TechPowerUP NEWS

[NextPowerUP]

Absolutely Games (https://www.absolutelygames.net/about-us/) and Team 17 (https://www.team17.com/) Digital have launched WWII-based strategy epic Classified: France '44 (https://www.classifiedfrance44.com/) on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. An original take on the turn-based tactics genre, Classified: France '44 authentically captures the challenges of World War II firefights, shining a light on a lesser known story. Take charge of the Jedburghs: a group of special forces dropped deep in the heart of Nazi-occupied France, working with the Resistance to disrupt and sabotage enemy forces in the lead up to D-Day.

Surrounded on all sides and deep behind enemy lines, you'll need to make every shot count! Classified: France '44 is a World War Two turn-based strategy game that puts you in the shoes of the French Resistance in the run-up D-Day. Build your team of resistance fighters and take the fight to the German war machine through stealth, ambush and assault tactics! Classified: France '44 is a turn-based, tactical espionage and combat game. Lead an elite team of soldiers and resistance fighters to victory against the German occupation forces.https://tpucdn.com/img/DN3H336gjrA0Ulsk_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/DN3H336gjrA0Ulsk.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/ral4Fbzo7s1SqgVK_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/ral4Fbzo7s1SqgVK.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/yVx0WLxIXyuIVL1d_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/yVx0WLxIXyuIVL1d.jpg)

Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320135/classified-france-44-out-now-on-pc-current-gen-consoles)

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[NextPowerUP]

We have provided an update on the nation-state attack that was detected by the Microsoft Security Team on January 12, 2024. As we shared (https://msrc.microsoft.com/blog/2024/01/microsoft-actions-following-attack-by-nation-state-actor-midnight-blizzard/), on January 19, the security team detected this attack on our corporate email systems and immediately activated our response process. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence investigation identified the threat actor as Midnight Blizzard (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/tag/midnight-blizzard-nobelium/?sort-by=newest-oldest&date=any), the Russian state-sponsored actor also known as NOBELIUM. As we said at that time, our investigation was ongoing, and we would provide additional details as appropriate.

In recent weeks, we have seen evidence that Midnight Blizzard is using information initially exfiltrated from our corporate email systems to gain, or attempt to gain, unauthorized access. This has included access to some of the company's source code repositories and internal systems. To date we have found no evidence that Microsoft-hosted customer-facing systems have been compromised. It is apparent that Midnight Blizzard is attempting to use secrets of different types it has found. Some of these secrets were shared between customers and Microsoft in email, and as we discover them in our exfiltrated email, we have been and are reaching out to these customers to assist them in taking mitigating measures. Midnight Blizzard has increased the volume of some aspects of the attack, such as password sprays, by as much as 10-fold in February, compared to the already large volume we saw in January 2024.https://tpucdn.com/img/eC2SKkP3Jdiewd3Y_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/eC2SKkP3Jdiewd3Y.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/wWOlKw84bYkqnzMA_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/wWOlKw84bYkqnzMA.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/G4AhDgFLUpTv2kqm_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/G4AhDgFLUpTv2kqm.jpg)
Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320133/microsoft-reveals-cyberattack-theft-of-internal-source-code)

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[NextPowerUP]

GoDeal24 honors the enduring spirit of women with the new Women's Day Sale. Get special discounts on the software you need, at the prices you want! Get Genuine Office 2021 Professional Plus at just $25.25, and save big compared to annual 365 subscription payments. Save even more on multi-packs, or combos with your preferred edition of Windows. There are even editions of Office for Macs! Happy International Women's Day!

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Check out great deals on system software you may want.Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320084/godeal24-womens-day-sale-get-office-and-windows-at-special-prices)

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[NextPowerUP]

Earlier in the week it was revealed (https://www.techpowerup.com/319896/dell-exec-confirms-nvidia-blackwell-b100-doesnt-need-liquid-cooling) that NVIDIA had distributed next-gen AI GPUs to its most important ecosystem partners and customers—Dell's CEO expressed enthusiasm with his discussion of "Blackwell" B100 and B200 evaluation samples. Team Green's next-gen family of gaming GPUs have received less media attention in early 2024—a mid-February TPU report (https://www.techpowerup.com/319242/nvidia-rtx-50-series-blackwell-to-debut-16-pin-pcie-gen-6-power-connector-standard) pointed to a rumored PCIe 6.0 CEM specification for upcoming RTX 50-series cards, but leaks have become uncommon since late last year (https://www.techpowerup.com/317052/nvidia-geforce-rtx-50-series-blackwell-on-course-for-q4-2024). Top technology tipster, kopite7kimi, has broken the relative silence on Blackwell's gaming configurations—an early hours tweet (https://twitter.com/kopite7kimi/status/1766293649984503844) posits a slightly underwhelming scenario: "although I still have fantasies about 512 bit, the memory interface configuration of GB20x is not much different from that of AD10x (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/?architecture=Ada+Lovelace&sort=generation)."

Past disclosures have hinted about next-gen NVIDIA gaming GPUs sporting memory interface configurations comparable to the current crop of "Ada Lovelace" models. The latest batch of insider information suggests that Team Green's next flagship GeForce RTX GPU—GB202—will stick with a 384-bit memory bus. The beefiest current-gen GPU AD102 (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-rtx-4090.c3889)—as featured in GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards—is specced with a 384-bit interface. A significant upgrade for GeForce RTX 50xx cards could arrive with a step-up to next-gen GDDR7 memory—kopite7kimi reckons that top GPU designers will stick with 16 Gbit memory chip densities (2 GB) (https://www.techpowerup.com/320058/first-gpus-implementing-gddr7-memory-could-stick-with-16-gbit-chips-24-gbit-possible). JEDEC officially announced its "GDDR7 Graphics Memory Standard (https://www.techpowerup.com/319956/jedec-publishes-gddr7-graphics-memory-standard)" a couple of days ago. VideoCardz (https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rtx-50-gb20x-gpus-to-feature-similar-memory-interfaces-to-rtx-40-ad10x-series) has kindly assembled the latest batch of insider info into a cross-generation comparison table (see below).https://tpucdn.com/img/MQDk2nkQk8dqNNaq_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/MQDk2nkQk8dqNNaq.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/He1HDHegPGHztVQ6_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/He1HDHegPGHztVQ6.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/EpbVbgpgkRlx3rGa_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/EpbVbgpgkRlx3rGa.jpg)

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[NextPowerUP]

Every choice we made when developing Outcast - A New Beginning (https://outcast.thqnordic.com/) had, at its core, one motivation: freedom. It was important to us not to limit where players could go at any point; instead, we gave them the tools to navigate the detailed open world we've spent the last few years crafting. We're incredibly proud of Outcast's world and want players to share its richness with us. As players set out across Adelpha, we want to reward them for their curiosity and sense of adventure. Whether it's blitzing through an invader base and unlocking a new weapon module, zipping through gliding challenges to earn jetpack upgrades, or simply taking in the sights, we've strived to make every second spent on the planet of Adelpha feel meaningful to players.

