As the global economy enters the post-pandemic era, technologies including 5G, WiFi6/6E, and HPC (high-performance computing) have been advancing rapidly, in turn bringing about a fundamental, structural change in the semiconductor industry as well, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. While the demand for certain devices such as notebook computers and TVs underwent a sharp uptick due to the onset of the stay-at-home economy, this demand will return to pre-pandemic levels once the pandemic has been brought under control as a result of the global vaccination drive. Nevertheless, the worldwide shift to next-gen telecommunication standards has brought about a replacement demand for telecom and networking devices, and this demand will continue to propel the semiconductor industry, resulting in high capacity utilization rates across the major foundries. As certain foundries continue to expand their production capacities this year, TrendForce expects total foundry revenue to reach a historical high of US$94.6 billion this year, an 11% growth YoY.

L-com, an Infinite Electronics brand and a preferred manufacturer of wired and wireless connectivity products, announced today that it has introduced a new series of audio/video, active optical cables (AOC) that were developed to extend high quality audio and video signals up to 100 meters without the use of a repeater.

L-com's new AOC cables include HDMI 2.0 assemblies, DisplayPort 1.4 cable assemblies and DVI video cable assemblies. Each series features cable lengths ranging from 10 meters up to 100 meters off-the-shelf. These new long-reach AOC cables are lightweight and flexible, require no external power supply and are resistant to EMI and RFI.

DisplayPort 2.0 was supposed to see its implementation beginning by the end of 2020, but that time has come and gone without a single DisplayPort 2.0-touting product on sight. According to VESA, the rollout has been delayed mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented the standards body to perform its PlugTest events, where engineers and hardware developers convene to discuss, tinker, and decide on the standard's implementation. VESA held multiple of these events per year, but none in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic; thus, the delay we are now witnessing surged.

VESA plans to have their first 2021 PlugTest event in Spring of this year, however, and aims to see products on the shelves later, and likely not before 2H 2020. The standards body said that there are, indeed, DisplayPort 2.0 monitors currently in-development, but that these too have been affected by the lack of PlugTests. DisplayPort 2.0 is an update to the current 1.4 implementation, and currently, there are no launched products (monitors, graphics cards, etc) that can make use of the new version. The new standard will technically support up to 80 Gbps max, nearly three times the currently available bandwidth in the DisplayPort 1.4 spec. DisplayPort Alt Mode 2.0 also brings most of these capabilities to USB Type-C connectors via the USB 4.0 revision.

OWC, the premier zero-emissions Mac and PC technology company, and a respected provider of Memory, External Drives, SSDs, Mac & PC docking solutions, and performance upgrade kits announces the new OWC ThunderboltTM Dock for Mac and PC. The OWC Thunderbolt Dock massively expands the functionality of the latest Intel 11th Gen Core and Evo PCs with Thunderbolt 4, as well as expanding the functionality of the new M1 Macs and Thunderbolt 3 equipped Macs once they are upgraded to the new Apple MacOS 11 'BigSur'. Connect more, display more, and charge more with this new Thunderbolt solution. The OWC Thunderbolt Dock joins OWC's award-winning and Thunderbolt certified line of docking solutions for Mac and PC like the Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock, Thunderbolt 3 14-port Dock, and Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock.

With the OWC Thunderbolt Dock you can now have four Thunderbolt ports, plus four USB ports, as well as a port for your SD Card, Gigabit Ethernet, and a combo audio in/out. You gain convenient access for all of your essential Thunderbolt and USB devices all through a single cable to your Mac or PC. Utilizing the latest Thunderbolt technology, the OWC Thunderbolt Dock enables users with Intel 11th Gen Core and Evo PCs with Thunderbolt 4, existing Macs or new M1 based Macs to add a mix of ports, including additional Thunderbolt ports. OWC Thunderbolt 3 docks without the Thunderbolt hub are compatible with OS 10.12 or later. Our Thunderbolt 4 based docks will continue to work great with our existing Thunderbolt 3 solutions such as storage, adapters, and more.

