In a blog post, Google announced it will purchase and use power generated by a number of small nuclear reactors that are currently under development by Kairos Power. This the first time Google has made such an energy agreement for accessing nuclear power. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The blog post offers some details of how Kairos Power's nuclear reactors have been designed:

Kairos Power’s technology uses a molten-salt cooling system, combined with a ceramic, pebble-type fuel, to efficiently transport heat to a steam turbine to generate power. This passively safe system allows the reactor to operate at low pressure, enabling a simpler more affordable nuclear reactor design.

Kairos will develop a number of demonstrations of its nuclear reactor hardware before it officially launches its first full power plant. Google says that the first such plant should go online in 2030, and additional plants will become operational through 2035.

Google says that ultimately, these smaller and modular nuclear plants from Kairos will generate 500 MW of energy. It will be put to use, in part, to power Google's AI servers.

Just a few weeks ago, Microsoft announced an agreement with Constellation Energy to use energy from the former Three Mile Island nuclear plant to power its own AI servers. The reactor is expected to come back online sometime in 2028.

Microsoft also announced earlier this year it had reached an agreement with Helion Energy to use power that would come from a nuclear fusion reactor. That is also expected to come online sometime in 2028.

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What you need to know

• GOG has used recent events to remind gamers of its secret weapon.
• When you buy a game on GOG, you get an offline installer for it, which cannot be taken away even if a license expires.
• It comes in response to Steam beginning to tell its customers they're only buying a digital license, which in turn comes after California passed a law saying it has to.

Late last week, Valve started adding a note into the cart on its Steam game store so that anyone buying knew they weren't actually getting ownership of the product. This, in turn, came after the State of California passed a law saying that digital stores would need to be up front about this.

In response, competitor store, GOG, has taken the opportunity to remind its customers that things are a little different over there.

Earlier this morning, one part of the Internet Archive, the Wayback Machine website history service, finally came back online. In a new message on his X account, Kahle stated the site is currently in a read-only mode. That means users cannot capture the image of a website in its current state and upload it to the Wayback Machine.

Kahle mentioned that the site could be "suspended again" if the Wayback Machine site needed further maintenance. The main Internet Archive site, and other sites affiliated with it, are still not working for now, and there's no word on when they might be back up and running.

Less than a month ago, the Internet Archive announced a major partnership with Google. The idea was that people who used Google Search could directly find links to web pages that were stored on the Wayback Machine's site with its "About this Result” option. Google previously supported access to earlier versions of websites in search results with its own cached pages feature. However, that feature was removed from Google Search earlier this year.

Kahle posted another message earlier this past weekend that email for the site was back up, along with "contract crawls for National Libraries".

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The consultation has been started by the Office for Product Safety and Standards which sits within the Department for Business and Trade, and it calls for manufacturers, importers, distributors, and trade associations to provide their input on the matter. Of course, should the UK decide against adopting USB-C and implement a separate standard, expect that device manufacturers just provide dongles to support this rather than having unique device versions.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards stated the following on this topic:

"We consider that it would potentially help businesses and deliver consumer and environmental benefits if we were to introduce standardized requirements for chargers for certain portable electrical/electronic devices across the whole UK. We are seeking views from manufacturers, importers, distributors, and trade associations as to whether it would be helpful to do so and, if so, whether this should be based on USB-C – as adopted by the EU."

The EU's version of the law will come into force by the end of the year, with a key focus on reducing e-waste from propietary cables and chargers, and this will impact a variety of devices including phones, tablets and headphones. This new law even pushed Apple into abandoning its Lightning cable in favour of USB-C with last year's iPhone 15 series of devices.

Meanwhile, India has asked for manufacturers in the country to make the same move by March 2025, 3 months later than the EU's deadline, but would still impact the same list of consumer electronics but specifying that feature phones are also covered by this requirement. Laptops will also be covered by both laws but these have an extended deadline of 2026 in both India and the EU.

Source: The Register

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TSMC has already started work on its first fab in Dresden, Germany. The company will focus on supplying automotive semiconductors from this fab and make 22nm and 28nm chips so that there's a steady supply of these chips for modern vehicles.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many vehicles were left incomplete due to a significant chip shortage as the shipping routes were affected and these chips used to primarily come from TSMC's Taiwan facility.

The fab at Dresden is a joint venture called the European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC), in which TSMC holds a 70% stake and an investment of €10 billion (around $10.9 billion), while the rest of the shares are held by partners Bosch, Infineon Technologies, and NXP Semiconductors. The plant should produce 40,000 wafers per month once fully operational (which is expected in 2027) and is set to create 2000 high-tech jobs.

TSMC is planning to set up even more fabs across Europe to focus on chips designed for AI. The expansion is part of TSMC's move to reduce geopolitical risks with China, which has impacted the global supply chain, apart from the pandemic.

Europe isn't the only place where TSMC is making new fabs. The company has projects in the U.S., as well as Japan. Recently, the company has started manufacturing Apple's A16 processors at its newly constructed fabrication unit in Arizona, which uses the 5nm technology.

Meanwhile, in Japan, TSMC is making semiconductors for Sony and Toyota using 40nm, 28nm, and 22nm processes. There's also a second fab under construction in the Kumamoto Prefecture, which will produce advanced chips using 6nm and 7nm process technologies.

