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

Earth Month Giveback: BLUETTI and Leave No Trace First Bio-Based Power Station Initiative
Clean‑energy company BLUETTI has renewed its partnership with the nonprofit Leave No Trace, launching the Bio‑Based Elite 100 V2 Giveback initiative. The program pledges a $1 donation for every Bio‑Based Elite 100 V2 power station sold through September 30, 2026, supporting outdoor‑ethics education nationwide. The new power station, built from recycled waste and agricultural by‑products, cuts production carbon emissions by 25% and is the industry’s first bio‑circular design. The collaboration builds on a year that funded 174 educational programs in 26 states and leveraged BLUETTI’s Elite 300 solar generator for emission‑free field operations.
Intel to Repurchase Apollo’s 49% Stake in Fab 34 for $14.2 Billion
Intel announced it will repurchase Apollo Global Management’s 49% stake in its Leixlip, Ireland Fab 34 for $14.2 billion, using existing cash and about $6.5 billion of new debt. The move restores full control of a key EUV‑enabled facility and lifted Intel shares...
Pixel 11 Pro XL Leak Is the Most Boring One yet, Very Little Changes [Gallery]
A new CAD leak of Google’s Pixel 11 Pro XL shows the device essentially unchanged from the Pixel 10 Pro XL, matching its 162.7 × 76.5 × 8.5 mm dimensions. The phone retains a 6.8‑inch LTPO AMOLED display and is expected to ship Google’s Tensor G6 processor, Titan M3 security chip, and a...
(PR) Solidigm Expands Sacramento Development, Fueling Global AI Leadership
Solidigm announced it has exceeded its original $100 million investment target in Greater Sacramento, now committing roughly $175 million to its Rancho Cordova headquarters and R&D campus. The company poured $75 million into a new NAND lab, added close to 100 NAND development tools,...

Leverage Profinet’s Security Building Blocks to Navigate EU Regulations
The EU’s new Cyber Resilience Act, NIS2 Directive, and the 2027‑effective Machinery Regulation are forcing industrial automation players to embed cybersecurity into products and processes. Profinet’s security architecture—secure cell, secure access, and secure realtime—maps directly to these regulatory requirements. While...

Isolated Current Probe Tip Takes on Temperature Extremes in EVs
Tektronix unveiled a new isolated current probe tip for its IsoVu TICP series, capable of accurate current measurement from –40 °C to 125 °C. The tip maintains up to 700 MHz bandwidth and handles currents from microamps to kiloamps, using a shunt and...

China's Homegrown Silicon Suppliers Gain Traction as Nvidia Struggles to Get Its Chips Into the Market — Huawei, Cambricon and...
Chinese AI and graphics chip makers have surged in 2025, capturing 41% of the domestic AI server market and cutting Nvidia's share to 55% from a claimed 95% peak. Huawei alone shipped over 812,000 AI chips, accounting for roughly half...

Former Exodus Data Center in Sydney, Australia, to Be Replaced with 70MW Facility
Digital Realty announced plans to demolish its legacy Exodus data center in Sydney and build a new 70 MW, 23,375 sqm multi‑story facility at 23‑25 Waterloo Road. The project, slated for a 1.2‑hectare site in Macquarie Park/North Ryde, could cost up to AU$700 million (about...
Bourns Adds AEC-Q Option to SSA-2 Current Sensors
Bourns announced an AEC‑Q‑compliant assembly option for its SSA‑2 analog current sensors, giving automotive, industrial and energy designers a qualified part without restarting the qualification process. The SSA‑2 series delivers precise current measurement, ultra‑low insertion loss and electrically isolated outputs...

Think Big: New 75-Inch Color ePaper for Digital Out of Home
E Ink has launched a family of 75‑inch color ePaper displays aimed at the digital‑out‑of‑home (DOOH) market. The rollout includes three distinct technology platforms, each offering the hallmark ePaper benefits of ultra‑low power consumption and high sunlight readability. These large‑format...