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of display solutions, showcases its latest display solutions ranging from monitors for gaming and work-from-home environments to projectors for entertainment and portability. Packed with the latest technology features for functionality and designed for multiple applications, these ViewSonic display solutions deliver performance that remains uncompromised.

ViewSonic will introduce its line of new display solutions, including the company's first 8K ColorPro monitor with Adobe RGB and color-sensor and -blind modes; new ViewSonic ELITE gaming monitors including a 32-inch, 4K, HDMI 2.1 monitor with FreeSync for next-generation PC/console gaming; a value-rich 4K projector for astounding entertainment and casual gaming experiences, and an upgraded LED-based, 1080p portable projector with smart connectivity.

Over three years after the launch of the HDMI Specification Version 2.1, major products are now widely available that support HDMI 2.1 features including 4K@120Hz, 8K@60Hz, Dynamic HDR and eARC. Instead of asking when HDMI 2.1-enabled products will be available, people are now asking for advice about which new HDMI 2.1-enabled products to buy.

"It's exciting to see so many new products available with these new features," said Rob Tobias, CEO and president of HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc. (HDMI LA). "And with the launch of the latest gaming consoles, consumers can now enjoy a thrilling HDMI 2.1 end-to-end experience with consoles, AVR's, cables, TVs and monitors. With shipments of HDMI products reaching almost 10 billion since it launched in 2002, HDMI technology continues to be the universal interface for consumer electronics products."

A German website, Heise.de, has discovered a bug in HDMI 2.1 chipset that causes black screen issues on specific hardware. On AV chipsets sourced by Panasonic, and used by Denon, Marantz, and Yamaha HDMI 2.1 AV receivers, the chipset experiences a specific issue of a black screen. More specifically, the bug happens once you connect Microsoft's newest console, Xbox Series X, or NVIDIA's Ampere graphics cards. When connecting these sources at resolutions like 4K/120 Hz HDR and 8K/60 Hz HDR to Panasonic HDMI 2.1 chipsets, the black screen happens. This represents a major problem for every manufacturer planning to use the Panasonic HDMI 2.1 chipset in its AV receivers, meaning that the issue has to be addressed. The Audioholics website has reached out to Sound United and Yamaha to see what their responses were, and you can check them out below.

Imagination Technologies announces IMG B-Series, a new expanded range of GPU IP. With its advanced multi-core architecture, B-Series enables Imagination customers to reduce power while reaching higher levels of performance than any other GPU IP on the market. It delivers up to 6 TFLOPS of compute, with an up to 30% reduction in power and 25% area reduction over previous generations and up to 2.5x higher fill rate than competing IP cores.

With IMG A-Series Imagination made an exceptional leap over previous generations, resulting in an industry-leading position for performance and power characteristics. B-Series is a further evolution delivering the highest performance per mm² for GPU IP and offering new configurations for lower power and up to 35% lower bandwidth for a given performance target, making it a compelling solution for top-tier designs.

NVIDIA themselves have shared performance slides for their imminent RTX 3090 graphics card, the new halo product that's been marketed as the new Titan. Previous-gen Titans have achieved extremely meager performance uplifts compared to NVIDIA's top-of-the-line cards (see RTX 2080 Ti vs RTX Titan, an average of 8% performance difference in favor of the Titan. According to the company, users should expect a slightly higher performance uplift this time around, though the 10-15% higher performance in 4K still seems meager - in pure price/performance terms - for the average consumer.

The average consumer who isn't the main focus for this graphics card and its gargantuan 24 GB of GDDR6X memory, anyway - this is more aimed at the semi-professional or professional crowds working with specialized software, whether it be in rendering or AI-based workloads. The RTX 3090 is thus not so much a product for the discerning computer enthusiast, but more of a halo product for gamers, and a crucial product for professionals and academics.

