During Computex 2023, EK Water Blocks, a company known for making all kinds of liquid cooling solutions, showed off a concept case in partnership with InWin. Called 977EK, the concept case is a pre-production model that centers around the idea of a brushed aluminium shell combined with tempered glass panels. The case is made out of the internal structure, and for the outside, the two brushed aluminium sheets meet in the back and at the bottom of the case, removing the visible lines of the 4 mm thick aluminium sheets meeting, improving aesthetics. On the sides, the case carries two tempered glass panels held by thumb screws in the corners. An odd shape perforates the top part of the aluminium sheet.

The internal structure is interesting, as the case is built for water cooling of the system. While the motherboard tray can support any format from Mini-ITX to E-ATX, the tray itself can be rotated, reversed, and removed entirely based on user preference. For radiator setup, the 977EK concept case can accommodate up to 420 mm radiators with 45 mm thickness at both the top and bottom of the chassis. Additionally, the case has support for 350 mm GPU, 7 or 8 PCIe slots (depending on the configuration), a PSU of 160 mm length, and an option for either one 3.5-inch drive bay or two 2.5-inch bays. The final production case will see some changes, as EK notes; however, they won't be too significant.

During the Computex 2023 show, ASUS had some interesting designs to showcase. Specifically, ASUS has made a GeForce RTX 4070 GPU concept without an external power connector. With NVIDIA's reference 16-pin power connector melting due to an insufficient connection, ASUS has decided to experiment by removing the connector from its GPU and placing the power source as an extra bus connector on the motherboard. Called GeForce RTX 4070 Megalodon, ASUS has made a custom power connector that goes hand-in-hand with the ASUS TUF Gaming Z790 BTF motherboard that supports this connector, and the PSU cables go on the backside of the board.

Similarly to NVIDIA's 16-pin 12VHPWR connector, this custom design is also rated for up to 600 Watts of power delivery. This results in a design that facilities the user error of not correctly pushing the 16-pin connector and causing melting. For now, the connector is referred to as GC_HPWR, but there will be an official name at launch as the company plans mass production of this concept. You can see the design of the RTX 4070 Megalodon alongside the accompanying ASUS TUF Gaming Z790 BTF motherboard.

TYAN, an industry-leading server platform design manufacturer and a subsidiary of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation, will be showcasing its latest HPC, cloud and storage platforms at Computex 2023, Booth #M0701a in Taipei, Taiwan from May 30 to June 2. These platforms are powered by AMD EPYC 9004 Series processors, which offer superior energy efficiency and are designed to enhance data center computing performance.

"As businesses increasingly prioritize sustainability in their operations, data centers - which serve as the computational core of an organization - offer a significant opportunity to improve efficiency and support ambitious sustainability targets," said Eric Kuo, Vice President of the Server Infrastructure Business Unit at MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation. "TYAN's server platforms powered by 4th Gen AMD EPYC processor enable IT organizations to achieve high performance while remaining cost-effective and contributing to environmental sustainability."

CPUID recently released version 2.06 of the globally popular free CPU-Z utility which includes updates to support reporting of a variety of recent or obscure CPU and GPU models. Intel's "Alder Lake-N", AMD's recently released "Dragon Range" mobile Zen 4 processors, Zhoaxin's KH-40000 and KX-6000G, and of course NVIDIA's RTX 4060 Ti as well as AMD's RX 7600. Most interesting of all is a small addition down at the very bottom of the list, "Preliminary support for AMD Storm Peak platform." "Storm Peak" is AMD's yet to be announced Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series which will feature "Zen 4" and hopefully heat up competition in the HEDT market. No detailed specifications or information on SKUs have been released yet with "Storm Peak" expected to receive a proper announcement sometime in Q3 2023. The mention on CPU-Z suggests that the platform is nearing market readiness, and possibly that the folks at CPUID have been seeded samples or specifications to prepare with. Threadripper 7000 is expected to be released on yet another new socket, TR5, and has been rumored to be coming in both HEDT and workstation variants.