Via Bloomberg

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Table of contents:

1. Windows 10 and 11 news
2. Windows Insider Program
3. Updates are available
4. Gaming news
5. Great deals to check

Windows 11 and 10

Here we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And of course, you may find a word or two about older but still supported versions.

The October 2024 Patch Tuesday updates are now available for download. If your PC has not downloaded them yet, check out full release notes for Windows 10 here and Windows 11 here. Those updates fixed SFC/scannow issues and a bug that caused boot loop issues, blue screens of death, USB fails, and other nastiness (if you still suffer from BSODs and you happen to own a WD SN770 or SN580, check out this article).

Finally, Microsoft updated the Media Creation Tool with the latest Windows 11 version 24H2 ISO, which now includes KB5044284.

With the release of this month's Patch Tuesday updates, Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 21H2 are no longer supported. Version 21H2 is gone for good, while version 22H2 will receive one more year of updates, but only for Education and Enterprise editions.

Microsoft also announced improved passkey support for Windows 11. Soon, the operating system will work with third-party passkey providers, such as 1Password, Bitwarden, and more. Besides, Windows 11 will get a redesigned UI for passkey creation and management.

If your computer does not support Windows 11, you can still update to version 24H2 using our guide. Alternatively, as Microsoft suggests, just buy a new one (duh). However, note that after getting to 24H2, you will find over 8GB of non-removable data, which currently appears to be a bug. Still, you can clear disk C and the remaining of the previous version as described in our separate guide here.

Windows Insider Program

Here is what Microsoft Released this week for testing in the Windows Insider Program:

Shortly after releasing new preview builds, Microsoft acknowledged new issues and other changes. For one, the ability to remap the Copilot key is temporarily gone. Microsoft promises to restore it in future updates after "refining the experience." Also, if you have an older Nvidia graphics card, you better stay away from the latest Canary build. Microsoft confirmed that changes in the OS cause black screens and hangs on systems with GPUs like the GTX 900 Series.

As for app updates, the Snipping Tool has received a new feature for Windows Insiders. It now lets you copy data tables and paste them into supported apps like Excel.

Besides releasing new builds, Microsoft celebrated ten years of the Windows Insider Program. To mark the occasion, the company released two exclusive wallpapers. You can get them here.

Updates are available

This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties.

If you want to try Windows 11 version 24H2 on a virtual machine, make sure your hypervisor is updated to the latest version. VMware, for one, released Workstation Pro 17.6.1 with a few important fixes, including the proper Windows 11 24H2 ISO detection—no more suggestions to install Windows Server 2025.

After posting a bypass that would let you perform an in-place Windows 11 24H2 upgrade on unsupported PCs, Rufus developer released a beta version with all the necessary fixes to make the app work for those whose systems do not officially support Windows 11.

Vivaldi, Waterfox, Wavebox, and other browser makers teamed up to ask the EU to subject Microsoft Edge to DMA regulations. They claim the previous decision to exempt Windows 11's default browser is unfair and harms third-party browsers and user choice.

Microsoft 365 Insiders received two new virtual pens in OneNote for Windows. If you have a touch-enabled device and a stylus, you can now draw and handwrite with a Fountain Pen and a Brush Pen. Also, Windows Insiders received a new accessibility feature for Excel, which should make it easier to detect the active cell.

This week, Microsoft acknowledged a rather hilarious bug in Word. If a file has its extension in all uppercase or with the # symbol, Word will delete it instead of saving it. Fortunately, the damage is not permanent, and you can restore the deleted file from the Recycle Bin. Microsoft says it is investigating the problem. Meanwhile, you better watch how your local documents are named.

As for less destructive changes in Word, the app is getting a new "Coaching with Copilot" feature that will help you review and rewrite your content. Microsoft is currently rolling it out to select Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Pro subscribers in the United States.

Microsoft also announced some updates for OneDrive. The company's cloud storage will soon get colorful folders in Windows 11's File Explorer, redesigned mobile applications, search improvements, and more. More importantly, you will soon be able to spec it up to 5TB or even 10TB if the current 2TB limit is not enough for your needs.

Speaking of File Explorer, Files, a popular alternative to the stock file manager, received an update to version 3.7.11. The app now lets you bulk-rename files and benefit from a couple of small improvements.

Moving to browsers, we have new privacy-preserving ad APIs in Microsoft Edge. The company announced a limited preview to let developers test the new mechanism and see how it affects their websites. Also, Edge 131.0.2875 landed in the Dev Channel with fixes for crashes when playing media and more.

Mozilla released an important update for Firefox to fix a critical security vulnerability exploited in the wild. The necessary patch for CVE-2024-9680 is included in Firefox 131.0.2, Firefox ESR 115.16.1, and Firefox ESR 128.3.1. If you are still on a previous release, update your browser as quickly as possible.

Other notable updates include the following:

• Arc browser now supports Windows on ARM.
• Apple updated Apple Music for Windows with support for collaborative playlists.
• PowerToys 0.85.1 has been released with a few fixes.
• Microsoft Teams Personal on the desktop and web is getting a visual refresh.
• Stardock released Multiplicity 4 with multi-screen streaming, Seamless display, and more.
• Microsoft released new .NET libraries for AI application development.
• The new Outlook for Windows will soon be able to boot in offline mode.
• Microsoft Teams can now warn or block frontline workers when they access the service after hours.

