Commenting on the news, Lana Khalaf, Microsoft Country Manager, said:

“With its longstanding history as an early adopter of technology, Qatar has completely embraced cloud solutions and revolutionized entire industries to develop a new, advanced digital economy. Today’s announcement will enable the country to take these groundbreaking innovations to the world, showcase its standing as a leader in digital transformation and cement Qatar’s place as a global hub for innovation.”

Like other countries in the Middle East, Qatar relies heavily on gas and oil production. Following the saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, Qatar has decided that it wants to diversify its economy by 2030. This will help it prepare for a future where electric vehicles are more prominent and demand for oil has dropped off.

Microsoft said that the new data centre will help address the country’s growing need for high performance computing and reliable access to Microsoft’s services. The data centres are available from today for use with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365.

Source: Microsoft via AFP (Yahoo! Finance)

Microsoft announces that 36,000 new data centre jobs are coming to Qatar

However, things could take a turn for the worse for Intel soon after it releases Raptor Lake. According to Twitter user and leakster Greymon55, AMD's Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs (codenamed Raphael X), that combine the goodness of Zen 4 and 3D V-cache, are arriving at CES 2023. AMD is allegedly planning to launch three new chips:

• Ryzen 9 7950X3D
• Ryzen 9 7900X3D
• Ryzen 7 7800X3D

AMD had earlier confirmed in its roadmap that the Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs will come after the vanilla chips were out. Though, as of now, it is unconfirmed if the new processors will utilize the existing 5nm process or the new 4nm lithography.

When AMD first introduced the 3D V-cache technology, it promised around 15% better performance in games. Reviews have shown that it is indeed the case as the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is currently generally considered as the best gaming CPU even getting the better of Intel's 12th Gen i9 chips quite often even though the Intel CPUs were noticeably better than the non-X3D Ryzen 5000 processors.

This means the upcoming Ryzen 7000X3D line could potentially make the Intel Raptor Lake CPUs completely obsolete for gaming within just three months of launch. However, this will also depend on how competitive the pricing for upcoming 7000X3D processors are.

Source: Greymon55 (Twitter)

Intel's CES 2023 may be ruined as AMD Ryzen 7000X3D V-cache CPUs are allegedly landing

Samsung has announced a new version of the Odyssey OLED G8 gaming monitor, a 34” version. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Samsung announced the Odyssey OLED G8 monitor earlier in the year but that model (G85NB) was just 32”, the new model (G85SB) is 34”.

The new G8 is described by Samsung as ultra-slim, as it’s just 3.9 mm thick at its thinnest part. The display is surrounded by a metal frame to add to the build quality. The display itself is ultra-wide with a QHD resolution (3,440 x 1,440) and features a 21:9 aspect ratio. Interestingly, the display does not require a backlight, as lighting is controlled by each of the pixels. Using this technique, Samsung can deliver true RGB and true black for better colour accuracy and brightness.

For those playing games online who need the best response rates, the G8 will be ideal. It has a 0.1 ms response time and a 175 Hz refresh rate. Additionally, it supports AMD FreeSync Premium for smoother gaming.

Many people play games through streaming platforms now, for this reason, Samsung Gaming Hub brings all these services to one place on the Odyssey OLED G8. Gamers will be able to find and play games from Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Google Stadia, Utomik, and Amazon Luna (U.S. only). This will let you start playing games even if you don’t have a console. Unfortunately, Samsung Gaming Hub is only available in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Spain, the U.S., and the UK for now.

The Odyssey OLED G8 will be available globally from the fourth quarter, but the launch schedules will vary depending on your region. Samsung has not specified a price for the monitor yet.

Samsung introduces a 34-inch version of the Odyssey OLED G8 monitor

Scaling advantages

LCD panels have a fixed resolution. When you send them something other than their native resolution, they have to do something with it. That may mean centering the image on the screen, where it may mean scaling the image to the native resolution. Sometimes this looks fine, and sometimes the result doesn’t look right.

With CRTs, scaling isn’t a problem, because they don’t have a fixed resolution. There may be certain combinations of resolutions and refresh rates that a display doesn’t handle, but generally when you are matching a CRT display to a computer of the same era, this isn’t much of a problem. Usually when there are limitations, the computer and display are able to negotiate compatible options and hide the incompatible ones.

With game consoles, you don’t usually have to worry about this. The console sends an image to the CRT, and the CRT displays it.

Lag advantages

The biggest criticism of LCD versus CRT is usually lag. Under the best of circumstances, LCDs can keep lag to a minimum. But there isn’t any guarantee that your circumstances are going to be ideal. And if there is scaling involved, there is probably going to be some lag. In a really fast-paced game, that leg can be just enough to throw off your timing so you don’t play as well as you would on a CRT.

This is less of a problem on newer displays than it was on older displays, but unfortunately, the older your display is, the greater the likelihood is it has inputs that are natively compatible with the vintage console or computer.

Compatibility advantages

There was a time when a good LCD had a dizzying array of input options. It was a given that someone who was paying hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for a flat panel display would have dozens of different devices they would want to plug into them, including a DVD or Blu-ray player, a VCR, a video camera, any number of game consoles, and probably a computer.

But all those connections cost money, and it’s not necessarily a given anymore that the typical consumer wants or needs all of those connections now. Today, the typical consumer buying a new panel probably just wants two or three HDMI connections.

Furthermore, if you have a really old system that uses RF, such as an Atari console, there is a reasonably good chance that a newer display won’t be compatible with it, given that over the air analog television no longer exists. Any CRT TV will still have a functioning RF input you can use, even if it needs an adapter.

It’s usually easier to get vintage consoles working with a late model CRT than it is with a brand new LCD. The story may be a bit different with an older LCD you find at an estate sale or a thrift store.

Authenticity advantages of CRT over LCD

A CRT display is probably going to feel more authentic with anything older than a PlayStation 2. And even in the case of a PlayStation 2, it depends on what you remember using one with.

Sometimes you can find a panel whose styling matches a system surprisingly well, but the older and more each the system is, the harder that becomes. Even then, the look of the scanlines and other imperfections of a CRT make it look more authentic and period correct.

For all of these reasons, people tend to seek out CRT displays, especially medium sized displays, even though they are getting harder to find.

Source

A day ago, AMD made a surprise announcement that they are going to announce Ryzen 7000 processors. Later, after months of speculation and waiting, AMD finally announced 5nm based Ryzen 7000 CPUs on a YouTube keynote.

AMD announced four processors in it. Ryzen 9 7950X with 16 cores / 32 threads. Ryzen 9 7900X with 12 cores / 24 threads. The Ryzen 7 7700X with 8 cores / 16 threads. Then Ryzen 5 7600X with 6 cores / 12 threads.

7950X goes up to 5.7 GHz with base frequency of 4.5 GHz. It has a total cache of 80MB, with a TDP of 170W. Priced at $699. It’s going to be a $100 cheaper than the Ryzen 9 5950X.

7900X on the other hand has boost frequency reaching 5.6 GHz, 4.7 GHz base speed. With total cache of 76MB. With same 170W TDP of 7950X. Priced $549, which is same as Ryzen 9 5900X.

7700X has a boost frequency of 5.4 GHz and base frequency of 4.5 GHz. Total cache of 40MB. TDP being lower at 105W. Priced at $399. A whole $100 more expensive than Ryzen 7 5700X.

