Samsung debuted its Mach-1 generation of AI processors during a recent shareholder meeting—the South Korean megacorp anticipates an early 2025 launch window. Their application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design is expected to "excel in edge computing applications," with a focus on low power and efficiency-oriented operating environments. Naver Corporation was a key NVIDIA high-end AI customer in South Korea (and Japan), but the leading search platform firm and creator of HyperCLOVA X LLM (reportedly) deliberated on an adoption alternative hardware last October. The Korea Economic Daily believes that Naver's relationship with Samsung is set to grow, courtesy of a proposed $752 million investment: "the world's top memory chipmaker, will supply its next-generation Mach-1 artificial intelligence chips to Naver Corp. by the end of this year."

Reports from last December indicated that the two companies were deep into the process of co-designing power-efficient AI accelerators—Naver's main goal is to finalize a product that will offer eight times more energy efficiency than NVIDIA's H100 AI accelerator. Naver's alleged bulk order—of roughly 150,000 to 200,000 Samsung Mach-1 AI chips—appears to be a stopgap. Industry insiders reckon that Samsung's first-gen AI accelerator is much cheaper when compared to NVIDIA H100 GPU price points—a per-unit figure of $3756 is mentioned in the KED Global article. Samsung is speculated to be shopping its fledgling AI tech to Microsoft and Meta.

Soon, you'll be able to play your favorite games from GOG, like the Witcher series or Cyberpunk 2077, on multiple devices of your choice. We're teaming up with Amazon Luna cloud gaming service to give you even more ways of enjoying your titles, while still keeping our mission of DRM-free gaming. Let's dive into it and take a look at how it works!

What exactly is Amazon Luna?
It is a cloud gaming service developed and operated by Amazon. The service first launched in March 2022 in the United States, and then spread its reach to other countries last year, with availability in the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Luna works by streaming games from cloud servers and runs on Amazon's powerful cloud computing service Amazon Web Services (AWS). And what it means is that it allows its customers to enjoy gaming on the go, on the couch, or anywhere else you have an internet connection. No lengthy downloads or updates, no need for an expensive gaming PC, complicated setup, or heavy computer processing - just pure joy of running your games on a device of your choice in high-quality.

In March last year, we announced a 10-year partnership with Boosteroid to bring Xbox PC games to more players around the world. In June, we brought the first batch of Xbox PC games to Boosteroid and today, we're taking another step in our partnership. We're bringing more high-quality, immersive PC games by giving players another option to stream select games purchased through Microsoft Store on Windows, or available with a Game Pass membership. Our partnership continues to accelerate access to players by letting them choose how and where they play their games.

Starting today, you can play Deathloop, Dishonored, Dishonored 2, Dishonored: Death of The Outsider, Gears 5, Gears Tactics, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Pentiment. You can also enjoy cross-play and cross-save features with your Xbox console and Windows PC for these games. We'll continue to add more hits and fan favorites from our extensive catalog of PC games over time. To get started, you'll need to gain access to the game through the Microsoft Store—either via a PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, or by a direct purchase of the game through the Microsoft Store—long with a Boosteroid membership.

MSI, a prominent gaming hardware brand, is excited to reveal its renewed collaboration with Ubisoft, a distinguished game publisher. Anticipation builds as MSI and Ubisoft join forces to bring gamers an unparalleled experience in the highly anticipated game—Skull and Bones. Navigate Treacherous Waters, Unleash Pirate Fury! Embark on a thrilling maritime journey with Skull and Bones, a captivating co-op pirate open world action-RPG experience. Sail through treacherous seas, engage in epic ship battles, and become the legendary pirate you were destined to be. Beware of every wave, for the open world awaits with dangers and opportunities alike. Are you ready to rule the sea?

Let's begin your private journey with MSI's advanced technologies!
Embark on an exciting adventure with MSI's special offer—buy selected MSI products and a complimentary Skull and Bones for free. Elevate your gaming rig with MSI's cutting-edge motherboards, PC cases, power supplies, liquid coolers, and graphics card. Dive into the thrilling world of Skull and Bones for an immersive gaming experience.

This week, Cisco and NVIDIA have announced plans to deliver AI infrastructure solutions for the data center that are easy to deploy and manage, enabling the massive computing power that enterprises need to succeed in the AI era. "AI is fundamentally changing how we work and live, and history has shown that a shift of this magnitude is going to require enterprises to rethink and re-architect their infrastructures," said Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO, Cisco. "Strengthening our great partnership with NVIDIA is going to arm enterprises with the technology and the expertise they need to build, deploy, manage, and secure AI solutions at scale." Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA said: "Companies everywhere are racing to transform their businesses with generative AI. Working closely with Cisco, we're making it easier than ever for enterprises to obtain the infrastructure they need to benefit from AI, the most powerful technology force of our lifetime."

