EasySMX, a leader in gaming accessories, is thrilled to announce the launch of its latest innovation, the EasySMX M05 mobile gaming controller, available starting May 7th. Designed with the needs of mobile gamers in mind, the EasySMX M05 brings unparalleled convenience and enhanced control to gaming on-the-go.

Following the announcement, the EasySMX team is eager to dive into the specifics of what makes the M05 a must-have for any serious mobile gamer. Designed with both casual and hardcore players in mind, the M05 merges comfort, technology, and versatility into one user-friendly device. This commitment to quality ensures that every gaming session is seamless and immersive.

Today Logitech announced that a new Logitech Combo Touch is now available with the redesigned new iPad Air and thin and light new iPad Pro. Made with sustainable and premium materials, the new Combo Touch models are the thinnest and lightest models yet, taking portability to the next level and allowing users to be productive from anywhere. Combo Touch, a leading keyboard case for the new iPad Air and iPad Pro, offers unparalleled versatility and features a detachable keyboard and flexible kickstand, enabling multiple use modes and swift task transitions. Easily type, sketch, view, read and more, from anywhere. The largest Multi-Touch trackpad yet (on a Combo Touch), ensures intuitive and precise input and navigation.

"The Combo Touch has long captured the hearts of our users, and with the introduction of the redesigned iPad Air and new iPad Pro, we've taken its valued features to new heights," said Joseph Mingori, general manager of Mobile Solutions and Partnerships in Personal Workspace Solutions at Logitech. "Our commitment to enhancing the user experience has led us to develop a highly portable Combo Touch, designed to seamlessly blend premium quality with uncompromised functionality. Enjoy the ultimate freedom to work and play from any location, effortlessly."

The Sennheiser brand today launches the latest member of their portable portfolio, ACCENTUM True Wireless. Packed with signature Sennheiser acoustics, dynamic wireless capabilities, and an all-new ergonomic design, it is an easy choice for an on-the-go, connected lifestyle. "ACCENTUM True Wireless builds on what their over-ear counterparts are renowned for: incredible sound, useful features, and unbeatable value." says Frank Foppe, Sennheiser Product Manager. "We packed these qualities inside a reimagined, award-winning design that unlocks the magic of "the Sennheiser sound" to anyone needing an untethered upgrade."

Signature sound
From the first listen, ACCENTUM True Wireless is a serious performer. It all starts with the brand's proprietary 7 mm dynamic True Response Transducers that reproduce powerful and engaging bass, natural mids and crisp treble-handling even the most complex modern music without breaking a sweat. The ultra-low distortion drivers are made at the Sennheiser Tullamore factory, under the same roof as those found in other ACCENTUM, MOMENTUM and audiophile headphones.

Today we are thrilled to announce the latest innovation that promises to transform your gaming experience: Razer Cortex: Add-Ons. Our commitment at Razer has always been to push the boundaries of gaming technology and provide our users with the tools they need to succeed, whether they're casual gamers or competitive athletes. Today, we're taking another giant leap forward in fulfilling that promise, with the introduction of Cortex: Add-Ons - a new feature, crafted with the aim of maximizing your gaming experience.

What is Razer Cortex: Add-Ons?
Cortex: Add-Ons is your one-stop destination for all your gaming plug-in needs. We understand that gaming is not one-size-fits-all, which is why we're bringing you a platform that caters to your individual needs. Whether it's optimizing your performance, sharing your gaming highlights, or enriching your gaming sessions with unique tools, we've got you covered.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) has expanded its SanDisk portfolio with the new 8 TB SanDisk Desk Drive, its highest capacity yet on an external desktop solid state drive (SSD). Featuring the speed and reliability of an SSD, this new class of drives gives content creators and business professionals an easy way to back up and access their high-resolution photos, videos and files quickly in a single, convenient location. From photo and video pros to tech enthusiasts, there are a growing number of digital creators generating massive amounts of content who need flexible high-capacity storage solutions to do more, faster.

"As digital content creation continues to soar, there is an increasing need for high-performing and high-capacity storage solutions to help manage and preserve it. Expanding our SSD portfolio is the first step in offering creators backup solutions that deliver the speed and flexibility they need to unlock their creativity," says Susan Park, Vice President, Consumer Solutions, Western Digital. "By next year, we expect to double the capacity of the SanDisk Desk Drive from 8 TB to 16 TB on a single desktop SSD."

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA ) today announced that it has published a major update to its widely adopted High-Performance Monitor and Display Compliance Test Specification (DisplayHDR), which launched the display industry's first fully open standard specifying high dynamic range (HDR) quality. The updated spec, DisplayHDR version 1.2, includes significantly tighter performance requirements, including for luminance, color gamut and bit depth, as well as several new test requirements for color accuracy, contrast ratio, black levels, and subtitle flicker, to address recent advances in display technology.

Companies can begin certifying products under the new DisplayHDR 1.2 spec today. In addition, VESA will continue to allow products to be certified under the previous DisplayHDR 1.1 spec through the end of May 2025 for monitors, and May 2026 for laptops, to allow for products already in development that have been designed to meet the previous spec. To date, more than 3000 display models have been certified to the DisplayHDR standard.

