort of game that will push PC hardware to its limits, so it's a good thing it's launching with DLSS.

Adding RGB to anything and everything related or adjacent to PC gaming is something we've all been observing for years. The idea of adding lights to a mouse mat isn't new, and there are several options out there. That said, they all do the same thing: putting an LED light strip around the edge of the mousepad.

The new Razer Firefly V2 Pro does things a little differently. Razer describes it as "the world's first LED backlit gaming mouse mat." The Razer Firefly V2 Pro (available in Black and White) features a frosted surface to catch the light, and it has a 15-zone LED backlight system similar to a traditional LED LCD monitor, amplifying the lighting to spread it around the mouse mat.

Now, you're probably wondering why. You're probably wondering how distracting it could be to have a fully lit mouse mat with a bright neon glow. As with anything RGB, the best thing is to embrace it - and join the party.

Picking up an affordable gaming headset is easy; there are countless options to choose from. The tricky part is picking up a decent, affordable gaming headset that delivers a great audio experience and comfort. Corsair's HS35 wired gaming headset from a few years ago fits into this category, with the stereo headset offering great sound and comfort for the price.

And now, it's back with Corsair's new HS35 v2 Series, which includes the HS35 v2 stereo wired gaming headset and the HS35 SURROUND v2 wired gaming headset for those who want more immersion in their gaming audio.

The HS35 v2 series includes custom-tuned 50mm neodymium drivers for a big sound, with wired 3.5mm connections to ensure compatibility with PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch hardware.

The US government has been splashing cash and grants from its CHIPS Act, with US-based Micron Technology receiving $6.1 billion to produce advanced memory chips in New York and Idaho.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer personally courted Micron to build four new chip factories near Syracuse in the town of Clay, where he said: "It will be the biggest memory chip plant in America, for the Syracuse area, this is the best thing that's happened probably since the Erie Canal".

The mention of the Erie Canal dates back to the 1825 infrastructure project that connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, with Schumer underlining how big of an economic impact -- and national security -- these new deals are creating with Micron.

The days of the 3dfx Voodoo graphics card are some of my fondest PC gaming memories, so seeing X user @oscar_barea making a customized vintage 3dfx Voodo card makes me smile. Check it out:

The custom "VoodooX" graphics card is based on the 3dfx VSA-100 GPU, which was used across a few different 3dfx graphics cards including the 3dfx Voodoo 4 4500 and Voodoo5 5500 graphics cards. AshEvans81 worked on the project with Oscar, with the VoodooX using an auctioned-off "new" VSA100 chips that were used in Voodoo4 cards.

Modifications were required to get the VoodooX running with 32MB of RAM, as the original Voodoo4 4800 AGP graphics card back in the day had 64MB of RAM... a far cry from the 24,000MB (24GB) of VRAM on the GeForce RTX 4090. The customized VoodooX card has newer DVI inputs, after the original Voodoo cards used VGA output, while we live in a DisplayPort + HDMI world now.

Intel's next-generation Lunar Lake-MX has been renamed to Lunar Lake-V, which features up to 8 CPU cores, 8 Xe2 GPU cores, and up to 32GB of on-package LPDDR5X memory.

Insider Golden Pig Upgrade has leaked the name change to Lunar Lake-V, that Intel is dropping the "MX" branding from Lunar Lake and using the "V" branding. That means these processors will fall into the new Core Ultra 200V series CPU family when they launch later this year and into 2025.

Intel will use a single die for its Lunar Lake-V processors, with 4 P-Cores based on the Lion Cove CPU architecture and 4 LP-E Cores based on the Skymont CPU architecture. Golden Pig Upgrade says that Intel's Lunar Lake-V fleet of processors will all feature the same core count but will vary with CPU frequency, up to 8 Xe2 GPU cores, on-package LPDDR5X-8533 memory, and an optional fanned or fanless design.

NVIDIA has just introduced two new entry-level workstation Ampere-based GPUs, with the new RTX A400 and RTX A1000 cards, both in single-slot design.

The new NVIDIA RTX A1000 and RTX A400 workstation GPUs provide access to AI and ray tracing technologies, which are in the everyday workflows of professionals. The new NVIDIA RTX A1000 workstation GPU should have the GA106 GPU with 2304 CUDA cores, 72 Tensor Cores, and 18 RT Cores.

The RTX A1000 has up to 6.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute performance, with 8GB of GDDR6 memory at 12Gbps speeds on a 128-bit memory bus that's capable of up to 192GB/sec of memory bandwidth. NVIDIA's new RTX A400 has 768 CUDA cores, 24 Tensor Cores, and 6 RT Cores. It'll feature up to 2.7 TFLOPS of FP32 compute performance, with 4GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit memory bus with just 96GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

GEEKOM is dishing up a banging deal for TweakTown readers on its Mini IT12 mini PC. Powered by Intel's 12th-Gen Core i7-12650H processor, the GEEKOM Mini IT12 comes equipped with an impressive 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and the fast Bluetooth 5.2 and W-Fi 6E wireless technologies.

This GEEKOM Mini IT12 can be yours for just $469, including free shipping in the United States, and it comes with Microsoft Windows 11 Pro pre-installed. When not on sale, this highly capable SFF computer sells for $909, but right now, you can save a huge $440 when buying it from GEEKOM. That's almost 52% off the normal price!

Enter coupon code tweaktownit12off at the checkout and save!

The Apple TV+ streaming service has had a ton of hits to call its own since its launch, and while the library it offers might not be as big as that boasted by Netflix or Disney+. it definitely makes up for the lack of quantity with top-notch quality. Silo is one example of a great offering, and while we already knew that there was a second season on the way, we now know there's more to the story than that.

While Apple TV+ hasn't officially confirmed anything yet, star of the show Rebecca Ferguson has told Collider that there will actually be a third and even a fourth season, with the latter two being filmed back to back. That might suggest that the seasons will be released closer together than usual, which will be extremely good news for people who don't want to wait.

The decision to share the Silo story across four seasons is interesting given the fact that the books the show is based on ended after the third. Ferguson told Collider that the ending is already decided and that it'll come at the end of that fourth season. But beyond that, everyone's keeping their cards close to their chest.