Intel brought competition to the HEDT market for the first time in nearly 4 years with the release of their Sapphire Rapids Xeon W range of processors back in February. Xeon W features unlocked SKUs tackling AMD's Threadripper 5000 series from top to bottom; going as high as the 56-core Xeon w9-3495X at a blistering $5,889 USD to as low as ~$1,000 USD for the 12-core Xeon w5-2455X. Intel also interspersed some lower cost locked SKUs to allow system integrators to offer the new platform as workstations to the prosumer market that generally cares little about overclocking. With Intel competing directly with Threadripper again it was expected that it wouldn't be long before AMD would be cooking up a response with their latest and greatest.

Get ready to spread peace and liberty with extreme prejudice - Katherine Baskin, Social Media and Community Manager at Arrowhead Game Studios states: "Hello, future Helldivers! I'm so excited to tell the world about Helldivers 2- our new cooperative shooter that packs in frantic, third-person action against massive enemy mobs. Arrowhead has been quietly, but furiously working on a sequel to our much-loved title Helldivers. Our vision for the next installment always needed to be bigger, better and more hellish! What you see in our first trailer will, we hope, excite you and blow your minds! Along with the trailer, we wanted to give you some details of what you can expect, so let's get you prepped for the fight."

Fight for Super Earth
Freedom. Peace. Managed Democracy. Your Super Earth-born rights. The key pillars of our civilization. These are under attack from deadly alien civilizations, conspiring to destroy the Super Earth and its values. You'll step into the boots of an elite class of soldiers whose mission is to spread peace, liberty, and Managed Democracy using the biggest, baddest, and most explosive tools in the galaxy. Team up with up to four friends and wreak havoc on the alien scourge that threatens the safety of your home, Super Earth.

Technology is creating amazing opportunities for our industry and the world, and Windows 11 is at the center of innovation with new experiences that transform how we interact with the Windows PC and each other. With Windows 11, we're seeing record engagement, our highest customer satisfaction over any previous version of Windows in the U.S., and accelerated growth in commercial deployments. In fact, we recently shared as part of our latest earnings report that over 90% of Fortune 500 companies are currently trialing or have already deployed Windows 11.

In February, we brought the new AI-powered Bing to the taskbar and other features to improve the way people get things done on their PCs. Today, we are providing a look at new features and enhancements for Windows 11 that will start to become available tomorrow, May 24, that focus on business needs, such as security and IT management, and new benefits that enhance professional and personal usability. For developers building on Windows, this week we are announcing new innovation at Microsoft Build.

During the European Technology Symposium 2023, TSMC presented additional details regarding the upcoming complementary FET (CFET) technology to power the next generation of silicon-based devices. With Nanosheet replacing FinFET, the CFET technology will do the same to the Gate All Around FET (GAAFET) Nanosheet nodes. As the company notes, CFET transistors are now in the TSMC labs and are being tested for performance, efficiency, and density. Compared to GAAFET, CFET will provide greater design in all of those areas, but it will require some additional manufacturing steps to get the chip working as intended. Integrating both p-type and n-type FETs into a single device, CFET will require the use of High NA EUV scanners with high precision and high power to manufacture it.

The use of CFET, as the roadmap shows, is one of the last steps in the world of silicon. It will require the integration of new materials into the manufacturing process, resulting in a greater investment into research and development that is in charge of node creation. Kevin Zhang, senior vice president at TSMC, responsible for technology roadmap and business development, notes: "Let me make a clarification on that roadmap, everything beyond the Nanosheet is something we will put on our [roadmap] to tell you there is still future out there. We will continue to work on different options. I also have the add on to the one-dimensional material-[based transistors] […], all of those are being researched on being investigated on the future potential candidates right now, we will not tell you exactly the transistor architecture will be beyond the Nanosheet."

Acer today announced the new Predator Triton 16 (PT16-51), the latest addition to its power-packed gaming line. This laptop for gaming and work is equipped with the latest 13th Gen Intel Core processors, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, and up to 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, along with an abundance of features that would excite any type of gamer. To ensure the vital components are kept cool throughout gaming sessions, the laptop's advanced thermal solutions combine dual 5th Gen AeroBlade 3D fans, Vortex Flow optimization, and liquid metal thermal grease on the CPU, all housed within a thin metal chassis design.