Palit Microsystems Ltd, the leading graphics card manufacturer, today launched the GeForce RTX 3090, RTX 3080, RTX 3070 GameRock and GamingPro Series powered by the NVIDIA Ampere architecture.

The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs, the 2nd generation of RTX, features new RT Cores, Tensor Cores and streaming multiprocessors, bringing stunning visuals, amazingly fast frame rates, and AI acceleration to games and creative applications. Powered by the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, which delivers increases of up to 1.9X performance-per-watt over the previous generation, the RTX 30 Series effortlessly powers graphics experiences at all resolutions, even up to 8K at the top end. The GeForce RTX 3090, 3080, and 3070 represent the greatest GPU generational leap in the history of NVIDIA.

OWC a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company and one of the world's most respected providers of Memory, External Drives, SSDs, Mac & PC docking solutions and performance upgrade kits, today announced that their new ThunderBay Flex 8 media workflow solution, revealed at CES 2020, is now shipping. A cutting-edge approach for world class Thunderbolt 3 storage, dollar for dollar, there is no better way for serious media professionals to handle their storage, connectivity, and PCIe expansion needs.

The exciting new ThunderBay Flex 8 is a recipient of the 2020 Future Best of Show Award, presented by Video Edge. Video Edge awarded the ThunderBay Flex 8 their Special Edition Best of Show Award in the store, charge and connect category. The awards are evaluated by a panel of engineers and industry experts, and are selected based on innovation, feature set, cost efficiency and performance in serving the industry. A Special Edition of the award program was held this year in the absence of a physical NAB Show.

Matrox is pleased to announce that the Matrox QuadHead2Go Q155 multi-monitor controller card is now shipping. Powering up to four Full HD displays from a single HDMI video source—including HDCP devices—the QuadHead2Go Q155 card provides OEMs, system integrators, and AV installers with an innovative tool to quickly and easily add more displays to video walls of any type and size. Designed to integrate seamlessly into Matrox-based or third-party platforms, QuadHead2Go is ideal for a wide variety of video wall applications, including digital signage, control room, broadcast, and more.

QuadHead2Go Q155 controllers capture a single video signal—of up to 4Kp60 and 8Kx8K—for display across up to four screens, at resolutions up to 1920x1200 per output. The input content could be from any HDMI source—including digital signage players, media players, laptops, and more—while displays can be arranged in a variety of artistic configurations or classic rectangular 2x2, 2x1, 3x1, 4x1, 1x2, 1x3, or 1x4 setups. Pair multiple QuadHead2Go units to add more displays and/or combine with Matrox D-Series quad-4K graphics cards to power up to an astonishing 64 1920x1080p60 monitors from one system.

An unofficial port of Super Mario 64 for PC was released on various online forums last week, this port was made possible through reverse engineering of the game's source code obtained by fans over the past few years. This PC port differed from existing options such as N64 emulation as it allows the game to run at far greater resolutions than its native resolution of 240p with resolutions such as 4K, 4K ultra-wide or even 8K now possible at uncapped frame rates. The DirectX 12 powered port came with other features such as controller support and the ability to add modern visual effects including ray tracing through third-party tools such as Reshade.

As expected Nintendo is not pleased with the port and has taken steps to get it removed from various sites, Nintendo has reportedly contracted US law firm Wildwood Law Group LLC who refer to the unofficial Super Mario 64 PC port as an "unauthorized derivative work based on Nintendo's copyrighted work." In addition to the download link takedowns, several YouTube videos featuring gameplay of the port have also been removed. Nintendo will want to get this port removed from the internet as soon as possible, especially given their plans to release new and remastered Mario games for the Nintendo Switch this year.

The graphics cards of the near-future could see a gradual phase out of standard-size DisplayPorts in favor of USB 4, starting 2021, according to a CNET report. Within the USB standard, the type-C port could see a significant growth in proliferation, and a possible phase-out of type-A ports, beginning with notebooks. The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), had in Q3-2019 announced the USB 4.0 specification, with development of the first implementations of the standard underway.