Apple today announced the redesigned 11-inch and all-new 13-inch iPad Air, supercharged by the M2 chip. Now available in two sizes for the first time, the 11-inch iPad Air is super-portable, and the 13-inch model provides an even larger display for more room to work, learn, and play. Both deliver phenomenal performance and advanced capabilities, making iPad Air more powerful and versatile than ever before. Featuring a faster CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine in M2, the new iPad Air offers even more performance and is an incredibly powerful device for artificial intelligence. The front-facing Ultra Wide 12MP camera with Center Stage is now located along the landscape edge of iPad Air, which is perfect for video calls. It also includes faster Wi-Fi, and cellular models include super-fast 5G, so users can stay connected on the go. With a portable design, all-day battery life, a brilliant Liquid Retina display, and support for Apple Pencil Pro, Apple Pencil (USB-C), and Magic Keyboard, iPad Air empowers users to be even more productive and creative. The new iPad Air is available in new blue and purple finishes, along with starlight and space gray. The 11-inch iPad Air still starts at just $599, and the 13-inch iPad Air is a fantastic value at just $799. Customers can order the new iPad Air today, with availability beginning Wednesday, May 15.

"So many users—from students, to content creators, to small businesses, and more—love iPad Air for its performance, portability, and versatility, all at an affordable price. Today, iPad Air gets even better," said Bob Borchers, Apple's vice president of Product Marketing. "We're so excited to introduce the redesigned 11-inch and all-new 13-inch iPad Air, offering two sizes for the first time. With its combination of a brilliant Liquid Retina display, the phenomenal performance of the M2 chip, incredible AI capabilities, and its colorful, portable design with support for new accessories, iPad Air is more powerful and versatile than ever."

Apple today unveiled the groundbreaking new iPad Pro in a stunningly thin and light design, taking portability and performance to the next level. Available in silver and space black finishes, the new iPad Pro comes in two sizes: an expansive 13-inch model and a super-portable 11-inch model. Both sizes feature the world's most advanced display—a new breakthrough Ultra Retina XDR display with state-of-the-art tandem OLED technology—providing a remarkable visual experience. The new iPad Pro is made possible with the new M4 chip, the next generation of Apple silicon, which delivers a huge leap in performance and capabilities. M4 features an entirely new display engine to enable the precision, color, and brightness of the Ultra Retina XDR display. With a new CPU, a next-generation GPU that builds upon the GPU architecture debuted on M3, and the most powerful Neural Engine yet, the new iPad Pro is an outrageously powerful device for artificial intelligence. The versatility and advanced capabilities of iPad Pro are also enhanced with all-new accessories. Apple Pencil Pro brings powerful new interactions that take the pencil experience even further, and a new thinner, lighter Magic Keyboard is packed with incredible features. The new iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, and Magic Keyboard are available to order starting today, with availability in stores beginning Wednesday, May 15.

"iPad Pro empowers a broad set of pros and is perfect for anyone who wants the ultimate iPad experience—with its combination of the world's best displays, extraordinary performance of our latest M-series chips, and advanced accessories—all in a portable design. Today, we're taking it even further with the new, stunningly thin and light iPad Pro, our biggest update ever to iPad Pro," said John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. "With the breakthrough Ultra Retina XDR display, the next-level performance of M4, incredible AI capabilities, and support for the all-new Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard, there's no device like the new iPad Pro."

Apple today announced M4, the latest chip delivering phenomenal performance to the all-new iPad Pro. Built using second-generation 3-nanometer technology, M4 is a system on a chip (SoC) that advances the industry-leading power efficiency of Apple silicon and enables the incredibly thin design of iPad Pro. It also features an entirely new display engine to drive the stunning precision, color, and brightness of the breakthrough Ultra Retina XDR display on iPad Pro. A new CPU has up to 10 cores, while the new 10-core GPU builds on the next-generation GPU architecture introduced in M3, and brings Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and hardware-accelerated mesh shading to iPad for the first time. M4 has Apple's fastest Neural Engine ever, capable of up to 38 trillion operations per second, which is faster than the neural processing unit of any AI PC today. Combined with faster memory bandwidth, along with next-generation machine learning (ML) accelerators in the CPU, and a high-performance GPU, M4 makes the new iPad Pro an outrageously powerful device for artificial intelligence.

"The new iPad Pro with M4 is a great example of how building best-in-class custom silicon enables breakthrough products," said Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. "The power-efficient performance of M4, along with its new display engine, makes the thin design and game-changing display of iPad Pro possible, while fundamental improvements to the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and memory system make M4 extremely well suited for the latest applications leveraging AI. Altogether, this new chip makes iPad Pro the most powerful device of its kind."

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the availability of Crucial LPCAMM2, the disruptive next-generation laptop memory form factor that features LPDDR5X mobile memory to level up laptop performance for professionals and creators. Consuming up to 58% less active power and with a 64% space savings compared to DDR5 SODIMMs, LPCAMM2 delivers higher bandwidth and dual-channel support with a single module. LPCAMM2 is an ideal high-performance memory solution for handling AI PC and complex workloads and is compatible with the powerful and versatile Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 mobile workstations.

