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Category: News

  • NVMe 2.0 spec sheet released on 10th-anniversary celebration of the storage interface

    NVMe 2.0 spec sheet released on 10th-anniversary celebration of the storage interface

    Did you know that the NVMe storage has reached its 10th anniversary? The storage defined the latest speed in reading and writing the power of storage devices. And to celebrate the event, the technology received its upgraded 2.0 spec sheet.

    Looking at the spec sheet, we found that the most significant change from version 1.4, which was launched 2 years ago, is the overall spec reorganization. It helps to reflect better the broader uses of the interface, which includes the PCIe block storage protocol of choice, and even the network storage protocol and other different storage paradigms.

    However, one aspect remains that the NVMe 2.0 does not add anything relevant for client SSDs, which will soon be moving to PCIe 5.0 technology.

    Here is a list of the most notable features introduced with the 2.0 specs:

    • A more modular approach to specs
    • The base spec now includes both locally-attached devices and NVMeoF (over Fabrics)
    • Consumer SSDs need to use a PCIe transport spec and block storage command set.
    • Other transport specs include networked NVMe over Fabrics through TCP or RDMA
    • Other command set options include Zoned Namespace and Key-Value
    • Adds standard capacity management mechanism for endurance groups and NVM sets
    • Adds a new Domains layer of partitioning for massive NVMeoF appliances
    • A new system for handling multiple commands sets now makes it possible for different namespaces behind the same controller to support different command sets, rather than requiring all namespaces to support all of the commands sets their parent controller supports
    • The computational storage command set is still in development and not ready for standardization
    • Extends the existing Protection Information support from supporting 16-bit CRCs to also supporting 32-bit and 64-bit CRCs for enterprise use cases
    • New security feature called Command Group Control that uses a new Lockdown command: can be used to put a drive in a state where both ordinary reads and writes are allowed, but various admin commands are locked out, so the drive’s other features cannot be reconfigured.
    • Explicit support for hard drives: enterprises can unify their storage networking with NVMe over Fabrics and drop older protocols like iSCSI

    Source

  • AMD’s FSR is amazing but not an alternative to NVIDIA’s DLSS

    AMD’s FSR is amazing but not an alternative to NVIDIA’s DLSS

    According to sources, AMD has recently started to roll out its new framework called FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). As explained by the company earlier, the feature aims to breathe new life into older GPUs. However, many believed it to be the alternative to the DLSS.

    Still, unfortunately, it cannot be the alternative as any attempt to hype it up as a DLSS competitor will only make the technology look even worse.

    The major factor separating the FSR and DLSS is that NVIDIA’s DLSS is an upscaling system based on Deep Learning/Inference and uses actual hardware to enable performance enhancement without serious quality degradation.

    However, FSR, on the other hand, is just a simple spatial upscale. The two are not even remotely comparable. However, that doesn’t stop speculations from being made online. Many compare the FSR to FreeSync and how it eventually crippled the market for NVIDIA’s GSync technology.

    But FreeSync was a direct alternative for GSync and was a true open-source competitor of the technology. On the other hand, FSR is an algorithmic spatial up scaler and coming to DLSS, and it is a machine-learned quality inference system from lower-resolution input images.

    Machine learning allows achieving results in certain situations which computationally infeasible to reproduce using traditional software architectures.  And the implementation of such a sophisticated technology with the actual support and complete utilization of the hardware makes the whole difference.

    • DLSS uses AI and a temporal feedback loop for native image quality in still and motion.
    • FSR is a simple spatial upscale, with no AI or temporal feedback for high-quality motion.
    • AMD’s comparison reveals a material reduction in image quality versus native resolution – and if you can see it through Youtube’s compression algorithm, it will be even more visible in an uncompressed format.

    Source

  • Here are all the rumours going around regarding Apple’s upcoming WWDC 2021 event

    Here are all the rumours going around regarding Apple’s upcoming WWDC 2021 event

    Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will soon be here, and the keynote presentation will kick off the event on June 7th at 1 PM ET. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the WWDC will be an entirely digital and online-only event. As a result, we can likely expect another tightly produced video highlighting everything Apple has in store.

