ASUS today announced the TUF Gaming AS1000, a portable high-performance M.2 NVMe 1 TB SSD with innovative cooling features to ensure ultrafast data transfers. TUF Gaming AS1000 uses a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x1 connection and is compatible with PCs, laptops, and the latest gaming consoles. This SSD has been subjected to stringent durability testing to ensure stored data is well-protected from everyday spills and knocks. Plus, bundled NTI Backup Now EZ software (valued at up to US$35.99) allows for easy data backup and recovery.

Military-grade toughness
The TUF Gaming AS1000 has been subjected to a rigorous battery of durability tests, including the U.S-military-grade MIL-STD-810H drop test and IP68 water-and-dust-resistance tests. Devices were dropped from various heights, submerged in water, and exposed to dust and dirt to ensure toughness, making the TUF Gaming AS1000 more than capable of withstanding accidental bumps, knocks, and spills.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the addition of the BG6 Series to its lineup of PCIe 4.0 solid state drives (SSDs) - the first product to feature the company's new, 6th generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory and almost 1.7 times the performance of its predecessor. Designed to unleash the increased speeds and affordability of PCIe 4.0 for PC users, the powerful and compact KIOXIA BG6 Series client SSDs offer a discrete M.2 2230 form factor with higher capacities and improved power efficiency. M.2 2280 single-sided form factor versions are also available.

The KIOXIA BG6 Series unlocks back-end flash performance while maintaining affordability and increasing capacity, making it an especially attractive option for commercial and consumer notebooks and desktops. KIOXIA BG6 drives support the fully matured Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology, which utilizes part of the host memory (DRAM) as if it were its own, to realize a DRAM-less, high-performance SSD.

VisionTek Products LLC, a leading provider of high-performance upgrades and accessories for PCs and Macs, today unveiled its new lineup of M.2 solid-state drives (SSDs) featuring exceptional speed, thermal management and durability. These next-generation form factor M.2 drives cater to demanding workloads and offer blazing fast read and write speeds up to 7,500 MB/s.

The DLX4 PCIe 4.0 SSDs feature a PCIe 4.0 interface for high-bandwidth, low-latency performance for the most demanding of workloads. The range includes 2230, 2242 and 2280 SSDs to support a variety of systems and devices. Capacities range from 500 GB to 4 TB, making the SSDs perfect for applications like 3D rendering, gaming and video editing.

SK Hynix seems to be getting into being a retail brand in the storage market space and its latest addition to its product range looks pretty interesting, in more ways than one. The compact 74 x 46 x 14.8 mm (WxDxH) SSD goes under the name of Beetle X31 and judging by the packaging, it's meant to look like a golden Egyptian scarab, although SK Hynix was clearly not bold enough to follow through with the housing design. Regardless, the small golden puck looks pretty nifty, but it also hides some rather interesting technology under its shell.

Fortunately for us, a Korean YouTuber has already disassembled the drive and based on the specs, it appears to have an ASMedia ASM2362 PCIe 3.0 x2 to USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) bridge chip, which allows the internal NVMe drive to interface with the USB Type-C port on the device. The internal NVMe SSD is also rather intriguing and it'll most likely be found in some other devices. It appears to follow the M.2 2242 form factor, but it's only equipped with a single chip, which is said to house not only the NAND flash, but also the SSD controller and some kind of DRAM, as this is not a DRAM-less SSD. The Beetle X31 will be available in 512 GB and 1 TB sizes, with the 1 TB model retailing for 138,000 Korean won, or around US$103. An optional protective case is also available as an accessory.

Nextorage Japan is preparing its NE5N range of PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs for launch in early June - listings have emerged on Newegg for 2 TB and 1 TB models - with a product page appearing recently on the company's (Japanese language) website. These units boast read and write speeds rated for operation up to 10 GB/s, and are based on Phison's E26 PCIe Gen 5 controller. Nextorage started off as a provider of PlayStation 5-oriented PCIe Gen 4 SSD products, due to company ties to Sony Corporation, but its upcoming NE5N range indicates that it intends to target buyers within the enthusiast PC market.

