Intel has posted two product change notifications regarding the Gemini Lake Refresh, which is now reaching the end of its life. Launched in 2019 as a refresh to the original Gemini Lake, these low-end products had a longer lifespan than the original Gemini Lake (2017-2020). Most commonly found on low-end PCs, AIOs, and Mini PCs, these Gemini Lake Refresh CPUs were based on the 14 nm Goldmont Plus microarchitecture. Coming with up to four cores without HyperThreading, these CPUs were ideal for lower-power applications as their TDP was rated between 6-10 Watts.

Intel has separated the product change into two categories, with the first consisting of Celeron N4120, Celeron 4020, and Pentium Silver N5030, while the other features Celeron J4025, Pentium Silver J5040, Celeron N4020C, and Celeron J4125. Intel will ship the first group of CPUs by May 24, 2024, and the second by February 23, 2024. The last round of orders will go out by November 24, 2023, and August 25, 2023, respectively.

Ayar Labs, a leader in the use of silicon photonics for chip-to-chip optical connectivity, today announced public demonstration of the industry's first 4 terabit-per-second (Tbps) bidirectional Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical solution at the upcoming Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) in San Diego on March 5-9, 2023. The company achieves this latest milestone as it works with leading high-volume manufacturing and supply partners including GlobalFoundries, Lumentum, Macom, Sivers Photonics and others to deliver the optical interconnects needed for data-intensive applications. Separately, the company was featured in an announcement with partner Quantifi Photonics on a CW-WDM-compliant test platform for its SuperNova light source, also at OFC.

In-package optical I/O uniquely changes the power and performance trajectories of system design by enabling compute, memory and network silicon to communicate with a fraction of the power and dramatically improved performance, latency and reach versus existing electrical I/O solutions. Delivered in a compact, co-packaged CMOS chiplet, optical I/O becomes foundational to next-generation AI, disaggregated data centers, dense 6G telecommunications systems, phased array sensory systems and more.

NZXT, a leading developer of software-powered hardware solutions for PC gaming, today announces the NZXT RGB & Fan Controller. Powered by NZXT CAM, the RGB & Fan Controller gives users the tools to customize lighting and fan profiles to perfection.

The NZXT RGB & Fan Controller was created for builders to easily and affordably add digital RGB and fan control to their system controlled via NZXT CAM. Any chassis can now have the same enhanced capabilities found in the i versions of NZXT award-winning H Series cases. Bringing beauty to any battlestation is simpler than ever with two RGB lighting and fan channels that are compatible with all NZXT lighting accessories such as LED strips, underglow, cable combs, and AER RGB 2 fans. Additionally, three dedicated 10 W fan channels are included, giving users direct control of their airflow performance digitally.

Much like NVIDIA's MX150 graphics cards before them, the new MX 2250 have been silently separated into two different SKUs. The difference, which is almost impossible to tell by comparing two MX250-powered solutions in a brick-and-mortar store (let alone in an online marketplace), can only be differentiated via their version ID (unless the vendor specifies what wattage version they're using, which isn't very likely). A low-power, 10 W MX250 carries the '1D52' ID, while the faster, 25 W rated part carries the '1D13' identification.

The power envelope difference on these parts means that performance is being gated at the clock speed level, and if the MX250 SKUs go any way close to their MX150 predecessors, we're looking at some 30% difference between parts. Now, if vendors do discriminate which version they've installed - the 10 W or the 25 W one - then all is good - the consumer knows what he's buying (or at least has the info to do a quick Google check), and manufacturers are free to choose which version to implement on their designs, whether favoring performance or battery longevity. If not, well... You should use GPU-Z on your laptop as soon as you can, because you might be carrying a 10 W part while counting on 30% more performance. And not knowing that before purchase really is a light kick in the proverbial for users, especially if it's done only via version number,s which the majority of prospective PC buyers won't be aware of.