According to the CNET report, some time in 2021, USB 4.0 type-C ports could include DisplayPort 2.0 wiring, enabling 8K and 16K displays with a single cable. USB 4.0 will also make significant strides in other directions, such as support for 40 Gbps bandwidth (80 Gbps in x2 mode). It also implements tunneling technology carried over from the Thunderbolt specification, allowing you to daisy-chain devices (such as plugging in an external hard drive to a USB 4 monitor).

Samsung Electronics is pushing the industry another step forward with an expansion of QLED 8K SMART displays, new applications of The Wall and showcasing the new-and-improved Samsung Flip 2 digital flipchart.

"Samsung is making tomorrow's technology a reality with complete display solutions that are more immersive, collaborative and interactive than ever before. ISE is one of the best opportunities for Samsung to showcase advanced commercial applications of our industry-leading displays," said Hyesung Ha, Senior Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. "We're excited to unveil new features and expanded lineups of our digital signage with next-generation technology such as 8K, the new model of The Wall, collaborative displays and more that will provide businesses with opportunities they've never had before."

Rockstar Games has dropped a launch trailer for their upcoming PC release of the critically-acclaimed Red Dead Redemption 2. Fret not if you're worried about spoilers (though the game has indeed released quite a while ago): the trailer is only one minute long. There are some specific PC improvements to the title, such as support for up to 8K resolutions (good luck on that), support for higher framerates than on consoles, HDR, and support for non-standard monitor ratios.

The PC version of the game will also introduce a new photo mode for all you photography enthusiasts out there - even though it's in-game, it should still count. One of the things the PC version of the game won't ship with - sadly - is support for raytracing. There were some rumors running around the web regarding support for raytracing on the Rockstar Release due to some screenshots outed by NVIDIA that sported an RTX logo on the bottom right corner, but those served only as marketing for their latest 20-series graphics cards. No raytracing will be available in this game - and there is no reason to think it might.

Angelbird Technologies, the premier developer of camera-specific media for professional creatives, announces the addition of CFexpress Type B memory cards to their high-performance lineup of AV PRO media solutions.The call for quick adoption of advanced digital video production standards to 6K, 8K and beyond, is being driven by high-profile international broadcasting as well as an increased need for industrial data processing and performance requirements. CFexpress memory media meets the high-speed demands of new technology (media that can write data at a minimum of 400 MB/sec).

It also mirrors the XQD form factor-- allowing select cameras that currently utilize XQD to now also accept CFexpress with a firmware update. But different from XQD, is that the CFexpress adopts the PCIe Gen 3 interface standards promoted by the CompactFlash Association. Angelbird's AV PRO CFX and AV PRO CFX XT offer read/write speeds up to 1700 MB/s and 1400 MB/s. CFexpress memory cards perform at speeds 3.5x faster than CFast technology- the current memory card leader for high-bitrate video production.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is opening up to the idea of porting PlayStation-exclusive games to the PC, which is growing in popularity on the backs of titles that play best on this platform, such as Fortnite and Minecraft. At the moment, Shawn Layden, who heads SIE, is interested in putting some its first-party titles (developed and published entirely by SIE) on the PC platform. Compared to arch-rival Microsoft, Sony's garden has had taller walls. Microsoft has interests in both its Xbox console, and the Windows PC ecosystem, particularly the Microsoft Store, and has shepherded many of its ecosystem partners to co-develop for both platforms. Its latest move is the Xbox for PC GamePass, that brings about some coherence between the PC and Xbox.

Sony is gearing up for the next round of the Console Wars against Microsoft, in which its PlayStation 5 console will compete with Microsoft's codenamed "Project Scarlett" console. Both consoles will be designed for 4K Ultra HD televisions, with preparation for higher resolutions, such as 8K. Speaking on the development, Layden said "We must support the PlayStation platform — that is nonnegotiable. That said, you will see in the future some titles coming out of my collection of studios which may need to lean into a wider installed base."