"LPCAMM2 is a game-changer for mobile workstation users who want to enjoy the benefits of the latest mobile high performance memory technology without sacrificing superior performance, upgradeability, power efficiency or space," said Jonathan Weech, senior director of product marketing for Micron's Commercial Products Group. "With LPCAMM2, we are delivering a future-proof memory solution, enabling faster speeds and longer battery life to support demanding creative and AI workloads."

Malaysia-based Elysian Acoustic Labs is a famous in-ear monitors brand that is known for its expensive offerings. The current flagship Annihilator costs $2999, for example, with an even more expensive one coming out soon. It's least expensive set—before today—cost well over $1000, so news of a $400 set of IEMs from the brand felt important enough to mention here for those interested. The Pilgrim is manufactured by Singapore-based Effect Audio and tuned by Elysian Acoustic Labs, uses a 1 DD (new-gen 9.2 mm Al-Mg diaphragm) + 3 Sonion balanced armature driver configuration inside a machined aluminium shell with a matching faceplate that features cleverly integrated vents. Expect to see a similar tuning style as other popular IEMs from the brand—exceptional lows, balanced mids, and good treble extension—and we will have a full review soon. It comes with a silver-plated copper stock cable in 3.5 mm or 4.4 mm terminations as well as set of Spinfit ear tips in the box. For those interested in purchasing the hotly-anticipated Pilgrim, a small first batch is up for sale on HiFiGo.

TrendForce's latest forecasts reveal contract prices for DRAM in the second quarter are expected to increase by 13-18%, while NAND Flash contract prices have been adjusted to a 15-20% Only eMMC/UFS will be seeing a smaller price increase of about 10%.

Before the 4/03 earthquake, TrendForce had initially predicted that DRAM contract prices would see a seasonal rise of 3-8% and NAND Flash 13-18%, significantly tapering from Q1 as seen from spot price indicators which showed weakening price momentum and reduced transaction volumes. This was primarily due to subdued demand outside of AI applications, particularly with no signs of recovery in demand for notebooks and smartphones. Inventory levels were gradually increasing, especially among PC OEMs. Additionally, with DRAM and NAND Flash prices having risen for 2-3 consecutive quarters, the willingness of buyers to accept further substantial price increases had diminished.

Leaked Lenovo product flyers point to the possibility of AMD's next-generation "Strix Point" mobile processor getting the processor numbering scheme of Ryzen 8050 series. The Lenovo flyer describes a ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 business notebook. Lending credence to the theory of the 8050 series being "Strix Point" is the numeral "5." The Ryzen 7030 series processors were based on the "Rembrand-R" silicon and the "Zen 3" microarchitecture. The Ryzen 7040 series were based on the newer "Phoenix" silicon, and "Zen 4." The current 8040 series chips are based on the "Hawk Point" silicon, and the existing "Zen 4" microarchitecture. See where this is going? The Ryzen 8050 series will hence be based on "Strix Point," featuring the latest "Zen 5" CPU cores, besides other cool stuff, such as a 50 AI TOPS-class NPU, and an updated iGPU based on the RDNA 3+ architecture. AMD's 2024 Computex address promises to be action-packed, with announcements expected across the client- and commercial processor spaces based on "Zen 5," next-gen EPYC "Zen 5" server processors, and perhaps even the Radeon RX RDNA 4.

Apple is reportedly working on creating in-house chips designed explicitly for its data centers. This news comes from a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, which highlights the company's efforts to enhance its data processing capabilities and reduce dependency on third parties to supply the infrastructure. In the internal project called Apple Chips in Data Center (ACDC), which started in 2018, Apple wanted to design data center processors to handle the massive user base and increase the company's service offerings. The most recent advancement in AI means that Apple will probably serve an LLM processed in Apple's data center. The chip will most likely focus on inference of AI models rather than training.

The AI chips are expected to play a crucial role in improving the efficiency and speed of Apple's data centers, which handle vast amounts of data generated by the company's various services and products. By developing these custom chips, Apple aims to optimize its data processing and storage capabilities, ultimately leading to better user experiences across its ecosystem. The move by Apple to develop AI-enhanced chips for data centers is seen as a strategic step in the company's efforts to stay ahead in the competitive tech landscape. Almost all major tech companies, famously called the big seven, have products that use AI in silicon and in software processing. However, Apple is the one that seemingly lacked that. Now, the company is integrating AI across the entire vertical, from the upcoming iPhone integration to M4 chips for Mac devices and ACDC chips for data centers.

According to The Information, Microsoft is developing a new AI model, internally named MAI-1, designed to compete with the leading models from Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI. This significant step forward in the tech giant's AI capabilities is boosted by Mustafa Suleyman, the former Google AI leader who previously served as CEO of Inflection AI before Microsoft acquired the majority of its staff and intellectual property for $650 million in March. MAI-1 is a custom Microsoft creation that utilizes training data and technology from Inflection but is not a transferred model. It is also distinct from Inflection's previously released Pi models, as confirmed by two Microsoft insiders familiar with the project. With approximately 500 billion parameters, MAI-1 will be significantly larger than its predecessors, surpassing the capabilities of Microsoft's smaller, open-source models.