7600X comes with a boost frequency of 5.3 GHz and base frequency of 4.7 GHz. Total cache slightly lower than 7700X, at 38MB. With same TDP of 105W. Priced at $299, it’s the same price as what Ryzen 5 5600X was released at.

All these processors come with full DDR5 support and will also support PCIe 5.0.

The AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors, the first 5nm based desktop processors in the world, are releasing on 27th September. This is the same day on which Intel is going to announce its next-gen Intel Raptor Lake series processors.

Ryzen 7000 Performance

AMD claims 13% increase in IPC performance of Ryzen 7000 series. It’s far above the 3-5% claimed by some people. Combined with higher CPU frequency, AMD claims 29% increase in single threaded performance.

The 7950X is said to deliver 15% more gaming performance than previous-gen 5950X. With 7950X delivering 40% increase in creator (professional software) performance compared with 5950X. AMD claims Ryzen 9 7950X is not only faster in gaming than the Intel’s Core i9 12900K processor (originally priced $669), but is more than 60% faster in compute performance for creators too. AMD showed how 7950X also has above 45% better performance-per-watt when compared to Intel’s 12900K.

Then AMD shows how all the newly announced Ryzen 7000 processors had better single threaded performance in Geekbench than Intel’s 12900K, which is a massive achievement.

AMD then showed mainstream Ryzen 5 7600X’s performance. It showed 11% better FPS performance than Intel’s 12900K in a single game and average 5% increase across the set of games at 1080p. Which again is impressive. As we are comparing a $299 processor with a $589 (current MSRP) one.

Performance compared to AMD 5000

Later, AMD shows that the 13% increase in IPC, compared to AMD 5000 series, is only a geomean average performance increase. It has a peak increase of 39% in some workloads. This is benchmarked at 4.0 GHz on a 8C/16T CPU (Ryzen 7700X).

AMD also shows that when compared to previous-gen Ryzen 5950X, Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 series consumes more than 60% lesser power at same performance and delivers an increase of 49% in performance at same power.

In performance gains at various watts, there’s 74% increase at 65W, 37% increase at 105W and 35% performance increase at 170W TDP. Here performance per watt increase is seen in 7950X when compared to 5950X.

When compared to Intel Alder Lake’s Golden Cove Core, AMD Zen 4 Core uses 50% less (surface) area and delivers above 45% power efficiency.

AMD also promises to release a higher gaming performance supporting 3D V-Cache based Ryzen 7000 series processor later, presumably modeled either Ryzen 7800X or 7800X3D.

In addition to that, AMD says it’s on-track on releasing Zen 5 processors by 2024 with a “new grounds up core”.

AMD AM5 Socket Platform

AMD reminded everyone about its current AM4 socket platform, which powered 5 different CPU architectures, 4 process nodes, 125+ processors and had more than 500 motherboards.

AMD then showcased the new AM5 Socket Platform. It comes with a new 1718 pin LGA socket (which has pins on the socket, not on the CPU). The new AM5 can deliver up to 230W of socket power to the processor. AM5 is made with direct support for next-generation tech like DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. It also promises compatibility for AM5 with the current-gen AM4 processor coolers.

The AM5 motherboards are expected to start from $125, releasing this year. Starting with PCIe 4.0 then PCIe 5.0 becoming a standard. AM5 motherboards will come with a wide-range of prices for everyone.

AMD promises that it will support the AM5 for years to come. At least till 2025 and more. This is completely different from Intel, which changes its socket every other year. AMD says it’s for the build today and upgrade later for more performance builds.

New Chipsets

The AM5 socket comes with two different types of motherboard chipsets. The X series, which has X670E (Extreme) and X670, both of them release in September. Then there’s B series, which has B650E and B650 chipsets, which release later in October.

The X series, AMD claims, is designed with the highest power delivery and overclocking headroom across CPU and memory. The X670 comes with PCIe 5.0 storage support, whereas X670E comes with the support for PCIe 5.0 in both storage and graphics card slots on the motherboard.

The B series, on the other hand, are value chipsets for common users. The B650E, just like the X670E, will support PCIe 5.0 in both storage and graphics. The biggest difference between the B series and the X series, however, is that unlike the X series, the B series is not expected to support CPU overclocking.

AMD also mentions that PCIe 5.0 based storage devices (SSD) are coming in November this year from a wide range of companies.

AMD also justified why they choose DDR5 RAM (only) support for its AM5. It was because they designed the platform with the future in consideration, as DDR4 has reached its limits already. DDR5 supports higher bandwidth, supports low memory latency and has 4 times more memory capacity over DDR4 per chip.

AMD EXPO™ Technology For Memory Overclocking

AMD has introduced a new technology named AMD EXPO™ for overclocking memory in its AM5 platform. It supports 1-click overclocking of DDR5 memory.

At 1080p, AMD claims that EXPO provides up to 11% increase in gaming performance. It also promises reduction in latency to almost 60ns.

It says EXPO is build on an open standard and all the specs will be publicly available, with memory kits supporting it will be giving full information to the users. Apart from it being a license and royalty free memory specification.

It expects that there will be about 15 memory kits being available at launch, with speeds up to DDR5-6400 data rates.

The EXPO™ Technology is AMD’s answer to Intel’s XMP memory overclocking technology.

AMD Radeon RX 7000 Graphics Cards Teased

AMD also teased a all-new RDNA 3 architecture based next-gen graphics card. It comes with a 5nm based chiplets.

The new RDNA 3 graphics cards, it claims, will deliver up to 50% more performance-per-watt compared to AMD Radeon RX 5000 series graphics cards. These cards are currently in testing at AMD’s labs and are showing “wonderful performance”.

AMD also showed a game demo of a RDNA 3 based graphics card running on a Ryzen 9 7950X processor, playing a new upcoming game called Lies of P. The game was seen running smoothly at 4K resolution in Ultra settings on a pre-production GPU.

AMD announced that the next generation RDNA 3 based (Radeon RX 7000) graphics cards will be launched later this year.

What was interesting is that AMD never discussed the Ryzen’s built-in graphics processor. All Ryzen processors are going to come with a built-in GPU. The performance is not expected to be able to be any good at gaming (unlike G processors by AMD), but is said to be good enough to run basic applications. We might hear about it later.

Ryzen 7000 CPUs to AM5 Socket, Everything AMD Announced

However, while that is indeed impressive, it must be noted that the 12900K was at a thread disadvantage with 24 threads in total and is also a year old at this point. The real test of the Ryzen 7000 series chips is against Intel's upcoming Raptor Lake-S desktop processors which are launching starting next month according to the latest leaked information.

As such, for those wondering how the two top dogs, the Ryzen 9 7950X and the Intel Core i9-13900K will stack up against each other, a leaked Geekbench score today sheds light on the matter. And enthusiasts and fans from both Red and Blue camps will be pleased to see the result. That's because the two CPUs are essentially at stalemate, as the scores are basically a tie.

As you can see in the image above, both CPUs scored around ~2,200 single threaded points while in the multithreaded test, the score is a little above 24,000. While it is a narrow win for the AMD CPU here, it too small a margin to call a victory.

This is not the only 13900K Geekbench result as some have even dug up scores of over 26,000 points. However, it must be noted that they could be a bit inflated due to the CPU running at around 5.7-5.8GHz on all eight P-cores, suggesting that the 350W Extreme Performance mode may have been utilized.

