TechPowerUP NEWS

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Researchers at Fudan University have made a significant advancement in integrated circuit technology. The team led by Zhou Peng and Liu Chunsen has developed "PoX," a picosecond flash memory device that operates at unprecedented speeds. The team predicted a phenomenon called "super-injection" by creating a quasi-2D Poisson model, which surpasses existing theoretical limits on memory speed. Their device achieves read/write speeds of 400 picoseconds (less than one nanosecond), equaling approximately 2.5 billion operations per second and making it the world's fastest semiconductor charge memory technology. "This is like the device can work one billion times in the blink of an eye, while a U disk (a hard drive in USB form) can only work 1,000 times. The previous world record for similar technology was two million," said Zhou Peng, a researcher from Fudan University's State Key Laboratory of Integrated Chips and Systems and a leading scientist on the research team.

Traditional flash memory requires electrons to "warm up" and accelerate along a channel before being captured for storage, a process limited by the long acceleration distance and electric field constraints. The new approach includes Dirac energy band structure, ballistic transport properties of two-dimensional materials, and modulation for the Gaussian length of the 2D channel. This allows electrons to reach very high speeds immediately without any 'run-up' period. Once fully developed, it can completely revolutionize the computer architecture by making memory and storage components unnecessary, obviating the need for hierarchical storage and allowing for large AI models to be deployed locally. Within 3 -5 years, the researchers plan to scale integration to tens of megabits, after which the technology will be made available for licensing to industry. The research was published as 'Subnanosecond flash memory enabled by 2D-enhanced hot-carrier injection' in the journal Nature 641, 90-97 (2025).

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While we initially set out to self-publish Battle Train, our goal is to make the best game possible. We've had many opportunities cross our paths, and one such opportunity felt too good to pass up. That said, we're proud to announce that we're now working with Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. to bring Battle Train to more folks in a couple of exciting ways. You've probably heard of Bandai Namco Entertainment. They've been around about as long as our entire industry and are known as the publishers behind everything from PAC-MAN to Elden Ring to Katamari Damacy (AKA, the silliest game with the best game soundtrack ever made).

Look, we know Battle Train is good. Our friends and family know Battle Train is good. But getting word to the general gaming community has been an uphill battle for us, so having Bandai Namco Entertainment on board to help increase our visibility is awesome… but while marketing is crucial, this news is about more than just marketing. With Bandai Namco Entertainment's support, we were able to extend development and add more to the game, polish the heck out of it, and really make this game sing. We're really pleased with the results. We've added extra cards, extra trains, extra trinkets, and extra time making sure Battle Train is an amazing gaming experience. ALSO, we're not just releasing on PC!!! We'll be bringing the ludicrous action of Battle Train to the Nintendo Switch as well! Surprise!!!
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LIAN LI Industrial Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of chassis and PC accessories, introduces the LANCOOL 217, the successor to the popular LANCOOL 216. This mid-tower case merges high performance with elegance. It features real wood accents (walnut on black, beech on white), five pre-installed fans, including dual 170 mm front fans. The front fans are pre-installed in balanced mode for CPU and GPU cooling but can be switched to CPU mode, thanks to a tool-less design that facilitates easy adjustments. The LANCOOL 217 is the first of the LANCOOL series to introduce back-connect motherboard support, along with an innovative dual mounting position for the PSU (standard or rotated). The LANCOOL 217 is available in black and white at MSRP prices of $119.99 and $124.99, respectively.

Real Wood Accents
Available in dark walnut for black and light beech for white, the real wood accents bring warmth and elegance, making the LANCOOL 217 an ideal choice for setups that blend with contemporary or minimalist spaces. With the thoughtful positioning of wood elements, there is no compromise on performance, allowing for efficient cooling while elevating the case's visual appeal.
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GIGABYTE, a global leader in technology, today announced the availability of its flagship ultra-compact mini-PC, the New BRIX Mainstream series, accompanied by an exclusive product video release. This series is powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2) and boasts an integrated GPU with a remarkable 20% performance increase over the previous generation. Furthermore, it unleashes exceptional AI performance, delivering up to 96 Tera Operations Per Second (TOPS), making it perfectly suited for demanding generative AI tasks and intensive multitasking scenarios.

⁠Designed to meet the growing needs of smart home solutions, commercial deployments, content creation, and edge computing, the BRIX Mainstream series packs this impressive performance into a remarkably compact 0.46-liter chassis with a sleek 3.5 cm profile. Despite its size, it offers top-tier computing power, flexible expansion options, and an eco-conscious, energy-efficient design - delivers performance that exceeds expectation.
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More than 700 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. This week and next, DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation will be multiplying frame rates in MechWarrior 5: Clans, New World: Aeternum, and Spirit of the North 2.

