MSI is thrilled to introduce the MS-CF17, a powerful 3.5" Single Board Computer (SBC) tailored for a wide range of industrial applications. Powered by Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake-P processors, the MS-CF17 is ideal for use in industrial automation, edge computing, digital signage, and transportation systems. The MS-CF17 is designed to excel in harsh environments, offering fanless operation and a wide temperature range (-40°C to 70°C). This makes it perfect for settings where reliability and performance are crucial, such as in factory automation or outdoor digital signage installations. The board supports up to 32 GB of DDR5 memory and features built-in Intel Iris Xe graphics engine, making it suitable for graphics-intensive tasks like advanced imaging systems and AI-driven analytics.

Connectivity options are abundant, with four 2.5G LAN ports, four HDMI ports supporting quadruple independent displays, M.2 M key PCIe Gen 4 for storage and M.2 B/E key slots for expansions, allowing for seamless integration into complex systems. This flexibility makes the MS-CF17 a go-to solution for applications requiring high-speed data processing, multi-display setups, and real-time analytics. Additionally, the onboard TPM 2.0 provides enhanced security, crucial for applications where data protection is paramount.

Supermicro, Inc., a Total IT Solution Provider for Cloud, AI/ML, Storage, and 5G/Edge, is announcing a complete liquid cooling solution that includes powerful Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs), cold plates, Coolant Distribution Manifolds (CDMs), cooling towers and end to end management software. This complete solution reduces ongoing power costs and Day 0 hardware acquisition and data center cooling infrastructure costs. The entire end-to-end data center scale liquid cooling solution is available directly from Supermicro.

"Supermicro continues to innovate, delivering full data center plug-and-play rack scale liquid cooling solutions," said Charles Liang, CEO and president of Supermicro. "Our complete liquid cooling solutions, including SuperCloud Composer for the entire life-cycle management of all components, are now cooling massive, state-of-the-art AI factories, reducing costs and improving performance. The combination of Supermicro deployment experience and delivering innovative technology is resulting in data center operators coming to Supermicro to meet their technical and financial goals for both the construction of greenfield sites and the modernization of existing data centers. Since Supermicro supplies all the components, the time to deployment and online are measured in weeks, not months."

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a global leader in wireless technology innovation, today announced the launch of the Qualcomm Networking Pro A7 Elite, a groundbreaking wireless networking platform set to transform how people will experience their networks with edge AI integration. Leveraging an AI co-processor with 40 TOPS of NPU processing power, the platform delivers elevated Wi-Fi 7 connectivity and networking performance, while also equipping connected devices with powerful and centralized generative AI processing capabilities.

This transformative integration of computing power into the network unlocks opportunities for operators and enterprises to deploy innovative applications and services in areas such as security and surveillance, energy management and automation, personalized virtual assistants, aging in place and health monitoring among others. Edge AI can enhance privacy by processing sensitive information on the gateway, while enabling personalization through contextualized understanding of the environment and immediacy through near real-time responses. This approach unlocks the power of advanced AI for more devices, even legacy ones, enabling a more reliable and harmonized user experience across connected devices.

Amazon's popular Fire HD 8 lineup is getting an upgrade. The new Fire HD 8, which starts shipping today, features a vibrant 8-inch HD display and lightweight, portable design that customers love, now with enhanced performance, for high-quality HD entertainment on the go. And just in time for Prime Big Deal Days, the new Fire HD 8 tablets will have introductory pricing with savings of up to 50% through October 9, with prices starting as low as $54.99.

We're also adding new generative AI-powered features to compatible Fire tablets to help customers be more productive and creative throughout their day. Here's what you need to know about the new Fire HD 8 tablets, and the new features coming to the broader Fire tablet family.

Intel has announced the release of an updated version of its AI Playground application, now optimized for the new Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" series of processors. This latest iteration, version 1.21b, brings a host of new features and improvements designed to make AI more accessible to users of Intel's AI-enabled PCs. AI Playground, first launched earlier this year, offers a user-friendly interface for various AI functions, including image generation, enhancement, and natural language processing. The new version introduces several key enhancements. These include a fresh, exclusive theme for 200V series processor users, an expanded LLM picker now featuring Phi3, Qwen2, and Mistral models, and a conversation manager for saving and revisiting chat discussions. Additionally, users will find adjustable font sizes for improved readability and a simplified aspect ratio tool for image creation and enhancement.

