Xilinx, a leading maker of programmable gate arrays as well as special-purpose system-on-chip solutions, this week said that it had made the first customer shipment of its Zynq UltraScale+ processing solution. The chip is made using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s second-generation 16nm FinFET process technology (CLN16FF+) with increased performance and …
Read More »Micron to start sales of SSDs based on TLC NAND this quarter
Micron Technology plans to finally start shipments of consumer solid-state drives based on triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash in the ongoing quarter, the company revealed this week. SSDs featuring TLC NAND memory will be generally more affordable than non-volatile storage solutions powered by multi-level cell (MLC) flash. “We will begin shipping …
Read More »Prices of DDR3 and DDR4 continue to drop, set to decline further
Contract prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) modules dropped in August and September, despite peak season and anticipated stock-up demand on China, according to DRAMeXchange. Analysts believe that the launch of Microsoft Windows 10 this summer did not catalyse rise of demand, whereas the free Windows 10 upgrade program …
Read More »AMD releases new beta driver, fixes memory leak issues
AMD has pushed out its latest Catalyst beta driver, fixing a severe memory issue that popped up with the last release. We had a few readers get in touch with us over memory leak issues, causing crashes in DirectX 11 titles with R9-series GPUs. Some of you weren't too happy …
Read More »Microsoft has acquired the Havok physics engine from Intel
Microsoft has revealed that it has completed its acquisition of the Havok Physics engine and animation software from Intel. You will likely recognize the Havok logo from many games, the engine has been used in more than six hundred titles over the years and now it is in Microsoft's hands. Recent …
Read More »Microsoft has a bunch of Xbox One bundles for the holiday season
The end of the year is approaching, which means lots of video game releases in the lead up to Christmas. The holiday season also tends to be the time for deals and console bundles, of which Microsoft has announced quite a few. Anyone looking to buy an Xbox One this …
Read More »Self-driving taxis will begin trials in Japan next year
While Google has made excellent progress with its self-driving car over the last few years, it seems that Japan is swiftly catching up, as trials of the ‘Robot Taxi' are set to begin in the country next year. These will be entirely automatic, self-driving taxis, picking customers up and driving …
Read More »Here is how you can get started on Star Wars: Knights of the Fallen Empire
Earlier this year, Bioware announced that it would be launching a brand new story expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic, known as Knights of the Fallen Empire. However, we haven't known much about the new expansion until now. This week, Bioware held a developer stream, where it went over …
Read More »More details of Dell’s XPS 4K tablet hybrid appear online
Last month, we caught wind of an upcoming Dell XPS 12 hybrid-tablet, much like Microsoft's Surface offerings. While we had a look at some details at the time, more specifications have made their way online, ahead of the official unveiling coming up this month. We already know that the XPS …
Read More »Get ready, copyright letter senders are coming to the UK
Despite the fact that in the UK online sharers have to worry about the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit and MPAA backed organisations like FACT gunning for them with piracy charges, we've avoided most of the problems that other nations like the U.S. have faced when it comes to copyright …
Read More »Almost every Android handset vulnerable to new Stagefright 2.0 bug
As much as it can often be handy to use the most popular technological platform as it tends to get plenty of updates and support from various sources, the downside is that it's more prone to attacks. As Apple devices have become more common place in the past decade, we've …
Read More »The PC version of Arkham Knight goes back on sale this month
Warner Bros is almost set to launch the final patch-fix for the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight this month and once it hits, the game will finally go back on sale on Steam, if anyone left actually wants to buy it following all of the initial problems. The new …
Read More »OpenCritic lets you customise which game scores are aggregated
Amidst all the discussion over the past year about whether game review sites should even use a scoring system for titles, as many consider them too nuanced and incomparable to base it around a single X out of 10, one consensus was reached: that traditional review collating services don't work or are …
Read More »Humble Monthly is like Loot Crate for games
Two of the most successful schemes ever pushed by console makers have been Microsoft's Games for Gold and Sony's PlayStation Plus. Both give subscribers ‘free' games every month for them to enjoy, meaning that even if you don't buy your own preferences every now and again, there will always be …
Read More »MSI rolls-out limited edition GeForce GTX 980 Ti with copper cooler
MicroStar International has introduced its limited edition GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G Golden graphics card, which features a unique design, can work in three modes and comes with an all-copper cooling systems. The MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G Golden graphics adapter is powered by Nvidia Corp.’s GM200-310 …
Read More »Sony: VR entertainment will have great future in the coming 20 years
