Today's Hardware Pulse

Nvidia driver adds DLSS 5 profile options, hinting at next‑gen AI rendering
Nvidia's GeForce Game Ready driver 610.47 introduces three new profile settings—Enable DLSS NR override, Enable DLSS NR SL override, and Override DLSS NR presets—suggesting continued development of its upcoming DLSS 5 neural‑rendering technology. The earlier DLSS 5 reveal sparked debate over AI‑driven image alteration, after which Nvidia fell silent on the feature.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Cyient Semiconductors raises $30M Series A

Identiv Broadens ID-Safe NFC Tags with Tamper Evidence and Encrypted Authentication for Connected Packaging
Identiv has expanded its ID‑Safe line of high‑frequency NFC tags to include tamper‑evident labels and tamper‑proof tags with destructible antennas. Select configurations also feature encrypted authentication, enabling secure product verification and lifecycle traceability via standard smartphones or readers. The new tags target sectors such as pharmaceuticals, luxury wine, food‑beverage, and electronics, where proving authenticity and unopened condition is critical. Early deployments include a smart‑packaging solution for premium wine producers.
The Best Robot Vacuums for Pet Hair for 2026: Expert and Lab Tested
ZDNET’s latest roundup identifies the Mova P50 Pro Ultra as the top robot vacuum for pet hair, thanks to its 19,000 Pa suction, anti‑tangle brush and hands‑free self‑emptying system. The guide also highlights the budget‑friendly 3i G10+, the bag‑less Eureka E20...
ASUS Introduces ProArt PA32USD 4K 240Hz QD-OLED Professional Monitor
ASUS unveiled the ProArt PA32USD, a 31.5‑inch QD‑OLED monitor that blends 4K resolution with a 240 Hz refresh rate for professional creators. The panel delivers VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification, up to 1,000 nits peak brightness, 10‑bit color depth, full sRGB coverage...
How RFID and AI Are Improving Delivery Reliability Across Logistics
Zebra Technologies highlights how logistics firms are layering RFID onto barcode systems and deploying on‑device AI to improve package visibility and proof of delivery. RFID tags broadcast location data, creating billions of real‑time points that cut manual scanning and boost...

Dronamics Enters Japan and Welcomes Asia Air Survey as Strategic Investor
Dronamics announced a strategic partnership with Japan’s Asia Air Survey, which is investing through its corporate venture arm and becoming the first Japanese shareholder. The deal includes the creation of Dronamics Japan Holdings to commercialize the Black Swan drone in Japan and...

Photocentric Expands Jeni System to Enable High-Volume Resin 3D Printing at Industrial Scale
Photocentric has launched the Super Jeni, a modular resin 3D‑printing system that integrates 124 printers across seven automated modules for washing, rinsing and curing. The expanded platform can output over 1.2 million small parts every eight hours, equating to roughly 3.6 million...
Enphase Scales Commercial Solar with GaN Microinverters
Enphase Energy announced expanded shipments of its commercial microinverter line, highlighted by the IQ9N-3P—the company’s first gallium‑nitride (GaN) device. The inverter delivers a CEC‑weighted efficiency of 97.5%, supports up to 600 W modules, and connects directly to three‑phase 480Y/277 V grids without...

Everything a Great All-Terrain E-Bike Should Have
The Aventon Aventure 3 is a fat‑tire e‑bike built for true off‑road adventures, featuring 80 mm front fork and seatpost suspension, 4‑inch wide tires, and a 750 W hub‑drive motor that can travel up to 65 miles on a single charge. Its geometry...
Iranian Missile Strikes Threaten Israel's Bromine Output, Endangering Global Memory‑Chip Supply
Iranian missiles targeting Israel's Negev desert have put the island nation's bromine production at risk, jeopardizing the 97.5% of South Korea's bromine imports that come from Israel. The lack of alternative conversion capacity means a short‑term disruption could cascade into...

Google Plans Nearly Two Million New AI Chips as It Turns to Marvell for Custom Designs
Google is negotiating with Marvell Technology to design two custom chips for its data centers: a memory processing unit (MPU) that will work alongside its in‑house TPUs and a new inference‑optimized TPU. The company plans to produce nearly two million MPUs,...