Knocking on Quantum’s Door: QuiX Claims Photonic Error Reduction Breakthrough
QuiX Quantum announced the first below‑threshold error mitigation on a photonic quantum computer, using a 20‑mode processor and a photon‑distillation gate. The technique achieved a 2.2× reduction in photon‑indistinguishability error and a net 1.2× overall system‑error decrease. Collaborators include NASA’s...
GPU Power Draw Beats Scheduling as Utilization Metric
Without getting all the way down to performance counters, GPU power from nvidia-smi is a better indicator of true utilization than job scheduling or “gpu busy”. I would love to see animated “heat maps” of the big data centers, with...

RS and HMS Networks Enable Smart Oil and Gas Operations
RS has partnered with HMS Networks to offer Red Lion industrial networking solutions tailored for oil and gas operations across the value chain. The portfolio includes FlexEdge IIoT gateways, N‑Tron Ethernet switches, and Graphite HMIs, all engineered for extreme temperatures,...

Why I Stopped Using RAID on My Plex Media Server
The author abandoned traditional RAID on his Plex media server in favor of Unraid’s parity‑based architecture. RAID’s requirement for identical drive sizes and dependence on a single OS/controller limited usable capacity and introduced single points of failure. Unraid allows mixed‑size...

650-V Bidirectional GaN Could Rewrite the Power-Conversion Playbook
Renesas introduced the TP65B110HRU, a 650‑V bidirectional GaN switch, at APEC 2026. The device merges a d‑mode GaN chip with silicon MOSFETs, offering 110 mΩ on‑resistance, a 3‑V gate threshold, and ±20‑V gate margin. Its true bidirectional operation enables single‑stage 500‑W solar...
Watering Smarter, Not More: A Modern-Day Robotic Divining Rod
University of California‑Riverside researchers have created a robotic system that maps soil moisture at the individual tree level in citrus orchards. By measuring electrical conductivity and integrating data from existing moisture sensors, the robot generates detailed moisture maps that guide...

Best VR Headset 2026
The guide ranks Meta Quest 3 as the best overall VR headset for 2026, emphasizing its solid image quality, wireless standalone design, and reasonable price. Pico 4 is highlighted as the top non‑Meta alternative, offering a higher‑resolution LCD screen but limited to...

Morgan Stanley Defends Memory Stocks Including Sandisk Corporation (SNDK)
Morgan Stanley issued a research note on March 26 defending memory stocks, spotlighting Sandisk Corp (NASDAQ:SNDK). The firm raised Sandisk's price target from $483 to $690 and kept a Buy rating, despite a 20.2% share decline since March 19. Analysts...

Nexperia's China Unit Nears Fully Local Production of Chips: Company Sources
Nexperia’s China unit is on the cusp of achieving fully localized semiconductor manufacturing, according to internal sources. The move will enable the Dutch‑headquartered, Chinese‑owned chipmaker to produce a broader portfolio of chips within mainland China. Local production is expected to...

ZEISS Introduces Crossbeam 750 FIB-SEM for Sample Prep
ZEISS has launched the Crossbeam 750, a focused ion beam‑scanning electron microscope designed for high‑precision sample preparation. The system features live, high‑resolution “see while you mill” imaging that works at any milling condition, delivering real‑time feedback and eliminating interruptions. Its...

PSP 2 Could Beat the Steam Deck 2 to Market, and May Be More Powerful than an Xbox Series S
Leaks indicate Sony’s upcoming handheld companion to the PlayStation 6, dubbed the PSP 2, will be powered by a six‑core AMD Zen 6 APU and an RDNA 5 GPU with 16 Compute Units. The device is rumored to feature 24 GB of LPDDR5X memory and...

Memory Chip Survives Lava‑Hot Temperatures, Defying Thermal Limits
New memory chip survives temperatures hotter than lava 🌋 😳 💬 The electronics inside your phone, your car, and every satellite currently orbiting Earth share one critical weakness: heat. Push them past about 200 degrees Celsius and they start to fail....
The Macro Implications of Chipflation
AI‑driven data‑center expansion and heightened defense spending have pushed semiconductor prices sharply higher, with DRAM costs rising roughly 17‑fold over the past year. This demand surge is concentrated in developed Asian economies—Japan, South Korea and Taiwan—where advanced chip production fuels a...