Additionally, DLSS Super Resolution is available now or coming soon to Bodycam, Lost Skies, Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, and Necrophosis. You can also enjoy them all with a new GeForce RTX 5060 or GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop GPU, which will hit shelves through our add-in-card, system, OEM, and retail partners starting May 19 at 9 a.m. Pacific Time.
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In February, we announced Battlefield Labs as our most ambitious community collaboration in franchise history to validate the future of Battlefield. Today, we'll update you on our initial learnings and how we'll continue to scale testing into the future.

Across our four initial play sessions with a small group of core Battlefield players across Europe and North America, we've completed thousands of hours of gameplay, had hundreds of thousands of player spawns, and seen over a million environmental objects destroyed, including walls, windows, crates, and buildings your squad crashed the helicopter into.
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IBM has introduced the LinuxONE Emperor 5, its newest Linux computing platform that runs on the Telum II processor with built-in AI acceleration features. This launch aims to tackle three key issues for tech leaders: better security measures, reduced costs, and smooth AI incorporation into business systems. The heart of the system, the Telum II processor, includes a second-generation on-chip AI accelerator. This component is designed to boost predictive AI abilities and large language models for instant transaction handling. The upcoming IBM Spyre Accelerator (set to arrive in late 2025) via PCIe card will boost generative AI functions. The platform comes with an updated AI Toolkit fine-tuned for the Telum II processor. It also offers early looks at Red Hat OpenShift AI and Virtualization allowing unified control of both standard virtual machines and containerized workloads.

The platform provides wide-ranging security measures. These include confidential computing strong cryptographic abilities, and NIST-approved post-quantum algorithms. These safeguard sensitive AI models and data from current risks and expected post-quantum attacks. When it comes to productivity, companies can combine several server workloads on one high-capacity system. This might cut ownership expenses by up to 44% compared to x86 options over five years. At the same time, it keeps exceptional 99.999999% uptime rates according to IBM. The LinuxOne Emperor 5 will run Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and Canonical Ubuntu Server. Tina Tarquinio, chief product officer at IBM Z and LinuxONE, said: "IBM LinuxONE 5 represents the next evolution of our Linux infrastructure strategy. It is designed to help clients unlock the full potential of Linux and AI while optimizing their datacenters, simplifying their operations, and addressing risk. Whether you're building intelligent applications, deploying regulated workloads, consolidating infrastructure, or preparing for the next wave of transformation, IBM LinuxONE offers an exciting path forward."

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Around late April, MediaTek confirmed that their CEO—Dr. Rick Tsai—will be delivering a big keynote speech—on May 20—at this month's Computex 2025 trade show. The company's preamble focuses on their "driving of AI innovation—from edge to cloud," but industry moles propose a surprise new product introduction during proceedings. MediaTek and NVIDIA have collaborated on a number of projects; the most visible being automative solutions. Late last year, intriguing Arm-based rumors emerged online—with Team Green allegedly working on a first time attempt at breaking into the high-end CPU consumer market segment; perhaps with the leveraging of "Blackwell" GPU architecture. MediaTek was reportedly placed in the equation, due to expertise accumulated from their devising of modern Dimensity "big core" mobile processor designs. At the start of 2025, data miners presented evidence of Lenovo seeking new engineering talent. Their job description mentioned a mysterious NVIDIA "N1x" SoC.

Further conjecture painted a fanciful picture of forthcoming "high-end N1x and mid-tier N1 (non-X)" models—with potential flagship devices launching later on this year. According to ComputerBase.de, an unannounced "GB10" PC chip could be the result of NVIDIA and MediaTek's rumored "AI PC" joint venture. Yesterday's news article divulged: "currently (this) product (can be) found in NVIDIA DGX Spark (platforms), and similarly equipped partner solutions. The systems, available starting at $3000, are aimed at AI developers who can test LLMs locally before moving them to the data center. The chip combines a 'Blackwell' GPU with a 'Grace' Arm CPU (in order) to create an SoC with 128 GB LPDDR5X, and a 1 TB or 4 TB SSD. The 'GB10' offers a GPU with one petaflop of FP4 performance (with sparsity)." ComputerBase reckons that the integrated graphics solution makes use of familiar properties—namely "5th-generation Tensor Cores and 4th-generation RT Cores"—from GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards. When discussing the design's "Grace CPU" setup, the publication's report outlined a total provision of: "20 Arm cores, including 10 Cortex-X925 and 10 Cortex-A725. The whole thing sits on a board measuring around 150 × 150 mm—for comparison: the classic NUC board format is 104 × 101 mm."