Traveling in style
Knowing that players would be spending a lot of time in Cutter Slade's boots, it was important to us that it felt fun to maneuver him through the world. Open-world games often ask players to cross great distances, and it's our job as developers to ensure that you always feel invigorated by navigating the wilds of Adelpha. When designing how Cutter moved through the world, we didn't want to gatekeep fun traversal abilities for later in the game. From early in Outcast - A New Beginning, you can take advantage of Adelpha's teetering precipices and deep valleys with your gliding suit, swooping across the alien landscape.https://tpucdn.com/img/aY1gM0CJpBuMyIHY_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/aY1gM0CJpBuMyIHY.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/eouNUvpxo9zTvvvp_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/eouNUvpxo9zTvvvp.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/34wrHpyOVE2w4EBa_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/34wrHpyOVE2w4EBa.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/Daeknle3YlZ3xR6z_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/Daeknle3YlZ3xR6z.jpg)
Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320130/outcast-a-new-beginning-director-discusses-open-world-mechanics)

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[NextPowerUP]

Lee Kang-Wook, Vice President of Research and Development at SK Hynix, has discussed the increased importance of advanced chip packaging with Bloomberg News (https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/sk-hynix-investing-1-billion-to-widen-lead-in-ai-memory-chips-1.2043661). In an interview with the media company's business section, Lee referred to a tradition of prioritizing the design and fabrication of chips: "the first 50 years of the semiconductor industry has been about the front-end." He believes that the latter half of production processes will take precedence in the future: "...but the next 50 years is going to be all about the back-end." He outlined a "more than $1 billion" investment into South Korean facilities—his department is hoping to "improve the final steps" of chip manufacturing.

SK Hynix's Head of Packaging Development pioneered a novel method of packaging the third generation of high bandwidth technology (HBM2E)—that innovation secured NVIDIA as a high-profile and long term customer. Demand for Team Green's AI GPUs has boosted the significance of HBM technologies—Micron and Samsung are attempting to play catch up with new designs. South Korea's leading memory supplier is hoping to stay ahead in the next-gen HBM contest—supposedly 12-layer fifth generation samples (https://www.techpowerup.com/320057/nvidia-reportedly-sampling-sk-hynix-12-layer-hbm3e) have been submitted to NVIDIA for approval. SK Hynix's Vice President recently revealed that HBM production volumes for 2024 have sold out—currently company leadership is considering the next steps for market dominance in 2025. The majority of the firm's newly announced $1 billion budget will be spent on the advancement of MR-MUF and TSV technologies, according to their R&D chief.https://tpucdn.com/img/h7AqOPpXmUSBQxgj_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/h7AqOPpXmUSBQxgj.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/lXjfXNSbyzA2IogZ_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/lXjfXNSbyzA2IogZ.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/IxGrrnOZ1SHjBpFN_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/IxGrrnOZ1SHjBpFN.jpg)

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[NextPowerUP]

Prepare for your grand adventure, Arisen! Create your characters for Dragon's Dogma 2 (https://www.dragonsdogma.com/2/en-us/) in this free tool, available now (https://www.dragonsdogma.com/2/en-us/topics/demo/)! Customize the looks of your main character, the Arisen, and the looks and inclination of your companion, your Main Pawn. The character data created in this tool can be transferred to the base game of Dragon's Dogma 2. In this tool you can store up to 5 characters of each, the Arisen and your Main Pawn respectively. PC gamers can download the Dragon's Dogma 2 Character Creator & Storage tool via Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2054970/view/4112420967344742313).

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a single player, narrative driven action-RPG that challenges the players to choose their own experience - from the appearance of their Arisen, their vocation, their party, how to approach different situations and more - in a truly immersive fantasy world. You can pre-order the Standard Edition or the Digital Deluxe Edition of Dragon's Dogma 2 via the game's official site (https://www.dragonsdogma.com/2/en-us/#product). Dragon's Dogma 2 will release worldwide on March 22.https://tpucdn.com/img/jymt3fKPX4uc9CII_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/jymt3fKPX4uc9CII.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/WujtOpmqOHgsAbHQ_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/WujtOpmqOHgsAbHQ.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/w7vn2GnQwCWKgNtd_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/w7vn2GnQwCWKgNtd.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/tmGuN3sIFAN93XPZ_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/tmGuN3sIFAN93XPZ.jpg)
Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320128/capcom-releases-dragons-dogma-2-character-creation-tool)

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[NextPowerUP]

Lately Tiny Corp. CEO—George Hotz—has used his company's social media account to publicly criticize AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-rx-7900-xtx.c3941) firmware. The creator of Tinybox (https://www.techpowerup.com/319811/tiny-corp-builds-ai-platform-with-six-amd-radeon-rx-7900-xtx-gpus), a pre-orderable $15,000 AI compute cluster, has not selected "traditional" hardware for his systems—it is possible that AMD's Instinct MI300X (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-instinct-mi300x.c4179) accelerator is quite difficult to acquire, especially for a young startup operation. The decision to utilize gaming-oriented XFX-branded (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/xfx-speedster-merc310-rx-7900-xtx-black.b9926) RDNA 3.0 GPUs instead of purpose-built CDNA 3.0 platforms—for local model training and AI inference—is certainly a peculiar one. Hotz and his colleagues have encountered roadblocks in the development of their Tinybox system—recently, public attention was drawn to an "LLVM spilling bug (https://www.techpowerup.com/320011/dr-lisa-su-responds-to-tinyboxs-radeon-rx-7900-xtx-gpu-firmware-problems)." AMD President/CEO/Chair, Dr. Lisa Su, swiftly stepped in and promised a "good solution." Earlier in the week, Tiny Corp. reported satisfaction with a delivery of fixes—courtesy of Team Red's software engineering department. They also disclosed that they would be discussing matters with AMD directly, regarding the possibility of open-sourcing Radeon GPU MES firmware.

