This week, Analog Devices, a leading data technology company, has announced that it will be acquiring one of its rivals, Maxim Integrated, for a whopping $21 billion USD. Analog Devices (ADI) has a strong grip on the worldwide data converter market, with some analyst firms putting the company's market share at around …
Read More »Corsair debuts iCUE NEXUS keyboard display accessory
The days of gaming keyboards with built-in LCD displays have been over for a while now but CORSAIR might have the next best thing. This week, Corsair announced the iCUE NEXUS Companion Touch Screen, a new display accessory with a fully customisable interface. The Corsair iCUE Nexus is compatible with …
Read More »Intel introduces Thunderbolt 4
This week, Intel introduced Thunderbolt 4, complete with additional bandwidth to support higher transfer speeds or higher resolution video. The technology will debut alongside Intel's upcoming ‘Tiger Lake' CPUs. Dropping with Thunderbolt 4 is of course, the Thunderbolt Controller 8000 Series, which is said to be backwards compatible with “hundreds …
Read More »New video codec offers H.265 quality at half the storage space
This month, Fraunhofer HHI announced the H.266 Video Codec VVC. The new codec improves on H.265 by drastically reducing data usage while maintaining quality and support for high resolutions. Fraunhofer HHI dedicated several years of research and development to the new H.266 video codec. All of that hard work seems to …
Read More »AMD Ryzen 3900XT, 3800XT and 3600XT now available in the UK
Last month, AMD officially announced its new 3rd Gen Ryzen ‘XT' series desktop processors, consisting of the Ryzen 9 3900XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT and Ryzen 5 3600XT. Today, reviews for these CPUs officially went live and retailers were able to begin shipping out to customers, so we've had a look at …
Read More »MSI CEO Sheng-Chang Chiang has sadly died
MSI CEO and General Manager, Sheng-Chang Chiang, otherwise known as Charles Chiang, has sadly passed away at the age of 56. He took over as CEO of MSI in January 2019 and was credited with leading the company to growth in the desktop computing business. The initial report comes from …
Read More »Samsung researchers discover new material for next-gen semiconductors
The folks at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology have been busy collaborating with scientists from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, resulting in the discovery of a new material for semiconductors. Importantly, this discovery has the potential to “accelerate the advent of next generation semiconductors”. The material …
Read More »ThermalTake Floe DX 360 AIO liquid cooler hits its lowest price
A while back, we had the opportunity to review the excellent ThermalTake Floe DX 360 AIO liquid cooler, assessing its cooling capabilities, noise output and of course, the fancy ARGB lighting. At the time, we gave it our highest award and now, the cooler is down to its lowest price …
Read More »ASUS ROG claims gaming laptop market share crown
We've previously seen ASUS take the gaming monitor market by storm and lately, the company has also been seeing a boom in the gaming laptop market. April was a particularly huge month, with ASUS and ROG gaming laptops increasing to 22.6 percent global market share. ASUS and ROG gaming laptops …
Read More »GlobalFoundries announces 12nm FinFET technology
GlobalFoundries has announced that its 12nm FinFET technology is ready for production. According to the company, the technology is “optimised for AI Accelerator Applications” and “ideal for high-performance, power-efficient SoC applications” . GlobalFoundries 12nm FinFET technology is manufactured at facilities in Saratoga County, New York and is set to be used in “Computing, …
Read More »ASUS launches Christmas in July sale
ASUS is bringing Christmas in July back this year, complete with discounts on laptops, monitors and other hardware. Alongside this, rebate offers are also still in the table and there are plenty of giveaways also planned for those who would like to test their luck. If you're in need of …
Read More »Fujifilm working towards 400TB tape cartridges
Fujifilm is researching the capabilities of Strontium Ferrite (SrFe) and theorises that the material will be able to achieve 224Gbit/in² area density. The company is looking to develop a way to use the material to manufacture tape cartridges with a 400TB capacity. The magnetic tapes in use today are usually …
Read More »Discord is rebranding to move beyond gaming
Back in February, Discord began re-evaluating its service and ultimately decided to cut out game launcher features and the in-app game store. Now, we know the next part of the plan, which will see Discord rebranding itself as a chat app for everyone, not just the gaming community. Since launch, …
Read More »Microsoft cuts advertising from Facebook
In an oddly timed move, Microsoft has reportedly stopped all advertising spending on Facebook and Instagram. Given that Microsoft is one of the biggest spenders on Zuckerberg's platforms, this is an important shift, but it comes at an odd time, as Microsoft just partnered with Facebook Gaming following the shutdown …
Read More »Microsoft releases Windows File Recovery app
Many of us know the pain of running into a crash and losing data, or just deleting something by mistake. Soon, Microsoft will be offering something extra to help in that situation with the Windows File Recovery tool. If you've misplaced a picture, document, video or audio file, the Windows …
Read More »Microsoft set to close down retail stores
