US Commerce Secretary: China seizing TSMC would be 'absolutely devastating' for US economy
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Wednesday that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan to seize control of TSMC would be "absolutely devastating" to the US economy.
Raimondo was asked at a US House hearing about the impact of an invasion of Taiwan by China to control TSMC, where she said "it would be absolutely devastating. Right now, the United States buys 92% of its leading edge chips from TSMC in Taiwan".
It was only back in March of this year that a top US admiral testified that China is building its military and nuclear arsenal on a scale not seen since World War II, preparing to invade Taiwan by 2027. Admiral John Aquilino, the leader of the Indo-Pacific Command, told the US House Armed Services Committee in a prepared testimony on Tuesday that Beijing's defense budget has ballooned by 16% over the last few years to over $223 billion. In the three years since he's taken command, he said that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had added another 400 fighter jets and 20 new major warships to its arsenal. Admiral Aquilino said China has doubled its ballistic and cruise missile inventory since 2020.
Corsair launches MP700 PRO SE PCIe 5.0 SSDs: up to 4TB capacity, up to 14GB/sec read speeds
Corsair has just launched its latest MP700 PRO SE PCIe 5.0 SSD, setting new performance highs across the board and even winning an Editor's Choice award in our review on the Corsair MP700 PRO SE PCIe 5.0 SSD.
The new Corsair MP700 PRO SE PCIe 5.0 SSD is capable of up to 14GB/sec (14,000MB/sec) sequential read performance, and up to 12GB/sec (12,000MB/sec) of sequential write performance. Corsair has multiple SKUs of its new MP700 PRO SE SSD: the regular MP700 PRO SE, the MP700 PRO SE with Air Cooler, and MP700 PRO SE Hydro X Series.
They all feature the same 14GB/sec reads and 12GB/sec writes, with the differences between the models being the Gen5 SSD on its own, Gen5 SSD + air cooler, Gen5 SSD + custom loop water block.
TT Show Episode 34 - The Helldivers 2 PC Controversy and Apple's New OLED iPad Pro
This week, on a more focused episode of The TT Show, Jak and Kosta break down and go through the crazy Helldivers 2 controversy on PC. If you were offline for a few days (and this all played out throughout a single weekend), the decision to force the Helddivers 2's PC players to link their Steam Account to a PlayStation Network (PSN) account caused a veritable backlash storm.
From the review bombing to developers being grilled to Sony and developer Arrowhead's damage control to the surprisingly swift happy ending, Jak and Kosta discuss the implications and consider what might happen in the aftermath.
This week's other big story comes from the world of Apple, with the company lifting the lid on its new iPad Pro lineup powered by the new AI-powered 3 nanometer M4 chip. The big thing here is that it represents Apple's first dip into the world of OLED displays, with a groundbreaking 1000-nit SDR and HDR screen that has two OLED panels in one!
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 will be available within a few weeks of each other
NVIDIA is reporting launching its next-generation GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card first, and then weeks later, the monster GeForce RTX 5090 will be unleashed.
That's according to leaker "kopite7kimi" who posted on X saying "RTX 5080 should be released first" to which "AGF" replied, saying "to be exact, they should be announced at same time with availability separated by (a) few weeks".
EA CEO says next-gen Battlefield has 'the largest Battlefield team in franchise history'
EA CEO Andrew Wilson said during the company's recent quarterly earnings call that the next Battlefied game will be developed by the "largest team in franchise history".
During the call, the EA CEO seemed to take on that Battlefield 2042 was a pile of junk, where he said "players have made it clear that they wanted an even deeper experience". I don't think players wanted a "deeper experience," they just wanted a great Battlefield game and to not see their franchise burning into the ground.
Wilson did say that EA is still committed to the live service models, after a survey earlier this year that pointed out that 70% of surveyed developers are worried about the sustainability of live service games. The new Battlefield game in development will have a "connected" side for single-player, but the EA CEO didn't walk us through how that would work.
Apple apologies for new iPad Pro ad that 'missed the mark' and pulls it from airing on TV
Apple recently announced its new iPad Pro line-up, powered by its new M4 chip and sporting the company's first groundbreaking OLED display, which pushed the technology's brightness to new heights. It's also the thinnest device in the company's history, with the 13-inch variant featuring a thickness of just 5.1mm - incredible.
