Hardware News and Headlines
Hardware News and Headlines
Hardware Pulse
EMAIL DIGESTS
Daily
Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
EMAIL DIGESTS
Daily
Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
Sony has issued a new system software update (version 4.93) for the PlayStation 3, nearly two decades after the console’s launch. The update’s notes repeat the generic claim of "improving system performance," but its real purpose is to refresh the Blu‑ray AACS encryption key and make jailbreaking more difficult. Installing the patch requires about 200 MB of free storage and is essential for unmodded PS3 owners who still watch Blu‑ray movies. The move comes as Netflix has already ended app support for the aging platform.
Hangzhou‑based DEEP Robotics unveiled a limited‑edition robot horse to mark the 2026 Year of the Horse. Weighing 66 lb and standing half a meter tall, the bionic quadruped can haul up to 110 lb, climb 25 cm stairs and tackle 45‑degree slopes while...
The ongoing global RAM shortage has forced Retroid to temporarily discontinue its Pocket G2 handheld, citing volatile memory pricing. The company also raised the price of its Pocket Classic from $129 to $149, reflecting higher component costs. Retroid recommends the...
Teradyne announced the Photon 100, an opto‑electric automated test platform designed for high‑volume silicon photonics (SiPh) and co‑packaged optics (CPO) manufacturing. The system merges optical and electrical instrumentation on the UltraFLEXplus chassis, covering wafer, optical‑engine and module‑insertion testing. By delivering scalable,...
Nvidia researchers unveiled an always‑on vision system that can detect human faces in under one millisecond while consuming less than 5 mW of power. The chip, called Alpha‑Vision, operates at 60 fps and is active only 5 % of each frame cycle, achieving...
Flash memory prices are climbing even though manufacturers report no major supply disruptions, driven by soaring AI demand and a production base heavily concentrated in a few regions. This concentration turns modest demand shifts into sharp price spikes and longer...
AMD is set to launch two Zen 5 refresh CPUs – the Ryzen 7 9750X and Ryzen 5 9650X – that boost base clocks and raise default power limits without changing the underlying architecture. The 9750X moves to an 8‑core/16‑thread design with a 4.20 GHz base...
Exascend has listed a 16 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD in the standard M.2 2280 form factor for $15,935. The drive prioritises storage density over raw speed, delivering up to 3,270 MB/s reads and 2,980 MB/s writes while consuming under 1.3 W idle and 7.2 W active....
AMD issued a formal statement condemning Chinese OEM Chuwi for falsely branding laptops with a Ryzen 5 5500U as the newer Ryzen 5 7430U. The mislabeling involved BIOS string changes and external 7000‑series branding, violating AMD’s OEM agreements. AMD emphasized that the practice was...
Anschütz has completed the Critical Design Review for its Warship Integrated Navigation and Bridge System (WINBS) destined for the Royal Australian Navy’s Hunter‑class frigates. The CDR confirms the design meets technical and operational requirements and clears the way for production...
TECNO unveiled its CAMON 50 series at MWC 2026, positioning the lineup as the centerpiece of an AI‑powered ecosystem that spans smartphones, AIoT devices, and productivity tools. The devices combine fashion‑forward design, 5G connectivity, and a new LightMaster imaging engine that uses...
The National Audit Office reports that the United Kingdom’s next‑generation supercomputer will miss its original 2026 launch by roughly 13 months, now expected in early 2027. The delay stems primarily from prolonged government funding approvals and procurement bottlenecks. The project,...
The ZDNET review crowns the Bluetti AC240 as a top‑tier portable power station, highlighting its IP65 rating and 1,536 Wh LiFePO₄ battery. It delivers 3,600 W of continuous power, can charge to 80 % in just 45 minutes, and supports up to 1,200 W of...
Mirrorcle Technologies announced renewed production orders from Taara at OFC 2026, extending a decade‑long partnership that underpins Taara's Lightbridge terrestrial laser‑communication system. The Lightbridge product delivers 20 Gbps over 20 km using Mirrorcle's MEMS fine‑steering mirrors, now moving into volume production. Mirrorcle...
Nokia’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Infinera is bearing fruit as the company unveils a modular "building‑block" optical engine featuring four new DSPs and interchangeable indium‑phosphide, silicon‑photonic, and lithium‑niobate front ends. The approach lets customers mix and match components to serve 13...
Britain’s Sovereign AI Unit has launched the AIRR programme, allocating £500 million to give strategically significant UK AI startups access to national supercomputing resources. Around 10 % of the capacity of the Isambard‑AI and DAWN supercomputers—valued at roughly £20 million per year—will be...