The initial batch of cutting edge SSDs are unlikely to end up in any PS5 consoles, thanks to a sizable dual formation heatsink - the Japanese company has filed a patent for the bulky two-level structure and heatpipe combination design. Gen 5 SSDs are said to be difficult to tame in terms of heat output, and manufacturers are going to great lengths (and sizes) to provide adequate cooling solutions in advance. Future versions of Nextorage Japan's NE5N NVMe M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 5 SSDs are being refined for compact PCs and laptops, so it will be interesting to find out about the intended thermal tempering for more cramped environments.

Microsoft's official Xbox Twitter account has today announced that its official range of Xbox Series console storage expansion cards has been reduced in price: "Think of all the new games you'll be able to download and play now 👀. The Seagate Storage Expansion Card is now available starting at a lower price: xbx.lv/41e8t57." It is slightly odd that Seagate itself has not announced this lowering of gaming product MSRPs, but today's changes only affect the US market - European and UK listings feature the old prices (at the time of writing). It is not clear whether this discount is a permanent or temporary thing, but the latter is a more likely situation given rumors from last month.

It is very possible that Seagate is reacting to new competition - last month a Best Buy listing revealed that Western Digital is lining up to provide third party storage expansion cards for Xbox Series console owners. The leak of WD's incoming offerings indicated that it would be undercutting its arch rival in terms of pricing, at least with the single model that leaked (1 TB at $179.99) - Seagate has a timed exclusive agreement with Microsoft/Xbox for the licensed production/selling of proprietary cards. The officially sanctioned price drop brings the cards to more reasonable value levels, but Xbox owners have largely agreed that MSRPs were inflated from the beginning. The entry-level 512 GB Seagate model now costs $89.99 (a $50 reduction), the 1 TB model is now available at $149.99 (a $70 reduction) and the top-end 2 TB model gets the largest price slash (of $120) which brings it down to $279.99. Seagate appears to be undercutting WD's BLACK C50 1 TB model (if the Best Buy info leak price was accurate) by $30 with the official 1 TB storage expansion card.

It appears that Western Digital is readying its own line of Xbox Series X|S Storage Expansion cards, and undercutting its big rival - Seagate - in a currently exclusive storage solution market. Word spread across several gaming communities over the past weekend about a new listing on Best Buy, now removed as of late April 2, for a 1 TB capacity WD_BLACK C50 Expansion Card with an asking price of $179.99. WD has offered official external storage solutions for the current generation of Xbox home games consoles, under its WD_BLACK range, but Microsoft granted exclusive manufacturing rights to Seagate for the proprietary Xbox Series X|S storage expansion card system. According to official site information and documentation, these expansion cards are effective in "delivering additional external memory while maintaining the same peak speed and performance as the console's internal SSD".

The Seagate range could have been a timed exclusive, and based on the now deleted Best Buy listing, Microsoft seems to have handed a license to WD. The 1 TB WD_BLACK C50 Expansion Card's pricing was a big talking point, due to it being substantially cheaper than the equivalent capacity Seagate model ($219.99) - a saving of forty dollars, which is an encouraging sign for gamers who have long complained that the Xbox proprietary expansion card offers bad value for money. Seagate's current crop of cards start at $139.99 (512 GB) and go up to $399.99 (2 TB).

Samsung Electronics today announced production readiness of a high-performance PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, the PM9C1a. Integrated with a new controller based on Samsung's cutting-edge 5-nanometer (nm) process and the company's seventh-generation V-NAND technology, the PM9C1a will provide elevated computing and gaming performance in PCs and laptops.

"Our new PM9C1a SSD will deliver a robust combination of superior performance, greater power efficiency and increased security, which are the qualities that matter most to PC users," said Yong Ho Song, Executive Vice President of Memory Solution Product & Development at Samsung Electronics. "We are committed to creating storage that satisfies the diverse and changing market requirements as we continue to advance innovation in the PC SSD space."

