Today's Hardware Pulse
Nvidia driver hints at progress on next‑gen DLSS 5
Nvidia’s latest GeForce Game Ready driver (610.47) adds three new DLSS profile options, indicating continued work on DLSS 5 neural‑rendering technology. The earlier DLSS 5 reveal sparked debate over AI‑driven image alteration, and this driver update provides the first concrete sign of advancement.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Cyient Semiconductors raises $30M Series funding
AlixLabs and VDL ETG Projects Announce MoU for Industrialization of APS Patterning
Swedish semiconductor equipment maker AlixLabs AB has signed a memorandum of understanding with VDL ETG Projects to industrialize its Atomic Pitch Splitting (APS) patterning technology. The partnership will move APS from laboratory validation to batch manufacturing and turnkey production lines for chip fabs. APS uses atomic‑layer etching to split pitches, offering a cost‑effective, energy‑efficient alternative to multi‑patterning and EUV lithography. VDL ETG will apply its system‑integration expertise to scale the equipment for high‑volume deployment.
Printed Neurons Communicate with Living Brain Cells
Northwestern engineers have printed artificial neurons on flexible polymer using aerosol‑jet‑deposited MoS₂ and graphene inks. The devices generate complex, neuron‑like electrical spikes that successfully activate living mouse brain cells in tissue‑slice experiments. This low‑cost, biocompatible approach opens a path toward...
PS5 Sales Reached Year Highs as Consumers Raced to Beat Sony’s Price Increases
PlayStation 5 hardware sales in the United States peaked in early April 2026, just before Sony’s announced price hikes. Sony lifted the base PS5 price by $100 and the new PS5 Pro by $150, pushing the Pro’s retail tag to $900. Circana...
Microchip DSC Family Designed for High-Density AI Data Center Power, Intelligent Sensing
Microchip Technology has added the dsPIC33AK256MPS306 to its dsPIC33A digital signal controller family. The new DSC combines a 200 MHz 32‑bit core with a double‑precision FPU, 78 ps PWM, 40 MSPS 12‑bit ADCs, high‑speed comparators and DACs, and hardware security for post‑quantum cryptography....
AliveCor Launches “World First” Kardia 12L ECG in Europe
AliveCor secured CE Mark for its Kardia 12L, the world’s first AI‑powered, portable 12‑lead ECG system, and is launching it across major European markets. The device uses KAI 12L AI to detect 35 cardiac conditions, including acute myocardial infarction, from a single‑cable,...
Honor Launches Yoyo Claw to Position PCs as AI Partners
Honor introduced Yoyo Claw, an on‑device OpenClaw AI agent built into its MagicBook notebook line, after a closed beta that began on March 27. The software ships with five core agents and 23 sub‑agents covering education, work, research, content creation and general...
Silanna UV Adds TO-39 Flat-Window Package to SF1 and SN3 Series of UV-C LEDs
Silanna UV of Brisbane has introduced a TO‑39 flat‑window package for its SF1 (235 nm far‑UVC) and SN3 (255 nm deep‑UVC) LED series. The new low‑profile design lets engineers attach custom secondary optics, improving beam control and reducing system size. Both series...
Sony Expands Gaming Gear Range
Sony announced an expansion of its INZONE gaming line, introducing the ultra‑light INZONE H6 Air headset, new Fnatic‑branded mouse and mousepads, and the Glass Purple edition of INZONE Buds. The H6 Air features an open‑back acoustic design, custom drivers, a...
BE Introduces AMX Transmitter for AM
Broadcast Electronics (BE), now under new ownership, announced the AMX, a next‑generation 5 kW AM transmitter. The five‑rack‑unit chassis boasts ultra‑high efficiency thanks to silicon‑carbide MOSFET amplifiers, a modular design, and a reduced footprint that can be shipped via UPS or...
Lawo and swXtch.io Enter MoU on Multicast IP Networking
Lawo and swXtch.io have signed a memorandum of understanding to embed swXtch.io’s groundSwXtch software‑defined multicast overlay into Lawo’s HOME ecosystem. The integration enables high‑performance multicast IP networking across hybrid cloud and on‑premise environments, delivering greater flexibility, scalability and low‑latency media...
Smart Glasses Expose AI's Limits and Social Challenges
AI is even finding its way into how we see the world. Smart glasses promise constant assistance and context, but they also raise questions about usefulness, social acceptance and how much technology we really want in our daily lives. Not every AI...