Wi-Fi That Can Withstand a Nuclear Reactor
Researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo have demonstrated a 2.4 GHz Wi‑Fi receiver that survives up to 500 kilograys of gamma radiation, a level far beyond what space‑qualified electronics can tolerate. The hardened chip, presented at ISSCC, kept functional performance with...
(PR) IBM Announces Strategic Collaboration with Arm
IBM announced a strategic collaboration with Arm to create dual‑architecture hardware aimed at enterprise AI and data‑intensive workloads. The partnership leverages IBM’s end‑to‑end system design expertise and Arm’s low‑power, scalable IP. IBM will integrate its Telum II processor and Spyre accelerator...

Creality’s Compact Filament Cutter Patent Targets Smaller Toolheads
Creality has filed a patent for a compact filament cutter integrated directly into a 3D printer's printhead, aiming to streamline material swaps. The blade pivots around a shaft parallel to the filament path and uses the printer's existing gantry motion...
From Edge to Enterprise: How the Endpoint Became IT’s Most Strategic Layer and Why Lenovo Is Joining the Conversation at...
Enterprise endpoints have shifted from commodity devices to strategic layers in digital workspaces. As hybrid work, zero‑trust models, and cloud‑first applications proliferate, endpoints now enforce identity, security, and user experience. Lenovo is highlighting this evolution at IGEL’s Now & Next...
Haivision Debuts Makito ONE Live Video Contribution Platform
Haivision unveiled Makito ONE, a single‑blade video transport platform that combines dual‑channel encoding and decoding with ultra‑low latency 4K/HD/HDR delivery. The system supports JPEG XS, HEVC and H.264 codecs over any network, including public internet, satellite and fibre, and offers both...
NUS Unveils Wearable Sensor that Tracks Fatigue and Stress with Clinical-Grade Accuracy
The National University of Singapore announced a wearable sensor that continuously monitors fatigue and stress, achieving 93% peak‑detection accuracy and ISO‑grade signal quality. The device, built on a metahydrogel platform with AI denoising, could give meditation practitioners a reliable physiological...
YMTC Poised to Overtake SK Hynix in NAND Shipments
For you Sandisk'ers $SNDK China's YMTC, having caught up to Korea, secures yield for cutting-edge NAND flash and begins full-scale production expansion. With the launch of a new line equipped with state-of-the-art equipment imminent and mass production of 300-layer high-stacking NAND stabilizing, and rumors...
Memory Market Focus Shifts to Duration Over Demand
New report in the @DiligenceStack. Memory market update and sharing the framework for our tracking model of the cycle's durability. The Next Debate in Memory Is Duration, Not Demand https://t.co/gB1OsgGpBW
New Tool on AWS Makes It Easier to Develop Quantum Error Correction
Quantum Elements and Amazon Web Services have launched Constellation, a cloud‑based digital‑twin platform that lets researchers model quantum error‑correction schemes on hypothetical quantum computers. The tool improves on existing simulators by capturing a broader range of error sources, offering higher...

WHOOP Becomes PSG's Official Health Wearable Through 2029
NEW PARTNERSHIP: @WHOOP x PSG WHOOP is now the Official Health & Fitness Wearable of Paris Saint-Germain through 2029. Players will use Whoop to unlock continuous insights into key physiological metrics helping optimize performance and improve health across a demanding season. https://t.co/bXbryfH74v
Atlanta Man Arrested for Smuggling AI Chips to China
Atlanta man arrested in scheme to smuggle sensitive AI chips into China, officials say Tiny numbers. Waiting for export control proponents to note that these numbers are small, and GPUs now legal for export... https://t.co/oyOQFBkWWR
CoreWeave Secures $8.5 B Loan to Accelerate AI Data‑Center Build‑Out
CoreWeave closed an $8.5 billion delayed‑draw term‑loan facility, rated A3 by Moody’s, giving the AI‑focused cloud provider access to up to $7.5 billion immediately and a further $1 billion as assets mature. The financing lifted CoreWeave shares 8.4% in one day, highlighting investor...
Smart Charging and Power Conversion Define Modern EV Edge
Why smarter charging, battery management, and power conversion are now the real differentiators in EVs and edge systems. https://t.co/HDQpNF4yJ1 #BMS #automotive #EVs #PMIC #batterymanagementsystems #edgepower #powerconversion #edge
Altman and Ive Team Up on Cognitive Hardware
So, whatever happens to this "big" idea? Are Sam Altman and Jony Ive Creating Cognitive Hardware? https://t.co/G9DgJPeVg0

