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
Graphene 'Leaf Tattoo' Sensor Tracks Plant Hydration in Real Time
University of Texas at Austin researchers have created a hyper‑flexible graphene electronic tattoo that adheres to live leaves and measures their hydration in real time. The sensor detects ion movement, updating conductance with just 23 attojoules per measurement and drawing 0.23 µW for data reads. Powered by tiny solar panels, thousands of devices could be deployed across farms or forests, providing continuous moisture data without harming the plant. The technology also exhibits artificial synaptic behavior, enabling on‑leaf data processing and reducing transmission energy needs.
Researchers Demonstrate Laser Chips Performing Clock and Quantum Operations
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and UMass Amherst have built a chip‑scale, visible‑light Brillouin laser that can be frequency‑stabilized to the narrow strontium optical‑clock transition and used to drive a trapped‑ion qubit. The integrated laser, paired with an on‑chip coil...
Stabilized Laser Components Could Shrink Quantum Computers From Room- to Chip-Scale
Scientists at UMass Amherst and UC Santa Barbara have demonstrated chip‑scale stabilized lasers that can control trapped‑ion qubits with high fidelity, replacing bulky optical cavities with photonic chips. Published in Nature Communications, the work shows sub‑kilohertz linewidths and active drift compensation,...
Q&A: Robots Can't Feel, but Novel Sensors Could Change That
Researchers at Penn State have developed a flexible pressure‑sensor array using reduced graphene oxide aerogel, creating an electronic skin capable of ultrahigh sensitivity and a broad pressure range. Each 8 mm sensor supports roughly three ounces of force and endures over...
Manifold To Feature Support For 400GbE COTS FPGA Accelerator Cards At 2026 NAB Show
Manifold Technologies will showcase support for 400 GbE commercial‑off‑the‑shelf FPGA accelerator cards at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The manifold CLOUD platform can now harness up to four 400 Gbps cards per server, delivering a total of 4.8 Tbps of media processing....
Rogue Valley Microdevices Launches MEMS Design Services
Rogue Valley Microdevices (RVM) announced the launch of MEMS Design Services, a foundry‑flexible offering that supports customers from concept through production‑ready design. The service provides three engagement models—Design only, Design with technology transfer, and full Design‑and‑Fabricate within RVM’s own fab—allowing...
AI Is Driving a New Infrastructure Cost Crisis, but Adaptive Tiering Could Help Contain It
Enterprises are confronting soaring infrastructure costs as AI and distributed applications expand data volumes. Tintri’s adaptive tiering technology automatically shifts workloads between high‑performance NVMe, SSD, and other media, eliminating the need for manual hierarchical storage management. The solution leverages real‑time...
WAVE Achieves First Cloud-to-Gateway Satcom Virtualization with AI Signal Analysis
Members of the IEEE‑backed WAVE Consortium—AWS, Gilat Defense, and SES Space & Defense—demonstrated the first standardized cloud‑to‑gateway satellite communications virtualization using FPGA acceleration. A 10 Mbps video stream was transmitted through a DVBS‑2X modem, digitized at an SES gateway, and processed...
How Boosters Can Help AM Stations
NAB Vice President David Layer announced an AM booster project aimed at creating a technical record for FCC rulemaking that would permit on‑channel AM single‑frequency networks. The initiative will involve lab testing, antenna research, and field trials with a full‑service...
Rebellions Secures $400 Million Pre‑IPO Funding, Valued at $2.34 Billion
Rebellions, the South Korean fabless AI inference chip maker, raised $400 million in a pre‑IPO round led by Mirae Asset and the Korea National Growth Fund, lifting its valuation to $2.34 billion. The cash will fund aggressive expansion into the United States,...
Inside the Push to Bring DC Power to Data Centers
The Current/OS Foundation and the Open Direct Current Alliance have signed an MoU to coordinate technical work on DC power distribution for data centers. Their collaboration aims to create unified standards, leveraging IEC circuit‑breaker rules and upcoming NFPA code updates,...
