TechPowerUP NEWS

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Today marks a significant milestone for one of the most iconic and influential first-person shooter franchises of all time—Counter-Strike is celebrating its 25th anniversary. What began as a humble Half-Life mod in 1999 has evolved into a global phenomenon, captivating millions with its intense, team-based tactical gameplay. The original Counter-Strike was instantly hit upon its public beta release on June 19, 1999, quickly building a fervent cult following among PC gamers. Valve soon recognized its potential, acquiring the rights and releasing an official standalone version in November 2000. This launched Counter-Strike into the mainstream, kicking off over two decades of continuous development, innovation, and fierce competitive play. Over the years, the series has seen multiple major releases like Condition Zero, Source, and the juggernaut Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in 2012. Each introduced new maps, weapons, graphics enhancements, and gameplay twists like CS: GO's Danger Zone battle royale mode.

But the core hook remained—tightly coordinated attack/defense scenarios demanding skill, strategy, and pinpoint shooting accuracy. Many of us grew up playing Counter Strike. The latest evolution arrived last September with Counter-Strike 2, ushering in a new engine, revamped graphics, and additional gameplay refinements. While initially met with some skepticism from hardcore fans, CS2 has been widely embraced, smashing records with over 1.5 million peak concurrent players. The key to Counter-Strike's enduring success has been its best-in-class core gameplay loop combined with Valve's commitment to evolve with the times. But just as crucial is the passionate global community that has embraced the series' high-skill cap and opportunities for creative strategies. Many have remained devoted for decades, fueling a robust professional esports scene. As it enters its 26th year, Counter-Strike's tactical multiplayer mayhem shows no signs of slowing down. Its unique blend of shooting fundamentals and cerebral team play has firmly cemented its place as one of the most influential games ever made.

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[NextPowerUP]

Lexar, a leading global brand of flash memory solutions, is excited to announce three new additions to its Professional SILVER card lineup: the SILVER PLUS microSDXC UHS-I Card, the SILVER PLUS SDXC UHS-I Card, and the SILVER SDXC UHS-I Card.

The SILVER series features outstanding performance of 205 MB/s max read speeds to expedite transfers and reduce wait times and 150 MB/s write speeds (140 MB/s for Professional SILVER SDXC UHS-I Card) to capture even fast action. Users can achieve max read speeds by pairing the cards with the Lexar Dual-Slot USB-A/C Reader, which can simultaneously read an SD card and a microSD card. Rated V30, the SILVER Series cards are designed to record 4K video in up to 60 FPS. These cards are also designed with real life in mind and are drop-proof, temperature-proof, x-ray-proof, shockproof, magnetic-proof, and vibration-resistant so they can stand up to all sorts of environments. They also offer users peace of mind with the Lexar Recovery Tool, which allows users to recover accidentally deleted files, and a lifetime limited warranty.
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[NextPowerUP]

If you're looking to dive into the world of tech innovation and DIY electronics, you might want to listen up. Whether you're a budding hobbyist, a seasoned coder, or someone eager to explore new skills, this Raspberry Pi and Arduino Developer Bundle can help you master two of the most versatile platforms in the maker community.

This comprehensive bundle is now available for a limited-time price of just $59.97 (reg. $423). This means you can learn on the timeline that makes the most sense to you, from home or work. It gives you nine courses totaling 61 hours of learning content. The courses are taught by Edward Renard, a software engineer and entrepreneur with a 4.6/5-star instructor rating. He offers beginner-friendly courses to help you get started and move on to more of the programs' complexities.

Get this Raspberry Pi and Arduino Developer bundle while it's still on sale for the price of $59.97 (reg. $423)—and you won't be able to find a lower one online.
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[NextPowerUP]

With a market capitalization of USD $3.34 trillion, NVIDIA has beaten Microsoft to become the world's most valuable company. The company's valuation doubled year-over-year, thanks to its meteoric rise as the preeminent manufacturer of AI accelerator chips that's in a dominant position to support the productization and mainstreaming of generative AI, and the company only expects further growth of the AI acceleration industry. Chris Penrose, global head of business development for telecom at NVIDIA, speaking at an event in Copenhagen, said "The generative AI journey is really transforming businesses and telcos around the world," he said. "We're just at the beginning." BBC notes that eight years ago, NVIDIA was worth less than 1% of its current valuation.

In the most recent quarterly result, Q1 fiscal 2025, NVIDIA posted a revenue of $26 billion, with the Data Center business handling the company's AI GPUs making up the lion's share of it, at $22.6 billion. The Gaming and AI PC segment, which handles the GeForce GPU product line that used to be NVIDIA's main breadwinner until a few years ago, made just $2.6 billion, in stark contrast. This highlights that NVIDIA is now mainly a data center acceleration hardware company that happens to sell visual compute products on the side, along with a constellation of smaller product lines such as robotics and automobile self-driving hardware. With NVIDIA at the number-1 spot, the top-5 most valuable companies in the world are all American tech giants—NVIDIA, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet (Google), and Amazon. The other companies in the top-10 list include Meta and Broadcom.