• Microsoft Azure is the first hyperscaler to have NVIDIA's Blackwell system with GB200.

   

Here are the newest drivers and firmware released this week:

• Surface Pro X received a big update with fixes for keyboard, sleep, broken Caps Lock LED, and more.
• Surface Pro 9 5G received the same update.

What will no longer receive updates is likely the Surface Duo 2. Microsoft's last dual-screen Android smartphone received its final firmware update this week ahead of its inevitable demise later this month.

Finally, here is this week's Microsoft 365 Roadmap recap with all the new features coming soon to Microsoft's productivity apps.

On the gaming side

Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts and more.

This week, some big stuff happened in the Halo universe. 343 Industries rebranded itself to Halo Studios and announced plans to release multiple Halo games based on Unreal Engine 5. As for the existing Halo Infinite, the game will get a third-party person mode and other improvements. Also, the game received its new Haloween Operation update.

Sea of Thieves Season 14 is out soon, and it has a few interesting perks, such as new disguises, a grapple gun, blowpipes, crouching, and other changes.

Nvidia announced new games for its cloud streaming service, GeForce NOW. The service now supports Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, Europa, Star Trek Timelines, Dwarven Realms, and more. Keep in mind that playing those games on GeForce NOW requires owning them on a supported platform, such as Steam. However, Steam recently made a small change to explain to its customers that they are no longer buying games—they are buying licenses.

Speaking of streaming games, Microsoft reportedly plans to let Xbox Insiders stream Xbox games they own from the company's cloud. That means you will be able to stream titles that are not available in the Xbox Game Pass catalog. However, an active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate would still be necessary. Also, next month, the Xbox app on Android will let you purchase Xbox games.

If you have an Xbox Wireless Controller and a modern Apple device, you can now connect your gamepad with a USB cable. iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, as it turned out, received wired Xbox controller support.

Finally, check out Robbie Khan's review of the Silent Hill 2 remake on PC. It is an excellent game that is faithful to the original, with fantastic cinematic immersion, voice acting, great animations, and more. It is not flawless, but if you are a fan of the franchise, you will definitely enjoy playing the game.

Deals and freebies:

The Epic Games Store is giving away Empyrion—Galactic Survival and Outliver: Tribulation. However, you can find even more deals and exciting gaming offers in our latest issue of Weekend PC Game Deals.

Here are other notable gaming stories from this week:

• Ara: History Untold received a new patch with game balancing changes and more. Another one arrived shortly after that.
• Goat Simulator Remastered is coming on November 7 with all its DLCs and better visuals.
• Towerborne received its first major update with class rework, smoother progression, and more.
• You can win a gold Series X in a new Indiana Jones and the Great Circle contest.
• Playground Games shared Forza Motorsport stats as the game celebrates its first birthday.
• Age of Mythology: Retold received a new patch with UI improvements, balance changes, and more.

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However, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his weekly Power On newsletter, Apple is planning to make a bigger push for devices in the smart home industry. Gurman reports that some members of Apple's shutdown smart electric car division have been moved over to a new Home Ecosystem team.

The report also claims that Apple is developing a new homeOS specifically for its new smart home products. It will reportedly be based on Apple's tvOS which is used in its Apple TV devices.

One of the upcoming new smart home devices, according to the report, is a display that Gurman describes as an "affordable iPad-like screen." It will be able to stream movies and TV shows from the Apple TV app, along with the ability to take FaceTime calls, browse the internet with a browser, or access apps like Notes and Calendar.

Gurman claims this device will be so affordable some homeowners are expected to buy more than one of these Apple smart displays to be placed in different rooms. However, the article does not offer a release date for this device.

The same report claims that sometime later, Apple will release a more expensive smart home product. For around $1,000, people will be able to get a tabletop device with a screen that will be placed on top of a robotic limb. It is supposed to have features like video conferencing, home security monitoring and more. Again, there's no word on when this device could launch.

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Paul's Hardware (1.49M subscribers)

October 13, 224

Video length: 11m 42s

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - Oct 13, 2024

1:32 Intel Unveils Arrow Lake, Says it’ll be 5% Slower In Gaming Vs AMD 7000X3D

3:41 Intel confirms 13th/14th Gen Core instability has been fixed, no more updates

4:50 9800X3D’s 3D V-Cache Secret - Can AMD Stack 3D V-cache?

6:32 RTX 5090, 5080, and 5070 too now rumored for CES 2025 Announcement

7:43 Nvidia’s new AI model is open, massive, and ready to rival GPT-4

TECH BRIEFS

8:49 GamersNexus 12VHPWR / 12V2x6 Investigative Video Exposes Negligence

9:43 Steam explicitly states you don’t own the digital games you’re buying

10:39 NVIDIA celebrates 25th anniversary of GeForce 256

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Gamers Nexus (2.29M subscribers)

October 12, 2024

Video length: 34m 30s

00:00 - Recapping the Week

01:07 - GN NC Hurricane Relief Charity Shirt

07:49 - NVIDIA RTX 5070 Rumored at 12GB

09:45 - Nintendo Announces Alarm Clock

11:39 - Ubisoft Responds to Buyout Rumors

13:56 - Ubisoft Gets Sued

16:47 - Updated Thermal Grizzly WireView & Blocks

20:05 - RazerCon Asshaptic Chair

27:31 - AMD X870E Motherboards

30:33 - Team's New DDR5

31:05 - Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 Fans

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A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.