The newest 2023 Lenovo Legion lineup of battle-ready PCs, monitors, and accessories are unveiled today, setting a new standard in PC gaming for 2023 that gives gamers the edge they need to top the leaderboards. Lenovo is harnessing the pure power of PC gaming with its new lineup for CES 2023, unlocking the freedom to dominate the battlefield with AI-tuned performance that lets gamers crush both framerates and the competition. Brand new for 2023 is the new Lenovo LA AI chip, the world's first dedicated AI chip on a gaming laptop, installed on the new Lenovo Legion Pro 7 and 7i (16", 8) laptops and the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 and 5i (16", 8) laptops.

Lenovo AI Engine+, powered by the Lenovo LA AI chip, deploys a software machine learning algorithm to optimally tune system performance. The chip uses software machine learning, deployed through Lenovo Vantage, to help monitor in-game FPS and dynamically adjust for the highest performance output. Offering up to 15% higher TDP, this chip and machine learning software combo allows Legion Pro Series laptops to deliver higher performance compared to previous generations. Lenovo Legion Pro 7i and Lenovo Legion Pro 5 and 5i laptops also come with Tobii Horizon, providing gearless head tracking that gives players an extra level of immersion when playing their favorite games, as well as Tobii Aware.

MSI is announcing the launch of our new Gen4 PCIe NVMe models to its SSD category - SPATIUM M461, M452 & M453 in M.2 2280 form factors that can be easily installed into compatible desktop motherboards and laptops. These new products allow MSI to continue to refine its identity as a high-performance PC brand and grow its product ecosystem by expanding SPATIUM, our high-performance storage category. Our SSDs are built with high-quality, high-density 3D NAND flash that delivers astonishing performance and endurance for professionals, content creators, and gamers.

SPATIUM M461, The Competitive PCIe 4.0 SSD for Mainstream Segment.
SPATIUM M461 was developed to meet the expectations of mainstream SSD consumers. Blazing fast speeds up to 5000 MB/sec sequential read and 4200 MB/sec sequential write speeds allow users using the latest generation of PCs to enjoy the capabilities of the PCIe Gen4 interface. Available storage capacities are 500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB.

For those looking at upgrading—or adding an SSD—to their Steam Deck, there's now a new option from Sabrent. The company has launched an M.2 2230 sized version of its Rocket SSD that will be available in sizes of 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB. As one would expect, due to the form factor, we're looking at DRAM-less drives. Sabrent has gone with Phison's E21T controller and it has been paired with Micron's B47R, 176-layer NAND.

In other words, we're not talking about a high-performance drive here, but that might be a good thing as well, since it'll produce less heat, which should prevent drive throttling in the tiny space available inside the Steam Deck. Sabrent rates the drives as having a sequential read speed of up to 5,000 MB/s and a sequential write speed of up to 4,300 MB/s. The read IOPS are rated at up to 450K, with the write IOPS at up to 920K, which once again varies between the drive sizes. The 512 GB drive appears to have the overall best performance. The drives are rated for 200, 300 and 600 TBW and come with a five year warranty. No pricing has been revealed so far.

Micron Technology, Inc.,, today announced it is shipping the Micron 2550 NVMe SSD to global PC OEM customers for use in mainstream laptops and desktops. The 2550 is the world's first client SSD to ship using NAND over 200 layers. Delivering performance that eclipses the competition through its density and power advantages, the 2550 provides users with responsiveness and the low power consumption needed to extend battery life for work and home PCs.

"We focused on delivering a superior user experience for PC users with this SSD," said Praveen Vaidyanathan, vice president and general manager of the Client Storage Group at Micron. "The new 2550 SSD builds on our established and broadly adopted PCIe Gen4 architecture. It also incorporates Micron's industry-leading 232-layer NAND and focuses on thermal architecture and power design. These capabilities deliver impressive application performance and phenomenal power savings."

