Latest News - Page 628

Here we go folks: AMD's next-gen Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" desktop CPUs based on the new Zen 5 architecture are closer than ever before... an actual shot of the Zen 5 chip.

The photo of AMD's new Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" Zen 5 processors comes from X user @ExperteVallah, who posted a picture of an ES (engineering sample) of an 8-core, 16-thread Zen 5-powered CPU. The OPN ID on this processor is "100-000001290-11," and it could be an 8C/16T Zen 5 processor in ES form, which is tasty.

It looks like AMD is using the same IHS (integrated heat spreader) on the new Zen 5 "Granite Ridge" processors as the company did on current Ryzen 7000 series CPUs and Ryzen 8000G APUs. AMD uses an octopus-style IHS that puts all of the capacitors on the outside of the IHS.

South Korea's industry minister announced on Friday that the country has chosen 6 overseas partner institutions to create global technology cooperation centers, which will be aimed at advancing research projects that are focused on core technologies.

South Korea will build the new centers in partnership with US universities, including MIT, Yale University, Purdue University, Johns Hopkins University, and Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, while in Germany, South Korea chose Fraunhofer.

South Korea's Industry Minister, Ahn Duk-geun, said: "The six cooperation centers will provide all necessary support for global joint R&D projects. We plan to come up with a global open innovation support strategy to promote M&As, technology transfers, licensing and the recruitment of competitive experts".

Elon Musk said that Tesla will unveil its self-driving Robotaxi product on August 8, in an official post from SpaceX and Tesla's CEO on X, the platform he also owns.

Musk tweeted out with a simple: "Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8," and that's it. The Tesla CEO talked about self-driving Robotaxis back in 2019 and did originally say -- and we reported on it, with the link below -- that he'd have them out on the road in 2024, and here we are in 2024 with Robotaxis to be unveiled on August 8, 2024.

Reuters published a report before Elon posted on X about the Tesla Robotaxi, with a story that said Tesla had scrapped plans to build a more affordable electric vehicle, somewhere in the $25,000 or so range. Elon accused Reuters of "lying" after their story went out about Tesla reportedly scrapping low-cost EVs, with Musk posting on X: "Reuters is lying (again)".

Alafia AI has just unveiled its new Aivas SuperWorkstation for medical imaging, with the startup packing some serious hardware into the AIO workstation PC.

Inside, the Alafia Aivas SuperWorkstation features a 128-core Ampere Altra processor and two NVIDIA RTX workstation series graphics cards. The AIO system itself features a 4K display that is touch-capable, with the 128-core Ampere Altra CPU running at 3.0GHz, while the GPUs can be configured with either NVIDIA's RTX 4000 or RTX A3000 workstation graphics cards.

You can configure the super-workstation AIO system with up to 2TB of DDR4 memory and up to 8TB of SSD storage, which is a damn good CPU/GPU combo and RAM/SSD combo for an AIO system with a 4K-capable touch display.

Jony Ive, Apple's former head of design, is reportedly working with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on a new AI-powered personal device with the pair now seeking funding for the new project.

The news, shared by The Information, means that the pair have teamed up on what could be a new device similar to the Humane AI pin or something along those lines. Notably, Altman is also a major investor in Humane so there are clear links there.

Details on exactly what the product will be are hard to come by right now but it apparently won't be like a smartphone, something that will surely be music to the ears of Apple's executives. This also isn't the first time that we've heard that the pair are working together after information surfaced last fall. However, things seem to have now progressed somewhat with the two people now thought to be seeking funding to the tune of $1 billion.

If you're in the market for a new, budget Android phone you might want to hold off making a purchase with Google thought to be working on a new Pixel 8a device. We know that it's in development and while we don't know when it will launch, it might not be all that far away if a new leak is what we think it might be.

With Google's new Pixel 8a on the way, a Google Fi Wireless ad appears to have potentially leaked it ahead of time. The ad shows two phones which don't seem to be anything that is already on the market.