Fiber‑Optic Sensors Reveal Tilling Destroys Soil Water Channels, Boosting Case for No‑Till Farming
University of Washington scientists, together with Harper Adams University, used distributed acoustic sensing on fiber‑optic cables to prove that conventional plowing eliminates soil capillaries that retain water. The findings, published this week, bolster calls for regenerative no‑till farming to lower...
China Deploys AI‑Driven Smart Farming Across 3,800 Mu, Boosting Yields and Income
China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has accelerated the rollout of AI‑enabled smart farming on more than 3,800 mu of fields in Jiangsu, using drones, IoT sensors and data‑analytics platforms. The initiative has lifted tea leaf quality by nearly 50%...
Ultimea Skywave X100 Dual Review: A 9.2.6 Wireless Surround System with THX Tuning
Ultimea’s Skywave X100 Dual brings a 9.2.6 wireless surround system to market, featuring a 43‑inch soundbar, four satellite speakers, two 10‑inch subwoofers and six up‑firing drivers. The package is THX‑tuned, supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and connects via the low‑latency...
Buyers Say This Portable Power Station From Home Depot Isn't Worth Its High Price
Milwaukee's MX Fuel Portable Power Station, sold at Home Depot for $2,499, has drawn criticism for its high price and limited runtime, earning a 3.2‑star rating from 70 reviews. Customers report the battery often lasts under two hours under modest...
Bridging Worlds with Hammerspace and the Reality of Multi-Cloud Mobility
Hammerspace unveiled a Unified Global Namespace that abstracts storage across on‑prem, AWS, Azure and OCI, letting data appear locally wherever compute runs. Its policy‑driven Objective‑Based Data Orchestration moves only the required blocks, eliminating heavyweight migrations for AI and GPU‑intensive workloads....
SpaceBridge Launches UniHub as Streamlined VSAT Platform
SpaceBridge unveiled UniHub, a compact all‑in‑one VSAT hub that consolidates SDR multichannel modulation, burst demodulation for up to 800 carriers, network communication center functions, QoS, and advanced waveforms like TDMA and dSCPC. The platform promises reduced footprint, lower SWaP, and...
GameChange Solar Successfully Tests Tracker for Earthquake Conditions
GameChange Solar completed the industry’s first full‑scale seismic shake‑table test of its Genius Tracker system at UC Berkeley’s Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center. The test, performed to IEEE 693 standards, subjected a complete tracker with PV modules to progressively stronger earthquake...
The MacBook Neo Takes on Retro Gaming
The MacBook Neo, Apple’s latest M‑series laptop, proves surprisingly adept at retro game emulation, handling titles from the NES through the Saturn with ease and even upscaling recent Nintendo Switch games. It also runs lightweight Steam titles and streams via...
Semi-Solid-State EV Batteries Are Now Powering up Trucks and Flying Cars
Semi‑solid‑state batteries have moved from experimental labs into mass production, with SAIC launching the MG4 as the first globally produced model using this technology. The MG4’s 53.95 kWh battery delivers a 530 km (330‑mile) CLTC range at a price of about $14,500,...
Headphones; Wired, Wireless Or Banana?
Hackaday examined whether wireless headphones truly rival wired models, focusing on Bluetooth’s advances such as LDAC’s 990 kbps transmission. The analysis notes that when both source and earphones support high‑resolution codecs, most listeners can’t detect a sound‑quality gap. It also highlights...
AirPods Pro 3 Vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2: I Listened to Both, and There's a Sonic Difference
Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 and Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra 2nd‑Gen earbuds launched within weeks of each other, prompting a side‑by‑side review. The AirPods Pro 3 cost $249, offer Apple‑centric features like heart‑rate monitoring, Spatial Audio and automatic device switching, and provide eight hours of...
How Lumen Is Dismantling Decades of Network Complexity
Lumen Technologies, a $12.4 billion telecom operator with a 500,000‑mile fiber network, faced fragmented inventory from decades of acquisitions, operating over 17 legacy systems and nearly 500 data sources. It built a unified data layer and AI‑driven digital twin, launching the...
