News: Technology News

These might be the first leaked photos of Intel’s Arc Alchemist graphics card

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 23:56:19 +0000

Two fans, 512 execution units, 6+8-pin PCIe

Intel is building dedicated gaming graphics cards, due out in Q1 2022, and we may have just gotten our first look at the big one, the Arc Alchemist. Here are some leaked images from YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead (via Videocardz)

Arc is Intel’s new GPU brand, designed to compete with Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon, and the Arc Alchemist is the first GPU in the company’s roadmap that’s actually scheduled to release. The company had previously built the Intel DG1 to test the GPU waters, but that was a comparatively weak card, based on the Xe LP (low-power) graphics architecture, and consumers couldn’t actually buy it. This new card is part of Intel’s Xe HPG roadmap (high-power / gaming) and is said to deliver performance akin to an Nvidia RTX 3070 thanks to 512 execution units (EUs) and 16GB of GDDR6 memory.

Leaks suggest that Intel may also have several “DG2” GPUs in the works, including lighter versions with 448EUs, 384EUs, 256EUs or as few as 128EUs for an entry level GPU. Even that would be notably more than the number of graphics core clusters that Intel has typically integrated into its own CPUs.

These might be the first leaked photos of Intel’s Arc Alchemist graphics card

Samsung’s Q3 revenue hits a new record high

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 04:14:42 +0000

Credit high demand for chips, foldables, Switch OLED, and the iPhone 13.

In 2020, Samsung weathered the pandemic by posting a record high for revenue in the third quarter of 66.96 trillion won. The company just revealed that it set another record for the same period in 2021, reaching 73.98 trillion won, or about $63 billion. While its revenue was up about 10 percent, Samsung says its profits grew by 26 percent from last year to hit 15.82 trillion won ($13 billion).

Despite a shortage of key chips worldwide, the memory chips and processors Samsung makes that go into everything from servers to mobile phones are in as much demand as ever. Shifts to hybrid work mean have companies buying more SSDs, CPUs, and RAM for servers

As the world’s largest chipmaker, high prices for memory chips mean high profits for Samsung, even if rising costs for raw materials and logistics cut into the profits of its consumer electronics division. Sales for its memory division specifically were up 46 compared to the same period last year, while profits for the semiconductor division as a whole nearly doubled, going from 5.54 trillion won to 10.06 trillion won (~$8.5 billion) (pdf).

Samsung is also the world’s largest phone maker and says that it saw strong demand for foldable like its Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the low- to mid-range Galaxy smartphones it produces.

Despite reports of possible production issues and slashed manufacturing targets for Apple’s iPhone 13 lineup, Samsung says its mobile display earnings rose “driven by demand for newly launched products from major smartphone customers.” The most major customer that Samsung provides its mobile OLED displays to is Apple, and that company will report its quarterly earnings tomorrow.

Looking into the future, Samsung expects solid earnings for its mobile displays in Q4, and not just because of phones. There’s demand for OLED in larger devices like laptops, tablets, and especially game consoles like Nintendo’s new Switch OLED, which uses a Samsung-made panel.

As far as its TV business, the company is focused on the high-end, saying that it is on track to start producing new quantum dot-based sets that will continue Samsung’s fight against OLED TVs from LG.

Samsung’s Q3 revenue hits a new record high

Amazon Is Bringing Alexa to Hospitals, Nursing Homes

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 23:02:59 +0000

Amazon has partnered with numerous hospitals and service providers to make Alexa-compatible devices available to seniors, hospital patients, and the people caring for them.

Alexa is only 8 years old, and presumably it can't suffer from any maladies, but that isn't stopping Amazon from pushing the voice assistant into senior living communities and healthcare systems.

The company says it's partnering with hospitals and service providers to make it easier for them to deploy Alexa-compatible devices to their networks via the Alexa Smart Properties management platform. In addition to bringing the voice assistant closer to ubiquity, deploying these devices is supposed to offer a variety of benefits to seniors, hospital patients, and the people who care for them.

"Alexa Smart Properties enables senior living residents to keep in touch with their loved ones, connect with their community, access community news, and more, using the Amazon Echo device in their room," Amazon says. "Family members and friends outside the property get peace of mind knowing they can easily get in touch with residents through Alexa calling."

The platform is supposed to offer similar benefits to hospitals. Amazon says that healthcare systems will also be able to "increase productivity, conserve medical supplies and protective equipment, such as masks, gloves, and gowns, and free up staff time to provide more personalized care" by utilizing Alexa-enabled features such as voice calling and Drop In so they don't have to enter patients' rooms.

It doesn't seem like it will take long for Alexa to become more common in these environments. Amazon says it's already partnered with the Atria and Eskaton senior living communities; the Boston Children’s Hospital, Cedars-Sinai, BayCare, and Houston Methodist hospitals; and solution providers including K4Connect, Lifeline Senior Living, Aiva, and Vocera to help Alexa Smart Properties expand.

The company was quick to head off criticism of this expansion, too, by devoting a section of the announcement to privacy and security concerns raised by Alexa's expansion into healthcare:

"Alexa Smart Properties senior living and healthcare solutions were designed with privacy in mind. No personal information is shared with Alexa to use the device, and voice recordings are not saved," Amazon says. "Every Amazon Echo device offers multiple layers of privacy protection, and residents and patients can disable Alexa’s ability to respond to the wake word at any time by simply pressing the mute button on top of their Echo device. Amazon implements administrative, technical, and physical safeguards for protected health information received as part of HIPAA-eligible skill interactions."

Amazon didn't immediately respond to our request for additional information about how Alexa-enabled devices used in healthcare-related facilities might differ from their consumer counterparts, or how the security of those devices will be monitored. Concerns about the data Alexa shares with Amazon (and the information its Skills provide to third-party developers) are even more critical in these environments.

It won't be long until those privacy and security claims are tested. Alexa Smart Properties "will support senior living and healthcare solutions in the US starting next month." Anyone curious about the platform has been asked to submit questions to Amazon via an online form.

Source

Intel announces 12th Gen Intel Core desktop processors with new hybrid architecture

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 22:37:49 +0000

Intel today launched the first products in the 12th Gen Intel Core family based on Intel 7 process. Intel announced six new unlocked desktop processors including Intel Core i9-12900K, the flagship processor thar delivers incredible performance. The 12th gen Intel Core processors features new performance hybrid architecture for better multi-threaded performance. Also, these new processors feature DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 connectivity.

Highlights of 12th gen Intel Core processors:

Available with up to 16 cores and 24 threads, the new 12th Gen Intel Core processor family includes the world’s best gaming processor, the Core i9-12900K, unleashing gaming experiences across top titles.
The first processors in the industry to offer DDR5 memory for up to 4800MT/s.
The first processors in the industry to offer PCIe 5.0 (up to 16 lanes), which offers up to 2X I/O throughput over PCIe 4.0, with up to an additional four lanes of PCIe 4.0 support.
Up to 30MB Intel® Smart Cache (L3) and 14MB L2 cache for increased memory capacity with reduced latency.
Integrated high-speed wireless with Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E, which combines industry-leading Wi-Fi 6E connectivity with powerful gaming network technology to minimize lag, latency, and packet loss.
Discrete Thunderbolt 4 universal cable connectivity for external device expansion.
The new processors offer industry-leading overclocking tools for the ultimate performance customization, including the ability to overclock Efficient-cores and DDR5 memory.

You can preorder the new processors starting today with availability starting Nov. 4.

Source: Intel

Intel announces 12th Gen Intel Core desktop processors with new hybrid architecture

Alder Lake-S will offer 50% more threaded performance according to leaked benchmarks

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 21:50:28 +0000

Intel is all set to launch its Alder Lake chips on November 4. In the meantime, benchmarks have already started showing up on CPU-Z with seemingly impressive results. One such leaked benchmark shows that the upcoming Core i5-12600K is 50% faster than its predecessor, the Core i5-11600K, in multi-threaded use cases.

The Core i5-12600K seems to have a base clock of a 2.9GHz and a 3.7GHz boost. This is achieved with the help of 6 performance cores with hyperthreading and 4 efficiency cores. For multi-core, it boosts up to 4.5GHz and 4.9GHz on single-core with 16 threads.