Preparing Trust for Hospital Telemedicine Robots Amid Physician Shortages
Imagine being a physician sitting in front of a laptop webcam while roaming around in a hospital as a telemedicine robot. What a cultural shock it would be! But now North Carolina hospitals are deploying the OhmniCare Telehealth Robot to facilitate...
Blog Review: Apr. 15
Semiconductor Engineering’s April 15 blog review aggregates fresh technical commentary from leading EDA, foundry and chip companies. Highlights include Cadence’s eUSB2‑V2 delivering multi‑gigabit USB 2.0, Intel’s ultra‑thin GaN‑on‑silicon chiplet that fuses power and logic, and Siemens’ push for high‑level synthesis in AI‑chip...
Actuators, Not Aesthetics, Will Drive Humanoid Robot Value
Everyone is watching the robots. I think the smarter bet may be hiding inside them. The more I look at humanoid robotics, the more I feel many people are focusing on the shiny part of the story and missing the layer...
Engineer Automates 80% of Work Using $2 USB‑C Chip
🚨 A Google engineer just automated 80% of his job, and he monitors his new AI workforce with a $2 USB-C chip. He copied a Chinese student who wired the thumb-sized chip to Claude Code in 15 minutes. A blue LED simply...
AI Growing Impact On Chip Design And EDA Tools
A panel of senior engineers from Synopsys, Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft and UC Berkeley discussed how AI is reshaping chip design and the tools that support it. They highlighted the surge in data‑center AI workloads that demand ever‑higher performance‑per‑watt, forcing EDA...
The Hidden Menace Behind Big Tech’s AI Arms Race: Meta, Amazon, and Others Are Spending Billions on Hardware That’s Worthless...
The AI arms race has driven hyperscalers to pour $650 billion into data‑center hardware, a level equal to about 2 % of U.S. GDP. Research Affiliates warns that GPUs and specialized chips become economically obsolete in roughly three years, far shorter than...
Dell Pro 24 Plus P2425DE Monitor Review: Compact, Sharp and Well-Connected
Dell’s new Pro 24 Plus P2425DE monitor blends a compact 23.8‑in QHD IPS panel with a sleek matte‑silver chassis, making it ideal for tight workspaces. It offers a 100 Hz refresh rate, 5 ms response time, and bright, color‑accurate output that rivals...
Xiaomi Unveils 4K Dual Hz Monitor with QD Mini LED Technology
Xiaomi introduced a 31.5‑inch 4K monitor that can toggle between 160 Hz at native 4K and 320 Hz in Full HD mode, delivering both high‑detail and high‑speed performance. The display uses a quantum‑dot Mini‑LED backlight with 1,152 dimming zones, achieving 1,600 cd/m² peak brightness...
Samsung Debuts T7 and T9 microSD Cards, Simplifies Storage Branding
Samsung is revamping its removable storage lineup by retiring the EVO Plus, PRO Plus and PRO Ultimate names and launching two new families: the T‑series and the upcoming P‑series. The T7 microSD card, aimed at mainstream users, offers capacities from 128 GB to 1 TB...
EPOMAKER LUMA100 Low Profile Aluminum Keyboard Launches with Tri Mode
EPOMAKER has launched its LUMA100 low‑profile mechanical keyboard in China, extending the product that was previously sold internationally. The 96% compact keyboard features an aluminum chassis, gasket‑mount construction and acoustic dampening, and is priced at about $91. It offers tri‑mode...
Mova Unveils All-in-One Plug-In Solar and Storage Solutions
Chinese appliance maker Mova has entered the residential solar‑plus‑storage market with its LumeGret A2000 and A4000 all‑in‑one units. The A4000 provides a 4 kWh LFP battery, expandable to 20 kWh, and a 2.5 kW inverter, while the A2000 starts at 1.92 kWh and adds...
Thermalright Trofeo Vision 9.16 LCD Adds Magnetic PC Status Display
Thermalright has launched the Trofeo Vision 9.16 LCD, a 9.16‑inch IPS panel with a 1920 × 480 resolution and 60 Hz refresh rate for PC case monitoring. The unit features a magnetic mounting system that attaches directly to metal surfaces, eliminating the need for screws...