A Powerful Partnership
Cisco, with its industry-leading expertise in Ethernet networking and extensive partner ecosystem, together with NVIDIA, the inventor of the GPU that fueled the AI boom, share a vision and commitment to help customers navigate the transitions for AI with highly secure Ethernet-based infrastructure. Cisco and NVIDIA have offered a broad range of integrated product solutions over the past several years across Webex collaboration devices and data center compute environments to enable hybrid workforces with flexible workspaces, AI-powered meetings and virtual desktop infrastructure.

Cristiano Renno Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm, discussed the successful launch of his company's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform during a January 31 Earnings Call—expectations have been set high for the flagship smartphone chipset: "(bringing) a new standard for on-device gen AI experiences for premium smartphones and powers all through flagship Android devices launched and launching this fiscal year." Amon highlighted Samsung's recently rolled out Galaxy S24 Ultra range, that makes use of a special "For Galaxy" Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. Industry watchdogs have continued to question Samsung's reliance on third-party processor solutions (including MediaTek Dimensity parts), despite having access to plenty of "worthy" in-house technology. Their flagship Exynos 2400 chip has been deployed with the Galaxy S24 Plus range, but Qualcomm Snapdragon-equipped devices offer better performance and efficiency.

The picky segment of Samsung's smartphone userbase will be pleased to hear about a renewed agreement between it and Qualcomm, which includes a trickling down to mid-range offerings—Amon made a big announcement during the late January conference call: "We're also announcing that we extended a multi-year agreement with Samsung relating to Snapdragon platforms for flagship Galaxy smartphone launches starting in 2024. The extended agreement demonstrates the value of Snapdragon 8, our technology leadership and our successful long-term strategic partnership with Samsung. In the quarter, we also announced the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 mobile platform, which brings leading gen AI capabilities to high-tier Android smartphones and is a category leader in both experiences and performance." Going forward, Samsung is likely sticking with its current operating model of peppering a mix of Snapdragon and Exynos chipsets throughout its Galaxy Z, S and A product ranges.

ESL FACEIT Group (EFG), the leading esports and video game entertainment company, and Intel, have today announced the extension and expansion of their partnership with Acer. As the exclusive Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partner, Acer's gaming brand Predator will empower EFG Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 competitions across 2024. Intel and EFG have been partners in the esports space for over 20 years, fostering and supporting a passionate global community through world-leading esports events, activations and opportunities. Their vision is shared by Acer, and the mutual desire for progress, innovation, and delivering exceptional experiences has been the catalyst in the success, and now renewal, of their partnership.

"Acer's partnership with Intel and EFG is driven by our shared commitment of supporting the esports community, bringing gameplay to new heights," said Vincent Lin, Associate Vice President, Global Product Marketing and Planning, Acer Inc. "Our latest Predator gaming laptops powered by Intel Core 14th Gen processors provide powerful performance and combine AI-powered features that enhance the overall gaming experience."

For Backbone's first-ever game collaboration, we've partnered with the legendary Kojima Productions to bring you the Backbone One - DEATH STRANDING Limited Edition controller. This collaboration commemorates the release of DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT for iOS. The Backbone One controller features custom product and packaging designs that blend the innovative design of the Backbone One with the artistic vision of Hideo Kojima and his award-winning title, DEATH STRANDING. Backbone One - DEATH STRANDING Limited Edition includes a free copy of DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT for iOS. Your complimentary copy of the game also gives you the ability to play it on iPad and Mac. The best way to experience DEATH STRANDING on your iPhone 15 is with Backbone! Tomorrow Is In Your Hands.

Designed in Partnership with Kojima Productions
Hideo Kojima, the mastermind behind DEATH STRANDING and founder of Kojima Productions, is renowned for his innovative storytelling and game design approach. His collaboration with Backbone is a further testament to his vision of pushing the boundaries of gaming, blurring the lines between console and mobile experiences.

In a major stride toward building a shared national research infrastructure, the U.S. National Science Foundation has launched the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource pilot program with significant support from NVIDIA. The initiative aims to broaden access to the tools needed to power responsible AI discovery and innovation. It was announced Wednesday in partnership with 10 other federal agencies as well as private-sector, nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. "The breadth of partners that have come together for this pilot underscores the urgency of developing a National AI Research Resource for the future of AI in America," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "By investing in AI research through the NAIRR pilot, the United States unleashes discovery and impact and bolsters its global competitiveness."