Image Credit: Valid-x86

As you can see in the above image, the Core i5-12600K outperforms the Core i9-11900K with a score of 7156 over 6563, respectively. It also outperforms AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X processor, which is its closest competitor as far as the price range is considered. ASUS's ROG Maximus Z690 Apex and ROG Maximus Z690 Hero were the motherboards used for the benchmarks. There were also three different DRAM used - OLOy, Corsair, and TeamGroup, all running at 4800 MT/s.

Although the performance in benchmarks seems to be great, the real-world performance might differ. Someone even purchased a Core i9-12900K early, but unfortunately isn't able to use it. As mentioned before, Intel will launch Alder Lake processors on November 4. It is possible that the company will launch the Z690 motherboards along with it as well.

Alder Lake-S will offer 50% more threaded performance according to leaked benchmarks

Microsoft Office, Windows, and cloud boosts Q1 2022 earnings

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 21:46:38 +0000

Microsoft’s overall cloud revenue has jumped by 31 percent

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Microsoft posted the first quarter of its 2022 financial results today, reporting revenue of $45.3 billion and a net income of $20.5 billion (GAAP). Revenue is up 22 percent, and net income has increased by 48 percent. Microsoft has seen strong revenue performance in its cloud, server, and Office businesses this quarter.

Microsoft might have just launched Windows 11 earlier this month, but in the months ahead of this new version of Windows, PC sales have started to decline in the US due to supply issues.

That doesn’t seem to have impacted Microsoft’s Windows revenues, though. Windows OEM revenue has increased by 10 percent this quarter, despite what Microsoft calls “continued PC demand impacted by supply chain constraints.”

Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop Studio.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Windows commercial products and cloud services revenue has also increased by 12 percent, thanks to demand for Microsoft 365. Windows 11 has only just arrived on new devices earlier this month, so Microsoft and OEMs will be hoping the supply issues improve and that the new operating system drives even more demand for laptops and PCs.

Over on the Surface side, we’re now into the second quarter of Surface Laptop 4 and Surface Pro 7 Plus sales for Microsoft’s Surface revenues. Surface revenue has decreased by 17 percent this quarter, and Microsoft says that’s related to a stronger prior year by comparison.

Microsoft’s Xbox Series S and X consoles.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

It’s nearly been a year since Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles have been on the market, and they’ve been continually growing hardware revenue for Xbox in recent months. Hardware revenue is up again this quarter by 166 percent, thanks to continued demand for Xbox Series X and Series S consoles.

Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue is also up by 16 percent, nearly $3.6 billion for the quarter and a record Q1 for Xbox. But Xbox content and services revenue has only increased by 2 percent. Microsoft says there has been some “growth in Xbox Game Pass subscriptions,” but the company isn’t listing a new figure for its subscriber count. The last publicly disclosed one was 18 million Xbox Game Pass subs in January 2021.

As always, it’s the cloud growth that has been impressive for Microsoft’s revenues, particularly as businesses adjust to hybrid work. Revenue in intelligent cloud is up 31 percent year over year, including Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 50 percent.

Office has also had a strong quarter, with Office consumer products and cloud services revenue up 10 percent, and Microsoft 365 consumer subscribers up 19 percent to 54.1 million in total.

Microsoft’s business highlights for Q1, 2022.

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft’s business versions of Office and associated cloud services are also up 18 percent in revenue year over year, with Office 365 commercial revenue up 23 percent. If you’re wondering whether businesses are moving to the cloud, Office commercial products revenue dipped 13 percent year over year, thanks to the ongoing shift to cloud services.

While Microsoft’s three core business segments are still well balanced in terms of revenue, the intelligent cloud business is gradually pulling away. Productivity and Business Processes, which includes Office, LinkedIn, and Dynamics, makes up around 33 percent of Microsoft’s revenues. Intelligent Cloud, which includes Auzre, server products, and cloud services, now generates 38 percent of Microsoft’s revenues. That leaves More Personal Computing, which includes Xbox, Windows, and Surface, with around 29 percent of Microsoft’s overall revenue.

Microsoft will now hold an investor call at 2:30PM PT / 5:30PM ET, and we’ll update this article with any relevant comments and information.

Microsoft Office, Windows, and cloud boosts Q1 2022 earnings

Report: Microsoft will release a low-cost Surface laptop targeting education market

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 21:43:13 +0000

Surface Laptop Go is the most affordable laptop from Microsoft. Today, Windows Central reported that Microsoft is working on another low-cost Surface laptop targeting education customers.

Rumored specs of this upcoming low-cost Surface Laptop:

11.6-inch HD display
Build: Plastic exterior
Processor: Intel Celeron N4120
RAM: Up to 8GB
Full-sized keyboard and trackpad
Ports: 1 USB-A, 1 USB-C port, a headphone jack, and a charging port.

Based on the above specs, we expect the pricing of this laptop to be around $349. Also, Microsoft is working on a new Windows 11 edition for this laptop. The new “Windows 11 SE” will be designed for low-cost devices in the education market.

Last month, Microsoft announced the new Microsoft 365 A1 for devices plan for education customers. Microsoft introduced this plan to provide more for students and educators relative to competitive offerings (Google for Education) at the same price. The Microsoft 365 A1 for devices license will cost just $38 per device for up to six years.

The upcoming low-cost Surface Laptop combined with the new Microsoft 365 A1 plan will allow Microsoft to effectively compete against Chromebooks in the education market.

Source: WindowsCentral

Report: Microsoft will release a low-cost Surface laptop targeting education market

Blue Origin to Build a Commercial Space Station Called Orbital Reef

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:33:37 +0000

Jeff Bezos's company is partnering with Sierra Space and Boeing to build the space station, which is meant to be an orbiting business park.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has announced an ambitious plan to operate its own commercial space station called Orbital Reef sometime after 2024.

“Designed to open multiple new markets in space, Orbital Reef will provide anyone with the opportunity to establish their own address on orbit,” the company announced on Monday.

Blue Origin describes the station as a “mixed used business park" in space. Orbital Reef will reside in a low Earth orbit at 310 miles, and function as a hub for research, commerce, tourism and logistics, where spaceships can also come and go.

“Maybe there’s a company that wants to manufacture materials in space,” Blue Origin says in a video about the project. “Maybe there’s a school that wants to send an experiment up. Maybe there’s a nation that’s ready to send someone into low-Earth orbit to inspire their entire nation.”

The company also envisions the station supplying the infrastructure to commercialize space travel. “The station will open the next chapter of human space exploration and development by facilitating the growth of a vibrant ecosystem and business model for the future,” it adds.

(Blue Origin)

In addition, the company is designing Orbital Reef to be expandable. Enterprise customers from across the globe will be able to dock new pod-like modules onto the station. “We will expand access, lower the cost, and provide all the services and amenities needed to normalize space flight,” adds Blue Origin SVP Brent Sherwood.

To build the station, Blue Origin has recruited Sierra Space, a company that specializes in building life-support modules for outer space, as a strategic partner. Meanwhile, Boeing will provide crew and cargo transportation through the company’s Starliner spaceship. Another company called Genesis Engineering Solutions is developing a single-person spacecraft for the Orbital Reef station.

Together, the companies plan on providing an “end-to-end service” for the station covering transportation, logistics, leased space, and amenities. But obviously, the major challenge will be developing the spaceships and technology capable of constructing and maintaining Orbital Reef. The companies didn’t offer a firm timetable on the station’s development, but they expect Orbital Reef to become a premier destination for space travel by the end of this decade.

Source

Linux gamers are way better at finding game bugs than Windows users, says game dev

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 16:02:48 +0000

Here's some news that Linux users and supporters would probably really like. Kodera Software, a game developer for an indie title called ΔV: Rings of Saturn, has posted some interesting findings about bug reporting in the game.

The title has been in early access for a couple of years and the developer has noted that about 38% of all the bugs found in its title came from the Linux Community. This is despite just 700 copies out of the total 12,000 units sold being based on Linux, which is just 5.8% of the entire userbase for ΔV: Rings of Saturn. As such, Kodera praises the typical Linux gamer by saying they report back 650% more bugs.

As of today, I sold a little over 12,000 units of ΔV in total. 700 of these units were bought by Linux players. That’s 5.8%. I got 1040 bug reports in total, out of which roughly 400 are made by Linux players. That’s one report per 11.5 users on average, and one report per 1.75 Linux players. That’s right, an average Linux player will get you 650% more bug reports.

