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
Hark Lands $700 M Series A at $6 B Valuation to Build a Universal AI Personal‑assistant Platform
AI hardware startup Hark announced a $700 million Series A round led by Parkway Venture Capital, valuing the company at $6 billion post‑money. The round, backed by all four major U.S. chip makers and a slate of venture firms, will fund the launch of its multimodal AI models and a new line of consumer‑focused hardware.
If I Could only Have One Laptop for Work and Gaming, I’d Get This One
Asus unveiled the 2026 ROG Zephyrus G14, swapping its long‑standing AMD CPUs for a 16‑core Intel Core Ultra 9 386H and pairing it with an RTX 5070 Ti GPU. The laptop retains its thin‑and‑light OLED panel, adds a full‑size SD card slot and Thunderbolt 4,...
EC Approves €66m for German SiC Facility
The European Commission has approved a €288 million (≈$314 million) state‑aid package for two German semiconductor projects. €66 million (≈$72 million) will fund Zadient Materials Europe’s new plant in Bitterfeld to produce high‑purity silicon‑carbide (SiC) source material using a circular gas‑recovery process. The remaining...
Span Wants to Turn Homes Into Mini Data Centers
Span, a smart‑panel startup, unveiled XFRA—a distributed AI compute platform that installs air‑conditioner‑sized units in residential yards. Each node houses 16 Nvidia GPUs, three terabytes of RAM, and consumes about 12.5 kW, meaning roughly 8,000 nodes could match the power draw...
Before You Replace Your HDD with an SSD, Here’s Why some Users Still Prefer Hard Drives
Upgrading from a hard‑disk drive (HDD) to a solid‑state drive (SSD) dramatically speeds boot times, app launches, and gaming load‑times, while also delivering silent operation and better durability. However, HDDs still hold a price advantage for high‑capacity storage, making them...
Rokid Accelerates Agentic AI Roadmap for Smart Glasses Following Google Gemini Updates at I/O
Rokid announced that its AI‑powered smart glasses will run Google Gemini Flash 3.5, delivering faster, more contextual conversational experiences. The upgrade builds on an existing partnership with Google and adds to Rokid’s multi‑model support that already includes ChatGPT, DeepSeek and...
ESP32-S31 Development Boards Unveiled for IoT, Smart Audio, and HMI Applications
Espressif has released two ESP32‑S31 development boards that showcase its newest, most feature‑rich MCU. The ESP32‑S31 combines dual RISC‑V cores, Wi‑Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, 802.15.4, Gigabit Ethernet, and ample memory. The Function‑CoreBoard‑1 targets wired IoT with Ethernet, USB‑OTG and mono audio, while...
Google Commits $190 B to AI, Says CFO Ruth Porat at I/O
At the I/O developer conference, Google president and chief investment officer Ruth Porat detailed a $190 billion AI budget for 2026, allocating roughly 40% to data‑center expansion and 60% to custom chips. The pledge underscores a full‑stack strategy that CTOs must...
Amkor Expands Arizona Packaging Plans as AMD Joins Advanced Packaging Customers
Amkor Technology announced the acquisition of an additional 67 acres adjacent to its existing 104‑acre campus in Arizona, paving the way for a new advanced‑packaging fab slated to begin production in 2028. The company confirmed a partnership with AMD to...
YouTuber Sets New MacBook Neo Record with Industrial Air Blower and Peltier Cooling
YouTuber Salem Techsperts broke the world‑record 3DMark score for the budget MacBook Neo, hitting 1,451 points with a custom dual‑sided cooling rig that combines a PTM 7950 thermal pad, Upsiren thermal putty, a Peltier thermoelectric cooler and a giant industrial...
IBM and U.S. Commerce Dept. Launch $1 B Quantum Foundry, Part of $2 B CHIPS Initiative
IBM and the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a $1 billion grant to create America’s first purpose‑built quantum foundry for superconducting wafers. The award is part of a $2.013 billion CHIPS and Science Act package that also funds GlobalFoundries and other firms,...
Wolfspeed Introduces 3.3kV SiC Power Modules in Two Industry-Standard Footprints
Wolfspeed announced two new 3.3 kV silicon‑carbide power‑module families – a high‑power half‑bridge baseplate line and a scalable baseplate‑less full‑bridge WolfPACK line – in industry‑standard footprints. The half‑bridge modules target >800 A applications such as solar, grid‑scale storage and wind, while the...
