Architecting Intelligence: The Rise of RISC-V CPUs in Agentic AI Infrastructure
SiFive announced a $400 million Series G round that lifts its valuation to $3.65 billion, earmarked for next‑generation RISC‑V CPU IP aimed at agentic AI data‑center workloads. The funding will accelerate hardware co‑design that tightly integrates scalar, vector and matrix compute units to reduce data movement and latency. It also backs software‑ecosystem development to ensure Linux and GPU‑interconnect compatibility, enabling hyperscalers to deploy customized, power‑efficient CPUs for complex AI orchestration. Together, these moves position RISC‑V as a viable alternative to traditional x86/ARM architectures for emerging AI workloads.
IPad at 16
Apple celebrated the iPad’s 16th anniversary, marking a decade‑plus of market dominance since its 2010 launch at $499. The tablet introduced Apple’s first custom A4 chip and quickly sold a million units in its first month, eventually reaching roughly 910 million...
Horizon Quantum Will Acquire a 256-Qubit Trapped-Ion System From IonQ
Horizon Quantum announced the acquisition of IonQ’s 256‑qubit trapped‑ion system, a platform that delivers 99.99% gate fidelity and all‑to‑all qubit connectivity. The hardware will complement Horizon’s existing superconducting processor, creating a rare multi‑modality quantum testbed. Integration into the company’s Triple...
Data Centres Without the Compute
The IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) initiative is redefining data‑centre architecture by replacing electrical interconnects with end‑to‑end photonic links. This shift dissolves the long‑standing locality assumption that compute, memory, and storage must reside together, enabling memory‑centric facilities where memory...
Gitex Africa 2026: Sandisk Brings Optimus SSD Product Brand and New Portable SSD Lineup to Africa
SanDisk unveiled its new Optimus SSD brand at Gitex Africa 2026 in Marrakech, consolidating its former WD_BLACK and WD_Blue internal drives under a single performance‑focused identity. The launch includes three Optimus tiers—product, GX, and GX PRO—targeting creators, gamers, and high‑end professionals....
Japan IT Week 2026: Pegatron Showcases End-to-End AI Server Solutions and Strengthens Japan Presence
Pegatron Corp. showcased its full‑stack AI server solutions at Japan IT Week 2026, emphasizing a vertically integrated model that covers design, manufacturing, and after‑sales support. The exhibition highlighted rack‑scale platforms featuring NVIDIA HGX Blackwell and AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs, as well as...
HighPoint Announces Rocket 1604L Compact PCIe Gen5 X16 Retimer AIC for AI and Industrial Edge
HighPoint Technologies unveiled the Rocket 1604L, a 4‑M.2 PCIe Gen5 x16 add‑in card powered by Astera Labs' Gen5 retimer. The compact 167 mm module delivers full 32 GT/s bandwidth with near‑zero latency, targeting AI edge and high‑velocity compute workloads. It integrates a Smart Firmware Layer...
Why Your Next Archive Should Be Cold
Disk‑based archival solution ALTO, powered by MAID‑III cold‑storage and helium‑sealed drives, is now outperforming LTO‑9/10 tape in real‑world reliability. In an 8,000‑disk deployment ALTO logged only eight failures over six years, yielding an annualized failure rate of roughly 0.016%, about...
Open Compute Project Foundation Launches Collaboration Acceleration Fund to Advance Open Hardware Innovation
The Open Compute Project (OCP) Foundation has unveiled a Collaboration Acceleration Fund, a non‑equity grant program aimed at fast‑tracking open‑hardware projects that require multi‑stakeholder coordination. The fund will match 25 % to 50 % of approved project costs and provide technical and...
Ai+ Smartphone Unveils Nova Series, Expands Into Tablets, Wearables
Ai+ Smartphone unveiled its Nova Series—three 5G phones (Nova 2, Nova 2 Ultra, Nova Flip)—alongside its first tablet, PulseTab, and new audio and wearables. Prices start at roughly $110 for Nova 2 and $122 for the tablet, with premium models up to $366. The devices...
6 Bestselling Portable Power Stations for Spring
The spring market for portable power stations is heating up, with six best‑selling models dominating sales. High‑capacity LiFePO4 units such as Bluetti’s EnergyPro 13K ($7,919) and EcoFlow’s Delta Pro 3 ($2,299) target whole‑home backup, while mid‑range options like Anker’s SOLIX...
