Ten years ago, in 2012, NVIDIA introduced its Kepler series of graphics cards based on the TSMC 28 nm node. Architecture has been supported for quite a while now by NVIDIA's drivers, and the last series to carry support was the 470 driver class. Today, NVIDIA pushed a security update in the form of a 473.47 WHQL driver that brings fixes to various CVE vulnerabilities that can cause anything from issues that may lead to denial of service, information disclosure, or data tampering. This driver version has no fixed matters and doesn't bring any additional features except the fix for vulnerabilities. With CVEs rated from 4.1 to 8.5, NVIDIA has fixed major issues bugging Kepler GPU users. With a high risk for code execution, denial of service, escalation of privileges, information disclosure, and data tampering, the 473.47 WHQL driver is another step for supporting Kepler architecture until 2024, when NVIDIA plans to drop the support for this architecture. Supported cards are GT 600, GT 700, GTX 600, GTX 700, Titan, Titan Black, and Titan Z.

The updated drivers are available for installation on NVIDIA's website and for users of TechPowerUp's NVCleanstall software.

Global shipments of traditional PCs, including desktops, notebooks, and workstations, declined 5.1% in the first quarter of 2022 (1Q22) but exceeded earlier forecasts, according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. The PC market is coming off two years of double-digit growth, so while the first quarter decline is a change in this momentum, it doesn't mean the industry is in a downward spiral. Despite ongoing supply chain and logistical challenges, vendors still shipped 80.5 million PCs during the quarter. The 1Q22 volume marks the seventh consecutive quarter where global shipments surpassed 80 million, a feat not seen since 2012.

"The focus shouldn't be on the year-over-year decline in PC volumes because that was to be expected. The focus should be on the PC industry managing to ship more than 80 million PCs at a time when logistics and supply chain are still a mess, accompanied by numerous geopolitical and pandemic-related challenges," said Ryan Reith, group vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "We have witnessed some slowdown in both the education and consumer markets, but all indicators show demand for commercial PCs remains very strong. We also believe that the consumer market will pick up again in the near future. The result of 1Q22 was PC shipment volumes that were near record levels for a first quarter."

Streacom is working on its most compact case yet, the FC2. Pictured below, the case will be available in graphite black and silver, and is designed for mini-ITX platforms with CPU TDP below 45W. The aluminum body of the case doubles up as a fanless CPU heatsink. The case measures about 185 x 200 x 45 mm. In addition to the motherboard, there's room for a couple of 2.5-inch drives.

Apple might be diving into the world of console gaming yet again according to Shacknews and GI.biz The patent application shows a staggering similarity to Sony's DualShock controller and what seems to be an iPhone interacting with a Microsoft Xbox360. This might be an Apple style preemptive attack against future endeavors to create apps that interface with current generation consoles or it could be something new that Apple has in the works. With the current growth in Apples market share and the growing popularity of Apple TV it shouldn't come as a surprise it would want a piece of the console pie. Whether the big three (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) give any leeway to Apple has yet to be seen.

The Day Z mod for ArmA 2 has been a runaway hit, boosting ArmA 2 sales and raising its profile among PC enthusiasts. The mod team has been open with its plans to spin off into its own stand-alone game, but it sounds like that's happening sooner than expected. Modder Dean Hall told VG247 that making it a stand-alone product could happen "certainly before Christmas," but that will rely on reaching an agreement first. Apparently he has entertained offers, but felt they were based on the mod's rocketing success rather than an understanding of the game.

"We're really on borrowed time," he said. "I want to see it become a standalone game, following the Minecraft model of a low price point, but that will only work if we say that everyone is going to pay, and in order for people to not feel ripped off we need to have a load of new content; so, things like base-building, tidying and cleaning up animations and add ragdoll physics as the like."

The executive overseeing Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s (AMD) relationship with videogame-console makers has left the company to join rival NVIDIA, taking with him years of experience in the competitive field. Bob Feldstein, who joined AMD when the company acquired graphics-chip maker ATI in 2006, has taken on the role of vice president of technology licensing at NVIDIA. He most recently served as AMD's corporate vice president of business development and also led the company's Boston Design Center, which focuses on design engineering for AMD's various chips.