Snap Bets Big on Smart Glasses as the Next Computing Platform
Snap Inc. showcased an early prototype of its forthcoming augmented‑reality glasses, dubbed Specs, in a private demo with CEO Evan Spiegel. The lightweight frames are designed to turn everyday vision into a shared, AI‑driven computing experience, blending social fun with...
Terafab’s Tricky Targets
TSMC chief C.C. Wei cautioned investors that the Elon‑Intel‑Terafab venture faces realistic construction and ramp‑up timelines, pushing volume production to the end of the decade at a 2 nm node. Even then, the fab would lag TSMC’s own roadmap, which targets...

Enabling High Speed Swept-Source OCT with Advanced Data Acquisition
Swept‑source optical coherence tomography (SS‑OCT) is reshaping medical imaging with faster scan rates, deeper tissue penetration, and superior phase stability. The performance of SS‑OCT hinges on the digitizer, which must capture GHz‑level interferometric fringes with multi‑GS/s sampling, wide bandwidth, and...

TSMC Controls AI Chip Supply; Packaging Limits Scale
AI Infrastructure Stack (and who’s actually capturing value) Let’s break down the stack 👇 Semiconductor Foundation (Foundries & Equipment) $TSM TSMC Fabricates nearly all advanced AI accelerators globally. 3nm capacity is heavily reserved for AI workloads, while 2nm ramps require new GAA...

Analog Bits Demos Real-Time On-Chip Power Sensing and Delivery on N2P at the TSMC 2026 Technology Symposium
Analog Bits demonstrated a suite of real‑time on‑chip power‑sensing and delivery IP at the TSMC 2026 Technology Symposium, running on the company’s N2P test chip. The portfolio includes an on‑die LDO with 30% area reduction, droop detector, glitch catcher, ultra‑low‑power...
Iren's AI Cloud Pivot Secures 1.6 GW Land, Targets $3.4B ARR
Iren Limited announced the acquisition of an additional 1.6 GW of grid‑connected land in Oklahoma, expanding its AI‑focused data‑center footprint to 4.5 GW. The company now projects $3.4 billion in annual recurring revenue from just 460 MW of capacity, underscoring the rapid monetization of...
Honor’s Lightning Crushes Human Record at Beijing Half-Marathon, Finishing in 50:26
Chinese smartphone maker Honor’s humanoid robot Lightning won the Beijing half‑marathon in 50 minutes 26 seconds, eclipsing the human world record of 57:20. More than 100 robots raced alongside 12,000 human runners, with nearly half operating autonomously, highlighting a leap...

Upgraded Impinj Reader Delivers Enterprise-Grade Edge Intelligence
Impinj has launched an upgraded R700 RFID reader that doubles processor performance and triples embedded memory, delivering enterprise‑grade edge intelligence. The new hardware adds Gen2X features such as Tag Selection and Tag Read Range, which improve tag filtering, increase read...

This Pasta Sauce Wants to Record Your Family
Prego is releasing the Connection Keeper, an offline voice‑recorder shaped like a pasta‑jar lid, aimed at capturing family conversations at the dinner table. The device records up to eight hours of CD‑quality audio onto a 16 GB microSD card and transfers...

Prego Has a Dinner-Conversation-Recording Device, Capisce?
Prego has teamed with nonprofit StoryCorps to launch the Connection Keeper, a round puck that records family dinner conversations onto a 16 GB microSD card. The device, which has no Wi‑Fi or AI features, is limited to fewer than 100 units...
TechCreate Group Ltd. And pQCee Intend to Collaborate on One of the First Quantum-Safe QR Hybrid POS Terminal
TechCreate Group Ltd. announced a partnership with quantum‑security firm pQCee to embed NIST‑approved post‑quantum cryptography into its QR‑Hybrid point‑of‑sale terminals. The collaboration will replace vulnerable RSA and ECC algorithms with quantum‑safe encryption, aiming to thwart harvest‑now‑decrypt‑later attacks. Both companies plan...

Hardware Wallet Tangem Announces Global Rollout of Its Retail Payments Service
Switzerland‑based hardware wallet maker Tangem has launched Tangem Pay, a retail payments service that lets users spend USDC via virtual Visa cards on Apple Pay and Google Pay. The product, now available in the United States (excluding some states), Latin America and...
Why AI Is Redefining the Future of Commercial Power Infrastructure
AI-driven workloads are reshaping commercial power infrastructure, creating rapid, high‑density load fluctuations. Traditional designs built for steady loads now face transformer overloads, switchgear wear, and heat‑related failures. Companies are adopting modular, real‑time monitored, and battery‑integrated systems to add capacity flexibly...
Accelerating Industrial Robotics with NVIDIA Jetson, EverFocus, and EyePick
Industrial robotics face a deployment gap, not an AI shortage, as most pilot projects stall before production. NVIDIA’s Jetson hardware, combined with EverFocus’s rugged EAC‑30N edge computer and EyePick’s Maestro OS, delivers a low‑latency, plug‑and‑play architecture that bridges vision models...