One of the most significant aspects of AI Playground is its ability to run entirely locally on the user's machine. This approach ensures that all computations, prompts, and outputs remain on the device, addressing privacy concerns often associated with cloud-based AI services. The application is optimized to take advantage of the Xe Cores and XMX AI engines found in the Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors, allowing even lightweight devices to perform complex AI tasks efficiently. Intel has also improved the installation process, addressing potential conflicts and providing better error handling. The company encourages user engagement through its Intel Insiders Discord channel, helping the community around AI Playground's development and use. Although the models users can run locally are smaller in size, usually up to 7 billion parameters with 8/4-bit quants, having a centralized application to help run them locally is significant for slowly embedding AI in all aspects of personal computing.

Fujitsu Limited and Supermicro, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI), today announced they will collaborate to establish a long-term strategic engagement in technology and business, to develop and market a platform with Fujitsu's future Arm-based "FUJITSU-MONAKA" processor that is designed for high-performance and energy efficiency and targeted for release in 2027. In addition, the two companies will also collaborate on developing liquid-cooled systems for HPC, Gen AI, and next-generation green data centers.

"Supermicro is excited to collaborate with Fujitsu to deliver state-of-the-art servers and solutions that are high performance, power efficient, and cost-optimized," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "These systems will be optimized to support a broad range of workloads in AI, HPC, cloud and edge environments. The two companies will focus on green IT designs with energy-saving architectures, such as liquid cooling rack scale PnP, to minimize technology's environmental impact."

BrainChip Holdings Ltd, the world's first commercial producer of ultra-low power, fully digital, event-based, brain-inspired AI, today introduced the Akida Pico, the lowest power acceleration coprocessor that enables the creation of very compact, ultra-low power, portable and intelligent devices for wearable and sensor integrated AI into consumer, healthcare, IoT, defense and wake-up applications.

Akida Pico accelerates limited use case-specific neural network models to create an ultra-energy efficient, purely digital architecture. Akida Pico enables secure personalization for applications including voice wake detection, keyword spotting, speech noise reduction, audio enhancement, presence detection, personal voice assistant, automatic doorbell, wearable AI, appliance voice interfaces and more.

Accenture and NVIDIA today announced an expanded partnership, including Accenture's formation of a new NVIDIA Business Group, to help the world's enterprises rapidly scale their AI adoption. With generative AI demand driving $3 billion in Accenture bookings in its recently-closed fiscal year, the new group will help clients lay the foundation for agentic AI functionality using Accenture's AI Refinery, which uses the full NVIDIA AI stack—including NVIDIA AI Foundry, NVIDIA AI Enterprise and NVIDIA Omniverse—to advance areas such as process reinvention, AI-powered simulation and sovereign AI.

Accenture AI Refinery will be available on all public and private cloud platforms and will integrate seamlessly with other Accenture Business Groups to accelerate AI across the SaaS and Cloud AI ecosystem.

Microsoft today released the Windows 11 2024 Update to the general user-base. This version of the operating system was being referred to as the Windows 11 "24H2 Update." Since Microsoft moved away from the biannual major release cycle for Windows, 24H2 was set up to be called simply the "2024 Update." Windows 11 2024 Update introduces several new experiences that leverage native AI acceleration on Copilot+ PCs—cool new things like super-resolution for Photos, or generative fill and erase tools in Paint. The update also releases Preview versions of Click to Do, and Windows Recall.

Click to Do is a generative AI-based utility that lets you perform text related actions anywhere (think rephrasing or summarizing something); or perform visual search for an item in a video or photo, using Bing. Windows Recall is a star-attraction, it lets you trace-back steps or actions in any compatible software, by relying on visual snapshots of your work to restore past actions. This should prove particularly useful for creative work. Both Click to Do, and Windows Recall require a Copilot+ PC (a machine with an NPU that has at least 40 AI TOPS of performance on offer). Windows 2024 Update should begin appearing in the Update section of Windows Settings.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today released a significant update to its bundled Virtual Assistant software (formerly known as Virtual Pet). This new software package comes preinstalled on the ROG Zephyrus G16 gaming laptop and leverages the incredible power of AI to significantly level up the capabilities of the Virtual Assistant, including an intelligent chat and Q&A interface, written document summarization, and voice transcription tools. This update is available on laptop models with AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors as a free download via ASUS Live Update.

Intelligent chat support
The Virtual Assistant gives users a leg up when they're using an unfamiliar program or system tool. With a local chat and Q&A feature, even when disconnected from the internet, the Virtual Assistant can help users navigate complicated menus and activate the features and settings they need. For example, if a new user is looking to adjust fan settings, they can request that from the Virtual Assistant, and it will direct them to the appropriate settings menu within the Armoury Crate app. Applications like MyASUS, GlideX, and ProArt Creator Hub are supported, and the chat functionality adds a new layer of support for end users.