For comparison, OpenAI's GPT-4 boasts 1.8 trillion parameters in a Mixture of Experts sparse design, while open-source models from Meta and Mistral feature 70 billion parameters dense. Microsoft's investment in MAI-1 highlights its commitment to staying competitive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. The development of this large-scale model represents a significant step forward for the tech giant, as it seeks to challenge industry leaders in the field. The increased computing power, training data, and financial resources required for MAI-1 demonstrate Microsoft's dedication to pushing the boundaries of AI capabilities and intention to compete on its own. With the involvement of Mustafa Suleyman, a renowned expert in AI, the company is well-positioned to make significant strides in this field.

MediaTek today unveiled the Dimensity 9300+, the latest flagship mobile chip in MediaTek's Dimensity portfolio. The Dimensity 9300+ offers increased clock speeds and is designed to accelerate on-device generative AI processing, offering broader support for LLMs, and other performance enhancements over the Dimensity 9300. "The Dimensity 9300+ will help us continue to build a rich ecosystem of generative AI applications thanks to the chip's broad LLM support and on-device LoRA Fusion," said JC Hsu, Corporate Senior Vice President at MediaTek. "To enhance these AI experiences, the Dimensity 9300+ offers impressive performance and enhancements to speed up LLM inference, running tokens much faster for a better user experience."

Leveraging an All-Big-Core design with 3rd generation TSMC 4 nm process, Dimensity 9300+ has one Arm Cortex-X4 core operating at up to 3.4 GHz, plus three Cortex-X4 cores and four Cortex-A720 cores. The Dimensity 9300+ also boasts AI processing over the previous generation thanks to MediaTek's new NeuroPilot Speculative Decode Acceleration technology in the company's latest generative AI engine. The powerful APU 790 AI engine allows Dimensity 9300+ to not only support LLMs with 1B, 7B, and 13B parameters, with scalability up to 33B, but also run LLMs quickly and efficiently. With NeuroPilot Speculative Decode Acceleration, Dimensity 9300+ can run LLMs with seven billion parameters at 22 tokens per second, more than 2X the rate of competitive mass market solutions.

As the Product Evangelist for Razer's VR accessories, it's my absolute pleasure to introduce an exciting leap forward in virtual reality gaming: the launch of our new Razer Facial Interface and Razer Adjustable Head Strap System for Meta Quest 3. In developing these products, we aimed to merge Razer's cutting-edge technology with the needs of the modern VR gamer, creating a truly immersive and comfortable experience. These join our current line of products for Meta Quest, including the Razer Hammerhead HyperSpeed for Meta Quest 3.

Crafted for Comfort, Designed for Gamers
Our journey began with a vision to redefine what gamers can expect from their VR equipment. Partnering with ResMed, human factor experts with over 30 years of experience, we drew upon over three decades of expertise to ensure our accessories not only push the envelope in terms of design but also set a new standard for comfort. Our previous generation of VR accessories for the Meta Quest platform was recognized with the Australian Good Design Award, a testament to our commitment to innovation.

Corsair today announced the launch of the Corsair ONE i500 PC, a compact powerhouse packed with cutting-edge components and boasting high-end performance for content creators, AI-savvy professionals, and gamers. The sleek, space-saving design houses up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card and Intel Core i9-14900K processor—both liquid cooled. Combined with next-gen DDR5 memory and 2 TB of NVMe SSD storage, the Corsair ONE i500 delivers the speed, storage, and reliability you'd expect from a high-end PC.

The Corsair ONE i500 PC is 30% smaller than a full-sized desktop PC but doesn't compromise on power. Modern liquid cooling delivers top-tier thermal efficiency, minimizing CPU and GPU temperatures while achieving faster performance, all while being noticeably quieter than traditional cooling. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and 4080 SUPER graphics cards power a quantum leap in framerates and AI-powered graphics, while Intel 14th Gen CPU architecture makes sure you game and multitask without compromise.

Thanks to recent developments in the AI field, and following in the wake of the world's recovery from COVID-19, the transition of factories to partial or full automation proceeds with unstoppable momentum. And the best place to learn about the latest technologies that aim to make this transition as painless as possible is at Automate 2024. This is North America's largest robotics and automation event, and it will be held in Chicago, Illinois from May 6 to 9.

Automate attracts professionals from around the world, and Apacer is no exception. Apacer team will be on hand to discuss the latest technological developments created by our experienced R&D team. Many of these developments were specifically created to reduce the pain points commonly experienced by fully automated facilities. Take CoreSnapshot, for example. This backup and recovery technology can restore a crashed system to full operation in just a few seconds, reducing downtime and associated maintenance costs. Apacer recently updated CoreSnapshot, creating CoreRescue ASR and CoreRescue USR. The name of CoreRescue ASR refers to Auto Self Recovery. This technology will harness AI to learn the system booting process and analyze how long a boot should take. If this average boot time is significantly longer than usual, the system will trigger the self-recovery process and revert to an earlier, uncorrupted version of the drive's content. CoreRescue USR offers similar functionality, except the self-recovery process is triggered by connecting a small USB stick drive.