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Following their co-op presentation, Focus Entertainment and Saber Interactive have shared the ultimate trailer prior to the launch of RoadCraft, the next-gen heavy-machinery simulation and sandbox game where players reshape the Aftermath. Only two weeks to go before the May 20 release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and as much to pre-order and get the vehicle DLC bonus Aramatsu Bowhead 30T. RoadCraft taps into construction sandbox fantasies fondly remembered by many.

From backyard toys to next-gen physics simulation
Boasting breathtaking CGI—courtesy of Digic Entertainment—the same studio responsible for Space Marine 2's epic The Angels of Death CGI trailer—RoadCraft's "Sandbox Memories" trailer stays true to the game's technical and graphical prowess. As its majestic visual setting blends with the familiar images of a child playing with construction truck toys, prepare to get that magical feeling back in an advanced version of your childhood backyard playtime - where the only limit is your imagination, and that of your playground partners! Collect impressive vehicles, dispatch your fleet as you see fit and invent stories and scenarios with your friends.
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Over the past week or two, next-gen processor fanatics have been combing through AMD's Technical Information Portal—many truth seekers are trying to determine details of new product lineups; likely in anticipation of official unveilings (at Computex 2025). Super sleuths are still trying to find Team Red's mythical Ryzen Threadripper PRO "9995WX" processor; an alleged 96-core "Shimada Peak" range-topping beastie. Going against forward progress grains, VideoCardz has uncovered much older technologies—harking back to the days of Zen 3+ and RDNA 2. Revisiting late summer 2023, Team Red-related leaks suggested the potential arrival of (6 nm) Ryzen "Rembrandt" 6000G series desktop APUs.

We now know that AMD skipped a couple of AM5-bound steps, and eventually released its Ryzen "Phoenix" 8000G (Zen 4 and RDNA 3) family early last year. The discovery of an "AMD AM5 Functional Test Vehicle APUs (Family 19h Models 40h-4Fh) are based on the Zen 3+ 6 nm core with Radeon Navi Graphics" entry within Team Red's technical info database, has reopened online discussions about forgotten/abandoned intellectual properties. VideoCardz believes that the "19h" tag denotes "Rembrandt" family origins—additionally, their curiosity was piqued by the possibility of 6000G prototypes units escaping out into the wild. Looking ahead, the AM5 platform is expected to welcome (next-gen) Ryzen 9000G "Gorgon Point" desktop (Zen 5 + RDNA 3.5) processors.

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IBM is working with Oracle to bring the power of watsonx, IBM's flagship portfolio of AI products, to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Leveraging OCI's native AI services, the latest milestone in IBM's technology partnership with Oracle is designed to fuel a new era of multi-agentic, AI-driven productivity and efficiency across the enterprise. Organizations today are deploying AI throughout their operations, looking to take advantage of the extraordinary advancements in generative AI models, tools, and agents. AI agents that can provide a single, easy-to-use interface to complete tasks are emerging as key tools to help simplify the deployment and use of AI across enterprise operations and functions. "AI delivers the most impactful value when it works seamlessly across an entire business," said Greg Pavlik, executive vice president, AI and Data Management Services, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. "IBM and Oracle have been collaborating to drive customer success for decades, and our expanded partnership will provide customers new ways to help transform their businesses with AI."

Watsonx Orchestrate to support multi-agent workflows
To give customers a consistent way to build and manage agents across multi-agent, multi-system business processes, spanning both Oracle and non-Oracle applications and data sources, IBM is making its watsonx Orchestrate AI agent offerings available on OCI in July. This multi-agent approach using wastonx Orchestrate is designed to work with the expansive AI agent offerings embedded within the Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications, as well as OCI Generative AI Agents, and OCI's other AI services. It extends the ecosystem around Oracle Fusion Applications to enable further functionality across third-party and custom applications and data sources. The first use cases being addressed are in human resources. The watsonx Orchestrate agents will perform AI inferencing on OCI, which many customers use to host their data, AI, and other applications. IBM agents run in watsonx Orchestrate on Red Hat OpenShift on OCI, including in public, sovereign, government, and Oracle Alloy regions, to enable customers to address specific regulatory and privacy requirements. The agents can also be hosted on-premises or in multicloud environments for true hybrid cloud capabilities.
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Arctic Cooling's various thermal paste products have existed as favorite mainstays for PC builders—be it hobbyists, professionals, or influencers. Unfortunately, the disappointing presence of low-grade knock-off units has soured largely good impressions of modern MX-4 and MX-6 lines. Earlier today, Tom's Hardware put a spotlight on the Swiss-founded firm's brand-new "MX Authenticity Check" system. Worried customers can check the provenance of recently purchased Arctic thermal pastes (with updated packaging); via a QR code-based checker—the real deal will ensure "safety with genuine Arctic quality." The company's latest announcement outlined/reiterated the importance of a truly effective solution: "thermal paste plays a central role in any PC build that relies on effective cooling, as it ensures optimal heat transfer from the processor to the heat sink." In further correspondence—beyond an initial introductory email—an Arctic representative disclosed that this fresh anti-piracy strategy was rolled out in response to an uptick in counterfeit products appearing across markets. Their MX Authenticity checking program is easy to use, and authentication takes "just a few seconds." Tom's Hardware summarized this process: "in brief, when you receive your new thermal paste from Arctic or one of the many retailers that carry these compounds, you first check the seal, scratch it to reveal a QR code, scan it with your mobile, and then verify it online."