    Last year the biggest news of the event was the company’s shit to custom silicon for its computers, which shook the tech world to its core. This year, it is speculated that Apple has some notable changes in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and other operating systems that will be announced during the event.

    Apple’s next version of the mobile operating system, presumably the iOS 15, is speculated to bring some big changes to notifications and possibly iMessage. According to sources, users may get a different notification setting for driving, working, sleeping, or even a custom category. Its also being reported that users will be able to set automatic replies based on which notification setting they’re currently using.

    Coming to iMessages, the Cupertino giant is currently working on features to make it act like “more of a social network” to compete with Facebook’s WhatsApp.  However, sources indicate that all those features are still “early in development” and could be announced later.

    On the privacy end, Apple also plans to add a feature that shows you apps that are silently collecting data about you. In addition, iPadOS 15 will bring some major updates to the home screen, including the ability to put widgets anywhere you want. However, we expect the company to add some features to improve the performance of the newly launched M1 iPad Pro.

    There are also reports that the company will shed some more light on a brand-new operating system called “home,” which was mentioned in and later removed from an Apple job listing. It’s being speculated that the new OS will work on Apple’s home-focused products like the Apple TV and HomePod Mini.

    All of these are just rumours, of course, and should be taken with a pinch of salt. But Apple has surprised us in the past, and maybe these images indicate one more thing Apple has in store for WWDC. Of course, I would be happy to see the launch of M2 powered MacBook, but it seems like only a happy dream.

    Source

  • Lenovo launches its ThinkBook 13X and ThinkBook Plus 2 laptops powered by Tiger Lake

    Lenovo launches its ThinkBook 13X and ThinkBook Plus 2 laptops powered by Tiger Lake

    Lenovo the worlds leading PC manufacturer launched its Lenovo ThinkBook 13x and Lenovo ThinkBook Plus, 2 laptop models, in China on Thursday, June 3. Both are powered by 11th Gen Intel Core CPUs, but not the latest H-series ones. Both models have 13.3-inch 2.5K displays with thin bezels, and the  ThinkBook 13x has its hinge which allows the display to be opened 180 degrees. Both run Windows 10 Home (Chinese version).

    The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x runs Windows 10 Home Chinese version and features a 13.3-inch 2.5K (2,560×1,600 pixels) LED-backlit display. The laptop has 400 nits of peak brightness and a 16:10 aspect ratio while boasting 100 percent sRGB coverage and Dolby Vision support.

    The device is powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i7- 1160G7 quad-core CPU along with integrated graphics. The laptop comes with 16GB DDR4 RAM clocked at 4,266MHz and a 512GB SSD for storage. In terms of connectivity, users will get Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Lenovo is also offering a fingerprint scanner as well and the power is supplied by a 53Whr battery with comes with a 65W adapter.

    Coming to the ThinkBook Plus 2, the core specs of the device is the same as the Lenovo ThinBook 13X, however, it has some additional features. It has a 12-inch E Ink display on top of the lid for reading and note-taking. Certain windows apps can also be run on the display as well.

    Lenovo ThinkBook 13x is priced at CNY 6,999 (roughly Rs. 80,000) for the 11th Gen Intel Core i5 configuration and CNY 7,799 (roughly Rs. 89,200) for the Intel Core i7 configuration. The ThinkBook Plus 2 on the other hand is priced at CNY 9,399 (roughly Rs. 1.07 lakh) for the 11th Gen Intel Core i5 model and CNY 10,399 (roughly Rs. 1.18 lakh) for the Intel Core i7 model.

    Source

  • Leak: first-ever performance numbers of Radeon PRO W6800 appears online

    Leak: first-ever performance numbers of Radeon PRO W6800 appears online

    Yet another leak has appeared on the internet, and this time around we get to see the first-ever performance leak of the AMD’s upcoming Radeon PRO W6800 workstation graphics card. Courtesy of the Geek bench database, the specifications of the upcoming product have also been leaked.

    AMD recently teased its Radeon PRO W6000 series graphics cards based on the RDNA 2 GPU architecture and according to sources, we can expect a grand reveal next week. The GPU was benchmarked in the Geekbench OpenCL tests, and it boasted a score of 137230 points which puts it slightly faster than the Radeon RX 6800 and the NVIDIA RTX 3070 graphics cards.