For those wondering if the reporting on Linux is simply more due to the platform being more buggier, Kodera is quick to point out that such is not the case. It states that out of 400 total bug reports from Linux, only three were platform-specific.

Do you know how many of these 400 bug reports were actually platform-specific? 3. Literally only 3 things were problems that came out just on Linux.

Kodera believes that it is because of how an open-source software like Linux and its surrounding community functions and is the reason why the gamers on the Linux platform are also seemingly more adept at finding and reporting bugs back to developers. The developer compares the gamers' efforts with free Quality Assurance (QA) checks.

the thing is, the Linux community is exceptionally well trained in reporting bugs. That is just the open-source way. This 5.8% of players found 38% of all the bugs that affected everyone. Just like having your own 700-person strong QA team. That was not 38% extra work for me, that was just free QA!

Not just that, the quality and detail for reporting is also exceptionally good in the case of Linux gamers, says Kodera, and some users even get directly involved.

You get all the software/os versions, all the logs, you get core dumps and you get replication steps. Sometimes I got with the player over discord and we quickly iterated a few versions with progressive fixes to isolate the problem.

Source: koderski (Reddit)

Source

Tomb Raider Runs Up to 30 FPS Faster Without Denuvo DRM

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 13:57:33 +0000

Proving digital-rights management can come with a major performance hit to PC games.

Some PC games use anti-tamper tech to help prevent piracy, but it can come with a serious performance hit as Shadow of the Tomb Raider has just revealed.

As DSOG reports, last week Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics decided to remove Denuvo's digital-rights management (DRM) and anti-tamper technology from Shadow of the Tomb Raider on PC. The update on Steam also added an improved shadow denoiser, upgraded Nvidia DLSS, and multiplayer updates, but no CPU or memory performance improvements were noted.

For some reason, publisher Square Enix rolled back the update, but DSOG managed to download and benchmark the Steam version of the game with Denuvo removed. They used a PC running a Core i9 9900K,16GB of DDR4 RAM (3,600Mhz), a GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card, and Windows 10 64-bit. What they discovered was a significant performance improvement.

At the highest settings running at 1080p there was a small improvement in performance, but switching to Lowest settings saw the frame rate jump by between 8-17 fps compared to the Denuvo-protected version. On older CPUs the performance improvement should be even higher, and if Hyper-Threading is disabled, the difference between the two versions jumped as high as 30 fps.

If you're running a fairly new gaming PC then removing Denuvo will offer a slight performance gain, but for anyone wishing to play the latest games using an older PC, Denuvo could make the difference between a game being playable or not. At least, that's what these benchmarks suggest.

< Watch the video at the source page. >

Source

Tesla slams into reverse, pulls latest beta of Full Self-Driving software from participating car owners

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 13:38:56 +0000

FSD rolled back to 10.2 after 'issues' found

Tesla has yanked the latest beta, 10.3, of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software from participating car owners after boss Elon Musk noted the company was "seeing some issues" with the code.

Release notes shared by drivers on Reddit documented changes around "static obstacle control," permitting more acceleration when merging from on-ramps and reducing false slowdowns by "improving the model of interaction between pedestrians and the static world."

A glance at the chatboard's forums show the update had been well received by the faithful. However, the phrases "needs a lot of work" and "definitely requires careful babysitting" hinted that the tech was not quite there yet.

And that is without considering the beta nature of the software, which has been sent out to approximately 1,000 vehicle owners (initially only to those with "perfect" safety scores, according to Musk, before being made available to those with Safety Scores of 99/100). Tesla has not put a figure on the number of members of the public also unwittingly involved in the test by simply being near a Tesla car running the software.

While Musk did not elaborate on the specific issues, the rollback appears to have done a bit more than skip back to 10.2 for some users. Drivers reported that despite Musk's remarks, the FSD beta has been entirely stripped from their vehicles.

Back in January, Musk boasted: "Tesla Full Self-Driving will work at a safety level well above that of the average driver this year."

Mere months later, he was taken to task for overestimating the Autopilot tech of Tesla cars – which the firm has characterised as enhanced cruise-control that requires the driver to keep their hands on the wheel and an attentive eye on the road. Critics have said the word "Autopilot" seems to imply something a little more than that. Just last month, a lawsuit over the technology was filed by five Texas residents alleging the software was at fault after a Tesla Model X ploughed into the back of two parked police cruisers.

"Full Self-Driving" also appears to suggest the car will be able to take care of itself, although as Tesla's own support pages state: "The currently enabled Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous."

The dream of full autonomy remains somewhat elusive, and the abrupt pulling of the code (this is a beta, after all) indicates that the company still has some way to go. ®

Source

Prince of Persia for the Atari XL/XE – A deserved port hits the Atari 8-bit computers!

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 13:20:57 +0000

After two years of intense development, one of the most important games of all time, Prince of Persia, is now available for the Atari XL/XE.

Created by Jordan Mechner, Prince of Persia was first released for the Apple II and it was an astonishing success. Some ports came after (I played the PC version) but the Atari 8-bit users never had the opportunity to play it!

Thanks to a group of crazy people this 30-year wait are over and anyone can now download the game and play on any Atari XL/XE with 128Kb of RAM.

The game was ported from the BBC Master port by Bitshifters which has the source code available on Github. The Atari port credits go to:

-On the art side:

@TIX Character art+ Princess room
@miker music bank 1+ sfx bank 1
@VinsCool music bank1 & 2
@emkay sfx bank 2
@makary sfx bank 1
@superrune title picture

-On the tech side:

Soundplayer: @dmsc‘s LZ4 SAPR player.
Disk loading & zx5 unpacker Xbios by @xxl.
Dev+ Testing: Altirra by @phaeron.
Assembler: Beebasm(!) by Rich Talbot-Watkins.
zx0 unpacker: @elmer
zx packer: Einar Saukas

If you don’t have an Atari or emulator at hand, you can check a bit of the game in the video below:

You can download the game for free, following the link below.

Link: Atariage

Source

Intel’s Alder Lake Mobile processor gets benchmarked, handily beats the Apple M1 Max

Sun, 24 Oct 2021 22:17:52 +0000

The spectacular performance of Apple’s M1 Max has hit morale in the x86 world, where it was always guaranteed that you can buy a Windows laptop with more power than whatever Apple could produce, especially after it transitioned to ARM.

With the M1 Max this was clearly no longer the case, which may explain why Intel appears to have leaked its upcoming Alder Lake Mobile processor to hardware site wccftech, who promptly benchmarked it.

Fortunately for Intel and the rest of the x86 worked, the Intel Core i9 12900HK mobility CPU benchmarked faster than the Apple M1 Max, Intel 11980HK and AMD 5980HX.

The Intel 12900HK Alder Lake Mobility processor’s p-cores helps it to an 1851 single-core score, topping the 1,785 of the 5 nm-based Apple M1 Max chip. It is also 14.5% faster than the older Core i9 11980HK’s 1,616 single-core score.

Intel Core i9 12900HK mobility CPU also unexpectedly beat the Apple M1 Max when it comes to the Geekbench multi-core benchmark, scoring 13,256 vs 12,753 for the Apple processor. It is also 45% faster than the Intel 11980HK which only scored 9,149 points.

The Alder Lake processor was tested on Windows 11, which of course has new optimizations for the Alder Lake chip architecture with a big.SMALL and highly efficient “e-cores” and support for Intel’s new Thread Director technology.

It remains likely that an Apple M1 Max laptop will last a lot longer off the power cord, given its much lower power consumption and performance per watt, but it seems that if you asked which is the most powerful laptop CPU, the answer will only be the Apple M1 Max chip for a few months, with the Alder Lake Mobile CPU expected to ship in early 2022.

Intel’s Alder Lake Mobile processor gets benchmarked, handily beats the Apple M1 Max

A look inside Apple’s silicon playbook

Sun, 24 Oct 2021 22:14:38 +0000

Apple execs talk on the record about the new Apple silicon.

