When Assassin's Creed Mirage launches on October 5, it will represent a return to the series' roots - but what does that mean, exactly? For one thing, it means we'll be back in the Middle East (the dense urban landscape of Baghdad, specifically) amongst the ranks of the Hidden Ones, who at this point are classic Assassins in all but name - working out of secret bureaus, constructing the legendary fortress at Alamut, and sporting the familiar white robes we first saw on Altaïr back in 2007. They can also speak entirely in their native language, with the series' first-ever full localization in Arabic.

But the connection isn't merely in the setting and story; Assassin's Creed Mirage recaptures the spirit of the series' origins through gameplay, in ways both big and small. For example, as a former street thief, Basim can pickpocket people in the crowds, much like Ezio Auditore could. He can also make use of explosive noisemakers and mines, like the ones Ezio could craft in Assassin's Creed Revelations - and if he draws too much attention, his notoriety will rise, and players will need to tear down wanted posters or bribe officials if they don't want continual, escalating attention from guards.
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(PR) Total War: Pharaoh Launch Date Revealed - October 11
Greetings all! We're super excited to announce that Total War: Pharaoh releases digitally on 11th October 2023 at 3PM BST / 10AM EDT / 10PM CST! If you pre-order Total War: Pharoah now, you will be able to take part in an exclusive Early Access Weekend before the game is released, as well as getting your hands on two awesome cosmetic packs for the full game.

WHAT IS TOTAL WAR: PHARAOH?
Total War: Pharaoh is the newest entry in the award-winning grand strategy series from the developers at Creative Assembly. Experience Ancient Egypt during the vibrant and tumultuous era of the Bronze Age Collapse and master dynamic real-time battles and turn-based empire management to rise above your adversaries and become Egypt's last great Pharaoh.
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(PR) Xbox Introduces the Astral Purple Wireless Controller
Introducing the newest addition to our classic Xbox controller lineup, the Xbox Wireless Controller - Astral Purple. The rich purple color has such a distinct regal look to spice up your gaming setup and bolster your collection. The dark purple theme is carried over to both the thumbsticks and buttons, with a black matte finish on the hybrid D-Pad, bumpers, and triggers. This is all tied together with a clean white back case that results in the front of the controller looking even more striking.

Each Xbox Wireless Controller in Astral Purple comes with all the features you've come to love in our current generation of controllers. The D-Pad's hybrid design offers an accurate yet familiar glide, perfect for navigating complex gaming worlds with precision. The textured grips on the bumpers, triggers, and back case allow for a better grip and the 3.5 mm jack enables you to chat with friends using a compatible headset. By using Bluetooth and Xbox Wireless, the Astral Purple controller can connect to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles, PC, mobile phones, and tablets. Play longer with up to 40 hours of battery life and save your favorite moments like hitting a new personal speed running record with the dedicated Share button
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Arm IPO Filing Reveals Development of Reference Designs
British semiconductor specialist firm, Arm Ltd., has has confirmed that it will be offering its clients the option to license "SoC solutions," as opposed to the usual model of paying for intellectual properties. A new Bloomberg article reaffirms previous claims that Arm's engineering department was beavering away on reference chip designs. An IPO filing, registered with the SEC, reveals that various system-on-chip designs are in the pipeline—likely targeting fast-growing tech markets.

An Arm statement explained: "More recently, we have invested in a holistic, solution-focused approach to design, expanding beyond individual design IP elements to providing a more complete system. By delivering SoC solutions optimized for specific use cases, we can ensure that the entire system works together seamlessly to provide maximum performance and efficiency. At the same time, by designing an increasingly greater portion of the overall chip design, we are further reducing incremental development investment and risk borne by our customers while also enabling us to capture more value per device." Arm is probably keen to boost its profit margins, and become more attractive in the eyes of potential investors—lately their designs have been implemented in more expensive product segments, namely automotive, client PCs, and cloud data center solutions.

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PowerColor Registers Radeon RX 7600 XT 10 GB & 12 GB Cards
PowerColor has registered a significant number of AMD Radeon RX 7000-series SKUs with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC)—these enrollments are seemingly always a good source of pre-launch information. Naturally, the ever reliable harukaze5719 has reported on this latest filing. The most interesting new SKUs within this leak appear to be Radeon RX 7600 XT graphics cards lined up in Hellhound and Fighter flavors—perhaps an early hint of Team Red prepping different versions of existing RDNA 3 GPUs. Scott Herkelman, AMD's senior vice president, stated last month that no new RX 7000-series ASICs were in the pipeline. The already released Radeon RX 7600 8 GB GPU is the sole entry within its lower end gaming segment for the current generation.