NVIDIA's commitment of $30 million in technology contributions over two years is a key factor in enlarging the scale of the pilot, fueling the potential for broader achievements and accelerating the momentum toward full-scale implementation. "The NAIRR is a vision of a national research infrastructure that will provide access to computing, data, models and software to empower researchers and communities," said Katie Antypas, director of the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure at the NSF. "Our primary goals for the NAIRR pilot are to support fundamental AI research and domain-specific research applying AI, reach broader communities, particularly those currently unable to participate in the AI innovation ecosystem, and refine the design for the future full NAIRR," Antypas added.

The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it issued orders to five companies requiring them to provide information regarding recent investments and partnerships involving generative AI companies and major cloud service providers. The agency's 6(b) inquiry will scrutinize corporate partnerships and investments with AI providers to build a better internal understanding of these relationships and their impact on the competitive landscape. The compulsory orders were sent to Alphabet, Inc., Amazon.com, Inc., Anthropic PBC, Microsoft Corp., and OpenAI, Inc.

"History shows that new technologies can create new markets and healthy competition. As companies race to develop and monetize AI, we must guard against tactics that foreclose this opportunity, "said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. "Our study will shed light on whether investments and partnerships pursued by dominant companies risk distorting innovation and undermining fair competition."

MSI and CAPCOM announced a Monster Hunter-themed product partnership last week—this popular Japanese-made gaming franchise is celebrating its twentieth year in 2024. As promised in last week's declaration, MSI managed to exhibit their concept prototypes at an exclusive booth, in close proximity to everything else they had going on at the Las Vegas Convention Center. TPU staffers had a lot of items on their proverbial plates chez MSI, so not everything MH 20th Anniv. related was captured in glorious detail.

The MSI MPG GUNGNIR 300 Monster Hunter Edition case was prominently placed at the front of MSI's special booth; TPU was surprised to see that a full system had been put together inside of it. Naturally, franchise-themed hardware was visible through a glass side panel—including MH-themed case fans. The fully operational gaming system was hooked up to a MAG 274QRF QD E2 Monster Hunter Edition gaming monitor.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that for the first time in the industry, it has successfully verified Compute Express Link (CXL) memory operations in a real user environment with open-source software provider Red Hat, leading the expansion of its CXL ecosystem.

Due to the exponential growth of data throughput and memory requirements for emerging fields like generative AI, autonomous driving and in-memory databases (IMDBs), the demand for systems with greater memory bandwidth and capacity is also increasing. CXL is a unified interface standard that connects various processors, such as CPUs, GPUs and memory devices through a PCIe interface that can serve as a solution for limitations in existing systems in terms of speed, latency and expandability.

Arm Holdings plc (Nasdaq: ARM, "Arm") and Raspberry Pi Ltd today announced an agreement by Arm to make a strategic investment in Raspberry Pi. Arm has acquired a minority stake in Raspberry Pi, further extending a successful long-term partnership between the two companies as they collaborate to deliver critical solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) developer community.

As the demand for edge compute accelerates, with the proliferation of more demanding IoT and AI applications, Raspberry Pi's solutions are putting the power of low-cost, high-performance computing into the hands of people and businesses all over the world. This investment further cements a partnership that began in 2008, and which has seen the release of many popular Arm-based Raspberry Pi products for students, enthusiasts and commercial developers. Raspberry Pi's most recent flagship product, Raspberry Pi 5, became available at the end of October.

SCUF Gaming, creator of the high-performance gaming controller category, has announced a collaboration with Avenged Sevenfold to celebrate the band's new album, "Life Is But A Dream..." Together, they've created new limited-edition SCUF Instinct Pro and SCUF Reflex FPS controller bundles decked out with the album's instantly recognizable imagery and artwork from renowned artist Wes Lang.

To commemorate "Life Is But A Dream…", Avenged Sevenfold has partnered with SCUF Gaming to drop a pair of exclusive controller bundles. Each jam-packed bundle comes with your choice of a SCUF Instinct Pro or SCUF Reflex FPS controller, an exclusive signed Avenged Sevenfold seven-inch vinyl record, a certificate of authenticity, and passionately crafted packaging, all clad in the band's iconic sepia-toned ink-sketch Wes Lang-painted album artwork. Now, hardcore Avenged Sevenfold fans can rock out in style as they play on a uniquely designed controller that's unmistakably A7X.

Building on the AI PC use cases shared at Innovation 2023, Intel today launched the AI PC Acceleration Program, a global innovation initiative designed to accelerate the pace of AI development across the PC industry.