Via: Benchleaks (Twitter), Sebastian Castellanos (Twitter)

AMD Ryzen 7950X and Intel Core i9-13900K unable to K.O. each other in leaked Geekbench score

Alongside tremendous multi-threading performance gains, Team Red says that the single-threaded (ST) side of things has also seen big improvements as the company is promising 13% IPC uplift in Zen 4, compared to Zen 3, and clock speeds of up to 5.7GHz.

For Intel to be able to keep its lead in ST, Intel's upcoming 13th Gen Raptor Lake-S desktop processors need to shine. Leaked performance numbers already show impressive numbers with the Core i7-13700K apparently beating the previous generation flagship from AMD, the Ryzen 9 5950X. Speaking of the 13700K, here is the entire leaked Raptor Lake-S lineup including the i5 and i3.

If you are wondering when Raptor Lake will be out, the announcement is expected at the Intel Innovation event, and a new leak today sheds light on when the chips may be available to purchase.

The leak comes via Twitter user @wxnod who has posted a picture of what appears to be an internal Intel presentation slide which discusses the GTM (Go To Market) stratergy for Raptor Lake, referred to as RPL in short.

According to this leak, the i9-13900K and similar SKUs, will be out of the door first on the 28th September. This will be followed by the i7 and i5 K-series SKUs on October 13, and so on. We will likely know a bit more about this come next month at the Innovation event.

Interestingly, the Ryzen 7000 series processors too are scheduled to be available from September 27th onwards which means it will be clash of the titans between the Ryzen 9 7950X and the Core i9-13900K next month.

Source and image: @wxnod (Twitter)

Following today's Ryzen 7000 (Zen 4) announcement, Intel Raptor Lake launch dates leak

G.SKILL announced today that it will launch two new series of DDR5 memory, designed with the AMD Ryzen 7000 series processor and 600 series motherboards in mind.

Both the Trident Z5 Neo and the Flare X5 will be programmed with AMD EXPO (Extended Profiles for Overclocking) technology to support overclocking, with the powder-coated matte black finish and the ease of enabling the AMD EXPO profiles in the BIOS, it makes unleashing the additional power easy.

The Trident Z5 Neo series comes in two variations, with or without RGB capability, and will be available in both DDR5-6000 and DDR5-5600 frequencies, with kits for both starting at 2x16GB going up to 2x32GB.

The Flare X5 series is much more compact, designed for smaller builds with a 33mm low profile height of each stick, and again is available for both DDR5-6000 and DDR5-5600 frequencies at 2x16GB or 2x32GB kits.

You can find the full details of the launch configurations of all three variations in the below table:

G.SKILL is yet to confirm the pricing for the Trident Z5 Neo, Trident Z5 Neo RGB, and the Flare X5 series currently, but these will be available through worldwide distribution partners starting from September 2022.

G.SKILL announces Trident Z5 Neo and Flare X5 for AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors

AMD makes Ryzen 7000 official: Launching September 27, starting at $299

AMD today is launching its much anticipated Ryzen 7000 series of desktop processors based on the Zen 4 architecture. The new line-up has four SKUs in total for now at least, namely, the 16 core 32 thread (16/32T) Ryzen 9 7950X, the 12C/24T Ryzen 9 7900X, the 8C/16T Ryzen 7 7700X and the 6C/12T Ryzen 5 7600X, and these are priced at $699, $549, $399 and $299 respectively. They will be available on September 27th.

The company says that the flagship 7950X is up to 57% faster than its predecessor, the 5950X in Chaos V-Ray. Meanwhile, compared to Intel's i9-12900K, the CPU is 62% faster, which is truly impressive. It does this while consuming 47% less power thanks to the 5 nm process as well as the new Zen 4 architectural efficiency.

These are gaming power houses, says AMD, thanks to a 13% IPC uplift and high boost clocks that go all the way up to 5.7GHz. The company touts that even its Ryzen 5 7600X is often the better gaming CPU than the Core i9-12900K.

AMD also claims that the Ryzen 7000 series CPUs are extremely powerful in terms of high-performance computing (HPC) workloads due to AVX512 support among other architectural enhancements.

AMD's Ryzen 7950X is up to 57% faster than the 5950X, 62% faster than Intel i9-12900K

Earlier, a rumor claimed AMD is having issues with its firmware, which has allegedly forced, at least some reviewers, to re-sign their NDAs. Although the sort of issues and bugs encountered by AMD weren't available at the time, 1usmus, who is the developer of several use AMD tools like DRAM Calculator, HYDRA and CTR, alleges that there are microcode issues in Zen 4 at the moment which is causing the delay in the actual product launches related to Ryzen 7000 and AM5.

When asked to elaborate on the “issues” 1usmus says that there allegedly are issues related to core frequency boosting and DDR5 DRAM speeds are purportedly failing to reach above 5200MT/s.

Hence, the reported bug is related to AMD's new EXtended Profiles for Overclocking (EXPO) feature, which was formerly called AMD RAMP or Ryzen Accelerated Memory Profile. For those wondering, EXPO apparently is AMD's version of Intel XMP but interestingly, the feature is said to work even on mobile devices like laptops.

AMD Ryzen 7000 (Zen 4) allegedly failing to boost and clock past DDR5-5200

Super Mario Kart and its sequels have not only introduced a new gaming genre, but it has changed the world of kart racing games, setting a new trend.

30 Years ago, on 27th August 1992, Nintendo released Super Mario Kart for Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was a kart based racing game which had all our favorite Super Mario characters racing against each other on different courses.

It was an extraordinary success. Not only it had great reviews from the critics, but was famous with the gamers too. The reason was simple, it was designed marvelously. It had unique, easy going graphics. Simple yet beautifully designed racing tracks. It had all the known Super Mario characters. But the most important of all, it came with power-ups, which has become an important identification of the game series. In all, the Super Mario Kart has left behind a huge legacy.

Legacy of Super Mario Kart

When Shigeru Miyamoto, the inventor of Super Mario Bros. decided to produce Super Mario Kart, he wouldn’t have imagined the level of success it would get and the legacy it would leave behind.

After the success of Super Mario Kart, many companies tried to follow the genre and found some success in it. But the biggest success of the genre came from the same series. After Super Mario Kart, Nintendo released many successors of the original game.

• Mario Kart 64 for Nintendo 64.
• Mario Kart: Super Circuit for Game Boy Advance.
• Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for GameCube.
• Mario Kart DS for Nintendo DS.
• The Mario Kart Wii for Wii.
• Mario Kart 7 for Nintendo 3DS.
• Mario Kart 8 for Wii U.
• The latest Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for Nintendo Switch.

All of them were a big success. All them added new courses and new characters to the game.

Super Mario Kart and its sequels has not only introduced a new genre, but it changed the world of kart racing games, setting a new trend.

Gameplay

The gameplay of the Mario Kart series is simple. You control a racing kart with all the characters on a course and try to finish first. There are various obstacles on the course which you have to go through in order to win against the computer or other players, who may use power-ups found laying on the course to stop you from winning. All combined with a great background music.

The courses of Mario Kart series have extraordinary detailed inserted into them, making them extremely memorable. The most famous of them being the Rainbow Road course which is made of, rainbows in the night sky.

The power-ups and items of Mario Kart gives a player a unique experience. There are many memorable ones. A banana peel which, when left on a course, would cause a player to slip and spin when someone rides on it. The green shell which, when launched, would go straight and hit anyone in its line. The red shell which would follow a player in front and hit it. But the most frustrating one being the rare blue shell, which would go and hit the first player / leader on the course, making it extremely agonizing for them.