This week Apple introduced a set of new MacBook Pro laptops. During the prerecorded launch event, Apple’s engineers and executives made it clear that the MVPs in these new products are the chips that power them: the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. With 34 billion and 57 billion transistors, respectively, they are the engines powering the new Mac devices' super hi-res displays, providing blazing speed, and extending battery life. The laptops represent the apotheosis of a 14-year strategy that has transformed the company—literally under the hood of its products—in a massive effort to design and build its own chips. Apple is now methodically replacing microprocessors it buys from vendors like Intel and Samsung with its own, which are optimized for the needs of Apple users. The effort has been stunningly successful. Apple was once a company defined by design. Design is still critical at Apple, but I now consider it a silicon company.

A couple days after the keynote, I had a rare on-the-record conversation about Apple silicon with senior worldwide marketing VP Greg Joswiak (aka “Joz”), senior hardware engineering VP John Ternus, and senior hardware technology VP Johny Srouji. I had been asking Apple to put me in touch with Srouji for years. His title only hints at his status as the chip czar at Apple. Though he’s begun to appear on camera at recent Apple events, he generally avoids the spotlight. An Israeli-born engineer who previously worked at Intel and IBM, Srouji joined Apple in 2008, specifically to fulfill a mandate from Steve Jobs, who felt that the chips in the original iPhone couldn’t meet his demands. Srouji’s mission was to lead Apple in making its own silicon. The effort has been so well executed that I believe Srouji is secretly succeeding Jony Ive as the pivotal creative wizard whipping up the secret sauce in Apple’s offerings.

Srouji, of course, won’t cop to that. After all, the playbook for Apple executives is to expend their hyperbole on Macs, iPhones, and iPads, not themselves. “Apple builds the best silicon in the world,” he says. “But I always keep in mind that Apple is first and foremost a product company. If you’re a chip designer, this is heaven because you’re building silicon for a company that builds products.”

Srouji is clear on the advantages of rolling out your own chips, as opposed to buying from a vendor like Intel, which was summarily booted from MacBook Pros this week in favor of the M's. “When you're a merchant vendor, a company that delivers off-the-shelf components or silicon to many customers, you have to figure what is the least common denominator—what is it that everyone needs across many years?” he says. “We work as one team—the silicon, the hardware, the software, the industrial design, and other teams—to enable a certain vision. When you translate that to silicon, that gives us a very unique opportunity and freedom because now you're designing something that is not only truly unique, but optimized for a certain product.” In the case of the MacBook Pro, he says, he sat with leaders like Ternus and Craig Federighi several years ago and envisioned what users would be able to get their hands on in 2021. It would all spring from the silicon. “We sit together, and say, ‘Okay, is it gated by physics? Or is it something we can go beyond?’ And then, if it's not gated by physics and it's a matter of time, we go figure out how to build it.”

Think about that—the only restraint Apple’s chipmakers concede to is the physical boundary of what’s possible.

Srouji explained how his journey at Apple has been one of conscious iteration, building on a strong foundation. A key element of the company’s strategy has been to integrate the functions that used to be distributed among many chips into a single entity—known as SOC, or system-on-a-chip. “I always fundamentally felt and believed that if you have the right architecture, then you have a chance to build the best chip,” he says. “So we started with the architecture that we believe would scale. And by scaling, we mean scaling to performance and features and the power envelope, whether it's a watch or iPad or iMac. And then we started selectively figuring the technologies within the chip—we wanted to start owning them one by one. We started with the CPU first. And then we went into the graphics. Then we went into signal processing, display engine, etcetera. Year over year, we built our engineering muscle and wisdom and ability to deliver. And a few years later, when you do all this and you do it right, you find yourself with really good architecture and IP you own and a team behind you that is now capable of repeating that recipe.”

Ternus elaborates: “Traditionally, you've got one team at one company designing a chip, and they have their own set of priorities and optimizations. And then the product team and another company has to take that chip and make it work in their design. With these MacBook Pros, we started all the way at the beginning—the chip was being designed right when the system was being thought through. For instance, power delivery is important and challenging with these high-performance parts. By working together [early on], the team was able to come up with a solution. And the system team was actually able to influence the shape, aspect ratio, and orientation of the SOC so that it can best nest into the rest of the system components." (Maybe this helped convince Apple to restore the missing ports that so many had longed for in the previous MacBook.)

Clearly these executives believe the new Macs represent a milestone in Apple’s strategy. But not its last. I suggest that a future milestone might be silicon customized to enable an augmented reality system, producing the graphics intensity, precision geolocation, and low power consumption that AR spectacles would require. Predictably, the VPs did not comment on that.

Before the conversation ends, I have to ask Joswiak about the now discontinued Touch Bar, the dynamic function-key feature that Apple launched with great fanfare five years ago but that never caught on. Not surprisingly, his postmortem spins it as a great gift to new users. “There's no doubt that our Pro customers love that full-size, tactile feel of those function keys, and so that's the decision we made. And we feel great about that,” he says. He points out that for lovers of the Touch Bar, whoever they may be, Apple is still selling the 13-inch—now obsolete—version of the MacBook Pro with the soft keys intact.

The tale of the Touch Bar reminds us that even the best silicon can’t guarantee designers will make the right choices. But as Srouji notes, when done right, it can unleash an infinite number of innovations that could not otherwise exist. Maybe the most telling indicator of Apple’s silicon success this week came not from the launch of the MacBook Pro, but in Google’s unveiling of the Pixel 6 phone. Google boasted that the phone's key virtues sprang from a decision to follow the path Apple and Srouji forged 14 years ago in building the company's own chip, the Tensor processor.

“Is this a case of ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?’” I ask the Apple team.

“You took my line!” says Joswiak. “Clearly, they think we’re doing something right.”

“If you were to give Google or some other company friendly advice on their silicon journey, what would it be?” I ask.

“Oh, I don’t know,” says Joz. “Buy a Mac.”

This story originally appeared on wired.com.

A look inside Apple’s silicon playbook

Chinese EV maker Xpeng launches upgraded semi-autonomous driving features in a challenge to Tesla

Sun, 24 Oct 2021 15:46:23 +0000

KEY POINTS

Xpeng released XPILOT 3.5, the latest version of its advanced driver-assistance system, or ADAS.

With XPILOT 3.5, the company will be launching a feature called City NGP, which stands for navigation guided pilot.

Xpeng also announced details of the next-generation ADAS called XPILOT 4.0, slated for rollout in first half of 2023.

GUANGZHOU, China — Chinese electric car start-up Xpeng released updates for its semi-autonomous driving system as its looks to up its challenge to Tesla in China.

Xpeng released XPILOT 3.5, the latest version of its advanced driver-assistance system, or ADAS. This refers to a driving software system with some autonomous features but where a driver is still required.

With XPILOT 3.5, the company will be launching a feature called City NGP, which stands for navigation guided pilot. The system allows Xpeng’s cars to change lanes, speed up or slow down, or overtake cars and enter and exit highways. Previously the system was designed just for highways, but now Xpeng will be releasing this feature for driving in cities.

XPILOT 3.5 will be available to owners of Xpeng’s P5 car, which was launched this year. The upgrade will be rolled out to customers in the first half of 2022.

Xpeng also announced details of the next-generation ADAS called XPILOT 4.0. The company said that it has upgraded the hardware that will power XPILOT 4.0 and will include features including vehicle switch-on to assisted parking.

XPILOT 4.0 is slated for rollout in the first half of 2023.

XPILOT is Xpeng’s rival to Tesla’s ADAS called Autopilot. Competition in China’s electric vehicle market continues to heat up. Automakers are looking to launch features and vehicles to differentiate themselves and stand out in what is becoming an increasingly crowded market.

Xpeng also launched a new charger for its cars. The company says that with just five minutes of charging with the new charger, the car’s battery will have a range of 200 kilometers.

Source

Microsoft Weekly: Android on Windows, WHQL-signed malware, and 21H2 builds

Sat, 23 Oct 2021 22:25:26 +0000

We're at the end of the week, which means that it's time to look at what happened in the world of Microsoft in the past few days. Windows 10 was primarily Microsoft's focus in terms of new builds, but as we know, the upcoming version 21H2 build is just enablement package so don't raise your expectations too much. More interestingly, Windows Subsystem for Android finally landed on preview builds of Windows 11. In the cybersecurity space, we also found out that Microsoft digitally signed a driver that was actually malware that can wreak havoc. Find out more about this in our weekly digest for October 17 - October 22.

