Today's Hardware Pulse

Nvidia driver hints at next‑gen DLSS 5 work
Nvidia’s GeForce Game Ready driver 610.47 adds three new profile options—Enable DLSS NR override, Enable DLSS NR SL override, and Override DLSS NR presets—suggesting continued development of DLSS 5 neural‑rendering technology. The earlier DLSS 5 reveal had sparked debate over AI‑driven image alteration, and the new driver hints at a quiet but ongoing effort.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Cyient Semiconductors raises $30M Series A

Croatian Friends Have Modded over 2,000 Casio Watches
Three friends in Osijek, Croatia—Fabio, Lovro, and Ian—started EON Watches in 2023 after failing to find the custom Casio models they wanted. They invested in modding equipment and began producing bespoke Casio timepieces. Since launch, the micro‑brand has shipped more than 2,000 custom watches to customers worldwide. The operation demonstrates how a small team can leverage DIY tools to enter a global niche market.

A Self-Service GPU Experience That Feels Instant | Rafay
Rafay’s Developer Pods let developers request GPU‑enabled environments through a simple UI, bypassing tickets, YAML, and long wait times. Within roughly 30 seconds, a pod spins up and is reachable via SSH, offering pre‑built images such as Ubuntu and various...
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Developer Pods for Platform Teams: Designing Self-Service GPU Experiences
Rafay’s SKU Studio enables platform teams to package GPU‑powered Kubernetes environments as ready‑to‑use Developer Pods. By defining curated SKUs with clear descriptions, guided inputs and prescriptive outputs, teams turn raw infrastructure into a self‑service product that launches in about 30...

Instant Developer Pods: Rethinking GPU Access for AI Teams | Rafay
Rafay’s Developer Pods redefine GPU access by delivering ready‑to‑use Ubuntu environments with CUDA in roughly 30 seconds, eliminating the multi‑day ticket queues and bulky VM provisioning that plague many enterprises. The solution abstracts Kubernetes away from developers, offering a simple...

AI Data Centers and Power Generation: What Gear Drive Companies Need to Know
AI‑driven data centers are now consuming roughly 60% of their electricity from servers, driving a surge in overall power demand. Grid expansion lags behind, prompting operators to adopt hybrid solutions that blend grid supply, long‑term renewable contracts, battery storage, and...

More Ryzen AI Max+ 395 Mini PCs with 128GB Are Now Available… if You Can Afford One
AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mobile processor, featuring integrated graphics comparable to a discrete GPU and support for up to 128 GB of LPDDR5‑8000 memory, is now being offered in a growing lineup of mini PCs. Prices for these AI‑focused workstations...

DietPi Just Made It Easy to Host Your Own Google Photos on a Raspberry Pi
DietPi released version 10.2, adding Immich—a self‑hosted Google Photos alternative—as an optional package for 64‑bit x86 and ARMv8 devices. The update also includes a separate machine‑learning server for facial recognition, which can run on a different Raspberry Pi to preserve resources. Additional new...

Your iPhone Has a Secret Button on the Back - Here's How to Unlock It
Apple’s Back Tap, introduced in iOS 14, lets iPhone 8 and newer users trigger actions by double‑ or triple‑tapping the back of the device. The feature is fully customizable, allowing shortcuts, system controls, accessibility tools, or third‑party apps to be launched with...

Nvidia Quietly Moved the Legendary GTX 1080 Ti and 4 Other Classic GPUs to Legacy Status
Nvidia announced that the GTX 1060, 750 Ti, 970, 980 Ti and 1080 Ti have been moved to legacy status, ending regular Game Ready driver updates after October 2025. The cards will receive only quarterly security patches through October 2028, signaling that Nvidia will no longer...

Caterpillar and Fortescue Extend Command for Hauling Agreement for Western Australia Mines
Caterpillar has renewed its MineStar Command agreement with Fortescue’s Chichester Metals and FMG Solomon to supply and operate autonomous haulage software at three Western Australian mines. The extension continues a decade‑long deployment that began in 2012, reinforcing safety, reliability and...