Kingston FURY, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced the addition of Kingston FURY Renegade SSD with Heatsink, its second-generation PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 drive for console and PC gamers. Kingston FURY Renegade SSD with Heatsink maintains speed and temperature while delivering cutting-edge performance in high capacities using the latest Gen 4x4 controller.

By maximizing the available bandwidth of PCIe 4.0, Kingston FURY Renegade SSDs achieve speeds up to 7,300/7,000 MB/s read/write and up to 1,000,000 IOPS to deliver amazing consistency for an exceptional gaming experience. The drives are optimized to reduce game and application load times, stream and capture with ease and give your system an overall boost in responsiveness. Available in high capacities up to 4 TB, users can store an extensive library of their favorite games and media and still have space for the latest titles. Kingston FURY Renegade SSD offer two options for users both with formidable speeds and massive capacities:

Corsair has quietly launched two new SSD SKUs, the MP600 PRO NH and the MP600 GS. Although the model names seem similar, the two models couldn't be more different. Both are PCIe 4.0 x4 drives and in both cases controllers from Phison are used, but beyond both using a black PCB, the common features end here. The MP600 PRO NH is based around the Phison E18 and delivers sequential read speeds of up to 7000 MB/s, with the write speeds peaking at 6500 MB/s, depending on the storage capacity and this is where things get really interesting. Corsair is offering the MP600 PRO NH in capacities of up to 8 TB, but the SKU with the overall best performance is the 4 TB SKU. Random write performance is said to be up to 1.2 million IOPS, with random read performance topping out around 1 million IOPS. For some reason Corsair is offering a 500 GB SKU as well, but it offers fairly poor performance compared to its larger siblings. All drives use 3 TLC NAND, so we're not looking at QLC drives here.

The MP600 GS on the other hand is based on the Phison E21T, which is a DRAM-less controller that targets the more affordable drive segment. Here we're looking at only two SKUs, 500 GB or 1 TB, with the 1 TB drive offering sequential read speeds of up to 4800 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 3900 MB/s. The random read speed hits 580k IOPS with the random write speeds reaching 800k IOPS. This drive is also using 3D TLC NAND. The MP600 GS costs US$57.99 for the 500 GB SKU and US$92.99 for the 1 TB SKU. The MP600 PRO NH starts at US$72.99 for the 500 GB SKU, followed by US$112.99 for 1 TB, US$212.99 for 2 TB, US$529.99 for 4 TB and finally a rather steep US$1,074.99 for the 8 TB SKU. Both models come with a five year warranty.

Solidigm has introduced the P44 Pro solid-state storage drive (SSD), a high-performance client SSD for today's most demanding workloads. With blazing-fast speed and excellent power efficiency, the P44 Pro is the world's premier SSD for enthusiasts. The P44 Pro delivers spectacular PCIe Generation 4.0 performance, with up to 7,000 MB/s sequential read speeds. It provides a superb combination of speed and efficiency in Solidigm testing, meeting or exceeding published performance specifications while drawing just 5.3 W. The P44 Pro is available in 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities.

"Our flagship client SSD, the P44 Pro, is built with our cutting-edge NAND technology. Combined with our powerful software, it delivers the high performance users require in demanding applications. The P44 Pro is the most powerful client SSD Solidigm has launched to date and the premier enthusiast SSD on the market," said Sanjay Talreja, General Manager, Client Storage Group. "This drive delivers quick launch and load, and the fast save desired by gaming enthusiasts and content creators. With excellent power efficiency, the P44 Pro minimizes throttling that can come from excessive power and heat - resulting in consistent peak performance."[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the Solidigm Introduces the P44 Pro is now live]

Apple today announced the new iPad Pro with the M2 chip, delivering the ultimate combination of portability, versatility, and unbelievable performance. The new iPad Pro features a next-level Apple Pencil hover experience and superfast wireless connectivity, along with the world's most advanced mobile display, pro cameras, Face ID, Thunderbolt, and a four-speaker audio system. New features in iPadOS 16—including Stage Manager, full external display support, desktop-class apps, and Reference Mode—take pro workflows on iPad even further. Enabled by its advanced hardware and iPadOS 16, iPad Pro has an incredible ecosystem of powerful pro apps unlike any other device of its kind. The new iPad Pro is available to order starting today, and in stores beginning Wednesday, October 26.