The game series also has a multiplayer. The Mario Kart series introduced a unique split-screen experience. A single television screen could have two or four gamers playing together. Many have spent their childhood putting a tape on their screens to divide it and have spent countless hours preventing the other player from peeking on their part of the screen.

Games Anyone Can Play? Maybe

Mario Kart series is sometimes recommended as family entertainment. We disagree. It may look cartoon-y, but it’s no child’s play. It’s a competitive game series, which can be frustrating sometimes and even ruin relations when people play against each other (especially if the blue shell is involved). But take nothing away from the games. They are themselves great fun. There’s a reason Mario Kart is among the highest selling gaming series ever.

Those who own a Nintendo console and a Mario Kart game for it, can try to play them on an emulator on their PC, if their PC can run them, for a unique experience in a gameplay not found anywhere else.

Nintendo’s Super-hit Racer Mario Kart Series Turns 30

Later today, AMD is all set to hold its announcement event for the next-gen Ryzen 7000 series CPUs based on the Zen 4 architecture. The actual availability of the products, however, is allegedly planned for later, in mid-September. There has been good evidence too, in the form of photos, which suggest it is indeed the case. Although unconfirmed, reports of potential firmware problems could be to blame for this alleged late launch.

According to a new report from fellow media outlet Wccftech, the accompanying socket AM5 motherboards for the Ryzen 7000 CPUs are actually arriving even later. The site claims that the X670 chipset boards will launch 12 days after the Zen 4 processors, on September 27th. Meanwhile, the more mainstream B650 chipset is launching another couple of weeks later on October 10th.

This means you could be left holding on to your new Ryzen 7000 chip for nearly two weeks or more if this report is accurate.

In terms of the the flagship X670 Extreme or X670E chipset, the report claims that these too will land alongside the non-Extreme X670 boards, which implies an expected launch date on the 27th September mentioned above. AMD is apparently also planning a new B650 Extreme chipset or B650E according to a leak earlier today. At the moment though, it is not known when it will be available.

Source: Wccftech

You may be left holding your brand-new Ryzen 7000 CPU for nearly two weeks

AMD is expected to launch four CPUs in its Ryzen 7000 series (the “X” line) this evening, and a few hours ahead of the announcement, the pricing has already leaked. According to Wccftech’s sources, the prices of the upcoming desktop chips will be as follows:

• Ryzen 9 7950X - $799 US
• Ryzen 9 7900X - $549 US
• Ryzen 7 7700X - $449 US
• Ryzen 5 7600X - $299 US

These prices, as Wccftech correctly notes, remain unchanged from the prices of the Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 lineup, which also ranged from $299 to $799 at release. The 7000 series is the direct successor to the 5000 desktop series — the 6000 series (currently trickling out in certain laptop models) skipped the desktop chips.

Much of what we know about these upcoming Ryzen 7000 CPUs comes from AMD’s Computex keynote earlier this year. They’re set to be the first desktop CPUs based on a 5nm process. They’re also the first AMD chips to boast boost clocks over 5GHz — the CPU matched the 5.5GHz output of Intel’s flagship Core i9-12900KS in a run of Ghostwire: Tokyo onstage.

The pricing, if confirmed, would not come as a surprise — the Ryzen 5000 generation was widely considered to be priced high at release, and the new generation brings a significant increase in clock speed. Still, some PC enthusiasts may see $300 for a six-core part as a bad deal since Intel’s competing Core i5-12400 part has a suggested retail price of under $200, and AMD’s own Ryzen 7 5700X (an eight-core chip from the last generation) can currently be found all over the place for under $300. That’s especially true since Ryzen 7000 buyers will also need to shell out for a new motherboard — the new chips are no longer compatible with the AM4 platform.

We’ve reached out to AMD for comment on this pricing leak.

AMD won’t change launch pricing for Ryzen 7000 series, according to new leak

Dr. David Ouyang of the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, U.S. said, "There has been much excitement about the use of AI in medicine, but the technologies are rarely assessed in prospective clinical trials. We previously developed one of the first AI technologies to assess cardiac function (left ventricular ejection fraction; LVEF) in echocardiograms and in this blinded, randomized trial, we compared it head to head with sonographer tracings. This trial was powered to show non-inferiority of the AI compared to sonographer tracings, and so we were pleasantly surprised when the results actually showed superiority with respect to the pre-specified outcomes."

Accurate assessment of LVEF is essential for diagnosing cardiovascular disease and making treatment decisions. Human assessment is often based on a small number of cardiac cycles that can result in high inter-observer variability. EchoNet-Dynamic is a deep learning algorithm that was trained on echocardiogram videos to assess cardiac function and was previously shown to assess LVEF with a mean absolute error of 4.1–6.0% .2 The algorithm uses information across multiple cardiac cycles to minimize error and produce consistent results.

EchoNet-RCT tested whether AI or sonographer assessment of LVEF is more frequently adjusted by a reviewing cardiologist. The standard clinical workflow for determining LVEF by echocardiography is that a sonographer scans the patient; the sonographer provides an initial assessment of LVEF; and then a cardiologist reviews the assessment to provide a final report of LVEF. In this clinical trial, the sonographer's scan was randomly allocated 1:1 to AI initial assessment or sonographer initial assessment, after which blinded cardiologists reviewed the assessment and provided a final report of LVEF (see figure).

The researchers compared how much cardiologists changed the initial assessment by AI to how much they changed the initial assessment by sonographer. The primary endpoint was the frequency of a greater than 5% change in LVEF between the initial assessment (AI or sonographer) and the final cardiologist report. The trial was designed to test for noninferiority, with a secondary objective of testing for superiority.

The study included 3,495 transthoracic echocardiograms performed on adults for any clinical indication. The proportion of studies substantially changed was 16.8% in the AI group and 27.2% in the sonographer group (difference -10.4%, 95% confidence interval [CI] -13.2% to -7.7%, p<0.001 for noninferiority, p<0.001 for superiority). The safety endpoint was the difference between the final cardiologist report and a historical cardiologist report.

The mean absolute difference was 6.29% in the AI group and 7.23% in the sonographer group (difference -0.96%, 95% CI -1.34% to -0.54%, p<0.001 for superiority).

Dr. Ouyang said, "We learned a lot from running a randomized trial of an AI algorithm, which hasn't been done before in cardiology. First, we learned that this type of trial is highly feasible in the right setting, where the AI algorithm can be integrated into the usual clinical workflow in a blinded fashion.

Second, we learned that blinding really can work well in this situation. We asked our cardiologist over-readers to guess if they thought the tracing they had just reviewed was performed by AI or by a sonographer, and it turns out that they couldn't tell the difference—which both speaks to the strong performance of the AI algorithm as well as the seamless integration into clinical software. We believe these are all good signs for future trial research in the field."

He concluded, "We are excited by the implications of the trial. What this means for the future is that certain AI algorithms, if developed and integrated in the right way, could be very effective at not only improving the quality of echo reading output but also increasing efficiencies in time and effort spent by sonographers and cardiologists by simplifying otherwise tedious but important tasks. Embedding AI into clinical workflows could potentially provide more precise and consistent evaluations, thereby enabling earlier detection of clinical deterioration or response to treatment."

Source

Developed by Google and Capgemini, the AI software learned how to spot pools on aerial images of nine French departments during a trial run last year, which were then cross-checked with land registry databases.