    According to sources, the AMD Radeon Pro W6800 was tested on an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X system which featured 16 GB of DDR4 memory. The GPU is configured with 32 GB of GDDR6 VRAM that operates across a 256-bit wide bus interface. Sources indicate that a bandwidth of 512 GB/s in addition to the 128 MB of Infinity Cache can be expected from the new GPU.

    The database also revealed that the card has a total Compute Unit count of 30 but that’s incorrect as that would put the total number of cores at 1920. So the actual Compute Units contained by the card will be a total of 3840 stream processors. The max score clock was reported at 2.55 GHz.

    AMD Radeon Pro Workstation Graphics Lineup:

    Graphics Card NameRadeon Pro WX 7100Radeon Pro WX 8200Radeon Pro WX 9100Radeon Pro W5700Radeon Pro W5700XRadeon Pro VIIRadeon Pro W6800X?Radeon Pro W6900X?
    GPUPolaris 10Vega 10Vega 10Navi 10Navi 10Vega 20Navi 21 (Big Navi)Navi 21 (Big Navi)
    Process Node14nm14nm14nm7nm7nm7nm7nm7nm
    Compute Units36566436406060?TBA
    Stream Processors2304358440962304256038403840?TBA
    ROPs326464646464TBATBA
    Clock Speed (Peak)1243 MHz1500 MHz1500 MHz1930 MHz~1850 MHzTBD~2550 MHzTBA
    Compute Rate (FP32)5.7 TFLOPs10.8 TFLOPs12.3 TFLOPs8.89 TFLOPs9.5 TFLOPs13.1 TFLOPs (FP32)
    6.5 TFLOPs (FP64)    		TBATBA
    VRAM8 GB GDDR58 GB HBM216 GB HBM28 GB GDDR616 GB GDDR616 GB HBM216/32 GB GDDR6TBA
    Memory Bus256-bit2048-bit2048-bit256-bit256-bit4096-bit256-bit256-bit
    Memory Bandwidth224 Gbps484 Gbps512 Gbps448 Gbps448 Gbps1024 Gbps512 Gbps512 Gbps
    TDP150W230W250W205W240W250W250-300W?250-300W?
    Launch20162018201720192019202020212021
    Price$799 US$999 US$2199 US$799 US$999 US$1899 USTBATBA

    Source

  • Leak: Nintendo Switch Pro to have the same price as the digital edition of PS5

    Leak: Nintendo Switch Pro to have the same price as the digital edition of PS5

    We earlier got a wisp of information about the new and upcoming successor of the Nintendo Switch handheld console and now some new information has surfaced online. A of retailer-based leaks have seemingly revealed the next-gen console’s true name, price tag, and even possible pre-order date details. So lets in the information currently released regarding the rumoured Nintendo Switch Pro with a pinch of salt.

    According to sources, an inventory database screenshot of the French electronics retailer Boulanger, the name of the console is Nintendo Switch Pro. Along with the alleged name reveal, it also stated that the Switch Pro is priced at €399. At the current exchange rate, that amount is equivalent to US$484/£343/AUD 632/CAD$586.

    The original Nintendo Switch was launched at €329.99, so the successor comes with a considerable price hike. But the price is justified with the alleged specs that the handheld console is stated to boast. It’s been rumored that the alleged Nintendo Switch Pro will have an OLED screen, new Nvidia processor, DLSS, 4K, etc.

    However, no matter how you see it, the price tag makes the upcoming Nintendo console on par with the price tag of the digital edition of the PS5, giving some idea of what it could cost in other key markets (US$399/£359/AUD 599/CAD$499).

    We cannot say for certain whether Nintendo is planning to tackle Sony with its new console however, according to sources, “a new Switch hardware-related listing will go live on June 4”. Some leakers speculate that the new Nintendo Switch Pro pre-order date could be today as well, although it’s worth keeping in mind that a date of June 30 has also been mentioned as a pre-order possibility.

