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
The Need for Speed: How Domestic Manufacturing Accelerates Delivery of Mission-Critical Technology
Intel’s Government Technologies VP argues that U.S. defense superiority now hinges on speed, not just capability. He highlights how legacy acquisition models and offshore supply chains slow microelectronics delivery, jeopardizing deterrence. Emerging practices—hardware‑accurate digital twins, emulation, and Intel’s domestic 18A node—are compressing design‑to‑deployment timelines. Intel Foundry’s programs such as REMEDE, RAMP‑C, and SHIP are positioning on‑shore fabs as a strategic accelerator for mission‑critical chips.
Telesur Joins EllaLink Caribbean Gateway Project
Suriname’s state‑owned telecom Telesur has signed a letter of intent to connect to EllaLink’s Caribbean subsea cable system. The new gateway will provide direct access to Tier‑1 data centres in Europe and create redundant routes to Brazil and the United...
Samtec Expands Compact Power Interconnect Portfolio
Samtec has broadened its mPOWER ultra‑micro power interconnect line by adding through‑hole PCB termination options for vertical and right‑angle connectors. The new UMPS, UMPT and UMPT‑RA variants improve mechanical strength, making them better suited for vibration‑prone industrial, military, and aerospace...
Nintendo Raising Switch, Switch 2, Playing Card, and Hanafuda Card Prices
Nintendo announced worldwide price hikes for its Switch and Switch 2 consoles, with U.S. and Canadian Switch 2 units climbing $50 to $499.99 on September 1 2026. In Japan, all Switch models will see roughly ¥10,000 (≈$71) increases in May 2026, while Europe’s Switch 2 rises...
Schematik
Schematik, backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners in a 2026 pre‑seed round, is launching one of the first generative AI platforms that translates plain‑English design requests into hardware code, wiring diagrams, component lists, and assembly instructions. Founder Sam Beek, who previously...
Heliox Pilots Its New Flex Pro 480 kW DC Fast EV Charger with King County Metro
Heliox, a Siemens business, is piloting its new Flex Pro 480 kW DC fast charger with Seattle‑area transit agency King County Metro. The compact 12‑sq‑ft unit supports CCS1 and high‑current pantograph charging, delivering up to six simultaneous charging sessions. Operators can choose...
Govee’s Solar-Powered String Lights Are Already on Sale for 20 Percent Off
Govee’s 34‑foot Outdoor Solar String Lights have been reduced to $79.99 on Amazon, a $20 (20%) discount from the regular $99.99 price. The set includes eight IP67‑rated LEDs, a 6 W solar panel and a 4,800 mAh battery that can power the...
SANY Rolls Out 1,000th Electric Excavator & Launches 5G Remote Control
SANY Group has delivered its 1,000th electric excavator, underscoring a rapid shift toward zero‑emission construction equipment. The company also launched the SY550HD, a 5G‑enabled remote‑controlled excavator that can be operated from up to 8,500 km with latency as low as 120‑140 ms....
Rich On Tech Episode 173 - May 9, 2026
Episode 173 of Rich on Tech features Paul Struhsaker, CEO of the Wireless Power Consortium, who outlines how the upcoming Qi2 standard could become the USB‑C moment for wireless charging—making it simpler, universal, and more reliable. The show also hosts...
Kodiak AI and Bosch Test Hardware Components for Autonomous Trucking Platform
Bosch has begun supplying camera and actuation hardware to Kodiak AI, integrating early‑prototype sensors into the company’s SensorPods and testing Bosch’s camera samples for its autonomous trucking platform. The partnership, announced in January 2026, has moved from strategic alignment to joint...
Automotive Connectivity and Efficiency: Seizing the Wi-Fi 7 Opportunity—Download the Guide
Murata’s new whitepaper highlights Wi‑Fi 7 as a transformative technology for automotive connectivity, offering up to 16 spatial streams and 320 MHz channel widths. The high‑bandwidth, low‑latency link is positioned to meet the massive data demands of advanced driver‑assistance systems (ADAS) and...
