TechPowerUP NEWS

[NextPowerUP]

Last May, insiders alleged that the US Government Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) was eyeing up a handful of Chinese tech companies. At the time, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) was considered for inclusion within an extensive "export blacklist." With the regional exit of more mainstream computer memory manufacturing companies, the likes of CXMT and Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC) are being tracked as the native Chinese industry's leading lights. Earlier today, a revised Pentagon Section 1260H document seemed to no longer feature the aforementioned duo of memory and storage makers. Hours later, industry observers and journalists noticed that the updated list had been removed from public view. A fresh Reuters news article mentions the adding of Alibaba and Baidu to the latest edition of the US administration's trade blacklist. Across the past few years, these gigantic tech players are best known for unprecedented large-scale purchases of AI-crunching hardware, mostly supplied by NVIDIA.

The US Department of War's (DOW) Section 1260H document designates Chinese companies with (alleged) military or communist party connections. Last year's addition of CXMT caused plenty of head scratching—the Hefei, Anhui-based memory chip manufacturer largely specializes in consumer-grade products. Earlier this month, Nikkei Asia divulged inside track information about ASUS, Acer, Dell, and HP's supposed consideration of CXMT DDR5 and DDR4 lines. The apparent lifting of blacklist status could make it easier for Western OEMs to acquire DRAM from CXMT, and NAND from YMTC, although the latter still remains within the US Commerce Department's sights (considered a threat to the region's supply chain). CXMT's recent advancement into mass production of HBM3 will (inevitably) elevate its local profile, but a reported collaboration with Huawei—involving the next-gen Ascend 950 AI accelerator—could attract extra Pentagon scrutiny.

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[NextPowerUP]

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, the latest game in the Castlevania series was revealed as a 2026 game release currently in development as a collaborative project between Konami, Evil Empire, and Motion Twin—the latter two being behind The Rogue Prince of Persia and Dead Cells, respectively. Belmont's Curse is a 2D action-adventure game that follows Trevor Belmont's successor through 1499 Paris as she wields the classic holy whip for both combat and traversal through the looming castle and eerie Parisian streets. Based on the Steam Store page, Belmont's Curse will feature fast-paced combat, a variety of weapons and abilities to wield and develop, challenging environmental puzzles, and plenty of enemies to keep things fresh.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse will see the return of a number of classic Castlevania tropes and mechanics, like secret chambers, buried items, and challenging boss battles, but the game also switches things up with colorful twist on the series's gothic art style, seemingly blending some of the Dead Cells aesthetic with that of the famous vampire-killing franchise. Belmont's Curse doesn't have a fixed release date just yet, but it is slated to launch in 2026 for PC via Steam, the PlayStation 5, and the Xbox Series consoles via the Microsoft Store.
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[NextPowerUP]

Coordinate or collapse in this new 1-4 player co-op shooter from Crowbar Collective and Team17! Join forces with your friends and fight through intense missions with evolving objectives and map layouts! Squad up and play Rogue Point, now with our 15% OFF Launch Discount running for two weeks!

What is Rogue Point?
From the creators of Black Mesa: Definitive Edition, Rogue Point is a 1-4 player co-operative first-person shooter where teamwork is everything! Fight through a dynamic campaign and master 20+ weapons and 40+ tactical items and attachments. Plan, adapt, and overcome. Your squad's survival depends on it.
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[NextPowerUP]

Corsair published a low-key blog entry earlier this month (February 2), that described their recent updating of DRAM packaging that is "security and transparency"-focused. As depicted in a lone preview shot, the new container is plastic, but Corsair insists that this change—that ditches signature yellow cardboard boxes—will still retain "environmental responsibility." Interestingly, this move was implemented at the start of the year, so recent customers could be the first to receive revised retail packaging. The company's recycled plastic clamshell-style container, reminiscent of Kingston's present-day efforts, is adorned with a yellow sleeve. A familiar set of minimal text and branding is visible, but Corsair has not included product renders on the new design, at least not printed on front/top sections. The new design offers Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection. So far, the North American gaming hardware/accessory firm has implemented a shift from cardboard to plastic for the VENGEANCE DDR5 (non-RGB, RGB and RGB RS) product range, specifically in two module configurations.