Researchers in Shenzhen have built a superconducting microwave quantum network that remains coherent despite thermal noise, using radiative cooling and tunable couplers to purge heat photons. The system transmits quantum states through a channel warmed to up to 4 K and...
Salicru has expanded its footprint in Indonesia’s railway sector by deploying uninterruptible power‑supply (UPS) solutions for PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI) across key hubs in Java and Sumatra. Working with local partner PT BINA SERVICES, the company installed new...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang defended the newly unveiled DLSS 5 at GTC 2026, dismissing gamer criticism as "completely wrong." The technology claims to fuse generative AI with developer‑controlled rendering to enhance graphics on RTX 5000 GPUs. Early demo footage, however, sparked backlash for...
Hesai has slashed LiDAR prices to about $200 per unit, enabling its FTX blind‑spot sensor to be fitted on Niu Technologies' new NXT2 e‑scooter. The partnership marks a turning point for affordable perception technology, previously limited to high‑end EVs and...
Samsung Electronics signed a memorandum of understanding with AMD to supply next‑generation AI memory, including HBM4 for AMD’s MI455X accelerators, DDR5 for the Helios system, and advanced DRAM for 6th‑generation EPYC CPUs. The agreement also opens discussions about a future...
Segway Navimow’s X420 and i206 AWD robotic lawn mowers have secured TÜV Rheinland’s Lawn Care certification, the first for any robotic mower. The certification confirms Level 2 minimal lawn impact after a simulated year of high‑frequency mowing. Both units demonstrated exceptional...
HyperLight Corporation has launched a new family of 400‑gigabit‑per‑lane thin‑film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic integrated circuits. The PICs deliver low insertion loss, low drive voltage, and ultra‑wide electro‑optic bandwidth, enabling energy‑efficient 400G optical links for AI‑focused networking. Built on HyperLight’s...
Hitachi announced an 800‑volt DC (800 VDC) power and control architecture, fully integrated into the Vera Rubin DSX reference design and compatible with NVIDIA Omniverse DSX Blueprint. The solution uses an OpenUSD‑based 3D simulation that mirrors the entire electrical chain from...
POET Technologies and Taiwan‑based LITEON Technology have announced a strategic partnership to co‑develop optical communication modules for AI‑driven data centers. The collaboration will combine POET’s patented optical interposer platform with LITEON’s optoelectronic and power‑management expertise to produce compact, thermally optimized...
Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” home to 570 facilities, processes an estimated 70% of global internet traffic. The region’s advantages—affordable power from natural gas and nuclear, abundant water, and a dense fiber network—have attracted major cloud providers. Energy demand from...
Samsung Electronics co-CEO Jun Young-hyun announced plans to shift from quarterly or annual memory‑chip deals to three‑ to five‑year contracts, aiming to stabilise supply amid a shortage projected to last until 2030. The move aligns with the rise of custom...
The global semiconductor industry broke the $830 billion revenue barrier in 2025, marking roughly a 20% increase over 2024. Artificial‑intelligence workloads, especially in data‑center processors, GPUs and high‑bandwidth memory, were the primary growth engine. Memory and data‑center segments posted the strongest...
Coherent Corp used its OFC 2026 booth to unveil a broad suite of indium phosphide (InP) components, including high‑power continuous‑wave lasers, electro‑absorption‑modulated lasers, and high‑speed photodiodes. The portfolio targets co‑packaged optics, silicon‑photonic pluggables and 1.6‑terabit transceivers, delivering up to 400 G...
Vislink Technologies has introduced the DragonFly V 5G Dual‑Modem, a miniature bonded video transmitter that combines two cellular links with Wi‑Fi. The device supports live streaming up to 1080p 50/59 from compact cameras, helmet‑mounted rigs, and UAVs. It integrates with Vislink’s LinkMatrix...
Southeast Asia’s data‑centre boom, driven by AI workloads, is testing the region’s power grids and cooling limits. Singapore alone houses over 70 facilities with 1.4 GW capacity, where cooling can account for up to 40% of total energy use. Operators are...
Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard, pioneers of quantum information theory, have been awarded the ACM A.M. Turing Award. Their 1979 collaboration produced the BB84 protocol, the first quantum key distribution scheme, and laid the groundwork for quantum teleportation and the...
Lumentum demonstrated a 1060 nm VCSEL‑based optical interconnect platform at OFC 2026, targeting rack‑level AI accelerators. The demo featured a high‑density multi‑mode VCSEL array co‑packaged with a host ASIC in a fan‑out wafer‑level package. The solution promises superior bandwidth, thermal resilience above...
Hesai Technology has joined Nvidia’s Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab, the first ANSI‑accredited facility for testing AI‑driven physical systems. The partnership obliges Hesai to evaluate its LiDAR platforms against a unified framework covering functional safety, cybersecurity and AI compliance. Hesai,...
