Since then, AMD shared some more performance details on its RX 7900 series including benchmarks for the 7900 XT, and more digs at Nvidia. Using that data, we approximated the performance level of the upcoming Radeon RX 7000 and compared it against RTX 4080 and 4090.

In a nutshell, the estimated performance was exactly where you'd expect as the raster output of the 7900 XTX fell in between the 4080 and 4090, while in ray tracing, it was behind both the RTX 40-series GPUs.

These cards are due to be released in a week's time and today, we have the first leaked synthetic benchmark scores of the RX 7900 XTX. However, AMD fans will certainly be very disappointed as the 7900 XTX has seemingly put up very poor results. The leaked results come in the form of Geekbench results where Nvidia's RTX 4090 is a massive 143.6% ahead in the OpenCL compute test. Meanwhile, the main competitor of the 7900 XTX, the RTX 4080 is 65.5% ahead. The AMD GPU has managed 150,372 points.

As you can see in the images below, the test systems are very similar, almost identical, and both the systems were running a Ryzen 9 7950X CPU.

The Vulkan score of the RX 7900 XTX is also nothing to write home about. The XTX has put up 91,652 points, which is behind the RTX 3090 Ti, 3090, and also AMD's own RX 6900 XT and 6800 XT from the previous generation.

Of course, these are pre-release numbers so they may not mean much and the launch day results could be completely different. However, the data is scary, especially if you are an AMD fan or want competition in the GPU market. Let us hope the sample(s) tested here are just faulty engineering samples or the drivers are botched and the upcoming RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT are actually impressive.

Source: Geekbench (1), (2) via Benchleaks (Twitter)

First AMD 7900 XTX leaked benchmark score is absolutely terrible vs Nvidia RTX 4090 & 4080

SINGAPORE – America’s Micron Technology, one of the world’s leading memory and storage chip makers, is making billions of dollars in new global investments to meet anticipated long-term demand for its leading-edge technologies even as the firm scales back spending on chip production amid a worsening supply glut and market downturn.

Surging work-from-home demand for consumer technology products during the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a boom in semiconductor orders but inflationary pressures coupled with a return to the office has put a damper on new personal computer and smartphone purchases, leaving the market awash in chips. New US restrictions on chip and chip-making equipment exports to China are also roiling supply chains.

“The industry downturn is continuing and continues to be pretty severe,” said Sumit Sadana, Micron’s executive vice president and chief business officer, in an exclusive interview with Asia Times. “Our goal is that we quickly get to a point where the demand growth is ahead of supply growth so that the significant amount of… inventory starts to normalize.”

Sadana pointed to an “unusual confluence of events” including rate tightening to rein in decades-high inflation, the Russia-Ukraine war and China’s “zero-Covid” policy and property slump as causing an “unusual level” of supply-demand imbalance in DRAM and NAND memory chip markets that usually account for over 90% of Micron’s revenue.

“The sooner [inventories] start to normalize the better it will be because the current trajectory is for these inventories to continue to increase. Changing the trajectory of these inventories is a hugely important focus item for us. In order to address that, we are significantly reducing our capital investment in the short term,” said Sadana.

Micron’s Sumit Sadana sees a bright future for the chip industry. Image: Micron Technology

Micron intends to invest more than US$150 billion globally over the next decade on memory chip manufacturing and research and development. Now, however, the semiconductor maker plans to reduce capital expenditure by 33%, or over $8 billion, in 2023, down from $12 billion allocated in 2022, with new wafer fabrication equipment investments set to be slashed by around 50%.

On November 16, Micron said it would make further unspecified spending cuts in response to downcast market conditions, with year-on-year bit supply growth, which refers to the amount of memory produced, estimated to be negative for DRAM and in the single-digit percentage range for NAND, both figures lower than the previous quarter’s projections.

DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, chips are the most common kind of fast-access memory used to push processing power in computers and video game consoles. NAND memory is a storage technology that does not need power to store data, making it ideal for portable devices such as tablets, USB drives and digital cameras.

Sadana told Asia Times that Micron’s customers’ inventories are now “correcting substantially” though he expects it will take “several months” before they return to normal levels. The senior executive added that the trajectory of the highly cyclical industry “is still pretty challenged in the short-term” but overall demand is expected to recover by the second half of 2023.

Micron’s stock price, down 43% since the start of the year, reflects the recessionary headwinds buffeting the global semiconductor industry – often viewed as a barometer for the state of the global economy. The Boise, Idaho-headquartered memory chip maker is nonetheless taking the long view as it moves ahead with plans to build what will be the world’s largest wafer fabrication facility in the United States.

In October, the firm announced plans to invest up to $100 billion over the next two decades to build a mega-fabrication plant in upstate New York to meet anticipated future demand for DRAM memory chips, marking a manufacturing pivot toward the American market that observers say could help the company weather future geopolitical disruptions to the semiconductor trade.

The facility is expected to create nearly 50,000 jobs in New York, with the first phase investment of $20 billion planned for the end of this decade. Micron also broke ground on a separate $15 billion factory in Boise in September that will create 2,000 jobs. Once operational, both US plants will account for 40% of Micron’s DRAM production volume globally, up from 10% today.

Micron estimates that the DRAM and NAND chip markets will together generate combined revenue of $330 billion by 2030, more than double last year’s reported revenue of $161 billion, as the rollout of fifth-generation (5G) cellular technology enables the broader use of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing in the automotive and other industrial sectors.

Automated Material Handling Systems in Micron’s cleanroom in Singapore. Photo: Micron Technology

“We’ve always said that we will need a greenfield site for DRAM manufacturing because our existing sites have only so much land capacity,” said Sadana. “We have chosen that site to be in the US, with the support of the CHIPS Act. But that doesn’t change that the rest of the manufacturing network will still continue to get billions of dollars of investment from Micron over time.”

US President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act in August, a landmark bill providing $52.7 billion in subsidies for US semiconductor production and research to boost competitiveness vis-a-vis China. The legislation also grants an investment tax credit for chip plants worth an estimated $24 billion, prompting several chip makers to announce plans for major new production facilities in the US.

Sadana emphasized that the company’s big-ticket US investments do not represent a move away from key Asian markets like Japan, Taiwan and Singapore, where the company maintains major production centers. The memory chip maker is also upbeat on growth prospects for China’s chip sector, despite Washington’s moves to restrict its access to advanced semiconductor technologies.