Evolutionary Performance and Cooling
At just 19.9 mm (0.78 inches), the sleek, yet powerful Predator Triton 16 showcases a sophisticated metal casing topped off with a sparkling silver finish, giving players the confidence and portability to game on-the-go. The new thin gaming laptop packs massive computing prowess as it features up to 13th Gen Intel Core i9 processors, supported by a new hybrid core architecture with a 5.4 GHz max turbo frequency. The CPU works hand in hand with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, along with NVIDIA DLSS 3 and its bundle of Max-Q technology features for optimized ray tracing and performance across the board. Gamers are treated to an even greater performance boost as the laptop can be configured with up to 32 GB of DDR5 5200 MHz memory and up to 2 TB PCIe M.2 SSDs in RAID 0 configuration.

Final Fantasy XVI is the all-new mainline entry in the Final Fantasy series, releasing on Thursday June 22. The launch trailer for Final Fantasy XVI, "Salvation," was revealed today as part of the PlayStation Showcase. With only around a month left until release, this outstanding trailer comes as we eagerly await the game!

The story of Final Fantasy XVI takes place in Valisthea, a land studded with Mothercrystals—glittering mountains of crystal that tower over the realms around them, blessing them with aether. People use the aether from the Mothercrystals to fuel the magicks they rely upon in their everyday lives, hailing Valisthea as "a land blessed in the light of the Mothercrystals." Yet now the aether begins to fade and the lifeless deadlands spread ever further. Such desperate conditions drive the nations towards conflict and strife.

Renowned HDTVTest YouTube reviewer and presenter, Vincent Teoh, has been exploring the showroom floor at this year's Display Week trade symposium (in Los Angeles, CA). He was intrigued by some cutting-edge screen tech at BOE's booth and announced this discovery on Twitter yesterday evening: "Forget 8K. Here's the world's first 110-inch 16K display unveiled by BOE at Display Week 2023. LCD-based, max 400 nits. The resolution is unreal though, no visible pixels even right up close."

The demo unit appears to be a prototype - BOE Displays has not revealed any type of official product launch. Their giant screen is reported to be almost 2.8 meters wide in terms of diagonal length, and a specification sheet placed nearby lists a maximum 15360x8640 resolution paired with a 60 Hz refresh rate. The 16K display has a contrast ratio of 1200:1 and is capable of reproducing 99% DCI-P3 color coverage. We hope to view further reports from this tradeshow - hopefully a BOE rep will provide details about the required GPU power to run their monster LCD monitor.

Today, Apple unveiled the lineup for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, including the timing of the keynote and Platforms State of the Union presentations, and shared more information with developers about what they'll learn and experience. Free for all developers, WWDC23 will take place in an online format from June 5 through 9, with an opportunity for developers and students to celebrate in person at a special experience at Apple Park on opening day.

The packed week of events and activities will help developers learn about the latest technologies, tools, and frameworks coming to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Throughout the week, developers will be able to connect directly with Apple engineers and experts through one-on-one labs and activities in Slack for guidance on building innovative and platform-differentiating apps and games.

Lenovo Group today announced full-year results, reporting Group revenue of US$62 billion and net income of US$1.6 billion, or US$1.9 billion on a non-Hong Kong Financial Reporting Standards (HKFRS) [1] basis. Profitability was stable with gross margin and operating margin both delivering 18-year highs and non-HKFRS net margin flat year-to-year. While Group revenue was impacted due to the softness in the device market, revenue from non-PC businesses reached a fiscal year high of nearly 40%, fueled by Lenovo's diversified growth engines of Solutions and Services Group (SSG) and Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) growing revenue to record highs of US$6.7 billion and US$9.8 billion respectively, up 22% and 37% year-on-year.

After a year of industry and global uncertainties, Lenovo sees positive signs of the market stabilizing. The Group expects the entire PC and smart devices market to resume year-to-year growth in the second half of 2023, and for the IT services market to resume relatively high growth - together these will drive the total IT market in 2023 back to moderate growth. In the mid-to-long term, digital and intelligent transformation will continue to accelerate, leading to a big growth potential for cloud and computing infrastructure.