"The next-generation iPad Pro pushes the boundaries of what's possible on iPad, bringing even more versatility, power, and portability to the ultimate iPad experience," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Powered by the M2 chip, the new iPad Pro features incredible performance and the most advanced technologies, including a next-level Apple Pencil hover experience, ProRes video capture, superfast wireless connectivity, and powerful iPadOS 16 features. There's nothing else like it."

Apple today announced iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, the most advanced Pro lineup ever, featuring the Dynamic Island—a new design that introduces an intuitive way to experience iPhone—and the Always-On display. Powered by A16 Bionic, the fastest chip ever in a smartphone, iPhone 14 Pro introduces a new class of pro camera system, with the first-ever 48MP Main camera on iPhone featuring a quad-pixel sensor, and Photonic Engine, an enhanced image pipeline that dramatically improves low-light photos. These groundbreaking advancements make iPhone even more indispensable for everyday tasks, creative projects, and now even emergency situations with features such as Emergency SOS via satellite and Crash Detection. iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will be available in four gorgeous new finishes: deep purple, silver, gold, and space black. Pre-orders begin Friday, September 9, with availability beginning Friday, September 16.

"Our customers count on their iPhone every day, and with iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, we're delivering more advancements than any other iPhone. iPhone 14 Pro introduces a camera system that empowers every user—from the casual user to the professional—to take their best photos and video, and innovative new technologies like the Always-On display and the Dynamic Island, which offers new interactions for notifications and activities," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Groundbreaking safety capabilities bring users even more security, offering help when they need it most. And with the incredibly powerful and efficient A16 Bionic chip and all-day battery life, this is the best iPhone yet."

LG's Intel based gram-series of notebooks have proven quite popular in the Ultrabook segment. However, its Ultra PC models are built around AMD hardware and although there have been a 13.3-inch model in the past, the company has announced its new 14- and 16-inch models. Both models are based around either a Ryzen 5 5625U or a Ryzen 7 5825U processor, which is built on AMD's Barcelo chips. This sadly means that features like USB4, DDR5/LPDDR5 and PCIe 4.0 support are out the window. This is because Barcelo is a refresh of Cezanne, which means both CPU families based on the Zen 3 architecture. On the plus side, this means the pricing will be quite competitive, but more on that in a second.

The 14-inch model measures 313.9 x 220.45 x 16.3 mm and weighs in at 1.29 kg, whereas the 16-inch model is slightly larger—for obvious reasons—and measures 356.3 x 248.6 x 16.3 mm, but remains fairly portable at 1.6 kg. The display on both the 14- and 16-inch models features 1920x1200 resolution, with the 14-inch model having a brighter display at 300 vs 250 nits for the 16-inch model. Neither display is what you'd call impressive though. Other features include up to 16 GB of dual-channel LPDDR4X memory, up to 1 TB of storage, HDMI out, a USB-C port with DP Alt mode and USB PD support, two USB-A ports, a microSD card slot, an audio jack and a power connector for the charger. WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1, as well as a fingerprint reader are also part of the package. Battery life is said to be up 21 and 20 hours respectively when it comes to video playback, with the 14-inch model managing 16.5 hours in MobileMark 2018, whereas the 16-inch model only manages 15 hours flat. LG will offer a range of SKUs that start at €1,199 for the 14-inchers and €1,399 for the 16-inchers, all of which should be available at some point this month.

