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
Don’t Buy an iPad Pro: The M4 iPad Air Is Coming Sooner Than You Think
Apple confirmed a 2026 iPad Air refresh powered by the new M4 chip, slated for a spring launch in February or March. The device will keep the familiar 11‑inch and 13‑inch aluminum chassis, preserving compatibility with the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil. Pricing remains unchanged at $599 for the smaller model and $799 for the larger, positioning it firmly in the mid‑range tablet segment. While the display stays an LCD/LED panel at 60 Hz, the performance upgrade targets power users and creators alike.
A Century of Miracles: From the FET’s Inception to the Horizons Ahead
2025 marks the centennial of the field‑effect transistor, first patented by Julius Lilienfeld in 1925. After decades of material and physics challenges, MOSFET stability was achieved in 1969, launching the era of large‑scale integration and the scaling roadmap defined by...
This Startup Developed a First-of-Its-Kind Brain Function Assessment Device
QuantalX secured FDA de novo clearance for Delphi‑MD, a first‑of‑its‑kind device that fuses transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with electroencephalography (EEG) to deliver real‑time brain network function assessments. The system leverages proprietary algorithms and an age‑correlated normative database to generate actionable...
How to Integrate Decades-Old Modbus Devices Without Regret
Modbus remains the dominant industrial communication protocol, with the market expected to grow from $1.2 billion to $2.5 billion by 2033. Integrating legacy devices is cost‑effective using gateways, historians, or edge gateways, avoiding expensive rip‑and‑replace projects. Security must be addressed at the...
Building a Quantum Ecosystem From Scratch with Martin Laforest
In this episode, Sebastian talks with Martin Laforest, a physicist‑turned‑VC at Quantacet, about the practical challenges of building a quantum ecosystem from the ground up. Laforest explains how Quebec turned a 1970s academic gamble into a $400 M quantum hub, emphasizing...
NVIDIA RTX Steam Machine Build : AMD GPUs Run SteamOS More Smoothly
Iceberg Tech’s guide walks through building a compact Linux‑gaming PC using the ASRock DeskMeet X600 case paired with an NVIDIA RTX 5060 GPU. While the RTX 5060 brings DLSS performance, the article highlights persistent driver instability on Linux, making AMD GPUs a...
AGVs You Can Trust at MODEX 2026
MasterMover will exhibit its heavy‑duty automated guided vehicles and electric tuggers at MODEX 2026 in Atlanta, highlighting the TOW300 AGV capable of moving up to 44,000 lb across indoor and outdoor environments. The TOW300 combines BlueBotics ANT navigation and SICK safety scanners to...
PS6 Report Suggests Next-Gen Consoles Could Still Be a Long Way Off
AI‑driven demand for memory is inflating chip prices, tightening supply for console makers. Sony is reportedly considering pushing the PS6 launch to 2028 or 2029, while Microsoft’s best‑case target for its next‑gen Xbox is 2027 but may also slip. Both...
Galaxy Buds 4 Leak Leaves Little to the Imagination — and I’m Okay with the Safe Upgrades
Samsung’s leaked Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro show a return to a brushed‑metal aesthetic, abandoning the sharp blade design of the Buds 3. Both models keep the stem for improved microphones and pinch controls, but the standard Buds 4 adopt an open‑fit design...
Tower and Scintil Announce Availability of First Heterogeneously Integrated DWDM Lasers for AI Infrastructure
Tower Semiconductor and Scintil Photonics announced the world’s first heterogeneously integrated dense‑wavelength‑division‑multiplexing (DWDM) laser sources for AI infrastructure, leveraging Scintil’s SHIP technology on Tower’s high‑volume silicon photonics platform. The LEAD Light module combines monolithic laser sources with silicon photonics to...
AirPods Pro 4: The Secret “Vision” Feature Apple Didn’t Want You to Know
Apple is reportedly gearing up to launch AirPods Pro 4 with built‑in cameras, a move that could fuse spatial audio with real‑time augmented reality. The camera‑enabled earbuds aim to deliver immersive navigation, interactive AR apps, and new ways to engage with...
Nanoengineers Realize an On-Chip Excitonic Hyperlens
Nanoengineers have demonstrated the first on‑chip excitonic hyperlens, a compact device that uses exciton‑polariton resonances to achieve negative refraction and sub‑diffraction imaging. The hyperlens is fabricated on a silicon photonic platform and operates at visible wavelengths, delivering resolution up to...