Samsung Display today announced it will exhibit a variety of paradigm-shifting, next-generation OLED technologies at the SID Display Week 2023, May 23-25, at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California. At the event, Samsung Display is unveiling Rollable Flex, which aims to revolutionize the portability of tablet PCs or laptops, and Sensor OLED display, which provides new usability by embedding fingerprint and blood pressure sensors in panels without attaching separate modules. With these and other OLED innovations, Samsung is demonstrating its drive to create and lead new market segments.

Now in its 60th year, Display Week by SID (Society for Information Display) is the world's largest professional display event held annually in North America, featuring international exhibits, symposiums and seminars.

During the ISC High Performance 2023 international conference, Intel announced interesting roadmap updates to its high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI). With the scrapping of Rialto Bridge and Lancaster Sound, Intel merged these accelerator lines into Falcon Shores processor for HPC and AI, initially claiming to be a CPU+GPU solution on a single package. However, during the ISC 2023 talk, the company forced a change of plans, and now, Falcon Shores is GPU only solution destined for a 2025 launch. Originally, Intel wanted to combine x86-64 cores with Xe GPU to form an "XPU" module that powers HPC and AI workloads. However, Intel did not see a point in forcing customers to choose between specific CPU-to-GPU core ratios that would need to be in an XPU accelerator. Instead, a regular GPU solution paired with a separate CPU is the choice of Intel for now. In the future, as workloads get more defined, XPU solutions are still a possibility, just delayed from what was originally intended.

Regarding Intel's Gaudi accelerators, the story is about to end. The company originally paid two billion US Dollars for Habana Labs and its Gaudi hardware. However, Intel now plans to stop the Gaudi development as a standalone accelerator and instead use the IP to integrate it into its Falcon Shores GPU. Using modular, tile-based architecture, the Falcon Shores GPU features standard ethernet switching, up to 288 GB of HBM3 running at 9.8 TB/s throughput, I/O optimized for scaling, and support for FP8 and FP16 floating point precision needed for AI and other workloads. As noted, the creation of XPU was premature, and now, the initial Falcon Shores GPU will become an accelerator for HPC, AI, and a mix of both, depending on a specific application. You can see the roadmap below for more information.

TrendForce forecasts a global downturn in AR and VR device shipments for 2023, predicting a shipment total of roughly 7.45 million units—an 18.2% YoY decrease. VR devices are expected to shoulder the majority of this decline, with projected shipments hovering around 6.67 million units. This dip is primarily attributed to weaker-than-expected sales of newly released high-end devices. Consequently, manufacturers are likely to pivot their sales strategies, shifting their focus to more cost-effective offerings. Conversely, shipments of AR devices are expected to remain stable, with projected shipments exceeding 780,000 units. While Apple's latest offerings could stimulate some demand, the high price tags attached to these units continue to pose a significant barrier to broader market growth.

Two key factors emerge when examining the impending decline in shipments in the VR sector. Firstly, brands may have been overly optimistic regarding the sales of their top-tier products. Despite these premium devices offering enhanced features courtesy of advanced hardware and software, consumers are showing reluctance to shoulder the associated higher costs. Instead, they seem to be gravitating towards more budget-friendly models this year. Secondly, the shortage of appealing, new, cost-effective models in the market is exacerbating the downturn. Meta Quest 2 continues to maintain its status as this year's market-leading VR product as the release of Meta Quest 3 has been pushed back to 2024.

The fate of Intel's Meteor Lake-S desktop CPU lineup has been the topic of much debate since the end of last year - at the time, industry tipsters proposed that part of the product range had been disposed of entirely, but several leaks throughout the course of 2023 have indicated that MTL-S processors were on-track for a launch later in the year - albeit restricted to i3 and i5 offerings. An Intel employee has also confirmed that a new SKU naming system will be implemented as part of the upcoming Meteor Lake lineup - although he did not clarify whether this would encompass both mobile and desktop variants.

An alleged Intel client CPU roadmap has made its way onto the internet, and tipsters think that the information on hand shows that Team Blue has pulled the plug on its Meteor Lake-S (6 Performance and 8 Efficiency cores) desktop processors. The presentation slide was likely authored earlier this month - so these developments are relatively fresh, with provisions for Core S, H, PX, M, U & N series. The heavily redacted infographic maps out product release windows going as far forward as Q4 2026. OneRaichu posits that an Arrow Lake-S (6P + 8E) CPU lineup will replace MTL-S. It is possible that Intel's Raptor Lake-S refresh could serve as an interim release this year, since the Arrow Lake generation is expected to arrive in 2024.