Subsequently, Hotz documented his interactions with Team Red representatives—he expressed 70% confidence in AMD approving open-sourcing certain bits of firmware in a week's time: "Call went pretty well. We are gating the commitment to 6x Radeon RX 7900 XTX on a public release of a roadmap to get the firmware open source. (and obviously the MLPerf training bug being fixed). We aren't open source purists, it doesn't matter to us if the HDCP stuff is open for example. But we need the scheduler and the memory hierarchy management to be open. This is what it takes to push the performance of neural networks. The Groq 500 T/s mixtral demo should be possible on a tinybox, but it requires god tier software and deep integration with the scheduler. We also advised that the build process for amdgpu-dkms should be more open. While the driver itself is open, we haven't found it easy to rebuild and install. Easy REPL cycle is a key driver for community open source. We want the firmware to be easy to rebuild and install also." Prior to this week's co-operations, Tiny Corp. hinted that it could move on from utilizing Radeon RX 7900 XTX, in favor of Intel Alchemist graphics hardware (https://twitter.com/__tinygrad__/status/1765120106328367269)—if AMD's decision making does not favor them, Hotz & Co. could pivot to builds including Acer Predator BiFrost Arc A770 16 GB OC (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/acer-predator-bifrost-arc-a770-oc.b9947) cards.https://tpucdn.com/img/1QaokW0qxGDZdLJ1_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/1QaokW0qxGDZdLJ1.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/IGW7XGa0vXcIvS0y_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/IGW7XGa0vXcIvS0y.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/EMm425eKdlj53TdP_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/EMm425eKdlj53TdP.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/daTMM1TDZ7dDZws2_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/daTMM1TDZ7dDZws2.jpg)

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[NextPowerUP]

Helldivers, get the Cutting Edge advantage on the battlefield! Greetings, fearless heroes of galactic democracy! Steel yourself for the next big push against the disgraceful enemies of freedom with our brand-new Warbond—Cutting Edge! Packed with high-voltage vibes, Cutting Edge gives you the chance to enhance your loadout of liberty with ultra-futuristic armour, guns that spit lightning, super stylish capes and epic emotes.

Super Earth R&D Experiments
Helldivers… we need your help. The brainiacs in Super Earth Research & Development have some cool experimental armour ready to be field-tested. This is where you come in, you're just the right people for the job.https://tpucdn.com/img/KeBVvHUH9bnYPz8Z_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/KeBVvHUH9bnYPz8Z.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/9sZh3cUo9fiIy1RS_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/9sZh3cUo9fiIy1RS.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/YwAhuxW06soYkBo3_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/YwAhuxW06soYkBo3.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/8mFRtyTPO9M5qgUd_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/8mFRtyTPO9M5qgUd.jpg)
Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320116/helldivers-2-warbond-system-previewed-ahead-of-march-14-launch)

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[NextPowerUP]

2024 will be the year generative AI gets personal, the CEOs of NVIDIA and HP said today in a fireside chat, unveiling new laptops that can build, test and run large language models. "This is a renaissance of the personal computer," said NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang at HP Amplify (https://press.hp.com/us/en/press-kits/2024/APC2024.html), a gathering in Las Vegas of about 1,500 resellers and distributors. "The work of creators, designers and data scientists is going to be revolutionized by these new workstations."

Greater Speed and Security
"AI is the biggest thing to come to the PC in decades," said HP's Enrique Lores, in the runup to the announcement of what his company billed as "the industry's largest portfolio of AI PCs and workstations (https://www.techpowerup.com/320072/hp-unveils-industrys-largest-portfolio-of-ai-pcs)." Compared to running their AI work in the cloud, the new systems will provide increased speed and security while reducing costs and energy, Lores said in a keynote at the event. New HP ZBooks provide a portfolio of mobile AI workstations powered by a full range of NVIDIA RTX Ada Generation GPUs (https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/ada-lovelace-architecture/). Entry-level systems with the NVIDIA RTX 500 Ada Generation Laptop GPU let users run generative AI apps and tools wherever they go. High-end models pack the RTX 5000 to deliver up to 682 TOPS, so they can create and run LLMs locally, using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG (https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/what-is-retrieval-augmented-generation/)) to connect to their content for results that are both personalized and private.https://tpucdn.com/img/h9xR0RJ468vdG0qe_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/h9xR0RJ468vdG0qe.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/GM6WJ5Szf5I9JV0p_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/GM6WJ5Szf5I9JV0p.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/8quWeYwMSkvOZpCV_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/8quWeYwMSkvOZpCV.jpg)
Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320115/jensen-huang-celebrates-rise-of-portable-ai-workstations)

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[NextPowerUP]

Choi Joo-sun, CEO of Samsung Display, spoke to journalists post-conclusion of a March 6 lecture at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). A Chosun Daily Business reporter pulled some quotes regarding Samsung's outlook for new generation micro OLED technologies. Choi and his colleagues are likely taking their time on this development front—Sony Semiconductor Solutions (SSS) has already mass-produced OLED Microdisplay (https://www.sony-semicon.com/en/products/microdisplay/oled.html) products. The Japanese technology giant is the main supplier of display panels for Apple's Vision Pro mixed reality headset (https://www.techpowerup.com/318483/meta-anticipating-apple-vision-pro-launch-ar-vr-could-become-mainstream)—a recent iFixit teardown (https://www.ifixit.com/News/90409/vision-pro-teardown-part-2-whats-the-display-resolution) revealed a possible custom-designed unit. Leaked "Bill of Materials" figures indicate an eye-watering total cost of $456 for a pair of SSS 4K panels—Apple is reportedly engaged in negotiations with SeeYa and BOE (https://wccftech.com/apple-vision-pro-cannot-source-micro-oled-panels-from-samsung-anytime-soon/) regarding the supply of cheaper alternatives.

The Samsung Display boss is monitoring current industry trends, but his team is not rushing out competing solutions: "The market potential of micro OLED, which is used in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), is significant, but I believe the market will begin in earnest around 2027-2028...there are many technical aspects to overcome and cost considerations." Choi believes that Samsung is better off with plenty of preparation time, before an anticipated bloom in the micro OLED market—in his opinion, domination can be achieved with careful investment in research and development (R&D) efforts. He stated: "During the remaining 2 to 3 years, we will deploy manpower to ensure that Samsung Display does not fall behind in the micro OLED market and introduce solutions that are competitive compared to competitors...The acquisition of Imagine (https://www.oled-info.com/samsung-display-acquire-oled-microdisplay-developer-emagin-218-million), an American display company, is also part of this effort."https://tpucdn.com/img/XHppM3WhstnEoSfp_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/XHppM3WhstnEoSfp.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/xJ9jj6wIjSiarHwp_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/xJ9jj6wIjSiarHwp.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/wxic7PTCxqZpzxko_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/wxic7PTCxqZpzxko.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/tAGcY3RVKbtBgNRd_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/tAGcY3RVKbtBgNRd.jpg)

More... (https://www.techpowerup.com/320113/samsung-anticipates-2027-2028-entry-into-micro-oled-ar-vr-market)

[NextPowerUP]

AMD has caught up with NVIDIA and Intel in the race to get a locally run AI chatbot up and running on its respective hardware. Team Red's community hub welcomed a new blog entry on Wednesday—AI staffers published (https://community.amd.com/t5/ai/how-to-run-a-large-language-model-llm-on-your-amd-ryzen-ai-pc-or/ba-p/670709) a handy "How to run a Large Language Model (LLM) on your AMD Ryzen AI PC or Radeon Graphics Card" step-by-step guide. They recommend that interested parties are best served by downloading the correct version of LM Studio. Their CPU-bound Windows variant (https://lmstudio.ai/)—designed for higher-end Phoenix and Hawk Point chips—compatible Ryzen AI PCs can deploy instances of a GPT based LLM-powered AI chatbot. The LM Studio ROCm technical preview (https://lmstudio.ai/rocm) functions similarly, but is reliant on Radeon RX 7000 graphics card ownership. Supported GPU targets include: gfx1100 (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/amd-navi-31.g998), gfx1101 (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/amd-navi-32.g1000) and gfx1102 (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/amd-navi-33.g1001).