The official blog states that the new packaging design: "allows customers to see the actual memory modules before opening the package. Making it easier to confirm the exact product and helping ensure genuine CORSAIR DRAM is being returned when applicable...To further improve protection, the packaging includes a tamper-evident belly label that tears when opened, making any attempt to reseal the package immediately visible. With the current value of DRAM kits, this added layer of security helps protect customers and retailers from return fraud involving non-genuine modules, or Light Enhancement Kits being passed off as real RAM." Additionally, Corsair's still-in-rotation paper box format is due to receive a small update—the company intends to reintroduce a security label system that aims to provide a higher level of protection. Given the current street value of four module kits, this is a wise decision.

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[NextPowerUP]

In a rather unfortunate throwback to the early days of the Hall effect gaming keyboard boom, it seems as though the new Haptic Inductive Trigger System in the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike gaming mouse is resulting in players getting permanently banned from Apex Legends for cheating. This is according to a new post on X by Iaroslav Mamalat, who shared a screenshot of an Apex Legends ban report that claims the player used gameplay enhancements.

An email received by the same player reads: "We observed: Gameplay enhancement. This means using unauthorized methods to enhance in-game performance by removing gameplay constraints or improving in-game abilities (e.g. weapon, movement, or item enhancements)." This potentially refers to the use of rapid trigger technology in the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike, but there are other reports in the replies to the X post that suggest it may simply have been a false ban, since similar has happened to other players who weren't using the new Logitech gaming mouse. Curiously, EA doesn't actually ordinarily ban rapid trigger keyboards in Apex Legends, but it isn't uncommon for game studios to ban SOCD, especially in competitive FPS games. Some theories online suggest that EA's anti-cheat may be using timing as a way to detect macro inputs, and that rapid trigger on the Superstrike may be resulting in click spamming that exceeds that timing threshold, resulting in a ban.

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[NextPowerUP]

Micron announced its 9650 NVMe SSD has entered mass production, making it the first PCIe Gen 6 data center drive to reach this milestone. The series was first unveiled in July 2025, and it features Micron G9 TLC NAND, including Micron designed SSD controller ASIC, DRAM, and Micron produced and validated firmware. The Micron 9650 delivers up to 28 GB/s in sequential reads, double that of PCIe Gen 5 drives. The drive's sequential write speed reaches 14 GB/s, while its random read performance hits 5.5 million IOPS and its random write achieves 900,000 IOPS. These numbers show 100%, 40%, 67%, and 22% gains over Gen 5. At a 25-watt power state, the drive offers double the performance of PCIe Gen 5 options. It has a sequential read efficiency of 1,120 MB/s per watt (2× better than Gen 5), and its sequential write efficiency is 560 MB/s per watt (1.4 times better). The random read efficiency stands at 220 KIOPS per watt (1.7 times higher) and random write at 36 KIOPS per watt (1.2 times improved).

The Micron 9650 supports both air-cooled and liquid-cooled configurations to handle higher performance densities in modern data centers. Micron conducted 18 months of interoperability testing across the PCIe Gen 6 ecosystem, including validation with high-port switches, retimers, and demonstrations at industry events. The drive is now being qualified by OEM and AI data center customers for deployment in AI training and inference workloads, particularly those requiring high-throughput data access for large language models and retrieval-augmented generation pipelines. The Micron 9650 is available in E1.S and E3.S form factors with E1.S available for liquid cooling.

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[NextPowerUP]

"The REANIMAL experience is a clear reflection of who Tarsier is—a group of individuals with a shared sensibility that feel privileged to have been able to work together on a game like this," said Oliver Merlöv, Managing Director, Tarsier Studios. "We believe the more personal the art, the more attention poured into every detail, the more worthy a game is of player's time. We can't wait for them to play REANIMAL!" And since many of you have asked about friend's pass we will let you know as soon as possible!