The program aims to connect independent hardware vendors (IHVs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) with Intel resources that include AI toolchains, co-engineering, hardware, design resources, technical expertise and co-marketing opportunities. These resources will help the ecosystem take full advantage of Intel Core Ultra processor technologies and corresponding hardware to maximize AI and machine learning (ML) application performance, accelerate new use cases and connect the wider PC industry to the solutions emerging in the AI PC ecosystem. More information is available on the AI PC Acceleration Program website.

Synopsys today announced it has expanded its collaboration with Arm to provide optimized IP and EDA solutions for the newest Arm technology, including the Arm Neoverse V2 platform and Arm Neoverse Compute Subsystem (CSS). Synopsys has joined Arm Total Design where Synopsys will leverage their deep design expertise, the Synopsys.ai full-stack AI-driven EDA suite, and Synopsys Interface, Security, and Silicon Lifecycle Management IP to help mutual customers speed development of their Arm-based CSS solutions. The expanded partnership builds on three decades of collaboration to enable mutual customers to quickly develop specialized silicon at lower cost, with less risk and faster time to market.

"With Arm Total Design, our aim is to enable rapid innovation on Arm Neoverse CSS and engage critical ecosystem expertise at every stage of SoC development," said Mohamed Awad, senior vice president and general manager, Infrastructure Line of Business at Arm. "Our deep technical collaboration with Synopsys to deliver pre-integrated and validated IP and EDA tools will help our mutual customers address the industry's most complex computing challenges with specialized compute."

Pixelworks, Inc., a leading provider of visual processing solutions, today announced that it has partnered with a flagship game IP, Revelation, developed by the Thunderfire Business Group, a game studio of the world's leading game developer, NetEase Games, and provided visual processing solutions to optimize the display quality of the mobile version of the game. The Revelation Mobile integrates Pixelworks' Rendering Accelerator SDK to significantly enhance the visual quality for mobile gaming. Coupled with a Pixelworks X7 visual processor, the Rendering Accelerator works as a bridge, delivering an exceptional 120 FPS visual experience on mobile devices with low power consumption, enabling a more immersive gaming experience for mobile gamers.

Revelation Mobile is a flagship mobile game developed by NetEase Games. Centered around the theme of oriental fantasy, the game creates a 3D fantasy world where characters can soar to the heights of the heavens and plunge into the depths of the seas. It faithfully recreates the vast and beautiful Cloud Song Continent. The game boasts stunning and eye-catching visuals, from the boundless cloudscapes to the enchanting underwater scenes, all meticulously crafted to bring the world to life. Rich colors, together with impressive lighting effects, make the Cloud Song Continent, a realm where diverse human landscapes intertwine with natural beauty, even more vivid and vibrant. Players follow their characters on a journey of growth, where navigating vast expanses of distant skies and deep oceans allows them to embrace innate sense of freedom, while simultaneously enduring the challenges of pioneering exploration and harvesting unique life experiences through blocking strategies and gaming moves.

Today, we're announcing that Amazon will invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic. The agreement is part of a broader collaboration to develop the most reliable and high-performing foundation models in the industry. Our frontier safety research and products, together with Amazon Web Services' (AWS) expertise in running secure, reliable infrastructure, will make Anthropic's safe and steerable AI widely accessible to AWS customers.

AWS will become Anthropic's primary cloud provider for mission critical workloads, providing our team with access to leading compute infrastructure in the form of AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips, which will be used in addition to existing solutions for model training and deployment. Together, we'll combine our respective expertise to collaborate on the development of future Trainium and Inferentia technology.

Industry experts were expecting Apple to rely on their own in-house 5G modem tech once a previous deal with a development partner expired, but the big A has returned to pastures of old—Qualcomm Technologies yesterday announced: "that it has entered into an agreement with Apple Inc. to supply Snapdragon 5G Modem‑RF Systems for smartphone launches in 2024, 2025 and 2026. This agreement reinforces Qualcomm's track record of sustained leadership across 5G technologies and products."

Reports suggest that multiple issues have plagued development of Apple's proprietary 5G modem, with 2024's iPhone 16 lineup already rumored to rely on Qualcomm's RF system. Apple has invested heavily in its custom modem operation—the "majority" of Intel's smartphone modem business was acquired back in 2019, while 2021 insider talk had TSMC lined up as a manufacturing partner for 5G chips. According to their latest investment relations material, Qualcomm anticipates that it will supply around 20% of modem chips in Apple iPhones.