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[NextPowerUP]

Samsung Electronics is delaying construction at its planned new chip factory in Taylor, Texas. The company is considering upgrading the factory to produce more advanced 2 nm chips instead of the originally planned 4 nm chips. Samsung will make a final decision on this in Q3 2024. In April, the US government provided $6.4 billion to support Samsung's $40 billion investment in Texas chip facilities, including the Taylor factory. However, reports now suggest Samsung may skip 4 nm production at Taylor altogether.

The Taylor factory was expected to open by 2026, but equipment orders have been delayed while Samsung re-evaluates the plans. This upgrade consideration comes after Samsung recently appointed a new CEO for its semiconductor business (Device Solutions Division) to focus on new growth opportunities. While Samsung's memory chip profits surged in 2024, its previous 3 nm chip was not very successful. By going straight to 2 nm in Taylor, Samsung likely aims to leapfrog competitors in advanced chip manufacturing (TSMC, and Intel plan to produce 2 nm-class chips in the US by the end of this decade).

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[NextPowerUP]

Cooler Master, a leading provider of PC components, gaming peripherals, and tech lifestyle solutions, has today announced the market launch of the X Silent Edge Platinum 850, the world's first 850 W fanless power supply unit (PSU). This revolutionary product is available for preorder in an exclusive early bird bundle. "We recognize that power-hungry applications are becoming the norm for our users," says Jimmy Sha, Cooler Master CEO. "The X Silent Edge Platinum 850 is our answer to those who require robust power for intensive tasks but don't want to compromise on a quiet work or play environment. This product represents our commitment to pushing the boundaries in providing quiet high-performance solutions."

Cooler Master is offering a special preorder campaign for early adopters. Preorder the fanless X Silent Edge Platinum 850 for only $399.99 (reduced from $549.99) and receive a 27-inch FHD 240 Hz Curved Gaming Monitor for free. The GM27-CFX 27" Curved Gaming Monitor is an essential tool for gaming, working, and entertainment. Additionally, the bundle includes an ATX 24 PIN 90° Adapter with Capacitors and an M.2 SSD thermal pad. Preordered units will be delivered by the end of June.
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[NextPowerUP]

Panasonic Connect Canada, Division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, today announced enhancements to the fully rugged and modular TOUGHBOOK 40 laptop. This second generation of the TOUGHBOOK 40, the Mk2, is the company's first PC to feature Intel Core Ultra processors, incorporating the latest CPU, GPU, and NPU technology advancements and up to 16 cores. Its dedicated NPU accelerates artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tasks for customers across law enforcement departments, federal agencies, and utility companies. Compared to the previous generation of Intel processors, these new processors deliver up to 143% faster AI application performance, 73% faster generative AI, and up to 40% lower processor power for AI-enhanced collaboration.

"We are dedicated to developing solutions that not only address the current needs of our customers, but also anticipate their future requirements," said Dominick Passanante, Vice President and GM of Panasonic Connect. "The TOUGHBOOK 40 Mk2, equipped with advanced AI capabilities, is another example of how we're providing the mobile workforce with tools to enhance productivity and efficiency on the job."
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[NextPowerUP]

The Minisforum MS-01 is a mini workstation with a sleek and portable design, rich ports and strong expansion capabilities. It has four M.2 slots and PCIE×16 slots inside, which can be used to install half-height graphics cards. Optional Intel 13th generation Core i9-13900H and other processors offering high cost performance.The efficient cooling design ensures optimal performance, meeting the needs of professional users in fields such as engineering, design, and programming.

At this year's product launch event, Minisforum showcased the MS-01 i9-12900H version, i9-13900H version, positioned as a mini workstation. As a potential competitor to the known brands, this new model impressed me with its dual 10-gigabit network ports and unparalleled expansion capabilities. Now the Minisforum MS-01 i5 version has finally been officially launched, provides users who have been struggling with the high prices of top brand mini workstations that are always lacking in expansion capabilities with a relatively affordable option.
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[NextPowerUP]

Leading digital lifestyle accessories brand, Trust Electronics Ltd, is pleased to announce the expansion of its home office portfolio with the launch of its Primo Wireless Deskset, the perfect keyboard and mouse combination to streamline the working experience whether at home or in the office.

The Primo Wireless Deskset is the ideal solution for those seeking efficiency and productivity in their daily tasks. With membrane key technology, the full-size keyboard provides a comfortable, seamless typing experience, making longer working days much more manageable and enjoyable. With a spill-resistant design, users don't need to worry about accidental spillages, enabling uninterrupted working time without unnecessary delays. Paired with the ambidextrous mouse, which caters to both right and left-handed users, and UPE gliding pads for smooth and precise movement, the Primo Deskset is designed with user comfort in mind and enables swift and efficient working for all.
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[NextPowerUP]

The Goodram brand introduces the third generation of the PX500 NVMe PCIe 3 x4 SSD. The new series of drives is the answer to the growing demands of users who need fast and reliable hardware for both professional and personal applications.