Just under a month ago, ASUS posted a teaser for its first internal SSD, the ROG Strix SQ7 and now the company has finally released the full specs. It is indeed based around the 12 nm Phison E18 controller, as predicted by our Editor-In-Chief, something he spotted from the sneak peek picture. Although ASUS didn't specifically mention what kind of flash the drive is using, they kindly left the flash model number visible in one of its pictures of the drive. Although the full model name isn't visible, enough of it is visible to identify it as Micron's 176-layer TLC flash. The ROG Strix SQ7 also sports a DDR4 cache, as expected, although ASUS doesn't mention clock speeds.

ASUS claims the drive will deliver sequential read speeds of up to 7000 MB/s and write speeds of up to 6000 MB/s, which places the ROG Strix SQ7 in direct competition with several other Phison E18 based high-end drives from the likes of Kingston, MSI, Sabrent and others. Unfortunately, ASUS doesn't mention IOPS or random performance, although an unspecified "large" SLC cache is mentioned. Other features include TGC Opal and AES 256-bit encryption. ASUS also provides its own SSD dashboard, which of course is ROG branded, but looks like a skinned version of Phison's standard SSD dashboard, rather than something custom made. ASUS also provides a copy of NTI Backup Now EZ software and the drives appear to have a five year warranty. ASUS mentions PS5 compatibility outside of the PC space. No word on pricing or retail availability was provided and so far ASUS has only listed a 1 TB model.

OWC, a leading customer-focused creator of innovative solutions for over 30 years that have enabled individuals, businesses, content professionals, and educators to get maximum usefulness from their technology investment, today introduced the OWC Envoy Pro mini. The OWC Envoy Pro mini is a pocket-sized SSD with full-sized SSD performance and capacity for audio, photography, graphics, gaming, and general data storage/backup uses. Now, everyday users, students, mobile professionals, IT techs, and content creators can take, access, save, and share their data anywhere. The OWC Envoy Pro mini works with USB and Thunderbolt (USB-C) Macs, PCs, iPads, Chromebooks, Android tablets, and Surface devices made over the last 15 years. Available in 250 GB, 500 GB, and 1 TB capacities and can access and transfer data with everything at up to 946 MB/s real-world speed with Plug and Play ease.

Using the Envoy Pro mini in a mixed Mac and Windows environment is remarkably easy with the addition of OWC's MacDrive (sold separately). This seamless software runs in the background, so there is nothing to launch or learn. Just plug in the Envoy Pro mini, and not only do you have instant-read access, but full write access. MacDrive also includes powerful features that enable you to format and partition drives and repair fundamental disk issues.

With Gigabyte and more recently MSI offering internal consumer SSDs, it now looks like ASUS is getting ready to join the fray. There's no shortage of companies that are selling SSDs and most are based on very similar hardware and firmware, so the question is what ASUS is going to bring to the market to differentiate itself from the competition. The company hasn't provided any real details at this point in time, beyond a picture posted on its Taiwanese Facebook page.

The picture doesn't give away a ton of details, but what's clear is that ASUS aims to use its ROG gaming brand for the first product that ends up under the Strix sub-brand. The first drive will be called SQ7 and it's a standard M.2 PCIe 4.0 drive that not unsurprisingly uses four PCIe lanes and will come in at least a 1 TB size. It's possible that ASUS will launch its new SSD either during its "Boundless" event on the 17th of May, or during Computex, which kicks off on the 24th of May.

Update: Based on the sharp-eyed observations of our Editor-In-Chief, its highly likely that the ASUS ROG Strix SSD will be based on Phison's E18 controller, paired with Micron's 176-layer NAND, using Phison's reference PCB design. This means that ASUS would go straight after other high-performance drives, like the Kingston KC3000, Corsair MP600 Pro LPX and MSI's Spatium M480. Keep in mind that not all early product shots are of the actual product though, so we're just going to have to wait and see what ASUS brings to the table.