Ugreen’s New Power Bank Listens and Charges
Ugreen unveiled the MagFlow AI Voice Recording Magnetic Power Bank at CES 2026, combining a 10,000 mAh magnetic wireless charger with an AI‑powered voice recorder that can translate and summarize audio. The device retains familiar features such as a digital display...
Hitachi Rail Commissions Digital Interlocking on Norway’s Dovre Line
Hitachi Rail and Bane NOR have commissioned a Hitachi L90‑5 electronic interlocking at the Hove stabling facility on Norway’s Dovre Line near Lillehammer. The system digitises points, signals and level crossings, replacing legacy hardware to improve operational reliability and increase passenger‑service...
Ideastream Goes With Nautel For New Transmitter Needs
Ideastream Public Media has placed an order for four new Nautel transmitters to replace or augment equipment at its three full‑power FM stations and an FM translator in Northeast Ohio. The package includes two GV2‑30ND high‑power units, a GV2‑3.5 medium‑power...
Pure Storage Wants to Demolish Your Storage Silos
Pure Storage’s Cloud service extends its Purity operating environment to AWS and Azure, delivering a single‑pane‑of‑glass storage layer that feels identical to on‑prem FlashArray. By abstracting the underlying cloud hardware, the platform offers native APIs, replication, and security while adding...
Ams OSRAM and Meizhi Settle Patent Disputes over LEDs Used in Spider Farmer Luminaires
ams OSRAM and Shenzhen Meizhi Optoelectronics have reached a settlement ending pending LED‑related patent disputes in the United States and Germany. The agreement resolves litigation concerning ams OSRAM's patents used in Spider Farmer horticultural lighting systems. Under the deal, Meizhi...
Vivo X Fold 5 Ranks Second Best Foldable Camera
Randomly jumped back on the Vivo X Fold 5 and this is still the second best foldable camera around behind only the X Fold 3 Pro.
Micro-Magic Debuts High-Precision M3G-2XX Series Gyroscopes
Micro-Magic Inc. has launched the M3G-210 and M3G-220, high‑precision triaxial MEMS gyroscopes. The devices achieve a bias instability of 0.1 °/h and an angle random walk of 0.1 °/√h, with up to 2000 Hz sampling and 200 Hz bandwidth. Housed in rugged aluminum alloy,...
All-in-One SLAM LiDAR, RTK and 360° Imagery Scanner Launched
Emesent has launched the GX1, an all‑in‑one SLAM LiDAR, RTK and 360° imaging scanner that delivers 5‑10 mm global accuracy. The system can cut survey time by up to 95 %, turning weeks of work into a single day. It integrates LiDAR,...
Quantum Breakthrough Makes Once‑impossible Problems Solvable
I’ve been waiting for a moment like this. Google’s new quantum chip solved a 150-year-old problem in 2 hours. 13,000× faster than one of the world’s best supercomputers. That’s not incremental. That’s a different category. Their Willow chip ran an algorithm that models how atoms...
MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z: 2500W XOC BIOS Leaked – Pushing the Limits with Advance Warning
MSI’s RTX 5090 Lightning Z has a 2500 W XOC BIOS leak, far exceeding the card’s typical 600 W TDP and even the model’s advertised 1000 W extreme profile. The BIOS is designed for liquid‑nitrogen record attempts and disables safety mechanisms, making it unsuitable for...
DShanPi-A1 AI Education Rockchip RK3576 SBC Features HDMI Input and Output Ports, Dual GbE
The DShanPi‑A1 AI Education SBC is built around Rockchip’s RK3576 octa‑core Cortex‑A72/A53 SoC and can be configured with up to 8 GB RAM and 64 GB eMMC storage. It offers HDMI 2.1 video output, a mini‑HDMI input, dual Gigabit Ethernet, MIPI DSI/CSI interfaces,...
More Rode Mics Can Now Connect Directly to iPhones and iPads
Rode is rolling out a firmware update that adds Direct Connect to its Wireless Pro and third‑generation Wireless Go microphones, enabling Bluetooth pairing with iPhones and iPads via the Rode Capture app. The update eliminates the need for a separate...
TESSAN Launches Universal Travel Adapter 21W for Seamless Worldwide Charging
The episode introduces TESSAN's new Universal Travel Adapter 21W, a compact 5‑in‑1 device that combines a universal AC outlet with two USB‑C and two USB‑A ports, delivering up to 21 W of fast charging for up to five devices simultaneously. It...