Windows builds

After giving Windows 11 all the attention for the past few weeks, Microsoft finally decided to give some love to Windows 10 too. The company released builds 19043.1319 and 19044.1319 for Insiders running version 21H1 or 21H2, respectively, in the Release Preview ring. Both builds have identical change logs, which makes sense because 21H2 is just an enablement package for 21H1 after all. Tons of bugs were squashed including those that affected subtitles from displaying on certain streaming sites or video playing apps. Enhancements were also made in the department of memory leaks and ransomware protections. You likely won't notice any front-end enhancements if you install either of these builds though.

If you were thinking that build 19044.1319 will be the launch version of Windows 10 version 21H2 - when it eventually rolls out -, you'd be mistaken. Microsoft finally revealed that build 19044.1288 is a candidate build for that rollout and is now available for those on the Release Preview ring. The company has released ISOs too. The improvements offered in 19044.1319 will be provided in the next Patch Tuesday update. While a firm release date wasn't disclosed, Microsoft referred to version 21H2 as the "November 2021 Update", but also stated that out of the three noteworthy features promised for the update, a new Windows Hello for Business deployment method dubbed "cloud trust" won't be ready for primetime. You can find out more about what to expect from Windows 10 November 2021 Update in our guide here.

Windows 11 received some love in the form of build 22483 for the Dev channel too. It fixes some bugs related to Search and Settings but introduces some new ones to Search, Taskbar, and Start too. ISOs are available for install as well. Just a few hours ago, Microsoft released Windows 11 build 22483.1011 (KB5007484) to the Dev Channel, but that's just an update to test the servicing pipeline, it features no changes at all.

Android on Windows

Windows 11 did not feature Android app support, even though the feature was heavily touted when the OS was unveiled back in June. However, it appears that the general public will be able to get their hands on it soon as the capability was finally rolled out in the Beta channel this week. Those on 22000.xxx series Insider builds can install Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), download the Amazon App Store, and give Android apps on Windows 11 a whirl.

Microsoft has also released developer guidance for those who want to test how their Android apps are running on Windows 11. It is important to understand that this is a preview release so some issues are to be expected. Microsoft has already noted that you might see some odd visual artifacts with certain applications on ARM64, performance may vary with concurrent apps, and apps that come out of modern standby will encounter issues. It's also noteworthy that the Amazon App Store currently supports only a handful of apps curated by Microsoft and Amazon. It's likely that more apps will appear as they pass the two companies' validation process. There is also a workaround to install Google Play services on Windows 11 right now, but proceed at your own risk.

While Android is getting support on Windows, Microsoft is recommending that developers who want to take advantage of the latest features in Windows apps should migrate away from the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and opt for Windows App SDK instead. Windows App SDK combines the capabilities of Win32 desktop apps as well as UWP.

Microsoft-signed malware

Something that turned heads this week was the discovery of malware that was signed by Microsoft... kind of. Basically, a driver called "FiveSys" was submitted for Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) certification, and Microsoft promptly digitally signed it. It was later discovered that Fivesys is actually malware in disguise, leading many to question the process behind Microsoft's program. The company typically verifies driver packages sent in by its various partner vendors through the Windows Hardware Compatibility Program (WHCP).

It was revealed that the Fivesys rootkit behaves in the following way:

The purpose of the rootkit is straightforward: it aims to redirect the internet traffic in the infected machines through a custom proxy, which is drawn from a built-in list of 300 domains. The redirection works for both HTTP and HTTPS; the rootkit installs a custom root certificate for HTTPS redirection to work. In this way, the browser doesn't warn of the unknown identity of the proxy server.

In terms of other key characteristics, the associated whitepaper also mentions that the rootkit blocks registry modifications and also tries to block its competitors' access to an infected system.

This isn't the first time that something like this has happened. A malware called "Netfilter" was also validated by Microsoft back in June, likely in a similar fashion.

Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, and gaming galore

There was a lot of notable gaming-related news this week. Microsoft revealed more details about the PC version of Halo Infinite. The game will ship with support for ultrawide and super ultrawide displays, and features like FOV sliders, dynamic resolution adjustment, triple key-bind options, and weapon model off-set control are also incoming.

The developer also mentioned anti-cheat mechanisms, but implied that user privacy would be respected and it won't be implemented in a way such that it inhibits the overall gaming experience in a negative way. Integration with Steam and Discord's social features were confirmed as well, and so was binding with Razer Chroma RGB. Local dedicated server hosting will be a feature on PC too, and any other PC or console connected to the local network will be able to join in for old school LAN parties.

Microsoft also revealed that it is partnering with AMD for raytracing support - which is not included in the launch version of the game -, and it launched a Halo Infinite-themed RX 6900 XT to celebrate this partneership. That said, the hardware is not available for sale and will likely be offered via giveaways on social media to evade scalpers.

In other news, Forza Horizon 5 has gone gold, and the game's size is north of 100GB across all platforms. Sea of Thieves crossed the 25 million players mark and celebrated the milestone with free in-game goodies. Tons of games including Outriders, Age of Empires IV, and Dragon Ball FighterZ are heading to Xbox Game Pass soon, and gamers also have Microsoft Flight Simulator GOTY Edition to look forward to in November.

Xbox Series X owners were treated to 4K dashboards, Night Mode, and Quick Settings changes. And if you're in the mood for gaming, Microsoft has a decent Xbox Shocktober Sale going on as well.

Dev channel:

Support for end-to-end encryption in Microsoft Teams calls is now in public preview
512GB and 2TB Xbox Series X|S Storage Expansion Cards have been announced
Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 PS5 and Xbox Series X|S upgrades have been delayed to 2022
Visual Studio Code for the Web is now available in public preview
Privacy Management for Microsoft 365 is now generally available
PowerToys 0.48.1 Experimental is now out and includes Video Conference Mute utility and one fix
Microsoft has highlighted all the UI changes coming to Visual Studio 2022
Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is the company's new platform for tech entrepreneurs

Logging off:

In this week's Closer Look, I discussed voice typing in Windows 11 and how it is a significant upgrade compared to its Windows 10 offering. Microsoft has updated the UI to follow the design language of Windows 11, but perhaps the most notable change is the fact that the feature is now powered by Azure Speech services, which means that it supports capabilities like auto-punctuation and tons of more languages.

You can read my thoughts about voice typing in Windows 11 here and check out our ongoing Closer Look series here.

And if you're interesting in trying out Android apps on Windows 11, check out Neowin's handy guide here.

Microsoft Weekly: Android on Windows, WHQL-signed malware, and 21H2 builds

Apple’s new M1 Max MacBook Pro is getting a virtual turbo button for High Power Mode

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 09:08:36 +0000

It was spotted in the code

Apple wants you to think of its new M1 Max MacBook Pro as a beast of a machine — it actually calls it a “beast” in the ad — but the upcoming macOS Monterey, which ships alongside the new Macs, will unleash its full potential. MacRumors contributor Steve Moser discovered a new

“High Power Mode” in the operating system’s recent beta release that can “optimize performance to better support resource intensive tasks,” and apparently, spin up the fan to compensate for that. Apple confirmed to MacRumors that the mode is legit.

Remember when some powerful laptops came with a physical turbo button or slider? Sounds like Apple does! (Though you can certainly emulate this sort of thing by playing with power modes and fan curves on many Windows machines as well.)

MacRumors reports the new feature is exclusive to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max, even though it’s possible to configure a 14-inch MacBook Pro with that chip as well. It also apparently won’t work with the M1 Pro or original M1 models, so you’re looking at laptops with a starting price of $3,099 and up.

It’ll be interesting to see whether this High Power Mode unlocks additional performance, or whether it’s actually required to see the kinds of results the company claimed on stage for prolonged periods of time. Apple’s had occasional issues with thermal throttling in the past, such as in 2018 when a Core i9 MacBook Pros wound up slower than the Core i7 version under sustained loads, though Apple said that particular issue was down to a bug and fixed it with an update.

Apple’s paying a lot of attention to thermals these days. The single biggest difference between the 2020 M1 MacBook Air and 2020 M1 MacBook Pro was a fan, and it was a meaningful difference, because the extra thermal headroom meant the Pro could sustain peak performance for longer. That’s why I’m not surprised this high power mode is exclusive to the 16-inch model.

Update October 22nd, 12:19AM ET: Added that MacRumors has confirmed with Apple that this mode is real.