DJI’s Osmo Pocket 4 Raises the Bar on Specs While Lowering the Cost
DJI launched the Osmo Pocket 4 on April 16, upgrading to a one‑inch CMOS sensor, 14‑stop dynamic range and ten‑bit D‑Log color while adding 4K 240 fps slow‑motion. The pocket‑sized gimbal now ships with 107 GB of internal storage and 800 MB/s export speeds, and...
Why XPO Resonated at OFC 2026
At OFC 2026, eXtra‑dense pluggable optics (XPO) emerged as a leading solution for AI‑driven data centers, promising up to 200 Tbps per rack unit with integrated liquid cooling. Unlike co‑packaged or on‑board optics, XPO retains pluggable serviceability while delivering four‑fold front‑panel density...
Researchers Are Using Ultrasound to Trigger Smell Directly in the Brain for VR
A team of researchers has built a prototype that uses focused low‑frequency ultrasound to stimulate the brain's olfactory bulb, creating the perception of smell without any airborne chemicals. By positioning a transducer on the forehead and targeting the bulb with...

The Future of Work: Here Come the AI-Enabled Devices
The article outlines a surge of AI‑enabled devices reshaping the modern workplace, from smart conference‑room gear like Cisco's Room Kit Pro G2 to AI‑powered cameras such as Logitech's Rally AI Camera. It highlights Lenovo's AI‑focused laptops, workstations, and edge servers...

AI Shifts From Coding to Autonomous Hardware Design
Last year: AI started writing code. This year: AI is starting to design hardware. And not just visually correct designs functionally correct systems with motion and constraints. We’re watching CAD evolve into an autonomous layer. The engineers who thrive will: Think in systems Define...
The VMware Deadline that Could Reshape Your IT Strategy
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware culminates in a mandatory upgrade: all VMware customers must transition to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9 by October 2027. The compressed timeline forces organizations to evaluate hardware, licensing and operational changes while juggling hybrid‑cloud, container and...

Guest Article: Physical AI Isn’t Replacing Farmers. It’s Critical for Keeping Them in Business
Physical AI is emerging as a lifeline for U.S. family farms, offering autonomous capabilities that augment—not replace—human workers. By retrofitting proven tractors like the Kubota M5 with Agtonomy’s AI stack, growers can oversee multiple machines, cut labor costs, and attract...
Raytheon Repackage Next Gen Jammer for Land and Sea
Raytheon’s RTX division will repurpose its Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) pods, currently deployed on EA‑18G Growler aircraft, into a ground‑ and sea‑based Raytheon Surface Electronic Attack System (RSEAS). The portable 6 × 6‑ft unit, mounted on a cart and controlled from a...

Bambu Lab Launches X2D Dual-Extrusion 3D Printer
Bambu Lab unveiled the X2D, a dual‑extrusion desktop 3D printer starting at $649. The machine features an enclosed, temperature‑controlled chamber, 31 sensors, and a three‑stage HEPA filtration system to ensure consistent print quality. Automatic calibration runs before each job, while...
Fitbit Premium May Become Google Health with New Tracker
Fitbit Premium is rumored to be rebranding as 'Google Health' alongside the latest Fitbit tracker release https://t.co/JhgnCGV7OY
The First CD Recorder Was Shockingly Expensive – Guess How Much
In 1991 Denon unveiled the DN‑770R, the first commercial audio CD recorder, priced at $20,000 and targeting radio stations and production houses. Fully operational systems required an additional $100,000 of digital processors and mastering gear, while blank CD‑Rs cost $35‑$40...

Connected Lone Worker Safety Users Reach 2.5M Across Europe, North America and ANZ in 2025
Analyst Berg Insight reports that 2.5 million workers in Europe, North America and Australia‑New Zealand were using connected lone‑worker safety solutions by the end of 2025. The market was valued at roughly $186 million in Europe, $104 million in North America and $46 million in...

Intel's New Gaming CPU Specs Have Leaked Again, and It's Set to Be the King of Cache
A new leak reveals Intel's upcoming Nova Lake‑S architecture, slated for a late‑year launch and positioned as the Core Ultra 400 series. The flagship model is rumored to pack 16 performance cores, 32 efficiency cores, four low‑power E‑Cores, and a massive...