TerraMaster, a professional brand that focuses on providing innovative storage products for homes and businesses, has recently released the D8 Hybrid
which is the industry-unique 2+6 RAID hybrid storage, with slots 1 & 2 offer a playground for RAID 0/1/JBOD configurations, slots 3 & 4 and M.2 NVMe SSDs
stand strong as independent guardians, ensuring the data's absolute security. D8 Hybrid can hold 4 SATA HDDs/SSDs and 4 M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs, with a capacity of 24 TB a drive, and 8 TB per M.2 SSD, providing users with up to 128 TB (24 TB x 4 + 8 TB x 4) of storage space, which is an excellent choice for storage expansion of Windows, Mac or Linux computers.

Using the D8 Hybrid as a storage expansion device for Windows, Mac, or Linux computers is a great choice, especially considering its support
for large-capacity HDDs up to 24 TB and 8 TB NVMe M.2 SSDs, with a total capacity potentially reaching 128 TB. The D8 Hybrid supports various file system formats including NTFS, APFS, EXT4, FAT32, and exFAT. Its support for the exFAT file system, which can handle large files, allows hard drives formatted with the exFAT file system on the D8 Hybrid to be read and written across devices running different operating systems such as Windows, Mac, and NAS, providing a convenient cross-platform solution for large file transfers.

The PICO-ITX, a compact embedded single-board computer (SBC) based on a 100 mm x 72 mm form factor, serves as a more space-efficient alternative motherboard, ensuring a broad range of interfaces on a more readily deployable board.

GIGAIPC's PICO-G350A (Yocto OS) / PICO-G350B (Android OS) are the first Pico-ITX boards to feature an ARM SoC, powered by MediaTek MT8365 Arm Quad-Core Cortex -A53, to provide incredible energy efficiency and outstanding low power consumption that demonstrates impressive performance. Featuring a ruggedized design, it operates reliably across a wide temperature range from 0 to 60°C. Designed with flexibility and rich on-board interfaces, including USB 2.0 (hot and USB OTG), Micro SD expansion slots, and M.2 2230 E-Key for AW-CB451NF-D wifi module support, this solution is tailored to accommodate various application scenarios, such as smart retail, self-service terminals, industrial automation, intelligent medical health, and digital media.

Radxa is a Chinese manufacturer of various Arm based devices and something of a minor competitor to the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The company has just launched its latest product which is called the ROCK 5 ITX. As the name implies, it's a Mini-ITX form factor motherboard, which in itself is rather unusual for Arm based hardware to start with. However, Radxa has designed the ROCK 5 ITX to be a NAS motherboard and this is the first time we've come across such a product, as most Arm based boards are either intended for hobby projects, software development or routers. This makes the ROCK 5 ITX quite unique, at least based on its form factor, as it'll be compatible with standard Mini-ITX chassis.

The SoC on the board is a Rockchip RK3588 which sports four Cortex-A76 cores at up to 2.4 GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8 GHz. This is not exactly cutting edge, but should be plenty fast enough for a SATA drive based NAS. The board offers four SATA 6 Gbps connectors via an ASMedia ASM1164 controller, each with an individual power connector next to it. However, Radxa seems to have chosen to use fan-header type power connectors, which means it'll be hard to get replacement power cables. The board also has a PCIe 3.0 x2 M.2 slot for an NVMe drive. The OS boots from eMMC and Radxa supports its own Roobi OS which is Debian Linux based.

Following up on last week's launch of the ASTRIA 600 ARGB dual-stack CPU cooler, Thermaltake today introduced its single-stack siblings from the lineup, the ASTRIA 200 ARGB, and the ASTRIA 400 ARGB. The three coolers were unveiled by the company earlier this year at the 2024 CES. Both the 200 and 400 are single fin-stack tower-type CPU coolers. The 200 has a slightly smaller fin-stack, and uses four 6 mm-thick heatpipes, through a direct-touch base; while the 400 uses a slightly heavier fin-stack, six 6 mm-thick heatpipes, and a nickel-plated copper indirect touch base. Thermaltake rates the ASTRIA 200 ARGB for thermal loads of 210 W, while the ASTRIA 400 ARGB is rated at 230 W. Both coolers feature ARGB LED lighting in the form of a diffuser top-plate, and LEDs in the fan.

The ASTRIA 200 ARGB measures 124 mm x 93 mm x 160 mm (L x W x H), while the ASTRIA 400 ARGB measures 124 mm x 94 mm x 160 mm. Both coolers include an identical type of 120 mm fan, which takes in 4-pin PWM input, turns at speeds ranging between 500 and 1800 RPM, pushing up to 65 CFM of airflow, at 2.56 mm H₂O static pressure, and 26.8 dBA of maximum noise. The fan is rated for 40,000 hours. Among the CPU socket types supported by both coolers include LGA1700, the upcoming LGA1851, AM5, AM4, and LGA1200/115x.

Avril Wu, TrendForce Senior Research Vice President, reports that the HBM market is poised for robust growth, driven by significant pricing premiums and increased capacity needs for AI chips. HBM's unit sales price is several times higher than that of conventional DRAM and about five times that of DDR5. This pricing, combined with product iterations in AI chip technology that increase single-device HBM capacity, is expected to dramatically raise HBM's share in both the capacity and market value of the DRAM market from 2023 to 2025. Specifically, HBM's share of total DRAM bit capacity is estimated to rise from 2% in 2023 to 5% in 2024 and surpass 10% by 2025. In terms of market value, HBM is projected to account for more than 20% of the total DRAM market value starting in 2024, potentially exceeding 30% by 2025.