First spotted by GSM Arena, the ad shows a phone that doesn't seem to be the Pixel 8 due to the lack of a microphone hole between the cameras and the LED on the back. And they don't appear to be Pixel 8 Pro models because of the matte frame, which suggests these phones might be an all-new model.

Amid ongoing rumors that Apple is getting ready to unveil some big new artificial intelligence technologies as part of the iOS 18 and macOS 15 software updates later this year, a new report suggests that the company has been using a popular image website as a way to train its AI.

It isn't yet clear what Apple's new AI functionality will offer, but a new Reuters report claims that Apple and other companies struck agreements with the stock image provider Shutterstock that would see them use millions of the service's images, videos, and music files as a source of training for AI. No source is given other than a person familiar with the arrangements.

The same report claims that the companies paid between $25 million and $50 million each. Shutterstock's Chief Financial Officer Jarrod Yahes told Reuters that the big tech companies have also been joined by other, smaller ones in the past few months. However, he wouldn't comment on individual contracts for obvious reasons - including the deal with Apple.

Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro devices later this year and we've been hearing that at least some of the models will feature ultra-thin bezels. While it's expected that the change will come to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, a new report on the subject simply says iPhone 16 - it isn't clear whether that's simply a misunderstanding or if all four new iPhones will benefit from the switch this year. Regardless the news for the new bezels as a whole isn't promising.

According to the report by The Elec, Apples supply chain is struggling with the new Border Reduction Struction, or BRS, technology that is used to shrink the bezels yet further. In fact, the report claims that no company has so far been able to produce the displays to Apple's satisfaction.

The new BRS technology makes the bottom bezel thin in particular. It does that by more tightly packing the circuitry beneath the display and bending some wiring in the process. It's that which is thought to be causing supply partners some issues, with LG Display and Samsung Display struggling currently. The two companies are familiar with Apple, the iPhone, and the standards required but have so far struggled to meet them.

With Apple now strongly rumored to be ready to announce multiple new iPads as soon as next month, a pair of new Apple tablets have appeared in an Indian regulatory database as the company gets its ducks in a row ahead of time.

The devices must go into the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) database before they can go on sale in the country and we'd already seen two tablets make their debut earlier this week. Now, MySmartPrice reports that an additional two tablets have been added carrying the model numbers A2898 and A2899. This comes after two models with the model numbers A2836 and A2837 had previously popped up.

Apple is expected to announce four new tablets next month. According to reports Apple will launch new OLED iPad Pros in 11-inch and 12.9-inch screen sizes while a refreshed 11-inch iPad Air will be joined by an all-new 12.9-inch iPad Air.

Those who are lucky enough to own the Apple Vision Pro spatial computer can look forward to some new content to enjoy on it after Apple announced a new episode of its Prehistoric Planet Immersive series.

The new episode, which will be Immersive Video for viewing on the Apple Vision Pro alone, will be available in the Apple TV app starting April 19, although those who are hoping for anything feature-length are going to be left wanting. It's instead going to last for just six minutes.

On a more positive note, the new episode will give viewers a new look inside Triceratops Forest where a baby triceratops will learn about family bonds, according to the blurb.

Disney+ subscribers who share their passwords with other people to avoid them having to buy their own subscription could be in for a shock starting in June. Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed that the streamer will seek to achieve growth by forcing households who use shared passwords and accounts to start paying up.

Currently, anyone who has a Disney+ account can share their username and password with anyone and have them stream content for free. The streamer offers profiles that allow people to keep their watch history and progress separate, but following a similar move by Netflix, it will soon prevent customers from sharing their passwords in an attempt to increase income.

In an interview with CNBC, Iger said that it will launch its assault on password sharing in a few countries and a few markets initially in June, but that a more full rollout will begin in September. It hasn't yet been confirmed which countries will be the first on the chopping block, nor exactly when people will have to start paying to watch content, but it's clear that the world of streaming is changing/

The age of OLED gaming monitors is here with numerous company's announcing their own versions of the gorgeous new pixel technology.