Vertical, Hollow-Shaft Motors Meet Needs of Mexico’s Water Industry
ABB has secured NOM and ANCE certifications for its Vertical Hollow Shaft (VHS) motors, clearing a key regulatory hurdle for deployment across Mexico’s water‑related sectors. The VHS line, engineered for vertical pumping in agriculture, mining, municipal water and wastewater treatment,...
Amplify Battery Cell Manufacturing JV Faces More Delays
Daimler Truck announced a $235 million impairment charge as the Amplify Cell Technologies battery‑cell joint venture in Mississippi encounters further delays. The 2.6‑million‑square‑foot plant, projected to cost $2‑3 billion, had already seen its production start pushed from 2027 to 2028, and the...
Nintendo to Hike Price of Switch 2 Console Due to Memory Chip Prices
Nintendo announced a price increase for its upcoming Switch 2 console, with the hike taking effect in Japan on May 25 and later in North America and Europe on September 1. The company attributes the adjustment to rising semiconductor memory costs that are...
OnePlus’ Latest Phone Cuts OS Updates in Half, because Clearly Everything Is Fine
OnePlus launched the Nord CE6, a mid‑range phone priced under €300 (≈$327), featuring a Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset, 8 GB RAM, a 50 MP camera and an 8,000 mAh battery. The company advertised a “Fast and Smooth for 6 years” experience, but the device will receive...
SmallSat Europe Speaker Focus: Johannes Galatsanos, Diffraqtion
Diffraqtion, a quantum‑imaging startup spun out of MIT and the University of Maryland, announced a $4.2 million pre‑seed round that includes a DARPA Small Business Innovation Research Phase‑II contract. The company’s quantum camera promises up to 20‑times higher resolution and 1,000‑times...
AI Resurgence Revives Demand for Legacy IT Infrastructure
The AI boom may be reviving parts of the tech industry many thought were obsolete. As AI moves deeper into enterprise adoption, older infrastructure like servers, storage, software stacks and general-purpose chips are becoming relevant again. The pendulum is swinging. AI may...
Memory Is No Longer a Commodity – The Industry Hasn't Fully Caught Up
The global semiconductor market is on track to hit $1.2 trillion this year, with memory projected to capture 30‑35% of that total. A shift from a fragmented DRAM landscape to an oligopoly dominated by Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron and emerging player CXMT...
Valve's Steam Controller Reservation System May Give You Steam Deck Flashbacks
Valve is launching a reservation queue for the Steam Controller on May 8 at 6 pm UK time, letting existing Steam users sign up to buy the device as stock arrives. The system mirrors the 2022 Steam Deck launch, offering a first‑come‑first‑served...
Microsoft’s High‑speed CPU Profile Sparks Durability Backlash
Microsoft is planning a new Low Latency Profile that would max out CPU Frequencies to accelerate app launches by up to 40% The yet to be released profile is already being heavily criticized due to CPU durability concerns No such concerns were...
High-Speed Automation Delivers Precise Package Sorting
Precision in Motion: High-Speed #Automated Package Sorting in Action by @amazingthings_ #EmergingTech #Technology #Innovation #Tech https://t.co/Hjv7ashwQf
Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson Says the Future of Crypto Wallets Will Be Inside iPhones and Androids
At Consensus 2026, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson argued that private keys should reside in the secure hardware of smartphones rather than in user‑held seed phrases or external hardware wallets. He highlighted that Apple’s Secure Enclave, Android’s Keystore/StrongBox, and Samsung Knox...
AI-Driven Memory Shortage Spikes Console Prices
Sony, Nintendo grapple with memory price surge as AI boom constrains supply More collateral damage from US controls on memory... https://t.co/zUdAvKWJsv
Nintendo Slashed GBA Price Within Months to Boost Adoption
Fun Fact: Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance in the US in June 2001 for $99. In January 2002, seven months later, Nintendo announced it would lower the price of the Game Boy Advance to $79 as a result of...
Anker Solix C2000: A Lower-Priced Power Station I’d Be Grateful to Have During a Blackout
Anker’s Solix C2000 power station delivers 2,400 W continuous (4,000 W surge) output and a 2,048 Wh LiFePO₄ battery, positioning it as a mid‑range, cost‑effective backup for homes, RVs, and off‑grid use. Weighing 41.7 lb, it offers five 120 V AC outlets, multiple USB‑C ports,...