Since pools boost property values, they usually lead to higher property and residency taxes -- unless the owner neglects to notify tax authorities.

Private pool sales had already been booming in France before the Covid pandemic, which saw a surge in installations as millions of employees began working from home more often.

According to the Parisien newspaper, which reported the results of the AI test, an average pool of 30 square metres (320 square feet) would be taxed at 200 euros ($200) a year.

In the nine test departments, the software detected more than 20,000 pools, which led to the collection of some 10 million euros in tax revenue last year.
The DGFiP public finances authority said the programme would now be rolled out nationwide, potentially leading to 40 million euros in new levies in 2023.

It could also eventually be used to find undeclared home extensions, patios or gazebos, which are also used to factor property taxes, the authority said.

© 2022 AFP

Source

Today, AMD plans to unveil its next-generation AMD Ryzen processors and motherboards equipped with the AM5 socket. As usual, last-minute leaks have spilled the beans on the upcoming products, revealing some interesting details.

A leaked photo from a meeting with AMD representatives shows four chipset variants for AM5-based motherboards. The company wants to offer its customers "regular" and "extreme" variants of the X670 and B650 chipsets.

AMD will mark its "extreme" chipsets with the letter "E", indicating the ability to run a video card and SSD simultaneously in PCIe 5.0 mode. "Standard" X670 and B650 chipsets will make users pick which device should utilize the latest standard. Similar to the AM4 platforms, the B650E chipset will get fewer PCIe lines than the X670E due to one Promontory 21 chipset.

AMD will stream today's "together we advance_PC" event on its official YouTube channel. You can tune in using this link at 7 PM ET to watch the company unveil the Ryzen 7000 Series, the first CPU generation from AMD to feature the new AM5 LGA socket, DDR5 memory, and PCIe 5.0.

AMD is preparing two regular and two 'extreme' chipsets for AM5 socket

Embracer Group and Square Enix are two huge names in the gaming industry. While Embracer Group is a Swedish company with a huge amount of gaming studios under it. Square Enix is a Japanese company which concentrates more on Japanese type of games.

Embracer Group owns THQ Nordic, Koch Media (Deep Silver, Milestone), Coffee Stain Holding, Saber Interactive, DECA Games, Gearbox Software among others. The gaming franchise catalog of these studios is too enormous to even mention.

Square Enix on the other hand owns game franchises of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Mana, Chrono, Front Mission, Tactics Ogre, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Drakengard, Fullmetal Alchemist and much more. This list had Tomb Raider and Deus Ex in them too, until recently.

In May, Embracer Group had announced the purchase of studios behind Tomb Raider and Deus Ex games from Square Enix for an ultra-cheap $300 million. Today, that deal is now officially completed.

Tomb Raider and Deus Ex Sale Complete

In a blog post, Embracer Group has announced that their acquisition of the studios behind Tomb Raider and Deus Ex is now complete. Namely, the studios are of Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal and Square Enix Montreal. Their sale means both the gaming franchise now belong to them.

Frankly speaking, this might be a good thing for these franchises. This is due to Embracer Group’s track record. In July this year, Aspyr Media, one of the studios from the Embracer Group, which was working behind cult-hit Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) remake, decided to cancel the project. It was revealed that Aspyr Media was highly unhappy with the game’s expensively made demo. They even removed the design and art directors behind it from the company for it.

While any company would sit on the franchises doing nothing. While KOTOR remake was stated to be delayed indefinitely, Embracer Group however has another plans. It has given Saber Interactive, another Embracer Group studio, the game instead. This shows Embracer Group is not interested is franchises go to waste and Tomb Raider and Deus Ex games are possibly in good hands.

Square Enix And It’s Future

From some time now, Square Enix is trying to get rid of it’s west based gaming catalog to concentrate on its Japanese games. Some time ago, there were rumors that it might even be bought by Sony, or at least some part of it. Buy and sell is nothing new in gaming industry. So this should not be taken as a setback to Square Enix. It’s a major player in the Japanese gaming industry and it will remain so unless completely sold, which seems unlikely from the looks of it.

Tomb Raider and Deus Ex Studios Now Officially Sold

Hidden Windows 11 features

Although Windows 11 Dev Channel build 25182 rolled out last week - coupled with a servicing update in this one -, people have continued discovering new features and hidden configurations in it in the past few days. One of these involves making the Taskbar load quicker by enabling a hidden setting that causes the Taskbar to launch parallel to the Immersive Shell and reduce the overall time it takes for the OS to load the UI element and other icons.

There were other features discovered in build 25188 which was made available to the Dev Channel this week too. The highlights of this release included Windows Terminal being the default terminal in Windows 11, migration of legacy settings, and updated touch keyboard configurations, among other things.

There is more to build 25188 than meets the eye though. Some eagle-eyed users were quick to spot a hidden configuration that enables some nifty animations in Settings icons. There were also indications that Microsoft is working more on the OS' security since it contained an updated driver for Microsoft Security Core Boot (msseccore.sys).

Another hidden capability involved the ability to export live kernel dumps directly from Task Manager. This could provide to be quite useful for tech-savvy folk who want to do an immediate analysis to investigate an issue they are encountering. Additionally, hints of Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) version 3.2 were spotted in a DLL file too. It's unclear what the update would bring and when it would arrive.

That said, it's not Dev Channel that received all the love this week. In fact, the Beta Channel netted build 22621.586 and build 22622.586 with improvements for DWM and File Explorer. Similarly, Release Preview received build 22621.382 (KB5016632) containing usage for certain resources, SMB compression, and more.

A new report emerged as well, claiming that build 22621.382 rolled out earlier this month will be one seeded as Windows 11 version 22H2 later this year. There are also indications that Microsoft may end up calling it "Windows 11 2022 Update" publicly.

Then there were other relatively minor updates spread throughout the week too. KB5016690 was made available to fix a 0x1E shutdown error in Windows 10 and KB5016688 fixed that and other issues related to game installs, IE mode, and more. An optional update was also released in the form of KB5016691, it brought improvements to USB printing and Bluetooth audio, among other things. Meanwhile, those on Windows 10 experiencing audio issues should check out some workarounds here.

MFA exploits

In the cybersecurity space, we learned that hackers are trying to exploit Microsoft's multi-factor authentication (MFA) mechanisms by taking advantage of a particular configuration. Essentially, if an account has been configured but the corresponding user has not immediately enrolled for MFA, an attacker could potentially take advantage of this delay and sign into your account and configure MFA to use their device instead. Of course, the caveat is that an attacker first would either need to complete a brute-force attack or steal your credentials in some other way.

Speaking of authentication mechanisms, IT admins should know that Microsoft is deprecating Basic Authentication protocols in Exchange Online in a few weeks and migrating to Modern Authentication (OAuth 2.0) completely. In advance of this configuration change, Google has published an advisory recommending IT admins to use the same protocol if they utilize Google Calendar Interop. This advisory applies to organizations which use the tool to share and sync schedules between Google Calendar and Exchange Online.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Defender managed to score full marks in AV-TEST's latest rankings which compared a variety of anti-virus solutions in both corporate and consumer scenarios. If this sort of thing interests you, find out all the details here.

Ad infestation

In a bit of bad news for some who use Outlook, Microsoft confirmed this week that it has started showing more ads in the Android and iOS app to non-paying customers. People without Microsoft 365 subscriptions can avoid ads to some extent by using Focused Inbox for important emails only, but ads will still be shown in the "Other" section of the app.