Huawei has reportedly started shipping its Ascend 910C accelerator—the company's domestic alternative to NVIDIA's H100 accelerator for AI training and inference. As the report from China South Morning Post notes, Huawei is shipping samples of its accelerator to large NVIDIA customers. This includes companies like Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, which have ordered massive amounts of NVIDIA accelerators. However, Huawei is on track to deliver 70,000 chips, potentially worth $2 billion. With NVIDIA working on a B20 accelerator SKU that complies with US government export regulations, the Huawei Ascend 910C accelerator could potentially outperform NVIDIA's B20 processor, per some analyst expectations.

If the Ascend 910C receives positive results from Chinese tech giants, it could be the start of Huawei's expansion into data center accelerators, once hindered by the company's ability to manufacture advanced chips. Now, with foundries like SMIC printing 7 nm designs and possibly 5 nm coming soon, Huawei will leverage this technology to satisfy the domestic demand for more AI processing power. Competing on a global scale, though, remains a challenge. Companies like NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel have access to advanced nodes, which gives their AI accelerators more efficiency and performance.

Advantech, a leading provider of edge computing solutions, introduces the AIR-310, a compact edge AI inference system featuring an MXM GPU card. Powered by 12th/13th/14th Gen Intel Core 65 W desktop processors, the AIR-310 delivers up to 12.99 TFLOPS of scalable AI performance via the NVIDIA Quadro 2000A GPU card in a 1.5U chassis (215 x 225 x 55 mm). Despite its compact size, it offers versatile connectivity with three LAN ports and four USB 3.0 ports, enabling seamless integration of sensors and cameras for vision AI applications.

The system includes smart fan management, operates in temperatures from 0 to 50°C (32 to 122°F), and is shock-resistant, capable of withstanding 3G vibration and 30G shock. Bundled with Intel Arc A370 and NVIDIA A2000 GPUs, it is certified to IEC 61000-6-2, IEC 61000-6-4, and CB/UL standards, ensuring stable 24/7 operation in harsh environments, including space-constrained or mobile equipment. The AIR-310 supports Windows 11, Linux Ubuntu 24.04, and the Edge AI SDK, enabling accelerated inference deployment for applications such as factory inspections, real-time video surveillance, GenAI/LLM, and medical imaging.

Samsung Electronics today unveiled the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S10+, Samsung's first tablets purposefully built for AI. The premium hardware includes 14.6-inch and 12.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X displays—the ideal canvas for the intuitive S Pen bundled with both models. Performance upgrades for the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra include an 18% increase in CPU, 28% increase in GPU and 14% increase in NPU compared to the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra.

This improved processing power enables faster and more responsive AI features, which are now easily accessible with written prompts using the new Galaxy AI Key on the Book Cover Keyboards to customize AI assistant. Cutting-edge software includes features such as Note Assist and Drawing Assist, optimized for the tablet form factor. The Galaxy Tab S10 series also acts as a home AI device, with a 3D Map View that gives a visual overview of the home and all connected devices to streamline device management across the SmartThings ecosystem. Robust Samsung Knox security ensures data privacy and control, while innovative materials underscore Samsung's commitment to a more sustainable future.

AMD today announced that Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) has chosen AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators with ROCm open software to power its newest OCI Compute Supercluster instance called BM.GPU.MI300X.8. For AI models that can comprise hundreds of billions of parameters, the OCI Supercluster with AMD MI300X supports up to 16,384 GPUs in a single cluster by harnessing the same ultrafast network fabric technology used by other accelerators on OCI. Designed to run demanding AI workloads including large language model (LLM) inference and training that requires high throughput with leading memory capacity and bandwidth, these OCI bare metal instances have already been adopted by companies including Fireworks AI.

"AMD Instinct MI300X and ROCm open software continue to gain momentum as trusted solutions for powering the most critical OCI AI workloads," said Andrew Dieckmann, corporate vice president and general manager, Data Center GPU Business, AMD. "As these solutions expand further into growing AI-intensive markets, the combination will benefit OCI customers with high performance, efficiency, and greater system design flexibility."

Synopsys, Inc. today announced its continued, close collaboration with TSMC to deliver advanced EDA and IP solutions on TSMC's most advanced process and 3DFabric technologies to accelerate innovation for AI and multi-die designs. The relentless computational demands in AI applications require semiconductor technologies to keep pace. From an industry leading AI-driven EDA suite, powered by Synopsys.ai for enhanced productivity and silicon results to complete solutions that facilitate the migration to 2.5/3D multi-die architectures, Synopsys and TSMC have worked closely for decades to pave the path for the future of billion to trillion-transistor AI chip designs.