Two Open RISC-V Projects Chart Divergent Paths to High Performance
Two open‑source RISC‑V projects—ETH Zürich’s Ara vector processor and China’s XiangShan scalar core—demonstrate opposite strategies for scaling performance. Ara implements the RISC‑V Vector Extension with explicit parallelism and no speculation, relying on software‑managed locality and a shallow memory hierarchy. XiangShan...
Gaming Phone Hides a Controller Under Its Sliding Screen
Ayaneo unveiled the Pocket Play, a smartphone that slides its 6.8‑inch OLED screen upward to reveal an integrated d‑pad, face buttons and touch‑pad zones, reviving the sliding‑phone form factor. Powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 9300 and featuring UFS 4.0 storage, a 5,000 mAh battery...
Neuromorphic Night Vision Powered by Quantum Dots with Memory
Researchers have engineered ferroelectric quantum dots that embed internal electric fields, enabling efficient charge separation under dim illumination. By coating cadmium‑selenide dots with a ferroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride polymer, they created a floating‑gate phototransistor that stores light‑induced charges as a persistent...
SemiQ Partners with Distributor NAC Semi Across North America
SemiQ Inc., a designer of silicon‑carbide (SiC) power semiconductors and 150 mm epitaxial wafers, has signed a distribution agreement with NAC Semi, a North‑American component distributor. The deal gives NAC Semi direct access to SemiQ’s high‑efficiency MOSFETs, power modules and Schottky diodes, targeting...
Google Secures Solar Deal to Power Expanding AI Data Centers
Google has entered two 15‑year power purchase agreements with TotalEnergies to secure roughly 1 gigawatt of solar capacity in Texas. The projects – 805 MW in Wichita and 195 MW at Mustang Creek – will generate about 28 terawatt‑hours of electricity and begin construction...
Dell VP Says Discrete Beats Disaggregated Storage for AI
Dell VP David Noy announced that discrete storage architectures outperform disaggregated designs for large‑scale AI workloads, reversing Dell’s earlier promotion of disaggregation. He cites PowerScale’s integrated controller‑drive chassis as delivering lower rack space, fewer switches, and reduced power consumption. The...
Apple Could Launch a New Entry-Level MacBook in March (Along with New MacBook Pro and Air Models)
Apple is slated to host a March 4, 2026 event that could unveil a new entry‑level MacBook priced below $1,000, alongside refreshed MacBook Air and Pro models powered by M5‑series chips. The budget MacBook is expected to feature a sub‑13‑inch aluminum display, a...
Micron's World-First PCIe Gen 6 SSD Doubles Data Rates for AI Data Centers
Micron has begun mass production of the 9650 NVMe SSD, the world’s first PCIe Gen6 storage device. The drive delivers up to 28,000 MB/s sequential reads and 14,000 MB/s writes, roughly doubling Gen5 bandwidth while staying within a 25 W power envelope. Capacities range...
When Is It Time to Upgrade Your Control System?
Control system upgrades are back on plant executives' agendas as new capital budgets roll out for the year. The article highlights three primary risks of aging automation: hardware failure, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and the erosion of tribal knowledge. It urges decision‑makers...
When Is It Time to Upgrade Your Control System?
Plant managers face pressure to refresh aging control systems as new capital budgets roll out. Older PLCs and DCS platforms expose facilities to hardware failures, heightened cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and loss of tribal knowledge. Experts recommend a ten‑year upgrade cadence to...
LMT Group and Sateliot Partner with ESA to Advance Dual-Mode 5G Satellite IoT
LMT Group and Sateliot have launched a 12‑month partnership with ESA to create a universal dual‑mode 5G IoT module that can switch between terrestrial cellular networks and Sateliot’s LEO satellite constellation. The module follows 3GPP Release 17 NB‑IoT NTN standards and...
SK Hynix Proposes HBM and HBF Hybrid for LLM Inference
SK Hynix unveiled H³, a hybrid architecture that couples high‑bandwidth memory (HBM) with high‑bandwidth flash (HBF) on a single interposer to accelerate large‑language‑model (LLM) inference. HBF provides up to 16× the capacity of HBM while maintaining comparable bandwidth, serving as...