    Source

  • AMD had fewer GPU sales in Q1 of 2021 compared to Q1 of 2020

    AMD had fewer GPU sales in Q1 of 2021 compared to Q1 of 2020

    According to a new report drafted by Mercury Research, the discrete GPU sales in the first quarter of 2021 were both sequentially and year-over-year high due to high demand for PCs in general and gaming PCs in particular. The report also indicates that Nvidia continued to dominate the GPU market.  

    AMD has been gaining CPU sales and market share in recent years particularly in the gaming segment. However, reports indicate that its discrete GPU sales have been a roller coaster and its market share has been declining. Due to the current global chip shortage which is terrorizing the tech industries, AMD’s standalone GPU supplies have been in crisis and its market share in Q4 2020 declined to a multi-year low.

    According to sources, the shipments of discrete graphics processors in the first quarter reached 22 million units with a 1% increase sequentially. The report presented by Mercury Research indicated that Nvidia commanded 81% of standalone GPU shipments in Q1 2021, which was 5.2% higher than the Q1 of 2020.

    Nvidia’s rival, AMD commanded 19% of shipments, which is a tremendous decline over previous years’ Q1. However, the company sold more GPUs in Q1 2021 than it did in Q4 2020.  

    Since we are seeing a boom in the value of cryptocurrency, GPUs which are used to mine Ethereum contributed to additional GPU sales in the first quarter. It has been estimated that the total sales of Nvidia’s custom crypto mining processors (CMP) totaled 1 – 2 million in the first quarter.  

    However, the fact remains that both AMD and Nvidia would have considerably more supply of the cards, but they both were affected by the shipment and production shortages this year. AMD has contractual obligations to supply its custom SoCs for consoles from Microsoft and Sony as well as CPUs to PC and server makers, as such it cannot produce its GPUs for its requirements. AMD hopes to boost sales of its graphics processors later this year.

    Source

  • Realme is Planning to launch 5G phones under ₹10,000 by 2022

    Realme is Planning to launch 5G phones under ₹10,000 by 2022

    Realme is one of India’s biggest smartphone makers and is among the major players driving the 5G revolution in India. Today, the company hosted the first edition of its Realme Global 5G Summit in partnership with Counterpoint Research, GSMA, and Qualcomm. The event saw industry experts speak about the state of the 5G industry, while both Realme and Qualcomm gave us an insight into their plans for the industry going forward.

    Realme Vice-President and CEO (India and Europe) Madhav Sheth at the 5G summit announced that the company will invest over Rs 2,100 crore (USD 300 million) on research and development globally on 5G and set up seven R&D centers at different locations, including in India. Responding to a question, Sheth confirmed that the company plans to bring 5G phones to the sub Rs 10,000 price segment in India by 2022.

    Sheth said that after 3-4 years of development, Realme believes that 5G smartphone development has entered the 2.0 era where the devices have become affordable compared to the 1.0 era when 5G was limited to high-end flagship devices at a high price.

    Speaking at the event, Sheth also said, “Starting with our first 5G model, the Realme X50 5G, we have been exploring new design concepts and technical innovations to bring users slimmer and design-rich 5G phones that offer powerful performance. We believe that in the 5G era, helping to accelerate the adoption of this new technology is a crucial mission for Realme. We will work hard to help popularize 5G by listening more to consumers’ needs, pushing forward product innovation, and helping to build the broader 5G ecosystem with our industry partners.”

    The move to bring 5G phones to more affordable segments is an ambitious yet understandable move considering the company has already made its presence felt in the sub Rs 15,000 segment with the recent launch of the Realme 8 5G. The Realme 8 5G has been quite well received in the country, and the company will be hoping to replicate its success by launching more affordable 5G devices in the country. To remind our readers, the Realme 8 5G was launched in India at a starting price of Rs 14,999

    Sheth said that in 2020, Realme launched about 14 products in 22 markets, accounting for about 40 percent of its portfolio. By 2022, the number of 5G products will reach above 20 accounting for 70 percent of all Realme product models across markets.

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  • Nasa’s most important cargo for SpaceX’s Dragon-2 cargo capsule is the super glass experiments

    Nasa’s most important cargo for SpaceX’s Dragon-2 cargo capsule is the super glass experiments

    SpaceX is scheduled to launch its 22nd cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) today, as such, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) briefed members of the press on the scientific experiments that will fly to the orbiting space laboratory.