"TSMC is excited to collaborate with Synopsys to develop pioneering EDA and IP solutions tailored for the rigorous compute demands of AI designs on TSMC advanced process and 3DFabric technologies," said Dan Kochpatcharin, head of the Ecosystem and Alliance Management Division at TSMC. "The results of our latest collaboration across Synopsys' AI-driven EDA suite and silicon-proven IP have helped our mutual customers significantly enhance their productivity and deliver remarkable performance, power, and area results for advanced AI chip designs.

A new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker shows shipments of personal computing devices are expected to grow 2.6% year over year in 2024 to 398.9 million units. The traditional PC market will remain flat in 2024 with 261 million units shipped while the tablet market is forecast to grow 7.2% year over year as a refresh cycle and project investments are expected to drive the market.

For traditional PCs, the global market excluding China is expected to grow 2.8% in 2024 as China continues to suffer through a confluence of macroeconomic challenges, including high youth employment, deflation, and a tumultuous real estate market. However, China's economic concerns have largely impacted just the PC market as tablet demand has proven to be more resilient thanks to Huawei's efforts.

ASUS today announced its all-new line-up of Intel Xeon 6 processor-powered servers, ready to satisfy the escalating demand for high-performance computing (HPC) solutions. The new servers include the multi-node ASUS RS920Q-E12, which supports Intel Xeon 6900 series processors for HPC applications; and the ASUS RS720Q-E12, RS720-E12 and RS700-E12 server models, embedded with Intel Xeon 6700 series with E-cores, will also support Intel Xeon 6700/6500 series with P-cores in Q1, 2025, to provide seamless integration and optimization for modern data centers and diverse IT environments.

These powerful new servers, built on the solid foundation of trusted and resilient ASUS server design, offer improved scalability, enabling clients to build customized data centers and scale up their infrastructure to achieve their highest computing potential - ready to deliver HPC success across diverse industries and use cases.

Insta360, a global leader in innovative camera technology, today announced the launch of Insta360 Link 2 and Insta360 Link 2C, a pair of AI-powered 4K webcams that aim to revolutionize online video conferencing and live streaming experiences. Whether heading up a meeting, delivering online lessons, or engaging with viewers on a live stream, the quality of both your video and your audio matters more than ever.

The Link 2 Series is designed to meet these demands, delivering premium imaging that shines in any environment. The high-performance 1/2" sensor, paired with advanced HDR technology and the latest AI image enhancing and noise reduction, all work to ensure lifelike detail even in challenging lighting conditions. The audio offering for these webcams has also been transformed, with new algorithms and AI noise reduction technology ensuring best-in-class audio, without the need for a separate mic.

Supermicro, Inc. a Total IT Solution Provider for AI/ML, HPC, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, today adds new maximum performance GPU, multi-node, and rackmount systems to the X14 portfolio, which are based on the Intel Xeon 6900 Series Processors with P-Cores (formerly codenamed Granite Rapids-AP). The new industry-leading selection of workload-optimized servers addresses the needs of modern data centers, enterprises, and service providers. Joining the efficiency-optimized X14 servers leveraging the Xeon 6700 Series Processors with E-cores launched in June 2024, today's additions bring maximum compute density and power to the Supermicro X14 lineup to create the industry's broadest range of optimized servers supporting a wide variety of workloads from demanding AI, HPC, media, and virtualization to energy-efficient edge, scale-out cloud-native, and microservices applications.

"Supermicro X14 systems have been completely re-engineered to support the latest technologies including next-generation CPUs, GPUs, highest bandwidth and lowest latency with MRDIMMs, PCIe 5.0, and EDSFF E1.S and E3.S storage," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "Not only can we now offer more than 15 families, but we can also use these designs to create customized solutions with complete rack integration services and our in-house developed liquid cooling solutions."

Giga Computing, a subsidiary of GIGABYTE and an industry leader in generative AI servers and advanced cooling technologies, today announced its first wave of GIGABYTE servers for Intel Xeon 6 Processors with P-cores. This new Intel Xeon platform is engineered to optimize per-core-performance for compute-intensive and AI intensive workloads, as well as general purpose applications. GIGABYTE servers for these workloads are built to achieve the best possible performance by fine tuning the server design to the chip design and to specific workloads. ⁠

All new GIGABYTE servers support Intel Xeon 6900-series processors with P-cores that have up to 128 cores and up to 96 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. Additionally, for greater performance in memory intensive workloads, the 6900-series expands to 12 channel memory, and makes available up to 64 lanes CXL 2.0. Overall, this modular SOC architecture has great potential with the ability to leverage a shared platform for running both performance and efficiency optimized architecture.⁠