The message makes it clear that purchasing digital games does not mean owning them.

The update comes after a few controversies about "owning" digital content purchased from various marketplaces. Ubisoft, for one, ended up in hot waters after deleting The Crew from everyone's libraries following the servers' shutdown. Sony also received its fair share of hate for plans to remove access to certain purchased TV shows in the PlayStation Store (the company changed its course after the backlash).

Besides getting under everyone's skin, practices like that raise serious concerns about gaming history preservation.

Controversies like this not only led to some considering raising a black flag but also to governments stepping in to regulate the market. Next year, a new California law will mandate that digital stores communicate the limitations of digital purchases properly and explicitly state that buying is not owning.

With the latest update, Steam might be playing safe ahead of the new regulations, which will impose fines and accusations of false advertising on companies failing to abide. Also worth noting is that the updated message is not exclusive to California—it is present in other states and countries as well.

While the problem of spending money on what you do not own is not going anywhere, at least Steam is now making things a bit clearer for gamers.

Via Engadget

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On Thursday, AMD announced its new MI325X AI accelerator chip, which is set to roll out to data center customers in the fourth quarter of this year. At an event hosted in San Francisco, the company claimed the new chip offers "industry-leading" performance compared to Nvidia's current H200 GPUs, which are widely used in data centers to power AI applications such as ChatGPT.

With its new chip, AMD hopes to narrow the performance gap with Nvidia in the AI processor market. The Santa Clara-based company also revealed plans for its next-generation MI350 chip, which is positioned as a head-to-head competitor of Nvidia's new Blackwell system, with an expected shipping date in the second half of 2025.

In an interview with the Financial Times, AMD CEO Lisa Su expressed her ambition for AMD to become the "end-to-end" AI leader over the next decade. "This is the beginning, not the end of the AI race," she told the publication.

The AMD Instinct MI325X Accelerator.

Credit: AMD

According to AMD's website, the announced MI325X accelerator contains 153 billion transistors and is built on the CDNA3 GPU architecture using TSMC's 5 nm and 6 nm FinFET lithography processes. The chip includes 19,456 stream processors and 1,216 matrix cores spread across 304 compute units. With a peak engine clock of 2100 MHz, the MI325X delivers up to 2.61 PFLOPs of peak eight-bit precision (FP8) performance. For half-precision (FP16) operations, it reaches 1.3 PFLOPs.

A fraction of Nvidia’s AI market share

The new chip announcement comes as Nvidia's customers prepare to deploy its Blackwell chips in the current quarter. Microsoft has already become the first cloud provider to offer Nvidia's latest GB200 chips, which combine two B200 Blackwell chips and a "Grace" CPU for more performance.

While AMD has emerged as Nvidia's closest competitor in off-the-shelf AI chips, it still lags behind in market share, according to the Financial Times. AMD projects $4.5 billion in AI chip sales for 2024, a fraction of Nvidia's $26.3 billion in AI data center chip sales for the quarter ending in July. Even so, AMD has already secured Microsoft and Meta as customers for its current generation of MI300 AI GPUs, with Amazon possibly to follow.

The company's recent focus on AI marks a shift from its traditional PC-oriented business that includes consumer graphics cards, but Su remains optimistic about future demand for AI datacenter GPUs. AMD predicts the total addressable market for AI chips will reach $400 billion by 2027.

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Specifically, the streaming platform has replaced the 'Dislike' button with the 'Save' button. This means that users can no longer dislike videos to let YouTube's algorithm know that they are not to their taste.

YouTube is currently testing this new Shorts interface with a limited set of users before a potential global release. Those who have received the change will no longer find the 'Dislike' button on the player's main interface. In a statement, YouTube said:

To make it easier to bookmark Shorts that you love, want to return to, or want to watch later, we’re experimenting with a “Save” button in the Shorts player. If you’re a viewer in the test group, you’ll see the 'Save' icon which you can use to save Shorts to a new or existing playlist. To make room for the Save button, we moved our Shorts player menu around.

The new YouTube Shorts interface buries the 'Dislike' button inside the player's three-dot menu. The worst part is that unlike the opt-in experimental features available for YouTube Premium users, the new YouTube Shorts interface seems to apply to random users.

Notably, this change will encourage users to add more videos to their playlists. Since the Shorts videos come and go in a flash, having the 'Save' button right there in the interface would help. When tapping the 'Save' button, the platform offers the option to save the video to a new or existing YouTube playlist.

Earlier, it was also reported that YouTube was testing long-form video recommendations to the Shorts feed, allegedly to give them more reach.

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Most of the workers who lost their jobs were involved in checking and moderating content on TikTok. These employees were responsible for ensuring that videos followed TikTok's community guidelines. However, ByteDance is now automating this process. The company says it found that about 80% of the content that violates its guidelines can be removed automatically by AI systems. ByteDance hopes that this can make content moderation faster and more efficient.

The layoffs are not just happening in Malaysia. TikTok confirmed to Reuters that job cuts will also occur in other countries as it plans to use AI to moderate content globally.

Governments all around the world are pushing social media platforms for increased moderation on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. As more children and young adults are coming online and have access to the internet, concerns regarding their online safety have significantly grown.