AMD believes that: "AI assistants are quickly becoming essential resources to help increase productivity, efficiency or even brainstorm for ideas." Their blog also puts a spotlight on LM Studio's offline functionality: "Not only does the local AI chatbot on your machine not require an internet connection—but your conversations stay on your local machine." The six-step guide invites curious members to experiment with a handful of large language models—most notably Mistral 7b and LLAMA v2 7b. They thoroughly recommend that you select options with "Q4 K M" (AKA 4-bit quantization). You can learn about spooling up "your very own AI chatbot" here (https://community.amd.com/t5/ai/how-to-run-a-large-language-model-llm-on-your-amd-ryzen-ai-pc-or/ba-p/670709).https://tpucdn.com/img/ORO0dh12qsu0oBXv_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/ORO0dh12qsu0oBXv.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/8TWErrMNVSH5Lega_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/8TWErrMNVSH5Lega.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/BK40fUJiyv4k3OvS_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/BK40fUJiyv4k3OvS.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/HRytSbGg0P2SNVCO_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/HRytSbGg0P2SNVCO.jpg)

More... (https://www.techpowerup.com/320112/amd-publishes-user-guide-for-lm-studio-a-local-ai-chatbot)

[NextPowerUP]

In developing the OPX1000 (https://www.techpowerup.com/313074/quantum-machines-introduces-opx1000-a-quantum-control-solution-built-for-scale), a controller fit for the ever-growing quantum processors counting 1,000 qubits and beyond, we had to think deeply about every detail that impairs scalability. Our recently unveiled OPX1000 module for microwave generation (MW-FEM) (https://www.techpowerup.com/319675/quantum-machines-launches-opx1000-a-high-density-processor-based-control-platform) generates pulses up to 10.5 GHz directly, without analog oscillators or mixers. The choice of technology to reach microwave frequencies is not trivial. We choose cutting-edge direct digital synthesis (DDS) for very specific reasons, and we believe it will enable scalability and performance to an even greater degree. In this blog, we dive deeper into the considerations for going this route and existing alternatives. So stick around, whether you like mixers or hate them, this will be an interesting ride.

Summary of Technologies for Microwave Operation
The control signals for qubit drive and readout often fall in the microwave range, which is outside the range of baseband controllers. Many qubit labs have solved the issue with solutions based on mixing, including single sideband mixers, IQ-mixers, or more complicated schemes such as double super-heterodyne (DSH) conversion. Mixer-based solutions make use of analog local oscillators (LOs) that are multiplied by the signal of a controller or an AWG. IQ-mixers naturally suffer from two main spurs (affectionate name for unwanted signals), the LO leakage and the mixer image, which require non-trivial calibration to be removed. Other schemes, such as double super-heterodyne, offer a zero-calibration solution but use many more components. Additionally, mixing schemes require having an LO source per mixer if different drive frequencies are used. Having a low phase source per mixer is very expensive, and in order to cut prices, will probably include a phase-lock loops (PLL), leading to phase differences between channels, which is detrimental for multi-qubit systems. In other words, while mixers can be useful, we need to be aware of the pros and cons involved.https://tpucdn.com/img/Pm0CMpXJzYCHfUF6_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/Pm0CMpXJzYCHfUF6.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/IxiJQLQ4RozhK6JC_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/IxiJQLQ4RozhK6JC.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/u5Aur88Pipb3xF77_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/u5Aur88Pipb3xF77.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/HLrdzFIOuv5yD3ud_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/HLrdzFIOuv5yD3ud.jpg)
Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320111/quantum-machines-discusses-direct-digital-synthesis-for-large-scale-quantum-computing)

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[NextPowerUP]

Valiant Hearts: Coming Home and Valiant Hearts: The Collection, which includes Valiant Hearts: The Great War (https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/valiant-hearts) and Valiant Hearts: Coming Home (https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/8HMnnOb2xa4DG3pFUlize/valiant-hearts-coming-home-available-now), is now available on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC through Ubisoft Connect. Valiant Hearts: The Great War, the first installment of the duology, interweaves the stories of five characters as they experience the horrors of World War I. Karl, who was expelled from France and drafted to the German army; his father-in-law Emile, who has been drafted into the French army; Freddie, an American volunteer in the French Foreign Legion; Anna, a French combat nurse; and Walt, a medic's casualty dog - who also helps players sneak into areas inaccessible to humans.

Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, previously an exclusive Netflix mobile game developed by Ubisoft Montpellier in partnership with Old Skull Games (https://oldskullgames.com/), continues a dramatic narrative during World War I, once again focusing on four interconnected stories. James is a member of the historic Harlem Hellfighters looking for his older brother Freddie; the nurse Anna's returns to her work tending the wounded; Ernst is a German diver; and George is a British aviator. And, of course, the good dog Walt returns to help players with puzzles and exploration. Music plays an important role in the game as well, as the Harlem Hellfighters played a key role in introducing jazz music to Europe, and players can listen to the game's jazz soundtrack by Jason Moran on music streaming platforms (https://ubisoftmusic.ffm.to/valiantheartscominghome_ogst).https://tpucdn.com/img/7VW9ElrnpaQFmooE_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/7VW9ElrnpaQFmooE.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/ndmLXEP5jvOvO4T1_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/ndmLXEP5jvOvO4T1.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/B2tSJq27TJmeVDTh_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/B2tSJq27TJmeVDTh.jpg)
Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320109/ubisoft-releases-valiant-hearts-coming-home-valiant-hearts-the-collection)

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[NextPowerUP]

A Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite "X1E80100" processor (https://www.techpowerup.com/319630/qualcomm-snapdragon-x-elite-x1e80100-cpu-gets-geekbenched) model was leaked in late February—it is likely that several SKUs have been distributed for evaluation purposes. Geekbench Browser is normally a good source of pre-release information—a benched Lenovo "83ED" laptop was spotted last week (https://www.ithome.com/0/752/868.htm). That entry outed a "Snapdragon X Elite-X1E78100" processor, sporting twelve cores with maximum frequencies of 3.42 GHz. The latest exposures arrive courtesy of a Baidu forum post (https://t.co/GqNqeHfklc). Qualcomm has publicly revealed (https://www.techpowerup.com/315051/qualcomm-unleashes-snapdragon-x-elite-the-ai-super-charged-platform-to-revolutionize-the-pc) its "X Elite (https://www.techpowerup.com/315051/qualcomm-unleashes-snapdragon-x-elite-the-ai-super-charged-platform-to-revolutionize-the-pc)" range of Nuvia-designed Oryon core CPUs, but insiders have uncovered an additional "X Plus" family—probably a series of less expensive/lower spec alternatives.