The game has already received a strong and positive critical reception worldwide, earning generally favorable reviews across all platforms on Metacritic. Additionally, fans can check out the IGN REANIMAL store for some cool official REANIMAL merchandise! Check out the IGN REANIMAL store here.
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[NextPowerUP]

Back in January, Congatec briefly outlined a "launch of five new modules featuring the new Intel Core Ultra Series 3" processor series. Over a month later, their "Panther Lake-H"-powered range has appeared online in COM-HPC and COM Express module forms. An introductory YouTube video, with a publication date of January 5, advertises a significant new generation leap for embedded computing and accelerated edge AI workloads. The best of these modules can deliver up to 180 TOPS of AI performance, presumably enabled by Team Blue's flagship Core Ultra X9 388H APU. The credit card-sized (55 x 84 mm/COM Express Type 10) MC1000 model can be configured with a maximum of 32 GB LPDDR5X (up to) 8533 MT/s "soldered down" system memory. A soldered LPDDR5X arrangement is detailed in the HPC/mPTL's spec sheet, up to 96 GB/8533 MT/s, on a SWaP-C optimized framework (95 x 70 mm/COM-HPC mini).

The ruggedized TC1000 and TC1000r models share the same overall dimensions (95 x 95 mm), that conforms to Congatec's COM Express compact format. The TC1000 board design sports dual SODIMM sockets, that can accept up to 64 GB DDR5/7200 MT/s memory modules, with total system capacity reaching 128 GB. The TC1000r's dram spec is described as: "96 GB LPCAMM2 memory based on LPDDR5x with up to 8533 MT/s" transfer rates. The largest "Panther Lake"-based option—HPC/cPTL (95 x 120 mm/COM-HPC Client Size A)—features an LPCAMM2 socket that accepts up to 96 GB of LPDDR5X memory, with max. transfer rates of 7466 MT/s. At the time of writing, Congatec's PR department has not issued a comprehensive PR piece. In the meantime, curious customers can peruse the manufacturer's detailed product pages, select various memory configs, and request quotes.
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[NextPowerUP]

Valve has been on a roll, delivering handy UI changes and tweaks to the Steam experience in the name of a more cohesive user experience. The latest in the series of updates comes by way of a Steam client beta update that allows users to include their system specs when leaving a review. PC specs are already commonly mentioned in reviews where performance or optimization are a chief complaint, but the new Steam UI change would offer a standardized approach to leaving those specifications. Theoretically, it could also allow other Steam users with similar hardware to offer optimization tips in response to reviews with performance complaints, and it may help developers who don't collect user system information to optimize their games when performance problems become obvious.

In addition to the PC specs, the February 12 Steam Beta client update also includes the option to allow Steam to collect anonymized framerate data "without connection to your Steam account," but with hardware information included. Valve says it will use this data to "learn about compatibility and improve Steam," but the feature is still in beta and will focus on devices running SteamOS for the time being. This data could conceivably be used in the development of Proton and to optimize games and hardware for the upcoming Steam Machine and existing Steam Deck machines. Valve will also now allow Steam Deck users to optionally submit a reason for why they disagree with a Deck Verified rating when submitting such feedback.

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[NextPowerUP]

Laptop and Mini-PC maker Framework is sharing another update with the community about the company's cost base for acquiring DRAM, such as DDR5 memory. In its latest February update, the company notes that the cost for DDR5 memory in its systems is now priced at $12-16 per GB of capacity, depending on the kit size and total capacity. This means that for a 16 GB kit, customers are expected to pay anywhere between $192-256, and as much as about $400 for 32 GB of DDR5 memory in its Laptop 12/13/16 models. According to the company blog post, this represents an average price that Framework is charging depending on the kit, as there is different pricing for a single higher-capacity sticks or dual lower-capacity DIMMs going into the system.

In late December 2025, we reported that Framework's pricing was $10 per GB for 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB modules, and a bit higher for dual rank non-binary 48 GB modules. However, just two months later, the situation is now much worse, as we are seeing Framework's suppliers increasing memory costs anywhere from 20-60%, depending on the configuration.
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[NextPowerUP]

Netmarble, a leading developer and publisher of high-quality games, announced today the official launch schedule for its new open world RPG The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin. Players on PlayStation 5 and Steam will be granted to play earlier beginning March 16, 2026. The game's grand launch follows on March 23, expanding to mobile so more players can experience The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin across platforms.