To give the Battlefield 3 competitive scene a helping hand, DICE is working on a new 'Matches' feature that lets players set up and schedule closed servers for their bouts. It'll all run through the Battlelog, but you'll need to be renting a dedicated server. "Players will be able to coordinate Matches for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 through the Battlelog," community manager Ian Tornay explains on the Battlefield blog. "To coordinate a Match a player must be actively renting a dedicated server. Once a dedicated server has been selected the Match host can set the Match name, start time, game mode, team size, and map rotations." You can also set rosters, so only certain players are allowed in. Then there are options to tweak and fiddle with settings from friendly fire and available unlocks to health regeneration and squad leader spawning.

There's no word yet on when the Matches feature will launch.

Zalman is ready with its newest high-end power supply unit (PSU), the ZM1250 Platinum. It can deliver 1250W of continuous power, and boasts of 80 Plus Platinum efficiency rating (89-93% at 20-100% load). It features full bridge and LLC resonant circuitry, with DC-DC switching between the various voltage domains. It uses a dual +12V rail design, with two dissimilar capacity rails. It is compliant with ATX v2.3, SSI-EPS v2.92, and ErP LOT6.

The PSU is partially modular, when it comes to its cabling. The first +12V can deliver 45A of current; the 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and the various peripheral power connectors (SATA, Molex, Berg) are connected to this rail. The second +12V rail can deliver 65A, and to it, a total of eight 6+2 pin PCI-Express power connectors are wired, of which two are fixed, and six are modular.

G-Technology today announced a new line of portable and desktop USB 3.0 storage solutions for a broad range of users from consumers to audio/video professionals. Given the brand's strength in the content creation and Apple Mac community, G-Technology is well positioned to move the Mac industry forward in leveraging high-capacity, high-performance USB 3.0 drives across a variety of customer segments, all while delivering one of the industry's most respected external storage platforms with proven quality, reliability and performance.

Today, new kinds of devices and media formats require considerably more interface bandwidth and higher transfer rates to move, store and edit data quickly. Backward compatible with USB 2.0, G-Technology's USB 3.0 drives deliver speeds 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and six times faster than FireWire 800. This means that users can now transfer two full-length movies from a G-Technology USB 3.0 drive to a computer in minutes.

Today CM Storm, Cooler Master's gaming brand, releases a new full tower case which is based on the highly popular CM Strom Trooper: The Stryker. Built to be amongst the most agile full-towers, Stryker becomes the second in its class to include an ultra-strong carrying handle; allowing a gamer to travel with the finest system configurations available with relative ease. CM Storm Stryker includes the features that are most desired by gamers like a windowed side panel, full dust filter coverage, a fan controller, an external SSD drive hot-swap dock and two uniquely designed modular hard drive cages and this in a full, stylish white color.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 doesn't need a brand new game engine to improve the graphics over previous games in the series, Treyarch has insisted. Black Ops 2 is built using the latest, most advanced version of the engine that Call of Duty developers have used to build the first-person shooter series since 2005's Call of Duty 2: a heavily modified version of the id Tech 3 engine. Some fans have called on Activision to invest in a brand new graphics engine in order to spruce up Call of Duty's visuals. But Treyarch chief Mark Lamia said continuing to upgrade the current engine was enough to meet the development team's design goals. "People always ask me, 'Is this a new engine?' he told One of Swords. "I liken it to people who live in an older house that has been remodelled. Just because you're remodelling the house and it will look new or it will have a new kitchen, you don't tear out the foundation, or break out some of the framing. You might even go as hardcore as replacing the plumbing, and we will do that sort of thing, as an analogy. It's a gross simplification, but it's one way to say that. There's a lot of good still in that foundation that you wouldn't get rid of, and we don't. We look to advance in the areas that support our game design.

"Engines, each time they get touched, they change. The creators alter them; they don't modify what they don't need to, and then they alter what they need to. You can't make a competitive product if you're not upgrading that engine along the way." He added: "I think the whole thing about a new engine... sometimes that's a great buzzword. Well, I have a new graphics engine - is that a new engine? Where does it start and stop? Elements of the code, you can trace back for a very, very long time... but whole parts of the code are entirely new. Two areas we did focus on for this game were the graphics and the lighting - a pretty significant amount of work is going into that."When Activision announced Black Ops 2 earlier this month it promised a "visual overhaul", with graphical upgrades a mix of "tech and technique". In a demo to press played on an Xbox 360 build of the game, an unpopulated level set on Socotra Island in Yemen showed HDR lighting, bounce lighting, self-shadowing and a new texture technique called reveal mapping - all running at 60 frames per second.