Technetix Revenues Surge on North American Network Upgrades
Technetix announced a 54% year‑on‑year revenue surge to $112.4 million in 2025, propelled by massive network upgrades across the Americas. U.S. and Canadian Tier‑1 operators adopted its 1.8 GHz technology, lifting regional revenue 156% to $68.9 million. Gross profit rose 49% to $30.6 million...
YMTC Expands Memory Production with New Fabs and DRAM Plans
Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) is adding two new fabs to double its output from roughly 200,000 to 400,000 wafers per month. The third plant in Wuhan will start later this year and ramp to about 50,000 wafers monthly by 2027....
NVIDIA Warranty Costs Spiked in 2025 as GPU Claims Rose
NVIDIA's warranty expenses surged dramatically in 2025, climbing to $894 million from $81 million a year earlier. The claim rate rose from 0.17% in Q1 to 0.9% by Q4, prompting a jump in warranty reserves to $2.59 billion. AMD also saw higher warranty...
Hexagon Upgrades PULSE, Advancing Real-Time Environmental Monitoring
Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division launched an upgraded version of its PULSE real‑time environmental monitoring system for coordinate measuring machines (CMMs). The new hardware and platform extend sensing beyond the machine to track temperature, humidity, vibration, shock and probe deflection, giving...
Nokia, Blaize Target AI Inference Gap in APAC
Nokia and AI‑chip designer Blaise are expanding their earlier MoU into a joint effort to build a reference architecture that streamlines hybrid AI inference across edge, cloud and data‑center environments in the Asia‑Pacific region. The collaboration will use Nokia’s Innovation...
Why “Fast WiFi” Isn’t Enough – The Real Challenge in Industrial Networks
A recent client upgrade to Wi‑Fi 6 revealed that speed alone does not solve connectivity drops in mobile industrial environments. The core issue is maintaining seamless connections during rapid handovers as autonomous vehicles, robots, and handhelds move across coverage zones. WallysTech’s...
AI-Driven Chip Shortage Slowing Efforts to Get World Online: GSMA
GSMA warns that the AI‑driven memory chip shortage is inflating smartphone prices and curbing production of low‑end devices, slowing efforts to connect the 2.2 billion unconnected people worldwide. Chipmakers are prioritising high‑bandwidth chips for AI data centres, leaving fewer affordable chips...
From ‘Refrigerators in the Desert’ to Resilient, Thermally Passive BESS Assets
Battery energy storage systems today rely on lithium‑ion cells that need active thermal management, adding capital, complexity, and up to 15 MWh of auxiliary electricity per MWh of storage each year. Emerging chemistries such as sodium‑ion, solid‑state lithium, and zinc‑ion can...
FARO CREAFORM Cuts Laser Line Probe Time to Data on Challenging Surfaces
FARO CREAFORM has released a software update for its Laser Line Probe (LLP) portfolio used with the Quantum X and Quantum Max FaroArm series. The new DTEX‑based image‑processing algorithms improve scan consistency and slash time‑to‑data by up to 60 % on dark, reflective...
NVIDIA’s Next Flagship Project? A Leak Suggests the RTX TITAN Blackwell or RTX 5090 Ti Could Launch in the Third...
A leak reported by Overclocking.com and echoed by several outlets suggests NVIDIA is developing a new high‑end Blackwell GPU, tentatively called the GeForce RTX 5090 Ti or RTX Titan Blackwell, slated for a Q3 2026 launch. The rumored card would sit above the current...
AMD Makes a Big Splash with the MI355X in MLPerf Inference 6.0: Over One Million Tokens per Second in Multi-Node...
AMD announced that its Instinct MI355X GPU achieved over one million tokens per second in multi‑node inference, topping the new MLPerf Inference 6.0 suite. The benchmark showed 1,042,110 tokens/s on Llama 2 70B and 1,031,070 tokens/s on GPT‑OSS‑120B across 11‑12 nodes, with 92‑93% scaling efficiency. MLPerf 6.0 introduces...
Intel Officially Lists the Core Ultra X9 378H in ARK: Panther Lake Gets Another X9 SKU
Intel has officially added the Core Ultra X9 378H to its ARK database, confirming a new Panther Lake mobile SKU. The processor packs 16 cores—four performance, eight efficient, and four low‑power cores—alongside an 18 MB cache, up to 5.0 GHz turbo, and a 25 W base...