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced that it has released version 2.0 of the DisplayPort (DP) audio/video standard. DP 2.0 is the first major update to the DisplayPort standard since March 2016, and provides up to a 3X increase in data bandwidth performance compared to the previous version of DisplayPort (DP 1.4a), as well as new capabilities to address the future performance requirements of traditional displays. These include beyond 8K resolutions, higher refresh rates and high dynamic range (HDR) support at higher resolutions, improved support for multiple display configurations, as well as improved user experience with augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) displays, including support for 4K-and-beyond VR resolutions.

The advantages of DP 2.0 are enjoyed across both the native DP connector as well as the USB Type-C connector, which carries the DP audio/video signal through DisplayPort Alt Mode. DP 2.0 is backward compatible with previous versions of DisplayPort and incorporates all of the key features of DP 1.4a, including support for visually lossless Display Stream Compression (DSC) with Forward Error Correction (FEC), HDR metadata transport, and other advanced features. The increased video bandwidth performance of DP 2.0 carried over the USB-C connector enables simultaneous higher-speed USB data transfer without compromising display performance. DP 2.0 leverages the Thunderbolt 3 physical interface (PHY) layer while maintaining the flexibility of DP protocol in order to boost the data bandwidth and promote convergence across industry-leading IO standards.

Two of the often overlooked components of a new graphics architecture are the I/O and multimedia capabilities. With its Radeon RX 5700-series "Navi 10" graphics processor, AMD gave the two their first major update in over two years, with the new Radeon Display Engine, and Radeon Multimedia Engine. The Display Engine is a hardware component that handles the graphics card's physical display I/O. The Radeon Multimedia Engine is a set of fixed-function hardware that provides CODEC-specific acceleration to offload your CPU.

The Navi Radeon Display Engine features an updated DisplayPort 1.4 HDR implementation that's capable of handling 8K displays at 60 Hz with a single cable. It can also handle 4K UHD at 240 Hz with a single cable. These also include HDR and 10-bit color. It achieves this by implementing DSC 1.2a (Display Stream Compression). The display controller also supports 30 bpp internal color-depth. The HDMI implementation remains HDMI 2.0. The multi-plane overlay protocol (MPO) implementation now supports a low-power mode. This should, in theory, reduce the GPU's power draw when idling or playing back video.

Intel processor integrated graphics will get its first major hardware update in 4 years since Gen 9.5 "Skylake," with the introduction of the Gen11 architecture that debuts with the company's "Ice lake" processors. The company confirmed in an XDC 2018 conference presentation that the iGPU will support DisplayPort 1.4a along with VESA DSC (display stream compression), enabling it to support display resolutions as high as 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels) with 120 Hz refresh-rate.

Without DSC, 5K-120 Hz requires 42.4 Gbps of bandwidth (not counting interconnect and protocol overheads), which even DisplayPort with HBR3 cannot provide, as it caps out at 32.4 Gbps. DSC offers "visually lossless" compression of the 5K-120 display stream down to roughly 14 Gbps, which can be comfortably handled by DisplayPort 1.4a. 8K (8192 x 4320 pixels) at 60 Hz also becomes possible. Merely supporting these new high resolutions doesn't imply Gen11 iGPUs can game at those resolutions. Support for them is necessitated by rapid increases in resolutions (pixel densities) and refresh-rates of high-end notebooks and ultra-portable devices.The complete slide-deck follows.

NVIDIA today announced new GeForce experience features to be integrated and expanded in wake of its RTX platform push. The new features include increased number of Ansel-supporting titles (including already released Prey and Vampyr, as well as the upcoming Metro Exodus and Shadow of the Tomb Raider), as well as RTX-exclusive features that are being implemented into the company's gaming system companion.