This staged rollout reflects a platform-first approach designed to support stable service and an optimized play experience. Based on Closed Beta Test feedback, the game is applying upgrades to controls, combat pacing, and overall UI/UX, with a more polished version set to roll out across all platforms at the March 23 grand launch.
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[NextPowerUP]

Euro-Q-Exa, the first EuroHPC Joint Undertaking quantum computer deployed in Germany, has been unveiled at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) in Garching, Munich. The deployment marks a significant step in Europe's effort to build long-term quantum capability as part of its sovereign digital infrastructure, alongside world-leading high-performance computing (HPC).

Installed, hosted, and operated at LRZ, Euro-Q-Exa is designed not merely to provide access to quantum computing, but to enable European researchers to build, operate, and scale quantum capabilities locally. By embedding the system within an established HPC environment, the system supports the development of hands-on expertise, operational know-how, and sustainable research capacity within Europe.
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[NextPowerUP]

Prepare to unravel the mysteries of the lost colony of Tau Ceti IV: Marathon is hosting a Server Slam where players worldwide can jump into Marathon and earn rewards for launch. The Bungie team has shared more details about the upcoming open preview weekend, which will run from February 26 to March 2 on PlayStation 5 and other platforms. The weekend will feature an introduction to Marathon's gameplay, with additional maps, factions, contracts, and more to come at launch and during Season 1.

Marathon is the upcoming survival extraction FPS from Bungie, the studio behind Halo and Destiny. In Marathon, you'll scavenge the lost colony of Tau Ceti as a bio-cybernetic Runner. Play with your crew, as a solo Runner, or form uneasy alliances with proximity chat as you take on hostile security forces, rival Runners, and unpredictable environments. Complete contracts, craft new builds, and take on greater challenges—culminating with the derelict Marathon ship in orbit.
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[NextPowerUP]

AMD is excited to announce Day 0 support for Alibaba's latest generation of Large Language Models, Qwen 3.5, on AMD Instinct MI300X, MI325X, and MI355X GPU accelerators, in close collaboration with Alibaba Qwen team. Leveraging the optimized ROCm software stack, SGLang and vLLM inference serving framework, developers can immediately deploy these state-of-the-art models.

The Strategic Value of Qwen 3.5 on AMD Instinct
Empowering Next-Generation AI Agents—This Day 0 enablement is designed for AI developers, system architects, and DevOps professionals building the next wave of AI agents and enterprise platforms. While previous models required trade-offs between parameter depth and reasoning speed, the Qwen 3.5 family on AMD Instinct GPUs allows teams to deploy massive 256K context windows and complex multimodal workflows with unprecedented efficiency.
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[NextPowerUP]

KDE released Plasma 6.6 today, the latest version of the popular Linux desktop environment, also used in Steam Deck desktop mode. The biggest addition is the new Plasma Login Manager, a potential replacement for Simple Desktop Display Manager (SDDM) in distributions like Fedora Linux 44, CachyOS, and EndeavourOS. Note that it requires systemd, so it won't work on systemd-free distros. The Spectacle screenshot tool gains OCR capabilities, and a new USB portal lets sandboxed apps request access to USB devices. Users running Linux kernel 6.19 can now adjust the visual sharpness of all on-screen content. You can also turn your current Plasma setup into a global theme. KDE Plasma 6.6 adds XRandr emulation in KWin for better XWayland app compatibility, per-DRM-plane color pipeline support, and custom screen mode support in Wayland sessions. Screen mirroring is improved, and a new "Slow Keys" accessibility feature has been added.

Windows games with HDR running through Wine or Proton also get a color accuracy workaround. Wi-Fi passwords can now be stored in a root-owned location for better security, and a QR code in the Networks widget makes connecting easier. Battery handling on laptops is improved, ambient light sensor support enables automatic brightness adjustment, and colorblind user support has been enhanced. Windows can now be selectively excluded from screen recordings.
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