Now we have some information on a new gaming monitor from ViewSonic, the XG272-2K-OLED. According to TFTCentral, ViewSonic will be releasing this new OLED variant sometime next month, but according to the Amazon listing it will be dropping on April 8, 2024. The XG272-2K-OLED is a 27-inch display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440, a 240Hz refresh rate and a speedy 0.01ms response time (0.02ms GtG). Additionally, the XG272-2K-OLED will cover 100% of sRGB and 98.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, making it suitable for creators working with video/photo editing.

Other features include support for both AMD FreeSync Premium and NVIDIA G-Sync. Furthermore, the XG272-2K-OLED will have a peak brightness of 450 nits with HDR, come with a remote control, and the following connectivity options: 1x 3.5 mm headphone jack, 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.1, 3x USB Type-A, 1x USB Type-B, 1x USB Type-C.

MSI is seemingly preparing to release a new line-up of QD-OLED gaming monitors that will be using Samsung's latest pixel technology.

The three new monitors are the following: MPG 341CQPX, MAG 321UP, and MAG 271QPX. According to information provided by @kuroberu, the 341CQPX will be a curved 34-inch display that has a 3440 x 1440 resolution, 1800R curvature, 240Hz refresh rate, a typical brightness of 250 nits, 1,000 nits peak brightness, HDR True Black, a 0.03ms response time, and a variety of connectivity ports such as 2x HDMI 2.1, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4.

Notably, the other two expected gaming monitors will have the exact same specifications as the 341CQPX, with the only difference being the size of the display and refresh rate. MAG 321UP will be a 3840 x 2160 (4K) 32-inch display with a refresh rate of 165Hz. This monitor appears to be a scaled-down version of the MPG 321URX, which is a 4K monitor with a 240Hz refresh rate. I recently reviewed that gaming monitor, which can be found here. As for the MAG 271QPX, that monitor will be a 2560 x 1440 display with a 240Hz refresh rate.

The world's most powerful space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, has pointed its extremely sensitive infrared instruments at the heart of a galaxy that's teeming with newly born stars.

NASA's Webb telescope captured the Cigar Galaxy, scientifically known as Messier 87 (M87), to capture the region of space in gorgeous high detail. M87 is located 12 million light years away from Earth within the constellation Ursa Major, and according to NASA this region of space is forming stars 10 times faster than our own galaxy the Milky Way. M87 was captured with Webb's infrared instruments, giving researchers a new look into the heart of the region of space that other telescopes typically can't see due to it being obscured by dust and gas.

Infrared light is able to penetrate the dust and gas, making Webb an incredible telescope to see further in space than ever before. The different colors seen in the above image represent different aspects of the galaxy. For example the dark, reddish-brown colors represent dust, while the green specks indicate the presence of iron leftover from supernovas, or stars that run out of fuel and end their in a violent explosion.

A team of researchers analysed a dataset that contained 98,000 reports collected over 20 years and found that environmental roles play a factor in the number of UFO, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) sightings.

The new study published in the journal Science Reports examined a dataset collected over 20 years by the National UFO Research Center. The goal of the study was to see how environmental variables such as light pollution, cloud cover, airports, and military bases coincide with UFO reports. The findings indicate you are more likely to see a UFO if you live in the western US, a finding that was "completely unexpected," according to the study's lead author.

So, why do the Western states see more UFOs? According to the team behind the study there are a few reasons why, such as the wide-open spaces and year-round weather that leads people to be more outdoors than other states, resulting in more sightings as people are "looking skyward," according to Medina.

This week on The TT Show, Jak and Kosta examine the latest performance target rumors for AMD and Intel's next-gen RDNA 4 and Battlemage graphics cards and discuss how they might leave the enthusiast market entirely to NVIDIA. This could mean no direct competition for the GeForce RTX 5070, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090.