The internet comes with a lot of great resources for children to study online and also helps them connect with their friends via social media. However, there are also risks that they might come across inappropriate content, cyberbullying, and encounters with online predators.

The U.S. and the U.K. also recently announced a new workgroup to make the internet safe for children. The new partnership will establish guidelines and best practices for content moderation on social media platforms. The Online Safety Bill by the U.K. is another initiative that has been implemented to improve internet safety.

A TikTok spokesperson told Reuters that the company plans to spend $2 billion this year on trust and safety initiatives globally despite the job cuts.

Via Reuters

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Gamers Nexus (2.29M subscribers)

October 11, 2024

Video length: 22m 59s

00:00 - Intel Core Ultra 200 CPUs

02:14 - Intel Core Ultra 285K, 265K, 245K Specs

06:16 - Power Claims (Intel Arrow Lake)

08:40 - Gaming Performance Per Watt Claims

09:59 - Thermal & ILM Changes

15:12 - Performance Targets

16:21 - Platform Features

18:52 - Architecture

20:15 - Silicon Changes

21:22 - Conclusion

CORRECTIONS:

01:03 - We trimmed an incorrect statement that the 5% geomean loss comparison was against the 285K, but it is against the 265K. This has been corrected.

15:57 - The same change was made. We trimmed the 5% comment that misunderstood the 265K was being discussed.

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After months of speculations and leaks, Intel has finally announced the launch of Intel Core Ultra 200 Arrow Lake CPUs for desktops. Because they are desktop variants, Intel is calling it Intel Core Ultra 200S series.

Intel Arrow Lake is going to be the first ever CPU series by Intel with tile based architecture for desktop. It will use an entirely new LGA1851 socket. It also introduces PCIe 5.0 for both GPU and NVMe drives.

With the new Arrow Lake series, Intel promises 9% uplift in performance for P-cores and a massive 32% uplift in performance of E-cores.

After two decades, Intel CPUs will not come with any Hyper-Threading enabled in them. Not only that, for the first time, Intel introduces a NPU chip for AI in its desktop CPUs.

In the announcement, Intel has initially launched just five variants, let us look at them.

Intel Core Ultra 200 Arrow Lake Specs

Intel Core Ultra 9 285K

The first in the list is the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU. It will come with 24 Cores and threads, that is 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores. This going to be a successor of the Intel Core i9-14900K CPU.

In terms of CPU clock, the Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) will reach 5.7GHz (300MHz lower than i9-14900K), the Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 (TBM 3.0) will be 5.6GHz, P-core Max Turbo will be 5.5GHz and the P-core Base will be 3.7GHz. The E-core Max Turbo will be 4.6GHz, whereas the base speed will be 3.2GHz.

The CPU will have 40MB of total L2 cache and 36MB of L3 cache. The L2 cache sees an increase of 8MB here, whereas the L3 cache remains the same.

The Maximum Turbo Power will be 250W, a mere 3W decrease over previous-gen.

It will have 4 XE iGPU cores running at max 2GHz, while the GPU’s base frequency will be 300MHz. Surprisingly, Intel has not announced any F non-iGPU variant for the 285K CPU.

Intel Core Ultra 9 285K will come at a price of $589. Same as the MSRP of Intel Core i9-14900K CPU.

Intel Core Ultra 7 265K/F

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF (without iGPU) will come with 20 Cores and threads, that is 8 P-Cores and 12 E-Cores in them. These CPUs are a successor for the Intel Core i7-14700K and i7-14700KF CPUs.

They will not have TVB clocks, but the TBM 3.0 clocks will reach 5.5GHz and the P-core Max Turbo will be 5.4GHz with the P-core Base being 3.9GHz. The E-core Max Turbo will be 4.6GHz, whereas the base speed will be 3.3GHz. The Maximum Turbo Power will be 250W.

The total L2 cache here too sees an increase from 23MB (in i7-14700K/F) to a massive 36MB, whereas the L3 cache decreases from 33MB to 30MB.

Just like the 285K, the 265K will have 4 XE iGPU cores running at max 2GHz. The KF variant doesn’t have any iGPU as always.

Intel Core Ultra 7 265K will come at a price of $394, about $15 cheaper than Intel Core i7-14700K. The KF variant will come price of $379. That’s $5 cheaper than its predecessor.

Intel Core Ultra 5 245K/F

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K and Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF will come with 14 cores and threads. With 6 P-Cores and 8 E-Cores. These CPUs succeed Intel Core i5-14600K and Intel i5-14600KF CPUs.

They will not have TVB clocks and TBM 3.0 clocks, the P-core Max Turbo will be 5.2GHz with the P-core Base being 4.2GHz. The E-core Max Turbo will be 4.6GHz, whereas the base speed will be 3.6GHz. The Maximum Turbo Power will be 159W, this is 22W less than Intel Core i5-14600K.

The total L2 cache here too sees an increase from 20MB (in i5-14600K/F) to 26MB, whereas the L3 cache remains the same at 24MB.

The 245K will have 4 XE iGPU cores running at max 1.9GHz, while the GPU’s base frequency will be 300MHz. The KF variant doesn’t have any iGPU as always.

Intel Core Ultra 5 245K will come at a price of $309, about $10 cheaper than Intel Core i5-14600K. The KF variant will come price of $294. That’s the same as its predecessor.