IDTechEx Reports on Optimizing Signal for Communication and Radar with Low Loss Materials
IDTechEx’s new report highlights the rising importance of low‑loss materials for 5G/6G, data‑center, and automotive radar applications through 2036. As high‑frequency signals become more sensitive, dielectric losses threaten bandwidth and reliability, prompting adoption of substrates such as PTFE, LCP, and...
Quantum Computer Capable of Breaking Encryption Nearing Reality
The first quantum computer to break encryption is now shockingly close | New Scientist https://t.co/HsfzVRqn1R
AI Compute Becomes Collateral, Turning Expense Into Asset
CoreWeave just borrowed $8.5B using AI chips as collateral. Larger than the GDP of 40 countries. AI compute is no longer an expense. It's a financial asset. Every AI infrastructure decision you make now has balance sheet implications.

Webinar – How to Reclaim Margin in Advanced Nodes
The ClockEdge webinar highlighted a hidden crisis in sub‑5 nm chip design: excessive guard‑banding caused by modeling uncertainty, which can strip 25‑35% of the clock period and cut performance‑per‑area (PPA) by up to 35%. Dave Johnson explained the “abstraction tax” and...
1Hz XPS
1Hz laptop display reportedly helps deliver outstanding 43-hour battery life on the XPS 14 during web browser use — beats the M5 MacBook Air by more than 28 hours in the same test https://t.co/PIQL6LdFyG

How BIG W Boosted Sales with Rapid RFID Tagging: RFID Journal Case Study
After COVID, BIG W tackled size‑level inventory gaps by launching a rapid RFID tagging program across 180 Australian stores. Partnering with Checkpoint, Sensormatic, Zebra and others, the retailer applied tags to every non‑seasonal item, achieving 100% tag saturation in months. Full...

Give Your Laptop a New Life with ChromeOS Flex
Google and Back Market have launched a $3 (≈ $3.25) ChromeOS Flex USB kit that lets users install the free, cloud‑first operating system on older Windows 10 PCs and Macs. The kit includes a reusable, waste‑compensated USB drive, step‑by‑step guides and video tutorials,...

Classic Temperature Sensor Stabilizes Photonic Laser Cavity
Columbia University researchers repurposed a thin‑film platinum resistor, already used as a microheater, to function simultaneously as an on‑chip temperature sensor for a high‑Q photonic microcavity. By closing the loop with a second identical resistor as a heater, they achieved...

This Unlocked Pixel 9 Is $300 Off Right Now
Google’s Pixel 9 128GB unlocked smartphone has slashed to $499, a $300 markdown from its $799 launch price. The device ships with the Tensor G4 processor, 12 GB of RAM, a 6.3‑inch 120 Hz OLED display, and a dual‑camera system anchored by...
AMD Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT Fall Below MSRP in Germany
AMD’s RDNA 4‑based Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT have finally slipped below their European MSRP in Germany, with the ASUS Prime RX 9070 OC selling for €539 against a €629 list price and the ASRock RX 9070 XT Challenger at €640 versus €689. The price...
Qorvo Introduces Dual-Band 2.4/5 GHz BAW Diplexer for Single-Antenna Wi-Fi Systems
Qorvo has launched the QPQ4701, a bulk‑acoustic‑wave diplexer that integrates 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi‑Fi filtering into a single laminate module. The device covers 2402‑2482 MHz and 5150‑5735 MHz, enabling true dual‑band operation over one antenna for access points, routers, gateways, CPE and...

As Memory Shortages Continue, Somehow, the Asus ROG Xbox Ally Is $100 Off with Three Months of Game Pass for...
The Asus ROG Xbox Ally handheld is now priced at $499.99, roughly $100 less than its usual $599.99 list price, and ships with three months of Xbox Game Pass Premium at no extra cost. It features 16 GB of RAM and...

Samsung Teases New SM‑U600 Galaxy Buds Model
Samsung may have a mysterious new pair of Galaxy Buds on the way With model name - SM-U600 ✅ Details - https://t.co/sZIUlWbBKw https://t.co/ZOIDLmkdXV