Sivga M260: IPod‑style Earbuds with Bigger Driver
The Sivga M260 look like Apple's iPod earbuds, but with a big driver, premium build and multiple connection options. https://t.co/Bx8lVWoFfm
Compute‑in‑Memory Can Slash Data‑Center Energy Use by 90%
The Key to Evangelism: Passion Over Methodology 💥 See full video here: https://t.co/dxoKnfkKxI Compute-in-memory could cut data center energy 90%. #ComputeInMemory #EnergyEfficiency #DataCenter https://t.co/4flUFbcYQM
ValiDrive Helps Detect Fake USB Drives and Storage Devices
ValiDrive is a utility that quickly spot‑checks USB flash drives by writing and reading random 4 KB blocks across 576 evenly spaced locations, covering about 2.36 MB of the device. The tool exposes counterfeit drives that claim 1–2 TB of capacity but actually...
Sony Teases New ‘R’ Camera Amid Canon Mystery
Sony has shared a teaser on it YouTube channel of a new 'R' camera – releasing the same week as a mysterious new Canon camera. https://t.co/ImYrufdrxg
Middle East Data Center Boom Stalls After Iran War
The Middle East was a major hub for data centre development... and then the Iran war happened. So where does it sit now? My latest for @tomshardware https://t.co/3PmkQTwhMq
Nanoscale Design Channels Hybrid Light–Vibration Waves to Carry Heat More Efficiently
Researchers at the National University of Singapore have demonstrated that surface phonon polaritons—hybrid light‑vibration waves—can channel heat across nanoscale silicon‑dioxide bridges with far less loss than conventional phonon diffusion. By adding a micrometer‑scale grating to a suspended micro‑thermometer, they boosted...
Norwegian Consortium Develops Inductive Ship Charger for Offshore Applications
A Norwegian consortium of research institute SINTEF and shipbuilder Vard is developing an inductive charging adapter for battery‑electric service vessels operating offshore. The laboratory prototype can already transfer 50 kW wirelessly, and the design envisions a crane‑mounted system capable of delivering...
A Tough Question
Infineon still controls 77% of Qimonda, a DRAM subsidiary that has become a financial drain. Qimonda recently cut 600 jobs in Dresden and is paying roughly $5,450 per former Infineon employee who jumps ship. Infineon has written down the Qimonda...
XPENG Launches X‑Cache Accelerator, Promising 2.7× Faster AI Inference for Autonomous Driving
Chinese EV maker XPENG announced the X‑Cache “World Model Accelerator,” a plug‑and‑play hardware utility that accelerates autonomous‑driving AI inference by up to 2.7 times without retraining. The move aims to lower compute costs and improve real‑time performance in its X‑World...
DHS Plans XR Smart‑Glasses Pilot for ICE Agents, Sparking Privacy Outcry
The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to field a custom extended‑reality smart‑glasses system for ICE agents by September 2027. The glasses will capture video, run real‑time biometric matches against federal databases, and overlay alerts, a plan that civil‑rights groups warn...
Telefonica Germany Starts Operating 5G Site in Pouch Ahead of Sputnik Spring Break Festival
Telefonica Germany has activated a new 50‑metre mast on the Pouch peninsula, boosting 5G and 4G coverage around the Mulde Reservoir recreation area. The site is timed to support the Sputnik Spring Break festival, which runs from 22 to 25 May...
Motorola Sets May 13 Launch for Razr Fold in India with Two Colors and High‑end Specs
Motorola India announced that the Razr Fold will hit stores on May 13, available in Pantone Blackened Blue and Pantone Lily White with 12GB + 256GB or 16GB + 512GB configurations. The foldable will be sold through Flipkart, the Motorola website and select retailers...
Aeva Delivers Atlas 4D LiDAR C‑samples to Daimler Truck for Autonomous Freightliner Cascadia
Aeva has shipped Atlas 4D LiDAR C‑samples to Daimler Truck North America for integration into the autonomous Freightliner Cascadia. The FMCW sensor, capable of detecting objects up to 500 metres, moves the program closer to series production and highlights a deepening...