“Definitely China’s economy has been struggling a bit in terms of growth and that has largely been due to the restrictions related to Covid,” Sadana told Asia Times. “But we are big believers in China’s future growth potential and we are strongly of the belief that China will bounce back… [which] will be a positive tailwind for Micron and for other companies in the ecosystem.”

In October, the Biden administration announced tough new regulations requiring US companies to stop supplying Chinese firms with advanced chips and the equipment, software and components required to produce them unless they first obtain a license. The ban nominally aims to limit China’s ability to utilize such technologies for military applications but Beijing has claimed the bans aim to limit and hurt China’s broad economy.

“We were not directly impacted by the equipment orders of the US government, mainly because our operations in China mainly relate to assembly, packaging and test on the manufacturing side. And, of course, we do have R&D there as well,” said Sadana in reference to Micron’s Shanghai-based research center and factory in Xi’an where DRAM chips are assembled and tested.

Micron’s executive vice president called for “an environment where business can continue through some appropriate level of understanding between the two countries,” adding that the company is committed to a long-term strategy of diversifying its manufacturing footprint. “We have continued to make investments in different regions around the world, including Singapore,” he said.

The Southeast Asian city-state is critical to Micron, serving as its base for worldwide operations with over 10,000 people employed across two fabrication plans and a test and assembly facility. It is also the primary production site for the company’s leading-edge 3D NAND technology used in mobile phones, solid-state drives, digital cameras, automotive products and other devices.

Micron employees at the chip maker’s facility in Woodlands, Singapore. Photo: Micron Technology

3D NAND flash is a type of flash memory design in which multiple layers of memory cells are stacked vertically, enabling more data to be stored in less space in a design that achieves higher performance at a lower cost per bit. Micron began shipping its most advanced 232-layer NAND chip in July, which transfers data 50% faster than the chip’s previous generation.

Last month, the memory chip maker also began shipping to smartphone makers samples of its newest DRAM chip, which it claims to be the industry’s fastest and most advanced mobile memory. Referred to as the “1-beta”, the chip boasts 15% greater power efficiency over its predecessor “1-alpha” chip and a 35% improvement in the number of bits stored per area.

“We are many months and multiple quarters ahead of our competition in introducing these DRAM and NAND technologies to the marketplace, claimed Sadana. “And these technologies enable product capability, whether it is performance that is higher, power consumption that is lower and new features that enable our customers to really create amazing products.”

Source

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in August 2022 touched on the island’s sovereignty — a controversial, historical “red line” in China’s foreign relations. The visit resurfaced numerous unresolved issues between the United States and China with modern-day technological competition at its center.

Both China and the United States have directly involved the island’s semiconductor industry in this latest “Taiwan crisis.” China retaliated by imposing tariffs on sand exports to Taiwan to restrict a core chip production component and send a political message to President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration.

August 2022 also saw Washington adopt the controversial “CHIPS Act” to boost domestic semiconductor production, though its full implications are yet to be determined. The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security sought to tighten restrictions in October on China’s import of semiconductors.

Despite these trade disruptions, future escalation remains unlikely as China relies heavily on Taiwan’s chips. Beijing needs this technology to gain a competitive edge over the United States in the global technology competition.

China also needs this industry to support its economic growth and shift into higher-value production to ensure the legitimacy of President Xi Jinping’s third term.

China’s trade flow data for 2021 shows that the country’s semiconductor imports amounted to more than US$430 billion in 2021 — 36% of which came from Taiwan. China relies on the world’s largest foundry — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) — to provide cutting-edge semiconductors for its consumer electronics industry.

In 2022, TSMC’s global market share will grow from 53% to 56% by revenue. The company holds more than 60% of the world’s manufacturing capacity for the most advanced semiconductors. Given TSMC’s dominance, China has little incentive to restrict chip trade with Taiwan and risk damaging its economy.

On the contrary, TSMC is less reliant on China. Though the foundry’s exposure to China rose to 20% between 2018 and 2020, this figure plunged to 10% in 2021. During the same year, 65% of its revenue came from North America.

A man walks past a company logo at the headquarters of the world’s largest semiconductor maker TSMC in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on January 29, 2021. Photo: AFP / Sam Yeh

China’s decline in TSMC’s portfolio can be mainly attributed to former US president Donald Trump’s 2020 “Huawei ban.” The policy banned TSMC from supplying Huawei with chips developed using US technology, driving the Taiwanese chip giant to shift its capacity elsewhere.

China is aware of the risks of relying on foreign chips and promoted the “Made in China 2025” strategy in 2015 as a response. The project highlights semiconductors as one of ten high-tech priority sectors, aiming to increase China’s chip self-reliance from below 10% to 70% by 2025. The target was later increased to 75% by 2030 as the self-sufficiency rate only reached 16% in 2020.

Beijing’s objective is to become a dominant technology power by 2049 — the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Beijing is set to pour well over US$150 billion into its domestic semiconductor industry by 2030, providing subsidies and incentives for building semiconductor factories and developing research and development units.

Despite these efforts, China’s semiconductor sector still lags behind its competitors by a decade or two. While China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) developed a ground-breaking 7nm process in October 2020, TSMC continues to have the upper hand with 3nm chips.

Poorly defined and implemented strategic plans, corruption, human capital deficit and export controls hamper China’s chip industry growth. The country will remain reliant on Taiwan’s supplies while developing its domestic industry.

So Beijing may not restrict the flow of semiconductors from Taipei in the short run to avoid hurting its national economy or intensifying its competition with the United States.

Restricting semiconductor imports will exert pressure on the economy on which the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) legitimacy still hangs. The collapse of crucial domestic semiconductor companies in 2022 already reveals some weaknesses in the slowing China economy.

The new US challenge over Taiwan and its impacts on semiconductors will make it harder for Beijing to maintain growth. China has also emerged weaker from the recent confrontation with the United States. While in Taiwan, Pelosi met with Chinese dissidents, an action seen as a gesture of disrespect in Beijing.

The semiconductors competition shows how national and international factors are highly intertwined in China’s policy considerations. Establishing China as a global power and an ever-growing economic powerhouse has ensured the CCP’s legitimacy for decades. As the party looks for ways to maintain growth, semiconductors are crucial in ensuring advanced technology and political stability.

Though Beijing will not take any drastic measures to constrain Taipei’s semiconductors in the short term, this overreliance is becoming a concern in China’s escalating competition with the United States. China is contemplating new and more sophisticated contingency plans in the long run.

China’s SMIC chipmaker is working to transcend US sanctions. Image: Twitter / Global Times

The “Made in China 2025” and the 14th Five-Year Plan launched in early 2022 suggested a nationwide mobilization of resources to improve semiconductor innovation, research and development, and education.