QNAP’s new TS‑h1077AFU is a 1U all‑Flash NAS targeting budget‑conscious enterprises. It pairs an 8‑core AMD Ryzen 7 7700 processor with 32 GB DDR5 (expandable to 192 GB) and ten hot‑swap SATA SFF SSD bays, while dropping U.2 NVMe support for a lower price...
BenQ unveiled the MA270S, a 27‑inch 5K monitor aimed at macOS users and professional creators. The display offers a 5120 × 2880 IPS panel with 99 % DCI‑P3 coverage, HDR400, and a 70 Hz refresh rate, while integrating a Thunderbolt 4 port that supplies up...
OPPO has launched the A6s 5G smartphone in India, offering two memory variants priced between ₹18,999 and ₹20,999. The device features a 50 MP primary rear camera, a 6500 mAh battery with 45 W SUPERVOOC fast charging, and runs on MediaTek Dimensity 6300 SoC with...
Hexagon’s NovAtel has launched the GAJT‑AE3, a compact GNSS anti‑jam antenna aimed at airborne platforms. The unit is the first in the GAJT line to offer full multi‑constellation, multi‑frequency protection, creating up to seven nulls per band and providing multi‑jammer...
Scalvy and Valeo have completed a concept evaluation of Scalvy’s distributed Power Neuron architecture for electric‑vehicle powertrains under WLTC laboratory conditions. The modular platform achieved a peak inverter efficiency of 98.3 % at 10,000 RPM, kept motor temperatures below 62 °C and power‑device...
Toshiba introduced the TLX9920 photocoupler, a photovoltaic‑output device designed for automotive solid‑state relays (SSRs). It delivers 5,000 Vrms isolation, an 8 mm creepage distance, and operates from –40 °C to 125 °C. Qualified to AEC‑Q101, the component targets high‑voltage applications such as battery‑management systems,...
India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and IT warned the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) that high GPU hardware costs, global supply‑chain delays, and the massive power‑water footprint of data centres threaten the country’s push for large GPU clusters....
DeWalt is launching three new products in March 2026: a 20V Max XR brushless ratchet with interchangeable 3/8‑inch, 1/4‑inch square and low‑profile hex heads; an Atomic 20V Max brushless 1/4‑inch ratchet aimed at tight‑space work; and a ToughSeries Construction Jack Extension that adds 27 inches...
Nvidia unveiled its Vera Rubin and Groq 3 chips, promising ten‑times higher energy efficiency for AI workloads. Indian data‑centre operators now face a trade‑off: invest in costly, power‑saving GPUs or scale capacity with older, cheaper models. Analysts expect the sector’s power...
The AI surge has spurred a new class of GPU‑first cloud providers, called neoclouds, that initially sold raw GPU capacity. Rafay’s Token Factory now lets these providers expose models as token‑metered APIs, turning infrastructure into a consumable AI service. Deep...
Cobalt Digital unveiled a robust 2026 NAB Show portfolio expanding its IPMX and ST 2110 ecosystem. The lineup introduces the 1RU blueCORE standalone processors, the PACIFIC compression line with dual SDI and ST 2110/IPMX outputs, and a hybrid satellite‑Internet mode meeting FCC...
Caterpillar will supply its G3500 natural‑gas generator platform to provide up to 2 GW of onsite power for the Monarch Compute Campus in West Virginia. The campus, owned by Nscale and linked to Microsoft’s AI workloads and NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin systems,...
Researchers at Skoltech and KTH have developed an ultrathin carbon‑nanotube black paint that absorbs terahertz radiation, addressing interference in emerging 6G photonic circuits. The coating, applied via aerosol chemical vapor deposition, can be tuned from 2 to 53 nm, with the...
igus unveiled the ReBelMove Pro, a modular autonomous mobile robot designed for rapid, code‑free deployment across industrial settings. The compact AMR reaches 6.5 mph, lifts 550 lb, and can tow nearly 2,000 lb while mapping 2,150 sq ft in under three minutes using LIDAR, 3D...
Nvidia unveiled an updated data‑center roadmap at GTC, introducing the Rosa CPU and the die‑stacked Feynman GPU architecture slated for 2028. The plan layers new Groq LPUs—LP30, LP35, and LP40—with NVFP4 support, while NVLink switches will debut co‑packaged optics for...
Apple’s Beats Studio Pro headphones have been slashed to $169.95, roughly $180 off the regular $349.99 price, as Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy promote the deal ahead of the retailer’s Big Spring Sale. The over‑ear model retains its long‑standing design but...