Intel is slowly transitioning its data center customers to a new processor generation called Sapphire Rapids. Today, thanks to the hardware leaker Yuuki_ans we have more profound insights into the top-end 56-core Sapphire Rapids processor and its power settings. According to the leak, we have information on either Xeon Platinum 8476 or Platinum 8480 designs that are equipped with 56 cores and 112 threads. This model was running at the base frequency of 1.9 GHz and a boost frequency of 3.3 GHz. Single-core can boost to 3.7 GHz if the report is giving a correct reading. Remember that this is only an engineering sample, so the final target speeds could differ. It carries 112 MB of L2 and 105 MB of L3 cache, and this sample was running with 1 TB of DDR5 memory with CL40-39-38-76 timings.

Perhaps the most exciting finding is the power configuration of this SKU. Intel has enabled this CPU to consume 350 Watts in PL1 rating, with up to 420 Watts in PL2 performance mode. The enforced BIOS power limit rating is set at an astonishing 764 Watts, which could happen with AVX-512 enabled. Final TDP ratings are yet to be disclosed; however, these Sapphire Rapids processors are shaping to be relatively power-hungry chips.

When NVIDIA announced its Grace CPU Superchip, the company officially showed its efforts of creating an HPC-oriented processor to compete with Intel and AMD. The Grace CPU Superchip combines two Grace CPU modules that use the NVLink-C2C technology to deliver 144 Arm v9 cores and 1 TB/s of memory bandwidth. Each core is Arm Neoverse N2 Perseus design, configured to achieve the highest throughput and bandwidth. As far as performance is concerned, the only detail NVIDIA provides on its website is the estimated SPECrate 2017_int_base score of over 740. Thanks to the colleges over at Tom's Hardware, we have another performance figure to look at.

NVIDIA has made a slide about comparison with Intel's Ice Lake server processors. One Grace CPU Superchip was compared to two Xeon Platinum 8360Y Ice Lake CPUs configured in a dual-socket server node. The Grace CPU Superchip outperformed the Ice Lake configuration by two times and provided 2.3 times the efficiency in WRF simulation. This HPC application is CPU-bound, allowing the new Grace CPU to show off. This is all thanks to the Arm v9 Neoverse N2 cores pairing efficiently with outstanding performance. NVIDIA made a graph showcasing all HPC applications running on Arm today, with many more to come, which you can see below. Remember that NVIDIA provides this information, so we have to wait for the 2023 launch to see it in action.

A few days ago, we found out that NVIDIA corporation has been hacked and that attackers managed to steal around 1 TB of sensitive data from the company. This includes various kinds of files like GPU driver and GPU firmware source codes and something a bit more interesting. The LAPSUS$ hacking group responsible for the attack is now threatening to "help mining and gaming community" by releasing a bypass solution for the Lite Hash Rate (LHR) GPU hash rate limiter. As the group notes, the full LHR V2 workaround for anything between GA102-GA104 is on sale and is ready for further spreading.

Additionally, the hacking group is making blackmailing claims that the company should remove the LHR from its software or share details of the "hw folder," presumably a hardware folder with various confidential schematics and hardware information. NVIDIA did not respond to these claims and had no official statement regarding the situation other than acknowledging that they are investigating an incident.Update 01:01 UTC: The hackers have released part of their files to the public. It's a 18.8 GB RAR file, which uncompresses to over 400,000 (!) files occupying 75 GB, it's mostly source code.

Contract prices of NAND Flash products are expected to undergo a marginal drop of 0-5% QoQ in 4Q21 as demand slows, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. Hence, the current cyclical upturn in NAND Flash prices will have lasted for only two consecutive quarters. Looking ahead, NAND Flash suppliers' capacity expansion plans will be affected by the outlook on future trends and the supply of other non-memory components. At the same time, attention will have to be paid to the demand projection. At the moment, NAND Flash suppliers appear likely to downsize their capacity expansion activities for 2022, resulting in a 31.8% YoY increase in NAND Flash bit supply next year. Annual bit demand, on the other hand, is projected to increase by 30.8% YoY. With demand being outpaced by supply and competition intensifying among suppliers for higher-layer products, the NAND Flash market will likely experience a cyclical downturn in prices in 2022.