Is Microfluidics Ready to Cool the Next Generation of Data Centers?
Data centers face localized hot spots that conventional air cooling cannot efficiently address, prompting interest in microfluidic cooling that routes liquid through microscopic channels etched into silicon. Demonstrations show temperature reductions of up to 80% compared with air, promising higher...
Invences Empowers Small Businesses With Smart Telecom Networks
Invences, founded in 2023 by telecom veteran Bhaskara Rallabandi, delivers autonomous, low‑cost private 5G/6G networks for small businesses, farms, factories and universities, especially in underserved areas. The Texas‑based startup leverages Open RAN, virtualized RAN, digital twins and agentic AI to...
Autonomous Railcar Builder Signs Short Line Operator
Intramotev, a developer of autonomous freight railcars, announced a new partnership with short‑line operator R.J. Corman Railroad Company. The company’s TugVolt railcars will be deployed on Corman’s 113‑mile Memphis Line, serving 30 customers across Kentucky and Tennessee. R.J. Corman, which...
Accelerator-Equipped MCU Brings Greater Access to AI in Cars
STMicroelectronics introduced the Stellar P3E, an automotive microcontroller that embeds a Neural‑ART accelerator for on‑chip AI inference. The MCU consolidates multiple ECUs, features six Cortex‑R52+ cores up to 500 MHz, and includes high‑density xMemory. By offloading machine‑learning tasks to the NPU, the...
Local Edge Data Boosts Safety Through Faster Action
Resilience doesn’t sit in the server room. It’s in the hands of the people who depend on low-latency to stay safe 🤝 See how Edge Control + T-Platform keeps data local, cuts latency, and helps teams act faster.↙️ https://t.co/wxAE44qfmi @TMobileBusiness Partner #EnterpriseResilience #DutyOfCare #EdgeControl...
Beats Made My Favorite Workout Earbuds Even Better with an Electric Nike Collab
Beats has launched a limited‑edition Powerbeats Pro 2 in partnership with Nike, featuring a matte‑black and neon Volt colorway and the iconic Nike swoosh on the right earbud. The earbuds retain the standard $250 price, wireless‑charging case, and built‑in heart‑rate sensor,...
Augmented Reality Glasses Can Aid Dementia Patients — and Their Caregivers
UK‑based health‑tech startup has been awarded the Longitude Prize, a £1 million (≈ $1.27 million) challenge prize, for developing augmented‑reality glasses designed to assist people living with dementia and ease caregiver burden. The glasses overlay contextual cues, navigation prompts and medication reminders directly...
This Qualcomm Call Feels Like A Warning
Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of Qualcomm with a neutral rating and a $135 price target, citing progress in automotive, PCs and data centers but warning that its core smartphone business faces headwinds. The firm projects a 200‑basis‑point share loss to...
Xerendipity Vapor Pad – The Hype that Isn’t Really Hype, and a Pad that Belongs Inside—But Not on Top Of—The...
Xerendipity’s new vapor pad has been touted as a “paste‑killer” that can replace traditional thermal interface material (TIM) between a CPU’s integrated heat spreader (IHS) and the cooler. In reality, the product is an anisotropic heat spreader intended for placement...
SNX Emerges as Barometer for Q2 IT Demand
The Week Ahead In Technology for March 30th. $SNX is the key tech earnings read, best proxy for IT channel demand into Q2. @intel ships its first 18A-based vPro commercial platform this week. Core Ultra Series 3 with vPro, 125+ designs,...
TeraFab's All‑In‑One Chip Dream Deemed Impossible
Last week @elonmusk unveiled #TeraFab — a chipmaker aiming to produce logic chips, HBM4 memory, and advanced packaging under one roof. But an exhaustive analysis by @tomshardware reveals so many factors working against TeraFab that it appears highly unrealistic. Indeed,...