Infineon-Led European Project Moore4Power Launches
Infineon Technologies has launched the EU‑backed Moore4Power project, a three‑year R&D effort funded with €91 million (≈$99 million). The consortium brings together 62 companies, research institutes and SMEs from 15 European nations to develop heterogeneous power‑chiplet systems that combine Si, SiC and...
Dell Pro 34 Plus P3425WE Monitor Review: Ultra Wide, Ultra Sensible
Dell’s new Pro 34 Plus P3425WE is a 34‑inch ultrawide IPS monitor aimed at business users, priced at £440 (about $560) in the UK. It offers a 3,440 × 1,440 resolution, 100 Hz refresh rate, 90 W USB‑C power delivery, a built‑in KVM switch, and...
China Chipmaker CXMT Logs 1,688% Profit Surge Amid Global Memory Crunch
China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) posted a net profit of $3.6 billion for Q1, a 1,688% jump from a year earlier, while revenue surged 719% to $7.5 billion. The surge reflects soaring global DRAM prices driven by AI‑related demand. CXMT, now the...
Leonardo DRS Launches LWIR Thermal Camera Module at SOF Week 2026
Leonardo DRS unveiled the Tenum® 640 Orbit™ LWIR thermal camera module at SOF Week 2026 in Tampa. The uncooled VOx microbolometer provides 640 × 512 resolution, 10 µm pixel pitch, 60 fps, and sub‑20 mK sensitivity across the 8‑14 µm band. Built for Group 1‑3 UAVs, UGVs...
GPU Optimizations Are Interlinked, Necessitating Auto‑Tuning
A survey paper on Optimization Techniques for GPU Programming This survey discusses various optimization techniques found in 450 articles published in the last 14 years. They analyze the optimizations from different perspectives which shows that the various optimizations are highly interrelated,...
NVIDIA N1: Leak Shows Laptop Motherboard with 128 GB LPDDR5X
A leaked image of an alleged NVIDIA N1 laptop motherboard reveals eight SK‑hynix LPDDR5X chips, suggesting a total of 128 GB of soldered memory. The board appears to be an engineering sample of an ARM‑based SoC aimed at AI‑centric notebooks rather...
Will Radeon RX 9070 XT Soon Cost 200 Euros More? Insights Into Material and Manufacturing Costs, Cost Calculations, and Manufacturer...
Mid‑range graphics cards, especially AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 XT, are currently priced around €660‑€670 ($713‑$724) in Germany, but the underlying cost structure has shifted dramatically. The cost of 16 GB GDDR6 memory has more than doubled, pushing the FOB price from roughly €390 ($421)...
Thin GeekBook X14 Pro Delivers Powerful Performance
Sick of your boat anchor? I put a shockingly thin and light GEEKOM GeekBook X14 Pro Windows 11 Pro Laptop through its paces, and I'm not going to lie, I was impressed. Did I mention 32GB of RAM and 2TB...
EU to Force Dual-Source Chip Rules on Carmakers, Mulls Sanctions Waiver for Nexperia
The European Commission is preparing a draft law that will obligate automakers such as Volkswagen, Stellantis and Renault to buy semiconductors from at least two suppliers, while simultaneously weighing a temporary suspension of sanctions on Chinese‑owned chipmaker Nexperia. The twin...
Intel Begins Mass Production of 288‑Core Xeon 6+ “Clearwater Forest” CPUs on 18A Process
Intel announced today that its next‑gen Xeon 6+ “Clearwater Forest” processors are in full‑scale production on the 18A node. The chips pack up to 288 Darkmont E‑cores, 576 MB of on‑package L3 cache and a 450 W TDP, promising a 38% reduction...
Anthropic Locks $45 B Compute Pact with SpaceX, Upgrades Claude on GB200
Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.25 billion per month to SpaceX for exclusive access to the Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 supercomputer clusters in Memphis, a contract valued at roughly $45 billion through May 2029. The deal expands Claude’s capacity on NVIDIA’s next‑gen GB200...
Samsung's AI‑Driven Growth Tops $1 Trillion, Workers Secure Bonus Boost in Tentative Deal
Samsung Electronics, now valued at over $1 trillion thanks to AI‑driven memory chip demand, reached a tentative agreement with unions to scrap a 50% bonus cap and allocate 10.5% of semiconductor division profits to bonuses. The pact, reached hours before a...