The leaked list of SKUs does not include any detailed information—it reconfirms the existence of Qualcomm's top-tier X1E80100 and X1E78100 models and the presence of Adreno iGPUs. Driver information points to Qualcomm's next-gen integrated graphics solutions being readied for modern APIs: DX11, DX12, and OpenGL. The firm's ARM-based mobile PC CPUs are expected to launch within a mid-2024 period, according to the company's official statements (https://www.techpowerup.com/318784/qualcomm-believes-that-snapdragon-x-elite-launch-will-coincide-with-windows-12)—insiders believe that the NPU-enhanced Snapdragon X processors are destined to debut within next-gen "Windows 12" AI-centric notebooks.https://tpucdn.com/img/MNihshGGIx8U9uAy_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/MNihshGGIx8U9uAy.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/N3Z3JVcmfdzTTRRG_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/N3Z3JVcmfdzTTRRG.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/TR8mKbTh4lTczcq4_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/TR8mKbTh4lTczcq4.jpg)
Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320108/qualcomm-snapdragon-x-elite-and-x-plus-sku-lineup-leaks-out)

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[NextPowerUP]

Konstantin Seurer, a Mesa developer, has spent the past couple of months working on CPU-based Vulkan ray tracing—naturally, some folks will express scepticism about this project's practicality. Seurer has already set expectations with a brief message: "don't ask about performance." His GitLab merge request page (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/25616) attracted Michael Larabel's attention (https://www.phoronix.com/news/Mesa-Lavapipe-Vulkan-RayTracing)—the Phoronix founder and principal author was suitably impressed with Seurer's coding wizardry. He: "managed to implement support for VK_KHR_acceleration_structure, VK_KHR_deferred_host_operations, and VK_KHR_ray_query for Lavapipe. This Lavapipe Vulkan ray tracing support is based in part on porting code from the emulated ray tracing worked on for RADV with older Radeon GPUs." A lone screenshot provided evidence of Quake II running at 1 FPS with Vulkan ray tracing enabled—this "atrocious" performance was achieved thanks to a Mesa Lavapipe driver "implementing the Vulkan API for CPU-based execution."

VideoCardz has highlighted (https://videocardz.com/newz/cpu-runs-ray-traced-quake-ii-at-1-fps-through-mesa-cpu-based-vulkan-driver) an older example of CPU-based rendering techniques: "this is not the first time we heard about ray tracing on the CPU in Quake. In 2008, Intel demonstrated Enemy Territory: Quake Wars running at 720p resolution at 14 to 29 FPS on 16 core and 20-35 FPS at 24 core CPUs (quad-socket). The basic implementation of ray tracing in 2008 is not comparable to complex ray tracing techniques designed for GPUs, thus the performance on modern system is actually much lower. Beyond that, that game was specifically designed for the Intel architecture and used a specific API to achieve that. Sadly, the original ET demo is no longer available, it would be interesting to see how it performs today." CPU-based Vulkan ray tracing is expected to hit public distribution channels with the rollout of Mesa 24.1. Several members of the Phoronix community reckon that modern AMD Threadripper PRO (https://www.techpowerup.com/cpu-specs/ryzen-threadripper-pro-7995wx.c3301) processors have the potential to post double-digit in-game frame rates.https://tpucdn.com/img/auSX0vU2N2DJmjTI_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/auSX0vU2N2DJmjTI.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/eTlohdW4OAAL9bR0_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/eTlohdW4OAAL9bR0.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/wEXUS5p1yjgqf1Iz_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/wEXUS5p1yjgqf1Iz.jpg)

Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320107/mesa-cpu-based-vulkan-driver-gets-ray-tracing-support-quake-ii-performance-hits-1-fps)

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[NextPowerUP]

As part of our effort to make Battle.net more welcoming to more players, we routinely review which currencies we support and what new ones we should add. This can make submitting payments less difficult and may help reduce or eliminate fees you pay to your card issuer for foreign currency transactions. Subscriptions for Argentinian players will be canceled and not automatically renewed to avoid enrolling players into subscriptions that may see a price increase in Argentina after this currency update.

The new currencies we're rolling out include: United Arab Emirates dirham (AED), Colombian peso (COP), Costa Rican colon (CRC), Indonesian rupiah (IDR), Israeli new shekel (ILS), Malaysian ringgit (MYR), Peruvian sol (PEN), Qatari riyal (QAR), Serbian dinar (RSD), Saudi riyal (SAR), Singapore dollar (SGD), Thai baht (THB), and Uruguayan peso (UYU). We've put together a brief FAQ to provide you with more information on the coming changes.https://tpucdn.com/img/l0OXR5BBw0PWV8WE_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/l0OXR5BBw0PWV8WE.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/Ps39jdrVInJxt4GX_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/Ps39jdrVInJxt4GX.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/omTuEm7Bptn6XRNx_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/omTuEm7Bptn6XRNx.jpg)
Read full story (https://www.techpowerup.com/320106/blizzard-announces-expanded-currency-support-on-battle-net)

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[NextPowerUP]

The US government is reported to be preparing a very healthy $3.5 billion investment in Intel Corporation—a mid-week published Bloomberg article (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-06/intel-stands-to-win-3-5-billion-to-produce-chips-for-military) proposes that the White House has authored a new "fast-moving spending bill." Congressional aides believe that Team Blue—upon official approval/signing off of funds—will be tasked with the production of advanced semiconductors for military and intelligence programs. Bloomberg posits that the resources will be sourced from a "Secure Enclave (https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/intel-potentially-inline-for-billion-dollar-chips-act-funding)" project, seemingly linking to a wider tranche of funds within the US government's CHIPS and Science Act. The agreement/contract is expected to run over a period of three years. According to Bloomberg: "the Senate is expected to pass the legislation by a Saturday (March 9) deadline."

