Tom's Hardware

Synopsys announces Ultra Ethernet and UALink IP to power the next-generation of AI datacenters

(Image credit: Synopsys) Synopsys on Wednesday announced the availability of its silicon-proven Ultra Ethernet IP solution for next-generation AI clusters with up to one million nodes, plus a UALink IP solution for linking massive pods with up to 1,024 accelerators. The IPs can be used to develop next-generation Ultra Ethernet network controllers, network interface cards,… Read more

Huawei sticks to 7nm for latest processor as China’s chip advancements stall

Last year, Huawei and SMIC made quite a breakthrough with the 7nm-class HiSilicon Kirin 9000S processor which powers Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro smartphone. However, this year’s Mate 70 Pro handset and its system-on-chip demonstrate limited progress in semiconductor manufacturing in China, as the processor continues to use a 7nm-class process technology reports Bloomberg citing TechInsights…. Read more

Google’s Gemini 2.0 AI agents are being trained to offer gameplay advice and suggestions

(Image credit: Google) This week, Google is adding to its Gemini AI model with the introduction of Gemini 2.0. One of many new Gemini features highlighted in the 2.0 Update blog post points toward a potential future where Google’s AI assistant even helps you while you’re playing games. Project Gemini 2.0 agents have been tested… Read more

Supreme Court shuts down Nvidia appeal — cryptomining class action suit will proceed

(Image credit: Nvidia) The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal from Nvidia, rejecting its request to shut down a class-action lawsuit that began in 2018. The suit, based on cryptocurrency mining, involves accusations that the company misled its shareholders. The Supreme Court first heard arguments from Nvidia’s attorneys in November and issued a one-sentence… Read more

Fujitsu flaunts massive 144-core Monaka Arm chip — 2nm and 5nm chiplets, 3D-stacked CPU cores over memory

Fujitsu has demonstrated a mechanical sample of its Armv9-based 144-core Monaka processor for data centers, revealing some details. Less than a week ago, it disclosed that it is being developed with Broadcom and relies on its 3.5D eXtreme Dimension System in Package platform. Satoshi Matsuoka, director of the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) and a professor at Tokyo… Read more

LG stops making Blu-ray players, marking the end of an era — limited units remain while inventory lasts

In a disappointing turn of events, FlatpanelsHD reports that LG has ended production of its Blu-ray player series, which includes the UBK80 and UBK90 models. With limited stock available, prospective buyers should act quickly to secure the last remaining units before they are sold out. After Samsung and Sony’s departure from physical media, LG was… Read more

Valve now sells refurbished Steam Deck OLED for 20% cheaper than brand new — 512GB model for $439 and 1TB model for $519

Valve has introduced the Steam Deck OLED to its certified refurbished program. Gamers can now buy the OLED variant refurbished directly from Valve at a heavy discount. The refurbished OLED models are 20% less expensive than their vanilla brand-new counterparts. The 1TB OLED and 512GB Steam Deck OLED models are available with the refurbished program…. Read more

Custom Raspberry Pi 5 case rebuilds Pi 5 open loop into the hyper-compact case with the loop still intact — system stays below 43ºC at max load

(Image credit: Michael Klements on YouTube) Earlier today, YouTuber Michael Klements uploaded a detailed build log showcasing his custom, water-cooled Raspberry Pi 5 case, including an open loop and acrylic side panel, at a footprint competitive with the best retail Pi 5 cases. This was accomplished using lots of retail hardware, including an existing (overkill)… Read more

Intel’s latest Arrow Lake CPU firmware reportedly offers little to no performance gains — users test the microcode ahead of launch on the ASRock Z890 Taichi OCF

The 0x114 microcode for Intel’s Core Ultra 200S (Arrow Lake) processor lineup has surfaced online at Overclock.net. This patch is believed to address the significant performance gaps. However, forum users report negligible gains in performance. It is important to note that motherboard vendors have yet to officially release this microcode, which is apparent because it… Read more

Sony PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 now natively supports Arm64 architecture — including Raspberry Pi 5

This week, developers behind the PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 announced that RPCS3 had now achieved stable, native Arm64 architecture support for Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms— Arm64 architecture support so definitive that it even includes the Raspberry Pi 5, of all devices, utterly pushing the limits of emulation believed possible on the Raspberry Pi 5…. Read more

BadRAM attack breaches AMD secure VMs using a Raspberry Pi Pico, DDR socket, and a 9V battery

Researchers have described the BadRAM attack, which is claimed to facilitate the breaching of processor security “via rogue memory modules” (h/t The Register). Specifically, the research team has outlined a successful attack on AMD’s cutting-edge Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) using a $5 Raspberry Pi Pico connected to a DDR socket and powered by a 9V… Read more

AMD shares 30×25 progress: New AI machines are 28.3 times faster than 2020 machines

Performance efficiency is key to rapid performance increase of AI and HPC processors, so AMD and other companies are fighting for it fiercely with every new product generation. Back in 2021, the company set itself a goal of 2025 to increase the energy efficiency of its EPYC processors and Instinct accelerators by 30 times compared… Read more

Marvell develops custom HBM solution that offers higher performance in a smaller physical space

(Image credit: Marvell) Marvell has announced custom high-bandwidth memory (CHBM) solution for its custom XPUs designed for AI applications at its Analyst Day 2024. Developed in partnership with leading memory makers, CHBM promises to optimize performance, power, memory capacity, die size, and cost for specific XPU designs. CHBM will be compatible with Marvell’s custom XPUs… Read more

TSMC founder says Intel has neither a strategy nor a CEO

It’s still arguably too early to confidently state how successful Intel’s 18A process technology (1.8nm-class) will be. But in about a year, we should know if Pat Gelsinger’s five nodes in four years plan was a success. That said, Intel’s failure to offer a competitive AI processor is evident even today, which gives Morris Chang,… Read more

30-year-old Pentium FDIV bug tracked down in the silicon — Ken Shirriff takes the microscope to Intel’s first-ever recall

Noted hardware historian and reverse-engineer Ken Shirriff recently found the exact transistors in the original Intel Pentium which caused the “FDIV bug”, leading to a $475 million recall in 1994. As seen on his Mastodon thread, Shirriff took a microscopic dive into the PLA which holds a faulty division table, tracking down the root cause… Read more