2024 sees HBM demand growth rate near 200%, set to double in 2025
Wu also pointed out that negotiations for 2025 HBM pricing have already commenced in 2Q24. However, due to the limited overall capacity of DRAM, suppliers have preliminarily increased prices by 5-10% to manage capacity constraints, affecting HBM2e, HBM3, and HBM3e. This early negotiation phase is attributed to three main factors: Firstly, HBM buyers maintain high confidence in AI demand prospects and are willing to accept continued price increases.

XFX over the weekend rolled out the Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana graphics card, the company's new flagship custom-design product based on fastest AMD Radeon GPU you can buy. From the looks of it, the card is China-exclusive, as we haven't seen any updates from the European or North American arms of XFX showcase this card. The Phoenix Nirvana is noticeably larger than the company's current MERC 310, and features a 4-slot design, with a significantly heavier heatsink. The card is 34.6 cm long, 13 cm tall, and is 4 slots thick.

The star attraction with this card is its large aluminium fin-stack heatsink, which features 216 aluminium fins for a total of 62.586 mm² of surface area for heat dissipation; six copper heatpipes, a vapor-chamber base, and 15,000 W/mK Honeywell PTM 7950 phase-changing thermal pad between the vapor-chamber and the GPU. Each of the three 100 mm fans of the XFX RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana features a fluid-dynamic bearing, turns at speeds of up to 3,200 RPM, pushing 70.08 CFM of airflow, at 4.88 mm H₂O, each. The card is priced at ¥7,899 in China, which converts to roughly $1,090.

Introducing the Antec C5 ARGB Black & White PC case, featuring a striking 270-degree tempered glass panel, ARGB light strip, tool-free design, dual-chamber chassis, and support for 40 series graphics cards. It's the perfect blend of style, convenience, and performance for your gaming setup. Featuring a 270-degree full-view tempered glass panel with a seamless corner connection achieved through a 45-degree glass bevelling technique, ensuring an uninterrupted panoramic view. Complementing this sleek design is a stylish front panel adorned with an integrated ARGB lighting strip, adding a touch of aesthetic brilliance to your gaming setup.

The C5 ARGB supports next-gen back connect motherboards, allowing you to connect cables at the rear of the motherboard for a clean and smooth look. The C5 is also a dual chamber design chassis, with the right chamber featuring a top-mounted power supply area and 95 mm of cable management space. Included Pre-Installed PWM Fans with Controller. The C5 ARGB also comes with 7x 120 mm ARGB PWM fans pre-installed, 3 at the bottom, 3 on the side mount and 1 at the rear of the chassis providing massive intake and exhaust capability. Not only this, there is also an integrated ARGB & PWM fan controller, mounted at the bottom of the rear chamber, to control your fans and ARGB synchronization from either the case LED switch or motherboard.

On Friday, Sony announced that Helldivers 2, a 3rd person squad-based shooter from Arrowhead, will require a PlayStation Network (PSN) account for gamers to link, in addition to their Steam accounts. However, that caused quite a stir in the gaming community, especially in the form of negative reviews on Steam. Since the May 2 announcement of mandatory PSN account linking, the game received more than 200,000 negative reviews from gamers. Not only is the PSN account another layer of log-in details, but it also doesn't work in 177 countries, effectively preventing gamers from those 177 countries from purchasing and enjoying the game. Arrowhead Studios CEO and Helldivers 2 Creative Director Johan Pilestedt noted that over the weekend, there were talks with Sony about reversing the decision.

Today, we have the information that Sony has reviewed its course and that the update requiring a PSN account, planned for May 6, will not be moving forward. This means that the game is PSN-free, and gamers are able to enjoy it on their Steam accounts. It has also been reported on Reddit that some users received refunds from Steam, even when their purchase was over two months old, and they had played 120+ hours of the game. As per the GDPR, terms that are changed after the agreement is made require action from the seller. This has resulted in Steam stepping up for gamers and issuing a refund for Helldivers 2, as PSN account linking was optional upon release. Gamers have shown their collective power, and Sony has managed to reverse its decision so that no further harm is done.

MSI today released firmware updates for its MPG 271QRX QD-OLED and MPG 321URX QD-OLED gaming monitors. The updates are aimed at giving end-users control over DSC (display stream compression), to improve image quality when the display I/O bandwidth permits. This control is in the form of an OSD-level toggle for DSC DLDSR and DSR modes. For the MPG 271QRX QD-OLED, the update also adds a mode switch between HDMI Console and HDMI PC, with the default being Console. The update also packs optimizations to improve input lag and the monitor's share in whole-system latency. The update also includes aspect-ratio selection in the OSD for the MPG 321URX QD-OLED. A white-line artifact on the MPG 271QRX QD-OLED when using 2560 x 1440 @ 360 Hz has been fixed. Visit the support section of the product pages of your monitor for instructions on how to get and install the firmware updates.The change-log follows.