RIKEN and Intel Corporation (hereafter referred to as Intel) have signed a memorandum of understanding on collaboration and cooperation to accelerate joint research in next-generation computing fields such as AI (artificial intelligence), high-performance computing, and quantum computers. The signing ceremony was concluded on May 18, 2023. As part of this MOU, RIKEN will work with Intel Foundry Services (IFS) to prototype these new solutions.

Microsoft is determined to get the entirety of its Windows 10 userbase onto the final version - 22H2 - by early summer. Older iterations including 21H2 (issued in November of 2021), will not receive official support beyond the date: June 13 2023. The announcement crept out quietly last week, via the company's Learn Documentation center: "Home, Pro, Pro Education, and Pro for Workstations editions of Windows 10, version 21H2 will reach end of servicing. The upcoming June 2023 security update, to be released on June 13, 2023, will be the last update available for these versions. After this date, devices running these version will no longer receive monthly security and preview updates containing protections from the latest security threats."

The reminder does not give specific details about rollout timings, but news outlets reckon that OS-focused enforcements will begin in early June: "To help keep you protected and productive, Windows Update will automatically initiate a feature update for Windows 10 consumer devices and non-managed business devices that are at, or within several months of, reaching end of servicing. This keeps your device supported and receiving monthly updates that are critical to security and ecosystem health. For these devices, you will be able to choose a convenient time for your device to restart and complete the update." Microsoft provides further advice and recommends that users update (manually) to version 2H22 at the earliest opportunity, or take the larger step of transferring to Windows 11. Last month TPU reported on a similar official advisory blog entry, where the author/product manager (in effect) proposed "that current Windows 10 users move to 11 as soon as possible, in order to enjoy a continued stream of feature updates."

After four years of gathering online-adventuring through Azeroth, teaming up in Overwatch, traversing the fields of Sanctuary, or warming yourself by the fire in the Tavern - it's finally time to gather in person once more. We are happy to announce that BlizzCon will be returning to the Anaheim Convention Center on November 3-4!

Our players are at the heart of what makes BlizzCon great-a place where games are the common ground for connection and friendship. Whether you're coming to hang out with friends you only ever get to see online, celebrating epic moments in the games we love, exploring what's on offer in the convention center halls, or eager to learn what's next for our universes, BlizzCon is being created for you. It's the community that has always made this event so special, and we can't wait to see you all again.

Chinese company Loongson, specializing in creating processors for usage in mainland China, has been steadily working on enabling its next-generation Loongson 3A6000 CPUs. Aiming to provide the performance level of Intel Willow Cove and AMD Zen 3, these new CPUs will use Loongson's custom LoongArch Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) with a new set of 64-bit superscalar LA664 cores. Today, thanks to the report from Phoronix, we find out that Loongson has submitted some Linux patches that enable the upcoming 3A6000 CPUs to work with Linux-based operating systems at launch. Interestingly, as the new CPU generation gets closer to launch, more Linux kernel patches begin to surface.

Today's kernel patches focus on supporting the hardware page table walker (PTW). As PTW can handle all fast paths of TLBI/TLBL/TLBS/TLBM exceptions by hardware, software only needs to handle slow paths such as page faults. Additionally, in the past, LoongArch utilized "dbar 0" as a complete barrier for all operations. However, this full completion barrier severely impacted performance. As a result, Loongson-3A6000 and subsequent processors have introduced various alternative hints. Loongson plans to ship samples to select customers in the first half of 2023, so we could see more information surfacing soon.

TrendForce reveals that alongside the four major CSPs reducing their procurement volumes, OEMs like Dell and HPE have also scaled back their annual shipment volume forecasts at some point between February and April, predicting YoY declines of 15% and 12%, respectively. Furthermore, server demand in China is facing headwinds due to geopolitical and economic challenges. Consequently, TrendForce projects a downward revision in global server shipment volumes for this year—a 2.85% YoY decrease at 13.835 million units.