And it seems that the display and thickness drove the inspiration and message behind Apple's latest ad for the new iPad Pro. "Meet the new iPad Pro," Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a social media post debuting the ad. "The thinnest product we've ever created, the most advanced display we've ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things it'll be used to create."
However, to try to sell the device's thin profile and creative capabilities, whoever Apple put in charge of the ad decided that it would be a good idea to take a treasure trove of iconic art-driven technology and gear from history and put them in one of those flattening machines, completely destroying them.
Intel places orders to secure ALL of ASML's High-NA EUV machines built this year
Intel has just splashed out on buying ASML's bleeding-edge High-NA EUV lithography machines, placing orders for the rest of the machines that the Netherlands-based company will make this year.
In a new report from The Elec, we're hearing that Intel is buying ASML's latest High-NA EUV lithography machines by placing reserve orders for the 5-6 kits that the company will make this year. Intel will be using ASML's new High-NA EUV lithography machines for its upcoming Intel 18A (1.8nm) and Intel 14A (1.4nm) process nodes.
Intel will have the most High-NA EUV lithography machines in 2025, with competitors including SK hynix and Samsung set to get their first batches of High-NA EUV lithography machines in the second half of 2025. Intel will have a rather large advantage over their competitors, especially if production goes well, yield rates are healthy, and the chips that Intel is pumping out are performance leaders.
China's imports from Netherlands skyrocket 32% in April, and we all know what they're buying
China has imported more than $1 billion in goods from the Netherlands in April 2024 alone, a rather hefty 32% increase even in the world of US export restrictions and the selling of semiconductor machines to China.
China's imports from the Netherlands increased 32% last month from a year ago, to $1.4 billion, according to data released this week. The data doesn't show the breakdown of trade, which will come later this month, but we all know it's coming from Dutch company ASML, which makes semiconductor machines.
In the months leading up to April 2024, over 50% of the value of all Chinese imports from the Netherlands were just ASML's lithography machines, according to Bloomberg's analysis of the official data. The US has been restricting China's access to the latest chip-making tools, pressuring countries like the Netherlands to stop exporting equipment to China, and even stop repairing the equipment that China has already purchased.
Resident Evil 4 Path Tracing looks incredible running on a RTX 4080, but the performance...
Capcom's Dragon's Dogma 2 was released earlier this year. It took the publisher's impressive RE Engine (initially built for the Resident Evil franchise and games). It expanded its capabilities to fit the open-world RPG style of the Dragon's Dogma franchise. Hidden inside the engine was a full path-tracing mode that Capcom was playing around with, as seen here.
Now, you can enable full path tracing in the impressive Resident Evil 4 Remake via the same REFramework developer window while modding in DLSS 3.7 for improved upscaling and image quality. Although Resident Evil 4 is a game tailor-made for baked lighting (the time of day never changes), path tracing still makes a massive difference.
Certain night scenes and some objects look off, but several examples in the video presented by MxBenchmarkPC showcase the different path tracing, or complete ray tracing can bring to a game. Even when compared to the game's existing ray-tracing implementation.
AMD Ryzen AI 165 'Strix Point' APU teased with 10 cores based on next-gen Zen 5
AMD's next-generation Zen 5-based "Ryzen AI 100 series" processors will be unveiled and launched at Computex 2024 next month, with the latest Ryzen AI 165 processor teased in new leaks.
In a new leak from Chinese reviewer and leaker Golden Pig Upgrade, we can expect the AMD Ryzen AI 165 "Strix Point" APU to feature 10 cores and 20 threads, with an XDNA2-based NPU for AI workloads, offering 45 TOPS of AI performance from the NPU alone.
We've already heard rumbles of a Strix Point APU being officially called the Ryzen AI 9 HX 170, with 12 cores and 24 threads of Zen 5-based CPU power boosting at up to 5.1GHz with the same XDNA2-based NPU for AI workloads. But the new 10-core, 20-thread Ryzen AI 165 "Strix Point" APU could feature a 2+8 or 4+6 configuration (AMD will have Zen 5 and Zen 5c CCXs for Strix Point).