For corporations, GPUs are all about AI. With hundreds of thousands of GPUs used by big tech to create AI data centers, the U.S. Government is stepping in to sort through the sheer energy costs of countless graphics cards running complex AI workloads. The solution? Nuclear power, specifically microreactors, installed next to each major data center.

Jak and Kosta also discuss the latest gaming news, including Steam and Epic Games Store potentially coming to Xbox consoles, the awesome-sounding massively multiplayer Dune Awakening currently in development, and speculation that Grand Theft Auto VI will be limited to 30 FPS at launch - even on the upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro.

GIGABYTE has just unveiled its gorgeous new Z790 AORUS XTREME X ICE motherboard, with a golden LGA 1700 socket and a beautiful design right across the board. Check it out:

The new Z790 AORUS XTREME X ICE motherboard is a ridiculously high-end flagship motherboard from GIGABYTE. It has a gigantic LCD screen over the I/O cover that can give you real-time information about your processor, power delivery, temperatures, fan speeds, and more.

It looks like GIGABYTE is using the monster E-ATX form factor, which is why the new Z790 AORUS XTREME X ICE motherboard is so big. There's no official specs sheet yet, but it should feature a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for your graphics card and at least one M.2 Gen5 SSD slot for an ultra-fast 14GB/sec+ Gen5 SSD.

Intel XeSS (Super Sampling) is the company's answer to NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR. It was developed primarily for the company's discrete Intel Arc desktop GPUs and the integrated Arc Graphics found in the new mobile Intel Core Ultra series of processors.

Intel XeSS is platform agnostic and works with Radeon and GeForce RTX graphics cards. It also takes advantage of AI technology, and when paired with an Arc GPU and AI hardware, it can deliver even better results. Although adoption is far from the level of DLSS, XeSS support can be found in over 100 titles.

Today, Intel announced that XeSS 1.3 is coming soon. This update dramatically improves performance in several games while offering "more detailed reconstruction, better anti-aliasing, less ghosting, and more temporal stability." Impressive stuff.

The Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser is set to get a new feature that will let you limit the amount of RAM it uses. If you're a Chrome or Edge user, you're probably aware that when it comes to RAM usage, both browsers are on the "let's take as much as we can get" side of things.

As part of a new test build for Windows, the option to limit RAM usage 'Always' or have it kick in as part of a 'PC Gaming' mode has appeared on the Microsoft Edge settings page (via @Leopeva64 on X). Being able to set a limit on RAM usage while playing games is an excellent feature, and it means that you won't have to close all your tabs and windows before firing up a game on Steam.

Microsoft Edge will also provide a detailed look at current RAM usage, how many tabs have been put to sleep, and how much memory is left.

AMD's next-gen Zen 5 architecture has been rumored all over the place, with bombastic headlines like 40% IPC improvements... but nope. The latest on Zen 5 is to expect somewhere between 15-25% average IPC performance uplift.

In his latest video, Tom from Moore's Law is Dead answers the question about Zen 5 IPC improvements from various sources, including someone inside of AMD. The first source explained: "Currently we're (AMD) telling partners to expect Zen 5 to achieve an IPC increase of ~17%, but also that the chosen IPC claim depends on what marketing thinks they can get away with. Oh, and please note that the average IPC uplift will NOT be close to 40%. I can't believe I have to say that!"

The second source explained: "In a recent presentation from AMD, we were told to expect an IPC increase for Zen 5 that's 'in the teens of low to mid-twenties,' but that FP workloads will often be much higher. So idk, it seems like AMD has quite a bit of wiggle room this time around, and my honest impression is that they'll try to fluff the marketed IPC enough to look close to what Intel announces for Lion Cove. Oh, and we were also told that both Client and Server Zen 5 are targeting Q3 2024 for launch".