MSI, the global AI PC leading brand, is launching a two-month-long member event starting in May. MSI will roll out a series of activities exclusively to reward program members, including a lucky draw for game codes by referring friends to become new MSI members, chances to complete surveys and win desired prizes, unlocking various tasks for corresponding rewards, and more.

Successfully referring a friend to register as an MSI member will earn you one lottery ticket for game codes. Each person has a maximum of five chances per month. There will be 100 winners drawn each month, totaling 200 winners. The winner list will be announced on June 17, 2024, and July 15, 2024, respectively. Select your most desired MSI products, complete the survey questionnaire, and submit. Upon receiving a successful submission confirmation email, you are qualified for the draw. Winners will be announced on July 15, 2024."

ASUS is reportedly revising the design of the ROG Ally handheld game console to address microSD card heat deaths. In its original design, the ROG Ally has its microSD card reader located directly under the heat vents from which the active cooling mechanism exhausts heat from the SoC. This could cause microSD cards to overheat and damage; and eventually even destroy the microSD card reader itself. In its revision, the card reader will be repositioned away from the vents, and extensively tested for better reliability with microSD card operation. As for current ROG Ally owners, ASUS has extended the warranty by 2 years, and provided coverage for damaged card readers. This, however, only covers the card reader itself, there's no liability for damaged cards or the data on them.

NVIDIA debuted the current RTX 40-series "Ada" in 2022, which means the company is expected to debut its next-generation in some shape or form in 2024, having refreshed it earlier this year. We've known for a while that the new GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" could see a 2024 debut, which is going by past trends, would be the top-two or three SKUs, followed by a ramp up in the following year, but we're now learning through a new Moore's Law is Dead leak that the launch could be limited to just the flagship product, the GeForce RTX 5090, or the SKU that succeeds the RTX 4090.

Even a launch limited to the flagship RTX 5090 would give us a fair idea of the new "Blackwell" architecture, its various new features, and how the other SKUs in the lineup could perform at their relative price-points, because the launch could at least include a technical overview of the architecture. NVIDIA "Blackwell" is expected to introduce another generational performance leap over the current lineup. The reasons NVIDIA is going with a more conservative launch of GeForce "Blackwell" could be to allow the market to digest inventories of the current RTX 40-series; and to accord higher priority to AI GPUs based on the architecture, which fetch the company much higher margins.

Welcome to the first full week of the month of May. It's another rather slow week of new game releases, or rather, there are no major game releases, as a few games that were supposed to be released this week, got pushed back to later in the year. As such, the biggest release this week is all about cats. As for the rest of this week's releases, we have an RPG where you beat up your enemies with plushies, an abyss full of knights, a pill eating yellow blob, a well full of animals and someone holding a gate closed. Next week will be a lot busier though.

Little Kitty, Big City / This week's major release / Thursday 9 May
A peaceful catnap turns into a whimsical adventure! Will you make your way home or will you explore what the big city has to offer first? I mean, getting home is obviously your main priority. Obviously. Well, it's one of your priorities. Maybe more of a guideline... It's definitely on your To-Do list somewhere! But first? Exploration. Steam Link

Intel's CEO, Pat Gelsinger, has confirmed that the upcoming 18A process of the Panther Lake CPU generation is on schedule for a mid-2025 release, which aligns with the initial projection. This development marks a significant milestone in the company's ongoing efforts to integrate AI capabilities into its processors. The mid-2025 release date is expected to follow the debut of Intel's Arrow Lake process in late 2024 or early 2025, a release that holds the promise of significant advancements in AI computing. During Intel's Q1 2024 Quarterly Results, Gelsinger expressed confidence in the company's AI capabilities, stating that the Core Ultra platform currently delivers leadership AI performance and that the next-generation platforms, Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake, will launch later this year, tripling AI performance. He also mentioned that the Panther Lake generation, set to release in 2025, will grow AI performance up to an additional 2x.

The Panther Lake generation represents the culmination of three generations of work in a short time and is expected to continue Intel's iterative approach. This transition is marked by a shift from a hybrid architecture, a combination of different types of processors, to a disaggregated die, where different components of the processor are separated, as AI computing becomes increasingly prominent. This strategic move is aimed at optimizing AI performance and flexibility. This marks the third generation of the Intel Core Ultra series, following Ultra 100 (Meteor Lake), Ultra 200 (Arrow Lake), and Lunar Lake (200V). Intel's release strategy mirrors the pattern set by the Hybrid Architecture, with Alder Lake debuting in 2021, followed by Raptor Lake in 2022, and a refreshed Raptor Lake released last year to bridge the gap until LGA 1851 was ready. However, Intel's roadmap has seen adjustments in the past, such as the initial promise of an Arrow Lake release before the end of 2024, which was later retracted. The mid-2025 release of Panther Lake aligns with rumors of Arrow Lake's late 2024 or early 2025 debut, suggesting that the 18A process CPU generation could debut several months after Arrow Lake.

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GeForce NOW brings 24 new games for members this month. Ninja Theory's highly anticipated Senua's Saga: Hellblade II will be coming to the cloud soon - get ready by streaming the first in the series, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, part of the seven new games joining the GeForce NOW library this week. Plus, game across more devices than ever as GeForce NOW adds improved support on Steam Deck this GFN Thursday.