Reports from last November suggested that Intel leadership and US government representatives had engaged in negotiations regarding funds for military and intelligence chip applications—the construction costs for new manufacturing facilities were estimated to be in the $3 billion to $4 billion range. A Commerce Department statement was submitted to Bloomberg, but they only commented on an overall $10 billion budget: "We are still reviewing the effect of the appropriations text on the program...(we look) forward to continuing to work with Congress on implementing the Chips and Science Act in a manner the promotes our economic and national security." TSMC, Micron and Samsung are expected to receive "multi-billion-dollar awards" in the near future—these multinational corporations will assist in a bolstering of North American chip manufacturing capabilities.https://tpucdn.com/img/JEqPqdAVMSrCp1RH_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/JEqPqdAVMSrCp1RH.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/I9nLFavWBAmXVLff_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/I9nLFavWBAmXVLff.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/tygTuPK1ITnS3qN5_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/tygTuPK1ITnS3qN5.jpg)

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[NextPowerUP]

MSI's official North American online store has started to sell their brand-new Claw A1M handheld portable gaming PC—earlier in the week media outlets spotted a premature Newegg store listing (https://www.techpowerup.com/319931/msi-claw-a1m-handheld-goes-on-sale-from-march-8), perhaps foreshadowing a widespread US launch on March 8 (today). MSI appears to be staggering the Claw's rollout across the global markets—late last month, German customers were treated to "early" pre-order access (https://www.techpowerup.com/319677/german-customers-get-first-dibs-on-msi-claw) thanks to de-store.msi.com (https://de-store.msi.com/products/msi-claw-a1m-036) listing the basic model (Handheld CLAW A1M-036), with units declared as being "in stock." US customers are similarly limited to the entry level "052US" SKU—the region's MSI store official launch day price sits at $699.00. This model sports an Intel Core 5 135H (https://www.techpowerup.com/cpu-specs/core-ultra-5-135h.c3419) "Meteor Lake" processor, and 512 GB of internal storage.

Newegg has relisted the three MSI Claw A1M variants, albeit with a revised release date of March 15—interested parties can pre-order the Core Ultra 7 + 1 TB SSD version for $799, or MSI's middle-of-the-pack Core Ultra 7 + 512 GB model for $749. Newegg's product page for the basic Core Ultra 5 + 512 GB SSD configuration bears the same $699 price tag as seen on MSI's official store listing. We are not entirely sure whether Western embargoes have been lifted to coincide with today's North American launch—a trickle out of English language evaluations could occur next week. Chinese review outlets have been experimenting with press samples (https://www.techpowerup.com/319250/msi-claw-review-units-observed-trailing-behind-rog-ally-in-benchmarks) since mid-February.https://tpucdn.com/img/7oZgm2FnptM6Nm3y_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/7oZgm2FnptM6Nm3y.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/5NogQeCunQhGG3PN_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/5NogQeCunQhGG3PN.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/LgZMAYXV27cZJRew_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/LgZMAYXV27cZJRew.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/7GUP2XtFcyAYN5Gs_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/7GUP2XtFcyAYN5Gs.jpg)

More... (https://www.techpowerup.com/320102/msi-claw-a1m-lands-at-retail-in-usa)

[NextPowerUP]

ZALMAN today introduced the P30 Air line of Micro-ATX mini-tower cases with a design focus on high airflow. The case comes in two color variants—black and white. Its design is characterized by panel perforations along not just the entire front-panel, but also the sides of the bottom half. The left side-panel only covers the upper compartment, the bottom compartment opens from the right side-panel that covers both compartments. ZALMAN included three ARGB-illuminated fans with this case, the front mesh intake has two pre-installed 140 mm spinners, while the rear exhaust is handled by a 140 mm fan. This presence of 140 mm rear exhaust also means that the motherboard tray has a high amount of clearance for tall graphics cards and CPU coolers.

A star attraction with the ZALMAN P30 Air is its motherboard tray, which has strategically located cutouts for motherboards with reverse-facing connectors, such as the ASUS BTF series, and MSI Project Zero series. The motherboard tray has room for graphics cards up to 39.2 cm in length, and CPU coolers up to 181 mm in height. The bottom compartment has a single 3.5-inch drive tray, with an additional 2.5-inch mount on top. There are two additional 2.5-inch mounts along the motherboard tray. Besides the two 140 mm front intakes and 120 mm rear exhaust, the case features three 120 mm top exhausts, along which you can mount a 360 mm radiator. Due to its design, a radiator cannot be mounted along the front panel. Measuring 235 mm x 452 mm x 420 mm (WxDxH), the case dry weighs 7.6 kg. The company didn't reveal pricing.https://tpucdn.com/img/BXPwMcad1uSOC50d_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/BXPwMcad1uSOC50d.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/tRIURA0Is5OCe60h_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/tRIURA0Is5OCe60h.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/JjOmpKTzWMwIYBYp_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/JjOmpKTzWMwIYBYp.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/07l6MVmdHRjcaAZW_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/07l6MVmdHRjcaAZW.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/ZjvJlJPIfiZ8wBVx_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/ZjvJlJPIfiZ8wBVx.jpg)

More... (https://www.techpowerup.com/320285/zalman-outs-p30-air-micro-atx-tower-case)

[NextPowerUP]

TerraMaster today rolled out the D4-320, a 4-bay USB DAS enclosure. This is essentially a 4-bay sibling of the D2-320 enclosure that the company released (https://www.techpowerup.com/317874/terramaster-intros-d2-320-2-bay-raid-enclosure-with-10-gbps-usb-3-2) in January. The enclosure features four 3.5-inch caddies with SATA 6 Gbps backplanes, and hotplugging capability. These are connected to a SATA AHCI controller, with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 upstream link that has 10 Gbps bandwidth, and support for UASP (USB-attached SCSI). A type-C cable is included with the DAS. The drive cage is cooled by a 120 mm fan that draws air through the caddies, and exhausts from a vent at the back. TerraMaster says that it put a design focus on optimizing this fan, and reducing the noise and vibration of the device with a full-house. It's important to note here, that the DAS has no RAID function, so each of the four disks and their volumes are individually mounted by the host. There are link/activity LEDs for each drive. TerraMaster includes a first-party data backup software. Available now, the TerraMaster D4-320 is priced at $190.https://tpucdn.com/img/Ui3YbhECFeZJfbCS_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/Ui3YbhECFeZJfbCS.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/hYYpHRJJ7eaYXCyc_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/hYYpHRJJ7eaYXCyc.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/n8FFw0iS4uJ9LSmY_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/n8FFw0iS4uJ9LSmY.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/FPzPEa0Qp8xE24Hl_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/FPzPEa0Qp8xE24Hl.jpg)

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[NextPowerUP]

Sabrent today introduced the NT-25GA, a portable 2.5 Gbps wired Ethernet adapter featuring a USB type-C connector. The adapter comes in a premium-looking aluminium body. On its business end is a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port with separate link/activity LEDs; on the other is a short cable with a USB type-C connection. The Ethernet port supports Cat5E cables with cable lengths of up to 100 meters. The adapter is tested by Sabrent to work with not just Windows and Linux PCs, but also macOS, MacBooks from after 2018, and iPad Pro after 2018. As a network adapter, the Sabrent NT-25GA also supports WoL and UEFI boot functions thanks to its PXE driver. The company didn't reveal pricing.https://tpucdn.com/img/gHQ6sxeQ0qXwUbLk_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/gHQ6sxeQ0qXwUbLk.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/qBnliiTvhvS1lW5t_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/qBnliiTvhvS1lW5t.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/n6OKO7DATDF88qxG_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/n6OKO7DATDF88qxG.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/She7MYl4pThqbWQJ_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/She7MYl4pThqbWQJ.jpg)

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The sub-$400 desktop processor segment is heating up, with the recent arrival (https://www.techpowerup.com/320022/amd-ryzen-9-7900x3d-12-core-processor-drops-to-usd-389) of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D 12-core/24-thread processor in this segment, at $389. The 7900X3D boasts of 3D V-cache technology, and is tested to offer gaming performance comparable to the Core i9-13900K. Did you know which other chip offered the same performance as the i9-13900K at a much lower price? The Core i7-14700K. Pricing of this chip is on a downward trend, and Newegg is selling it for $389. The chip is listed for $399, with a coupon shaving off $10. At $389, the i7-14700K should offer comparable gaming performance to the i9-13900K, and by extension, the 7900X3D.