In related news, Microsoft has also started testing ads in the Microsoft Store. Developers can now register to start participating in this initiative by filling in a form. The way that ads will be surfaced is quite similar to other digital storefronts. For example, if you search for an app, you may see ads for other apps on the side with the "Ad" badge displayed.

When it comes to other Microsoft apps and services, Whiteboard is set to receive a slew of new features soon. This includes embedded online video support, timer, attribution, commenting, and more. Similarly, Teams has netted a bunch of new features for educators and students too. This includes a new experience called "Reflect" and a revamped home page. Finally, frontline workers utilizing Microsoft's Kaizala should know that the messaging service is being retired after one year in favor of Teams.

Git gud

We'll kick this section off by talking about some updates regarding Microsoft's ongoing acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Saudi Arabia has become the first country to approve the deal. There is still quite a way to go though because every country where Microsoft intends to officially sell Activision Blizzard titles will have to approve the acquisition. That said, Microsoft's CEO of Gaming Phil Spencer is quite optimistic that the deal will go through.

This week, Sony announced that it is increasing the price of the PlayStation in every region except the U.S. In Europe, there will be a significant bump of €50. Sony says that the reasoning behind this is challenging economic conditions globally, but interestingly, both Nintendo and Microsoft have confirmed that they have no plans to follow suit at this point in time.

But talking more about individual games, Age of Empires IV is set to receive Ottoman and Malian as free civilzations in October. Meanwhile, Microsoft Flight Simulator has netted City Update 01, which adds cities for the first time. The title will also receive a 40th anniversary edition in November. In the same month, Xbox-owned Obsidian Entertainment will release Pentiment for PC and Xbox. Like all first-party titles, this will on Xbox Game Pass on day one.

And as usual, those on the lookout for deals should check out this week's Deals with Gold headlined by Battlefield and Call of Duty, or take a gander at this weekend's Free Play Days promotion which includes Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Destiny 2, and The Elder Scrolls Online. Alternatively, if you're a PC purist, don't miss out on this Weekend's PC Game Deals, personally curated by Neowin News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe.

Dev Channel

• Viva Engage is now generally available, intended to boost workplace relationships
• VMware has confirmed that Carbon Black is the culprit behind recent boot-loops and BSODs on Windows
• AMD has released a new chipset driver with official support for Windows 11 version 22H2
• Linux might be competing with Windows 11 in terms of performance, if the latest patch notes are anything to go by
• Microsoft has rolled out firmware updates for Surface Laptop 2, Laptop 3, and Book 2

Under the spotlight

In this week's edition of Warwagon's Tech Tips authored by resident forum member Adam Bottjen - also known as "Warwagon" -, Adam explained how useful right-click functionality in Windows can be.

And in case you missed it, Neowin co-founder Steven Parker recently wrote a review for the AGM Glory G1S. If rugged phones are your thing, this review is definitely worth a read.

Logging off

If you have spent several years of your life wondering what Windows 8's startup audio would have sounded like, wonder no more. An ex-Microsoft employee has published a video talking about and showing off the audio initially designated for Windows 8's startup. Although the sound never ended up getting shipped in this fashion, there is still a decent chance that you might have come across it while using Windows 10 and Windows 11 without realizing its significance.

Microsoft Weekly: Windows 11 secrets, MFA exploits, and ad infestations

A photon is the quantum (the minimum amount involved in an interaction) of any form of electromagnetic radiation, such as light. Photons are essential to a number of current research fields and technologies, like quantum state engineering, which in turn represents the cornerstone of all quantum photonic technologies. With the help of quantum photonics, scientists and engineers are working to create new technologies such as new forms of encryption for highly secure channels of communication and new types of supercomputers.

One of the key requirements for quantum state engineering is the creation of photon pairs. This has traditionally been achieved through the use of one of the two nonlinear effects, spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) or spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM), in bulk optical elements. The nonlinear effects cause one or two pump photons to spontaneously decay into a photon pair.

However, these effects require strict momentum conservation for the involved photons. Any material, which the photons have to travel through, has dispersion properties, preventing momentum conservation. There are techniques that still achieve the needed conservation, but those severely limit the versatility of the states in which the photon pairs can be produced. As a result, even though traditional optical elements like nonlinear crystals and waveguides have successfully produced many photonic quantum states, their use is limited and unwieldy. So recently, researchers have looked towards so-called optical metasurfaces.

Scanning electron micrograph of one metasurface tested in this work. Credit: Tomas Santiago-Cruz

Producing photon pairs with metasurfaces

Metasurfaces are ultrathin planar optical devices made up of arrays of nanoresonators. Their subwavelength thickness (a few hundred nanometers) renders them effectively two-dimensional. That makes them much easier to handle than traditional bulky optical devices. Even more importantly, due to the lesser thickness, the momentum conservation of the photons is relaxed because the photons have to travel through far less material than with traditional optical devices: according to the uncertainty principle, confinement in space leads to undefined momentum. This allows for multiple nonlinear and quantum processes to happen with comparable efficiencies and opens the door for the usage of many new materials that would not work in traditional optical elements.

For this reason, and also because of being compact and more practical to handle than bulky optical elements, metasurfaces are coming into focus as sources of photon pairs for quantum experiments. In addition, metasurfaces could simultaneously transform photons in several degrees of freedom, such as polarization, frequency, and path.

Tomás Santiago-Cruz and Maria Chekhova from Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in cooperation with the research group of Igal Brener at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have now taken a new step in achieving just that. In a paper recently published in the Science journal, Chekhova and her colleagues for the first time demonstrated how metasurfaces produce pairs of photons of two different wavelengths.

Moreover, photons of a certain wavelength can be paired with photons at two or more different wavelengths simultaneously. This way, one can create multiple links between photons of different color. In addition, resonances of the metasurface enhance the rate of photon emission by several orders of magnitude compared to uniform sources of the same thickness. Tomás Santiago-Cruz believes that metasurfaces will play a key role in future quantum research: "Metasurfaces are leading to a paradigm shift in quantum optics, combining ultra small sources of quantum light with far reaching possibilities for quantum state engineering."

In the future, these features can be used to build very large complicated quantum states, which are needed for quantum computation. Moreover, the slim profile of metasurfaces and their multifunctional operation enables the development of more advanced compact devices, combining generation, transformation, and detection of quantum states. Maria Chekhova is excited about the path their research has been taking: "The sources of our photons are becoming tinier and tinier while at the same time their possibilities just keep getting broader and broader."

Source

According to Gourianov, the quantum computing industry has been led astray by greedy physicists who’ve hyped up the tech’s possibilities in order to rip off VCs and get paid private-sector salaries for doing academic research.

Double, double

Per Gourianov’s article, the real problems started in the 2010s after investors started taking notice of the hype surrounding quantum physics:

As more money flowed in, the field grew, and it became progressively more tempting for scientists to oversell their results. With time, salesman-type figures, typically without any understanding of quantum physics, entered the field, taking senior positions in companies and focusing solely on generating fanfare. After a few years of this, a highly exaggerated perspective on the promise of quantum computing reached the mainstream, leading to a greed and misunderstanding taking hold and the formation of a classical bubble.

Gourianov’s entire premise seems to hinge on their assertion that “despite years of effort nobody has yet come close to building a quantum machine that is actually capable of solving practical problems.”