Japan’s April Exports Surge 14.8% Amid Oil‑Gas Supply Concerns
Japan’s trade ministry reported a 14.8% year‑on‑year rise in April exports, the eighth straight month of growth, powered by a 42% surge in semiconductor shipments. The rally comes as oil and LNG imports plunge amid the Iran‑related closure of the...
Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Nvidia Launch Silicon Valley Physical AI Center
Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Nvidia have announced a joint development center in Silicon Valley to integrate Nvidia's AI platforms with Kawasaki's robotics solutions. The collaboration, which also involves Microsoft and Fujitsu, targets physical artificial intelligence for industrial and service robots.
Cabinet Rejects Trump’s Claims of Chip Industry Theft
The U.S. Cabinet rejected President Donald Trump’s assertion that Taiwan stole America’s semiconductor technology, emphasizing that the island’s chip industry stems from decades of independent development. Trump, after a recent Beijing visit, claimed the U.S. lost its chip sector because...
GlobalFoundries Launches Specialized Business Unit to Expand Onshore Quantum Hardware Manufacturing
GlobalFoundries has created a new division, Quantum Technology Solutions, to commercialize on‑shore quantum hardware manufacturing. The U.S. Department of Commerce will provide $375 million under the CHIPS and Science Act and take a roughly 1% equity stake in the company. The...
Eufy Brings Local AI Agents to Home Security, the First I've Seen Without a Subscription
Eufy unveiled EdgeAgent, an on‑device AI processor built into its new Smart Security Shield, a weather‑resistant sensor and camera with a 180‑degree view. The edge‑based system performs facial recognition up to 100 feet away and operates 63% faster than typical cloud‑based...
Anker’s New Earbuds Have the Best Call Quality I’ve Ever Heard
Anker’s Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and 5 Pro Max earbuds debut with the new Thus chip, delivering processing power comparable to Apple, Sony and Bose offerings. Priced at $170 for the Pro and $230 for the Max, they target the premium segment while retaining...
ADT Announces Yet Another DIY Home Security Line, Now With AI Features
ADT introduced ADT Blu, a new DIY home‑security line that eliminates the company’s traditional installation fees and long‑term contracts. The lineup includes a $249 Security Starter Kit and a $389 Outdoor Video Kit, with optional $10 monthly monitoring that can be...
Beijing Bans Nvidia’s Top Graphics Card to Back Domestic Rivals
Beijing has added Nvidia's RTX 5090D V2 graphics card to its banned‑goods list, ending the sale of a Blackwell‑based GPU that was marketed to Chinese gamers and AI hobbyists. The ban follows the Trump‑Xi summit and reflects escalating U.S. export controls that...
Footsteps Power Clean Energy and Data with Pavegen
Pavegen Turns Footsteps into #CleanEnergy and Smart #Data by @Pavegen #AI #Robots #MachineLearning #ArtificialIntelligence #ML https://t.co/e3c6tRUYIt
AI-Powered Stretchable Computing Patch Can Run Algorithms Directly on the Body
University of Chicago researchers unveiled a skin‑like, stretchable computing patch that runs AI algorithms directly on the body in milliseconds, eliminating the need for wireless data transmission. The device uses a dense array of organic electrochemical transistors—10,000 per square centimetre—fabricated...
Meta, Broadcom and Others to Launch $125 Million Semiconductor Research Hub at UCLA
Meta, Broadcom, Applied Materials, GlobalFoundries and Synopsys are investing $125 million to launch a five‑year Semiconductor Hub at UCLA's Samueli School of Engineering. The center will support research across chip design, equipment, software and manufacturing, aiming to accelerate AI‑powered chip innovations....
Meta Launches Quest 3S, a Lower‑cost VR Headset Built on Quest 2 Parts
Meta released the Quest 3S, a refreshed budget VR headset that combines the Quest 2’s Fresnel lenses and LCD panel with a newer Snapdragon XR2 Gen2 processor, 8 GB of RAM, Wi‑Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. The move positions Meta to capture price‑sensitive...
CHUWI's $449 USD Wildcat Lake Laptop Should Work Fine With Linux
CHUWI unveiled the UniBook, a $449 USD laptop built around Intel’s new Core 3‑304 Wildcat Lake processor. The 14‑inch device ships with Windows 11 but is positioned as Linux‑friendly, featuring 8 GB LPDDR5X RAM, Wi‑Fi 6, Gigabit Ethernet and a claimed 15‑20 hour battery life. By...