The Core i7-14700K "Raptor Lake Refresh" processor features an interesting 8P+12E core-configuration, with 8 "Raptor Cove" performance cores, and 12 "Gracemont" efficiency cores. Each P-core has 2 MB of dedicated L2 cache, each of the three E-core clusters shares a 4 MB L2 cache among its four cores; while the eight P-cores and three E-core clusters share a 33 MB L3 cache. The i7-14700K is compatible with all Intel 600-series and 700-series chipset motherboards, with some of them requring a UEFI firmware update. An interesting point to note here, is that while the i7-14700K is selling at $389, its sibling without the iGPU, the i7-14700KF, remains at $399.https://tpucdn.com/img/ZvJTIRGGvxpo6m9U_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/ZvJTIRGGvxpo6m9U.jpg)

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It looks like cryptocurrency mining is back in craze, as miners are firing up their old mining hardware from 2022 to cash in. Bitcoin is now north of $72,000, and is dragging up the value of several other cryptocurrencies, one such being Qubic (QBIC). Profitability calculators put 24 hours of Qubic mining on an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-core processor at around $3, after subtracting energy costs involved in running the chip at its default 170 W TDP. "Zen 4" processors such as the 7950X tend to retain much of their performance with slight underclocking, and reducing their power limits; which is bound to hold or increase profitability, while also prolonging the life of the hardware.

And thus, the inevitable has happened—stocks of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X have disappeared overnight across online retail. With the market presence of the 7950X3D and the Intel Core i9-14900K, the 7950X was typically found between $550-600, which would have added great value considering its low input costs. CPU-based cryptocurrency miners, including the QBIC miner, appear to be taking advantage of the AVX-512 instruction set. AMD "Zen 4" microarchitecture supports AVX-512 through its dual-pumped 256-bit FPU, and the upcoming "Zen 5" microarchitecture is rumored to double AVX-512 performance over "Zen 4." Meanwhile, Intel has deprecated what few client-relevant AVX-512 instructions its Core processors had since 12th Gen "Alder Lake," as it reportedly affected sales of Xeon processors. What about the 7950X3D? It's pricier, but mining doesn't benefit from the 3D V-cache, and the chip doesn't sustain the kind of CPU clocks the 7950X manages to do across all its 16 cores. It's only a matter of time before the 7950X3D disappears, too; followed by 12-core models such as the 65 W 7900, the 170 W 7900X, and the 7900X3D.https://tpucdn.com/img/GD2VHeaav63gZox4_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/GD2VHeaav63gZox4.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/H0w3DFApOxUEd1ES_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/H0w3DFApOxUEd1ES.jpg)

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Helldivers 2 has exploded onto the gaming scene in a massive way. This co-operative third-person shooter packed with danger, action, humor, and surprises has already become one of this year's most talked-about games. What some people may be less familiar with though is its progenitor. The original Helldivers, which debuted in 2015 (and is still active) is a co-op, multiplayer overhead twin-stick shooter packed with action, intensity, and plenty of challenging situations that a player might find themselves in.

We asked Johan Pilestedt, CEO & Creative Director at Arrowhead Studios about the process of adapting the original overhead-view gameplay of Helldivers into the third-person format-after first congratulating him for the rip-roaring success of the game. We asked how the team felt about the positive reception. "Overwhelmed and ecstatic! Over the last 15 years, we've seen a keen interest in the types of games we make and it was great to see our work recognized at this scale."https://tpucdn.com/img/GSQavNzi2ATeX4qr_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/GSQavNzi2ATeX4qr.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/fjUEXV5Wwc8GRcRq_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/fjUEXV5Wwc8GRcRq.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/KzEEOwSo4Ufplk32_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/KzEEOwSo4Ufplk32.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/lKrYZ7zw4SjDq9ws_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/lKrYZ7zw4SjDq9ws.jpg)
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A 2019-signed export license has allowed Intel to supply laptop processors to Huawei, under an exclusive deal—this US Government approved arrangement was not viewed favorably by AMD. The rival chipmaker apparently missed out on the securing of a similar trade license back in 2021. According to a new Reuters report (https://www.reuters.com/technology/intel-survived-bid-halt-millions-sales-chinas-huawei-sources-say-2024-03-12/), Team Red and a handful of supporters have attempted to revoke Intel's license—worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Two anonymous sources allege that: "Intel has survived an effort to halt chip sales to Huawei...giving one of the world's largest chipmakers more time to sell to the heavily sanctioned Chinese telecoms company." Intel and Huawei's symbiosis is set to end later this year—folks on the inside reckon that the current US administration will not approve a renewal. Reports suggest that Qualcomm is not anticipating a renewal either—Huawei is an approved buyer of Snapdragon chips, but industry whispers indicate an eventual shift to in-house fare (https://www.techpowerup.com/318789/smic-reportedly-ramping-up-5-nanometer-production-line-in-shanghai).

Intel, Huawei, US Commerce Department and the White House have declined to comment on the aforementioned scenario. Reuters also sent a query to AMD, but the publication did not receive a response. Earlier last year, a government official revealed that "Huawei's licensing policy" was under review, alongside a general push to scrap a number of trade deals. According to insiders, the same government official allegedly told companies—in private—that the US Commerce Department would fix "the licensing discrepancy." Another anonymous source believes that the agency shelved these plans late last year, for reasons unknown—they stressed that there is potential for a revival. Given the upcoming expiry of Intel and Huawei's arrangement—within the year—it makes little sense to implement a drastic change.https://tpucdn.com/img/OfrHWmBE4bKd2RbV_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/OfrHWmBE4bKd2RbV.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/EAeYWjfxkG9bvOzm_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/EAeYWjfxkG9bvOzm.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/mQlU2jaitbINC5G0_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/mQlU2jaitbINC5G0.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/KsYDQjlQzIr5eeoX_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/KsYDQjlQzIr5eeoX.jpg)

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It's been three-and-a-half years since Reflector Entertainment (https://reflectorentertainment.com/en/our-video-games) and Bandai Namco Europe (https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/) unveiled Unknown 9: Awakening with a teaser trailer at Gamescom 2020. Well, we're back and ready to share the fruits of our labor with the world! We are thrilled to unveil Unknown 9: Awakening (https://www.bandainamcoent.com/news?game=unknown9)'s Announcement Trailer, which reveals our tough-as-nails protagonist Haroona, a first look at the gameplay, and a Summer 2024 release. We'd love to get you up to speed on the game, share what we've been up to behind the scenes, and explain why you should join the quest to uncover humanity's best-kept secrets, so let's dive in!