There are also some features being implemented that gamers will be able to take advantage of without explicit Ansel SDK integration done by the games developer - which NVIDIA says will bring Ansel support (in any shape or form) to over 200 titles (150 more than the over 50 titles already supported via SDK). And capitalizing on Battlefield V's relevance to the gaming crowd, NVIDIA also announced support for Ansel and its Highlights feature for the upcoming title.

Here are some of the first pictures of the bare printed circuit board (PCB) of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 1180 graphics card (dubbed PG180), referred to by the person who originally posted them as "GTX 2080" (it seems the jury is still out on the nomenclature). The PCB looks hot from the press, with its SMT points and vias still exposed. The GT104 GPU traces hint at a package that's about the size of a GP104 or its precessors. It's wired to eight memory chips on three sides, confirming a 256-bit wide memory bus. Display outputs appear flexible, for either 2x DisplayPort + 2x HDMI, or 3x DisplayPort + 1x HDMI configurations.

The VRM setup is surprisingly powerful for a card that's supposed to succeed the ~180W GeForce GTX 1080, which can make do with a single 8-pin PCIe power input. The card draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors. There is a purportedly 10-phase VCore side, which in all likelihood is a 5-phase setup with "dumb" phase-doubling; and similarly, a 2-phase memory power (which could again be doubled single-phase). The SLI-HB fingers also make way. There's a new connector that looks like a single SLI finger and an NVLink finger arranged side-by-side. NVIDIA still hasn't given up on multi-GPU. NVLink is a very broad interconnect, in terms of bandwidth. NVIDIA probably needs that for multi-GPU setups to work with not just high resolutions (4K, 5K, or even 8K), but also higher bit-depth, higher refresh-rates, HDR, and other exotic data. The reverse side doesn't have much action other than traces for the VRM controllers, phase doublers, and an unusually large bank of SMT capacitors (the kind seen on AMD PCBs with MCM GPUs).

AMD today released Radeon Software Adrenalin 18.6.1 beta. The drivers come with performance optimization for "Warhammer: Vermitide 2," with up to 9 percent performance improvements over 18.5.2, seen on Radeon RX Vega 56, at 1440p resolution; and up to 10 percent improvements seen using the RX 580 8 GB. In addition, the update fixes a number of bugs.

Blank screen issues with "Subnautica" have been fixed. System hangs or crashes experienced in "Sea of Thieves" in the "Cannon Cove" area have been fixed. Ground texture corruption in "World of Tanks" on certain multi-GPU systems, has been fixed. Flickering noticed in certain menus of "Middle Earth: Shadow of War" has been fixed. Desktop being out of the visible area at the 8K resolution on Radeon Pro Duo has been fixed. Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 18.6.1

The change-log follows.

It's true, it seems: as time passes, technology becomes cheaper, the entry point becomes lower, more people can acquire more products, demand balloons, and supply tries to keep up. The fundamentals sine right through AU Optronics' choice to increase output on panels that are apparently flying from their inventory: high-end LTPS notebook panels, for one, are selling like hot cakes. The reason is simple: LTPS (low-temperature polycrystalline silicon) can better sustain higher resolution panels with higher vibrancy and accurate color reproduction, but deteriorates faster than IPS LCD panels. So, it serves two purposes (though they'll never tell you about the second): better specs and increased, built-in obsolescence: a traditional feature in the world of capitalism.

Besides LTPS, 4K panels have increased their momentum (planned adoption rates for 2018 are being set at 40%, 10% over 2017's 30% attachment rate), 75-85" panel sales have more than tripled since the beginning of 2018, and 8K panels will start being shipped (in relatively small volumes) in the first quarter of this year. AU Optronics has also increased fabrication of 240 Hz screens for manufacturers that then use their panels on premium products, such as Acer, Asustek Computer, BenQ, ViewSonic, AOC and Philips.