This Is the Fastest and Cheapest Way to Build a Fully Offline Home Assistant Smart Home
Building a fully offline Home Assistant smart home can be done on a budget by repurposing a used PC for $50‑$60 or opting for the Home Assistant Green hub. A Raspberry Pi 5 offers a plug‑and‑play alternative at about $125,...
CEA-Leti and Fraunhofer IPMS Validate Wafer Exchange for Ferroelectric Memory Materials Within the FAMES Pilot Line
CEA‑Leti and Fraunhofer IPMS have completed the first exchange of ferroelectric memory wafers within the EU‑funded FAMES Pilot Line, proving a shared platform for advanced embedded non‑volatile memory development. The exchange used 300 mm CMOS cleanrooms to process hafnium‑zirconium oxide (HZO)...

Save Desk Space While Saving the World of Warcraft with This MMO Mouse and Gaming Keyboard — Both Nearly 40%...
Razer is offering its Huntsman Mini 60% mechanical keyboard at $79.99 and the Naga V2 HyperSpeed MMO mouse at $64.99, representing discounts of roughly 38% and 35% respectively. Both products arrive as World of Warcraft: Midnight launches its first season,...

PDP’s Wireless Guitar Controller Has Returned to Its Best Price to Date
PDP's Riffmaster wireless guitar controller, originally priced at $129.99 and later $149.99, is now on sale for $99.99 across major retailers. The discount applies to Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2 versions. The controller features color‑coded fret buttons, a built‑in...

YouTuber Upgrades 14-Year-Old ThinkPad Laptop with a $25 DIY IPS Display — Simple Panel Swap Breathes New Life Into 2012-Era...
Tech YouTuber onionboots revived a 2012 Lenovo ThinkPad X230 by replacing its original TN display with a $25 IPS panel. The upgrade retains the laptop’s native 1366×768 resolution but delivers markedly better color accuracy and viewing angles. Installation required only...

Scaling Multi-Die Connectivity: Automated Routing for High-Speed Interfaces
The article wraps up a three‑part series on multi‑die design by highlighting automated routing as the next critical step for high‑speed die‑to‑die interfaces such as High‑Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe). It explains how dense bump maps...

Port of Gioia Tauro Secures Funding for 5G Network Development
The Port Authority of the Southern Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas secured roughly €2 million (about $2.2 million) from Italy’s Fund for Technological Innovation and Digitalization to build a private 5G network at the Port of Gioia Tauro. The project, which earned a top‑score...

My Pro PS5 Controller Just Got Stick Drift After 5 Years, and I'm Basically in Mourning
After five years of heavy use, the author’s Scuf Reflex Pro Pro‑level PS5 controller developed stick drift, forcing a switch back to a standard DualSense. The loss of back‑paddles, which he relied on for competitive FPS titles, feels like a...

Helium Atom Lithography Promises Chips Ten Times Smaller
Introducing Ⓛ 𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗛𝗬 A novel approach to chip-making that can extend Moore's Law 10x beyond what is possible with light — to atomic resolution. News today: "Manufacturers use light-based lithography systems made by the Dutch company ASML, which dominates the market....
EPC91121 BLDC Motor Drive Evaluation Board Introduced, Using EPC’s Gen-7 40V GaN Technology
Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) unveiled the EPC91121 BLDC motor‑drive evaluation board at APEC 2026, built around its Gen‑7 40 V EPC2366 eGaN transistor. The compact board delivers up to 70 A peak (50 A RMS) from 18‑30 V inputs and supports PWM frequencies up to...

ABB Adds Symphony PLus to Automation Extended
ABB has released SPR2025, the latest Symphony Plus distributed control system (DCS) package, integrating its Automation Extended platform. The update adds system‑wide OPC UA, an Ethernet backbone, and support for modern Microsoft operating systems and virtualization platforms, enabling secure, interoperable...