Your Unknown 9: Awakening Refresher
The third-person action-adventure title centers on Haroona, a truth seeker with a troubled past whose connection to a shadowy dimension known as the Fold has blessed her with powerful abilities. The last time the world caught a glimpse of the game's heroine, she was just a child left to fend for herself on the streets of Chamiri, India, unsure of what to make of her unearthly gifts. Fast-forward to today, and Haroona is all grown up. She's embraced her unique talents and continues to learn the ways of the Fold.https://tpucdn.com/img/v3QwwL89siPRa14B_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/v3QwwL89siPRa14B.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/a9NhHveufWaovPjV_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/a9NhHveufWaovPjV.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/Jg13X1gkNPIlyGr3_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/Jg13X1gkNPIlyGr3.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/b4TLIf6ceFRAZt1i_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/b4TLIf6ceFRAZt1i.jpg)
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CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk development team expected to conclude work on 2077 around autumn of last year—following the release of their v2.0 Content Update, and Phantom Liberty DLC campaign expansion. Game director, Gabe Amatangelo (https://www.mobygames.com/person/508226/gabe-amatangelo/credits/), declared in a September 2023 interview with PC Gamer (https://www.pcgamer.com/yes-phantom-liberty-and-patch-20-really-are-cyberpunk-2077s-last-big-updates-and-its-finally-time-to-start-the-sequel-director-confirms/), that his team was ready to move onto the development of a sequel (https://www.techpowerup.com/317723/cd-projekt-red-teases-project-orion-cyberpunk-2077s-sequel), but some members continued to deliver updates. December's upgrade to v2.1 added a functional metro transport system, while January's Patch 2.11 (https://www.cyberpunk.net/en/news/49831/patch-2-11) expanded vehicle customization options. Game File's Stephen Totilo interviewed Amatangelo during last month's DICE Summit—his recently published article (https://www.gamefile.news/p/interview-cd-projekt-red-has-learned) included a discussion regarding CD Projekt RED's surprising extended support schedule for Cyberpunk 2077.

Amatangelo okayed the addition of a Night City Area Rapid Transit (NCART) system, after absorbing news coverage and fan feedback: "my team had a plan on how to accomplish it in a reasonable way, sort of in a timely way." Cyberpunk 2077's game director confirmed that work has finally concluded on his team's open world magnum opus: "Yes. We're done." The temptation does remain to tinker with the current game: "It's possible that there are some other little things that comes in here or there, just because, as you're kind of messing around with stuff, sometimes you discover something that is not a high risk. Or it's easy to integrate. Or, you know, some developers have some bandwidth...Then they bring it to me." Amatangelo indicates that he could approve further updates, but "Cyberpunk Part Deux" takes priority: "Well, I trust you that it isn't going to mess with your other work…So let's give it a go."https://tpucdn.com/img/T4fWaPhnkY6Zv2Jj_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/T4fWaPhnkY6Zv2Jj.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/gQ15MLoOJkwWZI8r_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/gQ15MLoOJkwWZI8r.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/SaxDW55jT9pHfXgL_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/SaxDW55jT9pHfXgL.jpg)
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MICLEDI Microdisplays today announced a first closing of its Series A funding round with participation from imec.xpand, PMV, imec, KBC and SFPIM demonstrating strong support for the company's value proposition and commercial and technological progress achieved in the seed round. Series A follows a significant seed round award and additional non-dilutive funding in the form of grants and other vehicles from VLAIO. This brings the company's total funding to date to nearly $30 million.

"The company's achievements during this seed round have been astounding," said Sean Lord, CEO of MICLEDI. "Our door is open to engagements with some of the world's largest and most innovative electronic product manufacturing companies, most of whom are working on their own internal development projects for augmented reality (AR) displays in such diverse use cases as smart-wearable devices and automotive HUDs. This level of total funding to date is almost unheard of for a four-year-old startup."https://tpucdn.com/img/1pqDsm5nf21VX0Cy_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/1pqDsm5nf21VX0Cy.jpg)
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Optoma (https://www.optomausa.com/), a world-leading manufacturer of large display solutions and the No.1 4K UHD brand and the No.1 DLP brand worldwide and in the Americas, announces its new N-Series Professional Displays with intuitive, user-friendly software for business professionals to connect, present, and collaborate globally, both in-person and remotely. Featuring portrait and landscape orientation, Optoma's N-Series is built for use in corporate lobbies, reception areas, conference rooms, lecture halls, digital signage, and other professional environments.

In response to the growing demand for commercial display solutions, Optoma designed the N-Series Professional Displays to enhance the current conferencing setups of corporate and education settings and accommodate hybrid work and distance-learning scenarios. Engineered for simplified connectivity and heightened engagement.https://tpucdn.com/img/bujA5jsMWJ94uk4B_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/bujA5jsMWJ94uk4B.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/2F9b5YXH6u3HJi3d_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/2F9b5YXH6u3HJi3d.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/yg8GHhuwGF7DM44r_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/yg8GHhuwGF7DM44r.jpg)
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The original Monster Hunter Stories (https://www.monsterhunter.com/stories/) game is back and coming to Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation 4! Become a Monster Rider and hatch, raise, and battle with your favorite monsties in this epic RPG adventure. Become a Monster Rider who raises monsters and forges lifelong bonds with them in this epic adventure set in a vast, vibrant world. Befriend monsters to transform them into your Monsties! Transfer genes between monsters to raise Monsties with their own unique attributes and skills! Utilize your Monstie's Riding Actions out in the field to discover everything the locales have to offer!

Guess your opponent's attack patterns and experience the excitement of mainline Monster Hunter titles while engaging in thrilling, turn-based battles with monsters.
In addition to featuring Japanese and English voice overs, this remastered version also includes a "Museum" mode where you can view concept art and listen to the game's music! Monster Hunter Stories launches on Nintendo Switch, PC, and PS4 on June 14 with refined graphics, a new Museum mode, and content previously released only in Japan. Ride on!https://tpucdn.com/img/CNCbdRwc4Nkv1if8_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/CNCbdRwc4Nkv1if8.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/gupAhHwem00YIuqr_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/gupAhHwem00YIuqr.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/fc0c7pmrK0uGAhaE_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/fc0c7pmrK0uGAhaE.jpg) https://tpucdn.com/img/8o9cqVVhryDF2Dfx_thm.jpg (https://www.techpowerup.com/img/8o9cqVVhryDF2Dfx.jpg)
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