Apple’s new M1 Max MacBook Pro is getting a virtual turbo button for High Power Mode

New research finds virtual reality could help treat anxiety

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 14:54:00 +0000

Virtual reality (VR) has been found to be an effective treatment method for anxiety, according to a new study, led by Computer Science Senior Lecturer Dr. Nilufar Baghaei and co-authored by Ph.D. student Vibhav Chitale.

It examined the ways VR exposure and interventions have been used in the treatment of mental health conditions, the technologies used, and how effective they have been as a treatment method. The study was done in collaboration with Otago University Mental Health Clinical Research Unit, Auckland Institute of Studies, Otago Polytechnic Auckland campus, and Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.

The study has recently been published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Mental Health and has already received media coverage, including an article in Psychology Today. The research team did a scoping review of articles published between 2017 and 2021 that looked at the use of VR as a treatment method for anxiety. They found that most studies demonstrated the use of VR to be effective for supporting the treatment of anxiety in a range of settings and recommended its potential as a tool for use in a clinical environment.

The authors say the use of VR in mental health is an innovative field that holds a lot of potential, and that it will be interesting to see where the field is heading. This is particularly the case as standalone VR headsets are becoming more affordable, and some sets allow researchers to collect and interpret participants' physiological data.

Dr. Baghaei is also leading a research project funded by the Massey Strategic Research Excellence Fund on intelligent individualized VR for supporting the treatment of depression. The idea for the project stems from the recognition that there is little research on using VR to support the treatment of depression, and very little work in offering patients an individualized VR experience. In addition to a number of external collaborators, several Computer Science students have been involved with various stages of the project's design and implementation, including masters student Ilona Halim and undergraduate student Sam Fleming.

The initial idea and findings of the project have been published at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020) and the 13th ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS 2021).

The project uses the experience of an interdisciplinary team of researchers working at the interface of mental health, VR and artificial intelligence to enhance the quality of psychological treatments and improve mental health outcomes for New Zealanders. Dr. Baghaei says she believes the project could lay the foundation for using VR in treating mental health conditions in New Zealand. "We believe our contribution could pave the way for large-scale efficacy testing, clinical use and cost-effective delivery of intelligent, individualized VR technology for mental health therapy across Aotearoa New Zealand in the future."

Source

AMD "Smart Trace Buffer" Feature Being Wired Up For Linux

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 12:51:23 +0000

AMD patches this month have begun preparing support for a new CPU feature called Smart Trace Buffer (STB).

Earlier this month the initial patch was posted for enabling AMD Smart Trace Buffer support on Linux as an extension to AMD's PMC kernel driver. This morning the STB enablement has already been revised in a second version of the patches.

AMD Smart Trace Buffer is described by the patches as "a debug trace buffer which is used to help isolate failures by analyzing the last feature that a system was running before hitting a failure. This nonintrusive way is always running in the background and trace is stored into the SoC."

It's basically a means of helping to isolate where a system problem may have occurred. Adding the Smart Trace Buffer support to the AMD PMC driver is little more than one hundred lines of code. The Smart Trace Buffer contents can then be read on the system via DebugFS with a new file named stb_read. Enabling it can be done via the amd_pmc.enable_stb=1 module parameter with it at least for now not being enabled by default from the driver reporting side.

Intel's Trace Hub is somewhat along similar lines but appearing to be much more feature-rich than AMD Smart Trace Buffer with a broader scope in offering many more features around system debug. Intel Trace Hub has also been supported under Linux for a while via the intel_th driver.

The v2 patch was posted this morning on the kernel mailing list. Besides the discussion around this patch work, I haven't been able to find any other substantive public information on AMD Smart Trace Buffer. But there was a reference to Smart Trace Buffer from some Cezanne PSP firmware hits, so it's at least been present in AMD SoCs already. From the patch discussion around AMD STB there was also some excitement that this functionality may also help the AMD engineers in debugging some of the outstanding suspend-to-idle issues plaguing some AMD Linux systems.

Source

Supply chain woes lead to a “temporary” Raspberry Pi 4 price hike

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Raspberry Pi 3B+ production is also being "deprioritized."

Enlarge / The Raspberry Pi 4.

Raspberry Pi Foundation

Pandemic-driven supply chain problems have prompted the first-ever price increase for a Raspberry Pi product, according to Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton. Acknowledging that the 2GB configuration of the Raspberry Pi 4 and the Raspberry Pi Zero had been particularly hard-hit by shortages, Upton announced that the price of the 2GB Pi 4 would increase from $35 to $45 and that a previously discontinued version of the Pi 4 with 1GB of RAM would be reintroduced at $35.

The price increase for the 2GB Pi 4 and reintroduction of the 1GB model essentially reverts the Pi 4 lineup to where it was back in February of 2020, when the Pi Foundation cut the price of the 2GB Pi 4 from $45 to $35, a price cut that it said was "permanent" at the time. The March 2020 issue of the official Raspberry Pi Magazine (PDF) said that the 1GB model had been "retired."

Upton expressed hope that the price increase would be "temporary" and said that "we see early signs that the supply chain situation is starting to ease."

"These changes in pricing are not here to stay," Upton wrote. "As global supply chain issues moderate, we’ll keep revisiting this issue, and we want to get pricing back to where it was as fast as we can."

Shortages of 40 nm chips also mean that the older Raspberry Pi 3B+ is being "deprioritized" in favor of other Raspberry Pi 3 variants; the company keeps manufacturing older products primarily for "industrial and embedded" customers who need to use specific Pi boards for extended periods of time. Upton recommends that in the long term, customers who rely on the Pi 3B+ plan to migrate to the 1GB version of the Pi 4.

Supply chain woes lead to a “temporary” Raspberry Pi 4 price hike

China researchers score a quantum leap

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 15:39:28 +0000

Scientists in Hefei have established the world's first integrated quantum communication network

“Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.”
― Niels Bohr

In the strange world of quantum mechanics, the laws of physics as we know them are tossed out the window.

In other words, reality is not exactly what we think it is.

For example …

Today, sensitive data is typically encrypted and then sent across fiber-optic cables and other channels together with the digital “keys” needed to decode the information.

The data and the keys are sent as classical bits – a stream of electrical or optical pulses representing 1s and 0s. And that makes them vulnerable.

Smart hackers can read and copy bits in transit without leaving a trace. Even if that cable is at the bottom of an ocean, it can be tapped into and hacked.

Throughout history, the battle between encryption and decryption never ends.

Enter quantum communication, which takes advantage of the laws of quantum physics to protect data.

These laws allow particles – typically photons of light for transmitting data along optical cables – to take on a state of superposition, which means they can represent multiple combinations of 1 and 0 simultaneously.

The particles are known as quantum bits, or qubits.

The beauty of qubits from a cybersecurity perspective is that if a hacker tries to observe them in transit, their super-fragile quantum state “collapses” to either 1 or 0.

This means a hacker can’t tamper with the qubits without leaving behind a telltale sign of the activity.

In a giant technological step toward this end, Chinese scientists have established the world’s first integrated quantum communication network, combining over 700 optical fibers on the ground with two ground-to-satellite links to achieve quantum key distribution over a total distance of 4,600 kilometers for users across the country, Phys.Org reported.

The team, led by Jianwei Pan, Yuao Chen, and Chengzhi Peng from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, reported in Nature their latest advances toward the global, practical application of such a network for future communications.

Unlike conventional encryption, quantum communication is considered “uncrackable” and therefore the future of secure information transfer for governments, banks, power grids and other sectors.

In the 1980s, researchers developed a theoretical method for generating secure keys using quantum mechanics.

They figured out that secure keys could be encoded into the quantum properties of individual particles, and exchanged secretly back and forth.

The advantage of this “quantum key distribution” (QKD) is that quantum physics dictates that the very act of observing a particle irreparably changes it.

So any spies who tried to intercept the quantum key could be immediately detected by the changes in the particles.

So far, the most common QKD technology uses optical fibers for transmissions over several hundred kilometers, with high stability but considerable channel loss.

Materials in cables can absorb photons, which means they can typically travel for no more than a few tens of kilometers. In a classical network, repeaters at various points along a cable are used to amplify the signal to compensate for this.

QKD networks have come up with a similar solution, creating “trusted nodes” at various points. The Beijing-to-Shanghai network has 32 of them, for instance.

At these waystations, quantum keys are decrypted into bits and then re-encrypted in a fresh quantum state for their journey to the next node.