Tesla Patent Reveals Dual-Battery System for Trailer-Mounted Range Extender
Tesla filed patent US 2026/0048683 A1 describing a dual‑battery architecture that pairs an 800 V primary pack with a 400 V auxiliary pack, operating in three modes—SOE balancing, OCV matching, and parallel fast‑charging. The design offers two mounting options, including a trailer‑mounted auxiliary pack...

The iPhone 17e Is a Great Budget-Friendly Apple Device, but It's Even Better when You Get It for Free
Apple introduced the iPhone 17e, a budget‑friendly model priced at $599, undercutting the standard iPhone 17’s $799 price tag. The device retains the A19 six‑core CPU from the flagship line but swaps a core‑less GPU for lower cost. It ships...

Beelink ME Pro Review A Small and Focused NAS That We Set Up with OpenClaw
The Beelink ME Pro is a miniature NAS that fits two 3.5‑inch drives in a 6.5‑inch‑tall chassis while offering three M.2 SSD slots, 12 GB LPDDR5 RAM, and an Intel N95 processor running Windows 11 Home. It ships with dual Ethernet ports—5 GbE...
SemiQ Launches QSiC Dual3 Family of 1200V Half-Bridge MOSFET Modules
SemiQ Inc. unveiled its QSiC Dual3 family, a line of 1200 V half‑bridge SiC MOSFET modules aimed at motor drives in data‑center cooling, grid‑scale energy storage converters, and industrial drivers. The series boasts ultra‑low RDS(on) values down to 1 mΩ and a...

Prairie Winds Broadcasting Upgrades With Nautel
Prairie Winds Broadcasting, a regional group serving the Dakotas and western Minnesota, has upgraded its portfolio to 16 Nautel transmitters, spanning FM NVLT, VX, VS, GV and AM NX, J1000 models, with two additional NVLT‑20 units on order. The migration...

Startup Gimlet Labs Is Solving the AI Inference Bottleneck in a Surprisingly Elegant Way
Stanford adjunct professor Zain Asgar’s startup Gimlet Labs closed an $80 million Series A, led by Menlo Ventures, to commercialize a multi‑silicon inference cloud that orchestrates AI workloads across CPUs, GPUs and high‑memory hardware. The software claims to boost inference speed by...

IFLYTEK AI Translation Earbuds Support 60 Languages and Just Got a Big Price Cut
iFLYTEK has launched AI Translation Earbuds that support 60 languages and provide real‑time, two‑second latency interpretation. The device combines dual microphones, a bone‑conduction sensor, and active noise cancellation to achieve up to 97% speech‑recognition accuracy in noisy environments. Battery life...
Renesas Adds GaN-Based Half-Wave LLC Platform to AC/DC and Power Adapter Range
Renesas Electronics introduced a gallium‑nitride (GaN) half‑wave LLC (HWLLC) platform that delivers 500 W and higher power density for AC/DC adapters. The solution includes four new controller ICs, featuring the RRW11011 interleaved PFC/HWLLC combo, enabling up to 240 W USB‑PD EPR with...
NCSA Highlights Delta, DeltaAI Role in AI Framework for Astrophysics Workflows
Researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) used the Delta and DeltaAI systems to test RADAR, an AI-driven framework that fuses gravitational‑wave and radio‑astronomy data for multi‑messenger astrophysics. The framework demonstrated that analysis can occur where data reside,...

HV-MELA-BAT Showcases Megawatt Charging System
The HV‑MELA‑BAT consortium, led by Fraunhofer ISE, unveiled a megawatt‑scale charging system that combines a high‑efficiency DC/DC converter with a novel contact system. The isolating converter reaches a record‑breaking 99.26% efficiency and a volumetric power density of 9 kW per liter....
Panther Lake Revives Intel on Laptops, Fulfilling G
Panther Lake is a real turning point for Intel. I've been on AMD since switching to Linux, but with 18A delivering Gelsinger's dream from 2021, it's a privilege to run blue again on the laptop side. And Intel working directly...

Cato Networks Unveils GPU-Powered SASE Platform with Native AI Security
Cato Networks announced two major upgrades to its SASE platform: Cato Neural Edge, which embeds NVIDIA GPUs across its global private backbone to accelerate AI‑driven traffic inspection, and Cato AI Security, a suite that merges AI governance and runtime protection...