During its 20th Party Congress, the CCP leadership reiterated the importance of supporting scientific research and industrial technology to strengthen the country’s centrality in the international arena. China has also put forth innovative methods for financing innovation and incentives for attracting global talent.

Yet China’s technological disadvantages may make it more open to international cooperation in semiconductors. In this sense, the battle for semiconductor supremacy is unlikely to change China’s policies on the United States or Taiwan.

Source

Google is sunsetting Duplex on the Web, its service where users can use the Google Assistant to purchase movie tickets, order food, and more. According to the service's support page spotted by TechCrunch, Duplex on the Web and any automation features will no longer be supported as of this month.

"As we continue to improve the Duplex experience, we’re responding to the feedback we’ve heard from users and developers about how to make it even better," a Google spokesperson shared with TechCrunch. "By the end of this year, we’ll turn down Duplex on the Web and fully focus on making AI advancements to the Duplex voice technology that helps people most every day."

The spokesperson added that Duplex on the Web partners have been notified to help them prepare for the service's imminent shutdown.

Duplex on the Web was introduced back in 2019 as an expansion of Google's Duplex phone reservation technology. Originally, the feature was limited to opening a movie theater company's website to fill out information on a user’s behalf. Eventually, Duplex on the Web gave Google Assistant the ability to help users automatically change passwords, check-in for flights, find discounts, and assist with checkout for e-commerce retailers.

TechCrunch notes that Google could be shutting down Duplex on the web because of the resource-intensiveness of training an AI to crawl websites. As the feature's support page points out, the service uses a special user agent that crawled sites several hours a day. The search giant also fine-tuned AI models to understand how certain websites were laid out and worked from a user’s perspective. Duplex on the Web might also function improperly if website owners blocked the user agent from indexing their content.

Source: TechCrunch

Google shuts down Duplex on the Web, a tool that made ticket booking easier, and more

The less expensive Mini 3 could ditch the front-facing obstacle sensors on the Mini 3 Pro.

Image: Konrad Iturbe via Twitter

DJI’s cheaper Mini 3 drone could launch very soon

Windows 11 on the rise

Statcounter revealed that Windows 11 now controls 16.12% of the market share as Windows 10 dipped below 70% for the first time. This is an increase of 0.67 percentage points compared to last month which is not a massive jump, but it does indicate that adoption of Microsoft's latest OS is steadily climbing upwards and nipping away at Windows 10's market share. Windows 8.1, 8, 7, and XP still capture 2.54%, 0.79%, 10.24%, and 0.4% of the market currently.

On the gaming front, Valve's Steam Hardware survey results peg Windows 11 at 27.98%, which is a significant increase of 4.61 percentage points compared to the previous month. Windows 10 is shown struggling here too as it fell to 65.60%, a notable decline of 3.31 percentage points.

Coming over to the web browsers market, Microsoft Edge now has a share of 11.17%. This is an increase 0.31 percentage points compared to the previous month and 1.65 percentage points improvement year-over-year. Of course, Google Chrome is still king at 66.13%, despite a slight decline of 0.36 percentage points.

With the end of the month, Microsoft also shared a bunch of updates it introduced to some of its pieces of software. These include a hefty number of improvements in Teams, modest updates to Excel, and November enhancements for Power BI Desktop.

Windows builds and issues

Earlier in the week, Windows 11 Insiders received Dev Channel build 25252. It introduced a new VPN status icon in the system tray, more Taskbar search styles, a bunch of bug fixes, and a truckload worth of known issues. This release was followed closely by Beta build 22623.1020 (KB5020035) bringing OneDrive storage alerts, fixes for high CPU usage, and more. Later, we were treated to a servicing pipeline release too.

There were some whispers from the Windows "Moment" updates camp as well. Test IDs for purported "Moment 3" and "Moment 4" update have been discovered in the latest Beta build. Microsoft has also made some "Moment 2" capabilities available to Windows 11 version 22H2 users on the stable channel via the latest build 22621.900 (KB5020044). These include Energy Recommendations, an improved Task Manager, and a slightly enhanced settings page for managing the touch keyboard.

Unfortunately, this new build has also introduced an issue in Task Managerwhere certain UI elements may not render properly if you are using a custom colour mode. The mitigation for now is to switch to Light or Dark mode as Microsoft works on a fix.

In related news, Input Method Editor (IME) problems can be fixed by installing the latest KB5020044 update and a performance fix for copying large file remotely is also being tested in the recent Dev Channel release.

"Windows 12"... and other stuff

An interesting concept for "Windows 12" surfaced very recently and was covered in detail by us. Created by an enthusiast, the design focuses a lot on making Widgets more useful while making nifty improvements to other UI elements. Another capability it emphasizes is the splitting of two apps within one window and grouping files in collections inside File Explorer (similar to Collections in Microsoft Edge). Of course, our readers are divided on the aesthetics and utility of this design but do head here to voice your opinion.

In other news, Microsoft has officially ended support for the original Surface Hub 55 and Surface Hub 84. Running Windows 10 Team on a fourth-gen Intel Core i5/i7 processor, this device enjoyed a life of seven years, initially being sold at up to $20,000. Although the original Surface Hub is dead in terms of updates, another tricky product, the Surface Duo, might get a dedicated Insider Program soon.

Finally, in some smaller updates on the software side, PowerToys is getting a Windows 11 Quick Settings-like launcher to let you launch your favorite utilities with a couple of clicks in the notification area. Meanwhile, Microsoft Forms has introduced the useful capability of being able to add images as possible answers to multiple-choice questions (MCQs).

Git gud

Coming to the ongoing problem of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard being probed by regulators, there have been rumors this week that the Redmond tech giant may offer concessions to the EU and that a deal has already been struck between Microsoft and Sony regarding the future of Call of Duty on PlayStation. Of course, nothing has been officially confirmed yet.

What Microsoft has confirmed is that those with gaming issues won't be offered the Windows 11 2022 Update yet. This safeguard hold will probably be removed around mid-December.

But talking about games themselves, a bunch of high-profile titles have hit or are hitting Xbox Game Pass this month. Notable additions include Battlefield 2042, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, High On Life, and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, among others. Meanwhile, the Games with Gold offerings are Colt Canyon and Bladed Fury.

On the sales and promotions side, there is a massive Xbox Black Friday Sale going on. And the Free Play Days event has Battlefield 2042, Batora: Lost Haven, and Rainbow Six Siege on offer this weekend. But if none of this console gaming stuff tickles your fancy, check out News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe's personally curated list of hot PC game deals this weekend.