Another major QKD technology uses the free space between satellites and ground stations for thousand-kilometer-level transmissions.

In 2016, China launched the world’s first quantum communication satellite (QUESS, or Mozi/Micius) and achieved QKD with two ground stations 2,600km apart.

In 2017, a more than 2,000km-long optical-fiber network was completed for QKD between Beijing and Shanghai.

Using trusted relays, the ground-based fiber network and the satellite-to-ground links were integrated to serve more than 150 industrial users across China, including state and local banks, municipal power grids, and e-government websites.

In essence, the achievement indicates that quantum communication technology can be used for future large-scale practical applications.

Similarly, a global quantum communication network can be established if national quantum networks from different countries are combined, and if universities, institutions and companies come together to standardize related protocols.

In the last couple of years, the team extensively tested and improved the performance of different parts of the integrated network.

For instance, with an increased clock rate and more efficient QKD protocol, the satellite-to-ground QKD now has an average key generation rate of 47.8 kilobits per second, which is 40 times as high as the previous rate.

The researchers have also pushed the record for ground-based QKD to beyond 500km using a new technology called twin-field QKD (TF-QKD).

TF-QKD is a new extraordinary QKD protocol, which can overcome the fundamental rate-distance limit without quantum repeaters.

Experimentally, TF-QKD has already been performed over 400km of telecom fibers, as well as more than 1,000km of free space through satellite to ground links.

This result is possible thanks to a different way of encoding and retrieving the information in the quantum carriers used for the protocol.

In TF-QKD the information is encoded in the phase of the optical pulses prepared by the two users that want to establish the secure communication, and the secret key is retrieved via a single photon interference measurement made by a user in the middle.

Another interesting aspect of TF-QKD is that it is also Measurement Device Independent, which means that it meets the strictest standards of security.

Sources: Phys.Org, Technology Review, Springer Professional, QCALL, University of Science and Technology of China

Source

T-Mobile says its 5G now covers almost everyone in the U.S.

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 12:50:48 +0000

Recently, mobile analytics company Opensignal crowned T-Mobile as the fastest 5G network in the U.S. T-Mobile managed to achieve an average of 118.7 Mbps in download speeds, along with 16.1 Mbps in upload speed. It gets even better for T-Mobile users though, as not only is it the fastest network, the carrier has announced that its 5G now covers almost everyone in the U.S. According to T-Mobile, its Extended Range 5G covers 308 million people, and 186 million of those people are covered by the carrier’s Ultra-Capacity 5G. With this news, the Un-carrier edges closer to its goal of providing 200 million people with Ultra-Capacity 5G.

In the same announcement, T-Mobile also revealed a special edition of the Reese’s Take 5 bar — the Reese’s Take 5G. It’s available at “Apartment 5G” locations, where select T-Mobile stores will be converted into trick-or-treating destinations this Halloween.

“T-Mobile continues to expand its 5G footprint at an unparalleled pace, so we partnered with the candy icons at Reese’s this Halloween to help spread the word and give everyone more of what they love — more Reese’s, at ultra-fast 5G speed!” said Mike Sievert, CEO at T-Mobile. “Our multi-layered approach for fast and far-reaching coverage made us America’s 5G leader, so it made perfect sense to partner with THE famously layered candy brand to create the official candy of 5G, the Reese’s Take 5G bar … AND the best trick-or-treating experience. Zero tricks, way more Reese’s … now that’s Halloween on 5G!”

With this expansion, T-Mobile solidifies itself as the largest 5G network in the U.S, providing Extended Range 5G to 308 million people out of the U.S. population of 330 million. Even better, the network’s Ultra Capacity 5G covers just over half of the U.S. population currently.

Ten visitors to Apartment 5G locations will win a free 5G smartphone, a year of T-Mobile 5G service, and a year of free Reese’s products.

Source

Apple unveils its most powerful chips, the M1 Pro and M1 Max

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 23:20:52 +0000

Apple has unveiled two new chips for its Mac computers, the M1 Pro and M1 Max. Both of these chips are more powerful than the M1 chip which the company released in its products last year. The new chips boast good performance and industry-leading power efficiency, making them ideal for the companies new MacBook Pro line-up.

In terms of hard numbers, the CPU in the M1 Pro and M1 Max delivers a 70% performance increase compared to the M1. Software developers using these chips will notice intensive tasks such as Xcode compilation complete even faster than before. The GPU in the M1 Pro is two times faster than the one in the M1 while the M1 Max’s GPU boasts a performance increase of four times – this latter chip will be ideal for users with demanding graphics workflows.

Commenting on the new products, Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, said:

“M1 has transformed our most popular systems with incredible performance, custom technologies, and industry-leading power efficiency. No one has ever applied a system-on-a-chip design to a pro system until today with M1 Pro and M1 Max. With massive gains in CPU and GPU performance, up to six times the memory bandwidth, a new media engine with ProRes accelerators, and other advanced technologies, M1 Pro and M1 Max take Apple silicon even further, and are unlike anything else in a pro notebook.”

While Apple’s M1 chip was already able to achieve good performance while using less power compared to other PC chips, it was still outperformed by modern 8-core PC laptop chips on performance (but not energy efficiency). The new M1 Pro and M1 Max blow the 8-core PC laptop chips out of the water in terms of both power consumption and performance. The new chips use 70% less power which means the battery in the new MacBook Pros should last longer compared to other computers.

As many of the purchasers of the new MacBook Pros will be professionals who have to edit video, Apple ensures that these new chips can do video processing while maximising battery life. To achieve this, the M1 Pro comes with dedicated acceleration for the ProRes video codec which allows for the playback of multiple streams of 4K and 8K ProRes video while sipping at the battery. The M1 Max provides two times faster video encoding compared to the M1 Pro and features two ProRed accelerators. The new M1 Max can now transcode ProRes video in Compressor ten times faster than the previous-generation 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Apple said that it’s now one year into its two-year transition to using Apple Silicon on all of its computers and that the two latest chips represent a “huge step forward”. We are still waiting on a chip upgrade for the 27-inch iMac and the Mac Pro so maybe we’ll hear more about these products next year.

Apple unveils its most powerful chips, the M1 Pro and M1 Max

Everything Apple Announced Today—Including a New MacBook Pro

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 23:17:08 +0000

Say hello to machines with plenty of ports, MagSafe charging, and a refreshed pair of AirPods.

iPhones and iPads shared the limelight on Apple's virtual stage in September, but the company's October “Unleashed” event focused on all things Mac. Today, Apple announced a redesigned MacBook Pro in two sizes, both of which are powered by its newest M1 Pro or M1 Max chips. Apple also took the wraps off its third-generation AirPods.

If you didn't catch the event, here's everything Apple announced.

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more.

Two New Powerful In-House Chips

Photograph: Apple

It's been more than a year since Apple announced it was swapping Intel chips for its very own in-house silicon: the M1, which powers both the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. Succeeding the M1 are not one but two new chips: the M1 Pro and M1 Max.

Photograph: Apple

The M1 Pro has a 10-core CPU (up from eight cores on the M1), with eight high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores. For graphics, the M1 Pro offers an up to 16-core GPU (with up to 32 GB of unified memory) that's twice as fast as the M1. Meanwhile, the M1 Max features the same 10-core CPU coupled with a 32-core GPU (with support for up to 64 GB of unified memory). Apple claims both the M1 Pro and M1 Max are up to 70 percent faster than last year's M1, and graphics-wise, the M1 Pro is two times faster and the M1 Max is four times faster.

The power of the M1 Pro and Max remains to be seen, but it's safe to say these chipsets are what on-the-go content creators, video editors, and graphic designers (who rely on their MacBook Pros to accomplish intensive tasks) have been waiting for since Apple started moving away from Intel.

New MacBook Pro, Two Sizes

Photograph: Apple

Apple went all-in with its MacBook Pro redesign. It comes in a 14- or 16-inch chassis, with slightly larger screen sizes at 14.2 inches and 16.2 inches, respectively. Both feature a Liquid Retina XDR screen with Apple's Mini LED display technology, which debuted in this year's 12.9-inch iPad Pro. It doesn't produce as deep blacks as OLED panels, like on the iPhone, but it comes very close and maintains incredible levels of brightness with punchy colors. WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu says he preferred watching movies on the iPad Pro with Mini LED over the larger LCD screen in Apple's 2021 iMac.