NPU & Shared Specs

All the above CPUs will come with two Gen3 NPU chips with 13 peak TOPS. These CPUs will support max 24 PCIe lanes.

They will support maximum JEDEC DRAM speeds of DDR5-6400, with no support for DDR4. Tom’s Hardware says Intel suggests that DDR5-8000 is the sweet spot. All these CPUs support dual-channel memory with a total maximum capacity of 192GB, that is 48GB per DIMM stick. It will also support UDIMM, CUDIMM, SODIMM and CSODIMM RAM types.

The CPU base power for all the CPUs will be 125W.

Arrow Lake’s New Tile Based Architecture

As mentioned previously, Intel Core Ultra 200 Arrow Lake series of CPUs will be the first ever CPU series by Intel with tile based architecture for desktop.

They will have the main compute tile, SoC tile, GPU tile and an IO tile and a dummy filler tile. All put together on a base tile on Intel’s Foveros Advanced 3D packaging technology.

For the first time on desktop, all the tiles are made not by Intel but by TSMC. The compute tile will be made on TSMC’s N3B process node, the GPU tile on N5P node, whereas the SoC and I/O tiles use TSMC’s N6 process node.

The compute tile too sees changes. The E-cores have been moved to quad clusters spread among P-Cores. Intel claims this allows them to reduce hotspots and share the total L3 cache between P-Cores and E-Cores.

Poor Gaming Performance

While Intel claims 9% uplift in P-Core performance, the gaming performance claims are going to raise eyebrows.

Intel claims that the gaming performance of Intel Core Ultra 9 285K is on par with Intel Core i9-14900K. Which is a massive disappointment. As we expect at least 10% increase in gaming performance in CPUs over previous-generations.

That’s not it. Based on the above Intel claims, Intel Core Ultra 9 285K is going to be on par of AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU and might be, in fact, slower than AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU in most of the games. This too is going to be a massive disappointment.

So bad is the gaming performance that the well known leaker kopite7kimi speculates that the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K can be slower than Intel Core i9-12900K CPU in gaming. If true, this can be a massive downgrade.

This can be attributed to the new tile based architecture and added latency caused due to the interconnect between tiles.

Power Usage Improvements

Despite disappointing gaming performance, Intel claims massive power efficiency improvements in the Intel Core Ultra 200 Arrow Lake CPUs.

When compared to Intel Core i9-14900K, Intel Core Ultra 9 285K on average uses almost 75W less power. With up to 165W lesser in one game. This is a massive improvement.

This has allowed Intel to reduce the temps anywhere from 10°C to a massive 17°C depending on the games.

By doing this, Intel has shown that it’s not AMD alone that can reduce the power usage of its CPUs.

Features & Release Date

The Complete Enthusiast Solution: Intel Core Ultra 200S series processors offer excellent performance in AI and content creation, and power an immersive gaming experience, with up to 28% gaming performance uplift compared to competing flagship processors.

New Intel® 800 Series Chipset: Intel Core Ultra 200S series processors’ new Intel 800 Series chipset extends platform compatibility with up to 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes, up to 8 SATA 3.0 ports, and up to 10 USB 3.2 ports, empowering enthusiasts to take advantage of the latest connectivity, storage, and other technologies.

Overclocking Overhauled: Intel Core Ultra 200S series processors bring new overclocking functionality with fine-grain controls, with top turbo frequency in 16.6 MHz steps for P-cores and E-cores. A new memory controller supports fast, new XMP and CUDIMM DDR5 memory up to 48GB per DIMM for up to 192GB in total, and the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility now includes one-click overclocking enhancements.

Leading Connectivity:  Intel Core Ultra 200S processors come equipped with 20 CPU PCIe 5.0 lanes, 4 CPU PCIe 4.0 lanes, support for 2 integrated Thunderbolt™ 4 ports, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Intel® Killer™ Wi-Fi delivers supercharged wireless performance and enables seamless, immersive online gameplay through application priority auto-detection, bandwidth analysis and management, and smart AP selection and switching.

Multi-Engine Security: Intel® Silicon Security Engine helps preserve data confidentiality and code integrity while maintaining high performance for demanding AI workloads.

Intel Core Ultra 200 Arrow Lake CPUs will officially release and become available starting Oct. 24, 2024.

Conclusion

Intel is claiming good improvements in the performance of productivity software. But the gaming performance is expected to be the same or might even see reduction in performance. Possibly due to the new tile based architecture.

What’s impressive is the massive reduction in the power usage. 58% reduction in software and max 158W reduction in gaming.

It must be mentioned that these are Intel’s own claims, it means that when third party reviewers publish their reviews, which is likely around the release dates, that’s when we will actually see how true are Intel’s claims.

We feel that while power efficiency claims could be true, the gaming performance might see some further reduction. But we will come to know only when the public reviews are out everywhere.

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One of the key features of the MI325X system-on-chip (SoC) is its use of 256 GB of HBM3E memory, which is a 1.8x increase in memory capacity over its predecessor, the MI300X. The HBM3E memory has an impressive 6 terabytes per second (TB/s) bandwidth, which is crucial for handling large datasets and complex computations involved in AI tasks.