Dev Channel

• Skype 8.90 is now out

• Microsoft and PMI have announced new certifications for low-code learning

• Rufus 3.21 with improved Windows local account support, NTFS, and exFAT, is now available for all

   

Under the spotlight

News Reporter Taras Buria compiled a list of the top 5 flags that Microsoft Edge users should consider enabling in order to make the most of their browsing experience. Note that capabilities logged behind a flag are experimental in nature so do expect bugs.

Taras also penned a couple more guides following the release of Windows 11 Dev Channel build 25252. The first details the process to enable the new Taskbar search box while the other describes how to disable the Windows 10-like Search Highlights.

The final guide from Taras this week was about there being a hidden camera privacy indicator in Windows 11 and the process to enable it.

On the other hand, forum member Adam Bottjen detailed the steps to launching pinned apps using just your keyboard in his latest edition of Tech Tip Tuesday.

Last but not least, we had our Reviewer Robbie Khan criticizing the pitiful state of the much-hyped horror game The Callisto Protocol, in terms of PC performance. You can dive into the dedicated piece here where Robbie takes you with him on his journey to being super-excited about the title to refunding it after less than two hours of playtime on Steam.

Logging off

Our most interesting news item of the week relates to the imminent death of the free edition of the popular Macrium Reflect. The Windows backup software will not receive any new features but security updates will be provided up until January 1, 2024. Of course, you can continue to use the tool beyond that date but you won't be eligible for any support if some issue does pop up. The premium version of Macrium Reflect remains unaffected by this discontinuation.

Microsoft Weekly: Windows 11 on the rise, new builds, and Windows 12

Last year, I purchased a Creality Ender 3 with the intention of learning more about the topic of 3D printing... and failed miserably. After numerous attempts, I was unable to level the print bed and a few weeks later, I gave up in frustration. So when Monoprice asked me if I'd be interested in reviewing the Voxel Pro, I was hesitant and told them that I wasn't sure I was the right person to write the review given my lack of previous success. After convincing me that this model was "easy for beginners," I decided to try it out - and was successful from the start.

Specifications

The Monoprice Voxel Pro is a fully enclosed printer, which is helpful for not only controlling the temperature, but also for keeping pets away from the hot moving pieces. The device itself is very heavy and very large, especially compared to the aforementioned Creality Ender 3, so once you find a place to put it, you might not want to move it. The printer is controlled via a touchscreen, and has a USB port for files and both WiFi and Ethernet for network connectivity.

There's nothing on the back of the printer, but the side has a single Ethernet port, power plug, and an on/off switch. The side is also has a compartment where you load the spool of plastic for printing.

The printing bed is made of spring steel and is held down magnetically. This makes it a snap to pull out of the printer and flex to get your print off.

The Voxel Pro has a HEPA filter on the case, but that's to prevent dust from entering the enclosure, not to protect you from the prints; in use, I wasn't able to smell anything from the printing process though.

The Voxel Pro also includes several tools you'll require over time: a Phillips head screwdriver, some Allen wrenches, a couple of filament guide tube joints, a 0.4‑265 nozzle (the pre-installed nozzle is 0.4-240), a nozzle cleaner, an oval leveling card, some grease, and a USB flash drive.

From what I can tell, the Monoprice Voxel Pro is simply a rebranded Flashforge Adventurer 4. This is helpful for finding replacement parts, since I could only find nozzles on Monoprice's storefront. The Voxel Pro is also $100 cheaper than the Adventurer 4, coming in at $699.

Setup

The initial setup the Monoprice Voxel Pro is very easy, and you'll find that the hardest part is actually taking it out of the box.

The device comes fully assembled, so you just have to remove all of the packing material from around and inside of the 3D printer. Since the device is so large and heavy, it's recommended to have someone help you move it to its desired location.

The first thing the setup has you do is configure the WiFi. Since the device also has a physical Ethernet port, this step is optional. The little display makes typing long passwords difficult, but not impossible, and you really only need to configure the network if you want to be able to view prints remotely or send a model directly to the printer instead of through USB.

After the packing material is out and the printer is plugged in, you go through the steps of feeding the (included) filament into the printer. Click the prepare button, followed by the load button, and you're done. The instructions say to press a button once plastic is coming out of the extruder, but I found that the Voxel Pro automatically stopped feeding the filament on its own once it was ready.

The final step is to level the printing bed. This is the most critical step, and is where I ran into issues with my Crealty Ender 3. The general idea is to put the print nozzle close enough to the print bed that you can slide a piece of paper between it and the bed to have a bit of resistance, but nothing more. With the Ender 3, if I had one side leveled perfectly, it became unleveled when I tried to fix the other side, so was a frustrating experience. The Voxel Pro, on the other hand, was a breeze. You start the leveling process and the printer moves the nozle to nine different locations on the bed and asks you to raise/lower the print head at each spot until it's perfectly setup. That's it. While the marketing says it's "auto-leveling," which isn't true because it requires manual intervention, it was still a very easy process.

At this point, I attempted my first print: A small 3D square. This model was pre-loaded and pre-sliced on the printer, so I just selected it from the print menu and watched the Voxel Pro do its thing. It started by printing a raft and then printed the square on top of the raft. When the print was done, it was trivial to pull the magnetic bed off, twist it a bit, and have the square come off. Getting the raft off is a bit more work because it sticks to the bed extremely well, but overall it isn't too bad.

My first print turned out great and, as you can see, it looks a lot like an orange Starburst candy.

Preparing Files and the Slicer

If you want to print more than just colourful squares, you'll need to load up a proper slicer. The USB drive included a copy of FlashPrint-MP, or you can download it from the web. I chose the latter, but found out later that the version on the drive was the same, so either would've been fine.

Installation of the software is straight forward. Once it's installed, you can load up an STL file, click the Slice button, wait a bit, and then either save the resulting file to a USB drive or, if the printer is connected to the network, click a button to automatically upload the data and have it start printing.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any software available for mobile devices.

I don't have a lot to compare the FlashPrint-MP software with, but overall it feels a bit lacking. The basic features seem to work pretty well. You can load multiple models into the tool, move and rotate them around, scale them to fit better, and even cut them into multiple pieces, which is kind of nice. However it's not very beginner friendly and will require some research as well as trial and error to fully understand.