It comes complete with ProMotion (as seen on the iPhone 13 Pro and 2017 iPad Pro), which is Apple's 120-Hz refresh rate technology that makes content on the screen look much smoother. You can read more about how it works here.

On top of the screen is a notch that houses a 1080p camera for video calls, with a wider aperture that allows in more light, so expect better video call performance in dim rooms. But unlike the notch in the iPhone, there's no TrueDepth camera system here, which means no support for Face ID.

There is a Touch ID sensor on the keyboard, so you can still lock and unlock the MacBook Pro with your fingerprint. Apple also bid adieu to the Touch Bar, replacing it with physical keys instead, a startling admission that its vision for the elongated digital screen didn't go the way it hoped.

Photograph: Apple

But the most exciting upgrade to the MacBook Pro is arguably the return of the ports. There's an HDMI port, three USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4, an SD card slot, and a high-impedance headphone jack. So, yes, feel free to throw all those ugly dongles in the trash. Even better, Apple also brought back MagSafe to its MacBooks for the first time since 2017. It's not an accessory ecosystem like with the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineup, but the charger connects to the dedicated port magnetically like in the days of old. You can still charge via the USB-C ports.

Both MacBook Pros also pack studio-quality mics and a six-speaker sound system that consists of two tweets and four woofers that offer 80 percent more bass. As for battery life, Apple claims the 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 17 hours of video playback, while the 16-inch model hits 21 hours. You can fast charge these devices too, gaining up to 50 percent battery in just 30 minutes.

The base version of the MacBook Pro (for both sizes) comes with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 while the 16 inch is $2,499. Both models are currently available for preorder and go on sale on October 26. You can choose whether you want the M1 Pro or upgrade to the M1 Max if you need the extra power. The highest-tier configuration for the 16-incher brings the total to a whopping $6,099.

Apple also confirmed via its press release that its latest operating system, MacOS Monterey, will be available for download on October 25.

AirPods 3

Photograph: Apple

The new, third generation of Apple’s standard AirPods comes two years after the release of AirPods Pro and a little over a year after the release of the AirPods Max.

The old AirPods aren't our favorites. They're not very ergonomic, nor are they great for workouts because they lack the security of silicone eartips and an IP rating against water or dust. The lack of tips also meant you didn’t get a perfect seal in your ears all the time, allowing sound to leak out to the outside world at higher volumes.

This new version comes with a lower distortion dynamic driver for better bass and crisper high-end, but once again lacks eartips. Apple says the slightly redesigned earbuds, which look a bit more curvy and ergonomic, will fit much better than the previous version. We'll see for ourselves.

Thankfully, they now come with sweat and water resistance, so you can finally work out in AirPods without worrying about breaking them. The addition of spatial audio, which was previously reserved for the AirPods Max and AirPods Pro models, is also great. Spatial audio on standard AirPods means you can watch movies in Dolby Atmos, providing a more immersive experience (a few music artists also mix in Atmos, but not many).

Photograph: Apple

Apple increased battery life from 5 hours to 6, with the ability to charge with a MagSafe charger wirelessly. It charges quickly, so five minutes plugged in will get you an hour of juice. That’s all well and good, but 6 hours remains relatively mid-tier battery life in the wireless headphone market, especially without noise-canceling on board. The latest model from Jabra, for example, comes with 8 hours and the same quick-charge feature.

The new AirPods are currently available for $179, which begs the question: Why not spend $20 more on a pair of AirPods Pro? Well, you can. But Apple also seems to have added MagSafe to the AirPods Pro's case. If you don't care for it, the original AirPods Pro retails for less than $199.

Apple Music Voice Plan

Photograph: Apple

One of the weirder announcements was Apple's new voice-only subscription plan for Apple Music. For $5 per month, subscribers can opt to abandon any visual interface for Apple’s popular streaming service and access their favorite artists and bespoke playlists exclusively via voice control with Siri.

It sounds odd at a first glance, but it's a decent option for anyone who loves internet radio like Pandora, or for anyone looking for specific genres of music rather than scrolling through infinite artists and playlists on their phone. You're paying half the price of the standard subscription.

New HomePod Mini Colors

Photograph: Apple

Tired of staring at your boring gray HomePod Mini? Apple has some good news for you. It now comes in three fun colors: orange, blue, and yellow. Too bad they won't do anything new. Apple didn't spell out any new features for the Siri-powered bowl, but at least it has the same $99 price.

Everything Apple Announced Today—Including a New MacBook Pro

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China Stuns U.S. Intelligence with Hypersonic Missile Test

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 16:18:12 +0000

U.S. intelligence agencies were caught by surprise when China secretly tested a nuclear-capable low-orbit hypersonic missile in August, the Financial Times reported Saturday. The weapon circled the globe before descending upon its target, missing by about two dozen miles.

The Pentagon is aware China has been working on hypersonic weapons technology and other advanced missile systems, unburdened by any of the arms control treaties that impede competing programs in the United States and Russia, but the August test – conducted without advance notice, warning, or publication – reportedly stunned analysts who thought the Chinese were much further behind in the orbital arms race.

“We have no idea how they did this,” said one of the Financial Times’ U.S. intelligence sources. Others described China’s progress as “astounding” and “far more advanced than U.S. officials realized.”

This Sept. 28, 2021, file photo provided by the North Korean government shows what North Korea claims to be a new hypersonic missile launched from Toyang-ri, Ryongrim County, Jagang Province, North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

North Korea also claimed it tested a hypersonic weapon at the end of September, but its capabilities were far more limited, and the success of the test was debatable. China’s test missile actually flew completely around the Earth in low orbit before plunging into the atmosphere to strike.

Hypersonic missiles are theoretically difficult to track or intercept because they can fly and maneuver at low altitude while traveling at five times the speed of sound or faster. A hypersonic missile would penetrate existing anti-missile defense systems and hit the target so quickly that it could be difficult to tell exactly where it was launched from, and the target would have very little advanced warning before impact.

Using hypersonic missiles at long range requires a method of getting the missile into strike range before it begins its distinctive low-and-fast terminal flight. One method is to boost the weapon into the target area with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which would deploy a “hypersonic glide vehicle” when it gets close to the target. The glide vehicle would complete the final leg of the journey and deliver the conventional or nuclear payload to its target.

A variation on this approach is to put the weapon into low orbit until it comes close to its destination, at which point the hypersonic glide vehicle detaches and plunges into the atmosphere. This appears to be the type of system China tested in August.

U.S. military and private sector analysts quoted by the Financial Times said it would be “destabilizing” if China developed the capability to deliver global nuclear strikes from space, using hypersonic delivery systems that could not be tracked or intercepted. China’s orbital test suggested it would be able to send its missiles over the South Pole if it desired, avoiding U.S. tracking systems concentrated on the North Pole.

The U.S. Army is scheduled to begin deploying a long-range hypersonic missile in late 2023. Some launch and control equipment has already been distributed so troops can begin training on the system. The Army weapon has a range of less than 2,000 miles, making it much less ambitious than the potentially nuclear-capable orbital device tested by China.

The Pentagon said last week that other hypersonic weapon projects currently in development are too expensive, with unit costs more than double what the U.S. military currently pays for cruise missiles. The Pentagon asked defense contractors to come up with more “affordable” solutions.

A Chinese government spokesman responded to the Financial Times report on Saturday by insisting all of China’s weapons programs are purely “defensive in nature.”

“We don’t have a global strategy and plans of military operations like the U.S. does. And we are not at all interested in having an arms race with other countries,” the spokesman said, accusing the U.S. government and media of “fabricating excuses like the ‘China threat’ to justify its arms expansion.”

China’s state-run Global Times made a similar argument in a Sunday editorial, although it added some gloating about the vaunted U.S. intelligence system getting caught by surprise when Beijing tested its hypersonic missile in August.

“It is important to note the unstoppable trend that China is narrowing the gap with the US in some key military technologies as China is continuously developing its economic and technological strength,” the editorial boasted.

The Global Times said it is “inevitable that China will take an upper hand over the U.S. military strength” in areas such as Taiwan and the South China Sea – and Beijing plans to “improve the quality of its nuclear deterrence to ensure that the U.S. completely eliminates the idea of nuclear blackmail against China at any critical moment.”

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