AI API Bills Will Soon Dominate Budgets
$5,000. That's my Anthropic API bill. For 30 days. Just me — not the team. And honestly? It's the best money I spend every month. But it got me thinking about where this is heading. That $5K/month becomes $60K/year. Scale that across...

ThinKom Showcases Modular MILSATCOM Architecture for Contested Environments
At the 2026 Satellite Show in Washington, D.C., ThinKom Solutions unveiled a modular, high‑mobility ground architecture designed to replace static satellite command centers. The system, built around the Variable Inclination Continuous Transverse Stub (VICTS) phased‑array antenna, can connect to GEO,...

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Specs Have Reportedly Leaked
Samsung’s next flagship foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, is slated for a summer 2024 debut and a leak suggests notable hardware upgrades. The device is expected to house a larger 5,000 mAh battery with 45 W fast charging, while retaining the 6.5‑inch...

Where Data Centre Projects Tend to Slow Down and Why
Data centre projects rarely fail because demand disappears; they slow when delivery proves harder than planned. The most common friction points are power deliverability, permitting, long‑lead equipment, commissioning, late design changes, site logistics, operational readiness, monitoring integration, third‑party dependencies, and...

You Can Get a Free iPhone 17e at Visible with This Deal - Here's How
Apple’s budget iPhone 17e is now available through a Visible promotion that effectively makes the device free. New customers who sign up for the Visible+ Pro plan at $45 per month receive a $25 monthly service credit for 24 months, which reimburses...
AI Hardware Is the Hot Opportunity Right Now
Friendly reminder: follow where the opportunities are. Right now, the AI hardware space is especially interesting to watch.
Helium Shortage From Iran War Won’t Halt AI Chips
Helium supply shortages due to the Iran war don't seem to be a threat to AI chip production right now. https://t.co/x0EWX4XCg7

Marshall Islands Advances Pacific Connect Cable Project
The National Telecommunications Authority of the Marshall Islands signed an agreement to join the Pacific Connect initiative, adding the Iokwe subsea fiber‑optic cable that will connect Majuro directly to Google’s Halaihai system. Backed by U.S. Trade and Development Agency funding,...
Monitor Size Perception Is All About Viewing Distance
I realized that people who swear by 32" and 40" monitors simply have their monitors much further back than I do. It takes up the same FOV guys.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE Impresses with Speed and Display
AT&T sent me a Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE 10.9" Android Tablet to evaluate, and I'm darn impressed. It's fast, has a crisp, bright screen, and makes reading the news, an ebook, or playing games way more fun than on...

Fortifying Campus Infrastructure: Why Reliable In-Building Communications Is Now a Facility Priority
Universities are recognizing in‑building wireless systems as a critical facility priority to eliminate communication dead zones that jeopardize safety and daily operations. Facility managers now oversee Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) that boost both public‑safety radio and cellular signals across diverse...
China Unlikely to Match Nvidia AI Chips Soon
I still do not believe China can build an AI chip to rival $NVDA. I don't see a path in the next 5 years either. These headlines are exhausting. 😬😮💨
First Commercial CD Debuts in Germany, 1982
#MemoryMonday. August 17, 1982. The first commercial CD is produced in Germany. (HistoryPod) #Technology #History https://t.co/A0Ej0n0SDu

Google Has Its 4K Streamer on Sale for $79.99
Google has reduced the price of its Google TV Streamer to $79.99, a 20% discount from the regular $99.99 list price. The device offers 4 GB of RAM, an integrated Matter smart‑home hub, an Ethernet port, and a remote‑finder feature. While...

Fastest AI Vision Model for Your Laptop : Liquid AI LFM 2.5
Liquid AI unveiled LFM 2.5, a vision‑language model that runs entirely on laptops and smartphones using WebGPU and ONNX Runtime. The hybrid architecture blends convolutional blocks with grouped query attention, delivering real‑time image captioning, document analysis, and video processing. It supports...