Memory Limits Will Bind Semiconductors Through 2030
Hard to really say past 2027 for certainty at this point, but its very easy to lay out the scenarios that keep memory constrained to 2030. Really not just memory, the depth of the constraints are so deep across...
AM Group Challenges Tech Giants with $25 Billion Green AI Platform
AM Group, the green‑energy conglomerate behind AM Green, announced a $25 billion investment to build a 1‑gigawatt high‑performance compute hub powered entirely by renewable energy. The first two phases – 150 MW and 200 MW – will be sited in Uttar Pradesh, with 350 MW...
Paragon ID, Dracula Technologies to Scale Light-Powered BLE Tags
Paragon ID and Dracula Technologies announced a large‑scale rollout of XgenTag‑L, the first fully light‑powered, battery‑free Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) smart tag. A multi‑year contract for several hundred thousand organic photovoltaic (OPV) modules will enable industrial deployment across logistics, healthcare,...
Joab Rosenberg, Partner at Deep33
In this episode, Yuval Boger talks with Joab Rosenberg, partner at Deep33, a new $100‑150 M venture fund targeting the future of compute, especially quantum computing. They examine the current state of quantum hardware, why Joab believes commercial applications will emerge...
AI Boom Sparks DRAM Crunch Across All Companies
NEW ODD LOTS - THE DRAM EPISODE The AI boom has created voracious demand for memory, meaning even consumer-facing companies are now having to compete for the chips @TheStalwart & I speak with @rwang07, analyst at SemiAnalysis, about the big DRAM crunch https://t.co/HYFcg7nK8Z
China’s X-Humanoid Introduces Embodied Tien Kung 3.0 Humanoid Robotics Platform
X‑Humanoid unveiled Embodied Tien Kung 3.0, a full‑size general‑purpose humanoid robot built on its Wise KaiWu embodied AI platform. The system adds upgraded balance, motion control, tactile interaction and fully autonomous operation. It stresses openness with expansion interfaces, low‑code tools and...
Graphene-Based Sliding Ferroelectric Transistor Stores 3,024 Stable Polarization States
Researchers at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics have created an atom‑thin sliding ferroelectric transistor that can store 3,024 distinct, non‑volatile polarization states at room temperature, setting a new record for ferroelectric neuromorphic hardware. The device uses a monolayer graphene...
PS6 GPU Will Not Be Fully Based on AMD’s RDNA 5 Architecture – Rumor
Sony’s upcoming PS6 will not rely entirely on AMD’s RDNA 5 GPU architecture, continuing the pattern of using a hybrid design that blends older and newer tech. The current‑gen PS5 still runs on RDNA 1 with custom ray‑tracing tweaks, while the handheld...
OM in the News: The Memory-Chip Shortage
A seven‑fold surge in DRAM and NAND flash prices is straining the consumer‑tech supply chain. AI‑driven data‑center expansion is the primary catalyst, leaving smartphones, PCs and gaming consoles with higher component costs. OEMs are responding by raising retail prices, trimming...
The Mobile Stack at Work: How Allied Technologies Are Reshaping Enterprise Mobility
Enterprise mobility is evolving from a smartphone‑centric model to a comprehensive mobile stack that includes silicon, 5G connectivity, edge AI, and specialised peripherals. IDC projects global spending on these solutions to exceed $700 billion by 2026, while Gartner expects over half...
Gremsy & Sierra BASE to Showcase Integrated Bridge Inspection Solution at Drone Show Korea 2026
Gremsy and South Korean UAV maker Sierra BASE announced a technical collaboration to showcase an integrated drone system at Drone Show Korea 2026. The solution pairs Gremsy’s VIO gimbal payload with Sierra BASE’s SIRIUS Wing v2 airframe, aiming to deliver...
Fox ESS Partners with Origin to Expand VPP Access Across Australia
Fox ESS announced a partnership with Origin Energy to integrate its home battery storage systems into Origin’s Loop virtual power plant (VPP) across Australia. The integration gives Fox ESS customers access to three Origin battery plans—Battery Lite, Battery Maximiser, and...
KNX at ISE 2026: Innovation, Interoperability and a Booth Full of Energy
At ISE 2026 in Barcelona, the KNX Association showcased a 280 m² open‑concept booth that attracted both seasoned KNX integrators and AV specialists. Live demos highlighted KNX’s ability to unify lighting, security, HVAC and audiovisual systems through a vendor‑agnostic, interoperable protocol. The...