As AI continues to revolutionize industries, enterprises are increasingly in need of infrastructure that is both cost-effective and available for rapid development and deployment. To meet this demand head-on, Intel today launched Xeon 6 with Performance-cores (P-cores) and Gaudi 3 AI accelerators, bolstering the company's commitment to deliver powerful AI systems with optimal performance per watt and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

"Demand for AI is leading to a massive transformation in the data center, and the industry is asking for choice in hardware, software and developer tools," said Justin Hotard, Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Data Center and Artificial Intelligence Group. "With our launch of Xeon 6 with P-cores and Gaudi 3 AI accelerators, Intel is enabling an open ecosystem that allows our customers to implement all of their workloads with greater performance, efficiency and security."

NETGEAR, Inc., a leading provider of innovative and secure solutions for people to connect and manage their digital lives, today expanded its Nighthawk WiFi 7 standalone router line to include the new RS600, RS500, and RS200. The lineup of Nighthawk routers is built on the company's promise to deliver the latest WiFi 7 technology combined with powerful WiFi performance and secure connectivity for homes of any size.

Powerful, Secure WiFi 7 for Everyone
Since the launch of NETGEAR's first WiFi 7 offering - Nighthawk RS700S - multi-gig internet speeds have become more accessible and affordable, and IoT devices that require extreme low latency and higher throughput continue to be adopted at high rates. WiFi 7, which is 2.4x faster than WiFi 6, offers enhanced performance to address the ever-growing demands of modern connectivity. This next-generation technology supports increased capacity across multiple connected smart home devices, providing faster speeds, near-zero latency and the ability to handle the demands of high-quality video streaming as well as advanced computing, including AI-driven applications and AR/VR experiences.

Neurable Inc., a leader in neurotechnology that specializes in AI-powered tools, and premium audio brand Master & Dynamic, today launched the MW75 Neuro, smart headphones integrated with Neurable's brain-computer interface (BCI) technology to help users gain deeper insights into their cognitive health, manage burnout, and enhance daily performance. The first BCI-enabled consumer-grade device of its kind, these headphones are set to revolutionize how we interact with everyday technology by empowering users to take control of their health and well-being through the power of their minds.

Built on the foundation of Master & Dynamic's flagship wireless headset, the MW75 Neuro incorporates Neurable's advanced AI-powered electroencephalography (EEG) sensors into the headphone's ear pads. These BCI-enabled EEG sensors capture and analyze brain signals to generate detailed brainwave data that offers valuable insights into focus levels and more.

Altera, an Intel Company, today unveiled an array of FPGA hardware, software and development tools that make its programmable solutions more accessible across a broader range of use cases and markets. At its annual developer's conference, Altera revealed new details on its next-generation, power- and cost-optimized Agilex 3 FPGAs and announced new development kits and software support for its Agilex 5 FPGAs.

"Working closely with our ecosystem and distribution partners, Altera remains committed to delivering FPGA-based solutions that empower innovators with leading-edge programmable technologies that are easy to design and deploy. With these key announcements, we continue to execute on our vision of shaping the future by using programmable logic to help customers unlock greater value across a broad range of use cases within the data center, aerospace and defense sectors, communications infrastructure, automotive, industrial, test, medical and embedded markets," said Sandra Rivera, CEO of Altera.

TSMC and Samsung are reportedly in talks with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to establish chip factories in the Gulf nation. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, this "desert dream" aligns with the UAE's ambitious plans to diversify its economy beyond oil and become a key player in the AI sector by building chips for AI domestically. The UAE and neighboring Saudi Arabia plan to leverage their oil wealth to invest in cutting-edge manufacturing, with AI emerging as a primary focus due to its high computational demands. Successful implementation of chip factories could significantly boost the region's AI capabilities and impact the global semiconductor supply chain. However, the project faces substantial challenges. Previous attempts to establish semiconductor manufacturing in the Gulf, such as the GlobalFoundries initiative over a decade ago, have yet to progress beyond initial planning.

The current proposal faces even greater obstacles, with estimated costs exceeding $100 billion for a state-of-the-art facility and necessary infrastructure. Geopolitical concerns add another layer of complexity. Recent US export restrictions of certain chips to the Gulf region may complicate the transfer of advanced manufacturing processes to the UAE. Despite these hurdles, the potential benefits are significant. For the UAE, success would represent a major step towards economic diversification and technological leadership. TSMC and Samsung could gain a strategic presence in a region eager for technological advancement. TSMC noted that the company focuses on current expansion projects in the US, Japan, and Germany, while Samsung declined to comment.