Worldwide semiconductor revenues increased more than 3.7% year over year to $301 billion in 2011, according to the latest version of the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiconductor Applications Forecaster (SAF). The industry weathered the macroeconomic uncertainties in the U.S and Europe, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, China's slow down in the second half of the year, and floods in Thailand. Meanwhile, device applications, such as smartphones, media tablets and e-readers, automotive infotainment, notebook PCs, datacenter servers, and wireless and wired communication infrastructure drove robust consumption of semiconductors.

IDC's SAF tracks more than 100 semiconductor companies. Over 40 of these companies experienced year-over-year revenue growth greater than 5%, while about the same number of companies saw their revenue decline by more than 5%.

With eager OEMs such as ASUSTek, HP, Acer, and Lenovo breathing down its neck, Intel is reportedly pulling forward the official launch date of its 3rd Generation Core processor family based on 22 nm "Ivy Bridge" silicon, to the 23rd of April, from its older date of 29th April. 23rd April will be the day Intel announces all its processor models originally slated for the 29th.

Notebook OEMs are expected to launch their products based on these chips at the earliest, by May. The date of market-availability of these chips in the retail channel, however, remains unclear. One possibility is that Intel will announce and make these chips available on the same day (23rd), while another possibility is that it announces these chips on the 23rd, allows the media to digest them (by posting reviews), and open them up for sale on the 29th. Two models every PC enthusiast and their cat are looking out for, are the Core i7-3770K and Core i5-3570K.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun stumbled across the German site Neogaf which leaked pre-order screens and a banner depicting the Crysis nanosuit with a bow and arrow. Which seems sort of incongruous to the nanosuit, but maybe the Strength mode will enable us to shoot arrows that fly for over 20 miles. The leaked screens show the game on Origin listed at $49.99. No other details are known at this time.

Wintel (slang for Windows+Intel architecture) tablets, which launch along with Microsoft's latest Windows 8 operating system, which grab a greater market-share than WoA (Windows on ARM) tablets by the end of 2012, DigiTimes research predicts. This, despite the fact that the x86 and ARM versions of the operating system will be released simultaneously. PC majors such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, ASUStek and Toshiba, have all pledged 1-3 models of Wintel tablets by the end of 2012. Although still an emerging market-segment, tablets will see a clash between x86 and ARM architectures, as they are wooing for the same exact class of devices for the first time in computing history. Intel has made a lot of progress in miniaturizing the Atom processor, while led by the likes of Qualcomm and NVIDIA, ARM processors are getting stronger.

Joystiq is reporting that CCP Games, the developer behind EVE Online, has struck a deal with NVIDIA for players to use in-game currency -- PLEX -- to purchase GeForce 560 GTX graphics cards, which run almost $200 at retail. That's fake money for real items, folks. NVIDIA and CCP will start by selling 100 graphics cards (limit one per EVE account) to test the demand. After CCP announced its NVIDIA deal, the in-game price of PLEX jumped "significantly," CCP said. PLEX (Pilot License Extension) is an in-game currency that can be used to pay for 30-day EVE subscriptions. PLEX can be purchased with ISK, EVE's main currency that can be earned throughout the game, meaning some dedicated players end up with a free subscription each month. Now they may end up with a "free" graphics card as well.

Japanese company MARSHAL announced three new external storage solutions, which include two 2-bay enclosures and one 4-bay dock. The two enclosures are MAL-3235SBK (non-RAID mass-storage, USB 2.0), and MAL-3335SBKU (RAID mass-storage, USB 3.0); and the dock is MAL-3635SBK. The two enclosures bear essentially the same product design, that consists of two 3.5" SATA drive bays, differing only by the MAL-3335SBKU supporting RAID 0 and 1 modes, and USB 3.0. These enclosures measure 73 x 195 x 123 mm (WxDxH), use external power bricks, and cool installed hard drives using a rear fan.

The MAL-3635SBK is a one-of-a-kind top-loading 4-bay SATA drive dock, which supports both 3.5" and 2.5" drives on each bay. The main unit is merely a cuboidal box, with an ABS stand extending out, holding the four drives firmly in place. This dock is designed not essentially keeping external storage in mind, and more as a drive cloning station. For this reason, the dock connects to the host over slow USB 2.0, but packs a native drive cloning logic that can auto-clone three drives from one template, at a time, without needing a host. The dock measures 164 x 126 x 88 mm (WxDxH). The MAL-3235SBK, MAL-3335SBKU, and MAL-3635SBK, from MARSHAL, are priced at 3,580 JPY (US $42), 4,980 JPY (US $60), and 9,980 JPY (US $119), respectively. They are slated for launch this month.