They illustrate their argument by pointing out that Rigetti, IonQ, and D-Wave (three popular quantum computing companies) combined have failed to turn a sufficient profit.

According to Gourianov:

The reality is that none of these companies — or any other quantum computing firm, for that matter — are actually earning any real money. The little revenue they generate mostly comes from consulting missions aimed at teaching other companies about “how quantum computers will help their business”, as opposed to genuinely harnessing any advantages that quantum computers have over classical computers.

Finally, Gourianov’s conclusion leaves no doubt as to their feelings on the subject:

Well, when exactly the bubble will pop is difficult to say, but at some point the claims will be found out and the funding will dry up. I just hope that when the music stops and the bubble pops, the public will still listen to us physicists.

Toil and trouble

In the words of the great Jules Winnfield, Samuel Jackson’s character from the classic film Pulp Fiction, “Well, allow me to retort.”

I have but five words I’d like to say to Gourianov, and they are: IBM, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Intel.

I don’t think we need to do a deep dive into big tech’s balance sheets to explain that none of those companies are in any financial danger. Yet, each of them is developing quantum computers.

It’s unclear why Dr. Gourianov would leave big tech out of the argument entirely. There are dozens upon dozens of papers from Google and IBM alone demonstrating breakthrough after breakthrough in the field.

Gourianov’s primary argument against quantum computing appears, inexplicably, to be that they won’t be very useful for cracking quantum-resistant encryption. With respect, that’s like saying we shouldn’t develop surgical scalpels because they’re practically useless against chain mail armor.

Per Gourianov’s article:

Shor’s algorithm has been a godsend to the quantum industry, leading to untold amounts of funding from government security agencies all over the world. However, the commonly forgotten caveat here is that there are many alternative cryptographic schemes that are not vulnerable to quantum computers. It would be far from impossible to simply replace these vulnerable schemes with so-called “quantum-secure” ones.

This appears to suggest that Gourianov believes at least some physicists have pulled a bait-and-switch on governments and investors by convincing everyone that we need quantum computers for security.

This argument feels a bit juvenile and like a borderline conspiracy theory. Governments around the world have been working in tandem with experts from companies such as Google spinout SandboxAQ and IBM for several years to address the encryption issue.

No serious person involved in the decision-making is going to be confused about how math works because of crappy marketing hype or a misleading headline.

Gourianov’s rhetoric reaches a peak as they appear to accuse physicists of manipulating the hype around quantum computing out of sheer greed:

Some physicists believe, in private, that there is no problem here: why not take advantage of the situation while it lasts, and take the easy money from the not-too-sophisticated investors? Earning a private-sector level salary whilst doing essentially academic research is a pretty good deal, after all.

That’s quite the accusation.

Quantum computing bubble?

On the whole, however, it feels like Gourianov’s chief complaint isn’t that quantum computers don’t work, it’s that they aren’t very useful. Dr. Gorianov isn’t wrong. The technology is far from mature.

But make no mistake, today’s quantum computing systems do work. They just don’t work well enough to replace classical computers for many useful functions — yet.

Image: IBM

Looking at the above roadmap, keep in mind that IBM was founded in 1911. It didn’t build the IBM 5150, the company’s first PC, until 1981.

Along the way, a lot of reputable scientists said the PC market was a bubble. The naysayers claimed it was not only pointless for consumers, but that there were just too many problems to overcome in order to make computers affordable and useful for personal use.

We all know how that worked out for IBM. Do we need to even get into what Intel, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have accomplished over the course of their ventures? They each have their own roadmaps concerning how they’re approaching the STEM challenges involved in quantum computing. So does MIT, Harvard, Oxford and myriad other universities.

I’m not a big tech shill by any means, but there’s a lot to be said about a fistful of companies worth somewhere around the one trillion dollars mark each deciding that a future-facing technology vertical is worth wagering their bankbooks on.

It’s beyond the scope of this article to address every non-trillion dollar company in the quantum computing field. But, having spoken to dozens of people working at various quantum computing companies, including the ones Gourianov mentioned, it’s clear to me that nobody building quantum computers has any misconceptions about their capabilities — not even the C-suite executives.

If VCs are confused and media hype is distorting the tech’s possibilities, I’d call that par for the course.

I can’t think of a single modern technology that mainstream journalism gets right all the time. And a significant portion of wealthy VCs are going to be both eager and ignorant about any given tech — shall we discuss AI or Web3 investments too?

The future is now

In my opinion, it would take a scientific shocker on par with discovering a viable antithesis for Newton’s laws for the bottom to fall out of the quantum computing industry. We’re not talking about a theoretical technology, we’re talking about a nascent one.

Quantum computers are here now. But like the IBM 5150 in 1981, they don’t really do anything that regular computers of their day can’t already do.
Still, I’d be interested in hearing what anyone who said the PC market was a bubble back in 1981 has to say about it now.

I imagine we’ll all see quantum computers differently in 40 years.

Perhaps quantum computing is a bubble market for VCs looking for short-term ROI projects, but the technology isn’t going anywhere.

There’s overwhelming evidence that today’s quantum computing technology is rapidly advancing to the point where it can help us solve problems that are infeasible for classical computation.

Maybe there are a bunch of greedy scientists out there peddling unwarranted optimism to VCs and entrepreneurs. But I’d wager that the curious scientists and engineers who chose this field because they actually want to build quantum computers outnumber them.

Source

Corsair recently took the wraps off its latest monitor at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. The Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240 is a flagship 45-inch 21:9 ultrawide OLED gaming monitor with a 3440x1440 resolution.

Arguably the most striking feature of the Xeneon Flex is the flex part, as the display can be manually bent from a traditional flat screen display to a curved screen. You can grab the handles on the sides of the display and pull them toward you to whatever degree you want, up to an 800R curve. It is also possible to adjust just one side of the monitor in case you want to line up with a second monitor.

Equipped with LG's latest W-OLED display, Corsair is promising peak brightness up to 1,000 nits and a 1,350,000:1 contrast ratio. The screen will also have an anti-reflective coating to reduce glare and offer LG's Low Blue Light technology to help reduce eye strain.

To help solidify the monitor's gaming cred, the Xeneon Flex will offer a 0.03ms gray-to-gray response time and a 0.01ms pixel on/off time. The display will also come with a variable refresh rate up to 240Hz and will be compatible with both Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync.

To allay concerns about OLED burn-in, Corsair is including a burn-in prevention system it claims operates when the screen is both on and off to ensure no burn-in occurs even after extended UI and OS use. The company offers a three-year zero burn-in and zero dead pixel warranty as well.

Launch date, availability, pricing, and final specs will be revealed later this year.

Corsair announces world's first flexible OLED gaming monitor

When it originally announced the Steam Deck, Valve knew that it had something unique on its hands, a portable handheld gaming PC for users of its Steam platform to play games on the go. With production picking up, and unit shipments doubling, it has clearly been a success for Valve, so it isn't surprising to hear that it is considering a successor.

The book itself was posted in preparation for the launch of the Steam Deck in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, with it being available in Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese and English. It includes a variety of topics:

• Background on Valve and our philosophy around creating products and hardware to make our customers happy
• An overview of Steam, how it came to be, and where it is now
• The story of Steam Deck, how we designed it, and why we built it the way we did
• Information about our collaboration with Komodo to launch in these new regions
• Tons of pretty pictures of Steam Deck, prototypes, games, and more

It also mentions the idea of a generic launcher again, for those that use the latest version of SteamOS for their gaming PCs. Unfortunately, though, it doesn't mention anything specific about what the future could look like for a Steam Deck successor, so you will have to wait and see for that.