For example, I tried printing an object that clearly requires supports, but FlashPrint-MP didn't make any by default, which ended up making a big mess. Poking around, I finally figured out that I could click a button to automatically add supports, but it did a terrible job, so I had to manually start adding them myself. Again, for an experienced person, this isn't a big deal, but for a printer aimed at beginners, I would've liked some extra help.

Printing

Once you begin printing, the waiting game begins. If you're new to 3D printing, you'll probably find yourself coming back to watch the progress a few hundred times as it's fascinating to watch. My daughter had a friend visit while I was testing a print, and she said, "I could watch this all day."

If you want to keep an eye on it all day, you actually can, because the Monoprice Voxel Pro has a built-in camera that is accessible via FlashPrint-MP. From the tool, you can turn the LED light on and off, and watch the progress of the print. The camera quality is a bit lacking, but at least you have the ability to make sure the print isn't failing. Unfortunately, this is where I'd love to be able to use an app on my phone to keep track of the status, but I wasn't able to find a way to do that.

You can also configure the printer to save a stop-motion video of the print. However the lack of camera quality, combined with the lack of ability to tune the video, means the results are practically worthless and not worth viewing. Having said that, you can see for yourself in the video above that shows a 3D snake being printed. The print itself took 2.5 hours, and the time-lapse video condensed it down to a mere ten seconds, which isn't really long enough to be of use.

It's also a little disappointing that the printer doesn't give you an estimate as to how much time is left in the print job. The display shows how much time has elapsed, how many layers have been printed, and what percentage is complete, but like a Windows install screen, it can jump for 92% to 100% in a couple of minutes, as happened with the snake print. It'd be nice if, at the very least, the printer kept track of how long a print took so that printing it a second time gave accurate information, but it's a minor quibble.

You don't have to use the network to start your print job. As noted earlier, you can move the G-code to the printer by USB drive as well. Simply plug the drive in, click the "Print" button, select the model, and go. It really couldn't be any easier.

The material on the bed is very sticky, which is great for keeping your print from failing, but can make it difficult to get the raft off. I often had to use a bench scraper to get the raft off, and it left some scratches on the bed. There was no noticeable performance difference, but I suspect that over time, it will require new print bed.

Conclusion

There's a certain magic in being able to make something physical from a printer in your own house. Being able to go online, download a file, and in a few (or in some cases, many) hours, have a physical object in your hands is amazing. The Monoprice Voxel Pro makes that magic as easy as setting up a regular printer and clicking a button.

The Monoprice Voxel Pro is not a cheap printer, and I'm sure there are cheaper options (like the aforementioned Crealty Ender 3). However if you're looking for something that you can just take out of a box, click a few buttons, and have your prints just work, I think you'll be hard pressed to find something better than Voxel Pro. Without much work at all, I was able to download and print things from a standard Benchy tugboat to a fully articulated snake, so for that reason, I highly recommend the Monoprice Voxel Pro. As of writing it is not available on their Amazon page, but they do have a few other cheaper options you can check out.

Our stories may contain links for products where Neowin is paid an affiliate fee if you complete a purchase via those links.

New to 3D printing? The Monoprice Voxel Pro should be on your short list

OLED monitor selection is pathetic. 2023 can change that

Secondly, Nvidia is seemingly having a hard time selling its RTX 4080 due to its high MSRP of $1,199, which has landed it very close to the much better $1,599 RTX 4090. Consequently, 4080 scalpers are apparently unable to get rid of the cards they bought in early as there is an abundance of these cards. And these are besides the Windows 11 22H2-related problems, even though this one lies mostly on Microsoft.

Now, a new issue is plaguing Nvidia RTX 4090 cards where Need for Speed Unbound players have reported flashing and blinking screens. After investigating, EA's Global Community Manager, Jeff Braddock, published a fix for the bug, whereby users are required to do a VGA BIOS (vBIOS) update on their 4090.

Braddock writes:

We've seen reports of Flashing/Blinking Display issues with folks on high-end PCs (Nvidia RTX 4090). After testing, we've found a workaround/fix is to upgrade the bios on the 4090 video card.

• You will need to download the NVIDIA GPU UEFI Firmware Update tool, run it and then follow the onscreen directions.

• Once complete, you should be able to play without having the issue reoccur.

You can find the Nvidia GPU UEFI Firmware tool on Nvidia's website here. If you want to do it another way, you can find the necessary standalone vBIOS on TechPowerUp's website here.

Via: TechPowerUp

After melting connectors, Nvidia RTX 4090 now requires BIOS update to fix NFS Unbound

FCC lets Starlink start deploying Gen2 satellites as Gen1 speeds keep falling

PC shipments in the United States fell by 12.1% in the third quarter year-over-year. Dell, HP, Apple, Lenovo, and Acer are the biggest manufacturers, and of these, only Apple and Acer managed to score positive growth over the period. Canalys said that notebooks were hit hardest with a 14% decline, but desktops grew by 1%. The big drop-off in notebook shipments was due to more cautious business spending in addition to lower demand from the consumer and education sectors.

“The U.S. PC market was already in an extended period of contraction as both consumer and education demand struggled with inflation and saturation,” said Brian Lynch, Canalys Research Analyst. “Now, the previously resilient commercial segment has started to wane, posting its first year-on-year decline in 2022.”

Even though PC vendors had a torrid time of it in the third quarter, expectations don’t look much better for the fourth quarter, either. The holiday season in the United States should help sales somewhat, but overall, Canalys believes the market will continue its downturn. With inflation hitting pockets, people are cutting spend on technology products.

The analyst believes that things will begin turning around in 2023. It expects demand from education to start recovering slowly next year, with the main bulk of device refreshes occurring in 2024.

As mentioned earlier, Apple and Acer were the only two companies to see positive growth in Q3 year-over-year, but Dell managed to hold onto its first place spot. Dell has 26.1% of market share, compared to 27.6% the year before. The market share and units shipped for the vendors are as follows:

Consumer demand for PCs in the future was not expanded upon much by Canalys, other than the fact that there will be “further headwinds”. From the macroeconomic perspective, the Federal Reserve is still raising interest rates, which could lead to further job losses and make debts more expensive, further squeezing disposable income. How long it takes to recover will affect how long it takes consumer demand for PCs to rise again.

PC shipments in the U.S. fell during the third quarter, says Canalys

The new plan is expected to be announced when President Joe Biden and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will visit Phoenix, Arizona. Previously, TSMC had stated that it will produce 5nm chips at its facility in the US.