AMD Expands Ryzen AI Embedded P100: More Zen 5 Cores, Up to 80 TOPS, and ROCm for Edge AI
AMD announced an expanded Ryzen AI Embedded P100 line featuring eight to twelve Zen 5 cores, RDNA 3.5 graphics, an XDNA 2 NPU and up to 80 system TOPS. The new chips claim up to 39% higher multithreaded performance and up to 2.1‑times the TOPS...
Optimize Pulse Mode RF Performance with New MEAN WELL Power Solutions
MEAN WELL introduced the NCP-3200-CDI, a 3.2 kW, 48 V AC/DC power supply engineered for pulse‑mode RF and radar systems. The unit features active droop compensation and high‑speed bulk‑capacitor support, delivering up to 110 A peak current with controlled recharge. Designed to eliminate...
Spectrum Analyzer Fundamentals – Theory and Operation of Modern Spectrum Analyzers Primer
Rohde & Schwarz USA released a technical primer on April 15, 2026 that explains the theory and operation of modern spectrum analyzers. The white paper details the architecture of state‑of‑the‑art analyzers, including superheterodyne and FFT‑based designs, and outlines key performance...
Using Multiple 1-Port VNAs for Ultra-Fast Parallel Reflection Measurements
Copper Mountain Technologies proposes a parallel measurement scheme that links multiple 1‑port vector network analyzers (VNAs) to capture reflection data simultaneously. Traditional multi‑port VNAs acquire full S‑parameters sequentially, which is unnecessary for many test scenarios that only need S11. By...
Precision Additive Manufacturing for RF and Millimeter-Wave Applications
Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF) has released a white paper showing how micro‑precision additive manufacturing is reshaping RF and millimeter‑wave component production. The process enables monolithic structures that operate up to 270 GHz, delivering lighter weight, higher design complexity and superior performance...
USB Powered, Two-Port VNA: A Powerful and Portable Test Tool
A new USB‑powered, two‑port vector network analyzer (VNA) brings laboratory‑grade performance to a truly portable device. Leveraging the latest integrated circuits and circuit designs, the instrument delivers full S‑parameter measurements across a broad GHz frequency range without requiring an external...
Lexicon of Balun & Transformer Configurations
Mini‑Circuits has released a new white paper titled “Lexicon of Balun & Transformer Configurations,” aimed at RF engineers and system designers. The document, distributed through Microwave Journal, catalogues the most common balun and transformer topologies, explains their functional roles, and...
Mixer Technology For Advanced Communications, Part 1: Mixer Basics
Cadence Design Systems released a white‑paper titled “Mixer Technology For Advanced Communications, Part 1: Mixer Basics,” highlighting the growing importance of mixers as 5G matures and 6G looms. The ebook examines how mixer performance influences RF front‑end behavior, covering frequency translation,...
Netgear M7 eSIM Routes Traffic Through Israeli Provider
I finally had a chance to look at why I keep getting directed to a UK address on Netgear M7. I wanted to use my physical Verizon sim but even though Netgear is advertising it would be ready by the...
AI5 Begins Mass Production as Top AI Chip
AI5 will be one of the most produced AI chips ever. e v e r Now entering production.
Rural Texas Hosts Data Centers Despite Infrastructure Gaps
“Data centers are being built in rural areas without much infrastructure, like Texas in the United States.” Ouch, German dude.
Tesla AI Team Tapes Out AI5, Eyes AI6 and Dojo3
Congrats to the @Tesla_AI chip design team on taping out AI5! AI6, Dojo3 & other exciting chips in work. https://t.co/hm54TdIzBx
Apple Beats Delivery Promise, Arrives in One Week
Very positive experience with Apple. Ordered a new MacBook. Said it would take 4 weeks. Arrived within 7 days.
Exxon Holds Near‑Monopoly on Ultra‑Pure Helium for Chipmakers
Chip Makers Need Ultra-Pure Helium and Exxon Is Nearly the Sole Source of Six Nines Purity https://t.co/zcuJfHv9fX
2026 Marks Quantum’s Shift From Hype to Reality
Every year we celebrate World Quantum Day. Most orgs treat it as a science story. It isn't. Not anymore. My take on why 2026 is the year quantum stops being a "watch this space" conversation 👇 https://t.co/KvatQOAzmh #WorldQuantumDay #QuantumComputing