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[OFC 2026] Part 5 of 5: Hollow-Core Fiber and Next-Gen Transmission: Beyond the Loss Record
Hollow‑core fiber (HCF) is transitioning from laboratory demos to commercial roll‑outs. Microsoft now operates over 1,280 km of Azure HCF with sub‑0.1 dB/km loss and zero field failures, while AWS has introduced HCF in roughly ten data‑center sites. YOFC’s 0.04 dB/km laboratory record...
AMD Making It Easier To Embed Lemonade AI Capabilities Into Other Apps
AMD’s Lemonade open‑source AI server has released version 10.2, focusing on embeddable binaries for Linux and Windows. The new artifacts contain only the Lemond daemon, CLI and essential resources, removing web UI and Electron components. Lemonade 10.2 continues to support...
SIMPL Unveils Compass Dashboard to Enable Real-Time IoT Network Visibility
SIMPL Wireless introduced the Compass Dashboard, a SaaS‑based eUICC orchestration platform that consolidates IoT connectivity, carrier contracts, and device profiles into a single interface. The solution enables instant activation and real‑time visibility, shrinking deployment cycles from months to as little...
Healthcare Must Be Vigilant to IoT’s Total Costs
Europe’s digital health market is projected to more than double by 2030, accelerating IoT adoption across hospitals, remote‑monitoring programs, and clinical‑trial sites. While IoT promises faster care pathways and richer data, many healthcare organisations underestimate the total cost of ownership,...
Voltage Fault Injection: The Physical Hack That Breaks Open-Source Bitcoin Hardware.
The post reveals that voltage fault injection—a laboratory‑grade physical attack—can compromise 100% open‑source Bitcoin hardware wallets by directly manipulating silicon to bypass PIN protection. Even devices with transparent firmware like Trezor or Blockstream Jade are vulnerable when an adversary gains...
A 115-Inch Mini LED TV Exists Now, and It Has 330Hz Gaming
LG unveiled its 2026 QNED evo lineup, led by a 115‑inch Mini‑LED QNED90 that boasts a 330 Hz Motion Booster for ultra‑smooth gaming and AI‑driven picture enhancements. The series introduces Dynamic QNED Color Pro with 100 % color volume, Alpha 8 AI Processor Gen 3, and Precision...
Ethio Telecom Picks Ericsson to Drive Network Expansion
Ericsson and Ethiopia’s state‑owned operator Ethio telecom signed a deal at Mobile World Congress 2026 to modernise and expand the country’s mobile network. The agreement covers deployment of remote and Massive MIMO radios, microwave links and RAN transport across 1,500 sites,...
AMD Between the Memory Crisis and Price Stability: Is the 8GB Radeon RX 9060 XT a Damage Control Measure or...
AMD officially launched the Radeon RX 9060 XT on May 20 2025 with two memory options – an 8 GB model priced at $299 and a 16 GB version at $349 – targeting the 1440p segment. At the same time, a global DRAM price surge of roughly...
Framework Warns of Further Increases in RAM and SSD Costs: The Memory Crisis Is Affecting Repairable PCs as Well
Framework updated its April 6 price list, openly warning that DRAM, LPDDR5x and NAND costs are only temporarily stabilised and will likely rise through the rest of 2026. The company left DDR5 RAM prices unchanged but raised the 4‑TB WD Black...
Lenovo Pairs Its New Blackwell Workstations with the ED1000 Battery Concept: Plenty of Local AI Power, but the Battery Is...
Lenovo unveiled a new ThinkPad and ThinkStation P series built around NVIDIA’s RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs, targeting professional visualization, simulation and on‑premises AI workloads. The flagship ThinkPad P1 Gen 9 pairs an Intel Core Ultra 3 processor with up to 16 cores and delivers 672 TOPS...
Dell Is Radically Overhauling Its Business Portfolio: Thinner Laptops, Modular Repairs, and New Pro Precision Workstations
Dell announced a sweeping redesign of its commercial PC lineup, branding the new offerings as Dell Pro and Dell Pro Precision. The portfolio features thinner laptops powered by Intel Core Ultra 3 and AMD Ryzen AI 400, as well as workstations equipped with NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell...
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Listed in Stores Ahead of Launch: Early Store Listings Show a Release Window, but No Confirmed...
AMD’s new Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 dual‑edition CPU is appearing in retailer catalogs ahead of its official launch, with multiple stores listing an April 22 pre‑order window. The processor retains the 16‑core/32‑thread Zen 5 core count but expands L3 cache to 192 MB and raises TDP...