Journey into Viking Hell
Experience exceptional storytelling in Ninja Theory's award-winning game Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, available to stream from the cloud this week. Set in a dark fantasy world inspired by Norse mythology and Celtic culture, the game follows the journey of Senua, a Pict warrior. Her quest is to reach Helheim, the realm of the dead, to rescue her deceased lover's soul from the goddess Hela. Solve intricate puzzles with observation, engage in melee combat and get pulled deep into Senua's mind as she grapples with inner demons. Journey through the hauntingly beautiful landscapes of Helheim with ray tracing and high-dynamic range using an Ultimate or Priority membership for the most immersive and stunning visual fidelity.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation (NasdaqGS: SIMO) ("Silicon Motion", the "Company" or "we") today announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. For the first quarter of 2024, net sales (GAAP) decreased sequentially to $189.3 million from $202.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. Net income (GAAP) decreased to $16.0 million, or $0.48 per diluted American Depositary Share of the Company ("ADS") (GAAP), from net income (GAAP) of $21.1 million, or $0.63 per diluted ADS (GAAP), in the fourth quarter of 2023.

For the first quarter of 2024, net income (non-GAAP) decreased to $21.6 million, or $0.64 per diluted ADS (non-GAAP), from net income (non-GAAP) of $31.3 million, or $0.93 per diluted ADS (non-GAAP), in the fourth quarter of 2023. All financial numbers are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

AMD classified the Zenbleed vulnerability, CVE-2023-20593, as a medium-level threat about a year ago. AMD has acknowledged that it could potentially allow an attacker to access sensitive information under certain microarchitectural circumstances. Today, MSI has released new BIOS updates featuring AMD's AM4 AGESA 1.2.0.Ca firmware update. This update addresses the Zenbleed vulnerability affecting AMD's Ryzen 4000 series Zen 2 APUs. MSI is proactively rolling out the new BIOS updates across its range of compatible motherboards. The updates are currently available for almost all X570 motherboards, with support for other chipsets and 400 series motherboards expected to follow soon.

The AGESA 1.2.0.Ca firmware update specifically targets the Zenbleed vulnerability in the Zen 2 microarchitecture. Although the vulnerability primarily affects Ryzen 4000 "Renoir" APUs, it also exists in other Zen 2 processors, including the Ryzen 3000 series and certain EPYC and Threadripper CPUs. AMD has already addressed the Zenbleed vulnerability in previous AGESA microcode updates for Ryzen 3000 processors and other platforms, such as EPYC server CPUs and Ryzen mobile CPUs. However, the Ryzen Embedded V2000 CPUs are still awaiting the EmbeddedPi-FP6 1.0.0.9 AGESA firmware update, which is expected to be released by April. While AMD has not explicitly stated whether the security update will impact performance, previous testing of Zenbleed fixes has shown potential performance drops of up to 15% in certain workloads, although gaming performance remained relatively unaffected. Users with AM4 chips based on architectures other than Zen 2, such as Zen+ or Zen 3, do not need to update their BIOS as they are not affected by this specific vulnerability.

AMD's next generation RDNA 4 graphics architecture is expected to feature a completely new ray tracing engine, Kepler L2, a reliable source with GPU leaks, claims. Currently, AMD uses a component called Ray Accelerator, which performs the most compute-intensive portion of the ray intersection and testing pipeline, while AMD's approach to ray tracing on a hardware level still relies greatly on the shader engines. The company had debuted the ray accelerator with RDNA 2, its first architecture to meet DirectX 12 Ultimate specs, and improved the component with RDNA 3, by optimizing certain aspects of its ray testing, to bring about a 50% improvement in ray intersection performance over RDNA 2.

The way Kepler L2 puts it, RDNA 4 will feature a fundamentally transformed ray tracing hardware solution from the ones on RDNA 2 and RDNA 3. This could probably delegate more of the ray tracing workflow onto fixed-function hardware, unburdening the shader engines further. AMD is expected to debut RDNA 4 with its next line of discrete Radeon RX GPUs in the second half of 2024. Given the chatter about a power-packed event by AMD at Computex, with the company expected to unveil "Zen 5" CPU microarchitecture on both server and client processors; we might expect some talk on RDNA 4, too.

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Kanguru announces their exceptional new line of hardware-based, internal self-encrypting drives designed to help organizations secure and protect their data. Under the Kanguru Defender Brand name customers know and trust, Kanguru is entering the internal hardware market with these new Defender internal hardware encrypted solid state drives. The self-encrypting SEDs are packed with security features to help organizations secure data on laptops and tablets, creating a secure data environment. The Defender SED's are also compliant with the Trusted Computing Group's Opal standard for secure drive architecture. In addition, Kanguru has partnered with Cigent, known for their innovative data security, device sanitation and ransomware prevention, to integrate additional cutting-edge endpoint protection into the suite of Kanguru Defender SED's.

Kanguru's military grade AES 256-bit hardware encryption is enforced on the entire drive using stand-alone, independent hardware-based encryption security, not just specific files or folders. These internal encrypted drives automatically lock themselves when powered off, making all data stored within, (including the Operating System) completely inaccessible.