The state-of-the-art architecture of the PX500 Gen 3 drive enables impressive read speeds of up to 3,500 MB/s, which is crucial for applications that require fast access to large amounts of data, such as games or advanced design programs. Meanwhile, write speeds of up to 2,800 MB/s ensure efficient operation even during intensive tasks such as video editing or managing large databases. Thanks to such parameters, users can enjoy not only faster system and application start-ups, but also lightning-fast file transfers and smooth multitasking. In practice, the drive's performance significantly speeds up all processes, minimizing waiting times and increasing overall user productivity.
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[NextPowerUP]

Amazon Games and NCSOFT announced today that THRONE AND LIBERTY, a free-to-play MMORPG featuring massive-scale combat in a dynamic world, will launch in North and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan on Tuesday, September 17, 2024. The game will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, with cross-platform play enabled.

"On behalf of Amazon Games and NCSOFT, I'm proud to announce that THRONE AND LIBERTY will launch on September 17, 2024. We all know fans around the world have been eagerly waiting for news on when they can jump into the game," said Merv Lee Kwai, Head of Third-Party Publishing at Amazon Games. "We can't wait to show you what we've been working on, and invite you to experience it all for yourself when the game launches this September."
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[NextPowerUP]

SK hynix has returned to Las Vegas to showcase its leading AI memory solutions at HPE Discover 2024, Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) annual technology conference. Held from June 17-20, HPE Discover 2024 features a packed schedule with more than 150 live demonstrations, as well as technical sessions, exhibitions, and more. This year, attendees can also benefit from three new curated programs on edge computing and networking, hybrid cloud technology, and AI. Under the slogan "Memory, The Power of AI," SK hynix is displaying its latest memory solutions at the event including those supplied to HPE. The company is also taking advantage of the numerous networking opportunities to strengthen its relationship with the host company and its other partners.

The World's Leading Memory Solutions Driving AI
SK hynix's booth at HPE Discover 2024 consists of three product sections and a demonstration zone which showcase the unprecedented capabilities of its AI memory solutions. The first section features the company's groundbreaking memory solutions for AI, including HBM solutions. In particular, the industry-leading HBM3E has emerged as a core product to meet the growing demands of AI systems due to its exceptional processing speed, capacity, and heat dissipation. A key solution from the company's CXL lineup, CXL Memory Module-DDR5 (CMM-DDR5), is also on display in this section. In the AI era where high performance and capacity are vital, CMM-DDR5 has gained attention for its ability to expand system bandwidth by up to 50% and capacity by up to 100% compared to systems only equipped with DDR5 DRAM.
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[NextPowerUP]

AMD has reportedly suffered a cybersecurity breach, with an organization that goes by "IntelBroker" claiming to have stolen company data on future products, customer databases, and financial records, among others. In a statement to Reuters, AMD said that it is working closely with law enforcement agencies and a third-party hosting partner, to investigate the claim of a data breach by IntelBroker. "We are working closely with law enforcement officials and a third-party hosting partner to investigate the claim and the significance of the data," the company said. The AMD stock traded slightly down (by 2.38% as of this writing) on Tuesday.

HackRead goes into the details of the data IntelBroker claims to have stolen. There are broadly two categories of data in the breach—IP and product information; and business information. In terms of IP, IntelBroker claims to have done away with files related to device firmware, ROMs, source code, IP files, future AMD product plans, and technical specifications. The business information leaked includes employee databases, customer databases, financial information, user IDs (probably of employees), job designation, employment statuses, and business phone numbers.
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[NextPowerUP]

Gigabyte has quietly added a new SSD to its growing lineup and this time around it's something quite different. The drive is part of Gigabyte's new AI TOP (Trillions of Operations per Second) and was announced at Computex with little fanfare. At the show, the company only announced that it would have 150x the TBW compared to regular SSDs and that it was built specifically for AI model training. What that 150x means in reality is that the 2 TB version of the AI TOP 100E SSD will deliver no less than 219,000 TBW (TeraBytes Written), whereas most high-end 2 TB consumer NVMe SSDs end up somewhere around 1,200 TBW. The 1 TB version promises 109,500 TBW and both drives have an MTBF time of 1.6 million hours and a five-year warranty.

Gigabyte didn't reveal the host controller or the exact NAND used, but the drives are said to use 3D NAND flash and both drives have a LPDDR4 DRAM cache of 1 or 2 GB depending on the drive size. However, the pictures of the drive suggest it might be a Phison based reference design. The AI TOP 100E SSDs are standard PCIe 4.0 drives, so the sequential read speed tops out at 7,200 MB/s with the write speed for the 1 TB SKU being up to 6,500 MB/s, with the 2 TB SKU slightly behind at 5,900 MB/s. No other performance figures were provided. The drives are said to draw up to 11 Watts in use, which seems very high for PCIe 4.0 drives. No word on pricing or availability as yet.

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[NextPowerUP]

Plasma 6 hits its stride with version 6.1. While Plasma 6.0 was all about getting the migration to the underlying Qt 6 frameworks correct (and what a massive job that was), 6.1 is where developers start implementing the features that will take your desktop to a new level.

In this release, you will find features that go far beyond subtle changes to themes and tweaks to animations (although there is plenty of those too), as you delve into interacting with desktops on remote machines, become more productive with usability and accessibility enhancements galore, and discover customizations that will even affect the hardware of your computer.
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