Apple is planning to source part of its huge demand of chips from the Arizona plant. The company's CEO Tim Cook is also scheduled to attend the event next week. Out of the 20,000 wafers per month that TSMC will make at its Arizona facility, Apple is expected to use about one-third of the output.

The chip making company has also planned another fabrication nearby the originally planned one that will be able to produce even more advanced 3nm chips and is expected to start manufacturing in 2025. Apple is already in line to be one of the first takers of TSMC's 2nm chips as well.

Due to the supply chain disruptions and trade war with China, more companies are trying to bring production to Europe and the US. The US passed the Chips and Science Act earlier this year which will offer around $50 billion worth of incentives for companies that will manufacture semiconductors in the country. TSMC is likely to receive billions in subsidies.

Source: Bloomberg

TSMC plans to manufacture 4nm chips at Arizona facility due to increasing demand from Apple

Nvidia’s melted power cables are an Nvidia problem, PCI standards body suggests

Nvidia’s new RTX 6000 may bust engineering department budgets at over $7,000

Starlink prices in Ukraine nearly double as mobile networks falter

 

Trackballs aren't exactly a trendy PC accessory. Their heavy, clunky builds bring dated vibes to office setups. And despite 73 years of existence, trackballs have been usurped by modern mice and trackpads as the preferred forms of computing input. But despite their low mainstream popularity, trackball mice still hold a place in many people's hearts.

 

If you have a physical issue such as carpal tunnel syndrome or a repetitive strain injury that makes repeated movements difficult and/or painful, you may be one of those people holding onto a trackball mouse. While generally larger and heavier than traditional mice, trackball mice make it easier to keep your hand and arm in a neutral position and avoid pronation.

And because you don't push trackball mice around the top of your desk, they can be more accommodating of tight workspaces. Some trackball fanatics also praise the precision they can achieve with the gentle twisting of the right trackball. But there's definitely a learning curve to using them, and they aren't for everyone. And a good trackball mouse may not be as fast or precise as your best PC mouse with a traditional design.

 

But the continued advancement of trackball mice ensures the peripheral's relevance. Promoting healthy ergonomics is becoming increasingly popular among tech companies as people spend more time in front of screens. You can find plenty of trackball mice online from smaller brands like Elecom and even the likes of Logitech, which currently sells two trackball mice.

 

This Tuesday, Kensington, one of the biggest names in trackball mice (it also sells other PC peripherals and office solutions), released a new trackball mouse, the SlimBlade Pro Trackball (K72080WW). It looks like any old trackball mouse, complete with a bulbous ball. But accompanying that 2.17-inch-wide (55 mm) piercing red orb that can scroll up and down and twist are modern considerations.

 

For one, the mouse is wireless. You can connect to Windows PCs (Windows 7 and later) or Macs (macOS 10.13 and later) via Bluetooth, a 2.4 GHz USB-A dongle, or even a USB-A cable. The mouse is also rechargeable over the modern USB-C connector, and the vendor says the mouse will last up to four months before needing a charge.

 

Like its wired counterpart first introduced in 2009, the SlimBlade Trackball, Kensington's new wireless trackball has programmable buttons. The wired version's programmable buttons are limited to four, but the cable-free option lets you program "each of four individual buttons and four sets of combo buttons" if you download Kensington's software, the California-based company's announcement said.

 

Unlike trackball mice with a ball controlled by the thumb, the SlimBlade Pro's twisting globe is meant to be used by any digit and either hand. But if you've never used a trackball mouse before, you may find the SlimBlade Pro's operation more difficult than something like the Logitech MX Ergo, whose shape is more similar to a traditional mouse.

 

The SlimBlade Pro Trackball is currently selling for $120, just a $10 premium over the wired version's MSRP. The price alone is enough to show that the trackball mouse, while no longer king of the hill, hasn't completely fallen off. For those who find these products less painful for long-term use, long live trackball mice.

 

Modern trackball mouse wants to be a wireless solution to your ergonomic woes

Used thin client PCs are an unsexy, readily available Raspberry Pi alternative

In the meantime, AMD, alongside a few other industry giants, introduced the world to High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) back in 2015 with its Radeon R9 Fury (codenamed "Fiji") lineup. The benefit of stacked HBM over GDDR memory is the ability to provide much more bandwidth and throughput compared to the overall power drawn from the total memory footprint. In essence, HBM is much more efficient than GDDR while also taking up much less space.

However, Samsung is set to bridge that gap as the tech giant claims its next-gen GDDR6W memory technology can be nearly as fast as HBM while being smaller than traditional GDDR6. Using Fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP), the packaging moves from the PCB onto the silicon wafer itself, similar to HBM. This helps in reducing the thickness of the packaging design by around 36% while accommodating twice the memory capacity as you see in the image below:

Aside from doubling the capacity, the bandwidth also increases by two times due to the increase in memory interface size. Samsung says that using a 512-bit bus and 22Gbps GDDR6W memory, a total throughput of 1.4TB/s is achieved, which is very close to 1.6TB/s bandwidth with a 3.2Gbps HBM2E memory.

Samsung GDDR6W takes GDDR6 graphics memory to HBM2E levels

The subunit of the robot, which is being developed at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, is called a voxel and is capable of carrying power and data.

“When we’re building these structures, you have to build in intelligence,” MIT Professor and CBA Director Neil Gershenfeld said in a statement. “What emerged was the idea of structural electronics — of making voxels that transmit power and data as well as force.”

The voxels makeup both the robot itself as well as the components of the thing being built, allowing them to work together on larger structures.

“It could build a structure, or it could build another robot of the same size, or it could build a bigger robot,” CBA doctoral student Amira Abdel-Rahman said in a statement.

While the research is promising, it will likely be years before we see self-replicating robot swarms, according to Gershenfeld.

The researchers, who published a paper laying out their findings in Nature, are working with the aviation industry, car companies, and NASA on the new technology.

Source

In a series of tweets, Elon Musk has alleged that Apple is threatening to bar Twitter from its App Store and squarely blamed it for taking down most of its ad spend on Twitter.

The billionaire CEO tweeted that Apple is threatening to withhold the social media platform from its App Store but won’t explain the rationale behind doing so. Apple did not respond to Musk's complaints.

Some believe it may be due to his recent decision of reinstating previously banned accounts, including that of former president Donald TrumpIn another series of tweets, Musk waged a war of words over Apple’s misuse of its market power in forcing the app makers to pay 30 percent fees from the app's sales, which primarily come from Twitter Blue.

Prior to him, Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, and the music service Spotify had raised similar objections about Apple’s decision to take a large cut from their sales.