We finally have a concrete release date for BioShock Infinite. Irrational Games has announced that BioShock Infinite will be released on October 16, 2012. "After BioShock, we had a vision for a follow up that dwarfed the original in scope and ambition," said Ken Levine. ""ioShock Infinite has been our sole focus for the last four years, and we can't wait for fans to get their hands on it."

BioShock Infinite will be available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC with an international release of October 19, 2012.

Today Fox Business is reporting U.S. and European regulators approved Google Inc's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility on Monday and said they would keep a sharp eye on the web search giant to ensure patents critical to the telecom industry would be licensed at fair prices. The U.S. Justice Department also approved an Apple Inc -led consortium's purchase of a trove of patents from bankrupt Canadian company Nortel Networks.Both the Justice Department and European antitrust authorities said that they would monitor how patents are used to ensure they comply with antitrust rules. Antitrust enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic are concerned that patents essential to ensuring communications devices sold by different companies work together are licensed for a reasonable fee.

Physicists have discovered a new method of recording data on hard drives that could potentially make mechanical hard drives hundreds of times faster (in terms of performance). Heat holds the key. A hard disk drive is a magnetic storage device, which, unlike magnetic tapes, allows random access. Its recording surfaces consist of hundreds of billions of tiny portions that can be magnetized in a particular polar direction to represent 0s or 1s. To create meaningful arrangements of these portions (bytes), the recording heads apply an external magnetic field to flip their polarities.

A team of researchers led by Thomas Ostler at the University of York, UK concluded that the process of flipping the polarities of these tiny portions can be greatly expedited using short bursts of heat. It has been believed that heat could only assist in remagnetization, when used in conjunction with a magnetic field. Research shows that this can also be achieved using a very, very precise amount of heat generated by beaming a fine laser for less than a trillionth of a second, which momentarily raises its temperature by 800 °C. The results of this study was published here.

Yes, that's right, SOPA might have been set back for now, but the vested interests from the big media corporations (music/movies/news etc) that want it implemented unsurprisingly aren't sitting idle and are pushing for ever more draconian measures aka 'SOPA Plus'. A digital music report (PDF) asks for everything that was in the original SOPA and then some, with a wishlist of seven 'fixes':

On January 18, 2012, in an unprecedented decision, the Wikipedia community has chosen to blackout the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours, in protest against proposed legislation in the United States - the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced today that the 2012 International CES is the largest in the show's 44 year history, with 1.861 million net square feet of exhibit space. The previous record was 1.857 million net square feet of space at the 2008 International CES. Owned and produced by CEA, the 2012 International CES, the world's largest tradeshow for consumer technology, runs through Friday, January 13 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In other show news, a keynote address by Ericsson's Hans Vestberg, the Innovation Power Panel with leaders from Ford, Verizon and Xerox, a Brand keynote from executives from AT&T, Walmart, Facebook and GE, an LIT keynote from eBay's John Donohue and a keynote from YouTube's Robert Kyncl were mid-week highlights of the 2012 International CES.

This must be the coolest high performance mouse to be seen in some time. The Level 10 M mouse designed by Thermaltake and BMW is being introduced at CES 2012. Featuring a very high tech design, the shape can be physically adjusted to fit optimally in the palm of the hand by turning a screw on the top. It also features a perforated skin, to help deal with sweaty palms better during intense gaming sessions. The release date and price are yet to be announced as are more detailed specifications such as the tracking technology used and the DPI resolution.

The mouse was exclusively shown to Tom's Hardware.

Yesterday, we reported on Intel's embarrassing gaffe at demonstrating racing game F1 1 2011 running on a prototype ultrabook with an Ivy Bridge processor, where it was really just a video. Since then, AnandTech has seen that game play on an Ivy Bridge notebook just fine, but the best proof has come now, where they got hold of the actual ultrabook at the centre of the controversy and tested it with that game. The result? It works just fine, like we suspected. It looks like Intel just need a little PR makeover, is all. Video proof follows.