Valve is already hinting at a Steam Deck 2 with a new free eBook

An official announcement regarding the deal will happen later today according to the report. No mention of how much is Amazon paying for EA has been made yet, we will probably get to know it if an announcement comes through.

Amazon does have its own gaming division, which is responsible for recent titles such as the MMOs New World and Lost Ark. Adding EA's powerhouse studios such as Respawn, DICE, BioWare, Codemasters, Motive, and others into the mix can increase Amazon's genre diversity by quite a bit.

Upcoming confirmed publishing projects of EA include a Dead Space remake, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, a free-to-play Skate entry, new BioWare RPGs, quite a few EA Sports titles, and more.

The report arrives as Microsoft's own acquisition plans for Activision-Blizzard, worth almost $70 billion, carry on. Sony also made Bungie a part of its gaming studios, which cost it a cool $3.6 billion. EA also has partnerships with Microsoft, namely offering its EA Play games subscription as a part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass offerings. It will be interesting to see how these older partnerships fare if EA comes under a new company.

As always, take this report with a grain of salt until some official announcements arrive from Amazon or EA.

Source: USA Today

UPDATE: Everybody can rest easy as the report seems to have been inaccurate. CNBC's own sources have revealed a deal involving Amazon and EA is not happening.

Regarding the report, CNBC's David Farber said, "I have talked to some people who would actually know if there was something going on, and they say there's nothing going on."

Amazon may be about to acquire Electronic Arts [Update]

When Susan Conover wanted to get a strange-looking mole checked out at the age of 22, she was told it would take three months to see a dermatologist. When the mole was finally removed and biopsied, doctors determined it was cancerous. At the time, no one could be sure the cancer hadn’t spread to other parts of her body — the critical difference between stage 2 and stage 3 or 4 melanoma.

Thankfully, it turned out that the mole ended up being confined to one spot. However, the experience launched Conover into the world of skin diseases and dermatology. After exploring those topics and possible technological solutions in MIT’s System Design and Management graduate program, Conover founded the startup company Piction Health.

Piction Health began as a mobile app that used artificial intelligence to recognize melanoma from images. However, over time, Conover realized that other skin conditions make up the vast majority of cases physicians and dermatologists see. Today, Conover and her co-founder Pranav Kuber focus on helping doctors identify and manage the most common skin conditions — including rashes like eczema, acne, and shingles — and plan to partner with a company to help diagnose skin cancers down the line.

Piction Health, founded by MIT alumna Susan Conover, offers an artificial intelligence-powered mobile app to help primary care physicians identify skin diseases. Credit: Christine Daniloff, MIT; stock images

“All these other conditions are the ones that are often referred to dermatology, and dermatologists become frustrated because they’d prefer to be spending time on skin cancer cases or other conditions that need their help,” Conover says. “We realized we needed to pivot away from skin cancer in order to help skin cancer patients see the dermatologist faster.”

After primary care physicians take a photo of a patient’s skin condition, Piction’s app displays images of similar skin presentations. Piction also helps doctors differentiate between the conditions they most suspect to make better care decisions for the patient.

According to Conover, Piction can reduce the time it takes physicians to evaluate a case by around 30 percent. It can also help physicians refer a patient to a dermatologist more quickly for special cases they’re not confident in managing. More broadly, Conover is focused on helping health organizations reduce costs related to unnecessary referrals, ineffective prescriptions, and unnecessary revisits.

Thus far, more than 50 physicians have used Piction’s product, and the company has established partnerships with several organizations. One of these is a well-known defense organization that had two employees diagnosed with late-stage melanoma recently after they couldn’t see a dermatologist right away.

“A lot of people don’t realize that it’s really hard to see a dermatologist — it can take three to six months — and with the pandemic, it’s never been a worse time to try to see a dermatologist,” Conover says.

Shocked into action

At the time of Conover’s melanoma diagnosis, she had recently earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. But she didn’t do a deep dive into dermatology until she needed a thesis topic for her master’s at MIT.

“It was just a really scary experience,” Conover says of her melanoma. “I consider myself very lucky because I learned at MIT that there’s a huge number of people with skin problems every year, two-thirds of those people go into primary care to get help, and about half of those cases are misdiagnosed because these providers don’t have as much training in dermatology.”

Conover first began exploring the idea of starting a company to diagnose melanoma during the Nuts and Bolts of Founding New Ventures course offered over MIT’s Independent Activities Period in 2015. She also went through the IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge and the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition while building her system. After graduation, she spent a year at MIT as a Catalyst Fellow in the MIT linQ program, where she worked in the lab of Martha Gray, the J.W. Kieckhefer Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and a member of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES).

Through MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service, Conover also went through the I-Corps program, where she continued to speak with stakeholders. Through those conversations, she learned that skin rashes like psoriasis, eczema, and rosacea account for the vast majority of skin problems seen by primary care physicians.

Meanwhile, while public health campaigns have focused on the importance of protection from the sun, public knowledge around conditions like shingles, which affects up to 1 percent of Americans each year, is severely lacking.

Although training a machine-learning model to recognize a myriad of diverse conditions would be more difficult than training a model to recognize melanoma, Conover’s small team decided that was the best path forward.

“We decided it’s better to just jump to making the full product, even though it sounded scary and huge: a product that identifies all different rashes across multiple body parts and skin tones and age groups,” Conover says.

The leap required Piction to establish data partnerships with hundreds of dermatologists in countries around the world during the pandemic. Conover says Piction now has the world’s largest dataset of rashes, containing over 1 million photos taken by dermatologists in 18 countries.

“We focused on getting photos of different skin tones, as many skin tones are underrepresented even in medical literature and teaching,” Conover says. “Providers don’t always learn how all the different skin tones can present conditions, so our representative database is a substantial statement about our commitment to health equity.”

Conover says Piction’s image database helps physicians evaluate conditions more accurately in primary care. After a provider has determined the most likely condition, Piction presents physicians with information on treatment options for each condition.

“This front-line primary care environment is the ideal place for our innovation because they care for patients with skin conditions every day,” Conover says.

Helping doctors at scale

Conover is constantly reminded of the need for her system by family and friends, who have taken to sending her pictures of their skin condition for advice. A recent example was when Conover’s friend developed shingles, a disease that can advance quickly and can cause blindness if it spreads to certain locations on the body. A doctor misdiagnosed the shingles on her forehead as a spider bite and prescribed the wrong medication. The shingles got worse and caused ear and scalp pain before the friend went to the emergency room and received the proper treatment.

“It was one of those moments where we thought, ‘If only physicians had the right tools,’” Conover says. “The PCP jumped to what she thought the problem was but didn’t build the full list of potential conditions and narrow from there.”

Piction plans to launch several additional pilots this year. Further down the line, Conover wants to add capabilities to identify and evaluate wounds and infectious diseases that are more common in other parts of the world, like leprosy. The company also hopes to bring its solution to doctors in low-resource settings by partnering with nonprofit groups.

“This has potential to become a full diagnostic tool in the future,” Conover says. “I just don’t want anyone to feel the way I felt when I had my first diagnosis, and I want other people like me to be able to get the care they need at the right time and move on with their lives.”

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