Jinko Launches Lightweight TOPCon Solar Module
JinkoSolar has introduced the Light Diamond module, a lightweight TOPCon solar panel that weighs just 7 kg per square metre—about 40% less than conventional double‑glass modules. The 560 W panel delivers a record 24.94% conversion efficiency, allowing a 1 MW system to be...

VSUN Solar Modules Detained Under UFLPA, Could Knock US$30 Million Off Company Earnings
U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained solar modules from Vietnam‑based VSUN under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, prompting its Japanese parent Abalance to forecast a hit of roughly $18‑31 million to annual earnings. The company is contesting the detention, asserting...

Agibot Introduces Five Robotic Platforms and Eight AI Models
AGIBOT unveiled five new robotic platforms and eight AI models at its 2026 Partner Conference, built on its “One Robotic Body, Three Intelligences” architecture. The lineup includes the A3 humanoid, G2 Air mobile manipulator, OmniHand 3 Ultra‑T dexterous hand, D2...

SEMI Forum Targets Europe’s Semiconductor Strategy
The SEMI Europe Policy Forum will convene in Brussels on June 3, 2026 to discuss Europe’s semiconductor strategy, with a focus on a proposed “Chips Act 2.0” that would close gaps in the current EU Chips Act. Policymakers, industry executives and technology...
Intel’s $137 B Market‑Cap Surge Fuels Technical Debate on Next Move
Intel’s stock has surged 66% since March 30, adding roughly $137 B to its market capitalization. The rally is anchored by a multiyear AI CPU partnership with Google Cloud and a stake in Elon Musk’s Terafab semiconductor fab, prompting momentum traders to...
Kentucky Farmers Lead Nationwide Resistance to AI Data Center Plans
Residents of Mason County, Kentucky, and climate‑justice groups in Memphis, Wisconsin and Arizona are mobilizing to stop a proposed 2,000‑acre hyperscale AI data center that would house more than 5,000 servers. The project, estimated to triple local electricity demand and...
SK Hynix Begins Mass Production of 192GB SOCAMM2 AI Server Memory for Nvidia Vera Rubin
SK hynix announced on April 20 that it has entered mass production of the 192GB SOCAMM2 memory module, built on a 10‑nm LPDDR5X process and tuned for Nvidia's upcoming Vera Rubin AI platform. The new module delivers more than twice...
Hitachi Energy to Supply Automation Solutions for RWE Wind Project
Hitachi Energy has secured a contract to supply its MicroSCADA automation system for RWE’s 900 MW Nordseecluster B offshore wind project in Germany. The solution will connect 60 turbines directly to the offshore converter station, enabling power transmission to shore when the...
Analysts Question Nvidia's Resilience as Growth Stocks Face Turbulence
Wall Street analysts are probing Nvidia's durability after the chipmaker's shares slipped 1.67% amid broader turbulence in growth stocks. Concerns center on a potential slowdown in AI spending, geopolitical uncertainty, and the company's heavy reliance on data‑center revenue.

Chip Makers and Defence Contractors Power Profit Upgrade for London Tech Stock Renishaw
Renishaw, the UK‑based precision‑technology group, upgraded its profit guidance, sending its FTSE 250 shares above 7% to a multi‑month high. The company now expects revenue of £775‑£805 million (about $985‑$1.02 bn) and profit of £145‑£165 million ($184‑$210 million), up from its February outlook. Growth is...
Earbuds Equipped with Miniature Camera Capture Wearer’s View
Researchers have squirrelled a tiny camera module into earbuds that allows your listening gear to see what you see — but don't get excited about AirPods with cameras just yet. https://t.co/cA383TEGGh

There's a Hefty Amazon Resale Discount Going on AMD's Excellent Ryzen 5 9600X
AMD’s Ryzen 5 9600X, the most affordable entry in the 9000 series, has plunged to roughly $164 on Amazon’s Resale platform, down from its typical $200‑$225 range. The chip delivers an 11% FPS boost in Flight Simulator 2020 and a near‑seven‑percent edge in...
Casely Expands Recall to 429,000 Power Banks After Fatal Fire and Plane Incident
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Casely have broadened a recall to about 429,000 MagSafe‑compatible power banks following a fatal fire and a separate onboard airplane fire. The move spotlights safety risks in online retail and could reshape liability...