ASUS Hints at a Possible Anniversary Edition with the “ROG Crosshair X870E Edition 20” And “ROG Crosshair 2006”
ASUS has filed trademark registrations for two motherboard names—ROG Crosshair X870E Edition 20 and ROG Crosshair 2006—hinting at a possible 20th‑anniversary special edition. The registrations were spotted in an EEC entry reported by VideoCardz and align with ASUS’s ongoing ROG 20‑year celebration...
AMD Announces Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Pricing and Availability
AMD unveiled the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, a desktop processor featuring dual 3D V‑Cache. The chip launches on April 22 with a suggested retail price of $899. Targeted at workstation users, it aims to deliver higher cache density for compute‑intensive workloads. AMD...
Linux 7.0 Adds Support For New Keys On Upcoming Laptops For Expanded AI Agent Interactions
The Linux 7.0 kernel now supports three newly standardized HID keycodes designed for richer AI‑agent interactions on upcoming laptops. These keys—action on selection, contextual insertion, and contextual query—extend the existing Microsoft Copilot key that already triggers AI assistants. The update, merged...
Foundryecosystem Report: Nvidia GPU Delays; Tools; IC Prices
The latest Foundryecosystem Report highlights several critical shifts in the semiconductor sector. Nvidia’s new Rubin GPU ramp is trimmed to 1.5 million units after HBM4 qualification setbacks at SK Hynix and low yields at Micron, delaying mass production to September. Applied Materials...
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Spec Bump Brings Intel Panther Lake and AMD Ryzen AI PRO 400 Options
Lenovo has announced the ThinkPad X13 Gen 7 thin‑and‑light laptop for the Japanese market, with shipments slated for mid‑May. The new model offers two processor families: Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” and AMD’s Ryzen AI PRO 400 “Gorgon Point”. Weighing under 2.1 pounds, it...
Banning New Foreign Routers Mistargets Products to Fix Real Problem
On March 23 the FCC updated its Covered List to ban all new consumer routers made abroad unless granted a Department of Defense or Homeland Security exception. The agency says foreign‑made routers create supply‑chain vulnerabilities that could threaten the U.S....
Intel, Musk, and the Tweet That Launched a 1000 Ships on a Becalmed Sea
Intel announced a partnership with Elon Musk’s Terafab project, joining SpaceX, xAI and Tesla to develop a 1‑terawatt‑per‑year AI compute fab. The deal follows Intel’s $11.1 billion federal rescue, converting unspent grants into a 9.9% U.S. government equity stake. Musk’s ecosystem...
Arpit Dwivedi on the 2,000-Year-Old Battery That Could Power the World | Believe in Aliens Episode 4
Cache Energy is commercializing a 2,000‑year‑old chemical reaction that stores electricity in limestone (quicklime) pellets housed in ordinary grain silos. Founder Arpit Dwivedi argues the approach is three to five times cheaper than competing long‑duration storage and can be deployed...
As MacBook Neo Demand Soars, Apple Faces 'Massive Dilemma' With Its Inventory
Apple’s $599 MacBook Neo has quickly become a bestseller, driven by its vibrant colors, solid performance, and affordable price. The laptop relies on the A18 Pro chip, a leftover from the iPhone 16 Pro, but Apple’s inventory of these chips is far...
TCL’s New Flagship Mini-LED Fire TV Is the First to Run Android 14-Based Fire OS 14 in the US
TCL launched the QM64L Series, its first mini‑LED Fire TV to run Amazon’s Fire OS 14, which is built on Android 14. The lineup spans 55‑ to 98‑inch models priced between $649.99 and $2,499.99, with the 98‑inch unit already on sale for...
This $500 Speaker Hides a Full Dolby Atmos System Inside
Samsung launched its 2026 Music Studio line, featuring the premium Music Studio 7 ($499.99) and the more affordable Music Studio 5 ($299.99). The Studio 7 packs a true 3.1.1‑channel speaker array with Dolby Atmos and Eclipsa Audio support, earning a CES 2026 Innovation...
From SoC to System-in-Package: Transforming Automotive Compute with Multi-Die Integration
Automotive electronics are moving from monolithic system‑on‑chips to multi‑die system‑in‑package solutions to meet soaring compute, safety, and longevity demands. By stacking or side‑by‑side heterogeneous dies, manufacturers can combine CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators and high‑bandwidth memory within a single package. This...
Equal1’s Silicon Qubits Gain Autonomous Calibration with Q-CTRL
Equal1 has partnered with quantum‑control specialist Q‑CTRL to embed its Boulder Opal Scale Up software into the company’s Bell‑series silicon qubit systems. The integration adds autonomous calibration, eliminating the need for manual, expert‑driven tuning of quantum hardware. This software‑driven autonomy...