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Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. is heating up springtime in Boston with can't miss activations at PAX East, including a brand-new demo for FromSoftware, Inc.'s hotly anticipated next game, ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN. The demo will feature large in an immersive theater on the show floor, where popular content creators will enlist players to take on the game's challenging three-player co-op action, and if successful win prizes for everyone the audience. SHADOW LABYRINTH, the 2D action platformer with a surprising Sci-Fi take on the iconic PAC-MAN, will also be at the show as part of the panel "A Platform for Adventure: Metroidvania Game Makers Roundtable." Organized by Bandai Namco, the panel brings together developers, and (subject matter expert) Jeremy Parish as moderator to discuss the resurgence of the genre.

PAX East 2025 takes place May 8 - 11 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN is located at the Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. booth (#16055). SHADOW LABYRINTH will be on the panel "A Platform for Adventure: Metroidvania Game Makers Roundtable" taking place at 2:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 10, at the Albatross Theater. For show information, visit: www.bandainamcoent.com/events/pax-east.
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Despite recent whispers of TSMC losing a key 4 nm node process customer, industry analysts reckon that Taiwan's premier foundry business will remain in a comfortable leading position for the foreseeable future. "Optimistic" expert opinion points to "revenue growth for supply chain players," driven by the rapid progress of the firm's 2 nm manufacturing prowess. Naturally, their cutting-edge manufacturing capabilities—supposedly bolstered by GAAFET—are being tracked with keen interest. According to a fairly fresh Ctee Taiwan news piece, the usual big players are reportedly queued up and present within factory order books. The likes of Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Broadcom are mentioned. Mid-way through last month, Team Red officially announced a big collaborative milestone: "(our) next-generation AMD EPYC processor—codenamed "Venice"—is the first HPC product in the industry to be taped out and brought up on the TSMC advanced 2 nm (N2) process technology."

Ctee's report cites recent statements by C. C. Wei. Apparently, the TSMC CEO has stressed (on multiple occasions) that there is "unprecedented" demand for his company's 2 nm production pipelines—far exceeding previous levels for 3 nm. In addition, TSMC reps—who are currently touring the States; hosting technology symposiums—have revealed 2 nm (N2) defect density trends. Ctee outlined these intriguing details: "(N2's) defect density (D0) performance is comparable to that of the 5 nm family, and even surpasses the 7 nm and 3 nm processes of the same period, making it one of the most technologically mature advanced nodes." Wei's foundry team seems to be well ahead of main competition; insiders reckon that alleged equipment upgrades signal a push into 1.4 nm territories. Crucially, mass production of 2 nm (N2) wafers is expected to begin later this year—a cross-facility push was uttered by industry moles.

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Copilot+ PCs continue to define the next wave of personal computing—fast, long lasting, secure PCs that are purpose-built to unlock AI experiences that empower us to get more done. Today, Microsoft and Surface expand the Copilot+ PC family with the new Surface Laptop, 13-inch and Surface Pro, 12-inch, designed with performance and portability in mind. These new PCs reflect the next chapter of Surface innovation bringing ultra-thin, lightweight and powerful Copilot+ PCs to more people at even lower price points.

Last May, we introduced a new category of devices—Copilot+ PCs, the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever, with our flagship Surface Laptop and Surface Pro representing the ultimate Copilot+ PCs from Microsoft. Copilot+ PCs are lightning fast, responsive devices with long battery life, built to be secure by design and by default, and unlock exclusive AI experiences, running locally thanks to the Neural Processing Unit in their advanced processors. Windows continues to invest in Copilot+ PCs, with a new agent in settings and new Copilot+ PC experiences announced today—rolling out first to Windows Insiders. Today, we are proud to introduce two new Surface Copilot+ PCs, powered by Snapdragon X Plus processors, that deliver great experiences for great value. You now have more options to choose the right Surface Copilot+ PC to fit your needs.
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