Rocksmith+ has announced a new partnership with Warner Music Group, to bring even more popular artists to the music-learning service, such as Linkin Park, The Cure, Sepultura, Twisted Sister, and more. "Rocksmith+ has always been about empowering people to learn guitar with their favorite songs," said Jay Cohen, Vice President of Executive Publishing at Ubisoft. "For beginners, guitar players, and music fans this is a great step forward. The large library of songs for learners and players to pick up and play on Rocksmith+ continues to expand every month.

This new partnership with Warner Music Group will help bring both new and established artists to a new and growing audience. We appreciate the progressive approach of our colleagues at WMG, and we look forward to everything we will do together to deliver on the promise of a new music distribution model for all those who make music and the people who love to jam along to it."

Elgato, a subsidiary of CORSAIR, is thrilled to announce a new line of custom hardware for content creators. Made in collaboration with Bethesda Game Studios, the line celebrates some of gaming's most beloved franchises. For its first release, fans can collect limited-edition gear inspired by Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios' first new universe in over 25 years. And there are more drops to come, spanning the publisher's award-winning lineup of IPs from The Elder Scrolls to Fallout.

Officially licensed by Bethesda Game Studios, the Starfield Wave:3 microphone and Stream Deck make ideal companions for any explorer. Sporting an iconic design, Wave:3 ensures creators always sound loud and clear, whether they're directing squad fire or chatting with their crew. Meanwhile, Stream Deck empowers them to control any workflow, from piloting their starship to managing a livestream. And with a bonus digital kit, gamers can download free icons to personalize their Stream Deck in Starfield style—no matter which device or model they have at home.

QuickLogic Corporation, a developer of embedded FPGA (eFPGA) IP, ruggedized FPGAs and Endpoint AI/ML solutions, and YorChip, a pioneering startup specializing in UCIe-compatible IP, have formed a strategic partnership to revolutionize the world of FPGA chiplets. The collaboration will result in a groundbreaking lineup of FPGA chiplets optimized for low power consumption and low cost, opening new possibilities for a wide range of applications, including the fast-growing edge IoT and AI/ML markets.

According to Yole Group, a market research company, by 2023, they expect chiplet adoption will lead to a TAM of chiplet-based integrated circuits in excess of $200B, across the consumer, automotive defense, aerospace, industrial, and medical markets. Since discrete FPGAs are already prevalent in those same markets, wide adoption of eFPGA-based UCIe (Unified Chiplet Interconnect Express) enabled chiplets is expected, and QuickLogic and YorChip are well-positioned to capitalize on this growth opportunity.

Intel and Synopsys announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to expand the companies' long-standing IP (intellectual property) and EDA (electronic design automation) strategic partnership with the development of a portfolio of IP on Intel 3 and Intel 18A for Intel's foundry customers. The availability of key IP on Intel advanced process nodes will create a more robust offering for new and existing Intel Foundry Services (IFS) customers.

"Marking another important step in our IDM 2.0 strategy, this transaction will foster a vibrant foundry ecosystem by allowing designers to fully realize the advantages of Intel 3 and Intel 18A process technologies and quickly bring differentiated products to market," said Stuart Pann, senior vice president and general manager of IFS. "Synopsys brings a strong track record of delivering high-quality IP to a broad customer base, and this agreement will help accelerate the availability of IP on advanced IFS nodes for mutual customers."

We're excited to announce that we're once again partnering with Computer Upgrade King to provide our attendees with the ability to rent either a monitor and or a full PC set up. As an added bonus to our Elite ticket holders, Computer Upgrade King is offering a special rental package with a 34" Ultrawide Monitor! For more information, and to secure yours today, visit beth.games/43obykp.

Need a rig? Reserve your computer at QuakeCon 2023. It's official! After three years of digital-only events, QuakeCon 2023 will mark the return of the beloved BYOC, in-person at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas from Thursday, August 10 through Sunday, August 13.

Samsung Electronics and MediaTek completed the successful testing of 5G Standalone Uplink (UL) 2CC Carrier Aggregation (CA) with C-Band UL MIMO to reach top uplink speeds, marking a groundbreaking achievement in wireless mobile capabilities. This approach used three transmit (3Tx) antennas to improve upload experiences, ushering in an era of enhanced connectivity for consumers worldwide.

The demands on uplink performance are increasing with the rise of live streaming, multi-player gaming and video conferences. Upload speeds determine how fast your device can send data to gaming servers or transmit high-resolution videos to the cloud. As more consumers seek to document and share their experiences with the world in real-time, enhanced uplink experiences provide an opportunity to use the network to improve how they map out their route home, check player stats online and upload videos and selfies to share with friends and followers.