Martina Matusko Joins Planqc to Build Quantum Computer with Neutral Atoms
Planqc has appointed Martina Matusko as a Quantum Hardware Engineer to accelerate its neutral‑atom quantum computer program. Matusko, a physicist with a PhD in quantum metrology and prior software experience, will lead atom‑trapping operations and hardware development in the Munich‑area lab....
In Conversation with Rudolf Erasmus
Rudolf Erasmus, Hardware Manager at Reliable Controls, highlighted the company’s push into millimeter‑wave occupancy detection and single‑pair Ethernet for long‑range, high‑speed building automation. He emphasized the RC‑FLEX controller line’s ability to log every object, unlocking deeper analytics, early‑issue detection, and...
Macs Crash After 49 Days of Uptime? ↦
A 32‑bit unsigned integer overflow in Apple’s XNU kernel causes Macs to freeze after exactly 49 days, 17 hours, 2 minutes and 47 seconds of continuous uptime. The bug stops all network traffic except ICMP ping, rendering the machine unresponsive until a reboot....
How to Choose the Right UPS for a Smart Home
A UPS is essential for keeping a smart‑home network alive during power interruptions. Rather than sizing solely by wattage, the article advises selecting a unit based on the runtime needed for core devices such as routers, hubs, switches and cameras....
Samsung’s Secret Weapon: Why the Galaxy Z Fold 8 ‘Wide’ Is a Game Changer
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and a new wide‑variant that keeps the proven M13 OLED panel while expanding the screen to a tablet‑like 4:3 aspect ratio. The wider design improves multitasking, media playback and split‑screen usability, and One UI 9.0...
When Data Centers Go Dark (DDCU 5/7)
The post forecasts that between 2028 and 2030 a data center will run for 90 consecutive days without any on‑site personnel, with AI making roughly 90% of operational decisions. Robotic fleets will autonomously swap hardware, clean sensors, inspect cooling systems,...
(Podcast) The Rebound 593: In These Troubling Times
The Rebound 593 podcast, sponsored by Sonos’s new cross‑platform client, dives into three hot tech topics. Hosts debate whether Apple will eventually release a foldable iPhone and examine how the early success of the MacBook Neo could pressure supply chains....
The Flywheel That Eats Itself (DDCU 6/7)
The DDCU architecture introduces a self‑reinforcing flywheel that channels 20 % of infrastructure profit into DCXPS Ventures, creating captive customers and fueling further compute expansion. Unlike traditional data‑center operators that wait for external demand, DDCU’s model builds demand internally. Projections show...
Design of Foldable iPhone Confirmed by Dummy Sets
Tech journalist Sonny Dickson released exclusive dummy units of a foldable iPhone, confirming Apple is actively developing a folding handset. The mockups feature a squarer hinge and a horizontal flip mechanism, aligning with earlier speculative designs. The presence of production-ready...
[OFC 2026] Part 4 of 5: 400G/Lane and 1.6T Coherent: Two Fronts, One Power Wall
The OFC 2026 session highlighted two parallel scaling tracks in datacenter optics: 400 Gb/s per lane IM‑DD and 1.6 Tb/s coherent pluggables. Six papers mapped the current technical state, concluding both paths are brushing against fundamental physical limits without any live link...
Why Google’s TurboQuant Algorithm Is Disrupting the AI Memory Chip Market
Google’s TurboQuant algorithm compresses large language models by up to six times and accelerates processing as much as eightfold, delivering the same accuracy with far less memory. The technology combines PolarQuant and a Quantized Johnson‑Lindenstrauss routine to cut inference costs...
Why Building the Cooling System Directly Into the PC Case Actually Works
Visual Thinker unveiled a 13‑liter small‑form‑factor PC case that embeds a custom water‑cooling loop directly into its chassis. By using SLA‑printed water distribution plates, the design eliminates traditional reservoirs and extensive tubing, freeing up space for a mini‑ITX motherboard, a...
Be in the Know. 17 Key Reads for Wednesday…
Intel announced a joint venture with SpaceX and Tesla to operate a new semiconductor fab, signaling a push to bring advanced chip manufacturing back to the United States. At the same time, Alibaba unveiled a massive AI‑focused data center powered...
.NEXT 2026: Nutanix and NetApp Form Strategic Alliance with New Integration for a Modern Cloud Platform
Nutanix and NetApp announced a strategic alliance to embed NetApp ONTAP storage into the Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) with the AHV hypervisor, slated for release later this year. The integration leverages NFS‑based connectivity, enabling rapid, in‑place VM migrations and unified...