TrendForce emphasizes that the server market in 1H23 remains pessimistic, with 1Q23 shipments experiencing a 15.9% QoQ decrease due to off-season factors and end-user inventory adjustments. The expected industry boom in 2Q23 failed to materialize, leading to a modest QoQ growth estimate of only 9.23%. Persistent influences on server shipments include OEMs lowering shipment volumes, subdued domestic demand in China, and continuous supply chain inventory adjustments. ESG issues have also led CSPs to prolong server lifecycles and reduce procurement volume. Moreover, OEMs are lengthening supports period for older platforms as businesses seek to control capital expenditures, further contributing to market strain.

Three years ago, Intel announced a goal to increase global annual spending with diverse suppliers to $2 billion by 2030. We are proud to announce we reached $2.2 billion in diverse supplier spending in 2022, eight years ahead of schedule. This $2.2 billion represents nearly 15 times the annual total when our supplier diversity program launched in 2015 and double our 2019 results.

According to data from Mercury Research posted on Twitter, AMD has gained CPU market share against Intel over the past year. AMD has gone from a 27.7 percent market share in Q1 2022 to a 34.6 percent market share in the first quarter of 2023, which is an increase of 6.9 percent, whereas Intel has gone from 72.3 percent to 65.4 percent, still placing Intel at almost two thirds of the market of x86 CPUs. It should be noted that this includes all types of CPUs, but it's unclear if it includes the chips AMD sells to Microsoft and Sony for their respective consoles.

A separate screenshot posted by @firstadopter details server CPU market share, excluding IoT, although it's unclear what that means in this specific case. Here, AMD has gained 6.3 percent market share, but the company has only gone from a meager 11.6 percent last year, to 18 percent this year, with Intel holding a massive 82 percent market share. AMD's gain here was lower than overall, but it shows that larger corporations are starting to adopt more and more AMD hardware on the server side, where in all fairness, AMD has taken something of a lead over Intel when it comes to the maximum amount of CPU cores each company can offer, even though the per core performance still lags behind Intel to a degree. It'll be interesting to see if AMD can maintain its momentum in market share gain once Intel launches more competitive products later this year, especially in the server market space.

Following on from the reveal of EA SPORTS F1 23 last week, dive into the details you might have missed and more about what to expect ahead of launch on June 16, 2023 for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. F1 23's handling and physics have had a significant upgrade on previous years, resulting in better handling, low-speed traction, and overall vehicle driveability. Veteran players will immediately notice a difference, as vehicle behaviour in particular is more authentic thanks to three key areas of reworking: acceleration, braking, and cornering.

Updates to physics calculations for the slip of the tyres and how this interacts with the inertia of the car have been made. Plus, the way each car's engine delivers torque has been refined, with more progressive steps relative to gear and throttle input. On-track surfaces such as kerbs and rumble strips will be noticeably more pronounced, thanks to improvements made to the underfloor of each car, delivering a more true-to-life experience. Adopting feedback from real F1 teams and drivers such as Anthony Davidson, players will notice a closer balance between mechanical grip from tyres and aerodynamic grip from the cars. All these changes result in F1 23 offering the most authentic F1 driving experience around.

Team Cherry, the indie development outfit responsible for producing smash hit 2D platformer Hollow Knight (2017), has this week announced that the sequel - Silksong - will be missing its proposed early-ish 2023 launch window. The Australian team's publishing and marketing manager Matthew Griffin confirmed via a tweet that Hollow Knight: Silksong is still a work-in-progress project: "Hey gang, just a quick update about Silksong. We had planned to release in the 1st half of 2023, but development is still continuing. We're excited by how the game is shaping up, and it's gotten quite big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as we can."

Hollow Knight: Silksong was first revealed to the public back in 2019, with Team Cherry taking a quiet approach to the release of preview material since then. A playable demo was on show at E3 2019, but a wider internet-based public has only had access to a pair of video trailers, some screenshots and minimal written details on official sites and product pages. Silksong was initially conceived as a DLC/expansion for the base game, but the designers expanded their project's scope - thus creating a standalone and entirely new entry in the series. It seems that the development team's ambitions have grown over the years - Griffin has not confirmed a revised release date but requests that fans wait for further announcements: "Expect more details from us once we get closer to release."