Angstrom Era Resets Semiconductors; LAM Accelerates New Geometries
Enjoyed kicking off the day with @LamResearch CEO Tim Archer and discussing why this moment for semis is different, how the angstrom era is causing a reset in semis, and what LAM is doing to help accelerate the adoption of...
Aetina Demonstrates Edge AI Platforms for Robotics, Vision AI and Enterprise Automation at COMPUTEX 2026
Aetina will exhibit its next‑generation edge AI portfolio at COMPUTEX 2026, featuring NVIDIA‑Jetson‑based robotic arms, vision AI modules, and on‑premise large language model workstations. The showcase highlights integrated Physical AI that combines voice, vision, reasoning and motion control without cloud...
Microsoft Plans Significant Update to Windows Secure Boot
Microsoft is rolling out its first Secure Boot certificate update in 15 years, with the 2011‑based certificates set to expire between June 27 and October 2026. For Windows desktops, the fix requires a standard Windows Update plus a UEFI firmware...
Going Crazy With Overclocking The MacBook Neo
Tech enthusiasts stripped the MacBook Neo’s case, mounted a peltier cooler with phase‑change paste, and added massive heatsinks plus an industrial blower. The modified setup drew 11 W—8 W more than the stock configuration—and delivered a 41.47% increase in Cinebench performance. While not...
Nvidia Earnings Show AI Spending Moving Beyond GPUs
Nvidia reported record fiscal 2027 Q1 revenue of $81.6 billion, driven by a 92% surge in data‑center sales to $75.2 billion. The company announced a new reporting structure that separates its business into Data Center and Edge Computing, with the Data Center split...
Lightwire Tackles Scalable Interconnect Solutions for Startups
Very interesting startup presenting here at LAM Capital called Lightwire focusing on scale in (something you will hear more about) as we move through scale up/out and bringing interconnect on package. https://t.co/t2gKh2vObF
Servers Don’t Fail Randomly: The Structural Causes Behind Large Scale Hardware Incidents
Server outages in modern data centers are rarely random; they stem from structural flaws introduced during design, firmware configuration, or pre‑production validation. As platforms become denser and firmware‑driven, reliability hinges on interactions among power delivery, PCIe fabrics, and management controllers...
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Wants to Be King of a Brand-New Empire
Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, announced its entry into the central processing unit market with Vera, its first standalone AI‑focused CPU launched in March. CFO Colette Kress said the product opens a new $200 billion total addressable market, with early...
Samsung Launches Odyssey G8, World’s First 6K Gaming Monitor
Samsung introduced the Odyssey G8, a 32‑inch 6K gaming monitor that runs at 165 Hz and offers a dual‑mode 3K/330 Hz setting. The launch expands Samsung’s premium monitor lineup and sets a new resolution benchmark for gamers.
New Silicon Battery Partnership Targets Longer-Range Drone Delivery
Amprius Technologies and Matternet have formed a strategic partnership to embed Amprius’s silicon‑anode lithium‑ion cells into Matternet’s autonomous M2 delivery drones. The collaboration has already seen the new batteries installed in the M2 platform, which operates in several urban drone...
Meta Quest 4 Pushed to 2027
Meta has cancelled both Quest 4 prototypes—Pismo Low and Pismo High—shifting the flagship’s launch to 2027 at the earliest. The company is instead prioritising an ultralight headset, codenamed Puffin, which will weigh under 110 g and cost under $1,000. Quest 3 and its...
HighTec and SiFive Strengthen RISC-V Safety Tools
HighTec EDV-Systeme and SiFive have announced a joint effort to deliver safety‑qualified RISC‑V software toolchains for automotive and industrial applications. The partnership merges HighTec’s LLVM‑based compiler suite for C/C++ and Rust, which is ISO 26262 ASIL D and ISO 21434 certified, with SiFive’s...
Google To Build $15B Data Center Next To Amazon Center In Missouri
Google announced a $15 billion, 900‑acre data center in Montgomery County, Missouri, positioned directly beside Amazon’s $35 billion, 1,000‑acre project. The investment is part of Alphabet’s $190 billion capex plan for 2026, emphasizing AI‑driven infrastructure. Google will bring more than 1 gigawatt of capacity...