The Twitter owner had claimed recently that the platform was witnessing record-high engagement with him at the helm, however, his approach towards laying off employees had startled the company's major moneymaker, the advertisers.

In recent weeks, a large majority of brands had pulled their ads from the platform due to concerns around moderation. This resulted in a massive drop in ad revenue as a vast majority of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising.

Elon Musk hints at going to war with Apple

So far, revenue from consumer spending has been hit due to a decline in disposable income, but enterprise spending is still pretty resilient. Gartner said consumers are being hit by inflation and higher interest rates and that they are prioritizing their spending on things like travel, leisure, and entertainment rather than tech purchases. Enterprise spending is resilient so far, but there are concerns over an expected recession as well as geopolitical worries.

“The short-term outlook for semiconductor revenue has worsened. Rapid deterioration in the global economy and weakening consumer demand will negatively impact the semiconductor market in 2023,” said Richard Gordon, Practice Vice President at Gartner. “The relative strength in the enterprise-driven markets comes from strategic investments by corporations that are looking to strengthen their infrastructure to continue supporting their work from home workforce, business expansion plans and ongoing digitalization strategies.”

Interestingly, the demand for memory is declining which means that inventories are getting full, causing customers to demand lower prices. As a result of this, the memory market revenues will be flat in 2022 and decline by 16.2% next year. In the first quarter of the year, there was a NAND fab outage which increased prices but hid the falling demand, leading to excess inventory. This excess is likely to remain into the first half of next year and revenue growth will fall by 13.7% in 2023 following a 4.4% increase this year.

While consumers will be squeezed with their spending for a while, especially with unemployment expected to rise, there’s the potential upside that things like phone and laptops will be a bit cheaper. There’s no guarantee of this, but with companies demanding lower prices, savings could potentially be passed on.

It’s unclear what Gartner thinks will happen to the sector in 2024 because it didn’t provide any data, but how quickly consumer demand recovers will likely be important to revenue growth recovering.

Short-term semiconductor revenue estimates have worsened, says Gartner

In 2019, Epson revealed that its inkjet printers consume "up to 85% less energy" than comparable laser printers. Furthermore, inject printers "produce up to 85% less carbon dioxide" than comparable laser printers, according to Epson. According to Epson, inkjet printers have "up to 59 percent fewer replaceable components" when compared to laser printers.

Typically, ink printers' replaceable components are ink and ink boxes. For laser printers, there is the toner, drum, developer and fusers that are replaceable". The tests simulated Office and business use, not Home use according to the report.

Epson reduced its fleet of laser printers in the past couple of years significantly already. In fact, laser printers are not sold by the company in some regions of the world already. The two main markets for Epson laser printers, Asia and Europe, will see the company leave the markets by 2026.

Epson plans to focus fully on inkjet printers going forward. The company has been in the news lately regarding the deliberate bricking of customer printers. Customers discovered that they could not use the Epson ink printer anymore.

The company claims that most customers "will never receive this message" and that it is "directly dependent on factors like the printer model, frequency, usage conditions, and type of printing over time".  Customers affected by the issue have to pay Epson to restore functionality or buy a new device right away. Epson ink printer models L360, L130, L220, L310 and L365 are said to include the bricking functionality.

Epson released a one-time use maintenance reset utility for North American customers, which they may run to restore printing functionality "for a limited time".

Closing Words

Home users may have different requirements when it comes to printing than organizations. While it may be true that ink printers are more sustainable, home users may have to take into account other factors, including the deliberate bricking of devices by Epson.

Home users who print occasionally only may still run into "dry ink" issues or other issues related to ink usage. Also, printers may be turned off when they are not in use. A user who prints ten or so sheets per month may keep the printer turned off most of the time. Some even include functionality that requires that they are turned on before use.

Now You: do you use printers? If so, laser or ink, and which brand? (via The Register)

Epson announces end of laser printer production

It was 2018 when Ubisoft originally announced that The Settlers series developer Blue Byte is working on a reboot of the popular city-building and real-time strategy experience. After a delay, the reboot was back in the spotlight earlier this year touting a March 2022 launch. However, following a beta that was received less than favorably by the community, the title was hit with an indefinite delay.

The developer has been hosting regular technical tests to scope out new features and changes to the game based on user feedback, and with the new launch date, everything should be coming together to form a better strategy experience.

As detailed in the developer update video below, the changes include a Forester building to grow and harvest trees anywhere, recovering demolished building resources, and more distinct units for the three factions. Rush protection in multiplayer, faster map traversal mechanics, buildings claiming territory when built, army handling improvements, a reworked researched system are more are here too.

Following the PC launch on February 17, Ubisoft will be releasing The Settlers: New Allies on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch consoles, as well as Amazon Luna streaming service with full cross-play and cross-progression support. No release date information for these platforms has been announced yet.

Ubisoft re-reveals The Settlers reboot showcasing major changes, out in February

Windows 11 upgrades

As has been the case for the past few weeks, this section is mostly about new Windows 11 bugs and fixes for some existing ones.

For starters, Microsoft has finally removed a compatibility safeguard on select devices trying to upgrade to Windows 11 version 22H2. It was initially put in place due to printer bugs where the settings would get stuck on the default and it became a hassle to add more printers. In a similar vein, an upgrade block was also removed from some PCs experiencing deterioration in gaming performance. That said, the bug hasn't been fully resolved yet.

We also learned that the Remote Desktop app could stop responding on Windows 11 version 22H2. For now, the Redmond tech giant has recommended terminating the process using Task Manager when this happens and has also suggested disabling UDP (with some caveats). A more permanent fix is in the works. Meanwhile, AMD has released a new chipset driver to fix Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) problems affecting Windows 11 version 22H2 as well as older versions of Windows.

Microsoft is also working on making Windows 11 more secure. The OS now supports multi-key total memory encryption on Intel's 3rd Gen Xeon scalable Ice Lake CPUs, and Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake processors on the client side. The company is seemingly also working on a dedicated VPN indicator in the notifications area of Windows 11 version 22H2 and you can force-enable it by following the instructions detailed here.

Finally, if you prefer the aesthetics of Windows 11 but not the OS itself, you may want to consider giving the Orange Pi (Droid) OS a spin - at your own risk. It's an Android 12-based operating system that has the look and feel of Windows 11, but the response to its aesthetics has been somewhat polarizing so far.