ProPhotonix Announces COBRA Slim UV with up to 20,000 Wm-2 UVA Output for Inspection Applications
ProPhotonix, part of the Exaktera Group, unveiled the COBRA Slim UV LED line light capable of delivering up to 20,000 W·m⁻² UVA irradiance. The product offers four selectable wavelengths (365 nm‑405 nm), field‑adjustable optics, optional 4× strobing, and a modular design that can...
Data Center Cooling Drives Johnson Controls’ Q2 Sales up 8%
Johnson Controls reported Q2 revenue of $6.1 billion, an 8% year‑over‑year increase, and a 30% jump in its order backlog to $20 billion, driven largely by data‑center and life‑sciences demand. The company introduced two high‑density chiller platforms, York YDAM and York YK‑HT,...
IPhone Ultra Fold First Look: Apple Finally Went WIDE to Create the Ultimate Hybrid Device
Apple is set to launch its first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Ultra Fold, featuring a short‑wide form factor that unfolds to a 7.8‑inch LTPO OLED display. The device swaps the Lightning port for USB‑C, adds stereo speakers, and packs a...
The Square G-Shock That Outlives Every Smartwatch You Own
The Casio G‑Shock DW‑5600 series is experiencing a surge in U.S. interest, driven by its $99.95 price point and rugged reputation. Variants range from the classic DW‑5600E‑1V to solar‑powered GW‑M5610 and Bluetooth‑enabled GW‑B5600, each catering to different user needs. Aftermarket...
Tech Industry Leaders Form the Ambient IoT Alliance
The Ambient IoT Alliance (AIoTA) was launched by seven leading tech and consumer companies to build an open, multi‑standard ecosystem for battery‑free, low‑cost IoT devices. The coalition includes Intel, Qualcomm, Infineon, PepsiCo, Atmosic, VusionGroup and Wiliot, and focuses on harmonizing...
Maingear MG-1 (2026) Review: Fast and Clean, for a Price
The 2026 Maingear MG‑1 review highlights a refreshed MK.II chassis that prioritizes clean cable management and robust airflow while supporting flagship components such as an Nvidia RTX 5090 and AMD Ryzen 9950X3D2. Base configurations start at $2,249, but a fully specced build...
5% GPU Utilization: The $401 Billion AI Infrastructure Problem Enterprises Can't Keep Ignoring
Enterprises are poised to spend $401 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, yet internal audits reveal average GPU utilization stuck at a dismal 5%. This under‑utilization turns costly GPU assets into depreciating liabilities, prompting CFOs to demand measurable returns. Recent VentureBeat...
Why Broadcasters Are Rethinking Infrastructure One Practical Step at a Time
Broadcasters are moving away from piecemeal, hardware‑heavy setups toward software‑defined, hyperconverged infrastructure. The industry’s focus has expanded from pure reliability to include flexibility, efficiency, and the ability to adapt quickly to new formats or remote production models. By consolidating functions...
AWS Confirms Data Center Outage Caused By ‘Thermal Event,’ Some Services Still Impacted
Amazon Web Services confirmed a thermal event caused a cooling failure at its North Virginia US‑East‑1 data center, leading to power loss and widespread impairments of core services such as EC2, EBS, Redshift, SageMaker and others. Power was partially restored...
193: Is Apple DOWNGRADING the iPhone 18 Due to Memory Shortage?
The episode delves into rumors that Apple may be downgrading the standard iPhone 18 due to a surge in memory (RAM) costs driven by AI-driven chip shortages. Hosts discuss how this could lead to component sharing with the iPhone 18 E,...
Cost-Effective High-Performance Flip Chip MicroLeadFrame®(fcMLF®) Package Introduction
Amkor Technology unveiled its flip‑chip MicroLeadFrame (fcMLF) package, merging flip‑chip interconnects with traditional leadframe construction. The solution targets automotive and commercial markets that demand smaller footprints, superior thermal and electrical performance, and proven reliability. By using copper‑pillar bumps and a...
Hyperscalers Ate My Next Computer
The AI boom has forced hyperscalers to commandeer semiconductor capacity, driving DRAM prices up 172% and pushing a 32 GB DDR5 kit from $90 to $530. Nvidia’s RTX 5090 now retails above $3,000 after a 30‑40% production cut, while Intel’s market cap...