Microsoft is officially winding down its physical retail business, with 83 Microsoft Store locations set to close down permanently. Instead of investing in high street locations, Microsoft will instead be focusing the bulk of its efforts on the Microsoft Store website instead. The shift to online shopping has been an …
Read More »Microsoft acquires CyberX to bolster IoT security
Microsoft has been making a number of big moves lately. So far this month we've seen the Mixer streaming service begin closing operations and the announcement that Microsoft will be closing down many retail stores. Microsoft isn't just cutting back though, this week the company also announced that it has …
Read More »Minisforum announces the DeskMini DMAF5 with AMD Ryzen 5 3550H
Minisforum has announced that it is preparing to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo for a mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 3550H, called DeskMini DMAF5. Usually, mini PCs are limited by their form factor when it comes to performance, but Minisforum's DeskMini DMAF5 is looking to change …
Read More »Fujitsu’s Fugaku takes place as world’s fastest supercomputer
Fujitsu's Fugaku Supercomputer has taken the spot as the world's fastest supercomputer, with 415 TFLOPS of performance and 7.3 million ARM cores. After less than one year on the throne as the world's fastest supercomputer, IBM's Summit has been toppled. As of June 2020 the world's fastest supercomputer is Fujitsu's …
Read More »Epic Games Store has 61 million active monthly users
Steam has been around for 15 years now, with over 1 billion registered accounts and an estimated 95 million active monthly users throughout 2019. The Epic Games Store has been looking to supply some competition and it looks like the strategy is working, with EGS rising to an average of …
Read More »Magic Leap lawsuit against Nreal dismissed
Back in June 2019, Augmented Reality startup, Magic Leap, launched a lawsuit at a competing company, Nreal. The lawsuit alleged that Nreal had copied Magic Leap's technology and design but now, the case has been dismissed by a California judge. Nreal was founded by Chi Xu, a former employee of …
Read More »European Commission opens antitrust investigations into Apple Pay and iOS App Store
Apple is under scrutiny once again in Europe due to its various business practises. This week, the European Commission opened up two separate antitrust investigations against Apple, one into the App Store and another into Apple Pay. The first investigation focuses on the App Store's 30% revenue cut on sales …
Read More »Elgato jumps into the microphone market with Wave:1 and Wave:3
Ever since joining the Corsair family, Elgato has been expanding its range of content producing gear. It all started with capture cards and has since expanded to green screens, lights and now, microphones. Today, Elgato is launching its first two microphones- Wave:1 and Wave:3. These microphones have been developed in …
Read More »Qualcomm intros new RB5 robotics platform
Qualcomm has announced the “World’s First 5G and AI-Enabled Robotics Platform”. This robotics platform – known as RB5 – is a result of “many leading companies” and “ecosystem players” contributing to the system and “developing necessary hardware and software to enable various robotics applications”. Qualcomm's RB5 is designed for robot …
Read More »Microsoft Edge to reduce memory usage ‘by up to 27%’ with next major update
High memory usage is an issue that web browsers have been trying to tackle for a long time now. Google and Mozilla have made well publicised efforts to reduce memory usage for their respective browsers and with the next Windows 10 update, some significant improvements to memory usage in Edge …
Read More »CORSAIR ONE finally embraces 3rd Gen Ryzen CPUs with Corsair One a100
There have been a number of versions of the CORSAIR ONE PC over the years, typically featuring the latest Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs. Today, the CORSAIR ONE a100 is launching, the first one in the series to feature 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen processors instead, delivering excellent performance for both …
Read More »AMD B550 motherboards are up for pre-order in the UK
If you've been keeping an eye on tech news this afternoon, then you will be well aware that AMD B550 motherboards have officially launched. We've already had the opportunity to review two ASUS ROG boards and the Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master. Now, we are taking a wider look at UK …
Read More »TSMC expected to grow in 2021 even after losing Huawei’s orders
Major semiconductor companies spend billions upon billions of dollars each year and are dependent on massive orders to stay profitable. With that in mind, the halting of all new orders from Huawei, one of the world's biggest smartphone companies, could have had an impact on TSMC's bottom line. As it turns out …
Read More »ASUS debuts AI noise-cancelling microphone technology
ASUS has become the latest in a long line of companies to announce a form of noise-cancelling technology. The Taiwanese giant has unveiled noise-cancelling tech for its microphones and said that its “smart mic reduces distracting chatter, keyboard clatter and mouse clicks by up to 95%”. Over the past year, more …
Read More »Semiconductor factories expected to spend close to $68 billion on equipment in 2021
It's no secret that semiconductor factories are expensive, with companies often pouring billions upon billions into new plants. However, 2021 looks to be a record-breaking year, with an expected growth of 24 percent. Back in 2011, it was estimated that semiconductor equipment reached sales of $41.8 billion – a number …
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