Technical information is not included with EEC filings, so we can only speculate about the choice of Navi 3x GPU with these leaked XT variants. VideoCardz has questioned the slightly peculiar allocations of 10 GB and 12 GB VRAM specs: "(raising) questions about AMD's choice of GPU architecture. One possibility is that they are using the Navi 33 with unusual 96-bit and 80-bit memory configurations, although this seems counterintuitive as it would result in lower memory bandwidth compared to the RX 7600. The Navi 33 GPU is typically limited to a 128-bit memory interface." Alternatively, they also propose that a "heavily cut-down Navi 32 GPU" could exist that "grants 192/160-bit memory." SKUs based on AMD's unreleased Radeon RX 6750 Golden Rabbit Edition (GRE) GPU are also visible within PowerColor's registration, also sporting 10 GB and 12 GB video memory configurations. Additionally, the Taiwanese graphics card specialist appears to be preparing a couple of white and SAKURA edition Radeon RX 7800 XT and 7700 XT cards.

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(PR) Q2 NAND Flash Revenue Up 7.4%, Anticipated to Exceed 3% Growth in Q3
TrendForce's latest research paints a vivid picture: Q2 saw the NAND Flash market still grappling with lackluster demand and being significantly outpaced by supply. The ASP of NAND Flash also took a hit, tumbling 10-15%. Nevertheless, there was a silver lining as bit shipments grew by 19.9% QoQ from a low baseline in 1Q23. To sum up, the Q2 landscape of the NAND Flash sector witnessed a 7.4% QoQ growth in revenue, reaching US$9.338 billion.

From Q2, Samsung began reining in production with a further squeeze expected for the third quarter. With inventories set to thin out, price hikes loom on the horizon, possibly offering a remedy to the chronic supply-demand imbalance. Yet, a crowded supplier landscape in the NAND Flash sector means that many players, faced with hefty inventories, will likely continue aggressive sales into Q3. Forecasts suggests a deceleration in ASP decline for NAND Flash products in Q3 to 5-10%. Riding the stockpiling momentum for the high season, bit shipments are set to rise, propelling Q3 revenue growth past the 3% threshold.
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(PR) Drop Announces Major V2 Enhancements to Fan-Favorite CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT Keyboards
Drop, the leading community-driven e-commerce company, today introduced enhanced versions of its CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT keyboards. First launched in 2018 and designed from feedback from the Drop community, these keyboards have since become best-sellers, offering a compelling combination of customization and quality. The new V2 variants of the Drop CTRL, ALT and SHIFT combine iconic, fully aluminium design with stand-out RGB lighting performance, improved features and enhanced performance, delivering an unparalleled typing experience for those seeking to elevate their desk setups.

"The new and improved CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT V2 keyboards represent a leap forward in design, performance, and functionality while preserving the cherished qualities that made their predecessors beloved by our community," said Jef Holove, CEO, Drop. "With the addition of highly requested features such as stabilizer upgrades, new switch options, and enhanced RGB LED capabilities, we offer the community an upgraded and unparalleled typing experience that will make them fall in love with these reinvented, classic keyboards all over again."
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(PR) Steelseries Unveils Special Edition Arctis Nova 7 White Collection
From the makers of Arctis, the most awarded audio line in gaming, SteelSeries, the original esports brand that fuses gaming and culture, today introduces the special-edition Arctis Nova 7 white collection. Through four years of innovative and meticulous engineering, SteelSeries set out to push boundaries, solve problems for those living a multi-faceted "gaming lifestyle" and reinvent the world's #1 premium gaming headphones. Whether it's gaming on the go, listening to Spotify or watching Netflix while commuting on the train or bus, taking a Zoom call and needing to tune out the noise in a shared apartment, workspace, or coffee shop, at the home office with furry kids running around, in the gym or basketball court, playing some Call of Duty Modern Warfare II or Mario at home, and so much more... Welcome to the future of audio for a gaming lifestyle.

Elite performance comes standard. The Arctis Nova 7X & 7P are equipped with the Nova Acoustic System, which fuses hardware and software to raise the bar over the competition and provide those living a "gaming lifestyle" with a new superpower known as "Almighty Audio." The combination of custom-designed High Fidelity speaker drivers that offer unparalleled sound purity, plus immersive 360° Spatial Audio for an immersive soundscape, along with the Sonar Audio Software Suite, which features the first pro-grade parametric EQ for gamers and allows them to adjust every individual frequency, provides unparalleled sound customization.
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(PR) UPMEM Raises €7M to Revolutionize AI and Analytics Processing
UPMEM, a fabless semiconductor startup has raised €4.1 M equity from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund and Venture Capitalists (Partech, Western Digital Capital, C4 Ventures…), and a €2.5M grant from the EIC. Founded by Fabrice Devaux and Gilles Hamou, the company is pioneering ultra-efficient Processing In Memory (PIM) accelerators to tackle the significant challenge of compute efficiency for AI and big data applications.

UPMEM's PIM solution, integrating UPMEM's first commercial-grade PIM chip on the market, is now available to cloud markets across the globe (US, Asia...) to provide the most cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions for AI and analytics applications in data centers and at the edge, such as large language models (LLM e.g. GPT), genomics, large analytics.
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