Redefining the Industrial PC: From HMI to Embedded Systems
Industrial PCs (IPCs) have shifted from niche PLC adjuncts to mainstream panel PCs that combine a touchscreen HMI with full computer capabilities. Modern panel PCs offer Ethernet, USB, and sometimes serial ports, turning them into versatile operators rather than dedicated...
Sony Halts SD and CFexpress Card Production Amid Memory Shortage
In a fresh blow dealt by the memory crisis, Sony has pulled the plug on its SD and CFexpress card production for the foreseeable future. https://t.co/Fpt0wq4rGj
Can One Laptop Control Multiple ONT Sequencers?
Anyone out there know if it is possible to simultaneously run multiple ONT sequencers from a single laptop?
Boland Communications Introduces New QD-OLED Series Monitors
Boland Communications unveiled its QD4K315HDR10, a 31.5‑inch QD‑OLED monitor, at the 2026 NAB Show, alongside a new 27‑inch variant. The displays combine quantum‑dot and OLED technologies to deliver 1000 nits peak brightness, up to a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and 99% DCI‑P3...
VRT Expands Ohio Plant as AI Cooling Demand Surges 109%
$VRT announces expansion at Ohio facilities to boost US production of critical thermal management technologies for AI data centers. They wouldn't be doing this if demand wasn't off the charts. It is - backlog rose 109% y/y last...
Panasonic Boosts Battery Production for AI-Driven Data Centers
Panasonic expands lithium-ion and supercapacitor production to meet future data center power needs, responding to AI infrastructure pressures worldwide. https://t.co/RLTyvQgQF4
High-Voltage Power Diodes Offer Higher Current Capacities, Faster Recovery Times
Dean Technology has launched two new high‑voltage diode families, the FH and SH series, expanding its medium‑power portfolio. The FH series delivers a reverse‑recovery time as low as 40 ns, a substantial improvement over the legacy 2CL line’s 100 ns, while supporting...
GameChange Solar's Tracker Passes Earthquake Test
GameChange Solar successfully tests tracker for earthquake conditions #energysky -- via Solar Power World: https://t.co/nJTtzHJWlq
BLUETTI Launches Fridge Storage; EV Battery Advances
New BLUETTI Fridge Storage System, EV Battery Innovation Updates — Top Stories of the Week - https://t.co/S6atDwZBC3
Self-Flushing Litter Box Keeps an AI Eye on Kitties' Urinary Health
Petalas, a Hong‑Kong startup, unveiled a self‑flushing litter box that automatically cleans waste and monitors feline urinary health via AI. The device uses reusable pellets, a 45‑minute rinse‑and‑flush cycle, and requires connection to water and a drain. It reads RFID...
Top Nintendo Switch 2 Accessories After Testing 20+
After testing more than 20 Nintendo Switch 2 accessories, these are some of my true favorites. https://t.co/oqOzS9cXqU
Top USB Flash Drive Deals for World Backup Day
These are the best USB flash drive deals we found for World Backup Day, with savings on our favorite models. https://t.co/IEOH0OHYFf
Apple Metal Direct Inference Threatens NVIDIA's Software Moat
1/ It's amazing to see consumer hardware do inference on gigantic models, but that's not the big deal. @danveloper went straight to the Apple metal with Claude help, circumventing all the frameworks. NVIDIA's software moat may be now easily breakable, via ......
MOKiN 8‑in‑1 USB‑C Hub Streamlines All Connections
Running out of ports or want to simplify plugging your notebook into your accessories, from keyboard to monitor? Then you'll really appreciate the MOKiN 8-In-1 USB-C Hub. It even has some secret functions that are pretty slick, as I demonstrate:...
Electric Air Duster Clears PC Dust, Now On Sale
The Wolfbox MF50 Electric Air Duster has been an excellent buy to keep dust from clogging my gaming PC, and this cheap gadget is now on sale once again. https://t.co/zt8f6Lswjy
Verify SSD Authenticity Before Paying Premium Prices
You may not realize the expensive SSD you've bought is a fake — so make sure you check your purchases carefully. https://t.co/EuM7TE9fWX