Shuhei Yoshida, president of worldwide studios at Sony Computer Entertainment, compares PlayStation VR platform to the original PlayStation and claims that in 20 years’ time virtual reality experience will evolve as dramatically as 3D games have evolved since the original PlayStation. “As a developer, I am super-excited about the potential …
Read More »AMD cuts headcount by 5%, reorganizes certain operations
Advanced Micro Devices late on Thursday said that it would cut-down its workforce by another five per cent in a bid to reduce its costs. The company said that it would considerably restructure its internal IT operations; consolidate real-estate facilities; re-organize its enterprise, embedded & semi-custom (EESC) business unit and appoint …
Read More »Samsung: NAND flash industry will triple output to 253EB by 2020
Samsung Electronics predicts that the NAND flash industry will triple output of non-volatile memory over the next five years and will produce whopping 253 exabytes of NAND in 2020. Although the increase is impressive, total output of flash memory will account for less than 10 per cent of storage capacity …
Read More »LG announces V10 premium smartphone
LG has announced a brand new smartphone, the LG V10, featuring a larger display, more RAM, a bigger battery, expandable storage and a second screen. The V10 itself features a 5.7-inch 2560×1440 display, so it is on the large side. There is also a secondary mini-display next to the front …
Read More »Google and Microsoft call a truce on in-progress lawsuits
Google and Microsoft have called a truce on their legal battles in the US and Germany, spanning across many lawsuits all in regards to certain patents and royalties- perhaps Apple and Samsung could find some inspiration here. Some of the lawsuits concerned Xbox technology, while others were related to mobile …
Read More »Amazon might be stopping sales of Apple TV and Google Chromecast
Amazon apparently has made plans to discontinue sales of the Apple TV and Google Chromecast devices on its store, forbidding third-party merchants from listing either device. These two devices are massively popular for those wanting a streaming box but they obviously compete with some of Amazon's own Fire products. This …
Read More »Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate will have microtransactions
This year is going to be a tough one for Ubisoft. Last year, the publisher destroyed consumer confidence in the Assassin's Creed franchise with the release of AC: Unity, leaving many to look at this year's release with a hefty dose of scepticism. One thing that isn't going to improve consumer confidence …
Read More »Rainbow Six: Siege beta extended once again
Ubisoft's Rainbow Six Siege closed beta was due to end today after its first extension but it seems that things aren't over yet. Those in the Rainbow Six: Siege beta can now keep playing until the 4th of October. This extension has been put in place to ensure that those …
Read More »Samsung denies using software to cheat TV power efficiency tests
An independent research group recently levied some pretty hefty accusations at Samsung recently, claiming that the company was using software on its TVs to cheat energy efficiency tests. This isn't the first time that Samsung has been accused of this, it was discovered that past Galaxy smartphones were capable of …
Read More »Square Enix has gone back on controversial Deus Ex pre-order scheme
Several weeks following its announcement, Square Enix has decided to retract its pre-order scheme for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, following fan disapproval. The previous scheme would see customers allowed to pick one of two rewards in five separate tiers. Pre-order bonus tiers were unlocked depending on how many people were …
Read More »Intel ‘Cannonlake-E/EP’ for desktops and servers to sport up to 8 cores
Even though Intel Corp. has been gradually increasing the number of general-purpose processing engines inside its microprocessors for servers, the company’s high-end chips for client PCs feature no more than eight x86 cores, whereas mainstream central processing units sport up to four cores. Apparently, Intel has no plans to change …
Read More »Patreon suffers from security breach, user information compromised
Today, Patreon revealed that it recently suffered a security breach, during which someone gained unauthorized access to one of the site's databases containing user information. The security hole has already been patched up but names, email addresses and some shipping addresses were accessed. Patreon has let its users know via …
Read More »Starbucks brings app-based pre-order, pre-pay to UK
If companies like Uber have shown us anything, it's that a lot of businesses could benefit from changing up their payment and ordering systems to something app-based. Starbucks is a company that took that idea and ran with it towards the end of last year when it began allowing U.S. …
Read More »Gigabyte announces Heroes of the Storm competition winners
Did you register your 100 series motherboard with Gigabyte's Heroes of the Storm competition? If so, you may be one of the lucky winners of a brand new Z170X-Gaming 3 motherboard, an Aivia Krypton mouse or Force H3 headset. In total there were 10 prize packs to give away – …
Read More »Toshiba accounting scandal may end its TV, appliance business
Over the past few months, Toshiba has been through the ringer. After it was discovered that it had over-reported its finances for the past near-decade by more than a billion dollars, the CEO resigned and it was announced that much of its now-clearly under-performing appliances would be manufactured by third …
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