    In its briefing, the space organization stated that SpaceX’s Dragon-2 cargo capsule will launch 7,300 pounds of pressurized cargo to the ISS. The cargo includes experiments that will study human kidney tissues, crop growth, new solar arrays and, ‘super glass’ which is part of a NASA and JAXA (Japan Space Exploration Agency) collaboration.

    It’s my pleasure to share the science flying aboard our SpaceX launch tomorrow. Tomorrow it was mentioned we’re gonna be launching around 7,300 pounds of cargo, 2,000 of that is going to be science in the pressurized capsule. That includes samples of our experiments as well as hardware. When this Dragon returns it’s going to bring home 4,200 pounds of cargo with the majority of that also being science. It will bring home samples from a wide variety of research, human research physical sciences, tech demo, education as well as biology. Today we have done roughly 3,000 experiments on the space station and served over 4,000 researchers. It produced over 2,000 publications and served greater than a hundred countries globally.

    This particular flight is going to bring up 37 investigations. And that is going to be part of the complement of the hundreds that we do every year on ISS. Before we get into the specifics of this flight, we have a short video we’d like to show to highlight some of the projects.

    NASA’s deputy chief scientist for the International Space Station Program, Jennifer Buchli, provided details about the latest batch of experiments during the press conference. He also spoke about the supplies that are on their way to the International Space Station.

    So I’d like to share a little more information about some of the experiments you saw in the video as well as other investigations flying on SpaceX 22. Joel talked a little bit about ERISA, so iROSA is a technology that was developed coming out of a tech demo called ROSA in 2017. So this was one of the previous technology demonstrations that we flew on ISS. In the materials science category, we’re going to be flying super glass. That’s a NASA and JAXA collaboration. It’s going to be in the ELFR electrostatic levitation furnace. It’s looking at super-cooled metal alloys and their formation into the glass. So that will help us develop a wide variety of technologies based on this very fundamental research. It’s also a $300 billion industry globally.

    Source

  • AMD working on new Samsung chip with Radeon GPU and ray tracing for smartphones

    AMD working on new Samsung chip with Radeon GPU and ray tracing for smartphones

    During this year’s Computer_keynote event AMD delivered some interesting news including information about the upcoming Samsung Exynos smartphone SoC integrating a Radeon GPU with ray-tracing capabilities.

    As we know, the smartphone gaming market is growing and the graphics demand is increasing as such the smartphone SoC’s are now powerful enough to deliver powerful graphics performance compared to their predecessors. Even though the PC and notebook chips are still advanced in graphics, the considerable development made by ARM has brought the mobile chips to a new graphical era.

    And since ARM will soon be acquired by Nvidia we can assume that AMD-powered Exynos chips will get some huge competition in the graphics field. Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO stated that implementing a GeForce GPU with ray tracing features on a smartphone chip is not a good idea at least, for now.

    “Ray tracing games are quite large, to be honest. The data set is quite large, and there’ll be a time for it. When the time is right we might consider it.”

    According to him, the GPU technology still needs to undergo a few more miniaturization cycles before combining it with smartphone chips. Samsung and AMD already seem to have 5 nm SoCs ready, however, Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM is not yet complete, thus the company has to wait at least until the first half of 2022 to explore any further possibilities.

    The CEO further stated that the GeForce Now cloud gaming service which has up to10 a million players across the globe and has a roster of 1000 games, is Nvidia’s current solution for mobile gaming.

    “That’s how we would like to reach Android devices, Chrome devices, iOS devices, Mac OS devices, Linux devices, all kinds of devices, whether it’s on TV, mobile device, or PC. I think that for us, right now, that’s the best strategy. There’s a difference between a kitchen and a restaurant. There’s a difference between a fab and a foundry. I could spin up a fab, no doubt, just like I can spin up a kitchen, but it won’t be a good restaurant. You could spin up a fab, but it won’t be a good foundry. The business is not easy, what TSMC does for a living is not easy, and it’s not gonna get any easier.”

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