Nvidia's older H100 processors, which debuted in 2022, used HBM3 instead of the newer HBM3E memory, with a memory bandwidth of 3TB/s. However, the upcoming Blackwell-based processors by Team Green use 288GB of HBM3E memory that has a peak bandwidth of around 13.8 TB/s.

Demand for advanced SoCs has risen over the past few months as tech companies are looking to train newer and advanced AI models. Last week, Nvidia and Foxconn announced that they're building the world's largest facility to manufacture Nvidia's GB200 superchips based on the Blackwell architecture.

Nvidia has even begun shipping samples of these chips to partners and anticipates generating billions in revenue from them by the end of this year. This is also the reason why the company's stocks are shooting upwards, only for it to become the world's second most valuable company, just behind Apple.

AMD is also trying to capture some of this growing market. AMD hasn't announced when these new MI325X processors will be available, but production of these chips is expected to begin by the end of 2024. AMD says that the AI chip market is projected to reach a value of $500 billion by 2028.

Via Bloomberg

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Leading the lineup of five unlocked processors is the Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 285K. These processors boast up to 8 next-generation Performance-cores (P-cores) and up to 16 next-generation Efficient-cores (E-cores), delivering up to 14% better multi-threaded performance compared to the previous generation.

With the integrated Xe GPU, Intel claims up to a 28% improvement in gaming performance compared to competing flagship processors. Intel also highlighted the Core Ultra 200S desktop processors' impressive AI performance, reaching up to 36 platform TOPS.

Another key feature of the new Intel Core Ultra 200S family is a significant reduction in power consumption. Intel reports a power reduction of up to 58% for everyday applications and up to 165W lower system power while gaming.

Other highlights of the Intel Core Ultra 200S series:

• The new Intel 800 Series chipset supports up to 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes, up to 8 SATA 3.0 ports, and up to 10 USB 3.2 ports.
• New overclocking features offer fine-grained control, allowing adjustments to the top turbo frequency in 16.6 MHz steps for both P-cores and E-cores. A new memory controller supports fast, new XMP and CUDIMM DDR5 memory up to 48GB per DIMM (up to 192GB total), and the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility now includes one-click overclocking enhancements.
• The processors come equipped with 20 CPU PCIe 5.0 lanes, 4 CPU PCIe 4.0 lanes, support for 2 integrated Thunderbolt 4 ports, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
• Intel Killer Wi-Fi supports application priority auto-detection, bandwidth analysis and management, and smart AP selection and switching.
• Intel Silicon Security Engine helps preserve data confidentiality and code integrity while maintaining high performance for demanding AI workloads.

Intel Core Ultra 200S series lineup:

Intel Core Ultra 200S desktop processors will be available starting October 24, with retail prices ranging from $294 to $589.

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You usually get the option to skip an ad after a few seconds and continue watching your video. However, some users have accused YouTube of deliberately hiding the ad skip button, forcing them to watch the full ad.

Some users have pointed out that YouTube is obstructing the ad skip button with black rectangles. YouTube has finally responded to the allegations. In a statement released to The Verge, YouTube spokesperson Oluwa Falodun denied the accusations against the company.

Falodun said that the company isn't removing the skip ad button, but changing a few elements of how ads are displayed on the platform. As per Falodun, "YouTube is not hiding the skip button. On skippable ads, the button appears after 5 seconds into playback, as always."

Speaking on the changes that the video streaming platform is considering, Falodun said that YouTube is "reducing elements on the ads player so that viewers can engage more deeply with the ad through a cleaner experience." Adding further, the spokesperson said, "users on both desktop and mobile may also see the countdown timer to skip an ad “appear as a progress bar on the bottom of the screen."

While YouTube is bombarding viewers with ads, even when pausing a video, the company is intensifying its fight against ad-blockers. Although YouTube wants people to see ads, for now, it doesn't appear that the company will remove the skip ad button entirely.

But if you are done with watching ads every few seconds when watching your favorite content on YouTube, you can consider subscribing to YouTube Premium. However, the company recently hiked the prices of the subscription, making it a hurdle for average users who may not want to shell out money just for skipping ads.

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The reason for Nvidia's success is the growing demand for artificial intelligence-related tech. Recently, Nvidia reported a revenue of $30 billion for its second fiscal quarter, which marks a 152% increase compared to the same time last year. As companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and others are continuing to invest in AI technologies, the demand for Nvidia's chips has also skyrocketed. This is also a key reason why Nvidia's stock has soared. Nvidia's stock has risen by about 173% in 2023 alone.

Earlier this year, Nvidia had briefly surpassed Apple to become the second most valuable company in the world, just behind Microsoft at that time, when it crossed the $3 trillion mark for the first time.

The company is also making itself ready for future growth. Nvidia has scheduled a keynote at CES 2025 on January 6, where CEO Jensen Huang is expected to unveil newer desktop graphics cards, the RTX 50 series,based on the Blackwell architecture.

Huang had also recently expressed interest in using nuclear energy to power Nvidia's data centers, as tech companies are seeking renewable energy sources to meet their increasing power demand. Data center electricity consumption is projected to nearly double by 2026.

Nvidia has also partnered up with Foxconn to build the world's largest manufacturing facility for Nvidia's upcoming GB200 chips. The facility will focus on producing the GPUs from Nvidia's Blackwell platform. Nvidia and Foxconn are also working together to create Taiwan's largest supercomputer, called the Hon Hai Kaohsiung Super Computing Center, which will utilize the same Blackwell architecture and is expected to achieve over 90 exaflops of performance.