Windows 10 goodness

Microsoft announced this week that Windows 10 version 22H2 (also knows as Windows 10 2022 Update) is now ready for broad deployment. For those unaware, broad deployment is the final rollout phase in the lifecycle of a Windows release. It means more users with compatible computers receive offers to update, not only seekers who press the "Check for updates" button. For reference, Windows 11 2022 Update (also 22H2) is currently available to all who check for updates manually.

Microsoft has been very mysterious about what's new in the update, just saying that it's available with a "limited set of productivity features". However, we did some sleuthing and did manage to find out possible information about what is new.

Some other good news is that the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) app has hit general availability in the Microsoft Store and is now also available on Windows 10, in addition to Windows 11. Microsoft is making it the default experience on both OSes, touting faster updates, better error printing, WSLg and WSL bundled in a single package, and the ability to opt-in for systemd support, among many other things.

Slack contest

A couple of days ago, a report popped up claiming that the European Commission (EC) is gearing up to investigate Microsoft over some antitrust complaints made about Teams by competitor Slack.

The complaint in question was filed back in 2020 when Slack alleged that bundling Teams with the Microsoft 365 suite of products forces it to be installed on many machines while "hiding the true cost to enterprise customers". It urged the regulator to force Microsoft to remove Teams from its Microsoft 365 suite and offer it separately at "fair" commercial prices.

Now, it looks like the EC is ready to take action as a new batch of questionnaires has recently been sent out, with sources familiar with the matter claiming that an official investigation may be kicked off soon.

While we are in the Microsoft 365 space, it's also worth noting that Microsoft has delayed the deprecation of the Outlook REST API indefinitely following customer feedback. The deprecation will happen next year instead of this month.

Moreover, Microsoft is seemingly focused on mobile-first content creation now, at least when it comes to PowerPoint. The Redmond tech firm is introducing the ability to create slides in Portrait mode in PowerPoint for iPhone and iPad devices on the Office Insider channel. iOS users will now be able to switch in and out of Portrait mode when creating and editing slides. There is no word yet on Android support or general availability timeframes.

Git gud

As the battle between Microsoft and Sony rages on with regards to the UK CMA investigating the former's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, more details are becoming public. There are some pretty interesting tidbits of information with the submitted documents.

Perhaps the most interesting is that Microsoft has told the UK regulator that its exclusives are lower quality as compared to PlayStation. It pointed to Metacritic scores as the basis for this argument and also noted that they don't sell that well on the Xbox either. Meanwhile, word from the Sony camp is that the company might launch its next PlayStation console around 2026, which is still quite a ways to go.

On the actual games front, Sea of Thieves Season 8 now live with on-demand PVP, new locations, and more. And if you're on the lookout for getting some PC games on the cheap in this Black Friday weekend, don't miss out on this Weekend's PC Game Deals, curated by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe.

Dev Channel

• Surface Laptop Studio has a new firmware update to improve SSD stability

• Microsoft has ended support for Surface Go with LTE

• Visual Studio 2022 17.4 has a ton of performance improvements

Under the spotlight

This week, we published a few guides. The first comes from News Reporter Rahul Naskar who detailed a handy way to get a detailed battery report in Windows 10 and Windows 11 along with the things you need to focus on while parsing it.

Meanwhile, News Reporter Taras Buria published the steps to disable the recommended websites section in the Start menu if it really bothers you in Windows 11 Dev Channel build 25247.

On the other hand, forum member Adam Bottjen authored a detailed guide explaining how to enable and leverage Live Captions in Windows 11 version 22H2.

Meanwhile, News Editor Paul Hill went hands-on with Olauncher, arguing that it's the best possible Android launcher today. You can read his thoughts here.

Finally, do remember to recheck Neowin co-founder Steven Parker's first impressions of the GEEKOM IT11 MiniPC. You can grab it for just $599 instead of $769 if you act fast and purchase it during this Black Friday week.

Logging off

Our most interesting news item of the week is about Mercedes-Benz introducing a yearly $1200 subscription... to make some of its cars go faster. You read that right. By purchasing the Acceleration Increase subscription for $1200/year, your Mercedes-EQ 350 SUV will hit 60mph in 5.2 seconds instead of 6.2 seconds.

This is being done by electronically boosting the motor's output and the torque but it raises some concerns because it implies that the car already has the necessary capability built-in to achieve this performance and the sole reason to lock it behind a paywall is to make customers pay more. At the very least, it's a worrisome precedent for what's to come.

Microsoft Weekly: Windows 11 upgrades, Windows 10 goodness, and Slack complaints

DNA can be utilized to reliably store massive amounts of digital data. However, it has hitherto proven challenging to retrieve or manipulate the specific data embedded in these molecules. Now, scientists from the CNRS and the University of Tokyo have developed the use of a novel enzyme-based technique, providing the initial clues as to how these technical obstacles may be overcome. Their research was recently published in the journal Nature. 

Nature has unquestionably developed the best method for massive data storage: DNA. Based on this knowledge, DNA has been used to store digital data by translating binary (0 or 1) values into one of the four different DNA “letters” (A, T, C, or G).

But how can one search through the database of data encoded in DNA to discover a certain datum? And how is it possible to execute computations using DNA-encoded data without first transforming it into electronic form? These are the questions that research teams from the LIMMS (CNRS / University of Tokyo) and Gulliver (CNRS / ESPCI) laboratories have attempted to answer. They are experimenting with a new approach using enzymes and artificial neurons and neural networks for direct operations on DNA data.

Specifically, the researchers have made use of the reactions of three enzymes to design chemical “neurons” that reproduce the network architecture and ability for complex calculations exhibited by true neurons. Their chemical neurons can execute calculations with data on DNA strands and express the results as fluorescent signals.

The LIMMS and Gulliver teams have also innovated by assembling two layers of the artificial neurons in order to refine calculations. Precision is further enhanced through microfluidic miniaturization of reactions, allowing tens of thousands to take place.

The fruit of a decade of cooperation between French biochemists and Japanese microfluidics engineers, these breakthroughs may eventually permit better screening for certain diseases as well as the manipulation of gigantic DNA-encoded databases.

When kept away from water, air, and light, DNA can be preserved for hundreds of thousands of years, without any energy input. And stored in a capsule a few centimeters in diameter, it can hold up to 500 terabytes of digital data. By 2025, the total volume of digital data generated by humans is expected to reach 175 zettabytes.1 Since current storage media are relatively bulky, fragile, and energy-intensive, DNA may provide a viable alternative—able to contain all existing data within the space of a shoebox. Facilitating DNA storage will be the PEPR MoleculArxiv goal, a priority research program provided last May by the CNRS.

Source