Via CNBC | Image via DepositPhotos.com

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When compared to the existing RTX 4080, which has GDDR6X memory at 23 Gbps, this would be a significant jump which will in turn increase the total bandwidth from the memory from the maximum of 736 GB/s, up to 1 TB/s in the new RTX 5080, thanks to a 256-bit wide bus interface on the new card.

The full spec sheet for the 50 series of cards has yet to be confirmed, with rumours suggesting that the RTX 5090 will go up to 32 GB of GDDR7 memory (up from 24 GB of GDDR6X memory in the RTX 4090), this doesn't come free however, with power draw increasing to 600w from 450w at the same time.

The new cards are expected to be revealed during the NVIDIA keynote at CES 2025, which will take place on 6th January 2025, at 18:30 PT (01:30 GMT; 21:30 ET). More information can be found about the keynote on the official CES website.

Source: WCCFtech

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While the video game industry keeps waiting for Nintendo to officially announce the Switch 2 console, the company has decided to reveal and launch a new hardware product. However, it's not a console or even a controller; it's an alarm clock.

Today, the company revealed the Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo. However, this is no simple alarm clock. It's meant to be an interactive device with

The clock can wake you up in the morning with sounds from many Nintendo games, such as the coins from Super Mario Odyssey or music from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The alarm clock's screen will also show you animations from those games.

However, Nintendo says this alarm clock can also detect your body movements with a motion sensor while you are in bed and adjust the alarm sounds accordingly. When you actually get up from the bed, the alarm will create a final musical fanfare. If you connect the clock to the internet, it will receive additional alarms based on other Nintendo games in the future, including Animal Crossing and others.

Besides the alarms, the Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo can also create sounds that will help you go to sleep at the end of the day. It can even show your sleep records on its screen. There are also options for the alarm to create chimes each hour, with the screen showing animated Nintendo game characters.

At the moment, the device is available only to paid Switch Online members in the US and Canada. They can buy the Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo for $99.99 in the online Nintendo store. For a limited time, it will also be available at the Nintendo Store in New York City. The clock will become generally available for anyone in early 2025.

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What you need to know

• Rumors indicated NVIDIA and MediaTek are working together to develop a 3nm AI PC CPU, which is slated to enter the tape-out phase of production later this month.
• The processor could potentially compete with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite offering, especially on the graphics front. 
• A separate report shows that the entry could retail at approximately $300 once it ships to broad availability. 

MediaTek and NVIDIA are reportedly working together on developing a cutting-edge 3nm AI PC CPU. According to a report by IT Home, the processor is slated to enter the tape-out phase of production later this month (via Tom's Hardware). It is expected to enter mass production late next year. 

This rumor dates back to last year when a report by DigiTimes suggested that MediaTek had plans to integrate a GPU based on NVIDIA's architecture into its SoCs (system-on-chip) for smartphones and Windows-on-Arm mobile PCs.

While neither has confirmed the looming rumors, the 3nm AI PC CPU opens the door for health competition. It could potentially take on Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon X Elite chips, especially in the graphics department. 

The AI CPU will reportedly be paired with NVIDIA's GPU, potentially attracting Dell, HP, Lenovo, and ASUS as clients. Although details about the AI processor remain slim, the Economic Daily News suggests it could retail at approximately $300.

MediaTek is well-known for its mobile products, which heavily rely on AMD for hardware. As you may know, AMD leverages MediaTek's Wi-Fi 6E solutions across its mobile platforms. Interestingly, long-running rumors indicate a 5G notebook collaboration between the two companies.

This potential opens up an interesting discussion about MediaTek's decision to partner with NVIDIA on the AI PC processor instead of AMD despite their long-term collaboration and partnership. To this end, it's quite possible that the rumored AI PC processor could potentially become a PC solution, fully transitioning from mobile.

Now that Judge Amit Mehta has found Google is a monopolist, lawyers for the Department of Justice have begun proposing solutions to correct the company’s illegal behavior and restore competition to the market for search engines. In a new 32-page filing (included below), they said they are considering both “behavioral and structural remedies.“

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These days, OneDrive lets you have no more than 2 TB of storage per account. If you store a lot of data in OneDrive and you feel like 2 TB is not enough, here is some good news: Microsoft will soon let you have five times more storage space.

During its special OneDrive event on October 8, where the company unveiled the latest additions to OneDrive, Microsoft revealed its plans to expand the maximum storage limit in OneDrive. Later this year, OneDrive users will be able to upgrade their cloud storage to 5 TB or even 10 TB.

Here is what the official announcement post says about the upcoming change:

Need even more storage for your memories? No problem. We will also be releasing new 5 TB and 10 TB storage tiers beyond the current 2 TB limit for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family customers by the end of the year.

For now, not much is known about the future upgrade options in OneDrive. Also, Microsoft does not appear to be willing to upgrade the free tier, which still offers a rather puny 5 GB of free storage. Still, the latest update to OneDrive will put it on par with rivals, such as Google Drive and iCloud Drive. Google's cloud storage lets you have up to 5 TB or 10 TB of storage, while Apple's cloud offering has the maximum plan at 12 TB.

You can learn more about the latest OneDrive feature and capacity updates in a blog post on the official Tech Community forums.

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